{"id":3617,"date":"2012-01-16T00:17:42","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T00:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=3617"},"modified":"2012-01-16T00:17:42","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T00:17:42","slug":"draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Surendra Ajit Rupasinghe<\/a><\/strong> –<\/p>\n

Why has the State denied loved one\u2019s to visit Tamil political prisoners on Thaipongal Day?\u00a0The \u201c We Are Sri Lankans\u201d organization has alerted us about the prevailing situation. Up to the last minute, prison authorities had stated that permission would be given for this purpose, even though it falls on a Sunday. Why then, deny this privilege at the last moment? After all, it is such a humane wish to visit your loved one\u2019s in prison on such a\u00a0special religious day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

It is time to come out of the cage, to overcome fear of tyranny and unite to struggle for Freedom and Democracy for the sake of our Motherland and for all born and yet to be born generations of Sri Lankans.<\/p><\/div>\n

Why this calculated callousness? Would the same have been meted out to any other community? Why does the Rajapakse regime insist on pouring salt on the gaping wounds inflicted upon the Tamil people? If this is the pristine Theravada Buddhist\u00a0 Dharma said to be guarded by the regime, then it is time to organize a revolt against the whole established political-religious order that is violating the letter and spirit of the Dharma enshrined in Metta, Muditha, Karuna, and expressed in the superlative theme \u201clet All Beings Be Free of Sorrow\u201d. Some reason has to account for this willful and passionate cruelty and inhumanity, particularly when the conscience of the world itself is calling for reconciliation.<\/p>\n

We feel that this calculated and deliberate cruelty\u00a0 flows from the political line of the Regime. This line is based on the overriding survival need of the regime to exercise all-round ideological-political hegemony over society,\u00a0 particularly over the Tamil nation. The military occupation and the political subjugation of the Tamil nation is the sword through which the regime can hold to its narrowing political base among the hard-line Sinhala-Buddhist core, as the ideological-political basis to exercise its hegemonic Capitalist class dictatorship. Any sign of weakness, any show of compassion will begin to crack this hegemonic stranglehold. This is why the Secretary of Defense declares that the armed forces shall not be removed from the North and East, but in fact are to be further reinforced. This is why activists such as Lalith Weeraraj and Kugan Murugandan<\/a>, representing the \u201cWe Are Sri Lankans\u201d organization, who dared to build bridges of solidarity between the South and the North, who were committed to take up the agony and indignity caused to the Tamil people and\u00a0 expose the true nature of the military occupation have been\u00a0 abducted and detained.<\/p>\n

In this context, the demand that Lalith and Kugan<\/a>, and all those abducted, disappeared and detained by the State\u00a0 be released takes on immediate urgency and significance. It is in this context that the program of the \u201c Organizations United Against Abductions and Enforced Disappearances\u201d initiated \u00a0by the \u201cPeoples Struggle Movement, to visit Jaffna on the 17th<\/sup> Januray 2012 and distribute leaflets incorporating all the above issues and calling for an end to military occupation and dictatorship\u00a0 takes on decisive political\u00a0 significance.\u00a0 It is time to come out of the cage, to overcome fear of tyranny and unite to struggle for Freedom and Democracy for the sake of our Motherland and for all born and yet to be born\u00a0 generations of Sri Lankans.<\/p>\n

*Writer\u00a0is the\u00a0Secretary of the\u00a0Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,57,8,63],"tags":[1143,1139,1134,6984,1796,1797,1798,1799],"class_list":["post-3617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disappearance","category-law-and-order","category-editorial","category-politics-2","tag-authoritarianism","tag-democracy","tag-human-rights","tag-judiciary","tag-lalith-and-kugan","tag-peoples-struggle-movement","tag-sri-lankan-political-prisoners","tag-thaipongal-day"],"yoast_head":"\nDraconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day! - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day! - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-16T00:17:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"434\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/\",\"name\":\"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day! - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-16T00:17:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/de9e3c959e41894c80608bdddd0387b7\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg\",\"width\":\"650\",\"height\":\"434\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/de9e3c959e41894c80608bdddd0387b7\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f1e558c9e5cbf36781344637e8cd79f7a43c5eef749495c25079d8d64753ff3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f1e558c9e5cbf36781344637e8cd79f7a43c5eef749495c25079d8d64753ff3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Colombo Telegraph\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo-telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day! - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day! - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[…]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2012-01-16T00:17:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":650,"height":434,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Colombo Telegraph","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Colombo Telegraph","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/","name":"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day! - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg","datePublished":"2012-01-16T00:17:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/de9e3c959e41894c80608bdddd0387b7"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg","width":"650","height":"434"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/draconian-dictatorship-denies-visits-to-political-prisoners-on-thaipongal-day\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Draconian Dictatorship Denies Visits To Political Prisoners On Thaipongal Day!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/de9e3c959e41894c80608bdddd0387b7","name":"Colombo Telegraph","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f1e558c9e5cbf36781344637e8cd79f7a43c5eef749495c25079d8d64753ff3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f1e558c9e5cbf36781344637e8cd79f7a43c5eef749495c25079d8d64753ff3?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Colombo Telegraph"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo-telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/21-12-2012_colombo_protest-colombotelegraph.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}