Page 1
o POLITICAL PARTIES AF
At
KS
10 September 15, 1992 Price
15 No.
vo
: ANO
IGHTS
HUMAN R
UNDERSTANDING CO.
 
 
 
 

LLLLSLLLSLLLSS L AASSS
TER THE JUDGEMENT 6
Mervyn de Silva
THE FIRST PHASE
— A. Jeyaraf nam MVilson
THE MAN WITHIN
— Piya / Ganmage
- Steven Kemper
THER PERSPECTIVE
- Chandra Muzaffar
LECTIVE IDENTITIES
- AV Trash Set hij

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Why there's so in this rustict
There is laughter and lightbanter armengst these CLM LLMLLLL gHHH HCL LLOuOu LLLLLLa aHaLL LLCLLCLLC Leaf in Elba ITL It is ong of the huidreds of 5.Lch
barris Spread out in the mid arid upcountry LLLLLL LLLLeLL KHLuLLLLLL LLu LLLLLL LL LLLLLL fallow during the off season,
LLLuKS HO LHHLLM L LLLLLLLLMLLLaSS LLLlkLHHL MuuHHLHLGu KLOL CC lucrative cash crop and the green leaves turn to gold... to the value of over Rs, 250 million of more annually, for perhaps 3,000 rural folk.
 

s ENRICHINGRURAL LIFESTYLE
und oflaughter obacco barn.
Tobacco is the industry that brings employment to the second highest Liber of people, Arid these people are the tobacco barn owners, the tobacco grgers and those who work for them, on the land arid in the baris.
For them, the tobacco leaf means meaningful work, a cofortable life and a secure future. A good enough reason for laughter,
Ceylon Tobacco Co. Ltd.
Sharing and Coring for Our land and her people,

Page 3
PRESSIVE IN WEET | Five Journalists' organisations got together to celebrate International Journalists Day with a Well attended пmeetiпg at the Public Library grounds. An exhibition was followed by a seminar addressed by Messrs Ajith Samaranayake, Lucien Rajakarunanayake " D. F. Kariyakarawana, Winnie Hettigoda, Kirthi Kelagama, and Apra - tim Mukerjee, senior officebearers and spokesmen
GUARDAN
Wol. 15 No. 10 September 15, 1992 Price Rs. 10,00
Published fortnightly by
Lanka Guardian Publishing Co. Ltd. MO. 246, Union Placa, 2-םטוחטlםG
Editor Marvyn de Silva
TEEphpme: 4475B
Printed by Ananda Press B25, Sir Ratnajothi Saravanamuttu MaWatha, Cialtaistilbit 13.
TEDE 4357
CONTENTS
News Background 3. J. R.
Litte
Ethno-Politics 13 POT 15 Tha Region 16 Human Rights 17 Agrarian Change (2) 19 Books 22
for the Sri
Journalists Foreign Association ASSociation the Free M and the U| lists. All hawe been mEnt. AI Which hel placed vari On this fre journalists Jayewarden President, Mr. Prema before they Mrs. Bac SLFP leade reStore fulf nalist are
accept werE Mr. Rajakar Se TVEd.
In other de tries, Jour not need demand“ fre pression but had become addresS — pu E said Mr. A na yake, Ass of the Island
PETTO
Lawyers W. for Mr. Pre Sшргеппе Cot by Oppositio leader Mrs.

i Lanka Working Association, the Correspondents' , the Press of Sri Lanka, edia Movement, nion of Journapolitical parties guilty of harassThajor parties d office have ous restrictionS e press, The Know what Mr. e, the UNP and his deputy dasa has said assumed office. laranaike, the r has now to reedom, JourПоt ready to |al assurances. шпапаyake ob
T10Cratic COUnnalists need "to beg or edom of ex
in Sri Lanka it в песеssary to ilic meetings, Ajith Samaraociate editor .
NCOSTS
"ho appeared na dasa in the
I TË Case filed
al SLFP
Bandaranaika
are expected to ask for more than a million rupees by way of costs, While the Chief Justice, Mr. G. P. S. de Silva and three other judges award the President costs, one judge Who supported the dismissal of Mrs. Bandaranaike's petition, did not a Ward costs.
...ALTH ATTACKED
Former National Security Minister, Laith Athulaithmudali, a co-leader of the newly formed DUNF, was assaulted by a 9 апg of men armed with clubs when he and some of his party activists were on a membership drive at Kawdana, in the SLu Eburban Delhi Wela-Mt. Lavinia. Mr. Athlu llathmudai suffered minor injuries. Two TE from the neighbourhood have been arrested by the police.
TERROR HAUNTS
Corruption is a пmajor disease. Terror still haunts parts of the island, said the Archbishop, the Most Reverend Nicholas Marcus Fernando. Thousands are getting killed and more
are maimed or left homeless in Sri Lanka's tragic
ethnic War, he said. And it is difficult, said the Archbishop, to find the truth in any newspaper.

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MWIWITAW TAWF E ES
ELEPHANT HOUS
OUALITY AT AF
NO, 1 JUSTICE
COLO

MPLMTS
DF
SE SUPERMARKET FORDABLE PRICES
AKBAR MAWATHA
MBO-2,

Page 5
AFTER HULFTSDORP
- AND NOW F PEOPLE’S VER
Mervyn de Silva
C. clashes at the highest leadership level, factionalism and rumblings of rankand-file discontent, seem to plague our major political parties. The only difference is that some of this friction and confusion, the common cha Tacteristic is less visible in the ruling UNP than in the main Opposition parties. In any case, these are symptoms of a system in crisis, and the signs of a political elite's increasing inability to cope with mounting challenges posed by that crisis.
lin the past fortinight, tbe internal problems of the two main opposition parties, the SLFP and the DUNF, were far more transparent than the UNP's. A single event, in fact a single deciision, explains this development - the unanimous Supreme Court order, rejecting Opposition Leader Mrs. Bandara naike's presidential election petition. David Hume, says Maurice Duverger, makes the shrewd observation" (Essay on parties, 1760) that the progranin Ille plays an essential part in the initial phase, when it serves to bring together scattered individuals, but later on organisation comes to the fore, and the platform becoming subordinate. Nothing could be truer", (Preface, Political parties, Duverger, 1951). That observation, I believe is more reLe Want to the D’UNEF than tO the SLFP. where factionalism (HELA URAMAYA) and leadership issues appear to be more demanding. Making a distinction between bourgeois middle-class parties and proletarian organisations Duverger argues that since the support-base of the middleclass party is middle-class in origin and a large proportion will have the advantage of a secondary or even a higher education, it 'causes, considerable
competition for dership, Renewa ing strata is c. from being ensu factory way'.
One can, I beli. broad axioms to crisis, taking II) generational fact ological character MAYA, and the evidently plague med DUNF, anot party. (In the c servative, rightW more a question with Mr. Premad 'all outsider to club. Thus, it է lem of style too test Sense, man PTcsillet IPTell and strident pop
-LALITH'S ( ROCKS IDUNF
ile to the SU correspondent's which has now e as an exercise journalism most c on the famous 1 that editOT HäTC) duced to Fleet press.
Here is a sa regular op-ed pa turn the spotligh most exciting b TIEWS :
With little amicable settlemen ged environment, mudali dropped all ing back his chai пudali got up an are unhappy I v. the party and foTTTCT Natio Illal ister (President and Education madasa's team) to quit the party
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

OR THE DCT
the posts of Teal of their lead. tonsequently far геd in any satis
:ve, apply these both the SLFP Ote ELISO of the Gr and the ideof HELA lURA- problems that the newly forher middle-class lase of the coing UNP, it is of personality, asal Tegärded as the bourgeous несопles a prob, or in the strictlers, meaning lasa's aggressive ulism).
UIT OFFER r:l the headNDAY TIMES Weekly column stablished itself in investigative losely fashioned SIGHT column ld Evans introStreet's quality
mple from this ge feature which t on the Week's it of political
ikelihood Of II
given the chair
MT. Ath LuthObshell. Push"", MT. Ath Luthsaid If others ill resign from go. . . .''. The
Security MinJR's Cabinet) President Prewas threatening which he helped
establish soon after the abortive impeach ment plot. It was the former Mahaweli minister, we learn, who defused the crisis, Mr. Dissanayake asked Mr. Athullathmudali to sit down, while the Wenerable A. C. Gooneratine appealed to Athulathmudali to remain calm.' Mr. Athulathrilldali obliged. . .
The SUNDAY ISLAND's political affairs collllllist chose to concentrate on the main opposition party, the SLFP. The headline read: iTHE SLTP RIET HEALS".
The Supreme Court order gives President Premadasa all other two years at lcast. The Inext Preside Titi:11 clectioIl COLIld be : Ilnounced in early 1995 Time therefore is the crucial factor - first for the SLFP, and then for DUNF. Both the ruling UNP itself and the Left (or whatever is left of the LEFT) need to be Studied f’Tool a di FeTe It algle, just like thic “Fimino Tity”" Parties, the Tal Illil, and the Sri La Inka MusliIl Congress.
Largely because of Mrs. Baildaranaike's age and health, the rejection of her polls petition had the most immediate impact In the SLFP. It is the serious setback at the Supreme Court which, paradoxically, gave Mrs. B. the strength to act firmly and decisively against Mr. Tilak Karullarat Te’S HELA URAMAYA. The Supreme Court, though a
serious disappointment and a political setback, came as no Surprise, Mrs. B. all(1 her Clos
est advisers were more or less certain that their once high hopes of a Presidential contest this year would be dashed. Having resigled themselves to all adverse order, their ca Tn est prayer was a divided court - 3/2 for example. The unanimity of the judi
3.

Page 6
cial decision, with the Chief Justice presiding, was a rude psychological-political blow that demoralised both party echelons and committed voter. A decision in Mrs. B'5 favour or alt least a divided bench Would hawe allowe the SLFP-led opposition to make laximum use of the Opposition's parliamentary and extra-parliamentary campaign's -ntum i. c. from Udugamטmbm pola and pada yatra to Kandalama, and of course the explosion of anti-UNP rage at Kalattic. The last was at least partly provoked by a suicidally insensitive UNP's failure to declare a Day of National Mourning, in honour of General Kobbickaduwe, Brigader Wimalaratne and Commondore Asoka JayaImaha].
The Fiwawc' that should have
crested on Sept. 2, suddenly dropped.
Grand strategy has not been
Mrs. B.'s forte. As a tactician however, she is quick-witted. Like the Maoists of old she has turned bad into good. What she could not gain from the main ЕПСПy, trouble-makers within the party i. e. from the challenger for party leadership, Anura, and the assorted SLFP MP's and party stalwärts who have thwarted all her efforts to bring in ChandTika to the party, and as S00n as possible to a responsible party post.
Truct, MTS, B: 15 à Old-flashioned, conventional mother. But sh c is a political creature first and last. She has a natural "feel' for power. In adversity, there was an advantage. Since the big battle had been postponed, there was time now for SOT e very necessa Ty house-cleaning and urgent repairs,
This essentially domestic exercise in a family-controlled party goes of course beyond
family and party. This is nationall politics. This is the big game - power. And it has very much to do with both policy and personality.
Hela - Uramaya is not just a caucus with 20-25 MP's led by
尋
she extracted from the
Tiliak Karunaratu Ilarite found Hic has the perse -drive and the such a group. not after the t
He will suppo fight a against loyalists, and
Mr. Karunaratn to the party's : ership, with fret and a role in
But Hell Uru logical make-u of the SLFP's origins, the H. major tendency, revolt against family leadersh MT. S. W. R. D. political calcul ioned by two c. had Heel the tiolalist Silha D. S. Senanayak challenged. . ...fo) a Iny Way. Si), S. ling , to suppTe identity of his o Sabha and accep tiOll i the Ti
understa Inding til prime minister
only when he Other ideas thi ablished his ow do 11 Party. Ti more complex
acter. First thl hala Mahla Sabh Hald bec. Il IO
tionalist IIläSS S tish hal Lutor educated upper lon was ready Origt India W holding on to ( colony with an
able political Sense. What dili TITicio äl til
Էյast, which wer a gentlemen's a
SWIRD Eji intelligentsia, it school teacher physician, in tha. In pre-indeper arriving a bit latt vigour however 1956 election, Cribed ag at "55

le. Yes, Mr. Katud the Iloyement. inality, the power money to launch HoWeyer, Hıç is ip job. Not yet. Tit AILTE in the MTS. B. and her if ATLI Ta wiTills, e will shoot up second-Illing lead: access to A Tmura, decision-making.
maya has an ideop too. In terms own ideological U. represents one In mounting a the Semana yake ip of the UNP, Balda Tallai ke's ations were fash. Insiderations. He boss of the IlaMaha Sabha. t beטון ildוסט (te: the time being, W. R. D. Was Wiiss the separate Wi Sihila Mal t the No. 2 posiJ. N. P. On the
halt hic II W CYLIId be after D. S. It is "callis cel D. S. HE
S. W. TR ILO. EstIl Sri Lallık Free1: 51LFP |l:11 kl. ideological chairCrc was the Sia thinking. There # Inti-colonial naETuggle. The Bricd the English
class Well, Ceyfor independence. on its freedom, Ceylon, the model ixtremely dependelite, made no di Imake sense was le C010ITib C) air e Tetiled uildir
greement.
Sed the Sihila he link the
and the lative a post-rather idence movement, 2. It had enough to win him the Tomanticaly desrevolution". But
SWRD was clever enough to tap the emotional resources of other aggrieved' or 'alienated" groups. Thus he added radical economic program, stealing a few ideas from his other challcnger, the Marxist Left. He pledged nationalisation, and he did carry through such a program. Finally, foreign polloy, an anti-Western, non alignment, (A debt to Nehru).
The HELA URAMAYA, is a thTo Wyback to the Illo Te ellotima part of the 56 revolution', the Sihla-Buddhist сопmplexiоп. And if it has an appeal, the present crisis Illakes it so. The Tamil Struggle, the battles in the north, the massacres in the ethnically mixed east, the international support for the minority Tamils and the persistent Critician of Sinhala chauvinism" and human rights abuses", and the overpowering presence of Tamilnadu, have together created the psychological climate for a re-ä5sertive and IIlilitant Sill:lla. nationalism, best expounded by the H.U.'s ideologue-polemicist, Mr. S. L. Gunasekera, M.P.
Though he really doesn't subcribe to the ideological extremism of the HU's outspoken advocates, Anura need a group, any organised group, to back him against Chandrika, who not only has - the patronage of hicr mother but of other parties and formations, al 1 nore left-inclined than the H.U. or Anura loyalists. The dividing line is clear. As a political personality, the strongest in the Opposition outsic the SLFP is M. Dimesh Gunawardena. He is his own boss, but he is also pro-Anura.
Numbers Game
MT. B. Wants tũ c{\bble tögether a grand coalition" in which both if the broad left' as well as the national Illinorities a Te CCbInstituent The Tibe T5, The national Illinorities latter more than the Left for 3 reasons (a) the new electoral equation that has been se introduced by the presidential system which in the Current context is a face-to-face UNP-SLFP confrontation. (The

Page 7
DUNF's plans and calculations are made far more complex and difficult by this assumption of a UNP-SLFP face-to-face), (b) international, (mainly western) and NGO support i.e., the Human Rights lobby that expects the challenger to Mr. Premada sa to offer a political deal to the Tamils, (c) India, which also insists on á conciliatory approach to the Tamil problem though it does not mind a full-scale onslaught on the LTTE. Delhi
N. A. M. SUMMIT
is also far II Premadasa pr. Western critic,
Om all thes B. finds herself with Chindrik and allies, th:
(d) The foi important fact game, the in Presidential p block' whites racial groups
NORTH-SOUTH CONFLCT and it
The re-structuring of the United Nations With a View to democratising the institution and its decision-making process (the Security Council) sharpening North-South issucs, the emergence of a new Islamic bloc in a leading role, and need for clearer, more dynamic interaction Within the South.' Were SOIlle of the highlights of the 10th NAM Summit i 11 Jakarta.
THE SOUTH COMMISSION, chaired by the for Iller Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, presented an Economic Agenda for NAMI in the 90's. The South Commission consists of many
cminent Third ities such as Carlo 5 Rafael Sabri Abdulla, Gamini CoTea Ghazali Shafie General Was M now Finance N Tt Was Sri La Corea, former ary-Genciral wh Economic Age Sunit.
On thic Chall published two KemTheth Galbra 40 years since myself in the c
VASA O
207 2.ΠΟ. Ο Colomb
Telephone :

hostile to the lency than any
basic issues Mrs.
loc comfortable
ideas, friends, with Amu Tas.
is the lost - the numbers
arithmetic of s. In that game, if the religious- Tamils, plant
ation Indian Tamils, Muslims, Christians - can decide thic winner. And if that's how one goes
through the pluses and Illinuses exercise, HELA URAMAYA could upset Mrs. B.'s calculations. Having lost at Hultsdorp, the SLFP can only wait for the ultimate verdict in the Peoplc's Court. The UNP has bought itself time. For the SLFP, time is all-important.
e SOUTH COMMISSION
World' personalMichael Manley, lodrigucs, lsmail Sridath Ramphal,
and Tan Sri
Its Secretaryanmohan Singh, inister of India. Пka" s Dr. Gimali UNCTAD Secretpresented the India' to the NAM
enge to the South, years ago John ith sali: It lis I first interested conomic problems
of the poor lands of the planet called in more neutral fashion, the South, There was then almost no literature on the subject. The erstwhile colonial powers accepted the poverty of their subject people as normal. A concern for thic problem of the developing lands came with the end of the colonial era. Teaching those early courses in economic development I would have greatly welcomed The Challenge of the South ''. It is, concludes Galbraith, a splendid piece of
work, the product of informed study and discussion, and a remarkable will to find agreement..."
DTICANS
oss Street,
- 11.
21 631

Page 8
THE J. R. YEARS
J. R.: The man and pc
A Jeyaratnam Wilson
it a first glance there are
several facets of J. R. Jayewardene that can be detected. He can be dapper, far far younger than his age. He presents a Ciceronian figure, effortlessly. He does not have to act though he might well be his country's supreme political artist. There is no will to immediate grandeur but the glimmer of an anxiety to leave his impact, peeps cut Without a doubt. Age however has wearicid this sombre titan Whose face not seldonin verges On the satu T'Illine. MT. Jayewa Tdene indicates an obvious desire to discern the future, forgetting almost that age has caught up.
Always thoughtful, dread fully solitudinous even in his most relaxed Imoments, it is rare to glimpse a smile in that sometimes corrugated - looking spinxlike face. Only when hic enjoys a postprandial smoke does a beam or two escape. The sheer pursuit of power as an end in itself is a mitigating factor in this otherwise much demonized Iman. With the passing of time, there could be a rehabilitation of this much criticised figure in Sri La Inka’s recent history. Then the revisionist historians will Imake their reassessilent S.
In looking at former President J. R. Jayewardeline, there a Te questions that need as Wers, answers which have to be divorced from accepted conventional and contemporaneous assessments of him. The former president has not been helpful or interested in disentangling fact from fiction. And this despite his hope that history will remember him. That hope was quite evident at the
The Hrifer a profetar at the Lilversity of Ne H Brris Hick, fr. The
ar fhoir af Jeyer77 Fook F ar Sri r Era : நத்ரா
சரிவர்த்_
start of his pre sically he app טwטnטand F
it persisted w self cII broiled Tamil imbrogli. to say. Becaus odds werc ag thelics 5 like II He refused to i been foiled b. forces of histo
In the begin! had grand desig stitution would executive. Propc ation ensured p his party in P: sions against d prevented the
. . . . . end in this of
government bein TeVC1 11 re destabilising cc popular wisdon Iley CTIstituti Ol for Mr. Jayewar aped the publi Jayewardene ha Wicited the pr іп 1971/72 апт been accepted,
lake would land's first exc It is tigլլիtTլյ1 | ted to the exal future will eye himself/herself this contemp0 TE
Having howe power, Mr. Jaye again contrary against him, set Time and agai on a grand na not only of the but also of th the ethnic Ill
groupings. The

blitician
:sidency when phy ca Tcd al Tefreshed person. Whether "hen he got him
in the WP and is it is difficult C, after 1983, the inst him; never
political leaders, accept that he had y the in eluctable
W.
ling the president 15, His lew con
T3 vide a stable rtional representreportionality for iriament. Proviesertion by MPs possibility of the
ned had already made overtures to him. The coalition was howewer elitist in conception mot one that was to be built front the base of the pyramid. No did Mr. Jayewardene think of power flowing from the pyramidal apex to the levels below. He thought of a coalition as an overarching alliance of the politically antagonistic actors. Here again he was misconceiving the political firmament. He failed to grasp that the different actors had different goals. They were all elitists no doubt but elitism itself gives rise to political differences; whereas for MT. Jayewardene it was an invitation
to all the forces that counted
he sheer pursuit of power as an itself is a mitigating factor in Eher Wise much demonized man. . . .
g confronted with Bjel lico Il With its S. TheטטmSeducnו was that the 1 was tailor-Ilade dele. Yet it EscL Illild thit MT. d strenuously adesidential system til hlad his wie Ws MTS. Banda Talave been the iscutive president. that anyone electied office in the Want to dwest if the powers of try Leviathan.
Ver til Triwed at wa Tidene did not, to the prejudice ek its monopoly. П, he calculated tional coalition, ; UNP and SLFP, Le 1est-wing and inority political left-wing he clai
aftet
to share office in his govern ment. Again he mistook the obtaining of office als an end in itself which could satisfy the recipients/incumbents.
Having failed in the grand design, Mr. Jayewardene had a concourse of discordant oppositional elements that canc to him with their tales of Woe. Being a superb strategist, he was a master at throwing apples of discord at the appropriate moment. In the process he caused Confusion in the ranks of the main SLFP opposition. Perhaps, in the end, the divided Opposition, democratically speaking, proved ruinous to his own political well-being.
J. R. Project
However, Mr. Jayewardene was not, as once described, the Pope of private enterprise per se. Nor was the grand alliance he was intended for the promo

Page 9
tion of Thatcherite privatisation. Again he did not have either a policy or a program neatly rolled up under his arm. His բhi
Sophy had its vaguenesses and
logicalities. Broadly he believed in the government of the Tuling classes and in the island's case, a combination of new and old money. At the same time he entertained the simplistic notion that the segments he wished to soldier into an amalgam would, in the gladness of their minds. be naturally inclined to philan. thropize. Therefore, he wainly believed that the poor will be nefit, The philosophy of the rich of the 1980's and there.-- after, to hoard, be greedy and avaricious, had not occurred to him. Mr. Jayewardene was in this respect even pre-Elizabeth the Second in his thinking. He Was more of George the Fifth Vintage.
The former President's gTEEltest handicap was that he was advanced in years when he took office. It presented him with EWo insuperable difficultics. He did not have colleagues in his cabinet with whom he could freely communicate as with a pcer group with wh1CTI hle might, on the same wave length discuss problems confronting his counity. There was indeed a gene. rational gap. Though two or three ministers enjoyed his confidence, there was only one minister with whom he could have had frank exchanges but unifortunately the latter suffered from mood swings. There were a few others who merely told him what he liked to hear; he was quite aware of this fact. But as in all cases of men at the helm, a certain amount of flattery was indispensable for the leader's political well-being.
Mr. problem was HOW to handle power Contrary to the popular notion of ar. sance, it might surprise ΠΗ Πν that he was quite unsure of the quantum of power at his dispo
Categerly he i r 3: refoe power Солі5Ігисгїvely hш Merely enjoyed its possession; he PETITFEJEl po 14'er as ar சார்grg ) itself. He was not conscious of
the vast author. the office of th dent. And it w that he preferre blame with his therectele as colleaguees II als lieutenants iI tem, Thus the of Mr. Jayeward SiOS as it collecti of his ministers him and he was to overrule them. Judith Hart add On Oc occasio ned to the babe said she was dear old man'.
The institution tion under his veloped a life of their own.
COSE TBrחוםם
joyed i ES ET ||
The rot began constitution of 19 all powers in a Tal Parliament, Senate even bef Was overhalled. for example, wa never, permit P Exte Id its tert. ment's extension by two years in and its abortive mulle il its lāst til fresh in his mint Win iTi a referen пeed to postpone tion', he argued. an innovative mi he seriously consi chamber as a fise and sobering ins will guide a first Illight be intoxical by a fresh manda Furthermore he til a body as a cham lities. Critics how his interest becau the conventional air st the idea ... thi an anarchronism i. StaEC, fortTess of embodiment of real President dropped
 
 
 
 
 
 

ity endowed in e executive presias also apparent !d to share the Illinisters. He d his ministers a cabihet not a Gaullist sysCabilet Illot as ene made deciwe entity. Some Tet1"ווןEטtmanווט clearly reluctant The late Dame "essed his cabinet and having listicof voices, she *Sorry for the
is he set in no0 Ill StiLLI til deand momentum
dist the clamour of all this cTiticis III.
The power he gathered to
himself in his office were by InQ Icin 5 intcilded to bye - Litilised in Hobbesian fashion. Outside academic observers remarked in this context that Mr. Jayewardene in their judge. LHLHHL HLaaL0L S SSSS S LLLLLLL H HHHLLLL LLLLLL
not assert himself". The reason Was that he was excessively attached to prime ministerial
government and could not readily shake of his expericnce of forty old years of parliamentarism. His Wirulent critics confused the
powers relating to emergency rule with those of the executive
presidency. For example he was uncertain of what he should do With some 40,000 strikers in the
quently he
did not exercise
Constructively but merely ents possession; he pшrsшөd power end game in itself..."
when the UF 72 concentrated single unicameabolishing the Te Pa Tillet The referendum, S intended to arliament LO The UF governtյf Parliament the beginning Pla This to contihroes were too 1, + If I ca dum, I don't a general elec
He had quite nd. In 1984, dered a second cond thought" titution which chamber that ted with power te, judiciously. ltiնght (if such ber of nationalever dan pened se they LISed gil Illients againit it would be a democratic Wealth, the Ction etc. The his plan ami
early years of office. His better judgciment, l felt, was to reinstate them with a WaTining. But what am I to do?' They keep pressuring me to dismiss them' he Hamletized in a longdistanne phone call. The advice that it would be a democratic gesture to give back to all of them their jobs went unheeded. 'It would be good for the body politic if you rose above all this pettiness'. In the end Cyril Mathew had his way probably with the support of other Iministers,
Mr. Jayewardene was possibly aware that members of his govern Ilent had a propensity to Violence. An upcountry MP, overly superenthused, kept harassing him that Amirthallingam should be hung, drawn and quartered' in the manner of punish ment meted out by Sinhalese kings of yore. Mr. Jayewardene was patient with him for long hours and explained to him that these things a Te unheard of in contemporary times. But the MP was persistent and
Amirthalingam subsequently had
7

Page 10
a motion of no-confidence passed against him,
Supreme Court
Mr. Jayewardene did not so much interefere with the Supreme Court but wished to sift its composition from what it had become during the UF years its politically motivated appointees. He might instead hawe chosen Presiden L. Franklin Roosewelt's Supreme Court plan of 1936 by increasing the number of judges and freezing its number at a certain level. But here again opinion was bitter among those R thought that some of Felix Dias Bandaranaikes nominees did not do any credit to the Supreme judicial institut
Ojitl.
The former President's sits were wenial compared to those f some of the heads of state of recent years. There is no need to refer to Mrs. Gandhi's Tole. Charles de Gaulle himself defied the pronouncements of Frances supremebody of constitutional judges, the Constitutional Counsel, on a number of occasions. There is no deny. ing that Mrs. Thatcher got the Secretary of her Cabinet, Sir Robin Armstrong, to cook up proceedings and decisions of her cabinet that never took place. And as for Presidents Reagan and Bush their sins are mortal. The latter's telephone diplomacy with the world's most terrible tyrants in the Middle East is only now coming to light, And his appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court led to the American public being distracted by Thomas' alleged
sexual harrassment when the real question was that his modest qualifications were far
from what was expected. While on the other hand, former President Reagan packed the U.S. Supreme Court with ultra-conservative judges.
At meetings of his cabinet, Mr. Jayewardene, as one of his
senior ministers remarked, tended
"Gladstonian He refrained from stat
to Serlinic II style'.
ing his own position clearly and ther ask for confirmation. This
8
WaS What he sh even in a p: system. But it Of him to dith C05ET SL5, EFEI attendled cubie drunken state, his mew foլInd Which he reveal doodled most of his Illinisters wanted to and the so-called the Te Wa5| InChIme himself thought.
Mr. Jayeward not that of a p of the heTO II fice it to say th CTHWę For IIlob). W an elitist and rapport with the וח"יוט - h15 סוHIGI
"Mr. that
a propi MP, ou ing hir "hung,
He activated all base all late porters conscious be always Innol this tenuous tie, symbiotic relatio tīCill b15e WAS TI for his qualities
all. There Wa: of popular a adulation, The expected suppor Hve Hr. WGo the classical dello cr gawe direction apparatchїks. Н iwe manlaget. therefore te rol man, the guide but not the frie and introspectiv in search of a ing declaring it The Presidia. It was to expect the ordinary people.
Family Man
Where the d tur ir 55 tēl Mrs Jayewardene

Iuld hawe done ime ministerial as characteristic it, hoping for a Mr. Asquith meetings in a Trole cítit CT5 to girl id top secrets, the time letting ay what they then announced insensus When except what he
Enes Tole Was opular leader or the crowd. Sufat he did not torship. He was lid Illot strikci a electors, leve
political base.
friends in
of strength. Additional liv, his brothers Harry and Roly had admiration for their successful sibling. They were at his Ward place residence on Sunday mornings for breakfast. Esmond Wickremasinghe too was there, just like one of his family. The President treated his son, Ravi, a5 al intima Lc Triend to WhOT he revealed his immermost thoughts. He was more or less equal in his regard for Lalith Athululaith muda li and Gamini Dissanayake. The latter however was close to him and hic Often spoke of him affectionately. After 1983, I lost touch. These are my observations. I was not part of either the inner circle or the in Incidiate Outer
TE
He compartmentalised his
Jayewardene was possibly aware embers of his government had
2nsity to Violence.
An upcountry
'erly superenth used, kept harassin that Amirthalingam should be
drawwn and quartered . . . ""
cncrgised that his party's Supof the need to bilised. Beyond the Te Was Tl) nship. His poliespectful of him as a Wise State| little evidenee fection and/or President in turn He did not people in the itic sense. He to his party was an effectHis style was le of eller state:S- and philosopher ld. Always cool e he was nevér hysterical gatherheir adoration, far to rational laudits of the
ld the President ince? Primarily, Was a Source
friendships. One friend seldom if Ever knew What the Other told him. In this way peace reigned supreme in his inner SEALCL LITT
How did the President excrcise the powers of his office? There were some matters he wished to accomplish himself perhaps to be remembered in history. He developed the tank civilisation and claimed in a conversation with (the late) Denzil Peiris that he had restored in any an irrigation system, a number, which he said exceeded that of any single Sinhalese monarch. This seemed for him a prime
goal. Though it was widely Tumo Lled that he liked to be addressed in colonial guber
natorial style, he showed no evidence of pomp and pageantry in his private life. But he liked the fuss that his office permitted. He was attached to the millarchical traditional. BILL Hc himself did not want to be a
(ரோlாE ஒா தாgச் 24)

Page 11
Happy Birthday, JR
Piyalı Gamage
in the 17th of September O JR Will be 86, and let us all wish him many more TS of ebulient life. However, it would in my view prudent for him to desist from public lutteralces on subjects on which he is personally vulnerable. The Sunday Times гесецtly (23 August) reported that JR had said: Democracy is cultured, it is a way of life and undoubtedly the best system of government. Violence and unseemly behaviour are abhorrent to the practice of democracy.'" did IR really say that? Wè Iub our Eyes in disԷglie:Tl
Almost as if it was El Specific and direct reply to JR's stateIllent, the Daily News of the very next day (24th August). Teported a speech nade by Presi dent Premādasa: A Section of Our OW in party who visited Jaffna disrupted the (DDC) elections and even hijacked ball boxes for Wote rigging. They later went on the rampage and burnt down the precious Jaffna library which was a national treasure. It was on this day that a Wellpillai Prabhakaran was born.' On the Jaffna, DDC election the Nation of 19th Tun 1981 CG IIImented: "At the election to Lihle Jaffna, DDC held on 4th June, 150 officials picked by the commissioner of Elections We Te replaced by nominees of the ruling party just before the Poll. For the first time in the history of this country the conduct of an election was wrested from the coIltrol of the duly constituted authoity and exercised by the ruling political party. This has the UNP celebrated the Jubilee f Uniwersal adult Suffrage in Sri Lanka.
The Daily News of 7 September 1981 reported an interwiew JR granted to S. Venkat NaraYan of India Today:
SWIN: In WEry upset.
to the 50. and burnt 97. They also st MP's house.
JR: TIL "5 he is in to rists.
SWIN: It see ing to catch kill him.
JR: Terrorist
SWIN: So This kind of sing a lo Lofa fore if you si Ire them of their safety, relieved. It Willy to east
JR: I want t Till St. Till Ele
In the event the time. In t dČnt Premadasa get hirelings to Court judges an at their houses? : El Section from was behind this is Stin Ted The at this Imatter Paul Ital of Justice tion of the ICJ) and later repo position was tha peaceful protest lable to the peopl Sieghart comment clusio II is inesca Was deliberately the judges a les to make them. In the executive's w; is so, these were PCT acts; but for from all sluit whic

affna people are
The police set fire y Cal T old library 000 valuable books. it fire to a TULF
because they think Ich with the terre
Ills they were tryhim so they could
S do that too.
it's Lit for tatt? situation is caulienation. There. go there and as
your concern for they lay feel may g a long the tensio.
do that but I : Lillic.
JR did not find Lis speech Presialso said: Is Who hoot at Suprene d to pelt missies . . The fact that OIT COWI party 510 minicus affair he time. On Sieghart, Chair. the British see
interviewed JR TÈCd that JR's it "the right to Was always avai. c of Sri Lanka."* ed: The Conpable that he Seeking to teach lson, in order ore pliable to ishes. If that grossly improthe immunity ch the president
enjoys under the Constitution, they might well have been Ciriminal offences under Articles Il 16(2).' (Sri Lanka: A Mounting Tragedy of Errors: 1984). A few quays after the hooliganism outside the judges' homes, a person who said his name was Kalii Lucky turned up at the offices of the Daily News and claimed it was he who Orgā Tilised the demonstration. adding: It is a democratic right to express oпe's views.' The Daily News carried an account of this incident buit the police (who came directly under JR) took no action.
In his speech President Predasa also asked: „Who, Illilihandied a scholar like Prof. Sarachchandra? The President W5 referring to some events th:tt took place on 22nd July 1982 (the fifth anniversary of the JR government). A public meeting had been arranged at the All Ceylo II Buddhist Congress Hall II. Professor Sarachchandra bēgā to address the Illeeting when a gang of thugs rushed the բlatform and beat him LP 41 di Several others on the rostrum including some Buddhist 10.S. Later a person who Said his name Was Piyasena Jayaweега, Illade a statement to the press that hic accepted ICSponsibility for stopping Prof. Sarach chandra from ti*attacking 8OVETTiment policy.' The police under JR took По асtiоп against Jaya weera.
Let us hope JR will pay heed to the cominents of President Prenadasa and on his birthday lake a resolution to TēIllin Silent on such subjects as demo. cracy, freedom of speech, free dadi fair elections, independence 9f the judiciary, the user Wiliolence etc., et C., etc.

Page 12
J. R. righteousness an
Steven Kemper
inhala people look back on an SARREN ERRES; civilization that began with the cistablish ment of
Buddhism in the Island some 2500 years ago. They know quiLc a lot about that CIWillization because people they regard as their ancestors have Written things down-donations of property, astrological and Ayurvedic treauses poetry and Works on poetics, monastic TLilles, stoTies of the Lord Buddhiä, and historical açcounts. Historical writing stands out for several reasons. First, there has been quite a lot of itSOThe three dozen histories in all - and the Writing begins at a precocious moment in the south Asian past. The most important of these histories, the Mahavamsaconstitutes "the only early histori, Ca1 literature in the realm of South Asian culture". Second his torical Writing plays an epistemological role to which other forms of Writing do not aspire. Histories (va Isas) stand behind the authenticity of knowledge, relationships, and practices. As a result Writing has always had genuine political importance. In what follows I Want to cencetrate om the political uses of historical Writing, and more particularly on the politics of commissioning a new extension of the Mahavamsa. The practice culminates in J. R. Jayewardene's decision to compile the Mahyamsa Ni Wara Yugay'a soon after his electio il 1977.
STEVEN KEMPER is Professor of Anthropology at Bates College, and author of A Hirsary of Represenrafia ris: Chrar seleF, Politics, and Cilfire in Sinhala Life (forthcoming).
O
The idetä til: count can legi In ticity of kn ships, practices Ces derives Fro knowledge was served in South did not surviv, through the Imission Of ide was passed be tion and the teachers and 5 1 r s of the has several prim Taltion, dics centrally to anoth history. Know. Cause hul Illa II Organized to g tection and ext Hildu Liriaditi kind of knowled because it is it (Sktor), as Teliable traditi s rar literature, Tcl embered." between person hlearing a certa ledge possible, of that knowlt a Til Open chlann of knowledge. dhiar iana (teachi served foT EWe along lines that ti 5tudēt K. froIl a Illonk y gained it from t the Buddha is 5 In a descent li With someone w directly is the բect in diminish
Historical acci to do quite a

di realpolitik
Llt a hist Tical actillate the authowledge, relationi, and sacred plaIn the way higher traditionally preAsia. Knowledge e from age to age lileibodied transas and values. It IWCCT COI) ei gefn a Talnext along lines of tudents. The root WeoTd MEkh:1Wamsa
Elry SCInses - geme-- Which lead Ima tullET Cf i ES Sellscs — ledge survives berelationships are Il rantee its proclusivity. In the , the most reliable ige is so regarded at Which is heard"
opposed to less In S preserved in that which is The relationship exists to make in kind of know. tot as independent idge and not as el to relay any The buddhist ng) has bean preity-five centuries Tılını - Froll ticacher nowledge gained Vho ha 5 himself he Buddha, But опе, and relying nie, which begins "hic has heard it best one cal excd circumstances.
OlLIIlt hE1iye
lot Ilmore
LDIT1: thin
Warrant knowledge, Warris as also serve to glorify and casugate, to point a moral, and to cxplain a present-day relationship or practice. Taken at their own words, ya msas want to edify. Here the epistemological function of historicle writing is linked to its political importance. Historio. graphy in Sri Lanka has always done something besides simply recording the past, to call such traditions Whiggish or ideological puts contemporary conceptions of historical writing on materials that share few of our intentions. The point is not that the ancient historics are un reliable-although the extent of their reliability is always at issue but that they demonstrate a characteristic way of legitimating presentday arrangements. In some cases the historical accounts that War. rant and the ritual or texts that are warranted Incid into one
another. A fourteenth-century work on the Tooth Relic, the Dalada-sirira, begins with the
history of the relic - its sojourn in India after the death of the Lord Buddha, its journey to Sri Lanka and its growing significance in the medieval Sinhala state, The last chapter presents the rites to be observed for the Tooth Relic. If the title of the work is an indication of its nature and contents, one пmay reasonably infer that it is both a history of the Tooth Relic and an account of the rites to be observed in its worship. The word strita means both life history'. life story'. and rite".
The Mahawamsa guarantees the authenticity of a certain kind of Buddhism. Theravada Buddismi,

Page 13
by tracing out the human connections that link the monks of the sixth century AD to the Buddha his clf. The descent of the Theravada monks is intertwined with the history of the Sri Lankall State, IL TēCOT dS I Got tWC) histories but one, for the MahaValmSa assumes the mutual. Il eCESsity of kings and clerics, as well as society need for both. Kings patronize the religion and observe its ceremonies: clerics educate kings and bend their policies in in the direction of Wisdom. Until the eighteenth century-which is to say of an ancient tradition until the recent past-the chronicle has concentrated exclusively on the doings both pious and implious, of these two groups of actors. Kings rush by, dynasties rise and are eclipsed by others, south Indian armies advance and withdraw. Befo Te it is do le thic Mahlawal 11 Sal Tccount S 0 WCT 150 kingly reigns and 25 centuries of Buddhist history, Maha nama who compiled the first part of the Mahawan sa in the sixth century, made these episodes sound distinctly religious themes, emplotting the narative in ways that point a moral. Each chapLer concludes with a moral reflection that puts the political, economic and religious contents of the chapter in a doctrinal context - the flux of worldly af. fairs is unending and without exception.
The chronicling has never stopped because the Mahavansa has been periodically updated. Last things quickly become the the last things before the last, Lhe chronicle falls behind eventsoften by centuries - and a new generation of monks picks up the task of recording events on palm-leaf manuscripts. The updating has neither regular nor
very frequents; only a single larly monk extension. The thic chronicle
noments of ref (monkhood), alt becil Sceye Tial Te religion without extension of the larly monks ha chronicle five first compilatic century. When kingdom fell iI Cullstances that chronicling chan Maha Wamsa trad derstood ends of the Sinhala
In another Se changed. The simply Teplaced Largc portions aristocracy held wileged positions declined in Kali it Survived in t Sinhala castes, ded from Ordina new monastic OW in and the Te Somedi. Some II their interests in British Iule, es of the identif colonial Tule irld tian missionary Other Ilonks an those lõiks Wh plc hostile to locked to the ( sible source of patronage—perhi: ble and certainl ou 5 as the träd but the best For its part thi ment took on ditional respons. rogauves of the initiative the
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

but it requires ing and a scho() undertake an act of updating Ofte Il comes at rm of the sangha lough there have ormations of the a corresponding chronicle. Schofe extended the times since its In it the sixth the Kandyan 1815, the cirsupported the ged forever. The ition, strictly unfith the abolition monarchy,
Inse nothing at all British monarch the local ole. of the Sinhala on to theiro pri. The monk hoւյtl ldyan arcas, but le LOW Country, previously exclution, established groups of their ligious life bloslonks clearly saw opposition to pecially because
CatiOTn beLyyec aggressive Chrisactivity. But perhaps even ) were in princithe government rown as a plauauthority and ps not als relia" not as rig intetion al Imho Inach he could find. colonial governm e of the Lrailities and prelon arch. At its en. Hikkaduwe
Sri Sumangala the outstanding monk of his day, and a learned pandit. Dewarakkhita Batuwantu dawe, translated the Mahalwan sa from Pali into Sinhala in 1877 and added a supplement which brought mathern up to 1815. That supplement added a 101st chapter to the text. Counting this extension as the fourth, the fifth was more eccentric. In 1935 Wen. Yagirala Pan nananda advanced the narrative from the fall of Kandy to the period just before Independence. He called his work the Mahavamsa Part III (the first two parts being the Mahawam sa proper and its extensions which Gerger edited as the Culawmsa) and undertook the tosk at his own initiative. After the fact it has become a picce of the tradition.
The updating of the chronicle has occurred under a variety of curcumstancs, but most often it has happened during a time of reformation OT resurgence. Mahavamsa compiled the first part of the Mahavamsa after TheraWada Buddhism and the monks who espoused it had been returned to a position of privilege in Anura dhapura. Buddhist reviwalls in the twelfth and Sixteenth centuries gave rise to the first two extensions that came during a moment of great religious enthusiasm in the Kandyan kingdom when proper ordination had been brought from Thailand and the sa righa reformed. Even under British rule, the late nineteenth century extension of the Mahavamsa coincided with the resurgence of Buddhism, The pattern is clear. In the traditional scheme of things, updauing the chronicle is more than putting the reord straight. It is itself part of the act of reform. Anyone familiar with the gradual
11

Page 14
but inexorable return of Buddhism to Political life in indicpcndent Sri Lanka has to suspect that Jayewardene's interest in extending the Mahavamsa is in Some Way a return to the tra
ditioillal Schicle.
In reforming the monkhood, the king finds himself in a curious Positio 11. He must beliewe tha L. ti līks iāc fll in cruption cor hercsy, but he is himself a layperson and Inc. authority on cither proper behaviour for II.1.) Ilk-s CT Orthodox belief. The king needs an upright monk to put things right, In practise, the monk designs and guides the reformation, Writes a new code of regulations (carkayata) for the reformed life of the monkhood and the king backs hill up. The political issue of course is which Tolk the king chooses to reform the Ilonkhood and why he chooses him. The choice puts a single
letter Tamil military caste
D. P. Si Wataris claim that Bishop Caldwell's writing served to “demilitarize Tamil society'' (Aug. 1) discloses a fixation on Tamil martial prowess and warrior bIawery. The fixation is Ihore explicit in Mr. Siwaram's account of the "Tamil military castes' (May 1 - July 1). The aaaaHHLH aaaaLLL LLa LLaLCLHLLLLHHL LL LLtt LLLLLLL as an accurate reading of Tamil history. It may be better understood as a charter, providing historiographical legitimacy for the present-day glorification f WäTT 1.0 r=heroes Wh0 e:TIl faille and honour through gruesome keeds.
Crucial to his argument is the assertio II that the pre-British society was dominated by martial values and only subsequently 'under active British patronage the well all caste established its dominance, and its culture became Tepresentative and hegemonic in Tamil society' (May, 15, p. 18). Against this view it may be painted out that cenLuries before the Bishop launch
12
In onk at the to astical hierarchy monks who are
formist monk, a II mInks Who fall
What colles. of monks who a the order is 1 undoubtedly gaw rial means to In political potentia not its Ilmost sal tic, but an ines the process. Ti credit on hills respect for the
the Buddha, Bul a price because enemies as well
Mahawa msa spea teen reformatio British conquest, no details about sios CF, TE form
When a kiпg loTIn the monkh reform and the
cd his so-call program Ille, the their Wellala all process of ag: that not only tracts of land ill but its people u tյք իրallmanical : 1980, B. Beck, 1 mal Tawar during | gressively conver to peasant agric adopted vella la cess has been
vella ligation zation” and gali Tamil proverb, and Agamblediya turn into Wella society as we began to emerge cess in the Lēt its left-hand : stru IcLLI Tall li wissio
It wւյլIll the Iլ tltiminant values society in the nimeteenth centu: caste values that

if the ECCLESI, favours the tied to the reld drives off the under suspicion. 5f the property Te expelled from Inclear, but it the king mateake friends. The of reform is ient cha TactČTisapable part of he king brings. elf by showing dispensation of t he d'Ocs 50 at reforill läkek as friends. The ks of Sonic thir15 before the usually offering the repercus
a Tld To Ik refCodi, the act of code of regula
tions it produces are self-conscious appropriations of Buddhist tradition. Latter-day kings in Sri Lanka and south-east Asia hawc looked to the lindian è ilperor Asoka as a paradigm of a righteous king who unifies and reforms the monkhood. When the king and his cleric reform the monkhood, they enjoy the reflected glow of Asoka karikaya fals themselves have a self-conscious way of following in the tradition, presuming the existence and force of previous kaikaval as even though the need for reform assumes that those codes are not being followed. So it is with the initiative to update the Mahavamsa. The act puts the leader in a noble tradition. When the eighteenth-century king Kiti Sri Rajasingha resolved to “fulfil" the duties of a king", as the Mahavamsa puts it, he thought of the Mahavamsa and decicdd to update it.
(To be Continued)
2d pacification brahals and ic5 i Ilitiitel a Arian cxipa Insion brought la Tige Idler cultivation nder the sway values (B. Stein, 979). Kallar and Collai times protelthei T lälldis LltLII Te and also titles. This prodescribed as T # Abrah Taliwe rise to the **Källa T, MāT WELT r becoming fat, ar." The caste know it today from this proh century, with Intl right-hand IS.
follow till the of the Tail eighteenth and ries are typically
is, “hierarchy'
and 'consensus' - in opposition to "conflict'', (M. Moffat, An Untouchable Community in South India, 1979). In this context te källar Eld II:llä. TäväT WHO colti Lled to ilhabit the rcпnaiпіпg пагginal or peripheral tracts at this time, may be seen to represent a classical ethos that was receding into oblivion.
The Te is la doubt that the LLYLLLL S LLLLLLa S SLLLHLLGLLLLLLLS LLLLLLaL LLLLL irritant to the British Raj, as they had been to the Cola and Pandya overlords. On the other hand because they existed outside the larger caste society, Ieither a M&MME FI TOT EL V Ffra 17TP could during the time become a paradigmatic figure Worthy of imitation by the vast majority of the Tamils. In short, Mr. Siwaram has exaggerated their influence on the Tamil Society du Ting that period.
C. R. A. HIJOle
Dept. of Religious Studics
McMaster University Ontario.

Page 15
PART (2)
zeth Hussain
n important factor in our political life from as far Back as the late. Inimeteenth century has been ethnicity, and it has indubitably been the most important factor in structuring our politics after 1956, so that it I makcs sense to rega Tid Sri Lankan politics as essentially ethnopolitics. It can be argued, as the writer has done (LG of 15 July 1 August 1991 LG), that Sri Lanka's liberal democracy broke down because of Our ethnic problems. The basic argument was that the Sinhalese Buddhists perceived themselves as peculiarly underprivileged in a land in which they were in the majority, a land furtherlore which has a special relationship to Buddhism, and that led to the State behaving undemocratically to facilitate the upward mobility of the Inajority, No one need take umbrage Over this argument because it is a commonplace, after all, that democratic politics tend to break down under ethnic pressure. For instance Thomas Sowell Writes in his book The Economics and Politics of Race, Racal and ethnic differences have made stable governments difficult to achieve in many countries, and free stable governments all but impossible."
Since ethnicity structures our politics it is reasonable to argue that thic ethnic factor can explain both the breakdown of democacy and also the opposition failure to funtion in Parliament, after 1960, in the manner that is usual among oppositions in properly functioning democracies. Of course a multipliclty of causes can be evoked to explain both those developments. But such esplanations are never quite satisfactory. E. H. Carr, in his brilli
ent book What is History, argued that satisfactory explanations
always invoke a hierarchy of causes in which primary impor
ance is given to one cause, and
Lihat great historians explain his
Ethnopolitics and the
torical develop a cause of C
The Te could nations of a the opposition Parliament. W that the oppos to deal with it particular, the confining them: part though no Talities. This is cause the mere: should know th Clılar case tha public opinion. the opposition numbers, rangin 100,000, have hi. to death as par Il LC LI SEW U L people by killin one single case Zoysa galvanized here and ab Toad no statistics c. done.
The eccentric sion generalities 1 tion. Some read the judgement o glish poet Blake do good to other, miri Life particulari is the plea of th Iһе усоглdreї." | the language of umnist we quote Say that the op: Tinentarians are lot who arc not about anything privileges. Yet o to fanciful exp as charmed oil chairs. We agre explanations, exc fն1 ones, could : have some sort insist that the si: nation his to be a hierarchy of c of causes, in th the ethnic factor tion we offer to Suming passion is that the oppo
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

brosion of democracy
ents in LeT115 of 15 es ""
he several cx plaCuliäT feaLu Te tif performance in remarked earlier tion parties fail e concrete, the Individual cases, lves for the most always to geneastounding bepolitical tyro ut it is the partican galvanize For instance, lleges that wast from 40,000 to en brutally done C of a programhic Sri Lankan g them. But the of Richard de opinion, both in a way that l'uld ever h:lye
opposition pasequires explanaers might invoke that great En** He who livorld 对s áo 芮 芷 | general good e hypocrit and ther may use the TD UNIF Colearlier, and ositio Parlialackadalisical really bothered xcept getting hers may resort nations, such in opposition that most such ding the fanciake Sense and relevance, but sfactory explain terms of SeS, CT a Cluse present case The explanathe grand congeneralities ion sees по
point in bothering about Blake's minute particulars' as long as they do not involve the ethnic factor, because the politics that has really mattered in Sri Lanka is ethnopolitics and little else.
Before providing some details in support of that explanation, we must make a couple of obserwations. Debates in the State Council in the old days, and in Parliament until after 1960, were famous for their vigour and thrust, with the opposition raking up everything that could conceivably embarrass the Government. It was a democratic no-holdsbarred legislature that we had in those days. The opposition strategy of sleeping the sleep of the just came sometime after 1960, that is, after ou T democratic politics became transformed into ethno-politics.
The second observation is that, as everyone knows, the one issue on which our Governments can be toppled is the ethnic issue. S.W.R.D. and Dudley Senamaya ke beat hasty Tetreats from their pacts with Chelyanayagam, andi ollT GOWcTL1Tl ents hawe had an unconscionable record in reneging o11 commitments on the ethnic issue, not really dishonourable perhaps and indeed quite understandable as every single government everywhere in the World will do everything possible to avoid being toppled. In the present ethnic imbroglio neither the Government mor the SLFP are making proposals for a solution. We are working for a consensus, which can only be reached by establishing common ground on the basis of alternative proposals, without either of the major parties daring to make their proposals. It is a bizarre imbroglio. So great is the power of the ethnic issue to topple a government or prejudice the chances of the opposition coming to power. It is not really surprising that the opposition has for so long ignored
13

Page 16
so many potentially explosive issues because they do not invo.
We the ethnic factor.
We come now to SOITle details in support of our argument, beginning with the familiar problem of corruption. While the Bofors scandal was raging in 1988, an SLFP member proclaimed that his party had a lo T Ty load of documents to prove corruption in the transport sector, which Would be brought out as soon as the SLFP came to power. Evidently it had not occurred to the SLFP that W.P. Singh in India was not awaiting coming to power to make his exposures On the Bofors Scandal. On thic contrary, hic used it to come to power. Sometime ago. We had the Chairman of a state bank speaking out on corruption and more recently, just after the Colombo floods, we had an SLFP business mill who declared ila etc. Lo the Edito that he had hard evidence' to prove corruption. The Government itself complained that defalcators practically sank two State banks, the defalcators in question being crony capitalists according to the opposition. Will the oppo
sition get hold of names and details about corruption and bring them up in Parliament
availing of Parliamentary privilege, as happens in India, Japa II, the U.S. ct c 2. Its virtual silence on corription since 1977 has been reverberating around the island like a thunderclap. This fits into our paradigm perfectly. The opposition confines itself to generalized charges of corruption, without taking up the concrete, the particular, the individual cases which alone can galvanize the public as shown by the Bofors scandal. The issue of corruption does not involve the ethnic problem, but there seems to be an ethnic dillension to it. It is a safe guess that the major beneficiaries of State and Statecondoned corruption have been members of the majority community, though of course the Muslims could have contributed some distinguished geIIl-smugglers. The question has to be asked whether if the major, or
4.
even a fairly siz Of the bc.cfici; minority member thunder clap sil tinue.
WE consider
power in the St Which successi have had an a particularly after mcnt ELIT Togated Constitutional rij çı0 meye it ilk it liked. The Ilent boasts Ilc las established which all apptjir on Illerit and in lears to often is different fro Some weeks ago plained that 35 Tccruited to the cial administrati having scored to competitive exam because of it
politician.
Let U15 ble fi: LIS, TE PTEs
expected to end abuse overnight, in three years. he Cam Thữt C01 that happens in sector. The t is that tוoiTן been powerful forces operating Lլյr abլլse. The determinants in pointments, trar Te pיטות ,motions higher positions, ly, political, an tio Ins, and no di SCTimination appointments W: minant in the The GWCTIIIle to establish El J all that easily will the opposi State sector ab" is from the far charges. The r of our ethnic While melbers community hawe state Sector abus been its major b majority commu titutes 74% of

Lble, proportion ties had been the opposition's Ince WOuld con
Icx, EL Eolse of Lt-C SectOT, OWCT e Government palling record, dhe 1977. Given. to itself the tht to appoint d to any post Te5ellt Gover11issantly that it I пheritocгасу іп etsare lade thing else, One that the reality 1 the Thetoric, PLOTE COIlpersons had been Wanlii Provilyn despite their W IIlarks in a ination, allegedly ervention by a
iTIılıiD1 dedl abÖLıt lent call not be well-entrenched Il di Tot e Well For one thing 1 trol cverything il Viš Stal more important hat the Tc hlave socio-economic behi Tid stålte seçmost important state sector aբsfers, and proarticularly in the halwe been fanidi caste affiliaIllerit, Caste In state sector is a major deterJWP rebelli. is not going Lill merit system ind quickly. Nor itin expose the ses, apart that iliar generalized also, in te TImus radigm, is that if the majority b) ccm victis of , they have also I leficiaries. Thic lity which consthe population
came to hold 85% of the state
sector jobs.
The abuse of power in the Foreign Service sector under the 1977 Government Was out of the World. The Writer Will go into some detail at this point
because he is thoroughly well-ac
quaintcd with all that happened in that scctor, having himself been in the Foregin Service for thirty five years.
Sri Lanka Gower IIIlents ecame notorious for appointing thoroughly unsuitable political favourites as Ambassadors with some rare exceptions of course. The appointment of career officers as Ambassadors was disgracefully belated, a sorry record even by Third World standards, probably because there were too many Tamils in the first few batches. They tended to drop out, and the 1970 Government straightaway appointed five career Ambassadors, one Burgher and for Sinhalese. A breakthrough had been effected but it took five years for the next career Ambassador to be appointed, a Sinhalese, and there were no more under that Government. Apparently the explanation is that Lihle Next few career Ille were minority members, it was of course, unthinkable in terns of our argument, that the UNP opposition of the time would raise any questions.
Until 1977 our Governments, more particularly the SLFP, walued professionalism at non Ambassador levels. After 1977 political appointments Were made at every level. Two ladies, who did not cywel hawe the basic G. C.E. Qualifications for recruitment as clerical officers, were sent as First Secretaries to our EIIlbassies in Washington and Londom where their children were being educated. A young lady, who was sent to Canada for studies, was given a diplomatic appointment and provided a full salary and allowances and accolodation at Government expense. The Canadian Government refused to accord her diplomatic status and privileges. So she was sent to our Inission in the UN, where the question of her acceptability

Page 17
could not arise. A chauffeur was given a diplomatic post in Canada. The Ambassadors chonsen Were not for the most part famous for their diplomatic skills, but some showed a spirit of enterprise. One ran a lucrative enployment agency. Another of fered to sell eggs to his diplomatic colleagues, Diplomatic appointments under the 1977 Government had a notably Caligulist character, the reference being to the Roman Emperor Caligula who went quite mad and appointed his horse as a Senator. The comparison may be unfair to Caligula. The horse, after all, is a graceful and noble animal, figuring in the "sport of kings", that is in horse-racing, as well as in other royal pastines such as hunting and polo. Caligula appointed a horse. He did not appoint buffaloes.
The SLFP did take occasional notice of the misdiceds that were being perpetrated, of which we have given only a Very few examples. For instance, on the occasion of the appoitment of those First Secretary Ladies, a
written question was asked in Parliament. On What basis weTe they appointed Reply, on a
temporary basis. Case closed. At least on the occasion of one budget debate, Anura Bandaranalike gawe an exccllent performance in exposing some of the mis deeds. But occasional exposure was su Tely not enough over the 11-year abuse, which was certainly among the worst in the world. The ethnic paradigm provides the explanation. The writer can attest that the major beneficiaries, not all of them but the major Dnes, Were Sinhalese,
On one occasion, however, vigorous protest was raised not by the opposition but by the Sinhala Bala Mandalaya. The UNP has traditionally preferred non-Buddhists in its elite system, excluding also the Muslims except for a few show-piece politicians. The 1977 Government began by observing the proper ethno-reliEious mix in its first batch of Ambassador appointments, but after 1979 it displayed an outtageous anti-Buddhist orientation.
It was found of the more di tant Ambass, Occupants Wet It was alleged there were on two of them riage to very families, while Delhi which reser Weitl foT BY 1981 hic Sinha raised its Voice perfectly under and thereafter were quietly giv as Ambassodor posts. It show Ount of abuse the Foreign Sel
NO.
The Gr Tall fronds And fie st The surge T is Music, the Deep fall o Voice hoof Not har skiri Through the Of bators И"ferg W000 Creaking c. rd y le The After
Such The li Pissimp厝 Carice food Make ir pc Whio perish 瓦厝凸、 The Coco, Ter Fard"
Inflation fil To release SIb,5iaizte e. (And Trust Recycle Ex Ver Mark

ut in the majority irable and imporor posts the non-Buddhists. hat in such posts three Buddhists nnected by Tпатwerful political het third Was in is always been ldhists. Il la Le | Bala Mandalya in ou traged, and andable, protest the Buddhists in their due place in the better d that any amwas tolerable in vice sector provi
ded that no group of Sinhalese were at the receiving end.
The writer has no precise or detail cd information on what has been happening after 1988, but a recent newspaper report Suggested that all is not well. It stated that an officer in Our Ottawa mission had returned, but his wife had decamped at an airport on the way back to stay on in Canada. For long years under the last Government no Forcign Service officers were sent to Canada, the posts there being reserved for political favourites who after about a couple of years service resigned and sought immigrant status.
- GROWTH SYN DROME
they knew was palmis turifolding
ta thë Siri
r faring crown and trurik to reach
Ee Ff eas, heir world.
steel clatter of leaves f пшts in the pІисkiлg ng the gather of tree gold niuggets Toises, Copra Stoke and sells. mornings the Wooden ring seating hisks in the weaving shade en mills creak out the fragrant oil. rts sa inter sweet, heaped thatch noor du sk bereath fresh cadjan roofs sorry With all lliure 5 a fed.
e of the palm glades fill the No-Growth Verdict. or experts his sing, Devalue, subsidies, close the Co-ops
// or perishlı
whose work illipaid Wor hard currency to bring Baron and the Fibre King Pajeros and dread hirelings?
iing workers neal and want ?lars for each exotic ja urit orts the Experts say he Boys to keep Bolshies at bay) arge for Free Market Furi 5 crash reas the FISC is 571,
U. Karunati lake
15

Page 18
REGION
Bangla Govt in deep tr
Atiqur Rahman
no-confidence I11 otion agalinst the Bangladesh Natiolalist Party (BNP) Government of Begum Khaleda Zia on charges of failure to check terrorisland prevent the attack on Workers' Party Secretary General all Parliament member Rashed Khan Menon both shocked the nation and shook the Government,
Following the attack, the entire nation erupted in anger ga= inst the Government, against tle politics of killing änd the Wira break down of law and order. The success of the colntry. Wide hartal on August 20 called by all the Opposition political parties except the JELIT 1:34, te islami and the Jatiya Party was proof of dissapproval of the GOWchillent.
While the Govern Tilent Wils busy in crisis Ilanagement, Mr. Menon's political allies hawe been vocal in their criticism of fulldiamentalist outfits. The Opposi: tiom parties, led by the Awami League, alleged that the murder of Comunist Party of Bangladesh leader Ratan Sen last month and the attempt on Mr. Menon's life Werc part of a Jamalate slali and its recently-formed front organ, the Jatiya Jub Command, plan to physically liquidate the ieaders of 'pro-liberation' and leftist' forces. This was said to be the fall-out of a people's Court trying the Jamaate Islami, the Jubo Criminand and their ally, Luc FreedIT PATTY.
The demand for a ban on these has divided the nation into three camps. All pro-liberation forces, led by the Awami League are opposed to the Jamaatellslami, its front organs and allies, The Government, though it has a large number of MPs Who Par ticipated in the liberation War, was in a tight corner and did
L. takc sidie5.
RUMOURS
Mr. Menom was shot at the door of his Topkha na Road of
fice on the evening of August 17 by three assailants armed
1.
with a rifle. Th: escape through a t was operated oil
ned Military Hosp ka canton ment the He is still now fight
The following mour that Mr. M at the hospital 51 Fire. In the capit all district le:L people took tot t et ablaze hul Indir: buscs to expTCSS ti 12 Copposition Pol a joint rally the in Dhaka called August 20, Th: Ilmaillaged to TCS broadcasting a hle Radio Banglades
Seven oppositi liament had earli confidence moti Governmen L. Th against the Gover ure to check the the law and ord killing of Mr. illegal toll colleg demanded a ball Islami.
The 13 til W. cause the BNP fortable Iajority Jamaat e Islami ned fram voting Menon, one of the no-confiden Speech during t # חים ודרtttנthe Tit liament said th: his colleagles C next targets of
The Jatiya Juli the Bharatiya Committee (CO) Indian agents) organs of the while the Jail: into being afte: Gallizil 11, WE ple's court On M.
CHARGE
However, the soon managed t

Duble
:y managed to lark alley. He at Le Colbiital in the Dhla* same evening ing for su Twival.
-garuווiנInGTI eII had die read like wildall, Dhaka, illud liquarter towns lle Streets and els of cars ald heir anger. The litical parties at salle evening for a hartail on : GoycTITmelt tore calm by alth bulletin on 1.
n parties in Parer 1110 Ved a IGin against the e main charges DıItlent Were fiil
dicterio) Tiation ilin. ir situation, the ER': tr:Tı SeInı aldı :tion. They also
in the Jamale
ä5 defeated beenjoyed a com3ld becalı 5 el 20 Tembers abstaiIronically, Mr. the initiat)Ts of te. In otion, in his Le discussion on ugust 12 in Part her cor any of billi Well be the ELS SailalTit 5.
C5 CollIläll äld Dalal Proti Todh mittee to resist were two frt Freedom Party te Islami Came its leader, Mr.
tried by a pecirch 26 this year.
Jamaiate Islam
Wrest take con
trol of the two organisations. The Jatiya Juba Colimand aid the Bharatiya Dalal Protirodh Committee alleged that the ban on the Jamaate had been prompted by India to subjugate the nation through her agents in Bangladesh.
They published a list of 31 persons, including the president of the Ghatak Dalal Nirml Committee, Professor Begun Jahana Tal Iman, and decla Ted openly that they would be liquidatclif the Government failed to stop thell. The Ilajles of MT. Mc Ilon and Mr. Ratan Sen topped the list in EKLI II ia district. MT. Rältal II Sen was killed in broad daylight on July 31, the day the Jubo COITIImam til Fixedl as the last for heading their derland.
The Opposition II nited over the attempt on the life of Mr. Menon and launched a week-long programme of demonstrations. They were considering intensifying the campaign to press their demands but the Jatiya Party of listed President General H. M. Ershad remain cd on the fence though it had joined in condemning the attack.
The Opposition is not satisfied With the arrest of a for The JEtiya Party MP and his brother for alleged complicity in the at
tempt on Mr. Menon's life. These two were Troll the area where Mr. Melo was elected
and they allegedly have connections With the Gill till Wed SLT-balla Tal Party. The 12 Opposition parties at a recent meeting viewed this as an attempt to let the real culprits get away,
The Government was seriously considering the removal of the present Home Minister to satisfy the Opposition. He is now not likely to be dropped. But his portfolio may be changed at a later date so that it Would II 0 t
look as if the Govern Ilment succumbed to Opposition pressure. Nolic in the cabict is also Wiling to take on the responsibility of the Home portfolio because he would have to have a tough time.

Page 19
Human Rights Re-Exa
Dr. Chandra Muzaffar
The concept of human rights nated by the Western-inspired in individual liberties. But for the S. cial and economic rights are just portant. Moreover the monopoly power by a few elite countries a lates the human rights of large humanity. Malayasian social acti political scientist Chandra Muzaffa Inner political detainee himself, ca reconceptualisation of human rights lecture he gave to an Amnesty Inter
пmeeting.
|ဗဲ့နှီပြို as one of Amnesty's As a person former prisoners of conscience, human dignity,
For 52 days in 1987 I was detained without trial under Malaysia's Internal Sccurity Act (ISA). It was a short period in prison considering that many others hawe been detained for much longer stretches of Line.
There a Te tems of thousands of such men and women in this plamet of Ours. Amnesty's newsletters and annual reports faithfully document their triumphs and tragedies.
Amnesty, in its 30 years of struggle, has helped to secure the freedom of thousands and thousands of individuals whose ion-violent advocacy of some aluse or othe had ea Ted the II the wrath of those in authority. It is good to know that every day in some corner of the globe an Amnesty letter lights a candle of hope for some forlorn human being behind some prison wall.
Dr Charidra Muzaffar is a well-known Malayaranpattical cellardpref den øy i Fire social argarrista rior Affrar,
I all beginning ther Amnesty's national Tole created in the Certain image
rights is all ab indirect sense,
pered the growth tic understandi nity and socia: needs some exi
Because All ated with the w rights struggle, 11 ent of the intel Weste T1 and in ties have begun t Amnesty fights inst is the sum til family's human
In other Word out trial, disapp extra-judicial e. punishment-thi rights is mostly øme TT1ay choose wiolations with i text of the st political and ci

mined
is domiOtion of Luth, soA6 im
SO VO
Parts of vist and
a forls for a Siin this TlatOlla
who cares for
and social justice,
to Wonder whe igh profile interhas, unwittingly, public mind a of what human ծաL, which, in an Пlay have hапof a Timore hollisg of human diցjustice. This lanation.
Stylis often equirld wide human significant segigentsia in both In-Western sociebelieve that what Tor fights agaall of the human rights agenda.
detention withEl rances, torture, cutions, capital is what human 30 ut. So Intimes place all these the larger congle to protect | rights,
In fact, human rights, as the intelligentsia, and the middle ::iInd upper classes, as a whole, understand them, is synonymous with political and civil rights. Now and then, certain cultural rights, like the right to speak one's language or practise one's religion, would also be included in their definition of human rights.
It would be wrong, of COLITS en to put the whole blame for this narrow understanding of human rights upon Amnesty. The universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 shows Overwhe|- ming concern for political and civil rights and gives Ille:greattention to economic, social or Cultural rights,
Though the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted by the United Nations in i976. largely through the insistence of Third World countries, seeks to rectify this imbalance, human rights con tinues to be equated with political and civil fights.
Western governments with their liberal-democratic ideologies have also, via Pľ0||0uncements, policies and practices, helped create the erroneous belief that human rights is essentially political freedoms and civil liberties. Given their overwhelming economic, technological, cultural and political power at this junctul Te im history they have succeeded in convincing people everywhere that human rights equals political and civil rights and nothing more.
In the evolution of human rights within European civilisation since the 17th century, the doIninant characteristic was the emerging middle-class's quest for polítical and civil libertics.
17

Page 20
Amnesty International, in that respect, is rooted firmly in the European intellectual and political trāditiữII. Møre thāT1 thät, its concept of, and approach to, human rights parallels that of most contemporary Western governments. What this means is that Amnesty, like most Western governments, humain rights practices and houillan rights violations which come within the ambit of political and civil libetics.
Needless to say, this has had some negative consequences for other equally legitimate dimensions of human rights. Economic and social rights have received much less emphasis than they deserve, The human right to food, to clothing to shelter, to education, to health, to employment is fundamental to the very survival of the human being. For the Wast majority of the human race in Asia, Africa and Latin America, it is these rights that IllIET IIOSt.
Of What i Lusc is the hul II lan rights struggle to the povertyStrikCIl bi 1110. Ils of the South. if it does not liberate them from hunger, from homelessness, from ignorance, from disease? Human rights intercpreted mainly in terms of political and civil rights will not satisfy the quest of the poor for human dignity and social justice. Life and liberty, food and freedom should go hand in hand if we want to develop a Timore holistic, integrated wision of human rights.
It is a pity that even in the South there are very few groups operating as human rights organiFations Which are Committel to) a comprehensive view of human rights that embraces the different facets of hul Illa life. Most of them seek to defend political and civil rights, as they are conventionally understood.
Thus, freedom of expression, freedom of association, the right of dissent, the Tulle of law, the
8
emphasises :
independence of
aTe aImong , their times stile, concel the powerful ps. fluence and impa human rights gro" counterparts in th
If there are gr. take up issues c. poverty or illiter: be se en as devel ur alteIIlătive Int the groups COICC ceive themselves i al: which ELTE IDt i TE human rights.
This widely prev, of human rights thic interests of the Sou Lh in yet Ulike Weste TI which htt hւImail revolving around there is in Asi: particular al strol rights of the ( community, the
This has a lot colonial experien. African States. Su colonial Lille foT ting for freedom w of Asians and A mean fighting f of their people. fore, a concept c. dom and the rig thalt freedom ir baggage of the As
This explaims y поšt post-coloni been IIlore thal personal liberties tive ideal in extric with the quest of ties, of entire INE dignity and socia we Te Witmesisi T for collective free ant struggles of can and Palesti
It is a latter that this i del important to th bcen accorded :

the judiciary
main, some5. It reflects ychological inct of Wester ups upon their Le South.
ups which do tonnected with ult1טy, they Wטו opment NGOs WEIllelt S. Ewell Time:d would perpursuing goals tally linked to
alent perception
is initical to the people of another Way. tsוTטTThחerזיטנו rights as rights the individual, and Africa in 1g notion of the tollectivity, the maticon.
to do. With the te of Asian ELInd bjected to alien, centuries, fighhole generations FTica 15 colleto or the freedom The Te is, thereif collective freehts that go with the is Lorical in and African.
why freedom for all societies has Il a litany cof It is a collectably intertwin cd Wիլմle tiյTilmլITiitil 5 froT LILI I justice. Today, ց Such a quest HöTil in the valithe Suth Afrinian people.
* of som 11c Tegret Jf freedon so e South has not any emphasis in
the West's concept of human rights. Herc again, if the inherent rights of communities were given prominence, human rights movements would become more complete and comprehensive in their outlook.
For the South, however, aisserting the Tights of the Collectivity is not just a matter of developing a more complete perspective on human rights. It is a question of su Twival. In a situation where a handful of powerfull nations in the No Tith dominate and control the political, cultural, intellectual, economic, Scientific and technological Tesolur. ces of the World for their Own benefit, it becomes imperative for the people of the South to insist upon their right of access to justice.
It is seldom realised that this control and dominance by a clique in the North has a direct bearing upon a whole range of human rights in the South.
Economic control, for instance, exercised through bilateral ties, regional economic groupings, international trade pacts and international financial institutions, has in a number of cases forced countries in the South to adjust their economic policics to the interests of the North to such an extent that they have no choice but to neglect the basic needs of their poor.
This is one of the reasons why in various parts of Latin America and Africa, in particular, food production, health care and lowcost housing-needs which are related to fundamental economic and social rights-have been subordinated to export crops, touTisin and hotels!
Likewise, the North's suffocalting control ovet the production and dissemination of news and information has, in a sense, curbed and curtailed all thentic voices in the South capable of articulating

Page 21
its joys and sorrows, its hopes sclotom react and fea T5. dominance of a clique from
What is the meaning of free. yet authoritar dom of expression, of free flow fatignal level, of information in such a situa- displays Strik tion? How can we talk of the authoritarianis right to practise and Propagate tics. At both one's culture when the overwhel!-- there is medi
Power of values and the abuse of titudes, tastes and Sупbols, as- and legal prбt sociated with the North th Tea- 1 DECTests of LF tens to thwart the growth of of POWEr. indigenous art and literature, dance and music? 蠱".轟
Even the right to life-the most 獸 ് fundamental of all human rights rights. One w. - is repudiated by the perpetual Why å luthoritari danger of death in various Pts ternation lewe of the South where RE YES sures C manipulated by the North have rights groups i in the last 45 WCATS killed at and the South least 22 million T1CI, WILLE and children.
In the case rights groups lii mandate may d examining the tariam trents politics upon v human rights, ble human rights ideologically dis tillise the domini: since they are : Teservation of Others may be how the prese
SysteIT oppresses TE disen franchisement COf the overwhelming mi
Р00г апd powerless majority is nity. most vividly illustrated in the concentration of effective power But sooner sic in the hands of a fewnii, rights groups in its through the United Nations will as the Sou Security Council. mto grips W of the internatic Some would even argue that 器,'驚 with the end of the Cold War. becoming a real and the demise of bipolar poli- of ways. The en ties, it is just one military super- sis, more than p power which controls the Security chi םIIEC Comfום Council and the UN. The domi- POIrlry Man, com nance of that superpower over TEIT1CIlies from . Elobal politica Processes implies There is no nati a form of authoritarianism iI the environmental international relations which has to think, feel an O Precedence in history, in the true: SEIl
There is no denying that What has emerged in the course of the decades is an intcrnational system in which the 00 lī powerless who constitute the over Wilhelming ma jority of the human ce have very little ճay tower their own destiny. A system which virtually disenfranchises the majority cannot be dellocratic. It cannot claim to Proct human rights or human dignity,
While most human rights ETOlIS THլը спvironmen are concerned about authoritari- Ins to me, is ju: anism at the national level, they a series of globa
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

the control and world politics by the North And his II at the interwe hawe shown, g similaritics to in national poli. rels, for instance, manipulation and itical institutions 55ces L.) Ser We the
se at the levers
inal and inter5, clite control
has resulted in denial of human hIndicris, therefore, inism at thic inhas escaped cenrentionali huma 11 both the North
if certain hul 1 main e Amnesty, their issude them from impact of authoriin international arious types of There may also groups which arc inclined to SCTll1nce of the North Ommitted to the
the status quo. just ignorant of ilt international
and exploits the njority of huma
ir later human the North as h Will hawe to “ith the question inal system and human rights. of humanity is ity in all sorts vironmental Crierhaps any other inting contempels us to seek obal perspective. inal solution to crisis. We hawe di act universal se of the Word.
all crisis, it seeit the first of 1 crises which
will demand genuinely global remedies. There is increasing realisation now that issues such as AIDS, drugs, migration and refugees require international solutions. It is just a question of tillic before We concede that the eradication of poverty, disease and illiteracy is not possible unless theric a Te massive efforts at the global level.
By the samic token, it is unlikely that we will be able to curb ethnic discrimination or racial violence or check political oppression or authoritarian trends through the instrument of the nation-state-Which is sontines the real culprit. Some sort of global endeavour would be neces. SETy.
Once the importance of such an endeavour is understood, We Will have to leärn to Wiew the whole of humanity as one single family. This is quite different from seeing human beings as citizens of different states in the internatinal system. This is the approach adopted by human rights groups today.
When we begin to appreciate the real meaning of this idea of "humanity as a single family' we will find it intolerable that such a huge segment of the same human family does not enjoy basic economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights. We will wallt to find out What the underlying causes are of this terrible injustice done to our own brothers and sisters, to our own flesh and blood.
We will seek to change social structures in such a way that a more just and equal world emerges in which each and every humane being exercises her rights and executes het responsibilities in consonance with her inherent human dignity.
That World awaits us. That World beckons to us. It. S world that We will not live to
see. But it is a World that we must Work to achieve. For it is a duty... that we who live in
the present owe to those who will inherit the future. - Third World Network Features,
19

Page 22
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Page 23
Kumudu Kusum Kumara
he establishment of paddy as a cash crop through Guaranteed Price Scheme (GPS) led to the commercialization of the paddy cconomy on an unprecedented scale resulting in the expansion of the area of paddy and the share of the marketable proportion of paddy. Notwithstanding the administrative Wecknesses, operational rigidity and ineficiencies which deprived large numbers of farmers well-intended benefits of the GPS (Snodgrass, 1966: 160-163; Hameed et al., 1977:26), the GPS undoubtedly induced the growth of the paddy economy. Snodgrass (1966. 160), referring to the period 1950-60, correctly argued that the GPS was by far the most important reason for the increase in (paddy) acreage and yield' between 1950 and 1960. This argument is cqually applicable for the entire period from 1949 to 1977 during which time the GPS price was higher (except in 1968 and 1974 than the import price of paddy. During this period, in the absence of the ability of the peasants to compete with the lower world market prices, the local paddy production would not have improved if not for the price support provided by the GPS. The GPS, with an element of subsidy, especially when it was Y LLLLLLLaaaL S S aLaLLLLK S LLLL S LLLLLL price, has undoubtedly supported the paddy producers and this has been an incentive to paddy production in the country by stabilising paddy price. The subsidy was approximately 50 percent over world market price un til 1967. The GPS for paddy and certain other subsidiary food crop operating at times) resulted in the progressive increase of price of paddy under all policy regimes from 7 rupees per bushel in 1948 to 80 rupees in 1988. The GPS which acticid as a ceiling price slightly above
AGRA RIAAV CHAAVGAE (2)
Price incentives
the market p 1966, thus in
producers to
to the State has since 196 floor price market price, from being sul low prices foi
Growth Un Policy Regi
Honeywer, di alitics in the the governmen regimes to agriculture, cc other regimes, rate of paddy during the 196: Market Oriente: UNP (Thorbec 1987; World B growth of the the post coloni mainly from growth and yie higher growth
latter two Te clearly duc t the tilta t
which was the the growth in The higher yie the above two a number of f nation of exter as well as decisions. The two generatio seed varieties and the other given the requi their spread ta' coincided with of accelerated 60's, and late 80's respectivel Kauhasena, 1 leyells of fert Which a Te nece of HYWs were the two perio TayloLiTable inti compared to it the other Tegin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

rice from 1948 to ducing the paddy sell their produce at the GPS price, 5 operated as a IS LIEi lly below the protecting producers jected to extremely their products.
der Different ITTEE
:spite the commonCommitment of It ll Indler differenti DITOTTlCote do Illes Lic: Impared to the a much higher has been observed 570 and post-1977 td regimes of the ke Find Svejnar, ank, 1987). The paddy sector in all period arises tW) factors area ld growth. The Tate during the innes are Very yield growth 1 threa growth dynamism behindi the other periods. ld growth during egimes is due to CECOTs, a combi|al circumstances onscious policy introduction of s of improved ne in the 1950's in the 1960's, 2d time lag for зп into accouпt. the turn around growth in late 70's and early (Gunaratine ani 88: 10). High ZCT application ity for the use acilitated during
by relatively ational prices
experience of
as well as by
much enhanced foreign aid for fertilizer purchases. Favourable Weather conditions was another factor which contributed to the yield growth in these two periods, over the others which suffered from un favourable weather com ditions (Gunaratna and KarunaSena, ibid)
A more conscious policy decision, as opposed to thic influence of the above external factors contributing to the growth in the paddy sector, is changes made in the subsidised rice ration under both the governments. It is interesting to note that, the support price of paddy under thic GPS was determined by the amount of paddy the government needed to procure locally to be distributed under the ration scheme operated by the government, rather than the growth of the paddy economy. The rice thus needed was DTOcured through the GPS, given the country's foreign reserves Which would determine the amount of rice which could be imported at the prevailing world market price. Under the subsidy scheme, successive governments since 1959 up to 1973 distribu ed to the entire electorate, and since 1973 to all the non-income taxpayers, a free ration of rice -in combi( 1970 טt 1959 נתנTrt Tlation with subsidized wheat ration during 1973–74); since 1970, it became a combination of free and subsidized ration. Under the ration scheme, 4 pounds of rice per person per Weck was distributed initially With reduction of the ration 3 and 2 pounds in between. Thus the ration scheme acted as a constraint on the growth of paddy agriculture by limiting the market demand for rice in 1978, the COInfined to less than Rs.
-
Tேr ரது நஒரு 24)
ration scheme was households earning 300 per month.

Page 24
300/(S
A new education orde
Fr. Mervyn Fernando, Subodhi Institute of !
This publication commences by emphasizing the need for well thought out reforms in our system of education and proceeds to propose in Outline a new educational system. The author also maintains that much of the educational reforms in the past few decades have been un satisfactory and that rapid socio-cultural changes leading to a new social order and also the impact of science and technology have made corresponding changes in the educational system imperativc.
The philosophical should for
bE1sis thaE the guideline in effecting reforms is discussed next. To awaken the child to the full reality of himself and his World in a relatively cons. cious Way, to liberate him from inner enslavement and external domination to actualise his potential and talents for construc. tive, Creative work and to enable him to enter into a network of freely chosen relationships which will Constitute this world' is ac cepted as the ultimate goal of education. The author laments, not without reason to some extent, that our present school System is not conducive to the realization of this goal for it is tailor-made for packaged know. ledge, uncritical conformity, enforced discipline, mechanical and memory learning and patterned behaviour'. This is another reason Why drastic reforms are - gently needed - reforms which do not constitute just *adjusting and refurbishing the present Sys= tem, but changing perspectives, vision and mentality.
Next, the author gives a brief Survey of educational develop. ments in the country during the post-independence périod andre fers to many noteworthy a chie
22
WCIIleInts in this the Wide diffusi facilities to a
ciety and the This is follo We eration of a encies of the p
education and postulates whic e55ęI Lial i a
national system Çatik 5.’ TEhe di tioned are prey degrees, but a the il are comum tries and it is miliate them Wide disparity c education and facilitics between a realis is one Such ever, those suc teaching profess ETT IT et IS EI ployment for SIS could be genuine effort is
After the pri sins which in and two other Education and other "Objective the author goes the type: of edi: that he recomic ter titled For II presents his pr Illary and secon He also emphas ance of pre-sc Teachers and it curriculum, sylla examinations, te technical and y, tion and admini cation are discu: ent chapters. T hensive plan f system of educat and Imany valu to improve our arę brought to mention a few author describes

integral Education, Piliyandala, 1991
i Sphe Te such is ol of educatio) [1:11 Strata of the soigh literacy rate. by an innumLIIIb eT of deficiTCSent Syster 11 of El list of basic Il a Te Considered "comprchcnsive, of integral edueficiencies menfallelt i Ill Warious it least some of On 10 Tlalny colul IIdifficult to eli:-o Impletely. The If the quality of of educational 1 urban and rural deficiency. How. I as the Lise of ion by the gov:AWen. Lle of el11-ployed perוחטוIT. cTaldicated if a 3. Iläde.
eliminary discusclude the above Sections, Tle Society and the s of Education, on to describe Licational system lds. In the chapal Education he oposals for pridary education. ises the si Importlool education. cacher training, bus, time-table, rtiary education, OCation:ll educalstration of edussed in subsequiThus a compreRT AT efficient tion is presented able suggestions present system olIr Ilotic.c. To of these, the the importance
of the school having a close connection with the child's home and parents, the value of having good counselling and vocational guidance scrvices in the School, the desirability of public institutions like the museums, the Z00s, and the Archaeological Department playing a more active role in education and the duties
of the Imass media in relation to education. Thus this publication constitutes a very valuable contribution cspecially at a time when reforms in our educational system arc l'Indici considcration. However, it should not be forgotten here that a certain effort has been already made almost continuously for some time to implement at least some of the proposals put forWard by the present author, though the progress achieved may not be to our satisfaction. The author also makes a very valuable and relevant observation tā elcīti refms slu be introduced in consultation With people' and the accepted system should not be tam pcrcdi with by thc Party Minister in power' except on the recoillendations of a knowledgeable and responsible body such as a National Commission on Education." This should maintain the stability of educational policy and practice
Many of the proposals made by Fr. Merwyn Fernando show that hic has made a serious study of our educational problems and his contribution amply deserves the attention of the Presidential Commission now inquiring inti our system of cducation.
Dr. D. D. De Saram

Page 25
EODAS
Exploring Group lden
Harash Seth
o take a set of essays writ
ten at different periods, slightly revise them, update and add connecting paras, and string them into a coherent book is a formidable task. And to successfully do this with issues of ethnicity and nationalism, where formulations and prognosis get out-dated daily, does demonstrate a keen mind. Not that any less was expected of Paul Brass whose writings on Indian politics, particularly on UP, are more than well regarded.
Bc5't know I foT his eārlier work, Language, Religion Arld Politics. In North India, this latest offering too is likely to find favour, not just with students of political sociology but also With the interested reader keen to make sense of the virtual explosion of primordiality all a Tound.
Though the decade of the '80s with Assam, Punjab, Kashmir assuming serious proportions, competition between the votaries of Hindul nationalism and Mul slim Indians reached points of explosion leading to serious tenSion and riots in dozens of localtions. With mounting apprehension that competitive radicalism would don the Tilantle of Social justice via higher dosages of caste-based reservations - most commentators are now convinced that the project of consolidating the Indian nation state has been seriously derailed.
And regular spots of, Mera Bharar Mahan notwithstanding, many now even wonder whether the British were not quite corTect - that in the absence of an authoritarian state, we are likely to fall apart. Just recollect the Tecent lamentations of the Indian communists on the break-up of the Soviet empire.
To his merit, Paul Brass would argue to thic contrary. The nine
chapters divid tions explore
tical literatute
tive experience time to make nicity and na givens' but so constructions, in inseparably co activities of tralising state.
Differentiatin both those W. of identities mistry past an individuals als Whon new pi be written, Bra conversion of c' into bases for enti a Lion anon only during spi Աt:8-
Central to th elite competitio mic accompanie ential impacts policies not ju 1Tnd Culturc bu sources and o. bution.
He thus puts ely on the p problems are art led rather that litions. As sul management til fore. The CF Groups, Symb and Ethnic Id
a powerful crit nordillists - ers of Jinnah |
Equally steer instrumentalist culture as part process, Brass, conflicts aroun Muslim Persona demonstrates an issue at di. only for a tim

ities
over three sec10th the theoreis also comparaacross space and a case that ethonalism are not all and political dern phenomena nected with the Inodern cell
himself from to seek the root in a hoary and others who view al cleam släkte. Om Boccupations can ss argues that the 11 Lula 1 differences political differgst people arises -cial circumstan
is is a theory of in as a basic dyna'd by the differof specific state ist on language t equally on reportunity distri
the focus squarocess by which culated and handon initial con1 it is political it colles to the pter on Elite Manipulation tity among the h Asia presents ue of the prithey the follow
Savā kar.
3 away from the
who only sce if a bargaining by examining the he sacred cow', law, and Urdu, it each becalle rent times and depending upon
the confluence of the actors and the social environment.
As such there was nothing irreducibly antagonistic to what were presented as different communities requiring their own states. One only Wishes that the current wotaries of Hindu nationalism realisc that on the lindian sub-continent there exist a multiplicity of Muslim ethnic groups, communities and potential nationalities, congruent in both religion and language, but nowwhere defined by descent.
The chapters on Punjab form part of Brass's thesis on Indian federalism. As against those who argue that the dominant tendency in the Indian polity, is towards centralisation, Brass through a detailed analysis of institutions (Planning Commission, Finance Commission) and policy areas would argue that the underlying patterns are towards pluralism, regionalism and decentralisation.
Many of the problems that we confront - today hawe arisen precisely because, particularly from Mrs Gandhi onwards, the attempt has been towards centralising political authority. As against strong states and a stable centre, the continuous attempt to weaken the state regimes has paradoxically led to a weak リT1[『豊。
Punjab, thus, for Paul Brass was not, to begin with a Hindu-Sikh communal problem, maybe still is not so, but remains primarily a consequence of illadvised and self-centred politics which has slowly consumed the healthier possibilities. One only Wishes that Brass had made some use of the writings on memory, hate, and violence which can, over time, acquire an autonomy that politicosociological corrections cannot manage.
23

Page 26
The final section, thorough a comparative analysis of the SoWiet East European and Indian experiences, attempts to refute the propositioll that I multi-ethnic States and societies carry Within theim the il evitability of balkanisation. As earlier, the emphasis is on State policies and consequences for patterns of clite
competition within and between
elite gгоups.
Herc the imposition during colonial times, of the process of identifying, counting, classifying and defining the boundaries of
groups, and the later belief amLihle
Lihat
ongst national clites
15
only viable state for In
E. has Wreaked havoc.
tle
The logical culmination of such a pluralist view is that either each nationality requires its own state or that the Inodel should be One of "consociationalism' - a system of communal group represantation on the lines of what de Klerk is proposing for South Africa, Not only does such a view reify ethnicity, it
puts paid to any possibility of
intra-ethnic equality.
their
of European nation-state
Brass ser Wes a useful purpose ||
in restoring the primacy of 'agen
cy and political process when dealing with issues like ethnicity and nationalisi, OI e d'Oes hOW
ever Wis that he had taken greater account of the recent works of Gyan Pandey, Sandria
Frietag and Weena Das, or drawn upon Imore literary Sources to obtain a richer idea of the I: Llirt of cultural capital that different actors can and do draw upon.
Possibly then the bias towards
political management, though of greater interest to policy makers, could have been corrected. NeWertheless, this book is likely to enrich the ongoing debate in this country, Maybe, even the politicians will read and learn froll it.
Price . . .
(Салllннғd / to be replaced Schelle i 1973 LaTEct ETouբ Svejnar, 1987). inflation, Rs. 3 ed to RS. 7CO. Notwithstal CuTement, abou blishels. to 100 percer paddy output li cd annuatly and 1966. In with the cost scheme on t government si dLICEd Llle I: degees. Reduc in 1957 1Inder t National Party by half with reduction in i procul rement le increase in the in the opeп пп. in the market to a lewel sig Lhall L'Ile GPS first time since the scheme, i. paddy product LTC CLI ICI 1 ET1 LI ELS pTüduction whi 1955 hills beeld teTit in 1982: t imports as an production whic 1965a has been 1982. Liberalis trade of Tice a market price o much higher th the post-1977 With the disi Illa ration has led denland for rig larket and ex glain trade by älteri Ing the cl rice market be thus en couTagit production (The Ilal, 1987: 54; C. 42). Ilin the co1 policies agricult in the peasant Illa de significa Ilt post-colonial pe Lus8 bei W.
Tills . Il both imports were duced, and mail

ர்ரா நரச 81)
by a food-stamp , for the same (Thorbecke and Later. With the DO limiL Was Tais
ing the GPS prot 35 to 40 million Lount equal to 80 It Of the tot: had to be importbet Weel 1951)
this context, of supporting the Le increasc, the LCe 1967 haye Tction i 11 Varicius ing the rice ration he 1965-70 United (UNP) regime the consequent Import and GPS i to an i Ili mediate delland for rige ärketldilease ргice of paddy nificantly higher price for the the inception of in couraging local Lion. The GPS a pетсепtage of chi Tse LC 54 in Teduced to 4 perhe share of paddy
ретсептage of Chl Tose to 109 im reduced to 11 in tion of interial nd allowing the f rice to remain in the GPS in period combined tling of the rice to un precedented :e in the open pansion of the private Imerchants laracter of the yond TecÇgnition ng local paddy Irbecke and Swej. }լIIIasinglle, 1985: 1 text: 0f Llle state u rial production E economy has advances in the Tijd als We dis:
occasions, food considerably rerke:Li dieTilland of T
rice increased, more in the post1977 period with the added impact of complete liberalization of the Tice trade, and the Linternal and the exchange trade as a Whole (Thorbecke and Svejnar, 1987). The decision of the UNP regimes, first to reduce and then to abolish sidised rice ration, is in keeping in line with the ilwice of agencies such as the World Bank alt 1east partly uInder whose influence the UNP regi Illes placed emphasis on import substitution and export oriented agricultural development, as opposed to the development policies of the SLFP regimes which laid enphasis on state-cd import substitution industrialisation,
Next: State's Role
J. R.
(ரொசரி ரீர நரச 8) Inon arch. He Was always con scious that the people placed him in office expecting him to reciprocate with good Works.
LLLLaHLLLLHL K S HtHHCaHL S S KLLLLaaaL him in the second half of his second tell T office. He could hawe awoided it buit he misjudged completely the goals of the Tallil United Liberatic Front (TULF). At first, he was absolutely right in his concept of the DDCS. This is just Whält + the Jaffna. Tillä T1 Wärts" he Tellä Tkcid. He II leaInt that the institutions afforded an opport tunity for the economic development of the Tamil areas. He told a good friend that once Amirthalingam and his friend got involved in the DDC exercise, rhey would become part of the power game (whatever that meant). But he failed to convert this objective into Teality, in largic Incas turc, because he was not, as it was said of Gladstore i his läst terTT ES prime minister an old man in a hurry'; instead Mr Jayewardene bided his time till events overtoök him, His sense of timi ing therefore, especially on some urgent matters of state left much to be desired. Let it simmer" was a Timuch used phral se in his vocabulary.
Next: The Presidency: 2 Phases

Page 27
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Page 28
STILL LEADING
Mr. William Thompson ob and established the first
in this island on 01st June 1841.
He called it “ Bank of Ceylon That was 150 years ago, but that was not we. We opened our doors in 1939
only to capture our rightful place in Banking
and are proud to say that LEAD
Over the years banking profession
shared our expertise
and BANK OF CEYLON became Sri Lanka’s SANDHURST TO BANK
Bank
Bankers 1

tained a Royal Charter Joint Stock Commerical Bank
اقے
t we still
ERS.
of Ceylon
to Nation