Eelam declared

Well, at least that's what this should amount to. The government has made it a requirement for 'people of the north' to get special permission from the police to go to any place in the 'south'.

Here's a Sunday Times report,

Civilians in the north will be required to obtain Police passes to travel to Colombo or other areas in the south in terms of new measures introduced by the Government. This requirement will apply to those living in the districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. Those wishing to travel will be required to make a written application to the Police giving reasons for the visit, places where they would stay, the duration and intended date of return. [..]

“The pass system has already come into effect in the four districts,” Vavuniya’s Additional Government Agent S. Charles said yesterday. [..]

A Government official who did not wish to be named, said the new measures were intended to prevent infiltration of Tiger guerrillas into Colombo, its suburbs or other areas in the south. He said the string of recent bomb explosions necessitated the new move. “Now, any person in the north moving around without a valid pass from a Police Station will be liable for questioning or arrest in the south,” he added. [link] (emphasis mine)

In other words, all 'people of the north' now require a visa to come to the south. That should amount for something like a deceleration of a separate state, by the 'southern government'. I mean, even Indians can come here without a visa.

The constitution of Sri Lanka guarantees freedom of movement for all citizens, by denying this freedom of movement to people of the northern districts, the government accepts these districts no longer constitute the democratic socialist republic of Sri Lanka. If I was an Eelamist, I'd be partying today.

Sri Lanka now is one sad story. Rule of law is replaced by Rule of brutes, not even men. The constitution is ignored, elections are rigged, any Jack or Sunil on the road can strip search me if they wanted to. There's no privacy, no such thing called civil liberties and really, there's no dignity anymore. I've stopped complaining, because frankly I don't see anything changing nor do I know how to change things.

Maybe sanity will prevail and the supreme court will be made to intervene like the last time the Rajapakse administration decided to round up a bunch of Tamils in Colombo and give them a free ride to "where they came from". Or maybe, this time we'll just shrug and not say anything. Fear can do a lot to people. After all, you can technically argue that freedom of movement haven't been curtailed here, it's just been made really difficult and an ignoble exercise.

Religious-Conflict ignorance, again!

Last time, it was Obama's ignorance which became abundantly clear when he commented that Sri Lanka has a religious conflict. Today, it's Newsweek's turn. In an article titled "War is the answer" The newsweek comments,

In addition to being an ethnic conflict, the Sri Lankan civil war is a religious one: most Sinhalese are Buddhist, while most Tamils are Hindu. [link]

Obviously Obama reads the Newsweek. Heh. But seriously, let's rest it. Sri Lankan conflict is many things, what it's not is a religious conflict. The fact that most Sinhalese are Buddhist and most Tamils are Hindu (and all Mulims are well, muslims) doesn't mean that the conflict is drawn along those lines. That's like saying that in a war with say, the Americans and Japanese was a conflict between short people and tall people.

Other than that, the article is well worth a read.

Inviting Al-Qaeda

My friend Aufdius and MissingSandwich relates a story about how a group of Sinhalese nationalist types in Dehiwela have put up posters and dumped garbage to offend the Muslims in the area for attempting to build a mosque. More from Aufidius:

In Ramazan this year, some Muslims started a thakkiya (small mosque) on Kadawatha Road , Dehiwela and were conducting tharaweeh prayers. The mosque was operating on a very low key and causing no hindrance to anyone. However some Sinhalese villagers banded together, along with a few monks who then sent a delegation to this mosque demanding them to stop conducting prayers. The activities of the mosque were stopped overnight. Some Sinhalese villagers had already started intimidating Muslims in the area and dumping garbage right in front of the building in question.

Around February 23rd 2008, this building was reopened as "The All Ceylon Muslim Educational Conference" but some Sinhalese villagers banded under the leadership of some extremist monks, hung black flags in the vicinity and defaced the walls of the building with racist posters. A fresh pile of trash was also dumped just outside the parapet wall and some garbage thrown in over the wall as well.An ad hoc meeting was arranged adjacent to the mosque and presided by monks, where it is alleged that many racial statements were issued.

Some Sinhalese villagers then kept overnight vigil by assembling at close by Sinhalese houses and drinking through the night and singing and reveling. The police had posted two officers at the point to watch out for any mishaps, but a confrontation has been avoided.. [link]

I support unhindered freedom of expression as long as you do it on your own property (which in this case is not true) but people need to realize the 'blow back' that comes with this kind of intolerable behavior.

All terrorist groups - be it Tamil, Islamic or Catholic - are born and sustained by exploiting a perceived grievance of the 'people' they claim to represent. For LTTE it's the Sinhalese majoritarianism as perceived by the general population of Tamils, for Al-qaeda it's how the general Islamic population perceives American foreign policy. Objectivity matters little here, it's perception which counts.

Sri Lanka so far has somehow being lucky in avoiding Islamic extremism which has gripped some parts of the world, The Muslim lobby groups (including Muslim-dominated parties) have rarely invoked religious sentiment in political demands and has played only soft-ball identity politics. It's in everyone's interest to keep it that way. The last thing anyone would want now (including perhaps the LTTE) is another terrorist movement.

Cochin and Liberty

It was such a sudden decision to pay a visit, one of those “F-it! I’m going” moments. So I dropped off a few emails, had a Facebook wall-to-wall conversation, picked up my bags and off I went. The b4Ur27 thing from SriLankan is still on, so you can gets a return ticket to Cochin for about 12,000 LKR including Taxes. I was planning returning from elsewhere, so my ticket was a bit more.

After about an hour’s flight I arrived in Cochin sometime in the morning, The Cochin airport is quite nice, having seen the one in Bangalore, (which frankly looks like the fort railway station) I’m pleasantly surprised. They seem to have got everything in order, a nice duty free section, mobile service providers, money exchangers..the works. I approach the money exchange guys and they put on an animated show calling to their booth, it’s as if I entered the Sunday Pola (market), I grin to myself – I’ve arrived in India.

The most depressing thing about traveling to India these days is the exchange rate. The Sri Lankan Rupee is one of the few currencies in the world which is actually falling against the dollar. When I first traveled to India sometime in 2006, I could get 1 INR for about 2.2 LKR. Now I have to give 2.8 LKR to get the same rupee, so every time I spend cash I keep multiplying it by 3, India is no longer a cheap place for Sri Lankans. The cause is of course those morons at the Central Bank print too much money to finance Mahinda’s spending habits; and no, having one of his buddies as the head of the CB doesn’t help either – at least for the rest of us. I’m increasingly of the view that we should abolish the central bank (or radically reform it), more on that later.. some other day.

Anyway, after reminding myself a few impolite details about Mrs. Cabraal(snr) I made my way outside the airport building. I was late for the seminar I was here for and the taxi fare from the AirPort service didn’t sound reasonable so I was looking for an ‘Auto’ (that’s a tuk-tuk for the rest of you) There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot outside, but I manage to catch one autowallah (3-wheeler buggers) roaming around the premises. I tell him the location I want to get to and he breaks into a long monologue in what I presume to be in Malayalam, the local language. I have two options, one is to confess I’m a Sri Lankan, speak to him in English and pay the premium for foreigners.. or speak in my picked-up Hindi and make him think I’m from up north. I go for the latter and to my relief, his Hindi is not that good either. This works to my advantage as I manage negotiate a decent fare, and get in the black and yellow Tuk-tuk.

Soon we are in a slightly bumpy road with a lot of greenery either side, people were right – Kerala is a lot like Sri Lanka. The autowallah tries to pull me into a conversation on what I’m doing in Cochin and where I come from, after trying my best to keep up with the little Hindi I know, I finally confess I’m from Sri Lanka. He asks me whether I know Tamil, I tell him I don’t. He asks me how I know Hindi, I tell him “Bollywood” which is only partially true. Come to think of it, it is rather embarrassing I can understand/utter Hindi better than I can speak Tamil. In my defense, they didn’t teach us Tamil in School, and when they finally figured out they should in about grade 9, I couldn’t be bothered. Hindi on the other hand is naturally closer to Sinhalese, it’s of the same Indo-Aryan roots and we’ve got a lot of common or very similar words and phrases. Plus of course there’s Bollywood and unlike Kollywood- the south Indian version, they make good movies. So that, and the fact that I seem to visit India often and the few English words they use when speaking in Hindi, I can pretty much understand or at the very least get a general idea of what they are talking about when somebody speaks in Hindi. This doesn’t quite work for Tamil.

We approach the city and the Cochin traffic makes me talk less and look around more. The place look like a busy section in the outskirts of Colombo, lots of people, dust, tuk-tuks and at one point I see one bearded politician-bugger dressed in white in front of a picture of a modern train. I could have been home. The only difference seems to be random cut-outs of (I presume to be) Malayalam actors, kind of fat fellows in silly looking pants and sunglasses with fair women. I pass by some communist graffiti and I’m reminded that Kerala is governed CPI(M) and I’m actually in commie country.

The drive is taking about an hour now and I’m fast getting bored when I suddenly spot we are passing the place I’m supposed to get down, I yell Rukoh Rukoh!! (Stop!) .. I’ve made it.

End of Part 1... Continued in Part 2

Wanga Machaa

the North and South can live in total harmony.. everybody just need to drink a little.