II Wednesday 3rd March 2010

by Nalin de Silva

David Miliband the Foreign andCommonwealth Secretary of England and itscolonies in the British Isles has addressed

delegates of a so called Global Tamil Forum in thebuildings of the House of Parliament inWestminster. It is true that Global Tamil Forum isnot formally associated with the LTTE and it is alsotrue that the British Foreign minister has notaddressed formally an organisation banned inBritain. Miliband the descendant of an immigrantJew can always claim that he did not do anythingwrong in addressing the delegates of the GlobalTamil Forum which is not banned in Britain noridentified as a terrorist organisation. There is noth-ing much in what he has told the delegates whichincidentally has included a Bhikku from Sri Lankaexcept that peace is yet to be won. Of course he hasreferred to the freedom of press and the arrest ofthe opposition candidate at the last Presidentialelection. The gullible in Britain would think that theGovernment is keeping in custody an innocent per-son whose only crime was to challenge PresidentRajapaksa at the Presidential elections held inJanuary.

The world including Sri Lanka when it comes tomatters outside their countries, and very often intheir countries as well, depend on and are led by thewestern news agencies. For example Gulf News onMarch 1st had published the following report.“Wasting little time in seizing upon his 17-pointelectoral victory, Sri Lankan President MahindaRajapaksa quickly consolidated his power by havinghis opponent General Sarath Fonseka arrested.Fonseka was detained on February 8, accused ofplotting to assassinate Rajapaksa and seize controlof the government.”

Sometime before the military police took SarathFonseka into custody, in early December 2009, Iwrote in The Island as well as in Irida Divaina thathe should be produced before a court martial, notbecause he was the opposition candidate at thePresidential elections, but after his visit to USA Iwas convinced that he had turned out to be a “crownwitness” for the Americans in the so called whiteflag incident. It was on or about 10th July 2009 thatSarath Fonseka at a function held at DharmashokaCollege to felicitate him, came out with the storythat the Army had shot at those who came withwhite flags. It may be so or Sarath Fonseka was onlytrying to be veeraya by claiming something thatnever happened, and get the “credit” for killingthose who came with white flags. In either case hehad betrayed the Armed Forces as well as the gov-ernment and soon after on the 15th July the govern-ment removed him from the position he held andmade the Chief of Defence Staff. It was clear thatsomething was brewing up and for the westernerswho had wanted to take revenge from PresidentMahinda Rajapaksa and the Defence SecretaryGotabhaya Rajapaksa for killing Prabhakaran itwas a God given opportunity. All the discussionsbetween Sarath Fonseka, the UNP and JVPParliamentarians and Fonseka’s visit to USA hap-pened after this, and as a Green Card holder of USAafter his statement at Dharmashoka College he wasprobably put under pressure by the USA govern-ment. It has to be remembered that a case had beenfiled against him and the Defence Secretary in thecourts of California on human rights violation.Fonseka the man who said at his alma mater thatthose who came with white flags were shot does notwant the “credit” now and wants to give it to theothers saying that he heard from a so called jour-nalist that the Defence Secretary had ordered Major

General Shavendra Silva to shoot anybody whocame with white flags. How the journalist heard thisconversation is left to the imagination of Blake,Miliband and others who are very much concernedwith the death of Prabhakaran than with the deathsof those who were killed by him or on his orders.

When it is clear that Fonseka was arrested not asthe candidate of the opposition but as an officer inthe armed forces according to the Army Act, Blakeand Miliband who having being brought up inJudaic Christian culture and knowing very wellhow to separate the work of Officer Fonseka fromthat of the Presidential candidate try to mislead the

whole world including the British and theAmericans that the Presidential candidate has beenarrested. If it is the Presidential candidate who hasbeen arrested why should the government allowFonseka to contest at the Parliamentary elections tobe held in April? If the government is sacred of thepolitician Fonseka then why allow him to contestwhile in custody as it will give him the opportunityto attract the sympathy vote as well? It is clear thatBlake (and Miliband) by the following statementwants to mislead the world further. “So far I think ithas been less than we might have hoped for, but we

have certainly encouraged the government of SriLanka to ensure that he (Fonseka) is chargedpromptly, as you said, and that everything is han-dled in accordance with Sri Lankan law as theymove forward.”

Both Blake and Miliband wanted the SupremeCourt to say that the arrest of Fonseka was illegal.However, the Supreme Court allowed the militarypolice to keep the General in custody, and now bothof them have nothing more to say on that particularaspect. However, they would not give up their battleon behalf of the General who is now their crownwitness as well as the star witness.

The west is hell bent on bring-ing this government down, andthey have two weapons at hand.One is Tamil racism sponsoredby them. It was the west thatgave birth to Tamil racismand nourished it in thecountry. There are someSinhalas who think thatthe western politicianssupport Tamil racismbecause of the votes ofthe Tamils who live inthose countries.Except in Toronto and Londonthere are not many Tamils in theother cities in the west, and the Tamil vote isnot significant in those countries. On the other handit is the west that keeps Tamil racism kicking. TheGlobal Tamil Forum is nothing but a creation of thewest for the west and in the future it is expected toplay a big role “internationally” though nationallyits influence would be minimal. People such as Fr.Emmanuel who had connections with the LTTEwould be the flag bearers of the so called Forum andthey would be supported by the NGOs locally withTNA making an occasional noise.

However, the unexpected support for the Forumwould come from the other weapon of the westagainst the government, namely Fonseka and theJVP. The west knows that it is impossible to bringdown the government through elections in the fore-seeable future, and they have no time for RanilWickremesinghe and the UNF. It is likely that theUPFA gets a two third majority at the elections as weare returning to the Provincial Councils electionstrend that saw electorates with Sinhala, especiallySinhala Buddhist majority voting more than 70%for the UPFA. This trend was curtailed by Fonsekawho polled about 8% of the nationalist vote.However, many of these nationalists would vote forthe UPFA at the Parliamentary elections and withthe bonus seats in 17 districts going to the Alliance a

two thirds majority is not an impossibility. Thus thewest does not want Ranil anymore but an extraParliamentary person like Fonseka and an extraParliamentary party like the JVP in order to createproblems for the government.

If somebody still thinks that the west

is very democratic, open minded and tolerates otherviews then he or she must be day dreaming. Thewest does not want any government that does not fitinto its hegemony to exist and will try to bring thatgovernment by hook or crook. Fonseka and the socalled Global Tamil Forum will be given publicity inthe coming months and the so called internationalpress will try to create heroes out of them. It cannotbe a mistake by the BBC to refer to Fonseka as theleader of the opposition and the west may even tryto use Ven. Bhikkus against the government if pos-sible. If Fonseka comes to the Parliament, though anunlikely event, Ranil will be eclipsed “internation-ally” with the help of the western media. In anyevent Fonseka will be projected as a hero who hasbeen ill-treated by the government. It is not only theGSP plus that we would lose, and we should expecteconomic sanctions imposed against Sri Lanka inthe future, so that Fonseka and the JVP could takethe fight against the government to the streets.

Global Tamil Forumand Fonseka – Newweapons of the west

Literacy or Transliteracy?

The west doesnot want any govern-ment that does not fitinto its hegemony toexist and will try tobring that governmentby hook or crook.Fonseka and the so calledGlobal Tamil Forum willbe given publicity in thecoming months and theso called internationalpress will try to createheroes out ofthem.

by Rohana R.Wasala

Literacy in the new media age involves muchmore than what its conventional definitionsays. Traditionally it is defined as the abili-

ty to read and write. A person is said tobe literate if they can read and write

in their first language at a basiclevel. Here reading is taken tomean decoding a piece of writing

by analysing graphic symbols, andwriting to mean encoding meaning

in the form of a text by the oppositeprocess. Reading and writing are not

limited to this today since technologyhas opened up new and exciting possi-

bilities for both. Any modern descriptionof literacy should comprehend this techno-

logical and conceptual sophistication.(As the reader may remember, there are

‘dynamic’ definitions of literacy today toreplace the conventional ‘static’ definition sug-

gested above. However, these are outside thescope of this essay.)

The criticism of a perceived‘decline of the reading habitamong the youth of today’ couldprobably be substantiated interms of the traditional view ofreading, i.e. reading a printed textoff the page of a book. But weknow that people, particularlyyoung students, still do a lot ofreading sitting before their com-puter screens. True, a few of themmay be merely playing games; butthe majority use the computer todo more serious work either study-ing or doing a job. And studentswho are serious readers and writ-ers do occasionally transfer a sub-stantial part of their work fromthe computer screen to the bookpage to continue their academic,literary, or professional pursuits

at a more leisurely pace.This occasional shuttling between electronic

and paper texts reminds us that the historicalshift from the page to the screen is by no meanscomplete, and , probably, will never be for theforeseeable future. However, the innovations thathave accompanied this ongoing change (from thepaper text to the electronic) are the most signifi-cant in their implications for the relative richnessof the experience of reading and writing that hasbeen achieved through the application of technol-ogy. On the face of it, reading still remains noth-ing more than running one’s eyes through ascript, and writing nothing more than making cer-tain marks on a blank surface either by pushing apen across a piece of paper or tapping some keyson a keyboard (which view is, of course, not cor-rect: reading and writing are highly demanding,complex intellectual feats). Yet the recent adventof technology in the sphere of written discoursehas brought about many refinements in compari-son with which the various improvementsachieved over millennia in this area seem mereripples in an otherwise placid sea of slowprogress.

The first decade of the new millennium thatwe are just passing saw these changes accelerat-ing. As early as 2002, Colombi and Schleppegrelwere tempted to write: “In today’s complex world,literacy means far more than learning to read andwrite in order to accomplish particular discretetasks. Continued changes in technology and socie-ty mean that literacy tasks are themselves alwayschanging.” as quoted in Tips for Teaching withCALL, by Carol A. Chapelle and Joan Jamieson(Pearson Longman, 2008). The obvious direction ofchange was noted in the following words of SueThomas, Professor of New Media in the Faculty ofHumanities at De Montfort University, reportingon the ‘Tranliteracies’ Conference held at theUniversity of California at Santa Barbara on June7-8, 2005: “Unfortunately for some, however, thisnew literacy is not about reading fixed type, butabout reading on fluid and varied platforms –blogs, email, hypertext and, soon, digital paperand all kinds of mobile media in buildings, vehi-

cles, and supermarket aisles. Although text stilldominates at the moment, it is possible that itmight come to be superseded by image, audio, oreven ideogram as the medium of choice. Hence‘transliteracy’ – literacy across media.”

The shift from reading from a paper text toreading from an electronic text represents a sig-nificant change in our experience of reading. Thisis due to a number of reasons. The most obviousof these is the rich blending of different modes ofcommunicating – audio, video, graphic, pictorial,etc - that an electronic text usually represents. Awriter can achieve, and a reader can respond to,amazing results in the written exchange of ideas.Its multimodality invests an electronic text with apower to energize, shock, and galvanize the read-ers!

Another powerful concept that is being practi-cally realized is the device known as hypertext.This is a way of patterning information in a data-base (a collection of data or facts stored in a com-puter to be accessed, used, and if necessary aug-mented by users) in such a way that certain keywords in a text can be elaborated by individualreaders by following the links given, depending ontheir needs and choices; these links lead the inves-tigating readers to other texts on the Web whichenable them to further define the meaning/signifi-cance/content/relevance of the original wordsfor them. This means that readers can avail them-selves of valuable information without having toread whole texts for the purpose. How usefulhypertext could be in reading, especially in acade-mia, goes without saying.

Of course, there’s the criticism that hypertextlinks sometimes lead the readers from text to textin a labyrinthine trail, and thus constitute a dan-ger to them, and that students can be therebyinveigled into a wasteful academic wild goosechase. However, in reply one could say that read-ing in any context means reading intelligently,and critically for a specific purpose; serious read-ers know how to construct their meaning out of atext that is the most authentic, plausible, and cred-ible, and relevant to them by following

Continued on page IV

“

“Members of the National Freedom Front hold a poster depicting portraits

of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, left, and Foreign Secretary David

Miliband wearing horns, as they protest outside the British High

Commission in Colombo on Monday (1).