Page 1
O SRI LANKA - CRI LANKA
GUAR
Vol. 13 No. 14 November 15, 1990 Price Rs. 7.
AFTER V. P. SING WHAT
INDIAN CRISS O CHAMVDRA SHEKHAR S
O No light at tunnel’s el
O Hindu Extremism, Mu
O Going the Mexican wa
O Rajiv calls the shots
to Moor identity O Dissent

SIS OF THE STATE
- Urmila Phadnis
50 Registered at the GPO, Sri Lanka, OD/79/NEWS/90
ܦܵܝܵܐ
ܘ ܐ
PEARS - Anikandra Nath
nd - Nikhil Chakra vartty
slim Fears - David Housego
y " - Steve Coll
- Mervyn de Silva
O Trotsky O Althusser

Page 2


Page 3
Concern for Muslims
Muslim representatives from 80 countries met in Libya to discuss the Gulf crisis and also the position of Muslim minorities in other countries. It was an extraordinary meeting of the World Islamic Peoples Leadership. Sri Lanka Mussin Congress seader W. H. MM. Ashraff said affer the meeting that one of Efe reSQLitions Caled on the Sri Lanka govern. nent to provide protection for the Muslims here.
st Was also reported that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had offered to do "anything" to help Muslims ir 5 ri Lārkā,
Mear 7 W/hi/e the Sri Larka до Ver/7гтелt Took Severa/ steps to assist Muslims fleeing Tiger (LTTE) attacks
r ffe Worts.
Passport turnower
Sa ma-day passports earned the government Rs 33.8 ision in the five months since this scheme was introduced oп Липе 1. Го get their passports over
the counter 26.850 део additional f, Çಗಳ್ಯ a W70 " Coja rg7€ 门 day issues a b people co// through no tions each
Wasif' of Sewe
LALITH'S
Wonde Minister of Lalith Athulatih When he la Israeli Ti|itë ad SE E party USąd |iquida te the L :TCSSüd the UN claimed in his sed book, By M. that Sri Lätil
i their Tä trained o dif tha sa Tië MOSSAD) wit arms to both
Sat:
Medical College, Philadelphia, USA
AFA
GUARDAN
Wol. 13 NO. 14 Novg|Tiber 15, 1 ggg
Price Rs. 7.5
Published fortnightly by Lanka Guardian Publishing Co. Ltd.
No. 25. Ulio FIFE,
Colomb–2,
Editor: Moruyn de Silva
Telephone: 447.584
CCMT
News Background Chandra Shekh Hr's
R IE. If State | E |
in Sri Lankā
'Self" in Sri Laiki
MLI5li TT S äli Mi| Ethnicity (2) Disserit (3) Correspridencg
Althusser
Printed by Al B2/5, Sri Ratnaja
MaWat ha, C Telephonig

in one day }/е раїd ал e of Rs 500 Ontres passRs 1,300). D fle Safe) ut a thousar 7 d' Ct passports та/ app/їсаda y, after a all days.
FRIENDS
OW thea Education Mr. muda li reacted art that thea rү COILEt:5 Së fwi cas his in trying to TE had doubleP. . Ostrovsky has recently releaay of Daception án Commandos il riwa ls were ferent sides of SE (by the h Israel selling
sides
hi Sri Kantha
3.
ETS
Interview 3. nic Conflict
11 in Crisis (2) 15 is: tiOII 17
2O
23
27
28
1A1 da Press :hi Saravanamuttu : Liltյmէյը 13.
: A359
TRENDS LETTERS
Briefly. . .
G. Government forces secured Mannar town after landing from air and sea clearing the wy for about 40,000 Muslin refugees to return, according to a Senior military source. Musli IL1 in habitants of the area had earlict been chased away by the LTTE.
Many fatalities and much suffering acco Il panied this mass exodus of Muslims often by boat across the sea from Mannar to Kalpitiya. In one installce a child had fällen inte) the Sea rom the fizcrī ārms of its mother in the night; the Im other Wa.5 linlvare of her loss till the boat landed at Kalpitiya.
When the soldiers landed in Mannar the Tigers had put up no Tesistance and had Withdrawn rapidly into the jungles. The terrorists appeared to
avoid contact, a military sou Tce said.
II Colombo President
Prc mada sa issued special directives for the acco modation of Muslim refugees, including the setting up of makeshift class rooms for Muslim childTento continule their education. The President also visited Mannar and refugee camps Where Musli IIns Were accom ()= dated.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Assemblies of Muslill Youths in Sri Lanka (FAMYS) called a press conference to wa Tin of rising Musli III1 militancy and announce preparedness to raise an army of 15,000 youths to defend Muslim villages against Tamil terrorist attacks.
f’Ta' Per page.)

Page 4
GCEC OWER HA U L
O President Premada sa ordered an overhaul of operations f the GTeter Collbo ElInic Commission (GCEC) to attract more foreign in Westors, after hic in spected the GCEC headquarters in Colombo, Though much benefit had accrued to the country through the GCEC there was als o much. Toom for improvement; the President said and called foT ai Teorientation of approach to meet modern-day require.nt5טווח
The GCEC headquarters should be greared to provide a prospective investor all required data within 24 hours, the President noted.
PAY HIKE
O State employees and pensioners will get a pay increase
Ace Radio Cab
fill November scs, a Tc as foll tional Ello Wal for those whos is less than month: an adtll: ce of Ris 200 f intial salary 2000 to Rs 30 payments will Rs 270) Illilio 1
The governm ext year wi billion, estimate PTCSmellt. Expcnd for next year is
EBROKEM F
O Chief. Op Richard Pathi Parliament th: ment had gan word to permi
" Computerised meters " Can be summoned to wo
" No call up charge within city limits. " Vehicle act
Receipts issued on request ' Company credit ava Call 50 1502 50 1503 or
ệAset
Another Aitken Spenca
 

1. The increaows: An addice of RS 3 OC) e initial salary
Rs 2000 per tional a llo Wa Il'or those whose RS חWeeן טb 15 (OC). Thicse Extra
cost the state
Il per y ca T.
:u cוןt's j"EWEתשו | 11 ble R5 - 72 ccording t
nted in parliiture estimated Rs 139 billi,
PROMISE
position Whip Ta na said in it the GWCTIe back on its it a debate () in
ur dio Oristen)
less from selected Stands
||able
501 504
Service
the motion seeking the appointIn ent of a commission of inquiry into the death of Richard de Zoysa. The motion had been withdrawn from the Order Paper the Opposition Whip said, and the leaders of opposition parties had thereføre decided to Tefrain from honouring other agreeInents reached with the Gower Ilment,
KKS ATTACK
O Twelve soldiers were killed and 19 wound cd when Tigers' Attacked a n a Tmy post at Maw idd apuram, south of thc Kankesanturai cement factory, CD Nowe IIIber 3. The attack came two weeks after operation "Jayasakti’ in which the security forces recaptured an arca around the Palaly and Kankcs anthurai camps to serve His a buffe T Zo Inc.

Page 5
Prime Minister Chandr
By the grace of
Mervyn de Silva
TOIn the Musliis and Man FE the action of the major political parties as well a 5 the intercist, of thic Sri Lainkan intelligentsia have quickly moved to India, its governmental and national-political Crisis. Understa II dibly, the i IlIl ediate focus is o Il Delhii wherec MIT. Child Til Shekh T hä5 bee Il chosen as the 8th PTiIlic Minister of the world's largest democracy. Can he survive? By the time this journal is in print, the answer to that question Willd be kill Will but eyel it this Writing it is clear to any. body acquainted with the parliamentary balance and the relative party strengths in thc Lok Saibh a that Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar lives by the grace of Mr. Gandhi, leader of the biggest parliamentary group, the Congress.
It is often forgotten even by better info IIIled Sri Lankal Students that the Janata Dal Which tok office earlie T this year was only the third largest group - after the Hindu extrelist B. J. P. from which cane Mr. L. K. Adwami, the organiser and hero" Uf the Raf afret.
The change of scicle in India has not gone unnoticed by the Iwo major parties or party"blocs" in this country. Nor is it a se CT et to Sri Lankalns that a marked improvement in IndoSri La Ilka II Telations folli wcd the assumption of prime ministerial office by Mr. W. P. Singh. Indeed, the acrimonious issue of thic IPKF's withdrawal, President Premada sa’s in sistent dcmand, Was amicably resolved, with a slifghtly Il odificd timetable or the pull-out. Mr. V. P. Singh made a special cfTotto acco III date Sri Lanka. President Premadasa made it a point to allude to that matter when he spoke at the BCIS Convocation (9/11). He salid:
"'It was our i sistence, that departure of for Llr soil earlier Our insistence fin gether with the Our Theighbol ITs, ll O Lur regional relat Singll was prim thic läst ball Lich pulled out).
""Whatever thi not succumb t intimidation from powerful o'r mea he added.
WElite the C ad II lill-istrati ) In ' such 111e as th Congress slippo eral Election Lanka. Ils and 0 arc busy readi Indian situatio Prime Minister' predilections, W likely that he on any external policy will be shallowed by dd and parliament: it sill it by Lu In 5 table rcgimc Cinglige i II diwe Kashmir, and thi is one such poss Link:l 1 DIT II neighbour.
Anyway what d Shekha I think politics and it Sri Linkään iss rector dcd copinico 1 is a bricf. a Ing w Wiewer of the SINDAY:
To have take LT IIHLL-IS Linka Witho consequel CCs purpose of Ll the previous de Was WT Commenting way the previ

a Shekhar
Gandhi
I sistence and perfinally saw the сідп tгоорs fгопп this year. It is ld persistence, tounderstanding of hat has improved ions' (Mr. W. P. IIllinister. When of Indian troops
a cost, we will any threats or 1 anyone however I r they may be''
lla Ild Tä Shekhar Will survive until le withdrawal of "t läks a (enunavoidable, Sri ther neighbours Ing the current I 11ld the new s mind, and his While it is LII
W Luld clib Tk
forays (forcign completely overom estic political Ar y må nou cwrcs) e forgotten that 5 de sometime5 rsionary moves, e refore Pä kiistä II, ibility. Not Sri ly other small
is M. C1:li of Sri Lanka’s nmediate Indo– ucs' The only ill recent times Ver to al interTTL dia Il JT11
hasty decisions CCbIncerning Sri Lit Caring for
only for the In doing whatever government had
I. fu Tthe T C I the tח טוחנח חסייםjus g)
blad handled th C Sri Lanka. I issue he says, "'It was not a wise diccision, in II y copinion. You calin slowly cha Inge, stica - dily change the apparatus that is allrich dy there, but if you take sudden decisions only to spite the previous regime, then you are bound to face certain difficulties and even put thic nation in jeopardy.' PRICE RISES
It is also interesting to note that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi didn't include foreign policy in his stTict IT es JT the short-lived W. P. Singh gover III ent, when he was interviewed by INDIA TODAF (Nov. 15). He identified three areas of evident failure. (a) Punjab, Kash Ilir and Assam (b) communal and caste tensions and (c) economic problems and the steady rise in prices.
MARG, the best kilo Wrn of Indian opinion pollsters did a test-run in the two electoral bastions of AMETHI (GaIndhi) and FATEHPUR (Singh). In Annethi Rajiv Gandhi collected an impressive 79% to Singh's 21%, while in Fatehpur, (Gä Tidhi beat W. P. Singh comfortably - 58% to 42%.
More interesting perhaps is the issue which the poll showed was the most crucial - Spiralling prices.
While the Gandhis, and the Bandaranalike 5 ha we had il “schcial relationship', this did not prevent the Indian (Gandhi) government from using its not in considerable influence to the UNP's advantage at the last elections, conscious no doubt that the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord was a government-to-government (Congress-to-LJ.N.P) ag Teement. Nonetheless, diplomats here did note that Mr. Anura Bandara naike, a member of a multi-party parliamentary dele gation to Delhi chose to spend 1 hours with Mr. Gandhi at
his home.
3.

Page 6
WAWADAWA:
Shekhar, takes charge
Steve Coll (Washington Post)
I DEL III
FN Indian commentators expect Mr. Shekhar's governImient to last long, s) Ille specula te that Mr. Gandhi's party will withdraw support and force elections in 6 to 18 months. Mr. Singh, cxercising his last opportunity for official access to the state-run broadcasting system, appci led for tolerance ill a broadcast address.
'Religion is the lamp of the soul' he said. Let it light your
Way. Do not use it to ignite the flames of hatred. If you do so, the temple of Mother India Will be reduced to ashes'.
For Mr. Shekhar, 63, an upper caste la Ild lord's son Who
has devoted his life to socialist politics but has never held gowernment office, the announcemet Ilarked the culmination of a year long campaign to replace Mr. Singh, who remains leader of the centrist Jalata. Da 1. As Mr. Singh's problems worsened Mr. Shekhar engineered a split in the party and moved his breakaway faction, called the a nata Dal (Socialist), into position to lead a government.
MT. Shekea II will i Ihe Tit a host of problems, including an inflationary economy, violent secessinist Ilow clients in three states and hightened caste and Hindu-Muslin tensions.
It is expected that his cabinct Will consist mainly of rural landlords, socialists and career politicians with little experience in government. The group will immediately have to tackle a bala Ilce-of-pay Time Ints cris is that drew Mr. Singh's government into negotiations for assistance from the International Monetary Fund. Foreign exchange reserves have Teached a 10-year low; external debt levels have climbed to record heights, and international Titing agencies have do w Ingrade di the country's creditworthiness for the first time in years.
Inflation has grown in recent
months to a 12 percent annual rate
4
higher tha II past lığa ve beel fuelced budget deficit th bigger than th: United Statics, i
"ShekuläT Hlä5 a very awkward A. N. Prabhu, N. chief of the Il billi: Tiles, li li verge of getti Ing Call I 1- Brazilia II – Ili In his past plu mellt, MT. Shekh many of the col problèIls on mul rations, and he II like it ewe: I ı ılımı: it is at preser compa Ilies to du E But it is not thc pri IIne min the political st I the gradual ecc zation beglIn se by Mr. Gandhi by Mr. Singh,
Speaking with Shekh LT salid port liberalizatic Tilly Els long als Ini were illot ill:1 facture of wi "luxury goods.'
In foreign affa would appear im IIlediate cha tensions With Werc touched cod ing in the dis Kashmir, threate wat six I L1 I this eased s{)II1e Wlhi E1 t Pakistalos Ti rightist prime Sharif, based partly on a posture toward Still Tif las Illa statelle its di TE si[ncel1i 3 electib I 1 in a brief cil MT. Shekhl 5 the “best possit neighbours.'
Political anal Pikisti reläti likely to Te milli I at least a few colltries have b:

levels. Price rises by a gowler T1 ment it is three tilles : L Iլ է: 1Il լի է: 1 Telatiwe ter115. pLI thi Ilmself ilt) position,' said CW Delhi ELI real newspaper EcoWc il re L the into the Mexidel of Crisis." blic pronounce1l has bila Ine di Intry's economic tin:itional corpohis WCW ed to Fre difficult than it for foreign bl15 i Lless in II dial. clear whether ister Will have 'cngth to reverse Il 3 llic libelieral years ago and continued
reporters Mr. he would supin of the ecolotional resources tied to the Ina Ilulät le Cilled
irs, Mr. Shekhar to face fewer le Tiges. Border Pakistan, which if by an uprisputed state of :Illed to sct off i ago but have
Te cently.
ecently elected milister, Nawaz, his campaign more aggressive Il dial. BLI MIT. de conciliatory !cted at India Reciprocating ille DL (In Friday, äid he Sought »le Telations With
sts säid Indial1113 * է:Tք: IIլ է 151 1 11 nchanged foT
1110'lth, 5. "Ballı :en substantially
NEWS BACKGROUND
preoccupied with do Illestic issues,” said Jajit Singh, director of the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi.
Among India's political factions, the biggest beneficiary from Mr. Shekhar's ascent would appear to be Mr. Gandhi's party,
which was repudiated in a national election 11 months ago and has donc little since to
improve its standing with voters,
NOW Congress is well positioIled to organize itself for a midterm wote While rebuilding
its identity among the electorate as a stable, centrist party.
The biggest immediate losers appear to be Mr. Singh's Janata Dal faction and the Hindu revivalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Both stood to benefit if President Wenkatara Iman had decided to call an election immediately, rather than turning to Mr. Shekhar to lead another minori ty government.
Rajiv vs Karunanidhi
O “Tigers'
MADRAS he Tamil Nadu Chicf. Minister, MT. M. Ka Tu Tamidhi took exception to the observation of the Congress (1) leader, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, in parliament that the State was under the
influence of the LTTE.
It is unbecoming of a former Prime Minister to speak in such a vein just to please someone. By uttering an una dulterated lie, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi has brought discredit to the reputation of his grandfather Jawaharlal
Neh. Tu," he said.
Talking to reporters, Mr KarLIlla Tidh i said tille whic World was a wa Te that it was Mr. Galdhli Who gawe crores of rupccs to the LTTE to buy arms and also gave them training in camps located in Tallil Na, du. Mr. Gandhi turned against the LTTE because the militants Would not surrender Lind be a slawe to him. It is a base less allegation levelled against the DMK Government, he added.

Page 7
Sri Lanka’s boring wal
SE Wars last too long, becoming a meапiпgless series of battles of attrition. The civil
war in Sri Lankal is one of them. On October 25th the defence Iminister said another
full-scale operation' would be launched soon against the Tamil Tigers holding the Jaffna peninsula. "Full-scale" (merely see Illed to mea Ti that more young Til en would be killed than in a "smallscale” operation, II, tot that the attack would bring the War Inearer to il cCinclusiÖII.
The orth eГП to wп čif Jaffna Was the Scene of a full-5CEt le operation in September. Soldiers stormed im to a m a Tmy fort Where thcir con Tades had been besieged by the Tigers for nearly three Illonths. It was clailled by the government as a fallous Victory, a kind of Sri La Ilka II Telief of Mafeking. The government predicted that the strengthened garrison would gradually fan out to regain the whole of Jaffna. The a Tmy has since abandomed the fort al5 militarily lsess,
The Tigers roared "After 400 years of foreign domination (the fort was built by the Dutch) Jaffna fort is finally in Tamil hands," they said, The 'victory' has inspired IIlore young Tigers to face the government's guns. Jaffna families are told ''You give a son
or two gold sovereigns ''The Tigers will take the money, but it is the boys they want,
The army has been dispirited by the withdrawal. Worse, the geInerals are El la T med that support for the war among the Sinha lese II majority is wani Ing fast. The Average Sinhalese willager is more concer ned tıbıçıtıt
the price of rice than where the Tigers' flag is flying. Indis Crimini te bo CT1 big in the
war zorlles häls turne di many Tamils against the gover IIIment. In än Linconvincing statement
to parliallent government der ing was indi Sa id that S O. were carried aw:
Thc governil enough about warfare to app lil Il morali le: Imla til kick the eco 1 The War costs Infläti OL is rii: few jobs for grant Workers KL. Wallit, and SI more than 20% T1a, Tiket for tea the Sancti C15 o
'r Ffrisk /'rr7 ā p. Waf Evgл МWag Only ray Feä/y ma
B) / (rig Wi lead th: Aում էիք է W Färg f'We As early To fорд/e
Té Jr ťo ťa
WS 1/SE
(CJC by
Polyfinger TV705 a fait, Γεaή αιμαίη, Wat gylis y Ard ker.
Εν Μαξας, ו "You may As of 7. SC fake | Arī tī5

recently the lied that bobscrimitatic, but metimes bo III b5 ly' by the wind'
ent, which klaw 5
the history of Tecial te that ciwiItters, is trying
nomy into shape. S250,000 a day, sing, there a Te the 100,000 mireturning from i La Llika hlas lost
of its export :S al Te sullt af Tı Iraq,
NEWS BACKGROUND
For all that, Sri Lanka could hawe a bright future if the fighting stopped. The north-eastern city of Tricolalee, blesscd with one of the largest natural harbours in the World,
faces the expanding markets of East Asia. "Tricci' would be the obvious base for the
high-technology - Cxport-ba sed industrics with which the government hopes to transform the
econo Illy When peace colles, Mican while, the armed forces are said to be getting new Weapons and aircraft, mainly from China, for use in coming operations, small, large and Iled ill. ]E-ו Jםזיrזih:T{
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Page 8
Background to Indian Crisis
No solution in
Nikhil Chakravartty
t all started on the Diwali Day. That was Friday, Octoder 19, 1990 when three BIP leilders, Mr. Atal Behari Wajpayee, Mr. Bhair on Singh. Shekhil Wat, Rajasthan Chief Minister, and Mr. Jaswant Singh, MP, Ilet National Front Chair man N.T. Ra Ima Rao, conval eşcing at that til Inc in the Rain Manohar Lohia Nursing Home, and informally conveyed a formula to sort Out the Ram temple dispute.
The previous day, the BJP National Executive hadi El. st.) I Illy Sessjon where the modicTaltics, Tepiresented by Waipayce-Shekhawat and Jaswant Singh had been troll nced by the militants whose line was being set by the WHP General Secretary Ashok Singhal, and the Executive announced that the BJP would withdraw support from the National Frent Go WeTument if the Tathi ya tra was block cd
and party President Advani
arre5 ted,
Teks
TIE TOT 11 LI EL I CXL CELTIC to
Mr. Advani who agreed to it
but subject to its acceptance
by the WHP - the point which marked that he had ceasc di to be the master of the campaign but was really riding the WHP tiger. On the other side, Mr. W.P. Singh held informal consultations which included some Muslim leaders whose attitude was that while they trusted hill, they would fall in line provide the Prime Minister had got the commitment of the BJP.WHIP side to the for Illula.
At this stage came the urgent importunity from Mr. Waipayee for the three-point formula to be announced as al IT dina Ince, he hoping thereby that it would clinch the issue reflecting the desperate position of the modera te wing of his party. But Mr. Wajpayee's gamble did not pay off because the WHP Tejected it outright as soon as the ordinın ce: Was announced. Mr. Ad
sight ,
wani's rather mc Dha Ilbad that Ll: positive was brill the tOT1C Wä5 St. which was by no the slots.
On the ther 1im1 1e:á deT5 fi 1 di dul side had rejet lIIlolIIl Ced th ei and ewe thTeat build over it, finding that the take on either it making it cl not stand on [ tÒ it.
What Wils t The Centrill G. quire the dispu includes the Ba The lild whic dispute, would
ble for buildil The dispute not lahabad High ( to the Supremi PTe5 i delt lille T
The Musill while the disput the jurisdiction High Court, it On to the G at its sweet wi
sure imight ha those belt (1 ple and this
precedent for o Secondly, the T Supreme Court
Lill lot for the case.
This is the t
Congress (1) Wor charge of there "conspiracy' b. Singh and BIJI Musli Ill15. As si exercise at de wis really reflected
Le BJP Illic: CGo WeTLI TIıcTit :: ct OLL. L. -- if it coluld
a settle Ille-Ill — 4. such proposals is meaning individ
Tie kriter Fs Editor

וחםk fTחHוןBr"ן kס Le f0 TIllul:1 W: 3 shed aside and it by the WHP, W openly Calli Ing
side, the Musng that the Hinited the formula, r Tejection LOO, telled a Bharat The Gwern Illent formula had no side, withdrcW ear that it would restige to stick
he formula? (1) TA' CITI 1 TIL I LIKO EL C= ted 13ını d whichı .bri mosque. (2) i5. Il Cat L11 der
le Illud: alwa ilng the temple. (3) w before the Alourt be referred Le Court by the
Article 14.
bjection was that Sed land i 5 under of the Allahabad H55נן Wטח 11tiוטW Wernment which ll or under presLld it WCT to building the tellInity become a ther 5 lic Si Le S. eference to the will be for advice the disposal of
ackground of the king Committee's
having been a twee: I MIT. W.P. P to cleat till: Lated here, the ing the for T11 u la
the anxiety of rates and the ed only to find
he the basis før Ille of the many uggested by Welluals.
of MAINSTREAM
The Congress(I)'s anxiety of course has been and still is that Mr. W. P. Singh has built a firm base among the Muslims, and 5) Li h1ci aii II is tio un dieTiTlilino it, pick up any issue to confuse the Muslims and alienate the from Mr. Singh.
After the fill ul IIll W. Was aborted, battle lines were drawn clear and sharp. The BJP had already served an ultimal tum that it would withdraw support to the Government if Mr. Advani was arrested and/or his rath yatra was blocked.
Incidentally, the demand for the building of the Ram tellple was never made a key issue in the BJP election IT a Lifesto, nor did the party raise it formally with the National Front subsequently 15 condition precedent for its support to the
GweT III lent.
The Bihai T 1 UP Chic: Millnisters were on the alert, while ltithe Cemit Te, the Primic Minister held al series of Imeetings with different party leaders, voluntary organisations and a cross-section of in Lellectuals whio all Tilforced the decision to halt the BJP's progress towards a. fra. Inkly cc)Driıml II1 til sh. o.) Wdc) W 1.
TV Speech
Mr. W. P. Singh's broadcast that evening lifted the controversy to the basic issue that whe differences over religious approaches could not be settled through Ille gotiations, the order of the Court must be bindi Ilg.
If the question of faith in God was invoked to defy the court in 5 lich circumstances then that would be laying the foundation of theocracy in our country. The Prille Minister's television lddress was a major Lurning-point as could be se en from the respon5ę fra Ilı III ally who, otherwise, were getting disgusted with the squabble and in trigues at the political level. One felt that had such a persuasive broad

Page 9
cast focussing on the basic issue of social justice has been made by Mr. W. P. Singh at the time of his announcement of job reservations for the Backward Classes, perhaps he could have mobilised a good section of middle class understanding Over the Ineasure.
In a vibrant democracy like ou Ts, the question of Communicating with the public is very essential for any leadership. Gandhiji understood this from the very beginning, and that tradition needs to be reinforced in an open government such as OS.
As so con as the BJP With direlW its support to the National Front Go WeT TImelt al Idi i Ilfo Tilled the President accordingly the Prime Minister saw the President and assured hill of his readiness to
filc: Pál Tilia mellt to test his
support.
There are reports that the
Prime Minister's initial urge
was to offer his immediate resignation and go in for elections, but his Cabinet felt that it should go by the Presidential advice, and instead of waiting for the Ilorial Winter session Of the Lok Sabha in the third week of November, a special one-day Session would now comic .7 חשרות ט"ויהיה וז רו
Contingencies
III mediately this was anno Lunced, brisk consultations, calculations and speculations ha We becn going on, and by present TCckoning this til Teatens - to continue cwen after the D-Day, that is Nowell ber 7. Certain con ingencies, Which might a rise after the Illotion of confidence in Lhe National Front Gover IlTטWembם N חם s upטוII נtט mit שm 7, a Te being talk cd about.
The Govern Iltilt side would move a motion of confidence, while the Opposition would bring ä no-confidence III otion, and in accordance with parliamentary precedent the Government In otion would get priority over that of the Opposition, and the rules do not permit the moving of a no-confidence Inction against the Government within six
10 tills of the 31 fidence I lotion, ' ency L11 der di SCL1 Gover Illelt Ii. press confide Inc stil 1ld til the rest ELS 1 || SC Lille controwersy.
W Lulli LH e C. such 3, III til if the BP ill the goodwill of Classes illd the the circumstanc: gress(I) preferred abstained or abs the Governteilt easily deseat th But this speculi ched in two day gress (II) decided the confidence coIpany of tht as its entire st I Lo Coust Mr. W. F Prile Ministe II1:FlTi5
The second p the BJP might away or ab stå iT a galinst the cor since withdrawi not necessarily for the lister Illet. I thält ewe Front C.J.Tmil Ild 3f se We 1 1","er t. of the Congress its 5 Lipp Corte TS. for hir TSG Ce-tradi 11 scale by both 5
ונינT[lt:tl]ird t split Within t ԷլIt this WյլIltl di 55 die LG Cili Shekhar would וון שוון 48 utנHBit and escape the Anti-Defection present reckoni be a lough jub come through,
The is th sibility of havi for the Talata Mr. W.P. Singh. what Rajiv Gar been feverishly a IId as it has tul witt Lually in ta: IIc of the diss Mr. Chandrä S post of Prime M

doptio II of a conThe first conting55ion was that the tion Would exte endorsing its va il decisi. Il
Babri mosquc
ingress (II) oppose in the company thereby forfeit f the Bickwidi Musils LJIlder 25, if the Coldiscreti i Il and elted itself, the
motion would it of the BJP. a tion was scot"5 WhecT1 thıc - Co1to vote against Il 10 til 1, il the BJP if Ileed be, "ategy has been '. Singh from the rship, by any
ossibility is that decide to stay teח"י tסון tiון H ברו fidence motion, ng support does mea T working of the Gover2nt, the National 5 a thin Iajority he total strength (I) together with Here is scope g on a moderate illes
itingency is the he Jini til Dal
require that the by Mr. Cha Indra have to muster bers to defect mischifts of the law, which by ing appears tc.) and might not
Le fou Tth posIng Inc w leadcr Dal Teplacing This is precisely 1 dhi’s side his Working for, "nęd Out, this Is ldell with the idents projecting 1ek har for the li TiisteT.
Other na Illes being floated bij uit Hirc The Out CDIThe Of IlI lo celt specul lation CT deep-låid Inichief to disrupt the Ja nata Dä1, aI1 d th1e Se — I1:i I11 c5 r:R Tng: from Mr. Madhu Danda wate to Mr. Mulayal Singh Yadav to Mr. Jyoti Basu — all with the consent of none and dismissed
by the IL1 all. But the prcs su Te to dislodge Mr. Singh will contitlut.
MTs. Maneka Gandhi Imay be: the first t cave What she might have been made to believe was a sinking ship. This drive for Mr. Singh's ouster will persist even after Noveliber 7 in the event of the possibility of the Govern Il cnt losing the Confide 11Se Witc. It Ile eds to be noted that certain powerful business interests, who regard Mr. Singh as their sworn enemy, are found to be working overtime through their agents and touts, freely Illowing about among the MPs and media circles.
Meanwhile, anxiety is growing fast and thick about the hit 7; Tids of instability at the Centre, With disturbances and CoIlmunal carriage spreading wide. The ghastly pogrom at Jaipur in which even a section Cof the state police force was affected has cast its ominous shadow in Delhi.
Common Stand
The urge for a common stand of all anti-co II in unal forces from thc Jana La Dal, the left and right up to the Congress(I) is discernible, and it is possible: that this may gai II. In comentum for a natic Inal government Consisting of these three components. But again the nagging qui estion
will colle who should lead
such a Gover III ent
III this cicl tcxt, CTC Catin
Lu Inderst: Ind the u rgency in
Rajiv's camp to cross out MrW, P. Singh and hence the unprecedented wirulence of attack a gainst him personally. But s Luch
a campaign does not by a fly chance heighten Rajiv's own acceptability to the Ill all:
Tilther, it ham pers 50 T ting out
differences without rancour.
No light at the cnd of the
tun Cl — not yet.

Page 10
Hindu militancy leaves i Moslems increasingly fea
David Housego reports from Lucknow, a C prided itself on at history of communal peac
In the deserted streets of Old
Lucknow, little moved a part from cow's lumbering slowly across the road and an occasional police patrol.
Curfew has been imposed in Lucknow as in 15 other cities in Uttar Pradicsh by a stal te administration nervous that Tuesday's storming of the mosque at Ayodhya, by Hindu fundamentalists could provoke widespread Hindu–Moslem rioting. Shops remained closed all day and people were confined to their houses by precautionary measures across this northern state that are without precedent i T1 TeceI ht lhi5t()Ty.
At Maulvi Gunge in the heart of the Moslem area, broken bricks lay scattered on the road - a sad testimony to clashes between Hindus and Moslems that occurred the day before Hindu militants planted their flags on thc disputed mosque at Ayodhya.
It has never happened here before. History was made here that day,' says the officer commanding the patrol at the Maulvi Gunge crossroad. Lucknow, where a quarter of the population is Moslem, and which was once the capital of a Moslem principality, has long prided itself that it has no ccord of the HiIdul-Mesle II violence that has scarred much of northern India since Pakistan broke a way in the bloodshed of partition.
But on Monday, When Hindll militants marched in procession to demonstrate support for the construction of a new Hindu temple at Ayodhya, bricks began to fly - with nobody now certain how the trouble started. One person died and several were injured as clashes spread to other parts of the old city.
S
As Hindiu II their triumph having symbolic
construction of Moslems expTCSS At learby All Hindus looted N. MoIıday, a y () l1 1 entative for :
said: "Everybody Among the Mo: nobody feels sa
Talking to M in the stale g tob Hind Lı milit: outside the city being detained sense that thi! märk : Tiles post-independen that beyond is
! Thcrc haye dents (oftension äIld M105 || ems () y but this is t Dr Syed Kalbe leader Who has a compromise Ayodhyl mosq has there ble : nated assault regard as thei
Faced with Ints in the pri stilte- 3 WTC: d t Moslem5 rella what happenct Tuesday. Yest Lucknow carri tures of Hi Idul II Illosque's and inside of the on the Illosq u nder the cur Weite distribu Li
By contrast, television bro; of the mosqué that ghilt i We'd thit The goveInne that the mosq. damaged.

ndia's .rful
ity which had E.
lilitänts w Ciced aılıd, clı, tibn Hit tally begun the " the temple, ed their fel T5. linabad, where 1oslel shops on ng sa les represdrugs company is afraid here. ilem coli Illu ility fe I10 W.'
os lennis, officials overn Illent, and nts : : Ca
where they are there is the L5נW&Tט 5"kטשW .3
ce history — and unknow I l te Traill.
been many incis between Hindus er religiø115 sites), he worst,' says Sabiq, the shia worked hard for wer the disputed ue. Never befor C sulch L cČ—ordiIl Wh:lt M105 le 1115 г. рroperty.
:onflicting accou255 and on the ele'yi 5İÇ) İı. IT st in confused about l at Ayodhya con orday's papers in ed front-page piclilitants astride the further pictures da Image inflicted Le's fabric. But w few copies
the state-owned ldcast old pictures - n Tuesday night di IIles LL I touched. It clailled as well Le Hill not been
If the reports of damage to the Illos quilc a Te confirmed, the Të will be riots," said one shopkeeper at Aminabad, “Moslems will be very angry."
Few Moslems now see millich hope of a compromise in the Ayodhya dispute. The fundamentalists 'don't want a comproise," says Mr. Mucktar Anis, a minister in the state gover Inent. They want to demolish the mosque.''
(C)D1e Mc1 sleT11 Wh1C) out hope is Dr. Kalbe Sabiq who believes that Hindu and Moslem divines were close to finding a solution last month and should resume their negotiations.
At the camp outside Luck DCW where some 850 Hindu Illilitants are being held, there is also little sign of a readiness to compromisc. The Illilitants were arrested while trying to reach Ayodhya to paticipate in the ceremonies to mark the beginning of const TL1ction.
On Tuesday the police official in charge of the Camp came himself to tell the Ill that other militants had succeeded in reaching the site of the mosque. They celebrated What they described as a triumph.
Mr Sampat Somani, a Bombay businessman and spokes Ina D for the fundamentalist Wish Wa Hindul Parishad at the cal Illp), says, Moslems should “lie low at the present time' and gracefully accept' the demolition of the mosque. "What does that I mosquc neam to them?” he says. 'Nothing.'
He believes that the Hindu radical BJP party could one day take power in India. He sces a place for Moslem sin such a state and adds: "They will be very secure but they will not be allowed any mischief."
still holds
– Firlaničili ľ Tí FIFF

Page 11
‘This leadership is imm
(Jono to Do I veteron Chondrosekhor tells Aniken
Does the recent un happiness expressed by a section of Ja mata Da MP5 a ri5 e OLIt Of the Mandal issue or is it more general
I do not think that people are unhappy only over the Way in which the gover II, 11 ett has handled the issue of reservations.
I think it is because of the general failure of the governmelt to address itself to the
major issues before the nation, be it Punjab or Kashmir or the mortlı-cast. The irin pressioli göing around is that the gover III lent is un cinc crned about til es e i Ss Les a nl that it hails failed to tacklic problems of law and order,
What are your views on the leadership qualities of the Prime Mister?
I Willi Illt like til CCGTTTTCT t con individuals and theit style of functioning.
There are some reports to the effect that you are orchestrating the campaign to re. To Ye Mr W. P. Singh from the leadership.
These reports are wrong.
But it is no secret that dissident anata Dal MPs like Mr LL CLLLHCCLLLLL S 0LHHLH S LL LLLLS LLLLLLLLS mohan Dhawan are close to you.
If Yash 7,7änt än i Hai TIlūti al II are di Ing scortimething without I ny knowledge and if that is then attributed to me, I will not disown them. They are Iny friends Efter all.
There are reports to the effect that you have met SC me industrialists and that you are Lusiring contributions from them to induce legislators to change their minds about the party leadership.
This is the house of a poli
ticiat II. All sorts of people a Te Welcome LG CGIIlie herc. Hüv can I Liu I In people ä way? 1 In
dustrialists are ancing the people who wisi|L ILne. I have kili WIl
many of them to suggest tha th בוy ITO iTטחם וון ing that I money 15 a ti i Tsult
system of this would led
situation in Will are changing th out such in Ceil|
What do yol root of the fa
erit?
T) is classion a the es 5 ence of di you fallil te tak Crail IT t the Te ELTE enating large people. This is when y Colul Tesor politics to corr
The situatio one of What 79. It is on driven he ti the non-Congr incapable of sticking togeth
I don't kilow pa Tiscals a Te II In 1977, 1978, gover Illnent Was im Ling the pe C Inicht was å ble problems L} . People began the best gover 13 d. The Te Wyet steTın IIning fr}IT Էility arriorig it II: We lost credibility and the people.
The situatic positę töddy. Tot inciðill pa til leiers built li becı å ble L3) : probles bef Not just solve becil able to c', them. So, thes not comparable the opposition il this cisc"! in the govern

nature'
dra Nath Sen)
for years. But t I am taking em and then u sto buy up MPs to the political country. Why To do that in a ich IThany people Leir Tilds with - tives anyway?
Lu feel is at the ilure of govern
Thid dialoglle is emocracy. When e these ito accha T ces of HiliSections of the always possible t to manipulative լ է: II) PL) wer.
today reminds appened in 1978Ce again being the people that ress parties are 2ither ruling or
BT. . .
why these comade all the time.
1979 the Jail: t: , never un popular -r IIשwטE נFile. Tht to tackle all thic heir satisfaction. say that it was III e Illit they hadi re sole problems the in coil patiLi he: leaders, Blut the admiratiал. confidelice of
is just the opThe problem is bility a me Ing the it they have not solve the serious "L: thic Titi I. : they have not 'en begin tackling 2 t Wici periods #1 Te 1. Als how does CT te the picture This W. T. пепt today were
in the Congress yesterday. They werie I LI ling the co Li Intry. So it is a question of individuals, of groups, of decision makers in the government which has to be decided. No blanket certificatcs should be given to persons in the opposition of the government on their ability to rule or therwise.
The country is being polarised along religious and caste lines. Do you think this could get worse if Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has to arrast Mr L. K.
A dwarni?
Why should Mulayam Singh häive to al Tre St. Adwa Elli"?
Well Mr Advani is taking
part in a rathyatra. . .
There is E10 prohibition con the rrithjoafra, Advani is a resposible person and I a In 5ure he will Tot allow things to go Out of control,
Mr Yadav has already arrested around 30,000 B.JP-WHP wolunteers. Mr. Advani plans to take part in the kar seva at Ayodhya on October 30, and Mr Yadaw has imposed prohibitory orders all over the place against this. . .
Whilt choice Singh have in Would appeal tio Adwani and A tal Behari (Wajpayee) to refrain from doing anything that
does Mulayan the Illiter I
di 5 til II rb 5 : peace Elin di Corim [Tiu ili:il
hin F1y.
What about the BJP chief
ran in listers = of Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh?
They, too, are going to be part of the BJP-WHP programme in Ayodhya. Do you think that they, as custodians of the law, should break the law in another State?
Both A Lill Behi i and Advani llawe assi Tedi T1c that Ilone of the BJP chief Illinisters will take part in these program Ines Witbout first resigning from office.
9

Page 12
I would prefer to believe them rather than any newspaper report.
What do you infer from the present situation in which the political class, as represented by the Janata Dal, the Congre55 and the like, is not expressing itself unambiguously on an issue like Mandal while the students and youth are out on the streets against it?
This is a sign of the growing failure of the political system, It is not a good augury for the country. It could lead to a general disillusionment with the system and to anarchy.
Why do you think the political class has failed to act?
I do not say that the political parties are not acting. The members of some are getting killed in Punjab, others are holding rathya tras and some others sadbhavna ya tras. They have probably never been as active as at present. They are all acting. The only question is, are they acting in the right di Tection?
In the past you have beеп quoted as saying that you were not in disagreement with the implementation of the Manda Commission recommendations and that your only criticism was on the manner in which this was done. Is this correct?
No, it is not just that. What I said was that because of the obsolete caste system, there are ccrtail castics which a Te backward and un fortunately, the same backward castes are also poor. In this situation, reservations on castic lincs cannot be discarded altogether. But in the first commission, Kaka Kallel ka T said every tcn_years there should Be a revision Gri t|1c basis of castes which hawe gene backward. Because of the lopsided economic development, certain people who were better gift in society have become poor. That aspect of our cconomic and social life should 1153. In tot be
O
lost sight of. S that the reservati be a synthesis . nomic considera been IIny point
1977-78, SITT et l lines of the K formulä should
cussed a long t only the peopl political parties the Jana La Dal
made wa Te of tions of the (Mar rccommendati) fill out of their But nobody km many jobs are g. how many jobs created, how III: wards Will get
jobs forwards : Nobody is getti body is lisi Tig people are kill people are ha ! This is s II eth
Illot Hawe bee Il
is what I said.
Some peop. the entire opr love ig Confini Delhi, that th for Instance, is
Even if it five persons wh to dicit i5 a you, if a de terr so agitated an ( becomes very d this country. T sid lbl1t Pull ful of Sikhs we at that "tillic II misled by this i Ilined grill W. die, whethicir Tig can be a ser orderly gov crna i to el ter int) such people wł like a m (15 trich. they try to T through parlian and Tefilise to essence of path cracy is dial persuading pito to your wie WS, gi
Are you 5LIg sions are Hein discussion?

o, I have said on policy should if caste and ecotions. That has of Wicw since ling al Cong the ar poori Thakur have been dishe people. Not e but diferent and people in should have been all the implicalda 1 Commission) S and thic implementation. ows today how oing to be there, are going to be any jobs backand how many re going to 105c, ng any job, noany job, but ing each other, ting each other. ing which should attempted, this
I believe that osition to the ed to places like e entire south,
in favour of it.
is confined to o a Te deter Tilled bad thing. I tell mined group feels so annoyed, it |ifficultit0 Tulle il his was what Was jab, that a handre agitated, Even said do not be analysis. A deterhich is ready to htly or wrongly, i ol 15 thTeat FOT 1Ce. Il d'O. Il Ot Wish discuggio. I'll with lo shut theit eyes I pity them when ule this country entary II lethods Iak, because the iamentary demorgue, discussion, olc to co The rollind y: Til take.
gesting that decig taken without
sometimes people arrogate to themselves the role of originaltoTS of Illew the Ties. NC YW CW e Ty
body seems to be a philosopher in this country and are giving (us) new philosophies about
social justice, about democracy, about what the people's agitation I means. I have se en that people are being compared with Mahat Ill Buddhal, MahawitSwanny and Mahatma Gandhi
and even above them. If that idea enters your lead, Will can go on committing folly after folly.
The present agitatian against the Mandal commission reserwations has tended to cover up various long-term problems, primarily economic. Don't you think that the leadership should start addressing itself to them
I only hope that the leaders in the government will realise their mistakes in not addressing thcmselves to the economic problems and will try to pursue a policy which will give us thic capability to depend more on our own resources rather than go with a begging bowl to all the countries in the World Nobody is going to help bail you out unless and until you show thic strength of your own economy. It is not easy because in the last six months whatever pronouncements have been made on the ecolonic front have indicated that we have no other option but to depend on foreign help and foreign resources.
Do you think the major problem with this ruling formation is that they never came to an agreeппепt oп ппаjor policy formulations before going into the elections
That is one of the problems but not the Imajor one. Even without that, this type of blunder сопill have been a yoided. This has nothing to do with policy a Ind progra III i Illes. This is an indication of total in 1111 till rity, not getting involved in anything Whicli is of Sub Stiriti il liture and being cincouraged by manipulative politics which by chance brought success,

Page 13
Role of State in Ethni
Urmila Phadnis
hält the te sioTs and
Fict between majority and Illinority collilulitics have been a critical issue of political order and peace-Ima intenance in pluTal Societies, Imore so, in the developing oncs, is self-axiomatic. However, the nature of such patterns of interaction has varied, with one minority being cooperative and other conflict util. Besi dics, thic cooperative — consensual - c(ons cociational — competitiwe — conflagrational relationships con note the components of accord as Iuch as discord, harmony as much as cleavages. What is of salience i II this context is the Whys and whats of discord preempting harmony and vice-versa.
In this context the Sri Lan kan experience of majority and
minority relationships iš revea-|
ling as well as instructive. Over the decades since independence, the cleavages between the majority community of the Sinhala and the major minority community of the Tamils has been under heavy strain has been somewhat latent, with occasional undercurrents among the "Indian Tallis' with the Sri Lä Tikan Tamils particularly in the North and East, it has assumed a virulence and ferocity unprecedented in its history.
Embedded in such a social rupture in the civil society of the island state has been the Crisis of the structures and
nor IIs of the Sri Lankan state. Such crises highlight a congloInefate of contradictions underscoring the denocratic and developmental processes in Sri Lanka. Thus, the contradictions of developmental experiments and experience hawe becn such as to give way to maldevelopII. It Democratic structures have shown similar aberrations While the colonial legacies do
col E.
News of
Phadis' death
after the Now.
Out. We Tow
last paper that It was present
University, Sw
In thea front F political sciei PHadris of th
Nehru Universi
established her
di:
Lankan
fore most
on Sri
lately of the i Conflict and ni
WEI
circles, she had
kпоwп
in the major pe and the media impressed by
to her Work,
plicity, sincerity
provide El crui the III, there is
the majoritaria I pest colonial S coupled with t perspectives of
ship on democ lip II lelt has be Ilificia Int. More o died as II huchl ä: Ը() ո5cզ1Itricts t]] alongside the
social change 1 to the social tur conflict being : IIlanifestation. I peace has been political stabil casualty in the

c Conflict in Sri Lanka
Prof.
rea Ched LI5
UrITTila
issue Was
publish the she wrote.
ed at Uppsala edel.
"ank of India's
Prof.
1e Jawaharal
ity, Delhi, had self as the
tists,
ап specialist politics, and sland's ethnic
ational crisis.
in academic
many friends olitical parties who were all
her devotion
and her si Il
and Warth.
[:foil cũ. Tỉtex[ tr} Ilic li) ub) t tli: L. 1 thrust of tile Ti L33T kall Static I ci policies ad the State leadTacy and devicEn Equally sigwer, the inteS the Lili Il tended f such policies ITC ment II of HWe CaTtTib.Luficil noil, With ethnic ine of its major
In the process,
at Siege indi ity its major
island-sta, Lc.
III
Politica 1 stability per se may not be a precursor of peace. Who wants the peace of an authoritaria In static where protest is muzzled and dissent is suppressed. In any case, such stability can at best be described as a seeming calm before the storm,
Alongside, in democratic s taltes top IT ovements of protest and change, leading at times to a state of tuТПlo ili Hпd flux In ay impart a certain degree of political instability and yet
Iot be dysfunctional to the long drawn pursuit of pc-acc for a si Imple reason; closely
related to the pursuit of peace are also the objectives of justice and equity.
I am underscoring these values alongside peace because any discourse on the obstacles of pelice in Sri Lanka or el sewhic Te has to be placed in such a wide context. Otherwise it becomes sterile. Stability gets equated to status quo and peace - an empty shell, without the questions as to peace for what? Ald for wholl
As such, the identification of the obstacles to peace in Sri IL: D1 ka his its in Cor Tiati We — 5; Tillich as Tell-politic di Illinensions. Closely related to this are the issues of scope as well as intensity of such obstacles.
Such Chibstacles hawe been antisystemic and/or have had to take to extra-systemic strategies. While the former has as its In air manifestation in the 1980s in the movement of People's Liberation Front (popularly described by its acronym JWP which stands for Janatha Wimukti Pera Ilmu Ila), the latter has been epitomised by the Illovement
11

Page 14
Tor Eelain — a separatic state— for the Tim. I 15 il the Ilı orthe TI and eastern areas of the country. With the Sri Lalkali state's inability to come to terms with them through political measures, its increa singly FNational Security orientation marked by wio
lence zigzagging between lowhigh intensity conflict. Consequently, the Sri Lanka in Socie
ty has been increasingly brutalised and its polity more and Imre milita Tised - In the process, not only has there been the Sinhalcsc qua Sinhalese tensigns (JWP vs. the ruling Sinhalese elitc) but equally significantly the Sinhalese-Tamil, majorityIminority susceptibilities becoming sharpened and the relationship marked by mistrust, doubt and un certainty regarding intergroup relationship on the one El Id and the i SSIES CIf the *Survival" of the Gne til 15 til 1st forward cam munity—the Sri Lainkall Tamil 5—I the other, TheTC is no doubt that different perspectives can1" be disceT med Tegarding the bases for the explosion of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. However, ir Tespective of the perspective" the Tole of the Stäte ther ein Temà ins Very much in the fore in such political discou Tscs. Any discussio Il om the Ileans and modalities for the pursuit of peace in Sri Lanka thus has to take I10 te of thıc linkage 5 il Indi dichotomie5 between the static a T1 di society in Sri Lanka ls they hlv evolved over decades,
While making ethnic conflict is the focal point in the subsequent sections, I have related it to the wildcr gamut cof force5-external as well as interIlall-which have Tellted in Sri Lil Ilka becoming all increasingly militarised state operatives in a
manner as to erøde its legitimacy as well as integrative capabilities.
III
Though I do not propose to get into the sole what tangled discussion of the * TcLLIT I l t t Hc
12
state” in politic: pertinent to pro ble definiti. Il y is not merely El 5 ocio-ccČI 10 Illic t but hals a certiä its 3 WIT. As El r:lttsוTptרטנit iI nistrative, polici organisations hē o lc55 coordin: cutive political stilte institutio T: authority are bul Late within the Lional and intc. Illics. Ho Wever, states. Lhe ethni static as perceive by the power el cthnic cüm InւII bc.cn of critical the power strug Iment påttet 115 state. It is her only the policy also, the perfo power-wielders Exte It allid IIIF the various eth represented in ture. Equally s. not merely thei and participatio til do SC COI I respective comm pertinent. And ception of the Llei relativựe 5E cake as well as bility of the sta It is ill such a that the Ila turc State a l d its c) Infic L il Sri be focussed.
Broadly speak kan political sy e vil Wedi his Illit the 'ethnically tem. Briefly stat (1) the presenc large groups it ictil i th1 E power and all nature of Sicil even when coo a competitivce the premise be ZeTC)-Sll. Til game wise: (3) the pi tion implying nority relationsh

ll theory, it is vide a Wokalf the state. State are in which attles are waged in autonomy of 11 CITO-Stirll C [LITIC, a set of admiing and military aded and more ited by in exeauthority, These of power and ilt up and opecolltext of Elar national dy nain Illulti-ethnic c" nature of the :d and projected i te CF its various lities has aus C
significance in ture and alignof society ind e again that not a vocations Elt La Illic: of the underscort the 11ler to WhiÇı Inic groups a Tc he power-strucignificantly it is I representation 1 but their claiml behalf of their unity which is so is the perjusticeability of are in the power the accountate to Wards LlēIT. general context of Sri Lankan role in chic Lalka lecd:S to
ling, the Sri LåInstem, as it has been that of centralised' sysed, this contes: Bo Đf tW C1 Cir Illyré L : mista mit interstructures of thority; (2) the an interaction perative, having dge with often i Ing that of a El Ild nat OtherLitte TD filteTAC - the majority-miip perceived and
or projected as that of dorina Inti-subordinate relationship. The effectivity of such a perception and projection is heavily contingent on the level of the minority group's conscious
ness, the nature of its expcctations vis-a-vis the state and its actual as well as expected
share in the institutions of power and authority of the statc.
In the Sri Lankan case, the Tamils have been a numerical minority but regionally, they are a majority. Coupled with this has been the factor of their proximity and culturallinguistic affinity with the Tamils of Tamilnadu á cross the Palk Straits which has induced a sense of self-perdeived minority complex among the Sinha lese community. Such a minority Complex, nurtured through Seleç historical memories of Tamil invasion from the Tamil north (South Indian states) during the pre-western colonial period had occasional out bursts during the British colonial rule. This Was partly due to the nature of the colonial state and partly due to the political exigencies as managed and manipulated by the leadership of the War I ous political groups-communal as .111H1ווח ווcor - חell as Iloיי
Briefly stated, the major attributes of the colonial static in Sri Lanka were: (a) its highly unitary character which h0 Wever did not di Surb the pattern of traditional power structure at the local level. (b) development of a dual economic structure marked by the export oriented plantation sector (With all its colonial concomittants) con the one hand and rural sector on the other. Though having a small number of families as owner of big land holding, the nature of plantation culture in the colony was such as to marginalise agriculture, create non-self-sufficiency in major food commodities and thereby lead to dependency on the waga ries of international markets; (c) strong all-island communication network which faciliated Illivement of those who c7 Ludi Elfford

Page 15
it. Though connoting the preeminence of a highly westerIlise di class of Brown Sahibs', such a communication network existed Side by sido with the indigenous patterns of networking in education, religion, medicine etc.
During the British period, the indige nous power clite —both Sinhala, Tamil, Muslims and Burghers-shared part of the colonial spoils. In fact, till the early 20s the Sinhalese and the Tamil elite had joined hands in demanding greater autonomy from their colonial masters. It is not without significant that in 1912 the first Ceylonese to be elected to the legislative council was a Tamil, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan. His brother, Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam was the first President of Ceylon Reform League (1917 as also of Ceylon National Congress (1919) which was founded jointly by the Sinhales e and the Tami || clite. During this period, the Tamils did not regard themselves as a minority but aspired to equality with Sinhalese as one of the two majority groups as indeed their cnfranchised segment was under the TestTicted franchise then prevailing'. With English education being the major qualification for enfranchisement and the Tamils in the north having an early start in English education, it was not Slui Tp Tising that at this stage they had accounted for more than half of the educated Ceylonese. However, in democratic politics where numbers mattered, such concept of 'two majority com
mill inities was bound to be fragile as much as artificial. The rupture of the Ceylon
National Congress in 1922 along ethnic lines, the formation of Sinha les e and Tamil ethnic parties (c. g. Tamil Mahajana Sa bhal, Sinhala Mahasa bha, Tamil Congress etc.) had the submersion incorporation of one community by the other being the underlying assumption of both. Though the left parties did challenge such ethnicity based
fear syndrome a politically ma
they were too w deInt particularly side.
The introduct ädult fra Inchise of the colonial the Ti un Willing Wided it greater projection ald sluch apprehenšico minority felt will its Illi II1erical Wei halese, Eng o opp (35e d i t bcca! of franchise righ di El 11 Ta II i Is". HIC did the colо пial With the ulics chise but also Open field in the
Unlike India, pCrial policy of 'c Was a political t.t. i l 0 fliall gur wiwill (I) In it. Ily Occasio Raj did not nee it in the island
of the moderit cha T:İlçiter of the munity leadershi
left parties) itse tion of all all S try after the 193 El T1 indication of tation. A Td 5 C till of the de mind of 50-50 of represc II:I til ties gT OLIp5 With CCIT II unity whic would have inp but weightage ir numerical propo [mirn ority comımıLI I thill one-third population,
As such, the strategies of the state evolved in
Il ailtain a certa between the war. ties. Though sc it not only serv terest blIt what IC L let The III coexistence go b pctitive point.

contri yed a 1 d ipulative, yet 2ak to make a in the country
In of uniwersal In 1931-a gift lasters to its recipients–proimpetus to the propagation of [n. If [h1e T:lmi1 Ierable dit le to kiness, the Sinher factors had se of the grant ts to the *ILlwever, not only
state go ahead 11 Adult franet it hälve a Ll
political a rena
where the imlivide et empera” exigency for and sus tchance ins, the British d to resort to colony because e and pliable majority comp (except the | T. The for Irlainhalese minisÉ elections Wasi such lil orie Ilwas the rejecTamil Congress ) i. e., parity of a 11 milio Tithe majority h in any case lied not parity view of the tion of all the litics being less of the total
policies and British colonial à 11 El In The T fl:S tic) in cquilibriu II1 ious communiIIlewhat shaky ed imperial inis more, did ajority-minority -cy ond the comHere agai II. a
certain pattern in power sharing can be discerned with 1 h c Iininority elitic having a pre – cmimence in bureaucracy, business as well as certain professions like law and Inedicine and the Imajority community elite having a political ascendency as the junior partners of the Raj.
111 tilt: post-independence period, ethnic politics acquired a sharper edge as the ethnic equilibrium in terms of power sharing and its management was disturbed. While the colonial antecedents did have their input in su Ich 21 pro ccss particularly due to the cont Til dictio T15 er Ilbedded therein, it was in the Iliain a concomittant of the pressures and pulls ensconsed in the perspectives, policies and performance of the state leadership vis-a-vis the accommodation of minority community's demand in a society marked by mass politics and a pace of Tapid social change.
As in the other post colonial states, le Sri Lik ciltext too, irrespective of the structural differences in the form of governance, there has been an increasing expansion of the activities of the state. In the process, in addition to its role is a protector, the state Wils perceived, for historical Teasons, as assuming the role of a provider for its citizenry. The welfarist orientation of the state haldi al Teady made : beginning at the fag end of the colonial period when education was made free from K. G. to University level and compulsory to those up to 14 years of age: health Services were available at highly subsidized rates, con 111 unica Lion facilities Were speedy and cheap and last but not the least, subsidized prices for Tice – the Staple food 15 Well as a few Cathcr esse Intial itchs like sugar-Were provided for.
Not surprisingly, therefore, in the early decades of inde
13

Page 16
pendence, the island-state was internationally acclaimed a model of Welfarist democracy
among the third World countries. The PQL (Physical Quality of Life indicators, e. g., literacy, low rate of infant mortality and high ra te of longevity) in Sri Lanka has turned lit to be one of the highest in Asia. Elections based on universal adult franchise (introduced as early as 1931) were held at fairly regular intervals since independence in 1948 till 1977 with one of the two major parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) coming alternately to power. Electoral participation, reflecting its participant political culture, was as high as 87% in 1977 elections with less than half per cent of the invalidi polled, With voting age being reduced to 18 years since 1950 and the
'new voters' accounting for more than 10% woters in wirtually every election, the poli
tical awareness and volatility of a highly youthful civil society d jd de termilie L'Ile electoral verdict to soline extent.
As regards economy, going by its growth rate it did not scem to have donc too badly with the rate of growth averaging about 3 per cent annually during the 50s and 60s, and With the introduction of the open cconomy and missive do sic of foreign aid, Tising to 6 per cent per annum towards the end of 70s and in the early 80s after the UNP had assumed power. Finally, though, somewhat limited. In easures were also taken towards land distribution through land reforms including nationalisation ČT British owned plantition collpies.
However, embedded in such impressive politico-economic indicato ITS Were a III libert of c) Il tradiglions With le W C Intradictions finding expression as a consequence of the nature of power align Illents in the state
14
structure as well policies and Ile economic sphere
To begin with mic sphere, in domina Int II10 des and relations of Länka has CCTN t classical case of pitalist system. the frequent rh Tclia Ilce, it 5 dom
and other elit failed to extri from the dor
mode of ecolor the econolic all morked by diwe capital and priv: Testic Flind E SLFP regime foi to greateT stalte Illinber of sect. cxpanded the
capital, the UN cularly Sicc 19
on "open 'eong left considerab State Inter wel Lit
i II wa Tito L15 e con
How cyc, with explosion, rising its youth were to a II lismatic owerheated polit stagnant econo political dissen hand and high creasing une Imp with stringent, the SLFP regimi the other. After in 1977 the UN do II estic versi supply side eco For a brief wh dramatic Tesult: iT"y": sLTI1 eIn t. . cli[11 uIlemployIlent cmd to al situat Ho weyer, it als criminate open (afiggting sortle indigenous in as fond crops fostering atin consuIller ist c11l thus, al Itilis II at distributi.01 Wit gap between and perceived

| als SC II le cof its asli Tes il socio
S.
1, in the econotells of the
· of production * production STi in Icd to be a dependent caNotwithstanding eta Tic of selfcistic bourgic Coisie e groups had cite the Ilselves miTant colo mill ly. If at all, חיEmii i1:15 BEt" TSE: Illix of state te capital—both xterial. If the - instal ce: TČ ved control in a its and thereby role of state P regime, parti77, emphasised my' which still le Leeway for I and control
IIlic: sec t83 Ts.
I the population expectation of such as to lead ch, between all y and a virtually my resulting in t Ön the: ÖTı: :r inflation, inloyment coupled cont Tols du Ting Le (1970 —77) on coming to power IP replaced it by -tar1SLחון ווf Iר) חט: nomic policies. i 1e this yielded such a hill oya. It late, a fall in and an apparent ion of scarcity. o curtailed indi simport policy if the liscent 115 trics as well ) coupled with clitist oriented ture. There was, t:l htt 1 ut Iլ է Tch growth: and a the expectations capabilities vis-a-
Wis the e c) Illic 5 itillation of its growing lower middle strata created a potentially explosive 5itti,
This was El cÇeltuliited bęÇaluse of the social status of the power wielders. Though the electoral politics, in theoretical terms, opened the avenues for all, in effect, a considerably large Illi Ilber of power wielders-whether in government or in Oppositi D, continued to be draw fruit the upper strata of the Sri Lankan society. This is reflected in the socio-economic profile of tle S. Likā 1 sciety. Tilis is Teflected il the socio-eco III ilic profile of the legislators as well as those in bureaucracy. Though, over the decades, the lumber of English educated MPs dec. rel5cci a Lld there was a Ti il Citelse in Sillala educated in 1970 elections, hardly a handful had a humble socio-economic background. The number of landow, Inı e[5, bu sines S TThe El Eli Drıd other professionals continued to be significant-a pheno II en a which continued il the 1977 electio Is.
During this period the state response to the political dissent and protest appeared to have be colle i 1C Telsingly tyran Illical. There was a perceptible trend towards increasing concentration of power at the top particularly sice the 70s — (With the PT i IlleMinisterial government of the SLFP paving the way to the Executive Presidency during the UNP regime). This was marked by scant regard for the traditional adherance to the sepalration of powers between the Thajor Organs of the govern Ilent, di 1 LI Liðin of the “LIII collitt cd' chlräctéT (If the bu Teilucracy, stri IngeInt Theasures on the freedom of the press through legislitic fiats of take-owers. The extension of parlia Tinent through a legislative fiat in 1972 and the Tecurse to a referendl'11 in 1982 instead of holding general elections as scheduled were perceived as acts of political manipulation by the ruling regime and further alienated those on the periphery.
(To be Continued)

Page 17
" "SELE ""
IN SRI LANKAM CRISS
Between Death and U
G. Ramesh
lius, when, Sinhalese are but
chered in Anura dhapura (Junc 1985) or a bomb is sct off at the busy Pettah arca in Colombo (April 1987), it is to only make the govern Tlent " 's ce ricas on’’ in order to suspend its ongoing offensives and bring it to the negotiating table, at Thimpu and
New Del Eli , WHc. Til || 5 of Walwct Liturai arc bombed and killed (May 1987, August 1989
and now) they arc punished for bcing the neighbours of Prabhakaran, an insult of pure circumstance for the government. When Muslim congregations are massacred, it is only to convince them that they, as a minority, cannot go on collaborating with the Sinha la chauvinists. A ny Inumber of such instances call be cited.
Several such acts inevitably reach the level of a spectacle in their execution and justification, enacted for their utility walue in the media. Each of them becomes an incident, as journalistic cliche would halwe it. Getting the bct ter of a situation, however traumatic it may have been, lies in the player's ability to enact a spectacle of death and ''get out of it' for a breather till the Incxt situation. To that textct, the se se of a win is good media management, som ething lacked by the Indians, but found in abundance with the LTTE, and to a less extent with the Lankan government.
The question concerning media is not the documentation of facts or that of managerial ethics, but something total y different. In the recent Hollywood film Batman, journalist Wicky Wale, whose report about the ''Maltese Revolution' has appeared in the Time magazine, is posed a question by Jack Nicholsom playing thic evil jocker. Just after he destroys a museum of avant-garde art with heavy Imetal rock, paint and caricatur
- பாட -
(G. Rafnesh is a yotrug Inclfur jörirralist)
i Eng. Producing asks her. W you I disfigurati corpses shot Tttoils III horrtir, real.
Th. Lus, total W LI se of an utopia, 1 il. A dystopia benumbing, Inned Dut hope, sum Tecognizal ble as M. Teover, an ui tion, is an idea cWen a democrati lised dia chronic :lib II le titi tlich i leite i ia synchronical It has a 5e se of A dystopia is an
WIS
The issue here
Tallil ıllela II an utopia, wha got realised is F. has tulis been li question ? W. asked whether T age Would exist, "יונות ווITOI
The tragedy equally shared ill the tragedy of of the JWP and in society. At t Imulst also be Stat lat Ind ut copia (of it hegemonist and mill tlure, as eml u concepct of the Such H II el Til II ally sustained b. ives of grudgin their liberalist
ATé Il't these I our times by C)Tie:Titulist vcrsi Lille to the exten has been a prac with Ott, Tamil societies, primar of the caste sy på rådig til 5 Of Sir 15 w cel || S. Siy; their modern in not just aspired

topia
al live IIIddel, he
Juld you allow on, just is the y you ?" She This title for
realises H reverthat is a dystopis bewildering, iocre and withething that is reality today. El pia, by definiil state. Hence, c struggle, visuaally, will not be t. But a dystoply app Toachable. "ohe Te End Illow”. Li tipi: realised
is that while the
d is posited as E"וto il H וון שישL S | dystopia. Yet,
sked even as a Ju lid jt. Il yw be El milias a langu
say, 100 years
C)f Tamils i5 J'y the Simhale se the Illilitaris Il the Thillit Hi Tis II he sa Ilie time, it ed that Homehe Si Thales; c is geographical il inciated in the : while islaılıd, myths are genery Warious na Tra tg admission in Färiants.
lyths fue lled in
their II de II is . This is t thält exclusi El :tice, with i III a. Id A id Sil Hill ily in the for II "s tc:IL1. Bu L. thic hilla Buddhis, A Siddhia Itali, in til Tinati C1s, hawe to be univer
salist philosophies cast in the Western Tould, but also totalist Sciences constituted upon themselves. This constitution of the Self as El total objective entity, a round the end of the 19th Century, has bee Il the threshold which any III1 odern historian of Lark: Would not Illiss.
This is certainly not a place to have a full-fledged debate on the abovc issue, but it is suffice to state that chall Willis in is not just the produce of 'tradition'. Perhaps it is a result of an inability to balance out two cultures of a long memory in the context of modern apparatuses of body, power and language, like the state, the prison, the army barracks, the school and the refugee camp. Perhaps it is an oblique admission of a new fact that mod crl apparatuses of power constitute a political technology of the self just as their traditional invariants were intolerant, full Cof Condemnations and pcrsccutions. At the Same time, chauvilnism Elcts as Instalgia and attempts to incorporate moderП 18 m into it.
Witness Rohana Wijeweera, whose JWP switched over from the revolutionary myth of Che Guevera il the 197Og to the Illilitant myth of King Wijebahu of Ruhuna (who rooted out the Cholas of Polanarl Wa in the 13th Century) in the late 1980s. Witness, as an evidence of militaristil, ho Wever Collical it looks, the cha llenge of 83year-old J R Jaye wa Tid cne to Wijeweera for a hard-to-hand cir bat at the Galle Face Green. Or his eİıtlı usiasmı for Trabllakaran's pistol after the signing of the July 1987 agreement, and fixing a prize for his head after the start of the waT betwee the LTTE and the Indian troops. It has been decided that cha lulwinist machism is the Only answer possible. And this is. the Simplistic version of gradulatio II of Lankan history
15

Page 18
frd In the traditional to the
I11 K.)d eTL1.
From the two analytic axes
of d cath and utopia, 1 W Chuld
like to move (3 il to tr': 'well, So Irimething already been touched upon by the travel to be made if LäIkii j5 L je C15 jde Ted i y Cic. TTaivel existed 4 Id exists as al Imıdla we awal y fr(III) institutions in the figure of the Wanderet, Who is ini search for the mad other propelled and constrained by his shadow, if I may be allowed to Lake Tecourse to Friedrich Nietzsche. Tradition, both Tamillil and Sinhala, shrewoodly attempted to incorporate this as pilgrimage to be
undertaken by every settled person. A pilgrimage sought to physically move the believer across and a long with other
bij dies thereby offering a neutralisation of sort 5. both : Cyf thc wanderer and of himself herself. Recall, for instance, the Kataragälla pilgrimage thilt cwery Tamil had to u ndertiake.
In the modern World, the figure of the foreign and inland tourist replaced the enigma of the pilgrim. The first tourist LLLL S S LSLSLaL S gtHHL S tHtHSLHL S S aaL Marco Polo himself, since he is quoted in every travel and su Tvival kiti on Lanka: “the finest island iT1 World as one approaches from the Andamans." The figure of the toulist, who de youred the multi farious lindscapes of the island, got institutionalised in the 20th Century, but it was preceded by the manufacture of these landscapes via the plantations by another kind of traveller: the plantation worker forced in from Tamil Nadu, the pilgrim quietly lost Lit i i hit it ho Cille i Titul i without structural possibilities, is te and tot Iris II becil me the mainstay of foreign exchange in post-independent Lanka.
In the late 1960s, another kind of traveller got consolidLLLLLL S LLLL S CH SLLLLLLLLLLHHHS SLL HLL referring to the Tamil profess
ional who pursued his higher studies in the West, got settled there, but would relain securely bound to the genealogy of caste
and kinship si kimi d trill, weller, t3': Origin, but its in to so II le thing legal and eductio come Only Illuch sufficient to p this traveller it counterpart from II lade il to Se the 19608 : Ild
11 the narrat for instance, de; is sought to E travel to the utop Hotelaid is as sibility as the In puts on eself Ont
death o 1udi traveller, who w pastures earlier
forced-out-exile ducing the glulit DCC es så ry to sulis of the guetilla () the militant hims äs i th1: 11 CITET TIL past catches up de guerre assu That is, Inan ITE in the Borgesia is trille, I may say for dissente suppressors with IIn Tamil historio las Ect I LTele of assuiting Seve TIl Tecelt Tallimi 1 it as the grantin perso. Il after hi the hands of th lieu Linant, capt:
In a sense, militantism is a ory of rivalry bi ans the II75clves, Wit H J Lut. BLI L T mu[c pH st whi usually discussed to the flow . 1972 to the after al a vel It's ill still ct and rivalry wer Standardization Länk: Il govern IT thlt Teal Ecs with the youths exclusi II of it rivality and rol E the archetypal en sured that desertion, betra!

tructures. This had a colonial
diversifica Lim other thal I'll the la fields would
latter. It is í illt out that ersects with his
the West who the East in late.
iwe of Eela II, a thı çT TIL TideT e justified as via of h01 11e land. much a posslilita Inti CDT Tebel () the Tisk of T. The foreign ent for greener is low the pcrpetually proEnd resentinent ital in the Imyth i II ilitäПt, FUT elf death appers his genealogical with the III med by him. leting his double ni 5 esse. This be. El llo y cd til is, betrayers and ill the Illilitants, y, this problem as the question Tal titular Toles. history, I find g of titles to a S marty do Til at e enemy: second Lin, Imajot etc.
the history o 5 Illich a hist St Weel the Till i L” b qıtlı with i l l alınd his history hals ch is not thlT I am Tefe Tring If youths since militant groups, as towards testing for co II petition e closed by the r"L1|es d3f the ment, Mite than In-making rested leadi Ing to the her people, it is 2-modelling after Tiger which has the history of yaıl and suppres =
sion Tin hi lamic, fibri li Tista, Ince the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Indian intelligence organisation, which fue lled this rivalry with the flow of arms and infrastructure, for the existence of rivalry itself, would be Tutj1c ... A di exclusio Ili of the various straids of people neccssarily leads to perpet Lill War, thic impossibility of a Struggle, and the Imal mi pli la ti0 Tn. of the people for status ql), whether issue IIWC Wed is caste oppression or that of women or that the fleeing refugees.
Politically the genesis of this manipulation has come out of the frustrating experience of the futility of democratic struggles and mass campaigns in the period 1956-81. But the very concept of democracy in the context of Lanka to be elaborated in this period.
To start with, just a5 in several other Third World countries, operated as elite democracy, despite the fact that modernism had entered the island through universal suffrage and granting of trade union rights. Independence atTived without il s Lr Liggle. The well-kT WIT disel fra Ilchise 11 CT1 L of plantation Tamils in 1948, eInsured the continui ed dio min la 1ion of elites, with the etiquette of democracy operating in the peer group like a club. The club, though official and open, operates by exclusion. It claiTed to understand governance and diplomcy in a sem se distiled from the disturbances of plebian affairs, except for the manipulable issue of chauvinism. In the course of time, this got translated as participation by Sinhala masses in the victors of
democracy
the Sri Lanka Freed oil Party in the 1950s,
All this is too well known to
b c discu 155 ei hic Te. Yet What I have attempted here is spatialization of the current narratives con Lanka, giving Cours clwcs al new 11 nderstanding of the self in the light of what we hawe come to know about power, body and language, whether it
(Carried in Fig. 8)

Page 19
ETHNICITY: Muslims :
Neelan Tiruchelvam
wish to thank Dr Fazly Nizar,
President of the All Ceylon Moors Association, a childhood friend, for having invited me to participate at the 75th anniversary of this Association. It is significant that a celebration of this nature should not merely wiew the community which it represents in isolation but also to wicw the relationships, linkages that have been forged by the Moors of his country. With other ethnic communities. During the period of the second State Council, there we Te many political formations. In addition to the Ceylon National Congress, we had the Sinha la Maha Sabal, Tamil Maha Saba, Kandyan National Association organized primarily to protect and Titiculate the listinct i Til terests and aspirations of different communities. It is not without significance that today only the All Ceylon Moors Association and the Sri Lanka Muslim League founded by NMT, H. M. Ma Çka II Mark: T C Ciritinue to exist.
All Ceylon Moor Association does not Wiew its elf als al mere political formalion. Its activities include cducation, Social development, housing and other community needs, It has however Illot been il diffelTcht eithe T in the past or today, to the explicit political needs of the Moor community in this country. Members of the Association have both in their institutico Ina 1 and indiwidual capacity played an active and constructive role in scarching for political solutil 115 to the et Hnic Conflict. It Wäls this conce TI of the A55;-- citition which clabled Sir Rizik Fareed, whose political career paralle led the history of the All Ceylon Moor Association, to confidently take political position on issues such as constitutical refor II, IIl 1945.
YA falk ar All Ceylari Mars FFICerror Trèering r celebre firi Iriri riversary of the CMA)
he supported C115titutional F State Council. Witws were firm the CC 115 es L1 s 3: The support of and AOC) t hlie L1 sa I it represented Enabled him til Ima cy : Tı d a n i l lı t fc W subsequient Eccl. able to Ç3T |alcr 1 schl 15 m ) the Muslim Me i ITS 11t fra 1 til t those that rep tituel cies in th vyle h e v ted Bill, the Musli Parlia II e Int Te cleçti. Tate of Kali and Muttur (A.A M. M. Mustapha med Ali) stood to his legislat MLIsl irm1. - C.J IT1 Im1 l1 :IllIlll Titi:5, hl: fragmented. Th socio-political f’T ITF tills, ir political parties file United is Lor M.C.M. Kai are represente di of IL Te thair 12C in this colltry.
The Chair Illa I refer Ted to ti between the maj and the Moors If i w e Teflect 0 1 between ethnic this country, there has been Tc-alig in Tinent of }1ח Eth - 11 טtweטb Today, as We
1990, the 75th All Ceylon M we nimius I ll Sc3 tle 75th 1 milive riots. During sad peri (id, political force
against the for political opinio: im , יו ט"ו טיילור)H moments of the of the country

and mobilisation
the Soulbury for his ill the He felt that his Il y grCollTnded in F the association. thic associati III, di TT CTS which at that Time secure a legitihe ticity, which E le de Ts hawe land. A decade ppeared between Imber 5 Of Parlile South, il Ind Tesented consč Elst. II 1956 for Sinhala only lenbers of ting theון ש5טrת 1 kildal, Potti Lu Yi 1 ...Mic:111 Markar, al mi, MH, Mohain opposition ion. Today the nity, like other lis beel fil T. Lher ere Te li būLIL 30 and religious d 2 ML1 sllii Ii The Clil National Party Lee all Muslims i El llicost all political parties
in his speech he strong links ority community of Sri Lilikil. the relationship communities in we Tellise thilt alignment and the relationship : cia in Irill Filities. celebrate the year III liversary of ICT Associati OT1, rect 11 tillt it rsary of the 1915 he terrible Eld TäIIli-Siill:lla 15 WCTc l'ITited Lgs Of the MC OT n in this country. ther importalt 2 political history Such als When al
motion was introduced in the State Council with regard to Sinhala being the Ilicial language of the country in 1944; when Soulbury Constitution reforms were debated on 1945; and the Sinhala only Act Wils introduced by late S. W. R. D. Bandaranalike in 1956; the leader of the Ceylon Moor Association Sri Razik Fa Teed, in particular, aligned himself with the position of the Sinhala community much to the dismay and disappointment of the then leadership of the Tamil community. It is a said commentary on our history that when we forged unity between the major communities, we did so only to Lake El Position against the third community
There is however one import
ant difference in the basic approach of the Taa Illil ComillImunity and the Mor CO2
regard to the political is sucs of the postindependent era. Tamil community in its quest for equallity and the protection of its identity engaged in the process of struggle and confrontation. By and large, the hipproach of the Moor community was one constructive accommodation, and co-operation. There were benefits and costs in each of the se strategies. It h10 WeWeT resulted in great deal of distrust Lind suspicion between the Tamil and Muslims the Cruel consequences of which are being felt today.
It is important today to recogmise the contribution that SiT Razik Fare ed and Al Ceylon Moor Association have made to the political life of this country, Firstly, with regard to an acknowledgement of the distinct cultural identity and needs of the Muslim community in spheres of education, maintenance of religious institu tiems Cowes its antecedes to the efforts of your Association. Many references been made to the establishment of teacher training colleges, the education of Musliili women, the
Inuity. With
17

Page 20
developicnt of a separate strei III of education for Muslim schools. Razik Fatecd recognised the need to aggressively assert a distinct identity to prevent attempts to submerge the Muslim coin Imunity within ; larger ilinguistic identity. Thirdly, thic All Ceylon Moor Association has been in the fire-front of the struggle for political TcpTesentation, equity in employment, and with improwcmcnt of the Social COIl ditions of thic ConIII unity,
Oth cit communities need to also acknowledge that Moors of this country, through the All Ceylon Moor Association and Other political formation, also helped to enrich our social life in many other respects. Firstly, We have learnt a great deal from the Muslim community of this country in your emphasis On social equality, and your commitment to social compassion in Well being and prosperity, With the less advantaged members of your community. These a Te values Lihat Other co IIImm linities hawe endeavoured to emulatie With far less success. Secondly, your I cligiousity, your passionate commitment to relig
iqusity, your passionate comImitment to religious doctrines and Islamic values, your sense
of humility before Almighty God, have been a source of inspiration
to other religious groups. Your contributions to the evolution of Arabu Tamil, through the
Writings of your poets and short story. Writers and other literary figures, has been ackowledged Tot inly in this c) LIITTy, but als Co by historians on literature abroad.
Finally, we live in a traumatic period. Ma II y fundamental issues with Tega Td to ethnic identity are being debated LL LLL LLLLHH HLLLtttLLLLLLLLS LLLLL tLLLL Scincial Socie Fitists hilve tried to evolve objective definitions of when a community could be categorised as a nationality, national Iliri Crity Cor" ä Cultural III il brity. Every nationality is entitled in this scheme to the right of self-deter Ili il titol. A Illa fill minority, which has a territorial
deeply
S
basc, is en titled of political aut Cultlurill II i Il Corit til cd to the recogi cultu Tall Hind li The question is debated as to whe community in a national Illic Llräl miliority. like to point on Il 'L IS51 ES L.) '' Cobjective scier These are quest In tot bc resolwed munity dicter IIli MLIsli Tı : Çobillrl Lu political status political aspira Ultimately, que identity can oil wely resolved in conscious ucss all Initio III a. Id self .ommunityט טth static phenome identity which is Will evolve acco according to thi according to thi the dominant that community.
MT. Chair II conclude that a the ling and til Muslil Commu
try has achie Threshild of Fg which it cal II
back. Firstly, th ledgement that
In Ot merely | ethnic terms, E entity which i
that of cither ic that is entitled
cipation in deci ting to the Ina til polity. Secondly, t ty entitled equal Cpport linities E. is a while devolved arrange ultima tely take part of this c. th CTC is a grc that the Milis mist directy e po W er i 1 a reais; enjoy an ethnic
The challenge as a plural soc

LC 50 TTe T1 El Sll Te 2nd Ily; while a y is Tilly eltiinition of definite Tiguüistic rights. being fiercely : ther the Muslim this country, is rity or a cultI would merely ut that the 5e are hich there are tific T1S"M":IT5 i Öns which canby another comIlling for the Inity what its and What its tion should be. stion of ethnic ly be subjectitrils of ethnic nd the self defiperception of
This is not Ila. It is in fluid and which Tding to conext. * déImltld5 änd aspirations of 2lements within
LITI DIT I LISt fter the end of Irbulent history, lity in this coun
Ved a Certain thievement from 13 L be til Teil
is is al II ack II, W - it has an identity
El Clultural and ut i Is political s distinct from
Ummunities i Ild O equill par LiSi On making rela1 TC if Sri Lalka's his political entitreatment, equal thin the lation Lit als o in any ITE: t t l t y Coul place in any puntry. Thirdly + wing seInti II ment lim community xercise political in which they preponder ance.
that faces us itty is how we
Cal accum moda, Lc and Tecnicile the evolving aspirations and identity of one community with the aspirations and identity of (itler communities. Such a recolilciliatico Il ca. Il not b c L Tid crtakic I 1 on the basis of power. It is only on the basis of justice, and Ingit con thc : basis of Power, that the future destiny of the respective co III munities can be fir Inly established.
Between Death. . .
Carried frary page. If
is traditional or Ilolcin or an Lincomfortable synthesis of the two, leading to exclusions. I understand that Io natrative can be all cncompassing.
In this context, I would like to cite the Thucydidicam attempt by four authors, including Dr Thira nagana, to retell the cutrent history without documentarist delusions. They understood that the na Trative used by a journalist like Mohan Rail, howsoewer committed he may hawe been, should be avoided. Yet, Dr Rajini's Lrcatment of the tra una of Women assaulted by Indian soldiers betrays the cold objectivity cof an ni toimist, as well His the grim face of someone waiting for II natyrdom.
Politically, this II means that is a North within the South, which is unable to comic to grips with itself but ending up repressing the South culturally and otherwisse. This is tirule whether it is the articulation of what thic BJ förs 5 camdal mell 15 to u 5 Indi Elms, or what is good for us as the
guise of development, T vyhı at we shlı qılı ld Te; d. and view to 'keep a breast'. As
those of you i Til the North a Tc
well aware cf. the cistence of a South with in the North In form of excluded people and
minorities of all hues, it is my responsibility to state this truth and in that, crase myself out.
(Concluded)

Page 21
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Page 22
Ethnicity (2)
Culture as Variable Fa
Laksiri Jaya,Suriya
HY this complex identity structure is formed and ful ctions in social interactions is critically important for understanding the process of cross-culural communicati Ön; billit this orientation still remains poorly developed as ausa bl conceptual 5 cheimá. For the purposes of the preselını l a rgli lent, the processus of identity formation iT particularly relevant in settler socitties where there are migrants and their offspring. In particular, we ence i'll Inter լիe to IIIplexities of what his been TCferred to als 'dual socialisation' pointing to the wastly different and ofen conflicting socialis: tion influences on ethnic offsргing,
The existence of 'dual sociali sation', as Weireich (1986) SOI. rectly observes, "cautio T1s ägainst is simplistic view of chnic identification. What we find is that during the period of prima Ty socialisation, ethnic Children form ' identification with th$ family, and these. Will depend greatly on how the fallily peris its own sense of eth Ilicity
ind ethnic attachIn Ent5. Hij W - ever, thes: identifications are som overlaid by "secolldry
socialisation' influences cOITni Ing from the school, Toll Pte groups, church etc. The Se le: i to encounters with significant
others, often dra Will from th: dominant groups of society. A5 a result of these complex in
fluences, the Tesultant, sens F identity and, in particular, ellh miiC identity must be We wedi :45, 24 product of a complex set f transactions governed by the varied social relationships that people form as a result of their lived experie T1 CeS,
This process of identity FTnation has been portrayed recently by El T1 Italo-Australian. Teresa Angelico (1989) describes vividly how, having come Australia from Italy at the age of 8 years, she grew up Eli Eld was socialised in a bi-cultural
20
cC1 text. She d: was exposed to socialisation pr the family, Scl and poses the does a coherent emerge from c. of reality. Th is through a reflection, lead self identity, li ideas with the grating " mea Tling tcx1s". She C0Il of Lis fascin: ethnic identit fUllL w5:
integrating real sent hi:is: clă Ti Grohler en L. S. () important for This clarificati ittentifying illt: 11: L Tiga '' relevant, et air art: lit longe meanings whic եւ Լյf value, tl meanings in th While much . been about the challenges to b ili i hi-cultШТЕ Tarly Hill'Wil Illa cxplored in II cil would be that range of poss with the Op ili tim, ПIJE uations Carl bli clieng HT1. 1989:9). This reveilling the observati. (1986) and o identity is not entity, but h; taking differell concrete sitli courselves iIm I time: 5 Chw erridi some aspects depending OT Angelico's pl formation illu though potenti is Tit it I1:Cr:5 a Ild Ill:Ay čWčI for cha Diligt. in this [[TC) communicatio way in whic inte act With

Ctor
scribes how she conflicting dual ocesses through 1ool and work, question: H0W set of meanings inflicting sources is, she sluggests, process of self ing to a sense of nking the present past and inteis from both Cencludes her account ating process of formation as
ities of past El Til Dr.- ified value:3 in ti ! :
meanings which is - Lituro le Cisit TLS. on process curs by nings, "letting g“ „hich are IlL länger Lig Telnings which rrclr: yEITInt, retairni T1g lre considered to rid incorporating flew e culturail frameWÖrk. of thic discussion his բot ential tonflict in: faced by individuals context, there are ges that could be In importarl X: Tle exposire to a broader ibilities provides One ior5 L chose. In ntially conflicting Sils á titilulus for self i growth (Angelico
account confitr Ills m of Weinricich thers that eth Ilic
reified as a fixed is t be set T ils forms in specific tios, We Tev CEll many ways, SOT1ng or conceiling
of our identity,
the context. As rtrayal of identity strates, this price55.
sarily a liability 1 be arı iTıp Ellis What is significal. It less for effective
n is to regard the h identity factors personal, social
and contextual factors to determine outcomes in communicatil I.
Summary and Conclusions
In conclusion, it must be admitted that this Paper häls adopted a distinctly theoretical approach for good reasons. Its main purpose has been to develop a defensible theoretical basis from which it is possible to employ the concept of cultural legitimately and mica Iningfully in policy strategics such as cross-cultural communication - the new genre of cultural pluTalism in Australian public policy. One of its basic premises is that these new multicultural policies represented by cross-cultural communication, 345 With earlier policies promoting ethnic languages and ethnic media, continue to be locked into the problematic of “cultural plILI TALism" -- the idealisation of Culture as an autonomous dimension. Consequently, these policies are especially vulnerable to the same contradictions and conflisions of this policy paradigm. Given the reticence of theorists and policymakers to define El Tid characterise the culture concept, the Paper has ventured to embark on the challenging, but much need cd task of defining the cultural concept With a vie" to giving intellectual creditability to this funda mental concept in public policy.
It is against this background that the Paper has offered a critique of the culture concept On the grounds that such a the Tetical analysis must logically precede any attempts at implementing a policy strategy promoting Crosscultural communication. In addition, this will also c. 13 lle us to understand more fully the dynamics of the cross-cultural communication process. It is pointless assetting the truisill that people from different culres and social backgrounds employ different patterns of

Page 23
communicatio Il Lu Inless WC ha We a pTop er understanding of the truc nature of these wariables and a knowledge of how they operate. It is only by developing a valid conceptual framework that practitioners will be able to exå Illing how cultu Te, as a variable, enters and influences all aspects of the communication process. It is imperative, therefore, that we have a clear idea of what is understood by the concept before considering its impact and influence on humain communication.
The exposition and analysis of culture theorising presented here has endeavoured to show how a particular viewpoint of culture, na Imelly, an idicationalvalue orientation to culture has dominated much of the thinking in this area. This perspective, cha Tacteristic (of orthodox anthi Tripology, and identified as "cul turaıl adı thropology", pis ilibuted with the ideas EA Tıl concepts characteristic of Allerical therising about culture. Not Surprisingly, the practice of crosscultural communication, which is largely an "American export is, as I have pointed out, closely associated with this particular approach to culture theorising I have argued that this theoritical orientatical is flawed beca 115C it presents a limited and erroIle dous wic w of cultillre als in autonom Clus di III1 ension, which is highly prescriptive; and endowed with relatively fixed and distinctive attributes (e.g. unique patterning and uniformity etc.). Through an analysis of the intellectual foundations of this overall approach, we have been able to show its weaknesses in comparison With other more defensible theoretical perspectives. One such perspective is that of the Britis li sociail thebrit, Raymond Williams whose mode of theorising, along with cognate points of View, stands olut as an exemplary and refreshing attempt to reconcile competing and conflicting points of view, especially the disjunction betwell the ideal and Ilaterial factors in defining culture as à Teil element.
The Illerit and value of Willials' approach is neatly expr c55
ed by Ulin who : importance of W
bilitico Im li es im b dichot only betw existence and
(1988: 170). lin thi ests that this Te!! the culture clict prope T specificati critical actor III o Illing, in particul cative 5ocial int the context of th man co 11 11 unicat contribution is pa fica mt because o
citi 15 lid C. Welt comunun lumical tive”
ges that these
actions have Ost their significati ect to power thr of "selective trad Tall hegemily - L ring to the impa of power and I il the conduct C. ions-a point of wie (Gide15" 1 ) ti } I {
The Paper ro theoretical critiq the adoptio il cof t concept of Cul consistent With more adaptable, accommodating ces, coming fro individull behalw TEH 50 Tis, it is all greater practical fully explored b: practitioners.
Having clarifi concep L Flit El analysis, I have reformulted cult hawe soline beari ding the dynamic tive behäWill I T als functioning. It that in addressi El EL CLITTI ITS diffiCult tilsk f facts of cultu Te of day-to-day sociāli bellaivil
This tra Islat effected by invo of identity draw orary social psyc especially that i La ditio, to I culture = ;ı ild indi It is suggested

states that "the illiams contriridging of the * ԸE I1 material consciousness' s way, he suggFormulation of *pt per mits à Il of Cultul Te is 34
social strictiar, in to IIlmunie Ticti ÜTLS. IIl ie study of hi ulions, Willia Ins rticularly signie treats hill 11:4 Ti is a in trillsically ad il ck. Il Weilcommunic: Live e I tij mediate 115” With Tę5pough the notion ition" and Cult Llle littoT Teferct of structure5 lower relations if communicati'w ailson eich coed by if structuration.
Lunds off this Lic by advoating he reformulated ture as being social reality: flexible and if other influenImı 5 qociety = 'Find id1Ir. For these Si SCT to ili'ye utility, not yet y communication
ed the Culture 11 acro-level of sh () "W T1 h ) 'W' t H1is Concept mily ng on understanS of com IIlunicaa form of social is acknowledged ng this question, the exceedingly translating the into the realities individual and
in has been king the concept n from conte Inphological theory, of the European mediate between Wild LIaL lo behlawi coul T...
that, if ethnic
identity, as a component of social identity, is to be the main vehicle through which culture operates On communicative behaviour, we need to Fromulate it more properly and locate it within the larger concept of identity as it has ews ved in the recent work of Tajfel and others. In other words, like the identity concept itself, ethnic identity is viewed as a negotiated outcome in specific Sociocultural situations which involves conflict andi hegemonic control. Ethnic identity is leither fixed nor immutable: it is situationally revealed; and hence its impact on the communication process is always :15 tihed by contingent factors. In ct ming to terms with ethnic identity social interaction includes Communication. As de Was (1984) observes, in his discussion of ethnic identity a psycho-cultural approach to social hegemony is necessary to understand social behaviour'; and he adds, in much the same manner that I have argued, that this has to be built on a conflict approach to society which is based on formal structural analysis.
If this theory of identity and associated concepts are properly conceptualised, the identity concept still holds the best prospects for linking the cultural with the dynamics of individual behaviour. This, is essential for generating a theoretically defensble understanding of humill communication generally and cross-cultural communication in particular. Practical ille E. Slics directed at enham cing the effectiveness of Cross-cultura 1 communications should flow from more defensible pra spective of the culture concept. Training and educational progra Illins designed to improve the yw eraill զuality of communications in El multicultural society, require as one perceptive, "ethnic Austrit. iian' puts it, an exploration of
involving self-identity in a bicultural context'. And this endeavour must be response
to cultural aspects of the pe Tsor) and individual identity as well as the multicultural aspects of the wider society (Angelico, 1989).
(Concluded)
21

Page 24
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Page 25
PART 3
DISSEWT
The Limits of F
Izeth Hussain
suggest that the disastrous economic policies were themsclves the expression of an obsession with power. Our Welfarepolicies, which many see as having retarded economic developTiment fo T (de Cädes, Werc doubtless Imotivated to sole extent at lcast by human concern for the poor, but they look somewhat ambiguous when we take into account what might be called the dialectics of the gift. The relationship between donor and rcicipient is an essentially un equall onc because they, the great One because they, the great ones in power, provide you, the Iniserable ones without power, the basic where withal for your very existence. That kind of relationship could have more that a little attraction for the powerobsessed. Far less albiguous is the significance of the Wreckage of the state sector under successive governments. The c mtirety of our government service and the state corporations became the preserve of our politicians for the appointment of relations, friends, and political supporters. The State Sector malfunctione di inevitably as a consequence, and als so much of the economy had been grabbed by the state that Imalfunctioning m cant a colossal draining away of our resources. It must be acknowledged that at least the wreckage of the economy under our 1970 Government had behind it certain illusions, in the case of our Marxists illusions backed by an ideological com InitI ment as Elinnong their East European counterparts. But our 1977 Government, which came to power with a commitment to a liberalized cconomy, had no such illusions, no socialist objectives at all, and yet failed to privatize or place state sector enterprises under private sector Imanagement to anything like the extent that was possible. I sugg
ll.
est that al huge sit in the Sri Lan hortles of sup the gate, contin ary because tht cnjoyment of p. mic de velopme
My hypothesi of virtually unc could explain which we found - 1989 will tյb wit) cd On the groun has been one cracies in Afrohas been a qua: perhaps democ geth1cr pcculiar Government aw extension of of democratic legi for two yeats. " II1c Int hed a Te of the General Wcre due, il Te be said of rath timacy, and th tial election is in the Supreme be argued The all our govern some sort of le for the period 1 dictatorship und ed elections a m bla tantly farcic;
The important || is that in betw (G0 wernments ha Imocratically. W. understand that i CoIning of de much In ore th functioning of titutions, free a Actually democri II10Tc thin tour hi titutions, which been said that century Britis with its Totte in b the other shortcC and dynamic, t

- -
a te sector, which kan Cill SE 11:alt
licants crowding |cd. Lo be lecte 55
priority was the |WET, ոnt tcom ()- 1.
that the factor Instrained power the situation in usclves in 1988 usly be cha llengdi that Sri Lanka the few die 110Asia. Il fact. Ours si —deTIn}Cra, cy, {}r acy of an alto5ort, The 197) ärded itself al II ice, and häd o timacy whatever The 1977 Governferendlin instead Elections which ercmdırılı it II lust er dubious - legie last presidenunder challenge Court. It II night vertheless that cnt ; hawe hlad gitimacy, except 975-1977, unlike Sr which supposdi referendii re al.
joint, in my view, ce. Il elections ou I ve behaved undee have failed to !he proper functno cracy requires an the proper 1st Cyng of its insId fad i T clicctii015 cy involves much 1wing Certain insis why it has ca. Tilly mineteenth dell cracy, roughs and all Things was vital le expression of
'ower
the English people, unlike the transplanted democracies which
were liter tried out elsewhere. Democracy is IIleaningless unless Governments behave democratically, and that means that the approach to problems should be consensual, due Weight should be given to thic opposition as the "alternative Gow criment', and also institutions 5uch as the free press should be respected. Our Governments have for the most part failed these clementary tests of democracy. அே
- - - - - is
-
I will not go into details about th c un de IIlıcratic actions of Olur governments as they are quite well known. I Will merely remark, before proceeding further, it is surely significant that, that unlike in most other deliocracies, whatever partics happen to be in the opposition consider whatever government happens to be in Dower in Sri Lanka to be anti-dcmocratic. Since this le cture is on the value of dissent, | Will lake some observations on the failure of dissent in Sri Lanka. It is a fact that none of our goern Incints have silenced the opposition in parliament. It is also a fact that since the “six ties our opposition parti c5
have been renowned for their iert I, 52:SS. With conspicuous exceptions, such as the late
Sarath Muttetuweganna, our opposition Inembers hawe Lusually failed to shout over the grievances of the people, perhaps for a tactical casion: the Government
corrects its mistakes and gets re-elected. Far better to allow the government to compound
its mistakes and a Wait their own turn, good souls, to come to power and enjoy power thoroughly. I personally believe that this is an uncharitable cxplanation, because there seems to be something about our culture which Ilhakes people look
23

Page 26
Con po wcir as som cthing that is wirtually sacrosanct, so that there is on the one side the government's power and on the other the opposition's non-power, and there is no point in shouting about abuse of power. The opposition's failure to utilize the opportunities for dissent might be the expression of a society's failure to value dissent.
That might be the explanation for the ease with which press freedo III was eroded in the "sixties ånd the Il destroyed in the “seventies i II Sri La Inka. The contrast With the Teactions to Mrs Gandhi's Ellergency, and any attempt to muzzle thc Indian press, is very striking. It has to be acknowledged that some latitude was allowed for the mini-press in Sri Lanka, and that there was even a slight extension of a latitude after 1977, but it was for from bei Ing a de quate for a democracy. I say this because I had the opportunity of observij Ing at first hand the last years of the Marcos Government in Philippines, where I was shocked to find that Manila press under the Marcos dictatorship was certainly freer than the Sri Lanka I press under thc Jayewardene democracy. There can be no democracy unless the right to dissent is fully respected and that requires a really free press, not just some latitude be allowed for the mini-press. We have not had democracy in Sri Lanka, in any worthwhile se Ise, since 1970, since our right to dissent has deen severely constricted, it is even possible that we halwe been less dem Cocratic than some of the dictatorships,
The hypothesis that I have been argu ing is that the bellying of our hopes of 1948 shown in poor economic a Tid other performatı ce, and in the disast TOLIS situation we faced in 1988-89, was the consequence of the un const Tained power exercised by our goverIl ments. I believe that this hypothesis is supported by the changes that have been taking place ill recent times. There see Ins to be a new responsives's to public opinion on the part of the Government - show I for
24
i Istance in wha' at the All-party which has not standi Ing charaic governments for There seeins to inginess to narrow rhetoric I di Tea LI JI li: EM li of what is pror hardly there 1 gover III ment, An State are being the economy. , hawe il dell to sonality of Pres. Who ha. S Over of being pre-em not just another The more i II p. the change, I th government has t its power is lin been shown by t |jon il thic North Ship will for Sol J. W.P., and it was the I.P. K. F. The awakening to rea dissent of the gli to allow dissent Writing, rather t and eventually f the dissent of the וw H 0ת I Wi11 til 3 T of the wa The Observation on the collapse Illist syste III in E co u Intries, the the traditional Asia, and the II Sri Lanka, sul countries outsi שנן נthe must in dissent is tha. goWeTInTI 1ental I West, the power has bec Til ta Imed usually the cas
Gover Im I Inlemtal Constrailed in (11 herwise it ca dest T Lic Live. Ac { power tends to powe I Corrupts a be adapted to ds to de range II power dera Inge ewijdence is the Te Pol Pot, Ceauc DillvillicT, Som Bokus så and ot tion the great is

is taking place C0Il fer crl CF – been an Oltcristic of OllT a long tinne. be some wilthe gap between ty, to perform it least in LIII.5. ised, which was der the lāst i talons of the loosened fram 11 this might do with the peret Prellä dsa, the reputation Ilently the doer,
ta li keT. rtant reason for
nk, is that the een shown that ited. This has
e Talli rebelad East it W:LS e ti Time by the also shown by Te is becil 4 1 lity through the II. It is better in speech and han stamp it out : [Cc: [ In C Ĉ Elg3l1 til
E1In, էldress th c գլ1e5lue Of dissent. s. I have Illide if the Com I Ilillastern European break-down of olitics of Afroeculiar case Of
ggest that for de the West tāt Ville f L it c{}Il stra 1115
Wer. Il II til: of g ch Werr1 II1g2 I1 [s which is not elsewhere. power has to be SITT WELY AS Il ble III al de Fild m's dict LI In that corrupt, absolute bsolutely, should ead: Power telllentally, absolute absolutely. The in Hitler, Stalin, escu, Papa Doc ızı Idi Amin, hcrs not to mentate-criminals of
earlier centu rics. A part from helping in constraining power, dissent has also an obvious
constructive function in relation to government. Unless conflicting views can be exprcs sed, the Government cannot always be expected to recognize its faults and correct then. This should be self-cvident, but for some reason it is not evident at all to a great many governments. My argument seems to be contradicted by undemocratic governments which allow little or no dissent, and yet have excellent socio-economic achievements to their credit. I am quite sure that empirical studies will show that in all Such cases governmental power is in fact constrained in important ways. For instance the East Asian governments and some of the ASEAN ones, may not have democratic legitimacy or Inay be undemocratic in practice, and may show a pathological impatience with dissent as in the case of Singapore, but in allowing a very important place for the private sector those governments are in fact limiting their power to a far greater extent than the Afro-Asian socialist or Conmmunist governments.There could be all sorts of constraillts, Teligious or ideological Ones, lT,Xietics about being overthrown by the military, fears of dictatots about provoking rebelli Tl, op crating in undemocratic golvernments which show achievement. The problem is that such gowernments may be over taken by power-mania at any time, and the people may suddenly find themselves sinking. It is better to allow di S5 CTIL,
I will not be able in this lecture to go into all aspects of the value of dissent. The great text on this subject is John Stuart Mill's Of Lillery which should be required Teidi Ing for every one responsible for our politics. Rather than recapitulate Mill’s EL Tgu I ments" whose text is easily available in Colombo, I will deal only with some aspects of the Walle of dissent from a Sri Lankan and Third World perspective. The Index or Cersorship, a peri

Page 27
odical publish cd by writers and Scholars International in London which is helping a Sri Lankan project to compile an anthology on the wa luc of dissent, contains the following which should be regarded as self-evident: “Hu ilma In progress dependis on the free exchange of conflicting ideas. Not merely good government, but the development of civilization itself - cultural, eco10 millic scientific — centres o L1 his ''.
The Illat crial affluence which today is available for the Ilass of mankind - from which many a Tc hclid bäck by their gover InTı cilts — is the result diðf the: scientific progress which would newer hawe been possible if dissent had been disallowed earlier scientific Orthodoxies, There would hawe been 13 Copernicus, Newton, or Einstein if not for dissent. In fact, mankind would not hawe made the great break-through to the neolithic stage if dissent had been disallowed against the Orthodoxies of páleolithic man, We would still be cavemen if Tot for disscnt, enjoying liwes Lihat a Te Illasty, brutish, and short. Life is just that for a great many human beings in the Third World, where dictators will do well to reflect over the fact that the gadgcts and other products of the industrial West that are so conspicuous in their life-style, and that of their supporting clites, Would not have been available if not for the dissent allowed in the West, Some of the leaders of those East Asian and South East Asian economics which hawe done so splendidly — Comic of whom berates the Wes L foT its de ca1dc1cc a II di fore sees those economics overtaking the West before too long - should be told that they and their econo Ilies al Te where they are today because of the dissent in the West, which they will not allow to their own people.
Many of 15 in Sri Lanka Will not be particularly impressed by the argument that dissent has to be valued because Without it there would hawe been 110 scientific and material progress. We practise four world religions in Sri Lanka and are inheritors of a great and ancient civiliz
a tion, and civil
Te to it tilhã. Il progress. We a West which
ga dgets and los should reflect or fact that the gr izations, have b ce n LILI ries, and W acquire an II חם t:1W 1117HL1 זווית 11 Selves. TT i IV (IV: Flti n3 stilgnité there i5, cha Ing they become again. Mill ref mation in Europ Ce Ilt L1 Ty En ligt Gerlany's intel during the tim and writes:
"These periods the particular ca. digwyclopcidi; b. Li L [hl El Ll - liu ring ki rhif 4 in thority yw án old mental thrown Coff, är yet til ke II i E3. I given it thes : Iliad: Europe wh 5i gli III. Il place iller in iTi i Ii iIIi stil LI Li In ול) טווין יtly ttטIim
We 11 : Ci 10t H every point, oil tion Tene WS its the y Coke of Aut Wing off old Ilt The process Inc;
I believe tha
5 Lich FS STI L3 process of secul gonie as far as
should try to g for disset fiTT The origins of Iot known, Christianity an Il tot 13 ye Tise di S5:Ilt: the Bu Brahı IIli 11. Ortlı Od lenged the Judai crucificid, and t all II ed fled the Mecca Il Iller found their pag: lucrative L. E. All three began disciples before World. The adh three religions, Hildli is 11 which i 1 esse Ice, hawe ! With Lu L which would not have in the first pla

ization has far mere II laterill Çal Illot admire
has 3 Cuired
IIS SCL. We 1 the Inelancholy eat Asian civilecIl decadent for e should try to derstanding of 1 S Tennew the filS dissent. CivilizCor decay lu nless 2, after which dynamic once 25 to the Refore, the eighteenth 1 ten mellt, and lectual ferment 1e of Goethe,
differed widely in pinions which they Were alike in this, II three the yoke H's hiroken. In cach despotism had been 10 ICW e Hill lace. Thc inpuise three periods has at it is low. Every I'm which hals Laken the human Irind or Ilay be traced disthe other of them."
gree with Mill's ly that civilizaelf by breaking hority and thro: inta l despiotisms. àIls dissent.
t in countries Inka, where the arisation has not in the West, wc rolind our case ly on religion. Hinduis Ill are Jut Buddhisti, | Isla III could 1 if Illot for Idha challenged | xy, Christ chalorder and was le Prophet MohMc dina as han t-aristocracy Il practices too giwe II up easily. With just a few they swept the :IcIlts of these as Well is of is ccume Thical » respect dissent their religions 20 me in to being e. They may
refuse to allow dissent on certain religious fundamentals, but they have to respect dissent in the Secular real II.
All these four religions posit 15 the ultima te valle con el TLh the individual, not the human group, in relation to the transcendental. Perhaps the right to dissent can be derived from that fact. More clearly, it can be derived from the religious position that the perfect is in the realm of the sacred, while the human is imperfect and mail is fallible. Governillents which ref
use to : II w disselt a Te il cffcc
claiming infallibility: they know infallibly what is good for everyone, and therefore they silence dissent. It is no accident that some who have cnioyed absolute power have claimed to be gods, like those old Roman EIl pe Tors, cor to be god—like ICT chock full of the cha Tisma which Max Weber thought was one of the sources of authority. As Soon as they are chased away, shot, or hanged, it becomes apparent that no one really thought they were infallible, god-like, or charismatic. I would argue that the Government Which Will L1Ot allin W dissent is claiming infallibility, and is therefore irreligious to the bone. There have been many such governments in religious societies.
Some would argue that dissent should bc allowed in religion as well, not just in the sccular realm. In cvery great religion Orthodoxy has been challenged and schism has followed as in the case of the Bhakti cults in Hinduis II), Mahayana in Buddhism, Protestantis Il in Christianity, and Shi'is II in Islam. Mill thought that Teligious Schism reinvigorates Orthodoxy, but rather than quote him as he was a secular-Illinded Western liberal I Will quate one of Emperor Asoka’s rock edicts:
“One should not honour only one's Co Wim religiöı and cYT1 der in the Teligion of others, but one should hori OLIT Others' religion for this or that Te HSCom. So do ing one help Conç73 Úwn religion to grow ard renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwisc one digs
the grave of one's own religion and also does hal Tm to other religions"
25

Page 28
The Emperor Asoka was of course speaking about tolerance towards other religions. It is difficul 1 to scc how one cal tolerate other religions which deny the fundamentals of one's own religion, and at the sa Ile time be into crant of schismatic developments which accept those fLII Tinda IInı eIntails,
The predominant religion of Sri Lanka, Buddhism, sectins to be pre-eminently the religion of dissent. The Buddhist is asked not to take anything on faith, not to follow a master blindly, and to come to the truth through his own experience. I will mot quote the Buddha's well-known advice to the Kalamas, or any other Buddhist text, but refer only to the succinct and categorical statement of one of our authorities on Buddhism, the Wen. Dr. Walpola. Rahula, who wrote in his book What the Buddha Taught: "The freedom of thought allowed by the Buddha is unheard of elsewhere in the history of religions." Perhaps a Buddhist will hold that a Buddhist government which refuses to allow dissent is not being Buddhist.
Buddhism secms to give a rather unusual place to truth, which of course is a central value in all religions, because according to Buddhism everything else, including love, is in En ultimate sense bondage l have already pointed to integral connection between
truth and dissent. When we dissent we do so except when we are deploying forensic skills at the debating society level, in terms of what we regard as the truth. I might mention parenthctically as it were, Michel Fon cault's essay "Disciplinary Power and Subjection'' which begins by discussing the trian
gular Telationship betwccm power always claims to be the discourse of truth, and the
delimitation of power, and our rights, are also legitimated in
terms of what is regarded as the truth.
Instead of becoming too theoretical, I must now point to the obvious practical value of truth. What we refuse to
value the truth, our capacity to recognise Icality, what is out
25
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there in the wi and our grasp weakened. That Ilients which h; the truth, whic and Come to b lies, which ca. dissent that po. so often 1 calci t dj saster.
Such gover Inn Tnish the: h uman subjected to th something abou huu na Il dicmands though we f expedicint to Wyndham Lewis and the Absole found himself
Ioment he trieco thing that he d truc, which the consequence Inc. moral scruple : called “COLEr na in fact.' The a cleaves to the gravitational pu is felt by everyo ot another, bec Els Leccssä Ty tÇ the air we breath Weil, in her T thought that the freedom of ex our intelligence as she put it, is sick'. When the right to di: of what we set we become less properly human is the reason wh has been erupti Afro-Asian Cou In Sri-Lanka, We saw the sub with terrifying ask ourselves W because W. W. right to dissen what we saw a Were con Scqlle fully a Indi proper was not press talking about, tion parties is to express the people after 19 the dissent of conc hand ve h Sinhala extremi alıd on the oth { of Tamil extri Illilitants, with Whatever Cof fl

3rld, is lessened of reality is
is why governlve con tempt for 1 lic a 11 the Li IIIe clieve their own It allow the ints to the truth, heir countries to
FILS Ells) di Illiity of the people eir power, for being properly the truth, evcı ind it socially lie frequently. 3 i T. TWIE TWriter clailled that he paralysed the li to write soIIlleid not regard as thought als the Fר) וhם 1 ווח ט3 tו IS COf what he ture's rinted 55 rtist, he thought trLIë blit the ll of the true ne, in one degree ELIS: “TT LIL 5 everybody as e'". And Simone he Need for Rars. den i al of ti still press in makes ill at case and, "The TV linlբ ՀոլII We al Tc de lied iselt i Til te Tills : as the tri Luth, that f'Lully and I suppose that y the sub-human ng in SC III any Il IT I է:
during 1988-89 -human erupting frce. We Illust hether that was tre denied the I: il ter Tills of the truth, and tly less that y hul Ima T1. TheTe freed II with | End out opp sihackingly failed dissent of thic 10. That led to he gun. On the ld the thesis f sm in the J.W.P., the antithesis : IIlisti in the no prospects synthesis. But
we must note that both groups of extremists shar Cid Cone duglina in common to which they were fiercely committed: their right to murder anyone who disagreed With the IL1. The dicial of disset in 5 pc'ech and writing, except to a dcTisory extent, had led to thic dissent of thc gun which itself would not allow dissent. We saw thc sub-human erupting and we now have a respite. We really must learn to respect truth and to value dissent.
In concluding this lecture I must Tevert to the la te Ka Inthasamy’s exceptional commitment to the trılıt bı. He wa Tited the Saturday Review to be published in Jaffna because out of 13 daily newspapers only one was being published the Te, which I11eant that developments in the North and East were se en in evitably from the perspective of Colomb), He walled that information ill balance to be corrected because hic thought it important for people to know the truth. In a letter written from London in 1986 he regretted that the Saar i rada y Reyie y had not published contrary views, and added
- "We should flikc cxtreme cal Tc to preserve the freedom of the press which is achieved more
by publishing conflicting views rather than by suppressing any'. Evidently he saw the truth El 5 something that could be reached only through dissent. And for hill the truth was not just the object of a lonely intellectual pursuit, but a su preme value that had to be put into practice. Insisting that the foreign do nors of his Tamil Refugee Rehabilitation Organization be told the truth about the difficulties it was facing in the North, he wrote: ". . . .and I am not willing to act on any basis other thall the tr Luth" With that kild of Ç III1 Illit Ille t t the Luth, he had to dissent and he paid the price for his dissent. But we cannot be quite sanc unless we have some respect for the truth : Ild V:lue dissent. His un timnicly death has therefore to be seen as a tragic event in which the Inad erupted. I look on hill as having been a fortress of sanity in a country wrecked by the mad.
(Concluded)

Page 29
Trotsky and
Gorbachevism Patrick Jayasuriya Following the shake-up of the Soviet systell by Gorbachew In any have cone out with a self-created impression of prescience. Some Trotskyites have been a mð Ing those self-satisfied with ' I told you so’’ tri III Imph. How flir is this correct?
First Of all Gorbachev is lic Trotsky. Trotsky was a great figure and an international communist. Gorbachev is a Imediocre Illa II with a III atico Talist capitalist bent.
Trotsky will Inted al II on-going i Inter Initional CCIIII llunist rewolutil 11 While Gorbachev is I (W withdrawing from all relationship With thc international lovenelt for a communist society. Even already cxisting Marxist or socialist states a Te bicing left without So wiet assistancc.
Trotsky did not want to dissolve the Soviet Marxist state. He only wanted to organize it better than he thought Stalin was doing. Also, his personal power tussle with Stalin, which WE15 dle to temperamental diffcrences and conflict of personal ambition, Inadc Trotsky adopt position that he would not have followed had he been in power. Gorbachev wants to change the whole socialist system in thic U.S.S.R. He has even compared his efforts in that direction with the work of Lenin himself. But Lenin was a great idealist reforIller and constructor While Gorbachev merely wants to reestablish a retrogressive system. What Gorbachev is now offering is a potpourri of capitalism, socialis T1 and what not. Trotsky had a doctrinal clarity while Gorbachev is pragmatic and expedient.
Even if (Illic grants that Gorbachev is right now, that does not prove that Trotsky was right over fifty years ago When political realities were different. So it is meaning less to eith tr pTaise Trotsky or condemn Stalin in this context. What may be correct now was not necessarily correct in the Circumstance Of a previous time. At the beginning, everyone knows, the physical existence of the Soviet state
Wäs of fundarle due to a medi f tic) by miany na: by the retrogressi a IIly. So II c. mi. that had Trotsk. rather than Still been compelled
rita Tia F1 as Stalin Ilot See Il to hilWE genitial a version : Trotsky s c: long
who did so. The grounds for this takes i Ili lo icc
repressive record period that he The repression . Sailors' uprising point. Also, T. a Ichitect of th | organization. Wit. cal connectio, Il and which has claracteristic: cf inherited Elld Gorbache W. Tri wanted openness Chiese Revolut while Gorbacew present only to ti to thn C. Ei:45t.
In this conte: til kc it ilçot USSR achiewed lution. Froll be agricultural na industry to spei: developed into i Industrial nati): within forty yec: years it achicve the Wiciste: TI in two hundrcd yc: this period it ac ped the USA in industrial produ table for its syste that it was the orbit al. In alled USSR under the Eichieved full i forty years whil Britail look d longer ti III e un dt system of produ to take acicault and literial USSR suffered Nazis (twenty Whic the USA da magc due lo
WC D Ele TH sec the develop
JSSR and the pean countries point of view.

n tal importance or eign inter welltions as well as We White Russian iy Venture to say Y COIle to power he would have to be as auth
Was. There docs : beel a Iny conto repression in | als it was hie Te mily be s Ille
helief When (11e
ount Trotsky's i in the brief was in power.
of the Krons dai dit is El Case i II rotsky was the 2 Soviet Army hi its close politiwith the Party been a mail the Soviet system condemned by itsky however to the incipient ion in his title 's Open ness is alt he West ad mot
kt ole has to Lint what the after the Reying al back Ward tion with no k of, the USSR one of the big 15 of the World ars. Within forty di What it to Ok lustrial nations its to do. In tually outstripIm:1 Ty lre 15 Of ction. It is credim of production first nation to spacecraft, The socialist system Industrialism in le thc USA #Ind In appreciably - a free-market ction. One has cyf the hli T1 a Il destruction the in defeating the million dead) was sal fe from dista 1 ce. iId World I list IIle Ints in the her East Eurofro III our own Here ty
over-sized Caucasian nations getting together in their own national economic interests. This poses a threat to the cconomic and political interests of the rest of the world cspecially the historically exploited non-CauSacian Third World countries. If the two juggernauts get together to share the spoils of the rest of the world then Wc i culto the Third World oil resources and to Japan's industrial success.
Thosc cosy in tellectuals in our part of the world who see theoretical advances in Gorbachev's activities may be actually helping to create smokescreen for a World grab by the USA and the USSR. Remember thic USA and the USSR are now both in serious economic difficulties. Thc intellectualism of these intcllectuals is itself, in for II and content,
PENSIONERS Playing Fair
Chiri5top har Sabaratram
compensations shall range החך a round Rs. 3000 - to Rs. 6000/- the lowest in respect of those who retired in and after January, 1988 and the highest in respect of sterling pensioners, whose pensions were computed on the basic hypothetical sa la ries. LOGICAL ALTERNATIVE
If the government does not have the means to pay the compensations it can very well raise loans from the Asian DevelopIllicht Bank, World Bank or Intcr national Monc tary Fund or grants from the Consortium of Aid Countries. Surely these institutions which have funded gra Indiose sche mes will be prepared to help this humanitarian project of relief. If, however, the government is not inclined towards this relief, high time it proceeds strip off, by amendment of the constitution, the attributed democratic" 'Socialist' and let it be naked as Republic of Sri Lanka', whereupon the ball shua 11 ble on the court of render this relief as and when it seizes governing power. A large majority of the near 200000 pensioners is a force to reckon with as the commoners all over the country look up to them for their good counsel and guidance in their day-to-day lives. (Concluded)
27

Page 30
ALL THU55ER
Forward to Oblivion
Scott Sullivan
ince he was the world's
Icading exponcint of philosophic Marxism, a pillar of the structuralist movement and a darling of the psychoanalytical school. But when Louis Althilus ser died at the āge of 72, lis pilssing came as an anticlimax, a footnote to a profounder death that had already occurred. His academic career ca. The to a biza TTe end one Tight just 10 years ago when, in a fit of psychotic rage, he strangled his wife to death. Judged unfit for trial by reason of insality, Althusser spent his final decade mostly in asylums. He TheWeT Wrotic Cor taught again. And the Marxist vision of the world that he s() brilliantly interpreted and defended has mot only fallen Ölut Of academic fashion, it has been falsified by history.
In the early 1960s, everybody who was anybody in French intellectual life was a Marxist. Some major thinkers, like Jea IlPaul Sartre, preferred the indepen dent To I e cof fellow tra weler to the more constraining position of party member. Some preferred Trotsky's version of the faith to Lenin's. Others took their gospel from Mao Zedong's Little Red Book. A handful of eccent Tics supported Rayılı ond A TOI, France's only first-Talk advocate Cof allti = CCITI Ilulist liberallislil, but they Were drowned out by tle clous Maxist liji. And in this higly charged a IIlbience, Louis Alth1155 er was L. kind of Licro Willied ling.
He held one of the most influential, if apparently obscure, posts in the French academic world: director of philosophical studies at the Ecole NTille Superieure, then as now the country's most prestigious institution of higher learning in the arts and sciences. He directed the the Ses Of SCOTe5 Of St l'idents who were to go on to key
28
positions in World of letters : FTeilch COIL1 IIll new Athl 15 Ser hi () yw ci. E|15E Or it e", ert iT1 P:T throughout Eur
It is Hill Til Illy" what thic fuss Althus ser’s spcc the precise rela: Marx’s work aan բhilosophy Ըք predecessor F Althusser argue. mological break -Weel the young (still Hegelian the work of th which was full even die t1 уeаг 1844—45. І 1970s, this, w: Althus ser’s you Il Wi El Tc: the taliIl Cf iki is In and social
Trofessic To's bTaT
Wils rigorous a ing He dared wä5 *** Inti-iul II
Althus scr's Ti the French C which the phi in 1948 and sti whic II hic died example, he ac leadership of dropped the 'dictatorship of TT CIL1 its diffici: || Althusser was it important const called 'strict Structuralism gr insights of the Claude Levi-SLI studied the stru relations in pri It sought to a nearly every tot knowledge. Som teT ITS — like Mi process With sy' - resembled strl and he was qui

a cadcmit, the Ill, of course, the 1ist Party. Every irticle, no Imatter chnical, was all is, and indeed орё.
w to grasp quite was all about. tial subject Wais tionship between d the dialectical his conservative Friedrich Hegel. | that “an episte
ger Karl Marx’s ) Writings and c Imature MäTx, y "Marxist." He break to the Il the 1960s and ls heady Stuff, ng fans credited ing Marx" from calism, hill Thaidemocracy. The ici of Marxism nd un compromisD ad mit that it inist' as Well.
got often irked mmunist Party, losopher joined ll belonged to In 1872, for used the party eresybecause il concept of a the proletariat” platfor II, But Ilized by another itluency: the soTälist" sch Col. ew ollt of the anthropologist auss, who had cture of kinship Initive Societies. pply them to het branch of e of Althus scr’s arxism as "a
ut a subject” 1cturalist jargon, Lickly classified
occurred bet
is the Imovement's philosophe T.
In fact, Althusser's thinking had little in common With that of the other structuralists and post structuralists, except for Jacques Lacan, the brilliant but cryptic guru of Freudian psychoanalysis. Plagued since young Illanhood by extreme manic-depression, Alth 1s ser spent years in analysis. Unlike most orthodox Marxists' he took Freudian thinking seriously and occasionally wrote about it. That was cnough for him to be included on everyone's list of structuralist heavies - along with Levi-Strauss and Lacan, the literary theorists Roland Barthics and Jacques Derrida, the philosopher Gaston Bachelard and the eccentric histo Tia [1 of ideas Michel Foucault.
political
Dimmed by time
The brilliant handful of original and quirky thinkers set European intellectual tastes throughout the 1960s and 1970s Universities like Yale and Bologna marched to the structuralist drum beat. Ti mc has dimmed both their na Ines and reputations. Lacan died in 1981 in the midst of a highly undignified battle with his followers. Barthes was run over by a pickup truck. Foucault was struck down by AIDS, Lewi-Stral us5 1'e II laims a towering figure in his own right. But the structuralism that he inspired is out of fashion now, its proponents neglected, its TOTIIn er attractions all built incomprehensible.
Of that once glittering circle, Althusser’s fatic hals been the most pathctic. Beset throughout his life by the dementia that Illa de hi III a murderer, he lived to see the doctrine he professed
discredited. In recent years, mamy of Althusser's former disciples joined the 'New Philosophers' in their con
dentiation of Marxism. At the Ecole Noor Illale, Where Althuli 55 er
Teigned supreme for almost three decades, most students interviewed the day after his
dicath said they had Tho intention of reading his work.

Page 31
ཟ
Why there's so in this rustict
There is laughter and light banter amongst thase ritral la TT15ls, Ļļ, hir aço busy Siarting Cut TibiaCÇça LH LL SH LLLLLLS S L LLLLLHHLH KLL g LLLLLLgs L gaLLll
barris spread uut in the ritid and L-LITEIT, inter mediate 20:12 where the arable land remains falci, iiiiiing this if sista.
CLLLLLKS LLLL LLLL LLLLLLaS LluHCL DD LHLBLBLB Oa C lucrative cash crop and the green leaves turn to TLLLLSSSL al KalLLa L LlaaLL LLS 00La LlLLL LLLLL LGLaL
afinually, fut perhaps 143,0XI TIJIal folk,
 

ENRCHING FRURAL LIFESTYLE
und oflaughter obacco barn.
Tobacco is the industry that rings employment to the second highes: IILITiber of people Art: this: people are the tobaccc. barn owners, the tobacca gryers 3rd thr: whi) . Kirk for them, Cri the lard and in the basis.
Ll LtllleeS LLL LLLLtetHtHCLLL LLL eeLGLGLHLH LLLCLCOHHMLa GHLHLLS
corrille life anda so:Liro futura. A good Erough T2a5', 'or la Lugh! Er,
Ceylon Tobacco Co. Ltd.
Sharing and caring for our lard and her people,

Page 32
To Provide Financia lowed i
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Give your child one of the m in life -
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If you have not, it's time you
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BANK OF
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I thought about it.
hild's security tomorrow.
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