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Religion and Politics
Christianity
Yohan Devananda
Monks in revolt
Kumari Jayewardena
Islamic reviva
N. M. M. I. Hussein
O MAY DAY ROUND -
 
 
 

May 15, 1979 Price Rs. 2/50
Women's Lib in Sinhala
Our Foreign Service
W. W. Wiswawarnapala
Shakespeare on screen
Reggie Siriwardena
The Left in Iran
Mervyn de Silva
- UP O ELECTIONS

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is a young and enterprising company ue applaud the dignity, courage and determination of the people of Sri Lanka in their search for a better life.
Our team of development chemists pledged to engage our country's skills resources in Sri Lanka's agricultural and industrial progress. New materials, New ideas, New technologies and
The will to Succeed are the tools with which we approach
the future
Chennanex Limited Aà
P.O. Box, 1881 Color Tabu 1.
Fi li graphii bir e turi i Sr | All-l.

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Trends
Exit Lion-el?
Cur Lor — es", as our staff correstendent reported in the last issue Ef the L. G., is how the people of affing speak of their Government
Et
|5 he on his way out". On one matter all the journalists on an officially Epson5or ed to LI re of the per im 5 LI I J Filad no di Sagreeriments — the very special
LANKA GUARDAN
Wol. 2 No. 2 May 5, 1979
Published by LinkFA GLIF Trian
Publishing Co. Ltd., First Floor,
88, N. H. M. Abdul Calder Road, (Reclamation Road) Col JT11b3 11.
EditT:
Telephone;
Mervyn de SI va
2, 1 Ա (19
COVER
A recent front page story in the Daily News raised the controvercial issue of priests and politics. Reggie Siri ya Tidigma had earlier posed the: question "Where are the Radical Buddhists?" (L. G. March 15th) in a response to a report in this journal by Jayantha Somas Lunda ramm Jr. the Colorbo Conference of Asian Bishops. In this issue We present three views in Religion and Politics. Our cover shows Ayatolla Khorleini, the focal point of the Irania. Il revolution which DL L LLLLaLLLL HLHHLaLLLLL LLLLLLLaaL LL
lainnic sundament Ellisim. We Iso Om III ence publication of Li study con || Eble historical Tolic of the Sri Lanka Il Bhikkhu in political protest.
CONTENTS
Letters 3 - 5 News background
Press opinion
7 - IO International news II - 12 Foreign Service
3 - 15 Nationhood 5 - 20 Religion and politics
Cinema 1+ Elections
Printed by Ananda Press E25, Wolfeldhu Street, Colombo i.
T55
affection drid est G. A. was held.
In Jafngftsef, reports that Mr. L. move to another pos. As G. A. officer. The re followed by two t It Is I ri LIIIrle tr It is a result of of a new Distri Yogen dra DL ross W
Some say that given a choice (or under?) the nel but prefered to difficult post he h distinction,
Trawe
Once the pri Wii
bLI rea LICrots, bLIs I ne
þjfd is f5, tra Wel is de W. The traj We! forth at every tra vel departments d sшгё 5lgп of th m LJ h does It cost? CLurrert repart giw ?77 Sri Lrk: rupees or 3 77 III on S Rights), ln | ջ78 AAA gir SDR 23 less than 30 r/
Polis and Pric
Informed cricle opinion that the petro world shoo and Rs. 30/- res. the Local Gow Though the IMF etc for tota J W ft hidr It is Linderstood has persudded th thut It WըL|վ եe to Introduce these local polls.

Letters
eel W. ام
there di re pers/stent fore Ferrardo wi bost after the local he is the gazetting por t5. 47 re
heories. First thin ansfer; second that the appointment "ct Secretary, Mr. аппy.
Mr, Ferr 1 Gordo Wydig of Working with W. District Secretary move out of a very 75. Served with Lich
lege of politicldns, 55f1er) and C. R. Almore or less free agen Cses sprouting street Corner ord In every bank is Te trie:, ELIt Floy The Centra Briks es the figures. In i 5 pent 33 milion DR (Special Drawling
usually
the Sur was R5. rifon, or g little
for US dolars.
도
is are now of the price of flour and t up to Rs. 1.80 Dectively soon after tert Eleft:5 I have been pressing Wr of subsidies, that the government e lending agencies Politi CT II y Lin Wise measures before the
Non-exploitative Societies
The USSR and the PRC (et al.) are examples of "non-exploitative societies'. They are also examples of societies "where the administrative apparatus is both representative and open to genuine popular participation". Says who? Says Chintaka. Does he really beliewe this? There is no reason to
doubt that he does. There is, of cour 5 g allows Chintaka, 'an authorita Fian character" to the administrative apparatus" (which,
nevertheless, is "both representative and open to genuine popular pa ticipation"). But does not Chintaka know the naked reality of What this diaphanous euphemism "authoritarian character" poorly conceals? There is no reason to doubt that he does. It is a uniquely 20th century phenomenon that people believe, not what they hawe good reason to think is the truth, but against all evidence, what they would like to be the truth, This is where "the finest available mode of analysis' has brought Chintaka. It is ironically the same infallible mode of analysis' that has kept the USSR and the PCR in eyeball to eyeball confrontation these many years.
CEltյrll եւ 3. Costa in de Wo5
Mid-east Vacancies
Could you kindly let me know whether the advertisement'' enti. tled "Mid-east vacancies' Post of Policeman (Regional) was taken from some foreign magazine or was it written by a local Writer. If it was from a foreign magazine can you let me know the name of the paper? If it was the work of a Sri Lankan, I must congratulate the writer for his or her Wit.
Jaff Kumar Namasivayam,
NOTE:
The 'ad was the invention
of a staff Writer – Ed.

Page 4
Cowardly
| hawe newer written an anonymous letter in my life, nor shall | eyer do so: || hawe always signed my name to any letter or review | hawe written. Not to do So, is the act of a coward, On certain occasions, | hawe used the nomde - plume "Diogenes” when Writing articles of a light nature, given to gentle chaff and bandinage.
also never defend myself against attacks ma de on me by person5 who hide their identity behind a pseudonym, even though I full well know the name of the writer. I am imperwi ous to public opinion and act as see fit. I never take revenge. Lastly, I do not know Dr. Wal||belof Jansz and hawe newer Tet him anywhere.
Colombo 4 EITEr de Haar!
"Fowler' and his folly.
The fellow who first called himself Fowier, and who now calls himself Picri 5, believes that oUr previous letters to the "Lanka Guardian' which criticized him and Praised Elmer de Haan, were actually the work of Mr. Haan in disguise. He comes to this conclusion on the basis of what he judges to be "remarkable affinity between Haan's own prose style and that of the Writer, who he alleges has been masquerading as "Dr. Wal|beoff Jari sz".
Even if there is some superficial resemblance in style between the two separate writings, does it necessarily follow that they are from the same source? Pieris, alias Fowler, seems to think so. He who wrote under cover of another's name has inferred that the object of his attack has retaliated in like manner pseudonymously,
We wish to reassure Mr. Pieris, if that is indeed his real name, that our letters to the "Lanka Guardian", including the present one, hawe mot been the work of a ghost writer, but have been our very own composition, in our own handwriting, and handed personally to the Editor himself, who was meyer in doubt about our identity.
교
Who is Lakith Has anyone heard C Jansz, on the o appeared before practitioner of university profes: broadcaster, and has contributed under his own at Daily News' and th At Present "TRIBU a series of artic the Edito introdu time Associate P deniya Campus."
The Writer who behind a false n: might very well same thing in the while FOULER: Ha to our previous his expression "tak (2) his assertion heall thyself" is t of St. Luke 4, on these two m: ently eloquent adm
Colombo 4.
Piff
If Mr. Eller
thought my let block capitals, ye cely hawe found bother to writ that. By the mere fact that PFFLE does not t ... Tħa trLit answer to the my letter, that 54Life" is nothi 5 ha melle55 ad r tion of the Wau the Colonia I BITIE tic attempt to sł could Inimic t! monkey-tricks b hated Torians
Deh iwala

SL., C. Pieris? f in Wall be off ther hand, has the Public as a medicine, as a as a radio as a writer who literary articles le to the "Ceylon e 'Sunday Times". NE", is publishing es by him, and Ces himas "someofaggior of Pera
OT
had been hiding lme in the past be doing the present. Mean5 failed to reply criticisms of (II) :e objection', and that "Physician he correct text 73. His Silence atters is a sufficiission of defeat.
Wallbeoff Jansz
le
de Haan really ter PFFLE (in tl) he would scarit Worthwhile to and call it iam o Cokem, the Mr. Haan ca||5 it necessarily make סח 1s, he has ו harge, implicit in his purported ng less than a mindless glorifica5 ad mores of is her and a pathehow that Royalists
he White - Tian's letter than the could.
Felicity Gопsal
Booze in the USSR
would like to tell Mohan (L. G. April 1st) that liquor has always been part and parcel of the culture and life style of the Russians; a fact that has been determined partly by the climatic conditions of the country.
Garmini Dissariai ke,
Elmer's Tune
Here's Elmer of the House of Haan: Beware
Do not approach for he's a surly HEEr.
Abusive, carping, IĞLud- mi Ĉu th ed and prafane,
Ha is, bi slides, self-complācent and War.
His fawn ing claque applauds him as W.
Though really he's not more than half of it.
This claque comprises One, tab Lula TEN 5 Et
Wha, fittingly, is labelled A Ti araDasia,
Which — If you'll grant my exeges is Wei
leans deathless Stooge or stripiternal Tenia I.)
Musicianship het flaunts, this Wuthering Height,
But people say his Bach's worse than His Eire.
And although, once, a TITTE
םny hטSymph
No one's ever heard him play a notc.
Fond of, and O "werbearing in, dispute L S SLLLSSatLlaLL L LLLLaLLLLLL S L S S S S S S fledged brute.
D Lath St. C. Piers| םם וחםIםC)
CHUCHCHE AND
P NG PONG
In the Article ille line “ChLIchche and Ping Pong" which appeared in our last issue, the strip line "Delhi Letter" was Indvertintly onlitted. The Cirirelice referred to in the article was held in New Delhi and the Writg-T N. R. is : free-l'El Tito Indian journal list.

Page 5
News background
MAY DAY ROUND - UP
Red all the wa
ay Day has always been a M:. of the relative strength of the Opposition parties rather than that of the governing party which has all the resources of the state machine. Thus, while the UNP's Galle Face ex trawaganza drew much the largest crowd, it was obvious that they were drawn mainly by the carnival-like atmosphere and musical entertainment rather than any serious Commitment. Political observers, therefore, focused their attention on the Opposition rallies and demonstrations, and in the absence of the S. L. F. P, it was red all round.
J. V. P.
The day was clearly dominated by the JVP. Their demonstration was several times larger than last years 8-10 thousand, and observers agreed with the police estimate which put the strength of the JWP dermo" at around 40,000, The te were other noticeable differences between last year's and this year's proceedings: much lés S, vituperation against the Left (though the ULF and Wasu did Coma under fire); more slogans against Sirima Bandaranalike and the SLFP; a slightly higher average age (around 25) than that of last year's participants (around 20) - this despite a large number of tiny tots in the forefront of the demonstration; a sizeable sprinkling of young workers mainly from the National Textile Corporation. The JWP's laudable concern with current events in the international arena manifested itself this year too with placards supporting Iran, the Pales Linians, East Tinmor'5 Freti lin, the Chilean MR (now located most exclusively on the Left E=nk of the Seine) and denouncine the U. S. military build-up in the Indian Ocean region, Sadat's treachery and the "Yankee-Sino ----e." Economic and social
issues were pre the slogans and ning local events,
A significant di the JWP procee of the i r i many. ri N was that the for Lo Stre SS a possi threat as the ot vers algo notad a pt to skirt the ( of Tamil self-deter there were qui te in Tamil, the so repeated slogan Writtem in Sinh with flärrow Chā table masterpiece and ambiguityglish language sla pect the just rig speaking people, length, smooth colourful nature was a most impl weteran observar. audio-visual Impa ched by an amo as that evolved class and youth May Day demon and Mr. San mug WIng) CCP dem was spearheaded the after Tath o
Hi PSL.
Not only the of these two
but also the Iar, class participatio the JWP"5 der T overwhelm ing m: chers Were yout Working class : se ened to be c Worker 5, from the ban milieu who
with small scal fact the regimen like nature of t in a Subte se 15 character of th Support base.

y . . .
domiriant placards
1.Π. Ο Πg CCCE"-
fference B3 tween dings and those als in the Left *Tiller cho 5 se not ble "fascist-type" her did. ObserCOSC i 0:5 litte - : In Craversial issue "mination. Though : a few placards le though often
on this issue ala Was 'D3wn u'yin İsm"-a yeri
of equivocation While the odd Eragan read "Resghts of the Tamil " Though, the precision and of the JWP de T13 Tessiwe SP2ctacle, 5 noted that the Wis lot attional on e, such in the working * anks by the ULF's 5 triol Cf || 593 athasan's (Peking o of 1964 which by the CTUF in f the break with
heady militancy earlier occasions ge Scala Working was absent from onstration. The ajority of the marh5 and ewan the i.egments present om Prised of young e rural or subur
Still| hawe links ownership. In itiation and militialhe JWP dero, did ere Weal the Socia|| 1e party's maiп As far as this is
concerned, the post-1971 JVP 5 Eems to have succeeded in attraciting a sizeable chunk of urban petty bourgeios youth, even though their rural counterparts still conprise the main force. (In fact, the participation of a large numof female youth from the rural areas was a significant feature).
Mr. Wije weera was in characteristically fina fettle when addres. sing the massiva gathering of around 50,000. A quote from Anatole France, an imitacion of Sir Oliver, a few words in Tamil and a denunciation of separatism spiced a speech which was a fullscale onslaught against the SLFP, and the Ratwatte clan and Mrs. B—Whom RW dubbed Mrs. I DI A, MIN !!!
ULF
The length of the LSSP-CP procession (numbering about 0.000 surpassing the size of the J. W. P's demo last year) showed that the
Old Left possessed a political longevity which surprises most observers. The narchers ware more numerous than in 1977,
though the ragged, amply spaced rows were in sharp contrast to the JWP's well knit formation. A notable feature was that the Communist Party's section of the procession was more impressive than the LSSP's in terms of youth participation and enthusiasm, giving credence to the view currently circulating that the CPSL is de facto the stronger partner of the ULF alliance though they themselves don't seen to have realized either this fact or the potential everage it gives them vis-a-vis tha LSSP. The ULF 5 germed to hawe drawn marchers from all over the island (except of course the Tamil areas) and there was no doubt that the bulk of the organised working class is still within the Old Left orbit. The
awerage age of the ULF marchers Was 35-40.
Expectations that the ULF rally at Hyde Park would be swelled by pro-SLFP sections who had no
3.

Page 6
meeting of their own, came to nought as the ULF's own ranks were depleted with thousands crossing over to watch superstar Rohana next door. This resulted in the ULF meeting numbering about half a s much a s their proces
sion. Mr. Pieter Keunerman made the keynote speech (translated into Tamil) with Dr. Colvin R, de Silva's customary circulation and Con Lor" tion 5 Con Liinued Lo amu5e the fathful. Carlo Fonseka'5 noninclusion as a speaker proved quite a disappointment to the crowd.
'New' Left Trade Unions
The New Left, spearheaded by Mr. Wasudeva Nanayakkara's (new) L55P, los t on the rounda bouts this year what it gained on the swings last year. Last year Mr. Nanayakkara's party succeeded in welding together 9 other radical groups of Maoist, Trotskyist and Stalinist persuasion and staged a 5,000 strong demonstration which evoked much interest as it seemed to signal an in-gathering of the radical left, as distint from both thg Old Left and the sectarian JWP. This year, the trade unions within the JCTUC-AC affiliated to these radical groups proposed a united T. U, May Day which however was stymied by the (old) LSSP and the vacillation of the CP. The fall-back position seemed promising too; namely, the militant (non-SLFPLSSPICP) trade unions within the JCTUOAC would march together incorporating all the smaller TU's outside as well as the New Left political groups. But Mr. Bala Tampoe put paid to this by refusing to allow participation on the platform of any organizations outside those represented within the JCTUO-AC After much hemming and hawing the Wasu group fell in line with Tampoe, thus sorely disappointing their partners within the 10party "New Left' United Front, who in retaliation decided to send only token delegations to the demonstration and rally which finally was staged by 7 militant trade union organisations. Lacking the enthusiasm and political impact of last year this demonstration numbered less (around 4000) than in 1978. Despite the Interna friction the New Left Uni
卓,
ted Front remair and political o whether there W links between t and the 7 Trad will doubtless, fu sure group withi trying to attra fro the LSSP.
The LSSP (new red one importa ever, this May Nanayakkara's si Park which Wa mously acclaimé obserwers and ra as by far the speech this year Crisp and Punchy kara's speech w for Left unity at and political lewe: UNP govt's econ anti-democratic
Miscellaneous
Messirs Samar Fernando, T. An deniya don Laksi at the May Day by their Revolut Party at Marada The 100 strong a ned against atte Maoists (and ewe to adopt a soft SLFP. A notable meeting was the the right of self. the Tamil people
The Ceylon T. also held its mee ing. Attendance hundred) in com vious years wh; were present, du fact that most o Eers were at CC the JWP ranks out. In his keyn H. N. Fernando C| educational refort social inequality the need to corT SW Teasures air People. and und to combat the re. aimed at the Tai
Addressing a of around 200, : organized by th Maoist groups, Mes masekera, Garm

is solidly intact, bservers wonder will emerge new is conglomeration e Unions which nction as a presIn the JCTUO-AC it the CP away
leadership) scoIt success howDay. This was Mr eel at De Me is almost unani2d by political idio listeners alike best May Day Short, sharp, ", Mr. Nanayakas a powerful plea both trade union !ls to Combat the omic policies and ITE L』 『호.
akkody, Merri|| dradi and Pertari Fernando spoke
meeting staged ionary Workers a's Civic Centre. judience was warmpts by various in the Wasu group) line wis-avis the
feature of the
stress laid upon -determination of
eachers' Union ting in the mornwas low (a few Darison with prere around OOO e largely to the of the CTU mi erTtta Park helping get straigh tened ote speech Mr. iticized the new is as increasing and underlined bat the represed at the Tami rlined the need fe:S5 | We T1 eta 5uras nil people. sparse gathering Muthiah Park lr pro-Chinese ir's G.I.D. Dhar. ini Yapa and
T. Benedict argued for unity of all progressive forces, while denouncing the JWP as well as Tamil 5e Cessionismo.
The Healyite Trotskyists (KamKaru Mawatha) also helda separate in door rally at which a|| others on the Left were excoriated and the Iranian revolution upheld
as a model for Sri Lanka.
SLFPS fine show
AY DAY on May 7th? This
was the rude joke played on the SLFP this year. But the SLFP had the last laugh. After the Town Hall meeting, the faces of the SLFP leaders were Wreathed in triumphant similes. "'We were denied Pedris Park because of the Apollo Circus. But the Indian performers should have joined the UNP Circus on Gale Face Green', 5 norted an SLFP Trade Unionist, as he pointed to the Ta55 iwe Crowd.
"Did you see the 'Daily News' picture of the ULF Leaders at Hyde Park? Aiyo, they look II ke inmates from the home for the aged', wise-Cracked a young ex
MP nastily. Mr. Alawi Maulana, the Trade Union organizer was heartily patted on the back by
Party boss, Mrs, Bandaranaike, sporting the usual blue saree, and her deputy, Mr. Maith ripala Senanayake, also in full blue. For Mr. Moulana it was a happy day. Two weeks before that he was relegated to No. 9 place in the Party's polis list.
The SLFP rally saw a full scale barrage on President J. R., led by ex-speaker Mr. Stanley Tille karatne. At the Kotte meeting J. R. had made many unpleasant references to Stanley and his efforts to be uncontested at the last elections
or seek nomination in unexpected ways.
lf, as the SLFP Leaders sugges
ted the ULF was looking to the pas L, the SLFP and the UNP Se em to be peering in to the distant future - 1983 and beyond. J. R's Public les sons on Interpreting the constitution when elections

Page 7
is held in 1983 and on the powers cf. the Presidency were in turn converted by SLFP speakers into clever propagandist argument. Why, they asked should the govern- ent debate this issue unless it is already convinced that the LLS SLLL S HLHHLHHL S S S LLLLLL S LLLLLLaLLS LLLLLL
TE
For the rest, the SLFP speakers hammered the UNP for its poor economic performance - on rising Prices and on un employment.
A point of interest was thԸ
conspicuous absence of some SLFP veterans notably Mr. T. B. IlanE= ΓΗ ΕΠΕ,
Calling
Mr. Minister
few days back, the SLFP
daily 'Dinakara" qшоtiпЕ Minister Wijetunge's statement that the te were 13, 000 telephones in tle ColcrII bo Municipality and this number would be increased to 25,000 by July next year, 35 kcd: "Which Is true?" Wher| the same Minister's Deputy had said at the same Conference a little later that the existing number of phones was 32,000 within the city limits and would be increased to 64,000 by July יי1550
An official of the O. T. S. however, told the Guardian of yet another, recent "Mahadena mutha style" act by the OTS higher -UPS.
A few months of OTS and SEC engineers got down to lay the foundation to erect the antenna Eower for the new-Self di alling Service exchange to India. However, many eyebrows were Tai 5 ed at the (OTS a fo W weeks later when they saw the Few foundation that was laid for the purpose was demolished u to Bulldozers aПф the debris arted away. The Reason: The dation was not aid for the Erial tower to be set up for
eximum reception;
ago a gro LP
G. D.
WOME
KWETFWA
argaret That
highest off almost two di Lanka scored h first- a Woman However as a know, a Woman pl mot Team that th country make a g in terms of equi participation in E ge:5 CCCLII r whe conscious of thei oppression and : their rights. Suci in many Countr 90's and 19C proclamation of the UN I || 9 of the problems a world-wide P if, at the begin fined to the educated women
In Sri Lanka, question of equa has been Ti! wolle "5 unions and poll! Since wor Then's (70%) many of women in SITh: the popular pr hawe reached a fi among WCIT1ẽT1. women's page: journals hawe te on supposedly
ests" — fashions, rearing. It is th to seg that a appeared, Kant! presents a radic W-ITE = 1-L educated who access to all li terature — b Lt. intelligentsia a Workers.
Kantha Hand pages of intere: tive reading in cover story "W סrק "dityיסוח וחסC Women in adve with some of adverts that have (Protests made

N ON THE MOVE
HANDA (A radical wormen’s jo zurral ir Siri hala)
her assumes the ice in Britain cades after Sri er most notable prime minister. Womem Tiilitats *ime minister does he women of that reat leap forward al rights and full iolitic5. Real | chan1 Women become r dependance and tart agitating for in a change began "ies around the I's and with the women's year by W5, conscico LISTI CSS of Women became Hen como Tom-ewen ning it was ConartILI |ato more
5 975 te status for women ied by numerous listics, trade cal activists-and |lteracy is high the writings on
Tai ess, and journals airly wide audience
But Siti II, the and women's Inded to fa || Eback 't wormer's interrecipes and child erefore hearten ing new journal has 1a. Handla which zal wiew point an for the English - in any caso hawa the Women's lib. for the Sinhala ind grass roots
a consists of 28 iting and provocalatter, with the Wortlan is not a testing the use of rtising - illustrated the wor's E 5 exist I appeared recently. earlier by Kantha
the advertise
Handa activist,5 od to withdrawal of these
Tetts; ),
The major feature stories are om Worllen and Tradition, Women and the Sinhala Cinema, A day in the Life of Bisa Mike, the Struggle of Sri Lanka Women for full Humanity. Spiced in between are topical short articles of Women and Tourism, the "Export' of women to the Middle East, Women and the Free Trade
Zone, Women in the Army, the Dowry System, Women as portrayed in children's comics,
Wife Beating, the Child Worker, Beauty Contests, and the exploitation by the media of the film Star Rukmani Dewi's death. There are several humorous snippets - believe-it-or-not quotation by leading personalities and Members of Parliament (a women's brain does not function after she reaches 45 ) -as well as Comic marriage advertisements and a picture from the Grade I Tamil reader where all the males in the family are seated on chairs and all the three generations of women are on the floor "(Women's place is on the floor" is the Kantha Handa title to this child's first introduction to male supramacy). Some excellent verses on women by Parakrama Kodituwakku, Monica Ruwan pathirana and others, and a translation of the editorial of a radical Indian journal (Manushi) -make stimulating reading. The journal also gives a lot of emphasis to the problems of Women workers and has some relevant articles on equal pay, the exploitation of women on the plantations, resolutions on Worther at a recent meeting of a leading trade union, and an account of Isabella Hanny one of the fore lost militant women in A. E. Goonesinha', working-class struggles of the
1920's-but who is now living
destitute Waratharula.
The Kantha Handa, has
photographs of women in new
professions (bus conductors, traffic (CorIrsrideel or Page fra)

Page 8
Press opinion
ඇත්ත Bogus capitalism
he GoyeГППЕПt Controlled Media now admits that the so called "open" economic policy is killing the local textile industry, The "Daily Mirror" reported that ower" | 0 milio Tetres of eyen the locally produced polyester remain in the stores unsold due to import of varieties of fancy textiles. This is not the complete picture. The fact is that while the hand loom products do mot sell at all, the local power-loom products are also doomed. The damage caused by this 'open door" policy has per waded the other local industries as well. This is nothing but a national crime.
To make matters worse, the present government unlike the advanced capitalist countries like USA, West Germany and Japan is not having any protectionist measures against imports. The law of the jungle prevails here.
What is happenning under the UNP policy is that, on the one hand, Sri Lanka is becoming a dumping ground for non-essential goods and on the other a nw class of racketeering Commission agents is emerging over the local industial capitalists. That is why we have been saying from the beginning that the UNP economic policy does not even help the development of real capitalism.
= දිනකර Minister's "Express' order
he Transport Minister Mr. M. H. Mohammed has ordered the Central Transport Board to stop the Express Bus Services with iIIInediate efect.
We are also told that the Minister has taken the new step as it was found that most of the fatal bus accidents have involved Express buses.
While this has coincided with the highly charged atmosphere of
6
the recont fatala i 5 ccm 5 that this: not solve the p create new prot CICLISTS,
Statistics may fatal accidents Express buses... lr of the fatal bus taken on the dif roads. While th experienced driv Tule out the reli experience Ε η Ε.Π . Hence it appears t hasty directive is ficial findings. T even suspend services along th
Even if the re taken in to consic walid tea5 on to su: bu5 Service5. Th had a load of 2 the driver was greenhorn who training less than been Teveale at inquiry that the bus Was Wolded
తg
Compensatic accic
is reported to pay Rs. 50C who died and Rs those who wete recent accident also said that th the funeral expe of those who died
ls this gestur COT resurate Wi | Wes that were los How long can th the deceased we offered to them?
We do not kno where the CT generou 5 Cקוחסer det 5 of those
iwe 5 in accide E5, did not initiate of compensation w |ly be put into co

ccident at Hatton now order will roblem but Will lems under any
say that most hawe inwolwed fact the majority accident:5 hawe Ficult hil | country ese roads need
םםחוחבם במוחם 5ח B" evance of driving n short journeys. :hat the Minister's based on superhe Minister may LHC tir buS; 35 g Iines.
:cent accident is eration it is no ipend the Express e bus in question 8 passengers but found to be a nad undergone a a Week. It has the subsequent cha 55 is of that in three places.
දින
for CTB ents
hat the CTB 5 20 each for thoso 000 each for injured in the at Hatton. It is e CTE vi|| bear :nses in respect in that accident.
e of the CTB th the Walue of it in the accident he dependents of with the Rs. 5OOO
w of any instance B has offered 1stion to depenwho lost their ... If such parties action, payment ould automaticald storage. How
many know the legal procedure to claim damages in such circumstances
The passengers are entitled to claim damages in law not only in major accidents but even in a case of falling inside the bus if the driver applies the brakes abruptly.
Band of Brothers by Roger Woddis
The Wae Loss orche Sirra prayed Pester dance-rilisir di ari"jig i'r Crir. The ČTK Friese re sTOHHTMMT ta T HkLLlLLaa LLLLCCH LTTLtk SLTTLMHCS CMMMT TCT S S T S SLLLLSS Carr'.
Busy sending grain by
ho Tseca TL, Chiang Chĩng T10W 110
longer boss; As we say to Eric Warley, China's gain is your Joe
LO35.
More than two-way trade in textiles, MøTẹ thăm diesel LTäỉIls
cor food, Sino-British Inder Standing Colles from being in the
NI W We Welcile Weste l'Il
music, Goodbye to the Gang of
Four: Giant leaps towards the
LILLI Te Start. With one step on
thic floor.
Discs) hits Illealth ITIOTe
that operti, CLI ILLI Te is al fill called
“GTeilse" Long live Newton-John
Travolta, Bringing harmony and
peace
Busy sending grain by
horse cart, Time clough to strike
էլ քոT1ց
Whe We Seal the bolds
of friendship
With a Eurovision song.

Page 9
International news
After the Treaty - (2)
Sadat’s real
by Mervyn de Silva
5 Egyptians began voting in A. referendum to express their
approval of a Treaty which had already been signed, a bomb ex
ploded in Cairo's Central post office, killing a minor official and injuring some others. As the
tough-minded Israelis, Egypt's new found friends, are fond of saying "one parcel bomb does not make a hot summer". While Western observers saw little evidence of public enthusiasm for the referendun", the Financial Times correspondent explained that this was "in large part because President Sadat has new et failed to secure less than 95% approval".
In fact, the approval nearly reached 100%. This display of solid domestic support was hardly ower when Arab state after another severed relations with Egypt in accordance With the Arab League's decision in Baghdad to impose political and economic sancLions. Now an ou cast in an Arab league which it helped to establish won before the U. N. came into existence, Egypt has been expelled from OAPEC. At a not very important meeting in Wien na of European and Arab news agencies, Egypt had to suffer an insult almost exclusively reserved in the recent past to its erstwhile enemy Israel. There wä5 in Arab wak
OU - SSE.
Cairo's isolation
If we accept the credibility of the referendum and acknowledge that Sadat and the Treaty enjoy near-total backing from the Egyptiam people, it is only logica | to note at the same time that Egypt's tolation from the Arab World is no less complete.
Politically at least, been the gravitational the Arab World.
Egypt has Cert TE: Of Militarily it has
beеп (апd гепт: Arab state. Ag was Israel's Inc fог 30 yeaг5. immen 5e geo-5 t of this area, Egypt and the hawe wide-rang te Tim 5 of Both politics.
Hopes and iII
Soon after hi to Jerusalem ecstatic P Teside himself to an high in the he his critics as ". Wher the cocal Kuwait cut חסוח Egypt last sisted with his dismissed Kuwi: But much of t his self-image tern GL || Iwer Lilliբutians scel shed. The A emerged in Bag satisfied the T the PLO and Libya and Iraq, those oil rich
 

ins) the strongest ain militarily, Egypt 15t formidable foe Om account of the rategic Importance the Isolation of new alignments ing implicatlons in regional and global
Lusions
s historic journey an understandably nt Sadat compared astronaut flying avens and seeing dwarfs con Garth". rich far from radioff relations with th, Mr. Sadat perhaughty image and ait a 5 a "dwarf". he exhilaration in as a Middle Easamong the Arab Tmed to hawe warni - rab consensus that ghdad may not have aximal demands of "hardiners' like but it did include nations, notably
Saudi Arabia, on whom Sadat (and, in a way, the U. S.) had relied for at least a more ambiValent response, to the Treaty and covert if not open support.
Economic factor
Mr. Sadat's contempt for Kuwait sounds hollow in the ears of those who know the facts about Arab aid to Egypt, and the parlous condition of the Egyptian economy Always important in the making of foreign policy, the economie imperative is all the more critical to a country which is the Thost popular nation in the Arab world. Besides the huge 40 mil|ion population Egypt is the most socially advanced in the area, and" the mass expectations of a cornparatively educated and politically conscious society, are So is inflation which has ranged between 20 and 40% in the past few years. Despite agreements with the IMF Egypt 體 COLnued its policy of hefty budget deficits.
Sometime ago food riots brought the army into the streets. Workers and students who went on a rampage wrecking the tourist complexes outside Cairo was the sharpest raminder that Sadat's "open door" policy had roused popular resentment by its predictable short-term result of making disparates more garingly offensive, by making the rich richer, and promoting high-level corruption. Scandals touched the highest in the land. Large injections of investment and aid did not make Tātes siet because Egypt is burdened with serious infrastructural problems and a notoriously ill-paid and inept bureaucracy which is increasingly tempted by the lure of easy money. Basic items,
including food, continue to be subsidised and the total subsidy bill now exceeds 1.5 billion dolars. And housing, as even a casual visitor to Cairo realises
quickly, is a nightmare.
What linkage?
"Linkage' is now the key word
in Egyptian apologetics. It is the

Page 10
figleaf with Which Egypt ostracised by fellow Arabs and denounced by all supporters of the Palestinian cause seeks wainly to cover the nakedness of its betrayal of the Palestinians, With less conviction, Cairo argues that the Treaty has set in motion a "peace process' (the expression is also
favoured by the U. S. but is conspiciously absent in Israeli commentaties and official State
ments) in which is raeli agreements
with Egypt are "integrally linked' to Israeli 'pledges' to restore the 'legitimate rights' of the Palestinians.
The truth however is that a
another kind of linkage" was the foundation of Sadat's strategic plan. In fairness to him (that is, if we are ready to see his motiwas as well-intentioned wis-a-Wis his own people) it should be noted that this plan was seen as perfectly in accord with pax Americana, America's grand design for the Middle East.
Mr. Sadat beliewed that Egypt's basic interests, as he perceived them, and the Tanifest interests of the United States, were recoilcia ad ideed olid e reconciled for mutual advantage, If only Israel would also see that such an equation could easily acco to date Israel's fundamental interests too. If Israel Was "ingapable of such a perception or only half-perceived her long-them interests, it could be educated into such an awarene55 and percuaded Lo act upo it, In 5 hort US influence and US pressure.
On this central assumption Sadat founded his own "linkage". He promised his people 'peace and prosperity'. To phrase it more explicitly Egyptian prosperity through peace with Israel.
This is the real|| || inkage. Tha other linkage (peace with Israel and the restoration, admittedly
gradual, of the rights of other Arab states and the Palestinians) 5 5 t to LOS Correction based on paper promises, pious and celf-gratifying propaganda, lega= listic ambiguities and artifical, decorative phraseology and verbal seight-of-hand. It is a collosa
(riாஜீ ( Frge Fr)
The
he Shah was
fashion, when Islamic-Marxists' ' upsurge in Iran. accurately its Shii indeed the domin that anti-imperial chical popular analysts häwe und role played by th of the peoples in bol in the antiwell as the comp SS5 蠶"鶯 hand, leftists abr their wont, conti rate the importā spective heroes a in thբ Iranian PC is interesting ther Lhe 153 e55ITı erit anti-leftist analys London Economi Kis Singer.
(1) The leftist the 5 griou 5 antiin the 1950's.' spark that it th to use the Debr; small notor that Toto T | I || C.
(2) These 'Mar. played a leading ting' which ou St Subsequently Pre Henry Kiss Inger with the Eco
ged that the le yed the leading sing the strike the oilfields), th the regime.
(3) In today's led by the Mar Khalq guerillas c alternative cen that is delandir and taken in to ;
What then is that the radical the people of Ir
First and fore misa that the re of interwention El is largely intact. to allow the ol. constituted and

left
correct, after a he said that were behind the |slam, or mora te wa Tiānt, Wä5 ant ideology of st anti-Tora"evolution, but erestimated the e Marxist wing owerment in Iran. Shah struggle as lex political proOn the other bald hawe, as is nued to exaggence of their reind affiliates. With
iti ārā. efore to consider of serious, if t5 such as the st and Dr. Henry
guerillas 'began Shah IIlowament They were the e prairie fire, or ayist idiom, the
set the large
xist guerillas . . .
part in the figh:gid the Shah and mier Bakhtiar. Dr. In an in TGrowlêW mist acknowledftist radicals pla
role in organs (especially in at brought down
|ran 'the Left *xist Fedaye en E loes represent an tre of strength ng to be heard account."
the programme Left is offering נחתי
most they recogi 5 5 ti || the threa: y the army, which So they refuse | army to be redemand instead
in ran
the formation of a genuine Peo
ples Army, comprising all the groups who actually fought the autocracy. Next they want a
multiparty secular democratic republic (as opposed to an Islamic Republic) which could be ensured by linking up the 'revolutionary councils" that have spontaneously come into being at al levels of society in the course of the struggle. Thirdly they seek a voice in government commensurate with their sacrifices and role in the revolutionary process. Their other
demand, which has assumed increased significance in the light of present developments, is that
of self-determination for the oppressed nations and mational
minorities.
Just how much support and sympathy does the radical Left have within Iranian society? The rally held at Teheran Uniwersity a few months back in defiance of the Ayatollah Khomeiny's edicts, Wa5 attended by almost a hundred thousand people. A letter from the Central Committee of the Nationa || Front, the mai secular opposition to the Shah, to its leader (Foreign Minister) Karim Sanjabi has made these peoples point. It has called for all political groups including the guerillas to be represented in the govern - ment", reports the Economist.
It goes on to no te glumly, that at a million strong rally to commemorate the death ar Iwersary of ex Premier Mossadegh, the speakers included representatives of the radical left, whose arried personnel also provided the security arrangernent 5 for the Procession and public meeting. The mammoth meeting was sponsored by the National Front and Mossadegh's grand-nephew, while the left-lea ning Ayatollah Teleghani (nicknamed the Red Mullah) was a prominent speaker. Noting the significance of the event, the Economist sees the spectre of a political alliance of several divergent groups, namely the guerillas the radical soldiers who do not want a reconstitution of the old

Page 11
Ermy with its heir archical comand structure; the young Islamic clergy and theological students | ho accept the need to modernize but emphatically reject the Western model; the professional midle classe 5 and women Who di 5ke the puritanical Islamic view5 of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Such an alliance would be jointly spearheaded by the Mujaheddin E Khalq (Peoples Crusaders) who are non-Marxist leftists inspired by the egalitarian strain-of Shiite Islam (much like the Christian leftists of Latin Allerica) and the secular Marxist Fedayeen E Khal | Peoples | Combatants), who se ideological sustenence, according to both Fred Halliday and Denzil Piers, derives from a mixed diet of Castro, Guevara, Debray, Carlos Marghella, Ho Chi Minh, General Giap and Mao Ze Dong. In terms of their externa orientation, the Fedayeen has been described by Western analysts as pro-Soviet, though not in the least degree under Moscow's control, quite unlike the Tudeh party.
In social terms, the guerilla groups are based on the students and young Workers - especially those in the southern Iranian oil fields such as Abadan. (The older generation of workers support the Tudeh party). The Fedayeen which initiated armed struggle in 1965 but has been really active only from the beginning of this decade, is divided into 3 main facttions wiz the Cherikhaye (Peoples Sacrifice) group, the Bizan Jazani group and the Ahmeza di group.
The last two are named after leaders and founding members who died in the struggle. The
differences between these factions centra om the Telatiwe importance of political activity and armed struggle. The Jazari group accords priority to the former and has its main strength in the o fields we the Ahmadi group concentrates on the latter form of action. The Cherikhaye fon is the one closest to Mascow and least hostile to the Tudeh Party.
The Mujaheddin E Khalq hawe algo given rise to two off-shoots, namely the Mujaheddin-Marxist, and the Mujaheddin Marxist-Leni
nist (also called Freedom group) advocate a Peo Republic, rather rian Islamic Rep. main body stand
During the Mujaheddin and hawe had o Yet : by the radical F Within the PLO gressive states of these men h: bat in Southern are at present a "Floating around'
The Fedayeen, a few hunded the wawe of
protests, now members and
Inany 5 LIPP Orter the Mujaheddin ging Post from lamic egalitariar socialism." The cooperated clos though they a postures in the ancient regime' recent issue of Clifton reporte mic Mujaheddir meini's own mĘ ned the Inselwe 5 leftwing group same goals as Fedayeеп. Воth tical of Barzag and complained mants had buil "".iחeiוחסוKh
To Teet this Kissinger and advocate that build up a new the Army, the mic heir archy : leadership of it Wi|| 5uch a le into being Wi Or will the dyn process which lead un-interru stage of the

the struggle for
both of which ples Demacratic than the egalitaublic which the s for.
970's, both the the Fedayeen 3000 men trained 'alestinian groups and also by proi ke Libya. Most Ave algo seen CorLebanon. There round 70,000 guns
in Irish.
which had only members before popular anti-Shah as around 10,000 ower 5 tilles, as 's. They regard a 5 a useful Staanti-imperialistsi 5 m o "Scientific: two groups hawe ely in the past dopted contending after rath of the
5 downfall. In 3 NEWSWEEK, Tony d that The Isa.
1 guerillas – Khoin - publicly defias a non-Marxist with many of the he Marxist Peoples groups Were Crigan's conservatism that righ List elot a wall around
threat, Dr. Henry the Economist the US work to coalition between conservative Islaind the moderate" he National Front. Wpowerbloco come II it prove stable? amics of the popular has got underway, ptedly to the next Italia Teựolution?
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Page 12
Deutsche mark’s
raises doubts
by Mohan Ram
(Chris für Srience Msonfror)
New Delhi
est German Capital, driving
for imweStreets in the
third World, is finding India an attractive proposition.
Proposals for Some 60 new joint ventures of Indian capital with West German multinationals Te before the Indian Gowe TTT-it West German capital is eager about export-oriented investments and third country joint ventures which can use West German technology and cheap Indian raw raterial and labour.
West Germany Haς recently emerged an important ad-giver to India. Its aid pledges in the current fiscal year amount to 15 percent of total aid pledged by all countries (excluding the World Bank).
So far West Gorma 15 Haye been concentrating in India on engineering chemicals and pharmaceuticals, electronics, electrical and basic metal industries. Their main intercest has not bệen on ex
tracative consumption and luxury industries. Thi5, analysts say, makes the West German offen
5ive in India more significant because it might eventually lead to the capture of a substantial part of India's industrial base itself.
West Garman Minister for Economics (Otto Graf Lambo dorff was assured by India that the Fore. ign Exchange Regulation Act would be applied flexibly to West GerTha T. Private Investment:5. This amounts to favoured treatment.
Of the 50-odd joint now under study, justified on the ground they need sophis tacted technolgy or technology not already available in India, according to an analyst. This has aroused fear among Indian Industrialists that existing Indian technology in large areas of Indian industry might be replaced.
f2 TILTE few Carn be
O
adv
At Present Wes third among In di in terms of agree Britain accounted ment5 be tween and the United West Germany has
India rank5 fou countries regardi German in westi TE after Israel, Iran the recent modif policy on foreign spurt in West export to India in
Sadat’s real.
(Criராசரி
con-trick which St3. T1Ce trie5 =tO C that this is a 5e Israeli peace trE se cond place atte Some of the - Arā "peace process' interests will : Neither the Arab tiam lia 15 ha We bee Sadat's salesпапsi which came off assembly line.
NEXT: Peace p
Women on . .
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of all, forri abi abour force.

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E Germany ranks a's collaborators arents reached. for .22 agree957 and 1977 States for 985. 895 agreements.
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Page 13
Diplomacy
Foreign Service - bu.
by W. A. Wiswawarnapala
hough the Civil Service bureauT of the island underwent certain changes 5İnce the political change of 1955, there was no attempt on the parc of the political leadership to reform and reorganise the Sri Lanka Overseas Service, An attempt was made to reorganise the Overseas Service just before the 5th Non-Aligned Summit which was held in Sri Lanka, and this, though it generated a discussion om the need to re-orient the Overseas Service in such a way so as to meet the aspirations of an independent State active in the area of non-aligment, brought no significant changes in the ranks of this set of foreign policy decision-makers of the island.
The lack of a tradition of foreign policy in the Pre-independence period contributed to the absence of a group of officials trained in the art of foreign policy decision-making. The constitutional position was that the Prime Minister, in terrils of Section 46(6) of the Soulbury Constitution, was to be "in charge of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs'. This, though it reprethe חם tחבוחted an improveחse nature and function ing of external affairs under the Donough more Constitution, allowed the Prime Ministers to play a leading role in the conduct of foreign policy. The same was the position in India where the Pri The Minister
held the porfolio of External Affairs and there was a senior official.
The position of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Affairs, by virtue of the Importance of this Ministry in the governmentapparatus, assumed the role of a super-Secretary End this, perhaps, influenced him to Fetsin control over both defence End foreign affairs, This aspect of the role of the Secretary
to the Mini and Foreign prominence fror Kanthiah Walthi who, according t էdid much ԼՃ
diplomatic ser be compared w kar Bajpai whi:
construction of of independent pansion of the and Foreign Af portance of int the post 1956 a division of marily because The leadership both the Ministe Could not give to both Dafer Affairs and it was ich 5uffered à sa r of the office o' ster. Though t Mini 5 tar of Del Affairs during office of the G United Front, confined to for ference 5 and si gagements. He Čeremonial Tole public relation important wisit: cussions in the relations were Dias Bandarama ter of Public Ad Affairs, Local Justice (1970-7 of this role, a iaitu T3 of a M Affairs. All the testimony to t political leader of foreign poli organised.
It was state Minister alloci Weck to discu to affairs, and the island "5 ac foreign relatio matters pertai

reaucratic brahmins 2
try of D3 fence Affairs received the days of Sri nathan (1948-50) 3 H., A. J. Hulu gılla, organise Ceylon's i-3". He could ith Sri Girja Shanhelped in the the foreign service India, 4 The exlinistry of Defen:e äir5 and the Imernal security in period necessisated :he Ministry priof two reasons. in the Ministry r and the Secretary proper attention cal and Foreign Foreign Affairs whesult of the burden f the Prime Minihere was a Deputy fence and Foreign the period of overn Ilent of the his dute; wäre էnightly press canme protocol en: played a minor plus that of 3 5 offic. Mare abroad and di 5area of foreign assigned to Felix ke who was Miniministration, Home Government and 7). He, by virtue the חra iסוןted f inister of Foreign
se provide ample he fact that the ship in the arena
cy remained loosely
that the Prime ed a day of the s matters relating this judging from iwe involvement il is, specially in those ing to non-align
ment, was insufficient, This type of leadership in foreign affairs provided the Sri Lanka. Overseas Service with an opportunity to play an active role in the making of foreign policy. This involveTent of the Owers as Service in the decision-making process and its direct responsibility to the Prime Minister and its association with the office of the Prine Minister gawe the serwice a priwileged position within the island's bureaucracy. It was this character of the Overseas bureaucracy which insulated it against criticism, and İ5, Stifling all attempt5 at reform, successfully maintained the Brahmanical orientation of the ser Wic2, 5
The establish Tent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Government of the United National Party in July, 1977, though made in response to the constitutional changes which were taking place, envisaged no transformation of the Overseas Bureaucracy with which the foreign policy of Sri Lanka came to be conducted in tha last three decld 25. The creation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the appoin ment of a Minister with full responsibility for foreign affairs are certain to facilitate both the working of the missions abroad and the conduct of foreign policy, Above all, it established effective political control over all matters relating to the affairs of the missions abroad and the conduct of foreign policy,
The Department of External Affairs, from the very inception of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, did not function as a separate Department; it was a branch of the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs. The missions abroad, except that of the High Commission in London, came under the Department of External Affairs Abroad. The High Commission of Ceylon in London was given the status of a separate

Page 14
department. The initial arrangement was to confine island's diplomatic representation to such countries as Britain, India, Buma, Pakistan and Australia. The cost of establishing missions interfered with the expansion of diplomatic representation. Though the country had diplomatic relations with 2| countries in 1955, there were only nine representatives abroad. The post 1956 period witnessed the expansion of diplomatic relations and Sri Lanka, during the regime of S. W. R. D. Bandaaanike, established relations with fifteen more sovereign states. The sudden entry of Sri Lanka into the arena of international politics in this form has been attributed to the changes initiated by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in the area of foreign policy. The regimes, which followed the Government of 1956. came to be inspired by the changes in the island's foreign policy and the diplomatic representation on the eye of the Fifth Non-Aligned Summit was confined to 23 Missions abroad, and they were accredited to thirty nine countries of different parts of the globe.
The 1956 change in the postures of foreign policy necessisated the introduction of specialism into the organisation and S. W. R. D. Bandarnai ke announced a schemic of reorganisation, according to which five broad regional bureaus and one international bureau were established.10 The Bureaus (I) Two Americas, (2) Europe, (3) Middle East and Africa, (4) Commonwealth, (5) Asia, and (6) United Nations and the Specialised Agencies demonstrated the recognition of considerations of foreign policy and the need to specialise in certain areas of foreign relations. Dr. N. M. Perera, speaking on the Department of External Affairs at the committee stage of the Budget, stated that it needs to be divided not R geographically but also functionally in order to deal expeditiously with matters. 11
The function ing of the bureaus came to be affected due to the dearth of trained personal, The necd to coordinate work in the area of foreign aid led to the creation of the Division of Foreign Aid in 960. The nature of the
2.
available staff an further specialis rational division the Foreign Affa Was Split into SuE with regional m regions inciuded and East Africa, and Middle East, (4) United Nat ferences. Though demonstrated the the emergence o in the arena politics, there a Waterle 55 in Communist countr of a special divis Communist affair: in the present the West Divisio with this subject an aspect of E The reander I organisation Consi mic Affairs Divisio OWergea,5 Adminis Protocol Division city Division. Th of economic relati Ministry of Finan stry of Planning reduce the imp Economic Affairs
The preparatior Aligned Summit 1976 needed the the Non-Aligned sion. Yet anoth | 976 was the est Research and Poli sion. A senior o' Director, was in division, and the ordinates of the designated Deputy Assistant Director in the internal the Ministry of indicated the grc island's Tole in v the need to abso the area of diplo l, Jennings, Wor.
Ceylon, ČOxford don, 1949, p. 213
2. Kodikara, S. U. Sri Lanka's Ni After 1956, in XIII, No. 12, p.
3. The appointment
Secretary-Tissa cial responsibility with in which fel foreign Policy and of the missions

d the neod for
ation led to a of functions in ir's Divisio. It
h-divisions deali hg at Eers, and the were (I) Africa (2) South Asia (3) West and ions and Conthese divisions 2 recognition of f certain regions of international Was I still elation to the ties. The absence ion dealing with is a weakness Drganisation and II, which deals treats this as uropean affairs. of the existing ist5 of the Econon, Legal Division, tration Division, and the Publie administration ions by both the Ce and the M|m|- and Employment Ortance of the Division.
Is for the NonConference in establishment of Conference Diw:r Innowation II ablishment of a Ey Planning Divificial, designated charge of each in Tediate SLIbDirector were Director and These changes organisation of Foreign Affairs Wing impact of orld affairs and "b specialism in пасу.
Constitution of LUni 'w'. Fre:55, Lon
Major Trends in ni Alignment Policy Survey, Wol. || . of an Additional Wijeritre with spefor Foreign Affairs the conduct of he ad linistration road, represented
intrin sicaly an atternpt to etablish A scparatic Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
3A, Hulugalla, H. A. J. Life and Times of Don Stephen Senanayake.
4. APPādorai, A. op. cit. P, I || 9.
5. See Indhu mati. Tissa Wijerating"; Exit from Foreign office. In Foreign Affairs. A Journal of International Affairs of Sri Lanka. No, 2, 1976, Pр. 2.5-7%,
6. Hansard. House of Representatives. Wol. 8, 1950-51, Calumin 1748.
7. Han sard. Housea of RepTeisen
tatives. Wol. 4, 1948-49 Column || 45
8. Nissanka, H. S. S. Foreign Policy of Sri Lanka under S. W.R.D. Bandaran aike, Colombo, 1976, p. 33.
9. In 1978 the diplomatic represen. tion was confined to 26 mission, Sri Lanka maintained three offices in India, two in Pakistan and Wi Australil. The missions El Tę cCredi tigd B COUn ETe5, See Pirectory of the overseas M. tions of the Republic of Sri lanka, Ministery of the Foreign Affairs, Colombo.
10. Han sa rd. H of R. Wol. 32, 1958-59,
.327 חוח חlםC
II. Hansard. H of R. Wol. 29, 1957-58,
Columni || 49
(To be continued)
QUOTEWORTHY
Gang of one?
When he addressed a Moslem Majlis meeting, in Kandy, an Arab envy was told "You say that the Arab People don't support this treaty buէ Out of 100 million Arabs, 40 millions are Egyptians'
"Yes' answered the diplomat conPletely un ruffled "there are 100 million Arabs of which about 40 ГлІІІІ0п оге Egyptiалs алd of thIs 40 million there is one Sadat.
Masterpiece
The Jerusalern Post's excellent resident Cartoonist, Ya'akov Krischen ("dry bones') was asked by the edi - ori to delay publication of the following minor masterpiece until after Carter found hJs feet:
"Moshe, we've got it we've got it!!" "What do We ha ve Menahem?” "A mutual defence treaty with the United States of America!"
“How lorg do you think It" take CO Work Qut the detalls?
"No time at all. Jimmy brought the papers with him. Als we have to do is fl. In "Israel" wherever It says "Taiwan.' - Ian Black.

Page 15
Politics
Nationhood : my
by Chintaka
Myth I. Lanka is a Nation State.
On the contrary, it is a multi
national or more correctly a bimatiomai bourgeois State, containing a (dominant) Sinhala nation, Tamil nation and several national minorities, who do not constitute a nation - such as the plantation Tamils, Muslims etc.
2. The Tamil people in the North and East do not constitute a nation, chiefly because they lack a 'separate economy, which is a vital prerequisite of nationhood.
This is a classic sleight-of-hand resorted to by most leftists. The 5 cientific socialist definition of a nation does not refer to a Sepa
rate (gz)) economy'. What it does speak of is a 'common (3, 32) economic life'. There is
obviously a vast difference.
"A nation," says Stalin, in his celebrated and universally accepted definition, "Is a historically Constituted, stable Community of people, formed on the basis of a comnon language, territory, economic life, and psychological make Աբ, manifested in a common culture." Speaking of the economic factor, Stalin points to his native Geor
ga, and says that although the Georgians inhabited a common territory and spoke a common tanguage, they did not strictly speaking, constitute one nation before the 2nd half of the 19th century because they lacked a
common economic life, being split 2 into a number of economically É connected principalities. For centuries the Georgians waged at against each other and pilla= each other each inciting the Fetians and Turks against the er. The ephemeral and casual cm of the principalities which e Successful. king sometimes Eed to bring about, embraced
( Cசரர் ques for", I, | he fer
Leftists aria
l'eff Foo Ffffc; “sofo falisto” -i சோ ரபு
e Tri
at best a supe tive sphere, and grated owing to the prices and of the peasапts. otherwise in ec ted Georgia. ( the scene as a latter half of th when the fa II o growth of the the country, the the means of c. the rise of capi di Wision of labot tered the econo the principalities together into "The same" con be said of the which have pas: stage of feudalis loped capitalism. economic life, sion, is one of tic features of a
So, it is extr COTT 1 o 1 ejoj ing other than of feudalism (w 'selfsufficient' will by capitalist mar division of labou an internia | econ roughly contiguo sly it is basically With its commd. that preva Els in than a state of Therefore the possess "the acon taken together socio-historical Cess li ta tas their

A Marxist Wiew
ths and realities
Filed by the disconcerting intrica cies of the “Tarni! e pressures of racial prejudice of both kinds, and
of parliamentary
politics
ar al electoral opinior,
progressives, both Sinhala and Tamil adopt diffe
's. But each position is justified as
: 11’
the currect
Phar is the correct Marxist standpoint or the
stion? CHINTAKA offers some answers vis-a-vis
Les fior1)
ificial administrarapidly disintethe caprices of the in difference Nor could be onomically disun ilSeorgia came on nation only in the e 19th century, f serfdom and the economic life of 2 development of immunications and talism introduced I r completely shat mic isolation of
and bound them a single whole. cludes Stalin, must other nations 5ed through the m and have deweThus a common economic cohethe characterisnation."
amely clear that c life means noth
the replacement "ith its isolated, lage communities
"ket relations and r which provides Dmic bond for a Js region. Obviouthis situation, , ic lifeוחסתםEc חו the North, rather feudal isolation. Tamil people do omic factor, which With the other haracteristics, nedefinition as a
nation as distinct and
Separata from the Sinhala nation,
3. The Tamils may be discriminated against and maybe “se. cond-class citizens', but they are not an oppressed nation.
"What is national oppression?" According to the Scientific sociaist wiew, 'National oppression is the system of exploitation and robbery of oppressed peoples, the measures of forcible restriction of rights of oppressed nationalities.. these, taken together, represent the policy generally known as a policy of national oppression."
(JW Stalin - Report on the National Question-delivered to the 7th congress of the Bolshevik Party-)
if one applies this definition, then clearly the Tamils suffer the burden of a policy of national oppression as practised by successiwe Sinhala bourgeois governments since 1948, Sinhala is the sole offcial language while Buddhism is accorded a pre-eminent place in the constitution. The same in true of the national flag. The requirement of passing Sinhala proficiency exams has not been done away with. The device of settlercolonialism, used by the Zionists and White racists in Southern Africa, is deployed to alter the population balance and seize the traditional homelands of the Tarni
people. Preference is accorded to Sinhalese in the realm of employment, even in the case of
recruitment to state enterprises in the Tamil areas. The Tamil
3

Page 16
a reas are neglectod in respect of resource-allocation for economic development, and therefore these
areas remain underdeveloped in agriculture, irrigation and industry. The North is ruled by a
predominantly Sinhala bureaucracy
of the Sinhala bourgeois state and therefore it is an alien administration. There is a heavy
military presence with a Brigadier as its co-ordinator. Standardization and district quotas deny equality of educational opportunity and thus access to employment. The running down of Tamil "streams' in the schools of the Sinhaien arganis acts as al device to stifle the "mother tongue" of Tamil children (which is naturally the redull in which a child Per forms best) and a Tourts to forcible cult Lira | assimilation.
4. The Tamils are oppressed by Sinhala imperialism.
This figures commonly in the rhetoric of mational Ist Tamil politicians including those of the younger generation. In the strict scientific i. e. Leninist 5ense however, imperialism is the highest stage Čf Čā Pitalis Ti. Lanka's capitalist economy is enmeshed inextricably in a dependent relationship with the imperialist (neocolonialist) economies of the Illetropolitan centras (viz. USA, Western Europe & Japan) and functions as a peripheral unit of the world capitalist system. It is impossible therefore, for the dependent underdeveloped capitalism of this country to be chara cterized as Imperialist-which imPlies the highest stige of Capitalist development. Thus, the dePerident Sinhala bourgeoisie cannot be termed imperialist, in the Le Finist EE 15e of the Ward.
The Tamil people are oppressed nationally by the ruling Sinhala E. Curgeoisie and its (bourgeois) State apparatus. They are also oppressed and exploited by Western neo-colonialism, as are the Sinhala people, who are socially oppressed and exploited by "their cwn" (i. e. Sinhala) bourgeoisie. The Sinhala people however are not nationally oppressed by this Bourgeoisie. In other words the Sinhala worker and peasant are exploited as workers and pea
|
sants rather than Whi ti" Tai are oppressed as workers. Of Co masses are exple own' bourgeois E but the fundarner Is flot with the of their struggle main enemy of til is their external bourgeoisie and Which must not either" ä5, "Si hala or fused with t ple. The exampl is salutary, as
Cubans-They hawe:
toll rge if thair
SEd the Americ: U. S. T. perialist Tental distinction neutralize ad e alliances with the of the dominant
Sinhala) nation.
5. Tho nationa be solved by grant to the Tamiis.
The use of the itself reveals a
tion of the prob tor || |5 I10 t One cessiong, but rath
timate rights, n cratic, of the Tar
5. The National be solved by amendments.
This is a wiew Others, the Comi Sri Lanka, which sew gral cor 15 titutio incorporating rag
and li rig Liistic-cui rights. But, as socialists are con
whoever regards t חסpוחסas a C חסti general question
Tial Te'yg|Uto . to a costituti vice versa, only o the national que general question
revolution can ri
constitutional issu
7. The nationa be solved by
right to the Tami language, culture
This was the or adopted by the

а3 5іпha!e5e, ils counterparts Tails and as Lurse, the Ta Til ited by "their tlements as well, ital Contra diction at this stage ... Rather, the те ТапniІ people foe, the Sinhala state machine, be characterized imperialism' or he Sinhala Peoof Wietnamese is that of the the חer iיèח ! Struggle, confuin people with 1. THIS fundais necessary to wen forge wital working Tlasses (in this case,
Il question can ing concessions
Word concession Stark mis perceplem. The quesof granting con| er of the legiational and demo nil people.
austion can Constitutional
held by, among unist Party of
has proposed nal arriendments ional autonomy
tura l-educational far as Scientifi Cerned 'Clearly he national quesent part of the of the proletaarrot red Lee it ial issue .... and ne who separates stic from EH13 of Proletarian educe it to a e." (STALIN)
| question can granting equal it in the fields of and education. "iginal Standpoint LSSP (pre 64)
and approximates roughly to the View held By the J. W. P. and also many liberals. But the national question cannot be sa parated from the problem of political power and confined to cultural linguistic and educational issues. "The obtuSeriess of the Austrian Social Derlocrats of the type of Barner and Renner consists in the fact that they have not understood the Inseparable connection between the mational question and the question of power, that they tried to separate the national question from politics ind to confine it to cultural and e ducational questions" (J. W. Stalin)
Contrary to the slogan of the second International, which was for the "National equality of rights,' Lenin stressed that "the question of self-determination belongs wholly and exclusively to the sphere of political democracy i. e., to the realm of political secession and the establish ment of independent national states." Lenin and Stalin Pori Led Out that to put forward 'cultural autonomy' as a solution to the national question ensures that all political and economic power remains concentrated in the hands of the dominant nation.
The Leninist approach to the national question puts "politics in
command", unlike the econom istic Perspective of Rosa Luxemburg and the reform ist position of Renne T, Octo Ba Ljet e E., ""The
proletariat of Russia is faced with a two-fold or rather a two sided task: .... to recognise not only fully equal rights for all nations in general, but also of equality of rights as regards polity, i. e. the right of nations to self determination, to secession.' (The Right of Nations to Self-Determination.) Indeed this twofold task faces our progressives today,
8. The Left Movemert should recognise the right of the Tamils t0 5 elf-deterrmirnation, but shoLld oppose 5e paration and propose regional autonomy instead.
This is completely contrary to the Leninist position. Lenin repeatedly stated with utmost clarity that it would be wrong to nepret the right to self-determination as having any other meaning than political self-determination, State independence and

Page 17
the right of formation and existence as a separa te national state The Right of Nations to selfdetermination). In fact, Lenin proposed that the slogan of national 5elf-dozettermination i 5 i Lunclear and should be replaced by the well defined, concrete slogan of the right of nations to political Secession'. It is meaningless for the left parties and groups to speak of the Tamils right to self-determination (the right to determine their own political destiny) and then determine the Tselves, that the Tamil peoples Struggle should not go beyond a demand for regional autonomy It is particularly ridiculous in a context when (going by the General Election figures) 57% of the populace in the North and East and 70% in the North alone hawe gone beyond the limits of partial, reformist demands suck as federalism and regional autonomy to the radical demand for total national liberation.
9. The Tamil people suffer from the same problem as the Sinhala people viz. that of economic stagnation, so they should not perceive in national terms and ask for a seperate state.
True enough, the Sinhala and Tamil peoples both suffer the burden of economic underdevelopment generated by imperialism and accentuated by the global economic crisis. However just as the Industrialized west transfer the burden of the crisis onto the dependent countries such as Sri Lanka, the ruling bourgeoisie of this country (ie... the bourgeoisie of the dominant nation) transfers the burden of the crisis on to their own" Ta55 e 5 as wel on to the oppressed Tamil people. Due among their things, to the imperatives of electoral politics however, a disproportionate share of this burder is transferred to the latter. As the capitalist economic crisis deepers on global, regional and local levels-in other words as the crisis of surplus accumulation deepens-the Tamil people are increasingly marginiaised. In his study on "Rural Poverty in Sri Lanka" the Malaysian scholar S. H. Lee points out that In the decade 1963–1973, the per
capita real incor Tamils fell by 2E
| O. The Tani |
their national ri existing socio-e Their strugglei 10 tl Ebel - aimed present socio-e and thereforge S Tiria conta: ideology and the
ft.
Tis 5 THE Wt Tamil politicians, busine55 and pr who are Wedded system and are the political radi Tami || Youth. Til an ongoing dialo hala, bourgeois pi to the Left mo, cate parliamental gle. They do n that where b reigns and wher based on priva very basis of mā|| conflict Bourgeois democ striving for deca national contradi. ting to combine tional rights wit exploitation, but the multinational lies i TI that It these contradict attempt on its the nations and mā, tional Tino Titie private property quality usually fallure, in a fu of national conf
Thus, since has proved to E ble of Solwing til tion, (and indee tence of capital па! oppressioп the only way ol capitalism, to E ownership of th struments of pr there is an org betwee the Ni and the questi of capital, of c talism, of rupt rialism and transfe labouring masses пnent of a prolet

me of the Ceylon 3%
реople can wiп ights within the Conomic system. is not and should at topping the Cononic Setup ould come into With artist Sinhala radical
aw held by those 10 L Lij ITheft|Oil ofessionā strātā, to the capitalist hastis Loyards calization of the ley seek therefore gue with the Sinarties as opposed reman, and adwry paths of strugtot reall Z ho’W GWger ourgeois politics 2 the State 5 are Le property, the he state fosters S and struggle. :rat5 haye bœ0f) des to eliminata ctions by attempthe granting of nah the system of "the tragedy of bourgeois state Cannot TC5Clve ions, that every part to equalize to protect the is while preserving r ärld class illeends in another II"ther aggravation icts." (Stalin)
bourgeois society de Utterly Incapa1e national ques!d, the very exis5 T Without Natio
is in conceli wa ble) It is - to . äb|| 5h is tablish collective е пneап5 aПd |п- oduction. Hence, anised connection lational question gris of the rule Jwerthrowing capi|urling with impelarring power to the
by the establisharian dictatorship.
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Page 18
Religion, Politics
Bhikkhus
by Kumari Jayewardena
Th question has recently been raised about the prevalence or otherwise of a radical tradition of political protest in Buddhism In the recent history of Sri Lanka. In this article an attempt is made to discuss the rule that Buddhist monks played in anti-Imperialist peasant struggles of the 9th century, and their participation in nationalist and working class protest movements in the 20th century. This historical background will enable us to assess the role of the bhikkhu today in the political |ife of the country,
Just as priests like John Ball and Thomas Munzer were among the leaders of peasant uprising in 14th century England and 6th century Germany respectively, in Sri Lanka, the Buddhi5't Tonks took a prominent part in the Teyolts and te bellions that occurred in the 19th century in resistance to British imperialism.
The authority of the bhikkhus was derived from two, sources. First they were the guardians of the religious ideology of feudal society, which in Sri Lanka took the form of Buddhism. Since the
foreign rulers of the country were a threat to the survival of the Buddhist religion, it was
inevitable that an articulate section of the bhikkhus should take a hostile attitude to British Trule. Second the role of the bhikkhus in relation to other classes in Sri Lanka was an important factor in the resistance struggles. The bhikkhus had a strategic advantage in that they had close links with the various groups in society-royaity, nobility and peasantry-giving
ther a Wertical flexibi ity of manoeuvre and movement, and opportunities to influence and
rouse all these sections.
The fact that the bhikkhus moved closely with the peasantry is
in rei
significant in disc ship of the bhi revolts. Many in the lower Sangha were of they carine into the people. The Were gапnavasi and villages) as wasi (the fore an im Portant soc. as Malago da h "living in society a part of societ professional "int bhikkhu aften ci of spiritual adv the village m landlord, medical even astrologer. Spiritual and 5 e Portance in a will : role gave him a in a society of his role gave eĉCO nomic hold a in administering educational and of the people IT an indis Pensable life. The temple and Social centr and there was a -action between the people. The Congregate at religious occasion: Would wisit the people for ceremo With the corn 11 dead, blessings for secular activities, in pre-Buddhistic a 5 Casting of hor determination of The mericant
| 5o closa Elo the they went from for their daily fo and Were depen
Bhikkhus thus persons of all cl: royal family to the remotest par

volt
:Lissing the leaderikkhus in popular of the Ehikkhus hierachy of the peasant origin and daily contact with se bh | kkh Is who (dwelling in towns opposed to wanast dwellers), had ial influence, and as pointed out they became .. y. ... a class of electuals' ". The ombined the roles iser, teacher in on astery School, practitioner and
He had thus a ular role of Imge. His religious dominant position de wout beliewers; him a powerful ind his social role to the health, ritualistic needs ade the bhikkhu part of village was the religious e of the village | two-way inter the temple and 2 willagers would the temple on and the bhikkhus homes of the mies in Connector 2T oration of the "Wäridusmundang even dabbling practices such 05 Copes, and the auspicious times.
bhikkhus were - people in that house to house
iod requirements dant on charity.
had access to 1555, from the he Waddahs in
its of the island.
Not being geographically tied to any place and not being burde ned with family ties, they had the .."' to travel where war they please for ostensible religious purposes. As Governor Brownrigg, remarking on Buddhist missions to Burma wrote, "They hawe always the ready pretence of sending for Religious Books to that great seat of Bhuddoo learning, they also possessed the skills of memorising, carrying messages and using sermons to get across "seditious' ideas." On this aspect of the Sangha too Brownrigg commented "their own Councils are secret, their emissares numerous and their access and means great. It is hard to fathom their true sentiments being by habit
and education deep and artful dis 5 Ember 5.'
From the point of view of
actively planning and participating in rebellion, the bhikkhus thus had a distinct advantage. They Were in one sense a part of Society, yet they were outside it. They belonged to a monastic system which was a reversal of the usual social pattern, renouncing the householder's life and leading an opposite form of existence where
theoretically there could be no dependents, ancestral rights or caste taboos and where special
rules of dress and eating habits prevailad. Such a "counter culture" produced a greater degree of independence from traditional society, and in times of political
upheaval this could prove to be of wi tal importanca. Thus the Sangha, while being an essential part of Society, was also able to constitute a kind of parallel society. According to Romila Thapar, the setting up of monasteries, where
control was exercised through the Sangha rather than through secular authority, enabled the
monasteries from early times (both in India ad Sri Lanka), to take up independent political positions and to give political asylum to dissidents during periods of crisis,

Page 19
19th century Rebellions
One of the most striking facts about the 19th century peasant F= Walts in Sri Lanka has been the active participation of Buddhist monks in these uprisings. All tources agree that the advent of imperialism had been a major blow to the Buddhist religion, which further fell into decay and disarray under British occupation.
The militancy of the bhikkhus during popular revolts is of significance, for traditionally monks were supposed to lead a life of rei Liriciation and meditation and were not supposed to engage in political discussions. But even during Dutch occupation. bhikkhus were active in fomenting rebellion. For axample, in the 1760 revolt in the maritime regions against the Dutch two bhikkhus from Kandy who were accused of being agents of the King tried to Organise a rebellon among the Chalias (cinnamon peelers) in the region of Wall tara and were arrested by the Dutch. But after the fall of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815, many monks started to be politically active and they used their mobility and access to the people to promote hostility El British TL||2.
In the revolts and Conspiracies between 1816 and 1848, had bhikkhus playing a key role in the leadership as organisers, pretenders, couriers and CVen fighters. As Emerson Tennent Commented, in every important rebellion "the priests have been its active agents." In the 1816 plan for and the 38 rebellion itself, a major part was played by several bhikkhus including thagama Ratnapala Uпапse. He was the inspirer of the 1816 "conspiracy', travelling widely and gathering support from important groups including the Chalia Mudiyars and the Malay Muhandiram in Colombo and the feudal nobility in the Kandyan regions. The failed but in the major t=teilion of || 8 || 7 - || 8 || 8 that fo||owye Ihegama Unans e reappeared cite of the important leaders te revolt, even being in the
f
-
the fighting. As
Ge Werror" Br"o'W'r1r" "Ihagama the prics the present in surr active partisan, h off his robes an bodies of the rebel
hagama. Una inse to be a key rebel tried along with Madugalle, Kappiti F Talawa. All were death, but Ihagami Pilla Talawi Wer Mauritius. An a European traveller who met the twer Prisoners from Sri a wiwid account of hagama. He Wa. the "higher-gifted Tost intelligent the prisoners' WF politically as tu te b skilful medical pract ding to this acc born in | 793 in th He betä The a bhik|| wa Lee Wiharte at til and at the age of W35 "50 mt Out to of the kingdom' in to contact Wit 'gauged his quali and tact" and joj 1816 plot against
In 1818, among arrasted was Amb alleged to have r "constant attendar ter det to the thi hawe been actiwe people from sub British Governme official Tecommend gawe the following less some capital utםaitle Withוח pretended sanctit robe, we can also from thern irevery pansala ( interior will c. -hotbeds of c. treason'.
In Tiany subseq the Kandyan regio'|| Wa5 gither a bh || k || who appeared monk or had E supporters and example in an 8.

igg reported, thad during ection been an aving thrown | headed large ."5וחחa חIs i
was considered leader and was
the others ja d Piima Sertenced to l. Un inse and e banished to ccount by an * in Mau Titiu5 ity four state
Lanka, give 5 the talent:5 cof s described as hagama ... the Person amø ng lyחס tסח was סו
uit was also al tition 2, ACCOiourt, he was
e Seven Korale5. ku at the Malhe age of seven twenty-one hic: different parts where he came :ih chiefs yw Ho |ties of cunning ned him in the the British.
other bhikkhu5 agola. Un anse, t only bean aסו it' of the prerole but also to in "dissuading Tission to the It's A British ing his execution g warning, "unexamples are regard to the y of the yellow expect nothing future but that temple) in the ontinue to be опspiracy and
Lient revolts in ns the pretender khu, Cr a Person In the guise of a hikkhus as chief organisers. For 10 di 5 turbance in
Bintenne the pretender Kumaraswati had travelled around the country as a bhikkhu and in a subsequent revolt in 1820 in Ma tale the chief Kobbokaduwa, had a bhikkhu as one of his main fo||owents. I || 823 there were wiol erit disturba rice 5 in Nuwara ka|- awiya led by a bhikkhu, Ratmale Unanse, and the same year there was another attempt at insurrectlon in Matale organised by three monks led by Kahawatta Unanse who was executed by the British. Again in 1824, another uprising in Matale was led by a bhikkhu also known as Galeyle Wanigasekera Mudalihamy and several others. The involvement of bhikkhus in rebellion continued and the 834 "trealsona ble conspiracy" to "re-establish the independence of Kandy" included three bhikkhus, Dombawa
Un anse, Tibetuwewa. Unanse and Katta kurı bura Una nSe. The rebel of 1818, hagama
Unanse, who had returned from exile in Mauritius, was also said to have been part of the 834 plot which included a plan to send Il haga me to France to can was French support for overthrowing the British. It is interesting to nota that in the subsequent trial for Conspiracy a bhikkhu named Ratnapala Un anse Who gave evidence stated that the 'conspirators' had knowledge of the social and political reform movement of the 1830's in India led by Raja Ramohun Roy, the founder of the Brahmo Samaj which was the forerunner of the Indian nationalist Imawa
1.
The widespread unrest that simmered in the Kandyan regions in 1842 and 1843 (prior to the 1848 upheaval) was led by the Versa tila pretender - bhikkhu Chandrajoti Seelawan sa Saranankara popularly known as Bentota Una n5e, 2 low country person
who was borm Don Floris de Silwa Goorhara Ene. He Was al mian of many parts and numerous
guises who trawelled all ower the Country mobilis ing support with Moragole Unanse, who seems to have been the organiser
along
7

Page 20
of the plan of attack. It was during the 1843 un rest that a British official commented on the way 'sedition" was being spread through preaching at temples by
politicised bhikkhus. "It is to their Uncea sing exertions that the people are brought together
and excited and the facilities afforded them of collecting large crowds together by means of ba na meetings, which they can hold at will in any part of the country, gives them opportunities of disseminating their seditious intentions.'" Bentota Unanse was arrested and the planned rebellion fizzled out. He was tried sentenced to 4 years hard labour and imprisoned
in Colombo. Among the long list of varied charges were Conspiracy to lewy war, Subvert
the government and restore the Kandyan monarchy, looking to France and other foreign countries for aid, trying to seduce the military from their allegiance, holding pinkamas, seditious meetings, administering treasonable oaths, and designing to seize the
tooth relic, attack Matale, and Kandy and raise insurrection.
In the 1848 rebellion too,
bihkkhus played a prominent part, officiating at the coronation of the pretender in Dambulla (as did Ambalam ble Unanse and Giranagama Unanse who were
tried for high treason and acquitted. Among other most sensational cases was that of
Kadaha pola Unanse who was tried in Kandy under courts martial for administering treasonable oaths in favour of the pretender and being in contact with the rebels.
At the trial since no lawyer would appear for the bhikkhu, he conducted his own defence and admitted to conversations with the pretender and to administering oaths on a bana book. The bhikkhu who was described an "inflential priest" was condemned to death and
inspite of efforts by senior government officials to get the sentence commuted, Governor Torrington was adamant and on 26th August | 848, Kadaha pola Unanse was shot in his robes, an event which had serious repercussions for the Government. To be continued)
|8
Priests and
Church
by Yohan - D
iberation the un critically movements, thou, times appear th; exponents come so. Basically, tl recognition that wrongs, the succe of various commur be evaluated throl and mutual critic wi|| hawe to be wa of the basic pi liberation struggli with different cu Is different to un
Hete it must that the undout of Warious Chris history have not in and Christianity it Christianity still sti|| || hawe a wital present historical similarly, certain ubt, even certain in the application Warious communis not necessarily in Without doubt, mains a powerful some would say ential factor - in
In fact, the re-a Christian Church century may well taken place in chailenge of Ma Darwin, Freud, Eir great papal Encycl century Were es se to the challenge c here we see a anathama to dia the title of a b0c Marxist Roger Gara ted to achieve
between Marxism
A question ofte Christian belief reconciled with t trine of materialis ians distinguish philosophical aspe and its practical

olitics - (2)
and liberation struggle
wananda
blogy does not ccept all Marxist h it may somet some of its
close to do ing |ere is a clear the rights and
sses and failures 1st regimes must gh self-criticism isrm. Also, there ried applications inciples of the ! in accordance ltural situations Eric S.
be remembered ited corruptions
tian regimes in |validated Christ self. Christ and
remain walid and message for the situation. So, failures-no doserious failuresof Marxls IT In t regimes does yalidate Marxism. 1ar"xis ITn stI || recreative factorthe most influmodern history.
wakening of the
during the past
be said to hawe "esponse to the "xism (and also stein, etc.) The cals of the past itially a response f Marxist. And
progress "from logue". This is k by the French dy, who attempto a synthesis ind Christianity.
in asked is how ni God can be le Marxist docn. Some Christbetween the its of Marxism programme to
change society. The latter, they say, is a scientific method and so can be accepted by them, while the former cannot.
Other Christians go even further and attempt to reconcile the philosophical bases as well, through a common praxis (action-reflection).
What seems impossible in theory is in fact realised in practice. Christians who draw on the deepest resources of their faith hawe, in the process of struggle together with Marxist brethern, found a deep comradeship with them, based on common understanding, common motivation, common humanity.
This because there is firstly, a common attitude to reality. The Christian concept of God is basically an attempt to explore the fullness of reality-to get beyond appearances to the fullength and bread th
and depth and height, to the "beyond in the midst", "ever further beyond and deeper within". Similarly, the Marxist
concept of dialectical materialism (which is to be distinguished from various forms of crude materialism) is a radical attempt to explore the heart of reality - to get beyond the supersitions and corruptions of religion that held sway at the time to the real condition of people in society. The journey from (false) spiritualism to materialism is, for the Marxists, a journey.
It is interesting, in this connection to recall that it was Charles Kingsley, a Christian clergyman, who first spoke of religion as the opium of the people, though it was Karl Marx's dicturn that became famous. The "Death of God" theology in the sixties of this century was the culminationin a rather extreme form - of the attempt of Christian theologians to eliminate the accretions and corruptions that have gathered round the Christian concept of God, Apart from accretions and corruptions there are certain aspects

Page 21
cf religion-particularly in regard to rites and ceremonies, codes Eind precepts - that are not of the essence of religion. While the "Death of God" theologians tended to concentrate on exposing the corruptions and non — essentials of Christianity, the "Liberation" theologian, who followed thern in the seventies, tended to focus Etter tion om the de 55 entials of
Christianity - on the imperative of living in practice.
Secondly, there is a common
atti LL de to love and peace. Love involves solidarity with the oppresited, recognition of the realities of conflict, and engagement in struggle on behalf of the oppressed against the oppressors. Thus peace is not mere absence of conflict but the resolution of conflict on the basis of justice.
So Christian 5 hawe found theit understanding and experience enriched by the Marxist insights into the facts of society. For instance, they read the Bible with new eyes- this is sometimes called a 'materialistic or class reading of the Bible". Marxists in turn may be expected to see through the corruptions of Christianity into the deep reservoirs of Spiritual experience of such matters of the spiritual life as Meister Eckhardt, St. Francis of Assisi and St. John of the Cross and, in modern times, Teilhard de Chard in, Charles de Fou cald and Dag Hammerskoj ld. It must be remembered that Marx's findings were based on a deep study and appreciation of history. He owed much to a creative use of the thinking of Hegal and the English political economists. He used to read Aeschylus in the original Greek every year and his whole family knew large chunks of Shakespeare by heart. And Lenin is credited with the saying that fhe ha d 12 St. Franci5' of Assisi he could transform Russia
Citadel of Capitalism
Even in North America, the very cita del of Capitalism, thiere =ve been radical Christian Wolicer raised and radical action taken for example, against the Wietnam 2 and in the arena of student End civil rights problems.
(Сол тілшегі ол Page gg)
Some
fundam
by N. M.
is reported to developme year and the
fundamentalis II, Islam hawe bee West than ever apparently a net the World of fears hawe bee the resurgence
which cai threat again as it did
Islamic fundan mally seen as tionary OWE an attempl חtha societies back century. The article is to sug be better under a revolutionary ment expressing | tions in societies historical beckgr m Luch more that of hands for t to death for ac
The widespre about stric f to be explainc
ambivalent chart, talism means a sources of a relig form in the about tota|| tr Society, includir all its problem: and political, t cation of religi ther Unadu ter viously a revol mation is in un realistic and be, which look. good life for future, but thi of a going bac seen by those funda Tentalism the golden age and reaction.
The misconce to be explainec of Marx's dicti

aspects entalism
1. 1. Husselm
that consequent nts in lran la 5 t
pread of Islamic more books on selling in the Before. There is d to understand Iam ā5 a twistic stirred about of Tilitant sli, en the West ance centurie5 ago.
= rםח 15 וחntalisטן profoundly reacreטוח thingסח tח to take Islamic to the Seventh purpose of this gest that it might stood as part of prcCe35, a Toweprogressive a 5 pirawith a particular ould. It involves the cutting off left and ston ing dultery.
:ad misconception Lumdama Italism is ld partly by its acticer. Fundammergoing back to the tion in its pristine it tempt to bring ansformation of a g a resolution of 5, social, economic, hrough the applious principles in ated purity, Obutionary transfortended, however idealistic it may 5 for Ward to the a society in the are is the aspect k and only this is Who This COin Cei "We as nostalgia for as retrogression
aption is also partly by the popularity um usually quoted
of Islamic
out of context, that religion is the opium of the people. Religion is seen as reaction, and the function of religion in society is seen as ensuring that the things that are Ceasar's are rendered LIII to Cea5a , and also that Casar is supported in his worst excesses. It is not sufficiently known that Max Weber, after his pioneering work on the relationship between puritanism and the rise of capitrilism, wrote a series of papers which were PLL together as far back as 1862 as "The Sociology of Religion', in which he analysed religion as a source of the dynamics of social change, not as a force supporting the political establishment. But the popular notion of religion as reaction persists, and
hence partly the dismissal of Islamic funda Tental iš Til å s, the worst type of political reaction.
Ewen where there is a soph isticated understanding of the relationship between religion and Society, the very different historical development of Islam and Christianity leads to simplistic notions about Islamic fundamentalism. The serious schismatic mowe Telts of the early century of Islam were contained after the establish Tarı E of Sunni orthodoxy in the greater part of the Islamic world in the eleventh Century. The Christian world continued to explode with schismatic movement right down the centuries, causing social and political ferment. The period between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries. witne55ed 5ė veral millenarian movements of a revolutionary character. Religion was a primary factor in bringing about political changes in the puritan revolution of Cromwell, in the Grest Rebellion of 1688 in England, aad the Dutch overthrow of Spanish power. While religion in the Christian world was proving itself a force for change, Sunni orthodoxy was a force for immobility, profound resistance to change, and political
9

Page 22
quietism. Against this historical background, it is perhaps underLLLLLLLaS LLLLL SLLLLL S S aaLLLLLLLaL LLLSL talism should be seen as reaction. and nothing else.
Actually, as a consequence of interest in developments in Iran, there is an improved understanding today about the Islamic world, with its great schism between the Sunni and Shia sects. Shiism is seen as basically hostile to worldly power, inherently revolutionary in character, while the orthodox Sunni sect is seen as characterised by traditionalism and political quietis Ti. In trying to make sense LL LLLLL LLLLHaHLLLLH L O HtCLL to situate it in its Pro Per Islamic Context, and for this Purpose it is necessary to outline some of the important differences between the Shia and Sunni sects.
Shiism is regarded as having an in-built propensity to challenge political power because it had its the
origin in a quarrel חישום succession to the Caliphate. The denial of supreme office to the
decendents of the prophet meant that the Shias regarded the Omayyad Calliph:5 a5 Lusurpers and Con 52quently the Shias became active as a turbulent and sometimes revolutionary minority in the Islamic world. The tragic dimension of Shiism deriving from the central importance qiven to the martyrdom of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet, makes Shiism a "religion of lament' in the term used by Elias Canetti. This is significant as the ennobling of suffering gives value to self-sacrifice, wery useful for promoting challenges to power and revolutionary activity.
Shiism became the State religion of Iran under the Safavid Dynasty at the beginning of the sixteenth century. During the time of that Dynasty which ended in 1722 the ulemas - the priestly group - became identified with the political establishment. The ulems subsequently asserted their independent role and got togethet with reform istis and revolutionary groups in the struggle against the concessions given to the West by the Kadjar Dynasty, a struggle culminating in in the Constitutional Revolution of the period 1905 - |9||. It now
O
appears that the only a temporar the Pahllewi Dyna in 1925. The ty between the Roya ulemas is accurat the following fro novei, The Ad, Baba of Ispahan b) first published in had always been odour with the E country for he influence, which ower the Til d5 was the only ba and unlimited pov
It is tele wat point that after tE independence by Could get toget Telforminists; and re' Were inspired ni principles but ideology of nati relevant also tö all the important oppressed in the in the Past hawe with Shiism: the 2 He te wollt of BaE of Ismail, and Tır mowerient of the hawe been called of Islam'. It is p from the facts ab role of religion i |slamic fundarner societics could develop a revoluti
Surin is has F different evolution the Word of God a path of the Sunn the Koran and thi tional sayings and Prophet. On t Sacred Law, or elaborated by th Islamic world, which was finalise century. The or that the Koran, the Sharia constitu cannot allow for a or further elabor; systems of law h; the SI T1 i World
dently of the S latter is regarded position which
conservative habit

ulent:15 suffarad y eclipse under sty which began pical relationship power and the ely reflected in m the pica resque "entures of Hajji * James Morier, 1824: "His policy to keep in good triesthood of his knew that their was considerable
of the people, It between hii T. \er."
to note at this Ne rea 55ertion of the ulemas, they ter with the olutionaries who tot by religious ly the secular onalisII. It is late that almost revolts of the sanic World : Eeen involved Жап slave, revolt, Jek, the Teyat St notable the Qarmatians who the "Bolsheviks ossible to Infer Jut the political Shis that talism in Shia be expected to onary character.
nad an entir ally , The Koran is ld the Orthodox a is formed by e Hadith, tradiactions of the is basis, the the Sharia Was e jurists of the an elaboration
d in the tenth thodox wiew is the Hadith, and te Islam, which ny modifications ation. In reality, lye eyowed in quite indepen
haria, but the
as ar1 Ideal, a
e F1 COL Tag 25 a af II.
The attitude to political power has been influenced in the Sunni world by the theoretical identification of religious and worldly power, deriving from the fact that the early Caliphs exercised both. Even though religious and political institutions later became separated, the motion of the identity between Islam as a religion and as a polity is regarded as having enduring consequences in leading to a confusion between political and moral obligations, and leading also to political quietism. The traditional notor was that religion had to be defended by the ruler and therefore it was a religious obligation to obey him. The traditional attitude was best expressed by the greatest theologian of orthodox Islam, Ghazali, who said that a leader is not qualified to rule by virtue and ability should be deposed only on the two conditions that the successor will be adequately qualified to rule and that the renoval of the ruler can be effected without dissension or widocence. The conditions are such that it is obowious that the Termo wall of a ruler should be regarded as Practically un thinkable.
This brief analysis of che differences between the Shia and the Sunni sects leads to the question whether any progressive character is possible for a political movement basing itself on Islam in a Sunni society. In the eighteenth century the extreme puritanical movement, Wahabism, captured power in a part of Arabia under the Saudi Dynasty. It lost power subsequently but regained it in this century in the whole of Saudi Arabia, Islamic fundamentals in the for I of Wahabi Grish Carl 10 be used to show that fundamenssibly have anyסt Bטחalism canם progressive character. Conditions In the world today are entirely different from what they were in a relatively isolated part of the world in the eighteenth century,
and what this means is that the fundamentalists of today hawe inevitably to try to come to
terms with the pressures of the moder World.
The Shias and the Sunnis in habit the Islamic world and they
(Corfired or Page 2)

Page 23
Cinema
KozintSev's
by Reggie Siriwardena
the Shakespere Film Festival A့်မျိုးချဲိုဂျီ by the State Film Corporation last month, Irenewed my acquaintance with Grigory Kozin'Esey's two masterpieces — Hamlet and King Lear. There has been no other cinematic interpreter of Shakespeare to compare with this Riggian, Kazi se 'w' 5 Superiority is at the more manifest when We set his two films against the British film versions of the same plays - Olivier's Hamlet and Peter Brook's Lear (both screened in Colombo in previous years), the first, a traditional rollantic view of Halllet ("the tragedy of a man who couldn't make up his mind"), the Se Cold, a modish a 55i Tation of Lear to the Theatre of Cruelty and the Theatre of the Absurd.
In contrast, Kozintsev never lets us forget in his renderings of Shakespearean tragedy that with the fortunes of the hero is bound up the fate of a community. Early in His Hallet Claudius's first lines from the play are read by a herald as a proclamation to the assembled people, while his Lear begins with a sequence of the poor in their best shoes trudging towards the palace where the ceremony of the division of the kingdom is to take place - a sequence that recalls the images of pre-revolutionary peasant life in 19th-century Russian Iterature. Neither sens in the literal sense is to be found In Shakespeare: yet both are Shakespearean in spirit - the first, In its emphasis on the public and political significance of the action; the second, in foreshadowing the Ewakening of Lear's moral awareless to the suffering of "poor naked Fetches' in the stor II. Here Kointsev's social insight reaches To the centuries to touch Selkespeare's vision more closely til the Tore i diwidualist of ented Western European artist
today is able to do
- it-tew is also the fil IT-Talker to has most completely translated
Shakespe
Shakespeare in
of cinema. He
to achieve the
and although he } of Lusing Pasterni lation (itself a tr transposition in age), he is as Can be with Wor, both in Henry V lets Shakespeare: screen images (C is an obvious ex often offers inst
ent that stanc Words. We do hear the great the rad Lear
Weeds that gro" corn"; what we of Lear's head
field in which 5eem at first ind the downy gras table image tha folio of St. into the languag.
Q|wier'5 Har with his roma set his hero c but also physical castle, was a which Hallet W
 

to the medium of Stages his scenes greatest mobility, has the advantage ak's superb transiumph of creative to another langecor omica a 5 e ds. Wherte Oliver. and in Hamlet, 1п poetry duplicate phelia's drowning ample), Kozintsev 2ad a visual equivais alone without n't, for instance, bassage describing among "tho i de W in our sustaining do have is a shot emerging from a stufts of grey hair istinguisha ble from Ses – an Unforgetit is truly a transakespearean poetry ! of cinema.
mlet, in keeping tic approach, had it only spiritually ly alone; Olivier's :On 5 tructed Set in a 5 artificially isola
For Y FF'er I FKJ Ffreis
"Rig "
ted for the soliloquies. Kozintsev's castle, on the other hand, is a real habitation, the centre of a court and a kingdom, where life goes on all the time and where lackeys or spies may be encountered at every turn. With startling effect he has In nok en ti Smoktunovsky render Hamlet's first soli loquy as unspoken thought while edging his way through a crowd of courtiers, giving a sharper edge to "How weary. stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world." The king's questioning of Hamlet after Polonius's death is made a formal in terrogation before the assembled council, and Hamlet's riddling witbecomes more main festly a rebellous defiance of authority ("a certain convocation of politic Worms"). And when Hamlet has fulfilled his act of purification of the State, he walks out of the castle with its gloomy and claustrophobic corridors to die in open air and the Sunlight,
Kozintsev's Lear is the greater of the two films, just as the original Lear is the profounder play, and Kozintsev's imagination rises fully to the challenge. Peter Brook's screen version equated the Shakespeare

Page 24
tragedy with the negative vision of a Beckett (Brook seems to have been greately influenced by the brilliant but perverse essay of the Polish-born, now emigre, critic Jan Kott, titled King Lear, or Endgame.) That Brook has to distort Shakespeare in order to make the equation is evident from what he cuts: the servant who intervenes at the price of his life in an attempt to prevent the blinding of Gloucester, Edmund's repentance on the verge of death, 'some good I mean to do, despite of mine own nature'. These things clearly had to go because they would hawe been in Consistent with Brook's (and Kott's) reading of Lear ag a Beckett-like deth Usmani5ation of man. Appropriately for him, he sets Lear in the final scene, with the dead Cordeia in his arms, isolated in the film-frame against a blank, featureless landscape - the Wisual symbol of man alone in an empty and meaningless universe.
How different Kozintsev's ending is - how much richer in its humarity, how truly Shakespearean in spirit, though original in invention! His Fool doesn't disappear after the mad scenes, as Shakespeare's does; he reappears (an inspired touch) to play on a wooden flute the simple melody that wakes Lear from his restoring sleep to his retu nion with Cordelia, And the Fool is there at the end, weeping as the dead bodies of Lear and Cordelia are borne away by the soidiers; one of the soldiers edges him out of the way with his foot as the funeral procession passes. The Fool continues to weep; then picks up his flute as if for comfort, and begins to play the same melody with which he had woken Lear. And with this music continuing, the ca mera pans to peasan t-folk returning to their houses ravaged by the battle, putting out the fires and beginningto rebuild. Tragedy has run its course; the Lime of regeneration has come. It is an ending that reminds us that Kozintsew Was a fellow-countryman of Tolstoy (War and Peace doesn't end with the burning of Moscow, nor Anna Karenina with Anna's suicide). And A Tolstoyan humanis in is closer to Shakespeare than a Beckettian alienation.
Some aspects
(Сол тілшғd fr0
are obliged to in other as there a Shia minorities in countries. In the been wirtual sy'T the Shias and several centuries sible to imagine present inter-dept Sunni societies ca. In other Words, : will be subject tc of modernization sarily has to haw: the nature of the Tentalis: וחם"יים וחE World.
In consider ing or revolutionary might play even Sunni Society, I refer to a signifi in the field of ory. In the strus society, according given by Werthel and Revolution, a brium is seen as society and the disharmony and mised, while in conflict Tode of conflict is 5e en al within any societ are organized a values accepted b but there arte : values the import are em Phasized model. These ma cally accepted as value-system of a being kept dorma im LIC J5, li li have the potentia ming society. W out that in sewer terms the hierarch ted Social or det i: ced by the conce sic equality of al
before God. Mc tem5 endors ed th archy. Yet the se
rianism had been tend in the cou to reā55 ett itself,"
These obserwati televant to Islam Islam places so not

of . . .
(נE ELשנים, שווי teract with each Te considerable Several Islanic
past there has biosis between :he Sunni; for and it is imposthat in the em dan world the m Temlin Intact. Sunni orthodoxy the pressures and this necesan effect on :: | Glarnic: fundaIts in the Sunni
the progressive Tole that religion in an orthodox t is useful to controwersy sociological the
stural model of
to the account חlutioטin Ev וחi
state of eqшIIіtypical of any importance of conflict is minithe alternative society, social 5 a basic element y. All Societies םחaחiוחםd dוחuם" y the majority, always counterance of which in the conflict y be theoretipart of the total society, while It or rendered ther case they for transforWertheim points a religious sysly of the accepcounter-balanpt of the intrin| human beings Ist religious syse offici | hireed of egali talsown and Would se of history,
oms are Wery lic societies as able an empha
siis on the Creaturaly.equality of all humanity before God, an emphasis which is perhaps greater than in any other religion. In this period of history, when sociaist ideologies have gained so wide a prevalance, it is hardly to be expected that Islamic fundamentalism can Timure itself from one of the funda em tals of Islam and of socialist, even in a Sunni Society.
(NEXT: Religion and
Nationalism)
Church and . . .
(Carried Farr Page ig)
Then, recently, when there was an attempt by conservative theologians close to the Watican to reverse the Medell instand at the recent Conference of Latin American Bishops at Puebla (1978), a profound Message was addressed
by 6 theologians and church leaders from leading universities, theological seminaries, organisations, journals, etc. in North
Anerica to their Christian brethren in Latin America affirming the need for a radical stand in the present situation and expressing their solidarity with Latin American Christians in holding on to the new vision of the Church put forward
at the previous Conference at Meda||in.
This Message was signed by such distinguished people as Robert McAfee Brown (Union Theological Seminary, NYC), Harvey Cox (Harvard Divinity School), Robert Drinan (U. S. House of Representatives) Jean Eckstein (President, National Council of Catholic Laity), John Tracy Ellis (Catholic University of America), Kathleen Keating, S. S. J. (National Assembly of Women Religions), Alan McCoy, O. F. M. (Conference of Major Superiors of Men), Henri Nouwen (Yale Divinity School), Richard Shauli (Princeton Theological Seminary), Eugene L. Stockwell (National Council of Churches).
NEXIKT: Asian Consultation

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Page 26
Viewpoint
What do elections m
by N. San mugathasan
Do the coming few weeks the people of our country will be heavily dosed with the opium of bourgeois Local Governmet elections. Their attention will be detracted from the urgent problems that face the people and instead, would be asked to choose between four or five political parties or groupings- some from the right and some from the so-called left- as to which of the is best fitted to administer the major institutions of local government. Of course, there are political differences between these groupings. But, fundamentally, they are all committed to work within the existing neo-colonialist economic and political framework. We do not hawe to add that no elections anywhere has, at any time brought about a revolutionary change in society. We have had adult franchise from 1931 and any number of elections under it. But there has not been any fundamental change in the form of exploitation that has remained Lunchanged.
The bourgeoisie and all the reacttonaries invented the farce of bourgeois elections to distract people's attention from the real seats of power which are the armed forces and the rest of the state machinery and to turn their activities into the harmless channels of bourgeois parliamentary op Portunism and reformism. It was meant to dampen and blunt the class consciousness of the working class and the rest of the toiling people and to turn them away from revolutionary class struggle. It was an attempt to substitute the struggle by Words for the struggle by arms.
Bourgeois apologists claim that elections are a great boon and that their werdicts are a real expression of people's true feelings. But this is a myth. Under condtions of neo-colonialist and capitaist slawery, can there be real
A.
equality between of the people, and the poor, b ploiters and the Wgen the Imaster Besides, the ruli tro a Eha m3 the press, radio Un reser wedl y mak of their candidate they have on power of money corrupt through 50 : DIO 1 Egt ...
As if this W the ruling classe: of this "democr:
ever they need.
after it came to has changed the
Suit its purposes. laws that existec greater represent: opposed to it, it a form of propo tation which is
Crättic ard Which eliminate a sma and establish the two big parties, by including a c. party that does
2% of the to gain even a si effectively shuts
parties, particular This system also di from the candida Le i di the party and n: date. This incre: the bureaucratic political parties Who Will nomir candidates. The ewen the se Tiba to choose the C.
Under these c. these elections expression of t people is поthli That is why the ni St Party has n חסוs Iחסy electiחa Who seek electio as 970.

ean?
diffo Fant 52ction 5 at Wel20 In the rich etween the exexploi tad, bet* Ind the ser want
ng classes condia of publicity, etc., which they e use of in support 5. What is lore their side the and its power to bri ber"y, imper
'ere not enough, 5 change the rules tic" game when | ni Sri Larkpower, the UNP el action laws to Afräd EhäL ths | Could ||oad Lo tiom to the forces ha 5 itTod Lucid rtional representotally undemoWil || 5e Two To | political parties ascendency of It a Chiy Shi5 סוח that חסiםdiחב not poll at least
tal polled Could ngle scat. This out a small
ly of the 'Left." WoT Ce5, the Wote T5 te. Im future tha ctly wote for pt for the candiises the power of leadership of all pecause it is they
te the i5E of Wolter Wi || |05e
ice of the right
andidate.
onditions, to call
a free and fair He w III of the lg but a frau d.
Ceylon Commueither contested supported other's ls, as far back
We have refused to be a party to the deception of the people and hawe called upon them to reject the farce of bourgeois parliamentary democracy and, instead, to choose the alternative path taught by Marxism-Leninism. Revolutionaries, in particular, must remember that elections are an invitation by the bourgeoisie to the revolutionaries to declare openly who their leaders and cadres are as well as their airns and intentions. Elections are the most open form of political activity. Such activity is directly opposed to the Marxist – Leninist concept of building a fundamentally secret party which engages in limited for of legal and open work, depending on the circumstances,
Our Party also does not support the theory of the "lesser" evil, ic, to support one party because it is allegedly more progressive
than the other, All parliamentary parties are a fraud. It is sometimes argued that to take
UP this line is to su Pport the UNP. We reply that it is those who play the parliamentary game that are supporting the UNP, and are helping it EO I sawe i tself from revolutionary defeat at the hands of the people. It is they who are helping the UNP and all other reactionaries to distract people's attention from the revolutionary path towards the reform ist and parliamentary path.
Newertheless, it is trua that there exists a great dea of parliamentary illusion among our people. Therefore, it is e55ential that we do not cut ourselves from the people at a time when they are politically receptive and just confine
ourselves to abstain ing from al|| forms of election activity. We must be with the people and explain to them both individually and through meetings, big and small, what a fraud these elections are. We must use this opportunity to explain to thern the truths of Marxism-Leninism and organise them on the revolutionary path,

Page 27
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