Election Fever!
By Elilini Hoole -September 20, 2013
Elilini Hoole
By Sept. 22, 2013, the day after Northern Provincial Council elections, we will know who will be elected to fill the 38 seats (Jaffna 16, Mannar 5, Mullaithivu 5, Kilinochchi 4, Vavuniya 6, and 2 bonus seats). A good turnout is expected this season. As the first Provincial Election for the Northern Province after theEPRLF’s Varadaraja Perumal was elected Chief Minister of the then merged North-East Province, the province has a chance to design actively its future and choose its leaders.
Talking to my friends and colleagues, I realize that many are excited to vote, but many more are dejected, and wonder what difference it will make if politicians care about little more than power.
Nonetheless, voting is a responsibility. Each vote is a voice. Votes are cast to show support, and yet disapproval as well. During the parliamentary elections of 2011, many voted for the TNA, not because of faith that the TNA would bring change, but merely because they wanted to express their disapproval of the Betel Leaf. I hear the same sentiments echoed this year as well. Sadly, no politician has yet taken responsibility for the poor and impoverished communities that dot the Northern Province. I wonder, who is truly worthy of our votes?
In the past, typically turnout in the North had been 70% – 80%. Since the war, turnout has dropped. During the parliamentary elections in 2010, only 28% of registered voters turned up, and in the 2011 local government elections 32%. I remember the EPDP, in 2011, exploiting war victims and transporting busloads of paid rural villagers to polling booths hoping for large voter turnout in their favour; but the villagers voted for the TNA anyways. In one of the villages I visited just weeks after resettlement, EPDP candidates visited the severely impoverished villagers. After many speeches, the candidate wrote several cheques for over 1,000/= (which is quite a lot for families with no income living in stick hovels). But it turned out the cheques were consistently written with invalid dates so that they could not be cashed. This year, similar events are being reported.
A Brief History Of Christianity In Sri Lanka
By Leonard Pinto -
Dr. Leonard Pinto
In recent years the History of Sri Lanka has become an important subject, not only because it is in school curriculum, but also because it has been used to shape politics and justify the ethno-religious basis for State policies. Sri Lankan history has been rewritten, amplifying Portuguese atrocities, making authoritative claims on myths and mere conjectures and overlooking historical facts and archaeological discoveries.
(A) Anuradhapura cross
Some Buddhist monks and nationalists are preaching an exclusive Buddhist-Sinhalese history that ends in intimidation, verbal abuse and violence against minorities. Prof. W.I. Siriweera, (Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Peradeniya) expressed his concerns on the misuse of History in Sri Lanka in saying that “the challenge for Sri Lankan historians today is to study, teach and write history, stripped of its myths, distortions, deformations and communal or religious bias…We are one people. Patriotism should encourage living in harmony” (The Sunday Times, March 17, 2013).
The History of Christianity in Sri Lanka can be divided into 3 eras;
(1) Pre-colonial (72-1505)
(2) Colonial (1505-1948) and
(3) Post-colonial eras (1948- current). Read More
