Hmm, shouldn't the gorilla in "The Tamil Tigers invented suicide bombing, used child soldiers, and gorilla warfare." actually be guerilla warfare, not gorilla warfare?
Thank you for the thorough, well informed and superbly written Article. My Heart goes out for the innocent children and minorities of Sri Lanka who had to endure the Collapse.
Jun 23, 2022·edited Jun 24, 2022Liked by Adrian D'Souza
I agree with most of your answer but your insinuation that Sinhalese are the only indigenous people on the island is blatantly wrong. I suggest you read up on the differences between the Ceylon Tamils, the Indian Tamils, the Burghers and the Moors. The Ceylon Tamils are just an indigenous to the the island as the Sinhalese. Also, the best elite schools that the British set up were in Colombo (Royal College, Wesley, St Josephs, St Peters, St Thomas's) and Kandy (Trinity). So the only community who the British actively favoured in the colonial era were the Sinhalese Christian elite in those areas (I.e the Bandaranaikes, the Jayawardenes, the Senenayakes). It should therefore be noted that whatever civil service positions attained in the colonial era by minorities were attained in open competition with the British favoured graduates of the Colombo and Kandy Schools and those positions were filled on the basis of academic merit alone. And it must be noted that at the time of the independence, Ceylon was renowned for having the best run civil service in Asia, run by selfless civil servants devoted to nothing else but the betterment of the Ceylonese public and who drove Ceylon to have the highest living standards in Asia. Nowadays, as your point out above, Sri Lanka is now a situation where 70% of its budget is controlled by the one family, and the only thing the public service is renowned for is endemic corruption and nepotism. One can make their own judgment on which system worked better.
Today we get the terrible crisis coverage, tomorrow we get the sympathetic portrayal of the inevitable anti-IMF wave. This is the story of many, many, many IMF bailouts. If these polities really loathe inviting the IMF economists so much they should try not running their countries into the ground every couple decades.
Excellent journalism and a thoroughly believable analysis of problems besetting Sri Lanka. It leads to a terrible conclusion though - that democracy has such an inherent flaw, and there is so little that can be done to change that, as people will always vote for populist policies rather than sensible policies. The "guided democracy" of Singapore may be the answer. But perhaps then a country needs a LKY?
Hmm, shouldn't the gorilla in "The Tamil Tigers invented suicide bombing, used child soldiers, and gorilla warfare." actually be guerilla warfare, not gorilla warfare?
Thank you for the thorough, well informed and superbly written Article. My Heart goes out for the innocent children and minorities of Sri Lanka who had to endure the Collapse.
I agree with most of your answer but your insinuation that Sinhalese are the only indigenous people on the island is blatantly wrong. I suggest you read up on the differences between the Ceylon Tamils, the Indian Tamils, the Burghers and the Moors. The Ceylon Tamils are just an indigenous to the the island as the Sinhalese. Also, the best elite schools that the British set up were in Colombo (Royal College, Wesley, St Josephs, St Peters, St Thomas's) and Kandy (Trinity). So the only community who the British actively favoured in the colonial era were the Sinhalese Christian elite in those areas (I.e the Bandaranaikes, the Jayawardenes, the Senenayakes). It should therefore be noted that whatever civil service positions attained in the colonial era by minorities were attained in open competition with the British favoured graduates of the Colombo and Kandy Schools and those positions were filled on the basis of academic merit alone. And it must be noted that at the time of the independence, Ceylon was renowned for having the best run civil service in Asia, run by selfless civil servants devoted to nothing else but the betterment of the Ceylonese public and who drove Ceylon to have the highest living standards in Asia. Nowadays, as your point out above, Sri Lanka is now a situation where 70% of its budget is controlled by the one family, and the only thing the public service is renowned for is endemic corruption and nepotism. One can make their own judgment on which system worked better.
Today we get the terrible crisis coverage, tomorrow we get the sympathetic portrayal of the inevitable anti-IMF wave. This is the story of many, many, many IMF bailouts. If these polities really loathe inviting the IMF economists so much they should try not running their countries into the ground every couple decades.
Excellent journalism and a thoroughly believable analysis of problems besetting Sri Lanka. It leads to a terrible conclusion though - that democracy has such an inherent flaw, and there is so little that can be done to change that, as people will always vote for populist policies rather than sensible policies. The "guided democracy" of Singapore may be the answer. But perhaps then a country needs a LKY?