This blog has been created by Plain Truth, a frequent contributor to the forum
Groundviews.org.
I edit this forum to a standard that is deeply subjective and based on published guidelines and that which I myself adhere to in my writing and comments. Anyone I feel does not match or exceed these standards will not be published. - Sanjana Hattotuwa, Editor of Groundviews.
Traditional Sri Lankan peace activists are home grown and those who are passionate about issues and less passionate about themselves. Their work is selfless than self promoting.
Some of the modern SL peace activists are working for NGOs and drawing a lavish salary. The question whether they become an activist to be paid or they are being paid to become an activist is not clear. However if you look at some of the personal background and the educational path, what is clear is that the choice to become an activist has to do with effective self-promotion and ambition.
Someone passionate about activism shouldn’t get angry when the motives are challenged. A true activist will never display the behavior of a dictator. Today Sri Lanka consists of many FAKE leaders in the political and religious arena. That culture has translated into the peace activism as well. Unfortunately today most people have chosen peace activism to add a bullet into the resume than engaging in community service.
Anyone pretending to be a peace activist and getting paid lavishly for the work done should be called a Peace Mercenary.
I created this bog to expose hypocrisies associated with one of the self-proclaimed peace activist, Mr Sanjana Haththotuwa. He has created a web forum called groundviews.org to discuss issues related to the current crisis in Sri Lanka. Not only he is the ONLY moderator of this forum, he is a contributor as well. Therefore anyone criticizing his contributions will not be allowed to post on this site. Views of groundviews have been manufactured and shaped up to show only Mr Sanjana Haththotuwa’s point of view to the world about crisis in Sri Lanka. Therefore the views presented on this site are very biased and polished to highlight partiality. I have requested many times to have a panel of moderates to improve the impartiality and credibility of groundviews.org, my requests have been ignored and deleted.
Mr Sanjana Haththotuwa has a deep attachment to this site even though it is funded by NGO and talk about national issues. If it is his myspace like site, I have no problems with the views presented by him. It is this deep emotional attachment has made him act as a dictator on the forum.
Sincerely
truthplain at gmail dot com.
Plain Truth is not paid by an NGO or not using his credentials to secure a future diplomatic position in Sri Lanka.
Here I will summarize some of the limited communications I had with Mr Sanjana Haththotuwa and list ofmy posts banned by him without giving any reasons.
Sanjana’s post: I am enemy of the state:
http://www.groundviews.org/2007/05/23/i-am-an-enemy-of-the-state
Here I challenged his core values and sincerity. My response have been rejected:
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January 3, 2008 @ 12:31 am
Dear Sanjana
I wouldn’t call you an enemy of the state. You are an enemy of yourself due to your ego, prejudice, and self-promotion. We both have same mission that is the best for Sri Lanka and all Sri Lankans. Why we have decided to air the frustration with each other on this forum? I strongly object the way Rajapakse administration run this country. While criticizing their administration, you seem to be following their footsteps when you have been given the Opportunity and the Power on this forum.
Certainly you can self proclaim you are an enemy of the state? Is that a true proclamation if your activism is not sincere?
There is a difference between an activist and activist paid by an NGO. Your roots (where you have been educated) will make it difficult for someone to convince yourself as an activist in Sri Lanka since there have been so few or none have come out of that path yet.
Moderate and judge me based on what I present than my language skills if you dare.
I feel like I have been victimized here since I go directly into the heart of this mission.
Here is Sanjana’s response for rejecting above post.
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January 3, 2008 @ 6:58 am
Plain Truth,
Note the comment above - http://www.groundviews.org/2007/12/27/present-situation-in-jaffna-a-video-interview/#comment-32396
Your comments to Groundviews will not be published this year based on your concerted actions to discredit the content and management of Groundviews and its authors on various fora, including other blogs as well as through ill-advised emails directed to colleagues, friends and authors associated with this site.
Please do not email me in future and desist from commenting on this site. As noted in the guidelines:
“Kindly note that we aggressively pursue those who vilify, threaten, abuse or otherwise act is discordance with the guidelines outlined herein. We take all complaints against abuse seriously and automatically log, in a manner not beyond that which is made possible by Wordpress, the details of those who post and comment in this forum, which may include public IP addresses. This information may be used to inform ISPs of repeat offenders who attempt to hijack this site by trolling, hate speech and comment spam.”
Perhaps with the fullness of time you may once again wish to revisit this site and engage with its content, authors and I in a manner that is markedly different to that which coloured your approach in 2007.
Sanjana
When my posts were deleted, I wrote to sara@cpalanka.org, mirak@cpalanka.org (names I found on the CPA site). Texts of my letter shown below.
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December 31, 2007 @ 8:33 am
Dear Plain Truth,
It was brought to my attention that you’ve been emailing friends and colleagues, including the Executive Director of CPA, colleagues from InfoShare and others from CPA, about your perceived and misplaced grievances on how I moderate this site. The email in question, though treated as irrelevant by all those who received it, is nevertheless slanderous, inaccurate and displays a marked bent to colour this site and my management of it in a negative light.
Clearly, your actions mark you out as a person ill fit to be published here. Should you wish to continue your campaign of emailing me veiled threats to, inter alia, “expose” me by emailing “those who pay my bills” my bias on this site and calling Ruki’s original post “an article by an idiot”, I can only imagine you have much time to waste on your hands. I don’t and have little patience for disgruntled trolls.
You can’t expect to be published here and at the same time send derogatory emails behind my back. In 2008, you should stick to the fora you mention that are in your view not supported by NGOs to air your opinions.
Best,
Sanjana
My letter to CPA complaining Sanjana’s behavior:
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Complaint Against Sanjana Hattotuwa at Groundsview 12/30/07
Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
Sanjana Hattotuwa runs groundviews in a deep subjective manner and let only opinion in line with his or her point of view post on the site.
Sanjana Hattotuwa has displayed a very poor judgment of an article published by me stating I was insulting someone. When I challenged that claim, Sanhana's response got changed few times giving excuses than a consistent reason. Please consider having a panel to edit the comments on the forum than one person who seems incapable of doing what supposed to be done.
I don't consider Sanjana Hattotuwa to be a person with good integrity and experience to run groundsview.
Sincerely,
PlainTruth
Here is Sanjana’s response 1 – an email reply,
Sanjana Hattotuwa to me 12/30/07
Dear PlainTruth,
Read your email to Sara. I wouldn't have guessed you were a regular comedian, but you provided us with the evening's entertainment.
SH
Here is the response he posted on groundviews.org:
December 31, 2007 @ 8:33 am
Dear Plain Truth,
It was brought to my attention that you’ve been emailing friends and colleagues, including the Executive Director of CPA, colleagues from InfoShare and others from CPA, about your perceived and misplaced grievances on how I moderate this site. The email in question, though treated as irrelevant by all those who received it, is nevertheless slanderous, inaccurate and displays a marked bent to colour this site and my management of it in a negative light.
Clearly, your actions mark you out as a person ill fit to be published here. Should you wish to continue your campaign of emailing me veiled threats to, inter alia, “expose” me by emailing “those who pay my bills” my bias on this site and calling Ruki’s original post “an article by an idiot”, I can only imagine you have much time to waste on your hands. I don’t and have little patience for disgruntled trolls.
You can’t expect to be published here and at the same time send derogatory emails behind my back. In 2008, you should stick to the fora you mention that are in your view not supported by NGOs to air your opinions.
Best,
Sanjana
Here he is annoyed about the complaints. He thinks it is not taken seriously by others including CPA director. Then he says I called someone and Idiot, which I never did on the forum. The email was never derogatory. He deleted four different my responses for this post. He intentionally painted a dark picture for myself to justify rejection of my posts. A true peace activist wouldn’t have never done such a thing.
Some of the other posts rejected by Sanhana:
December 31, 2007 @ 11:07 pm
Would you be able to publish some reports on how Sinhalese and Muslims have been affected due to the war and specially due to LTTE actions? There are number of villages closer to LTTE area and we often hear their daily lives have been disrupted and some even have deserted their houses. Hopefully in 2008, groundviews will be able to broadcast more of the other side as well.
December 31, 2007 @ 9:41 pm
Dear Sanjana
According to you:
“the Voices of Reconciliation project decided to launch this website to strengthen, inter alia, the voices of those in favour of peace in Sri Lanka through negotiations and federalism.”
I would like to see the case for federalism in Sri Lanka during 2008.
As of now my understanding is that it will be impossible for us to create a Federal Sri Lanka. Perhaps others may have different ideas on that and I am willing to sit down and read what they have to say.
Hope you will find a panel of people to moderate this forum since I see a self conflict within you being both the moderator and contributor to this forum.
Like I often say, the homegrown model (theacademic.org/forum) has provided ton of different views from all sides, not by a chosen few, and hope to see that changed as well.
January 3, 2008 @ 2:02 am
When the context is injustice against Tamils by the government, Tamils are silent for LTTE activities. When the context is injustice for Sinhalese by the government, people will be silent for JHU views. JHU does not represent all Sinhalese Buddhists just LTTE doesn’t represent Tamil people.
However one can sit down and talk to JHU, not LTTE.
It shouldn’t be our responsibility to market biased human misery to the world.
JHU is bad news for Sinhalese Buddhists, LTTE is worst for Tamils.
This is the plain truth and good journalism we need to market.
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Sanjana’s Personal Email to me:
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Sanjana Hattotuwa to me 12/30/07
Why don't you start an award winning CJ site yourself that you can
administer the way you feel fit?
Till then, Groundviews is open to you if you stick to the guidelines
and stick to my standards of English and civil expression. I didn't
win Sri Lanka's first international award for excellence in new
communications because of my partiality to the type of fringe lunacy
you you epitomise, so if you don't like how I manage the site I
created, then simply go somewhere else! You are not the first, you
won't be the last.
Best,
Here is Sanjana is confused and tells me that I made him threats.
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Sanjana Hattotuwa 12/30/07
As I said, you are not the first to make vague and empty threats, and
you won't be the last. It's routine for those who don't get published
on Groundviews to make some sort of attempt to "expose" CPA and its
"bias" and you are not exceptional in this regard.
SH
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Here is Sanjana is confused and tells me that I made him threats. My response is below:
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Here is how Sanajana is lying about calling Ruki and Idiot:
http://www.groundviews.org/2007/12/11/jaffna-tears-blood-and-terror/
sarath Fernando said,
December 29, 2007 @ 10:13 am
I donot intend to compare the sufferings of the people in Jaffna and other places affeted by war and killings of civilians. Thank you for this report which helps us to undertand the plight of such people at least to some degree. Looking for solutions i feel it is important to recognize that all people, where ever they are or to what ethnic community they belong should be given the right to self government. Governments today, whether they are elected or not donot represent the interests of the people. They are just tools in the hands of greedy powers, national and international, who are making use of the “authority” that they have accuired to suppress and plunder all people and all nature’s resources. The worst of terrorists are supported by such powers, as long as such terror agrees with this process of plunder.
Therefore all people, the tamils in Jaffna, the muslims, the plantation workers, the fisher people, whose right to the sea and the beaches are being taken away in the name of rebuilding after Tsunami, the peasants in the country, the people all over the country who are now suffering impossible cost of living are all being suppressed and victimised for the purpose of this plunder and destruction by a few. So, the solution is in the recongnition that all these people should have their own self government, instead of agreeing to be under any form of centralised government. Can we all being to fight for such self rule, to be free of suppression and plunder by the “illegitimate powers” that claim to be legal governments. I say this as a person who was born a Sinhala and have lived in the Sinhala areas all my life- not by choise.
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My response:
Dec 29, 2007, at 11:45 AM
Author : Plain
Government reflects the behavior of the people. A society with good
values always produces leaders with integrity and honesty. If that
is the case, allowing people to form own governments is like
multiplying the current mess by ten times.
We allowed Tamils to create their government, look how backward
Tamil areas are today. We allowed JVP to form the government. Look
how sincere they are when it comes to serving people and the nation.
Look at the how fishing community lives by the sea? They have no
respect for the beaches. See how overcrowded the beaches are? This
is a result of less government and letting people do whatever they
want to do.
Good central government is essential to keep the uniform order
within a nation.
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Sanjana Hattotuwa to PT 12/29/07
This is absolute nonsense and will not be published. What on earth do
you mean?
SH
PlainTruth to SH 12/30/07
This was in response to an article by an idiot, I am surprised you let
that one post.
PT
Sanjana Hattotuwa 12/30/07
Clearly it takes one to recognise another.
SH
PT to Sanjana 12/30/07
"Quote PT: Government reflects the behavior of the people. A society with good
values always produces leaders with integrity and honesty. "
What's wrong with this statement?
PT
Sanjana Hattotuwa 12/30/07
Nothing. Should you wish to published that, there's no problem. It was
the rest that was nonsense.
SH
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Then I asked what is wrong with the rest, he never responded.
Another post rejected by Sanjana
Plain Truth said,
December 30, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
Dear Sanjana
Hope you won’t feel insulted by Daya’s comments since you said you promote good English implying my English was bad (which actually can be).
”
Dayan Jayatilleka said,
December 30, 2007 @ 12:59 am
“Er, by the way, its ” multi-polar” not “multipartial”…and it should be ‘uninterested’, not ‘disinterested’. The latter means without any hope of gain, or, less bombastically, without any angles.”
Plain Truth said,
December 30, 2007 @ 5:50 pm
Dear Sanjana:
Please have someone better qualified edit and administer this forum and stick to expressing your opinion. Otherwise as the creator of this forum, you will bring it down since you just proved that you have lack of credibility or integrity. I will explain my comments below.
Here is what you told me, these comments sounds like coming from an irritated dictator:
“Clearly, your best is not always good enough. “
“I don’t have the time or interest to pander to your demands. “
“I edit this forum to a standard that is deeply subjective and based on published guidelines and that which I myself adhere to in my writing and comments. “
“Anyone I feel does not match or exceed these standards will not be published.”
You are a contributor as well as editor of others comments. Therefore the views expressed by this forum can be very dangerous since we understand the behavior of some of the sole representatives of our nation. I understand this effort is funded by Canadian and Australian dollars. Those countries promote free expression. I have a feeling that you did not like something I wrote and rejected my article based on a minor technicality – wrongfully stating a personal insult. Then you changed the story when challenged. Eka varaddhak vahanna varadi dahayak karanawa (like committing ten faults to cover up one fault). I am listing them below.
“I am certainly not going to post your long drawn out meanderings that are ultimately meaningless and add little or nothing to the debate.”
“Your debates with Bala and his responses to your comments are largely of a nature that do not engage with the original post and as clearly noted in the guidelines, discussions best had between yourselves via email or any other media you choose.”
“We are reluctant to impose specific limits on the number of posts by any one contributor, but we ask you to exercise restraint.”
“ Discussions dominated by the frequency or verbosity of individual contributors become less interesting and useful for the rest of us. At times, it may be more appropriate for you to exchange e-mail directly with a fellow poster rather than carrying on a conversation in the feedback area.”
“This is the last I will post on this confounded farrago of doubts and grievances you have. I am subjective, opinionated, biased and partial to good English, good arguments and good commentary. “
“ Others in the blogosphere have already done it and see no problem is insulting me, CPA, my family and colleagues in such a manner. “
I am a citizen reporter and someone who values the the integrity and honesty. I am not exploiting a crisis situation or unfortunate citizens to make a profit for living or shine my resume. I am not being paid by an NGO to express my views and therefore they are sincere. I don’t even know whether you are a male or female and anything else about you and therefore can never insult your family.
My suggestion is please have someone better qualified edit or administer this forum and stick to expressing your opinion. Otherwise as the creator of this forum, you will bring it down since you have no credibility or integrity.
Cheers
truthplain at gmail dot com
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Dear Sanjana
This is lie created by you to ban my views since they are more thought provoking than yours.
"calling Ruki’s original post “an article by an idiot”"
I deny calling Ruki an idiot.
Prove me wrong.
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The Centre for Policy Alternatives, Sri Lanka
http://www.cpalanka.org/
Plain truth said,
December 31, 2007 @ 11:21 am
Dear Sanjana or dear Groundsview (NGO) Version:
This is your personal site and you run it like a dictator forgetting who pays for it. You are a child of Gotabhaya Rajapakse, Mervin De Silva, and Somawansha … because you reflect their behavior.
When you removed my response for the second consecutive time stating very inconsistent reasons each time, I had no choice but writing letters to making things right here. Later I found out that you are harassing me since your and your friends views are being challenged by me and the only intellectual way to for you to stop me was to take me out of a small technicality.
Tamils with problems will certainly benefit by talking directly with Chauvinists than an NGO whose personal mission is self serving first and people service never. Your actions are insult to intelligent people like Dayan Jayathilaka who is posting here. There is this term called ‘linde gemba’, the frog in the well. Please take the time to experience the western free expression to the fullest. Western organizations give you money not to create a dictator. They want you to learn the value of freedom of expression through experience. I am sorry; so far you have been a failure. I say so though my experience of posting hundreds of views to a Japanese moderate site and never getting rejected one.
Please check out theacademic dot org site and see how intelligently one can run a forum. There is a panel of moderators and the content is mostly self moderated. Most people like to post their views are well qualified and they know how to handle their emotions. You have designed and run this site to sell the content to NGO and enhance yourself promotion for a potential diplomatic career. The news related to poor Tamils affected is being marketed here not for their benefit, but for the benefit of yours only.
The response ‘idiot” was given through personal communications. Then you called me an idiot too. I have the text to share if you dispute my claim. This is the context behind idiot calling. Like a little boy in the 4th grade, you have removed them.
You deleted my posted and said “This is absolute nonsense and will not be published. What on earth do you mean?”
Then here is what I said “This was in response to an article by an idiot, I am surprised you let that one post.”
That article said every one of us should have their own governments, which I found rather trivial than my post.
I am learning a great deal through NGO from your efforts. I started writing to people (my letter attached below) when you started repeatedly deleting my posts without no significant reason.
This is the letter I submitted to contact persons on CPA. I have no idea you are part of the boys club and that is why no actions have been taken.
To whom it may concern:
“Sanjana Hattotuwa runs groundviews in a deep subjective manner and let
only opinion in line with his or her point of view post on the site.
Sanjana Hattotuwa has displayed a very poor judgment of an article
published by me stating I was insulting someone. When I challenged
that claim, Sanhana’s response got changed few times giving excuses
than a consistent reason. Please consider having a panel to edit the
comments on the forum than one person who seems incapable of doing
what supposed to be done.
I don’t consider Sanjana Hattotuwa to be a person with good integrity
and experience to run groundsview.”
Cheers
