Page 1
Communalism
SqMqAASeMSAeMeMAeSMMAeSMMAeSeLALS0SLSASAASASAAAASLSASA SeASASASASASLMAAMAeMSSAAAAASSLAMALAMALSASAASALAMSAeAeMMAqA
Jaffna spectrum
Jayantha Somasunderam
"Sarungale' : Race in film Reggie Siriwardena J. Uyangoda
O POWERTY GROUPS NE
 
 

Priests and politics
Yohan Deyvananda
Sadat’s sellout
Mervyn de Silva
W LEFT e AH, ROSE MARY !

Page 2
osƏsƆŋunoɔ głosus səɔIJJO OVS *>[OoO seuOųLsụuəqAA -ầusųÁJəAq
;3Uueuleus SpeųLAA

SHITUHHJASHTTENWHI!
8!? I XoIPL £I–II gāz auoqdaļa L ToquoIPO equae ew axia||sueses uoling uus ogi
odot}^^^uəAB ‘laa eu! us au eu pəŋsnu, əų 1
XIOOO SPUUOULL
(170ԱHի IBMԵԱԼ
SOWy5
以
■ FL-1 !
■ No = 白門 33 | s=] 凡 *
SH[is[]1[][MWIMI

Page 3
  

Page 4
AS OTHERS
Oscar Wilde concc said that in ld days men had the rack, now they have the press. It might also have been a politician's lanent.
th
Frivolity apart, the press has a vital Tole to playin the Third World con
text as a parliament in perpetual ses8іоп.
The L. G. in its one year existence has played a useful rolc ás a window to world affairs. It is my fond hope that under the able Editor-ship of Mervyn de Silva it will make an enlightened contribution to the dissemination of information especially in an era where events in the international scene hawe their echoes elsewhere.
I have great pleasure in greeting the "Lanka Guardian' on this happy anniVersary.
A. C. S. Hameed M. P. Minister of Foreign Affairs
摩 臺
When the sponsors of the 'Lanka Guardian" undertook its publication they rightly judged that the reading public of Sri Lanka would welcome a journal of its character and scope. What has been published since has by and large given mc reat satisfaction, and I do not regret my
ecision to support it from its unception. My continued support is also assured.
Major-General Anton Mutukumaru
疆 量
I congratulate the Lanka Guardian" on its First Anniversary. It is sometimes good to see ourselves as others see us. The freedom to publish and thic freedom to disagree is a sacred right and this Government safeguards this right.
Ronnie de McI. M. P. Minister of Finance & Planning.
I have been following the progress of your Inagazine with keen interest. It is particularly refreshing to find a ja LITnal in English give so much prominence to Sinhala film, and Sinhala cultural activity in general, and publish such stimulating articles on these subjects.
Dr. Hema Goonetilleke
臀 晕
I am glad to send you this Thessage of congratulations and good wishes on the first anniversary of what you Say is a "modest publishing venture launched by a small band of journalists" in Sri Lanką.
To my mind a publication of this
nature necessarily reflects the journalistic perspectives of its Editors and the
교
SEE U
"Lanka Guardian" Els far as I can
conspicuous by its
of politics and soc which has come to This ställd af left
Inay I call it slight has bc.cn forcefully, na Lughtly been ca Guardian". I have I wish it continued it would show us cither in our action ing. Mr. Mervyn talents in the world affairs hawe enrich and may this conne Fear5 t come - ye lromendous importa
Gamini Ministe Mahay
朝
In the Sri Lankar listico intrigue the su dical for even on achievement. The only. Survived but g of bl CISSoming into Congratulations, Me gth to your pen.
R E.
The "Lanka Gua DCW gro Lind in the in Sri Lanka. The dent line it has take Year of its publicatic the future of the frc іп this сошпtгу
My hearty congr Mervyn de Silva on pletion of one yea his exccllent magazini for its continued suc
A. A mirthali Gen. Sec, Tamil Uni Leader of the Oppos
I am happy to Say Suardian" is helping best traditions of ser in atmosphere virhee overlooked in the inte Its Contribution to informed public opit sial social and politic hly commendable.
Dr. K. H. Dept. ըf University

JUS
from its inception, TC TC Tiber, has been שיf a typם חטitiצטיקלל io-economic thinking stay in Sri Lanka. of Centre thinkingtly left of centrelively and sometimes "ried in the "Lanka Crjoyed reading it. success and hope that where we arc wrong I5 Ör in Our thinkle Silva's un doubted of letters and foreign ed thi5 publication !ction continue in the as which will be of ICC LCD Sri Lanka.
Dissanayake. M. P. of Lands and eli Development.
li jungle_ of journaITvival af any perioyear is quite an "Guardian" has not iven ample evidence full flower in time. Wyn, and more stren.
L. Michael itor, “Independent"
戟
ridian' has broken ild of Journalism fearless and indepenin during the one a glls well for cdom of the press
atulations to Mr.
hic successful comr of publication of C and my best wishes
SS
hi gam. M. P. tcd Liberatican Front; ition, N. S. A.
章
that the "Lanka
to keep alive the ious journalism in
truth tends to be tests of expediency. the creation of an hion on controveral problems in hig
ayasinghe, Political Science.
of Feradeniya.
ar, regular reader of your journil. Although I do not agree with some of the yiews expressed by your writers I have found many very interesting artioles Written by Knowledgeable contributors. It is indeed a pleasure to see that a group of our own journalists could publish a magazine of such high standard.
Maitripäla Senanayake M. P. Dy. Leader SLFP
事 事
In the current state of a pre-cooked national press dripping with distorted leads, oozing paper dreams of a seduciwe: new måterialist world and blowing bubbles of a false paradise, the L. G. fulfills a custodial rolc in preserving a sense of academic balance and supplying a critical voice. In a culture dominated by the verbalist and the windbag it speaks with a distinctive voice and a Welcome virtuosity.
H. A. I. Goonetilleke, Librarian, University, Peradeniya
In the conditions of today Lanka to have succeeded in maimtaining a journal in thic English language out. side the management of the big news. paper houses is a considerable achievement. It is not necessary to agree fully with all its contents to wish the journal continued success.
in Sri
Bernard Soysa.
醇
To present "other news' and 'another opinion" was the raison d'etre of the "Lanka Guardian". If it did not come into cxistence by the fortuitou5 concourse of circumstances it would have been necessary to create it. Not simply because the major media in this cointry have been kept by the Establishment more openly than surreptitiously for nearly a decade now. But mainly because it is now widely realised that reality is a many-splendoured thing and our glimpses of it are necessarily "theoryladicin" and not "theory-neutral” ás Science once claimed. Accordingly in tellectual relativism is not a POTYKetable malady. Hence the case for "other news' and yet "another opinion' is epistenolo. gical y unansverable.
As a journalist Mervyn dc Silva has been articulate, rationai, sensible, realistic and skilled to the point of being ambidextrous. The "Lanka Guardian" has been a remarkable close reflection of its creator's attributes. It is a good journal. It could grow into a gTEAL
1.
Dr. Carlo Fonseka.
(Corாdே ar Fagg :)

Page 5
Trends
Moslem Politics
While Islamic polítics is now frī the forefront of world affairs, it is Interesting to note that this contemporary. phenomenon has had little impact on the Moslems here. -- We have no "political mullahs, red, green o'r blue The post / 973 coll price hi ke brought the Arab states not only enormous wealth but a new sense of power. As the shelk and newly diffuent Arabs went on a selfIntoxicating spending spree. In the West, "the ugly Arab" replaced the old "ugly American" and the "ugly Japanese".
Here, in Sri Lanka, the social behovsolur of the new rich Mossem (gems rather than oll) produced a Sinhdiese backlash with the Beruwela boys enjoying too high a visib.III ty. In the last years of the SLFP regime, there were orninous signs that sang inherited SinhaloTam || antipathles will give way to anti-Mosler sentments as incidents In Puttalam, Balangoda, Gosse, Panddura ett indicated. But this. W wę of anti-Moslem feeling, especially among the Sinhala middle class d'Ind business groups, appears to ha Ye receded.
Moslem Mayors
The SLFP has for the first time norminated a Moslem, Mr. A. H. Md Car) Markar, as its Mayoral candidate for - טmbםIםC
The UNP has not matched the SLFP's squarely. It has brought back a veteran city politician from his
post. In Malaysia. But it has thought It wise to name di Moslem ds Deputy Maүог.
How wis the Moslems wote? Inspite of the boastful clairns of the Badil-ud-dr n-Aff group (whateverhappened to the Islam sic Socialist Front?) the Moslem wote is solidly pro-UNP. Arab and Palestinian politics have ாரdcased only u mராgாரl group of усшпg educated Moslems.
PR and Pos
Fast unto death. The phrase is common enough in this country. Maybe the thought too. But never E“ = -et stself.
Self-immolation f other places ever of the Buddhist city against the puppi Catholic Nga DInh
A staunch SLFP dedicated supporter паked by greenshir the July polls, Js towп Iп o highly He is a burnt u ment of Mr. Ko SLFP's chief organ
PR. is already I. politics In the maj Is d real scramble |st ராசி right பp also braபght feuds into the open in SLFP.
In Kandy both է Wystf ther istis Wf Jocked in combat and-degr. In the a WIP's wife in the ber of the ruling
In Matile, ex Tennekolon, represe fo/k" prepared a c lenge Messrs Kobbe Gopallawd.
Heroes and H
Prime Minister In style. Newspap publicity material Prernt withie Mind j ferdse Ti sed if they though that the td stefully or work and d, the Wietnamese or The publicists of tres hawe a distir
There was a be of the girl who In April 1971 an pression of an he.
Yesterday's rebe is today's hero. mirrors the wiss Jaffna put tp a year old Sivakum staff writer in records in this is been pulled dow think it too defic Peraden iya, last y

S better krown sin
Eпče the marks of Hue protested
it regime of the
Der T.
ayast, d poor who was paraded ts In Matile after now going about Incendary rood. over the appointEbbeka duwe as the
ser.
nfluencing Internal ior partles. There the חם to get on top. This has and feudal fights both the UNP and
Ortles had trouble th key local bosses
Ver the rejtUNP. It was bout SLFPower dinerfamily,
-Minister T. B. nting the "humble oLunter - list to chal:kaduwe and Monty
roles
PFErd du 5 d does It ers which received frl Connector With mperi commemoraay have been excut, ať a first glance, produced material, ha di Corre fran CLubar ermib 55 e 5. those Ictive style too.
:autiful line drawing died so tragically
d on drtist's ri
reted Soldier.
or tragic victim
The change often tudes of politics. stattre to the J8 Iran but, d5 Our his
memorial to the student Weeras coriya whose death started the chain
of events that finally led to the
collapse of the sast regime,
Madist MoWe
Shdr" is fr AsHansa. 5 le com
ing Out of the cold? Ever i si mzc he severed links with Peking, Shan has been the lonely veteron of the Left. He found solace only in Tirana which continued to criticise both Peking and Moscow. Ideological affirities grew stronger when Enver Hoxha. Tot only denounced Peking's new foreign policy and its rapproChement with the US which Hoxha regards "the main enemy' but attacked China's "Three Worlds theory'. Hoxha has recently adjusted his
positům orie rmoře dnd Critici sed Mao Tse-tung thought. Here, Shan's dream is corning true. Those who
style themselves Maoists or are Maoistinclined are holding talks to form a single party. If these 5 groups (Shan, PDP, Mah finda Wijesekera, Nawa Lanka and the Janatha Sangarnaya, a JWP breakaway) agree, Shan will probably be general secretary and A. M. Jiradasd chairman.
W = |
specid report,
5 ué. the Statue has |
n by those who Int a symbol. In ear, they bшіIt d
LANKA GUARDAN
Wol. 2 No. 1 May I, 1979
Published by Lanka Guardian Publishing Co. Ltd. First Floor, 88, N. H. M. Abdul Cader Road, (Reclamation Road) Colombo 11.
Editor: Marw yn do Siwa
109.
CONTENTS
4, 25 Letters
5 - 6 News background 7 - 1 Jaffna spectrum 3 - 18 International news 20-21 Priests and politics 22 - 23 JWP and self
determination
26-27 Poverty groups 28 - 30. "Sarungale' 32 - 34 New Left 36-38 Ah, Rosemary!
Printed by Ananda Press 825, Wolfendha | Striçet, Colombo 13.
TElephone: 35975
Telephonic:
B

Page 6
Letters
Fowler vs. Haan
Now it can be revealed that the text of the original "Fowler" letter that caused all this to-do was not by a "local Fowler' at all. My first letter following the publication of Mr Haan's chefd'oeuvre raised the point that "the incongruity between simple things to be said and out-of-theway words to say them in has a perennial charm' only for the reader who "never outgrows hobbledehoyhood'. Almost the entire text of my letter, including the words just quoted, was from "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'; and I signed the latter "HW Fowler" lest anyone should cry "plagiarist'.
Mr. Amarada sa Fernando imagining that the views expressed were other than Fowler's own rushed into print calling the name of Fowler + "Te weted" and "hallowed" but characterising Fowler's use of the word "hobbledehoyhood' as a sign of illiteracy. Not content with this faux pas, in a second letter he proceeded to give a fanciful and quite absurd translation of one of the Latin tags used by Mr Hann which he
fatuously claimed I had misunderstood. He even called this "the cream of the joke". (Mr Fermando is, of Course, an intellectual feather-Weight who should not be permitted to get into fights outside his weight and class.)
In the meantime, Mr. Haan
himself enters the scene wearing false whiskers and a rubber nose, calling himself Dr Walbeoff Jansz. He proceeds modestly to speak of his own classic letter' as if It were on a par with Dr Johnson's letter to Lord Chesterfield. His disguise, however, is easily seen through partly because he has used it before and partly because his un mistakable prose-style is a deed give-away e. g. the sophisticated pun Fowler Fouler. (Get It?) This is a typical example of what Mr Fernando calls Mr Haan" 5 " 'cau5tit Wit and mordant humour".
As for correct E Wallbe of Haan is to point the finge give just a few ex impeccable diction:
pairs still continu раігеd". (The ri repairs2. Is this
հumour?) (2) -Wh it in the kitchen in sinuates itself ... i dining rooms. I re demolished forthwi it he wants demol The kitchen. The bedroom? The din the kitchen chimi which is not even where in the prec (3) "Ferreous ephe tic wit?) (4) "Each (5) And just one that blackassticock ter: "The Battle Silva is made to : as you ask of mE the Sixth to meat (The maaning Mr со сопvey is cleаг should hawe written evening'''.)
Colom Boo || 0.
Lak
Rejoinder to
We hawe not o a fool; we hawe ; Public view the f
FCULER ha5 gibi to admit that he the King's English "It was not poly took objection to ket Oxford Dicti compiled by H. genuine oпе) а brother F. G. nati We expressions (l) "take exceptic objection'. But o Fowler has thoug іпstead aп expres "take objection". to OUT previous : Instead of using guage like H. W. the effrontery to

English usage Dr
חסsitlסם סח חi r at others | amples of his
(I) ''The rea to Be url reepairs needed more lordant
enewer a fire is the smoke... n to my bed and :guest that it be ith". (What is ished. The fire? : smoke. The ing room? No, ey if you please, mentioned any:eding sentence.) merality" (Causand sundry'" example from Tey Snobs" charof the Blues'. i ay: '''I sha II do and summam next ewen ing". Han Wanted but what he W, 15 '''Tl''' :) Wr
H. W. Fowler" iith St. C Pieris
"FOWer"
nly called a fool also held up to pol's folly.
stimately refused has not spoken when he said: "syllables that I In the Poconary originally W. Fowler (the nd his worthy these two altercan be foundIn', and (2) "raise ur bogus H. W. it it fit to use ision of his ownHe has no answer Criticism of this. the English lan, Fowler, he had use his name.
It we w of the fact that FOULER has tried hard - to get the better of his batters, Mr. Ether de Haan
and Mr. Amaradasa Fernando - and failed - are we not justified in calling a fool by that name?
Then why must the fool protest that he has been treated with the contempt he deserves?
His crowning folly was of course trying to teach Mr. Fernando what
he imagined was the 'correct Scriptural quotation. Mr. Fernando did not say that he was citing scripture when he told FOULER, "Doctor heal thyself". Mr. Fernando, when he said this, was
speaking the King's English-something that FOULER had not done in his subsequent reply.
We told FOULER that he was not at al Justified in contending that "physician healthyself" is the correct text of St. Luke 4, 23. Wa stated our reasons at length in the Lanka Guardian of March 15th. FOU ER has no an 5wer to this.
Having proved to readers of the Lanka Guardian - and to his own discomfiture - that the "critic' badly needs to correct himself before be tries to find fault with his betters, Mr. Haan and Mr. Fernando, We then called him well-deserved names he did not like to hear. A he has to offer in reply is that he has nothing to say to us because we were caustic in reference to him.
Let FOULER conduct his polemics by meeting logical arguments with counter-arguT2nts, if he can. It is because he has no valid answers to our criticism. that he seeks refuge In complaining that we used strong language-'abuse" was the term he used - which was not inappropriate in describing him.
Finally we may ask why is the : polemicist reluctant to reveal his true identity when we requested him to do so? Because he dare not. It would be too painful for him to face the public after his ridiculous performance.
Wallbeoff Jansz .4 סbוחםIםC
(Ča rřrrJeď pri Page 3:5)

Page 7
News background
Concern oVero commLI
trends
he strong undercurrent of
racial feeling is causing widespread concern. Public organisations, both political and nonpolitical, are actively discussing practical ways of meeting this danger. The Committee for Na. tional Harmony recently entrusted a 'working group" with the job of recommending such measures. The Committee which was formed after the August '77 riots. Consists of well known personalities drawn from a II* ethnic and regious groups.
While the emphasis on effective counter-measures, discussions have also tried to identify Immediate causes which tend to exacerbate prevailing tensions.
All political thers selves fre freely condem others. The ches righteou tional harmon sentatives of addressed an Council on "r in the press. Racialism").
The - Пeүмү " places in the based om dist tios) has bee criminatory by belong to the front. They
injustice per telligent Studi
Left unity, disunity
United May Day rally still
eludes the disunited Left. But there hawe been some signs of change since last year. Despite frantic efforts to the very end by "honest brokers', a feeler last year by the 'New' Left for a common demonstration and rally with the LSSP-PDP came to nought. The PDP dropped out, and the troika became a two some,
The same initiative came this time with greater force because it came from below' . . . . from the trade unions. They wanted to testore , and re-actiwa te the broad TU unity of December 28. Discussions were held within the CTUAC (the Action Cominittee) with the proposal re-introduced by militant trade unions outside the LSSP-CP. The idea moved forward partly because the CP had instructed its trade union boss, L.W. Panditha to support E. The CP itself had arrived at this decision after much debate.
The LSSP's and stood firr of creating fr – LCP alia rice. was that Mr. kara 1п5ist5 с LSSP (new le: high comman that these 'N shout "advent CP kept the withdraw b L Forward di.
Meanwhile t hawe their pi morning but a together in a and hold a un i with their the ned by til de LiOS Employees, th A move to b was blocked grou PS. AS W|Jeweera, t -star of Left. his own thin

parties dissociate m Communalism and
In the activities of national press pгеа
SETT CIS "OT: T1 y. But the repre
20 organisations have appeal to the Press "acialist propaganda”
(See Press and
'quota' system for university (quotas ricts population ra
denounced as "disthe 10 parties that "New Left' united hawe called it an petrated on all inants."
aid "nothing" doing"
in despite the risk |ction in the LSSP The main reason
Wasudewa Nanayakin parading as the idership). The LSSP d ās rātā ned ew' Left groups will Lurist" slogans, The
a Eirice in tatt and ut the CP Paper I say it was "a pity"
:he 'new' Left groups blitical rally. In the III of them wi|| march single demonstration ted May Day meeting ranks being streng
several Welknown
like the CMU Bank a MEP ulio 15 etc. ring the TULF unions Tainiy by the Maoist
usual, Mr. Rohana he un disputed super -inclined youth do es
(in Tamil only)
* We arte Triss.
We are Musim S.
We dre Sin hdlese.
Our country is Sri Lanka, We are all people of this country,
We are friends."
The 5e benevolert Sentiment:5 come from page 30 of a first reader" | Tam II for Schoolchildre, published by the Educational Publications Department. On the same page, surrounding the text, are pictures of a Tamil famil (father, mother and າທີ່ and of similar Muslim and Sinhala families. Below is another picture, of the three fathers with arms round each other's shoulders. and the others and children In similar attitudes of mutual cordiality. (See cover)
Wery good. But parallel reader in Sinhaia, also published by the Educational Publications Department, which has been designed on the same general pattern as the Tamil reader. Both readers introduce children to their first steps in reading through the daily activities of a boy and girl, nursery rhymes and a simple story - the Hare and the Tortoise - and tha story is illustrated with the sams ictures in the same colours in oth Simhala amd Tami red35. It is clear on looking through both readers that they have been Conceived om similar" lines.
there is a
But with one important exception. The message that all of us - Sinhala, Tamil and Muslimare one happy family, the figures holding hands and claspi ng shoulders - the 5e are ab5Cit in tıp Sinhala book. On the corresponding page 30 in the Sinhala book appears instead a map of Sri Lanka with a patriotic rhyme which TuS

Page 8
“Lanka my land
пy beloved Іапd the land of my birth
this is my land."
Who is the "me" to whom this land belongs? As far as the Educational Publications Department's first reader is concerned, there is
nothing to suggest to the Sinhala child that It is anybody other than members of his own
race or linguistic group. And certainly it is clear from a comparison of the two readers that the Department thinks it important to preach inter-racial and intercommunalamity to Tamil and Muslim children from their first year of school, but inappropriate (or dangerous or demoralising) to bring the same message to the Sinhala child. "Give me a child for the first few years of his life, and you can have him thereafter,' was the thought once attributed to a Jesuit. Are there racists running our educational programme who think the same way?
The Tamil first reader bears the date 1977; the Sinhala reader the publication date 1978. with a note of acknowledgment by the Commissioner dated December 1977 This means that both the last regime and the present one must have been involved in the production of the books, since planning and preparation must hawe taken a Considerable time before publication; and this in any case is probably a matter in which educational policy has been (to use the customary American expression) "bi-partisan'.
Many years ago, a widely used set of Sinhala school readers, H. D. Sugathapala's Nava Maga, brought the idea of inter-racial and inter-communal sympathies to Sinhala children, not by Preaching it in the abstract, but by presenting it in a fashion that would be meaningful and interesting to young children - through stories of the involvement of two Sinhala children In the festiwals of their neighbours of other races and religions.
É
The Pr
R黜 organisation unions worker
ganisations, as ". human rights an
meeting under
the Co-ordinati
Plantation Area the following le Council; signed
Տ. J. and Reggie
"We wish to tion of your CC statutorily charg gulation of th Lanka, to the a gerous situation created by rac in the Press, a
news reporting hat w||| Inflam ments and acci
between the S speaking people
"A number o' smaller papers to racialist Pro tly come into E Sinhala and in the greatest th relations betwee Tamil speaking
the fact that th рарег gгошp5 Іп in the last few the more insi di dangerous policy racially inflamat news columns, t of reporting, di: of headlines. W that these pract o un CONSCIOLIS, ofte ob 5 erwed news story is g muna sant i different languag the sапne groшр,

ess and
es of over twenty s, including trade
апd peasапt orwell as d women's groups. ເງນີ້ ng Secretariat for
religious,
the auspices
S, hawe Submitted itter to the Press
by Paul
Si riwardena.
Casperz
draw the attenbuncil, as the body ed with the re
e Preš55 in Sri larming and danwhich Es being :ialist propaganda ld by tendentious of a character aialist senti2ntuate conflicts inhala and Tamil of this country.
f news-sheets and specially devoted paganda has recenexistence both in Tamil. However, reat to peасеfш| in the Sinhala and people arises from ie three big news
the country have
months, adopted ou 5 but ewen more " of highlight Ing pry stories in their hrough their mode splay and choice We can mot belewe ices are accidental
Since We hawe
that the same lwen warty ing Com1 newspape TS in es published by
racialism
"We fear that with the approach of the forthcoming local government elections, this kind of communally mischievous and inflamatory reporting and propaganda in the Press is likely to increase in volume and intensity. This may have expecially serious consequences in the plantation areas and other parts of the country, where Sinhala and Taml Speaking People live in close proximity to each other. Unless these tendencies are checked, the Press may be the principal, immediate cause of another outbreak of racial conflict.
"We urge you to use whatever Influence and authority you possess to exercise restraints on the Press in respect of matter which is likely to inflame racial feeling. We wish to observe that a special responsibility exists in the
case of the two newspaper groups which are controlled by the State
"We request that you grant us an interview at which we can produce before you documentary evidence from the Press to substantiate what we have said in this [etter."
Democratic Workers Congress Human Rights Organ ization Uni - ted Federation of Labour, Chris
tian Workers Fellowship, Lanka General Services Union, Hatton Social Action Centre, Janatha
Wimukthi Peramuna, National Union cf Workers, Socio-Economic Training Institute, Kandy, All-Lanka Peasants Congress, Christian Workers Fellowship: Plantation Service Committee, Janatha Viyaparaya (Peoples Movement), Service Civil International, L. S. S. P. New Leadership, Malayaha Makkal lyakkam (Plantation People’s Movement), Ceylon Plantation Workers Unlon, Hill Country Youth Assembly, Coordinating Secretariat for Plantation. Areas, Satyodaya, Samajawa di Bhikku Peramuna.
(Currir lied or Page 35)

Page 9
Jaffna spectrum
The
separate state is evolving in A the North - this is state within the state. On the one hand in the North we see the civil administration, working in conjunction with the elected representatives of the people and the citizens of the peninsula. A parallel and hostile force has also emerged-this is the police-military machine, given a protective legitimacy by some communal-minded Sinhalese, including members of the clergy.
The drift towards a separate state began in 1961 when the Army was moved into the north. A uniformed force hostile to the people and opposed to their leaders grew with time, With the Waddukoddai Declaration of 1972, and the TULF asking for the recognition of a Tamil nation, the situation began to deteriorate. The police was regarded as a "force of occupation' and became the target of the political extremists In the north.
Mr. Egodapitiya, SP Jaffna, admits the Crime rate in Jaffna is low. Further Mr. Leo Perera, SP Kankasanthurai, is of opinion that not more than a hundred extremists are at large. Some sections of the Police doubt that they belong to a cohesive organisation. Mr. Egodapitiya is of opinion that the title "Tigers' has been loosely taken on by youth who are imitating a similar movement that existed in Tamil Nadu. SP Leo Perera on the other hand is of opinion that there is an organised terrorist movement.
The North is Used as a 'puni sh ment station" by the police. Unruly elements are posted there. Most of them do not speak the language. Not in conceivable a large gulf exists between the population and police. Twelve policemen, the majority Tamill-speaking officers investigating the actions of extremists, have been assassnated. The police are helpless
Northern S
because a sullen tive public will
More troops
The attempt
problems in the ing to more. Po force has failed. Into the Northe first sight that is the Army Ca kulam. Then as репіпsula опе : ching vehicles at almost as if the occupation.
Ironically the separate state cal and more powe Everytime a Poli killed by lawle Police decend on
The Police a always need an tough tactics. flex their muscle
TESOT
Some member: clergy also ask tion of thousand the North. Th in sympathy wit police, that rece quent policeman by his superic policemen went the neatest te T
Not all Buddh North are comr it some Tembe ted Naga Deepa the last to c. settle outstandi blems.
Political obser to establish a | minent politiciar racialist propagar
This kind C could mean goo of winning the Tio "Itjie 5 oro e in the North.

Cee
un coopera
ther
and Cat assis
o solve political north by resortice and military As one Crosses in Province, the greets a Wisitor mP at ratperiyaone enters the ees troop55earElephant Passare a force of
advocates of the for more troops r to the police. teman is hu Tt Or ss elements, the inпосent people.
nd Army don't excuse for these Sometimes they
is for no known
s of the Buddhist For the introductof troops into ey are so much h the anti-social intly when a delinwas disciplined ors, hundreds of in procession to ple.
ist monk5 in the munal. Far from - of the W21, 2 TalWihara would be all for troops to ng political Pro
vers are not slow ink between prons in Colombo and dists in the north.
if dual power" d-bye to any hopes a support of the radicating violence
- . S.
“Our Lion - el”
'fra ragg (le fr ) i'r G. Ferrirrty
T People of Jaffna hawe had an unblushing love affair with their Government Agent, Lionel Fernando. He has won such popularity by his genuine concern for the interests of the people of the northern peninsula. When there are clashes between the police and the people he is there within moments, som etimas ewer In his sarong, in order to restore peace.
GA Vernon Abeysekera in the sixties was also immen 5ely popular among the Jaffna people - so much so that many openly wept when he finished his tour of duty and emplained at Palaly. But a senior Parliamentarian in th9, North told The Lanka Guardian that GA Lion el is even more popular than Vernon Abeysekera was - and that's saying something.
Dr. Rasiah, Secretary of the Siddha Ayurved hic Physicians of the North, remarked that the GA is called ''Our Lion, because he keeps us safe from the tigers'
Recently, when Lionel Fernando lost his mother, all of Jaffna town closed shutters in mourning.
Representatives of all religious bodies in the north carine and offered prayers for the soul of the lady.
Lionel Fernando joined the Ceyon Civil Service in 1960. Prior to his appointment in Jaffna he

Page 10
served as Chairman of the Dis. tilleries Corporation, later he was in the Home Ministry.
CULTURAL EXCHANGE
There are two other SinhalesePeaking public servants in Jaffna Who hawe become Yery much citizens of the north. The more
Senior of the two is S. M. J. Senaratne who is the Assistant Collector of Customs. He has
served in the North for 15 years.
Younger in years, but by nס means limited in vision, is Chandra Sonna Withanage, the Cultura| Officer attached to the Jaffna Secretariat. He has been in the forefront of a campaign to maintain a cultural exchange between the north and south. Along with the Jaffna District Cultural coln cil, he has held film festivals in the northern province, bringing the best of Sinhala cinema toth Tamil-speaking areas. Once again in August there will be a mm. moth film festiwal,
Durin
the recent visit to Jaffna of a party of journalists, the Cultural Council arranged two recitals. One was an even
ing of devotional Tamil songs. The other was the performance of the State Dance Ensemble under M. Makulosuwa. The latter was well received by the people of Jaffna.
"it is our sincere hope that the Programme undertaken by us," says the Cultural council,
"Will contribute towards greater understanding among all peoples in Sri Lanka. It is our unshaka. ble belief that cultural bonds one Way through which national unity can be forged."
Chandrasoma. Withanage was formerly In the Ministry of Cultura Affairs.
Tamil grievances
he Tamil Illangar Peravai is the youth league of the Tamil United Liberation Fron. T Santhathiyar, member of the Organising Committee dealt at length with the problems that
8
Tamil people fact Ing the press i
He listed sta tlon of the a reas by Sinhal crucial issue. C the Governmen
An all
Yogendra Deur late Sir Waiti concluded a disi the Sri Larka Refiring prepart fo Frolific". He a group cale: Tarr f' kifo veriferir al IIIerii five I.
66
e belit Sri L Mr. Dura samy, appreciate the graphical realit Therefore We B autonomy. We not only monto stitution, but i must be no disci er educatson It is only then a, I LI nited Sri Lar
"The present tion is an Imp First Republican
"Any Sinhalese in and buy land the country inclu but there must Colonisation of агеа", ""
Dead ing with y the north, Mr. ned that so m earlier governme standardisation, w the youth. Wit System of univ how сап опе expє to Teʼw|t?
"We concede backward areas t Ped as far as Univ are Concere.

He was addressJaffma.
-a ided Coloni Sa! raditional Tamil
se ttlers as One rrespondence with standard sation
ernative
isamy, son of the rigarri Draisarny, nguisted career in Č0verseas Service. rely Fie has raken is the leader of the Progressive which says it offers
TUWALIF.
we in a united inka," explained
'" but we must istorical and geoas in this country. elieve in regional Nant human rights ned in the Conpractice there rimination in highand employment. that we can build 1ka.
human rights postrovement on the Constitution.
! person can walk in any part of iding the north, not be state aided traditional Tamil
o Luth untest in Duralsamy explaiany acts of the int, things like went to alienate :h the present 2rsity admission :ct the youth not
that there are That must be hel'ersity admissions But the present
of admissions to the university and discrimination in employment for Tamils were the other issues.
As far as repression of the Tamils are concerned Santhathiyar said that this government is worse than the previous one.
to TULF
district quota system of the Government is uns atisfactory.
"The present constitution almost gives parity of status to Sinhala and Tamil, and its provisions regarding the minorities are satisfactory. But these provisons must be implemented. For example, recruitment to the public service is still discriminatory.
"It is the frustration of the youth that leads to violence against the Police. We have written to the President asking that law and order be maintained and that those who transgress the law, whom ever they may be, must be punished.
Violence and counter violence
Ai: was put up for Sivakumaran a 26 year old youth who committed suicide in police custody by Swallowing cyanide.
This commemorative statue was
errected in Urumpiral. Such is the antagonism towards the law enforcement agencies, that one
who dies in police custody is automatically made a hero. In August 1977 statues of respected public figures like Tamil poets and statesmen were damaged. Sivaku maran's statue was also multilated. Violence and counter violence - the tragedy that stalks the north.

Page 11
Socio - economic
realities
affna's traditional industry has
been the Sri Lanka public service. But the introduction of Sinhala only, the competitive nature of public service entry and the increasing number of educated coming up for employment in the north, has altered employment patterns. A high proportion of those froll affluent families, those with relatives abroad, set their sights on education and employment overseas, in Africa, U.K., Canada, etc. A number of skilled Tamils have also set out for West Asia, where rem usmerātions are high even if employment is not so secure. The inflow of "Gulf money' has led to an influx of mawi cars and th 2 escalation of land prices, aggravating the housing problem throughout the peninsula.
Many educated Northerners are taking to agriculture, many of them went in for lucrative cash crops like chillies and on ions. During the last regime many of them did well financially and their mud huts became houses with ties and bricks.
In the last two years incomes in the agricultural sector have fallen steeply and the viability of growing cash crops is being called into question. This is primarily due to the importation of dry chillies, which has served to depress the market.
The recent shut down of rural banks in the agricultural centres has also affected the farmers who find it dificult La commute La the nearest town to transact their business.
Throughout the peninsula farmers se sisking for a guaranteed Price for their cish crops - they complain bitterly that the government is not interested in helping them
of solving their problems.
Co-exis
by S. Kathr:
rl Lanka is S. LWC TatiD f and the Tamils. each other by language, religic traditions. This table fact of ow five hundred y The Cleghorn records: "Two from a very апс diwided betwee session of the Sinhalese İrıhablı
country in the Westen parts Wallou We to th secondly the
who possess th Easter district
From these e Sinhalese and T tailed their 5 and territories. Sinhaliese hawe the TIT || fror tio in their 5 | tence and iden til (200 B, C) the the Sinhalese C peace with the around him. EW 15th and IT th the Portuguese and conquered dom, the Sinh: that ''Ceylon' by a foreign o pli even go to the as a neighbour the CW S2CL the whole islan they appear to satisfaction at C Tamil Kingdom,
A Sinhale5é | Dr. G. C. Men Tamil Kingdom grew in power tribute from th fifteenth CET ELIT Cựer the Slmh considerable an conne under th

Tami politics - 2 views
tence, not confrontation
velupillai, MP (Kopay)
the island home 15 - the Sinhalese They differ from Istory, territory in, culture and is the un dispuer tywo thousand fears of history. minute of 797 different nations, cient period hawe thern the posIsland. First the ting the interior : Southern and "1werח בווth וחסfr at of Chilaw, ard Malabars (Tamils) e Northern and
S.
arliest times the amis hawe mainepartate identities Particularly the always excluded 1 their body poliIruggle for exis:y, Dutu Gemunu national hero of ould not sleep in Tails ruling all 'er as late as the centuries when came La Ceylon the Tam || King1less did not think was being invaded ower mor did they help of the Tamils might hawe, having rity and that of d in mind. Rather Whild a scret he conquest of the
historian of today di Write 5 "The In the North
until it extracted e South. Further, y Tam i II influence ale se court Wa.5 d Ceylon may hawe e rule of Madura
or Tanjore but for the timely arrival of the Portuguese".
British Crown
To the Sinhalese, the Tam II presence is a larger restriction on their freedom and sovereign it than was the link with the British Crown imposed by the Soulbury Constitution, now owerthrown. Nevertheless, the Sinhalese by legislative and administrative acts explicated the new philosophy of one state, one nation, one language, one religion. A permanent and irremovable Sinha lese majority ruled in the name of democracy so that the effect of all decisions enured to the benefit of the Sinhalese majority and to the detriment of the Tamil minority and not equally to both majority and minority. Thus the following may be listed as some of the major effects and results of Sinhalese rule:
(I) One million Tamils were excluded from citizenship and rendered state less by the Citizenship Act 18 of 948.
(2) These one million Tam is were by Act 48 of 949 denied the right to vote which right they enjoyed before independence.
(3). Tamil territory was colo. nised with Sinhala colonists by the State with State funds, and illegal squatting on Tamil territory by Siri halese was encouraged and finally regularised while Tamil squatters on such Tamil territory were driven out by force and ert1ergency regulations We're framed for punishing then. Land is not given to registered Tamil citizens in the colonisation 5ch eilės,
(4) Tamils were excluded from the public Service in large numbers to which they had access

Page 12
earlier on the basis of merit and also dismi55 ed or mot confirmed for lack of proficiency in Sinhala.
(5) The use of force on the Tamils as a political weapon to obtain subservience.
Army of occupation
(6) The stationing of an army of occupation in the Tamil territогу.
(7) Sinhala alone was made the official language of the whole island including the Tamil territory.
(8) Buddhism alone was State patronage under Constitution.
given the new
(?). Tamil students qualified on the basis of merit were excluded from admission to the university by racial discrimination and Inanipulation of marks.
(10) Deliberate neglect and refu sal to develop the Tamil territory,
(II) The neglect of Tamil education particularly of the students in the estate areas and the closing down of Tamil streams and schools in the Sinhalese territогу.
(2) The imposition of the Sinhala Language as the medium of inStruction for Tamil students even in the Tamil territory together with un conscionable conversion of Tamil Hindus into Buddhists in return for education and school
Ing.
(3) The neglect of the Tamil workers in the estates to the point of starvation and death.
(4) An agreement with India to repatriate Tamils from the estates in the Sinhalese territory to India which agreement was unilaterally interpreted as providing for comPulsory repatriation even against the will of the Tamil worker.
(5) The Tam Ils have no share in the government of the country.
Against all this is now emerging а пеw militancy among the Tamil
O
youth who say gramme of their brought the desir
These youth bel tation Which ine an international futu Te.
Restoration
A Wisco Sinhalese uld understand t its full magnitude would not really over and run an unwilling Tamils : neocolonialism a The restoration o by mutual agre em triumph for both human walues. Or a confrontation be nations can defeat rity and therefore and identity of t tion, particularly Wertion in such become inevitable.
A restored an Simhala State whl, Tamil presence is rantee of the ex: and security of th tlom. So also of tE The Sinhalege W. Problems of Illic
citizenship, langt competition in ent industry, higher
In short, the Sin nation, one lang only be realized and reconstituted So also, by the T2COStitutO FI alone will the Tar wive and preserv and the Tamils, 5 to life, liberty : happiness' and be own destiny. Panc existence is thus th to the problem of t in Ceylon. It reco rely the facts of ty hundred years of Tamil history; but mental right of the self determination; separate Statehood. the two nations both free.

that the proelders has not ed esults
liewe il confronivitably become roblem in the
leadership shohe problem in The Sinhale50, desiro to Tule empire over the ind be guilty of ind aggression. f the Tamil State ent will be a people and for the other hand at Ween the two : the Very secuthe existence he Sinhalese naas foreign interonfrontation Will
d reconstituted ch excludes the the best guastence, Identity le Sinhala Nae Tamil Nation. | Cease to hawe it immigration, age, religions, ployment, trade, education etc. hala ideal of one Jage, etc. Can in a restored Sinhala State. "estoration and :he Tarmi | State m iI Nation sLure its identity ecure the 'right and pursuit of Tasters of their ha Silla ort Coe only solution he two nations gnises not mewo thousand fswe
Si False aard 5 the fundaTamil people to of Tamil Eelam to It unshackles and sets them
C/f nieuw life upith
{G6) HITACHI
HOME CONVENIENCES
HINTACIFI
HINTACHI
HINTACHI
HINTACHI
HINTACHI
HINTACHI
HINTACHII
HINTACHII
HINTACHII
HINTACHI
HINTACHI
Color Television, Air Conditioners, Refrigerators, Stereo Equipment, Radio Cassettes,
Gas Cookers,
Rice Cookers,
Fαης,
Juicers, Blenders and Mixers,
Washing Machines,
Hair - Dryers & Curlers.
All these and more for a New Life with
HITTACH HOME CONVENIENCES
SOLD AND SERVICED by
CORNEL & C0. LTD.
KOLLUPITIYA JUNCTION.

Page 13
The only identit
by Jayantha Somasunderam
he process
by which the
leadership of the Tamil United Liberation Front has arrived at a cal for a separate state, merits examination. It is a demand that has sprung up largely from the Tamil-speaking middle classes who have always dominated the politics of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi and the All-Ceylon Tamil Congress. This class was in the competition with its Sinhalese and Burgher Con Interparts for the limited number of openings in Government Service and the professions. When the supply in this area began to outstrip the demand, friction developed.
The Burghers opted out of the race by migrating to Australia. But the mobility of the Tamils was restricted. They had thus to negotiate with the Governments in power in order to obtain some measure of security for their middle class members. The Bandarana ike-Chelwa nayakam Pact and the UNP-FP adminis
tration of 1965-68, are examples of this.
The economic crisis had long since stranged the possibilities of a negotiated settlement. The fiasco that Is called, standardisation, stands witness to this. It was becoming impo55 i ble to deal even - handedly with all
sections of a competing population.
Acute nature
The TULF is Conser WatWe to the extent that it refuses to consider scrapping the existing game in an effort to solve the problems of all communities. Rather, they seek to change merely the rules of the game, and thus the name of the game.
Today the TU separate state C separate natiопа how come the people discover identity only in because it was they came aliv nature of the the inability to decent standard:
To thousands People who ac demand. It Was realisation of th that prompted harsh economic
This national TULF talks abol was maintained
archig5 i Čer Nobody though ordinary citizen on the matter ideology con su has been comat turies is to bLui It is to ignore other presentnamely, those Wanni. Battical ligion, Caste an ignore the PI politan strata i who subscribe ture altogether
To give ever and every little Cairn to One, Would be to IT of history and of geography.
We are her: cation revolutic

у
LF argues for a in the basis of a identity. But
Tamil-speaking ed their unque
I977? Is it slot only then that s to the acute economic crisis,
provide jobs and s of living
of Tamil-speaking cept the Eelam not a sudden eir national status the demand, but
reālties.
identity that the ut was one that by despotic mohtu ries gone by. it to ask the 5 for their wiews To build an :h a reality which :o se fort four cen
ild on quicksand. : the reality of -day identities
of region-Jaffna, oa-those of red class. It is to
osperous cosmoin the urban areas to a difierent Cul
y petty kingdom 2 despot who l'aid 2a eW - Tial tiO, lake a carcature an impossibility
g to a camппшпіin that is hurtling
that matters
us towards one language, one culture, one identity. An identity that will en ble us to call our
selves humans which is the only distinction that matters after a II.
Religious identity
A modern nation canno be built on the basis of an identity that is dated by four hundred years. A country like Israel was built on a fanatically exclusive religious identity that survived the diaspora. So was Pakistan.
Language, even cultural, dissimilarities have not prevented countries as large as the USSR and India from main tain ing their integrity. On the contrary they hawe developed as a result of such progressive national integration.
The USA and the USSR are good exmaples of multi-racial, multilingual nations that have prospered via economic and political integration. The EEC countries also aim at an European identity in succession to national identities. ASEAN the most prosperous group of countries in the region are forging strong economic and political links.
Racial identities can and will exist in modern nations, look at Czechoslavakia, Switzerland and Yugoslavia. To imagine that devolution automatically solves economic problems is to ignore economic history, Close at hand are the striking examples of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The way out of this impasse is to push forward social revolution that will break through
the economic crisis and ensure rights and living conditions for all people, regardless of superfcal differences.
The cry for Eelam is not a solution to our problems-merely a symptom of them.

Page 14
"Everything is could well apply t From under one roof, we
get your Exchange issue travellers cheques,
and visas, handle insurance, fix hotel
here or at your point, advise on an pilgrimages at the on the wis est, qu in short, find the tim specific travellin speedily and safely.
in the busines:
claim years more AND IT COSTS YOU
Aitken
AITKEN SPENOE
13, Sir Baron Jayatillaka
Te|: 2 5 4 ||
 

Tickety boo' o Aitken Spence.
2 can book your tickets,
Control approval,
arrange for passports flight and baggage accommodation either
disembarkation d prepare tours or lowest fares and
Ickest routes . . . Ie to handle all your g requirements We've been so long
that we can
2 experience . . .
NOTHING EXTRA.
Spence
& Co. LTD., Mawatha, Colombo i. 4 / 2786 I.

Page 15
International news
Iran's shadow
by Mervyn de Silva
it by earthquakes with sad
and frightening frequency, ran has produced another kind of violent i uphe awal that has quickly caused tremors throughout thé region. This instant regional impact was in a way inevitable because of Iran's Strategic location, its standing as the world's second biggest oil exporter which also 'guards' the vital supply lines to Western Europe and Japan, and the nature of the politics it pursued in the area. These policies were pursued both as a pivotal partner in the American alance and in Iran's own right as a regional power increasingly conscious of its economic-military strength and impelled by the Shah's vainglorious visions of "world power status" by the turn of this century. Iran was also the only Islamic country which dared to be openly sympathetic to lsгае!.
For good reasons, these nervous tremors were felt most of all in the neighbouring oil states though Pakistan's simultaneous withdrawal fTom CENTO is a Terminder that the Iranian "revolution' also had a ripple-effect on a non-oil producing eastern neighbour too.
While this momentous event had a general Impact on the whole of West Asia it certainly influenced the Egyptian-Israeli dialogue, new alignments and shifts of policy within the Arab camp, the consolidation of the Palestinian position and big-power diplomatic TO WES Its strongest impact was on the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia.
The Iranian crisis suddenly exposed the essential fragility of these oi│ monarchles and produced what one might call a new league of petrified sheikhs and sultans. Their vulnerability, always recognisable but never so transparent, is based on the internal
OVer
structure of the the character of
In esseпсе, populated countr wealth (perhaps little or no sc
In the absence gents ia they mu experts and imp sence which soo as evеп Iram, W lation, showed. tion is a prehealthy, normal digenous Intell an el Ite Could carriers of radic agents of socic But the mere t scares the feu the smail ruli see sшch a pr tly hostile it interests. Any be at their ex pense of their e and privilege.
So the muchnisation" of thes banks, airports, Slon etc) s 2 sided developme ted by foreign nicians and tech
Furthermore of wealth, by has a builti refineries, pipe Ebe immobilize oil Workers di easi destro) exaggeration, th a few hundred equipped guerri parable damage of these regim: substance. Stra these a Te 'coun fence-in-depth. than one, the of obvious ex
To safeguard wealth and per

West Asia
ese societes and
the regimes.
:hese are thinly ies, With Ĉio!!!os al
too much) and icial development.
of a native Inte IIIst rely on foreign orted skills - a pre n prowes abrasiwe ith Its large popuModern educacondition for the growth of an inigentsia but such basily become the :al ideas and the -political change. :hought of change da sheikhs and ng coteries who D.Ce55 a5 inhereno their Wested " progress must кpense, at the exintrenched power
-wa Luted "modere countries (hotels,
highways, televiI thoroughly lopnt, artificially creacontractors, techInology.
the single source its very nature, danger: oll field 5, -lines. These can d as the Iranian o monstrated, or red. Though an Ie observation that dedicated, wellIllas cam do intre
D" 'W' 1 D.S. E Es is not without tegically speaking, tries with no deIп поге šепses ise are societies plosive potential.
thei Crermer dous petuate this narro
wly based power structure in the face of such evident and perceived
threats to 'stability", the rulers relied on external support of Wario J s kinds. Under US patro
nage, Iran Played a Crucially Important role, Its self-elected role of regional policemen".
The significance of the Iranian uphe awal is therefore two-dimensional: (a) as a major US ally, an aspect of America's global strategy, and consequently, an object of serious concern in superpower contention and (b) as the powerful protector of beleagured or internally weak local regimes.
Cr Than
Oman is the best example. The young, Sandhurst-trained Sultan Qaboos who replaced his old-fashioned father in a move inspired by the British and carried through with characteristically unfussy British efficiency, inherited a Dhofar rebellion. Dhofar the southern province of oilrich Oman has a land area larger than Sri Lanka but a population less than Matara. Its tropical, mountainous terrain stretches to both South Yemen (now, the Peoples Democratic Republic of Yemen with the key port of Aden) and Saudi Arabia. With a pre-Christian history the Dhofaris regard themselves as a nation which was forcibly annexed in the 19th cen tury by the Sultan of Muscat with the active help of the British who were then in almost total command of the Arabian peninsula,
The Dhofari rebellion became a low-intensity insurgency fought on guerrila tactics by the mid-sixties. But in the second phase it as sumed a far more serious character chiefly because weapons ware caming in from southern Yemen where
the British were under armad attack from Yemeni revolutionares. By 1957-58, the British
pulled out of Aden, and the Dho
B

Page 16
fari u prising underWent a highly significant change in both ideolo
ical and military terms. The DLF (the Dhofari Liberation Front) became a well-knit guerrilla organisation while chan
ging its name to PFLOAG, the Peoples Front for the Liberation for the Occupied
Arab Gulf, a Tim Owement n0W committed to "socialism'.
British, Jordaniam and Pakistan officers and a mixed band of mercenaries (all paid by the Sultan) bore the malm blutdem of counterinsurgency by form ing a new Lur It called S. A. S.
Anxious about public and Parl'iamentary ci riticism the UK government kept this operation under wraps' and denied any official connection, Pakistan den ied complicity too. In his well documented book Arabia without Sultans', Fred Halliday the Bri
tish writer who spent several months in the area produced convincing evidence of British
participation (the officers had been 'seconded") and the British press
published both names, and pic
5. By 1970-1, the 'foreign' unit
was on the defensive and the
British newspapers were quoting
Foreign Office spokesmen about Chinese officers' helping the PFLOAG, and "authoritative' re
ports were published on how China was threatening the vital oil interests of the West.
But our main interest here is the Iranian role as US ally and local gendarme. By 1971, Iranian troops occupied three islands, administered earlier by the Sultanates and next 駕 stationed a squadron of helicopters in Dhofar. By 1973 Iranian troops were already leading the counter offensive against the PFLOAG,
A statement of the Shah in a NEWSWEEK interview makes extremely interesting reading today:
Stability
Take the Dhofar rebellion. If it ever succeeded, just try to Imagine what we would be faced
with in Muscat. the capital, right in front of the Strait of
Hormuz, At fir And then naval g It's a familiar p tolerate subversi
Only five moni 1978) President C at a press conf reconciled his cru rights with the wel of brutal repressi questionet said h an American dipl for 2 years and of the regime, had no apology t difference in hurt in the US and It port for the Shi on other reasons
ran has be factor around This stability i region. It is sorround ing te as far as Israe terranean, and for world peac
Carter also r had been "very ecolor t OPEC. . . . . ."
"Stability' and bilising factor' 's ties' ...... the W
are so failiar is too often tak But whose Stabil rests are imperil rity hawe we in answer is the Shah, the Sultan: and ruling clique them? Surely th plicit in the z ECC i iter'ES corrupt, and op and these interi cably linked to te rests. Mutual the alliance a r: irony is that r חne meaס lyחס these interests pressures and d ges in the social but the only left to the rul creasing alienat own people. T become the fir cannot be the and patron and

st a few rifles. uns and missiles. attern. I cannot ve actiyitles . . . -"
Èhs ago (Dec 7, arter was asked erence how he sad for human I known record on im Iran. The e had served as om at in Tehran knew the cruelty Carter said he o offer om "the ian rights values' "ārn, but his 5 Lupah was founded
em a Stabilism the Per Sir Gulf. 5 waluable to the valuable in the rritory, certainly | ... and the MediIt is important e'.
oted that Iran helpful to us in ES concerning
security', 'staUbWgrsive actiV|- ords and phrases hat their mean ing en for granted. i ty? Whose inteed MMSE SCL
mind? Surely the
stability of the and the sheikhs,
s which sustain ie "interests" imLrgument is the
ts of these hated, Pressive regi Te5, ests are in extriforeign wested ininterest Takes atural one. The epression is not s of protecting from popular emands for chan-economic order option finally ers in their irion from their hen human rights st casualty. You oppressor's ally at the same time
plead the just cause of the
oppressed and exploited.
While this underlines the cent
ral dilemma in Carter's Iran policy one of the immediate consequences of the Shah's downfall was feat and trem bling in Oman. Te Dhofari insurgency had been effectively contained, if not crushed, with the Shah's help. What יWל סח
Iraq
Less than a fortnight after the Shah left his country Major Genera Awad al Khalidi, head of the Jordanian Mllitary Mission to Oman |eft for Britian in the Interesting company of Mr. Ali Asali, Oman's Ambassador to Iran. (Afro-Asian affairs, London N. 73). The two men placed what this intelligence digest called "documentary evidence of new preparations by the Dhofaris before the UK authorities. They predicted a renewal of the Insurgency. The two men then left for Washing
t
On some occasions too outspoken Perhaps for a diplomat, Kissinger once defined one of the basic objectives of US policy in both the Middle East and Africato strengthen the moderate regimes and isolate (he di d'int say de-Stablise) the radical regimes. From Washington's viewpoint (and of course the Shah's) Iraq fits into the last named category on both counts of internal policy (Baathist socialism) and foreign olicy (the most 'steadfast' of the ront of Stead fastness aga inst Israel). Baghdad has not only refused to support UN resolution
242 but it has always called for total War against the "Zionist entity". Also it has had very close ties with Moscow, though the western press is currently reportting new Strain5 in this telationship on account of friction
between the ruling Baath istis and their much smaller Communist partners.
For many years the US openly supported the Kurdish rebels in the north of Iraq. The Kurdish people, a substantial number exceeding ten million, are spread out through Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and the USSR. By the 70's, the Shah

Page 17
took over the task of creating trouble for the Iraqi government by actively helping the rebels. Since Iraq and Iran have a common border and the Kurds wed and operated in the northern mountains, it was easy for Iran to send all kinds of supplies, including heavy artillery to the Kurds. In fact the headquarters of the Kurdish leader Mustapha Barzani (he died in March) was moved to Iran.
But the Iraqis were more than a match for the Iranian 5 militarily and in many border clashes hurt the Shah's Tuch advertised army severely. Baghdad also won ower the Kurdish pe:P:: through a judicious mixture o corူ|atု policies, both economic and cultural, and by declaring an autonomous region in the north. Finally, the Shah dumped Barzani and made a deal with Iraq after talks with Iraqi Vice President Saddam Hussein. And today it is the Kurds in Iran (numerically stronger than the Kurds in Iraq) who are demanding autonomy!
Saudi Arabia
Nowhere did the Shah's downfall and the course taken by the Iranian revolution produce such disquieting fears as in Saudi Arabia, world's biggest oil exporter. Israel and Iran were the two pillars of the US policy in the area. Israel, still he strongest military power in the eastern Mediterranean region, was always a de facto member of the western alliance, a Western outpost with a very special American relationship, fortified to a great extent by the all-powerful Jewish lobby in the US. Iran was gradually built up as the guardian of the Gulf, at the Western entrance to the Indian ocean, overseeing the oil life-line to the European and Japanese industrial machines, and protecting the 'new wealth' which is a critical factor in the westdominated world monetary system.
Wherea 5 ls Tael and Iran Wete friendly, the Arab-Israeli issue was a permanent cause of friction even between the pro-western, conservative Arab regimes and israel. After Washington's rude post-73 in awaken Ing to the importance of American Interests in the
Arab world, this struction of a east policy quite cise. Into the Egypt, the majo| military power, the strongest fir to be included Israeli treaty is success in achie, well as a
ponse to the tu (The significance
and its regional be ехапліпеd iп of articles whi issue).
Specially und Arabia took a and fiercely unck on Israel, partic tion of East Je holy places. De mutuality of inte
Could not allo Americanism no nism (anti-Sow
policy) to infl Israeli position.
Tests, it tra broad Arab c. moderates finan its money as a
pting?) influence radicals and the
But Carter's di Tection has [{၃:{ucုပ္: 1п аг ave closed r. isolated Egypt. Saudis went alo Arabs in sup against Egypt by sure for anti-U jectively speaki has been pushe a less ambivaler US Israel alian has been Teir other factors:
(a) The Irania strong Islamic c tes assum ing th mobilis Ing the inst the Shah. Saudi Arabia id the Shah" 5 Iran,
family belongs
Sect. " In Dete siastical leader sued a fatWah only challenged t

made the Connew US Middleап exactiпg exernew US design, r Arab politicaland Saudi Arabia ancial centre, had The Egyptianboth an ATerican ring this goal as usly urgent resrn-about irn Iran. of the Treaty implications will a another series ch start in this
5r Faisal, Saudi zealously "Islamic' impromising stand
ularly its annexaruselen and the spite a manifest
rest, Saudi Arabia W either its pror its anti-Con Tu
iet in foreign Luence its anti
In its own inteined within the imp helping the cially, and using
restraining (corru: on both Arab
Palestinians,
success in proved counterother. The Arabs anks and totally At Baghdad, the ng with the other porting sanctions ut withstood presS Sanctions. (Obng Saudi Arabia d, willy-nilly, into it position on the :e. And this trend forced by three
n uprising had a haracter, the Shiie leading role in road masses agaAn oil monarchy, entifies itself with . The Saudi Royal to the Wahabite mber, the eccleof the Sunni isin which he rict he Wahabite inter
pretation of Islam but argued that the Saudi kings had "extracted power by force'. If the rulers did not respond to the just demands of the Sunni Maslems, the people must "have recourse to the Sword as did the Caliphs following the death of Moham
ned."
(b) The sudden outbreak of hostilities between North and South Yemen (Saudi Arabia's neighbours) sent alarm signals in Riyadh because the Leftist proSoviet regime in the South was confronting a government which is a Saudi protege. As the tide of war began to favour the South, the US sent arms to the North, and strengthened its Indian Ocean fleet. With speculation over a new US fleet in-the-making, the man ou ewers also brought angry warning from New Dalhi. But the "war" had come too close to Saudi borders for the comfort of the royal family.
(c) The Palestinians were partly responsible for the guns that went into Iran. In the Wake of the Iranian revolution and the Egypt
Israel pact, the Palestinians are in a strong position. They are an important force in Kuwait,
and have a fairly strong presence in the Gulf. Whatever steps the Saudis may take to insulate themselves from the explosive forces sweeping the area (See Saudi Secret Deal) a single Palestinian 'operation' can be the light that turns the oilfields of the Arabian desert into towering infernos.
With a demonstrative show of their loyalty to the Arab (antiIsraeli) cause and some discreet adjustments in foreign policy (a few friendly gestures to Moscow) the Saudis are now trying hard to accommoda të themselves to a new situation full of lurking dangers.
The Shah's downfall has been an immeasurable loss to the US and, as a corollary, a major gain for the Soviet Union, is the gain principally a negative one? Much would depend on how stable the ne w republic will be and what its professed nonalignment will turn out to be in
5.

Page 18
practice. Of course, if there is a go up by the remnants of the àncient-regime We could hawe a Chile on a grander scale. Already US policy-makers are looking for ways to minimise the daImage and recover some of the lost ground. The US State Department has set up a new unit to Study "Islamic nationalism', a thoughtful step although some may Say a belated one. In the next phase will the religious and traditionalist impulse turn aggressively into a new ideological confrontation with 'socialism" or'communism'
Already western scholars (and trailing behind them, western strategists) are prophesying an Islamic spillower to the Soviet republic of
entral Asia, where the population Is Predominantly Moslem. In December, Hsinhua, the Chinese news agency put out an item about a Moslem revolt in Dushanbe the capital of Tadjikistan - an event that TASS laughed off. But in a recent book 'empire
eclate") the French scholar Helene Carriere D'Eneauses speaks of a Sufi brotherhood based in the Caucasus and of "mullahs' seeking to establish a counterOrganisation to the CP. Sowet commentators regard al I this as
Wishful thinking convinced as they are that the "national question' was tackled correctly apd to a great extent solved from Lenin, onwards.
An obvious Soviet gain is the Ayotollah's early decision not to permit either US or Soviet monito ring sites on Iranian soil. Under the Shah, the US had several such sites which maintained roundthe-clock surveillance of Soviet nuclear installations, testing grounds etc. The location was ideal because many of the American sites had what is known as a "direct electronic line of sight' to key Central Asian satellite launching and missile sites in the USSR, Dr. Brezinski's deputy, Mr. Dawid Aaron however has assured the US Congress that the dismantling of these sites will not reduce American capability vis-a-vis SALT and SALT 2 and the intelligence network necessary to monitor these.
(Concluded)
| É;
Egypt - Isr Peace,
day after t
Summit (S Minister Merah in Washington Hebrew language fluential JEWISF its report of th this passage:
"The peace Israel is to neg within three Inc a separate Israel feels IIke a sара
tian peace, a nc separate Israelit aםח but is
Egyptian peace.
What PTİTe Mimi not want the Is | E08:U52 I WO embårrass Preslde
Mr. Begin is man awerbUrdene If he is keen on embarrassing Mr.
Egyptian
of the
 

el
(l)
or piece - by - piece
he Camp David ept. 17) Prime m Begin spoke o editors of the ! press. The inWEEK began e meeting with
agreement which 2tiate with Egypt enths looks like i-Egyptian Peace, rate Israeli-Egyp
smells like a -Egyptian peасе, separate lisraeli
At least this is ster Begin does raeli press to call
Ild "Weaken and
nt Sadat" ".
not known as a
:d with altruism. not weakening or Sadat in the eyes
people or the
Sadar prays bur wil
Arab nations it is for the soundest of reasons. In the midst of the Camp Dawid discussions, Sadat's own foreign minister quit in disgust. He belongs a long line of distinguished Egyptians who have gradually dissociated themselves from Sadat's policies or left the country to denounce Sadat from abroad. These critical voices include General Shazly, the hero of the October 73 war who actually attended a Baghdad "trial' which condemned Mr. Sadat as a traitor. One of the best known in telectuals of the Arab world, Mr. Hassane in Heykal, the Nasser confidance who made the AL AHRAM a world famous newspaper lives in Cairo today, as a British correspondent wrote recently, on the fringes of official tolerance.
And what most importantly, of the Egyptian people? Will those hundreds of thousands who paraded the streets of Alexandria
Adlar forgive hřir . . . *

Page 19
and Ismailia cheering Sadat, Carter etc, see their now bouyant expectations fulfilled or will the dream of prosperity through peace turn out to be a more mirage Egypt's desperate economic need is as much an imperative in the
final Egyptian-Israeli reconcillation as Israeli calculation. US strategy in the area, and Mr. Carter's hopeful manoeuvres to bolster his sagging "image" and improve his chances of re
election next year.
A "deparate treaty' simply means a sell-out. In fact, "Sadat's sellout' was the title of an article by this writer soon after the Camp David agreements were signed. (Lanka Guardian Oct. ).
That brief commentary pointed out that Sadat's solation in the Arab world has begun....Mr.
Sadat has paid a heavy price-- Egypt's political leadership of the Arab world, Arab unity and his own prestige."
The pathetic i rony of an Egypt which was the inspiring founder of the Arab League (long before the UN) clinging on now to the League's headquarters when 19 out
of 22 members hawe decided to move it to Tunis is such telling confirmation of how an eas bly
predictable course has not defied the logic of events. Equially dramatic, if lin a morte personal way, was the resignation of the League's Secretary-General, Mr. Riad, an Egyptian and sometime ago, his country's foreign IT IIISEET.
Sadat had told the world and the Arab peoples "To hel with the Palestinians, damn the other Arab states whose lands are still occupied,.... I think the Egyptians are sick of war and tired of bearing the brunt of 30 years of confrontation with Israel, and I have decided to put the Egyptian interest, as I see it first and last' he would hawe taken a more homest, Perhaps an even more honourable, a path of action.
If Mr.
Instead this "deal" is being advertised by Egypt and other apologists as "first step to a
comprehensive se Arab-Israeli issue Resolution 242.
An artful dod excercise depends |listic leger demain ambiguity and th gimmicks of a sali marily, it is base "Inkage' i. e. th: of the treaty is to the fulfilment the West Bank a relation to a governing author this linkage' its agreed conditions time-table. In ot argues that far if wit only help ht lost land, the Sil 1967) this is an will not only ach place the Palesti to self-rule, auto knows?) sovereig
First, a cautior yers, diplomats a argue ower Wor til hell freezes cians will interpi document like treaty to suit th the changing mot dience, domèstic national too.
Resolution 242 ject of furious de this day because of the word 'th ginal English tex| seme in **the occ in the French We
So the student be far better pl: the conventional w listen ing to what His hands" o T iii is said that is in is. In fact dome". ties will extract ing of this tre alone will show pretation was truth. The Trea: аппехшre5, пmiпш be examined in “Camp David Fra in the Middle E: and UN Resoluti.
(To be continuec

ttlement' of the based on UN
ge really, this largely on legasome studed e morte familiar es manship. Prid on one Word implementation Integrally linked
of accords On nd the Gaza in so-called "selfity', and that lf cowers both ; and an agreed her words, Egypt rom a deal which r to recover her nai (occupied in agreement which liewe this but will nians on the road попу апd (who ity.
hary word. Lawind scholars can 'ds and phrases ower and politiret even a solemn an international eir purposes and ld of their au
mainly but inter
itself is the subbate right up to of the absence e" in the otiand its pre:Lupied territories" rsion'
of politics would ced if he heeds wisdom of While he says, Watch C is rot What portant but what Politica realithe true mean:aty and events w which intercloser to the ty itself with its tes etC has to relation to the The Work for Peace ast' (Sept. 1978) on 242 (1967).
i) M. de S
WHEN IN NEGOMBO
RELAX AT THE
PRESTIGIOUS
BLUE OCEANC
BEACH HOTEL
60 DOUBLE ROOMS
A LA CARTE MEALS
SWMMING POOL
Phone: 03 || 237 7
FOR RESERVATIONS

Page 20
SAUD
Will Saudi Arabia take the Iran lan rond? While the parallel has been pointed out in the past, a joint investigation by the West German magazine STERN and the UK weekly New Statesman directs our attention to n te'W' 3, irT1 i|Britie5:.
SAVAK was the barbarous arm of the Shah's repressive regime. Established under US patromage and with American exert se, Ir had direct links with S. Western and Israeli intellgence Establish Tent:5. The Shah fled leaving behind his intimate aides and advisers. Over 50 of them have paid the supreme penalty. Over 1,300, most of them top officers of security services await trial by Islamic Revolutionary Committees.
Repression in the name of "internal security" was not the only odious feature of the Shah's rule. High level corruption and bribery was another. The oil firms, the multinationals and Western business enjoyed colosal rip-offs from doubtful contracts. As the Francia Times said i was the biggest bonanza of modern Ernes
The STER NINew Statesman in Westigat iam shows that British Petroleum, the key member of the Western Conso Titiu Til that controlled Iran's oil, has sold a 24 million pounds computer system (SCCON) to the Saudi Secret Service, the GD General Intel IIgence - Dept.) Incidenally EP spent 5 million pounds in bribes
SECRET
O top Saud off] deal through.
It all began, Journals. When F effective Tular visited Washingto first ic or it "security'-- foi mily, to start wit -knit EOterie ruli Diret link5 WY || betweып the CE, I. military civilians The G.I.D. is he Turki bin Thail, late King Faisal. mot appear in i "Who's Who II 5
SCCON Will tion by 1980 twic tems, in Riyadh 27 computer-linke of (GID " "WiIII bE : The object of S merely to place Yellä ne ab Cut citizens and for take appropriate Еіоп""———| e- 5. rest, Interr Fati etc. Fortaalgını targ; grant Workers Yemen), foreign about 750.000 Ha the Computer's come aliva each
Ten will be gi message "in the the Merciful, the E Welce".
The report c: has mot chia Yed notoriety--no
 

DEAL
cials to put this
reports the two orince Fahd, the of his country, in 1977. The hic i agenda Ywa,5 r the Royal Fah, and the close ng Saudi Arabia. are established D. and the US ecurity services. aded by Prince nephew of the His a me dos the se: i - Officia a Ludi Arabia".
put into opera: Computer sysand Jeddah, and d brırıch aff|Egs pened in 19B. CICON 5 noi under total surплIIIіоп Sашdi eigners but to "executive atLur 'Willin C, irOn hasse its include irri. especially from Wigitd; 1 pilgrims. As wideo screens day, the - GID "eeted by the name of Allah, іеп eficient=—
Iom : Ludas: * "GIO the Worldwide г үвt it sectпп:
is Wholesale barbarity---of its Elster service SAWAK. But it is un doubtedly trigading - SAWAK's road, with perhaps the same Wentual consequences for the Sa Udi aristocracy......
Chuchche and ping-pong
huchche is the code-word
for North Korea's policy of independence in politics, self-reliance in economy. 'Chuchche' and ping-pong is a Curious Combination. However an internationaiseminar sponsored here (April 4-6) by the North Koreans will interest all those who are studying current developments in the Korean peninsula and in Indo-China.
While foreign delegates were hearing lectures on independence and "dominationism" from the North Koreans, Pyongyang is preparing to host the ping-pong championships. Borrowing an idea from the Chinese, the North Koreans, who are having serious economic troubles and desperate repayment problems, is trying to open the door to westerm 'ald' and loans. Unfortunately for the North Koreans, their propaganda effort met with unexpected resistance in the form of basic questions that the North Koreans could not answer without great embarassment to themselves.
In the first place, it is no secret that North Korea received assistance from China during the Korean war, and from the USSR and the socialist countries in hard years after the war. Has this situation of reliance on socialist su PPort changed? And is Pyongyang now taking the cue from China which is depending on western aid for its "four modernizations"? Secondly, chuchche means independence. But independence from whom? From Japan and Us whom Pyongyang will court war. mly through ping-pong diplomacy,
"Dominationism' also struck a sour note because the North Koreans had to swallow the fact that they supported the Chinese Invasion of Wietnam. – N. R.

Page 21
WITH THE CO
CAR MART GROU
AGENT
PEUGEO
VOLKSV
AUD
CITEROE |
VESPA
HINO
MAZDA
SUZUK
424, Union Place,
Colombo 2.

MPLIMENTS OF
P OF COMPANIES
S FOR
VAGEN
Phone: 963 - 5

Page 22
Religion
Priests and poli
by Yohan Devananda
here was a time when TeT ligion and politics were regarded as two separate fields which should be kept strictly apart. But it is now widely recognised that these fields are closely connected, Together with this recognition has come the understanding that the great religious founders, including the Buddha and the Christ, were very much concerned with the development, justice and liberation of the common people, and that they were essentially revolutionary characters who had a revolutionary impact on the people and society around them. This original impetus was often obscured during the course of history when the powers that be domesticated and Tanipulated religion for their own ends. So religion became the servant of privilege and the status quo, and "religious" people became inactive in the face of injustice and oppression. But movements for revival and reform have a risen again and again from time to time, " Particularly at periods of decisive change in history.
Christian action - Reflection.
The taking of a progressive or radical stand in politics by certain Christian groups, both clergy and lay, in Sri Lanka should be viewed in the context of such thought and action in Churches through the world. It is cer
tainly not a case of immature and irresponsible bravado or adventurism on the part of a few isolated and misguided eccentrics. It is part of a movement of action-reflection in Churches in many countries, which is in turn part of a deep movement of development – justice - liberation throughout the World.
O
World Council
Robert Owen S Conrad Noel, Ki wett Johnson, Alan Paton, Tre, Joost de Blanc, wood, and Joh outstanding exam line of clergy v tlmeš, have take| in politics in thi opposition and manded world-Wi respect. They all figures. They pa positive social Churches 5o tha the high est i C. Church radical a
The World C. che5 Consist5 o many different d different politica It is rot Commi ticular brand of has prowed itsel cal action. F. mass i w e financi: liberation move stuggle to comb a weritable furor church circles. to withdraw its 5 tard Was Cofi World Confere (1977)
Watical Counci
The inspired John XXIII and the second Watic which he su Tim turning point. Church Tore fi both with Mar ideologies of t as well as with ligions of the a as Hinduis, B Muslim religion.

tics
of Churches.
tewart Headlam, er Hardie, HeMichael Scott, or Huddleston, Mervyn Stockin Collins are ples of a Іопg who in modern in a radical stand e face of fierce ultimately comde attention and "e now tegendary ved the way for action by the .lt 10 W EWE t ouncils of the ction is possible.
Buntill of Chuir - if (ChTistia 15 of enominations and 1 points of view. tted to any parpolitics. But it f capable of radi† 15talLB, it5 all support for ments in their at racism created e in Corse Twatiwe But it has refused support and this rmed at its recent nce at Nairobi
| 고
leadership of Pope the thinking of an Council (1962), oned, was a great It opened the illy to a dialogue xist and Secular he modern world
the higher rencient world, such uddhism and the
A host of distinguished radical theologians such as Karl Rahner, Hans Kung, Yves Congar, Edward Schillebeeck, Johannez Metz and many others led the way in re-interpreting the Christian Faith to meet the challenges of the modern world and their work received the serious attention of Churches through the world.
Latin American Bishops.
The most radical application of these new insights was seen in Latin America, where the poverty, Injustice; exploitation and oppression of the capitalist system are seen at their worst.
The meeting of Latin American Bishops at Medellin in 1968 issued a famous statement that expressed salvation in terms of liberation. It showed a sensitive awareness of the conditions of the people and of the urgent task of the Church to respond to their need. lt gawe its ble 55Ing to a movement that was already under way for the active participation of Christian, both clergy and lay, in radical politics.
Liberation Theology
Many countries of Latin America have produced theologians of the front Tank whose works hawe been influential not only in their own continent but throughout the World — Gustawo Guttie Trez (Peru), Juan Segunda S. J. (Uruguay), Camilo Torres (Columbia), Joseph Comblin, Rubem A. Alves, Jose Miguez Bonino, Hugo Assmann (Brazil). Segundo Galilea, Gonzalo Arroyo S. J. (Chile). They forcibly demonstrated that beling a follower of Christ meant commitment to the struggle for liberation and that this in Wolved acceptence of Marxist analys Is and participation in the class

Page 23
struggle, Camilo Torres and Nestor Paz Zamora witnessed to their convictions by joining the guerilla movement and becoming martyrs. They have become cult figurës and symbols of hope. Cöthers hawe fosilowed them. Finally, the most well-known patron
of this movement of liberation theology has been Archbishop Dom Helder Camara who has
defended it with great undersstanding, courage and eloquence.
Christians for Socialism.
Liberation bodied in
theology was ema practical political form in the movement called “Christians for Socialism". Ilt originated at a Conference (with international participation) held at Santiago in Chile in 972 (at the same time as UNCTAD 3). There were 400 present of whom two-thirds were priests and they issued a famous Manifesto called "Christians for Socialism". While drawing on the resources of the
Christian faith th time used Marxist accepted the need formation of sc revolution:
("Christ taught u procla i Tcd. He Pre therhood and a lö penetrate all the st but above all he li of liberation to th was trandt Min d tt | power of his time his message of Il effective love he sho threaten their econ tical and religiou! spirit of the Rise more active thin the dynamism of expression in all themselves in solid for liberty and is love of their opp
This movement for Socialism st countries and lec
MULTI-PACK
RATIM,

ey at i the sam t t analysis and
for the tasociety through
5 to II've what hie ached human bTOwe which should ructures of society, yed out his message e lutter Tost. He death. Thic men of understood that beration and the wed would seriously Omic, social, poliinterests. The Christ is today ewer: his pro 'Yid:s history, and finds those who give arity in the struggle ho' 31 authenti essed brothers.")
of Christians read to other to similar Con
ferences and Manifestos in Spalin (Barcelona 1963), Italy (Bologna 1973), and France (Lyons 1973).
In fact, the rumblings of this movement have echoed in different degrees - some independently, some parallel - in almost every country of the world. It would take too long to enumerate all this.
Opposition.
Of course, liberation theology has not, by any means, bесопе the official doctrine of the Church. It has received bitter denunciation and condemnation from many conservative authorities in the Church. But it has stood its ground and is a strong and growing movement based on solid scholarly thinking, with firm biblical roots, matched with imaginative and courageous action.
NEXT: Liberation Theology
リー2 گھر ഗ്ലൂ
(CEYLON) LTD,
ALANA.
고||

Page 24
The JVP and se
by Lionel Bopage
he abolishing of national op
pression cannot be ach iewed in capitalist society unless under a permanent and democratic federal system and state administration which ensures complete equiality among races and languages. Marx and Engels have, said that if one nation oppresses another, it can never be considered to be "free". In the same Wein, a proletariat that tolerates its own races's oppression of another race cannot be a socialist proletariat. Marxist-Leninists of the "oppressor' race should clearly acknowledge the right of the "oppressed" race to self-determination, that is, their right to choose either a se parate political existence or a joint existence in accordance with their wishes; such Marxist-Leninists should fight for this cause. Any socialist who belongs to an "oppressor' race and does not come forward to champion this right, falls into the category of a racist.
While talking about the right of nations to self-determination, federation and independence, Lenin has also stressed the need to develope a large and centralised state. When presenting his' programme regarding the national question, Lenin said: "We must always and un reservedly work for the very closest unity of the proletarait of all nationalities,and it is only in isolated and exceptional cases that we can advance and actively support demands conduciwe to the establish ment of a new class state or to the substitution of a looser federal unity etc. for the complete, political unity of a state." (Lenin: Collected Works: Wol. 6 Page 454).
Nations have come into being as a result of a long cycle of the historical development of society. The tribal organisation of a primitive society gradually gave way to a new civic formation which encompassed the creation of nationalities, along with the creation of the Social divisjon of labour and the appearance of Un
2.
equal property re meant by a natio itself om cla55 Te duction is a gr who live on a cer and who are bou a common langu cultural characteri of life proclaim toms, traditions : of conduct. Since more advanced grouping, it епga production throug inhabited by tens people and develo of production E Cultural triumphs. Commodity relatio era of economic I. CON O Tic Zones C the bonds betw different national it thened; and acqui language and co characteristics, th together as the n civic formation of
Yet the path lopment from nati does not follow straight ||ne. Du of reasons, a c can be formed be malities living in hawe been absorbt tional entity. At multi-nation state İng. Within this onė, o T so veral, a privileged positic then becomes the the birth of a
Taken in this c is a civic formatic the capitalist mode This civic formatit the development ( production in the ned, also plays ar in abolish ing po The growth of r tional movements the feudal system establish capitalism way as the capital and develops, it where the framey

f - determination
-lations. What is nality that bases lations of proou P of persons tain area of land nd together by age, mentality, stics and a way d through cusind ethical codes : a nationality is tham 3 tr|bal ges in developing hout a large area of thousands of ps the exchange :xperiences and As bourgeois ns develop, the solation of varied omes to an end, 'een people of :ies are strengring a common mmon Cultural ey are brought "nore permanent
a nation'.
of Social deveonality to nation a simple and e to a variety 2ntralised state fore all natioa specific area d into one nasuch a point, ; Come in to bestage, either lations as Life in. That nation, motive force in entralised state.
Intext, a flation n which reflects of production. in Which aids if the forces of society concerin portant role |tical isolation. ations and nädid away with and helped to I. In the same 'st system grows reaches a stage ork of a "1a tion"
ls no longer sufficient for its needs. While it confirms the nation as an economic entity. capitalism establishes economic ties between all nations, and ultimately transforms itself into an uniwersal economic system.
The Northern kingdom of Ceylon commenced in the 12th century when the Portugese captured it in 59 the feudal forces of Production had not been developed to the point where they came into conflict with the feudal relations of production. At this time, there were other kingdoms in the rest of the island-Kotte, Seethawaka and Ralgama. When the British captured the Northern Kingdom and the i maritime proVinces in 1796, only the Central kingdom remained as a feudal regiTe; In 85, the entire Country was unified under British colonial rule.
Under the feudal system, the Tam || nationality had a selfsufficient economy, a cominion territory and a common language; the sense of belonging to one Community was there; one could also discern certain specific psychological characteristics, as well as special features regarding traditions, lifestyles, culture and the Struggle for fiberation. The Sinhala nationality was also in a similar position at this stage. With the Superimposition of the capitalist system, a national market that encompassed the entire island came in to being. A centralised state structure was imposed on Ceylon before the nationalities living together within her terrotorial boundaries in the North, in Seethawaka, in Kotte and the Hill Country could be brought together as one bourgeois 'nation' In keeping with the se specific CircurT15tance5 the natona barriers between the Seethawaka and Kotte kingdoms, and the national barriers between up-country and low -Country are being systematically broken down. The national barriers between the Northern kingdom and the rest of the country are even slower in dissolving.

Page 25
At present neither the Sinhala
speaking people nor the Tam ilspeaking people have a fixed economic existence, independent of each other. Yet, they are distinguishable from one another 靴 language and by territory; eac considers itself to constitute a specific community and have special characteristics of psychology. tradition, lifestyle, culture and mode of struggle for liberation. What this makes clear is that neither the Sinhala-speaking People nor the Tamil-speaking People have reached the status of a nation", commensurate with Capitalist development; in short, these two groups constitute a people who ate in a phase of transition from nationality to one Sri Lanka mati:Din.
Thus, the existing state in Sri Lanka today is a multi-nation state, made up of people who speak Sinhala and Tamil and are transforming themselves from nationality to nation. The decision as to whether they are to live together with the Sinhala-speaking people, or separately from them, namely, whether they are LL SLLLLLLH S 0C S S L LLLLLLaS 0LLL S LLLLGLLLLSS LLL entirely in the hands of the Tamil-speaking of this country. This is what the Janatha 鸞 thi Peram una means when it says that it accepts the right of the Tamil-speaking "people to selfdetermination. Every step that is taken to keep the Tamil-speaking people within a single state by force, by the use of repressive action and without any deference to their wishes is nothing more
than a rejection of their right to self determination.
In adopting a correct Marxist
Leninist position on this question, we should not confuse the right of nations to secede, freely, with the advisability of a specific state seceding at a specific point in time. As in all other questions, our belief is that the revolutionary party of the proletariat should resolve this question in dependently, and in accordance with each specific situation, taking into consideration the interests of the proletarian struggle for socialism and social development in general.
While We ac the Tamil-speal determination, the use of rep
inst them, the right to cons decisions taker
speaking people Im accordance Leninst analysi. to voice its of gard. Even the пot use aпу the Tamil-speal decision that to be a wrong It will, in fac who attempts such a situatio also reserwe tł Our différence a decision at :
Looking at
prevails today, decision taken speaking people 5e wes from th people could tion taking pl: dership of the ration. Front, list political pi dispute the rig speaking peopl under such a capitalist class. rian revolution is to find a sc manent and i the national q other socio-e As Marxist-Le such a solution about under a proletariat, w blished as a r tarian 5ocialis give priority interests and tariat. This i: era. We Cann permit the ca וwn nם flll its without is su in capitalists of t Well as to the
race and a allies. In gener objective thal
itse lf to bril awareness of both among t the minority political agitat

cept the right of cing people to selfwhile we oppose ressive tactics agaa WP reggгyes its der whether the by the Tam ilare right or Wrong with a Marxists of society, and pinion in this rebugh the JWP will compulsion against king people due to a the WP considers ; one and though it, oppose anyопе to use force in n we nevertheless he right to express of opinion on such a theoretical level.
the situation that we see that any by the Tamile to separate theme Sinhala-speaking 2ad to such separace Undet the leaTarTn I I United Libewhich is a capitaarty. We do not ght of the Tam ile to secede, ewen leadership of the Yet, as proletaaries, our objective :ientific, honest, pertorrect solution to uestion, as to all conomic questions. minist, we know that can only be brought dictatorship of the hh will be esta'esult of the proleTewolution. We :o the revolutionary needs of the prolethe need of this ot, and should not pitalist class to fulaeds and interests a challenge to the he master' race as pse of the minority their agents and al. It is with this : the JWP pledges ng about a correct the nacional problem he master riaca and race and engage in iron to this end.
WITH
THE
COMPLIMENTS OF
DISTRIBUTORS
OF
CITIZEN
WRIST WATCHES
& CLOCKS
B

Page 26
As others . . .
(Carrira edo frarra Page F) The educated reader has always felt the need for a Tagazine that was intelligent, serious and lively without being just aca
demic and heavy. Within twelvic months, the L. G. has begun to fill this necd.
Sarath MuttetuYYegin mn.
暮
We would like to congratulatc the SLLLLLLLL LLLLLLLLSS LHH LLLLLL LLLLL S LLGLOLLLS LLLCCCS S LLL SC LLaH LLLHH LLLL S SHLLLCLLLLCCH
LLLLLLLLS LCLL LaCLLL CH LLCL LLLLL S HCaL0L tional wiewpoints the Guardial. In his provided a forum, especially for the new leadership which is cincrging within the Left movement. We wish the magazinc well and expect it to fulfill the hopes it has aroused among the English-speaking liberal layers
Wasudeva Nannimyakkara President. Lanka Sarla Samaja Parly (New Leadership)
要 墨
Mr. Editor, when you launched you Imagazine I give you 180 days. When I rietured to ld pasures you galve m 90 days, I was wrong; you were right. CCI gratulations TC11 al Cold Colleague, FlIld Tribre PWEr IL Ille silbW of a Illischievous bloody anarchist with a fine 5-EISE of lı LITOLIIT.
Nalin Fernando
In its first year of publication, the "Lanka Guardian' has proved the most Teadable pericidicıl of its kim d in olur country. Special mention should be made 醬 excellent coverage of the emerging
A. M. Jinadasa, ChairTan Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
擎 事
It gives Inc great pleasure to congraէulate you on your first anniversary. It is no tasy task to sustain a newspaper or journal sans the patronage of the State.
While it is common knowlcdgc that press freedom today is limited to mere words and that the state controlled media are being used for Government propaganda, it is very refreshing to note that your journal has becil following a demoCritic path.
In the field of International news you have been striving to arrive at an independent and radical position without being influenced by the distortions of the dominant Western Inedia.
We wish your journal the strength to Expose the callous exploitation of poor nations by the metropolitan centres and their multinationals, that is being done increasingly today.
H. N. Fernando President, Ceylon Teachers Union.
교4
The biggest achiever Guardian" tra my min for itself within so sh tinguished place in the nalism as a joLuntilal ha gence of its readers an informcdiand, as a jou respect.
Unlike the Ilcwspap It the G L Til do ders for granted It I
C.
It is intelligent in gible in its Writing all analysis.
It has character. A sound friyolous to sa contrast to Italy of papeTS Of thic Estab who can write Englis into the clicgance of
יו!! חטחילו טוחAI a li, nation have all be those in the scats of Guardian' can take that it has in its () true to its Ilarie Crite of the freed if the traditions of journalis journalist.
B. Editi
臀
It is encouraging te Guardian" addressin social issues, includin апd worпеп"s rights. cess in its path-break
Or, Marin WikT
The Lanka Guardi its first aliversary i the SC-Cälilled 11 til: singly displaying sign: Glancing through thic today it's quite clear towards the interests social, political and The "Lak (GLul Tii; hand has demonstrate to be al getih Luine for LI "forum' for the hither and not-so popula
S.
Nin:lki: Gerni Sct. Students" C
輯
In a coшпtry tha dailies, weeklies and creditable for the LE have made such an i Y Cllr.
Wc readers Wi51 il Enable them to contir journal for many mo
W. P

et frth Laikā i, is that it has won art a period a dis: field of local jourit respects the intellid their right to be rall that cords
is of the Establishc5 mot tak : ils relrents the rith Ies
its criticism, intellid репgtгatiпg iп і[5
nd although it may ly this - it has, in
the English newslishment an editor h! I all not going his inimitable style,
: Watchdogs the cole: "lap-dogs’ Cf power, the "Lanka pride in the fact wn small way and to be the Guardill press, in the best II and of the rule
. Siriwardana, DI — ‘Athth.”
事
5cc the Lanka g itself to many g the Tale of WIller
| Wish it || Sud:- ing venture.
Tılan ayake Fernalınd0
酯
an' is celebrating In a context Where all media is increa3 of deleriarti II,
Ilhajir newspapers that they are biased
of the dominant
Colinic groups. Tı" CT1 the other d what it means
t i5 ideed to unheard voices
and "accepted
Fernando, hristian Movement.
is quite full of fortnightlics, it is Linka Luardian" to TPC:t Yawi Lhil og
S makers well to i ule this prestigious TIL Y CITS to Çolle.
- K. Wijeratina
Iliadura.
MEND
PECIAL
SRI LANKAS FINEST
COCONUT ARRACK
Distilled and bottled by:
W. M. Mendis & Co. Ltd.,
Colombo 8.

Page 27
News background (From P. 6)
TV With some tears
W sets without antennae. . . .
As Sri Lanka gatecrashes into the television era, this headline will surely make a footnote to mass communications folklore. Along with many other anecdotes, we 5L 5 PeCL.
The ecstatic 'oohs' and "aahs of proud Colombo 7 matrons as the colour TV set was delivered at their doorstep turned to puzzlement, petulance and feline frenzy when the auspicious hour arrived on Saturday and no 'Oscar' show from Los Angeles. "lt may be snowing in Hollywood, no?" was one inspired, if not-so intel
ligent explanation when white shaky lines danced on the TV screens. "Are you getting anything, men?" The inner city
phones were jammed with desperate Inquiries to other members of the new High Society Club of TW owners.
An unusually cooperative press (the CDN is kind enough to give free space to each day's TV programme) did not publish the pictures its cameramen brought back from Maharagama, where the hurriedly constructed transmission tower' was still only fifty odd feet high and had at least another fifty feet to climb. Last -minute problems had compelled the Tower to "retreat' from Kalupitiya to a less congenial spot at Maharagama close to, some say, an abandoned motor spares factory while others maintian it was a "noodles joint! With the Sri Lankan genius for the sort of organised chaos which traditionally accompanies a village wedding or a middle class "At Home', everybody was getting into the act, including a band of wide-eyed kids and their open -mouthed elders, who were jumping over puwak trees felled for some ill-defined but easily guessable purpose. Meanwhile time was ticking away and the monks on hand to bestow the blessings of the Enlightened One had to busy themselves with meditations
... 'You
on matters less the audio-visual.
The SLBC wh cealing an und over the Succes: private firm h on-the-Spot COmr he had been thi scene Would h; of Houston Tex US sätellite ab: Suh was the atendêd Sri Lthe TW age.
And so, Sri Percent, by thi and Sanyo, W. to absorb a new by the advent Angeles Police the es Capades Woman, Ari i TC ter who mad with an "'I'll aimed at the asked the Cha Trading Corpor Japanese sets, respondent of Economic Re
Japanese fleet Colombo or T and Mitsui, S
Matushita and with that un fif their own fash
To completi vicious circle (, the characteris wer of a party 1956 deluge, of several orga red laird was TW set to a neig society.
bugge capitalist?" was proci3.iming th -water capitali -and-burn social UNP, was dea
We may be our rich know the Tor Joe

; transient than
ich may be coner standable enwy s of a trail-blazing ad no breath less mentator. If only are the mise-en we TeT inded him tas, with another hout to blast-off. excitement which anka’s entry into
Lanka's top One 2 grace of the IMF will soon sit back culture embellished
ures of the Los Department and of the Bionic
Ignant Trade Ministhe frontpages get them' threat private trade had Irman of the State ation to get cheaper
In 1942, a5, a Corthe Far Easter
WieW noted the : did mot reach rico. But Hitachi anyol and Dat5un,
Toyota are dealing lished business in i Omi.
the far from if irony we had tically brusque ans
leader before the A wealthy patron lisations, this retil
asked to gift a hbourhood welfa Te
rs think I am a s the blunt reply, at both Tik-and ilkוח free !ם חa וח$ is, like the 'old' Id.
poor but at least how to live With s'
May Day Circus Elephants and (Bengal) tigers
She UNP cannot take us on the merry-go-round the way it is doing with woters", a top SLFP trade union organiser
the L.G. "We are not kids' he added.
This comment followed a blunt rejection by Mrs. Bandaranaike, the SLFP leader, of a last-minute offer of the Children's Park at Hawelock Town as the wenue for the SLFP's May Day rally. Its usual venue, the Pedris Park, near by is being used by the visiting Indian Apollo Circus.
Then the UNP did a sortersault, It said that The Apollo Circus will be closed down and Pedris Park given to the SLFP. "We are not acrobats' 5 norted an ex -Minister: The SLFP then decided to hold its meeting on May 7th. "Mrs Bandaranai ke has only one question to ask. . . . is this the so -called democracy of the UNP' The UNP did another turn. An informal offer of Independence Square (never released for May Day rallies in recent times) was made. The SLFP still said 'no'.
Letters . . .
(Corrd ரீரர் ராஜி: )
Piffle
Miss. Felicity Gonsal's lengthy letter (issue of April 1) could
easily be reduced to one single word — PIFFLE — without los ing a tittle of its Walue.
Of that acknowledged master of Balderdash and Twaddle - the anonymous Fowler, it will be an un told kindness to him to ignorē, even excuse, his many wagiaries and misConceptions. "QUEM JUPITER WULT PERDERE, PRUS DEMENTAT".
A Portine mind with in al Hircine Frale, he continues to wallow in a mire of his own making, a process he appears to find strangely exhilla rating.
Erner de Haan

Page 28
Poverty
Profiles of Sri Lankan Poverty (3) Poverty groups and e
t this stage of the analysis,
it would be useful to place the poverty groups in their economic setting and examine how the distribution of sources and the socio-economic structures in their communities are related to the persistent poverty of these groups. We saw that Mirissa and Hora pe illustrate patterns of poverty somewhat different from the rest. In Horape the process of urbanisation has brought diversified in come-earn Ing opportunities to the rural community which lived there. Land began to acquire value for residential purposes in this process. Willage communities which are caught up in the expansion of the Urban sector would invariably benefit. Even small plots of highland which had yielded little income in the past are converted into assets of high
value. It is only a very small group in the village who would hawe no land at all or whose
ownership is in such fragmented holdings that it is of little value who are likely to get marginalised in the process of urban expansion. But even here the growth of urban activity provides a diversified labour market for such persons and enables them to earn reasonable livelihoods. This is by and large the process which we have witnessed in Horape. It would indicate that willagers in the urban fringe would generally improve their living conditions. Their situation would be very different from the propertyless urban poor within the city who are uprooted from their village links, have no assets of their own and are cast into the urban labour market in which the level of unemployment is rising. Therefore it is to be expected that the poverty that we observe in Horape is more of an accidental nature than of a structural klnd. It is derived from sudden loss of employment, from situations which
26
have led to mig from another dependency ratic cumstances. It situation which who own no la size.
Fishing
In Mirissa the what different. group consists la holds who have as a result of of a new fishing government pr introduced mech: deep sea fishing ation of the pa ship of resources of power and th incomes in the W It by passed the elite who owned required for the of fishing which on deep sea fisi
The governm reached out to engaged in fishing which worked f and provided thi mised boats un del programme whi CE55 DO 2 W II" them from their the traditional p the village. While of the new tec 5DITE ExLETT OM power structure the process it d the village craft: activities which round the tradit nology. The imp reduced the us and other coir-r spinning ceased In this situation of the coir wo find alternative craft or other opportunities. A

Excerpts from the final chapter of the 90-page study of poverty in this Country, by the Marga Institute
conomic setting
ration to Horaph village, a high and similar ciris in variably a afflicts those ld of economic
Situation 1550meHere the poverty rgely of housebeen marginalised the introduction technology. The ogramme which inised boats for led to an alterttern of owner, the structure e distribution of illage community. traditional fishing the equipment traditional modes relied heavily 1 ing.
ent programme those directly -the fish ing crews or these elitesm with mechaa hire purchase ch gave them 25ources, free ing dependence on ower holders in the introduction thnology did to erturn the old in the village, in is placed some of and economic were organised onal fish ing tech3rt of nylon nets of local nets lade items. Coir to be lucrative. however most kers could not types of coir income-earning combination of
Coir spinning and manual labour did not provide enough income especially when the number of dependent members in the household was considerable. A few of the coir workers were of the Durawa caste and in the local situation they could not readily have access to fishing operations which were controlled by the Karawa caste. They continued in coir work and other tasks that were less lucrative.
While the new technology led to a reorganisation of the groups engaged in diferent types of fishing, a few of the fishermen engaged in subline fish ing using small boats were disadvantaged. It is also possible that the new technology together with changes in the coastal area had adverse effect on the fishing operations close to the shore and reduced
the catch. Not all the crewmen were able to find adequate and continuous employment in the new activity and in the new distribution of functions in the fishing operations. The poorest
segment of the Mirissa community which has been discu 55 ed in the micro-study were mainly those who were adversely affected or bypassed by the new technology,
Walgampaya, Henega ma and Paranagama present three interesting examples of poverty arising out of village economies which are mainly agricultural but which are organised on a very limited resource base. They illustrate the problems of village economies where on the one hand income
earning opportunities in the village have not expanded to keep pace with the increasing
workforce, and on the other the labour markets outside the village had not generated sufficient demand for village labour.
alongWal
All three villages exist side the plantation sector.

Page 29
gampaya is adjacent to the mid Country tea Plantatlons, Paranagama which is located in the CC Com ut a Tea with coconut plantations surrounding it and Hene gama is in the environs of the ow country tea plantations. The land resources within the village as a whole are quite small. For Paranagama with 70 households, the total extent of paddy land was approximately 30 acres and the highland (exclusive of coconut estates available to the village was approximately 200 acres in Walgampaya there were 27 households. The total land resource consisted of 254 acres, 93 of which was highland and 6 was paddy. In Henegama the total number of households was 76, The village had 97 acres of Paddy and 347 acres of highland. In terms of land resources in proportion to the population, it would be seen that algапрaya is the poorest. As pointed out earlier, it has only a limited land extent for cultivation of the staple food and the output of this extent of paddy is far below the requirements of rice for the village population. The situation is a little better in Henegama both in respect of paddyland and highland. The overal land resources available to the village would however indicate that agricultural activity particularly at its present low level of technology and output would be able to support only a very small part of the population in the village. As is to be expected, the distribution of land in the wi||lages is a skewed, but the structure of land ownership is not such that few families own substantial externts of land.
On the whole, land holdings are small, the largest seldom exceed ing a range between 5-10 acres. While this structure of land ownership does not reflect gross disparities, the limited T35UT9 base not permitting such disparities, the inegalitarian distribution of land as we hawe it, inevitably results in a large number of households being depri ved of any reas Çimable access to land. As might be expected, it is these households which are
pushed to the powerty,
But lärde 55 m Tot hawe been lute powerty If nomy was viable a market for willage economy any appreciable prow I de opportu. abour and for ment as well services in the households.
In a this the of the village hay with a relative economy or at lei nomy which wa fast enough to ing workforce : tire a loosen in client til es whic the II in the p
Labour market
וח חiבוח The abour was the village itself an lable in the COI sector. But if situations in W gama and He Lihat With the gama, the Com sector could d expand the la village labour. Walgampaya, tl WETE TO "E or supplied with
abour and the labour was mar, would be resid provide only a irregular sourc the case of F the perennial plantations ma on labour. O adequate for
Die COCO Lt a million acres force which 100,000. The could hawe P market for thi could hawe int tore intesi wE te T15 in the . through inter dairying and 5

Targin of absolute
ass, itself would a cause of absothe village eco: enough to create abour. This the could not do to extent except to nities for casual seasonal employ35 for domesti
more well-to-do
poor est segments e been confronted y stagnant willage ast a village ecos not expanding
absorb the growand at the same g of the patron
h had supported a.St.
arket for Willage refore outside the d this Was awal
T mercial plantation We examine the 'algampaya, Parananegama, We find exception of Henemercial plantation o very little to boL market for In the case of he tea plantations les 5 adequately Te5 ident | Indian demand for village ginal. The demand ua and therefore very casual and :e of income. In 'aranagama, of all Irops, the coconut de the least demand ne labourer was | 0-15 actes. The plantation of over supports a work
does not exceed coconut plantations row ided a labour
a village only if it roduced new and : agricultural sysoconut plantations planting pasture, o on. But under
the previous ownership, proprietors of the coconut plantations were reluctant to undertake an enterprise of this nature and to
integrate the village economy with the plantation economy. Prospects however now exist for such an integration after the
and reform.
In Henegama the plantation
economy depended largely on the supply of Willage labour and the refore the property less households
had a ready market for their casual labour in the adjoining
SIL: .
It has to be pointed out however that in the case of Walgampaya the willage is in fairly close proximity to urban centres and is not typical of some of the Kandyan villages which are far removed from access to urban labour markets. Caught between this limited resource base and the stagnant village economy on the one side and a planta tlom economy which fails to integrate itself effectively with the village economy and offer an expanding market of income-earning opportunities on the other side, the property less households or the households with uneconomic landholdings in the village have been pushed to conditions of acute poverty.
Highland Agriculture
There is however another aspect which ought not to be neglected in analysing the use of resources and the manifestation of poverty at the village level. The village agricultural systems of the areas we hawe been examining have been traditionally geared to subsistence agriculture and within this subsistence system the effcient management of agriculture was found largely in the lowland rice cultivation system. The highland agriculture was generally of a migrant type and seldom demanded the intensive management
and the cultural practices of a settled system. As a result it might be argued that the agri
culturist in the peasant economy seldom looked on a small highland holding as a valuable agriCulturali resource.
27

Page 30
Cinema
Race
in cinema - a
Sinhala responses
by Reggie Siriwardena
he most valuable piece of
writing that could be done about Sarungale would be not a film review, but a survey of responses to it by the Sinhala mass audience. Since I don't hawe the resou Tces to at termPt this, I have done the next best thing; I have tried to gauge from published criticism and from the reactions of Sinhala friends and acqua intances some indication of the range of responses that the
film has elicited. Neither the critics nor those with whom have personally discussed the
film are, of course, representative of the Sinhala mass audience, but that makes some of the reactions encountered all the more revealing and significant. Not all responses were adverse by any means, but I shall deal With those that Were, and offer my own comments on them.
One of the depreciating remarks about the film that I came across (particularly among critics of a "progressive" persuasion) was that it didn't probe the socio-economic causes of racialism. This is, of course, true as a simple statement of fact. The nearest Sarungale gets to a comment on the general problem of racial conflict is in Nadarajah's remark that people are good, and it is only thirdclass politics' that has corrupted them. This is the charactet talking, not the director or scriptwriter, but it seems to be consistent with the film's own presentation of racial politics as an alien intrusion into the otherwise harmonious relations between Nadarajah his Sinhala neighbours.
To think of people as good and politics as bad is, of course, na iwe (where did the bad People who created the bad politics come from, and how did they corrupt the good). But should one reject Sarungale because it
and
28
doesn't offer a pe tical study of rë for one, a Tı glad ! ratne and Gami seems safe to as: latter had more t fi in than even the didn't even atte Tatialisi ir its 2 tical dimenslons. cause a film which real understanding got past the cer because I don’t til Gamini could have an endeavour off
That doesn't T derestinate the importance of W done. Any hones Sarungale has to recognition that i and courageous fil daring to tackle tabooed subject c it-5 . Takers hawe that should be b: and a stimulus tC. of the cinema.
But Tmore distui dewalu ing of Saru cal grounds is th people-апопg the middle-class Inte that the fill was its treatment of Where Was this found ? In the fad. Sinhala racialists but no Tamil level of film criti ment may be me it is based on t
a feature film c are really releva mentary.
If Sunil Ariyar making a politic
about racialism in should, of course, Simhala and Tamil his film yould I balanced and part

“Sarungale”
note On
netra ting poliicialism? I, for that Sunil Atiy1 | Fonseka (it ume that the o do with the credits suggest) mpt to treat -11סr pס micסnס: Not only bedid this with could'nt hawe sors, but also lirik Sunil and : brought such апyway.
eam that I Lunsignificance and hat they hawe t discussion of
start from the
t is a humane T. and that in the hitherto
if racial relations set an example оth a reproach other artists
rbing than the Ingale on politia fact that some Eוחם 5 Ewen וחB Ilectuals-thought
'un balance d' in
racial conflict. unbalance to be it that We saw on the screen ones. On the cism, this argLIt by saying that Ie application to if criteria that it to a docu
atne had been al documentary Sri Lanka, he hawe juxtaposed racialists, and Tawe been una without this.
But in a film whose central character is a Tamil clerk who become25 a wictim of Sinhala, racialism, and whose action in present time is all in Colombo (I shall come to the Jaffna flashbacks in a moment) it would have ruined the unity and narrative structuro of the film to cut away from the Colombo scenes of communal tension to racialists on the rampage in Jaffna (which is presumably what the objectors wanted). Does one demand of a feature film about Nazi persecution of Jews that it should also depict reactionary Zionists to be "balanced
I said this was would give in terms of film Criticism, but it seems to The that something more important than aesthetics is involved here. suspect that the criticism of Sarungale as 'un balanced” conceas a real lf un conscious Sense of wounded chauvinism, and shows how deep these feelings can run, even among middle-class intellectuals. For what else can explain the fact that these critics failed to Sae the real and admirable balance the film maintained betweer the Colom bo scenes in present time and the si Jaffna scenes in flash-back-the balance between the racial violence that
the answer
Nadarajah suffers and the caste violence that he has already inflicted on his sister and her lower
This juxtaposition not only prevents the film from turning into a black-and-white study
(without it Nadarajah would have been the saint or god the kasippu-dealerand his wife see him as). It also sets one kind of inhumanity of man to man against another, and greatly broadens the scope and social awareness of the film, Against the view of those who chauvinistically

Page 31
reacted against Sarungale as "pro-Tamil", should like to point out that the strongest moral reaction the film evokes is against
the behaviour of a man, gentle and peace-lowing by nature, believing in racial amity, who
not only defends caste discrimination on religious grounds, but beats his sister's lower brutally and drives her to suicide. In fact, the film's portrayal of this situation is neither pro-Tamil nor anti-Tamil; it is a revelation, full of insight, into the complexities of human behaviour under the distortions of social conditioning.
| find equally admirable in its perceptiveness the portrait of the kas ippu-dealer's wife, full of goodwill towards Nadarajah in normal times but at the crisis only conCerned that her husband should keep out of trouble, as well as of Nadarajah's friend and fellowclerk who shamefacedly avoids him so as not to run any personal tisk. These characterisations are disturbingly real in their depiction of the way in which simple 'good" people can and do behave in times of racial conflict.
I don't maintain that Sarungale is free of artistic faults (to men
tion only the most serious, Nadarajah's meeting with his for Tier lowe in the cafe at the
time of the riots, is a contrived coinciderce, rende ed even nore un convincing by its Stagey dialogue). But any criticism of Sarungale seems to me niggling if it doesn't recognise that the film's failings are greatly outweighed both by the intrinsic significance of its subject and its measure of actual cinematic achieve
TE:1t,
Its greatest asset is, of course, Gamini Fonseka's splendid performance, whose virtuosity is much more than a matter of speaking Sinhala with a Tail accent and Tamil (I am told) fluently and accurately. He has transformed his whole personality and bearing for the part, and he creates with marvellous consistency and reality the slow speech and movements of an ageing and lonely man whom life has passed by. But here again, it is not
(Cried ரா நாge )
Sarung by J. Uyar
eviewіпg a
filпл, а сош[ I had stated an that the task serious Sinhala on the shoulde artists of the p At the time sena Path li raja | only Sinhala Cl had a commend lity coupled with гesponsibility. | and young artis presence felt it creative Sinhala Sun il Ariyaratin film “Sarungale'' being screened.
Sunil is a relat the Sinhala Cine he first entered film which fai Impact or chos long forto serio with his secon seems to hawe his initial fail. with its wirgina deniable relevan though it ha troversia conc: temporary Lank fies an importa the zigzag Co Cinema. I thi existence of Sin rungale' is the deals with a phепоппепon of The first was Gau WWa'. Pat ta in short-coml Tnade an exem focus on the pi unemployed, ne ted youth. F first Sir Hala fili only believed trated that Cir τρα, η as a hist and in escapable society. (By th having doubts of 'Social resp the immediate τα απας ΓΠΙΠ . Η: Ato 5 is to car

ale - a brave attempt
goda
reCerit Simhala bie of months ago, ong other things,
of Creating a Cinema has fallen rs of the young "E.SE generation. had only Dharman mind, as the пепта artist who able Creati we abia Sense of Social Now, another new it has made his
n the sphere of cinema. He is e, whose second
' (The Kite) is now
iW2 W-Color to ma. It is a pity that the arena with a led to make any a movie-goers who us cinema. But d attempt, Sunil compensated for ure. "Sarungale", il theme and unce (Yes, relevance, |s become conopt) to the Con|ап Society signint development in urse of Sinhala nik, in the entire hala Cinema, "Sasecond fill which really explosive present-day society. Pathiraja's 'Ahas hiraja, desplte cerngs and difficulties, plary attempt to oblem of ducated, glected and allena'athiraja was the T-maker who mot but also demonsema, being an art orically determined : responsibility to e way, is Pathiraja about this concept onsibility?" This is uestion that comes far as Bambaru cerned). I think it ly to perceive, in
this context that Sunil Ariyaratne too is an artist who displays a rare sensibility, as awareness of the actual 55 ues of the Contemporary Lankan Society. He, like Pathiraja. refuses to indulge in crude vulgarity and Psuedo-aestheE. "OTatlcIST1.
"Sarungale' is the story of a Tamil clerk-Nadarajah. He is a Jaffna Tamil working at a government office in Colombo. He i5 one of those 'enlightened' or “peace-lowing" Tamils who opposes and condiemns Sinhala-Tamil communalism. Nevertheless, he strongly belig was in the traditional Caste system which prevails in Jaffna. This dualism in his beliefs is the man Confict im his character. This dualism and its tragic implications are shown in two directions. Nadarajah's younger sister Thangamani falls in love with a young man who belongs to an oppressed Tamil caste. With his strong caste-consciousness, he vehemently opposes this, threatens the lowers and finally assaults the young man. The girl caught between her un fortunate lover and aggressive, uncompromising brother, ultimately, commits suicide by jumping into the 'Andia' well. Meanwhile, Nadarajah is confronted with another tragic defeat in his personal life. He falls in love with a Sinhala girl - Susila daughter of one of his friends residing in Jaffna, But Nadarajah is prevented from fulfilling his romantic dreams, because of Susila's mother's objections which are based on racial grounds. Now, having lost both his sister and his love, Nadarajah is left alone with his wanished hopes.
After these two tragic events, Nadarajah lives a lonely and somewhat ascetic life. He Works irn the office and comes back to his hermitage-like boarding house), always in a pensive mood, probably contemplating and regretting the past. Living in a state of nostalgia and constantly retreating into solitude, he finds a friend in a small gril about ten years old
25

Page 32
the daughter of a nearby boutique
keeper. Both Nadarajah and the
little girl have a pecular likeliness to each other which reminds us of some characters in Dostotevsky's novels. It is through the innocent relationship of these two that the whole story of Nada rajah unfolds. The little girl wants Nadarajah to make kites for her and sometime asks some childish questions that Lake Nadarajah's mind back to the past Which is nothing but an agonis ing
journey. To the little girl, the k Etie is a fulfilment of het own dreams. But for Nadarajah. It
symbolizes his wanished hopes and Personal tragedies. What a real and dramatic juxtaposition
Meanwhile, communal riots break out. Tamils are assaulted and their shops looted. Nadarajah has a Self avowed faith in Sinhala-Tamil racial harmony. Moreover, he believes in the original goodness of human beings. Though the Tamil people are subjected to various kinds of harasssment, Nadarajah does not believe that he is in danger, merely because of this idealistic belief in the natural goodness of man. He refuses to take into account the warnings of Simon-the boutiquekeeper friend-and Simon's wife. Though Simon again and again pleads with him not to take risks his convictions on man's good virtues are so strong that he leaves home only to come back one night brutally assaulted by Sinhala thugs. Nadarajah dies on the lap of Simon, having fulfilled his last promise to the little girl bringing a new kite.
This is a simple, but original story. The fundamental significance of this fill is that it is based on one of the most explosive issues of our society-Sinhal-Tamil communalism and communal violence. The story written by Gamini Fonseka is not something the existence of which can be visualized only in the imaginary World. It Is a stor about a living phenomenon, though the treatment given to that phenomenon can be quessitioned. I think "Sarungale" can be included in a genre of Sinhala films which is distinct from that of Lester Pieris. Lester,
30
that lonely arti called him in a never attempted dealing, with the of our society. Work Garmperali strospectively, w. a romanticized Martin Wickrang wel. Sunil Arlyara here is that he h vaguely and perha a way forward frc has left or ha: Lester has cate particularly in his Wata”, that as 3 historical role, Cine, is Over. It is whether Suni I h need of facing : very different fro
Peirig. New erth expedition to fr grounds in searc
Sunil questions th of many a false Sinhala Cinema.
Undeniably, bot who wrote the Ariyaratne who do display a bas the lack of full the main issue -Tamil communali liberal bourgeois of outlook which in evitable failu Te true ature of tE
Even Nadarajal does not realize truth that the enmity is the in national oppressi: In equality and { hala and Tari | blind to the raci Both Gamini and Wanted to Creati of Nadarajah as a l Nadarajah is a k -spoken, well-d Tamil who oppos and refuses to be his Communal Til thren. To Nadara Ywhether it is Sil is an e vil thing about by "dirty irrespective of the are by nature, g "dirty politics" pe CG III TT1UT1lties Lam

St 5 SOreole different context, to make a fill lliwing actualities Even his major ya, Wiewed reis not most than simplification of isinghe's best notime's ach iewemeet as shown, albeit ps unconsciously, IT Whiëre Lester 5 been leaving. gorically proved, “Ahasin polofilm maker his
f he ever had still questionable as realized the
4 new direction, n that of Lester
eless, with his "esh and fertile h of a theme,
Ie very legitimacy attitude of the
h Garmin i Fon5eka story and Sunil directed the film ic Weakness, ie. understanding of involved-Sinhala sm. This is a and humane kind results in an to grasp the те phепomеnоп.
h, as a Tamil, : the essential Sinhala - Tamil
2vitable result of Dr. He believes friendsh IP of Sinpeoples but is al "disharmony".
Sunil must hawe e the character Tam İl Badisathwa. ind-hearted, soft isciplined good alismחuוחחחסBS C : Identified with ded Tami I brejah communalism, ı hala or Tam|| which is brought Politics." Men, air racial origins, 00 di- If not for oples of different co-exist in a
atmosphere of mutual trust. People misled by politicians, kill each other. In actual fact, this persona philosophy of Nadarajah is basically erroneus and nowhere in the film is this philosophy questioned. It is a truism that "dirty' politics, to a certain extent, is responsible for the Sinhala Tamil enmity and the outbreak of communal violence. But it is not the root cause of prosent day communal dish armony. This is explained only in terms of national oppression i.e.-politics. Both Gamini and Sunil, together with Nadarajah, have failed to grasp this fundamental. Theirs is a humane disgust of politics which has its inevitable, naive implications. Nigger is a good nigger So long as he remains un conscious of white oppression So are the good Tamils like Nadarajah! Ye Tamils, be martyrs of thy 'noble' convictions
I stated above that the main contradiction in the character of Nadarajah is the dualism in his beliefs. While Nadarajah condemns communalism, he believes in traditional caste systems.
While the main force of Nadarajah's character should hawe been his reactions to the national oppression, an over-emphasis is given to the caste factor at the expense of the national factor.
This lack of understanding of the issues involved and wrong perspective does not reduce the significance of Sunil's courageous attempt. The most welcome feature of the "Sarungale' is that it flies not in the heaven, but closer to the earth. Distortion and suppression of social reality has been the crime of the Sinhala cinema throughout its entire existence, with a few exceptions, of course.
A word must be said, finally, about the superb performances of Farina Lye. She has prowed beуопd ay doubt that she is one of the few talented actresses we have today. What the film indu 5 trialists So far ha Ye dome i5 to abuse her talents to suit their own purposes.

Page 33
ി memory orý
2ulfikar
 

49 sepłed
LAKLOOMS
of 72 Chatham Street, Colorbo I.

Page 34
| Symposium
Which way for
(9X Marxist
Youth Front
Mr. D. S. Mallar varachchi was ore of the "grc) members" in the Central Committee of the LSSP th the leadership ir rgÓ3 - 5, first on the questioII (2) Left Front aid ther on the question of coalition wi A founder member of the LSSP (R) now RMP, he wa,
who led the rig6S split in the LSSP (R).
He la fer
from the Sarakkody Group (RWP) at frாE Tharuna Peraniura' (Marxist Youth Front) of W. Secretary. The interview is by Garnini Dissanaike.
Q: Why do you call your organsation the Marxist Youth Front? Doesn't this Implicitly attribute the vanguard role to the youth rather than the working class?
A: We believe the youth of this country is one of the formidable forces of the Proletarian Socialist Revolution. For this reason. We think it is necessary to have an organisation to train the youth in revolutionary theory and practice. The MTP came into being to fu if this revolutionary task. While the youth is being organised we intend publishing a programme for the Revolutionary Party. We sha|| in witte revolutionaries of other organisations who are searching for a correct Program me to join in a discussion. Following such a discussion we believe a programme can be prepared on the basis of which revolutionaries can form the proletarian Revolutionary Party of Sri Lanka. In no way does this atrribute the vanguard role of the revolution to the youth.
Q: Or what issues did you break a way from Edmund Sama rakkody's Party?
A: As a result of working together with that group we were more than convinced that that leadership was not dedicated to the task of building a Revolutionary Party. Unless the top leadership is completly dedicated it is absurd to talk about building such a party.
Also we had differences on questions such as Trade Union work and United Front activities. Since
B
we separa ted, thi on the same platfo
Q: Afew years to inflate di SL 55, Mead to a reunificat Setors in Sri Lank Wat dre the ridi a re-unification?
A: We made all the groups cl: kyists for joint : Later We attempt groups who acce class-struggle. W JWP in this. We principal obstacli of struggles. Wh gle is developing either have to ësh nism or disappear
Q: As a Trosky join the United Fra; Left' groups wher kyist organisation. Join this orary oth
A: Ws think Shouldbe mobili: to debate the and anti-democr: ducted by the Ull the working clas lised by any si Therefore, the the offensive of the working mi. United Front of who are Pre par
UNEP and the SL
We do not unity. We say di ces among these

the Left?
up of II CC a challenged f the United I the SLFP. ராஜ ஆflore
broke alway e “ Marx:4"dadi rici Pre fs ľhe
is group appeared rm with the SL FP.
back you attempted fons which WOLld ion of the Trtskyst d. What happened? in obstacles to Such
attempts to bring aimling to be TrOSaction. We failed. ed to bring all the pt the politics of We included the failed again. The a is the absenca en the class strugthese groups will ad their sectaria
from the scene.
st, what made you
int of several “New 1st brother Trots5 hawe refused to er such united front?
the working class ied today in order anti-working class ltic campaign. ConNP. We also think is cannot be mobingle party today. only way to oppose
the UNP against L55 es is to form a all those parties ed to oppose the
emand Ideological aspite the differenparties we can get
together on agreed issues for joint action against the government's Offer 15 i W92.
We joined nine other partles to hold a United May Day Rally in 1978. Some of these parties wanted to bring the SLFP also into this. We vehemently opposed this move and succeeded in keeping the SLFP out. But some of these parties held a joint meeting with the SLFP subsequent to the May Day on some other issue. Also very recently some of these parties have joined various other individuals and organisations to attend to Cyclone Witis.
We hawe i decided to work together with the ten parties as long as they engage in activities which will help to form a United Front which can mobilise the working masses against the government.
Q: You addressed the mass rally held at Hyde Park on December 28th 1978 under the auspices of the expanded JCTUO. What is the present situatrong the Trade Union front?
A: The UNP government by a massive devaluation of the rupee cut the wages of the working class and simultaneously by removing the subsidy on rice, sugar etc. increased the prices of essential food items. The government also published a draft bill aimed at crippling the Trade Union 5.
Such blows impelled the workers everywhere to demand united action against the government and leaders were compelled by the rank-and-fila to bring the Unions together. In this situation the JCTUO convened a conference of Trade Union representatives which decided to hold a Public Rally on December 28th.
Although there was no decision at that time, the chairman announced at the commencement of the Rally that the unions participating

Page 35
had decided to launch a strike. That was the mood of the workers. They would not have been satisfied with anything less.
The representatives of the unions met a few days after an utterly vague strike decision was taken without fixing a date. When the important question of electing a committee to decide on a plan of action came up, Bala Tampoe, the CMU leader insisted that the Eksath Kamkaru Samith lya (Trade Union) of which I am the general Secretary should be kept out of the committee while Batty Weerakoon the LSSP Trade Union leader insisted that Wasudeva Nanayakkara should be out. As there was no unanimity it ended up without electing a committee. Later Bala Tampoe and Batty Weerakoon have agreed to keep both Vasu and myself out, and a committee had been appointed without a meeting!
This committee known as the action committee' was in no hurry for any action. They wanted to mark time and kill the enthusiasm of the Workers. Although they deliberated from January only in early September did they decide to call a one day's strike on September 28th.
Later it was revealed that not a single union in the "action committee' had given notice of the token strike to the employers. The CMU, the biggest single union in the private sector, among the unions represented in the action commititee normally the first to give notice of any strike to the employers, had forgotten to do so on this occasion. Only the Eksath Kamkaru Samithiya which is not in the action Committee gawe notice of that strike. So the present situation is that the trade union bureaucrats, just like they did under the coa|| tion government, are hold Ing back the organised working classes.
Q: What do you think of the postponement of the proposed one ரிசy General Strike by the JCTUO action
O'r 177 Fittee.
A: What the events proved was that, in fact, there was no Postponement of the Token General
Strike. If the Wanted to ca II have countered Propaganda wł Confuse and inti Joint meetings : lunch intervais ters etc.. a mid Ta' and provinces thero. Nore
What is your y potential of the SL
A: The myt Communist Part its very birth a who claim to be that a section of of our country and therefore th was exploded b by the SLFP.
The role play demonstrated Progressive sect class, just as апу Survive only as II: rialists, by helpi
to exploit th Country.
By the Inhum cream of Our yol the SLFP proved Protect this soc. Prepared to reso methods.
The role playe prowed that the no progressive СеуIоп.
We think it wi tion as the alt party minus the it had in the past
Q: Whot is you the national quest the slogan for a se North? What is you
A: Marxwad ! recognises the ri People to determi are prepared to with the rest o whether they shot under a separates damental democri Marxist - Leninist.

action Committee the strike it would the government 1Ich was amed to midate the workers. at workplaces during issu ing leaflets, posss rallies in Colombo would have been if these took place!
"iew of the role dnd FP ?
:h spread by the y of Sri Lanka from ld all those others Marxist - Leninist the capitalist class is anti-Imperialist ley are progressives y the role played
ed by the SLFP also that the so-called ion of the capitalist other sections can ackeys of the impeng them continue
Ta SSE25 of ou
as massacre of the ЈПg People iп 197| that in order to :ialist system. It is "It to most barbari
d by the SLFP thus capitalist class has role to play in
Il continue to func2rnative capitalist : Popular support
Party's stand on lon dnd concretely parate state In the "r view of the TULF
Tharu na Peramuna ght of the Tamil ne whether they Contin Le to ||ve f the people or ld live separately tate. This is a furatic right. Those Si Who are deny
INVITE US TO CATER F0R
YOUR PARTY
6
!G
6O
(Of
fish Ore
PAGODA
Catering is a speciality. We cater for any function large or small: weddings engagements, cocktails luncheons, din ners.
PAGODA
RESTAURANT too is available for your partу.
Phone: 23086, 29236.
PAGODA
05, Chatham Street, Colomb o ||.
Cyril Rodrigo Restaurants Ltd.
33

Page 36
ing this fundamental right not only demonstrate that they are rejecting Lenin's teachings on this very imPortant question but also supporting the ruling class of our country to suppress the Tamils by force. of artms.
We do not accept "Eelam" as the solution for the problems of the Tamils. Dethroning of the capitalist class, the principal enemy of the Working masses including the Tamils from political Power, and the smashing of the state, which OP Presses all the working people including the Tamils, is the only solution.
We are the enemies of the enemy of the Tamil people and It is imperative that we join hands and Conduct one battle against the
OTTO enemy.
Let the TULF arrange public discussions, seminars etc., so that the Tamils will be aware of the different paths from which they should choose, before they choose their path.
Q: Some allege chat the JVP's new theoretical platform is basically Trotskyist. What is your view of the current theory and also the practice of the JVP?
A: The programme of the JVP shows that its leadership has not grasped the problem of wresting power from the ruling class.
The JWP programme contains a very long list of tasks to be fulfilled after the seizure of power.
Such a Programme will also prowide for organisations such as factory Committee, Soviets, (or Worker's Councils) etc. which will organise the revolutionary messes.
If I am mot Tnistaken Rohana Wijeweera has stated that they rejected Stalinism, Maoism, and Trotskyism. But he has not explained why he rejected Trotskyism. We think he will realise that it is his duty to explain what he rejected and why he did so.
The question is, has he rejected Marxism taught by Len in tool Let us remember that the Communist International during Lenin's time insisted that the programme of its
34
National Section sł transitional de Tha the concrete needs
Judging from th ties of the WPinoy as to whether W ring to take the Keune man vis-a- Leaders.
It is apparent th siders that the an i are not possible to the leaders of the who are known say. Now the qui differentiate the of the LSSP and C lutionary leaders c basis of th gir Lroro
Q: How do you evolving sluditor ir What are the tasks context
A: The econom is being maintained World Capitalist therefore no sect class of OLT O the Ceylonese ecc diction with imple the imperialist con Economy the ruli section which is in period can functic boration with TAGLITES.
The principal air lists is to take awa) and more of the Our Country. In c their share they co to reduce consurlıp
On the Other har capital is being brol loans being obtaine
The result of all will be that the im our economy will be every passing day.
With the cornir the World Ecolor masses of our count ruthlessly exploited
The task is to la to mobilise the wo youth, the student sants, the Tami 5 and all other oppre:

hould provide for Tids that reflect i of the masse 5.
1e present activiw we hawe doubts 'i jeweera is aspi
place of Pieter wis the Sowiet
at the JWP con:-govt. struggles day. This is what LSSP and CP, reformists, also estion is how to reformist leaders P from the revoif the JWP on the
tactivities. . .
chardcterise the the country, and of the Jeft In this
y of out Country as a part of the Есопоту. апd ion of the ruling rу сап паlintain nomy in contrarialists. Because : rol of the World ng class or the power at a given In only in Collathe imperialist
m of the imperiamore and more social surplus of rder to increase mpel the masses tion drastically.
ld more foreign ught in and more
these measures perialist grip on 3 tigh tened with
Ig recessions of ny the working ry will be more
unch a campaign rking class, the is, the poог реаpeaking people ised sections.
37or &leetrieal
9nstallations
designed to meet
gyour exact needs
Please cori fact:
LIGHT ENGINEERING
ENTERPRISES
(ENGINEERS & CONTRACTORS) REGIO No. 9 5 8 0 5
8th Floor, Paul WI Centre, Front Street, Colombo II.
Telephone: 36 65 7

Page 37
APPEAL BY GABRIE
“With no other qualificat, and with the sole merit would like to issue an urgen world: help us so everyone
“Help us so no one will inte of reconstruction, the pe women, the peace of its so no one will disturb th fields and its rivers poi enemy on earth. Wither t αραιης f thαι glorioιες αηd seemed forever condemned now, for the first time in tw the hard and silent year, that no son of a bitch sh from all over the world, we to at last enjoy a right it ha and more decency than any of mankind the simple r
By A

- GARCIA MARQUEZ
ons than that of writer of being a man of peace, I f call to all our friends in the will keep hands of Vietnam.
"rrupt the peace of its work ace of its unconquerable men of indomitable spirit; e peace of its ruined rice soned by the most savage he hand raised once more unfortunate homeland that to perpetual war and that o centuries, is experiencing y of a convalescent peace ould dare disturb. Friends ask only this help Vietnam is won with fore heroisi
other people in the history ight to be happy.'
WELL WISHER
GsGIr(,r,rah
正─云一
" , ... "ዳT፡hã தங்கம்,
ADWT

Page 38
Satire
Ah Rosemary : - under the bed
ou know my views very well.
Yoko and I admit the criticism in certain quarters that lean far too much to the liberal standpoint in matters of free expression and the arts may
hawe somThe Substance" Confided Prof. Nimal Kanken diri, the wellknown critic, teacher, and
Tam of theatre. at EHe seminar on. "Towards a definition of an indigenous Culture' sponsored by the Algernon Charles Swinburne Society in commemoration of the Writer's 70th death anniversary. At the coffee-break and biscuits (Huntley and Palmer, of Course) our conversation drifted to the urgent issues of culture, society and politics today, and the Professor, an intellectual to the very fibre of his being began with a declaration of his fundamental position.
We met casually
"What I do object to, ind I am quite uncompromising on this, is the attempt to brand me a pinko fellow-traveler and a secret commie who has infiltrated into the ranks of this august organisation merely because I said that Franco's attitude Lo Garcia Lorca Was counterproductive, and that Hitler should have merely banned Mann's books, not burnt them......"
"Dr...... I really thought we might discuss some questions of more dirett relewance to the cultural and political situation hete . . . .after afi you hawe just returned to the country after an absence of some years and I a fresh, un prejudiced opinion.... I don't want to miss this great opportLI LI ity to hear you on. . . . "'
"Of course of course I understand" he said understandingly. Professor Kanken diri has just had
his second doctoral dissertation LLLLLLLL S LLL L S S L0LaLLLLL LS
CY'', the death 15th century fo! Matara school
uprising" publish Dokota Uniwers it described by Pr Hogwash (In “Wai of Aesthetics, Ea Hawaii) as aп "" tribution to an
proach to the Thir matrix a5 the Lul bulwark against Population explo and the agitation ternational Econo
(Incidentally Pt who has lecture. Haiti, Chile and the chief speake in Colombo next Khayyam or How sponsored by the cations Society, Jaycees and the Stiftung).
"Proff, can I i tion to some 5. Cult test Lanka......"
""Certainly, bLI state my positio | don't Want to and I don't wish tood....I am : that there arte : here who say t should be a g they'll be saying grows out of t բun. . . ., ha, ha, .
"The point be
"The Point II: dogmatism and which does no War is t exer"CiS2 . . . . . . dramatist, the w is addressing F

The Outsider
- or Red
notif in the Ik wer5e of the
and the 97 ned by the North y. It has been of. Jerome C. kiki', the Journal 1st-West Center, outstanding Con
integrative apod World cultura Limate ideological the pressures of
sion, Subversion for a new , Imnic Order.'
"ofessor. Hogwash, extensively in Chad will be r" at a symposium month on ''Ornar y ve ost rar", a Ma55 Comuni
the Colombo Mirtin Borman
nvite your attenpecific issues of Here in Sri
t not before in very clearly.... be mis reported, to be nisunderslware, you See, OThe new critics :hat the camera шп. . . . І 5шppose next that power : he barrel of a
#іпg . . . . . . ...?" Es that I de test didacticism . . . . t = meam, that I b be2 3 n . elitist ..the poet, the writer in general, is fellow men,
and most of them are ordinary mortals, not academics, aesthetes or intellectuals like you and . . . . and when We corne to assess any writing, we must bear in mind, its effect on the ordinary
readers.... the Common response ... how would an average man react. ...?"
**And the oliticiar . . . . ?" |
inquired with the right touch of humility.
Who could be more common than him, ...? In any event, he has the right to consider the average reader's reaction, the effect on the popular audience.... it might even be his first consideration...."
"Then it is goodbye to Leavis, and Ludowyk and the close examination of the Words on the page and the author's artistic intention.... far well. in short, to everything we learnt at Thurstan Road and Peradeniya. . . . . .ייל
"At the feet of Doric Pass......"
and
"Well. not quite feet but.... ah. Thurstan Road," murmured the Professor suddenly borne away by a wave of nostalgic recollection....'ah, those passionate moments uLuder the spread Ing mara trees, those quiet e meditations on Spenset and Shelley in the seclusion of the Library, those young hopes of Parnassus. the transient joys of a secretive
glance at those lissome la 5 sies ...... ah, Rosemary where art thou. . . . . . . .?''
"Prof, if, you mean Rosemary Rogers nee Jansz., she's in Manhattan making a million bucks off het books. . . ..."

Page 39
ം് bOshkin,
LLLLLL LLLLLLLLL LLLLCLLLLCLCCH LCH LLL LLLL LL LHGLLLLL L there watching your-wary interest in trade and
W
We endeavour to know each of ourcient as aff understand your problem as if they are our own CL TLTCMHL 00LLSS CCC LLLHLC CCLCCCLL HH LHHGGC C L with the world's capitals too.
We are better oquipped today to carry an even
L LLLL LL LLL LLL LLLLLL LL LLL LLLLLLLLL LLLL LLLLLLL sought-irer bank in the local bankin circles.
ITHE FOREFR
HEFFE ܨܠܐܲ.
=*
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Look what we
༣ people have have done for . done for us the people . . . 12 lakhs of them de O 274 Bramach throughout
busire with UI the Ind
95,7% of this fora 5 vriri O Ana work of 555
depois a mong all Cooperti yra Rural Bank Can Tiercial bank li cover in ra not rural irith ut
Cooperative Rural Bank 98 Fiharle Bank. deposits ower 200 million
A compact Foreign Branch gered to handle the nation", iTıp Öfhexpert fra de speedily and efficiently
ETH OO
Üဌါရီt်ဝံfter rri lonko
globe. You name an inhabitad continent-wear Financo.
iend rather than as a mere cus fomer. We try to I. That's why from humble beginnings in the city villages in Sri Lanka, and strength and our link
bigger load of responsibility on your behalf.
helped us in the corted position, of the Tost

Page 40
"In English?" crles the Professor aghast "why Doric used to give her a C minus for her tutes. . . . . . . . '''
"'Anyway she has unzipped her creative soul and her private life to the Washington Post, republished recently in a bright new Colombo weekly.... . . . . Il a TT afraid Prof, you are not even mentioned....evidently you were
away by the fastest man in Asia.
to wit i Summa Nawaratnam . . . .
"True, true.... in the race for
Rosemary, Summa tape the
breast, first,....I mean breasted
the tape first I get so excited that the mere vision of that face
wrecks my idiomatic structure. . . .
"In Summa's case his Poace was his fortune, not his prose...."
"Never mind....let's get back t 醬 questions.... what seems to be bothering you. . . . . . ני
Prof, in the past few weeks, two literary journals have brought grave troubles to their editors and contributors . . . . . . I refer of course to the Royal College Tamil Literary Association annual and the Jaffna University magazine.... teachers have been punished, students reprimanded.... are we on the way to producing our own dissident Writers....? Ils there any yet un recognised Solzhen itsyn in our midst. . . . . . ?יי
"I haven't seen the texts in question and shall refrain from any definitive statement... but as warned you before we have to be careful. . . . . . politics and poetry, that's a very sensitive . . . . . . and I am strengthened in my conviction on reading a new journal called NAVASILU
- NAWA what . . . . . . . . ?"
NAVASILU, Outsider, NAVASILU, the Publicatlon of the English Association of Sri Lanka, and the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies Sri Lanka, edited by Ashley Halpe, Professor of English, no less. . . . . .'
38
Yes..... .ייל PLIZIzled. . . . . .
"Well, you kn SILU mea 15 . . . . . the fl:
cover is based o Sinhalese gini-dal kanka flaTTe OTF1:
"So......'
| Well, ISKRA name of Lenin's it Mao who said spark can start incendiary idea i Guevara and the
Dear God, under the bed.
Well, let's
Іiteгагy buds. . . . suspiciouly pink
in this garden, You. . 芷"
"Such as . . . . . .
""Take this po from an expatriat Опdaatje . . . ."
Why the sco
ւNo, ոՃ Outsi thought. . . . . . yo, Tacist. . . . . . SOTT12 Burghers are n Rosemагу. . . . .."
"Fair enough.
"I am trying you the need ti the context, the the political a CO. . . . yol is a concerted paigп belпg соп expatгiates, esр the minority tarnish the ima, and to be little of building a dharmista 50 ciel to these pas 5 divorced parent well the poet's father (presente alcoհolic) and toring habits w that respect for cation of alco

asked l, a bit
ow, what NAVA...the new spark ame motif on the in the traditional u and the Siamese anents'.
(spark) was the
paper and wasn't that a single a prairie fire, an not unfamiliar to foco theorists
you mean reds
דיל
say under the there are some flowers blooming as I shall show
ייל.
em for Instance e named Michael
'rnful. . . . . . . . . .'
der. ... perish the םח W I amסוj kf.
of the best ny friends.... ah,
to impress on o keep iп пmlnd Wider COr text, .md intern äitional u know that there and Insidious camducted abroad by
ecially those of סIBS tםIחוLוחוחםם ge of Sri Lanka, our present task пеw society. а W. . . . . . סחW Iistחם ages about his :s. Now regard attitude to his
d as an incurable his mother's mohile remembering
parents, eradolism, and the
curse of careless drivers, are some of the pillars of our new society.... the Education Minister,
Mr. Nissanka Wijeyeratne, has actually drafted a code for the new generation of students, and
both the Foreign and Information Ministries are now planning a counter-attack on the anti-Lanka propaganda abroad. . . . . . . . shall read the relevant passages. . . . . .
"and once, gaining instant fame, managed to stop a Perah ar a in Ceylon
—the whole procession of elephants, dancers
local dignitories-by fall Ing dead, drunk onto the street.
As a Semi-oficial and Sem-white at that
the act was seen as a crucial turning point in the Home RLa Mo Wemelt
and led to Ceylon's independence in 1948.
(My mother had done her share LOO
her driving so bad she was stoned by villagers whenever her car was recognised)".
"Well outsider, what do you
think. . . . . . "
*I rather like the sound of that 'dead drunk onto the street!'"
"Yes, the alliterative attempt is interesting. . . . . . but what's the effect of 'dead drunk", those three D's"
"Three - Dimensional 2'
"Hmm mm....What I am asking you is for its impact. . . . . .
"The impact of a body drop
ping on macadam with a thun
derous thud . . . ... ?"
"Outsider, don't be so darmin
literal. . . . We are discuss Ing the
poetic Imagination and reader response.... think of the associative suggestiveness of dead drunk, those two 'd's...... what would
(Corrified or Page 40)

Page 41
70ith the
BROWNS GROUP
P. O. Box 20
Λ o ECC
42mm NA
FOR TUINNELING, M.
WATER SUPPLY, CONSTRUICTION EQUIP
EQUIPMENT & CoN
7, CANAL ROW
COLO

éomplimentu
OF COMPANIES
0. Colombo.
3 O 54 PHONE - 32 l l 3
8 862 (NIGHT)
ALL NING, MARINE,
AGRICULTURAL MENT ARD ACCESSORIES
TRUCTION Co. LTD.
P. O. BOX 88 BO I.
39

Page 42
Ah Rosemary . . .
(Carrined front Page 35)
be the instant associations in the average reader's mind. . . . . ."
"Doublic-distilled. . . . . . . ."
"Briant....so something from after all. . . . . .
ou did pick up oric's classes,
“We both drank at the same Pierean spring. . . . . . . ."
"Now, Outsider, what is the author's reall intentlton . . . . . . * lբt me help you....? surely this emphatic insistence on alcoholic images and associations is a deadly attack directed at the very foundations of the dharmista society?
"And consider his thoroughly haughty attitude to the rustics. .... 'stoned by the villagers,...."
ls he suggesting that the villagers were stoned, too.... I mean 507 zled . . . . . . ?יי
No the attitude to the Willagers has to be contrasted with
that subtly in 'semi-white'....t sinister subtlety tative attack. . . . . that led to the our independence gher bugger's al tration but that only because he
the til We:S Sir John had not the struggle for who pray, are t taries . . . . . . ? Surti Teferencé 15 cle: who is the dign parades hmself
''The Diyawada
And who is
'Oh my God W. . . . . . . . ."
"Precisely..... clincher in What a blatantly sub' the allusion to not buffalos.. . . . Why elephants
70th C.
Fr
SERENDIB AGRO
Agents & Secretaries . .
SUGAR
Al
F A R M P
59, Janadhipathi Mawatha, Colo
40

litrated phrase nere you See the of the arau Thenone of the causes
attainment of
! I was this i burcoholic demonst was possible
was "semi-white, D. S. Sir Oliver, hing to do with freedom . . . . and hese local dignlely, Outsider, the ar enough . . . . . . itary that always at the Perahera
na Nilame. . . . . .
he . . . . . . :
. . . . . . . . Nissanka
... and the real in my view is ersive poem is elephants. Why or tigers. . . . . . Wher the whole
world knows that it is the symbol of the Grand Old Party. . . . . . ייל
"Prof..... may I say with all humility, you hawe done a great service not only to the progress of poesy and literary criticism but to our common endeavour to build socialism in one country, minus of course the 200 square
Tiles of the FTA. . . . . . .."
Race in cinema. . . .
(Cr fri Page ஐ)
only of artistic achievement thas I would speak, but also of the healthy shock for the Sinhala mass audience of seeing their most popular screen male idol playing the part of a Tamil. When the time comes to draw up a balance-sheet of Mr. Gamini Fonseka's career, his role in this film as well as his part in con ceiving its story and theme will have to be set strongly on the credit side against all the bad films in which he has played and his right-wing politics,
Impliments
PRODUCTS LTD.,
Management Systems Ltd.
P R O DUCT
ND
RODUCE
Tibo | :
Telephone:
554 5-8

Page 43
臀运 リW登深
O waratto be
COLOMB | k Centrali Y lo tatud in the City with rapid access it
key shopping, sightseeing and business venue. ke A 8 - Storey block with 1 no Domi architetturally EarrivEl tu marimise ilu sea view frontagբ, y Thoroughly modern comforts and ÇOn"En İFTÇE 5.
Swimming Poul with Sun Terrace. k Driental und Western cuisins to te lo All ta: E * Gius Ser Yic83 includs reservation. El Criti i
āhỉ tulax futiliĩiai, laundry and Yalat services and frt a baby cribs, children under 12 years stay free when sharing hair р8геПt:" ппага,
k Convention facilities include; Conference Ragm with complate and modern audio-visual facilities fait 75 tu 1000 par Eons.
ls
ܙܦܣܳܚܚܬܐ
D. SRMOHAMED MAC MAR MAWATHA, Telophone: 22 OD 1 Ten line Tele: 1200 Cable;
THE MOST ACCOMMODATING PEOPL
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

浣
تخليل لغت f କାଁ
W
罩 *
"z"
. ČULDMHJ .
"Holidai Y linn" Colomb P.O. Box 1202 E IN THE WORLD.

Page 44
3)(OSW SERWICES
AND SING
Only SIA offers an exclusive 747B Service every Tue to Dubai, Zurich, Frankfurt and Copenhagen; and non-stop every Thurto Singapore.
In addition, SIA offerS two 707 Superjet services each week to Zurich, Copenhagen and four to Singaporethe biggest choice.
Whichever flight you choose, you’ll enjoy a standard of inflight Service even other airlines talk about.
O IDM 3 ZURICHF COPENHAGE
ILOYD'S BUILDING, 15A, SIR BARON JAYATILAKE MAWATHA
 
 
 

EUMBO TOEUROPE APORE
SS
RANIKFUR,
NSNGAPORE
9/1/74. Af
AAVAW
A great ukiy to fly
... COLOMBO 1, TELEPHONE: 24148.24181,2150i