Local Elections in the North and East: Rebuking the Regime

 

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

The results of the second phase of the 2011 local government elections reveal a north/ south divide with the ruling UPFA winning comfortably outside of the north and east and the TNA capturing the overwhelming majority of local bodies in those areas.  These results need serious analysis by all political parties as an indication of the trajectory of politics to come.  For the UNP and the JVP in particular, deep soul searching and political strategizing is in order.  They failed miserably and may well claim that local bodies invariably go to the party in government. However, there has been enough out there in the public realm to latch on to and capitalize upon in respect of corruption and financial mismanagement to mount a fight back in earnest.  Were they to ignore the message of the electorate, there is the danger that the elections to municipal and urban councils to come, could spell their irrelevance as political forces to be reckoned with.       Full Story>>> 
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What South Africa can do to help with reconciliation in Sri Lanka

Louise Arbour, The Sunday Times  |   24 Jul 2011

 

As South Africa knows better than most, a country cannot begin to overcome decades of internal conflict without a sustained effort at revealing the truth of the past and a committed push for reconciliation. If only Sri Lanka could learn that lesson.

It has been more than two years since the Sri Lankan military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in a war whose final months saw both the Sinhalese-majority government and the rebels contribute to the massive loss of Tamil civilian lives. Rather than starting on the slow, painful path towards a more democratic and equal society, however, the post-war policies of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his powerful brothers have further undermined the country’s damaged political institutions and deepened the ethnic divide.      Full Story>>>