கவனிக்க: இந்த மின்னூலைத் தனிப்பட்ட வாசிப்பு, உசாத்துணைத் தேவைகளுக்கு மட்டுமே பயன்படுத்தலாம். வேறு பயன்பாடுகளுக்கு ஆசிரியரின்/பதிப்புரிமையாளரின் அனுமதி பெறப்பட வேண்டும்.
இது கூகிள் எழுத்துணரியால் தானியக்கமாக உருவாக்கப்பட்ட கோப்பு. இந்த மின்னூல் மெய்ப்புப் பார்க்கப்படவில்லை.
இந்தப் படைப்பின் நூலகப் பக்கத்தினை பார்வையிட பின்வரும் இணைப்புக்குச் செல்லவும்: Lanka Guardian 1980.01.01

Page 1
O THEATRE , HUIMA
 

2 No. 7 January 1, 1980. Price Rs. 2150

Page 2
*SƏsƆŋunOɔ Głosus səɔJJO OZ9 *>(OOO seuJOULLS,ų uəqAA ~ầusųÁJəAȚ
13.Uueuleus SQeqAA

SHIIDHH0, SHETTENW HI!
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"odou sv. AuəAB ‘Ia neu] us əuu eu pənsnu, əųL
XIOO O SPUUOULL
SOWWE
ԱWՍHEM EMHI
旧 H FIFI 實 『』 E= EE. 3 s= 阳 Es
SÜNDIGNÝTNI
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Page 3
Planter Raj
A return to the raj? This is the o mīno Lus note whichi yeterar
trade union organiser C. Y. We Lupa i Strikes in a Terroto President J. R. Jayewardene. Writing on behalf of the independent National Union of Workers We upillai takes up an issue raised by Minister S.
Thonddman's CWC earlier.
Workers are being assaulted, ha rassed and shot dit on est7tes which dre managed by State organisations. The NUW wants an Immediate inqu Fry Into (7 widespread grievance which took di tragic turn In mid-November With the death of a young plantration worker, the victim of d shot-gun blast by a man described as a "secLu rity' gLId7 rd. As the LG reported, several leading trade unions launched a protest poster campaign in Kandy.
With a ful in total ted production and yeld per acre, Sri Lankd can ill Efford ldեour unrest in the plantations.
Tea and No Sympathy
"NEGOTIATION. . . . When it Works, both sides win" is the cheerful front-cover announcement of a recent number of HORIZON, a USIA publication. With a lead article by Walt Rostow, the magazine parades the hopeful possibilities of international negotiations on economic
LETE
UNCTAID's Secretary-General Dr. GT FTIT ni i Corea who was horme for Christmass would hardly pause to raise a cheer for such rosy claims. To the great desight of fiercely competitive tea producers, the evident surprise of many diplomats in Geneva and the dismay of US and UK, the two biggest consumers, UNCTAD got through a negotiated agreement which covers export quotis Coupled with a bLffer stock. The aim of course is to stabilise reasona ble prices. Though the Labour government in Britain favoured the idea of
export quotas, so far of the However the U openly opposed
of "rem Lunerat y Why? Because si transfer of resolu mers to produ let the poor and poor and explc C E F e
Nothing but
A NISSP Liris y rwerted a US-f
from an inTHE LSSP, SX'
The LSSP. Six, to the "di 55 siden the party's C. the resurgent line which is So wet but it SLFF. 50fJle | L55P de55 ed Cc tīrīt: of a Czech dis.
Of the the CP Paper A Professor Carla bit surprised whe É dddres, te celebrating the speech which to of Trutes, he Cannot conced LB "TIIt'. Leftwing paper And that includ LSSP's own papi would not get TI
S-T Debate
The Ston-Tr опce agaiп fогс CP om to the di tifle barrica del5. LSSP mer Ebers, Moonesinghe fu tributes in the Idol, the CP's published ari ed on the 25t
day the Galle Were Led. jg the St JJ1d11 | per also had () and a cer te p 5to/fr.
 

Toth ing is known ficial Tory view. f) sted States is
to the сопсерt е prices“. Апа ה, חם טוח uldטיW : rices from consulCeir5. || 5 hort, exploited remain sted Wisse the arth. Hallelujah!
The Trut
'ersity. Wit has
ctory fresh slogan
ka. "DEFEND .5חשחה Tו
evidently, refer t' group within C. who resist Trotskyist-Tito ist ot merely arti
s to Wards Čile weeks ago the
etter to the is on the trid si derit.
аппiversary of TH THA (Truth) For Sekd Was I er sie W75 r. w sted public meeting ew erit. Irn d ook only a Couple 5g|d that ht the truth bout y 5 t o est in the Country. ed of course the er. He hoped he 1 to Tigre true
otsky de bate fis fng the LSSP and ferent sides of While leading Sch 5. Arī ve been Writing press to the old իdիer "Ath tha" starsas on 5talir
December, the efector re5u5
December 30th versary. The pafront page story CIgE
article or
Reader's Review
| hawe been a close reader of your fecund journal for the Past year and wish to maka the following "critico-ro commendatory' comments in good faith:
LG has taken on too much of the fiavour of political jargon e.g. "in terms of Marxist epistemology, this exclusively "case-by-case' approach renders It impossible to move from purely perceptual level to the conceptual level in the process of cognition.' (Chintaka in LG Nov. 5,79). Good heavens I am not exactly recommending that your writers read Brooks and Watte's Funda Tentals of Good Writing but just requesting a prudent use of good sense and consideration for the in met eart of the Teader.
The pseudo literary-intellectual exchanges between Dr.
LANHA
GUARDAAN
Wol. 2 No. 17 January 1, 1980 Price 250
| Published fortnightly by Lanka Guardian
Publishing Co. LL.d. First Floor, 88, N. H. M. Abdul Cader Roald, Ricclamation Road) Colombo 11.
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CONTENTS
Letters 교 News background B Foreign news ל The WO's Theatre 27 Agriculture 29 Satire E. April 1971 35
Printed by Ananda Press 825, Wolfendhal Street, .13םהווחים.lםC)
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Page 4
Costain de Wos and his buddies (though initially stimulating) have become a sort of literary mutual masturbatory (bad words?) pastime and a bore. This bad habit should be stopped forth with.
We request that your film te wie W5 and Book rewie w5 be more helpful to us by presenting What the fill or book is about rather than used as Pedes tals on which to stand the reviewer's own particular idol.
RS should be able to concede a occasional factual e tror more gracefully without necessarily compromising his intellectual erminence. We cur 502 lliw (25 had Diken 5" | Bleak Hou5e in the Peradeniya syllabus over 20 》(Ears ago-a Іопg time Eefore the Lea wises came out with their book on Dickens.
You need a good regular cartoonist to visually present the current political-social Events. I am 5. LIFE LG EAn now afford to pay one considering its extensive popularity. Sri Lanka has not had a cartoonist worth a cackle since Collette |Eft.
Patrick Jayasu riya Peradeniya.
Too Scholastic
returned to the island after an absence of two years and chanced upon a number of back issues of your journal. It was indeed a pleasure to read them. The style and format as well as the contents were al II quite interesting and Provocative. There was in addition the sharp and undercutting unit and satire tool
Yet at the end of the reading, I was overcome by a profound sadness. The cause of this was the So-Called debate between David Jothikumar and Chin taka, It had an all-too familiar ring: the 5terile scholasticist albeit of a marxist rather a shallist variety, the week-kneed appeal to the authority of long dead Russians and even forsook the resuscitation of Lenin's death bed wishes and god help 山,
his subjectivit spending of spi of words
While a num can be raised contributions I raise two: a) If nor Stalin had "national ques ideed the Ge not cropped-u commentator 5 h to say on the just of the li i5 Tam||5? Or in if SEl a of the national selfdeterminatio had approved : mean that a Lu respectiva adhe LWO RLI55ilm follow the sal Surely without experience or of the пasters D. and Chintaka independent and sions about th; Sri Lanka?
The second is raise Concerns too. Despite erudition of CI He is in error of empiricism ir mology. Marxis does seek to display the unde of social reality such structures be uniform irre particular empir such a reality thi5 de 5 no Marxist met hoe Ea widon Coe and examination of ces. Surely any would be tam search for the history!
The files
generation wer the madness of . by the utter is sort of debat Protagonists ha It is su rely tim and con template reality that is
analyse for exa

is What rit and a Wase
ber of queries about all the
will merely neither Trotsky discussed the tio ni" - d |f organ issue had 2, would your ave had nothing ice or otherwise made by the the alternative, enied the right minorities to n and Trotsky of it, would it tomatically the rents of these leaders would "me ||րը հԸrը: Et ceith CT tha the wise words awid, Jothikumar
COTT C original conclu2 problems in
SU e ant to methodology the impressive Til taka, I thirik on the issue Marxist epistem as a method disco y per and rlying structure and in variably arte found to ! spective of the |-| inst II-5 of
Never thless real that lology es chews the systematic - Ii trate || 15Earl - other approach t: TOLIT t
great spirit of
minds of my e driven into ocial chau w InsTl terility of the ce that your We undertaken.
to We
the new social the world and imple Sri Lankan
history and ideology Wis-a-Wis. the Tails and Sinhalese.
R. S. Perulianayagam Manipay.
Not anti-Chinese, nor pro-Albanian.
In Lanka Guardian, WOL. 2, No. 4 of Nov 15, 1979 there are several factually-incorrect references to the newly-formed United Front Nawa Janata Peram uma in which Nawa Lanka Communist Party is a partner.
In p.5 of the said issue, in the coul, "A second Left Front" there is a reference to the said Front, as being "opposed to U. S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism and the policies of the Prosent Chinese leadership." Though It is a fact tha E w 2 are opposed to U. S. Imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism it is incorrect to say that we are opposed to the policies of the present Chinese leadership. What we hawe said in our joint declaration is that we find it difficult to agree with the policies of the present leadership in China.
Wa mLIst reiterate what wa hawe said il out inte Twiew given to L. G. which appeared in L. G. of March 1, 1979.
Them in the samme ISSU e in p. 22, in Gamini Yapa's interWiew, there is al reference to Lus as 5-pro Albanian Maoist groups. As for the Nava Lankä Communist Party we must Categorically state that We are
not a Pro-Albanian or pro
Chinese Maoist group.
There is another reference
in P.23 which is worse. It
says, "They have also gradually dropped the term Mao Tsetung thought (For eg. Shan's CCP, Nawa Lanka C. P. etc)" Nawa Lanka Communist Party has no E dropped Mao Tsetung thought. We firmly believe in the truth and correctness of Mao Tsetung thought.
A Gesekera N. L. C. P. President.
(Сонfirшғd ол Pagғ:5)

Page 5
After Galle, the
o J. R., whose critics regard S. something of a political Calculating machine, and W. Dahanayake, old school master and veteran parliamentarian knew their arithmetic and worked out the
sums to near-perfection. Top marks. No need for standard isation. The UNP's 5,000 last time
plu5. Daha's Own 10,000 make 25,000, Daha got 22,377 and a majority of |3,000- a staggering figure Considering that the Opposition parties and some UNP'ers too were expecting a strong "protest' vote, mainly on the day-to-day impact of the UNP's economic policies, rising prices, subsidy cuts etc.
Picking on a non-UNP'er could not hawe B2 en an easy choice for the party boss. But having silenced his critics, he can now sit back and smile. For the 77 year old bachelor Daha the return to parliament, his real home, is the finest New Year gift he could have wished for.
The 75% poll Was quite low, particularly for a by-election. And this makes arithmetical break-down difficult. But there's the temptation to see the 3000 votes lost by the UNP - Daha combine from the 25,000 in 1977 as the increase in the SLFP wote from é,448 to 9,365, Not much of a swing to please the SLFP. In fact, it's bound to cause some soul-searching in the SLFP over the last-minute switch from Kulatieke to Dias. R himself made much of the SLFP's candidate's political and personal record, as a UNP'er and a Police officer in
97.
Another temptation is to see the LSSP's 4,34 in 1977 now splitting up between the Independent JVP in fact) Bopage's 3,366 and the LSSP's Pitiful 634.
What sort of critical appraisal will the LSSP make? When the clidest party in the country was rí ped out of the NSA, With, it 5 ce-time giants falling like nineis the question was raised whehad nearly exhausted itself significant electoral force.
But it remained it the Left movem vigorously and co ged by the JWP's
have ost theit JWP, contes ting til tary by-election
exceedingly well. that the LSSP will the : İdealı thlığıt | : Çalı pre-eminence in ment? Or will i ELUTO-COTT UT IS LIS Trotskyists) and the SLFP
House -
he mail bag:
Housing Min Chittampalam G5 last week Were The lette T5 W r. the Chairman . Housing Develo a one of wer created by the who is also the sing, in order tr challenge.
"Foreigner's C for Foreigneers" trictiwe | ab els ir feature in new ппепts. Though righteous ire of t ed Citizen, this ri is an inevitable b: cio-economic Ch: pact on urban he advent of foreign influx of foreign middle and uբ are being rapid/ the city. Event ted Property fin table to rent c and move away morte Pole ä5 ing a
For the urb; always been slun tre fL era southwards or
 
 
 

re-shuffle?
he major force in |ent — a position nfidently challenWijewes ra. Both deposits but the le first par l'arménhas performed Dios, this meam II adjust itself to in no longer claim the Left moveit be dragged by Titoists (quondam others towards
owning
carried to the is try complex at Tidimar Māwithiä unusually heavy.
all addressed to
if the National ment Authority, new agencies
Prie Millister, Minister of Houface an urgent
Dnly", "Suitable
ad similia Te5= e now a familiar spaper advertisit rouses the he nation 11-mind2cent phenomenon product of soInge and its imusing. With the business and the
personnel, the per-middle class y driven out of :ho5e With in herid It more profiut their houses from the quieter, reas of Colombo.
in poor, it has 15 or steady red further away; aid. The It
NEws BACKGROUN
Commenting on the LSSP's polls strategy, the LG. in its issue of November 15th predicted that "the LSSP stands in danger of repeating its experience of the Colombo municipal polls." In its December 5L 55ue The LG WE TE on to state that "if the current round of campus polls are anything
to go by, then Rohana Wijeweera's claim that his party is the biggest within the Left mowement and the third biggest in the country seems to be well founded."
meritocracy?
was the turn of the Tiddle class especially the salaried to beat the same retreat in to greater suburbia, Finally, even the comparatively highincome "meritocracy' has had to join the exodus. "A house-owning democracy" is a fогgotten slogaп of more relaxed times.
of a grԳաբ5
A hundred grievances dozen important social fuelled the Iranian rg Wo | Li tion. But it was when the educated "westernised" Iranian joined the anti-Shah movement that the Shah's fate was sealed. The Iranian professor, doctor, engineer and civil servant had watched the hysical "take-over" of Teheran 默 "foreigners only". The swollen 醬 became an explod ng megalopolls . . . . . . the pattern in Cairo, Djakarta, Manila, Karachi etc. Is Colombo to become part of this pattern? In a pre-emptive strike Premier Premada sa is trying to find decent housing for at least a few thousand middle-upperIddle class Sri Lankans in Colombo while Jayewardenapura is being built. "Castles in the air" shorts the cynic. But senior officials of the Ministry say confidently "The dream will become a reality .... wait and see".

Page 6
HUMAN RIGHTS
in Colombo
hile Human Rights Day
this year was marked as usual in the capital city by formal Certemonie5, 1t5 ob5er"Wante in Jaffna assumed an exceptional character, with active popular participation being a noteworthy feature.
Buddhism and Rights
In his message, the Prime Minister, Mr. R. Prema daša observed: "It Is an Ironic fact that the importance of this day is left Un observed, or treated casually, both in countries where Human Rights are held to be inviolate as well as in those countries where only lip service is paid to basic, human rights, In the former, basic human rights ara taken so much for granted that no one seriously thinks that it can be lost if the people are not vigilant. In the latter, it goes without saying why those who have denied the people their rights should be reluctant to draw attention to this fact,
"We, in Sri fortunate in this respect. not in a modern political these human wallues hawe been accepted by us for more than two thousand five hundred years."
The local UN Resident Representative issued a message from the Secretary-General in which Dr. Kurt Walheim noted: "Massive violations of human rights are still a painful reality. The dignity and worth of the human
erson cannot be considered to
ave attained its due recognition in a world in which racial, ethnic or religious discrimination still pers ist, the due process of law is ignored or torture practised. Freedom from fear is yet to become a reality throughout the globe.'
Lanka hawe been Though SES
Disturbing
1979 was both "a disappointing and a disturbing year" said the
4
Civil Rights M Lanka in its
The CRM's chal Lakshman Wickr of Kurunegala, is Mr. Desmond F -at-law and one
Secretary.
The CRM st the following fa
l) - Sri Lanka UN Covement on Rights,
2) The failur independent mac gate Public alleg: Police. The Publ such complaints themselves.
3) The much. budsman Bi II did r of day.
4) The Interp ment) Act of 1972 restricts the right enjoyed to obtain abuse of governm the present rulir
Criticised in op шпгереaled.
5) The Crin
(Special Provision many restrictions
6) In the Inter the Child we int Punishment for ju N
7) In the fiele expression, the Continued to be extremely select The keynote spee at the LAW ASA virtually blacked c extracts were : other speeches. cIl Law, condemmi by the ruling part sition remains u
8) The Second cern ing MP's who

DAY
lo Yement of Sri Press Statement. Гпап is Rt. Revel.
amasinghe, Bishop and its Secretary ernando, attorney the Bar Council
tement highlights its and trends:
did not sign the Ciwi and Political
e to introduce hinery to investilitions against the |c must stil make
to the police
–publicised Om1ot see the light
retation (Amendwhich seriously 5 people formerly | redress against nta power which ig party strongly position remains
inal Procedurg 5) Law imposes
on ba||||
national Year of roduced corporal ferties and adults.
of freedom of 5 ta te-r"LIn TT edi: subserver and we in reporting. -h of Jose Diokno conference was Jut while copious ublished of the The Press Cour. gd and challenged :y when Iп орро
repealed.
Amendment conresign or are
expelled is still an interference with freedom of conscience and the 1979 amendment has an element of political discrimination.
9) The Essential Services Act is the most disturbing measure directed against trade union rights.
10) The extension of the Tiger Law (passed in 1978 as a temporary measure) the Prevention of Terroris Act and the declaration of emergency all show drastic departures from democratic norms which cannot be justified on the grounds of "national security' or 'terrorism."
H. R. O. petition
At its New Town Hall meeting the Human Rights Organisation claimed to be the only body marking Human Rights Day with a public Teeting in Colombo, HRC used the occasion to launch a campaign demanding that the Government sign the two Convenants of the United Nations relating to human rights (which would oblige it to bring its own laws and practices into conformity with them) as well as the Optional Protocol to the Convenant of Civil and Political (Rights which would enable a citizen whose rights had been violated to complain to the UN Committee on Human Rights). HRO explained that the object of this campaign was to make clear to the people the gulf between internationally accepted principles of human rights arid those embodied in our Constitution.
HRO's Secretary, Sunila Abeyesekera, presented a petition (which was circulated for signature) asking that the practice of stating on birth certificates whether parents Were Tharried or un matried be stopped since it cast a stigma on illegitimate children, and IYC would be a particularly appropriate occasion to call for the ending of this practice.
Other resolutions passed at the meeting demanded the lifting of the State of emergency in Jaffna and the

Page 7
guaranteeing of full human rights to Tamil-speaking people throughout the country, the repeal of the Anti-Terrorist Act and the Essential Public Services Act, the halting of repression against Workers, students and political activists, and the abolition of capital punishment.
In Jaffna
It was appropriate - and significant - that the most activa observance of Human Rights Day this year should have been in emergency -ruled Jaffna. It was also significant that the day should have been the occasion for the first NorthSouth collaboration on human rights issues in Tሢ years. The call to observe the day by fasting and prayer, followed by a public meeting, came from the Jaffna branch of the recently-formed Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality, whose President, Fr. Paul Caspersz headed a contingent of delegates including many Sinha|ese from MIRJE (pronounced "Merge") and its constituent organi5ations. In the South Who trave ed up to Jaffna for the day.
At the Nallur temple sacred to Goddess Kali, Mrs. Amirthalingam led a group of female devotees (ranging from old ladies to little girls) in singing devotional songs
during the fast, followed by a complaint to the Goddess, sung to a traditional melody, about
the events of the last few months. Having heard Mrs. Amirthalingam singing in her rich and powerful voice for four hours (without even a sip of water), an observer from the South remarked that as an emotional and musical experience,
that alone was worth the visit to Jaffna.
There was a much smaller congregation at the ecumenical Service at the Roman Catholic Cathedral and Fr. Cas persz, in his sermon, raised the question:
What can the tiny Christian minority (whose leaders were conspicuous by their absence) do to
safeguard human rights? His answer Was to recall the story of David and Goliath. He also
quoted "the programmatic i manifesto" delivered by Jesus, "the Young Jewish carpenter, at the տynaցague in Nazareth. That, he said, was the result of being
fled with aga in 5 t unlawful Mèt and to TE. for equality апс people,
MIRE's organ as an ach lewent group of Muslim MMC - also p fast and prayer a
At the Af meeting there three languages gates from the sentatives of Social and polit in Jaffna. Bal made a speech sloganis ing and the occasion and of the audience, people of Jaff
Letters . . .
שיוויזיCH/JTh)
CML
Van חwם My Widual Wold "H to be com Placen Ten tilled 5 || || different matte what Wye || —krit: Mr. Bala Tampo Siri war dema, in Issue of the (wolume 2 No. | 979 ) if not fo sity and the II put the record this reply.
As regards M ral Secretary, C really induced h
was "the cd it Sinhala Ebu || 3 til " at no the his
1 5. La CCITT 2 || Tilt. 15.L. in Il FL-. in a previous is that Mr. Tampo wiz-a-Wiz, a call has been 'somew, by my resignation Whilst admitting
is is Etta
must say that lysis what really tics is the prog capacity of огgаг 50 mlugh the In also say that

the Spirit: anger arrest, imprisonre, and a passion I justice for one's
|Ser 5 regarded It Iént that a Small ls - including an articipated in the it their mosque.
Cernoon's public Were speeches in from M|RE deeSouth and repre
rada Unions and lical organisations a Tampoe, who
frc of political exactly pitched to the consciousness Congratulated the 1 of what Ha
fari Page r) .U. etc
ity as an indiave prompted me tly silent on being taneously on two is by two someW gentleman, e and Mr. Reggie one and the sama "Lanka Guardian" 14, November 5, rithe lutter necesmherent duty to straight I write
г. Тапpoe, GeпeMU: What has rt to state that }r of the C. M. U "Arambhaya'" and "t- organiser" He by your coulme that appeared i5ue, Fle rote a's own position for left unity rhält undermed" from the C.M.U. that your columto his opinion, in the final anamatters in poliramma ad the | || 5 tiom ånd mot dividual. I must Was n8 war ä "t.u.
Called "a good beginning". M. SiWasithamparam, while expressing satisfaction at the presence of visitors from the South, pointedly reminded them, that för many Years the Tam il-speaking peopla had fought their struggles for their rights with hardly any voices being raised in the South to support them. Glancing at MIRE's banner, he said the findamental "justice and equality" the Tamilspeaking people wanted was the right to determine their future.
Resolutions adopted at the meeting called for the lifting of the state of emergency, the repeal of the Anti-Terrorist Act and the implementation of the Social Disabilities Act, protested against acts of torture in violation of the Constitution and demanded action against those responsible.
galiser" of Mr. Tampoe although I had been at one time in charge of the state corporation sector of the union and at a time union spokesman who had addresSed hundreds of branch Fleetings and almost al the public meetings of the union, during my tenure of office as Assitant Secretary elected at each delegates confer. ence of the union from 1972, be
sides being 'the editor of the C. M. U. Sinhala buletin 'Arambhya' '. I resigned from the union
in May 1978, having resigned five months earlier from the Revolutionary Marxist Party of which Mr. Tampoe is again the Secre
Ty.
In regard to Mr. Reggie SiriWardena's further comment but mY Wews on the film "Hansa Wiak I am sorry to say that he has ignored - if he has not misunder. stood again - the fact that I have give the reader an סקקיםrtunity t2. judge for himself as to which of the two divergent views. correct, or as to whether both views are incorrect. This, the rader Cando displassionately cinly after seg ing the film. ||
have to reiterate that I am reserving further comments until then, եք
that the whole issue will I not te confifted to Mr. Siriwardena and myself.
H. A. Seneviratno .5 כbות ביliםC
5

Page 8
NGO’s
T government's announced intention to control voluntary social service organisations may prove counter-productive in ways that the Minister of Social Sorwicos and his advisers may not have guessed.
"It is an ill-advised attempt' said Dr. Sejf Theunis, SecretaryGeneral of the Netherlands Organisation for International Development Cooperation at a press Conference IE: E. He W5 JT TIETting on a draft law by which the government could Tipose bureau ratic control of local Social ser wice organisations many of whom receive funds from foreign. Nongovernmental organisations (NGO'- 5). His organisation spends 50
million rupees here, a tenth of its total budget, Other NGO's from Holland spend another 50
million rupees.
Dr. Theun is said: "Our organisation is of the opinion that, if this law is passed, Sri Lanka will
be the only country in the developing world with such a piece of legislation. We would
be very dissappointed with such
and Lanka's
A situation. As to Co-operate
private non-gove tion5, under til non-go:WET T1 e il te could be consider red bodies.
states , compelled to wi consequently to that many deve would face Sewe W III inform | Govern Tent abo development".
Both in a rad at his press confe indicatod stroni keep contact W NGO's are very Europe, Canada with the 5T aller sрепdiпg a grea1 in the Third W
WHIIe Sri La this, the Te is an ap Pears to ha government's adw not only get r public and inter tions (the Ne
U
O R A N G
FC
REAL WRITIN
MANUFACTURED BY. P.
(M.
DISTRIBUTED BY SHAW W

image
it is our principle exclusively with rnmental organisa: 12 'W |aʼW sLich organisations ed as government
Un“ LH5. we would feel thdraw aid and accept the fact ject5סlopment pr! Te 5t backs. We the Netherlaid5 Lit Such ewentual
so interwEW and rence. Dr. Theun is gly that NGO’s rith each other.
Actiw is Wester
UK, Australia, European countries : deal of money
ord.
ka stands to ose 3ther angle which We escaped the isgrs. The NGO's ΤΟΠΕγ. from the national organisatherlands group
SE
E P L (O) TAT
JR
gets Taney fra T1 the EEC), but they are also powerful public-opinion Takers. Most NGO'S COGIE of eminent men drawn from politicians,
educators, professionals, church leaders etc. Already worried about its foreign image over
Publicity done by expatriate Sri Lankan groups, this issue may open the government to a wider propaganda front,
- Dutch aid for
Third World
PTC-Reuter
THE HAGUE The Netherlands will allocate a tot of 927 in III i ČGuilders 85 million dollars) next Year in aid to I3 third world Countries, it was a nounced yesterday.
Tha | GO aid al CF || 25 Tc2 (in milions of Gulder5): India is 4, Indonesia. 58, Tanzania 105. Bangalindash94, Kenya. 53, Pakistan 58. Sri Lanka idé, Suran 44, Upper Wolta 42, North Yemem 31, Egypt 28, Zambia, I5, Colombia I4, (one dollar 1.97 Guilders).
Indonesia. Kenya, Pakistam. Sri Lanka, Zambia, Egypt and India. are to receive a mixture of loans and grants. The loans will P: repayable over 30 years at 2.5 per Cerrit interest with ın cight:- year grace period.
NG PLEASUIRE
ENPALS LIMITED
ember of the K. G. Group)
WALLACE & HEDGES LTD.

Page 9
India : The
E indication points to the breakdown and proceeding
disintegration of the political system that came to be established in India with Independence in 1947. Nearly 4,500 candidates will contest the elections of early January for the 529 seats in the Lok Sabha for which polling will take Place. The high est number of candidates until now Was in 97 when 2,784 entered the lists. An average of 8 candidates per seat testifies to the Weakness of the hold of parties and the strength of the personal factor in the outcome of the contest in each constituency.
Four main political organisations appear to be Contes ting the elections on a countrywide scale, viz. Congress (Indira), Janata, Lok Dal and Congress (Urs). Two of these organisations, viz. Lok. Dal and Congre55 (U), continue to be the main partners in the caretaker Government of Prime Minister Charan Singh. The bloc which they constituted for the purpose of fighting the election has broken down over the division of seats. The bulk of contestants in all four organisations do not see much difference between thengewes. The election manifas toes of all of them hawe little relawance and were published only a few days before the closing of nominations af candidate5. Un til the very last there were desertions of important personalities, including leaders, from one organisation to =no ther", ba5ed on mסthing סוחre than indiwidual assessments of the prospects of their respective
kEEE.
Of even greater significance is that each of these organisations Es some under Standing and coration with each of the her. In some part of the country. * = the Congress (I) keeps the
a Party in power in Bihar; = = -FD of Bahuguna, having E = E = Congress (I), keeps
= L. Dal in power in Uttar
system d
Fra desh; Janata a form a blod In M Dal and Cong (U) agreement in five
mai differenco E. organisations appi round Who Should ter: In dita Gandhi or Cha Tan Singh
does not hawe its
is not an overwhel seeing that all t and the greater
followings really are no more th the former Congr
We Haye ref irrelevance of the fe5to e 5 and the 5 attached to the T1 There is one exce Thea Lok Dal Tal to differ in one from those of thệ it blames the co difficulties on to " of previous Congre especially their industrial capitalist TEI t of large indu5 trie5 at the co and the agricultur traft similesi. Chris an attack on Jawahar Nehru's Incompref problems of the the original draf Dal manifesto, o scornful rejection (U) demand for 2. Pradesh, made the congrass (U)
Charan Singh his career as a fro been an angular p there ha'ye bigger personalities that pushed into na Llo with its large ble members (more t of other States, wit of Bihar which h above 50) іп eac Charan Singh's combined With hi of the Jats — a cas

sintegrates
by Hector Abhayavardhana
d Congress (U) aharash tria; Lok ave an electoral States etc. The tween the four a"S to Can IT o Prime MinisJagjivan Ram (Congress (U) :lai maint). This Tning differenc2, tee clairTants part of their constitute what an factions of ess party.
erred to the -1חווח הכelecti mall importance ly their authors. ption, however. lifesto appears basic respect other three: untry's current "wrong policies' 55 Government:5. gring ofקamכן is and a stablishstate-owned st of agriculture ists and willage Singh's sharp lal Nehru and lension of the rural areas, in of the Lok in top of his of the Congress seats in Uttar is break with i new i te be.
has throughÜLIt tline politician
ersonality. But gularחy aחaוח the U.P. has
nal prominence of about 85 an double that
h the exception as had a little h Lok Sabha.
angularity has 5 championship
te of 10 millions
spread over the four States of U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab, which has provided the base of the new class of rich farmercapitalists in post-independence India. Not belonging to the upper castes of Brahmin, Kshatriya and Bania or the outcaste Harijans, the Jats have lined up with the other so-called "backward" castes of Ahir 5, Yadawas and Kurmis, said to number about 40 millions in the country. While the Congress hierarchy, drawn largely from the upper castes and backed by the power of monopoly capital, had firm control of the power in New Delhi, Charan Singh could be held in check. But with the virtual stagnation of the Industrial economy that commanced in the Tiddle-sixties, the rapid growth of the kulak class, which Charan Singh represented, stepped up the political challenge of the agrarian bourgeoisie to monopoly capital domination.
The Congress party, whether under the liberal leadership of Jawa halal Nehru for the more authoritarian leadership of Indira Gandhi, has alway received the unqualified support of monopoly capital in India. Its base in the countryside was provided by the upper castes of Brahmins, Kshatriyas (Rajputs) and other landlords. The power of these upper castes dragged the Harijans and the minorities behind thern and thus en su red the victory of Congress nominess at elections to the Lok Sabha and State legislatures. The rise of an agrarian bourgeoisie (kulaks), based as it was on the intermediate castes labelled "back
ward" by their place in the caste hierarchy, challenged both the power of the monopoly
bourgeoisie as well as the political domination of the upper castes. Quoting the precedent of reservation of educational and job opportunities for Scheduled Castes (Harijans) and Tribes under the Constitution, the "Backward" caste politicians used their political
7

Page 10
authority to extend similar, and Sometimes larger, privileges to their caste following. A powerful caste lobby was thereby consolidated behind Charan Singh and hi5 IieLutcrants.
The break-up of the Congress party into several factions based On caste and the break down of the Congress monopoly of state power Were principally the product of this process. Indira. Gandhi's declaration of an Energency in 1975 and the establish ment of her short-lived dictatorship Constituted an attempt to circumwent this process and re-organise the Congress party as a well-knit instrument under the discipline of a party bureaucracy that derived its authority exclusively from herself as sole leader. Unfortunately, this was not compatible with the institution of parliamentary democracy, especially with the election of a Lok Sabha and State legislatures by universal Wote. The General Election of | 9WW released once morte a || E. He antagonistic forces with in the Congress party and cutside that had been driven underground under the Emergency and dealt a severe blow to the re-organised Congress Party its elf.
The Janata party that came to power in 1977 was nothing more than a hasty piecing together of diverse, ill-fitting and even mutually antagonistic political groups on the assumption that the opportunistic self-interest of professional politiclans would provide an adequate cement for the purpose. Just as it had been in the Congress party, however, in the Janata party too, the angular personality of Charan Singh proved impossible to contain. Representative of too narrow an interest to propel him into leadership of the party, he was at the same time too powerful to be relegated to second or third Place. With his noncooperation and, then, his revolt against the Prime Minister and
the Party President, the entire structure of Janata came apart and the Government collapsed.
The way was opened once more for somebody with the necessary credentials who would be audacious enough to seize the reins of pOYET.
B
The question Whether this seli cāF Ee Fächliewed elections that are shortly after this in print. There that a personality Indian political at background and qui of an authoritaria fill the vacanty pi shar bles of India system. This per: Garldիl. She do: to hide her perc task and of hi. She has openly p |n dira and Save it her main campaig has the un qualifi the monopoly bou bid for power. La Carlt 55-tog of (U) and ewen Janat to the Congress weeks. In Andhr instance, the Cong in the Legislative had 73 members has 230 members of 236; and acc Congress (II) Chief Chenna Reddy, " Corming!" This, pe why Indira Gandhi to be a candid Constituencies, ore the other in Af Though UJ. P. ha bloc of MP5 || t the Possibility Is can Win a majori Salt5 || Andra F
Whether Irndir: 52ize the reins of parliament depend of caste forces is under her wing. the Brah is and Banias supported H the Muslims and and the Scheduled the Janata Party a a folloʻwIng amo Cas E25, thia Fisks to t. Sangh wiring with Harijans, numberin hawe the only cha had or are over
of providing a P
from their ranks, Janata Party whi Jagjivan Ram thei
for the 80 || Fic

that arises is Hra of power through the to taki Place article appears Carl Be no doubt exists in tha rena with the alties de Tarded ruler who can roduced by the 's parliamentary onality is Indira not attempt :eption of her ir opportunity. roclaime "Cal || he Country' as 1 slogan. She ed backing of rgeoisie in this rga and signifithe Congress a hawe desertad (II) in recent a Pradesh, for ress (1): рагty Assembly, which originally, now out of a House Jrding to the Minister, Dr. they are sti II rhaps, explains, las decidad a te from two U. P. and dhra Pradesh. is the largest hel Lok Saba, real that she y of the 42 radicī.
| Gaidh ca
power through 5 - I thit bliothe can bring In the past, Rajputs and ter, along with the Harijans Tribes. Today lso commands ng the upper he strong Jan Te .ם | חiך וIIIiorוח g B5 nce they eyer ikely to have 'rime Minister through the Eh hä5 m5d5 dr. As “15 im5, wi|
the reconciliation with CFD leader Bahuguna and the Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid suffice to dispel the bitter memories of persecution under the Emergency?
It is basically a caste struggle that is being waged through these elections. All participant organisations and individuals are aware of this. For this reason it is unlikely that each caste will rally wholly behind a single party or individual. Local factors, the alignments and antagonisms between different castes peculiar to Cor15 tituencies and d'Istricts are likely to be decisive in many
places. It is difficult to predict the outcome in such a struggle. What seems very probable is that a II four main contenders will have substantial support: Congress (II) and Jana ta on a countrywide scale; Lok Dal in
Haryartha, J. P. and Bihar; and Congress (U) in Karnataka and, Maharash tra Primarily.
In this scramble for power, Indira Gandhis will probably have the advantage of the backing of monopoly capital and of those sections of the people allower the country who think in larger terms than caste and language, but are not radical enough in their thinking to support the Marxist parties. As against this, it must b2 remembered that Indira Gandhi hasi, in the past, always commanded the support of the pra-Moscow Communist Party of India, whose influence ha 5 fie Wert been in considerable. At these elecLions, she appears benefit of Left-wing support and, it should be said, without LeftWing pretensions. Indira Gandhi's new rage is that of the Iron Lady an Indian version of Maggie Thatcher, promis ing to save the country from char la tans and discontents. How much more voter appeal will such an image
hawe in the disillusionment and drought-wrought mood of selfpity that appears to grip India
today?
|fr|''

Page 11
defended
In the 21st of Dette TEET we celebrated the centenary -F the birth of one of the greatest figures of modern times - Joseph Stalin, the man who succeeded Lenin and who headed the Soviet State and Party for nearly 30 ears. An outstanding MarxistLeninst and close friend and disciple of the great Lenin, Stalin's E Te Will, for all times, be assolated with the Bolshevik Party which he helped to found, under the leadership of Lenin, and which successfully carried out the great Cobert Rewolution. He was the man who carried out the building of Socialism in the first Soviet State, the Soviet Union, and, thereafter, successfully defended it Egainst the most furious barbarit
tack from Hitler fascism.
Perhaps, no politician in recent Times has been so grossly malinged and unfairly attacked from the right (Imperialists and all reactionaries) and the so-called left
Trotskyite and social democrats) Es Stalin has been. This brief =rticle will try to ans Wer some
of these slanders because a proper assessment of the life and Work of Stalin is essential for our fight against modern revisionism and Trotskyism, the two most counter-revolutionary trends in the Working class movement today.
The most current slander against Stalin is that he was an upstart and had usurped the rightful place of Lenin's successor which belonged to Trotsky. This wlew is based mostly on ignorance of the history of the Bolshevik Party. Trotskyites conviently forgot that Trotsky joinned the Bolshevik Party, the orgaFiliser of the COctober Reyolution, only two months before it ha Ppened, while Stalin was a founder member of the Bolshevik Party End had been elected, along with LETITI, ED I ES Central Committe at the Prague conference held in 1912, when the Bolsheviks sepa2. Eed themselves as a party from the Mensheviks. Tha sama Con
Stalin: The man wh
socialism
ference set up ; called the Russi central committ direct the rewo Side Ru55ia. Sta head of this E. year Was to together all antigroups in what
the August Bloc
Stain's role ir
AF Fa Fb Whom Stäli ha Siberia and s famous April Th ed to the Polit party at the co May 7th to 12t also elected or secretaries of пmitteе апd app the editors of paper Pravda, to go undergro Finland to evad Stan o dire of the Congres: Party held in which took the pare for cortir cidently, it was c that Trotsky W member of the aftar he had Ti views. The pго; Stalin, with the
T"|1e histor"|-- central committ wik Party that the armed Lu pri October. Oth secretly arrived
Die W.H. ing of the { which took pla elected a party Stalin, to direct |E. Wä5 Stalin played a role : of Lenin during C-tober Revo why, when Len 5 u I t of a b LI I | Le elected general party in 1922
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

ho built and
1 practical centre, in Bureau of the ee, in order to utionary work inin was appointed Fu Te 532 Trotsky gather Leninst forces and came to El called
tha Rewolution
ruary revolution. d returngd fror upported Lenin's sis, he was electcal Bureau of the farence held from
h, 1917. He was 1g of the three ha Centrā Can
ointed as one of the party News
When Lenin had und and flee to rest, it Was
icted the activities of the Bolshevik August 1917 and decision to pre: ig revolution. Ininly at this Congress as admitted as a : Bolshevik Party Ecated his earlier osal was madeby approval of Lenin.
meeting of the ge of the Bolshedecided to launch sing took place on 1917. Lenin had in Petrograd on The enlarged meetIt collittee Ce of October" | 6th centre, headed by the uprising. Thus mot Trotsky Who second only to that and prior to the ution. That was III fel ill 15 a Tgt wound, Stalin Wils secretary of the - during the life
by N. Sanmugathasan
time of Lenin, That
was also why, despite certain post-dated criticism of Stalin by Lenin, he
was again elected, with only Trotsky's dissenting vote, to that post at the first Congress held after Lien in'5 death.
After Lenin's death, Trotsky feuded with Stalin exactly as he had earlier do a With Le II. There are some bourgeoisie and Trotskyi te writers who hawe fostered the story that Star in was an absolute bureaucrat and despot who did not afford Trotsky a fair chance to debate inside the Bolshevik Party. This is completely false. There has never been any instance in the history of the international communist movement where a leader, who had so much power in his hand, nevertheless, Showed so mIch patience ta his opponent as Stalin did to Trotsky.
The discussion5 Want om en dlessly for years in the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International. Repeatedly, Trotsky was defeated. The final crushing blow fell when, just preceding the 5th congress of the Bolshevik Party in October 1927, a referendum of the whole party was taken to ascertain each member's individual stand. 724,000 members Woted for the policy of the Central Committees headed by Stalin. 4000 or less tham one per Cent woted for the bloc of Trotskyites and Zinowites.
Since Trotsky refused up his anti-party and anti-state activities, he was finally exiled from the Soviet Union. His activities in exile, how he was received in the capitalist countries like a visiting potentate; how he became the centre of International anti-Soviet activity; who spent large sums of money for his grandiose activities: how he settled down finally in Mexico in a heavily guarded fortress and was murdered by his female scretary's lower in a fit of jealousy - all that is another S ICTY,
to giwa

Page 12
The ideological debate
Let us now, consider briefly the Ideolegical conflict that raged between the Bolshevik Party, headed by Stalin, and Trotsky. This Centred malny around Trotsky's concept of Permanent Revolution which Lenin designated as "absurdly left", and was summed up by its formulator in the following words, "The complete victory in the revolution in Russia is inconceivable Citherwise tham In the form of the dictatorship of the poletariat, which will in escapably place on the order of the day not only democratic but also socialist tasks, will at the same time provide a mighty impulse to the International Socialist revolution. Only the Victory of the poletariat in the West will shield Russia from bourgeois restoration and se Cure for het the possibility of bringing the Socialist construction to its conclusion."
Trotsky had no faith in the peasantry and 5' it a 5 a 1 al tiworking class force. Therefore, according to him the Russian Pro|eta Tial reyol Luticom, is coliited froIII the peasantry which formed the majority of the population of Russia, could only succeed if it obtained the support of the proletariat of other countries of the World i.e. if the world revolution came about.
But what was to happen if the World revolution was fated to arve with some delay? According to Trotsky, there was then no hope for the Ru55iarı Re WolLu tion. Bu L. Lenin saw in the poor peasants of Russia, who for led the overwhelming section of peasantry, a firm ally of the poletariat. According to his wiew, the dictatorship of proletariat, based on the alliance between the proletariat and the toiling masses of the peasantry
(Corri'r Lled a'r Page 3)
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-

Page 13
he election manifesto of the United Front, which came to power in 1970, included promises
to repeal repressive legislation and to reorganise the armed services and police 'so as to
identify them with the national and progressive aspirations of the people and to reflect their inte Tets." In fact, tha UF Government"5" terii w III b 2 TeIIETiberd as One In which amergency rule came to be regarded Invoked three "חחח כוח בווחם 5 ב veegs before the insurrection of
Аргil 1971, the emergency was not only sustained till a few months before the General Election of || 977 but ya 5 also used for a variety of purposes which had nothing to do with
the circumstances which provoked Es declaration. As for the teorganisation of the armed services and police, this did take place - but in the direttol of the Gosiderable en largement of their powers over the lives and liberties of the citizen.
For over one year after the п5 шгrectlоп there were | 6,000 people in detention. Throughout the period of the 1971-77 emer. gency, regulations suspending the normal limitations on keeping persons in police custody in effect permitted the police to keep arrested persons in police stations indefinitely. Further, special legislation - the Criminal Justice Commission Act and the Exchange Control (Amendment) Att — made It possible to de ta in supects in places outside prisons and under conditions where the MIDT Tial safeguar d5 aga inst illTeatret, hai Tri 55 el tot toTture Provided by the prison rules did . חובםםם חם וח
The Criminal Justice Corristions Act and the Exchange
Control (Amendment) Act were repealed by the UNP Governen efter the 577. General
Os Human Right
Election, As t however, the suspects in pl; regular prisons : tio [15 de tormirhoc Ing authority F again into the l Anti-Terrorist back-tracking ha respect of the provisions of the Corrissions Act sions to police II e Widelice. T Act not only provision but imposing deterr tio (F. 5. LH : a trial. Wert nly empoweredס to ignore the act on the or under the Anti. person who wit SCA teleslt vi|| Open to a chi Without any nee
DIE TE W5
Emergency r. the 1971-77 Strikes I ir "eE illegal. These I With the emet no W b c e rĝ 5 to book in anothe the ES52 tia P
Press censors | 97 || W.5 miniai Crisig of tHh: used to restric reporting of ni Un com lected W| causes of the emergency. Dire of the press car -ower of the L: in 1973 and the of Independent through the u: powers. The la ble to function erld of the EIT1=1 control of the only sustained b after the change
 

s: advances and retreats
he decade ends. o Wert to de ta II aces other then
ind under Conds
by the detain
as been Written law - through the Act. A similar
is taken place in widely criticised : Criminal Justice making confesofficers admissible he Anti-Torrorist includes a similar goes further in el 5 0 TEC. El onfessions during the CJC AE the Commission contradiction and ginal confession, -Terrorist Act a hdraws his original ipso facto be arge of perjury, |d to pro We which
L.
egulations during mergency made i 53m tia || 5 er wice" estrictions ended gency, bu C ha w 2 red to the statute *r form through blic Services Act.
חsed iסImp קוh ned|orig after the in SLIrrection and El criticii ad
EW5 DT ITHELE"
th the original declaration of CE State contro Te with the take aka House Press enforcoid closure Newspapers Ltd. se of emergency LEEQT groLI PI Was again with the gency, but State PT2SS "WW25 I CIL Uit also extended 2 of government
by a Special Correspondent
with the take-ower of the Times grou P in 1977. Press censorship has accompanied the declaration of the state of emergency in the Jaffa distre-E I 1979.
The Interpretation (Amendment)
Act, passed in 1972, took away from the citizen several legal remedies against the arbitrary
exercise of authority by Ministers and officials, and continues to Eye on thg Sta ELI Lg book.
Both th || 972 ad thig Constitutions contained chapters on fundamental rights. The Statee in the l972. Con 5 titLEio left out certain important rights recognised by UN Cowenants (e. g. freedom from torture and cruel, in human and degrading punishment), Permitted the limitation of all rights on grounds such as public security and Welfare, and made it possible to enact legisla
978.
tion contrary to funda mental rights by a two-thirds majority of Parliament. The 1978 Constill
tution included some rights that had not been recognised in 1972
(e. g. torture and cruel, in human and degrading punishment were ou tlawed, but this Was mac Eo
apply to existing forms of punishment). The 1978 Constitution also provided for recourse to the Supreme Court to obtain redress against infring ment of the rights stated. However, the 1978 Constitition also legalised limitations on many rights which were in excess of those limitations legitimised by the International Cowenant on Civil and Political Rights, and it also gawe Parliament the power to oyerride most fundamental rights by a two-thirds majority. As the decade ends, Sri Lanka remains one of the lenber-states of the United Nations which has not signed Ehe two Covenants relation to human rights - the International Covenant an Económic, Social and Cultura | Right 5 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Page 14
The Sevent les flutter to the ground Not Withered, torn.
Тогп Ieaүes, torп пеwspapeг5 The leaves green, the headlines blood spottered.
The green leaves of '71 Tender as the glades that had known only shot guns Ripped suddenly by automatic fire, Branches tossed by the raspi ng wind of helicopters Spotlights searching like the eyes of death in
ոight Those helicopters, were they the same toys, That recent boyhood craved hopeless on city povements.
May '70 saw thern Planting red banners in Independence Square Red for the years of struggle and despair Валлегs flying - In the light of Tercury lamps In the light of gram sellers kerosene flares Eyes flickering with hunger and hope
In May '70, in that Square While they waited for well known voices To articulate their own triumph You gave them amplified local pop Instead of the International, Do not be ther, Do пot say, Why did they superimpose The sharp outlines of ascetic faces Lenn, Star. Ho-1-Mir Or your smug parlimentary masks.
KANTHA
Sri Lanka's first journal
Includes articles on exploitation of women, Women in the Free Trade Zor
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WENTIES
They were tired of election speeches But all you gawe them, Was the same jargon once again, |Vinsensitive you went on and Qrı.
These youngsters they had known so Тапу сплis
Fail in the darkness of their lives.
The sick did not revive to the Sutras, Nor to the desperate incantations of a more remote
Post So di sillusion was in herent
In their response to your slogans and chants, They sensed the tongue in your chick, They sa w soon enough You did not Want them around
WhІІe you made yошr smшg Parlimentary decisions Taking over their revolution
With C.T. B buses and massed alcoholic pard des
on City streets.
More fearful than the guilt Of the blood of those who helped yoLI Was their rejection, these edger Youngsters, You killed them, when you turned them down
In favour of contact men, band Wagon muddles And the suave brown sahibs
WIIo furtively pulled out their Union Jack kes When the tide turned in '77
Burying towards the end of the decade, the living The same Way In the beginn ing The decade buried it's dead.
U.K.
, HANDA for women's emancipation. myths about women,
sexism in advertising, le, Women and the media etc
ops and by post frong
Road, Colombo 5, dIng pQ5 tage, Sinhala and Tam III;
cluding postage

Page 15
03) UNP
the 1970s Sri Lanka ha 5 probably seen more changes than in any decade since independence was achieved in 1948. The decade began with a rout of the UNP in the election of May 1970 and the decade ends with the UNP more powerful than ever before. The story of the 70s is how this came about
When one recalls public reaction to the defeat of the UNP in 1970, there are very few who believed that the UNP will ever hold political power again or even remain as a viable political party. The election of 1970 also represents the high water mark of the combination of all anti-UNP forces. Newer Werte anti-UNP forces stronger than in the early years of this decade. This election also represents, perhaps the las telection in Sri Lanka, where simple slogans, fine concepts, accepted old theories were thought of being capable of delivering the goods to the electorate. Thus it was thought that the adoption of socialism and the election of a professedly socialist Government would produce mass satisfaction rapidly.
Ten years later the scene is very different. The UNP is no longer a party without a future; rather it is the party with the future-electoral consensus portrays that. The anti-UNP parties on the other hand are hopelessly disunited and even worse utterly discredited. The electorate too has changed. No longer do mere slogans satisfy. Concepts such as the "class struggle", "dictatorship
of the proletariat". "socialist democracy", "democratic Socialism', are no longer the most
Important things in the minds of the a lectorite. The wital 155. Les
62SU |
political c
to them are-hc how ate incon are more goods how are more
An öwerwiew necessarily rewi factors:- (a) How did ch (b) How did th All-UNFP IF
(c) How did the The UNP's
mot ä5 bad ä5 victorious oppo
Wסם reסfar m S. W. R. D. Ban them. The def.
a crisis of Con Search ing with in in 1956.
After 1956 was brought b: and the more Was-reestiblishe were needed, n. were needed t the other har 970 created a
 
 

gence hange
and
by Lalith Athulathmudali, M. P.
w are jobs found?
nes raised how made available?
hou 5e 5 built?
Ճf the W05 2W these
L5 three
e UNP change?
e fortunes of the orces change?
electorate change?
O55 in 970 Wä5 in 1956; yet its ent of || 970) was erful than when
la ramai ke defeated at of 1970 created idence and soulthe UNP unknown
udley Senanayake :k to the Party traditional order 1. No new policies neW organisations
create it. On , the defeat of risis of leadership,
(Minister of Trade & Տhipping)
a soul-search nig in the attitude
towards the new Government and a dispute about goals and methods within the party. Those
years were marked by the un timely death of Dudley Senanayake and other stalwarts such as, M. D. Banda, I. M. R. A., Iriyagolla and W. A. Sugathadasa. This paved the way for the accession of J. R. Jayewardene to the Party leadership. Even his most uncharitable opponent must concede that he brought about a revolutionary change. He was quick to perceive that the UNP had the constant support of around 40% of the electorate but needed much more if it was to win. It had to change its image in theory and in practice, It had to stand on the side of the underprivileged, it had to provide answers to their problems. The reforms came one by one. The Party lost its reputation of being apart from the masses when it took to the streets to boycott the Lake House Group of Newspapers. Leadership and rank and file came closer together In their defiance of authoritarian rule by mass satyagrahas. The one rupee membership campaign not only changed the money sources of the Party but also helped to democratise its internal politics. The various quasi-fascist harrassments by the United Front Government of many members and Party leaders, where they had their property taken, their houses smashed, their jobs lost, their persons injured and the imprisonment of many of their leaders calculated to humiliate them; not only served to strengthen the resolve of the party and its
but also
member 5, served to bring the party closer to the people who were also suffering
in a similar way.
13

Page 16
A New policy and programme proposed by a Committee headed by R. Prema dasa was adopted. Youth leagues were reorganised, cases Were re-introduced and docETIT 25 Ware foi Tim Lulaced. To be an UN Per then was to wear the badge of sacrifice. No group wore that badge more stoutly thäm thơ UNP Trade Unions which, mirabile dictu, grew in strength and became a rallying point for Worker-discontent with the GovernTent. Young people with new ideas and the place for Therit Ebecame Tore corol in the UNP than any other Party. Family power and privileged-group power were aaaLLLLLLLa S S LaK S LLa L SLLLLL S LLLLLL these very monstrosities were being strengthened in the other Parties only served to consolidate the UNP. Some thought of it as a new Party, others that an old Party had learnt a new stance. It was no longer time worn but rather biding its time to set this country's course in a new direction. People flocked to the Party every day in ever increasing numbers. The disgusted, the frustrated and
rejected of other parties came too. But, many more came for more Worthwhile reasons. They
began to believe that the Party was their Party, that it gawe hope, that it had strong and clean leadership. In the popular mind the UNP often thought of as
being concerned with the few, came to be considered as the Party of the masses. The UNP
had built itself a new political base.
One cannot see a change in the UNP in isolation, one his to See it ini reli tior to the Tills fottures and Tills deeds of those opposed to it. It would be perhaps true to say that the most popular day of the Government of 1970 was the day it was elected. For every succeeding day saw a decline of its fortunes. Every day in office it made goods scarce, goods more dear, yet earnings hardly increased; opportuinities of employment declined, the country entered a period of inflation and stagnation. Everyday unemployment got worse. The rich became poor and the poor became poorer, except for the politically privileged who improved their lot. Socialism was being
|
preached eyer | but its practice proportion to thi
The JVP group the United Front no longer in syst Government in l' was expelled in Communist Party
ut || || 977. Worker's Gower Emergency Rule a to strike break Constitution such introduced in 97 of the life of Pa years to 1977, n. over of the lands Reform Laws, not E of the Press, not
icts of fa5 cism hel
It to de the divergence and practice. Th and especially the Be Carlsidered th Privileged few an Power only hel the hatred of the it. It did not ri teller to predi Nevertheless, as used to avoid it although unsucces
Tert Fict in the attitude In 1970 "socialis rtק סt tחםקa55ק Wäs Eglief thät th{1t} could literarily c required only a on to put right the in our Society. of 97 Ilarked of this approach But there were oth that a New Cor 5 it de ni ed fund devalued the jud poned elections, of its professio democracy, lead for the 155 es.
There were oth that the take property would necessarily transf Gowernment and t Was a belief that and fine slogan5 to prosperity, St. With it the infe

more vigorously WAG I IWTF a speeches.
rtedסקwho sup : In 1970 were pathy with the 97. The LSSP
1975 and էից
shuffled its way The so called ment lived by ind had to resort ng. No New as the one 2, no extensian liament by two teve the take by the Land Wen the muzzling even the various Ped the Governa nakedness of between theory Ee United Front SLFP came to e party of the d its abuse of oed to cem ceri:
people towards aquire a fortuno it its demise. trologers were he fateful day, sfully.
or is a change if the electorate. '' was a quick sperity. There ries and Concepts O Wonders. It e-day revolution major ine디uitie되 The Insurgency the high point to Government, 1er 5 who belia wed titution although
amental rights, iciary and postWould because
of Socials
to a bottor life
ers who believed w ser of pri wate immediately and riches to the he poor. There good thoughts paved the path Ich wieys ca TT iad rence that hard
work, good management and efficient organisation were not really important. One recalls that when the Land Reform Law was being implemented, there were many who expected to be given allotments out of land taken owet. Other 5 ble || eyed that wealth made under private control would flow into the Government coffers. All these hopes and assumption were belied Some tragically.
Even the land, when allotted, went to the politically privileged not to the needy. New forms of ownership without good manageTielt and dedicated work ed Eo great losses. As this kind of theoretical Socialism advanced, the sufferings of the people, almost always of the poor, increased sharply. The bitterness of this ex Perlence gawe rise to Tore realistic goals, more realistic methods and a demand by the electorate to turn slogans into practice. No longer would slogans satisfy the people; for to them having seen the pudding so often-the proof of the pudding was in its eating.
As this decade closes, there is great public understanding of the need for hard work, for less holidays, for punctuality, for the reduction of waste, for competition in trade, for having a house rather than a political manthram. The harsh experiences of the early part of the decade has enhanced the commitment to democracy. No longer can elections be postponed to suit the governing group. No longer can the judiciary be tampered with. No longer can the press be nuzzled. Freedom is to our electorate as important
as higher incomes, better jobs and more goods. As the UNP Manifesto says, "democracy and
socialism must go hand in hand. Democracy without socialism is a democracy of exploitation and socialism without democracy is a socialism of oppression." This the majority of the electorate Contin Les to endorse a5 We end this decade. The fruits of the new direction are already to be 5een, We believe What 5 se en today is only the tip of the iceberg and 9/10th of the good things that are to come wil surface in the 1980s.

Page 17
f one were to tray rise down
memory lane the plantation workers have trudged this past decade, one cannot fail to notice that these Were the most traumatic, tearful, and turbulent years of their chequered history. The birth of this decade also ushered in a new government for the country, which sought to use every weapon in its arsenal to wreak vengeance against innocent plantation workers, whom it thought had played a negative role at the hustings.
These years at least the first sowen in the sewenties Were years, when the plantation workers took a severe beating from the government as did the plantation economy and the national exchequer. From the time the government took office in 1970, it had unleashed an un paralleled reign of tyranny and terror, Even during the worst depressions the plantation people did not suffer as much as they did during these seven years.
The Land Reform law used to decimate larga and viable planta
LLLLLL S HLLL S LLLLLLaL S CLLLLLLL0L served on a platter to political pol troons as prizes. In this
thousands of plantation workers who were already state less, became jobless and homeless. Government and its members of parliament used every conceivable and inconceivable reasure to coerce the workers to leave their line rooms and flee the plantations. Thugs ruled the roost and hooligans had a field day. They entered the estates with impunity, in state owned vehicles, assaulted and mamed warker, looted thelr belongings, set fire to their
property and di rooms. The g
do nought abol
In the year experienced t shortage in livi
not by natural ments, but by ment. The mo։
were the plant: while having th by half had ev days cut back.
When there
lation in the 5. plantation wor offered six day: or paid wages then governmen of providing p workers by Tinimum numbe introduced legis to 108 days in
Unlike the y workers had ng culti wate ħ T5 ow as a Teşkil E, den|| multiplied du T WorkCrs had t
 
 

bour:
f Despair
by S. Thondamnan MP.
SLLLCCLS LTT TT TTtHLHHT LLLLLLLCCCCHuHHSS
amaged ther Ine ownert Would
it.
1973 this country T E YOTEt food 1g memory created di 535 E er or elleman-the governeffected people tion people who, 2 ir ration 5d 5hed 2n their working
was already legisEl Cute broks that ker 5, should be
Work in a Week
In lieu of the t under the guise otection to the {uaranteeing the r of working days
ation reducing it
six months.
ager, the estate
plot of land to in food crops and is from starvation ng this period. fight with dogs
Presler, Ceylor Forkers Congress.)
in towns to get what they could from the refuse bins to appease their hunger.
to Lull for Il Ca||Ed and people's
Even this was the government itself the 'Workers government". In places like Badulla, workers who came to the town to beg were bundled off in lorries and transported to the jungles of the Eastern Prowice and left to the tolder
mercies of nature and wild animals.
While our rulers wed in
isolated splendour, the World at large could not be shrouded off from the sordid situation that was prevailing in the plantations. The Granada Television from Britain spotlighted the appalling conditions of the plantation Workers. This nudged the conscience of the world especially that of the British and many organisations including "War on Want" took up the cause of the poor plantation workers. The gravamen of their complaint, was that the British estate owners. who have been earning millions of pounds over the years from the toll of the worker 5 had lot spent even a negligible percentage of their profits for the benefit of the Workers.
While the British housewife, wept at what she saw in her tea cup, as the blood of the withering workers, following this expose, those who ruled the destinies of the country felt otherwise, A leader, ironically, a leader of the working class, who was among those who got a beth in the Cabinet Caravan accused the Ceylon Workers Congress of having conspired
5

Page 18
With an international television network to discredit the country.
A British parliamentary team,
Fich is ited Sri Lanka o Personally verify the validity of the charges levelled by the
C. W. C., the Granada Television and the British Press against such Planting, multi-national giants like Brooke Bonds, Liptons and Carsons, after extensive investigations, recommended far reaching changes and urged that the British planting interests must plough back some of their monies еагпеd from here to improve the quality of || fe of the plantation Workers. If Was CO ser Watively estimated that it would cost around thousand million Po Lunds Eco effect initial improvements to living quarters of the Workers.
Shortly after this, I was in London myself and met the Secretary of Trade Mr. Peter
Shore, who wery candidly admitted that the British had a moral obligation to improve the quality of life of the plantation workers who hawe spent their whole || Ife enriching the economy of the country and Increasing the Pro
fits of their British Tasters. But this was not to materialise. British tea interests, were not
to spend one farthing to improve conditions here.
When the first phase of the Land Reform Law was implemented In 1972, estates were severely left alone as the government felt it i nadwisable to " national Ise them. However, when these developments took place and the British estate owners were being forced to plough back some of
ther Profits Into the tea gardens, the government offered to nationalise the estates and pay them compensation. They very readily accepted this offer, for this would not only save them from repatriating any of their Wealth to Sri Lanka but they stood to gain substantially by
Way of compensation.
Were nationalised and a new tribe of plantocrats took over. Many of them had neither seen a tea bush nor a rubbet tree in a II Lher Iiwers. The only qualification that was
The estates
insisted upon was be in the party ruling triumvirati
These men be estates like pe Utter disregard f legislation or cor nery. Even this generously with Very often groL when things see favour of the plar No right, no extended to the tiations. We we upon to draw from our quiver t and5. Cur stru case of working toric and protract the workers their precious pay. we could not get to See redson. W during the Work
gle by the the Labour, the late Siriyyardena, who
from Lula of compr Cabinet met and implementation of
Another struggl to Workers dur which will find annals of plantati the struggle for Wage. The en industry came to : Ceylon Estate. Em
tion sensing the the strike, start But the governm
at them enter in
ainם חmai ,5וWith L already appointed: to go into this
therefore any agr await the finding littee. At that Mimi i 5 tert of the also a labour leader that in no part were agricultural monthly wage,
There were Mir the C. W. C. an were nightmares ; tion workers anat them 2 we threat Të across the Pal it is they who hay Out of the Politic: OW Cectorates.

that they must Cadre of the
gan to rule the Ety kings with the industrial i ciliation machimachinery oiled political grease ind to a halt med to bę II tation Workers. privilege was 1 through negore always called the last arrow O Win our demggles, as in the hours ware hised. They cost any a day of
But otherwise, the government We were invited, Ing Hour strugni Ministe of Mr. M. P. da Z. Worked out a omise, but the prevented the that agreement.
e of the plantaing this decade a place in the in industry was the Monthly tire plantation Stām disti II. The Iployers Federaseriousness of ed negotiations. ent would not to an agreement ing that it had i sцb-committee question and 'eement had to of this Cotime another ther Cabinet, made a statement of the World workers paid a
listers to whom d its leadership and the polari talHera. Somme of ened to bounce k Straits. But e been bounced al arena by their
It was in this context that democracy faced a definite threat. Though the C. W. C. was not Folಳ್ತ°; then, the sagacious leader of the United National Party Mr. J. R. Jayewardene Invited us for all Opposition party meetings and we participated in the Satyagraha, organised through
out the Island Including the ono at Atta nagalla, the Constituency of Mrs Banda rara li ke, the ther
Prime Ministar.
When due to popular pressure, Parliament was di 55 collwed, another attempt was made to alter the composition of the voters in the up country electorates by shifting the plantation workers from their home estates. In the Nuwara Eliya-Maskeliya electorate, 7,000 a cres of e5 tata land was to be alienated and the workers displaced, Here again, the workers had to struggle to prevent this and in the process a worker in
the prime of youth fell to a policeman's bullet.
The 1977 general elections
were a turning point in the life of the plantation workers. For, it was in that election that after 30 years they were able to elect a representative from their own community; of their own choice. The mantle fell on my shoulders, thus removing an embargo cast on my community for political reasons, immediately after the country became independent.
This tide also began to sweep many other elements that stood in the way of plantation workers. In the framing of the new Constitution we were able to play a prominent role and obtain many rights entrenched, like the
afford ing of national status to Tamil language; the removal of the dubious distinction of dual
category of citizenship by descent and by registration, the right to correspond with the government in Tamil and get replies in the same language in any part of the Island; the right to li tigate In the language of the litigant and so on. For the first time the Constitution also took cognzance of the stateless category of persons to whom certain fundamental rights hawe been extended (Corriri Ered to Page 6

Page 19
Sri
of the 20th
he Seventies Century have seen three major
developments in Ceylon. The first of these and one pregnant with far-reach ing consequences for the future of the country is the emergence of the New Left and the first attempt at a violent owerch Tow of the established order with the object of installing a socialist economic system. What is even more significant about this rising is that it was against a Ulied Front Socialist Gower mment of which the two major Left parties of the country were component members that it took place. The cruelty of the armed forces in suppressing this revolt has left a bitter taste in the mouth and caused grawe disillusion ment among the younger generation. This has mada tha fu turc of the fragmented and bitterly antagonistic Left a big question mark. Perhaps the mounting hardships of the masses may galvanise these Warring groups into united action and thereby lead to the emergence of a new leadership for the entire socialist movement in the eighties.
The second development is the Un Ceremonial scrapping of the Soulbury Constitution with its built in checks and balances and safeguards for racial, religious Ha S LL0LHLHHLK S L HHCHLLLa0S aC British handed over power to the local bourgeoisie in 1948 under a replica of the Westminister Constitution. The safeguards for minorities, meagre and in affective
though they were, also were thrown overboard. The procedure followed in drafting and
adopting the new constitution in 1972 has set a Precedent for Political parties for including clauSes regarding constitutional changes in their election marfestos and proceeding to replace the cons
titution of the country if they Come LO Power. Judging by pronouncements by the leaders of
the S.L.F.P. on the present cons
Lanka
titution, the pri of 1978 пnay { se“ Es
Before I deal of the constitu 1972 on Tamilp. try it may be e the funda Tenta character of it government ush Jayewardene cor The centre of E shifted from par dent's House was overnight a parliamentaty Presidential Gow some of the wes tary tradition y is no doubt W of tie the Pres the supreme seat arent elected Representation party may have rity Prime Minis may change but go on for the f the Stick of di: סח esםcli הם חטliam |пе.
The third and
of wiew wità de unification of Ta ship and the su Tard for self-de; for the establish reign state of Tar Were earlie is bility of the Tai Ward i da Tand As early as 1924 A Tu chalam || || being let down Tari 53:t Tr. Tamil League ani possibility of th themselves in the G. G. Ponnambal the frustration a the deland for E tation and thes at the victory a manded the righ nation for the
 

in the
:SG It CÖnstitution ое опӀу опе іп а
with the impact tional change of J||t les in th15 courasier to refer to change in the he structure of ered in by the Istitution of 978. political power has "liament to Presjand the country transformed from democracy to a ernment. Though tiges of parlamenet linger on there "ith the passage dency will become of power. In a ParJnder Proportional where no single an absolute majoiters and cabinets the President will ull term, welding 5solution if parIt toe the desired
intסy pוח וחסfr velopment is the hi political leaderrfacing of the deETO n rent of a soveTm || Eelam. There is at the possiTmils, Pu Liting forof this nature. | Sir Ponnambali his bitterness at ower the Colomba ned the Ceylon di spoke of the e Tam ils ruling it homeland. Mr. חן 47ול | חI ווחa it te f. || LT OF Jalanced represenubsequent elation t the polls det of self-determials from the
1970’s
by A. Amirthalingum MP. (Leாவிer of the 0ரரsition)
Colonial rulers. Again. In 1956, reduced to tears at the betrayal by the Sinhalese leaders whom he had trusted and in a lood of Penitance for having brought his community to a sorry pass by his cooperation with those leaders, Mr. C. Suntharallingam demanded the right to separate the state, after the Sinhala only Act was passed. But separation was never accepted by the Tamil Tasses as the objective ti || the Se vertie 5.
On the eve of adoption of the Re Publican Constitution in May, 1972 a very significant development took Place among the Tamil political parties and leaders. On the 4th of May the Tamil United Front was formed at Trincomalee and leaders like Mr. S.J.W. Chelwanayakam, Mr. G. G. Ponnambalam, Mr. C. S.LIn thara lingam, Mr. S. Thordama ni and ewen Mr. K.W. Devanayagam of the U.N.P. got together to put forward the deII and for the inclusion of certain fundamental language and other rights in the Constitution. The callous disregard with which this six point demand was treated by the government led to Mr. Chelvanayakam resigning his seat in Parliament challenging the GovernTent to contest him and windicate its position that the Tamil people
7

Page 20
had accepted the constitution, The by-election was not held for two years and in the meantime other developments took placo Which accelerated the chango in Tam|| political thinking.
The Police and the Army in the Tam Il a reas started acting as an army of occupation. Frequent arrests of Tamil youth on the flimSiest ground and torture and Incarceration for long periods followed. Some youths arrested for distributing leaflets on the eve of Republic day were locked up for months without trial. These acts of violence by the Police culminated in the massacre of the Innocents at the International Association of Tani | Research Conferenca in Jaffna and nine people lost theit | i w e5 on the || Cath of Jal - urary 1974. These events also led to another development in Tamil politics. Some frustrated and e Ti bittered Tamil youth started resorting to violence against Tam || Politicians who were cooperating with the Regime and Policemen who were torturing and ki || ing their Colleagues. This was inspired partly by the example of the rising of the radical Sinhale se youth In 1971. In this background of harden ing Tamill opinion in the face of the government instransigence and violence and counter widence the Kankesantural by-election was held and in it almost spontaneously
arose the demand for the restoration of the lost sovereignty of the Tamil Nation. When Mr.
Chelvanayakam was elected by a preponderent majority he hailed it "as a mandate that the Ealan Tamil Nation should exercise the sovereignity already wested in the Tamill people and become free". The subsequent adoption of this as the policy of the Tamil United Front and the transformation of the United Front into a United Liberation Front was a latter of course. The trial at-bar of some members of the T.U.L.F. In 1976 only helped to further cement the unity among the Tamil people and strengthen their resolve to wIn their freedorn, The General Election in 1977 July demonstrated this resolwe in an un precedented Way. Of the 24 seats the T.U.L.F. contested on this ticket they won
18
eighteen and ol Tarim| electorates and Eastern Pr Te Eurned T.U.L.F. preponderent ma cial Violence le Tamil people in confirmed the W entertained and : division between in this sland W spirit though not
A hopeful and velopment in the the realisation by Bold Marxist : Lh2 Sinha lese thi : the oppressed T self-determination cognised and th of the "oppresse for their liberati 55 We cert supported by all Leninists in this fortunately the political parties any progress 1п th LJ.N.F. whigh hat "grievences of th in such fields a (2) Colonisation Language (4) Em public and semitions' as having In: 9 WECT A TO W2TT - IT state" has done olut a Solution. on the score of been agravated b tedly discriminato Cruitment. Tari granted by the not been impleme ems in Educator tion yet remain L. dan gling the carr lisation, the Goy: tinuing to use th gency and Army In the Jaffna Dis the North and E emergency. The which started in Tinated il mandat in the || 977 electi a peak in the co of August 1977 a Tergencies, arres killings of the I; hawe left the reas T || 12 LiCT to Es As to What the the Tamil people try is in the lap

the nineteen in the Norther
2Winces eighteen members with jorities. The ra
: loose om tha August 1977 only orst fears they showed that the the two nations "as complete in
in law.
hearten Ing delast two years is sections of the oadership among it the right of amil Nation to should be rehat the 5 truggle di Tamil Nation"
W5 ргозгеand had to be genuine Marxistcountry. But unmajor Sinhala hawa not made eir thinking. The identified the e Tamil people s (II), Education (3) Use of Tamil ployment. In the public Corporaide thern "support : for a separate noch ing to work The grievances yment haveסmplם y an Lun Precedenry policy of reLanguage rights טhaW חסLJtiם5tiחס; inted. The proband Coloni 5aInsc|wed. Whie tot of decentraIt is co2 stick of emerrule not only trict but all ower ast ewen without developments 972 and culle foir. Tarl II Ealam ions and reached Tirlunia | wioldence
d the tensions, ts, tor"CLu res, and st six months alwe of the Talfree un to Luched. eighters hold for and the counof fate.
Stalin . . .
(Ca7riirror7ed fra 77 Page ro)
could overthrow capitalism in Russia and build Social GT - even If the World revolution is fated to attiwe | te,
Reffering to this difference, Trot sky has written, "I accused Lenin of overestimating the independent role of the peasantry. Lenin accuted me of underestimating the revolutionary role of the peasantry." Lenin had envisaged this possibility as far back as 95 when he wrote, "Uneven economic and political development is an absolute law of capitalism. Hence the victory of Socialism is possible first in several or even in one Capitalist country'.
First, under Lenin, and then u nder Stalin, the Bolsheviks sot out to Con 5 truct Sociali51 In the
only country where revolution had been successfully defendad. In constructing Socialism in a single country surrounded by the sea of imperialism and capitalism, Stalin and the Bolsheviks did someth Ing that had newer been done before. THE TE WES TO example to go by: no experience to emulate. It was being done for the first time in history. The wonder is not that Stalin committed some mistakes, but that ha ELC-gedd 5 O WII I constructing Socialism in the Soviet Union, and, thereafter, defending it against Hitler fascism. Had he not done his job well, the history of the World would hawe been different, Fa5 cism could well hawe triumphed. He also cleared out a large number of counter-revoIutlonary representatives of the bourgeoisie who had sneaked into the Party, including Trotsky, Zino
view, Karmene W, Radek, Bukhar| and the like. Had he not done so, the gates would have been
opened for Hitler from within.

Page 21
A decade is certainly not a short period in the life of a nation and the seventies in my view, represented an important Etage in the evolution of Sri Lanka as a modern nation which, in many a field, broke away from the heritage of colonialism. Last four decades-thirties, forties, fifties, and the sixties-represented
vital stages in the political modernisation of the country and it was during this phase that
certain attempts were made to achieve an equally important economic advancement, These changes in the last four decades, in their cumulative effect, invited committment on the part of political leadership and it was Tanifested in the leaders who
guided the destines of the Sri Lankan nation in the early seventies led by the Sri Lanka
Freedom Party. The emergence of the political and social climate for the introduction of the changes of the early seventies was largely due to the national awaken ing and the social consciousness for which the SLFP mainly and the Left, provided leadership.
Changes in the seventies, though brought about a complete transformation of the political and social system of the island, need
to be confined to the areas where the impact was both national and international. One
can catalogue these changes broadly under the titles-political and economic. In my view, this decade witnessed the collapse of two Governments or the formation of two Governments, the April 1971 insurection, the farreaching constitutional changes culminating in the introduction of two Constitutions, Sri Lanka's dynamic role in the international field with the 5th summit which was held in Colombo and the important economic reforms introduced
With a wiew to nial stranglehold developed econor this brief essay importance of th Teforms and cha relevance in the of a creed of pe itself "Dharrista' context, one has the glaring effor of the present re the process of ei litical independer wg of the SLFP in the mid-fifties the sixties, and 5 namically in the mestically, the Pea: Government of changed drastically nassmen's Governm sew erities.
Since the Con GE. lopments of the have brought abou ble change in the s mant and th, 5 tra my wiew, has ero dence of the pen ten of Gowernme work of a Gover Constitution estaba without the popul the people - must the people and to incorporated into t must be able to confidence of the manipulation of : with the introduct ty of devises to s tages of the part) certainly not in t good government. ment of the C | 972 and || 9W8 TE vital stages in the lopment of the col Constitution, whic political and Soci generation of lead in the mass politi
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

door to tycoons
by Maitripala Senanayake, MP.
(Deputy Leader, Sri Laks Freeda Party)
reeing the Coloon our undery. The aim of
to examine the se far-reach ing ges and their present context tics which calls
In the same to probe into is on the part
gime to reverse onomic and por ce for Which aid the founda
maintained in :rengthened dy
Sewentieš, DCantry Workers mid seventies # Im to a BLI5i = ent at the late
itutional deyelate seventies t a Con51 deraltyle of Governnsformation, in ded the confiple in the syst. Any frame|ment - which a ishes with or ir consent of e acceptable to the institutions e Constitution command the masses. The Con 5 titution, on of a varieit the adwinin power, is le interest of The enactInstitutions of resented two political deventry; the 1972 incorporated ideas of a "5 whose roots s of the coun
} try, brought about of the 'honne Thade" to the focus. Though this brief article cannot be used to examino
בן חE
COP15 tİLLujo
Concept
the basic features of the 1972 Constitution, some of its characteristics need to be recounted
in retrospect inorder to elaborate
on the wiew that the 1978 Constitution was totally a political invention of a party in power
without associating the people in process of constitution-making.
The question of the mandate has been used to justify all types of undemocratic constitutional inventions - invented largely in the name of the need for continous political stability for economic development with foreign participation - and the visible defect in the process of constitution-making was largely the failure to subject it to a Constituent Assembly which our Government established in the early sa wenties. It debated all aspects of the draft Constitution and the opinion in the country was an opportunity to examine the pros and cons of the Constitution which we enacted in 1972. The 1978 Constitution, which interests people like Zia Ul Huq of Pakistan and seve

Page 22
ral leaders of similiar background, witnessed several stages before it suddenly took the shape of the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka; for instance, the Second Amendment inaugurated a powerful Presidency and the Select Committee, though it gawe the impresslo that the 1972, Constitution is being revised, gave birth to a completely new Constitution.
People of this country, in addtion to what is called a constitutional heresy which has been
imposed, have been asked to ac
cept some pieces of legislation which remained in the realm of ordinary law as a part and parcel of the new Constitution. In addition, all in support of the introduction of 5uch ās he Presdential Commission Law, Criminal Procedure (special provisions) Law, Tiger Law, Prevention of Terror
sm Act and the Essential Public Services Act "do not stand to reason, and they, in my view violate and go against the fundamental rights and basic freedoms about which the leaders of the present Government pontificate from their platforms. One must not hesitate to accept the fact that the State apparatus has been strengthened with these draconian laws in such a way that even genuine democratic opposition could be stifled. The leaders who opposed the enactment of laws to combat foreign exchange offences and the insurgency hawe now taken refuge in a series of laws which are more draconian than those they wanted repealed. Another feature of the constitutional system is proliferation of Ministries and Ministers, and this, along with the arrival of a new kind of appointed members of Parliament Who are accountable to a core of unknown party leaders (including the leadership which is more elite based), has bought the WHIC Go WeTime t i to Ti dicLule. This, in my view, was the greatest constitutional blunder which the late seventies witnessed in the narne "Dharmis ta' stability, and it is also the greatest cons
titutional achievement of the pre
sent (Goyermet. "What an ach
ievement in a country which has
O
had an acceptable tradition
1971 April Insul Impact on the poli life of the country Ignored because o of 97 cri5i5 and its aftermath. It lysed by various intellectuals from of wiew and I do indulge in a similar Government, which situātion had t: 3ttE2 1 [I|T1 tO 1 53" they, to a great exte programme of th and at the 51 TT1 e til
certain radical is Government. The plotted a revo
struggle road to in I97, hawe now method of rule-th road to power, a gical shift is the of the 5ewEntles,
Yet another sig the so wenties. Was Aligned Nations was held in Col. great international windication of the c policy and the played in the are ment in particular. of non-aligned
wital internatior the: || a5t two di the SLFF GSvarfl[] the important : making non-alignn to forula for t gent nations. Ot the Sewent les cur decision to hold in Colombo and of Other fator: the power which | || ke that of Sri I in the a Tena of The present day ing hard to fi parallels and : conferences an speeches with t identifying them of non-aligment. at temps to show policy postures o ties are deriving the standpoints acceptable in the la

parliamentary
gency and its tical and social | could not be * the magnitude
the affects of has been a Tapoliticians and different points
TOE WAT t tO
exercise. Our confronted this 5 divert CLIr
ties of acts, and nt, disrupted the |ę Government Ime it generated 1 with In the : youths, who lutionary-armed political power accepted our e parliamentary ld this ideologreatest paradox
mificant ewent in
the 5th NonSUT1ri it which orm bo 3 rn d this
event became a :ountry's foreign role Sri Lanka na of non-alignThe movement nations became |al force during a des and it Was ment which made :ontribution i 1ET다. 고II accephe newly emerJr. role during ninted in the the 5th Summit it, irrespective i, demonstrated a small nation lanka can wield global politics. rulers are strivld and locate " Tefero tio - Tioro
meetings and He 5 gle ilm of with the process
These feeble that the foreign f the late sevenInspiration from
which were Te fortie 5 and the
early fifties. Foreign policies should be partly if not totally guided by economic determinants and this aspect has been given very top priority and in the process the whole concept of non-alignment has been forgotten. This is certainly a dangerous trend which needs to be arrested in the eighties and we as representatives of the masses must be prepared to protect the name of Sri Lanka as a pioneer in the non-aligned movement.
Though the world inflationary trends and the constraints imposed by the energy crisis affected the economic development programme to which we gawe leadership ti || the mid-5 ewenti e5, It was our regime which laid the foundation for the transformation of the economy which hither to remained primarily colonial-oriented. The large number of structural changes, which came to be introduced during the period 1970-77 changes the economic map of Sri Lanka, and these very changes have now been reversed with a view to making them part and parcel of neocolonialism and the multi national economic imperialism. In the context of our dedicated programme for change, people faced hardships and they were utilised politically and under multi national investment colonialism people are
sure to face more hardships. Economic prosperity is now judged on the basis of the
availability of a great as sortment of imported luxury goods which the poor man does not need. The Land Reform Law, the nationalisation of company owned estates, the ceiling on the ownership of houses, the restructuring of the country's financial institutions and the establishment of Corporations such as the Gem Corporation and numerous such structures brought about a significant transformation in the nature of the economic organisation of the country. Some of these measures, though important in themselves as economic reforms of far-reaching significance, were not properly implemented due to both economic and political constraints-including those of the

Page 23
bureaucracy-interfered with the proper realisation of the objectives. In this context, it needs to be emphasised that our regime worked according to the programme for which we got the Tandate and It was not manipulated to su i t the interests of foreign buisness tycoons who now seek an oasis for very profitable foreign Investment. Our mandate was not for the purpose of investment colorlä||5m änd in the coming decade we need to lead the masses to fight this new enemy of ours-investment colonalism,
Tha River Walley Projects, which Constitute a for of economic transformation, Were given a new life in the early seventies and we laid the foundation on the basis of correct forecasts and ä55éSments for the Mahaye Development Programme, 'GREAT LEAP' of this Goyernment is the
Maha well Project and we hawe alredy expressed our views on this national venture Electoral
needs and politics guide the des. tinies of this project and thirty year Programme suddenly became a six year programme. The achievement of this great task will be the most important test of the eighties, and we need to Watch th i 5 becau'r 5e We are comitted to the welfare of the people of this Country. Parliamentary Complex at Kotte, Free Trade Zone and the Colombo Development. Programe are the major economic programmes, and they are not integrated into a development programme. Central Planning has now been given up and instead regional development Program mes in selected districts have been chosen. These programmes, if successful will introduce a Phenomen con lop si ded, and we cannot understand these techniques Which aro largely foreign organisiation 5 ori2m ted.
During our period of office, we always took enough care to improve the ancient systems of irrigation, which was part of our
agricultural heritage, and also took precautions to avoid any disruption of the rural setting,
Particularly of t and it was impose a 'bullthe traditional Lanka. The wi and the part decade hawe | develop a cor infra-structure f lopment projects can successfully the West and tries has been ut pose and the ind was implemente tion with the pri Wate soctor characteristics of were allowed to industries, apart substitution orie C2T TOT 3|| it became an in есапа mic develo.
".
The foreign tions and the ir We followed decades - though shortages - provi to the developm I cannot marrie tries which dew period. The li gram mes of the ment - the sa g policy - has alloy wasteful and us enter the count market theory of economic pundi brought the loca complete hält the Til to E3 : market forces a The foreign in, of the lagt gewel Coltitution 5
1978 Constitutio the multinational agencies of the ori Sri Lanka indi of investment Im aspect, along wit and cumulative authoritarian con Which we witnes two years, is Sri Lanka a բla rich - not the ord peasant who to and It is the Tan confidence and will fight in the

he PLF ra na willages, DE CLI" y "W" to dozer" culture on willages of Sri ole of this degade of the previous Jeen Utilised to) nparatively wiable or Industrial dewewhich Sri Lanka Sustain. Aid from he Socialist counilised for this plurustrial programme d in close associain CE 1 Live-Orle II LEindustries. The a mixed economy emerge and the from their import ntation, generated f employment and :: Li We for fu." բment.
Xchange restricimport policy which in the last two it. Created certain ded an incentive | ent of Industries. the many indussloped during this iberalisation proPresent Goweralled open door wed all kinds of eless products to "y, and this open pro-Government Es has wirtually industries to a and they expect active once the djust themselwe 5. restment policies ties — they hawe feguards in the 1 - hawe allowed ls - the exploiting World - to force 2 pendence a form eria is and this :h the combined effect of the stitutional trends ised in the last certail to a te for the wery inary worker and for his and in whom wa Hawe for whom we eighties.
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Page 24
he Sewenties will be remembered as the Talking Decade in Sinhala theatrical history, in contrast to the Sixties which formed a kind of Singing Decade. To look back on the Seventies is
to recall (and indeed to recoil from) a relentlessly thrusting verbal energy. Those who went on the stage - many did - talk
ed and talked; they talked to us, 3L LI5 (WST L15 --
What did they say? Well, not much, if one is honest about it. Yet the talk wasn't all sound and fury, either. It did signify a numder of things, and these I believa merit a second look.
What the torrent of words that engulfed the theatregoer in the Seventies collectively represented was, in the first place, a prolonged reaction to the musical idiom which had been dominating Sinhala theatre since the mid-Fifties. The reaction was wholly unfavourable: the resurgence of the speaking voice has to be construed as a sign of dissatisfaction with developments in the so-called stylised theatre - theatre which employs song and rhythmic gesture as integral ele
TLS
Owing to varied artistic and
sociological causes, the stylised theatre had failed to keep its many promises. Launched in the
first flush of a triumphant cultural nationalism, stylised theatre had originally given intimations of enormous possibilities. It was said, and many agreed, that stylised theatre had returned us to the true expressive sources of the art which were indigenous to our culture. It was further said that an authentic, uniquely identifiable modern theatre would ultimately em erge from this newly discovered artistic capital. New and old blending into the modern, etc., et.
22
s Theatre: t
These grand ( tion 5 di di not, ho into a substanti
ed art. True e works In the SE ficiently validat
potential of Song for Seriou 5 artis such works amo a mere handful; rity were imitat hardly advanced
of variety enter ower, a Nationa was not getting codified as expe ning. This fact
more apparent Father himself a gama which had tion of his two ret5.
Stylised theat in two basic d into an ambitio consciously "poe ing domain or light-weight enti tendencies not impression that COITETITS WETE pressing actuali existence, but : question as to form to gripple rated by conter political issues. reservations. Wer ging in the Cor belief that thea political uses - to be more int. ironie 5 and con Socio-economic evident, Rightly the beginning
becoming quite the modԸ Ճf 51
Did the5a s. stances induce alism in the S
might have exp wasn't the way
 
 

he talking decade
Ireams and predicWever, materialiZe il body of achievno Lugh, the best ylised form magnied the genuine music, and dance tic purposes. But In Lad to less than the great majoiwe exercises that beyond the status tainment. More| Theatrical Form established and cted in the beginbecame all the after the Founding andoned the nadabeen the founda
major achieve
re had travelled rections - either usly artful, selftic" inward glanc
towards folksy, rtainent, These
only created the stylised theatro's remote from the :ies of quotidian also raised a big the ability of the with themes genemporary social and Such doubts and e particularly damatext of a growing tre has important a belief that came 'ensely felt as the tradictions of the order became Tore or wrongly, by of the Seventies, ar II climate Was in hospitable to Cylisation.
ya Table circIITa flowering of reEW Enti, H5 TE ected? Sorry, that
It work Cid Cout.
by A. J. Gunewardene
To be sure, the thrust of the musical idiom was reversed, and reversed with a Wengeance. But what ensued was an orgy of word play. The mot (not afways bon) Carme to teign supreme,
The plays that tell us most about the state of the art in the Seventies are Rankanda, Subha Saha Yasa (both in un la mente abeyance) and Eka Adhipathi (stil alivé but beginn ing to Peter ou-) All three, phenomenally successful at the box office, suggest the flavour of the Seventies and indicate the different levels at which playmakers met the demands of a mixed and enlarging constituency.
Rankanda, the least preten tious of the three, was broad farce and music-hall comedy. Subha Saha Yasa aspired to 4 more elewated | gwell of di5. COLIri:59, but treated its presumptively Serious subject mattèr (political rewolu: tion viewed in the perspective of individual behaviour) in a grand theatrical manner where witty turn of phrase took precedence over analytical coherence. A third level - that of political satire - was crystallised in Eka Adhipathi, a piece of theatrical carpentry Which Cornbined the Wor 5 t fel tu tes of Rankanda and Subha Saha Yasa and thereby became an instant h it.
What these plays and their less successful in Itators offered. In abundant doses, was the salty Joke and the anaesthesia of the easy laugh. They excelled in what could be called "political quippery." The political arena always presents tempting targets for the verbal thrust; the Sewen ties were parti - cularly rich in this regard. And our play makers proved to be highly adept at this ga The, de 5p i Le (or perhaps because of) the violent political trauma of the age. Once in a while they achieved palpable
(Corff in Irrl of FIFo 7’)

Page 25
he 5e wenties We Te the de Čade in which Sri Lanka became, In terms of sheer quantity, one of the major film-producing countries of the world. The ready availability of finance for film-making was partly a result of the block
ing of many traditional avenues of investment under the United Front government and partly,
Perhaps, a means of legitim i sing black money. The boom in film production was also helped in the latter part of the decade by the State Film Cprporation's loan schemes and the expansion of cu ters for the screen ing of Sinhalla films with the drop In film nports. After the cutting-off of American films, prestigious cinemas in Colombo also became open for
the fin5t tre to Lhei tiona |
Product.
How far did these changes
have an impact on the growth
of the cinema in terms of qual IIty? If the boom in film-making
created the problem of the lengthening queue of films awaiting release - a problem
hat e Iain 5 L SOvod at the End of the decade - it also provided opportunities to a number of young film-makers to enter the industry. Dharmasena Pathiraja, Wasan tha Obey sekera, Wijaya Dharпasri and Sunil Ariyaratne belong to the new generation of direcLors Whose emergence Wa5 the major cinematic development of the decade, and if one is to take account of films completed and awai ting release one would hawe to add the mares of Dharmasiri Bandarana yake (Hansa Wilak) and Sanghadas a (Kanchana).
Political Tadicialisation was tha dominant trend in other arts during the period - notably in
theatre, fiction and poetry. The Cinema did not go so far, (though the idea of content was much promoted by younger critics), and could not have been expecLed to Under Conditions of Corn
Cinema: a hope
mercial produc censorship. Ho Cinema of th. show an extens of subject-matt å WTe255. Aha! barL Awith al broadeled thic cinema in respec ment of Clas: Duհulu Malak, romanticism, Tad the exploration relationships beyo moral taboos, W was a bold and h in focussing att previously forbid racial corf||C. TI original film – of the medium psychologlal deptil lak, has yet ti popular audienc brought to the i. cinema a critical and the position the North that both cinematically for the mags aude however, the pio which a serious tha future can Rekavа ріопеerec hala einema im th
Les tert Ja Tes Pe decade with Nid rtant fסקוחו stטוח terreletionships b sonal and social :
liya, and the
cine Tatic Tatlon career. In his ot dica de he tede di ectoria tale which was of too Ce, and his two
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

fu decade
on and tight wewer the best, seventies did in in the range r and social Gawwa, Barn|d Palangetiyo scope of the of the treatrelationships, in spite of its e a beginning in of extra-martial nd the traditional rhile Sarungale oest endawout ention on the den subject of he decade's most in its handling as we|| ā5 lits – Hansa Wito be seen by e5. Ponmani indigenous Tamil view of marriage of Women in as too advanced, and content-wise, nce. It remains, neering film on Tami|| cirilerima of build, just as the ne w Sina fifties.
ries opened the ahanaya - his |m, in It5 inetween the Perince Gamperamost assured of his entire her finns of the d to was te his is on material little significanexcursions into
by Reggie Siriwardena
historica film Show ed how Un Congenial this genre was to his own interests. At the end of the decade, audiences and critics await the completion of Beddegama in the hope that it will mark a re-discovery of the cinematic mode with which he enriched our cinema in the "fifties and 'sixties.
All In all, the "sewenties hawe been the most hopeful period of our cinema. Whether these hopes will survive, in the 'eighties, the challenge from commercialised TW, with its inevitable vulgarisation of audience tastes, and the movement of capital away from film-making to reopened fields of investment, is another matter. A great deal will depend on whether the State Film Corporation keeps the artistic development of cinema as steadily in mind as the motive of profit-making.
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교:

Page 26
The
his year opened up with the
revolution in Iran, in the middle of the year the Nicaraguan. Te WOlution expelled. Somoza and the year, has ended with an uneasy and uncertain truce in Rhodesia, While giant strides have been пасНЕ the future 15 still-uncertain. The masses of Iran are seething on the Streets, leader le 55 in and in danger of dissipating their magnificent achievements, thirsting for a Len in to give them resolute direction. In Nicaragua the complex interplay of post-revolutionary power politics, of mass ToE III sation till:55, dissension and imperialist manoeuvre continues, The revolution is still unfinished,
socialist transformation or new bourgeois democratic illusions, i.
that is the question". Rhodesia
is on a knife edge.
Our big neighbour India is in
revolutionary tur moil and parliamentary upheaval. The stupid sectarianism of the right-wing
Janatha party has paved the way for Indira's come back to power, One wonders to what extent the similar stupid sectarianism of the left-wing JWP and LSSP is playing into Sirima's hands!
Not only internationally; but also nationally, 1979 has been a year of significant gains complicated by continuing uncertainties. We will single out three area's for comment; the Trade Union sector, the 5-party campaign and the Tamil Peoples Struggle in the North and East.
The JCTUO has been expanded Laa SaaLaaL aaH LLLLLL LLLLLLLHHLaaH L S L L LLLLLLLLS SSSK L S a LaL SLLL LLLHaaLa United Federation of Labour - two Federations affiliated to our party. The JCTUC has finally agreed to summon a massive all trade union delegates, conference to map out a commonstrategy against the pro-imperialist out and out capitalist UNP "Good.
decac
But the ques leadership still tric The UNP govertir public servants 45 to 2 days pi tiTe | Tits are brought down. the lewe curbs to the corporat stictors. Throug JCTUO's princi slept. They have the matter to th committee.
The Price of ke food prices it are according to an by Our Party, class real wages a b Litome fauch 5 to power. What situation i i5 pro P and perspectives the traditional tr Hence 1980 opens task often bold squarly on the si de with thi5 for taking unit factory floor and
The United if our party has the last two ye: some partial suc The sheer press opinion and the among Party, Cad the CP, and JW LSSP on to a with us and 'th question of opp Terrorist Lawt the Emergency united action, placed before perspective of a and co-ordinate UNIP. I for Eo Prosts of I 25 Ota -tio
Galle and par h5 forced a ter The WP, seized
 

le's last year
॥
tion of militant Jubile 5 the JCTUJO. rent has slashed eye down from *r ännum. Over
to be severly It is certain that Wide extended 1оп апd private
gh all thls the al | eaders hawe merely allocated
is or that sectoral
rosene has tripled, : rocketing up, informal estimlte average working hawe declined by İnce the UNPCame is missing in this ilaganda, ag tatlon of struggle from ade unior leaders. with the urgent ing the leaders agen da. Side by arises the need y down to the workplace level.
ront tactic that been urging for irs has also had cesses this year. ire of Tlass left
state of revolt res finally forced P and even the וחplatfor חסוחוחס a RMP or the osing the AntiHie EP"5 Act and
in Jaffna. The priefly at least, the Tasses the
Common, Strong H Eck on the e5 We|| for future eft unity and
l'iamentary greed porary set back. by || || Luis lors of
by Vasudeva Nanayakkara
-
(Farrier MP, is President of NSSP)
grandeur and day-dreams of beating the SLFP all on their own boycotted united left discussions and our pleas for a single left candidate. Their grand illusions now lie shattered in ruins.
The LSSP followed suit, Perhaps at the instigation of the Ani I Moonesinghe wing which is hoping to make the question of a left alternative at Galle into a big joke so that it will lubricate the proposed alliance with the SLFP. The LSSP went so far as won to disrupt the United Left Front that they have had with the CP for the last 2 years.
The | e 55ong of 979 w III have to be learnt. If 980 is to build on these experiences. The UNP has entered a crucial phase. Its
anti-working class, anti-Peasant anti-middle class and openly pro-capitalist face has clearly come to the surface. Burdens on
the underprivileged, new opportunities for the rich. The Now camber 1979 Budget can be called the Company and Capitalist Speculator - Investors Budget. The UNP is barefaced about its capitalist policies.
However the picketing, the action of Tami i militants, the University strike, the spurning of the so-called petition to OPEC by the masses etc. all show how the mass mood is passing from dis illusion ment and grumbling to open expression of discontent. Events will move rapidly in the CGT ing year cor two. The per 5pective of a General Strike and a Hartal will open up before us sooner than we expect. The process will be accelerated by the world capitalist recession that has started in the USA and is spreading rapidly. Even the "best" bourgeois economists now predict a big world recession
CJ r r fries' Lyrir Pauge Éi)

Page 27
Prelude to conf
t is always difficult to telescope events of a decade into a single short article. A decade I ke the seven ties makes such an attempt a near impossibility. need no excuses therefore to look at the seventies, from a political position only- and that too, only to Point OLC One or two of the major trends of this somewhat tumultuous period.
It is un necessary to chronicle a diary of the events that occured in the seventies. The victory of the United Front in '70, the disillusionment of the masses with the government of the United Front; the uprising of 1971, its nature, and its causes and effects; the break up of the United Front, and the electoral victory of the U. N. P. in '77 hawe all been analysed in depth from differing points of view-making such an analysis here redundant.
Capitalist crisis
What were the main developments of the Sewenties. The presence of the crisis of capitalism and its effects on our country provided the backdrop for the most consistent feature of our politics in the sewenties. Tha sewenties Could be characto rised as a decade in which the bourgeoisie, confronted with the pressures of the crisis of capitalism, realised that they
could no longer afford the luxury of liberal democracy. It was a decade when the
democratic process was continuously under fire and when the country was pushed further and further along the path of authoritarianism towards dictatorial power.
An examination of the facts will show that this trend cut through party barriers and was common to the entire capitalist class of Sri Lanka. As a class they came to the realisation that there was no Way to reta In power for themselves, short of more and more authoritarian rule.
In spilte of an public sector we colonial economy capitalist lines. It mists described есопomy. Сопti had bought us rig of what Cheryl P; called "The Debt deva Lation15 carri behest of Internat the order of the was rising.
The new liri knocking at the d cultural and social for admission. T cated youth we frustrated and it hope. The rising causing havoc wi people.
We had an art left movement militant, highly Union moyement had wrested many the rulers. Whe began, we had fre medical ser wices, cheap transport complex, highly c of labour legislatio ted in a country population that e franchise.
Status quo
The bourgeoisi was divided into t the UNP and the S a Wested iterist tion of the Ca Although tradit had divided the the dilemma fac list class was co ED Oth. How I coL quo be preserve life be inject stagnant EC breaking up the CELe
These than were the bourgeoisie of 5eventies. Al ex

rontation
expansion of the : had a basically Managed along Was What econda 5 a 5 Eagnant nued borrowing it i to tha certe ayer, so succl nctly Trap". Repeated ed out at the ional capital were 2 day. Inflation
telligentsia was oors of political,
enclaves aspiring housands of edu-re unemployed, otally devoid of cost of living was th the iwe 5 of
culate and active together with a organised Trade Together they concessions from In the seventies education, free subsidised food, Sir Wils and a leveloped system 1. A this exis
With a literate njoyed uniwersal
of Sri Lanka
Wo major parties LFP bath having In the preservapitalist system. :io rhal riwa. Irie5 Tl into parties, ing the capitaImmon to the
ld the status ld HOW could ed into the Dmy without
capitalist stru
questions facing 5 Lā kā In the amination of the
by Sarath Muttetuwegama
Period shows that politically, they began to curtail democracy and started to move towards dictatorship. This was the chief feature of the sewe mitīgs when the bourgeoisie began to rationalise the celebrated remark that "a little bit of totalitarianism is not a bad thing."
Economically, bourgeois politicians and economists decided the only way to regenerate our economy was foreign investment on a massive scale. Foreign investment meant that a necessary climate to attract it had to be provided. The Proposal for a foreign Investrent law in 1975 and the Free Trade Zone proposal of '77 showed that both major parties thought along identical Iines and the difference, if any, was in emphasis.
Foreign capital
The foreign investor, is however, a cagey person. Sri Lanka, with a politically mature mass movement, an organised and militant trade union movement, and an ever growing and Socially responsible intellige F1 Esia, Was not an in Witing prospect to in Westors.
The principal political trend of the seventies - the move towards authoritarianism was largely due to the bourgeois preoccupation with foreign investment. True that different events were made the excuse for this or that antidemocratic action. True also that different personalities were in control when one or the other authoritarian measure was adop
ted, but the pattern was clear and con til Louis.
The events of "7 were used
to justify some of the curbs that were imposed. An emergency was extensively used. The Trad Unions were cadjoled or curbed into inactivity, Intellectuals - specially the organised student movement was da alt with harshly. Goondas Were used to beat up picketing workers. Demonstrations were banned. This was the 5e WC2. In Li:5.

Page 28
TF1 e de Cade'5 . . .
Carried frary Page 7)
in 1980. The impact of the political crisis of imperialism (Iran, the Middle East, Sout East Asia) also remains a formidable factor. To measure up to these tasks however the left must learn to
act unitedly and militantly. Let us hope that 1980 consolidates the positive side of 1979's ach i Yelm ErtlS.
Events in the North hawe moved with great speed. JR showed his wipers fangs in the way in which he imposed an emergency in Jaffna. Repression, torture and murder have been committed in the name of, and by the guardians of, the law.
The TULF has kept silent through
all this, except perhaps for muted protests into JR's confidential ear, and has continued
to negotiate shamelessly with the oppressors of the Tamil people. In fact the TULF is quite happy about the taming of the youth. While we do not agree with methods of individual terroris T1, nevertheless complicity with organs of repression is really a shame.
The Mowellent for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality, of which our party is a constituent founder TCITHEr ård a Committed Activist, has shown great courage in the face of UNP and military-police oppression of the Tamil people. MIRE alone has body come Out and done something about the violation of human rights and democratic rights in the North. BFäực MIRIE!
The present negotiations between the UNP and the TULF opport LILInist5 may produce Some kind of a new arrangement which includes concessions to the Tamils. In this case we can expect various Sinhalla chatu Winist5 (including Sect|15, of thig, SLFP and the JNP like Cyril Mathew) to go all Out on an anti-Tami campaign. We will resolutely repulse this campaign and protect the concessions however meagre they may be.
However we know that wery Soon deep disillusion ment and dissatisfaction with the TULF will set in among the Tamil people
T.É.
and the Tamil you UN PITULF coali be a concealed (if or rin is tra tiwe no way solve th problems. The
Tamil militats
and our party. ' unit and work
lutionaries agains i L5, Tami || alies t
Our party h; Marxist position Question. Ewiëri from the old LS the early 1970's, by the right of to Self-determin; rate state if t HC Weyer w hi: t ab dicatון סוון טווח duty of explain them the short errors of seces 5 all times placed Marxist T and struggle the TULF or oth bourgeois progral i 5 that we ha WE deп се оf a con of Tamil opinio! Promis ing year North. We our party stren, ship several fol:
Lot 1980 be United. Front. of workers, pe: and middle cas front or a figh THE YEAR and 5DTE left lived up to it g-tā“ ill 51 WL
at |Bast will be MATURITY,
Estate Labo
(Carrier
fort Eleri ya 5 hopefully the 5. lowed for all t
Ar a Ted men duced to the Lo Ordinance whi obnoxious caust estate workers Local Body elec did so in EE elections. The

th especially. A tion, even if it idirect) coalition
aliance, Can in e Tamil peoples
radicalisation of
will accelerate will be there to with Tamil revot the UNP and
:0Č.
is taken a clear on the National before we split SP, in fact from we firmly stood the Tamil people ation and a sepa
they so wished. ye new er for al ed our Marxist
ing patiently to -sightedness and ion. We hawe at before them a m for real unity m Contra St With her radical pettyIlmas, The result : won the confisiderable section 1980 is a lost for Luis in the ope to multip!у gth and member
.
the year of the Te Le fot sants, minorities ges. The United it with J.R. 1979 OF THE CHILD parties certainly by their infantile
hope that 1980 "THE YEAR OF
. . .
front Page f5)
by which time,
tigma will be reITE.
it was also introa Bodies Election חd aםwם וחh re= that prevented participating In tions, even if they rall parliamentary Immediate impact
of this change could be felt from the fact that an estate worker, S. Raju was elected Vice Chairman of a premier local body-the Hatton - Dickoya Urban Council. Another nominee of the C. W. C. has been returned to the Talawakelle - Lindula Urban Council. This is the first time that the C. W. C. has fielded candidates for local body elections, the reactions have been more than encouraging.
Another watershed was the invitation extended to me by the President to join his Cabinet. The Executive Council of the C. W. C., which met to consider this Invitation viewed this as a singular honour, and a concrete step in bringing the plantation worker into the mainstream of national life. This has helped to bring us closer to the rest of the people of the country as never beforg and ha5 ha ste ned the process of integration.
The present government and the President have been very responsive to our problems,
succinctly summed up the position
of his government towards the plantation people, when he addressed the 26th Convention of the C. W. C. in Badula in March 1979. Said Mr. Jayewardene "You are no more aliens in a strange land. You are one of us. We want you also to share fruits of freedom. We want your girls and boys to
become lawyers, engineers professionals, professors, doctors and accouri tarts and not to Temain as workers'. For the first time the plantation workers have been treated on a equal footing with the rest of the working population in this country in the matter of wage rises. Recently when the government decided to increase the wages of workers by Rs. 55/- a month, this right was extended to the plantation workers as well.
Despair and despondency have
given way te confidence and certitude. We hawe no doubt that this trend Will Continue
and soon the C5 ta te worke w|||||| be able to achieve the fulness of life as the rest of the cornmunit les in this I country.

Page 29
Peradeniya’s
hile the blue-eyed disciple
of Peradeniya's halcyon days, Prof. Wimal Dissanayake has beaten his delicate wings in the direction of Hawaii, the high priest, Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra has returned from that exotic academic haven full of gloomy thoughts about TW, Tower Hall and the intellectual. charlatanism. The "brain drain," it would appear, is not entirely in a Westerly direction.
One detects a peculiar symbiosis in Prof. Sarachchandra's current thinking. Unlike bette noire, Dr. GUnadasa, Amara sektera, Sarachchandra has not entirely lost faith in the Sinhala-speaking younger-generation. After a they still come to see his "Manane" ""Sinha bahu". But being the high priest he feels obliged to defend the Peradeniya literature which was so fiercely attacked by this same ỵ Cung in the s}xtles.
Their rejection of the Peradeniya way of thinking Prof. Sarachchandra sees as an aberration peculiar to a younger generation besieged by economic problems. They wanted "revolution," he says, not literature. But literature is still the god to be worshipped. Revolution is only a god with clay feet.
April 1971 was certainly no revolution but how correct is Prof. Sarachchandra when he dismisses the thinking of the Sinhala-educated young as a mere aberration rooted in economic circumstances? Is it ever possible to go back in the name of intellectual dialogue to the rosy days of the fifties when a few precious spirits sat on the baks of the Mahawa II in ecstatic Communion with Lawrence, Schopen haur and the French lmagists?
Prof. Sarachchandra is correct when he says that today's youth are not culturally uprooted. If at all anything will alienate them it is the way of life emanating from what seems to be our latest spiritual motherland-Singapore-rather than "imported doctrinas of
vanished
revolution'' whic wrath of the pic once again how be to expect Sinhala audience relat סם (or not '"Wessantara' W chchandra is E. t
Prof. Sarach thik 5 it is; fu to the day
Hall d g also correct
plays like "Sinhab me" are qualitati the crude Tow But his partiality genre (which aft: the same as T. as far as the concerned) once dissonance with thinking of t theatre-goer anc
For Prof. Sara drama along with and Sir Gunas part of that id, which was explod conscious gm므r after. Bewild gro of the bubbie Prc can only Tutter a "economic probl Employment."
The radicalisati which manifesto 되Ewan대igs had m reflected in the a time when radi in however distor of the rima ingre the left parties Government. M.
ment bodies lik Affairs Departner raged a radical
the theatre, the being of course, th Festival of 97, W Election of 1977 its political morn yet not shown any away from the rad WE FE it5 -El To L. 5 W CT 5.

supremacies
| earn the rightous itical Right. But realistic will it he contemporary whether uprooted to a play like ich Prof. Saraanning to offer
chandra himself ile to go back of the Tower : right. It is hat his stylised ahul" and "Manarely far superior to ir Hall offerings. for the stylised :r all, is basically wye Hall drama rger audience is again shows his the taste and e contemporary | dramatist.
hchandra Stylised
Peradeniya fiction nghe's poetry 15 II of the fifti 25 ed by the sociallyition that came d by the pricking f. Sarachchandra bout ' rgya lution'' ens" and "un
Ճn of the young itself in the ecessarily to be heatre. This was cal thinking was, ted a form, part im with Lowe of
included in the reover Governle the Cultural
it actively encou
e flore5 Cerca il supreme example National Drama With the General the theatre lost antum but it has signs of turning cil walls which enets during the
by Arjuna
This is what Prof. Sarachchandra still finds it difficult to grasp. The radicalisation in the theatre (with all its attendant infirmities) was no aberration but the product of social forces with deeper-going roots. This same inability to grasp the current dominant values of the theatre is also evident in his recent review of "Pokuru Wossa" done more in terms of acting, techniques and make-up than in terms of the play's content.
What We 5ee here 15 an intellectual gulf between two generations. To Prof. Sarachchandra the Sinhala and Pali Scholar, pioneer of modern drama, aesthete and intellectual - a generation that does not worship the great tradition of the novel and the liberal Intelectual tradition is no Tnote than intellectual. But to the contempoгагу — сut away from the liberal tradition by their monolingual education and steeped in economic privations which make the preoccupations of the older intellectuals appear comically trivial -Prof. Sarachchandra wawing his bedraggled banner of aestheticism is a creature from another planet.
The theatre of the young does not appear likely to abdicate (at east in the short run) its basic position of portraying the circumambient reality and seeking solutions for our ilus which turn out ultimately to be rather apocalyptic. Ideological imperfecLions ånd technical fra ilties one can easily find in their works. But they have something to offer which the cloistered intellectuals of Peradeniya's golden days, now deprived of their crown and sceptre. grasp only in perfectly. The young theatre has a long way to go but if its social commitment is fertised with the technical refinement which the older dramatists can offer its futura will be far from bleak. But such a situation can come about only as the result of an exchange of wiew5 between the two generations, free from suspicion on the part of one and Patronis ing attitudes on the part of the other.
27

Page 30
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Munt. In ITIEther important twint.

Page 31
Farewell to Agrar
gricultural tenancy legislation
SI Lā kā 5 d ā Unha PPy history. The foundation stone, the 1958 Paddy Lands Act,
was originally conceived as a radical measure to break the power of the village landlord.
Despite a String of a mending laws making it more effective, it is widely recognised that it has failed in its central goal. Instead there hawe been large numbers of tenant a wictions and the stipulation of a maximum rent of a quarter of the harvest is widely ignored. The tenant continues to pay a half share in Immo5t f"Lura red5. 1
Some observers talk of "failures
of implementation". A more fundamental cause of failure is the Weakness of the political
support mobilised behind the Act.
The Act originated in the committed radicalism of a small group of politicians, intellectuals and public servants. It neither
arose from nor gave birth to any mass movement, and certainly not a rural mass rowerient. Faced with the opposition of most of the political establish ment, the original intentions of the Pronoters were much emasculated before the legislation became law.
It was largely chance that the Act was not stranged at birth. The wonder is not that it became a sickly child, but that it lived at al. Yet it did take on a Life of its own. In the Agrarian Services Department established Lo administer it was institutional
ised a genuine commitment to the interests of the tenant and rural poor. In areas where the
power of rural property was not totally dominant tenants did try to take advantage of the Act. Thus the payment of only the legal rent of one quarter of the yield seems to be the rule in
The author is a research fello of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex UniverFiгү.
T1co5t of the rela Southern Provinc parts of the W. Eye in the Kand property still re been stirrings c tWare 55.
Amended in
Paddy Lands Act although not subst by the Agricult Ւվը 42 of 19, difference was t tion Committees
to police the P at local level we be politically-ap than elected. TI to the Agricultu Law No. 2 of a strong obligatic to i CLuti wa te "effic| եlished politicallycultura Productiv, to superwise C. mittees and poli
Agricultura | Trib diտբutes.
Disliked for the tiality and dism Cultivation Comn tural Productivity Agricultural Tr
suspended by th ment elected in
dutles of the C Titt Were i55 Cultivation Office UNP cadres assin public servico. T Services Act, N. gives statutory
Cultivation Officer Agrarian Service with a majority of to replace the Agr tivity Committees many other thin ostensibly replace tural Productivity and the Agricult of 1973, tidies widtסul prחs, aחט5i for the new str i 15 titutions. To the wording rep the two acts it rep

ian Radicalism
lively radicalised l, and in many 5te TI PTOW i Ca. yan area5, where gns, there have f terant 155 er
the 1960s, the
was replaced, in tially amended, Iral Lands Law, 3. The main at the Cultiwaoriginally set up addy Lands Act re henceforth to inted rather is was a sequel ral Productivity 372, which laid yn on cult i'w ators ently" and esta-appointed Agriity Committees
ltivation Comtically-appointed un als to settle
!ir political para performance, littees, Agricul
Committees and
ibunals Were e UNP goyenJuly 1977. The
Cultivation Comned by the new 's, mainly local nilated into the he new Agrarian 1979 fס 53 .3 recognition to s and establishes Conmittees, official members, * icultural Produc:- The Act does g5 as well. It 5 the AgriculLaw of 1972 I ral Lands Law Ip their proviis a legal basis Licture of rural a large extent Iīca te 5 that of laces. However,
by M. P. Moore
there are a number of small changes in terms and phraseology which indicate a very different intention: a deliberate shift of legal power away from the paddy and tenant and in favour of the andlord, with the evident ultimato aim of allowing the latter to resume control of as much tenanted land as possible. Not surprisingly, no mention of this alim is made in the preamble to the Act.
There is one change likely to come rapidly to the notice of the tenant population: an increase in the maximum allowable rent. The Agricultural Lands Law of 1973, section 20, subsection 2, (ie. ALL: 20, 3), specified that this maximum should be the low est of three possibilities: fifteen bushells of paddy per acre; a quarter of the yield; or the "customary rent". The new legislation omits to mention 'customary rent", and specifies that the maximum rent payable shall be the greater of the other two possibilities.
The other changes affecting tenancy are more insidious. They have greater long term implications, but are so deeply, buried in the minutiae of legal provision and procedure that they are un likely to come to the awarcness of the tenant until the moment of truth: when they deprive him of his land. For the connecting thread which runs through them all is the provision of more opportunities for the landlord to resume personal control of tenanted land:-
(1) For the ceiling has been acreage which a tenant can legally cultivate. A tenant cultivating Tore than five actes must sur
render the excess to the landlord (ASA: 4.)
first time a placed on the
(2) Sub-tenants have formerly been granted the sama rights as
tenants. Not only will this legal protection henceforth apply only where the landlord consents in
29

Page 32
Writing and where the local Agrarian Services Committee is notified, but failure to comply gives the landlord the right to resume personal control of the land, thus evicting both direct tenant and sub-tenant (ASA: 5, 9).
(3) A set of related changes make the inheritance of tenances less likely in future. Under the Paddy Lands Act (PLA: 6., I) and the Agricultural Lands Law (ALL:
6, I) a tenant could nominata any citizen of Sri Lanka as successor. Henceforth only "a
member of his family" is eligible (ASA: 7, 1). Probably more importantly, the procedure for nominating a successor has been made much morg trouble somE. Formerly this was possible either
(a) through a document both witnessed before a public or judicial official and registered
with the Registrar of Lands or, (b) In a last will I (PLA: 6, 3 and 6: ALL: 6, 3 and 6). This last option is no longer available (ASA: 7, 3). The tenant must now go through the more expensive and difficult procedure. It is certa ir that mote te marts will die without nominating a successor, including, one suspects, many not aware of the implications of the new Act. Formerly a relatiwe would In herit the tanancy, while the local Cultivation Committee could have a say in excluding persons "not accustoned to cultivate Paddy" PLA: 7 , ! and 2; ALL 7, I and 2). The Agrarian Services Act allows only the spouse, children, parents, brother5 and sisters of the deceased to inherit, and then only if the successor "is a person whose main occupation is cultiwation and whose only source of
income is derived from such extent of land" ie., the piece of land in question (ASA: 8, 1).
Foreseeing the possibility of there being no legal successors to many tenancies, the new act allows the landlord to resure control of the land (ASA: 13, 1).
(4) Whereas a tenant wishing titi cЕ i 5 E cultivating could formerly transfer his right to his spouse or any relative (or the local Cultivation Committee) (ALL: 10, I), the new arrangement permits tra 15 fe only to the spouse or
BO
children (ASA:
yiti (CoIII stepped in where had mot been eff the landlord can
(ASA: I ( 3).
(5) Under t Lands Law the o non-payment of Eerlärt was civi| debt (ALL: 28). ים חםs mם טtil חסti this procedure, b tion, allowing t right to res LII Tne C
(6). Under th Productivity Law, the landlord and of tenanted an obligated to cult 2 and 3), and
threat of dispos failed to do so
e We Certa i
specified the land to provide the equipment neces fatim ing Practice ( and APL; 5 ). T tion places no lo ! andlord either t bility for culti wat to provide the and equipment. tions are laid on wator, whether or tenant (ASA: 3 ). Thu 5 the Aci possibility of the the temat but II (ASA: 36). Und tural Productivity acquired could n to the andlord añ cother tenant tural Productivity 7, 3). The new to the owner possi
There te a fe tal points to be new legislation. 1973 the penalty the 5ection on se and eviction, ie, Was a fine of up TU PeēS Or LJP CO a 5 ITSE II fll (ALL: 3, 3). In of inflation, the fine is unchanged, made of imprison (ASA: 5, 13). points however

I, II). t
The Cformerly : legal transfers ected; in future
e Surle contro
he Agricultural nly recourse for rent by the proceedings for The new legislavem provide for ut specifies evicTe la do Td tha ontrol (ASA: I8.)
12 Agricultural No. 2 of 1972, the Citivator d were jointly i wate well (APL: Both faced the session if they (APL: 7). Hoclauses clearly lord's obligation 2 capital and sary to good APL: , ) and 3 he new legislaligations on the o tak a responsilan standards Gr necessary capital Eficiency obligaly on the cultiOWner-cultivator 33 and 34. 2 and allows for the dispossession of Đ Ehe andord er the Agricu If' Law Ilam so tot be returned but only let to by the AgriculCommittee (APL law makes return
ble (ASA: 37, 2).
w other incidenmade about the For example, in for violation of curity of tenure landlord crimes, to five hundred -|rקmו 5'th חסm f paymentס סJI 1979, after years Taxiu || CF and no friention Ilant for default Such imidlerta threaten to de
tract attention from the main point the opening up of large legal loop
holes through which landlords Can rega in controll of tenanted land. It is difficult to avoid the
conclusion that this was consciously done. The central element appears to be the attempt to make legal transfers of tenancies so difficult that the and will return to the landlords by default. The apparent long run aim is to solve the 'tenancy problem" by eliminating the tenant, but without the embarrassments of forced evictions which are, it should be said, very firmly and clearly prohibited in the new Act.
The family of agrarian legislation to which the Agrarian Serwices Act is the latest addition has many hybrid characteristics. The individual acts each cover a wide variety of subjects: tenancy legislation, rural Institutions, and consolidation, agricultural credit, standards of cultivation, irrigation regulations, wages of agricultural labourers, hire charges for tracLors and bluffaloe.5, and the Constitution of the Agrarian Services Department. The reasons behind this tradition of tackling such a wide range of subjects in a single agrarian law are to be found in the circumstances of the passing of the original Paddy Lands Act. Apart from the immediate conflicts and compromises, a major factor was the ideology of the act's promoters. To them the oppression and exploitation of the rural poor - abourers and debtors as well as tenants - was both cause and consequence of the stagnation of agricultural production, "Feudal exploitation" was one of the bonds holding down the productive forces in agriculture. Measures to uplift the tenant, the labourer and the debtor were but one necessary aspect of agricultural progress in the widest sense of the term. BLI E the bonds on the Productive forces, like those on the poor, could only be broken if the poor themse wes were to take a hand. Cultivation Committees were - Eo
be the insititutional expression of the resurgence of the rural poor. Rural democracy, the break
ing of the bonds of exploitation, and the un leashing of the productive forCes of agriculture were allofa piece.

Page 33
The hindsight of history tells u 5 just how na iwe Such hopes were. Rural society has followed a path wery different from that fores een. The legislation relating to rural institutions has remained on the statute books, but the Institutions hawe bem forced to adapt to society. The unreality of the democratic idealism behind Cultivation Committees has been evident from the beginning, when the Agrarian Services Department had to interwene to sustain weak Cultivation Committees and at. tempt to free them from the grip of the rural propertied. In the ensuing two decades the state has become more aud moro inWolved in the performance of duties originally allocated to local democracy. The local institutions have not only been undemocratic, but hawe too often not functioned at all. They have been loaded
with more and more du ties related to agricultural development: construction and Taintenance of
local Irrigation a tures Collector
and crop insura of farmer ident Socid, fertiliser a Cooperation in ag tratio 15 a rld ex ration and uprecords; hiringol Egшipment; pгер: paddy production
5ation of Yolun paigns. A side in the original de such extra dutic appropriate to wr bodies. The stat obliged to becor
in Wolved The da has been down Cultivation Com
creas ingly becom of higher-level i tures, the Agric wity Committees
Services Departim
In many sense. Tian Serowice 5 Ac
tO mea SU precision
Union Platform We Counter Scales and are manufactured t international standa guarantee of absolu
Manufactured by
g
SAMUELSON 37 Old Moor Street,
 

In de dra inage struc
of a Creage de wies 1Ce premia ; issue ty Cardsi 55ue of nd agrochemicals; ricultural demons. Periments; Prepa-dating of land it of agricultural L ration of annual Plans; and organitary labour camfrom weaknesses ToCra Cic Idealism, is have been inoluntary elective 2 has been almost me more deeply mocratic elect Played, and the mlLtées hawa in2 the local agents 15 tiCL tioma || 5 Tuultural productiand the Agrarian et.
5 the new Agrait is the logical
outcome of the unrealism of the expectations of the Paddy Lands Aet. Tha creation of an official bureaucratic structure to service agriculture at all levels, and the relegation of farmer representatives ta a minor role are the culmination of well-established trends. The problem of local democratic institutions raised by the Paddy Lands Act has been abolished. In these ways the new legislation is quite understandable. Far less defensible is the use of the opportunity provided by the need for new legislation to launch an attack on tenant's rights. The defence of
the tenant is one element in the original Paddy Lands Act which history has not made redundant.
I. See II. K. Weerawardena, "Lessons of in Experiment: The Paddy Lands Act of 1558', Ewaluation Studie No. 3. Division of Rural Institution and AEricultural Productivity Law. Colombo, 975.
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Page 34
FOR WHOM NO
injecting an element of mystery
the confines.
Ng", "grk"5.
political draftia playing within was last seen speeding towards
into the grow
of the UN,
Kennedy
Airport dodging newspaper men and heading for a late
L01D ,
Remember" said one diplomit "anyone "
off may even and up grabbing the Nobel Prize."
(T. M Deen - CD
Sri Lanka's High Commissioner Ernest, Corea Wa;
personally thanked by peacemaking efforts. in the street literally. attös Eccl. By a strået bumi they responded to his request with a word of thanks ha asked
When
Camild in premier The news had apparently reached
Ehreeg Sri stretch Ing out his
favourably. As
hierTi rather E Lirio L 5 l
Joe Clark for
Lirikan d hard foi הגן hB
county they were, When told they were from Sri shot Back knowledgeably "oh, isn't that the country W
to help us in Iran. '" to Erief encounct.'
hile the proletarian boys
in the basement of our newspaper offices were busy attending a week long IP seminar on the new print technology, their colleagues at the typewriters upstairs, the much-maligned tribe of Journalist5, were giving us another demonstration on the perfect adequacy of the old techniques. Why teach old dogs new tricks
Though the press may be statocontrollied, sheer professionalism shone through brightly. By reaching the man-in-the-street, by getting to the gist of the story, 5y rigorous question ing , and tireless questing, through in-depth analysis and Investigative reporting, by opinion poll and between-theInes subtleties, by working every angle and some unknown to geometry, by the supreme craftsmanship in short of Development journalism, they were giving us, their bemused and benighted audience, the newsbehind-the news, the REAL story.
For instance. Did you think it was our massive OPEC petition which scared the Indonesians, an OPEC member, to give us oil Or was It the cordlality of the Suhlar to--Jayewardenle talks? Did you think, perhaps, that the Spirit of Bandung moved the man who ou sted Soekarno and threw his Foreign Minister into jail?
3.
The three diplomats were wild
(T. M. Deen - CD
Along the grai line) came the the CDN's diplo dent (Indonesia Segera was there ënd. The real - putt shot champ ( T. D.S.A. (Jungle
But to each Js ambassadorial f Austrian arroganc fancies; H I 15 elf as animal in the Conducting a 5 the UN's lounge | Premi Ratnayak Retort Ku Fteo 5 close second W|t|hers is G| Fernando, and next local new his despatch frol heim may hawe
After HIS UN dent Ratnayake, own far-flung in last seen 되 Washington's DL וחוחrסE early mחi
ir Linki ir parcels for the back home. U ex-Obser Weila
er, Mose T1. Tu5 muchan, Ratna; for unaccompan before he took to London Ria CF

BELL
ring explosive Mr. Hameed alחםtiהח חשtח| ոight flight to who pulls thl:
N Dec 4)
surmoned and 5"yחEחuםם +וh eyen the man plomats were a cigarette, rted company y from What inka, the Tian hich is trying ly thrilled by
N Dec 12)
be-vine (or pipatrue story, and matic corresponDesk Only) Joe at the receiving IET WS15 OLIT EXnow Ambassador) Jr.) Dissanayake.
JurnalIst his own wolurite. In Hi5 2, Kurt Waldheim the most admired glass menagerie. |raw pol among Elizards, the CDN'5 : gives him the Running a very סpularity tסק ו r own Tan B J. ly the time the spaperman sends n the UN Waldconceded defeat.
stint, corresponaccording to our W5 network, was eeding towards les Airport, dodgtraffic and sundry !d with hefty gift Country cousins like T. M. Deen, University Wrestleman and macho ake has no taste 2d baggage. But that dawn flight yake squeezed In
TOLLS
The Outsider
des patch Ronnie de Mel, we trust, read and carefully dige sted.
a sentence in another that Finance Mister
Ronnie regates us every week that it is international confidence in our newly achieved economic stability (not to mention his own global exertions), has prompted foreign banks to queue up with applications. Indo-Suez, B.CCI CITIBANK, American Express etc. But why is Chase Manhattan shy, inspite of Ronnie pow-wows with the Rockefeller boys themselves? Plainly, Ronnie went to the wron guy. According to Ratnayake, E Kerner, our own boy from Bambalapitiya (now in the UNDP) has more pals in New York than David Rockefeller, Woll, Ronne, why not tackle our own feller?
Not to be upstaged on diplomatic intricacies and insights by the sister CDN, the Observer presented its Associate Editor, Philip Coorey, better known as the leading wastern theater-cum-film critic of
the mainstream media. Making an easy transition from theatre to what Deen might call the
great secret drama going on in Sri Lankan chanceries abroad, Philip Coorey, produced an inspired essay on the Importance of Being Erne5t. Corea, or man in Ottawa Gamini Dissanayake, Ronnie de Me and Shaul Hameed, the poor man's Henry Kissinger, may claim that they did it, but a foreign office man with a "finger on the aidpulse' whispered into editor Cooray's ear that the really important "factor' was none other than ex-editor, now High Commissioner Ermest Corea.
However, an air of mystery and International in trigue still hangs ower recent events involving QUr top diplomats. Minister Hameed had hardly commenced his confidential conversation with his Counterpart Bani-Sadr when the poor chap was sacked- High. Commissioner Corea had hardly left Prime Minister Clark's office

Page 35
forefron
nad
錢娜 1 P X| || MVHP]Q劑
 
 
 
 

sBank
the twith the CIOn.
From modest beginings the People's Bank has become the largest growing bank in Sri Lanka with over 230 branches islandwide.
Our total assets have recorded an increase of 33% in 1978.
Our Savings Deposits have accounted for 56% of the total savings deposits of all commercial banks as at the end of 1978.
Our programme for the future involves several new schemes which are designed to help uplift the economy by loan and credit facilities to cultivators, fishermen, industralists, house builders, importers and exporters,
These facts and figures speak so eloquently about our growth and the success we have achieved in national
《
s
ཟི། ། finance, that today we can proudly say
that we are in the forefront with the пatioп. چوجنگ تختتمبر
A Peoples Bank the Bank thenation حملتقنية
banks on

Page 36
when poor old Joe's government fell, What is Sri Lanka up to Does it matter, the sceptic may wel I ask, Yet, the intelligent, essentially inquisitive Sri Lankan reader, will want to know the
SWES
What Were th05e three Sri Lankan diplomats doing when they were accosted by a street bum? Were they studying the problems of urban housing or on a secret mission for Minister Shaul Hameed What time of the night was this so-called brief encounter which left them so wildly thrilled? Was it on Lexington Avenue or in the Willage? An African diplomat (unidentified) told a Sri Lankan journalist (un-named) "It's no secret that next to Andy Young your Minister is the most popular man with the Harlen Globetrotters" (A basketball team, not a travel Club – Ed).
In the adventurous tradition of Henry Kissinger and Mighty Mouse, we continue then the saga of Shaul. When he last appeared in this column. Mr. Hameed, making his grand entrance into T. M. Deen's New York flat, gawe Luis that scintillating opening line which Neil Simon may have envied: "Sprats before international affairs" he said, digging hungrily into Anne Almeida's bowl of ha al Te55o baduun. Ex-C) Eb5e wetman KirEhie Abeysekera was on the spot to file the exclusive story.
(The sight of the Statue of Liberty seems to fill our reporters in-transit with a liberating sense of press freedom, if not poetic Псепсе). Оп the same occasiоп, Minister Hanced, offering just a glimpse of that Wildean wit for which he is failed from Wikurana to Acapulco, crushed Anne Almeida, the pugnaciou5 Women'5 liberatĪori ist, with an Imam Swara ble
34
riposte: and not
"Whyth Her-sto.
To continue the than Hers} we t! foreign correspon
TEHERAN:
A5 he entered Bal-Sad'5 offi 5witched on his m Gille, often T i 5 ta! grin, and said " Khofmeisis E. , !" hard as "the fam by a clean ing W chaddor (actually of the Islamic reported it to th Council, Bani-Sad disappearing throu chased by several |5|ları IC Rec yolution
Said a Tehe knowledgeably: serious thing....H purpo5e Wa5 to C Sadr, a hardline in Ehe first mowE plan he had alre: With Waldheim, Gromyko an d pu the softline Shiite, de".
GOM
Hamped was nex away in a batter. abandoned person: former SAVAK reporters and bi trigger-happy feday
him for Peter Fond
actor, Qom the capital of the Ay Khomeini. "HE A. R. K. in the b encounters. A pro studies who happer by told me 'The of the Ayatollah by several Korar discover whether message to Jim WH".
LONDON:
Sri Lanka". Forei into fog and
Heath row airporte
for talk 5 wth Lt

en is it Hls-tory ry?”
story (His more Jrn you to our dents:
Foreign Minister e, Mr. Harleed C5 til Tahiya ker for a cherubia Ah, the famous This was TisoLus; CorTırT1 LIni 5 t" #ørThãm in black a Secret agent Fedayeen) who e Revolutionary T was last Geen gh a back-door, judges of the ary Court.
ran taxi-driver "A joke is a lameed's sinister e-stabilise BanifundameFatalist, : in the gamo — i dy worked out Brzezinski and t in his place Sadek God tih za
t 5 een speeding : d Cadillac, the al property of a agent, dodging lets fired by een Who. In 15 took a, the American holy city is the atollah Ruhollah ed Who?" Said Tiefest of nonfessor of Islamic ned to be passing Cryptic question is being studied
lic schiclat 5 to
It bore a hidden my You-Know
gn Minister flew a strike-bound arly this morning 3rd Carrington.
He was rushed to Lancaster House
where he was un fortunatelym Istaken
for a delegate from ZIPRA, the guerrilla organisation of ZAPU of the Zibabwe Patriotic Front.
"A bit of a snafu, what?' observed a Foreign Office chap, his finger firmly on the excited pulse of his blue-eyed secretary.
COLOMBO:
Outside the Oberoi, the Outsider was accosted by a friendly native stretching out his palm for 2 rupees, the bus fare he said to Malay Street to collect his free textbooks, The Outsider, as is his wont, considered the request dispassiona Lely, weigh ing pros and cons, seasonal generosity and inflationary spirals, and then parted with 25 cts. Before he left, the localyokel, a disgustingly inquisitive bloke, asked the Outsider who he was. When he told the man he was a journalist, the fellow shot back knowledgeably: "You are not, | trust, the cretin Chanakya or the Toron Muditha...?" " I denied the charge angrily, threatening to sue him for libel. "Okay, okay" he concluded sagely "Hameed may not grab the Nobel prize but there are still many an unsolved riddle In the Hameed mission..... if one of you journalists pulls it off, you may even grab the Pull-itzer prize."
FLASH
HAM BURG
A Sri Lankar official on a secret" aid-mission to the FRG was spotted by a local journalist as the former was accosted by a friendly frau. Asked about the brief encounter, the official said: "She wanted a light for her cheroot.... when responded to her other gentle inquiries favourably she asked me
from which country I came. When I said "Sri Lanka' she replied sweetly "Your delegation made
such a fine contribution to the Disarmament debate, I would like you to come Lup and see my old Nazi medals."
Anyway, that's His-story.

Page 37
April Insurgency 1971 - by Podi Athula (5)
JVP and political Sado - masochism
R to splittism, sectarianism had also been an explicit feature of the WP. In all fairness to the JWP, it must be said that, sectarianism has become the rule rather than an exception within the Lankan Left. It is somewhat intonic that the atomization of the left is characterized by an unexplicable and irrational mutual antagonism. When one discusses the attitude of the JWP to other left parties and vice versa, one may notice that this had assumed the natu Te of a cannibalistic kind of mutual animosity. The recent events that led to the disintegration of the proposed "unity for action" among some of the left parties only bear witness to this sorry state of affairs. As Podi Athula's bock reveals the suspicious and hostile attitude of the WP towards the other left parties is not something new. Quoting Loku Athula's evidence before the CJC (a bad source, anyway) he states that Wijeweera wanted to destroy the leaders of the left parties physically before the revolution (p. 45). On the other hand, the record of the traditional left, in its attitude towards the JVP, is not so good either. We have the statement issued by the Secretaries of the constituent parties of the then United Front, Whereby they appealed to their members and supporters to fight mercilessly and without hesitation against, what they called, the agency of reaction. (p. 81 and 82).
Now, both the JWP and the traditional left parties operated without making the slightest ag t-imodation with each other. Bitter hostility ruled out any possibility of even a critical recognition of at least the legitimacy for existence of either party. In this sense,
the showdown of April 1971 can algo be viewed a 5 the climax of this ever-deepening animosity between the JVP and the two principal parties of the old left.
by
Now we identi: related characteri: They are (i) sp and (ii) secretaria how Can C , חThe "political sa do-r I may borrow ; psychology. As the other left partii both splittism and emanates either frc tical superiority considered and del E2 OW 2 T | C. TOT DIE But in the JVP, internal disputes o towards others, r –out reason Was wiss the JWP failed political or theore any Party or grou What it had we accompanied with ments, simple e qua
generalizations. In emotion prevailed It may be thi
subjectivism whic the JWP from har of acknowledgem part played by especially in th stages of the Lar
TOWe That.
Para e to this Wa refusal of the old the fact that it w abandomment of politics that had n facilitated the em growth of a hos | movement. Co-opt
parliamentary politic ship of the old
themsel wes with th { and any challeng the established
considered, WVg themselves too.
how they overWengeance, W. S. started open Politi the middle of 97
 

J. Uyangoda
fy two mutually itics of the JWP. it tism internally nism externaly; ine explain this masochism", if I phrase from fait as most of 25 are concerned
secretarianism lm one's theore. complex or a ated disagreem! issue or issues. both in its T in its att|tudo to such thought ible. Moreover, to make any tical analysis of p of the left. te conclusions hostile statetion 5 and gross other words, OWer" taalsoort 5 OTOtional :h prevented
ving a ny kind ent Of the :he old left,
e formative kan Socialist
; the obstinate left to accept 5 their own
revolutionary !cessitated and ergence and ile MeʼW |left d by bourgeois
, the leadereft identified establishment or threat to order, they aimed at Luffice to reca Bacted, with 1 ce the JVP is activities in
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Page 38
Prelude to . . .
(Солтiпшғd from Page p5)
That was not all. Anti-democratic features became part of bourgeois legislation. The new government promulgated a constitution designed to bring about a comfortable two party parliamentary systern. In the teeth of oppositiоп ап Essential Services law was passed.
Public sector
Moreover the entire public sector is being dismantled and being handed over lock, stock and barrel to private businessmen. Price controls hawe been removed and
extensive tax concessions are being granted to the capitalist class.
Meanwhile in the highest quarters, Singapore is being held out as a model. The green light for investment, consumeri ST and corruption of the Worst sort ha5 Corne on.
The seventies were therefore first and foremost a decade of crisis for the capitalist system. The bourgeois parties reacted by imposing more and more curbs on democracy. As the seventies draws to a close - the movement towards further and further authoritarian rule is clearly under way. Notwithstanding the repeated reassurances regarding the socalled restoration of democracy and the sanctimonious statements about a 'dharmista" society - the inexorable move towards dictatorship was the predominant feature of the decade.
Paralleled with this development is the situation within the left movement. True that the first half of the decade saw the major parties of the left in the coalition with the SLFP. Inside the Communist Party, there has been a self-critical analysis of this period. This shows that the customary vigilance and defence of peoples rights were not in the forefront of the left's activities at this time. Corrective measures are however being taken.
36
In spilte of the that exists-ther the much-lament left is being overc of "unity in a understood and si and Tore left
סplatf חסComm
The most sign the end of the for the first timi older left Partii parties - represen JWP, wete able חcommon platfor this was a platf peoples rights-ad tance of the och
It is also sig left parties which emphasised the to power, hawe C and more on ex forms of struggl геformist T. LJ"s In the face of upsurge that in leading Trade U
We thus see a
is emerging as N eighties. The b one hand trying by dictatorial n left moving tow: which w III emab the former. Int unemployment, wages and atte rights of the pe that are conclu mere prelude L. struggles in wh ment wi|| ||Toyɛ battles. The s set for strugg whole questio be resolved ir We hawe bee I ра5t.

seeming confusion 3 are signs that ad disunity in the חme, The Slogiם tion" - is being pported by more thIпkiпg people.
ificant feature of sewenties is that in history - the is and the new tod mainly by the
{ n aם חBaקקa סL
1. The fact that rm in defence f ded to thea imporחסasi
ificant that the Hi! I a CT, y Dyer" arliamentary road ome to rely more tra - parliamentary e. Not even the can stand aside
a genuine new a wident among the lons.
new situation that we towe into the burgeoisie on the to retain power ethods - and the irds a polarisation it to confront he face of inflation, cut-backs in real mpts to take away ople - the Sewenties ding, have been a o a period of new Ich the mäss ITlowe: in to gigantic new tage is therefore es i Which thë in of power will ways other than used to in the
Theatre . . .
(Curried frari Page 7)
hits, but most commonly it was just cheap political innuendo. Some apologists mistakenly read profound significance into such verbal sniping and triggered off a lively debate which rewarded us with one un
forgettable epithet, "pappadam
natya."
The Sewenties gawe us, not
mature and intelligent political
theatre, but our own version of boulevard drama which traded upon, or vented prevailing public frustrations and encouraged a mood of cynicism through the politicallyloaded double-entend re. This drama, as formulaic as anything that had gone before, Wasn't by any means a measured response to the real and imagined shortcomings of the stylised mode which formed its target. In fact, the Sewenties failed to bring forth an artistically realized refutation of the musical idio Tı. But the decade did demonstrate a widely felt concern about the social uses of theatre,
This primary cognition of the social dimension of theatre is, to my mind, the most positive and hopeful aspect of Sinhala theatre in the Sewenties. Admittedly, it did not find inspired expression on the stage and this perhaps was why critical interest in drama waned during the late Seventies. Incidentally. It is worthnoting that it was the cinema which enticed critical attention away from the stage. Today, it is the cili u ma that is taken to be the more promising mediurn, an exact te wersal of the Sixties situ: Lion.
But theatre i5 op Te5 il fet ad illeate an art to re mai in the background for too long. If in the Sixties, we had Playwright as Aesthete, and in the Seventies, Playwright as Entertainer, in the Eighties we shall need Playwright as Thinker. I suspect he is hiding somewhere in the Wings - We scarcely gawe him a chance in the Seventies.

Page 39
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Page 40
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EWEN DREAM OF !
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