Tamil struggle I
The article "SRI LANKA: Tamil struggle born from oppression" by Chris Slee (GLW #685) was well written and well researched. He does not feel threatened by any parties when he calls a spade a spade.
He is exactly right when heTamil struggle I
The article "SRI LANKA: Tamil struggle born from oppression" by Chris Slee (GLW #685) was well written and well researched. He does not feel threatened by any parties when he calls a spade a spade.
He is exactly right when he says "The roots of the conflict lie in a long history of state oppression of the Tamils, which eventually led some Tamil youth to take up arms against the government". Unfortunately, he failed to point out that all parties that governed Sri Lanka had Sinhala leaders. Under the present set up, no Tamil citizen can ever become a prime minister or president and no Tamil party can ever form a democratic government with a Tamil as PM or president.
The root cause for this is that the mind-set of the Sinhala people is that they should govern Sri Lanka and that the island is for the Sinhalese and that it should remain a "Sinhala deepa".
The Sinhalese, I am sure, will try to wriggle out of the present situation because they are badly snared by the intelligent diplomacy of the West and the LTTE. They now have to reluctantly share power and territory which they thought was their preserve.
Dr C.P. Thiagarajah
Via email [Abridged]
Tamil struggle II
Chris Slee's piece on the Tamil struggle in GLW #685 was an excellent rare article which reflects history as it unfolded in reality. The unfortunate truth is that quite often it is twisted to suit individual reporters with half- truths or plain lies.
A most urgent point that failed to be mentioned in your article is the gross violation of human rights and crimes against Tamils in Sri Lanka over the past year by the Sinhala military. These call for urgent international action just like in the Rwandan ethnic conflict. Human butchery that is going on can only be dealt with by a UN-led Special War Crimes Tribunal as national justice is dead as far as the Tamils are concerned.
Saravan Muttiah
Via email
Review
Thank you for publishing the excellent review (GLW #687) of the recently released activist handbook Imagine If by Joy Noble and Fiona Verity. Leslie Richmond should be congratulated on a fine piece of writing that does justice to a potentially life changing book. I agree with his suggestion that it should be widely distributed in schools.
Margaret Scrimgeour
Adelaide
Ecuador
Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo (Write On, GLW #687) is correct; Rafael Correa lectured in economics at Quito's San Francisco University, and not Universidad La Catolica. However, Carpenter-Arevalo is wrong from there on.
Correa was indeed forced to resign. He negotiated the sale of the bonds to Venezuela with the knowledge and support of president Palacio. Palacio, vice-president until Lucio Gutierrez was deposed in April 2005, has no basis of support in the Congress, and is therefore vulnerable to the politicking of the traditional parties, especially the right-wing Social Christian party.
This body remains opposed to the redirection of Ecuador's wealth towards social spending on health, education and infrastructure, which was Correa's proposal and government policy at the time. Consequently, when Congress reacted violently to the policy, Palacio withdrew support from Correa, leaving him little option but to resign. The full text of Correa's resignation letter (in English) can be found at:
That this problem is not specific to Correa is evident from the recent (October 17) resignation of Armando Rodas, the fourth economy minister in 18 months, whose frustrated portfolio was not much different from Correa's.
Carpenter-Arevalo fails to appreciate the impact that the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela (regardless of Chavez) is having upon many of the social movements across the entire region. Flowing from that, he misunderstands the point of my article, and, indeed, of Correa's campaign.
The power to fire the Congress (not missed, but left out for space reasons) is a good indicator of the direction that Correa intends to go. To avoid ending up as just another failed populist, Correa will have to rely heavily on the social movements, and satisfy their demands, bringing him into direct conflict with a hostile Congress.
Further, it is these movements, rather than the partidocracia, that will be empowered by a constituent assembly, and it is they, rather than Correa, or Chavez, who will decide whether the parties, endemic corruption and the oligarchy maintain their stranglehold on the Ecuador's future.
Duroyan Fertl
Sydney