Is this a coincidence or an indication ?

UNP lends support to GoSL’s

war effort

 [TamilNet, Sunday, 05 October 2008, 09:02 GMT]

United National Pary (UNP) Senior Party Member and Colombo district parliamentarian, Ravi Karunanayake, accompanied by several of his supporters, visited injured Sri Lanka Army (SLA) officers at the Colombo Jayawardenepura Hospital and wished speedy recovery, political sources in Colombo said. The MP handed over essential goods to the injured, and complemented the officiers for the victories they have accomplished in the NorthEast battlefield, sources added.

UNP will continue to provide bipartisan support to the soldiers, Mr Karunanayake told the media after his hospital visit.

Mr Karunanayake added that the Rajapakse Government should not attempt to gain political capital from the battlefield successes of the Sri Lankan armed forces.

Meanwhile, UNP party members have also been visiting injured soldiers at the Anuradapura, Polonnaruwa, and other hospitals, political sources in Colombo said.

UNP has also lent its hand to assist recruitment to Sri Lanka military in many southern Sinhala villages, sources added.

NOW,

this was published on Sunday by TamilNet. Rtd Brig. Janaka Perera is assasinated with 24 others on Monday morning.  It tied up the UNP with the war directly. The shift in the UNP towards supporting the war became apparent after Rtd. Brig. Janaka Perera’s ascendency to political popularity within the UNP.

Does it therefore mean, the LTTE would now want the UNP to officially and unconditionally support the war as that would most naturally be the UNP reaction to the suicide attack ? Does it mean the LTTE does not want any Southern division in waging the war, so that they could argue there is no chance of negotiations any more and separation is the only option ?

Or is it a different agenda of a different power group within the government ? Those who challenged the police have also been targeted during the past few weeks. Nishantha F’do was killed. His lawyers were threatened. Weliamuna’s residence was attacked with grenades.

Either way, this country is heading towards ANARCHY. Will there be any chance of making the SOUTH act saner ?

Cautious Citizen

Batuwangala MV needs your help

A school in remote Neluwa area has run into problems as the Education Department cannot offer assistance to match the capacity and commitment of its principal and the depleted teaching staff.

The main problem facing the school currently is that they are unable to pay their electricity and internet bills. 

According to a professional who visited the school that’s about 85 km from Galle, the principal had showed an electricity bill (red noticed) for Rs. 30,000.00 (accumulated over a few months) which she is unable to pay since the education dept says it doesn’t have any allocations for such payments. 

Located in a very poor rural setting, the school has 23 computers in the lab received from an ADB project but has no resources, no Old Students’ Association or rich parents to support the cost of daily use. 

The teacher who is in charge of the PC Lab and teaching English lets the pupils watch English films and sets them the task of learning 10 new words after watching each film.  He says it’s an extremely effective way of teaching and learning English.

Now the pupils who had never seen a computer before, have created and posted their own school’s web site at www.batuwangala.sch.lk.

The school is also opening up the lab to the village. Yet to get into a computer friendly culture, there is nevertheless an old farmer who comes in daily to read the newspaper on the web. The teacher gives classes to the local police officer late in the evening, after he completes the extra maths class for the O/L students. Such is the energy in this school with a young set of teachers who are determined to make a positive change in the village.

They need some help to achieve their dream and first is sustenance of the computer programmes that’s already making an impact on the pupils. The principal is very worried their electricity supply will be disconnected at any moment. NGOs and donors she has approached are willing to give equipment but not ‘on going’ costs since that’s outside their mandate.

The principal thus requires a benevolent hand and could be contacted on                +94 716147451        .

Let’s talk if you don’t agree

The judiciary in SL is being asked more than often to intervene in settling disputes between the State and its Citizens. It basically means, the State does not treat its citizens right and the citizens don’t trust the State.

A few decades ago, it was the minority Tamil people who wanted a stake in the State, for they felt the State does not accomodate them. They asked for a restructuring of the State in a manner they could participate in sharing State power. That is being denied to date and now the majority Sinhala people are also not being accomodated in decision making.

Therefore, now the majority Sinhala citizens too have to request the Judiciary to compel the State to provide them with answers. How independent and impartial the Judiciary could be is another issue, in a State that is almost totally alienated from its Citizenry.

All of it leads to many complicated issues that seek answers within an intellectual debate. And you are welcome to add your voice.

Kusal