Word: rajapaksas
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...Mahinda the Conqueror The statements made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his interview with TIME should serve as a lesson for the leaders of larger regional neighbors such as India and Pakistan - countries where extremists, terrorists and separatists have made the lives of common people miserable [July 27]. Rajapaksa, though, has smashed a longstanding Tamil insurgency and united the country. He truly means what he says when he declares Sri Lankans are "my citizens. I am responsible for them." He has aptly demonstrated how a country should be ruled. Brij Agarwal, Bhopal, India...
...Lanka bashing and turn to supporting a nation with a mosaic of cultures that was sadly beset with over a quarter-century of separatist war. Journalists often ignored the atrocities committed by the Tamil Tigers - a group that assassinated two heads of state. Your article should have clearly congratulated Rajapaksa for having the strength of character to stand up to the protests of the international community and rid his land of the scourge of terror. Chandri Gunawardhana, Singapore...
...Difficult to Read That lack of conviction has angered Rajapaksa's opposition and deeply troubles Sri Lanka's peace activists, who worry that Tamils may face even worse repression and hardship than they did before the war. Their original concerns - for the protection of Tamil language and culture and self-governance in Tamil-majority areas - are not even on the agenda...
...Advocates for press freedom, too, are outraged that even after declaring victory, Rajapaksa has not lifted the restrictions on the press imposed as war measures. On July 12, the government banned a popular news website that had run stories critical of the government after the war's end, and it has not yet found those responsible for the murder in January of a prominent Sri Lankan journalist and critic of the government, Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was also a freelance reporter for TIME. But those who know Rajapaksa well say that his pragmatism may, in the end, win out. He never...
...However unlikely it may seem, Rajapaksa could reinvent himself once again as a champion of pluralism and economic liberalism. With few other political options, that may be Sri Lanka's best hope for the future. There is a hint of it in the President's dining room. Three years ago, he co-opted two former leaders of the LTTE, who fed intelligence to the army and helped bring the eastern provinces under its control. They had spent their whole lives fighting for the destruction of the Sri Lankan state but are now ministers in Rajapaksa's government. They stood...