{"id":101970,"date":"2013-08-24T01:00:44","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T19:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=101970"},"modified":"2013-08-28T00:45:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T19:15:11","slug":"sri-lanka-how-not-to-win-a-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-how-not-to-win-a-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: How Not To Win A War"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eric_Ellis_(journalist)\">Eric Ellis<\/a><\/span>\u00a0&#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_101767\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-army-of-buddhist\/eric-ellis\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-101767\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-101767\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-101767\" title=\"ERIC ELLIS\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ERIC-ELLIS-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ERIC-ELLIS-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/ERIC-ELLIS-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-101767\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eric Ellis<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Sri Lanka\u2019s paradise betrayed by monks, thugs and smugglers\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Four years after its brutal victory over Tamil Tiger rebels that ended a 26-year-long civil war, Sri Lanka\u2019s Sinhalese-led government is at pains to persuade the world that it has at last brought peace and unity to this troubled island. And the captain of the flag-carrying SriLankan Airlines flight 423 from Bangkok seems keen to do his national bit.<\/p>\n<p>Easing his Airbus over the tea-studded plantations of the island\u2019s central highlands for the approach into Colombo, the pilot primes those on board for landing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA warm welcome to Paradise for all our passengers\u2026.\u201d he cheerfully intones in a voice as rich as the coconut curries \u2018Mother Lanka\u2019 is famous for. \u201cThat is, welcome to Paradise Regained.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Which Sri Lanka certainly is if you\u2019ve holidayed on its hedonistic beaches \u2013 arguably Asia\u2019s most divine. It\u2019s also been a political Shangri-La for the many members of the triumphalist Rajapaksa clan crowding government ranks, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and three of\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/node\/21547252\">his brothers<\/a><\/span>. They\u2019ve ruled Sri Lanka since 2005 and, in South Asia\u2019s dynastic style, are now positioning the family for yet another generation at the top. Ditto for the ruling brotherhood\u2019s business cronies and military chums, as they pile into cosy government sinecures and the\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/rajapaksa-family-stands-to-receive-in-commission-anywhere-between-us1-2-to-us-1-8-billion-during-2005-15\/\">lucrative reconstruction deals<\/a><\/span>\u00a0that are spurring a modest economic surge now that the guns have been silenced in the Tamil north.<\/p>\n<p>Read more in the\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/sri-lanka.theglobalmail.org\/\">The Globalmail<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eric_Ellis_(journalist)\">Eric Ellis<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0is an award-winning journalist who writes about the politics, economics and societies of South and South-East Asia.\u00a0He has written for a range of international journals;\u00a0Fortune Magazine,\u00a0Forbes, the\u00a0Financial Times,\u00a0Time Magazine,\u00a0The Times,\u00a0The Bulletin\/Newsweek,\u00a0The Spectator,Institutional Investor,\u00a0Euromoney,\u00a0The Sydney Morning Herald,\u00a0The Age,\u00a0The Australian Financial Review\u00a0and the\u00a0International Herald Tribune.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Other stories;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a title=\"Sri Lanka: The Smugglers\u2019 Prey\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-the-smugglers-prey\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Sri Lanka: The Smugglers\u2019 Prey<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a title=\"Sri Lanka\u2019s Army Of Buddhist Power\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-army-of-buddhist\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Sri Lanka\u2019s Army Of Buddhist Power<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":101767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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