Malinda Words

Somewhere in the middle of the year 1995 I received a letter. I was a student in a university in Upstate New York at the time. I knew the name of the author. I knew his face. I didn’t expect a letter from him and if anyone had asked me ‘What would Nihal Fernando have to say to you?’ I would have had to say ‘I have no idea!’

I had first seen him ten years before. This was at the Lionel Wendt Gallery which hosted the exhibition ‘The Wild, The Free, The Beautiful’. I had always been fascinated by the beauty of my country, its diversity, its people, places, history, culture and heritage. Nihal Fernando had captured the essence of all that. It was not a one-off exhibition. It was the life work of someone who loved this land arguably as much as anyone did or more. It was ‘work’ that continued for two more decades. Age and illness stopped him, as it stops us all sooner or later, but Nihal Fernando’s heart never stopped. He loved to the end.

That letter had nothing to do with photography. It had everything to do with love. It was a short letter, hand-written. The essence is as follows: ‘I was told that you can write. We are trying to stop the sale and ruination of the Eppawala Phosphate deposits. Help us.’ He gave references. He detailed the issue. He was in the forefront of an authentically citizens’ movement that went against the most powerful individuals and entities in the country. They were not part of the rent-a-protest mob that calls itself ‘civil society’ but by and large does little more than make money off people’s miseries. They were honorable citizens; they didn’t wave flag or make a fuss about nation and nationality but nevertheless were truer patriots than those chest-beating groups who use that tag. They won the day.

That was when I first got a flavor of the passion that had driven this incredible human being. It is as though his entire being, every cell and every thought, was infused with love for this country and its people. It was soft sentiment, through and through, and this is shown in the incredible patience that is so obviously an integral part of his work. That and a tirelessness to explore every corner of this blessed land.

I visited him at his house down Skelton Road several times thereafter. Almost ten years after he sent me that letter ‘Uncle Nihal’ proposed that I help him with a new project. I was working at the Sunday Island at the time. He gave me a bunch of beautiful black and white photographs. He also loaned me a copy of D.S. Senanayake’s ‘Agriculture and Patriotism’. He had picked out paragraphs and marked the photos that should go with each.

So for the next year or so we did just that. Under the title ‘Agriculture and Patriotism’ there would be a photograph with a quote from the book. The observations and recommendations, I found, were valid more than half a century since they were first printed. After a few weeks I added a comment to each quote by way of alluding to present-day policy preferences and their flaws. He didn’t object. He kept sending more pictures until we ran out of quotes and thereafter sent me other photographs to ‘do as I please’ with them. He helped decorate those pages with so much affection, I remember.

I last met him a few months ago when I dropped by Studio Times next door. When I inquired after him, his daughter Anu said ‘You can see him but be prepared to be shocked’. He had deteriorated a lot, she said. Uncle Nihal didn’t speak much. I didn’t want to exhaust him so I didn’t stay too long. But he was lucid in the short observations he offered to whatever I had to say. His smile and his gaze had not aged, I noticed. Something never do, I suppose. Like everything he gave us in his long and eventful life, all the beauty, grace and eloquence in stone, light, personality and other physical and social architectures that he captured.

His intellect was as keen as his eye. He was wise about all the many flaws of our political systems, structures of governance and of course the treachery of sections of the business community. He said way back in 1986, ‘The fight to keep safe the wild, the free and the beautiful, even in this blessed land, has been long and hard fought – I for one have lost every skirmish’.

He had figured it all out: ‘They (whoever) employ a time-tested method. First, they do their homework. They study all the people, the NGOs, scientists and officials. Then they offer subtle bribes such as trips abroad and consultancies. Then they come up with a grand claim: “we have got consensus!” At the end of us it’s a sell out that often includes changing our laws.’

He had once been invited for lunch at a five-star hotel by a World Bank official. Nihal had said ‘I can’t afford it’. The official had responded, ‘No, I will pay.’ Nihal’s answer, I recorded ten years ago as ‘a classic in that it contains the essence of the political economy that governs our lives, the threat and the answer to everything that seeks to destroy our way of life and our heritage: ‘No, you don’t understand, I am paying!’

Nevertheless, to him Sri Lanka was always ‘A land without sorrow’. He would say this again and again ‘That’s what we are and how we should portray ourselves, a land without sorrow’. In a way, even in this moment of sorrow when he’s left us forever, one realizes the truth of the claim.

Manik De Silva, Editor-in-Chief, Sunday Island, my first boss in the newspaper industry and mentor, offered a headline to an interview I had done with this amazing man: ‘Nihal Fernando: the Lanka lover behind the lens’. Captured it all.

Kolombians are a distinct people from Colombo who know much -- so much that they are wont to think that others don't know and can't think. They have things to say. A lot of things to say. The entire country can learn from them. This is the twenty fifth in a series published in 'The Nation' under the title 'Notes of an Unrepentant Kolombian'. Scroll down for other articles in this series.

I am losing faith in Ranil. Really. He is yet to learn that although justice will not be done it must seem to be done. He’s got a lot more to learn actually. I think he slipped badly with this Central Bank bond business. I thought he was playing smart when he organized a home and home affair by appointing friends to ‘investigate’ a friends. But there are friends and there are friends. Not all friends are smart. The guys on this investigating panel were obviously pals but either they were fake Kolombians or worse, non-Kolombians.

The newspapers and websites did their bit. They gave the Kolombian spin alright. ‘Exonerated’ was the word used. The investigators got it wrong. They said ‘not directly involved’. This means ‘could have been indirectly involved’. That’s the crux of the matter. Insider deals are not ‘direct’. It’s all about ‘indirect’.

They really messed it up by painting Perpetual (owned by the Governor’s son-in-law, no less!) and the Bank of Ceylon (which coughed up the dough and which, being a state bank, was directly linked to the Governor) in poor light. It’s so simple. I asked my neighbor’s son (both Kolombians by the way) what they made of the ‘findings’. The young boy, just 11 years old said ‘Uncle, I can draw it for you’. Here’s what he came up with.

Now I know that even long time backers of brutal UNP regimes (with PhDs of course) have dragged Ranil over the coals about this issue. That should serve as a warning. But what they’ve said is exactly what young Kevin next door said. It’s about information leakage. It is about a close relative going to moneyed entity that is in a way beholden to his wife’s papa to loan some bucks which can be invested in a quick-entry, quick-exit-with-lots-of-bucks kind of way.

I blame Ranil for this. Those party loyalists should have been briefed. They should have been told what they should say and what they should hide. They could have limited their comments to some vague comments about tender procedures or composition of this or that committee. Now they’ve done it. They have raised questions about the son-in-law’s ‘behavior’. They have implicated a state bank. If Ranil dug a hole for himself by appointing Mahendran and made it bigger by appointing some people ignorant of Kolombian ways, these people have made it so big that Ranil can’t come out.

Deep down I knew that this Yahapalana business was bad news. Take it from me. That’s inside stuff. Insider news if you will. What a mess, what a bloody mess!

Other articles in the series:

Have a free lunch on Election Day

Kolombia and Kolombians all the way!

Maithripala's victory: the yakkos did it (for us)!

Kolombian loyalists take over and how!

This 'ihapaalana' stuff is driving me nuts!

Spare us the sliced-bread nightmares Ravi!
If rice is too expensive, eat cake yako!

They've kept the baby AND the bathwater

Lord Ranil and Serf Maithripala

Spare us the bad news, ok?

Get off our backs, Ranil!

Ranil the Executive, Maithri the Approver

The wrongdoing birthright

CBK is stabbing us in the back!

The true meaning of Insider

This was written 5 years ago for the Daily News, for which paper I wrote a daily column titled 'The Morning Inspection'. It is about friendships and values and other things that resist 'dating'.

Yesterday (May 1, 2010), I was in Peradeniya. Well, Kiribathkumbura to be precise. I was with about a dozen of my batchmates from Peradeniya. We meet like this now and then, but this time it was a families-included affair. The ‘group’ was made up of a set of people who had opposed the JVP-led Student Action Committee of Peradeniya or were at least critical of their methods. The conversation went around old times, recollecting incident and personality, remembering those who were not present and those who will never again be present, due to natural and unnatural causes, children and their future and politics.

There was talk about using the collective that we are and have been for almost 25 years to do some useful political work. There was talk about objectives, strategies, specific actions and possible outcomes. There was concern expressed about things done in good faith producing unanticipated results. This made me remember Ven. Uduwela Nanda Thero.

Ven. Uduwela Nanda entered the Arts Faculty, University of Peradeniya in October 1985. He was a recipient of a Mahapola Scholarship. Politically, he leaned towards the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP). Almost twenty years later he would tell me that he had resolved to keep away from all kinds of extremism, Marxist included. Preferred political ideology notwithstanding, Ven. Nanda hadn’t changed much when I met him somewhere near Thalawakele in the year 2003.

I spoke about Nanda Haamuduruwo. I repeated a conversation that took place in that temple in Thalawakele in 2003. Nanda Haamuduruwo told me he wanted to disrobe.

‘I am from Galagedara. I have done a lot for the village. One day an unpleasant incident occurred in Galagedara. I’ve helped so many people over the years, but no one came to my assistance. I am very disillusioned.’

Now Nanda Haamuduruwo was very different to other bikkhus at Peradeniya. Those who were ‘political’ were very pro-JVP. They were for the most part poorly read and their ‘understanding’ of Marxism and Leftist politics was derived mostly from Wijeweera’s missives and a set of books that was ‘standard reading’ for those associated with the JVP. Nanda Haamuduruwo stood above them all in terms of ideological sophistry, nuance in reading the political equation and its unfolding and of course as a conversationalist on a wide range of subjects.

Nanda Haamuduruwo purchased books every month, when he received the Rs. 350 monthly Mahapola allowance. He built a library in his temple in Galagedara. That was for the children of the area. He was a student, a teacher, a friend to the young people of the area and an exemplary citizen. I didn’t know what the incident was about and didn’t ask. He felt let down and that’s all that mattered to me at the time.

I remembered my teachers. They all gave me wings and didn’t worry at all where I flew or if I came back to say thank you. I shared this thought with Nanda Haamuduruwo: ‘We can’t expect those who we help to help us back. We give them some tools, some skills and hope they will put them to good use, for themselves and society. They might very well end up doing something we never dreamed they would and this could be good or bad in our eyes. We are not responsible for the bad they may do. We can’t take full credit for the good they may do either. What is important is the doing. We wish them well and hope for the best. Our task with respect to that particular individual is done. We move on.

This was almost 7 years ago. I haven’t seen Nanda Haamuduruwo since then. When I mentioned this encounter, Sri Shantha Wickramanayake, our batchmate and resident of Danthure, said ‘I have something to add’. He updated us about what Nanda Haamuduruwo had been doing in recent time.

Apparently Nanda Haamuduruwo had ‘taken over’ a school that was on the verge of being shut down and turned things around. It was a small school in a village called Dehideniya. He had taken charge and today that school produces very good results at the O/L examination.

There are people like that. These are our ‘natural resources’, the ‘human resources’ honed not just by free education but by teachers who were both guru (teacher) and deguru(parents). Such individuals do not wait for ‘instructions’. They are respectful of circular but do not let these define the limits of engagement. They don’t become non-teacher or non-professional after they ‘sign-out’. They don’t wait for the state, they don’t complain about that which is missing. They don’t lament or whine. They just do what can be done given the resources at hand.

Nanda Haamuduruwo and those like him make me ask myself every day ‘what have you done today?’ I ask myself if I have done enough. I ask myself if I am doing my duty by the people whose sweat generated the money that paid for my education.

The ‘meeting’ in Kiribathkumbura ended with a chit-chat with the children. There were children of all ages, 3 to 18. A lot of things were said. It all boiled down to one thing: ‘Do whatever you like with the education you get, but don’t forget who pays for it and remember that remembering means you have to be responsible.’ Nanda Haamuduruwo didn’t come for this meeting. He was present though. In fact the venerable bikkhu chaired the meeting, I felt.

msenevira@gmail.com

‘I will give you a Kon plant,’ Channa Ekanayaka told me a few weeks ago. This was at a place called Deh iGaha Ela, an elegantly designed vacation hideaway that appears to have grown naturally in that Dry Zone landscape.

Dehi Gaha Ela is run by a group appropriately named ‘Back of Beyond’. The prime movers are well-known naturalists and environmental enthusiasts and activists, determined to create spaces where like-minded people have ‘the privacy of lounging on a deck chair, gazing at the stars listening to the night sounds of the jungle at the end of a long day where the occasional frog gazed solemnly at you over the basin tap, where we spread our maps, books and photo equipment on the dinner table and discuss with the bungalow keeper the best way to approach the next day’.

I like to think of myself as a like-minded person and I certainly enjoyed all of the above a couple of weeks ago, except that I didn’t have maps to pore over or photo equipment, not even a mobile phone camera. I enjoyed also, long conversations with Channa, the temporary manager of the above facility.

I first met him in the offices of the Green Movement of Sri Lanka, about ten years ago, when helping that organization put together a country report on sustainable development for the Johannesburg Conference on the subject. Over the years, I discovered that he was a mathematics teacher (now retired), exceptionally talented painter, a nature lover and an environmental activist. In Dehi Gaha Ela, I discovered other character-elements of this fascinating man.

Walking with Channa around the jungle, I realized that he was a walking encyclopaedia. He knew about trees. He knew the vines. He knew about the conditions in which particular plants, herbs and trees thrive. He knew their uses, especially their medicinal attributes. He knew about birds and butterflies, their habits and preferences. Reptiles.Four-legged creatures. He could read the signs left by our fellow-creatures. He could identify birds through their calls, their nests and their eggs.

Channa also knew history, not the history of event and personality only, but the civilizational narrative of the overall agricultural system including irrigation works and natural resource management, and the overarching philosophies that framed social and economic engagement. He had countless anecdotes to entertain child and adult. He knew janakatha and janakavi; well-versed he was in folk literature. While walking along a jungle trail (all made by elephants, he said) we came across two huge boulders. He didn’t point them out to us and we would not have noticed but for the following story.

‘A long time ago, a giant had been carrying huge rocks to build a temple. He had come far, carrying two such rocks, both tied to a single pole at each end and slung across a shoulder. He had come far. He sat down to rest. He had died right there, no one knows how or why. Years later they had found the two rocks and between them the skeleton that must have belonged to a huge man.’

My daughters listened, wide-eyed. Channa went silent. For effect.

‘These are the two rocks,’ he pointed to the boulders.

I didn’t ask if he made it up then and there. It didn’t matter. He led them to the Dehi Gaha Ela, the stream that gave the place its name. They waded, bathed, splashed around and were deliriously happy.

He, along with the three others who help keep the place neat and tidy and take care of guests, are very much aware that theirs is an intrusion. They move on tiptoe, so to say, in that wonderfully relaxing landscape. Channa educates without even appearing to do so and thereby makes it possible for the visitor to take a piece of Dehi Gaha Ela back home.

Not souvenirs, no. He paints a way of life and a sense of the natural order as eloquently as he would depict something using brush, colour and canvas. People don’t have to take home something ‘tangible’, but what they do take can transform how they interact with the world and each other and produce tangible results.

In this instance, he was offering me ‘tangible’. A Kon plant. Dehi Gaha Ela is a nursery too, I learnt. Channa and his team have numerous plants. I looked at the Kon plant and then at one of the ‘cottages’, ‘Kon Tree House’. Now all the cottages at Dehi Gaha Ela are either built on trees or into them, with the elevations giving wonderful views and also security. The particular ‘Kon’ was gigantic.

‘We have only a small garden,’ I said.

Channa smiled. ‘It is a common mistake. Or misconception. We tend visualize the full-grown tree in our gardens. Now it will no doubt grow to this height, but do you pause to ask yourself how many years that would take? Do we plant trees for our lifetimes? Even if that were the case, this Kon plant will not upset the landscape of your garden.’

How quickly we learn, how quickly we forget, I told myself. All I know is that Channa taught me a lesson in mathematics. He spoke about magnitude, depreciation, addition, enhancement and sharing.

He did not use brush, colour and canvas, but painting is what he did.

He did not say ‘come again’. He didn’t have to. I have lots of memories. And a Kon plant.

msenevira@gmail.com

*First published in the 'Daily News', May 3, 2011

Guns in, body out but sea does not swallow all

Obama and his team watched 'The Drama'. They were and are being watched in return.

'Guns in, body out but sea does not swallow all' is the title of an article I wrote for THE NATION shortly after Washington announced 'the fact' of Osama bin Laden being killed. Now, 4 years later, there's little or no mention of this 'fact'. The politics associated with 'the fact' however has not aged.

Osama Bin Laden is dead. If there was even a shadow of doubt about this, President Barack Obama would not have announced the fact. The risk of being proven wrong is far too great to be frivolous about something like this. The man is dead. What remains are the questions surrounding his death.

First, did he die as Obama claims he did or was it all show, the man having died or having been killed a long time ago? If indeed he had indeed been killed (as Obama claims he was), then questions such as ‘Why was he not captured alive?’ can and have been asked.

Robert Blake, US Assistant Secretary of State (South and Central Asia) says ‘Osama was a legitimate target’. Obama says that relevant photographs and video footage will not be shown. We know that a doctored photograph of a wounded, bloodied and ‘dead’ Osama bin Laden was released and then withdrawn (because it was very clear it was a fake). Obama’s excuse is that whatever is released would be labeled ‘fake’ by conspiracy theorists.

A friend of mine sent me a couple of quotes that speak to our times and in particular to the shameless shy-making from the Obama administration. They are from John Le Carre’s ‘The Constant Gardener’. Here’s the first: ‘If you set your mind on hiding the truth, then the first thing you have got to do is give people a different truth to keep them quiet. Otherwise they'll start to wonder whether the real truth isn't out there hidden somewhere, and that will never do...’

The next is even better: ‘And we should never forget that a good coverup is a lot harder to achieve than a bad murder. You can always maybe get away with a crime but a coverup is going to land you in jail every time. You cover this bit up, then out pops another bit. So you cover that bit up. Then you turn around and that first bit is showing again...’

Well, Obama and his administrators can sort that one out. What is pertinent is that even the official story has serious implications in terms of precedent, the worth of international covenants, and the legal and ethical parameters of engaging terrorists and terrorism. The official story indicates that an unarmed man who could have been arrested was shot dead. He had offered no resistance whatsoever. Add to this the doubts over the man’s identity and we suddenly find a Barack Obama whose moral standing has diminished quite a bit since he became President shrinking even further.

There is an easy answer. Some have claimed that arresting Osama would have created a legal and political mess. Even if the question of where and how to try him was resolved, the prospect of Osama choosing to defend himself and turning his trial into a propaganda circus that might result in the Al Qaeda getting a massive cadre-boost could not have been appetizing for Obama. What this means is that international law has been shown to be inadequate.

Nations fighting terrorism (we have to forget US interest in oil, markets and pandering to the arms industry for a while) cannot arm fighting men and women with rule books which they have to memorize and from which they are required to obtain guidance when forced to make split-second decisions. This reality, on the other hand, does not justify spraying bullets on civilians (as US troops have done and continue to do even as I write). Nor can it be taken as a justifiable excuse for killing someone who can be taken prisoner.

Obama has stated that troop safety was a primary concern. Now what if this really was Bin Laden and he had been surrounded by 300,000 civilians the majority of who may very well have been Al-Qaeda fighters, perhaps all carrying weapons and/or strapped with explosives? Would Obama have risked a lengthy siege, given the military and political implications of such a course of action? Would he have tolerated any power, big or small, arguing for a ‘peaceful surrender’ or worse, an evacuation of the top Al-Qaeda leadership?

The United States of America killed over a million people, the vast majority of whom were civilians, directly and indirectly caused the death of over half a million more children, destroyed a country, precipitated sectarian violence and civil war and displaced over 2 million people just to look for non-existent weapons of war. That was and is Iraq. The USA during the search for Osama Bin Laden, caused the death of tens of thousands of civilians, displaced more than a million, ruining lives and livelihoods and rupturing families, and destabilized two countries. Would an administration that has no remorse about any of this, have paused to consider things such as ‘right to life’ and ‘innocent until proven guilty’ if it was at a point of eliminating its No 1 Enemy? Can a nation that sanitizes torture by calling it ‘enhanced interrogation’ and indeed ‘arms’ combatants with torture techniques be expected to have a ‘credible and effective domestic mechanism capable of investigating rights violations’?

All things considered, Sri Lanka had a much tougher task. The ‘enemy’ was not holed up in another country. The enemy was armed to the teeth and was fighting back right up to the last moment. The enemy had surrounded itself with civilians who may have been loyal to the enemy or could even have included fighting cadres out of uniform and perhaps armed with suicide-vests and so on. The political risks as well as the threat to troops were of a magnitude that makes the operation that took out ‘Osama’ look like child’s play. All the more credit, therefore, to the Sri Lankan security forces for taking out not just Prabhakaran, but his entire military high comman and comprehensively dismantling the military apparatus of the LTTE. That over 300,000 civilians were saved at great cost to troops is nothing less than an unbelievable and unprecedented military operation speaking of precision, dedication and humanity.

Robert Blake has lumped Prabhakaran and Bin Laden together. They both held the dubious title of ‘World’s most ruthless terrorist’, the latter succeeding the former on May 19, 2009. They are both dead. The LTTE has been vanquished militarily. Not so the Al-Qaeda.

In the case of the ‘Osama killing’ the US political leadership cannot offer even a shred of evidence regarding the identity of the man who was killed and finds no support in the gamut of international law to justify the killing. They will not entertain accountability questions. Guns and bucks let them get away scot free.

Osama bin Laden is dead. So too several million innocent people. That’s a lot of blood on the hands of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. And it is not over yet either. Convinces me that we in Sri Lanka, all things considered are blessed and that for all their faults have better leaders.

msenevira@gmail.com

Truth, accountability and reconciliation are being talked about a lot these days. Interestingly, many who use these terms think ‘truth’ is equal to systemic and deliberation massacre of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan security forces. They believe ‘accountability’ is about the Government pleading guilty to such charges. Finally, they equate ‘reconciliation’ to ‘power sharing’ which in turn they believe is about devolving power to provinces whose boundaries were arbitrarily drawn by some white men almost two centuries ago and over which they assume Tamil people have exclusive claims (‘traditional homelands’).

There are some ‘truths’ that are disconcerting to those who subscribe to the above rendition of grievance/aspiration. Less than 50% of the Tamil population actually lives in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. As such, the North and East (which constitute more than a third of the land mass) is to be handed over to less than 6% of the population and they would get almost half the coast to boot, courtesy ‘reconciliation via devolution’. Another interesting and damning demographic detail that’s left out by these pundits is that the Tamil population in the East is concentrated in a ten mile wide stretch along the coast. Given demographic realities, if police powers are devolved, the majority of Tamils in the island would have to live under the generosity of Sinhala or Muslim Chief Ministers.

There are other ‘truths’ that are footnoted or ignored. Here are some. On February 14, 1766, Kirthi Sri Rajasinha, the King of the Kandyan Kingdom ceded a stretch of land in the Eastern part of the island, 10 miles in width from the coast to the Dutch East India Company. Prof. James Crawford refers to this treaty in his book ‘The creation of states in international law’ as one of the earliest such agreements recorded. The implication is that the Kandyan Kingdon had the right to cede that portion of land and that it continued to have sovereignty over the rest of the territory until the British obtained full control of the island in 1815.

In 1766 therefore there was no question of sovereignty of any other polity and when the relinquished sovereignty was recovered and reasserted in 1948 by the State of Ceylon it naturally reverted to the political geography prior to the signing of that treaty.

That treaty, moreover, is the genesis of the demographic realities of today’s Eastern Province, referring to above. The ancestors of the vast majority of Tamils in the Eastern Province were brought there by the Dutch to grow tobacco. Even today the majority of the GramaNiladhari divisions contain a Sinhala majority population.

Tamil chauvinists and those who have swallowed their myths (which come with ‘fact’ tag) uncritically speak of a ‘Tamil Nation’ that co-existed with the ‘Sinhala Nation’. For ‘centuries’, they add. Arguments that contradict this thesis are summarily brushed aside as the imaginations of Sinhala racists. Well, here’s what a celebrated Dravidian monarch and quite a powerful one at that says about this island and to whom it belonged way back in the 10^th Century. This is in the year 993 AD, right in the middle of the golden period of Chola expansion/invasion. Raja Raja Chola invaded the island in that year. He is known as a builder of Hindu Temples. The inscriptions at these places, according to the Archaeological Survey of India, resolve all doubts about traditional homelands and sovereignty. The inscriptions at the temples in Tanjavur and Ukkal speak in glorifying vein that Raja Raja Chola conquered many countries, including one ‘Ila-mandalam’. The inscription elaborates that this ‘was the country of the warlike Singalas’. The plunder of wealth, one notes, is not from ‘Singalas’ who lived in‘Ila-mandalam’ (‘Ila’ being a corruption of ‘Sihala’ or ‘Hela’) but the land of the ‘Singalas’, whether they were warlike or not being irrelevant to the issue.

The archeological evidence shows that what is today called the Northern and Eastern Provinces were at one time the heartland of Buddhist civilization in the island. Although there have been claims that these were the work of Tamil Buddhists, the thesis is not supported outside the rhetoric.

It is a strange fact isn’t it that Tamil chauvinists have no reliable historical tract they can reference to buttress homeland-claim? They have to twist-read the Sinhala chronicles. Or else bank on a lyrical fantasy whose value as even a supplementary source for obtaining historical transcript is negligible if not zero.

These are the thoughts that came to mind when I read N. Satya Moorthy’s column in the Daily Mirror (May 9, 2011). The name means ‘Mirror of Truth’, and I am sure the columnist would pardon and correct me if I am wrong. His assertions were astounding and betrayed a rank ignorance of the history of this country and more seriously the demographic, geographic and economic realities upon which ‘solution’ must be planted. Misread terrain and you get crop failure or worse, a weed that invades and corrupts.

The term he uses is ‘incremental devolution’. This is C.J.V. Chelvanayakam all over again, nothing else. ‘Chelva’ a non-native Tamil who is one of the key architects of Tamil chauvinism and marauding separatism, opined that bit-by-bit was the best way to get Eelam, viz., ‘A little now, more later’. This is why ‘devolution’ is not the ‘moderation’ sweet that Satya Moorthy claims it is. In fact, he is advocating ‘Asymmetrical Devolution’, which gives legitimacy to the fantastic claims made by Tamil chauvinism. Once done, history will not be referenced again, for Tamil Chauvinism can claim thus: ‘The Sinhala Buddhist dominated (hardly!) state of its own accord recognized implicitly the veracity of our traditional homeland claim by resolving to devolve power to the relevant boundaries as a solution to expressed grievance’. Throw in asymmetry, as SatyaMoorthy advocates, and it will buttress this argument even further.

He uses an interesting term: ‘victim community’. Now there is no argument that there are citizenship anomalies and that grievances do exist. The key issue is to identify the true dimension of these grievances, in other words, obtain truth by un-frilling claim of rhetoric and fantasy. The Sinhalese too are a victim community. So too the Buddhists. How about some ‘redress’ for the poor, while we are at it? SatyaMoorthy is engaging in a deft exercise of obfuscation here.

A sense of belonging is needed. It is needed by every citizen. This is what constitutional reform should keep in mind. Truth is of great value here. Accountability too. Those who make wild claims must substantiate. And those, like SatyaMoorthy, who in ignorance and/or arrogance advocate without substantiating argument must be held accountable for they are the architects of future mistrust among communities. That’s how we can get to ‘reconciliation’.

The bottom line is ‘truth’. Hard to digest, I know, but it will emerge again and again to trump the ignorant, the chauvinist and the conscious or unconscious meddler.

msenevira@gmail.com

*This was first published in the 'Daily Mirror' on December 10, 2011. Re-posting here because some lies are repeated so often that they have to be responded to as frequently.

It is indeed ironical that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's political fortunes have declined to the point that this once all-powerful executive president has to request that he be considered as the Prime Minsiterial candidate of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Nothing conclusive has resulted from the meeting except a stated agreement to 'continue the dialog'. Well, that’s not entirely true. It is clear enough that Maithripala is not ready to entertain the idea of his predecessor being the Prime Ministerial candidate of the SLFP.

It is ironical that he has to submit the request to the man he could have but didn't appoint as Prime Minister when he, Rajapaksa, was President, a move which, if made at the right time, might have retained him the presidency. It is also ironical that the premiership is now invested with more power than enjoyed by the Prime Ministers during his, Rajapaksa's, presidential tenure. Finally, it is ironical that Rajapaksa, the former leader of the SLFP has to make this request from the man who bested him at the January presidential election and who went on to unseat him as the leader of the party, President Maithripala Sirisena.

The talks were framed by a felt need by all concerned to unite the SLFP with a view to contest the next election from a position of unity and strength. The 'unity-need' however was overshadowed by moves by the Rajapaksa camp to recover lost ground within the party and in the larger political arena.

To be fair, thanks to confusion in the Maithripala camp, confusion in the overall political arena about who governs and who opposes, rank incompetence, arrogance and mishandling over key issues by the Government, Mahinda Rajapaksa had acquired the status of de-facto Leader of the Opposition, with Dinesh Gunawardena virtually 'speaking for him' in Parliament. This situation obviously suits the UNP and this is why that party is in an almighty hurry to have elections announced.

However, even after the 19th Amendment, there is enough power remaining in the executive presidency to ensure that Maithripala Sirisena can, if he wants to, change things decisively. He calls the shots. Whether Rajapaksa likes it or not, therefore, his is to take what is offered. He cannot demand.

What are Mahinda's options, given the above?

Right now there are four types of people backing him. First there is the family whose interests are so obvious they need not be elaborated. Then there are those who need to cling to Mahinda in the hope that he would drag them to Parliament with him. There are those who are accused of wrongdoing who see in him a savior. However this third category can seek to cut a deal with the UNP if they feel that party would emerge victorious in a general election. Finally there are the Sinhala nationalists who feel that the January 8 result was a body-blow to majority concerns. Interestingly, they probably form the majority of the numbers supporting Mahinda Rajapaksa at this point (perhaps for a lack of an alternative?).

The President, if party interest is important to him (and there are no signs that they are), will have to ask himself what these four groups and the votes they could be expected to secure would do to the SLFP and its fortunes should these talks end in a stalemate. The numbers could put the SLFP in the Opposition for the 4 years (at least) following an election (if held soon). Is compromise not possible, he would have to ask.

But it takes two to clap. The Mahinda camp cannot afford to paint itself into a corner because with an antagonized President and a UNP-led Government, fortunes could dip further unless of course Ranil Wickremesinghe and his team play to form and disappoint the Sinhalese community to the point that governability is compromised.

We are in for interesting times, clearly.

Are there buffaloes other than this, bold and brash unlike this wary and threatened creature? Pic: www.themudhouse.lk

There's a lot of noise over Wilpattu these days. There are allegations that Rishard Bathiudeen is facilitating the clearing of forests to resettle not just the displaced but political supporters. Indeed some allege that refugees from Pakistan are among those who have been given plots of land.

Bathiudeen has called for an investigation, a Presidential Commission no less. This is a good move. He claims that he has done nothing illegal and is confident that any inquiry will clear him of wrongdoing.

Environmentalists and others however argue that while state land is being encroached on, out of the public eye there's a lot of tree-felling going on that Bathiudeen as well as relevant officials are either unaware or pretending to be ignorant of. It is not unnatural for people to be concerned because Bathiudeen has a dubious history in 'settlement' operations.

Given these concerns it is imperative that any investigation should be comprehensive, taking into account all elements of the problem. For example, it is alleged that there were projects sanctioned by the previous regime that violated established procedure with respect to alienating state land. Then there is also the question of whether places of archaeological importance being earmarked (knowingly or unknowingly) for settlement.

Some have pointed out that the objections have been prompted by anti-Muslim sentiment. Since the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) is one of the objecting parties and since the BBS has a history of taking issue with the Muslim community, the 'communalist' charge is certainly not out of place.

On the other hand, it has to be noted that people of all communities have been displaced and that landlessness is not a preserve of a single community. If, as alleged, the entire (re)settlement process has a communalist flavor then the communalist card cannot be used to object to the objectors. Moreover, it cannot be an excuse to demand a 'hands-off' approach.

The state has to be community-blind when it comes to the protection of forests. If the legislation is inadequate it has to be strengthened. If enforcement is tough, measures have to be put in place to make it possible. Forests belong to everyone. They impact, positively or negatively, everyone. They are part of our natural heritage. Politics, communal or otherwise, should not be allowed to facilitate the razing of forests.

Wilpattu is precious. More precious than politicians and officials. Actions is required. And until action is taken all settlement operations, especially the felling of trees, must be put on hold.

The private sector is corrupt. No, it’s not the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, Frontline Socialist Party, one of the many parties that grew out of the Communist Party or one of those people who used to call themselves ‘left intellectuals’ that said it. It was the leader of the undisputed right wing party of Sri Lanka which is also the all-time favorite political party of the private sector who said it.

When Ranil Wickremesinghe says there’s hanky panky in the private sector he has to be taken seriously not least of all because he is the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and by the looks of it the supreme ruler of the country, never mind that the people did not exactly want him to be all this.

The corruption didn’t start yesterday of course. Neither did it begin the day Maithripala Sirisena took oaths as the sixth Executive President of the country. It didn’t start during the tenure of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Private sector corruption began a long time ago; Marxists might argue that capitalism is by definition corrupt, so we would have to go back to the time when markets were formalized.

If the problem is part structural (the other part being of course the easy argument of inherent human frailty) then the solution should address flaws in relevant structures. This side of overthrowing the capitalist system, there’s a lot that can be done. In a word, regulation.

The Central Bank Bond fiasco offers some lessons. As things stand the Governor is still not in the clear, the committee investigating what is possibly ‘indirect’ involvement only ruled out ‘direct’ involvement. Clearly, there’s something wrong in the appointment of the particular individual in addition to the absence of checks and balances that could stop wrongdoing and wrongdoers.

Clearly, one cannot fault the sharp-minded quick-buck-makers for taking advantage of loopholes in the system. The issue is to ensure there are no loopholes. These have to be identified. Moreover a watchdog must keep an eye on weak spots that can be made weaker and eventually broken down. This is why even in a capitalist system it is imperative that there are men and women of integrity in regulatory bodies. That, and robust regulation.

What we have however are weak systems and compromised regulators. There are informal systems of operation which encourage wrongdoing. There are old boy networks that spring into action to bail out the old-boy thieves.

Ranil Wickremesinghe has had the courage to acknowledge that things are not right when it comes to the private sector. For too long, the focus has been on ‘corrupt’ and ‘inefficient’ state sector institutions and flawed institutional arrangements. For all the compliance requirements the Prime Minister’s statement clearly indicates intolerable levels of inadequacy.

It is time for a comprehensive review of the entire regulatory framework pertaining to the private sector. The rules have to be revisited. Holes have to be plugged. Procedures need to be established to ensure that the right regulators are appointed.

So far, the Prime Minister has not covered himself in glory with respect to his choices in personnel. Perhaps he would do better with the systems. As a first step he can decide to go beyond the rhetoric. Let us see.

He didn't come with guns. He didn't need to. We know he has them and knows how to use them.

Kolombians are a distinct people from Colombo who know much -- so much that they are wont to think that others don't know and can't think. They have things to say. A lot of things to say. The entire country can learn from them. This is the twenty seventh in a series published in 'The Nation' under the title 'Notes of an Unrepentant Kolombian'. Scroll down for other articles in this series.

It’s official. We have a new boss. Sorry ‘Lizabeth, we have to move on. Time passes, things change. Sure, we appreciate all that the English did for us and we will be eternally grateful too. But what was big then is small now and we must take note of dimensions.

For more than fifty years we let history override this thing called ‘current reality’. Oh yes, we knew all this time that Britain had long ceased to rule the seas. The sun set a long time ago. But although Britain’s sway globally had diminished quite a bit, we didn’t let on. It wouldn’t have served our purposes. Yes, you taught us what ‘self interest’ is (and we are grateful for that too). You see, the non-Kolombians living in this island didn’t know who called the shots or else weren’t too sure. But our friend John Kerry changed all that. And now that everyone knows, we might as well acknowledge the truth. No hard feelings.

John Kerry is not our boss, but he represents The Boss. ‘The Boss’ is the United States of America. You can also use ‘Washington’ or ‘The US State Department’ or ‘Wall Street’ instead of ‘USA’, it doesn’t matter. We all know what’s what and that’s what counts.

So when Keriya (he’s so cute and lovable that it is only right that we ‘affectionize’ his name) says ‘Sri Lanka’s war with Tamils’ we go along with it. One does not argue with the boss. And mind you, if anyone thought he was ignorant that’s all tosh. He knows what he is talking about. He will lie, distort, feign ignorance, remain silent, look the other way and do whatever it takes to get whatever he wants. That’s his prerogative. As loyalists we go along with it. That’s what is so beautiful about Kolombians and that’s the secret of our long-standing success.

Our Keriya probably knew how to spell the name of the great Buddhist revivalist from American. Americans know and even if they didn’t we will not dispute. We will defend. So when he butcher’s the name of Henry Steele Olcott and calls him Alcot, it’s deliberate. He’s saying, ‘I will call him whatever I feel like calling him – deal with it!’ One must admire the arrogance of the Boss (and his representatives of course).

Now some people are a bit peeved that our Keriya played the role of both President and Elections Commissioner by declaring elections in Sri Lanka. They are upset that Keriya was ignorant of the fact that this tropical island doesn’t have the same seasons that North America experiences. They are upset that he thought Sri Lanka had a summer. Well, since we are now officially beholden to the USA and have accepted the truth that the USA is No 1 (we are glad, by the way, that although Barack Obama is dark, his policies are all ‘white’), it is only right that we salute our Keriya and accept the fact that Sri Lanka now has a Spring, Summer, Fall (not Autumn, for that’s too ‘British’) and Winter. Don’t be surprised if we get some snow in November. And don’t complain if we don’t, because not all the states of the USA get snow!

Yes, we gotta love the dude. We are gonna make sure that Sri Lanka becomes totally ‘American’ by the year 2020. We will get Ranil to formulate a 5 year program where the US version (spelling and slang included) of English becomes the official language of Sri Lanka, vehicles will be driven on the right side of the road, ‘Sri Lanka Matha’ replaced with ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and the flag something like what the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico have (some stripes but only red and white and NO green or orange, some stars but NO lion, sword, perhaps a cross but NO bo-kola) and currency notes carrying the legend ‘In God We Trust’.

It would be a bit much for me to celebrate Obama, given his color (we might get used to it a few generations down the line, but not now – we’ve been worshipping ‘white’ for far too long!), but if say Hillary becomes president you would find me screaming ‘I wanna hold her hand!’

Yep, we gotta love our Keriya and everything he represents. It’s been a huge burden going along with the British lie, but we done with all that. It’s USA, baby. All the way!

Other articles in the series:

Have a free lunch on Election Day

Kolombia and Kolombians all the way!

Maithripala's victory: the yakkos did it (for us)!

Kolombian loyalists take over and how!

This 'ihapaalana' stuff is driving me nuts!

Spare us the sliced-bread nightmares Ravi!
If rice is too expensive, eat cake yako!

They've kept the baby AND the bathwater

Lord Ranil and Serf Maithripala

Spare us the bad news, ok?

Get off our backs, Ranil!

Ranil the Executive, Maithri the Approver

The wrongdoing birthright

CBK is stabbing us in the back!

The true meaning of Insider

Kolombians know how to eat, alright?

Vihanga Perera has been shortlisted (yes once again!) for the Gratiaen Prize. This time for his collection of poems, 'Love and Protest'. The others shortlisted are Sandali Ash (for the novella 'Rao's Guide to Lime Pickling'), Quintus G Fernando (for the novel 'Celibacy Factor') and Santhan Ayathurai (for the novel 'Rails Run Parallel'). This is a comment on Vihanga's poetry published in the Sunday Observer, July 18, 2010.

A few years ago, I was privileged to be invited to read my poetry at the University of Peradeniya. English poetry. So the crowd was small, naturally. I read some of my poetry, a poem by Pablo Neruda and a couple of poems from Ariyawansa Ranaweera’s collection, ‘Elimahan kavi saha guha kavi (Poems of the cave and of its outside)’. I was particularly inspired by the quote from the Dhammapada at the beginning of the book, ‘Asareerang guha sayang…’ (the light is not too far from the mouth of the cave, but it is outside, nevertheless). I remember mentioning that for economy of word, alliterative power, substance, nuance and rhythm, there is no greater poet (or linguist) than Siddhartha Gauthama. Others also read. Most of what I heard was pedestrian, including tortuous attempts at turning ideology into poetry by an award-winning author. There was a high point though. Vihanga Perera.

Vihaga read out what some might call an unashamedly sexist poem. The politics of propriety aside, to me it was a brilliant piece of writing. It was entertaining, dramatic, creative and most important, he kept it to the minimum length that the content demanded. It was not just another one of those prose passages chopped into short 4-7 word snippets so that it looks like a ‘poem’. I remember telling him that I think he should write plays.

Vihanga was then a first year student in the Arts Faculty. He graduated and joined the English Department of Sri JayawardenapuraUniversity. I am not sure if he wrote any plays, but he did write several novels. His novels were shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize on two occasions. I know that someone has praised his writing (novels) to the hilt. Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I suppose. While a Gratiaen shortlisting is good and encouraging, it could also mean (like in the case of all ‘shortlistings’) a product of weak choices and/or poor judging. I don’t think Vihanga or anyone else (self included) should make too much of such ‘recognition’ outside of considering it ‘encouragement’. My point is that Vihanga, while he certainly can write and is capable of weaving a story, is not exactly (as yet) a budding Simon Navagattegama or Garcia Marquez or anyone else that he thinks is ‘great’. I hope he doesn’t think so either for that would be the ultimate trip that truncates his literary orbit.

His novels, ‘Unplugged Quarter’ (2009) and Stable Horses (2008), both cited as ‘longer fiction/novel’ in his blog, http://vkper.wordpress.com, and his ‘experimental short fiction’ piece, ‘The(ir) (au)topsy’ (2006), like all of his work poetry included (see ‘Pesticides’, a collection of 14 poems), are, according to Vihanga, are amazing literary works. He says, for example, that ‘The(ir) (au)topsy’ is ‘one of the most under-rated and under-weighted publications of [his] lifetime’ and of his poetry, opines that they are ‘unarguably the best written by a Sri Lankan in English post Lakdasa Wikkramasinha.’

That’s Vihanga. Arrogant. Tongue-in-cheek. Reminds me of the man who said that if a list was made of all the humble people in the world he would be No 2, and added ‘if I don’t talk about myself, who would?’

Vihanga is a young man in a hurry and that’s a good thing for someone his age. He is a prolific writer, doesn’t give a damn about whose toes he steps on, says his piece regardless and again, typical for those his age, knows everything there is to know in this world. That all-knowing is what makes (to me at least) his fiction a tad tedious. Someone who has all the answers tends to act prophet but Vihanga has a few more feet to go to get out of the guhaava, I think. For now, there’s sloganeering and a tendency to ‘write in’ political preferences. It harms narrative, sounds raw and steals from flow.

Having said this, I still think that Vihanga Perera is clearly the freshest voice among those who write poetry in English in Sri Lankatoday. He has the word at his fingertip, one feels, spins it out effortlessly, has a kind of heart-rhythm that is clearly lacking in a lot of things that get the ‘poetry’ label. Don’t trust me. Go to Barefoot and check the Sri Lankan poetry. Much of it is rubbish. Vivimarie Vanderpoorten’s ‘Nothing prepares you’ is an exception. Vihanga’s irreverence gives his poetry a cutting-edge feel. He is cynical, rude (more so for effect, one feels) and unforgiving, but there is no denying that he has a gaze that can quickly cut through ‘appearance’ and delve into that ugly underside of things and processes which we all know (even if it’s just an instinctive thing) but like to pretend doesn’t exist at all.

His take on the taming of Angulimala is utterly irreverent but telling:

‘While 999 men were killed, their penises cut

Where was this guide, the Buddha:

The worldly compassionate one?

Where – more the question – was the police:

Polishing the interiors of their gun?’

Never mind that the Buddha was not policeman, official or self-appointed. Vihanga points out that Angulimala changes gear and trade and becomes a prominent player of the Buddhist tradition and claims that his name survives more as the man who shaped husbandless wives. To me, he’s got it all wrong, and that comes from his ‘all-knowingness’. Still, one cannot help admiring the word-footwork and dramatic rush in the following (preceding) lines:

‘This was a major serial killer incident,

F****** terrorism spreading

Wherever there were men and men had balls.

Brought down to his knees, on Buddha’s bidding.

His Rest begins. His Desire falls.’

Vihanga is a political statement maker. As poet he has license to add and subtract, contextualize and de-contextualize. ‘The Trek for Rights Sri Lanka’ is VK’s overview of things. He writes of Prageeth Ekneligoda (‘journalist’, according to some; porno-peddler to me, but nevertheless a citizen who has gone missing):

‘We’ve stopped worrying about this Prageeth.

A numbskull, all the same:

Just 46 chromosomes and a bitta knowledge.

Just a family and two shitty kids.

Wife is just another woman.

Some non-mainstream fucking stringer

Some non-patriotic deal.

Time will heal.

People are crazy, making him into a fetish

That human rights are f***ed up.‘

He takes pot shots. He sys that his m-f-ing friends, at the height of their patriotism had posted my links on his (Vihanga’s) ‘Facebook’ and that some continue to do so:

‘Some still

Post Malinda, mercenary pen in hand

Aiming his tarot at David Miliband.

Conscience is not his employer.’

Vihanga gets his political knickers twisted a lot, but shhhh don’t tell him that, he ‘knows all’, after all. That’s not the point here. He would say the same of me. The point is that even Pablo Neruda was victim of such wardrobe malfunctioning, especially in defending Stalinism. Even when this happened, as Garcia Marquez points out in a series of interviews under the title ‘Fragrance of Guava’, Neruda was like a King Midas of Literature, that ‘everything he touched turned into poetry’. Vihanga is not Neruda, no. I don’t have any unholy fascination with patriotism or any ism for that matter, but even when Vihanga is ill-informed and analytically slothful, he does write well.

‘I saw Wimal Weerawansa’s hoardings

And I snapped the talisman off my throat

It is not he, it is me

The f***ing talisman of the nation.

He’s a talisman, alright,

But how lousy he mess up the spelling?’

The reference is to Wimal’s election campaign and its signature line, ‘Maubime Panchayudaya’. Biting, yes, but there is an element of elegance here, a clean cut-through that does not leave any frayed edges to be sandpapered away later.

And it is not all about politics and things related to power. In ‘In a roomful of Strangers’, he turns into painter:

‘But will your furtive fidgeting of this

Moment’s rhyme

Keep the bloodlines flowing; resist

The test of time?’

He speaks of and to his generation and of others as well. ‘Bachelor of Arts’ gives perspective:

‘Problem is

Some kids took those lectures seriously.

Tried to unravel and analyze.

Deconstruct and be political. To be

Sensitive to gender; use the ‘his’ or the ‘hers’

Po-co, po-mo, po-Poocault, anit-co, re-co:

Ithin (avasana vashayen), tho ko?’

‘These knowledges,’Vihanga pronounces, apparently with anger, but to me in brutal honestly, ‘is where the common die; kings hold their shit rag banners high’.

I am coming to these conclusions based on a set of poems I asked Vihanga to email me and which he did. All written in the first few months of this year. Not all of it is great of course, but there is here something that you will not find in any of the poetry-blogs of Sri Lankans writing in English. In time, Vihanga will know less, I am sure. Less and less as time goes on. His cynicism will become even more lyrical. And he will not depend as much on meter and rhyme for rhythm and melody. I might be dead by that time. That’s irrelevant, though.

msenevira@gmail.com

Intra-party poster wars are but one set of many problematic issues of the PR system
which the 20th Amendment seeks to rectify

The passage of the 19^th Amendment was not easy. It was not expected to be easy either; politicians after all think about the next election and not the next generation. They are all made of promises; delivery is not their strong point.

There was a process. First the party leaders agreed. Then the document which was agreed upon was altered to suit the UNP. There was objection. The Supreme Court was petitioned. The Supreme Court determined that certain parts of the amendment would require approval through a referendum. There were further adjustments. Further objections. Finally, a document was passed. The President’s powers were clipped in that whoever holds that office would not have the luxury of immunity. Other checks and balances were scripted in.

The document got a BIG ‘F’ in the matter of the Constitutional Council. The issue of composition was fought over. The legislators did not cover themselves in glory. Even a cursory perusal of the constitutions of other countries with such bodies would show this. A glorified Parliamentary Select Committee does not excite anyone and stops way short of the ‘independence’ and ‘stature’ one expects from such a body. It is an improvement on the provisions in the 18^th Amendment, but still weak. Flawed though it is, the 19^th was passed. Now it’s time for the 20^thAmendment, i.e. the one pertaining to electoral reform pledged in Maithripala Sirisena’s manifesto and the ‘100 Days Programme’ that was tagged to it.

When the issue of electoral reform was raised in the early weeks of the Maithripala Sirisena presidency, some said that it was impossible to get it done within the ‘100 Days’. Delimitation that would be necessary would take at least a month and a half. ‘The 19^th first,’ some argued. But now that the 19^this done and the ‘100 Days’ are over, focus is on seeing the 20^thAmendment through.

There are advantages. Since the ‘100 Days’ are done, apart from the inevitable snickering from the Opposition, there’s very little ‘time pressure’. The electorate, by and large, know what is possible and what is not, clearly. The people, it seems, are not impatient. After all they’ve waited for 37 years already so what’s a few months more, right?

The issue right now is not about the 20^th but about whether to have the next election on the basis of the ‘new rules’ or to use the ‘manaapa kramaya’ (PR System) one more time.

First of all, if the current system is flawed, and if flaw is recognized and addressed, what logic dictates the use of the flawed system to elect representatives when such representation would necessarily draw from those very same flaws?

Is the might hurry to dissolve parliament a deliberate plan to scuttle the 20^th or to ensure that new rules will not come into force in the next election (since delimitation, for example, cannot be concluded in time)? The advantage is obvious. Our worthies in parliament have a better chance of getting re-elected if they contest under the PR System. It is obviously against their self-interest to change the system. If they have no option but to vote for the Amendment due to ‘pressure from above’ (as they probably did for the 19^th) then the consolation prize they would like to take home is ‘postponement’, i.e. have the amendment come into for the election after the next one.

President Sirisena promised to do a lot in 100 days. Few are blaming him for the delay. The ‘better late than never’ principle still has some currency with respect to the reforms he pledged to institute. He promised to bring about electoral reform and promised to hold the next General Election according to the new rules.

He better deliver on this.

Sometime late last year Maithripala Sirisena effectively left the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP). As predicted, he was installed as the leader of the party he ‘left’ the moment he was elected President. He became the leader of a party whose entire membership almost campaigned against him. It certainly didn’t make for ideal leader-follower relations.

The confusion was exacerbated by the fact that not only did he appoint the leader of a party with a (relatively) paltry parliamentary presence as Prime Minister but a cabinet dominated by that party, the United National Party (UNP). Worse, he has since played a patently second-fiddle role to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in affairs of the state.

This naturally made for a jittery minority Government notwithstanding its much celebrated ‘national’ status with the induction of some SLFPers into the cabinet. It also created an ineffective Opposition Leader. Nimal Siripala Silva’s party leader is (still, even after the 19^thAmendment) the most powerful citizen of the country and yet, it’s ‘the other guys’ who call the shots; this even though the Opposition Leader has greater sway in Parliament.

Where could the ‘opposition’ go under these circumstances except to the camp of the defeated? It is safe to say that Mahinda Rajapaksa in defeat and under severe attack on all fronts still has far greater political clout than the Opposition Leader. With talks between the President and his predecessor not yielding (yet) the desired party unity, it is clear that the SLFP is on a bad wicket right now.

Mahinda Rajapaksa has very few options. It is natural to demand the maximum and settle for less. That’s how one should understand him asking to be named as the SLFP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. On the other hand, if Sirisena is not interested (and he doesn’t seem to be either) what is the ‘less’ that he could settle for in a general election?

If he contests on the SLFP ticket he would be just one more MP. There’s no guarantee that the SLFP would win. But whether the SLFP wins or not it remains to be seen what kind of support Mahinda can obtain from the SLFPers returned by the electorate and how this support compares to Maithripals’s weight as party leader and Executive President. If he contests separately and secures a seat then it is unlikely that he could claim the premiership unless the SLFP and (let’s call it) ‘The Mahinda Faction’ can together form a government. Against the ‘Maithripala Factor’ will come into play. There are too many ‘ifs’ in these scenarios. These include the ‘if’ of him wanting to be just another MP after being the all powerful Executive President.

Perhaps the problem with Mahinda and his backers right now is that they are trapped in a parliamentary mindset. If they dwell on the fact that Prabhakaran’s political signature had greater relevance than that of the first four Executive Presidents in the country (in effect of course) they might consider other options. Mahinda could remain aloof. He could offer some supportive statements to the SLFP or be silent. He can wait for the demand to come to him. With Maithripala playing Elephant now, playing Lion later and at times operating as though he is just that guy bringing in drinks for weary players, and with Ranil and the UNP doing what they’ve always done (minoritarian politics alienating the majority, helping the filthy rich and playing slave to US interests), demand is most likely to grow even if attempts are made to trip him with investigation, litigation and incarceration.

For now, though, it all depends on Maithripala Sirisena. If he is as blue as the leader of the SLFP ought to be, then he has to find a way of dealing with the ‘Mahinda Factor’. Either Mahinda has to be taken out of the political equation (a tough ask given the (deliberate?) sloth regarding prosecution on the part of the UNP) or else Maithripala has to find a way of accommodating him with a larger coalition led by the SLFP. We are in the early days of groups and personalities fighting for positional advantage and therefore prediction is not useful.

What can be predicted is that if Maithripala Sirisena cannot unite the SLFP or if he is not interested in doing so, he is essentially paving the way for a UNP victory at the next election. That would make him an indisputable ‘Green’, an UNPer that is. De-facto, if you want to be precise about it. As things stand, with minimal effort on his part to resolve what could be called the ‘SLFP’s Mahinda Dilemma’ he is looking more green than blue.

It is simple. If Sirisena is not doing his utmost to ensure an SLFP victory at the next general election then he is not fit to be the leader of the party. One would have to conclude that he is playing into the hands of the UNP, ‘working for the enemy’ as far as the SLFP is concerned. If that is the case, the honorable thing would be to state the fact, resign from the party and join the UNP or else say ‘I am neutral, no longer interested in party politics and will retire when my term ends’. There’s no sign of his doing any of the above which leads us to question the man’s integrity.

'I had nothing to do with this,' Gota says. Went viral, nevertheless.

There was a photo of former Secretary, Defence Ministry, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa with a caption that heavily borrows from the late Singaporean leader Lee Kwan Yew.

‘I have no regrets. I have spent my life, so much of it, building up the capital of this country. There’s nothing more that I need to do. At the end of the day, what have I got? A beautiful Colombo. A safe Sri Lanka. What have I given up? My life.’

The picture with the quote is reported to have gone viral over social media. Some who shared obviously adores the man, and some who did and did so with comment hates him. Both types of ‘sharers’ have reason to be embarrassed. Gotabhaya has said that it’s not his doing.

This is the issue with social media. You can morph, splice, photoshop, mis-quote, tag, put words in the mouths of those you adore and those you hate and do all kinds of things without any sense of responsibility. Gota’s denial takes the air out of the airbags but no doubt they will come back with something else soon. Gota, to his credit, has remained unfazed and even made a wry comment that in the very least shows that he has his wits about him even in these trying times of arrest-talk and preempt-arrest efforts. He said, ‘If people can quote Lord Buddha, why can’t people quote Lee Kwan Yew?’

In other words quoting is ok, but misquoting though it’s not ok is not something you can do much about. Gota has used the opportunity to rubbish talk of him joining the Bodu Bala Sena: ‘See, that is also a lie that someone has told. We hear about thieves everywhere and likewise we hear lies from everywhere (Horu horu horu wage boru boru boru).

Whether everything that is said about Gota is a lie and whether charges of corruption or any kind of wrongdoing are unfounded, we do not know. We cannot judge before judgment is passed, however; we can’t do that and at the same time brag that we are in ‘yahapaalana mode’. If things are to be different then you can’t hang a man before he is subjected to a fair trial. That’s basic.

To get back to the Lee Kwan Yew quote, Gota can make a similar claim if he wants to. He did a lot to make Sri Lanka safe. He also made Colombo beautiful. Sure, a manifest reality of constitutional feudalism helped, but the fact remains that he got stuff done that others couldn’t even dream of doing.

That does not let him off the hook. Ninety nine kind acts do not earn anyone the right to do be unkind just once. The law doesn’t work that way. The spirit of justice does not sit well with such thinking. However, antics in social media and action that smacks of witch hunting and political revenge, does not help the judges. These as well as selectivity in the business of punishing wrongdoers can very well compromise the process of delivering justice.

In the end, happily or unhappily, we are reduced to asking for good sense, responsibility and non-interference (directly or indirectly) in these processes. If this is ‘transition period’, there will be teething problems, but there’s only so much toothache that’s ‘natural’. Go overboard and it’s not just an image with a mis-quote that can go viral. Confusion and anarchy can very well come up through the cracks. Asking for democracy and justice is easy. Ensuring these things requires everyone to be responsible. Things don’t look too good right now though. We have a mischief-maker sending things viral. There are other mischief-makers making mischief or readying to do so. Posts such as ‘this is a hoax’ supported by solid evidence on the other hand get footnoted.

Gota has come out on top. We don’t know if these moves in social media helped or detracted. They are unnecessary unless they come with a disclaimer such as ‘this is purely for fun, folks…just laugh’. That much we can conclude.

Are we hanging ourselves and are we ok with it if we are?

Some die young and some live long. Some die from natural causes, some from unfortunate accidents. Some are murdered. Let us consider a hypothetical case of a young girl, who was battered and strangled to death at the age of 19. Let’s assume this gruesome murder was committed about 10 years ago.

Let us now assume a different sequence of events. Let us assume that nine years and 10 months someone decided to incarcerate a young boy. At first he is not told what his fate would be. His movements are strictly restricted, that’s all. A year later he is told that he would remain so restricted for the next 12 years and made to do hard labor to boot. Six years after this decision was conveyed to him, let’s assume he is told that at some point that he would be killed.

Moreover, he is informed of the manner of killing. Further restrictions are placed on him.

How many deaths in the first instance, how many in the second, would anyone care to answer? What is the weight of premeditation in the first case and what of the second? If the second was punishment for the perpetration of the first, are we all ok and can we move on because ‘justice has been served’?

Now let’s move from fiction to fact. Almost 10 years ago, i.e. in the early hours of July 2, 2005, a young girl was indeed murdered. Nothing hypothetical about it. Yvonne Jonsson was battered and strangled to death. A young man by the name of Shermantha Jahamaha was arrested, tried and convicted. The account above, of incarceration, is the story of Shermantha Jayamaha. Nothing hypothetical about it.

Yvonne Jonsson died young. It was a tragic death. A murder. She did nothing to deserve such a fate. Something inside her parents, sister, other relatives, friends and loved ones died that day, we can assume. Those deaths will remain with them.

Shermantha Jayamaha has not been hanged yet. And yet, he has been killed many times already. He was murdered long before the first conviction and long before the second conviction. He is murdered ‘in absentia’ so to speak on account of denying his the basic single right to appeal his conviction. His first ‘hangmen’ were those in the media. We killed that young boy, as a tribe we should acknowledge.

Consider the following from a reputed English Sunday paper:

‘Sheila Anthony, a domestic aide was the first to see the body of Yvonne. She told the inquest that she found the body in a pool of blood on the 19th floor.

‘“I took the stairs and when I reached the 19th floor I saw a female body that seemed bent into two lying in a pool of blood. It looked like the body of a girl. I got such a shock that I fell and rolled down the staircase all the way down to the 16th floor.”’

The lady would have had to roll down one flight of steps, ‘turn’ at the landing and turn thus several times to end up on the 16th floor. This, let us remember, is one of the ‘milder’ of the many ‘judgments’ pronounced by the media in the weeks following the murder. Feel free to extrapolate. The determination(s) came long before the courts deliberated. The media wanted him hanged (officially) so they hanged him. In our eyes, there were no shadows of doubt. An eye had been extracted and we extracted an eye in return. We then picked the rest of his corporeality (so to speak) as vultures do.

When the Court of Appeal announced its sentence, Jayamaha was put on Death Row. By this time he had written notes that went into three 200-page exercise books. The law confiscated these. Small price compared to the ultimate price that the law deems he should pay for crimes the law determined he is guilty of, sure.

Are we so good and pure that we can judge and deliver justice in the manner we have, one wonders. If we couldn’t sleep well after that blameless young girl was cruelly snatched from our midst 10 years ago almost to the day, would we sleep better if Shermantha Jayamaha dies his final death at our hands, we have to ask ourselves.

We need to ask these things because there is premeditation and there is premeditation. If the law and justice is about punishment that fits crime, eye-for-an-eye and such, then the premeditation that is associated with the intended legal murder of Jayamaha outweighs whatever premeditation the courts decided was associated with the murder of Yvonne Jonsson. That much is obvious.

The argument is old. It is 58 years old in fact. Anyone who has read Albert Camus’ excellent essay ‘Reflections on the Guillotine’ would find it hard to approve or defend capital punishment. The arguments of the death penalty being a deterrent, being moral and righteous, and especially (as related to the above case) being an equal extract for extract perpetrated are systematically and convincingly dismantled by Camus in that essay, first published in the ‘Evergreen Review’ in 1957.

Let’s dwell a while on premeditation. No murderer puts his/her victim through the kinds of torture that a condemned person is put through, legally, by the state, Camus argues. He asks, moreover, ‘which murderer tells his/her victim the date and time of death, offers elaboration on the method of execution, and subjects the victim to the torture of being held captive with little chance of the decision being overturned in a confined space? No premeditated murder can match the premeditation that the state imposes on a person, slammed, with the penalty of death.’

In this case, however, in addition to the general academic and moral interest in arguments for and against, there is a lot of material that makes for comment on issues of law and justice and moreover the issue of a convict’s right to appeal.

As things stand Sharmantha Jayamaha is to be hanged for the murder of Yvonne Jonsson on July 1, 2005, barring a presidential pardon. But that was a later conviction. He was first found guilt under Section 297 of the Penal Code and convicted for Culpable Homicide not amounting to Murder. He was sentenced to 12 years rigorous imprisonment together with a fine of Rs 300,000 and a default sentence of 3 years, to run consecutively.

The Attorney General appealed the determination of the High Court. The Court of Appeal set aside the High Court conviction and convicted Jahamaha for Murder under Section 296 of the Penal Code. Jayamaha was sentenced to death. This was the first time in the history of the Court that an appellant was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in the Court of Appeal.

Moves to overturn this decision were rejected by the Supreme Court. The refusal was based on the ground that ‘there was no point of law of exceptional importance to be considered’. But then again is the issue only about a point of law? Does it not include the matter of discovering fact and of interpreting such findings as there could be? In effect the statutory right of the convicted to appeal conviction by raising issues of both law and fact, as would have been the case if the conviction was in the High Court where the petition could be submitted to the Court of Appeal, was denied. The unimpeachable right of a single appeal enshrined in Sections 331, 335 and 336 of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 14 of the Judicature Act appear to have been denied Jayamaha.

The Indian Constitution, for example provides what the Sri Lankan one does not vide ‘An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment, final order or sentence in a criminal proceeding of the High Court [Article 134(1)]’ and this covers situations where ‘an appeal reverses an order of acquittal of an accused person and sentenced him to death’.

Jayamaha, as things stand, will be the first person sentenced to death who did not have the right to even a single appeal of conviction and sentence. He is condemned to be hanged without any court reviewing the said conviction and sentence.

Counsel for the convict have made several points pertaining to evidence relevant to this case especially since the conviction was based largely on circumstantial evidence. Some are pertinent in the establishment or otherwise of evidence. Some are procedural issues.

No injuries or any other incriminating factors were found on the Petitioner on examination of the Judicial Medical Officer. The CID Chief investigating officer’s suspicions regarding the Petitioner had greatly diminished, and so informed his superior. The CID obtained fingerprints of the Petitioner without obtaining an order of the Magistrate and thereafter proceeded to the scene of the crime. The fingerprints were not signed by the person who had obtained them. The label of the fingerprint had slightly rolled up and was replaced by WM Abeyratne. The first statement made by the main witness Caroline Johnson to the police was not available at the trial. Foreign substance- hair found on the dead body of the deceased and was not identified. Fingerprints observed on the dead body were not revealed in evidence. The last person to see the deceased alive, Kwan, was not available to give evidence. Time of death not established, since the time of the last meal was not established. Leggings that the deceased was wearing used as ligature for the strangulation apparently, were not examined for DNA. Other two fingerprints found at the scene of the crime not identified or produced.

The Court of Appeal in all its wisdom determined however that the above facts notwithstanding Jayamaha, in the interest of justice, needs to be hanged. In that premeditated way described above, let us add. If he is indeed hanged and if greater wisdom descends that suggests for example that capital punishment is morally indefensible or simply that hanging is way out of proportion to the crime that Jayamaha had committed or worse if it was found that he was guilty only of assault, that there was no intention to kill and that it was someone else who had murdered the unfortunate victim, what then? An aggregation of all sentiments of justice and fair play, the moral need to redress wrong and the constitutional safeguards ensuring this, will still be insufficient to reverse that eventuality. He would be dead, simply.

Gandhi said, famously, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. He was wrong. The world was and is blind, and that’s why it keeps gouging out eyes and gouging out other eyes to compensation for inflicted/suffered myopia. This needs to be reiterated until such time that better judgment empowers law makers and law enforcers. It might be too late for Jayamaha and others.

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This way to the guillotine ladies and gentlemen, do not be afraid.

Wilpattu is not the only place where there is illegal felling of trees, encroachment etc. Pic courtesy www.srilankanstyle.com

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) has called for Environmental Crimes Investigation Division. The proposal comes in the wake of allegations of wide scale deforestation in and around the Wilpattu National Park.

The JVP, while referring to the above has named Minister Rishard Bathiudeen, the Secretary of the Environment Ministry, Chairman of the Forest Conservation Department, the Mannar Divisional Seretary, Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman and Secretary as responsible. The purpose of such a Division, according to the JVP, is to investigate this as well as other ‘environmental crimes’ that took place during the previous regime. The call, moreover, follows the setting up of a similar unit to investigate ‘Financial Crimes’.

The sentiment is of course laudable. This country has seen all manner of destruction which could technically come under ‘environmental crimes’. Any move to investigate wrongdoing has to be supported. The suggestion is obviously a product of the perception that the law is not being enforced, for whatever reason.

In certain instances the law may be inadequate; the answer to such a problem is to update the legal framework or plug the holes if any. Enforcement is a different issue. What the JVP is implying is that even the existing rules are not being upheld. Now that’s a serious matter. It means, simply put, that the Police is not doing its job for whatever reason. If that’s the case, the setting up of special units such as the one proposed will not deliver the goods. It will only add to the tax payer’s burden.

The solution then is to first find out why the Police are so impotent. Is it that key officers are corrupt and in the pay of wrongdoers? Is it that political heavyweights stop them from doing their job? If so, what can be done?

These are the questions that the Government has to consider. President Maithripala Sirisena has said that he will use his executive powers to stop deforestation. That’s essentially a cop-out response. What the executive powers should be applied to, if at all, is to get the systems right. The rest can be expected to follow. If not we will have a ridiculous situation where deforestation happens until it is found it and until there’s enough public outrage to wake up the president so he could use powers vested in his office. This kind of ‘method’ doesn’t forbid tree felling or encroachment. It only arrests the process after much damage is already done.

In principle, moreover, setting up such ‘divisions’ for criminal subjects can set a bad precedent. You will have such divisions for every order of crime imaginable. The entire police force would eventually be segregated into these units. Does not make sense!

Then there is the question of limiting investigation to the acts of omission and commission pertaining to the previous regime alone. Does the JVP believe that the present regime is blameless or is so pure that it will do no wrong?

Finally, there seems to be something that the well-intentioned advocates seem to have missed. Environmental destruction is not just a product of capitalism and the dominant mode of development, it is a necessity. Think of capitalism and this paradigm of development that privileges profit and growth and you just cannot see concern for the environment and notions of sustainability outside of appropriation of such terms and lip service paid to them.

If the JVP thinks that some cops chasing robbers will set things right then they are being more simplistic than their simplistic readings of Marx and Marxists imply.

The answer does not lie in special teams. It lies in enlightened assessment and proper management systems, both framed by a different kind of politics that seeks to change paradigms that encourage rather than forbid deforestation and other ‘crimes’, environmental and otherwise.

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