Global Voices » Sri Lanka

New Blog Celebrates Sri Lanka’s Diversity

Rezwan — Thu, 30 May 2013 20:40:29 +0000

Mixed Rice is a new blog, which aims to celebrate Sri Lanka's diversity and provide a platform for thoughtful discussions about the forces that threaten unity.

Human Rights Activists Hone Digital Skills in 2013 Empowerment Lab

Andrea Arzaba — Tue, 28 May 2013 23:05:39 +0000

Eleven international human rights activists learned new digital skills and shared experiences in this year's Empowerment Lab in Florence, Italy.

The week-long training program organized by The Robert F. Kennedy Training Institute seeks to empower digital activists who face growing threats of freedom of expression.

Nilantha Ilangamuwa, an exiled journalist from Sri Lanka, wrote about his experience in the “The Sri Lanka Guardian,” an online newspaper he founded.

Nil, as his friends call him, described how he felt when he attended the screening of the documentary “Call me kuchu”, which shows the life-threatening situations that sexual minorities in Uganda experience on a daily basis:

I felt like screaming when I was returning to the place where I was staying, after spending hours watching a documentary on homophobia in Uganda. Uganda is one of the countries in the world, which continuously contributes to nightmares of human in the pages of world’s history.

LGBT activist Frank Mugisha, one of the Lab's participants, appears in the documentary.

Nilantha also shared some of the compelling conversations he had with fellow human rights defenders on issues like social change and censorship in developing nations:

What we are seeing in many countries categorized as “developing nations”, is the common reality of suffering! Institutional collapse! Loss of hope of life while accepting that “social change” is impossible. This is the most common tragedy that we can observer [sic] in our motherlands. In our society, desire to fight against absolute power has been opposed by the culture of silence.

Renowned Italian journalist Luca de Biase wrote a short post for Medium where he expresses how important it is to not take democracy for granted in the western world:

In Florence, at the RKF Training Institute, activists teach us to love our democracy

Luca de Biase also reflected on what he learned from meeting and talking to the international digital activists at the RFK Training Institute:

But as activists learn what can help them in their non-violent fight, we the people living in the “democratic West” are going to learn as much from them. Democracy is not a given, it is a process: and we need to maintain it, we need to care about it. Activists from all over the world help their people. But they also help us.

Digital activism workshops for human rights defenders, held in Florence. Picture by Andrea Arzaba.

Nilantha finished his blog post with a quote that expresses the way he felt when he left the workshop:

Let us unite, as Gloria Reuben, a well-known Hollywood actress pointed out; to make the world for the people who have no space to raise their voice, whose rights have been buried in the slum of absolute power and injustice. Let us sing our song of rights among the communities where people can come up with fresh ideas to change the society currently controlled by the tyrant. It will wipe out our sorrows, and tears of sadness while generating a hope in hapless souls.

You can read the Lab's official blog posts at http://traininginstitute.rfkcenter.org/

Anti-Hate Rally Attempts to Tackle Emerging Racism in Sri Lanka

Abdul Halik Azeez — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:51:50 +0000

Anti-hate activists in Sri Lanka plan to gather in the capital city of Colombo on the 28th of April. The country has recently seen a spate of isolated violent attacks and broad-based hate rhetoric against minorities. This rally comes just two weeks after a peaceful candlelight vigil by citizens standing outside the Bodu Bala Sena (or Buddhist Strength Force, aka BBS) offices in Colombo was disrupted by the BBS and the Sri Lanka Police (see Global Voices report).

The candlelight vigil, organized by a group known as Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena was the first public protest organized to decry what many view as a protracted campaign of hate speech by the BBS against minority groups in the country. Blogger Indrajit Samaraiva attributes the politics of the BBS to more complex dynamics within the Sinhala Buddhist community as well. Dr. Vinoth Ramachandra speculates that the activities of BBS are tactics of distraction from other problems plaguing the island nation.

Having started by protesting against the Halal certificate, the BBS moved on to criticize the Islamic dress codes for women, reported veteran journalist and blogger D.B.S Jeyaraj. Many isolated incidents were subsequently reported from across the country of attacks prompted by BBS hate speech.

Though the BBS has been the most vocal of these ultra right nationalistic organizations, the latest spate of Islamophobia and anti minority rhetoric in Sri Lanka started before its emergence into the limelight with the attack on a Muslim shrine in the city of Anuradhapura, followed by an attack on a much larger mosque in Dambulla.

Churches have not been spared either, and some Buddhist temples that do not agree with the specific ideology of these extremist groups have also fallen prey to attacks. Muslim owned businesses have been a special area of focus for hate groups; one was recently attacked in Colombo, with monks featuring prominently in the mob that did the deed. The BBS has also carried out numerous illegal raids with apparent police support, the most notorious of which was a raid on an abattoir in Colombo carried out under the unfounded claim that animals were being slaughtered there against city regulations.

Since of late, there has been a gathering force of anti hate sentiment to counter hate speech, especially apparent in Sri Lanka’s social media sphere. Movements like the Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena, Love not Hate and this petition have been trying to create momentum to overcome it. Still raw after 30 years of civil war, Sri Lanka’s public sentiment in some areas needs no prompting to associate racial discrimination to potential violence on a grand scale.

A Facebook event to propagate the “Rally For Unity” has got good response. Fazly Mowjood has this resolve:

if the racist groups are not going to stop spreading racism in the country then we Srilankans are going to stop it for them & this coming Sunday is going to be only the beginning, there will be more to come until the last racist group in Sri Lanka is SILENTLY STOPPED!!!

The volunteers who are arranging the protests pooled in some pocket money and bought materials to create these posters:

Posters for Rally for Unity. Image courtesy Rally For Unity Facebook page

Sunday’s rally appears targeted at decrying hate speech in a more generic sense, and does not appear to target any group in particular, a key difference from the candlelit vigil. Increasing support from politicians like former SL cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga and actor turned politician Ranjan Ramanayake is also an encouraging sign of the gathering momentum of the anti hate movement in the Sri Lankan mainstream.

Sri Lanka's Buddhists Question Extremist Sinhala-Buddhists

Rezwan — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 15:47:08 +0000

A number of Sinhala Buddhists are standing up against the recent violence against Muslim and hateful speech initiated by the Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force), an extremist Sinhala-Buddhist organisation based in Colombo.

A candle-light vigil against hatred and bigotry was met with protests from police and members of the Bodu Bala Sena before it could begin at Havelock Road Colombo on the evening of April 12, 2013.

A police battalion and riot squad arrived on the scene. Bodhu Bala Sena members started accusing the organisers of the vigil of distorting the national anthem and called for their arrest pointing at a chant sheet to be recited at the vigil. The police arrested five vigil participants and dispersed the crowd who later re-assembled near Gower Street. The arrested individuals were later released.

Legacy of Bodu Bala Sena (BBS)

The Bodu Bala Sena, created by hardline Monks Kirama Wimalajothi and Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, has generated a lot of controversy since its launch on 07 May 2012. Many of their actions were provocative to people of other religions.

In a meeting in Maharagama, Colombo on 17 February 2013 BBS general secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara stated “This is a government created by Sinhala Buddhists and it must remain Sinhala Buddhist. This is a Sinhala country, Sinhala government. Democratic and pluralistic values are killing the Sinhala race”. He also told the crowd at the rally that they “must become an unofficial civilian police force against Muslim extremism. These so-called democrats are destroying the Sinhala race”.

In February 2013 BBS leader Kirama Wimalajothi called for banning burqas in the country. They held large rallies throughout February 2013 calling for the abolition of the Muslim halal system which forced Muslim clerics to drop the practice of labeling of Halal products (see Global Voices report).

Candlelight vigil

A Facebook group titled ‘Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena’ recently announced a candle-light vigil of all races and religious groups to peacefully remind the buddhist monks the words of the Buddha which preaches “non violence”.

The announcement read:

THE VIGIL TO SAFEGUARD THE DHAMMA: 7 pm, Friday the 12th of April. In front of the Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Mandiraya Thummulla Junction at No. 32, Havelock Road Colombo 05. Like if you will be there. Bring candles to share. We will be softly chanting about right speech.

Invitation to the candlelight vigil. Image courtesy Buddhists Questioning Bodu Bala Sena Facebook Page

Here is a FAQ on the purpose of the vigil published in the Facebook page.

Blogger Abdul Halik at Going Global writes about the participants:

The crowd was diverse; academics, theater and arts, media, civil society, corporate, intellectual and just young people concerned with the state of affairs.

The blogger asks:

How do you mobilize ‘the rest’ to participate? how do you turn this into a ‘people’s movement’?

Journalist and Blogger Meg questioned cops favoring BBS members in trying to disrupt the vigil. She explained:

The print-outs that the attendees had with them were not, in fact, a new National Anthem, but a Buddhist prayer that they had planned to chant at the vigil.

She posts some pictures of the event.

Journalist Malinda Seneviratne provides a critical first hand account of the vigil. However former ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka at Groundviews posts a rebuttal on Malinda's piece. Groundviews questions the role of the police and posts a number of audio interviews including this of Jake Orloff, who participated at the candle-light vigil:

Ramishka Dasanayaka (@ramishkad), a blogger from Kandy tweeted:

@ramishkad (Ramishka Dasanayaka): So Bodu Bala Sena disrupted an anti-hate protest. Now I'm beginning to wonder if there really is a difference between LTTE, Thalaiban and BBS

Veteran journalist D.B.S. Jeyaraj (@dbsjeyaraj) tweeted:

@dbsjeyaraj (D.B.S.JEYARAJ): An Eye-witness Account of How the Police Suppressed Peaceful candle light Vigil Opposite Bodu Bala Sena Headquarters http://t.co/0YexuQzmMG

Blogger Kath Noble has some hope:

The monks of the Bodu Bala Sena have inadvertently done Sri Lanka a favour. Their speeches are so crass and their actions so crude that they have provoked a backlash – the media is full of criticism of their anti-Muslim campaign, much of it coming from Sinhala Buddhists themselves.

Sri Lankan Muslims hold a placards during a protest after Friday prayers outside a mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Image by Colombo Wire. Copyright Demotix. Friday, March 22, 2013

Subha Wijesiriwardena, a dancer and blogger writes:

The Bodu Bala Sena and Sinhala Ravaya and other similar groups obviously have a clear agenda – we are done with the Tamils, so let’s make the Muslims our new enemy. This suits the agenda of our current regime, in fact they were just done with a civil war and wondering how to keep the masses further mesmerised, hypnotised – fear of a common enemy, naturally, is just the way they’d like to do it.

She asks:

The battle lines are being drawn. The fundamentalists are always quick to do so. Where do you stand?

Recently The Sunday Leader reported that the government is thinking about banning a number of extremist groups including Bodu Bala Sena.

Turning Point for Sri Lanka's Muslims?

Rezwan — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 06:22:41 +0000

Sunanda Deshapriya at Groundviews opines that “the judicial case related to the violent attack on Muslim owned Fashion Bug head office and warehouse in Pepiliyana, 10 km away from Colombo, is destined to be a turning point in Muslim Rights in Sri Lanka.”

Hardline Buddhists Rise in Sri Lanka

Rezwan — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:22:00 +0000

Sri Lankan blogger Indi Samarajiva explains why Bodu Bala Sena, a hardline Buddhist organization, is gaining popularity in Sri Lanka.

Majority Religion In A Country Is A Curse

Rezwan — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 22:45:44 +0000

Sri Lankan blogger Patta Pal Boru opines that the majority religion in a country is a curse as the simple weight of the established religion (inertia) gets people thinking about the wrongs rather than the rights favoring the fringe or the other religions.

Hardline Buddhists Drive Sri Lanka to Drop Muslim Halal Labeling

Rezwan — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 04:26:13 +0000

Islamic clerics facing massive protests from militant Buddhists in Sri Lanka have put an end to the island's widespread halal labeling system for food.

New Sinhalese Buddahist group Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Strength Force) staged large rallies throughout February 2013 calling for the abolition of the Muslim halal system of certifying that foods and other goods follow Islamic dietary guidelines.

Food manufacturers in Sri Lanka, especially those who export to Middle Eastern countries, have long made all their products using halal methods to avoid the costs of two separate production lines. The products were labeled with the halal certificate, issued by Islamic body All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU).

But protesters argued that it was unfair that Muslims, less than 10 percent of the Sri Lankan population, should force the majority Buddhist population to eat food prepared according to Islamic law.

Halal Logo. Image courtesy Groundviews

In an effort to quash rising religious tensions, All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama announced on March 11, 2013 that “in the interests of peace” it would stop issuing its certificate locally.

Twitter user “MajlisW1″ (@majlisW1) published ACJU President Al Shaikh Rizvi Mufti's statement:

@majlisW1: Those days Halal logo was a Must, now due to tense situation, the logo will not be compulsory but the companies can print it or leave it – Rizvi Mufti

Officials from the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said in a press briefing that after consultations with Buddhist and Islamic clergy, the decision was made that all Sri Lankan producers would drop the halal logo immediately.

News blog dbsjeyaraj.com reported that according to the Bodu Bala Sana, authorities have since promised to set up special police units to inspect shops still selling halal products.

Religious violence in Sri Lanka is on the rise. The conflict with the Tamil Tigers may have ended but more and more hardliner Buddhist attacks on Muslims and Christians are being reported.

Shenali Waduge made the argument on community news site Lanka Web why non-Muslims should not have to accept halal products:

Most eating houses, restaurants never fail to display “halal certified, no pork” boards. Whilst the cow is a sacred animal for both Buddhist and Hindus, how can it be acceptable to eat beef but not pork? Why is it that only the religious preferences of just one ethnic community decides for the rest of the population when [the Buddhist] population is over 70%?

[...]

In any case there should not be any fee charged for Halal certification and no non–Muslim should be charged one cent or coerced to pay from his hard earned money to produce a benefit that accrues only to Muslims.

But citizen journalism website Ground Views noted that the protests against halal food have more to do with rise in anti-Muslim sentiment by Sinhala Buddhist nationalists than fairness:

In recent months there has been an increased outpouring of virulent anti-Muslim sentiment by persons claiming to speak for all Sinhala Buddhists. Organized groups led by Buddhist monks have held public meetings, distributed pamphlets, and made press statements. Articles in mainstream Sinhala and English newspapers have propagated ethnic and religious hatred. [...] The attacks on Muslims have been directed at everything: the certification of food products as halal; the practice of hijab, abhaya and nikab among Muslim women; the beard worn by Muslim men; the azaan or call for prayer from the mosques; the Muslims’ practice of closing businesses for Friday prayers; the prevalence of certain sectarian differences among Muslims;and the ongoing debate regarding methods of slaughter for the consumption of meat.

Citizen journalist Riza Yehiya wrote extreme Buddhists are hijacking the Buddhist community, souring Buddhist-Muslim relations:

This threat to the Muslim community is a challenge to this nation. This is not from the mainstream Buddhist community that has a time tested relationship with Muslims. It is from purpose made Buddhist extremist groups working as mercenaries to prop up failing political elites, consciously or unconsciously serving foreign interests than the hallowed purpose of protecting Buddhism.

Blogger R.M.B. Senanayake accused Sinhalese nationalists, including some Buddhist monks, of carrying out a hate campaign against Muslims publicly and on social media, chronicling recent incidents on his website.

Image courtesy Say No To Halal Facebook Page

Political blogger Indi Samarajiva wrote on his website Indi.ca that opposition party United National Party has contributed to the halal controversy, also calling for an end to the halal logo “in line with racist Sinhalese interests.”

There is no Muslim conspiracy to take over Sri Lanka with halal food, citizen journalist Hejaaz Hizbullah noted. Businesses have made their decisions when it comes to halal:

It’s certainly not the Muslim consumer but the businesses that crave for halaal recognition.

He continued:

What does worry many Muslims is how this ‘non-issue’ is being banged about by a fringe few and made into a national problem. What we see is not an ‘issue’ but an agenda and a campaign of hate with ‘halaal certification’ merely an excuse. They are waiting to pick a fight and so they pick on anything.

Blogger Patta Pal Baru opines that the campaign against ‘halal’ was unnecessary.

Kasun Adikari urged Buddhists to practice tolerance with fellow Muslims:

As Buddhists, we must know how to regard other religions and their practices as we belong to the religious group that accepts and appreciates the reasonable teachings of every religion. Buddhists can also tolerate the practices of other religious, cultural traditions and customs, although they may not necessarily wish to emulate them.

One Billion Rising Campaign In Colombo

Rezwan — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 23:22:42 +0000

The One Billion Rising campaign constitutes of one billion people across the world showing their antipathy towards all forms of violence against women. Meg posts pictures and analysis of the One Billion Rising campaign in Colombo, Sri Lanka on the 14th of February, 2013.

Sri Lanka: Code of Ethics For Media

Rezwan — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 22:37:39 +0000

Freedom Of Expression Sri Lanka reports that the Sri Lankan government has started the process of introducing a comprehensive code of ethics, for both print and electronic media, in accordance with its overall aim to streamline the industry.

Sri Lanka: Reactions To The Impeachment Of The Chief Justice

Rezwan — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 06:33:53 +0000

The impeachment of the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr Shirani Bandaranayake has been the talk of the country. Bandaranayake is an academic and her lack of judicial background had led to several protests by lawyers and judges at the time of her appointment in 2011. The allegations brought against her are of abuse of power and failure to disclose her income and her foreign exchange. She says that she is not guilty of the charges the government brought against her. However, it is widely speculated that the impeachment proceedings were triggered by an adverse judgment given by her striking down the Divenguma Bill. Law and Other Things blog explains:

The bill would have centralized development funds which were previously devolved to local authorities, and would have granted greater discretionary powers to the Minister of Economic Affairs. Devolution has been a long standing demand of Tamil parties and was brought as part of the peace process. However, ethno-nationalist Sinhala politicians want to nullify even the limited devolution that has been introduced. Basil Rajapakse, the Minister for Economic Affairs, is the brother of the President Mahinda Rajapakse. The Speaker of Parliament, who initiated the impeachment proceedings and heads the Parliamentary Select Committee, is Chamal Rajapakse, another brother of the President.

Photograph of 43rd and first female Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Hon. Dr. Shirani A Bandaranayake. Copyright Shaveen Bandaranayake CC BY 3.0.

An impeachment motion against Chief Justice Bandaranayake signed by 117 ruling party MPs was handed to the Speaker of the parliament on 1 November 2012. An eleven member parliamentary select committee (PSC) was appointed to investigate the charges against her who conducted three hearings and the opposition MPs withdrew from PSC on 7 December, 2012. In a report to the president the PSC it was revealed that three of five charges against Bandaranayake had been proven and this was enough to remove her from office. Opposition MPs have rejected the PSC report.

Law and Other Things reports:

On December 15, The Bar Association of Sri Lanka passed a resolution in support of Chief Justice Bandaranayake and asserted that it would not cooperate if a new person was appointed in her stead as Chief Justice by President Rajapakse. (Details here in a report in the Hindu). On December 19, the Chief Justice moved the Court of Appeal asking for the impeachment proceedings against her to be quashed. Details of her arguments are available in this story in the Washington Post.

Street protests also continued in the country. Indi.ca reported that protests for the Chief Justice was broken up by government supporters and the police stood by.

On 3 january 2013 The Supreme Court ruled that the PSC had no power to investigate allegations against the chief justice and the impeachment was therefore unconstitutional by misinterpreting the constitution. But on the following week the impeachment motion against Bandaranayake was debated by Parliament and the motion was passed with a majority vote. This move raised many legal debates.

On 13 January 2013 Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was replaced by Mr. Mohan Peiris.

In an interview with Groundviews, Asanga Welikala, a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives termed the impeachment as devastating. UNP parliamentarian Eran Wickramaratne said that parliament was the instrument used by the president to weaken the judiciary.

Patta Pal Boru reacts about the new appointment:

how can a person who has been advising the President of any country in the past three years or thereabouts in turn be appointed a Chief Justice, as by definition, his loyalties and objectivity is called into question, no matter how much standing he has in society.

Tisaranee Gunasekara writes:

The quintessentially Rajapaksa-impeachment produced a quintessentially Rajapaksa Chief In-justice. Mohan Peiris, the trusted acolyte of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the man who lied to the world on behalf of his political masters, is the ideal choice to head the Rajapaksa judiciary, given the critical absence of a Rajapaksa Sibling, Son or Nephew capable of holding that fort.

Demonstrators gather outside the Supreme Court in Colombo as they participate in a rally against Chief Justice Bandaranayake. Image by Tharaka Basnayaka. Copyright Demotix (4/12/2012)

There are also opinions favoring the removal of the Chief Justice. Malinda Seneviratne writes after the impeachment:

The CJ, with or without the consent or complicity of her backers or rather the anti-regime circus, did herself no favors. [..] The antics of the Government and its backers certainly made it possible to tag ‘witch-hunt’ to the process. [..]

The behavior of the Chief Justice, before and after the process began, tells me in no uncertain terms that she falls well short of expectations. She has, by omission and commission, helped compromise the dignity of the position.

After her impeachment Bandaranayake claimed that she fears for her life and those of her husband and son.

Sri Lanka's Judiciary-Executive clash

Rezwan — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:15:17 +0000

Law and Other Things has updates on the proceedings that were initiated in the Sri Lankan Parliament to impeach the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka, Dr Shirani Bandaranayake.

Looking Back at 2012 in South Asia – Part II

Rezwan — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 20:00:03 +0000

Pakistan's dismal human rights record just gets worse, India's rising rape rates have sent the society into a flux, Bangladesh rejected Myanmar's Rohingya refugees, the regions relatively stable country – Maldives- saw a spiraling political crisis, and protests in post-war Sri Lanka against price hikes were met with police brutality.

It has been a rough year in South Asia. And we have been covering the bad and the good, all year at Global Voices. Here are some highlights from this year's coverage.

Plight of minorities

In Pakistan, we saw the rise of a new wave of terrorism unleashed on minorities. Many Shiites spanning from Karachi to Kohistan have been specifically targeted and killed. In the Balochistan province, where a separatist movement is gaining momentum, we saw extra judicial abductions of Baloch nationalists, separatists and leaders. This year targeted violence against the Shia minority Hazara community by outlawed militant groups also picked up in Balochistan. Additionally, we showed that physically and mentally challenged people in Pakistan are subjected to discrimination everyday.

The Hazara members were travelling by bus before the shooting attack occurred in Quetta. Image by RFE/RL RFE/RL, copyright Demotix (04/10/12).

In Bangladesh, after bouts of sectarian violence between the Rohingya and Rakhine in Western Myanmar, the government restricted the influx of Rohingya refugees crossing borders. An action many netizens opposed citing humanitarian reasons. Religious extremists in Bangladesh attacked Buddhist temples and households on charges a member of their community had desecrated the Quran. However many analysts saw the motives as political rather than communal.

Indigenous students hold placards at a protest rally in Dhaka against the attack on the indigenous people in Rangamati. Image by Firoz Ahmed. Copyright Demotix (24/9/2012)

In Sri Lanka, around 2,000 Buddhist monks and local residents staged a violent protest in Dambulla town in Sri Lanka demanding that a mosque along with a Hindu temple situated in an area designated as a Buddhist sacred zone be demolished.

In India, fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers in the State of Assam killed at least 32 people and wounded many more. Social Media was blamed for fueling this unrest. In November, after an intercaste marriage fueled a 2,000 strong mob to attack three Dalit settlements in the Dharmapuri District of Tamil Nadu.

Violence against women

A number of working women had been abducted and raped in the city of Gurgaon, located within 30 kilometres of the Indian capital. The police response was to ask working women to stop working after 8pm to prevent rape incidents which has prompted a heated debate in social media. In May, Kolkata city formally joined the global SlutWalk movement to campaign to stop violence against women.

Rape in the Indian state of Haryana has also increased, with as many as 19 cases reported in one month. As a result of the rapes, women have been advised to avoid going to pubs, using mobile phones and wearing jeans.

Illustration by Samia Singh. CC BY-NC-ND 2.5

A 23 year-old woman was stripped, beaten and raped in a moving bus in South Delhi on December 16, 2012, stirring shock and outrage in India. Shocked at the brutality of the incident, Indians are asking for stricter laws and harsher punishments for violence against women. Stirred by this outrage, a group of activists in neighboring Nepal started protests demanding justice for Sita Rai, who was raped in Kathmandu.

In Pakistan, the blasphemy law has been the focus of a heated debate yet again, after a minor christian girl named Rimsha was accused of blasphemy and sent to jail.

“Eve teasing” has become a disease in Bangladeshi society because of the silence of the citizens. But one blogger stood against one such incident and asked fellow bloggers help in exposing the harassers.

Human Rights and protest

In Pakistan terrorist attacks and sectarian violence was commonplace. It became so overwhelming that we could only cover some bomb explosions and attacks on military bases. Karachi saw incessant sectarian violence which killed more than 300 people in three months.

People and Security officials gather at site after bomb blast near Imambargah Hyder-e-Karrar in Orangi Town in Karachi. Image by Owais Aslam Ali. Copyright Demotix (21/11/2012)

A number of human and women rights activists were targeted and attacked in Pakistan. Including in the list are Fareeda Kokikhel Afridi, a prominent and tireless rights activist, Ghazala Jawad, a charismatic Pashto singer, Malala Yosufzai, the female education activist and Mehzar, the youngest victim of violence against Shiites.

Also in Pakistan, an angry mob lynched an alleged Blasphemer and burnt him alive. The mob broke inside the jail, took the alleged blasphemer outside and burned him out in the open. The lives of 240,000 innocent children are at stake due to the recent ban on polio inoculation by the Taliban in the region of FATA. Recently, health workers administering polio vaccines were shot.

The brutal murder of a journalist couple in Bangladesh has shocked the nation and the inability of the authorities to nab the killers has enraged netizens. Bloggers marched for the Murdered Journalist Couple.

Indian Border Security Forces have killed more than 1,000 Bangladeshis in the last ten years. To protest the killings some bloggers called for a campaign to boycott Indian products and services on March 1, 2012 which got much support online.

Post-war Sri Lanka saw a turbulent economy with price hike and imposition of surcharges earlier this year, which provoked widespread protests. Netizens protested police brutality in enforcing law and order.

Screenshot of the video showing the protest of the evictees of the Omkareshwar Dam project

Opposing a dam, 51 residents of Ghongalgaon village of Khandwa district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh launched a ‘Jal Satyagraha’ protest, by standing neck deep inside the backwaters of Omkareshwar dam on Narmada river.

Power protests

As South Asia observed Earth Hour by turning off its non-essential lights for one hour, netizens argued whether that is an appropriate campaign to address climate change as millions of people in South Asia have no access to electricity.

Koodankulam Nuclear Plant, Tamil Nadu, India. Image by Flickr user Eunheui. CC BY-NC 2.0

Anti-nuclear activists and inhabitants of nearby villages in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, India protested against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP). They want the plant to cease operations.

In Phulbari, Bangladesh, local communities have come together to raise their voices against the proposed Phulbari open pit coal mining project.

Political corridors

Maldives went in to deep political crisis as the police force and some military personnel revolted against the government in a follow-up to three weeks of protest by civilians. Mohamed Nasheed, the president of Maldives most famously known as a climate champion, was coerced to announced his resignation on February 7. The crisis took an ugly turn following his resignation as police brutally beat and injured his protesting supporters, who claimed the move was a coup that removed the island nation's first democratically elected president from power.

Soldiers who mutinied shake hands with public. Image by MUHA. Used with permission

In April in India, a well respected newspaper reported an attempted coup in the Indian capital. Everybody from the government to the common people dismissed the Indian Express front-page story. The Indian State Assembly Elections were one of the most talked about issues in the Indian blogosphere. We saw some interesting news such as draping of statues because they resembled a party symbol. In Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in the country saw an unexpected outcome that shocked everyone.

A religious union of 40 different parties by the name of Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC) has emerged as the representative of Pakistan's extreme right-wing parties. In March, Karachi (Sindh) hosted a massive rally for the independence of Sindh from the Pakistani state which was organized by the Long-Live Sindh National Front (JSQM) under the leadership of Bashir Khan Qureshi. Pakistani netizens expressed their reactions on the sudden and untimely death of Bashir Khan Qureshi in the following month.

The Pakistani Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had been disqualified ever since April 26, when it gave the final ruling on a contempt case imprisoning him for a few seconds.

Art and culture

In the past decade hundreds of cinema halls have closed down in Bangladesh. A popular cartoon show dubbed in Hindi stirred debate in Bangladesh.

Signboard of the office. Screenshot from the video The Musalman

India's ‘The Musalman’ is probably is the last handwritten newspaper in the world.

A new Indian TV talk show titled Satyamev Jayate (Truth Alone Prevails) hosted by Bollywood actor and filmmaker Aamir Khan is debating taboo and sensational social issues which are engaging more and more Indians.

We took a walk down memory lane with netizens to pay tribute to Ghazal legend Mehdi Hasan from Pakistan, writer and director Humayun Ahmed of Bangladesh.

We also posted stories on the crowning of Miss Nepal 2012, celebrations of Bengali New Year Pahela Baisakh (first day of summer), Dhaka's Hay Festival, Karachi Literature Fest, a social campaign using street theatre in India called Kochi-Muziris Biennale and Pakistan's first Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.

Part I of this post took a deeper look at the rising role of social media in South Asia.

Looking Back at 2012 in South Asia – Part I

Rezwan — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:30:22 +0000

Armed with more smartphones than ever before, we see an increasing number of South Asians stepping across borders through social media.

This year we saw the first India – Pakistan social media summit in Karachi. We also saw Indian and Bangladeshi hackers caught up in cyber wars, which started as a protest against border killings by Indian Border Security Forces.

Many South Asian governments are still not comfortable with new media; we have seen them resort to draconian measures to stop the free flow of information. Here we look back at some of the stories we covered in 2012, about the rise of social media in the region.

Web censorship and freedom of speech

Under the cloak of protecting the majority or the minority and to stop cyber crimes, many South Asian governments have enacted numerous laws that undermine people’s internet freedom and civil liberties.

Cartoon by Bryant Arnold, CartoonADay.com. Used under a Creative Commons 2.5 license (BY-NC)

India, being the largest democracy of the world took a giant leap back when it demanded 20 major Internet companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter present plans to filter “anti-religious,” or “anti-social” material from the content available to Indian citizens.

In April 2011 the Indian government quietly issued amendments to the IT rules restricting web content that is designated as “disparaging,” “harassing,” “blasphemous” or “hateful.” Indian netizens campaigned against it online and even engaged in a hunger strike in May 2012 to support an annulment motion against the new IT Rules-2011 in the Indian Rajya Sabha.

Not only the government, but the Indian entertainment Industry was also after social media as they demanded the courts to ban Torrents and Vimeo on copyright issues.

In August, the Indian government cracked down on various social media sites, banning some Facebook pages and Twitter handles, citing that they fueled the communal attacks on people from the North East.

In May, Twitter users in Pakistan suffered a total blanket censorship across all ISPs in the country, on order of the Pakistan Telecommunucation Authority which was attempting to black out ‘blasphemous’ content.

Activists of Jamat-e-Islami chant slogans against the anti-Islam movie released in the USA, Karachi, Pakistan. Image by Owais Aslam Ali. Copyright Demotix (14/9/2012)

Pakistan and Bangladesh banned YouTube in September after strong reactions against the hosting of controversial film Innocence of The Muslims. YouTube is still totally blocked in both the countries and India blocked only the video inside the country.

The RFP as seen in Pakistani newspapers. Image courtesy EFF

In an exemplary effort some Pakistani activists and bloggers reacted promptly to stop the Great Firewall, the proposed national “URL filtering and blocking system”. The $10 million system was required to enable the Pakistani government to ”handle a block list of up to 50 million URLs”

In August, the Pakistani government suspended mobile services in major cities on Eid to prevent terrorist attacks. This soon became a trend and since then mobile networks have been completely shut down a number of times in different parts of Pakistan evoking much criticism.

In Bangladesh a proposed online news policy was criticized heavily in social media which prompted the government to shelve it. In March, a Bangladesh court ordered concerned authorities to shut down five Facebook pages and a website for blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, the Koran and other religious subjects.

In Sri Lanka, a new government regulation which applies steep fees for online ‘news’ website has generated much debate. Some are worried the broad implications of the law could extend to personal blogs, and may even prompt bloggers to resort to self-censorship, out of fear.

Prosecution for using Social Media

In Bangladesh the High Court sentenced a university teacher to a 6-month jail term after he failed to appear in court to face trial regarding his Facebook status update.

Remix from Bryant Arnold. CC BY-NC

In India, a professor was arrested for forwarding a “defamatory” cartoon against the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Police also detained a 21-year-old woman after she posted a Facebook a status update protesting the total shutdown of Mumbai city following the death of the founder of the Shiv Shena party. Her friend, who ‘liked’ the update was also arrested. Both were later released on bail.

The Sri Lankan authorities raided offices of two news websites on allegation of criminal defamation and arrested nine journalists. In another incident the defense secretary threatened an editor of a local newspaper during an interview.

Role of MSM

Instead of helping an Indian girl being assaulted by 20 men outside a pub in Guwahati, the cameraman from a local Television channel shot a 30-minute video of the incident. The video had gone viral, with many raising media ethics questions and wondering whether India is becoming a nation of bystanders.

Image courtesy Blanknoise. CC BY-NC-SA

Earlier this month in Bangladesh the news that captured the nation's imagination and made the headlines across all the major newspapers, magazines and TV channels was the brutal murder of 24 year-old Biswajit Das, under full view of the public and media.

In March, certain areas of Kolkata in West Bengal, India, were brought to a grinding halt by protesters opposing a certain tweet, allegedly posted by an Indian model, which was in turn published in a leading English daily.

Pakistan's fiery broadcast media was at the center of several social media campaigns this year. Pakistani talk show host Maya Khan, became the focus of many, after she aired an episode of moral policing on dating couples in her morning show. A successful social media campaign got her TV show scrapped from the networks. But she was later hired by another network where she invited a religious scholar to convert a young Hindu boy to Islam live on her show. But some say the conversion was forced. A leaked video showing popular anchorpersons Mehar Bokhari and Mubashar Lucman involved in a set-up interview also sent shock waves across the media industry and the people.

Nepali netizens were irked by a remark by a moderator of an Indian TV channel that “Nepal is a Territory of India.” They vented their reactions on different social networking sites.

Exemplary use of Social Media

In Bangladesh discrimination and oppression against the 45 indigenous tribes (adibashis) are not new. Some of the indigenous netizens are resorting to blogs, Facebook and other social media platforms to voice their concerns.

A road through Titas river. Image courtesy Sharat Chowdhury

To facilitate the transit of overloaded Indian cargo trucks through Bangladesh, a long diversion route had been built through the Titas river and its tributaries obstructing its flow in many parts. The fact was first divulged in a TV report. Investigative bloggers went to the scene and published the story with pictures which later prompted the authorities to remove the road.

Reconciliation is a much discussed buzzword across Sri Lanka. While there has been much talk about how to do it, a group called Sri Lanka Unites is actually promoting reconciliation and hope to young people by visiting schools and building a network of over 4500 student leaders from every district and community in Sri Lanka. They are also using social media extensively to maintain and promote the network.

In India, discrimination against Dalits still exist in many rural areas and in the private sphere. Dalit Camera, a YouTube Channel vows to highlight the plights of Dalits.

In part II of this post we'll be taking a look at other stories from South Asia, we covered this year.

Sri Lanka needs a National Media Commission

Rezwan — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 05:04:00 +0000

Shenali Waduge opines that Sri Lanka needs a National Media Commission to steer Journalistic Ethics. The blogger adds: “in the absence of self-regulation by mass media and communication channels there is a need for content analysis by a competent and unbiased team”.