Page 1
LEFT (W I WDIA (2)
Gail Ormovedt RETURN T(
N. M. M. I. Hussein - Great
H. N. Fernando JVP's For
Reggie Siriwardena - Reply
ഭ്
9 BANDARANAI KES AND THE LEFT
(Chintaka)
 
 

ルー ○と才「乙ィ//イイ。そィールーé/raーム
STAGNATION - THE REASONS
DAN
No. 6 January 1, 1981 Price Rs. 3/50
: Elephantine xercises
ATTANAGALLA
Round 3 to Mrs. B
*
Powers and Indian Ocean
'ign Policy
to Samudran
HANSA VILAK
(Sidat Nandalochana, Kamalika Pieris)

Page 2
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RETURN OF THE IMF
The WMF terII will || La ri ka fir1 February and Tot, as earlier expected, this riorith. The negotiations, if successful will Tegn the resumption of IMF disburse TT erats Lunder the Exterded Facility Fund (EFF) which was suspended in mid 1980. Of the 350 millior dollars (approx) in SDRs pledged to Sri Lanka as pay Tierits support for 1979-8), Sri Lirik T Fids rio yw drawn i Lut 5 FT III or dollars. The goverrimert feels certain that the talks WI || Clear Tast of the points of frict for which drose in early | 980 wher) s Lupplement Cry yotes pushed through by various flirtistries exceeded the budget allocations by R5. á bílsson.
Certa inffy, the WMF * * fact finding" team which was here in DeCember was sct5 fed that Mr. de Me shfad ni traduced di bod fided Ib Ludget by mc krig, drastic Luts in the Capital votes of I6 ministries. The IMF's main worry is inflation. This was also the there of Mr. de Mel's budget speech,
But the IMF is also opposed to subsidies in any form. The fact-findi ng team gathered data on the local price structure of petroleum products, fertilizer and wheat, in relation to prevalII ng World Market Prices. While the fertilizer subsidy tops Rs. billion, the local price of petro is still below the World Warket price. Ard another Gil price fiske of about 10%, is in the offing.
TIES WITH OPEC, ARAB WORLD
The OPEC Director General, Dr. S'hi hata will be here this manth at the Invitation of the Finance Minister. By that time gll existing copies of the Great OPEC Petitigri uri deli vered gre si keto ha ye been destroyed or safelly cort cea ed in Somme Sri Kotha CLIPbaợard. The r71 diri stream medja, now hiding its collect ye head in share-faced silence, may e yerı come out with some guslıng editorials. Certainly, we sha II see no leading articles or cartoons on those money-grabbing oily Sheikhs. The OPEC. Petition was su rely cric: of the sĩ Ili est propygarda Stur; its ofrs cert tirmes,
W" i 5 jit Srf
It Fgwotified 1 &h of the ABC a etO nO r1j5 trid 1 ir world politics.
to Join the media Editing, the Firidrice Mir. İster noteworthy.
It was only Saudi Arabia go to Sri Lanka. I considerable help and compensat. Kuwaiti Develop also joined the of did givers. to strengthen S |with ČPEC Jind be supplemented diplomatic initiat report on the r the for e igri ser y prepared by Sri Bank officia || D. tackle this probs
J. S. S. vs.
There is, tro L is 5. And b = 1 ista rra1 irn JSS Linder their dant Cyri | Mathe the long establis dom finance of t 30 years, this f: regarded as 'TF tory" or, mori ** Tiada's that
Though Mr. co-opted into the of the Supremo"s шwres in slicing the Jaffria per i province - hill sper king people: Bould to Iris B. and the governm standing grievan ťation pro letaria of the CWC Ja. News" thes C E |ed CWC 5 pokes וhם3 חwם ew B rח" Organi 5a tions irn their use of the
dict is etc. The Thos i dti Milan i g (l. has not in any the tore of thesi the CWC itself WI F d riva | Tr has the sus I þ government. Wil | the "political as UN P-W?

Ộck frig igri Cara rite f interritima | :he role of OPEC Haw ng refused fu in Ö) PE... G. finds the 's move specially
as riorith that ye its first la ciri raq has been of Over of suppies try loans. The "Tert FL rif ff
expanding group Wil || this effort ri Lankar ties the Arab World by a serious ive Perhaps the eorganisation of 'ice now being Lankar World A. de Sĩ |ựu will
『T,
C. W. C.
Eble for ewing iri ts not likely to a tea cup. The Լough KammanEw is chas fenging sed Trade Lilian e i WW, I. For 5 an area widely -m terr iםנזrהtjחםi 2 picture: q, Lely,
'' Thor clargri was tabiri et (a rioth (!s. r71) s terly TT noety'''ofוחu'י טf tIi fi 5 u II - Eastern cartry "Tar II '') stra irls were Etyeeri ts. C''' 1ent 0 wer long ces of the planI. In the pages Irnal "Congress Irie war ces ha ye Ter to JESali i the ibs' of the State the plantations, 20Jj de Grd ter TOT fact that Mr. Cabir et ministler way cҺалged = dt to ks. Na w is confronted Jde Urfan which a tranage of the | this di Iso Effect fire" of the
TRENDS LETTERS
Transport travails
| refer to the first instalment of an article written by Mr. Anil Moonesinghe on the above subject, What I want to stress here is let us first assess the work done by Mr. Moonesinghe during his stewardship as Chairman of the now defunct CTB.
As Chairmar, he sent out 54 ECP-rung executives con compulsory leave and they were subsequently dismissed from the Board without compensation. These officers however, were awarded handsome compensation by the Labour Tribunal. Furthermore, he sent out another 25 plainclothesmen of the lower-rung of the CTB service who too were taken back with back-wages way back in 1975. Thousands of workers were transferred to distant places and during his 5 years service as Chairman there
LANKA.
GUARDAN
Wol. 3 No || 6 january I, 198||
Prict 3 5C)
Published fortnightly by Lanka Guardian Publishing Co. Ltd. ELIT - Asia Building, Milli, E4, lLUlico Il EPIC:, Colombւյ-7.
Editor: Mervyn do Silva.
CONTENTS
New5 Background Bandaranaikes and the Left In search is national heroes Foreign News The global crisis 1
Woo" s for Teigi stilinç: דן SL11 Asia For TT, Cçin ! e T1, Tt, idcology ||: 11:1 "Wiltık - Tycı yiçy5 As like 고
Prin iCd by Aralıntılaı Press 825, Wolfendhal Sirect,
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Page 4
was utter chaos in the administration. It is a well-known fact that as soon as Mr. Moahasingha tock ovel office he appointed workers to protect as Scts of the Board. These worka's formed them5elwe 5 into Work (2r"5" cor11 rTnittees and they were popularly known as 'Mad Dog committees' as the majority of then resortcd to corruption.
Though Mr. Mocine:Singhe blaiTies the present set up in the CTB and speaks of excessive staff, it is during |370 Lihat
there were 6. || employees per bus which in || 374 rose L S. employees per bl.is. It wCuld thus be se gri that there had
been an increase of 3 employees per bus during the Chairmanship of Mr. Anii Moonesinghe. It is also on record that one of the biggest frauds in season tickets were detected in a depot in the Southern Prowinca amicumting to severa | lakhs of rupe:S. Bus spares, ticket machine frauds, thefts were rampant during his stewardship and the CTB was an organisation where discipline was at its lowest ebb. There was also increase in the top rung Executives and most of them were his party sympathisers who were elevated to top jobs,
B. Alak es wara Nugegoda.
Petty mistake
| wish these Marxists would get one of their most over-worked cliches right. Nihal Perera (L.G. December 5) is the most recent to Write "petit bourgeoisie." Petty bourgeoisie is OK, but if they must use the French adjective surely it is "petitc."
Costain de Wos KollLupitiya.
Tamil literary scene
Charity prompts me to let Samudra have the Satisfaction of showing that though vanquished, he can argue still. But the record has to be set straight.
| had made it qui te clear why I consider the current controversy a non-debate. Of co Lurs: it suis Samudran o
pretend to be mct. Lo LP rilor. he should be there's a poin El |11 perce reality). Do I 3. M3oist th3 t also "real tiger, ike Derg, qui Chaira's tho,
There's anoth the whole thing Both ther and s“ärxist gurus Tier tors have ad long since abi: lectually resp. Çirçilgs, if San L refute this poi he faithfully actua i argume|| by them (and why not those bete noire the lists) so that judge for the IT
As for farta: and illusions (o wise), nothing căr possibly ca positiwely Kafk of the hole-ar and-dagger stuff Qn im Ehe stas Jaffna Universit just one more tremern dous ca delusion - Sorne in his first art caseists were di by the poetry of depressed c. My, my! Shade Tightier than tions delivered tion tion Los tis! S םח וrבויים טhץ flouting the col temple entry fifties and ear you-before se lines of poetry
| can qui LC Lunde anxiety to play of the book ri solicitude for 5 authors. I said controversy was There's no disc this and his a "daba e did na

: dense enough stand my point carciful though: t a t. which, preptibly becomes nave: to remind "paper tigers' åre s'? Or has 2, etly buried the Јghts?
ir ser e irl which is a non de Läte, row the local
who are his waiced arguments Indoned im inteEiable Marxist Idan wishes to it I suggest that summarise the 1 ts pLut for"ward while he's at it, advanced by his sol-called FormalLG readers may ise was,
jigs, hallucinations ptical ånd other| can conjure up Impare with his a esque o cenario d-corner, cloak
supposedly going f room of the y. Let's look at
example of his pacity for selfthing he wrote icle: "The Willa eeply disturbed
(emphasis mine) 25te Writer 5 etc." s of 'the pen is he sword"
է 1 Tilat School elocuSo Wella la castelist5 w are brazenly
Jntry's law about quailed - in the ly sixties, mind
me pusillanimous
:rista mid Sa Tiludrarn's
down the role lferred to, in his ome of the co"the current sparked off etc." repancy between 5sertion that the it originate from
this back but its publication gawe it a fillip”. Let me seL out the facts as know ther. Sofile time after this book was published, a meeting was held at the house of the co-authoring couple where, reportedly, Samudran's gurus were confronted by some of the younger generaltion, including the co-cali, or of 'Alai'. Since I was '.. I':52 rhi, I'll not report t'ic excharges, Following this meeting K. Kaia
sapathy-one of tia Pioneers Samudran refers to-fired the O Pening salvo in the Pages Of
The magazine Saar. T e C
editors of 'Alai" wrote in, but the editor of "Samar" di:ici inici to publish their replies. The
'Ala' resumed publication carry
ing the se two replies and the battle was on. Incidentally, the issue of 'Samar' which carried
KK's article also had än article: by Chitra la LI raguru (Cine of the trinity which co-authored the book) which interestingly enough diverges from KKS argumen .
Samudrain makes gnide references to 'Alai" in the carmparative safety of an English journal. I suggest that he plunge into the real battle-field - the Tamil literary sphere - and ther he'll learn first-hand the perils of being a hatchet-man,
Like a Company Chairman spouting economic jargon in a desperate attempt to hide his firm's bankruptcy, Samudran keeps intoining mumbo-jumbo about quantity, quality and historical time. When I referred to 'twenty years or more' I wasn't thinking about calendar years. According to his own account, they were hectic years: "there were novels, poems, short stories and plays that shawed an un precedente d revolutionary originality and creativity; there was a conscious question ing of bourgeois aesthetic values." (Incidentally, why did the Progressive Writers' Union miss a golden opportunity to mark its silver jubilee this year by bringing out an anthology of progressive writing and criticism,
(Cortinued on page 18)

Page 5
KALAWANA : A
Cock-up
SEE: a PParently inexplicably, the UNP's prestige has plum
meted. The economic situation, principally inflation, has seen the steady decline of its popularity,
marked by a sharp nose-dive, for reasons both economic and political, from the July strike to the bus fares hike and budget in November. In a mild understatement, proper to the occasion, Trade Minister Lalith Athulah muda li told the party conference (Dec. 20) that things were not as bright as in 1977.
Yet, the UNP's prestige as a party was high. Whatever the personality conflicts and intrigues inside (and these are known to be both byzantine and intense) the public image was that of well-knit, firmly united organisation characterised by clarity of purpose and competence in execution. It certainly gained immensly by contrast with its traditional riwal, the SLFP, where son and daughter were engaged in a pitched battle for the family seat, with the mother (party leader) sponsoring the latter, and the deputy leader and ten other PB members supporting the former. A House divided: image and reality were a perfect fusion.
Then came Kalawana, a clumsy cock-up. A UNP diary of doings, Statements, nom imatiom board meetings, long lists, short lists (including Mr. Pilapitiya, Mr. Upali Wilewardene and Mr. Lionel Guna sekera, now an independent candidate) right up to the Dec. 9 decision to stay out if the Kalawana contest, speaks for itself.
LEGAL LACUNAE
In the Law Library, every government's unofficial 'think-tank", where constitutions and laws are conceived, made, un-made, altered and reshaped, debated and interpreted, a senior practitioner of no known ideological persuasion was heard to say "I say is the UNP trying to do a Felix
The oppositio Speaker's ruling to the Hous." was not present charge that the a Felix' was a Party whose bei In the absence ordinance' to gu English expressio be "too clower
A more cutti follow in the for compliment by "But Felix had
In a metapho milieu, the UNP Compared to th crafty witness w in his own fabric
A Tore measu made by a Q. leading authority transitiona | provis clearly stated tha arising from th election the old ... the se probler avoided then".
In the course the no-confidence was unanimously little interesting future book c History) Prime M Så id that the cou the Elections Com Speaker were a II respective decisio rulings. This imp of a leagal lacunae, Interpretation whi conflicts, issues w and areas of dou stitution will be i third time in 3 ) Éth.
U PALI FACTOF
Whatever these law, what does th in-the-street think siastic report on

clumsy
alleged that the was a "gross insult »ut the Opposition to say why. The UNP was "doing rosser insult to a e noire he wa5. f "an interpretation da us, the nearest 1 would probably sy half".
ng insult was to m of a left-handed 1 young attorm Cy: more finesse, no".
r natural to the s contretemps was at of a not-so ho gets Snarled up ati Cr5.
red comment was Jeen's Council, a in this field: "the i ions should hawe t on al Thatter5 e 1977 general
law would apply This could have been
of the debate on motion which defeated (another footnote to a on Parliamentary linister Premadasa rts, the President, missioner and the correct in their ns, actions and lies the existence or, laws open Lo ch may lead to hich are arguable bt. So the Conamended, for the ears, on January
finer points of 1e so-called man: In his enthuhow the UNP
BACKGROUND
master-minded the last campaign T. D. S. A. Dissanayake speaks of
"opinion-sampling", grass roots “intelligence" etc. In the Upali camp, it is said that nomination
papers were ready, hotels booked, posters printed, and international market research unit alerted and Kalawana about to be "computarized". With all these resources available, the UNP would find it exceedingly easy to get an answer on average voter opinion.
The vast majority would simply say that the UNP funked it. With the economic situation what it is, combined opposition support and Sarath Muttetuwegama's personal popularity, would have guaranteed, they would argue, a UNP defeat. And the UNP which had captured Ana madu wa did not wish to face defeat half way through its six year term, and close to the district councils election.
This highly politicized electorate has also been aware of the "Upali Factor', ever 5 ince the furore over Kamburupitiya. In interviews to the foreign press, the dynamic and ambitious Mr. Wijewardena, our first tycoon, has not denied Presidential aspirations. As a selfmade millionaire (not in devalued rupees) and a kinsman of President Jayawardene he has all the right qualifications for high office. In short he would be no ordinary MP or even ordinary minister. Thus, he cannot be everybody's favourite in the UNP. By not entering the fray at Kalawana, the UNP has thus avoided defeat while at the same time seeing to it that a mighty "rogue elephant", so to
say, has been "kraaled" at Kala'' IT 3
A more "sophisticated" theory
is that the UNP might have been ready to risk defeat at the hands of the SLFP but not by a Communist. What would the foreign investors think? Surely it is unlikely that
(Continued on page 4)

Page 6
Constitutional CO
98. This year we celebrate 50
years of universal franchise, a proud achievement, indeed. While other nations wiII shower gręętings and praise, the Queen will grace the occasion. Sonny Ramphal, Cortmonwealth Secretary-General ha,5 already hailed Sri Lanka as a "trialblazer'. We shall not disappoint our distinguished admirers. "Representation" and "under-representation'' ha we bgeri bilittle — tries iri man's protracted struggle for representative government. At this writing, it looks as if we may hawe two MP's in place of one. Carping critics can level the charge of 'over-representation' because the Delimitation Commission defin ed Kalawana as a single-member Constituency, but the necessary amendments, it is reported, are in the offing.
Queen Elizabeth the First of Ceylon, as Jennings called her before Sri Lanka was a republic, was doubt|ess saddened by our departų te from the Westminister model but she will realisc, on receipt of the glad tidings, that Britain's "model colony" is still a 'wibrant democracy despite all the omnious utterances of Opposition Cä55ändras that Kala wwana is a sinister porterit.
Jennings who invented that constitutional concept of a "Queen Elizabeth of Ceylon" would have been the first to applaud our na tiwa ingenuity. Indeed a future Jennings, Anson, Laski or Erskine May, will probably devote a piquant page or two to what for Tier Constitutional Affairs Minister, Dr. Colwin R. de Silva, the SUN, and many others hawe styled a "constitutional
risis."
For the layman (not that there is any such animal in this island where every bus traveller, counter-clerk, taxi driver, Jobless student' and peon knows his 'law-points") it was more a constitutioual comun drum than a crisis.
Twenty four hours before the G. A. Ratnapura, acting on behalf of the Elections Commissioner, Ficciwed nominations for the Kalawana by
election gazetted fo the Speaker rules ratne Pilapitiya, is for Kalawana, W Elections Commissi with the polls, fixec
The average w mystification was cally, Mr. Abeyr; person who was in Julу 1977 — аг void by an Ele confirmed by the But legally he is a While the case w Mr. Pilapitiya had accident. Ho di customary leave c friendly MP preser — very much a par routing. So, that Pilapitiya lost his after 3 months of c
Then Mr. Abeyr; nominated by the eww bi 35 | tI LI tiii) Ilchallenged as a stri to leave the C Deputy Speaker, Self Led on Dei was the lawful M his nomination."
Kalawana . . .
(Continued f
Motorola or the would hawe fac! ; a single Sarath dangerous Bolshe bamb hidden und or his black-andIn any case autho spokesmen hawe at international : Big Bear, to use favoured by the tumbling down into the warm with Lu CYer-rui sub-continent - a which suggests t strategists hawe that the art of since Alexander
In any case by end-result of all (a) Mr. Pilapitiy;

undrum
ir December. Oth, that Mr. Abeythe lyfL | MP Hlāt i 5 fincre, hic:
oner gales a hCad
for Jan 2.
coter's state: cof excusable. Physi3 the Is thg game declared elected election declared tion Judge and Supreme Court. different person. as being argued, 1 seri OLI5 Totor d mot seek the if absence and no 1ted such a Totion "t of parliamentary t Mr. Abeyratne seat automatically, ontinuous absence.
atne Pilapitiya was
UNP under the
Though he was ninger' and asked hamber by the the Speaker himzember 9 that he 1P "by virtue of
rom prge 3)
Bank of America at the sight of l, certainly ΠΕ wik with a hand er his black gown blue Thoimiä, mi ti: ritative Sri Lankan assured in Westors erminars that the the Cosy image SUMI cannot come the Khyber pass watar 5 of Bentotä ining the entire line of thinking hat UNP military not yet realized war has changed the Great.
mid-January, the this would be I would bic: in
The opposition claimed that this ruling was "unlawful" and that the Speaker had "exceeded his powers." But the opposition was not present on De, 23 to state its case, so the Speaker's ruling must be accepted.
It is now reported that the cons titution is to be amended, "In the public interest", to accommodate the man who will be elected on Jan. 12. The least that can be said about this constitution is that it is amendment-prone. One of more interesting amendments intro
duced what the L. G. called "the one-directional conscience". An MP can switch parties and cross the
flour, without automatically lossing his seat. only if this decision is endorsed by a 2/3rds majority, and only the government has such a majority.
The mystified voter may perhaps find it easier to accept the change (or metamorphosis) if he is of the Christian faith. Transubtantiation is a "mystery' but it is a perfectly comprehensible concept in Christian dogma. What the uninitiated may regard as "mysterious' is in fact "mystical', another unique Sri Lankan contribution, G
Parliament (b) the UNP would
not have been defeated (c) Mr. Upali Wijewardena will have to find some other opening into politics (d) a man who wins on January 12th will also be an MP.
A student of Professor A. J. Wilson the author of a recent took on ou - N2 W Constitution, quotes Harold Laski "when the rules of the game do not guarantee the chances of victory the gentlemen of England change the rules." The great question is whether the ordinary voter, especially the SLFP supporter would lose faith in the system itself if the rules are changed so often and so clumsily that he finds the motivation transparently obvious. 50 years of Uniwersal Franchise and we shall hawe two representative: for what was
single-member constituency. This is 100%, inflation in representation. All power to the people. - M.

Page 7
SINGAPORE IS NO (Come again, Dr. Goh !)
r. Goh is Singapore's Ludwig Erhard, the wizard behind it "CCÖrho mio mirale"".
It is not often that a government invites the Deputy Prime Minister of another country to advise it on how to manage its economic affairs or to instruct it on what's wrong with its economic policies and/or performance. Nor do visiting dignitaries attend politiCal rallies in the host country, especially if the later has a multiparty system. The first step may have Wounded the patriotic pride of many sensitive Sri Lankans, particularly those who believe that the people of this country are far Thore educated, politicised and cultured than the de-humanised citizens of that consumerist, materialistic "paradise" called Singapore.
The second deviation may be regarded by sticklers for diplomatic decorum as a violation of known proprieties. He did not know better because he comes from a "country" which has not seen any opposition party core to сwer. In any case, why blame Dr. Goh when the representati wes of two international agencies, the IBRD and the IMF, resident in Colombo and therefore "accredited' to this country, were ready and willing to brief" the deputy premier of another Country on the economic situation her. Perhaps their head offices in Washington have their own rules or have special rules for special people,
In fact, Dr. Goh's trip here as specialist consultant rather than as Deputy Premier, would have been used by both champions and critics of "the Singapore model" to rein. force their respective arguments.
For here, after all, was the formal baptism of our Singapore "Connection".
Probably the most consistent
Critic is Fr. Tissa Balas Luriya and his Centre for Societ and RelSion. Of the more forceful critics abroad is A. Sivanandan, editor of the Well-known London-based journal "Race and Class'. The leading article in the current number
on the Sri La another expatrial bälam,
*t a Berlin cr nology", Siwanand; a 'colony withi Indeed Sivanandar Singapore-Hong SOL" Ced in Yestmg Lanka a "periphery Ilay be extended would end up a neo-colony'.
The advocatos glPðČte" surfacci ASEAN lobby" j While activists w first and second benches, the 'th located mainly in and the Tradi "Follow-the-line' the media joined rus to sing the Singapore and A5
Milow Dr. Goh,
nent of pure enterprise", has myth, Repeating , been obvious t intelligent obserye ded Sri Lankans interview-conversa: part of his ori in Colombo tha City-state which t could not imitate. Singapore model wa and Categorically d
Not only is S State, it is å ser y the region - thoug le55 Savoury servici during the Wietnam forgotton in these Porean leaders pre Others on "genuine At a recent Colom LSSP trade union Weerakoon made t
(a) Singapore , base and the peo abour) were "disci British operation a yan insurgency and
{Cспtiпшесі сп

MODEL
nkan economy by te Saatch i Pomnar
inference on Tochin called the FTA a neo-colony'. 's argument that Kong—SOLI th Korea it will make Sri of the periphery' to MC2:n that yoyo
"neo-colony of a
of a “second Sinin the form of an 1st after July 1977. 'ere found in the 'C':','Si cof (JNP leoliticians" were the Foreign office Chambgr5 Thig COTimentators of thԸ swelling che: charms of the EAN way of life.
an efficient expoLIII bridled i frae aid to rest that 'what should hawe o reasonably r, Dr. Goh reminin the private tions which ware entation course." Singapore was a his country simply Tha idea of a is contemptuosly İSFT i55.
ingapore a cityice centre for gh some of its 25 to the U.S. 1 "Ar ara B 55 days when Singasurne to lecture
non-alignments' bo seminar, the | leader Batty wQ Other point:
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Page 8
SLFP: A phoney
lue posters were back on the BE "Sirima" (sce cover) was at the centre of a horoscopic diagram in which she was being bombarded with outrageous questions from all quarters. Was this Peking-style propaganda the mischievous effort of an anti-Sirima faction or the less unsubtle attempt of the SLFP's arch rivals to keep stirring the party pot while the inner-party conflicts were still on the bol? The continuing Crisi5 in the SLFP (L. G. Dec. 5) cannot be fully understood without constantly bearing in mind the steady inter-action between the internal dispute and the external pressure,
Whatever che authorship, Mrs. B. however is in no mind to be both cred by bombardments of this kind. She has had her Dunkirk. Now it is a struggle for survival as leader (formal and or effective), for tactical accommodation to halt the rapid erosion of her once unassailable authority, for slow recovery and consolidation, and a restoration (hopefully) of her long accepted position of supremacy, This is the basic process at work in the conflicts raging within the party leadership, a situation which
is largely a by-product of exo
genous circumstance.
The nomination of Lakshman
Jayakody reduced many informed
observers to total bewilderment and others, equally well-informed, to an open admission that it was a triumphant come-back for Mrs. B.
The first reaction is understandable for Mr. Jayakody's name was hardly mentioned in recent Weeks, The second is an understandable mis-reading since Mr. Jayakody is known as a Bandaranaike loyalist. (The SUN introduced him as "a close confidante").
When the news was out a UNP
stalwart told a cluster of young MP's : "These SLFP fellows hawe to go to a walauwa. . . , instead
of the Horogolla walau wa, they hawe got a man from the Balagalle walau wa".
But secretly th
happy. Attainaga to "an ordinary area". Yet a por
slipped out of the family. A bastico has fa MP WWI is in place of Ch 5cmser, the UNP"
is not complete |im i Lod,
Tha P. B. Two
Dozen") cannot s becausc it5 barılı family bandyism'. was non e Other
"son and heir' father of the SL
In the past
her absolutL au and a direct impossible, op. daughter's nomir her own seat, un thinkable. Suci ground she has Jayaka dy represe some part of Both were tha appearance as aп subsequent withdr the way for That is the cru
One of his cl; the L. G. "At thinking politicall agree with him putting politics that he is pla career before fa evidence, he poin of his most int. (within the close been put under breaking point, : repair. But are "politics" and cxclusic? I st: the "royal seat", his sister, Anu affirming the le ession but insisti (not even primal Succession.
Was the Ja made possible b: ciliation. What

peace
c. UNP is quite la has not gone
Ilar for the -ketborough has
the hands of . Bandara naike len. The new 's. B's nominee, indrika. In that s self-satisfaction 2, its victory is
clve ("the Dirty hare this pleasure It was not "anti
Their candidate
than Anura, the of the founding FP.
when qui estioning thვნწწ. YW 5 ra T2, challenge nearly 105ing her Cwm lation 35 MP foro
would hawe been 1 is the enormous lost. Lakshman nts a recovery of that lost ground. result of An Lura's aspirant, and his "awal, which open 2d the compromise. x of the matter.
ose associates told last, Amira, is y. . . . whether you or not, he is first". He cant cing his political Inily loyalties. As ted out that some imate relationship -knit family) have 32 W Te 5 tress, r123 I and perhaps beyond these categories "family" Tutually king his clai Tı for Attarnagalla, aga inst ra was not only agitimacy of succng on his exclusive ry) right to Such
yakody 'solution' y domestic reconfamily Pressure
alone could not achieve, the UNP did. Whether it was part of the UNP's game-plan or not, the SLFP (and Anura) felt increasingly apprehensive of UNP counter-mowes from Oct. 17 (amendments to the Election Law) to the Kalawana affair. With the SLFP delaying the Attanagalla decision will the conistitution be amended orice mare to make room for a by-election at Nuwara-Eliya? The UNP-CWC alliance might in that event, mean a defelt for the SLFP and one MP le 55. Anura and his backers would hawe to take the rap for that, Strong SLFP fears wero canfirred when Trade Minister Athulathmudali, the lawyer in the front benches, speculated not-so vaguely about amendments to prevent MP's crossing from crie seat to another, That clinched the issue. Probably picking up the metaphorical habits of the CDN Lobby correspondent, a cricketlowing TULF remarked:
"I say when safe single to government might and run out the Nuwara Eliya end".
Lakshman Jayakody's nomination left the LSSP-CP non-plussed. By the arbitrary application of their own norms or by simple wishful thinking, both Rightwing and Leftwing observers of SLFP politics mis-direct themselves. If personal alignments, groupings and factions are transient, ideological labels are wirtually meaning less. Personalised into a Chandrika - Anura fight, the LSSP, going by their 'coalition' experie C2, SAW it as a battle between the SLFP Right (Anura) and the SLFP Left (Chandrika). In the days of the U. F., Lakshman was known to the LSSP-CP as "the UNPer in the SLFP'' '''the muda lali's man" and 'diehard reactionary."
Boxing rather than cricket offers more apposite metaphors for the SLFP situation. This is going to be 乱 10ಣ್ಣೆ drawn-out fight. Having lost the first two rounds, Mrs. B. took the P. B. by surprise in naming Lakshman and won Round
An Lira goes for a Atta magalla, the change the law SLFP at Lig

Page 9
Three on points. But she's fighting with one had tied behind her back -- the la Way -- and the lk na IS miły gęt tighter.
also is in cla Lt. Thg 7 amendments have not been The Oct 1 á disabilitia; allow her to function as party president quite freely. So the lawyers say, And Mrs. B has got a lawyer's opinion in her handbag. Bu L e ven that opinion וחay be "arguable". Another lawyer, even more formidable: but of a different political persuasion, took pains to see that the 5 party meeting at which Opposition support for the
Much Oct. gazeted..
CP candidate was discussed, was held, mirius Mrs. B.
The law, as it stands, may
favour Mrs. B. in the matter of participation and decision-Taking cn al questions other than election 5. But it is the element of doubt that is her main enemy, for it makes the politicians and the would -be politicians shrink away from open association with her. While the Oct. 7 amendments may clear these doubts to make things harder, "guidelines" to the Elections CoIIImissioner on "recognition of parties” and "office-bearers', under another section, could prove decisive.
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The only other - the party, M. the headquarters'. th. Red Guards Lo 'purge" the Pol the UNP, to St. tional problems. COTSECUTECT, is SLJr. Cill sack the Wol
and not the ot In any case, the Working Commit
move by Mrs. B.
So it is with the Inittee whose p strength is about has a poten til St. alli the elections t bodi: arg hold. coils of UNP-mac finds hergelf entra constitution she rare of "re-d "democratisation."
Singapore . . .
(Clari tiri u cd fri;
Ito Weign L W:15 ideological founda independence polit
Some points diagnosis: (1) T dangerously over CXIra Wagant go werf no SLopped, infla bled - 70%, (3) formance of the more responsible f deficit than frg c
Whiem it came cures, Dr. Goli r with a formidable who has had ironi Connections with Sil down, down" rep althost imitating F who had also cro ruptcy, bankruptcy 1 LCLC--tete "", it) Dr. Gich 'g diggssi | ferred to our ex from the main expc don't you give it Wate 5ector" a sko Worker from Sing politician, a rising replied: "The Ped that...." "People to speak to the
E. their name Such haught ii: (a digit 臀 part of the Singapc

front is political Lo Slid "bril Lord But where are to do the job, it bLira etc? Like -FP ha 5 constituThe "democratic" F1 Lihat the P. B. king Committee, her way about. E3 cc in the .tee makas any extremely risky, A || || 5 land Corriresent Mc Eilised 350, though it rength of 5-10 if o all the ancillary
Cat; light in thc a laws, Mrs. B. pcd by the very er fitted in the rganisatijii' imd
1m page 5]
3 become the tion for postiC3.
°rom Dr, Goh"s TE econorthy is -heated. (2) If 1stient spending is tion will be douThe poor per2xport sector is or the huge trade imports.
to Prescribing an in Lo tro Lubale JNP front-ranker, cally enough, close gapore. "Down, è:ıté2d Dr". Goh, obert McNamara wed thrice (Bank', bankruptcy') in Sri Lankam W|P. illed prophecy re:change carninings art crops. "Why back to the pri!d the miracleapore. The UNP star of the party, ple will not accept PSOPle. . . . I like e people....let 5 and addresses." im for the people !omputer) is also prean life-style.
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Page 10
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Page 11
The Bandaranaik
Chlintaka
here, each of the two major parties which alterna tely succeed each other in power is itself in turn controlled by people who make a business of politics, who speculata or seats in the legislative assemblies of the Union as well as of the separate states, or who make a living by carrying on agitation for their party, and at its victory, are rewarded with positions. It is well known how the Americans hawe been trying for 30 years to shake off this yoke, which has become intolerable, and how inspite of it
all they continue to sink even deeper in this swamp of corrup
| Cor.
".... We find here two great gangs of political speculators who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends - and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it.'"
(Ty emphasis-)
This passage, is contained in the Introduction written by Engels for the 3rd German edition of Marx's "The Civil War in France," published in 1891 to Inark the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune. Though the passage is a comment on North American politics, it could also serve as a strikingly apt description of the operation of the Sri Lankan political system, which since 1956, has been dominated by the two main bourgeois parties, the UNP and the SLFP.
Social class, Family power
Capitalism in the periphery is marked by the features of dependence, underdevelopment and coexistence with precapitalist residues. This is why Samir Amin has re2marked that while capitalism is the exclusive mode of production in the centres, it is the donainant or hegemonic (not exclusive) mode
of production Social formation Specifity of pe In Sri Lanka wɛ the two major Parties, these ty Cartels of politic around a few grou PS. If Wic Nico5 Poulantsiz: that in Sri Lank peripheral Socieo definite need to : linkages between family power.
It is to the Wijeweera th: atten tion al Ebeit i to this linkage, of the JWP. Policy Declaratic document which
many correct when it
"The capitalist
which has purs path of develo itself Lup aro,
political partiesSLFP-'which hawe alist families as mass of their 55 as branches. Th the Senanayake
and the Kotela, clan as its subsid which has the
family as its roc k era — Ratwatte cl; hawe both from s U3 tred the 5 capitalist political the Tami || Col Federal Party : parties of the u petty bourgeoisie the LSSP and it safeguarded the
development in t UNP governmer Senana yakes (fath the SLFP go werni Dias-Bandaramai ke Wife) and the Ur fT1ent of the SLF all cngaged th Taintrarce of ca and exploitation; t

es and the Left
In the peripheral Owing to this pheral capitalism, may observe that Jourgeois political O great gangs or ans, are organized extended family may paraphrase S, we may say l, and indeed many ies, there is a tudy the mediatory social class and
redit of Rohana t he ha 5 drawn In a schematic form, from the inception The Revolutionary on of the JWP, a We can criticize :ore, is however,
states that:-
class of Sri Lanka,
Jed the capitalist pment, has built nd two capitalist
the UNP and the two major capittheir roots and the ociated kin groups a UNP, which has family as its root wala — Jayawardane lary, and the SLFP Dias Bandaranake st and the Obeysean as its subsidiary, i tille to time upport of other parties, such as ngress and the and the political pper strata of the such as the MEP, he CP and hawe capitalis path of :his country. The it led by the er and Son) and ments led by the s (husband and ited Front governP. LSSP-CP haya emselves in the pitalist oppression hey have continued
to deceive the oppressed classes to this end. Are we going to permit this capitalist system to be perpetuated through this scheme of political rotation? Are we going to allow ourselves to be fooled any longer by the two political parties of the capitalist class that have grown up around the two families that hawe en throned themselves as the two royal families of Sri Lanka and those opportunists of the upper strata of the petty bourgeoisie who pursued them while dressed in leftist apparel? Forgetting the traumatic experiences of the last thirty years are we going to be taken in by their dishonest, frandulent and gilded promises?... The capitalist rule of the UNP will only continue to aggravate the current neo-Colonial socio economic and political crisis. Does this nean that at the next General Elections, we are going to to fall back into this hell which is capitalism by re-electing the Dias Bandaranaike family which has become the curse of the oppressed classes....?
...Yes, the time has come to cry "Enough' to these two royal clans of the capitalist class,
Yes, the time has come to cry "Enough' to these two parties of the capitalist class."
Truly a passionate appeal, evoca
tive in its phraseology, of the 2nd Deciaration of Hawana, the implication of which is clear: In
Sri Lanka, the anti-capitalist Struggle runs through or is fused with, the anti oiligarchit struggle, the struggle against the family dynasties.
Mrs. B's civic rights
Far from crying "enough!" the major portion of the Left seems to be crying 'encore! encore!" Whether they are conscious of it or not, this is the"botton line' of their convoluted arguments concerning the need to defend Sirima's civic rights. All of them se em to forget that the struggle for democratis rights cannot be considered in the abstract. A struggle must be waged on this or that democ
9

Page 12
ratic issue only if it is in consonance with the strategic interests of the Socialist revolution, and I for cпе fail to see how the defense of Sirima's democratic rights can be in the interests of the Sri Lankar socialist revolution. Indeed I can clearly perceive just the opposite sido of the Story. The present defense of Sirima by the Left runs counter
ta those afore-Tiention ed interests,
In the first place, what is all the fuss about? The left leaders
have failed to grasp the real essence of this matter and present it to the masses in a proper perspec
tive. The harassment by Sirima and Felix of the UNP since 1973 and conversely the present move
by the UNP government against Sirima and Felix, a te nothing but the internecine Warfare of these two "great gangs" who "alternately take possession of state power and exploit it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends" (Engels). It is a contradiction ELW czem "Ti y ėl fracticris of the same class' (Lenin). It is an in tra class contradictlon rather tham
an inter-class on is a casualty of
internecine gang
dependent bourg ative political for leader of one gal the leaders of th folk who hawe bɛ plundered by both - have nothing to fact they should the eneries bat Ðã ch Cithfir, thữ " ploited masses wi
much lighter, fratricidal "gang , period of brief
popular forces, w. Inish and accumula for the inevitable
At the present the dis unity of balanc of forces final, decisiva stru agains t the UNF
not feasible In
tO measu precision
Union Platform W. Counter Scales and are manufactured t international standa guarantee of absolu
Manufactured by
SAMUEL's C 37 Old Moor St.
O
 

e. Thus, Mrs. B
this Mafia style
warfare of the :oisie's representmations. If the ng is wounded by e other, the poor 2er and arc being gangs of scoundrels 3 weep over. In Tejoice because if ...ter and wound work of the cill be made that This period of war" should be a
respite for the ho should replete their strength
showdown.
moment, given the Left, Line
is 3; Luch that a ggle by the Left Government is the immediate
present. The failure of the General Strike proves this. The absence of a united Left front providing a combative socialist alternative, means further more that the benefit of all struggles waged by the Left and Working class forces, accrues mainly to the SLFP, immediate task therefore is for the Left to take on the relatively weaker enemy, the SLFP, concentrate all its fire on it and try to further weaken it politically. This would mean that, as in the pre 1956 period the political arena would be sharply polarized and the masses would be presented with a Left option in the inevitable contestation with the UNP. The JWP perceives this, but what it does not perceive, is the need for Left unity, both to "overtake and surpass" the SLFP, as well as to take on the UNP ewentually. The CFSL's leftwing (or what some centrist CP leaders have already chosen to dub the party's "ultra left"), does understand this, but does not see Tı Lo be in the strong position that they were several months ago.
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Page 13
In search of na
Jayantha Somasundaram
2 the nineteen sixties a lot of commonplace things were considered bad form and decadent. First they did away with racing and sent away the race horses; Then they did away with New Year's Day, but the revellers wouldn't go away. So, necessity being the mother of invention, they annoin tad January first as "national heroes day.' And after that, they went in search of national heroes.
In 1848, for the last time, Sri Lanka took on the foreign invador
in a hard fought rebellion, Sri Lanka has been in search of national heroes ever since.
The leadership of the nation was thereafter given over to a few farmilies--we have in fact been ruled dynasties ever since. In the Legis
lative Council for example, with exception of E. H. Dehgama, the scat for the Sirhalese was held
continuously by a member of the Bandaranaike-Obeysekera clan. When they wore top hat and tails they were called Dias', when they shed them for cloth and banian they became Bardaranaikes.
The Tamil seat was likewise dominated by one family, to which Sir Muttu Coomaraswamy and his nephews the Ponnambalams belonged. But they enjoyed nothing like the monopoly of the Lame Sinhalese aristocracy.
The polite historians at our universities refer to these people as the "Reform Mowerient'. In their anxiety to come up with a nationalist movement they grab desperately at the Buddhist revival movement of the Anagarika Dharmapala with one hand and the Hindu revival movement of Arumuga Navalar with other. But these were parochial movements which in themselves never laid claim to national leadership. And to stylisc them as our nationalists would be almost as monstrous as to apply the term to their progerly like K. M.P. Raja
ratne and Suntheralingam.
Which ever way Lanka Hād no na of the type that Ludar Mahatta (G; Under Ahmad suk chima under Ho is why it becom us in retrospect heroes and even for the Th.
The Ceylon N has a history an that are equally ginated in 1882 Agricultural Assoc de Soysa 'the wea entrepireneurs" se the Interests of th ters" according t Siwa, Professor o At a time wher it rasing to emulate nisation adopted National Congress
The franchise w to Sri Lanka again the 'nationalist le: Franchise of ISO the Earl of Crgy State for the Col wersal Franchise in the Leath of opp: national heroes - E Tamil.
In 1915 the bl. heroes then in the cil on dorsed the Erilis. S. C. Current m2Inbar Bardaranaike clan that the jailed "half a dozen dg: hawe been trying of the Buddhists." them as "nobodie: the lower sectio lese community Somebodies of the
Not surprising Office itself in it pondence referred Sekera as "a silly characterised A. J. who "can't put ty and was therefor

tional
you cut it, Sri ionalist Tovemant grew in India andhi in Indonesia :: no and in IndoChi Minch. This 25 necessary for O create ratioma |
calendar a day
lational Congress d a performance Tmisertable. It orias the Ceylon iation which C. H. thiest of Karawe up "to safeguard he Ceylonese planIo Dr. K. M. do f Ceylon History. Wä5 not embarIndia, this orga:he name Coylon
35 in Troduced inst the wishes of iders' The limited
was the gift of e, Secretary of lones, änd Uni| | 3 | Camo irn osition from our oth Sinhalese and
ilk of Our national Legislative Counrepression of the Obcysekera, the of the Diastold the Council Ceylonese were iigning villains who to pose is leaders He identified i who belonged to In cof the Sinhatrying to Take èT15 el wees."
ly the Colonial 5 official corre 5 - to S. C. Obeyold ass." They R. Soysa as one vo words together 'e likely to give
heroes
no trouble." Reginald Stubbs sums up our national heroes is "a decent lot of people but by no means intelligent and with absolutely no backbone."
The Ceylon National Congress which was instituted in 1919 soon became a low-country Sinhalese
caucus because the Tamils abandoned it in 1921 and the Kandyans formed their Kandyan National Assembly in 1925. The Congress became a farce that the Senanayakes themSelyes left it to the mercies of the Communist Party in 1945.
History is important not merely to provide us with laughs, it is also enlightening because it tells us about the kind of background and
men cality that dominates the life and work of our leaders,
Old habit 5 dia hard. The first
cabinet in the dominion had D. S. Senanayake as Prime Minister, son Dudley as Minister of Agriculture, nephew Sir John as Minister of Commerce, nephew R. G. as Minister of Trade and cousin J. R. Jayawardene as Minister of Finance.
In the Republic we had the Ratwatte-Dias-Bandaranaike clan in power. History keeps repeating itSelf, appearing sometimes as tragedy and at other times as comedy.
NEXT ISSUE
3. H. A. Seneviratne : Tissa Abeysekeras film on N. M.
Jayantha Somasunda ram : Is Borman dead - Sagara : The form- ||
ing of Content
Sanmugathasan's “Mao on Trial” which was unavoidably held over from this issue.
품

Page 14
THE LEFT IN INDIA (2)
Return to Stagnation
Gal || Om Wedt
WE this
Licr ?
First, the CPM's opposition Lo the Assamese movement and to the Naga and Mizo armed revolts in the northeast has left it without any leadership role in the major political issue of the last year. Even though the party calls India a multinational" country it has in recent years refused to grant that
returri Lo Star13
the nationalities have a right to self-determination on the grounds that a breakup" of India would
only aid imperialist conspiracies. In essence, the party has put its bets against the development of the northeast movement into a revolutionary struggle capable of shaking the Indian state and instead is standing with the bourgeois State against the movements,
Corresponding to this is the high priority the CPM is placing on the protection of its existing governments in West Bengal and Kerala. Generally the party's policy is to work as an honest reform government with in the capitalist fra Tework and to increase its base by prototing anti-feudal land reform and economic development, The latter necessarily means both attempts to woo Indian and IT ultinational big business to in west in the states and to subdue tride unio strike mo Yements. This in turn has led to a fair amount of disilius ion ment both among urban workers and petty bourgeois intellectuals in Bengal, where the party has been in power now for Lyo years, though it stil "LİS GOTT ဒိuစီးfinitial rural support at a result of efforts to protect sharecroppers and peasants against absentes landlords. Even in thC rLrll areas, however, the CPM's base is among the middle masses of the countryside in a way that may only aid the development of an emerging kulak class, and the land reforms currently passed by the West Bengal government are little more than what some other States hawe dore under Congress governments throughout the years. For this reason, many Calcutta intellectuals are arguing that
the Left Front go' the Congress was it first came to idealism of the inde — "Eimite te for T nothing more." In
lard refor This håYE
|lished feudal lärd a high degre e : Corncentration artid
shed agricultural
government hard go ahead apart f. pension Program trying to woo lists, The result
a stagnation in t of the Com TL. from the right to CQInter it of thic. It
The CFM, mu old CPI has ay tightly disciplined Structure. Tı i5 h; in giving it a C loyal and Tilitant negative side is triari 51 | 33 in regard to opp This is especially the Naxalites, , treat5 as a kirnd the Indian politic aš a gern Lin: på The kind of infi, beri characteris: Cii years in Bengal we killed them', young CPM cadre off handedly) seem ened during the F tseiltills found thes a dictatorship, returned. Partieu Andhra where ch expanding among rërs and di lit5 : middle rich pe; ind in Same: In and Tripura whic| camı : İltic Confrr CPM-ruled gove frontation has bic: some of this m Naxalite adventu Sectaria IliST Statit when it refuses

vermmcm : i : * '''what
in 1952" (when lower after the endence struggle) ist, uncorrupt BLIT Kerala also, where ! substantially abolord is in but left if capitalist land
a still impoveri
labour class, the y knows how to 'om for Tulating a For labourers and Bombay industriain both cascs is he Support basc: ists and threats agather with dis
ft.
:h Timore th3n1 the ways had a yery
''Stalinist" party as had advantagos ore of relatively activists; but its Lha party's secorganisations and concent:5 con the leeft. true in regard to *yh3IT thg CP-1 of disease afflicting a scene and not I rt of the left. ghting which had of the worst. ("they killed us,
is the way a | referred to it ed to Ihaw e le55Emergency as both mselves confronting ut i'w Et hä5 arly in parts of e ML forges år 2 agricultural labouLind confronting a 35ant CFM base, idents in Kerala *0 Maxa lite5 have 2ntation with the “n m1 c:In [I5, the CorhI wion, While igh L bic: duc to rism hi (CPM', is out ewer more to support Nax
the reasons
lites on ci wil rights issue (it threatered to walk out of a left and democratic front meeting a year ago when the question of a resolution Condemming thic murder of Maxalite student leader was brought up). Other democratic mass worker's who haya felt the weight of beatings and charges of "extremism” or "conspiracy" by the CPM inlude a number of Christian church|linked radicials who hawe been werking among fishermen in Goa and tribal peasants in Maharashtra.
The basic problem with the CPM i 5 that like the CF, it šil digfimi : 5 a national bourgeoise and a "rich peasantry" as a part of its front. | th | ndiä tx this i 3 lor Fer sects to work. The result is that in the rural areas the organising of agricultural labourers continues to be subordinated to the needs of richer farmers (in essence Capitalist farmers) and Naxalites and other groups are condemned for trying to pit "agricultural labourers and tribals" against the "rest of the peasantry." Similarly, in the political oppositional TowerTent, the LDF represents a conscious strategy of alliance with bourgeois parties in which no call is given for real peoples' power but instead the focus is simply a change in government - ie replacing Indira Congress by the CPM or its allics.
Thus the LDF is faltering; the CPM, its leading component, has no strategy for leading the alliance beyond organising mass pressure for a change in the government or for the protection of its own State gower Misnents within the existing bourgeois framework. There is no effort to build up a genuine, mass-based left unity including dissident communists such as the Naxalites or a growing number of semiMarxist radicals, and no real attempt to adopt methods of struggle oriented to building up popular organs of peoples' power. And so, quite naturally, for the impatient masses of India who have already become disillusion cd with the bourgeois opposition, this new

Page 15
opposition does not significantly different
The "Far Left' Against the Bourgeoisie - But How?
appear as a alternative.
Slightly over thirteen years after the Naxalbari rewolt and the formati crn of a new trend of "corTn munist revolutionaries' and ten years after the founding and dispersion of the
CPI (ML) in a Storm of polico. bullets and state repression, the Naxalite movement continues to
survive and even slowly grow in India, although the various groups remain badly factionalised and politically uncertain.
in many areas, such as Bhojpur and Champaran in Bihar state, many Telengana districts in Andhra and in pockets elsewhere, Naxalite groups hawę been a ble to mairn ta in an unshakable base among the rural poor in the face of all types of police repression, including laws declaring these areas "disturbed' (giving the police rights to shoot con sight) and mass arrests and frequent killings of Cadre, Among industrial workers, the various ML groups Still hawe nothing to compare in strength to the trade unions of the CPI and CPM - but there is a genuine base in many disparate
sections including parts of the mining and steel belt aud some advanced industries.
Outside agricultural labourers and poor pea 5 ants, the Max ali LC:s stil| have their greatest influence among the petty bourgeoisie, including students. This includes the building of democratic rights organisations throughout the country which take up mot only is sue of Protection of the rural poor and Naxalite activists against police repression but also atrocities against women, repression against Workers' organisations and other problems. These organisations are still themselves weakened by their splits (there is a tendency for each ML faction to try to have its own democratic rights organisation) but there is some tendency to unity growing and so far they remain the only force in the country actively taking up democratic right as such.
Besides this the ML groups (along with some independent Marxists) have been playing a leading role in a recent resurgence of what might be called a "peoples."
Lesson the Pr.
rice th: Clict O. Pridc office, thë burical the real job of its Warious for T ādage2 Fays tribute invisible authority civil ser wice, the hi of the ice-berg o this, it is submit of the continuity
Contesting this seasoned Washing to the importanc American practice President brings hundred top aide upper crust of the Other5 disagrec. arguo, licks the ic cians and their ad || thic fira forr shaping spirit of is all important.
Students of foi watch how the this debate will wo Reagan and his Already the probl hawc o verwhelmec all Lhe Presidents
Calling him a 'c strategist' a Peki yst, Ren Yan, Cline, one of Mr. on Far Eastern
Culture' movemen plays, poster e. Science fairs, and ya i mass-level hawe brought abo Cultura i renaiss; biggest since the
Communists fou ni Peoples' theatre Progress, siwe Wri
All kinds of trends, groups, and CPM-5 have been a part c Most are on a while the bigge organisations at p | bly the NaxaliteWriters Associatio the independent (t Sa mudaya drama taka stata.
(To

for some of esident’s men
.ed Prime Minister () moves into his |Crazy takes over house-keeping. In Iulations, the gli to the Chorthous, of the permanent ddern Seven-gighths f state power. In EE, is the Secret
of policy, Proposition, some gtonologists point e of the nowg
whereby the new with him several 3 who for in the 2 key institutions. Officialdom, they leas of the politivisers into shape. m as policy, the the bureaucracy
"eign affairs will
} "33 and tror 15 cf
ırk out a 5 Ronald
men taka gyer.
gris of transition
a few, if not If,
ConfLI; Cid American ng Reyiew analslaughtered Ray Reagan's advisers affairs. fter
E. Songs, street xhibits, peoples' TIOUS experiments rolitical education it a kind of left à 1 ce that is the 1940s whom the ded their Indian Association and ters Association. including women's ympathetic groups if this movement. focalized basis, 5 T55 ciltrā "C Sent are probacd Revolutionary m in Andhra ard ut cloše to CPM rOLI p iim Kara mal
be continued)
whirlwind tour of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan, Ray Clime a dwa cated the ** Lupgrading of US relations with Taiwan" and asked mainland China to open up the country to the outside world". He also invited China Lo adopt Indre civilised norts of behaviour"
The P.R. analyst wrote: "Mr. Cling should study a little Chinese history and acquaint himself with the fact that the Chinese people are not in the habit of currying favour with or falling on their knees before any foreign Power. They also know how to deal with those why try to provoke than and who slight their national sentiments and sovereign rights".
While Mr. Reagan's spokesman Brady did his best to sweep awa the broken crockery after Cline had crashed through the China shop, a top State Dept. Official, according to the NYK Times, was accousing Reagan advisers "of endangering the life of the US Ambassaor" and "encouraging increased brutality by rightist forces" in El Salvador, thus contributing to the murder of three ^ merican nun 5, and the 552. Sination of six Salvadorean leftist leaders.
The accusations were made by Patricia Derian, Assistant Secretar of State, in an interview with the A55ociated Press. The Reagan aides had criticised US Ambassador Robert White for "supporting economic refor 15 in that Country' and for attacking the human rights record of the junta responsible for the current bloodshed. The aides had
sul Egested that the Ambassador would be fired.
Joining his colleague in accusing the Reagan aides of worsening the crises in Central America, the US Ambassador in Nicaragua, Lawrence Pezzullo said he feared that the Reagan adTinistration would "foed rightwing" by letting it "eat Աբ Latin America". Ambassador Pezzullo told the Washington Post: "It is cheaper than some other places like the Middle east, Soviet union or China where no president is going to have much room for radical policy changes".

Page 16
  

Page 17
Safeguard the
deteriorating state of affairs in the
developed countrics and create a buffer to the forces of the developing world, this NIEO should be promulgated thy say!
The redistribution of wealth between nations is clearly of no use if it is achieved at the expense of the poor within rich nations and for the benefit of the rich within poor nations. The principles of the N. E. O. are Tore o qual distribution of wealth and more participation in the making of decisions by those whom they affect. These principes of
the N. E. O. are as relevant and necessary within nations as they are between nations.
Yet, a recent study has shown
that wealth and income in Latin America is concentrated in the hands of the richest 20% of the population and even more intensely in the hands of the richest 5%. According to James P. Grant, the total income of the richest 20% in Mexico is now sixteen times greater than the total income of the poorest 20%. India too has been called by an Indian cconomist" a society of the top 10%". "The average income share of the lowest 40% in all underdeveloped countries as a group amounts to about 12.5%," reports World Bank Economist Holb's Chenery. This maldistribution of income within developing countries depriwes the poor majority of the basic necessities of life and so contributes to the crises of food, population, unemployment, violence and the environment. Redistribution of existing wealth within the developing COUn Cries would not in itself splve the problem of Powerty, World Employment Programme researches have shown that the rich in the developing countries spend much of their surplus wealth on luxury goods from abroad. This does nothing for the balance of payments, local industries, employment or social cohosion. Sri Lanka is an example,
'Economic Growth" alone is widely recognised as no longer adequate as a measure of development. A World Bank report has concluded "More than a decade of rapid
economic grow. Countries has E benefit to ре their populati, opinion today, the new Ways should be basec of basic human Water, health c: tion and employ
With in the di the distribution rously skewed. dispo5525sed
World itself. Th Can 5 Who || we ii richest nation o old people in E cold in the mi thousands of Reg Who Suffor fron discriminationexamples. The between rich an become very cle The l'essons the are learning fro are reflected in is found that
is going or in b is, the processes affluent are the which lead to de And there arc argue that a Ի the interest
World. Mihajlo are mot the i de w are actually the "Wyo."""
All of the ab up to the central paths by which and with in natio Ced. If so, it gris Gd that thi of wealth also stribution of p 5Шch a пmove i resisted by t hands that we is now concent ribution of wealt increasing partici -Illaking clearly Tĩ1 Cre thā Tỉ ec ments with pre: It implies, as th
5THIC 5, а ПГ у it between rich rich and poor
employers and c and Cid, mer ant

h in underdeveloped een of little or 10
rhaps a third of oit, "There is an which argues that
of development
on the satisfaction
noods such as food, re, housing educa"Isle L.
eveloped world too, of wealth is dangeThere are the Within the rich | C || 6 million Amerii powerty in the п сагth; the 2,000 1ritain who died of d winter of 1972; -Indians' in Canada i poverty due to are some of the process of injustice Id poor nations has 2ar in recent years. developed world rn the third world their society. It the same process oth 'Worlds". That which make some ! same processes titution for others. even those who W. E. C., is also in if the developed Mes a rovic says we eloped world but O Y er developed
We arguments add
task of exploring nequalities between 13 might be reduha 5 to be recoel redistribution
T1 gaf 15 the red
OWer and that is likely to be hose in whose
alth and power rated. The redisth and power and āti ir deisign implics much COf TT C adjustient frameworks. e N. E. O. itself relationship be and poor nations,
Within nations, TITI Ployees, leaders women or the
human race and natural environment. The Ideal needed is a harmonized co-operative world in which each part is a centre, living at the expense of nobody else, in partnership with nature and in solidarity with future gепCratlоп5.
| 1974 a U.N. symposium concluded: we have faith in the future of mankind on this planet. We believe that ways of life and social systems can be evolved that more just, less arrogant in their material demands, more respectful of the whole planetary environ".tון סוח
The road forward does not lie through despair of "Doom-watching nor through the easy optimism of successions technological quick fixes or documents and orders. It lies only through co-operative search for ways to achiave fundamental human rights, through building of Social structures to express those rights.
What ever Declaration'' may be made, the United Nations cannot legislate changes. It is a for in which changes can be discussed before the governments of the World, and acquire an acceptability.
There are entrenched elites who will relinquish nothing to the underprivileged except under the duress of armed force i. e. peoples war. As such a peaceful change towards
a just Society is more problematical than ever.
Today what is great hesitation to order is declared, of the poor would not be solved.
experienced is a Promulgate thi5
The Marxists in the developing poor nations in fact demandan independent and just society and
economy, and to achieve this they aim at a struggle by the proleta
riat Supported by the working masses of every such nations. It is." only through socialism
power could be attained. Marxists have two major arguments regarding this N. l. É. O. It is said,
once this new international mic order is declared, and if followed by the capitalist countries, than the advance towards socialist
(9977 tirl Lied can page 24 )
5
are
the problems of is
that equitable distribution of wealth and

Page 18
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Page 19
  

Page 20
else, Iraqi oil his succeded in uniting the two! It enters our minds as to whether this friend
ship on an international issue between two parties which are sworn enemies at the national level is a gloomy hint at what the future holds in store. It would not be unjustifiable if observers were lead to worder if the WP, which à year ago traversed the countryside speaking of the 'End of a Journey for the SLFP, ha 5 mcw Cribarked on a "trip" with the samc SLFP! Isn't the present leadership of the JWP, which is replacing Marxist with pragmatism, only ConcerTed with consolidating their own position
Q 7. Your union Look Lup an advanced position on the question of the Tamil people's solf-determination. What is your opinion of the WF's position on the National QuesלחםLi
A: Just like every other reformist left-wing political party in this country, the JWP too does not have a straightforward policy regarding the national question. The reason for this is clear, in order to achieve at least some degree of success in an election, one has to på nder to the psyche of Sinhala -Speaking majority of this country, Most of them are chauvinist. In order to win them over, these parties are compelled to structure their policies in a way that is unjust as far as the Tamil-speaking People are cencerned. Thus, instead cf carrying on an active ideological Struggle against the chauvinism Which is 3 n incwi La Eble regult of capitalism and neo-colonialism, these left-wing parties only reinforce it
further. Using the theory that the LSSP's position regarding the national question led to their
losing the support of the Sinhala masses in the '50s as a yards tick, The JWP therefore put forward an Un marxist position regarding the national question. It must be said that the book written by Lionel Bopage, a member of Politbureau of the JVP in this regard is extremely confused. On the one hand, the book accepts the right of self-determination of the Tamil -speaking people. Yet, by saying
that since these people are in the
8
grip of a bourgeoi. -- the TULF - they use this right to objectives, it contra statement. It is gonfront a 32 Wol's the unity of Mar: practice, with r. national question. tely Said that this which has beer1 : pl basic strategy of parliamentary path.
We sco the or solution of the Ilti Sri Larkå, is LC be equality and integri solution to both th the Sinhala-speakin; Lh: CommunälIsr† 1 in the TarTn il-speaki to national oppress mous social debate tion i5 rnecessary fi place. It is our to work towards t
(To be cor
Letters . . .
(Cantinued fra
with Sinhala and
lations, so that thi could see its sple ments? Surely it
of money - they it, and La Spare, tā māls carli". confidence perhaps number of reason (away) why a theoretical system the Sri Lankan c yet been formul them is the curi that it's due to poverty of theor realis that this cut both ways think of a batter all this Praxis hå: only a ridiculous m oretical sphere. S neers though even tically bewailing tl 'a comprehénsiye term of aesthetics resurrecting old fog or no relevance last quarter of th the development ( ist perspectives. S
(or fried or

s political party are unable to
attiin Sccialist dicts the earlier clear that they risis concerning xist theory and gard to the It can be defini
policy is one un out of the he party - the
ly path to the ornal question in that of national ty. This is the he chauvinism of g majority and that has grown ing People due ion. An enorand transformior this to Lake Lask for today hese goals.
Itinued)
21 tIEEל, נד
English trans
whole worl did achievecan't be lack had plenty of for so many Lack of self. } He gives a s to explain comprehensive relevant to on text hasn't ated. A Thorg Ծus argument the enemy's : doesn't he argument can Off-hand, I can
reason wh brought ஃ ius in the thica mudran's pionow ritualishe absence of theoretical sys' artė busier gies with little to life in the is century or af frash sarxto that even
Þage 20')
HUNAS FALLS HOTEL
ELKADUWA
WWFEREF GWERY
PROSPECT
PEASES . . . .
RESERWATIONS
PHONE: 3 894
| 2 | S | R JAMES PEIRIS MAWAITHA
COLOMBO 2.

Page 21
SOUTH ASIA (4)
Great Powers
N. M. M. I. Hussein
This paper has so far sought to establish that some degree of
regional co-operation should be possiblic at present, which could becomic very considerable in the course of tima. The question of whether this will be possible without leading to relations of dominance and dependence within the region has to be cxamined.
It has been noted in this paper that India has managed to establish satisfactory and friendly relations with all its neieghbours from 1977 to the present time August 1979. These relations may deteriorate but the demonstration of the possibility of good-neighbourly relations remains significant for indicating that co-operative regional relations without dominance and dependence should be possible in the future,
The present section will examine the relevance of South Asia’s relations with the great powers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, as they obviously have a special importance for the problem of working out co-operative relations in South Asia without linkages of dominance and dependence. It has already been surmised in this paper that South Asia could become an area characterised by intensified great power rivalry, but the great powers could also provide extra-regional options important for achieving a balance within South Asia.
South Asia is a region that as a whole had, from the time of decolonisation in the late forties, an unusually independent position in relation to the great powers cornpared to the other regions of the Third World. The Arab countries, for instance, had to keep aloof from the Soviet Union for many years, quite unlike India. It seems retrospectively astonishing that when Egypt bought arms in 1955 from the Soviet Union, the first Arab arms purchase from a Communist Country, it was regarded as so daring a departure from the established norms that it was necessary to pretend that the arms were of Czechoslovak provenance. No such
and ir
constraint could
for India at the countries of the did hawe special
LJ. S. BLI L that Pakistan's assess interests in rela
not by any enthu In the Cold war.
tari established
tions with China sixties, at a pe was a rathema to preserving frien the U.S. and th
Out any apparen
From the sation in the Asian countries u5ually iחu חa חi in relation to compared to c regions. Latin. A East, South Ea. Wsia, som : whic position only at Part of thị: Fgāś that South Asia what could be tional terms as of influence of Latin America a was it regarded portance in the C the Soviet Union tant part of th
was that in the great powers Inc. for great poy
this meant that
was anxious to h; with most of tht vicinity of India
as with countric regions. Of the hc: Sowiet Unior CXCII:llernt relatio it is regarded a ha 5 bcQn Cspccia helping India bui usually regarded
for great power has occasionally tions with India
preclude recogniti for India, as show of Mr. Warren
Deputy Under

ndian predominance
have been imagined time. One of the region, Pakistan, relations with the was motivated by ment of its owym tion to India and siasm to participate Significantly PakisVery friendly rela
from the early riod when Chima the West, while
dly relations with is was donc with
t difficulty.
ime of decoloniate Forties South
See T to hawe been Independent position the great powers :Cutries in other
inerica, the Middle st Asia and East h acquired a similar : a later period. on might have been reither constituted regarded in tradia legitimato sphere the U. S., unlike nd the Pacific, mor as of crucial imonfrontation against . The more impore reason probably perception of the dia had the potential wers status, and neither great power Awal Special relacions 12 JlIntrie; im Lh: "ןeחnהוח Eהחsa בו hם חi 25 || 5-f the Other two great powers, 1 has all along had is with India, and 5 significant that it lly Co-operative in 龄 heavy industry, as the sine qua non Statu 5, The J. S. nad troubled relabLI I this does not on of a specialstatus wn by the statement Christopher, U. S. Secretary of State,
in 1977, that the U.S. regards India as having a "predominant" position in the sub-continent. This was subscquently clarified as referring merely to the economic weight.
it can be argued that the earlier propensity Lo wiew India as having some sort of special position would hawe been strengthened after the early sixties when it became apparent that a bipolar world was not feasible and that a future world order had to be approached on a In Leti-polar premise, unless of course the postulates of Non-alignment are accepted. International trends since then may be interpreted as favouring a multi-polar world even more strongly, and there could be a greater propensity today to see Some countries, such as India, as having a predominant position in their regions.
This does not mean, of course, that there will be no great power interaction in the region and that the South-Asian countries will only have the problem of working out satisfactory relations between themselves. It is to be expected that both great powers will, for various reasons ideological or otherwise, avail themselves of any opportunities that may arise to establish special relations with the SouthAsian Countries. This has already happened in the case of Afghanistan after April 1978. The fact that a region has a potential powercentre should only mean that the thrust of the great powers may be as intense as in some other regions. Consequently the small nations of South-Asia could for the most part anticipate less danger of satellisation in their relations with the great Powers. The great prowide the extra-regional options that Will help small South Asiam nation5 avoid a sense of claustrophobia, and this could facilitate casier intraregional relations.
Afghanistan
Striking illustration of an internal
momentum driving a South Asian country towards special relations with a great power is provided
9

Page 22
by the casc of W.fghanistan. What tock place in April 1978 has to be Linderstood in the context of developments in Afghanistan since 1919. The attempt at a radical transformation of the country by the modernising monarch, Aman Lullach, who Was inspired by Kemal Ataturk, failed in the twenties duc to obscurantist forces and Afghanistan had a very diferrent evolution from that Turkey. Daud'5 anti-royalist coup in 1973 merely meant the continuation of royal rule under republican guise. In April 1978 only six percent of the population was literate, and, it must have seemed to the Khalk and Parocham parties that there was no prospect whatever of dynamic development for Afghamistan except through a revolution and special relations with the Soviet Union.
South Asia as a whole has not shown the ciconomic dynamism of East Asia or even of South East Asia, and the prospects are regarded as less hopefull than in the Middle East, Africa, cor Latin America, because of relative paucity of resourCes in relation to population. Sometimes, the economic development of a South Asian country, has seemed impressive, Pakistan for instarce, which in the last decade wis written up by Peter Druker
as showing together with South Korea the most impressive performance among the developing
countries, but that image of Pakistan changed subsequently. It can
La Arguic2d also ti since has been judged in terms
model of capital
ment though no meeting the nee but development
inclined to be sic ridia and there i its performance ssive. It remains Assian countries
distance away fr growth and they as displaying the characteristic of sc Asia' even seems term among devel:
The usual 畿 ina de quate Perf: South Asian econ! is the unfavourab lation to te 50 LI "CE has been equally, favourable in oth tanco in Japan, ! Singapore, which able economic dyna accepts the view determinants of ment are the cul encing behavio Lu|| institutions. The development are imperialism, neoquate rates of Sawit unfavourable term quate a id, the North South Ec the difficulties in
Letters . . .
(Continued from page 18)
if they had all the world enough and historical time, there would still stretch before them wast deserts of nullity.
it's this kind of literary gravedigging and the critical highjacking they indulge in that has partly led to the progressive movement being in the doldrums today. When you begin to functicn like a Mutual Admiration Society, no worth-while standards can possibly emerge.
A good example of this critical high-jacking is the overrated Sankaram, a play dealing with bloodless abstractions. It was performed recently in Jaffna, for the first time after elevers years. The leaps I saw on stage were quite pleasing to the eye but
O
must say that, ic play was a grea - into the arr with whom the here is having about shelving 1 ti || the Tamil
freedom, No revolutionary int play-wright: wha is the actual ef see on the stage revolutionary Im ending are obv with even a nodi with Marxism,
that our revolu missed the obvi explain it on the Admiration. (SI understand the at a post-perfor defended his endi that the tradition that the clima:

1:1 ti lin dia's performpressive enough, of the Mahala nobis intensive developin terms of ds of the masses,
economists hawe hizophrenic about 5 al5Q the wis', mas b2en Limimpre
that the South are an appreciable om self-5UStained
are not regarded :conomic dynamism Ime regions. South
to be a pejorative opment economists.
lanation for the 3rmance of the omies as a whole le ratio of popu25. But the ratio if not more, um*Is ar eag, for ingSouth Korea, or have shown a notirmis T. This paper that the basic economic developCLral factors influpatterns and
causes of шпфегmot to found in Colonialism, inade
1gs and in Westment 5 of trade, ina d2
inequieties of Onormi e la Lions, the way of indus
cology-wise, the leap backwards is of the TULF Ieft mowerment a running battle he class struggle latio Wils its ine doubts the entions of the t's at issue here ect of what we . The counterlications of the
ELS апу ling acquantance How come thern :ionary pundits Jus? I can only basis of Mutual rangely enough, play-Wright had, mante discussion, ng on the ground form demands be the battle
tri3 lizi tio arid ther jifficulties du 2 to Li favourable "initial conditions." Japan broke through to a modernizep economy after 1868 by generating its own capital out of donastic resources and while it had only silk exports to pay for imported machinery. Some Third World countrie 5 ha'we fred notably better than others while facing the same or similar Lfavoura Ele conditions. It seems a realistic hypothesis that the basic decriminants of iconomic de welopment are cultural factors influencing behaviour patterns and institutions,
If the factors required for dyna
Inic change are not to be found in a society, it is most likely to follow from a high degree of
interaction with a developed centre, Judging from the historical evidence about the dynamics of cultural change. Probably the most important factor behind the relatively high economic dynamism shown by Some of the South East Asian or Latin American countries, compared with South Asian countries, has been their higher degree of interaction with a developed centre, It is significant that Afghanis tan sought specia| relations with the Soviet Union, and it may be significant also that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka now place so much emphasis on foreign investment. There may be a growing recognition in the region that a higher degree than in the past of interaction with a developed centre is required for economic dynamism.
between the protagonist and the antagonist! Who's being a formalist now?). Sankaram is a text book illustration of what happens when you ignore the inter-dependence of form and content - the point that Mr. Reggie Siriwardene made with characteristic lucidity.
Samudrain seems bent on making this exchange as in terminable as the liegendary Han Uman's tail (and knowing what havoc that caused Rawanan's Lanka, I Wouldn't Want the Same fa. Le to befall the Lanka Guardian). I have no intention of Wasting any more timeand space - on Samudran. If, Kaspar-like, he wishes to interpret my unilateral withdrawal as another 'famous victory", he's wellcome to thump his chest and proclaim he’s the great Cist.
Jafna. A. J. Cапаgаratna

Page 23
Form, content:
Reggie Siri wardena
hile thanking Samudran for WR pairs taking and courteous reply to me (LG, December 1), I wish to conclude my share of this discussion by summing up what seem me the main points of agreement and disagreement between us. But first, a word about my purposes in interwiening in this discussion.
If understand him correctly, Samudran says his first article was pro Waked by a conflict between Marxists and formialists in thc Tamil literary world and what he sees as a tendency towards the isolation and ower—wa luation of form by certain Tamil literary critics. tarn, of course, unable to comment on this, But I shoud like to say that in writing my rejoinder to Samudran, I too was influenced by a current literary context. Too often in Con temporary Sinhala literature we have had plays, poetry and fiction In which a progressive ideology has been offered as if it were a guarantee of artistic excellence, without either the substance of liwod experience or the writer's command of his chosen literary form to support it. whether there is any parallel in the Tamil literary situation I can't say, but | did have this Sinhala literary context in mind when I objected to what seemed to me Samudran's over-simplified opposition between Marxis Th and formalism.
Now to sum up. I am glad Samudran agrees that literary form and content are inter-dependent, and that 'the practice of extracting the ideological content alone for approval or condemnation' is not a valid method of criticism. But when he goes on to say that "tha asser tion - of primacy of content ower form is not relegating form to a less important place but identifying the more decisive of the inseparables in determining meaning and artistic quality', I am frankly unable to understand what he means' To me it seems obvious that if you hold content to be "more decisive' in determining meaning and artistic quality, then you pust hold form to be "less important'.
In what way believe content it 5ive" than form of literary cre: finished work, as the reader? Ngit tio 15 gelem 5 to it is simply not t a Work of liter; begins by concei. to say' and then way in which he it'. Only inferior Works - products Celebration - are way. Everything the psychology o from the record great poets and that in the act production there liri teration betwi, that to ask which decisive is like : first, the chicken if this is true a literary creation, of the act of lite The reader, if ni to literature, do form to content, were only an ou discarded once the reached. In respon work, he grasps cc in a Particular fr act of imaginative
| think Samudra that Content itse of artistic refle points to the fact rate form and abstractions for analytical conveni Samudran says, 't Créatiwe Wrk. . i: consciously purs artistic reflector phenomena throug thé inner world" (and I agree, exc question whether always 'consciously at no stage does t CC Th CCfht, a5 It W but always incarn.

art ideology
docs. Samudran o be "mare deciIn the process tion or r the apprehended by I er of these posiThe tenable, For rue that in creating ature, the writer wing "what he wants working out "the is going to say and unsuccessful of pure will and Written in that we know about f literary creation 5 left Beiਰੋ by novelists suggests of conception and is a continuous "C Cote - - -
of thesTr i5 Tiore 15king which came or the egg. And f the process of It is equally true !rary apprehe2nslon. ëls at a || Sensitye tesn't go through as if the form ter covering to be Content has been ding to the literary In tent a5 embodied orm, in a simple 2 apprehension.
n's own statement If is 'a product Ction of reality" that we can sepa
content only as
the purpose of er 1 CE. For if, as he content of a 5 the result of a Jed process of
1 of Particular h the "prism of of the artist," ept that I would this process is ' pursued"), then :he artist conceive 'ere, in the raw a ced in form.
Samudran has misunderstood me when he claims that in describing the content of Shelley's Song to the Men of England as I did, was adopting the method of the socialist realist critics whom criticised. Samudran has, I think, failed to take account of the fact that Shelley's theme is a generalised social observation and exhortation(not, for instance, the suffering of
an individual worker). But what makes the poem more than an intellectual state Tent is Shelley's
imaginative and emotional response to his social perception, organised and articulated through poetic form,
חניןudחחנSi is that Brecht
Finally about Brecht. says: "My position
was a great socialist." He is, of course, entitled to give the term his own meaning in using it in this way. But Samudran should
consider the significance of the fact that in his lifetime Brecht was stigmatised by the high priests of socialist rஃm for the 'formillist" elements they found in his plays. I am ready to taka Samudran's word for it that Lukacs in his later Writings accepted Brecht as 'the greatest realist playwright of his time', but when Brecht was li wing and Working, Lukacs : failed to see his importance, nor did he pay to him a fraction of the attention he devoted to tradition realists like Thomas Minn. I have just been looking at a critical work written in conformity with the doctrines of socialist realism - Boris Suchkov's A History of Realism.
I have failed to find in it any reference to Brecht, though it de wote 5 Several pages to Mann, Hemingway and even Steinbeck.
These examples point to the dangers of setting up realism as the only literary form that can be sanctioned by a Marxist ideology. Samudran's stretching of the socialist realist form to include Brecht is no doubt a les ser ewill as compared with the dogmatic exclusion of his work, but if we are to call Brecht 'realist", then why not Marquez or Carpentier? Does the term have any definition or utility at this point?
" |

Page 24
Two vil Ews , oN HANSA VLAK
SqTeqeqeSTqeqATA SASiSAeeAeASSeAeS SASASASeMSeSqeeSeSeqSqLSqSqSLSLSqSLLSLLSLSLLSLLASLLASqTqTSTST TSTSTSTSTSqS
UNM PRESSW
Kārākā Pieris
ansa Wilak' is one of the few Sinhala films of recent date to be received with uniform applause by the critics. Reviews of this film hawe primarily concentrated on explaining a new cinematic mode, on delineating theme and intent, and on calling attention to the fact that this film shows commendable enterprise in a fledgling director. Apart from a few reviews which tend to Elance rather cursorily at the film, the general tone of the articles may be interpreted as instructional and or explanatory, indulgent, rather than objectively critical.
Contrary to the critics, I found "Hansa Wilak" un impressive on Seweral counts. It can hardly be considered to be an original and innowative film when it is so obviously deriwa tiwe. A film of this genre was bound to arrive on the Sinhala screen oso oner or later. It is the Sinhala Counterpart of the introspective or psychological film of the Western cinella.
More significantly this film does not move beyond the initial influences from which it der|Wes. By expressing the central idea in general social terms rather tham in specifically local ones, and in failing to reflect through its subject matter the character and mores of the society in which the film is set, this film has lost the chance of converting a derivative experimental technique into an outstanding. film. Let me elaborate by selecting just one aspect of the social background. This film depicts a situation which if it takes place in Sri Lanka, usually involves the Participation of family, friends, relatives, neighbours and colleagues. These Categories contribute willy milly to the emotional situations which arise, Apart from the scene between Nissanka and his brother in-law, the characters in this filf appear to live in a social semi-vacuum
22
Tore riliselt than of Sri Lam ti 5 fi||T. Which h locale Could Wel into another set affecting the film
It is ewident tit has not waited degree of proficie before he wenture style which calls wision and dext and execution. T come off at a because the audi respond to a d some critics sugg Her TE SCIOUS nesses which pre ping fully the wa the film. It ob editing skill need presentation of t work out the g; film, but, thank: array of sequenc always sure whe fantasy begins - it al. In additio the film were ph teresting.
These weaknes attributed to the a new director,
hi5 redăGIl, cons
would hawe beer is a tendency in local films to g| wye akmesses and o ärd in Cention, Lo the fact that keenly aware of technical diffic. these productions ever, it must that a developi guidelines along A sympathetic 5 weaknesses can tacit encouragem the same way.

E
of other cultures ka. As a result, as a Sri Larıkarı | be transposed iting without it
very much,
at Bandaranayake to acquire some ncy in the medium 3d into a cinematio
for considerable arity in planning "his film fails to first wiewing not 2nce is unable to ifficult film - 35 est — but because technical weakwent us from grasrious nuances of viously lacks the ed for a complex his sort. We can neral drift of the ES TO : cs, we are not re reality ends and and the point of n some parts of otographically unin
ses can be readily inexperience of
But precisely for LT LIC LIVE I-IIlITICII
welco Te. There most reviews of oss over technical weremphasise theme This may be due critics are all too the financial and ilties under which are created. Howc kept in mind ng medium needs which to improve. ilence on technical be interpreted as a on to continue in
confusing
Content-wise, the biggest problem in this film, it appears to me, is that the story gathers momentum without sufficient explanation. Because of this, it is difficult to relace the later fantasie s to the introspection displayed in the early part of the film. The initial fantasies can be accepted as natural to the situation, not so the later fantasies. Further, key events in the film do not always ring true For example, the scene at the police station looks improbable and slightly melodramatic. Certain details need reconsideration. Samanthi takes her child along when she wisits her husband's mistress.
Bandaranayake has not subjected his text to a sufficiently rigorous analysis as regards natural behaviour and the buildup of emotion and tension. This is a basic directoria flaw in most of our local productions, both in the theatre and in the cinema, Directors tend to concentrate on finding an "inter esting' subject and on getting their
thematic slant across. They are satisfied with approximations for everything else. To digress for a
moment, this is the cause of much of the unevenness of contemporary films and plays, with their improbable plots, behaviour which is palpably out of character and innumerable loose ends.
The Thost that can be said for "Hansa Wlak" is that it is a daring wenture for a beginner, but it is certainly not an accomplished film or anywhere near one. Its contribution to the man stream of Sinhala cinema is largely that it adds to its growing eclecticism.

Page 25
WEAK S CREP
Sid at Sri Nandalo cha na
he advance publicity that "Hansa Wilak" had received in the Lanka Guardian could only have led one to believe that it was an outstanding film, | cannot share that wiew and unless one is so terribly middle class in one's attitudes and worships tradition there seems little point in the fill. The film deals with the break up of two marriages and the attendant miseries that ensue and the Director leave, the specta(or in no doubt where his sympathics lie. I have no serious objection to the subject Tatter provided it is dealt with in an adult way without subjecting the spectator to a sermon. | detect moralising even if it be on celluloid and I think any discerning cinema goer would prefer to have his sermon from the pulpit.
The weakness of the film is the weakness of the script and although Bandaranayake the director deserves credit for his adroit craft
manship, he must the overall dissa is his own script
chusen to deal Thiari tal low: relat simple, without
infidelity I am su and the poignancy Ywould hawe Gurface would thern hawa ba to ract to the
the protagonists
ifi. But in Hans: bica Lutiful title — 1 not been able
abo'W02 nnigdd|g cla
The content ap crcdit to Banda Sure grasp of the sure that given : will realise his tial. The film promisingly with Camera - work bit meander lazily to
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take the rap for rintment since he writer. Had he with an extraonship, pure and emphilisisi ing its e that the tragedy of thc situation d. The spectator an feeling enough ragic web which Yere Caught up Wilak - what a he Director has to raise himself 55 banalities,
art one must give "anayake for his Tidium and l artı decent script he Indoubted potenstarts off very some arresting ut soon begin 5 to its predictable
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end. Some cynic may well identify shades of Satyajit Ray and Lester James Peiris but where they are concerned the deliberately slow mowemerit of the camera helpi to high ten the conflicts and climaxes which are seldom unconvincing.
Even if the film escaped being a total tragedy some of the acting came dangerously near to being so with the exception of Swarna Mallawaarachchi who so good looks are not her only asset. Henry Jaya sena's deterioration since his memorable performance in Gamperaliya is said to see and he laayes cinc with the impression that he
is not willing to make the required transition from the stage to the screen. A larger than life portrayal is all very well on the stage but on the screen it could prove tragically hilari 2LS. Not to
be outdone the meddlesome policemen complete the hilarity.
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Page 26
A literary compri
AE years ago a book prepared for HNCE English and titled
Reading with Understanding created i furore a lorg Cor 132 f'War tive school teachers and dons by its departures from the academic beaten track. "The Bard is out and the Beatles are in" reported one newspaper. Reading with Understanding was one of the educational casualties of the 1977 change of government, but the new Allel texts in English Produced by the English Syllabus Committee of the Ministry of Education show that the revolution it was intended to effect in the teach ing of literature has not been entirely without result.
Thic |98| text:5 are a Corin ProThis?
between older and newer approaches. The poetry anthology compiled by the committee falls into T"O completely un related hal yes. The first is an academically conservative selection of English poetry where | find the choices timorous and un imaginative. The second half is more adventurous, with a grouping of Third World poetry and pop songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The selection of short stories even keeps three of the pieces from Reading with Understanding the stories by Silone, Premchand and Sillitoe. Perhaps those whose blood-pressure was raised by the HNCE book won't be entirely calmed by the new texts either. However, what is lacking in the new selections is a sense of a coherent educational purpose: the committee, fear, has faller between LWC stotls,
Pushkin in tra n slation
Aleksandr Pushkin's novel in verse, Eugen Onegin, is one of the most brilliant and readable long poems in any language, but its pleasures have up to now beer inaccessible to English-speaking readers without Russian. Not for lack of translations, but previous attempts at rendering Onegin in English verse fully deserved th: ferocious onslaughts made on them by Wladimir Nabokov in his di Ilion
of the Poem. Na thc talents to do himself by prod literal translation
mentary.
Now at last ch werse translation of which doesn't di: by Charles John Classics (fl. 50). translating Onegi most arduous th can face, especial Johnston does, complex stanza fe but most of th wersion succeeds them. A sample o' at its best: Ler duel, is com Pär! house:
"But now the r
Shutters are Ll
Árid
Of chalk the
taken,
The lady of t
Where to . trail is del &
My old school "Where wer When asked thi feel inclined to Colombo Public that old build Crescent, Out
mo'wed 3. fo r[T1 bright new hom for myself in literature whic growing UP — tt and Auder, th: and Co5 Passos early Orwell, t of Leavis and tur of the LE mixed bag, Linde
still withi

omise
bokov, who had better, contented ucing a faithful
and erudite con 1
cre is an English Eugene Onegin sgrace Pushkin - ston in Penguin The Problems of in are among the at any translator y if he tries, as to preserve the irm of the original, a time the new in sur Thounting F Pushkin-Johnston 1sky, dying in a d to a deserted
Transion is forsaken; P, and all is pale in, behind
window-panes hawe
the wei
he house has fled.
jod knows, The
: you educated?' 5 question, | often answer, "In the Library." . It was in ing at Edinburgh which the library ght ago into its e, that I discovered my teens all that
influenced The in e poetry of Eliot novels of Silone the prose of the e literary criticism he political literat Book Club. A ubtedly, but though
Touchstone
| hawe changed my mind about much of it since, I can't deny that the Public Library gawe mc. what I didn't get from my school education. So as an old boy let me wish it fresh success in an era when inflation abroad, the falling rupee and the swollen costs of paper and printing at home have put both imported and indigenous books out of the reach of the common and made library services more precious than
er".
reader
Toward a new . . .
(Cort tinued from Page 5)
would be delayed, but would eventually give rise to a more effective and stable struggle by the peoples. This is because the people in such countries would have had a taste of this new order by this time and recognised its limitations. On the other hand in the gwent that this New International Economic Order is not promulgated, the agitation among the people w|||| increase rapidly, and the process of the Peoples struggle for socialism would get underway without much delay.
İnı Third
Finally we must bear that the rmew and huma me will remain a beautiful but impossible dream right until each one of us is prepared to change the course of our own life. Within our own small districts, where we live and work, Wic L|5: CU" eyes and our senses and contribute by studying organising and putting into action the methods for change - i. e. for changing this capitalist set up into Socialism.
C

Page 27
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