New Book: The Conflation

politics and politrics beyond the ecstasy

| Authored by Nilantha Ilangamuwa

( February 25, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This book would have been a day dream if I did not receive gentle feedback and support from readers since I started my work as a journalist when I was 20 years old. Over a decade my life has been determined with an incalculable speed. Though modern technology needs fewer machines to count our own desires it cannot count the real time in the universe that we pass through.

This book contained interviews that I conducted over the last few years as a journalist with various people who have their own causes and reasons to make their lives meaningful. Most of them talked freely and expressed themselves with the facts that they felt important. Some of those expressions were fantasy while some of them were based on the illusion in which they were engaged.

It was no surprise that many "specialists" or "experts" on the subject believed that the LTTE would never be totally defeated, and never achieve the state of Tamil Eelam. But one senior member of the TMVP, which is break-away faction of the LTTE under Col. Karana Amman, who was later lucky enough to deserve a ministerial post in the ruling party, told this writer several times that the total defeat of the LTTE would be possible when the government started fighting against the LTTE in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. It was a myth and the result of an exaggeration by the media that many people believed that the LTTE would never be defeated or wiped out, he said while laughing. "This is non-other than a psychological warfare," he added while recounting his experiences with the LTTE for over 10 years.

The undeniable truth is that, people who live on the ground and experience reality know are about the facts than those who engaged at a distance and articulate their theories to fulfill their emptiness. But unfortunately those who are on the ground rarely come forward to share their views. It is then that society needs to stir itself and search for the truth. I have no better way to express this than to quote the serge words of Edward Abbey, "Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top." But, the country which lost hundreds of thousands of lives for the cause of freedom did not evaluate the real cost. And there is hardly any research or factual analysis which is able to tell the story that we are forced to ignore by the 'power'.

Attempts to publish a few voices from the various fields will not fulfill that large vacuum but it may be a small contribution to participate in the debate. This is time for Sri Lanka to get rid of its political vulgarism and politricks. This is the time for Sri Lanka to restore a system which is based on justice and freedom of all citizens.
- extract from the Acknowledgments

Details of the book
Title: The Conflation
Author: Nilantha Ilangamuwa
Publication Date: Feb 25 2014
ISBN/EAN13: 1496075528 / 9781496075529
Page Count: 270
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 5.5" x 8.5"
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Related Categories: Political Science / Commentary & Opinion