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People and Events
Madman who contributed to the Oxford English Dictionary

by Nan
I have been walking around with my nose in the air. People might say it was a dubious honour that has turned my head, but I take it as a feather in my columnist’s cap. Last week my article was totally (and let me whisper, ruthlessly) censored. It had a big fat red line (or so I imagine) drawn right across it and so my article did not see the light of day, innocent as a babe though it was.

Nan Censored

I titled my article Two Minutes Silence and wrote about how long ago two minutes silences was observed in memory of those who had laid down their lives in WW I and WW II. I also wrote how I spent my two minutes silence this time, mostly in pity for the poor soldiers (CENSORED) and then I quoted Wilfied Owen’s poem: Anthem for Doomed Youth of course I asked whether this June 7th two minutes was declared in strict sincerity and concern for the soldiers. And the censor did not approve and crossed it all off. I could have understood it if he objected to my style of writing. But content matter? Totally non-treasonous and giving away no military secrets. The censor is an honorable and wise man. Nan had to be censored. But to censure Wilfred Owen and his acclaimed war poem! Maybe the word war is objectionable. Even though the wielder of the red pen cannot be expected to be a literati, at least he should be literate.

Poor Wilfred Owen must have spun in his grave - is it at Westminster - sure is - at being censored. He cried for the young soldiers, one himself and being killed in battle just prior to Armistice Day. He believed the soldiers in WW I were neither heroes nor very bravely self sacrificial. What we need to feel about them is pity, Owen says.

What passing bells for these who die like cattle

Only the monstrous anger of the guns

Only the stuttering rifle’s rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

And so Nan walks tall, having been noticed by the mighty Competent Authority. A few phone calls came in to inquire about the silence after continuously keeping to publishing deadlines writing of this in that one or two even tentatively asked Nan’s domestic whether she, Nan, had been blown up by a bomb, and the obituary missed since the Daily Noise is not read by the many.

Is bomb a censorable word? Better make it a non existent, obsolete word, purged from our vocabulary. These are the things that need to be paid attention to and done.

I therefore must write something bland or something untrue and insincere. Since I cannot do the latter, even if I try hard and wear a pair of rose tinted glasses and copy page 1 of the DN, I shall write about a long dead person, totally no threat to this paradise of ours, gone rotten.

Story Time

A cousin-in-law, having read my article in a previous Sunday Island on the oxford English Dictionary going dot com sent me a book titled: The Professor and the Madman about Dr. James Murray, the chief lexicographer of the first mighty OED and one of the very important volunteers, Dr. William Chester Minor. Simon Winchester’s chronicle did make for absorbing reading and hence this story telling to pass on snippets from it to you.

The Beginnings of the OED

The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. (This makes for another story.) Dr. James Murray was chief compiler and editor and had the Secretary of the Philological Society, Frederick Furnivall helping, pushing, encouraging and supporting him.

My story is about W C Minor, who, coming across an advertisement quite by accident in a borrowed book or journal, applied and was accepted as a volunteer reader. He was selected to read very widely and supply the quotations that would accompany words in the dictionary denoting their usage down the ages.

Minor gave his address as Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berlcshire, not mentioning the fact that he was an inmate of a lunatic asylum, having surrendered to the police after shooting a man in Lambeth. Minor was paranoid, fearing he was being spied upon and in danger of his life. So from the asylum where he had two rooms, being a privileged American inmate, with books lining one room and the other as an art studio, he contributed much to the success of the OED.

Mad Minor

William C Minor was born in Ceylon, yes here’ to a devout mission family of very good American lineage, the mother being a Bostonian and the father descended from the settlers in America from Gloucestershire, who followed the Pilgrims to sail the Atlantic and settle down on Long Island. The parents were of the Congregationalist Church and they came over to settle down in Manipay, in March 1834. William was born in June that year.

Along with William Minor’s mental condition was a gross sexual appetite, which he said was due to being aroused at age 13 by the "young, chocolate-skinned, ever giggling naked girls with sleek wet bodies ... who played in the white Indian ocean surf. He blamed the girls of our Island for his insatiable lust, his incurable madness and his final perdition.

Returning to America after his stay in Ceylon and other SE Asian countries, he studied medicine at Yale University and passed cut a doctor at 29. He joined the army as a surgeon and was at the Battle of Gettysberg four days after enlisting. The horrors of war triggered his latent mental imbalance and the story goes that having to brand a runaway Irish soldier sent him over the razor’s edge of sanity to insanity. He took to spending nights out with prostitutes. He was certified as mentally sick and voluntarily entered a lunatic asylum in Washington. He was retired from the army and received a handsome pension for the rest of his life. In 1871 he was released from the asylum and left for England and Europe, carrying a gun with him, which landed him in a British asylum.

In 1872 Minor moved from a hotel in the West End to slummy Lambeth to be closer to red light areas. There he awoke one early morning imagining a man in his room intent on murdering him. He ran out into the street and, seeing a man walking, gave chase and shot him. Poor George Merrett was walking to his early shift at the local brewery. Minor gave himself up to the police. Proved to be of unsound mind, he was confined to the Broadmoor asylum where he enjoyed life in spite of grave privations.

He wrote to Mrs. Merrett apologising for having killed her husband. One of the twists in the tale was that it was she who bought his books for him on her regular visits. He tried to sublimate his sexual desires by reading copiously and supplying the quotations for the OED in the making.

Becoming more religious and blaming his penis for his sexual drive, he amputated it and survived the self-mutilation.

On 6 August 1910 Winston S Churchill duly signed a warrant of Conditioned Discharge of Dr. Minor to "on his discharge leave the United Kingdom and not return thereto. " He bad spent 28 years in Broadmoor.

He returned to the US because his influential extended family wanted him there and died at age 85 in 1920 in a new home on the banks of the Connecticut River.

He is acknowledged to be among the greatest contributors to the finest dictionary in the English language.

The most interesting anecdote in Winchester’s book is of the meeting of the Professor and the mad man when the OED was well on its way to completion. Murray arrived at the address given by Minor and being greeted by a gentleman assumed he was Minor.

"A very good afternoon to you, Sir. I am Dr. James Murray of the London Philological Society and Editor of the oxford English Dictionary. It is indeed an honour and a pleasure at last to make your acquaintance for you must be, kind Sir, my most assiduous helpmate Dr. W C Minor?"

"I regret, kind Sir, that I am not Dr. Minor. It is not at all as you suppose. I am Governor of the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Dr. Minor is here, but he is an inmate. He has been a patient here for more than 20 years. He is our longest staying resident."

Postscript

I cannot but draw attention to the fact that we are in the international news with a bang! The lnternational Herald Tribune of 19 June had a boxed article titled Agenda Sri Lanka Rebels Left out of Council on page 1, and a prominently placed article in the editorial page by M. R. Narayan Swamy, a journalist based in Singapore. His article titled: The Tamil Tigers Prove Ferocious, with Help from Abroad gave a clear picture of the crass duplicity and inner workings of the LTTE. So Mr. Prabhakaran has put us in the news. No thanks to him! We wish to be in the news, if at all, as before — friendly warm smiles of welcome, serendipitous island, golden beaches, peaceful religious land, true tourist paradise.

Down Memory Lane
Horse racing on the havelock race course

by Sepala Ilangakoon
Harking back to the past, when I turn back the pages of time to circa 1935, I recall how we as children, would watch the horse races at the Havelock Race-course from our car parked along Bullers Road - now Bauddhaloka Mawatha, while my parents went to the races. The Race-course in those far off times’ occupied a specious extent of land, bounced by Bullers Road, Reid Avenue and Maitland Place, including what is now Independence Building and Square, the adjacent sports grounds, the smart new Government Archives, Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, National Library and Documentation Centre, Sri Lanka Television Training Institute, Royal College Rugger Grounds and Sports Complex being built, the new Law Faculty buildings, Bloomfield Club and cricket grounds etc. What is left is occupied by the ll00 meters athletic track within which is a full scale football field. There is also an expensive Astro turf hockey field and pavilion.

GRAND STAND

The centre piece of the Race-course was the two tiered Grand Stand which made the complex unique in the part of the world. The Grand Stand in two tiers is a solid structure built by the colonial British to their fastidious specifications of steel and concrete to last centuries. It was meticulously maintained by the Ceylon Turf Club (CTC) but after the Brits had their show ‘London Calling’ on the Race-course in the l950s, the turf was ruined and the Grand Stand was neglected. It frontage was given a face lift recently, when various sports Federations and Associations rented sections for their use but the rear of the elegant and imposing building on Reid Avenue, is an utter disgrace with weeds and shrubs and Kaputu Bo plants growing in the crevices from seed sown by crow dung. The Sports Ministry who owned the building until recently, should hang their heads in shame. Will the Colombo Municipal Council, the new owners, do any better?

ENTRANCE

The horse racing industry covered a vast range of occupations including jockeys, horse trainers, horse keepers, stable boys, scythe, grounds men, mowers, carpenters, baffling operators, cashiers etc. and, of course, the punters extending from Ceylon Civil Servants to minor office clerks who put in short leave on Saturday which was the race day. They would study the Race Books available everywhere at 10 cents, while streaming to the Race-course to jam pack the ‘Gandhi Enclosure’ with the so called hoi polloi, entrance Rs 1.

The more affluent punters paid Rs 2.50 to enter the Second Enclosure which was a more recent building than the Grand Stand and built on a more modest scale. Members of the Ceylon Turf Club and their wives, CTC Stewards, owners of horses, trainers and VIPs had free access to the Grand Stand while the elite of Colombo society paid Rs 5 jacked up to Rs 10 for the Blue Ribbon of the course - Governor’s Cup Day for thorough bred horses and Robert’s Cup Day for Arabs.

BADGES

My father was a member of the elite CTC but never in his life did he place a bet ! My mother made up for that omission ! Each year, members were issued a chic badge in coloured enamle with a ribbon to match. The Ladies’ badge was smaller but of the same quality and was pinned like a brooch. It could be borrowed by other ladies but no member could lend his badge to another man !

FURLONGS

The Winning Post was right opposite the Grand Stand while the Starter’s Gates were spaced on the circuit of 1 1/4 mils (10 furlongs), depending on the length of a race which was always measured in furlongs. Horse racing - known to the British as the ‘Sport of Kings’ because it always had royal patronage, was also held by the CTC in Nuwara Eliya and at the Boosa Race-course in Galle by the Galle Gymkhana Club. Race days started at 2.00 pm in Colombo and Galle but at 10.00 in Nuwara Eliya. The Card for each day had eight races during the racing season which was in the dry month of August.

RESULTS

The names of contending horses and the handicap weights each carried, would go up on the huge board like a cricket score board and punters would rush to the ‘Betting Windows’ to place their bets on the hottest tips before the electric bell went off, signaling the start of the race and the simultaneous closing of all bets for that race. After the race, the winners name was displayed on the board and those who had lost, would tear up their tickets in exasperation; those who had won, would gleefully rush to the ‘Paying out Windows’ to collect their winnings.

JOCKEYS

A losing jockey would whip his mount mercilessly and try to spur it to a faster gallop; a winning jockey would urge his horse to increase his lead, by crouching forward and speaking soothingly in his ear, the jockey’s bottom hardly ever touching the saddle.

GOVERNOR’S CUP

Governor’s Cup Day was also the annual fashion parade for the ladies who planned their trousseau months ahead and competed with each other to flaunt their most bizarre of costumes complete with fancy hats, ostrich plumes etc. while pirouetting to make sure they caught the camera lens of the fashion reporters of the press. Very reminiscent of Royal Ascot Races in the UK.

On the annual Governor’s Cup Day, the piece de resistance was when the Governor and his lady would be driven down the Channer Straight in his hone drawn carriage escorted by the Mounted Rifles in their colourful uniforms and plumed helmets. The couple would be met on arrival at the Grand Stand, by the Chief Steward and after standing to attention to the strains of "God Save The King’ (George the fifth) by the Police Band, they would be conducted to the Royal Box. At one time, the doyen of racing, the Grand old Man - Sir Solomon Dias Bandaranaike, Maha Mudaliyar, did the honours. His bronze statue stands behind the Grand Stand on Reid Avenue, rigged out in top hat, spats and tail coat.

QUEEN’S CUP

The acme was reached when Queen Elizabeth the Second and Prince Philip were ushered to take their place in the Royal Box of the Grand Stand by Sir John Kotalawela to watch the Queen’s Cup Race organized in her honour. The crown emblem which was embossed at the entrance to the Royal Box, is seen even today.

WINNERS

Many years ago, the fantastic thoroughbred Willow Stream won the Governor’s Cup in three consecutive years ! His owner, George (‘Creeper’) Fellowes was so ecstatic and jubilant that he built the squash court at the Bambarabotuwa Club at Hapugastenne Group, out of the stake money he won and in memory of his wonder-horse, adorned the wall opposite the bar with a life size photograph. The horse was put through ha paces by his trainer, Major Featherstone-Haugh on the Hapugastenne race-course and trucked to Colombo on the KV baby train for the racing season.

Some of the more recent winners I recall were Cotton Hall who repeated Willow Stream’s classic, jockey Mars and the first Ceylonese trainer, A. Selvaratnam - all winners. Selvaratnam’s sons, Renga, Rajah and Visva were my schoolmates at STC. The first two followed is their father’s footsteps h Colombo and went on to India and the Middle East to train the race horses there, while Visva stayed back as a gifted and eminent architect.

BETS

In addition to the straight bets, there were the ‘Doubles’, ‘Trebles’ and the ‘All on’s where punters had to choose the winners in two, three and all the races for the day, respectively. If they won, they collected the fansy dividends for the Rs. 2.00 investment. Winnings were as high as Rs. 97,000 in the late 1940s !

GAMBLING

Horse racing was banned in Colombo as it was sanctimoniously thought to be a heavy drain on the poor punter’s purse. The consequences of the ban were more severe than anticipated. Not only were thousands of punters sorely disappointed, but hundreds of persons who earned third livelihood on the horse racing business were suddenly left Jobless! I believe the National Lotteries Board was inaugurated to mollify the sentiments of those adversely affected, but in point of fact, it was as much a gamble as horse racing !

With the ban on racing in Colombo, the bookmakers or ‘Bookies’ have entered the betting seenario in a big way. They are receiving bats not only on the few local races, but on horse races in India, England and even in the USA via satellite.

FINALE

Those were the days, never to return in the new millennium, but cherished by those of us who saw and remember those exhilarating and halcyon days. Great days of your!

Reflections on a pageant of percussion

by Tennyson Rodrigo
It was a racy fiesta of percussion that filled the auditorium of the Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) on Tuesday 12 June. Imagine saucepans sing, plastic bags sizle, tin cans tingle, body muscles pulsate and drums beat-all in unison! For the packed and assorted audience at ICC’s auditorium it was stunning, interactive entertainment crafted by Krishna, Ravibandu Vidyapathy and their talented team. Yet, all that rhythmic percussion was not just a torrent of clang-bang cacophony. At least for me there was a deeper throbbing that prompted me to indulge in some reflection.

The saucepans, tin cans and other paraphernalia were peripheral to the evening’s performance. From a more discerning perspective, there were underlying elements in the program that were in the realm of serious cultural interest. For one thing, Krishna and Ravi, entertainingly and strikingly, attempted to demonstrate that from time immemorial rhythmic percussion has been a primordial medium of expression and communication for mankind.

The program was structured so as to narrate and display the history, synthesis and infinite variety of percussion. Krishna recounted how during Yehudi Menuhin’s travels in search of traditional forms of African music, he heard in the distant hills the echo of an exchange of drumbeats at twilight. The acutely perceptive Menuhin inquired from his guide what was going on. The guide’s reply was that two good friends were saying good night to each other! And again, I believe the legendary Gene Krupa whose drumming electrified Benny Goodman’s Jazz Quartet in the 1930s and 40s, attributed much of his rhythmic repertoire to what he gathered from traditional drummers in Indonesia as well as in Sri Lanka. Implicit in all this was the underlying statement that percussion has been rendered eclectic by a continuous process of adaptation that has transcended ethnic boundaries. And, innovative percussion could enrich any form of musical genre without in any way contaminating its essence. Percussion’s tremendous vitality that is vividly conspicuous in jazz, reggae, the full spectrum of Indian classical music and dance and in modern fusion forms supports this thesis.

By interspersing spirited demonstrations between readings from prepared texts, Ravi and Krishna underlined the enormous diversity of traditional and improvised percussion products. The stage was adorned with a colourful cornucopia of percussion sources — the table, ghatam, gongs, cymbals, tympanis, bar chimes, clay-pot drums, bongos, bells of varying sizes and shapes — many of which have been locally contrived as innovative variants of their counterparts elsewhere. Citing from what’s embodied in the ancient Sinhala chronicles, Ravibandu drew reference to Panchaturya Bhanda, the classification of musical instruments — comprising, for example, Atata, Vitata and Atatavitata — and identified their contemporary forms as the Getabere, Thammattang, and Dhaula. These forms were dexterously combined with other percussion instruments to create a dramatic impact on the evening’s performance.

To reflect any further on the impact and content of percussion is to shift the spotlight away from Ravi and Krishna — two fantastically versatile and exciting artistes. Ravi is the grandson of Algama Kiriganitha Gurunnanse the greatest guru and exponent of Sri Lankan drumming and dancing. Ravi’s father Somabandu Vidyapathy belongs to a pioneering galaxy of artistes whose accomplishments first evoked some interest in the 1944s and 50s. That was when J. D. A. Perera, Chitrasena, Suriya Shankar Molligoda, Lionel Edirisinghe, Premakumar, Pani Bharatha, Vasanthakumar, Sesha Palihakkara, Somadasa Elvitigala and others infused respectability to serious forms of Sri Lankan and Indian dance and music.

Ravi was a part of the next generation driven to face the inevitable challenges of social and economic transformation locally and globally. He has adapted himself and defined a role to meet these challenges and remains steadfastly anchored to dance and percussion. He acquired a sound foundation in choreography from the Chitrasena Kalayathanaya and has performed at celebrated venues around the world. How delightful it was to see the supple bodies of Vajira and Upekha seated statuesque on the floor of the auditorium watching and listening to their protege with serene pride!

Unlike Ravi Krishna did not inherit or had to carry the mantle of a great ancestry of traditional dance and drums. He hails from the hill country in Kandy where from early days his raving talent for music and drums made him a restless young man searching for expression. He first learnt Sanskrit shlokas from Buddhist priests and a little drumming whilst rambling in the village temple. Life was experimental and unfulfilling until he got a scholarship to India to study music. After traversing some bumpy roads, the most ecstatic moment in his life arrived when the foremost exponent in India of the art of ghatum-playing Vikku Vinyak Ram accepted Krishna to his fold. In the true guru-shishya tradition, Krishna persevered for several years at the feet of his guru with total dedication. And he became unarguably the most accomplished ghatum player in Sri Lanka. One has only to watch and listen to Krishna embracing the ghatum close to his exposed abdominal muscles to believe the mystifying rhythm and tonality he produces. The ghatum remains Krishna’s classical forte. Even to this day he seeks sanction from his guru to play the ghatum in public.

But Krishna is an unstoppable percussionist deftly wrestling with the tensions of a dual identity — triggered by the conflicts between guru-shishya traditions and the permissive freedom of fusion music. He describes himself as an ethno-percussionist; in that role he jets around the world drumming furiously with the likes of Paul Simon and Diana Ross. Next July he will perform at the Afro-Cuban Music Festival in France and then attend the Stanford University’s Summer Workshop on Jazz Music.

Clearly Krishna and Ravi are two great artistic personalities contributing something out of the ordinary to Sri Lanka’s cultural landscape. Each of them in their own way is a wholesome blend of the classical and modern. Their feast of percussion was an extraordinary evening of enthralling entertainment, which incidentally (and entirely unintentionally) could well have been a fitting farewell to Shri R. K. Sachdeva, the founding Director of the ICC, who had made a fine contribution during the formative years of the centre towards achieving its objectives.

Former DIG S.Vamadevan recounts the funny side of senior cops’ lives in old Ceylon
Fun, frolic, foibles of the force

Tales from the Ceylon Police Senior Police officer’s mess
Excerpts from S.Vamadevan’s book " The Ceylon We Knew", available at the Lake House Bookshop
Price: Rs.550

The Senior Police Officers Mess at Brownrigg Road was established in January 1910. It was a typical colonial-style building with verandahs and patios located behind the then Police Training School, now Keppetipola Mawatte. It had period furniture endowed by a long line of officers with a mind boggling array of silver, the value of which is astronomical. The walls were adorned with photographs of all the Inspectors General from Sir G. R. W. Campbell K. C. M. G. onwards interspersed with trophies of the hunt, brought down by officers going on periodic shooting expeditions. Those were the days of yore when hunting was still a popular (and legal) pastime. Many officers combined work and sport and went out on what was then called circuits and did not return to station for days on end.

The repository of all the information about men and matters that passed through the portals of that institution was James Appuhamy, the butler, fondly referred to as plain ‘James’ by all. He joined as a mess boy at the age of 16 in 1933 and rose to the position of butler which he held until 1989. He retired after 50 years of loyal service with a lot of pomp and glory. He played close to his chest a lot of secrets of several generations of officers, such as how much liquor each officer would consume, as against what they could actually hold, and who was likely to need to be assisted to the car at the end of the day.

When an officer was rendering himself incapable, he knew when to call home and tell the wife "Master told to tell he is working late today". The writer, as Mess Secretary had to organise mess functions and had to seek James’ advice on matters such as how much liquor was to be ordered. James would then say that it depended on who was coming and ask for the guest list. A little mental calculation and he would come out with a figure of how much liquor should be ordered. Invariably he was spot on.

James could read the faces of officers like the Penal Code. When each batch of Probationary Assistant Superintendents (normally referred to in police parlance as ‘Probationers’) arrived at the Mess, James would run his eyes over them and make his own assessment as to how long each would survive in the police, with dead accuracy. It was the practice for each batch of Probationers to troop into the mess after the six month stint at the Training School with all their worldly belongings. When one such batch was arriving the author who was within ear-shot distance heard James whisper to his worthy assistant Nimalasiri. meaning, this one won’t last five years. It was prophetic and true enough, the officer referred did not last five years, and James was on target as usual.

Probationers led a nomadic life, sent from pillar to post. They lived virtually out of the boot of their car. All their worldly belongings consisted of a mere box of uniforms, a radio and perhaps a fan. In the early days of their careers, transfer orders came at all times of the day or night, and they were always on the move. It can be truly said of them, as of the Roman legionary ‘Omnia mea, mecum porto’ (everything I have, I carry with me).

Those lucky enough to work in Colombo had to live in the mess. In the evenings we would wind our way to the bar and listen to the grand old officers tell stories of their exploits and encounters to awestruck juniors. L. C. Abeyasekera (Specy) usually took centre stage at such gatherings. When he had done justice to the better part of his cherished drink he would light up his cheroot. From then on it was side splitting laughter. Other officers who held forth is a long list to recount. But suffice it to mention a few like Collin Vanden Driesen, D. S. Thambiah, Allan Flamer Caldera, Eddie Bultjeans and the like.

R. C. Thavarajah was an institution in the Inspector’s Mess and their loss was our gain when he was promoted A.S.P. and took residence at the Officer’s Mess. ‘Thava’ as he was called by friends always ran into problems and often had to face the music. The only redeeming feature being that it was he who wrote the music. At dinner which sometimes went into the late hours, he could captivate an audience by sheer extravagance of language.

He was the editor of the ‘Off duty’ magazine, the work of which he did on duty. He was poetic, but had to often have recourse to poetic license. It was a treat to watch when he mimicked other officers. When Thava was holding forth, it would need a bold man, not to say an impudent one to contradict him. This often left us in the position where Thava knew all the answers, but there were none to ask the questions.

Thava was an indomitable investigator and a very fair one too. He pursued his quarries with the tenacity of a blood hound, and excelled in court as prosecutor. He could match his wits with some of the best legal eagles of the time. When holding departmental disciplinary inquiries he would imagine himself to be on the Bench. When the proceedings were over he would rise and dramatically announce ‘I find the accused guilty, reasons will be given later’ and make his exit.

Life in the mess was not always fun and games. There were the grim moments of gloom, and very often imagined tragedy for the service turned out to be comic and vice versa. Sometimes even the jokes were no laughing matter.

Once, a meeting was hastily summoned to discuss the impending appointment of Mr. M. W. F. Abeyakoon as I.G.P. and Mr. D. B. I. P. S. Siriwardhene as D.I.G. (Administration). Both were from outside the Police service. This move was contrived by Mr. S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, the Prime Minister at the time, to deflate what he thought was the egocentricity and arrogance of the police hierarchy of the time, and in the same stroke to infuse a balance between the numerous Christian officers and the badly outnumbered Buddhist officers in the higher echelons of the service. This move was really a bombshell that caught the police top brass with their pants down. The meeting was summoned to salvage the situation and marshal support to present a united opposition to the Prime Minister’s move.

The meeting turned out to be a damp squib when the Prime Minister got wind of the meeting through his own grape-vine and invited himself to the meeting. As if to rub salt into the wound he not only brought Mr. Abeyakoon with him but seated him at his right hand and introduced him as the new I.G.P. By then things had come to such a pass that the mere mention of the name Abeyakoon in the mess was like playing the Israeli national anthem at the ‘Kaaba’ in Mecca. And here he was seated at the right hand of the P.M. The junior officers did not know whether to laugh or to cry, but the Top Brass were not amused. The situation was not tense but it was sour. The faces of the officers were as if they had been served with a liberal helping of ‘Lunu Dehi’.

At the meeting proper no one was asked anything, they were merely told everything. The Prime Minister’s speech was couched in language more sensational than revelaroty. At question time an officer fumbled a question to the Prime Minister merely as a face saving device. The Prime Minister’s answer was a mere inquiry from the officer as to how his father was keeping, and a reference to remembering the officer as a tiny tot running around naked in his fathers surgery when he had gone there for treatment. The writing was on the wall and only the blind or those who would not see, missed it. At the end of the meeting all the officers walked out like turkeys retiring after voting for an early Christmas.

In a matter of days Mr. Abeyakoon and Mr. Siriwardhene were waltzing their way from nowhere into Police Headquarters. By now the Top Brass realised that what cannot be cured has to be endured. Instinct told them it is better to have your enemy inside the tent pissing out, than have him outside the tent and pissing in. So it was decided to give the new incumbents a ceremonial parade on Galle Face Green on the eve of their assumption of office. The author was picked as the Parade Commander with the rider that the commands should be in Sinhala. This was the time the switch over from English to Sinhala was proceeding on top gear. Assistant Superintendent K. D. C. Ekanayake (now a venerable member of the Sangha) translated the English parade commands to Sinhala. I spent sleepless nights first learning the new Sinhala commands then trying to remember them under the stress of a major ceremonial parade. On the day after the parade, I was relieved to see that the papers had this to say:

"Of Monday the new I.G.P. was welcomed with an impressive parade of the Colombo Police Division. Everybody who paused to see it was impressed by the smartness with which commands were given in flawless Sinhala. The officer giving the commands in the official language was Mr. Vamadevan - a young ASP who hails from Jaffna. "

In spite of situations like these, life in the Mess was a lot of fun. There were enough and more mess parties and when alcohol loosened inhibitions, everyone threw discretion to the wind and indulged in fun and frolic. I was mess secretary during the years when Mr. Stanley Senanayake was I.G.P. One day he called me at 10.00 a.m. and said he wanted a mess party and dinner organised the same evening for a retired officer from overseas visiting the island. I spoke to James and he threw up his hands in despair and virtually told me that I should not let anyone ride rough shod over me like that and that a mess party was no mere party. I put on my thinking cap, by now I had learned, the hard way, that there is always a way around most obstacles.

I gave a message to all Colombo stations in my capacity as Commissioner of Police, Colombo to round up all ‘godamba rotti’ carts in the city and bring them to the mess by 7.00 p.m. officers within 30 miles radius of Colombo were told to attend but advised that dinner could be purchased in the premises of the Mess. It worked. There were 10 godamba rotti carts turning out egg rottis. It was a beautiful Sight to watch them toss the godamba rottis with acrobatic agility. Everyone had a very surprisingly unusual and enjoyable evening. The sport that Mr. Senanayake was, he was all praise and told me we should have many more impromptu parties like this. The godamba rotti cart owners had a rollicking turn-over. I had a sneaking feeling that they had been given handsome tips (not to mention a few drinks) and they assured us of their full support for evenings of that nature in the future.

The highlight of all the mess functions, was the sing-song that followed the dinner. Fortunately my wife Charmaine who is a versatile pianist took care of that aspect. She would key in a wide repertoire of songs and that gave me the time to attend to the other logistical aspects of the party. The golden oldies of yester-year were very popular - Tipperary, Pack up your troubles, Roll out the barrel, Daisy-Daisy, Que-sera-sera, Tavern in the town, Down by the river side, Under the bridges of Paris and so on. There were very good singers, and also singers you could have got to sing for a song.

There were particular officers who came forward when their special songs were being played. Mr. Stanley Senanayake would cross over from whereever he was, when ‘Galway Bay’ was played. Then the usually shy Mr. Ana Seneviratne would take over when ‘Danny Boy’ his favourite was played. Charmaine knew each officer’s favourite song and if one of them was standing apart she would play his favourite and draw him in. The sing along would come to an end in the wee hours of the morning with ‘Auld lang Syne’.

Mr. Bacon was a retired Inspector-General who after leaving Ceylon worked at Scotland Yard before retiring. When he visited Ceylon I was asked to get up a mess dinner in his honour. It was a big event and the evening Observer of the day came up with a canny headline - "POLICE HAVE BACON FOR DINNER". Sri Lankan Ex-Colonial Police officers have had a good reputation and many of them headed several other overseas police services with distinction. Mr. Waldron headed the Metropolitan Police in London at one time. There are others who held high positions in Cyprus, Jamaica, Tanganika, etc.

Officers such as W. A. R. Leembruggen (Lemba to the juniors) who were very hard on young officer’s insisted that in all murder cases the prosecution in the lower court must be handled by the ASPs in the non-summary proceedings. This resulted in good feed back from court houses of goings on there, including the lighter side. With hindsight we realise the wisdom of Mr. Leembruggen’s advice.

The story goes that a rowdy was charged with biting a constable’s thumb. For some reason, some judges take a light view of offences against the police and in this instance too, when the accused pleaded guilty the magistrate disposed of the case with a fine of Rs 20/= and a good behaviour bond. The prosecuting Inspector was furious and was overheard muttering to his sergeant "At this rate you can eat a whole policeman for Rs. 200/=."

In the Municipal Traffic Courts a proctor was pleading on behalf of his client who had been hauled up before court for riding a bicycle without lights. In mitigation the proctor was pleading that his client did in fact possess a lamp and that the flame had just blown out when the police arrived. Those were the days when most bicycles were equipped with oil lamps which tended to go out rather frequently. The magistrate turned to the traffic sergeant and the sergeant cut a long story short with the remark "It was a dynamo lamp, sir". The proctor sheepishly sat down.

Handling prosecutions in the court houses also had its frustrations for us. The law’s delays are very often fathered on the police, but the only ones who benefit from it are the ‘black coat gentry’. Court cases taking a long time to be disposed of holds up officers, some times the whole day in court leaving other work in arrears. One cynic remarked, ‘Lawyers are like camels, both live on dates’.

Some amusing stories are told of the annual Tamil-Sinhala exam for Gazetted officers in the police. It is a hurdle one has to pass to earn the first increment. Most officers put their might into learning the second language. The examiner was usually a high powered civil servant of the now defunct CCS. The Sinhala and Burgher officers usually had Mr. Alvapillai, a Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Trade as their examiner. He was a wry mathematics scholar and double wrangler who was lost most of the time in his own thoughts. A Burgher officer was before him for his test and was all pent up with anxiety. Among other questions he was asked to translate "You are an illegitimate son". The officer had not bargained for this in his preparations and got mixed up and blurted out "nee oru Alvapillai" intending to say "nee oru Kallapillai". That was the first time many of the officers saw Mr. Alvapillai laugh so freely.

There were also written tests in law, practical police work and the like. Prompting and copying was rife and in many cases it was like the blind leading the blind. In the practical police work paper there was a long harangue of a question in which a school mistress was referred to and a question posed about her pension entitlements. Mr. D. B. I. Samaraweera (Sam) who always looked for the catch in every question was heard prompting another "don’t fall for this one, the catch is, she is a school mistress and not the legal wife".

Mr. J. A. A. Perera (Algie to his friends) was a senior highly respected and knowledgeable officer to whose wisdom we often had to have recourse. He always had stories to tell and a penchant for remembering details of long forgotten stories. He was a down to earth practical policeman. While serving in Mannar he had a complaint that a female illicit immigrant had been taken to the singleman’s barracks at 2.00 a.m. and raped. Her story was that she shouted for help but no other singleman came to her help. Algie doubted whether no one could have heard and come to her assistance. So, the next day on his night rounds he went to the singleman’s barracks at 2.00 a.m. and himself raised cries simulating the cries of the woman and found to his horror that no one responded. At the inquiry the main plank of the defence was that she was a consenting party and that if she raised cries someone would have responded. Algie had to only say his piece about the test and the accused was convicted.

The gazetted officers of the days gone by were very much sought after in social circles. Many officers on retirement or early resignation found very lucrative jobs in the private sector. In fact two very promising officers Messrs. Indhi Kunaratnam and Cosmo David left very early in their careers to embark on a new career trajectory, joined the private sector and rose to dizzy heights.

There were others who sought greener pastures overseas, did very well and brought credit to our own service. Some went to the Middle East mainly to Oman. Douglas Ranmuthugala who ended up as D.I.G. gave up a very promising career which would have taken him up to the helm in order to join the Royal Papua New Guinea Police Force. He ended up there as Chief of Staff to the Commissioner of Police. and was also decorated by the Queen. He now works for the Australian Federal Police in Canberra.

Of those who stayed on and worked long years there is no denying that some officers get institutionalised. The police culture permeates their whole life and narrows their horizon somewhat. They work so hard while in service, that they have no time for a hobby or interest to sustain them at retirement. They end up lonely and despair at situations in which no one is in charge.

Quite a few on retirement got very senior posts back in the public service. Mr. Ana Seneviratne who retired as I.G.P. was the first career policeman to get a diplomatic assignment, and went as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Malaysia. He started a tradition that was to benefit many more officers after him.

The Training School at Katukurunda into which Mr. Sydney de Zoysa put a lot of effort was the training ground for many an officer. Officers went through a bone and mind wearing schedule there and it prepared them for a life of hard and tortuous work in the police. Sgt. Major Nallawangsa is the first task master who took over the officers on arrival. He had a penetrating voice for parade commands which he punctuated with pungent and somewhat coarse humour, the sort that can shake any sleepy ‘Rooky’ at the morning parade from his stupor. Probationers and Sub-Inspectors alike underwent the same training and the same treatment. When our batch of 5 probationers and 28 Sub-Inspectors went into residence he held a class on the first day apparently to orient us for the training programme. At question time a keen Sub-Inspector asked the Sgt. Major what the motto of the Police Department was. The sharp reply from the Sgt. Major was "feel the face and play the arse". The keen high school leaver was flabbergasted.

Horse-riding was a most attractive side of the training school curriculum at Katukurunda. The training school was an abandoned World War 11 Air Force camp which Mr. Sydney de Zoysa converted by sheer dint of perseverance into a splendid training establishment. The unfortunate staffers and trainees had to grudgingly join him in the pioneering effort. We were lucky to enjoy the setting and amenities. One day we were told that Sydney was coming to take us out for a cross-country ride. The five probationers in our batch were all excited and worried but concealed our fear from each other. That included P. L. Munidasa (who left an academic career in the University for the police), Cyril Herath and Ernest Perera who both ended up as IGs, A. Navaratnam an accomplished sportsman and myself. We were told to pick our mounts and join Sydney. Cyril picked an Arab horse ‘Raja’ quite innocently which we later came to know was a frisky and hyper-active horse. We set out towards Bombuwella around 5.00 p.m.

When it was feed-time (around 6.00 p.m.) ‘Raja’ did an about turn and took off with Cyril towards the stable. First it was a canter but within seconds ‘Raja’ was galloping and I could see sparks flying as the horse-shoe hit the tarmac each time. Within moments Cyril faded into the evening twilight. To Cyril’s credit it must be said he held on to the horse with great tenacity, which probably was an early indication of his ability to withstand the stress of office as I.G. in later years. At one stage, he later told us he let go the reins and held on to the mane of the horse. What came to my mind was an old poem I learnt at school:

"John Gilpin was a citizen of credit and renown,

A train band Captain eke was he,

Of famous London town......

He carries weight, he rides a race,

‘tis for a thousand pounds."

When we got back to the stables Cyri1 was there with the characteristic smile of a seasoned horseman and, thankfully in one piece.

The Mess too had facilities to stable horses. T. B. Danapala (Dan to his friends) was a keen and acknowledged equestrian. He had his own horse stabled in the Mess and we found it great fun to get down horses from the Mounted Division through the courtesy of Inspector (latter ASP) Hubert Baghot and Inspector Brian de Kretser and go for long cross-country rides. Mr. P. R. de S. Seneviratne’s home in Talangama was a popular destination and he would lay out a table of all our indigenous dishes in what he called a ‘country breakfast’ which we enjoyed as much as the conversation with him.

Douglas Ranmuthugala and myself for some unknown reason were regularly called upon to be out-riders on horse back for all occasions whether it be State Opening of Parliament or a visiting Head of State being escorted through the streets of the city. We had so mastered the drill by sheer repetition that it was second nature to us. I had my own horse ‘Berrick Law’ stabled in my Government bungalow at MacCarthy Road and used to enjoy long rides with Ajit Chitty a very experienced horseman. We received an allowance called the ‘Forage allowance’ for the upkeep of our own horse, a colonial tradition that we inherited and made good use of while the going was good. This allowance was probably unique only to the Police Department and some jealous Treasury officer in latter years scrapped it.

The highlight of the Mess function each year was what was called the First Aid Dinner. Why our biggest event should be tied up with First Aid is difficult to explain. Anyway, this was the event when the then Governor-General and the Prime Minister and the rest of the big VIPs who have anything to do with the police are present. Inspector Paul would provide band music. And here was a ‘Maestro" in the true sense of the word. The police band was streaks ahead of any other band in the island at that time. Paul’s name was synonymous with good music. With a tot of wine he did marvels with the conductor’s baton.

I went as Chief-de-Mission of the Sri Lanka Police Reserve Hewisi band with my good friend Dr. S. B. Danapala brother of ‘Dan’ referred to earlier. The Hewisi band was taking part in the Prestigious ‘Edinburgh Military tattoo’. At cocktail parties we were introduced as officers from Sri Lanka to distinguished conductors from all over England, the first question would be ‘How is good old Paul getting on ?’ His name was a household name in the music world in UK at the time.

Life in the police service was in the days gone by a very satisfying experience. Many of the officers who now live in retirement carry, I am sure, memories from which they reminisce in their spare time.

Conservation or control: Why the World Bank?

By Rohan Wijesinha
Sponsored by a Government that has paid minimal attention to conservation and the environment, the Department of Wildlife and Conservation (DWLC) is in a desperate situation. Managed by a succession of Government appointees from an Administrative Pool, with no experience of wildlife, it is no surprise that this state of affairs exists today. So it may be relief to the conservationist and wildlife enthusiast that proposals are in place to uplift the Department from these depths. However, the apparent cloak of secrecy which surrounds these negotiations, the reputation of the World Bank, the prevailing Government fashion of trying to sell natural resources and the national heritage to trans-nationals at ridiculously low prices, raises questions as to the real agenda behind these proposals. Who will benefit?

The People have a right to know

A task force of invited conservationists from different Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s), officials of the Wildlife Department, and oficials of the World Bank, have put together a set of proposals, a draft of which was made available to a few who actively sought it (World Bank and Asian Development Bank Memorandum of Understanding of the Joint Pre-Appraisal Mission for the Protected Area Management and Wildlife Conservation Project, Preliminary Draft, April 2000). It is hoped that the final document will be made available to public scrutiny, and opened to public comment, long before it is presented to Parliament for approval.

We have had too many attempts of late of devious methods employed to push through legislation damaging both for the environment and the people of Sri Lanka e.g. Eppawela phosphate.

A national, natural heritage

There is much recommended in these draft proposals, much that those involved in conservation in Sri Lanka would applaud, and hope would be implemented for the safeguarding of the wildlife and wild places of Sri Lanka

They give a very realistic appraisal of the present situation with regards to the DWLC. Over a period of time, especially within the last few years, there has been a steady degrading of practical conservation in this country. This deterioration, brought about by incompetent and ignorant management decisions, or the lack of them, are of such extent that it begs the question as to whether it has not been an orchestrated policy to bring the Department to this level of incompetence.

This makes it ripe for selling, and the abrogation of the Government’s responsibility to this natural heritage.

In this context, the proposed aim of de-politicising the management of conservation in Sri Lanka, and employing those with relevant experience and qualification to the important posts within the DWLC are of paramount importance, and to be greatly lauded. In the highly politically patronised environment that currently exists in Sri Lanka, it would take considerable effort to achieve this.

However, even if successful, the DWLC should remain a Government Department, under Government control, and continue to be the Government’s responsibility, and accountability to the people, for the wildlife and wild places of Sri Lanka.

Research

As important are the proposals for comprehensive research programmes to be carried out on all aspects and in all areas of conservation. Such knowledge is vital in understanding the true extent of the problems and in assessing appropriate measures for their alleviation. Hopefully, this research will be carried out before any active changes are made; thereby ensuring that as little damage is done through ignorance.

A vital aspect of this are the proposals for making conservation relevant to the local people who live close to National Parks and other wildlife sanctuaries. Up to now, these havens of big- diversity have been of little practical benefit to them. As a matter of fact, in most cases, each is in conflict with the other, each requiring the space of the other. However, if there was to be some direct benefit to the people from the presence of National Parks, the reduction in this conflict would have much benefit to both protagonists, and there would be an incentive for these people to start looking after the welfare of the parks, rather than attempting to destroy them.

Eco-Tourism

The wild life and wild places of Sri Lanka have been greatly under-utilised as a source of foreign revenue to this country. Starved as the west is of truly wild habitats, to see wild animals live and function in truly wild terrain is something that they will pay a lot to see, provided it is well managed. Therefore, once again, the proposals for developing eco-tourism are to be encouraged, provided it is with the principles of conservation as a guide to light the way.

Global Poverty?

However, it is in consideration of the economics of these proposals, on what the monies are to be made available for, and the price to be paid for this economic assistance that many questions have to be asked.

The Third World has, rightly, begun to become suspicious of the ‘benefits’ to it of a "global economy". This suspicion has also dawned on the natives of the developed countries. Americans and Europeans have taken to the streets to protest World Trade Organisation policies, and Trans- Nationals, whose practices have resulted in even further poverty of the Third World.

Enslaved by new, commercial colonisers and overlords, not by military but by economic conquest, developing nations are doomed to pay eternal interest on never-ending loans, and so adhere to World Trade Organisation policies for its country and people. As David Korten, the founder President of the People-Centred Development Forum observed.

"The capitalist economy has a potentially fatal ignorance of two subjects. One is the nature of money. The other is the nature of life. This ignorance leads us to trade away life for money, which is a bad bargain indeed...Money is a number. Real wealth is food, the fertile land...or other things that sustain us...Squandering real wealth in the pursuit of numbers is ignorance of the worst kind."

This fear is particularly relevant when considering such a fragile entity as the natural resources and wild fauna and flora of a country. We are dealing with fast disappearing, irreplaceable resources. If these were treated as commodities whose value was considered solely in terms of profit and loss, and these considerations overrode that of their conservation, it would lead to environmental disaster.

There have been rumours of these proposals leading to wildlife utilisation rather than wildlife conservation. i.e. shooting, logging, and the harvesting of other wild resources. The fact that this is not mentioned in the draft proposals is an encouraging sign that if ever such proposals were mooted, they have been discarded! However, they should never be considered in the future too. This is why it is important that the Government always has control to protect the heritage of the country.

Closure of Bungalows

"The Government...with ADB encouragement, has stated its intention to end the management of tourist bungalows by DWLC, on the grounds that their subsidized prices inhibit private investment in nearby areas, and that managing them distracts DWLC from its primary role as the regulator of PA use. "(Prelim. Draft, April 2000)

The Director of the DWLC made a recent, strong, defence of this recommendation in a letter to the newspapers. He cited the difficulty of maintaining and managing them, their unprofitability, and the fact that they only cater to a small elite. These were his reasons for their closure.

The DWLC bungalows were never intended as profit making ventures. The old bungalows, often built by the park staff themselves, to simple designs, and blending in with their natural surrounds, were to give the wildlife enthusiast the unique experience of staying a couple of days and nights within the park to experience its serenity, grandeur and beauty. Has he never heard of the term "communing with nature?"

In the last half of the last century, many, many hundreds of people have stayed at these bungalows and enjoyed the pleasures of the jungle, and look forward to enjoying these simple pleasures in the new millennium too. An elephant walking on to the rock at Buttuwa on a moonlight night; a leopard out from under the Maradanmaduwa bungalow at dusk and slaking its thirst at the villu; a sambhur belling its challenge on the water’s edge at Sinuggala; elephants trumpeting in the river at Yala; a bear screaming on the bund at Manikkapolauttu, what price can be put on these? Priceless to the many that have seen or heard them and contrary to the Director’s assertion, these many from all walks of life.

The abuse of the bungalows has come in recent times with block bookings being made by politicians, especially at holiday time, in the Director’s name. It is true their maintenance, especially of the monstrosities built in recent times, leave something to be desired. But that has been due to the maladministration, and can hardly be blamed on the wildlife enthusiast or the bungalows!

Of course, the alternative of "hotel" type accommodation on the outskirts of the Park will bring in a great deal of revenue to the Department and the World Bank. Sadly, the aesthetic does not occur to the administrator or to the profit-seeker either! Is this a sign of the things to come? A degradation of the delights of solitude?

Strangers as Experts

The draft proposals also call for consultancy from experts, many of them foreign! These foreign experts will be paid a large amount of money, much, much more than is paid to the local consultant. Why?

These foreign experts are often from countries that have little wildlife or wild places of their own; long destroyed by the people of their country. Yet, they come to preach to us in the Third World, to tell us what we should do to ours. Theirs is a theoretical ‘expertise’ and can have little bearing on the wildlife, wild places, or their relation to the culture of Sri Lanka. Their mandate will come from their paymasters, and their objectives will be accordingly so. Little benefit to Sri Lanka!

With the wealth of experience and knowledge that there is in this country, recognised abroad but not at home, there should be no need to bring in these foreign experts, except in very special cases. Jayantha Jayewardene and Charles Santiapillai are acknowledged worldwide as the foremost experts on the Asian elephant. Rohan Pethiyagoda and Kelum Manamendra-Arachchi are renowned for their knowledge on amphibians and reptiles. Dr. T. S. U. de Zylwa and Thilo Hoffman are unsurpassed in their knowledge of Sri Lankan birds. Few, if any, know more about Yala than Dr. H. I. E. Katugaha. Dr. Nihal Karunaratne knows every corner of Udawattekelle. Vernon Tissera, Anslem de Silva, Rex de Silva, Prof. Sarath Kotagama, Prof. Savithri Gunatilleke, Srilal Miththapala, Nihal Fernando, Lal Anthonisz, Ravi Samarasinghe, Eric Wickramanayake, Childers Jayewardene, David Jayaweera, Prithiviraj Fernando, and many, many more. The list of expertise available in this country is endless.

And if someone were needed to direct all of this knowledge in a competent way, what of that doyen of wildlife in Sri Lanka, Lyn de Alwis? The majority of the senior Game Wardens and Assistant Directors still left in the Department worked under him, and have retained his principles and values; experience that is marginalised within the DWLC. Sadly Singapore and the Middle East make more use of Lyn de Alwis than we in Sri Lanka do!

It has been proposed 192 person months of domestic and 137 person months of international consulting services are required. The latter approximately is as much as two thirds of the hours required of domestic consultants. So, much of the money available will be going back overseas. It seems to prove Hancock’s claim in his book The Lords of Poverty, that "...97 cts. of every $1 goes back to the World Bank".

What about the ordinary field workers?

One serious omission in the draft proposals is the employment conditions and welfare of the ordinary field staff of the DWLC - the Trackers, the Rangers and the Beat Officers. Currently, especially at Uda Walawe, many are on temporary contracts, and have been so for many years. Their contracts are broken from time to time, and they are then re-employed.

This ensures that they do not qualify for EPF or pension payments. Had this policy been perpetrated by any other than a Government Department, politicians would have cried foul, and legal measures taken to rectify matters. The result of this policy is that young, enthusiastic, and very able young trackers are tempted away to jobs that offer greater financial and long-term security. Thus the Department loses many of its young, dedicated field staff.

These staff are also provided with minimal personal security, and suffer at the hands of poachers, local villagers, and as has recently been demonstrated at Uda Walawe, by piqued politicians; a matter that has been conveniently swept under the carpet. They are doing their jobs to the best of their ability. Should they not be protected in giving this vital service?

Paving for Mismanagement

Those involved in conservation will recognise that many of the positive measures proposed in this paper are not new. They have either been in practice, under the direction of the more enlightened administrators of the past, or have been mooted around for some time, but never been put into practice. The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Project has, in the past, had many such programmes, and many million dollars spent on them, but faced with Government and Departmental inertia, they have largely come to naught.

 What chance have these?

Scrutiny of these documents will also show that the Government is responsible for financing 26% of the total cost of these proposals. So there is no doubt that financial aid is necessary to enable the vast changes that are necessary to make the DWLC relevant to conservation again.

But is this the right form of aid? Is it being spent on the right things? Is there a price to pay for it? Are there other ways to make up some of this money i.e. by utilising money made at the gate back into the development of the parks?

As highlighted in the paper, the financial and economic analyses require "...further input by an economist". It is hoped that this input looks at other alternatives rather than the options in this paper alone. This must be the duty of Government before entering into an agreement.

As the eminent environmentalist and businessman Paul Hawken warns

"Not one wildlife reserve, wilderness, or indigenous culture will survive the global economy. We know that every natural system on the planet is disintegrating. The land, water, air and sea have been functionally transformed from life-supporting systems into repositories for waste. There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world. "

After all, this mess in Sri Lanka has come about by politically orchestrated incompetence, mis-management of wildlife and the apathy of the DWLC. It is surely the Government’s responsibility to the citizens of this country and to posterity to try and rectify these enormous lapses, to conserve the wild creatures and wild places of Sri Lanka as the vital, precious and sustainable heritage that it is. The learned Judges who presided over the recent case made by some villagers of Eppawela, in their ruling against the respondents made these wise comments,

"A study of the material submitted...shows that the question of benefits is a highly controversial matter, but one that must be gone into, for our democratic republic sets great store by the discovery of truth in matters of public importance in the market place of ideas by vigorous and uninhibited public debate. In the debate, perhaps, we need to consider whether income and economic growth on which the respondents lay great emphasis, are the sole criteria for measuring human welfare. "

It is also important that conservationists raise their voices to ensure these principles. For if this heritage is lost, we will all be to blame, and will be cursed by generations to come!

Land in limbo for Serupitiya villagers

by Sumadhu Weerawarne and our Kandy Corr. Cyril Wimalasurendre
Ran Menika a grand ma of fifty-plus climbed the inclines of Serupitiya, in the Walapane area with a grand child in tow. On inquiry she lilted that she was going for the event. The event was the official handover of the village to the people, where her brother too would get a house. It was one that had been nurtured under the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology programme of the Ceylon Tobacco Company with principal funding from the National Trust Fund.

It had cost Rs. 2 million, Rs. 1.3 million of which had been provided by the National Trust Fund and the remainder by the CTC. For the CTC this was similar to a project that they had initiated in 1993 at Dadayampola.

In due course the event got underway and the necessities of the occasion were conducted while the villagers looked on. As a final token certificates were handed over to the villagers by a Director of CTC Vijitha Malalasekera, designating the location of their plots. It seemed that they had been given their long awaited entitlements. Sadly, this was not the case. What the villagers were given were certificates under the hand of the CTC, which had no value above serving as location maps. They were not documents of any legal significance, granting the villagers the right to the property.

As the Divisional Secretary for Walapane S. M. Nandadasa explained, the village was located within the boundaries of a protected area under the Department of Wildlife. The hope he said was that the boundary would be demarcated allowing the village to be developed as a permanent settlement. "You have no legal entitlement to the land," he told the villagers who had gathered. The only legal rights accorded had been permits granted to a group of five to six farmers to conduct chena cultivations in the area.

The project had been officially initiated by the current Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in 1994, with funding from the NTF, previously the Janasaviya Trust Fund. But as one of the officials pointed out most NTF projects were those that seemed to be perched in mid air. The one at Serupitiya, which was obviously for the benefit of the villagers, was of indeterminate character to the extent that even today it has no real implementing authority the NTF having ceased to exist.

The village it seemed had an indeterminate existence, its residents relegated to a virtual limbo. But the villagers were happy enough. First, because they were ignorant of the legal wranglings and second perhaps because limbo denoted an existence above the hell that they had hitherto known.

The SALT system was one pioneered by Ray Wijayawardena. It was one that conserved the soil from erosion, basing itself on the original stone terrace system. A layer of the branches of the Ginisedia plant was laid atop the soil. This plant readily available had two benefits, the first was that it helped bind the soil, minimising erosion, the second was that it provided three per cent Nitrogen to the soil. "This is not sufficient, but it cuts down the amount of Nitrogen that must be introduced," Mr. Lakshman Nugawela said. Ironically, tobacco plantations are those that cause a severe depletion of Nitrogen levels in the soil, making vast areas infertile in a short span of time. They also contribute to soil erosion. In recent times the anti-tobacco battle has reached unprecedented levels with the President herself issuing strictures that no tobacco must be cultivated in land under major irrigation projects. The aim of the project from the perspective of the farmers was that it would accord them a stable cycle of income. The farmers have so far cultivated with rainwater, their land being no part of irrigation projects. A line water system has been set up to overcome the problem, but whether it will be long lasting, time will only tell.

The Serupitiya project located at 500 metres above sea level was for 20 farmers, with an extent of 20 acres. The crops that would be introduced were coffee, pepper, coconut, mango, plantain, lime and pineapple. Each farmer was given a house of permanent structure, which it seems was a far cry from the abodes that had given them shelter upto that point. Their previous abodes were those that were only too vulnerable to the natural elements. Always having had a precarious existence, to them the prospect of change was alone good enough.

B. M. Alahakoon a father of three, tall, wiry, made old by battle with the elements was one of the residents of the newly formed SALT village. He and his family were among those who had chena cultivations in the distributed land. "We used to grow vegetables and corn. It was a real battle to protect our crops from wild animals. Wild elephants would come several times a year, and the wild boars bothered us all the time. With the changing weather pattern we have only been able cultivate in the Maha season. We lived on whatever money we made until it lasted and did other things to supplement our income thereafter. My family has been cultivating in these parts for more than 15 years," he said.

His children attend a school farther up the hill, at Pannala. The school has 900 students and 30 teachers. "My children walk over two miles to get to the school". He does not place much value on educational prospects. "My children will study as long as they can, or choose to. I hope that we will get electricity and better roads". The existing road is no more than a dirt track, with depressions on the sides serving as culverts. There is little doubt that they become no more than muddied slopes during the rainy season.

Asked if a system for deposing of crops had been established, he said that they would send the produce to the Central Market, singly.

A. J. Ratnapala a father of two also a recipient under the SALT scheme, explained his family’s consumption pattern. "We have two meals a day, roti or paan for one and rice for the other. We have the rice with two vegetables. We have fish or meat on occasion. These are special occasions." His son 16-years-old, has given up school. He helps his father in the field.

The Divisional Secretary Nandasena explains that the villagers are those who do not too far into the future. "The pattern in these parts is for villagers to cultivate and live on the earnings that they make until they are depleted. Only then will they look to something new. There is no continuity." By way of example he said that under a project of the Ministry of Livestock Development, each family in certain areas had been a given a milch-cow, especially imported for the purpose. This was obviously in line with a similar project in India. But the outcome was very different. "The villagers were also given cement to line the floor of the sheds. The villagers instead of using the cement for the said purpose, used it instead for their homes. This was justified from their point of view. But it didn’t help them with their earnings. Sometime later the cattle too were sold."

The other project was the one at Dadayampola also in the Walapone electorate. This is one funded solely by the CTC. Spanning 115 acres, 82 families have benefited under the project. The company built 15 houses for the poorest of the families in the area. It was set up in 1991, and cost the company Rs. 2 million. Here too using the SALT technique, seasonal and permanent crops were introduced.

Kalu Banda (42) one of the beneficiaries of the project expressed satisfaction with his lot. "I grow pepper, coffee, avocado, coconut. My earnings are sufficient". He was however, loathe to divulge his earnings. It was clear that he was one who was totally committed not just to his own plot, but also to the company. "People are jealous. They are jealous that I work closely with the mahaththuru," he said. Asked if he would grow tobacco on his plot if he were asked to do so, his response was a very firm "yes". But he added that the company had asked them not to grow tobacco in their plots.

As its parting act, the company laid a new water line. This too proved contentious, because there were those of other villages also on the steep inclines without water. They could not understand why they were not so provided. The villagers of Dadayampola were fearful that angry members of neighbouring villages would break their line, unless a system was evolved to share the water. Our instinctive reaction was one of shock at their contemplated treachery. One would however do well to remember that these are a people, seemingly with no prospects beyond basic survival, who have eked out such an existence for generations.

Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation of Sri Lanka sponsors Buddha Poornima celebrations

The Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation of Sri Lanka sponsored this year’s Buddha Poornima celebrations at Sai Baba’s Brindavan Ashram in Whitefields, near Bangalore, where thousands of mainly Buddhist devotees gather annually to celebrate the Buddha Poornima (Vesak) with Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

Over 3,400 Lankans from all walks of life were in Bangalore from May 19 to 21 to participate in the program, receive Sai Baba’s Dharshan and listen to the three discourses the Bhagwan delivered on May 20, 21 and 22 on the Buddha’s teachings.

The main hall was packed to capacity and the crowd overflowed into the yard where tents were erected to protect the devotees from the heat of the sun.

Many distinguished Lankans including Deputy Minister Lakshman Kiriella and his wife, High Commissioner Mangala Moonasinghe and Mrs. Moonasinghe, Gen. Rohan. de S. Daluwatte and his wife and Ambassador Warnasena Rasaputra and Mr. Karu Jayasuriya were among the Lankans at the gathering.

Participants said that the success of the celebration was due to the hard work of a committee appointed by the Central Council of the Sathya Sai Seva Organisation here who made the arrangements.

Girish Karnad in Tamil

Nagamandalam by the Indian playwright Girish Karnad will go on the hoards on the 12th of July at 6.30 p.m. at Lumbini. The play is troth translated and directed by Sivamohan Sumathy, lecturer attached to the Dept. of English, University of Peradeniya.

In Sri Lanka Karnad is best known for his films and his play on governance and the state - Tughlaq. Nagamandalam is a lesser known play. It deals more squarely with the issue of gender within a South Asian framework than does Tughlaq.

Here the playwright weaves two local folk tales together, bringing out the frustrations and desires of women and their strategies of survival. It is a finely crafted expression of the story telling tradition in which the fantasies and desires of ordinary people attain epic proportions: a bride is locked up in the house, left alone to spin her own fantasies about life and its marvels; a blind woman brings in her own stock of wisdom and magic. But will these suffice?

Enters the Naga (cobra) and there have we, theatrics proper. Yearnings, fantasies blended together in a love potion turn one woman’s story of imprisonment into a magical moment of empowerment.

The production of this play by the theatre group Arangadigal and Vibhavi - Centre for alternative culture is a part of a protracted project to introduce the Tamil speaking viewer to a diversity of theatrical traditions. Earlier this year, Arangadigal produced a play on the question of Women and the nation directed by Sumathy.

Nagamandalam takes the question of gender further, framing the issue within a South Asian context.

Today, the Tamil theatrical scene is dominated by a slogan mongering culture for the most. It is important to develop a theatrical culture of thought provoking complexity. Nagamandalam is an apt play for such a project.

Sixth A330 airbus acquired
Fly high with pride

by Suresh Perera reporting from France
The new ultra-modern A330 Airbus touched down at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) that breezy Friday morning as the country’s national carrier, SriLankan Airlines, took delivery of the latest multi-million dollar addition to its fleet.

Akin to its five predecessors, this wide-bodied, 281-seater aircraft also came from the Airbus Industrie headquartered in Toulouse, France which is one of only two manufacturers in the international market for commercial airliners seating more than 100 passengers.

What exactly is Airbus Industrie which has been in the news and raked much controversy in Sri Lanka after the Airbus deals were announced? It’s an European consortium with an annual turnover of US$16.7 billion in 1998, and the builder of the most modern airliner family in the world.

‘Though based in France, it is not French’, explains David Velupillai, the company’s Regional Manager, Press Relations. ‘There are German, British and Spanish partners too’.

Airbus Industrie which has steadily gained market share and now consistently captures close to half of all commercial airliner orders is owned by four leading European aerospace companies - Aerospatiale Maltra Airbus of France and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Airbus of Germany with a 37.9 percent share each, BAE SYSTEMS of the UK with 20 percent, and CASA of Spain with 4.2 percent.

‘Last year we sold around 300 aircraft, that’s more than one aircraft per working day’, Velupillai told a group of visiting Sri Lankan journalists at the Toulouse headquarters of the consortium.

‘With increased production, 311 aircraft will be manufactured this year, while the target for the years 2001 and 2002 is 336 and over 400, respectively’, he said.

‘During the past 25 years, Airbus Industrie has sold 4,000 aircraft to 170 airliners throughout the world. It’s a global business involving international major carriers.’

The journalists flew in to Toulouse aboard an Air France domestic airliner from Paris where they spent a few days travelling and visiting mostly places of cultural and historical interest.

With Sylvia, an English-speaking French guide at our disposal, it was an interesting round-up even to those in the group who had visited France on earlier occasions. The media delegation also toured Fontainebleau, Barbizone, Mersailles, Reims and a wine cellar in a vineyard 150 kms off Paris.

Coming back to the Airbus Industrie, the world’s largest airliner builder, A3XX, initially seating 555 passengers in first, business and economy class, is now being built there. So far about US$600 million has been invested in research and preliminary design of the A3XX family, which includes a larger A3XX-200 seating 656 passengers in three classes, as well as longer range, freighter and other versions.

Over 800 people are currently working on this giant full-length double-deck aircraft which is expected to enter airline service by 2005.

‘Though no documents have been signed so far, there has been a public expression of interest by big airliners to purchase these aircraft. There is in fact a commitment’, Velupillai said.

Asked how much each A3XX would cost, he replied: ‘The catalogue price is US$230 million. The investment for the A3XX family is in the region of US$ 10 to 12 billion. There is sufficient interest in the market’.

He said there is a commitment for 40 A3XX aircraft by major global carriers. Six companies have already expressed interest in this ‘flagship’ of the world’s airlines, including industry leaders Air France, Emirates, leasing company ILFC, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

Powered by four engines, the initial A3XX-100 will carry passengers on routes of up to 7,650 nm/14,200 km, allowing non-stop flights on heavily travelled routes such as Sydney-Los Angeles, Singapore-London, or Hong Kong-San Francisco. The A3XX family is being designed for airport compatibility, and will be able to use existing runways.

Aerospace manufacturers agree that passenger traffic will double in the next 15 years and triple in the next 22. Airbus Industrie believes that larger aircraft such as the A3XX is the only practicable way to meet this demand. This is especially true for flights among major cities, which are increasingly constrained by airport and airspace congestion.

Airbus Industrie forecasts a worldwide market for some 1,200 airliners with more than 400 seats over the next 20 years, plus a further 300 or so very large freighters, which is worth some US$320 billion - more than a quarter of the total airliner market worldwide.

Production of Airbus Industrie aircraft is shared with consortium partners across Europe. Fully equipped sections of aircraft are produced in the various factories of the four partners. They are then transported to Aerospatiale in Toulouse for final assembly in the case of the A320, A300/A310 and A330/A340, and to DaimlerChrysler Aerospace Airbus in Hamburg for the A318, A319 and A321.

A key to Airbus Industrie’s success is that final assembly represents less than four percent of the work that goes into each aircraft.

Transport of the aircraft sections among the factories is accomplished by the A300-600ST ‘Beluga’ super Transporter. This aircraft, a modified A300-600R, is the largest volume cargo aircraft in the world and transports all fuselage and wing sections of the various aircraft from factories to their points of final assembly.

‘The airbus Industrie is 30 years young’, said Velupillai responding to a question by a journalist.

The consortium is looking to the future with five new aircraft types that will sustain the success it has achieved since the introduction of the A300 almost three decades ago.

The journalists were also briefed by senior Airbus Industrie officials, Francois Caberet, Dionisio Olalla-Lopez and Ms. Suzanna Hrnkova before visiting the A3XX cabin mock-up and being hosted to lunch at the ‘Le Club’ restaurant with John Leahy, Senior Vice President Commercial, Dr. Kiran Rao, President of Airbus Industrie, India and some other top officials.

Airbus aircraft already form the backbone of airline fleets in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Airbus Industrie predicts an important market for some 330 airliners worth US$27.8 billion in the Southwest Asian region up to the year 2018. This is the result of its market forecast, which is based on a detailed analysis of the needs of carriers in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

It was the sixth and final A330 which Sri Lankan Airlines took delivery of on June 16. Earlier, it acquired four A340s from Airbus Industrie.

The visiting team of Sri Lankan mediamen were also taken to the A330/A340 assembly line where Velupillai explained the process of manufacture of aircraft.

Scores of robots are used in the assembly line mainly to screw in the nuts and bolts and lend a helping hand to keep production moving.

Though many of us had travelled in Europe previously, the sojourn in Paris was memorable, particularly because of the good cheer generated by the wit and humour of colleagues Keith Noyahr (Deputy Editor, ‘Daily Mirror’) and Sudath Jayasundera (Marketing Manager, TNL).

A visit to Lourdes was not possible due to the tight schedule and it turned out to be a big disappointment to Keith who had promised to bring some holy water back home. But, wasn’t there some relief, at least temporarily, when Upali Tennakoon (Editor-in-Chief, ‘Divaina’) announced that he had been able to unearth half a bottle of ‘holy water’ in Toulouse. What a stroke of luck! There it was, neatly wrapped and ready to take home. Upali, a man generous with smiles coupled with repartee, happily offered a little ‘holy water’ from his bottle. Anything for a journalistic colleague, Upali beamed.

But Keith, the cholesterol-conscious smart guy that he is, was indeed suspicious. Despite repeated attempts by some of the others aiding and abetting Upali, Keith declined the ‘holy water’ saying he preferred to go without it!!

On the long flight home also a bid was made to ‘convince’ Keith, but he wouldn’t accept it. Perhaps, he suspected, quite rightly, that the ‘holy water’ came straight from a tap at the Airbus lounge of the Toulouse airport!!!

It was left to Manuella Motha, the SriLankan Airlines media executive to look after the journalists and ensure that the programme progressed smoothly. Punctuality was vital and given the heavy agenda, it was at times difficult to adhere to time. And Manuella had a hard time at the luxurious Hotel Nikko collecting the lot and not keep the French guide waiting too long. After all, Sylvia was French and hence not used to the ‘Sri Lankan time!!’

It was time to return to our motherland. On the tarmac was the spanking new A330 airbus to take us home on its maiden journey. Keith was in a contemplative mood. He paused and strode towards two Britishers working for SriLankan Airlines. ‘Excuse me’, he began. ‘This aircraft is new. That’s fine, but is the pilot also new? I mean is this his maiden journey?’, he queried nervously. ‘Absolutely not’, the two Brits assured him. ‘He is a man with wide flying experience’, they said.

‘Keith, are you jittery?’, I asked him. ‘No, I have two infants, machan’, he shot back with a sense of relief.

After a near eleven-hour journey, we were back in the country we belonged to - our land where life was not as what it is in Paris.

We had returned to Sri Lanka where life drags on amidst the chaos, disorder and the bombs....

Exclusive to the Sunday Island
UNDP Poverty Report, Janasaviya and PA’s disaster economics - [Part 1]

by Tisaranee Gunasekara
"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at...."
Oscar Wilde (The Soul of Man Under Socialism)

Having read the UNDP Poverty Report 2000, I was left with two overwhelming impressions. One was how far ahead of its time Ranasinghe Premadasa’s Poverty Alleviation programme, Janasaviya was - both conceptually and practically. The second was that by discontinuing Janasaviya the PA government made a strategic error, the price of which will have to paid not just by the regime but also the system and the country.

With two violent insurgencies in less than 2 decades, Sri Lanka can claim a distinction only a few third world countries share. The second JVP insurgency of 1987-89 was propelled by two main factors: one political (opposition to the Accord/IPKF); the other socio-economic (poverty, inequality and other social ills). The confluence of these two factors created an unprecedented systemic crisis. And there are adequate indicators that Sri Lanka is once more headed in a similar direction.

President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has publicly declared that she will push through the PA’s Devolution Package by August. Meanwhile the current UNP leadership is insisting on the acceptance by the Southern democratic polity of the LTTE’s right to veto any political solution to the ethnic problem. The various statements made by the UNP give the impression that Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe’s acceptance or rejection of the Package depends solely on Mr. Prabhakaran’s opinion on the subject.

The PA’s identification with the Package and the UNP leadership’s identification with the LTTE will serve to intensify the sense of betrayal felt by a substantial segment of the majority community and provide a window of opportunity to forces of extremism and fundamentalism in the South. The situation will further deteriorate if the PA makes the ultimate blunder of postponing parliamentary elections even by a couple of months - either because of the security situation or in order to push the Package through. Comments by certain PA Ministers indicate that such a step is under serious consideration, by at least a segment of the regime. I wonder whether the elements fantasising about a postponement and possibly a ‘constitutional revolution’ are familiar with the following lines by W. H. Auden: "The sky is darkening like a stain; Something is going to fall like rain; And it won’t be flowers" (The Witness).

Scorched earth economics

The situation is further compounded by the PA’s determination to wage economic war on the people. The recent stratospheric increase in the price of gas (and its aggressive defence by the President herself) epitomises the disastrous economic policies of the PA regime. The President in her defence of the price hike pointed her finger at the World Market (just as her mother used to do during the 70-77 period, as her policies brought the economy to the brink of ruin and a large segment of the populace to the point of starvation). This explanation was negated by the Deputy Finance Minister Prof. G. L. Peiris who stated that prices will come down by the end of the year, with the termination of the monopoly status granted to Shell by the PA regime. Obviously the massive price hike was the direct and logical outcome of the PA’s erroneous privatisation policies which enabled a foreign multinational to hold the people of this country hostage.

Thus the primary reason for the growing crisis in the economy and in the living standards is not so much the war but the incorrect economic policies pursued by the regime in the last 6 years. Take for example the PA’s commitment to total trade and financial liberalisation. An important outcome of this was the Indo-Lanka Trade Pact. Theoretically this Pact is supposed to open up the vast Indian market to Lankan exporters. Actually only a very few (if any? of our exporters will be able to attain this goal.

According to informed sources the likeliest outcome is the relocation by many local industrialists of their operations in India as joint ventures. Retrenchment and not employment generation will follow leading to increased unemployment, greater povertisation and the further diminution of the domestic market. Another such example is the government’s decision to open up our financial sector in the hope that it will attract greater foreign investment. Things work out differently in the real world.

Financial markets

According to the author of the Annual Report of UNCTAD, most new foreign direct investment go to China which has not liberalised its financial markets (International Herald Tribune 18.2.2000). And China and Vietnam escaped the worst effects of the Asian Crisis "by having a non convertible currency, except for limited trade purposes" (IHT 28.12.98). Therefore the only likely outcome in the case of Sri Lanka would be greater vulnerability to the movement of international capital, particularly short term speculative capital which is always on the look out for the highest profits at the lowest risk in the shortest term.

The fact that the IMF offers the same policy package to every country which comes to it for help has been confirmed by none other than Joe Stiglitz until recently the Chief Economist at the World Bank. "Critics accuse the institution of taking a cookie cutter approach to economics and they are right. Country teams have been known to compose draft reports before visiting. I heard stories of one unfortunate incident when team members copied large parts of the text from one country’s and transferred them whole sale to another. They might have gotten away with it, except the ‘search and replace’ function on the word processor did not work properly, leaving the original country’s name in a few places." (New Republic - reproduced in the Sunday Island. Emphasis mine).

Inappropriate changes

Further confirmation is supplied by one of the leading lights of economic neo-liberalism, Jeffrey Sachs: "when countries go to the Fund for help it demands drastic, often inappropriate changes in their economic policies...actually worsening the situation... In Asia in particular the IMF seemed to want to restructure whole societies from the ground up in the process feeding rather than countering the ongoing crisis...." (IHT March 11th -12th, 2000).

The PA regime’s blind adherence to economic neo-liberalism and the standard policy prescriptions of the IFI’s is thus the major contributory factor to the weakening of the economy and the erosion of the living standards of the people. The latest in a long line of such policy prescriptions is the substantial devaluation of the Rupee on last’ Tuesday (20th) — a standard prescriptions of the IFIs for any crisis. This however will only serve to further debilitate the economy and lower the living standards of the people.

Some of the major negative outcomes of this measure would be a steep rise in the cost of living (due to imported inflation and increases in the cost of production of locally produced/assembled items with imported inputs); increase in the cost of imports; a deterioration in the debt service ratio and an increase in the defence expenditure also due to imported inflation (as we import most of our weapons systems and ammunition, as a result the % of the national income spent on defence will go up). Compared to these adverse effects any expected benefits from increased exports would be negligible.

 Expatriate community

The only ones to benefit from this step would be the expatriate community and those handful of locals who get paid in foreign currency (including the expatriate top executives of the former state enterprises sold to foreigners by the PA regime as part of its rampant privatisation programme). This then is the nature economy the PA has created with its extremist neo-liberal policies: "To get rich not by production but by pocketing the already available wealth of others....an unbridled assertion of unhealthy and dissolute appetites manifested itself, particularly at the top of the bourgeois society - lusts wherein wealth derived from gambling naturally seeks its satisfaction where pleasure becomes debauched, where money, filth and blood commingle.." (Marx - The Class Struggle in France)

The Premadasa way

Any country faced with the task of overcoming an economic crisis must first answer a decisive question. How should the costs of revival be distributed among the different classes and segments of the populace? Who (which class/es, which segment/s of the populace) should bear the bulk of the burden of economic renewal? The answer given by the PA policy makers is clear: the majority of the populace. According to the government propagandists the people will have to tighten their belts until the war is over. This sounds like that constant refrain during the 70-77 regime: asking the people to tighten their belts until goal of self sufficiency was achieved.

The main problem therefore is not so much the increasing defence expenditure but the attitude that the cost of any problem/project/goal should be borne primarily by the ordinary people. This is very much in the SLFP tradition which (unlike the UNP) never gave priority to the task of improving/maintaining the living standards of the ordinary people (doubtless a function of the feudal nature of the SLFP leadership).

Incidentally this is not to say that the war against the LTTE should be abandoned or de-prioritised. Far from it. What is important to remember is that this blase attitude to the living standards of the ordinary people will adversely affect the war effort aswell, in at least two ways. Firstly the economic difficulties faced by their families will undermine the morale of the soldiers. Therefore if the government is intent on heaping burdens on the people, the least it can do is to come up with an effective package of relief measures for the families of the soldiers. Secondly the growing economic crisis and the government’s insistence that no palliative is possible until the war is over will serve to discredit the war effort in the eyes of the people and strengthen the ‘peace at all costs’ lobby by enhancing pacifistic and defeatist sentiments in the South.

Right approach

The experiences of the Premadasa years prove that with the right approach and policy package an economic crisis can be managed without overburdening the masses. Premadasa inherited an economy which was ravaged by years of civil strife: plummeting growth rates (1.6% in 1987 and 2.6% in 1988); high unemployment (19.5% in ’85/’86); widening budget deficit (12.6% in ’88); unfavourable Balance of Payment (SDR million -64 in ’88); and deteriorating debt service ratio (28.7% in 1985). In brief an economy caught in a vicious downward spiral. "The civil disturbance in particular took a heavy toll on the economy by way of wide spread damage to property and the capital stock and the loss of output due to orchestrated work stoppages and prolonged shut-downs. The worst of course was the atmosphere of uncertainty and gloom which seriously blunted the initiative and drive for investment and growth". (Annual Report of the Central Bank 1989). Consequently the government was forced to seek an Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (ESAF) in 1989. The IMF granted the facility - with the usual harsh conditionalities. Premadasa regime was therefore more dependent on external sources of funding than any of its predecessors and consequently more vulnerable regarding the kind of economic strategy it should adopt.

Despite this extremely difficult context Premadasa’s approach was the polar opposite of that of the PA. "If our democracy was to survive, indeed if society itself was to survive, we had to tackle the issue of poverty directly, without waiting for the benefits of growth to trickle down.... I realised that if we merely waited for trickle down to work, the very engines of production, and democracy itself, would be destroyed." (A Charter for Democracy April 1990). Therefore the Premadasa approach to crisis resolution was characterised by a conscious effort to shift the burden of renewal away from the already overburdened people. In this endeavour a major role was accorded to the poverty alleviation programme, Janasaviya (JSP).

JSP as pathbreaker

According to the UNDP Report "A new generation of poverty programmes is needed - to make growth more pro-poor, target inequality and empower the poor" (p. 9). Ranasinghe Premadasa thus identified the nature and the objectives of the JSP almost a decade before the publication of the UNDP Report: "Janasaviya is not a dole or merely a welfare programme. Its primary purpose is the activation of the people. It enables them to participate in production and share in its benefits. Janasaviya also seeks to make people self reliant, acquire a new confidence and become actors in their own destiny. It seeks to break down alienation and involve people in the social process". (A Charter for Democracy. Italics mine). Janasaviya therefore was a "democratisation process" and a "liberating movement" because apart from enabling the poor to become involved in the development process it will also make it possible for them to participate more meaningfully in political, social and cultural life"

(Ranasinghe Premadasa - 25.5.91. Italics mine)

Commitment to Poverty Reduction

According to the UNDP Poverty Report a key attribute in any successful poverty alleviation programme is commitment to poverty reduction. Ranasinghe Premadasa once said: "I consider it a crime to tolerate poverty in any society...." (A Charter for Democracy). The JSP was based on this belief. This gave the struggle against poverty an impetus, a sense of urgency, making it the main focus of the Premadasaist development strategy. Janasaviya was not just another welfare/poverty alleviation programme. It was the lead programme of the Premadasa regime, the main axis of its development strategy.

According to the UNDP Report and the Copenhagen Social Summit resolutions, commitment to poverty eradication necessitates a multidimensional approach to poverty. JSP was based on the premise that poverty was not simply economic. As Premadasa pointed out "7 million out of a population of 16 million were on food stamps. This is looking at the problem only in economic terms. But the problem is even more desperate than that. In psychological, moral and spiritual terms nearly half the population of our country were discontented, demoralised and desperate (A Charter for Democracy). "The Janasaviya Poverty Alleviation Programme (JSP) was based on a multi-faceted conception of poverty. Poverty was identified not only as economic deprivation but also as social marginalisation and psychological debilitation.

Disgruntled bystanders

The JSP was therefore designed with the objective of addressing all these diverse symptoms and consequences of poverty. It was meant to be a multi-pronged attack on poverty in all its forms and manifestations" (JSP Research Report by the Premadasa Centre. Lanka Guardian Jan. 15th 1997). Janasaviya was therefore conceptualised as a "total programme - economic, social, cultural and political - to bring into the mainstream of our society as active participants those who are now only disgruntled bystanders" (Premadasa - A Charter for Democracy)

Another recommendation of the UNDP Report was setting targets for eradicating extreme poverty/substantially eradicating overall poverty. The JSP had as its target the eradication of poverty among the poorest of the poor. All families with a monthly income of less than Rs. 70O/(i.e. falling below the poverty line) fell into the category of poorest of the poor and were entitled to Janasaviya. 1, 1 18,331 families were identified throughout the country and these were provided with Janasaviya entitlement certificates. The objective was to eradicate extreme poverty at the end of a prescribed time period by enabling these families to become productive members of society.

Developing National anti-poverty plans

According to the UNDP Report "Anti-poverty plans need to be comprehensive.." (p. 31). The JSP was a comprehensive anti-poverty plan aimed at addressing poverty in all its dimensions. It was conceptualised as consisting of three main parts or aspects: the consumption and investment components; granting the contracts for government’s capital construction projects to the JSP instead of the private sector; creating a tie up between the private sector investment programme and the JSP.

The total JSP grant was Rs. 2,500/- per month of which the consumption allowance was Rs. 1,458/- and the investment component was Rs. 1,042/-; The consumption allowance was not granted in monetary terms, but in the form of a basket of goods. Though at one level this was a food subsidy at another level it was a necessary measure to enable the poorest of the poor to enter the development process. "First provide the people with the necessary nutrition for their physical well being. There after let the people provide the nutrition for increased production. It is only in that way that the country’s economy can be strengthened and the income of the income earners can be raised and a better standard of living assured." (Ranasinghe Premadasa 16.3.90).

The UNDP Report identifies more resources, a sharper focus and a stronger commitment as necessary characteristics of a new anti-poverty strategy. The planning of the JSP was so thorough that the consumer needs of the families were estimated from rice right down to umbrellas and coir brooms. A total number of 455,132 families (40.7% of the target group) in 99 AGA divisions were covered by 1994, the time the PA discontinued the JSP. The total expenditure on providing ‘basket of goods’ for these families was Rs. 12,650 million. These families managed to save a total amount of Rs. 2,163.79 Million and the value of the community work done by them was Rs. 455.89 Million. During this period various state, community and co-operative banks granted 238,889 Janasaviya borrowers a total sum of Rs. 1314.02 Million. (Databook of Progress -Janasaviya Commissioners Department).
To be Concluded

The Asiaweek Report
Tracking Tigers in Phuket
A secret Tamil guerrilla base embarrasses Bangkok

by Anthony Davis
officially, the government’s "Amazing Thailand" tourism campaign ended last December, after a year’s extension. But unofficially, some folks can’t get enough of a good thing. If recent events on the resort island of Phuket — involving a mini-submarine and a secret base - are any indication, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are still enjoying an amazing stay in Thailand. And given the importance of their "home away from home" to the separatist war in Sri Lanka, they will be in no hurry to move on.

There have been reports of Tiger activities in Thailand since the mid-1990s. Bangkok has generally shrugged them off for lack of evidence. But the Phuket affair has clearly embarrassed the government. The row began on April 9, when marine police at Phuket’s Rassada stopped a truck. They suspected its driver was involved in oil smuggling linked with a tanker anchored off the resort. It turned out that Christy Reginald Lawrence, a 40-year-old Sri Lankan-born Tamil with Norwegian citizenship, had nothing to do with that racket. But when the police accompanied him to the office of Seacraft Co. Ltd., which he co-owned with a Thai partner, they found much more to interest them than oil.

There and on a high-powered 17 meter boat, they discovered sophisticated sonar and global positioning system equipment, satellite phones, combat-training videos in Tamil, and LTTE calendars and uniforms. Worried by the implications of the underwater sonar, Thai navy officers searched Phuket’s shipyards — and found a half-built mini-sub at Koh Si-rae. Officials quickly clammed up, citing "national security" concerns.

But Lawrence, whose wife is Thai, is just one figure in the Tigers’ operations in Thailand. Over the last decade, the country has become a vital interface between tine LTTE’s war at home and its relentless international arms-procurement efforts. "It’s a nerve center," says one intelligence source. A nation where plentiful foreign tourists and businessmen make blending in easy, Thailand provides access to several former war zones; and their surplus weaponry. It offers excellent communications and a short see hop to Sri Lanka. And, as elsewhere in the region, money can buy cooperation in high places.

The Tigers have been active in Phuket since the late 1980s. In December 1990, port authorities at Penang impounded the Sunbird, an LTTE commercial vessel, and seized diving and communications equipment and some ammunition. The Sunbird had also called regularly at Phuket. When a Tiger base in Myanmar was closed in 1996 after protests from Colombo, Thailand’s Andaman Sea ports became still more important.

LTTE front companies and sympathizers in Bangkok have provided back-up for an extensive logistics network. Munitions have moved not only through Phuket, but also Ranong and Krabi on the Andaman coast, as well as Sattahip on the Gulf of Thailand. In January, Thai police seized a trawler near Ranong, carrying Carl Gustav rocket launcners. The incident, which was hushed up, involved a link-up among the Tigers, anti-Yangon Karen guerrillas and the Arakan Liberation Party, another Myanmar insurgent group known to have contracted out its shipping services. Since Lawrence’s arrest ??????? say intelligence sources, arms have also moved through Haadyai and Songkhla on the Gulf of Thailand.

Most of the hardware the Tigers critically need (artillery and mortar rounds, surface-to-air missiles, big-caliber machine-gun ammunition) is both in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and North Korea. That makes Thai ports key for transshipment. Munitions are switched from ocean-going vessels to smaller craft that make the risky 1900-km run to Sri Lanka’s northeastern coast.

Thai military intelligence is well aware of LTTE activities in the country, which Bangkok has told Colombo it will not tolerate. But with Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai’s government facing an election later this year, mouthing diplomatic niceties is proving easier than implementing get-tough policies against arms trafficking. Lawrence is now out of jail on bail. Worst-case scenario for him? Probably a fine for failing to pay customs duty on imported high-tech goods. That’s some thing Sri Lankan security officials would find truly amazing.

How the Bangkok Post saw it
Sub discovery thwarts Tiger sabotage plot in SL

Sermsuk Kasitipradit and Atthaya Chuen-nirun
A half-built submersible found in a Phuket shipyard part owned by a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel is destined for sabotage missions in Sri Lanka, an intelligence official said recently.

The official said the discovery confirmed suspicions the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had shifted regional operations to the South.

The vessel is believed to be to the same type as one seized by Sri Lankan forces from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Jaffna in the early 90s.

"This surprise discovery of the submersible would certainly affect the Tigers’ activities in the South," said the intelligence official.

Gen. Surayud Chulanont, the army commander, and Lt-Gen Narong Denudom, the Fourth Army chief, had been briefed about Tamil Tiger activity in the South, including the discovery of the submersible in Phuket.

Gen Surayud had made it clear earlier the army was aware of Tamil Tiger activity in the Phuket area.

Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister, had alleged early this year that Tamil Tiger rebels were using Phuket and the Andaman coast to channel weapons to Jaffna.

The submersible, found in the Seacraft shipyard on Koh Si-rae, is reportedly owned by Christy Reginald Lawrence, a Jaffna-born Tamil who holds a Norwegian passport. Intelligence officials have long suspected Mr. Lawrence to be a member of the Tigers.

Governor Charnchai Suntornmuch of Phuket was taken aback by the discovery even though he had already contacted security agencies for a thorough inspection of the vessel and the shipyard.

"From now on we have to be more strict about inspections of shipyards in Phuket," said Mr. Charnchai, who had earlier dismissed a Bangkok Post report of the discovery of the submersible.

Mr. Lawrence was arrested in April aboard a speedboat during operations by local police against oil smugglers in the Andaman Sea.

Instead of oil, police said they found Tamil Tigers-related materials including military fatigues and sophisticated equipment that included radar and sonar.

Local security officials had decided to make further search on Lawrence-owned shipyard and had stumbled on the vessel, about 10m long that could accommodate two or three people.

A Thai co-owner of the shipyard, who asked not to be identified, said he had not been aware of Mr. Lawrence’s activities in Phuket nor his alleged connection with the Tamil Tigers.

He admitted, however, he had been suspicious about Mr. Lawrence’s activities but dared not ask.

Apart from Mr. Lawrence, an American was another co-owner, he added.

Asiaweek raise the curtain of LTTE honeymoon in Thailand

by W. D. Soysa
Asiaweek is the latest to expose the LTTE Tigers who have been enjoying a blissful honeymoon in the Thai paradise under official cover. (see accompanying story.)

These revelations will no doubt embarrass the Thai Government once again, and their Embassy in Colombo. The Embassy denied in a statement published in the Island of 16/06/2000 the existence of LTTE in Thailand and whitewashed the discovery of a mini submarine as scraped and gave a comic answer to the question asked, as to why Norwegian LTTE leader who was caught with a boat full of LTTE military hardware and building the mini submarine was not deported.

The Thai Embassy reply was that, Lawrence will be very happy if he is deported to Norway. The suggestion seems to be that he will have it easier in Norway than in Thailand. The clear implication here is that in Norway, Lawrence will be given even a freer hand to ship weapons to Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka public deserves credible answers from the Thai Embassy to the revelations/accusations made by Asia Week of 16.06.2000. Over to you Mr. Ambassador.

Meeting of the Kims in Pyongyang

by Dr. Stanley Kalpage
The historic handshake between the two Korean leaders, Kim Jong-il of North Korea and Kim Dae Jung of South Korea on the tarmac of Pyongyang airport moved many on the Korean peninsula to tears. After five decades of artificial division and bitter hostility, this long-awaited meeting kindled hopes that the two Cold War rivals might one day be reunited.

The two leaders had not met before; they had not even spoken to each other. But by the end of the summit they were pledging to work towards reunification. The division between the two Koreas was more acute and generated greater hostility than the division between the two Germanys had ever been.

Unexpectedly, Kim Jong-il appeared at Pyongyang personally to meet his South Korean counterpart. They smiled with each other, hugged warmly and were even seen to hold each other’s hands as a stretch limousine whisked them off to the city. The road from the airport to the capital was lined with more than half a million people enthusiastically waving pink flowers.

The Joint Declaration

In the Joint Declaration which followed the historic summit in Pyongyang from 13 to 15 June, the two leaders agreed to solve the question of the country’s reunification by the concerted efforts of the Korean nation responsible for it.

They recognised tha the North’s proposal for federation at a lower level and South’s confederation views had common elements in them and agreed to work for reunification in that direction.

The North and the South agreed to promote the balanced development of the national economy through economic cooperation and build mutual confidence by activating cooperation and exchanges in all fields, social, cultural, sports, public health, environmental and so on.

The North and the South agreed to hold dialogues between the authorities as soon as possible to implement the above-mentioned agreed points in the near future.

A communist recluse

Until he burst upon the international scene on 13 June at Pyongyang airport Kim Jong-il was considered a vain playboy. Six years after he had succeeded his father Kim Il-sung, the charismatic communist ruler of North Korea, still remained a recluse and somewhat of a mystery. He had rarely appeared or spoken in public. Except for a brief secretive visit to Beijing at the beginning of June Kim Jong-il had not travelled outside North Korea since the 1980s.

Kim Il-sung, the Great Leader, had groomed his son ‘the Dear Leader’ for the succession by giving his son control of the armed forces although he had no previous military experience. When Kim Il-sung died in 1994, it took three years before Kim Jong-il took over the leadership of the ruling Korean Workers Party.

Within North Korea a cult has grown around Kim Jong-il who is referred to as "the peerless leader" and the "great successor to the revolutionary cause". He is credited with having extended his father’s personal principle of Juche, or self-reliance, which has guided North Korea’s economic development. He is said to have written two operas and designed the huge Juche tower in Pyongyang.

A veteran politician

On the other hand, Kim Dae Jung has had a different pilitical career. A veteran dissident, he has survived several attempts on his life during 40 years in politics one of which has left him with a permanent limp. In 1980 Kim Jung was sentenced to death for sedition, later commuted to a life sentence and then reduced to 20 years in jail during which time he taught himself English.

Kim Dae Jung entered politics in 1954 and has had a long and difficult journey to the Blue House. Hailing from the backward province of Cholla, his background was considered a handicap to his political ambitions. Undeterred, the persevering Kim Dae Jung coasted to victory in the presidential elections of December 1997 by striking an alliance with the small Democratic Party, based in the south east and led by Kim Jong-pil.

When elected to the presidency, Kim Dae Jung promised the voters democratic reform, campaigns to curb corruption and the political power of the country’s powerful industrial conglomerates known as the chaebols.

Most important of all, Kim Dae Jung promised to start meaningful talks with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il, which he has now made good.

Reunion of divided families

There is now hope for Korea’s divided families. The two Koreas are still technically at war. The three-year war from 1950 to 1953 ended in a truce and not a peace treaty. Millions of families were split up when Korea was divided and the two parts of the Korean peninsula had very little contact since then. Now there is hope that millions of families will be reunited. This was at the top of the agenda in the Pyongyang summit.

Both sides regard each other with mutual hostility and suspicion across the border along the 38th parallel, the most heavily guarded in the world. The only large-scale reunion of families took place 15 years ago. Time is running out for the very old who wish to see their relatives after fifty years of separation.

Cultural affinities dominate

Despite different ideologies, the North being communist and the South capitalist, cultural affinities transcend the North/South divide. Both are Confucian. Respect for elders is a key virtue. In fact during their meeting in Pyongyang Kim Jong-il scored in the public estimation by insisting that Kim Dae Jung take the prominent seat in the limousine (diagonally opposite the chauffeur, being generally solicitous as befits a junior to a senior.

Politically too the younger Kim from the North showed respect. Kim Dae Jung had not expected a full honour guard at the airport but this was provided. While observing these diplomatic niceties, Kim Jong-il managed to create an atmosphere of informality and even jocked about his press image as a recluse. He thanked Kim Dae Jung for saving him from his hermit’s life.

No longer can Kim Jong-il hide behind an aura of mystery. He will have to heed demands of public politics. When he makes a return visit to the South in the future, the spell of a hermit’s life would have been broken.

Diplomatic initiatives

Immediately after the Pyongyang summit the US administration took steps to ease the 50-year old sanctions against the North, continuing a process that began months ago when the isolated communist state agreed to refrain from building a ballistic missile. North Korea will now be allowed to export raw materials and goods to the United States and to open air and shipping routes between the two countries. US companies will be permitted to invest in agriculture, mining, tourism and a variety of other sectors in North Korea.

After years of isolation and suspicion of the outside world North Korea will now continue with increasing vigour its diplomatic offensive to establish relations with a number of important countries, not only the big powers but with countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Italy. the leaders in Pyongyang cannot be obvious to the fact that while the South has forged ahead and developed as one of Asia’s most affluent countries, the North has slid into dire poverty.

North Korea fears a resurgent Japan. Koreans have bad memories of Japanese occupation in the early part of the past century. They would not like a resurgent Japan to dominate North East Asia. They would therefore like to maintain friendly relations with both China and the United States. They feel that a close relationship between Japan and China would be to their detriment.

Improving relations with Russia would be important to counter balance the influence of China. North Korea would like to ensure a secure and independent Korean peninsula and they believe that close ties with Washington, Beijing and Moscow would be essential.

A new beginning

The Pyongyang summit holds out the promise of peace and stability in one of the world’s remaining trouble spots. It is up to the leaders of the two countries and of their neighbours to make good that promise.

Pyongyang has several strategic concerns but a primary aim is to have an independent Korean peninsula. North Korea has viewed successive Korean government as doing the bidding of their American masters. But Kim Dae Jung’s "sunshine policy" of constructive engagement with her neighbour has made North Kores reassess the situation.

While many things are negotiable in the future talks one aspect of South Korea’s relations with the United States may prove to be a sticking point — the development of foreign troops on Korean soil. The North will insist that the 37,000 American troops stationed in the South will have to be withdrawn.

ATM users beware

I have a Bank of Ceylon current account from a Colombo branch but I frequently withdraw money using my ATM card from the machine at the International Airport.

After one particular withdrawal of Rs. 1,000 my balance was a meagre Rs. 200.

After another deposit, I made a further withdrawal of Rs. 1,000, when I noticed that the balance showed Rs. 1,000 less than was expected. As this happened on a weekend (surprise, surprise!) I stifled my impatience until the Monday.

On Monday when I contacted the Colombo Branch Manager, I was told that there had been a further withdrawal of Rs. 3,000 from my account. Was I shocked out of my socks!! Anyway I was advised to submit a letter to the Airport Branch Manager so that an investigation could take place. A day later on contacting the Colombo branch, I was informed that the computer had recorded 3 separate debits on my very first withdrawal of Rs. 1,000 one of which was an overdraft when the balance was about Rs. 200. Was I speechless!! Computer had never been so generous with me.

On contacting the Colombo Branch Manager again, I was told that the computer division was looking into this. After several days of calling him I was told that the fault had been traced, records checked and the account to be soon reimbursed.

During this exercise it was always I who had to contact the officials concerned. Not even good news was conveyed to me. BOC has yet to apologize or even to verify whether this had happened to my account before. In any event, I won’t hold my breath till it happens.

I also wonder what would have happened had I not discovered the discrepancy myself.
M. R. Azeez,
Colombo 13.

Sex education in schools

by Cecil V. Wikramanayake
Many years ago there had been a proposal that sex education should form part of the school curriculum. At least in the higher forms of the school. Whether that proposal actually materialised or not is something that I do not know.

Apparently it has been shelved, because the number of young people who are almost totally ignorant of the ‘facts of life’ is one of the reasons why crimes against the person have increased by leaps and bounds in the past decade or so.

Children today are far more precocious than we were — that would be around seventy years ago — but precocity has brought them disinformation and misinformation rather than correct knowledge about the ‘facts of life’.

This is one of the reasons why sex education in schools, from a certain age upwards is so necessary.

Childhood is the time when the human being absorbs knowledge of all kinds, and it is vital that during this period the child absorbs correct information rather than distorted versions, picked up from their peers who are equally ignorant of the ‘facts’.

Like for instance, little Gautham, my son, who is only three and a half years old, was asked the other day by his mother "Do you know from where you came ?"

His reply was prompt. "Yes, from your stomach" he said, speaking in Tamil, which is his mother’s language, mine being Sinhala.

And then he asked his mother a question which set me thinking. "Did Appa also come from your stomach, Amma ?" he asked. His mother put him wise about that. "Your appa came from his amma’s stomach," she said. She, and I appeared to be satisfied with that, till Gautham asked her "Then where is Appa’s Amma?"

That of course led to explanations about how people grow old and eventually die.

But these questions coming from a little boy who is still not four years old, set me thinking. I am sure that when I was that age, I did not have half the knowledge that little Gautham has, nor did I have the enquiring mind that he has. I was quite content to play with toy cars and ride my tricycle.

Children today, as I said before, are at an age when they are thirsting for knowledge. Their thirst is far greater than what it used to be many years ago. And this is why it is very necessary that children should learn from their more responsible elders, like school teachers, rather than from their peers who could be equally ignorant.

I sometimes wonder, however, whether such teaching in schools about sex and what it really means and all that, would be advisable. There have been so many instances reported in the newspapers where teachers, who ought to know better, have been abusing their position as teachers to take advantage of children in their care. Sexually , I mean.

I remember, many years ago, when I was working in the South, the furore caused when a principal of a school was arrested by the police and charged with sexually abusing an eight year old girl in his school. What made it worse was the fact that the teacher concerned had, by this act, passed on to the little girl the venereal disease from which he had been suffering.

Apparently at that time there had been a belief that the act of intercourse with a virgin who had not attained puberty was a cure for that particular disease. This belief showed that even grown ups at that time were not properly educated sexually. And if adults were so ignorant, how much more would young children be?

In the result, it would become necessary carefully to screen those teachers to whom such a task is entrusted.

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