I don’t know why I’m even posting this, but apparently it’s on state TV as well. Someone from the Sarath Fonseka campaign called and said the General was at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel with 50 men, planning to take over media stations. I don’t think one announces a coup in this way. The story from Derana is that the General himself is surrounded by Army, presumably controlled by Mahinda.

Tissa has been out on bail for days but still in jail. I guess they wanted him to sign the guest book. He has, and he just walked out today. Must feel great. Tissa was basically made an example of, jailed under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act for ‘riling up communal tensions’. I read the relevant portions and they were quite tame compared to all the stuff out there. The fact that they could put him away really put the fear of god into anyone writing, for how arbitrary it was.

I think war is sometimes OK. This shocks many of my friends. War is pretty uniformly shit, but also glorious. It is viewed as a sacrifice people make so that others may live better. However, war is fundamentally putting hot shards of metal through other human bodies. It’s a lot of bleeding and crying and the smell of burning flesh. It’s hard to see how this makes sense. In his Nobel speech Barack Obama tried to explain.

Read bits of Sarath’s first press conference. It’s OK. If he runs on cleaning up the government he may have a chance. I was ready to believe in him last week, but he went on about his house and security. On the latter issue, however, he has a point. The last military man to enter politics literally blew up. There is one scenario no one talks about (or can/should, really). I think Mahinda I would give Sarath all the security he asks for, and more.

Apparently Al Qaeda has started sneaking explosives in their bums. They tried to kill the Saudi counter-terrorism guy with exploding ass. He sustained minor injuries. I would say terrifying, but it’s also funny. However, this ass bomb was able to get through airport security and 30 hours with Saudi Security. Presumably he wasn’t eating much. Then they seem to have detonated it via cell phone, causing massive carnage but sparing the intended target. In this context I suppose cavity searches make sense. It is ingenious in a way, but I also think Al Qaeda should pull its head out of its ass.

I was recently grumbling about being denied Ministry Of Defence clearance to travel north. Today I think I found out why. The person submitting the letter put ‘journalist’ as my occupation. Aside from being false, this is a guaranteed rejection in Sri Lanka. Being a journalist used to open doors, but now more than ever it’s closing them. Globally, journalists are getting attacked both by governments and via corporations and the profession is also reviled by many consumers. WTF is happening?

I like traveling around Sri Lanka. I was supposed to visit Mannar on Thursday, but the Ministry Of Defence rejected my approval. This makes me think. I think I’m rejected cause I write for the Sunday Leader, and they published my photos of Vavuniya and Puvarasekulam. It could also be because I had a small incident in the Hambantota Port. Fair enough I guess. The bigger question for me, however, is how many benefits there are for toeing the line and how much it sucks when you cross it. I can’t travel north, but people there can’t get out. What worries me is that it’s so rewarding to go along, even if that screws other people over.

I haven’t written on the arrest of Tissainayagam till now. For one thing I didn’t know that much about the case, for another I’ve been a bit scared myself. The one thing I’ve personally drawn from the case is that they can do whatever they want. I read through the case finally and it seems that he was convicted for 20 years for publishing a magazine that sold about 50 copies and for receiving deposits of about Rs. 50,000. There must be more, but that’s what seems to have been said in court. I read some of the stuff and I don’t agree with it, but it is what many people think, especially among the Tamil community. I think the sentence and the prosecution is a bit absurd, and tragically so.

There seems to be something I call the Tamil pingback. It seems that a lot of Tamils give their wife or family a ringcut or a message every hour or so. Any delay is an alert. Prolonged delay is panic. Fellow I know didn’t pingback for a few hours and his wife was freaking out. My friend was making calls to all and sundry trying to find out where he is. After hours found that he’s with the TID (Terrorism Investigation Division). Perhaps his wife can see him on Saturday.

Gotabaya Rajapakse, a former Unix Systems Admin strangely enough, has leveraged the Internet pretty well. One story which has slipped under the rug during these news heavy weeks is his department’s call for an online registry of citizens (citizens.lk). I’m not sure of the legality of this. It’s a pretty wide ranging and intrusive government measure and it was enacted without any Parliamentary or other debate, by an unelected official. It’s only saving grace is that it’s pretty much impossible for everyone in this country to register online as there are probably only about 3-400,000 people with proper Internet. Honestly, if they could simply get every Sri Lankan to connect to the Internet (even in this draconian way) that would be cool. But as it is this will probably go the way of the Internet porn ban. Straight out of the realm of fiction, into farce.