கவனிக்க: இந்த மின்னூலைத் தனிப்பட்ட வாசிப்பு, உசாத்துணைத் தேவைகளுக்கு மட்டுமே பயன்படுத்தலாம். வேறு பயன்பாடுகளுக்கு ஆசிரியரின்/பதிப்புரிமையாளரின் அனுமதி பெறப்பட வேண்டும்.
இது கூகிள் எழுத்துணரியால் தானியக்கமாக உருவாக்கப்பட்ட கோப்பு. இந்த மின்னூல் மெய்ப்புப் பார்க்கப்படவில்லை.
இந்தப் படைப்பின் நூலகப் பக்கத்தினை பார்வையிட பின்வரும் இணைப்புக்குச் செல்லவும்: Lanka Guardian 1993.01.01

Page 1
SOUTH ASIA POVE
Vol. 15 No. 17 January 1, 1993 Price Rs. 10.00
KHABARNAMA
News andviews expressed in this bulletin are those of the govt. Poor newsCaster Should in no Case beheld responsible For then.
“TIGERS A
MANAGIN(
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

RTY ALLEVIATION
ND GEIGERS
— Sөrena Tennekoon
G THE MEDIA
- ADavid MVebster

Page 2

초

Page 3
TRENDS
Don't influence Embassies, Ministers Tod
Erribarras sed by rrriiriisters and high state officials persisI irg ir press turizing errnbassies (Q) i 5S e yis ETS TO Jfr ferds (7 77 di relations, the gover Irie II is reported to have arried the [7 ĝi ir7 roj de 55 Fo.
Errabais Sies have apparently complairied afrir temps ar Euridze influence in the obliaining of 55. Tere eeld Corplaints of abuses by song Who Friad o Hyrcairied yr is as this WCJ.
äÜVARDIAN
1993
Wol, 15 No. 17 January 1.
PFG R5. TOOO Published fortnightly by Lanka Guardian Publishing Co., Ltd. No. 246, Union Place, CODE-2
Editor: Meirw yn de Silwr a TalEբhբոE: #475B4 Printed by Annida Press | 825, Sir Ratnajothi Saravana muttu
Mill Wyth, CO TOT 13. Tըlgբիճne 43EB7E CONTENTS News Background FTC B Mgtid 4. Ngwspaper Nationalism (4) 3.
di"5 Fedi5r Urg
Briefly
ARMY C.
HGH By Christini death total I thic year with 42 regular sol liya area. ded two lieutch: : Ind Pe Tefa.
The attack 250 Tigers ha: Weapons of L! di Ing a Imunitio Cr"Imrmli. LTiCati bI
Other majo LTTE IL 1)) of 52 saliers the 5ei:ZLI. Te C at the Kiddai killing 13 sol oWer-rulinning , tions - it did 47 Soldiers di
Thonda Ceylon Wo boss Saumya I | Iman (also Mi
Industrial Dey
PTC miklasi Gini out of the parli CCIII mittee w for ways to e eläst conflict,
"I have t agonising sens that thic effor to forge a wi
Stress (2) 11 Duckspeak on Maritocracy 17 Powerty (2) 19 A Na w Europe P 24
(k 0 an. (9uardian
3lHighes ita reайғrв,
aðuertisers Hrið alI suel-suishers a uerg Aappg Netu gear
cuttributers,
of the clic failed”, Mr TI
in a letter LO
|tee chailal nesingle, copi released to Thl. Ida tillä hii thinking of t complete wari thought proce: CCIIII liittee.
*“Dewgoluliti t0 a II i Llibi East PTwice Collerstone of proposals' . cation of the Call the We | dcration of th
... the CWC boss
lette of With
 
 
 
 
 
 

\SUALTIES
N 1992
is ewe the a Tiny 5e to 1045 foT
the killi Ing of diers in the WeThe dead incluints, Gunatilake
party of about d TcIT10 Wei al-1 le dead, inclun, grenades and ls cquipment,
attacks by the I were the killing
at Katupotha, f the armoury kadu camp after diers, and the of defence posiikla.dllLII i I1 which ed.
OLIt Of SC
irkers Congress hurth i Thould almiste T F IRLITäl relopment in the vernment) pulled tamentary Select ich is searching ind the north
state with an c of frustration its of the CWC ble 5 et Lillement problem hawe hon daman said Select ColliMangala Mooes of which were the press. Mr. as said that the he CWC is zt ance with the is of the Select
in a real sense ITCated Northconstituted the the (CWC's) ..., but "BifլITreceptacle berweening consiLe Committee',
| has said in his
Tawal.
HARD TIMES AHEAD
Further reductions in social welfare arc due in 1993 in keeding with an agreement with the IMF running through to 1995. In education there are plans to "enhance cost recovery through user fees and
further develop private education'; in health care there are plans to explore 'alternative ways of financing care through insurance systems and fees'".
The agreement with the lending agencies also includes: deregulation of bus fares, converting the Railways into a corporation, allowing foreign in westors access to local financial markets, lower tax systems,
and other "liberalisations' of
the economy.
AL GORE PHONES PRESIDENT PREMA DASA President Premadasa said at the opening of a garment factory at Kaduwela that US Wice President-elect Alfredi Gore had telephoned him and conveyed President-elect Bill Clinton's appreciation of Sri Lanka's efforts to develop the country.
"COMMON CAND DATE WILL WN'
DUNF leader Lalith Atulathmudali told a meeting at Kalutara that a common opposition candidate would undoubtedly win the next presidential election. He said that the people had no faith in tle present government, that there was no other leader in the UNP and that lakhs of people were now joining the Democratic United National Front (DUNF).

Page 4
PRESS FREEDOM: An
Mervyn de Silva
In this conflict-torn society, the ethnic strife which erupted in the early 80's to produce today’s fierce clash of arms, contilles to dolli Tlate and ofte II determine political processes. Looking back at 1991, we note that the final issue of the La Guardia I (15/12/91) focussed on what We called "the constitutional coup, that is the impeachment motion and its implications.
“Dissension, conflict and diwisive tendencies are thic most prominent feature of our national life and politics" Said the Concluding paragraph of that conmentary which ended "The war in the orth. Iki thic JWP i Ilsurgency were the most violent form of expression of this basic fact. Now the two major parties are also seized by this larger, powerful force of internal war
le.
On the latest expression of these divisive conflicts - thic illpeach I ment motion — the L.G. su ITIned up:
* Sanne systemins, sal The po Wers, sale abuses - but because there is no two-thirds majority, very few fundamental changes, . . . but different personality. And that's it, The Westernised intelligentsia, which includes professions, bureacracy, business, and the upper echelons of the Political Establishinent, finds the Ilımanı Eld his style offensive, an in solent challenge to their value-system and their interests. And this collective response embraces the topcrust of all the major parties. The Establishinent Strikes Back.'" The Tesult"? The failul Te of the Tianouevre, the constitutional coup, produced the DUNF. The LG hal a Collent to offer On Mr. Ronnie de Mel.' A third UNP frontbencher likely to join
the DUNF leadership is exFic. Minister Riede Mell, , , , " "
The LG Was proved Wrong con Mr. de Melos political calculations in Illid-December 1991, Mr. de Mel chose exile. But now in Dec: 1992, Mr. de Melis back. ... his plans still uncertain.
Til the Säle i5 brief contributi
laka ALLTlitlu II presented al cas pendent Autho Sri Lankā Birë; Atil. The Illa was obvious, radio, a comml With a Illich. V, thic print media trol and day-to Ill:1Iltig:ErlleTit.
TT EL Series media in Asia Far EIFferil Egg special correspo kaTT1i ani, its Manik de Silya "To a casual ied fai Te in new the impression thriving press i a closer look Youгу геаility. T have ät best a llation of a fe least two-third and a sizeable zines' circulatio זון נt-ctוTטlחוTIט0WיE group, . . '' Not the demise of TRELINE of S. F C0Trespondent di his report with this journal.
ா: Guardian ոightly, it is al 'the intelligents vides a platforn that a Te mont : national daily
Since the F.E. rep0rt, the pri I has seen sweepi ISLAND group by the Wijeya (Sir Tre, a host of journ half a dozen wi YUKTHIYA4, L. LIYA Which Illý readership that to äl ny cof the mass day papers publi major groups:
In the print is thus an impr balced cītes ever the best W

NEWS BACKGROUND
unfinished battle
sule, We had a In Fr0IIl Dr. Changa, in which he e for "Fall III derity” to Tun the dcasting Corp Tin objective, it was to 'liberate" nications system, wider range than , from State crim-day government
in the lational the respected Για τηit Rε με μι, itς Ident W.G. KillColombo corr. had this to say: Visitor this warS and views gives of a vibrant and 1 Sri Lanka, But Inveils ln unsaThe party organs combined circuW thousaill. At S. of the dailies part of the maga15 come froll Le rolled publishing ing with regret the independent ". Amarasingham, e Silva, concludes 1 l Tema Tik T Describing the as a lively fort. med he notes at ia and often profor view points
Tefliccted in thc ress'".
ER's Oct., 1986 it media scene
ng changes. The has been joined publishing house La Flka deep, and als) and by a cekiles RAJWAYA, AKDIVA, RAJA'e an impressive gether can match --CiTÇLlatio Til Sulshed by the three
Tedia field, there ession of evenly
E., III this how
"t can lւյն The
situation is far from perfect. In fact, it is only a beginning of the long journey towards a lively, critical and responsible media.
*Agilin the gover III ment’’ was banner of the press barons of Flett Street is re11 15 till: 1Iլdependent jou T-mals, The enormous power of the State needs colul Intervaliling forces in ordeT t acquire and expand democratic space. That was the thesis, the underlying assumption.
In a stable society, this makes sense, In wholly different conditions such as societies plagued by divisive conflicts, especially violent conflicts, a tacit acceptance of social responsibility is as vital as recognition of the fundamental right of free expression. In her well-researched essay on "Newspaper Nationalism" (L.G. Nov. 1 1992) Serena Tennekoon outlines the history Of the Shill debate on the ethnic issuc and the faI froTIl enlightened contribution it Illade through the pages of the free press. Was the freedom liberally used to inflame passions or to clarify issues in a way that would contribute to the understanding of thic conflict, and pave the way for resolution?
Exposure of a regin ne's misdecds, of corruption, of arbitrary acts, of gross abuse of power, ånd digt atorial tendencies etc is indeed a major function of an independent press. But a press that cquates independence with total hostility to an elected adlinistration has confused issues, to put it mildly. Waving the banner of press freedom only to serve its own collercial interests or the political interests of a particular party is also wrong. The manner in which a group of journalists converted former National Security Minister Lalith Attilathmudali - at the best of times, an improbable champion of liberty, - into an instant hero after his expulsion from the UNP, is an episode that taught the journalistic community many
Walulle E550i.
Izeth Hussail who has Written ex

Page 5
tensively on this topic in one of his many essays, concluded that "Sri Lanka has had no press freedom after 1970' . . . . . And then studying current trends, the ebb and flow, he used Rob. ert Dahl and the US political scientist, Scalapino as "guides' to a balanced approach on what really prevails, rather than the theory. 'Actually the DUNF leaders deserve credit for making democracy a central issue. What they are subjectively is beside the point because what really matters is the objective situation which will make them behave democratically. However there is public cynicism about the democratic pretensions of the opposition parties.'"
Reflecting on the role of the
press, Ajit Samaranayake (LG Sept. 1, '92) pinpoints the 'insularity" of the anglicised elite, and defends the Left parties "Which eschewed the extremes of communal politics", alas only to be branded as 'traitors' to Sinhala and Buddhism, by those politicians, ideologues and newspapers that stood squarely against 'a secular' approach to national politics.
A plet hora of Sinhala weeklies specialising in exposure, Scandal, and sensationalism have made the UNP and Mr. PreInadasa in particular their principal target. In an island with such an exceptionally high literacy, it can hardly be argued that there is a State-monopoly. The Lake House press does the government's job while blasting a Way Allt the SLFP, DUNF etc. Ticino-Lake House papers reply in kind. This gives overall "balance'" but it also robs both of the credibility that is attached to il tir Lully independent media.
Democralisation is the new inversal trend the LG took up the issue of press freedom because it has a vital contribution to make, perhaps even Timore witill than an independent judi. ciary. While the problem of the non-print media remains, we Elke il look in this issue on what's going on in the region, partly because events and tends in one country do have an imPiction neighbours. The struggle for press freedom in Pakis
Lan, for instanc Valuable l'esson.
CEI cover is fro newspaper THEN which suggestis tlh
ARTHUR C.
The story d Stric : HON
fēSS
Doctor : G. Professor : . Doctor : Liv Prof: No.
Doctor : A
Sri Lanka, know other names, has fra Ingolulis visitors, f Anton Chekow, Lea T to Andre The from outer you count Soviet Gagari, a brief
Arthur C. Cllr wijsit-3T, tj. is lif a Sri Lankan. A it. Though I new until I was 33 ye Ceylon, not Engla he Em5 հայHit. . . .nd is wholly real Wrote nearly 30 y Sri Lanka in tu ed hin with honou for Modern Te Moratuwa is name prophet of the Sn pathfinder in the Communication S Fill faile Scienc He is the Clanc University of M his 75th birthday President Prenada 51111 Tibuite EC T105 acclaille our time.'"
On Jnly 15, th Commons paid rai this a British nio Minister John Maj Imeптагy Space Сот Chairman Sir Mich gretel ATELICI to the MP's at th Teception. In ma Arthur Clarke. In it is space that hic il future 111 believe that the agencies arc activi bringing snace to people. There is

e, has many a The CTECI DI
the Pakistani ATION, a paper at the idea of
NEWS BACKGRoUND
a free press is advancing swiftly in a country Where military dictatorship, rather than civilian democratic government, has been tele,
CLARKE: Explorer extraordinary թնեiless is apocryphal. TOLULUI AIRPORT. Characters: Sri Lankan pro
r, Australian doctor. JAL flight to Tokyo/Hong Kong.
ing to Tokyo. . No. Hong Kong.
fe there, do you?
ah, where Arthur Clarke lives....
i Il Sri Lanka
in by several
attracted many rom Wijaya to frei Edward Malraux but 5բtice, ԼlTile:85 arut Yuri Wights. k, though a fercht. He IS .nd proud of er left England lTS Colli, it is Ild, that now Other place o Ine' he EELTS ELEC). in has showerr, The Centre chnologies at ld after the ace Age, and sphere of tellites, and : fiction writer. llor of the ritl||Wa, CI
last month, sa paid per*{Ile (f the isionaries of
c. Hruše; jf.
te tribute to) neer. Primile ČT a Tld Par|- nimittice (PSC) La el Marshall rike who spoke e end of the Thy ways' said Illally Wily's, lds the key I do not World's space : enough in the ordinary a spiritual
潭
element to space exploration too, and that is What counts." When he dwells I lis favourite topic, Arthur is always serious, sometimes Solemn. But El boyish hili moll T Tarely deserts . him. It was with a mischievous twinkle for instances, that Arthur replied to a solemn query by the Archbishop of Canterbury when the two Inct at the British High CoII. Inission. ег", homic Westminister House, last m1 onth. " Cal Interbury inquired how Arthur was privy to see many secrets of the universe, and played prophet so successfully. 'Communications' Cf course was the Secret, Clark confided in Canterbury solemnly. You see, he had this direct line to God... a radio-telephone.
What's he up to now, I 5 kecil Arthu IT While I Callled CT lī at 25 BIInes Pice to vis him for his birthday. Mars is where the action. . . .'" says the prophet, repeating a message he has given the press at meetings cross the World.
II his COIWC citi. In AddTESS at the Maratuwa University in on December 14, the "prophet'' chose to speak on SPACE AND SERENDIP, his two lives. . . . scricindip being the na Ille that Horace Walpole chose for Sri Lanka, and the origin of the world “seren dipity" the faculty of finding things walliable accidentally, SERENDIP is alsø the code Illa Ille for T & LEW JIS project in which Dr. Cyril Pontina Imper Lima is involved. The Ilan The Stads föIT SEARCH för EXTRA terrestrial Radio Ellission from Nearby Developed Intelligent Populations......l-M,
3.

Page 6
リ リ
Building Free Media
Dawid Webster
tyum trics arolind the World
that have recently emerged from authoritarian and totali talriain rule are discovering that a free political society cannot exist without free news media. Because democracy involves public debate and open decision-making, the free exchange of ideas, opinions, and information is essential. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television serve as both forums for debate and sources of information on Which decisions can bc based.
Building an open society is never easy. If the World's new democracies are to preserve and extend their newfound freedoms, institutions that reflicct and Sustain free communication must be developed in both the public and private sectors. These new institutions can impose a heavy burden of responsibility both on journalists and on politicians. A distinguished Polish editor (who was formerly with an underground newspaper) bemoa ned the difficulties of the new liberalized system. "What's the problem?" he was asked. "After years of repression you are now free to publish." "Yes," he responded, "but now we are supposed to
find out whether it's true or Ilյt."
Journalists, politicians, and
officials must learn the difficult lessons of how to interact in a free, open society. Even within long-established democracies this interaction is a struggle. In the emerging democracies, it is both more difficult and morc urgent.
The level of Treedom and independence of the media depends on three main factors. The first is regulation; the second, the presence of able managers and the ability to be economically viable in the new market; and the third, the degree to which professionalism and responsibility
TE CYCTICE.
For 3 year, he writer Hair of rhe
BBC Board of Management)
“WtH10 fre mlInication, deaf and people. . . . ."
REGULATION
Il authoritari 11 edia are large the state. As the world beg their political a tems, the task is how to pry and electronic I grip of the stat bowicz, chairma: Broadcasting Re described the pi
This is Flor Η ΕΓεg III μπ, Feguins, ! hיוו נתוטל ל"ו "buth ty. No a structure of Mr P E É FAC cast irg, in bot te privare developed.
For the print of regulation is gulation beyond accepted laws rights and prohi sailler is nec these few gui Who has the me printed material Wed to do so that has begun In edia is South
For their pari Wision broadcast tecliIlicial con 5 ETil tial number of silī ciānes is size of the freq Smc1 e Il 15t Who Iilay broadc ferequency. The sarily a degree
Although Tegu casting is requir should be ass li if it is to supp Cition. Britica when it promot

edom of Comthe State is So are the
OF THE MEDIA
an societies, the ly controlled by countries a round in to liberalize nd economic sysconfronting them loose the print edia frill the e. Karl Jakllof the Polish iLLEEהוחותCo וחזרF
oblem this way:
α με 5τιο η απ' FWe Tever had any if í ljisti fri flé
is a 'e (pe to cree
a la ry (Irld regiindepender broad. li rlie Public: Trid Forff, r, CEPE PE
media, the issue simple. No rethe commonly protecting copybiting libel and essary. Within delines, anyone tans to reproduce Էlloլյltl be H11ցOne country to free its print Ko Teal.
t, radio and teleing have special ints, The potenTaldic lld telewilimited by the lle:Incy Spect. Tu IT1. therefore decide cast wer. Which
result is necesof regulation.
lation of broaded, such control nited as possible ort free commu. sting work best es Talther thal
inhibits, the independence of public and private broadcasters. Requiring print or broadcast journalists to be licensed, for example, gives the state too large E. Tole. The FIS ALIII to the Costi L'ution Of United
States is the beacon: 'Congress shall make no law. ... a bridging the freedom... of the press."
A note issued by the TransAtlantic Dialogue on European Broadcasting concerning broadcasting in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union is a good example of how to approch the problem of regulation.
Point drawn from a draft outline of an ideal regulatory law, written by the Trans-Atlantic Dialogue on European Broadcasting. This draft would have to be adapted for specific countries, but it
does give examples of subjects to be addressed and suggests 50 l'ulti15.
Political control of the content of programming not only stifles liberty, but can also create farce. For examplc, when the German Government was pressing for the diplomatic recognition of Croatia, Croatial telli vision authorities banned films about the First and Second World Wars in which Germany was shown in a bad light.
It is not easy to escape old biases favoring state control. Although Albania is attempting to liberalize its media, the 1991 debates surrounding a media law were based on the assumption that all media need to be regulated and that freedom of speech is something bestowed by the state to those who deserve it. The resulting draft law attempted to regulate everything, including magazines and books lt also required all activities to be licensed by the state, even though that license would be freely given. This draft has now been set asidic, and new ones are being discussed. It is not yet clear, however, whether the final law will recognize that in an open democratic society, freedom of speech and press is a birth right, not something that

Page 7
comes with a permit issued by a ministry.
MANAGEMENT AND THE MEDIA
The freedom to report and to express an opinion is only one link il the chaill of com Llullication in the Written press and in the broadcast media. The other vital links are printing and distribution in regard to the print media and the acquisition of transmission facilities in Tegard to the broadcast media, These constraits in WWE CIO. mic more than political issues.
In some colul II tries, printing plants a Te controlled by the state. The government can easily kill a publication through arbitrary pricing, claims of insufficient printing capacity, or scheduling difficultics. State management of the supply of newsprint can also greate problems. In Uruguay, for instance, policies designed to protect domestic paper companies significantly raised the price of paper, making it diffi. cult for small newspapers to survive. Mexico's state paper COIImpany, On the other hand, no longer has monopoly status. It is now trying to compete in the market by improving quality and adjusting prices,
In addition, the state fic has a monopoly om distribution through the post office and thrgugh control of newsstands. Here, inefficiency, lack of capacity, or a straightforward refusal to distribute can also destroy the right to communicate, and thus effectively act as indirect censorship.
Ones these restraints are removed, an even bigger problem looms for the print media, born not of state control but of the free market. There are more publications than the new Illar. kets can sustain, and there are too few managers with the skills to run profitable newspapers and Imagazines. Many publications are accustomed to operating With state or party subsidies. They may be unable to compete effectively in a new market system, even though they embrace democratic values. Some publi
Cations Wi 11 suTY sationalism and tive techniques Others will adap Still others, suc Hungary and P tempt to surviv foreign partners. ever, many will
For broadcastill of independence te thall for th and the political casting is likely important. As there is a justif ETITLE:Llt in WOTW casting because manage a freq this CBI LEWE for continued gi ference. Almost and politicians control televisio ceed in doing s a powerful Time in countries whe Of chläTICIS exis the Tail II leas tion with people
How the can broadcasting syst hands of the st economically wi: independent priv sector broadcast step of course state monopoly One way to beg of liversifying it Il media is to pro te) free coIIIllun appears in Arti Europican Declar Rights, Then be passed with protecting the ii broadcasting in and the private
Si me for In o Imercial broadcast as quickly as pe litate the express C)f Voices and easiest way to is through small which hawe smal Telets. In fict ern Europe new receiving license Colliercial televi: requires time to needs a thriving
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

five by using senother Ll. Il tittac
use in the West.
it to the market,
as those in
'oland, will at
e by engaging Inevitably, howfail.
1g, the problems Te IT LI chill greaiprint I'll edia, impact of broadto be eye D1 1110 Te We hawe seen, iable initial gowejleltiri brodi
the Teet ency Spectrum. open the door WeTI Tent interall governments WtյլIld like to F1, and Solle Suç... Television is lium, especially ere Olly El Couple È ad serye as -icaון ווורן ודור)tyT G : inli - Tlli Tarı l a Teal 3.
one Wrench the eil Out of the ate alid create ble systemıs of "ate-and publicing? The first is to end the 0 Ti broadcasting.
in the process,
he broadcasting claim the right ication, such as cle () of the atio I of Human
a law, may the objective of independence of both the public
GECELTS,
private comting, introduced isible, can faciion of a variety opinions. The create diversity radio stations, | capital requi. all over East. broadcasters are S. Large-scale Sion, by contrast develop, for it market economy
to sustain it, since it relics on substantial advertising for income. Foreign investment can help fund new Tadio and television broadcaste Ts, but these brödcasters must eventually become profitable in their own right. They III LI5t not be dependent on never-ending injections of cash from foreign investors. Even the most noble-Tinded and courageous foreign investor will lose enthusiasm at the prospect of providing a permanent subsidy to a money-losing enterprise.
At the same time private commercial broadcasting is being introduced, the state broadcasting systein I must also be reformed. Some argue that all broadcasting should be private and that the larketplace along should decide who will survive. This argument is not yet relevant for the newly emerging democracies, because their economies are not si Tong enough to sustain much commercial televisión broadcasting in the near future.
Others argue that the state broadcasting system should be left to collapse naturally, Such a collapse, however, could create a vacuum, and the only people likely to exploit it are foreign entrepreneurs. Foreign investors present no particular danger except when they are the only
players. Broadcasting should ref. lect the society in which it Operates. Therefore networks
dominated by imported programIning, Where forcign col domestically owned, warrant some concern, particularly if they are the only networks.
The goal then is to transform the state broadcasting system, which is controlled both financially and editorially by the state, into an indepencent public-sector broadcasting system Lihat receives somic financial support from the government but is insulated as much as possible from political pressure. Yet more is required. Public-sector broadcasting, as experienced in authoritarian societies, is typically run by an inefficient and Overmanned bureaucracy, It will not Survive Without radical chan.- ges that enable it to become
5

Page 8
economically viable and to use limited Tesources in the lost efficient way. It must be restructured and reduced in size in Order to survive under new ecoT10Ilic conditio115. The managicrial skills Tequired to make this transition, however, are in short supply in the new market economies. A great deal of training and experience involving trial and error Will be Tequired to develop the necessary skills. It may even require a new generatio 11 of ThanageTSi.
One Way to create wiable priWate-scctor broadcasting in small and underdeveloped markets inwolves greater regional cooperation. Together, small countries can usic economies of scale. By pursuing joint activities, they can acquire more 'muscle' in the marketplace. Satellite technology offers the possibility of regional distribution in various languages. For instance, a satellite can send a network signal that would include one picture and audio tracks in several lainguages Eo hundreds of private local television stations. The local station can choose the language it wishes to use and rebroadcast the program on its local over-the-air frequency. These stations would otherwise have a difficult time providing a full schedule on the limited revenues available to them. Of course, for such a system to work, countries must have the political will to cooperate and must forgo the pursuit of some short-term national interests.
Models for cooperative arrangeIllents exist in both the United States and the United Kingdom, The U.K. commercial television system, for example, uses a joint scheduling arrangement, in which 15 separate companies negotiate to develop a national television schedule. In the United States, each of the television networks is affiliated with hundreds of local stations to which it offers programming,
Another political imperative is to ensure that ethnic and linglistic minorities are fully served, Lithuania recently took a step in this direction when it granted
approval for the commercial Tadi teil at the Polis ence living in a capital of Will explosive issues
Oritics Can Önly by their omissio ture of broadcast these minority a to do t} m a r&H C1 il lational
One step tow operation is a mcnt such als til Poland and B 1992, Polish Tel la.Iu5 Televisiin ment concernin, and coproductio ming. Accordin ment, informatic affairs programs וחקtוtertainmeI exchanged free Polid some ming Will be bI arusian for the tional minority Belarus, some O Iming will be br for thic Polish in that country,
Along the Ill sues to address divers broadcas the problems of of transmission. tries frequency regarded as a
stery, and Imal Would like Lok In thic coll
quency. Ilana gCT in fact, a state
New ile 110 CTILC frecidom of coIII making the Ima I quencies a tran: so that any citi. thic process an decision. The can begin by Tea all capacity give under internatic Lidl Lluc al lliçiti city within the stalce, ha,5 t)) been given to t too little remail clercial broi ses? Next, regu sile:ThQW efficiel

operation of a station targeh-speaking audiind around the ius. Potentially related to minibe cxacerba tedi I from the struc. ing. Addressing Lidiences is easier ional basis than hasis.
rard useful co
bilateral agreenat adopted by elarus. In July evision and Be
signed an agreeg an exchange n of programto the agreeIn and current, films, and engrams will be
of charge. In of the programOadcast in BelBela TLisial Tha
there, and in f the programoadcast in Polish ethnic minority
ost importantisіп a new, поге ting system a Te frequencies and In most coulIlanagement is rofessional myly professionals eep it that way. ist world, freent often was, SeCTC.,
ies can enhance h munication by agement of freparent process, en can challenge the resulting regulatory body isessing the over1 to the country nal agreements ion of that capaou Tntry. For in
much capacity le military with ing for civil and dcasting puтроlators must con tly the spectrum
has been managed.
sզucezed
stations be
Cal T10Tc in The
answer is usually 'yes."
Transmission can be an equally
important issue.
In many coun
tries, a ministry of communica
tiøT15 c{] ThitTũls vision
transImitting and condlicts Lill
all radio and teleequipment transmissions.
charging broadcasters for the Service. This arrangement has two major disadvantages: the
broadcaster is tтагy pricing,
subject to arbiand transmission
can be cut off at the Whill of
the ministry.
of the totalitarial state, ministries have tricid
With the collapse TIlany to Imaxi
mize their own revenues by arbi
trarily raising
ges to broadcasters.
transmission cha TThis price
rise has put an additional strain
con existing
broadcasters and
made it more difficult for entre
preneurs to market.
Creating a these services
el ter the Imedia
frce market for would not only
increase efficiency but also encourage freedom from political
interference.
Within certain tech
nical parameters, anyone, inclu
ding broadcasters
themselves,
should be allowed to build trans
mitters and offer
services. At
the very least, thosc services of
fered by the
subject to rate review, as
should be
T
State
public utilities such as water and
electricity in the West.
Ulüler
this system, the regulatory body would set rates for transmitting based on What it decides is a reasonable profit for the trans
Ilitter.
The best solution, how
ever, would be a free market in transmission services.
In programming, as in transInission, the basic aims are in
dependence
and diversity.
OF
course, given a limited frequency
spectrum, not a broadcaster.
most efficient and management of . - spectrum, there is a limit.
cveryone can be
EWe With the enlightened the frequency But
there are other ways to encour
age diversity.
television broadcasters,
stance, really
Many would-be for illwant to be pro
ducers - that is, they want to make the programs to be broadcast - and they need easy access

Page 9
a broadcast illa Tiket. Orle Fay to encourage diversity, therefore, is to ensure that broadCasters transmit - Ino L. colly, programs that they themselves have made but also those made by independent producers.
In the United Kingdom, for instance, 25 percent of the progranin Ilming com all televisio Il netWorks must be independently produced. II, fact, one cha III el Channel 4) produces nothing of its own but relies solely on independent production companies for its prograLIn IIniL1g.
The advantages of a healthy independent production industry are enormous. Not only does it provide diversity, but it also of fers 11 any entrepreneurial opportunities at comparatively low start-up costs. For example, after allowing a network to broadcast a program once or twice initially, producers can sell the rights to that program elsewhere, such as in foreign Dilarkets, Th - wide cial:SSette, aild Oni alir li ihes,
This independent entrepreneurial 2:1ctiwity is Elm important part of free collinication. It allows diffe: TČINE W Cice5, to Eje heard and helps to protect broadcasting from political interference and assaults upon its independence, because it makes such assaults Ilore complicated.
PROFESSIONALISM AND THE MEDIA
Many of the problems that -1 תוויוון וחנוט תר" וTIהt ITettlת סEO mf F cation in newly emerging de110 cracies have little t d with the shortcomings of government and much i to do with the ina dequacy of journalists themselves. It Would be un realistic to expect journalists in newly free soeieties Lo have impeccable professional judgment, Societies that emerge from repression to the shock of the market typically have few accepted ethical stardards. The legal foundation of civil society is weak; the opportunities for corruption are many. The notion of conflict of interest is unfamiliar and poorly understood, and in the struggle
for Survival, p" ofte Il LISed if T i gain. Some new c3, för instance, пmove away fго which reporters
Lising, {111 aTrang te5 Serialis CD 1 problems. A. la W media cannot ad i551e5, THE EIL Fall la W-5 , Ciceroni property rights,
contricts is also
In both print journalism in t cracies, freedom burden, foT; it i: sibility, Inevitab say, Write, and that are irrespor
Let to increase : tical problems. E this problem sł
upon repressive rather focul 5 II fessional skills p m 1ent in journali
One example restrictive broadւ: from Rolla Dia, summaries, Articl
1. FreedOII ( expression call in person's dignity private life or a p his coT HET W II i
2. Desa Tatian Find of the La Li t) - WELT DIT LI TI class, or religious Et til discrii trial separatio violence; as we attitudes contrary are forbidden by
3. Broadcast with according t secret il lature judice national Էititlt:n,
4. Civil respo: contents of in cast by audiovist CCITIT1unication t Imateria! ÖT TÖra beetli Çaussel Tests ditioIls Of the | Wille T if the Ebr or with the own that broadcast th

Lublic assets are improper private spapers in Mexia Te starting to In a system in also sel adverCITICIlt that Creaflict-of-interest regulating the dress all these ctment of geneng, for instance, bankruptcy, and
essential.
and broadcast he ne W demo
can be a heavy mWolves responlly, people will broadcast ideas 1sible and threa30cial and poliEfforts to address lould not rely TestTictionIs but developing prond soլInd judgStS.
of an overly ist law comes
According to e 2 states.
f audiovisual it prejudice a honor, and erson's right to Illä EE.
of the country Eנ1טותitcסחi :וTם ational, racial, i hatTed inciteination, terriטOT publi | ll as obscene
to good morals
law.
If info Timation 3 the law is
OT Illay presecurity is for.
isibility for the Illation broadall means of hrough which daillages have in the con LW, With the adcast license r of the station c information.
The rules might be acceptable simply as a code of conduct,
but the draft of Article 39. dealing with criminal penalties. ST;lLS
1. Programming and broadcasting of products violating provisions of Article 2 are an offense and punishable by six months to five years imprison
In E.
2. If provisions of Article 2 (2) and Article 2 (3) are violated by programming and broadcasting of products, punishment is provided for by the penal law, increased by two years.
The fears of the Romanians are understandable. Ultimately, however, people cannot learn to be responsible unless responsi. bility is given to them. The poor decisions made by some imprudent journalist may infuriate, but they must be dealt with not by criminal penalties which extinguish freedom in the name of responsibility, but by exhortation. example, and Lrain. ing. (Many organisations no W offer training for journalist in new democracies;)
In some new democracies, years of repression and underground pamphleteering çan lead to a reliance on opinion rather than objective reporting. Moreover, sole readers will miss being told what to think. Freedom brings new and different problens and should bring new standards. Objective reporting will call upon readers to examine the evidence and make up their minds.
In broadcasting, the confusion of liberty. With license is even more likely. lin television, whose powerful images can shape the opinions of vast numbers of people, lack of judgment, fairness, or balalince can be particularly dangerous. If journalists and broadcasters do not Titake sound, defensible professional judgments, the clanor for testraint in the name of responsibility may become irresistible. Because broadcasters use a lili. ted public resource and are, or should be, licensed to serve the
(Confinшғd on page iti)

Page 10
newspaper Wationalism (4)
Dutugamunu: facing “Ti
Serena Tennekoon
it also refers obliquely to the traitõ rous foreign-funded social scientists attack earlier. The Fother" on this occasion al Te not only despicable, they are also polluted.
The anti-colonial campaign was closely linked to the Buddhist revival. In her essay Jayawardene had focused on the economic underpinnings and caste dimensions of the revival Illove
ment and its operations. She revealed that many leaders of the Buddhist revival belonged
to the goygana (cultivator) or karava (fisher) caste and had made their money in the arrack rental business, mining, and in coconut, cinnomon and rubber plantations. One of their chief targets was the colonial policy on liquor which was held responsible for the decline of Buddhist values.
Nen. Kahawatte Ananda saw Jayawardena's analysis as a sinister attempt to disparage the Temperance Movement and the Buddhist revival as an arrack renters' campaign. He also accused her for rousing casticism among the Sinhala by pointing to the caste affiliations of the revivalists. Finally, he declared that see exposed her ignorance of the revival movement by belittling the significance of the nationalist dimensions of Dharmapala's Work.
While this defense of Dharmapala and the Buddhist revival represents a cultural response to the political crisis between Sinhala and Tamils, its main arguments are not ul In familialır. The Sinhala press - and the Divayita in particular - has frequently bemoaned the rapid commercialization and Westernization of Sinhala society (produced by the Open Economy policies introduced by the UNP government in 1977) and the
8
concomitant Etraditional" cu values. In th situation facing becomes analog IHition Wիiוןsi attacked. Flirt the Cäse of thị debate) those Who da Ted til criticize cisti traditionäl Sinh ture by applying of inquiry, b. plicit agents of and perpetrator Cultureos destru
While Dhall portant nation à Sinhala today, eclipsed in th tlat the CI in this debate, k Artists and po ages have T etc Dutugalmunu, ch to Sullit the ter Accordingly, i. politicians, mo: ally academics, their versions Whiclı Teflect II" politics. In th consciousness, bolizes the epit Buddhist natic saved his nati religion (Budd an in Walder alli well as religior against the Sol Elara, is a aflir mation of madipa and Si
Leading up Duutuuga muinu's li nalisin bore dis o Yetones. Hoy and particularly Le T half of 1 Imilitancy incre ticians began ti?) gamunu's relew sent. They we xious to dissocii racist implicati

gers” with new “Geigers”
destruction Cf |ture and I'morill is respect the
the Sinhala today Ll5 to the Colonia 1 chi Dha TIThapala һегп оте (as iп Sillali Culture social Scientists ո զuestion and ng paradigms of lala-Buddhis t cilg Western" modes :ԱլInt the trimWestetl culture 5 of thici T W III Ction. apala is an iTuher for the His falle is e popularity of troversial figures .lןlnווi11gDutugan ets through the ild the sagal of anging the details or of their titles. n recent years, Inks, all CCC ELS ICIhy e CCL tributel of DutugamւIIIս odern nationalist e mðdern Simhala DլItugamւInu symChef Sill: - Illi SIL: le hall n (jafiy4) anulט a sакала) Tтоп in Ice" as And his WaT I till India II king paradigliatic reLlika asi Dhallhadipa.
the July riots, ErisT1 a Tld Tiātiinctly anti-Tamil ever, since then, through the lat84 wheel Telimi sed, Sinha la polireinterpret Duituİnce for the pree particularly ante him from any ins änd instead
emphasized his successful unification of ancient Sri Lanka. It is within this web of shifting interpretations that the Diraying exchange on Dutugamunu must bic analysctl.
Dutugamunu was brought into the discusion by Ven. Kahawatte Ananda, He objected to the treatment of the king in ESC, and alleged that Dutugamunu's Inationalism had been distortel
as racism. The guilty social
Scientists Were thc.n denounced
as traitors":
All their intellectual efforts are aimed at attacking the Sinhala, . , Allthough (these
social scientists) engage in intellectual perversions foT thicir own enjoyment and to receive foreign funding, they coln Init traitorous acts against the peoplc of this country,
Accorbing to Wen, Ananda, Susantha Gooniatilake had committed just such an intell cctual per Version in his essay in ESC, when he observed that, "Dutugamunu himself marched in War with a Buddhist relic in his spear, as complete a symbolic act as could occur illustrating the use of religion to defend the state's power at the expense of even a fundamental reversal of the teaching. Wen. Kahawatte Ananda did not quarrel with this fact: after all, it is stated in the Mahavamsa (35:1). Neither did he appear to object (on this occasion) to Goonatilake's argument that the king exploited Buddhism to butress state power. Instead, he picked On a semingly innocuous detail, namely, that the (original) Pali Word, ka "I this ya was mistranslated as 'spear" and not, properly, as "malçe".
What was at issue here was not an alleged mistranslation but a dispute between a section of the Sinhalal-educated intelligent. sia represented by Wen. Kaha

Page 11
Vatte Allanda and the bilingual but mainly English-speaking inLelligentsia of the Social Scientists' Association. According to the former, the latter were unqualified to interpret Sinhala socio-cultural reality by virtue of their English-language fluency and their choice of expression in that language. Furthermore, this was also a quarrel over reclaming Sinhala identity from a neo-colonial class of (Englishwriting) intellectuals who ... like the Tamil nationalist propagandists-were apparently bent on denigrating the Sinhala. UltiTately, the issue of (mis) translations manifested shame and status concerns: Anglicized intellectuals were accused of building their fame and fortunes on the shame and ruination of the Sinhala, Thus, the Divayina debates represented a forum where tables could be turned: Sinhala honour could be windicated and the traitorous culprits publicly shamed,
Linguistic distortions of his tory Were soon linked to more serious, allegedly deliberate, distortions of Sinhala identity. Wen. Ananda referred to another E55tly in ESC, by W. I. Siriweera, which dealt with the historical permutations of the encounter between Dutugalimu nu and Elara. He rejected Siriweera's critical assessment of some recent chauvinist representations of the myth, with the accusation: "these social scientists are attacking the majority community and Buddhism with a vigour un matched even by the Eellists".
Wen. Ananda's comments drew support from like-minded defenders of Dutugamunu. For example, Minuwango da D. Liyanage flung his accusations not опly at today's social; scientists but also at an older generation of scholars including the late Sin. hala historian, G. C. Mendilis. According to Liyanage, Mendis had dismissed the Dutugamunu episode - and the Mahavamsa itself - as myth devoid of апу historical value. He mused on the irony that it took a foreign scholar, Wilhelm Geiger (the German translator of the Maha
Wansit) to teach aբpreciate their Like Wen. Anar Sy Il bolically llum rolus" social scien Sinhala identity tants. He lame
un fortunately, have Geigers fr to tell us about tead of Geigers, Tigers!".
COT, als anothe the debate, Wiji preferred (drawi: directly from th gamlInlu), acade: tled the hero-ki day El arras. K. made vivid sym between Dutugar inst Elara and th Confrontations :
Duitingamumu u and destroyed vader Who Tull of the country. If it is, then terrorist eas al lso be consid this case, sinc cist also to, ki Ossible event roT 11 Tamil N. CL] Til up and rt
In this passage invasion from Ta the face of El ruler from the BC. And in the Curling up is co known anecdote f. nu's childhood. the Mahavamsa. Kakavannatissa Sons to promise T1C wer fight the Ta Prince Gaimani r led up in bed. In other he comp could not stretch as there were Tam and the occan t{
None of the ESC had claime ġlIlIlllll li was : T R. A. L. H. Guuaw the meaning of S has changed over ries and ideas of nicity" as we ur
 

the Sinhala to
own history. a Liyanage too led the "traitsts under Imining fith Tamil milied sarcastically we no longer m foreign lands ourselves. Instoday we have
participant in 1. Karuna ratne. g his analogy
story of Dutulics Who belitg WeTe modernrulina Tatne also olic connections 1unu's War aga: Sinhala. Tämil
the 1980s:
ited the country Elara, an in
'd just one part
Is this racism Wyn’t the antires taken today cred Tacist"? Til e it Will be TalTails in the of an invasion adu, must we Ilain silent
!, a hypothetical mil Nadu wears ıra, the Tamil second century Image of silently njured a wellrom DutugalmulAccording to when King ridered his two that they would mils, the young fused and curTo his anxious lained that hic out as long lils to the north the South.
Intributors to d that Diltcist. 11de ed as 'ardana argued, inhala identity
several centuTāce" and "cthlderstand them
today are modern fabrications. Siriweera - and others who discussed Dutugamunu - pointed to how the king used Buddhism to legitimize state power and how later interpreters of the Dutugamunu saga imbued it with nationalist and racist innuendos suited to their own times.
In symbolic transformations such as those recounted above, the ethnic polarization of the present is defined in terms of past rivalries, and in that process, the past itself is rearranged in terms of the policies of the present. History/myth is of the past but not in that past; it is rooted and flourishes in the preリ11世。
There were other recitations of the Dutugalimu nu myth in the Divajiria which did not address the ESC essays directly but were obvious ramifications of this controw crisy, In general, these writers were concerned with locating the myth. Within the historical context of the Mahavamsa, and rationalizing Dutugamunu's war against Elara as a War of unification, rather than a SinhalaTamil conflict. In their effort to exonerate him from any implications of racism, they invariably Taised the issue of Dutugamunu's conscience.
Wen. Dediyawclai Tilakasiri's article titled, "Was the author of the Mahavamsa a racist?",
was one such interwention. He referred to the Mahawa Imsa account of Dutugamunu's conscience, which was troubled by the carnage of Tamils in the war against Elara. According to the Mahava.Insa, arahats had comfoTted the king, arguing that he was only responsible for taking one-and-a-half (Buddhist) lives - for only 'one' had observed the Five Precepts and the "half had sought the Three Refuges. Critical of this numerical sophistry, Wen. Tilakasiri observed.
The Mahayatını salı author has tried to console the King using a weak argument based on the Five Precepts and Three Refuges. It is obvious that his arithmetic is faulty. However,
닛

Page 12
we should not be so foolish as to suggest that, therefore, the Mahlava misa Ilust be cónsigned to the fia Illes. We should study it in its proper COI text, Lionel Sarath was similarly ÇOnce Tell that it Wä5 mot TD LILLgamunu but his interpreters who WeTe Ticist. He 55erted that the prominence accorded to Dutuga Imunus ca 111 paign in the MahaWansa Was motivated by politiCill CUL15iderations Of lis tille.
Others not only attempted to exonerate Dutugamu nu from rauLLLH LHaL LLLLL S S LLLLLLLHHLLLLLLL LLL LLLLLS tionalism, Both Nalin de Silva and Robert Alagiyawanna used Kiing Dutugalimu nu as a I model against whom today's politicians were evaluated and found wallLing.
The emphasis on Dutugamunu's alleged racism, his unificatiðIl of acient Laka and his troubled conscience is neither accidental nor pre-determined solely by the 'objective' imperative of history. Certainly, the ჭPჭ"°Eბს of these highlights of the Dutugalinu nu myth was made possible by their prior existince in Silhala historical COIsciousness. However, as Obeyesekere has argued, there is a close link between cultural and political attitudes and myth-making. He demonstrates that the historical development of the motif of the king without a conscience coincided With the prevalence of anti-TaIIlil attiLudes amsong the Sinhala.
While Obeyesekerc's analysis of the recent reinterpretations of Dutugamunu may be accurate for the period up to July 1983, the redefinition of Dutuga Timu Illu in the Divajiria as well as in political speeches froIl 1984 conWard suggests that attempts are well under way to restore the king's troubled conscience. In rehabilitating Dutugamunu, his apologists have created a symbolic enquivalence between this latio Illa 1 hile To End the Sinhala nation. By highlighting the motif of the virtuous king who reunited a politically fractured Lanka, they have rationalized the War against -- Tamil separatism. Through this mythic dis
O
course, they h Inuch-maligned of SiIlliala idei sly revived nati fore, the literar ging Tacist cմ Dutugamunu ri cally a collect the stigma of It) Ilլ է: Տ1Iլի 11:1 - and because riots.
The dialectics disse.
In this chapt plored in detail papers debate Cultural issues current political anxietics of t these debates, entwines historit linguistic strand are dialectically apparent that p ións – such as - do not Imere controversies: Inc only provide th ground for the politics is figu in culture. In tically textured culture and hist to bestow legitin political a Trange this dialectical Culture and poli alism is (re) gene
The nationalis plored in this I Oriel Ledi olle. S. ation is situate formed by th Selection and it the past is con present. As was SLT-tçil i elich it Wäs the ciri identity in the Such impassionet Sinhala cultura пot to deny th: CXtent, the past and history) is
present exigenci common featu Tec: pretatikans wentu.
Nevertheless, the imagined only present, just as also shaped by In general then, present a Te Illutill:

We rescued the moral integrity ity and strenduInalism. The Teact of cxpullnotations from sembles symboliWe exorcism of tacism attributed particularly since
of-the July
if nationalist
2ir I hawc cxihoW thTEē lle WSfocusing on reflicted the antagonisms and Le Sinhälä. Il culture (as it al, religious and s) and politics engaged. It is olitical convulsethnic conflict y spark cultural yr do the for Timer e turbulent backatter. Rather, red prominently turn, these polireaffirmation of ory are evoked lacy on preferred ments. It is in engagement of
tics that nation
rated.
t discourse exha per is al pastince this Orientin and illc present, the nterpretation of tingent on the often demonof the debates, siis of Sillala [980s that fouIidl i expression in history. This is it, to a certain
(as both myth independent of es and yields ; through inter
red over time.
past can be through some each present is ast presents. oth past and illy constitutive.
On a more specific level, as the Divayira debates reveal, the past is what the present is not but was and should be. The recent resurgence of popular interest in the thirteenth-century kingdom of Jaffna, the origins and definitive fictitutes of Sinhala
culture, the lives and works of national heroes, historical Telations between Sinhala and Ta IInilis, and the Ircial relevance
of the Mahavamsa, all provide complex models of the past for the present and future.
The preoccupation with the past-as-paradigm trends to be inversely related to an orientation to the present, and by cxtension, also to the future. The less satisfactory the present the greater the desire to perfect it in the image of a preferred past. Such a paradigmatic orientation to the past is hardly peculiar to the Sinhala, as scholars of other ancient mythohistorical traditions (for example, Judaism) will attest. But be that as it may, the Sinhala predilection for past-ward forms of discourse is firmly grounded in that culture's own historical consciousness.
Within the mytho-historical tradition of the Sinhala chronicles, an ideal Buddhist sociopolitical order formed the frame of reference for historical interpretation. Thus, epic heros such as Dutthagamani Abhaya of the Mahawan sa Were intended to serve as model kings for the chronicler's royal patron, as well as to inspire future leaders. The assumptions underlying this narrative technique were probably similar to those which informed thic didactic temporal structure of the Jataka tales - present to past to present. In these tales, the Buddha links a specific problem in his present to its karmic antecedent. The present is made intelligible, and therefore rendered changeable, through the proper understanding of its preconditions,
The past-ward mode of discourse through which contemporary issues of ethnicity and nationalism were debated in the
(Confirm Lled o'r page 3rd)

Page 13
rail lifications' of the
India's federalism unde
Krishna K Tummala
he last straw fell on January 23, 1991, when the speaker of the state assembly suspended all
but cight of the AIADMK 1egistors (who weTe not
present in the House at the time) for alleged Inisbehavior. On losing what little power she had in the legislature, Jayalalitha kept up the pressure on Rajiv Gandhi who, in turn, issued an ultiTilla till Til to ChaIldTal Shekhar to to invoke Article 356 and dismiss the Karunanidhi governпепt. However, it was clearly established that Governor, S. S. Barnala, who was called to New Delhi, was not asked for his report. This was admitted by Law Minister Subramaniam Swamy, who went on brazenly to claim in the Parliament that the national and international Situati011 the governor of the state.9 Instead, the chief's of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) were brought to the meeting with the governor by the Union hole minister and the law Illinister, What evidence was shown and how it was werified, if at all, are Tot clear, but the governor refused to oblige and vehemently opposed the dismissal. It was thus beyond his authority that the Karunanidhi government was dismissed on Janury 30, 1991.
This was not the first time that a Karunanidhi government had been dismissed; it also occurred in 1976 during the Indira Gandhi Emergency. Nor was Governor Barnala new to this glIIle, as his own gövernment in the Punjab was dismissed in May 1987 by Rajiv Gandhi's government because of alleged failure to lain lain law and order. Barnala always maintained that the takeover in the Punjab by the president had never improved the law and order situation, but had worsened it instead, 10 Despite the the snub of dismissing the government of his stilitic. Without his
were beyond
“report" and a BHTTalil ČUПtin Of T:1ITil N:1d asked to take of Bihar a few TE fI5ed the Tesigned in pr assignment to itself the result c. cal happenings. hammd Yusuf S was dismissed Shekhar governn Gf **ECIlstitutio1 Hfter le Criticige of the DMK g. Bildress to the Saleel, in his Stifted til at the W the speech Writ the goyer ment ( by Lallu Prasad Janatı, TDL PITI title of the government that had replaced.
The Support d government for a secTict, as hic Tigers even the the Indian Peac (IPKF) in Sri the other hand, ested the Borde (BSF) and the Police Force ( With the law II in the state, thi had stated that be provided it requested. 11. If | so desperate, di Ct come t the chief Illiniste Table. That CH1 g0Wer III11:Tit Wa:S. 1 upon Rajiv G had continously former in every drculletti. Withdrawing supp the Shekhar go leading to the in 1991, is prod Cozy Telationshi AIADMK party and the Cong Gandhi, if it in: I may be sech in

r Stress
gainst his will, led as governor 1 until he Was WECT ES ECOW CT10T Weeks later. He ppointment and jtest. Batmala's,
Bihar Wils in of stralinger politi
Governor Maleem of Bihar ly the Chandra lent on grounds al impropriety" ld the dismissal WETEIt II 1 Bihar legislature. defense, simply as only reading ten for him by if Bihar headed
Yadav, whose Y WEES. El CaðIl S= N:ltional Front CieAid El Shekhla T
if KELTILLIllici" 5 LTTE WELS I10
supported the y were fighting e Keeping Force La Inka. But I
When he requr Security Force Central Reserwe CRPF) to deal ld order problem prime Illinister they could not the strength e SiLL11 till Was. why the center the rescue of T is an impondeäIldra ShekhilI's ..otally dependent andhi's support pressured the " way needs no The fil act of ort and bringing Wern Ilent down, general elections if enough. The ip between the of Jayalalitha "ess of Rajiv :eds any proof, the 1991 elec
toral adjustments (miladle between the two).12
It is clear from the above analysis that the emergency powers granted under Article 356 were used capriciously and for political purposes by the center to end all other Wise legally elected a gower|11|11ent in Tamil Nadu. The prestigious south Indian English-language daily, The Hird I, called it an outrage and “al clear Inockery of democratic norms and a blatant abuse of power wested in the Centre.' 3 That the RAW and IB were used here for political purposes - a dangerous practice - Was also clear. And that the chief minister of Bihar used a speech by the governor to grind his own political axe against the dismissal of the Tamil Nadill gowerIıTıneLıt is alin equally bad use of the position of governor. TWEE Hiri elito Tialized: **TC) have Lised the GCW er IT's áldd Tess to attack the President's action in relation to all other State Was certainly not proper even with an involved explanation of its Telwance to the working of the federal system. . . . For the Governor to have bilimcilly followed the Script un mindful of the propriety or the implications was indeed strange,'14
It Should be TiciteTältel hic Te that this Was Illo El Lille fi Tst 3ccasion when a slate government was dismissed without receiving a report from the governor, Neither was the intolerance of the center toward opposition States the monopoly of the Congress (I). The Janata government, when it came to power in 1977, dismissed nine Congress state gover III ments, and when Indira Gandhi's Coпgгсss came to power, it returned the favor in 1983 by disTimissing the opposition State governments (see
Table 1). Looking at the two lists, one can discern that in six of the nine cases, state
governments that were in power and enjoyed majority supportin the Tespective state assemblies were dismissed by a succeeding central government formed by the erstwhile opposition. In other words, the new government
1.

Page 14
TABLE 1.
Dismissal of State Governments by the Ce
1977, απατα Rμε
Uttar Pradesh BihäT
Rajas than Madhya Pradesh Pլյոjab
Orissa West Bengal Нагуапа Himachal Pradesh
1980, κ
Uttar E Bihar Raljastil Madhya PլInjab (C) Tissi Tamil Gujar: Malta T,
at the center conveniently got of those static governments that were selected by its predecessor. The political abuse of emergence powers is obvious. Even the National Front, which came to power in 1990 on the premis of 'value-based politics,' was guilty of misusing these powers.
Panchayati Raj
People's participation is a sine qua non of a democracy, and decentralization of power is Incant to be an effective tool in this regard. It is Wrothwhile to note here what thic Indian constitution makers thought of village self-govern Imcint. Mahatma Gandhi Wanted village self-sufficiency to be the aim of independent India, but only lip service was paid to the concept
of village panchayats in the Constitulente Assembly, Jawaharlal Nehru, for his part, had
reservations about the village being the nucleus unit of the new system. Writing to the Mahatma on October 9, 1945, he observed: "I do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and nonviolence, A Willage, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward cnvironment. Narrowminded people are much more likely to be un truthful and wiolent.' 15 B. R. Ambedkar, who piloted the draft constitution through the Constituent Assembly had scant respect for the village and villagers, and his language was more strident in this regard.
12
Thus, it was alr thought that an K. Sallillä Ila IIl Article 31 of the "The State sh organize village endoW the Ill W and authority a ary to enable til 5 Llits of 5 Ambedka T accep one short speech Article 40 as p: tive Principles of the Constiti not justiciable.
But the Bal Committee, app recommended
came to be klink Raj in an effo) the Tole of bur the position of representatives, political particip a three-tier Sy self-government lewel: the gra 771 lowest village 1 at the block liewell, and thc the district cy all to be organ gether, as repre at Wer levels elect higher lev bodicis Werc to all planning : W0Tk. The IT1 accepted the but left impler
scheme to the local administ domain. The ri
of patterns of tion scheme. in Rajasthan in

FEFEF
7 F gress Re
"THtlesh
Tl a Pradesh
Իվ։լtill
Lt
Ashtra
lost as all afteramendment by Was added to draft that read: Il take steps to panchayats and ith such powers S may be neces1 el to fu Ilic Litij||15 elf-govern Ilment.'' ted it after only and it beca,Illic Art of the Dirce. of State Policy ution, which is
lwa nitray Mehta ointed in 1957, What popularly Will as Palghati it to play down eaucracy, bolsticir locally elected aliud e THäT1Ce :ilio I. TL Fo IT5W, still of local
below the state parchayat at the wel, the sa Pili or itcTIlliate z illa pa rishad at 1. The Sic We:Tc cally linked toItatives clicctc wolull, il till TT, | Officials. These ic " et Tuli stel with nd development lia Il govern TT lent Tec0IIn Imendation, el tätiol of the gCW Cr III lents als ation is their ult was a variety the decentralizaFirst introduced 1959, the scheme
eventually covered 98.3% of the villages and 97.5% of the rural population in the country. 17
The crucial and imposing position of District Collector under. standably evoked much criticism from local politicians who were supposed to be the front-runners under Panchayati Raj. It was also expressed that because of the remoticness and insular nature of the position and the coltrol exercised, the collectors
might tend to be autocratic. But the collectors found thenselves to be in a nome teo enviable position, On the One
hand, they were subject to local political pressures, and on the other, they were frequently transferred, particularly if they crossed the path of an influential local state politician, or Worse, ran afoul of the central develop. Ilment policies. This wulnerability crimped the style of many a a collector, smothering initiative. 1 B On the other hand, the civil servants, by virtue of their higher education, tenure in office and traditional feeling of superiority and prestige as administrators, often tended to resent the politician whose nature it is to interfere in the administrative process in the name of representation. However, it should be noted that access to the politician is often restricted to the select few and not to a 11 the Woters, and thus, the participatory Wallic of decentralization is totally lost.
There Were other problems with Panchayati Raj, among them the association of members of state legislatures and Parliament (from that geographical unit) with the respective Panchayati Raj institutions. Legislators from the locality are entitled to participa te in thc 5.7 rpr i Mi E and Parishad meetings, and while they do not have the right to
wote, the fact that they are from a higher political level and hawe connections means they may bring their weight to bear upon the local situation. Such a possibility, in fact, was deplored by no other than the father of the scheme,
Balwant ray Mehta. Paucity of resources was another problem

Page 15
as the Panchayati Raj institutions were invested with very few in dependent financial powers to start with. With the proliferation of politics, some contended, the idyllic village life itself was was destroyed.19
However, the Panchayati Rat scheme made some significan contributions both in teTims of decentralization of power and administration, and of the nation's politics in general. For One, decentralization contributed
to a liminution of the awe previously inspired by the government and its bureau
cracy by bringing them closer to their clientele. The Scheme also became a training ground for a new genre of leaders, and the regional elite found all outlet for their talents and aspirations. Given the independent powers conferred upon them, the presidents of drifths and chairs of Parishady have come to be persons of considerable importance locally, often in competition with state-level politicians as well as administrators. Having costituted these bodies into 'Vote banks, the leaders needed to be appeased and wooed.
It is not often realized, however, that Panchayati Raj could,
and indeed did give rise to parochial as well as machinc politics. By decentralizing
power, it provided a very useful tool for the con Solidation of power at the grass-roots, in particular when the organizational setup is hierarchically and organically linked, as already mentioned.20 The government's dependency on local elites for program execution only accentuated this. Parochial politics are further compounded when the several levels of governmentcenter, state, and sub-statare controlled by different and opposing political parties. Not only do the clients suffer, but civil serwants also become pawns in the political game of oneupmanship. This competition in turn is rcinforced by the patronage and punitive powers obtained by the local elite under the decentralization scheme. Thus, while Panchayati Raj devolved
power to lower taneously provic the local elite Ima 55 ES and se I'W of em Ticht 11c Inti, the Wise. C general Verdict Raj is mixed.
However, the
intact, mostly necessarily in sh Various ramificat states. In other into disuse as to the local b. been conducted. government, wł power after the Gantlhi in 1977, the Ashok Mellt takut i fresh look traliziation Sche il fall of Janata in mittee report W, thc imtieri Imm, sew gress (II) govern IT S Lates: Such a 5 Kar Pradesh, and Wes CaTTied Out Succc:
The Sixty-Foul
Amendment
Following the
these states, the
government eml
Panchayati Raj E ble Teiteratedl Llhliai tion envisaged a tes and (in li empowered the s laws pertaining t Ilment. Thus, if t to interwene in
decentralization S be necessary to a titution. Hence,
tion (Sixty-Fourt Bill, 1989. An the Nagarapalika
municipalities Wa the Sixty-Fifth A
The 'Statement Reasons' of the Fourth Allendiner *“A review of til Panchayati Rai slow that in IT nave become Wea tive owing to a
sons, including hold regular and tions, prolongec

lcwels, it simillled a means to to control the cd as a source politically and In Sequently, the on Panchayati
SYStel Te Llis
in form if not Ibstance, in its ions in several
5, it has fällen "egular elections
dies halwe not The Janata lich calle to
dcscailt of Indira appointed the Il CIIII liittee to ; it the degenc, but with the 1979, the com. as shelved. In Craill nõTil-Comcilts ir vāTils nalitika, A Ildıra L i Bengal 21 halwe jsful refoTm5.
"th
հլIEcesses in Rajiv Gandhi orked CII till. It should the Constitu* ԼImit in tյք ՏէլSt II, item 5) tales to eact local govern12 CCI te T. WEITC a nationwide :tաբ, it would In end the Coristhe introduc. Amendment) ther measure, Bill, covering introduced as 1lend Tleilt.
if Objects and roposed SixtyBill declared : working of 1stitutions hålls ny States they and ineffecrariety of reale faillTE: LC) Jericidical elecsuppressions,
inadequate representation to the weaker sections like the Schedu. led Tribes and women, lack of of financial resources and inadequate devolution of powers and responsibilities on them.' In pursuit of Article 40 (Directive Principles), this bill proposed to cstablish a three-tier system of local government in an ascending order: the village panchayat at the lowest level, arı - intermediate level and the district at the top, with officials at all the levels directly elected by the Members of the Lok Sabha and the Legislative Assembly from the area would continue to be members but with no right to vote, as had been the case. Each par chaya II would be elected for a fixed term of five years unless dissolved earlier by the governor. A chairperson may be removed by a no-confidence motion car. ried by a majority of total elected members of a panchayat, which should also be two-thirds of those present and voting.
The bill also reservation of seats, Scheduled Castes represented in proportion to their population, but always at least one member of each. Perhaps the most noteworthy clause is that providing for 30% of the total reserved seats for Women from SC/ST; if only two seats are reserved, at least one would be a woman. Moreover, 30% of all the elected members must be women (which includes the SC/ST women).
The paucity of local governments' financial resources had been one of the Illain impediments to their successful working in the past. For example, S. R. MaheshWari documented the averageannual per capita income in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as twenty paise, and in Gujarat between three and four rupees. 22. This means an average panchayat in UP por Bihar with a population of 500 would have an income of barely Rs. 100 (a little over four dollars) per annum, not Even adeq nate to employ the lowest rung person in the panchayar for a week. To offset this hurdle, the panchayats would
provided for With the and Tribes
13

Page 16
levy and collect appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, and fees, and the state could also provide grantsin-aid from the Consolidated Fund. Every five years the governar would appoint a finance commission to review and advise the state on the principles governing devolution of funds to the Panchayats. The TCSրCCtive state governments also would devolve power to the pa richa y'ats to prepare plans for economic development and social justice.
The Panchayati Raj Bill, if it had succeeded, would indeed have led to a revolulion. By in Corporating it into the Com5. titution, the bill would have legitimized local units as sub. national governments. With the transfer of power accompanied by financial resources, the local units would have been viable, and as their elections were to be conducted under the Sllрегvision of the central Election Commission, they would have been less corrupt. (At least, they would have been on a par With the general elections, a though there is no way of telling how Inlich control the commission would have exercised at the remote local level.) Finally, as their accounts were subject to comptroller and auditor-general audits, a measure of financial integrity would also have been established, as these two officers of the Constitution are far remo Ved from easy control by the center and the prime minister. Surely it was recognized that the work load of these agencies Would increase, but it was felt that it would be difficult to
esli II late the extent of such inCTCE.Se OT its cost.
The independence of the local units also would have been further guaranteed, insofar as their dependence on, and control by the state governments Would have been eliminated. Fra recent example, prior to the 1991 general elections, the Left De mocratic Front (LDF) governIllent in Kerala conducted elections to the pare Fragrats and get control of these bodies. But after the 1991 elections, the United Democratic Front (UDF)
14
came to power thus hireitchi controlled cil To assuagic fecili the UDF gover give assurances
It inte TfeTe v
units and the (assuming it w word). Under
bill, this Wguld
necessary, as th WOuld halwe beer their constituti Thus, thıc bi II W anteed subnation քնWETTiments, tillt: more division of is Ill Would hawe
But by circumve the very princi federālism woul subverted As I li deal with the pa ly, it would h, SOIThe State powe but the bi II I of what powers
might de wolwe to
However that til Illing of the bi tions were to December 1989, months (later). I fides of Rajiv Suspect. Similarl his Congress (I)
lent to de IICCTE dccentralization , Wcre questioned. that so many st WTC controlled parties, the bill El Weiled at tempt not only to by זנוT1 LS bטותוterIיסE control the Will lt Should be Fel 450 of Lice: 542 ; Sabha are predc. Tul Tal areas. The as 225,000 willag the country alre bill Wtiլյld litive free and direct despite the fac government is as
Initially, the t meנr illuנ}Erm"ירH. EL a panchayat. Th. deleted from the Criticis in by op that governors be agents of the

in the state, g | tlie LDFgo WCTD) lle hits. 1gs of insecurity, liment had to that it would Eith the local ir functioning ould keep its the proposed not have been le 1ûC:1.1 lIlits 1 protected by onal presence. Could have guaral angl. Substate | With Sin Imuch power, federalb) ele:Il CeInıqlı Cekli. iting the States, ple underlying tl have been Le CeiliteT Would T 77 cha 'ais directave transfer Fel Ts to Լlic center, le 110 mention of the celler thic Stättes.
may be, the ll (general clecԷյԷ held in barely seven Tällde the bula
Gandhi highly y, his own and Party's committic. Ilığı 5 :: Id of power also Given thic fact El te governments by opposition Was attacked as by the center pass the state also directly lage Panchyals. 1 tilbits thilt it i Wes eats in the Lok minantly from Te El TC els Illalny * par chayats in ady, and this given the center access to the at that Icil tltic prerogati we.
hinking was that Could di 551 WE : provision Was dräft bil TIET osition parties lld tel del to lt S
larly, the roles played by the
Election Commission and the comptroller and the auditorgcIl cráil in the scheThe WeTe
thought to be an intrusion by the centre. This measure, taken together with the Jawa har Rozgar Yajala inaugurated on April 28, 1989, combining two previously unsuccessful programs (Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program and National Rural Employment Program) that would pump over 21 billion rupees into all the districts in India, was considered to be a cfarious attelmpt by Rajiv Gandhi's cen
tral government to shut out stāt VIIIllts.
The espolu sal by the prime
minister of the Panchayati Raj Bill was itself considered to be opportunistic, even hypocritical by some. Addressing the chief linisters' conference on May 5, 1989, Gandhi commended the bpi 11 thus: File:We are on the threshold of a mighty revolution. . . . IL is al Te WOLI tin bäs: cdl 0 Il maximum democracy ånd Illaximum devolution. 23. But the Karnataka Panchayati Raj Bill, sent for the president's assent in late 1983, was not recommended for his signature for twenty mønths until a state minister threatened to go on a hunger strike. Thus, critics commented that the Sixty-Fourth ATCIldment Bill Was + fra Uculent in intent, ill-thought out on details, and wholly un mindful of the potential for mischief.'24 Even the otherwise still H. It commented in an editorial that the Way the bill was approach. cd by the the Rajiv government “has smacked of Illa Trow, singularly partisan Ilotivations.' Even if the bill were to be defeated, it was thought to be advantageous to the Prime Minister Gandhi. The editorial continued: In having opted to let the two prestigious Bills be defeated, rather than earnestly getting them to se Twee the cause of Strengthening democratic units at the grass-roots level by the remowing the irritants in the Bills and thus making them Widely acceptable, it (the Congress (I) Party) scems to be nurturing hopes of drawing some

Page 17
mileage in the coming Parlia. Inentary elections by charging the Opposition of CDming in the way of devolving power and
funds to the people 25 com. bined with the voting EC TECduced to 18 years, several
CPPPosition leaders saw the bil as a rather apparent, even desperate attempt to capture not only the rural populace but also the young, the Scheduled Castics and Tribes, and women and bring them into Congress (II) fold by Gandhi who, d'uring thé first two years of his office, had exhibited a pro-rich and prourban image:25
Moreover, while some states
controlled by the opposition parties had introduced innowative and effective local self
WELS the Col. GIlly lip
OVETT Tlent institutions, it states controlled by gress (II) that gave ser Wicc, or nome at gall, ta decentralization. In some states Such as Uttar Pradesh, no elections to local bodies were held for over a decade and a half. The suspect commitment of the party to democratic values is also evident from the fact that there had been no organizational elections within the Congress (I) since 1972, despite Rajiv Gandhi's declarations that he would C1duct them! (Party elections were conducted in March 1992 under the aegis of the new Congress (II) prime minister, P. V. Ñarasimha Rao, although how deIl cratic they were is highly debatable.) Similarly, the 30%. reservation for women completely contradicted Gandhi's DIט- viously held position a but women's participation, in 1985 he had thought that reservations for Women would only be an insult to their dignity, 27
On top of all this, there were seWeral Procedurali Ħaws tlig bill and constitutional issues that need to be сопsidered.28 For one, the Parliament was truncated with the en masse resignation of Opposition members from the Lok Sabha )חט a different issue). While su rely their resignation was բtilitical, should the government have բut such an important amendment
through the legi the Congress (I sent? There wa. al joint session to deal With tht which case wh the opposition E Sabha would be the Congress (I) Lok Sabha in its opposition II is also the over: issue of whether if passed, would the stricture laid 1973 kes the Supreme Cor the basic stru Constitution can by any amending
No protagonist
should Linder ni tance5 have a re Such a laudable
decentralization, the ostensible in Was. But the fa and politics cast Despite all critic gE3 "WeTI hI11 eL1 t ye the billi, which d Illent for lack to Imajority. The sul of the Congress in the 1989 elect ended the attemp simha Rao gover posed to resurrect Raj Bill as the Amendment and til Bill as the Seye en dilet.
Conclusion
The above analys Ole Case, importa ål energency p. Were designed as to ensure the c the Union we abused. In the other Zaltion case, the badly politicized democratic and fe Were ԷյլIried.
There are, in ßlT2, l4T11 211tS IIqe I the Constitution the one hand, it the very constituti IITEITLS Iläche unsuitable unless 1 is ruling both at in the states. O

slatu TC with only ) Thembers preS. also talk that Could be called * anlendment, in at ever majority lad in the Rajya
neutralized by
Imajority in the the absence of members. There ill constitutional the amendment,
have attracted down in the a decision when Irt decided that
Cllric' of the I1}t be :lltEred
I 1 ES
of democracy 10r'11 al circulusTEISIOl til C-135
objective as which is what cent of the bil its, the timing, El long Shadow. isms, the Rajiv t ahead with icid in Parliathe requisite sequent defeat (II) government ions, in effect, it. (The Nara"Iniment has prothe Panchayati Seventy-Second le. Nagat-Palika !nty-Third Am
is shows, that in „I1 t Consti tLItioT1rovisions that
El safety Value Gntinuance of re thoroughly , the decentrali.
issue was so thält important deral principles
general, two With regard to f India. One is felt that onal arrangeinitially are
hic Same party the centre and Il the other
hand are those who believe that here is nothing WTOlg with the Constitution itself, it is the People who failed,29 as they had not developed the healthy conwentions on which so much trլյ5 է
Was placed by the founding fathers. The truth is that in absence of idealism, when
politics pervade human behavior and power dictates, a piece of parchment may not be of much lse. While the founding fathers had the best of intentions ELS they Wrote the Constition" and they all agreed on the need for a strong Center - they would
probably be Slirprised at the El Irbitrary and Capricious way some of the powers have been used by the center over the
statics, particularly those gOWerned by opposition parties. It is thuis prowed that Հlmplemischier was caused by using some of the provisions of the Constitution for partisan reasons, and the federal form as envisaged was given short shrift.
NInte 9. Iblմ, February 23, 1991, p, 2,
10. Barnala was appointed governor of Tamil Nadu by the v բ: Singh government as part of the lärgeScale reshuffle of OYFors. He Continued to be on the best of terrils with the succeeding Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar ho himSelf maintained intima fe contacts with all the Sikh leaders.
11. Te Farras (international weekly Eilitidin), January 5, 1991, p. 2.
12. The AIADMK won 163 Of the 158 Selts contested while the Congress (I) won 61 of 55 seats in a House of 232, The sole seat Won by the DMK was that of former Chief Minister Kiirunanidhi, who ther resigned from the Assembly. While a serious analysis of these results is yet to be made, it is contended that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi just prior to the elections swept both the constituent parties back into power.
13. The Hindir (international Weekly edition), February 9, 1991, p. 8
14. Ibid., February 23, 1991, p. 8
15, Jawaharlal Nehru, A Burch "
Leffers (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1960), p. 508.
15

Page 18
5. B. R., AlkT 5 Bild:
1",
"That they (the willages) have survived through all vicissit Ludes Imay be al flict. But mere survival has Ilo Value. The question is on Whit planethey have survived. Surely, on a low, LLLLLL LLLCLLS aHa LLLLLL LLLL KLS lage republics have been the Tuination of India. I all therefore LCCCCCLLLL aaaa L aaLLK OHaH S auHaaLLL provincialis II1 and comminu nalismi should come forward as champions of the village. What is the village but i Stink of locali5l a dilen cof ignorince, ılırrow-mindedine 55 and communalism? I am glad that the HLLLL S S LHHLLLLLLLLHH SS S LLLLLLS LLLLLLaLa the village and adopted thic individual H5 ită unit," | Debarei of the Čarsfffferif ds:Ferihly, 7:1, p. 39.J T. Prakasarn, later to be chief minister of Andhara, was happy that the amendment was accepted but he chastised the Assembly, Saying that "'"ւ հիմլյlti have trictl to introduce this at thic very begin. ning of the fram ing of the Comstitution." (Debates, p. 521.
The one best source for explanation of the various patterns is ARC study Teānu, Repart for Ds frific Affffffffffsfrtition, vol. 2 (September 1967). A brief assessment of the schemic may be se en in S. W. S. Jumeja, "Pan
* ChEiyati Raj: A SLI I Wey," "ridiar Jor
18. At himanyu Singh,
2).
16
лаІ of Pшћ/ic Aаїнілілгагіол (IJPA), 9:1 January-March 1973), pp. 548I; algo, R, B. Jaim, cd, Farrichaya Raj (New Delhi: Indian Institute of Public Administration, 1981).
""Chninging Rolc: of the District Collector," JPA, 32:2 (April-June 1986), pp. 25-67.
Balwant ray Mehta, "Some Recent Trells in Phyti Raj in Indi." JPA, 8:4 (October-December 1962). pp. 456-59; for the role played by political parties in Panchayati Raj institutions, see special issue, IPA, 8:4 (October-December 1962), pp.
U고-고).
For exilple, in a study of Raipur District, it was shown that efforts of mass-based programs ended up with "pockets of development and progress" at the elitic level and "|HIIIE Էllangըs" at the widt:r 5լ է|- al leyel. W. R. Gaikwadi, B. L. Tri Pathi LT1 di S.M, S. HELLI EAS reported in Hiridistri Tires, New Delhi, July 22, 1973.
21. W. S. Prasad, "
fo III i AH nataka: A COITp, Kİstaiah, ed, 4ı fri I DE |"allapfirig Տterling Publish: pp. 78-85, 1Kur Ita, " A ministration: Experience." Irր FFFFFFFFFF" 1990), pp. 14
22. S. R. Maleshy ஈசr i rசி ( Longman, 1971)
23. Quoted by Era
Panchayat Bill, [New Delhi,) IլII
24. N. S. Jagannat ing of Politics, ( New Delhi), Juli
25. "Electoral SL
(international wee 2, 1989, p. 8.
25. "Panchayati Ri
"Dehl'', "" fra pp. 18-21.
27. HirdListar Tirres,
28. See, Krishna T
Cross Roads in 18:14 (August 1
29. Sce N. A. Pal Pքրբի: India fիք (Bombay: Strand р, 43.
Building. . .
(Carrierred
public interest. judgment is wita trā frcēl
Of Course, fr clude the freed: takes. It will it ning and repeate about responsibil nalism. During journalist Finlust b) Le della L5 al politicians and politicians and to appreciate
demands of promising apprc. of siltill scIli
բlaying techniqն

Panchayati Raj ReEl Prāle5 | KETIl rative Study," in M. lifnir frafspe Reforris
Sariety (New Delhi: ers, Pyt. Ltd., 1990), 77, and Prabhat Democratising Rural
The West Bengal ா சார் து" - re, 1:1 (January-Juine நீ4,
-Hחשין להם והיהT II.Jחti Ny Delhi: Oriellt
p. 95.
Seizhiyan, "Perfidiouls
", Ілrlfап Еділгғыл. y", 1939, p. 3.
han, "The Coarsen. 1" erdiar Expréss, 1e 25, 1989, p 8.
ints," The Hird
kly edition), October
מn tםטmi Dנj: Frt Today, May 31, 1989,
August 20, 1985.
unan, "India at 1989," Asia Profile, 990), pp. 35.4-63.
khiwala, TPF e, fra עשraםחוזוr DEצLarge Book Stall, 1984),
For page W)
sound editorial Il to Slustair1 edi -
eedom пIEt inIl to II like Illisake years of trai'd errors to bring le, objective jourthis process cducated about expectations of
officials, and officials must try the professional
ollTIlä lists. Ole Halich is the LISE 1ars using role
es with hypothe
tical situations to explore issues of public policy for journalists, government oficials, and politi
S. The line between a proper complaint about the content of a newspaper or television progran and improper pressure on publishers and broadcasters is a fine one. The ability to identify this line is crucial, and since it cannot be defined by law, it can probably be learned only by experience. There are many ways in which groups within a society cT : influence the Imedia and illi
which those in the media can lea Tin to be more responsive to public concerns. For example, media organizations
can accept letters to the editor. In additio 11, a number of newspapers (and occasionally television stations) in the United States, Canada, Italy, Sweeden, Brazil, and elseWhere have hired GITbudsmen to make their organizations 10 Te aççill Itable to thile public, Sometimes called 'reader adva cates," ambudsтеп II vestigate complains from readers and neWS sources about accuracy and fairness, commonly publishing the results of their research. The Writings are generally free from internal editorial review, allowing them to act as independent in-house critics.
COCl LlSiOI
Even if the independent of the Imedia has been established, the press has adapted to the free market, and jou Trnalists are upholding standards of responsibility, the battle has not been Won, People must learn to live with a free press and broadcasting on a day-to-day basis. They must learn how to resolve the differences without placing the acceptance of the idea of free editorial judgement under to great a strain.
It is not easy to live with
this free exchange of ideas, especially where this tradition is absent. The rewards of this
freedom, however, are great. Only with freedom of communication is a democratic society possible. Without freedom of communication, the state is deaf and so are the people.

Page 19
Duckspeak on Meritoc
zeth Hussain
of the SLFP des ETV es Somme cheers for exploding the Government’s pretensions about its merit-system in which all statesector jobs are given on the basis of merit and nothing else. He raised an oral question in Parliament which provoked a response showing clearly that the Government is practising duckspeak on meritocracy.
M. Nima Siripala de Silva
Before proceeding further, we must explain what is meant by duckspeak as it is not so well known as the other brilliant In cologisms in George Orwell's Ilovel 1984, such as "double think' and "newspeak'. The epilogue to that novel contains the following, "Ultimately it was hoped to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain ceiltires at all. This aism was frankly admitted in the newspcak Word duckspeak, meaning to quack like a duck. Like various words in thc B vocabulary, duckspeak was ambivalent in meaning. Provided that the opinions which were quacked out were orthodox doncs, it implied nothing but praise, and when the Tries referred to one of the orators of the Party as a double plus good du ckspeaker it was paying a Warm and valued compliment.'
Orwell was writing of a project to replace properly human speech. With a mindless quacking so that the people could be subjected to absolute totalitarian power on a permanent basis. Many a power-clitist's heart will leap up at the prospect, like the poet's on beholding the rainbow, but it is doubtful that the project can ever be realized.
However several Governments, though not the people, have scored triumphs in duckspeak, notably our 1977 Government.
(A serior career officer, he writer war Sri Lanka AméடிEdr i Maria)
Clear example tire the claim ! Referendum in Electio 15 Was democracy, or the hooligans Supreme court in cising their righ expression. Ağıllı was all that qui establish ment - 0 society, that is a Government devoted to inji plusgood ducksp in the Sri Lan GOW CITITmct 15
The triumphs the present Gov half as impressi the last one, ex cracy. The la Ը0լIld nմt have showing contem: at 1east it for bc about having est: стасу. The pres quacks about it
According to December, 1992, Silva raised a q liament about it of Mrs T. A. K. torney-at-law, t Second Secretary our Embassy at was apparent f given by the Go Ilan that Mrs. pointed on a r her, without ap post being calle ging that fact t spokesman wen that "appointine 11 erit and Sullitab
It is evident power in state. ments has gone successive regime Gower III ent die derstand the first is meant by : The Tit, Wht it explained simpl The sole applic may be suitable,

racy
s of duckspeak hält the famous lielu of Gecr
an exercise in the Cllilt who treatened idges were exert to frcc.dom of d so of course acking about the f a Dhimista just society, by Lihat was deeply Listice. Doubleakers flourished käl of the 1977
OWhere else.
in duckspeak of Cillet I It WC as those of CEրt firl In crittյist Government gone further in st for merit, but re from boasting abished a merito. ett Go WeTT.Imlet
inceSSantly,
the Island of 5 Mr Siripala de uestion in parhe appointment Peiris, an atthe post of (Education) in Washington. It on the replies Wernment spokesPeirir is was ap*quest made by lications for the I. After divul. he Gwernment
3 İl to claill nts a Te made on lity'. Shocking!
that abuse of sector appointS0 falt under that the present TIL SEE TE LILLthing about what ppointment con
ITEETS EL
and briefly. nt for a post but it cannot
be claimed that he/she is appointed on merit unless other qualified persons are allowed to apply for the post and she is established as the most suitable. Nothing of thic sort happened. The claim is therefore "duckspealk'''
The SLFP MP's performance in exposing the Government's pretensions on meritocracy Was in striking contrast to the usual lackadaisical performance of the opposition parties, as shown for instance by the recent budget debate on the Foreign Ministry Wote. He deserwes SoTile cheers but we will raise only two cheers for him, not three, because there is an ambiguity in his position.
It is known that since 1977 COLLIT I GCW e Tillets la We beel IIking political appointinents in the Foreign Service sector, with contempt for Imerit, at al levels
and not just the Ambassador level as used to be the case before 1977. Why, then, was
the case of Mrs Peiris singled out"? We are not here concern cd With the truth OT Otherwise Of that allegation. Mrs. Peiris' appointment na ay seem particularly heinous to some for the alleged reason, but the point is that all state sector appointments outside the merit-system have to be regarded as heinous. There a Te several Teasons for this, which will be discussed below. all of them of the greatest importalice for the future of Sri Lil Il ka.. Mr de Silwell Trust therefore now proceed to take the next step, even if he fails to galvanize his Party into action on this Inatter of asking the Govern Illent for an accounting of all the political appointments made in the Foreign Service sector since 1977. He Will thien earn the full three cheers and IIlIII:
SINHALA BAS
Political appointments of this kind are not reconcilable with democracy though they are perfectly reconcilable with non sense democracy, and in the Foreign Service sector they have shown a communal bias. Political appointments are those
17

Page 20
made on the basis of political, familial, caste, religious, provincial or other affiliations, and not strictly On merit. The money for such appointments comes from thic people, not from party funds and is therefore money held in trust to be expended for the benefit of the people as a whole.
not to reward favourites. You are at perfect liberty to use your Own money to appoint
whom ever you like, without the slightest regard for merit, to jobs in a privately owned estate or a business firm, but not to jobs in the state sector because the money utilized for that purPOSC is not yours. An elected government cannot behave like El MAFIA.
Political appointments, as We hawe said, cannot b c reconciled with democracy more specifically liberal democracy which has the two ideals of liberty and equallity. The latter is relevant to our discussion here. De TocqueWille Writing in the nineteenth century noted that the egalitarian ideal had been spreading since
the thirteenth century and predicted that it Woլյlti COII e i COver the entire globe. H Was probably
right, judging from the extraodinary power of the democratic idea in the contemporary World.
Sri Lanka is no exception as the egalitarian ideal is certainly there behind the mass
Tebellions we have been witnessing, however deplorable they
lly 5CEIll.
Included in this ideal, among other things, is the "career טת טTו to the talents', acco modating the aspirations to upward mobility of everyone, not just the favoured few. It means that jobs which comes from the people and not just the favoured few, should be given on the basis of merit. The Government by making political appointments in the Foreign Service sector goes against one of the Indiamentals of democracy and declates, beyond any question, its LHHLLLLLLLLJLL LLLL S S LHHLHHLLLaaL LLLLLLLLS Cracy.
The further reason why these political appointments have to
18
be regardcd a that they ha collutilist bi: Call attest friðill Vation while in Victo that Lille IIIE of thc political der the 1151 GG ding the show ments of minorit. Sillalesc. Allo able Էյքլ Էյքըn triu: thic following. did It EWET l: qualifications. We Secretitics to in Washington a their kids WCT while young lad Our missions in Ottawa to pursu Call Lijili, A claul f ted to a dipl. C:1T1a.d:. Th1e . b Lloše CASES WETE is uIn thinka bolet Elle benefici:1Ties minority membe
The writer, i ca. Ti Incot at L est : continuing comin tical appointime present Govern Ir ding to Warious pears that the disproportionatel is disproportional ethnic population WIs it is their CÜIllIlluIllis 1r the present Gov is no point in getting hot an these charges. C Of FlČCOLInt:ibili L Il 15E5E dellic: try to refute releasing to the of political app: Foreign Services
OPPOSITION R.
Blt of collise is not going to the sort, and til the responsibilitic tion parties.
We hawe argu appointiппепts ca ciled with del hawe argued in a that the opposit

is heinous is We displayed a is. The Writer first-hläIld Obserthe Foreign Serjor beneficiaries appointment unWernment, exclu-piece appointy Illembers Werc ng the most not| clöIlllllllllittel Werc TWC ladies who We the Colčуč Te selt ; First uT EIEässig II |d London, Where being educated, y was posted to New York and IC hCT OyII edlIfeur was appoinmatic post in ellefil ries i 11 : Silhalese, IL HELE i Il Such ca. Se5 call hälyebec T5
s in retirement, at first-hand to hunalism in poliIl[5 l'Ille-T the 1élt. But lcCF
accounts it apbeneficipities re y Sinhalese, that itely in terms of | Titicos, II, the T ng charged that :CI tilles LlTitler cIIIllet. There the Goverent | by othered Owen Dn the principle y, required by racy, it should the charges by : public details bitmillel ES il the Co je 977.
OLE
the GW trillet do anything of is brings us to is of the opposi
cd that political Illot be. TēCCIcracy, and We Il earliet article ion parties hawe
to establish their own democratic Credentials Ecclusic there is a widespread notion that they are just as devoted to nonsense democracy as the Government itself. This is important for their own prospects of colling to power because there is no ea Tthly reason why the Gower In Ilment LLaLLL LLaaL LLLLLLLaS LLaaaLLLLLLL te hand Cover power to alternative devCe:S of 101515 dellcracy, Mr Siri pala de Silva has convincingly demonstrated one way of establishing democratic credentials, and the opposition parties must now proceed further to ask for a full and proper accounting of all political appointments in the Foreign Serwice: Secto T si TCC 1977.
Unfortunately our two foremost champions of democracy, the DUNF and the Liberal Party, are not represented in Parliament. But that in no way lbSolves them from the responsibility of exposing the Governmentos pretensions on meritocracy. Otherwise they also can be seen as double plus good duckspeakers om democracy.
As for CJINIrlu nalism, su rely the point hardly needs arguing that we will get nowhere near a solution to our ethnic problems while charges about communalism continue. The opposition should not fight shy about taking up the charge of communalism in the belief that it will Coffeld tille CCIIITLI Tallis Ll Cof the people, Mrs Chandrika Kumarathu nga was reported some time age) as saying that cighty percent of the Sinhalese people are not CallIllllllIlialist. The Writer disigrees because he has come to believe, after decades of it criction with the Sinhalese people at all levels, that well over ninety percent of the are not c. Il munalist, CollITILI ali5m in Sri Lanka is a deadly elitist Italia. The opposition parties are not going to lose any popular support by asking for an ficcounting it i Ill the commillinalist charge.
In arguing that the opposition parties must take effective action over political appointments, we
Carried or page 2)

Page 21
S07/ASJA
Chapter 5: Strengthening Organisations of the Poor and Relchsing Their Creative Energies
Thc discussion under this agenda item was based on a paper prepared by Mr. Shoaib Sultan Khan, the description of BRAC in the book entitled 'The Quiet Revolution” and the case profiles and lessons for building organisations of the poor in the Study 'Women, Poverty and Resources" by Dr. Ponna Wijnaraja and the recent United Nations University Study by a group of South Asian scholars and acti. vists entitled "Participatory Development: Learning from South
Building organisations of the :* is an essential pre-requisite or their participation as subjects and for sustaining the process. The poor need to organise them. selves in a manner that best suits their interests. Organisations of the poor and NGO activity are not always identical.
The organisations of the poor a Te also essential to build countCTvailing power against dependency and exploitation, where the contradictions are sharp.
A "harmony" model where everyone works for the good of the poor paternalistically is not sufficient, as well as, permit them through these organisations to assert the right to resources due to them. The poor cannot do this individually. It is also through their organisations that savings are generated, experiences are exchanged and a mutual leaning process is initiated and CommữIl problems arc Stilwed,
A second issue that was discussed was the methodology of participatory development which permitted the poor to be subjects and not objects of the process. Sometimes a participatory process was generated spontancously, sometimes it had to be catalysed by an animator or a facilitator. În a participatory process the poor people's creativity and energy that can be tapped is the starting point,
Poverty Alleviation (2
As subjects they investigate deepen their their problems Calm dio abol exploration of action through Inisations or e tions. They in It action to апоl Ewallate actions through process correcti they go along, the benefits th: {1|ld Cơ Thtỉntle quality of their process of self place people w prove their capa development ide, carry out devel
It is importar El tutsile anil. tiates the proce Shy Lill withdra por themselves the participator training and sens catalysts become of the preparati patory developm
Chapter 6: Lead
The discussion was led by Mr the basis of a The McIlbers ca Cinclusion that play a dual rolę the strategic opt allewia til. It Hill the strategic thri the 'political 5 policy changes til TI SAARC, colul
litllldle of the ta to be left til N. roots organisati States in south pTGVid טL חיup0 leadership in suc tal policy change of the Stte 115 dominant comma SOLITIC es of the ci: undisputed contri mal support syste
The successful
 
 

)
in the process, : their reality and understanding of and what they it. This implies possibilities foT either new orgaxisting organisaWe from developfurther reflection the development a participatory Ing Illistakes :S They also assess it accrue to thic to improve the actills. As this levelopment takes ill begin to imcities to conceive as, and plan and
pment actions. it that whenever lator catalyst inss, the catalyst w allowing the to). Cynti Thucy With y process. The itisation of these is a critical part on for particiеп,
Role of the State
on this subject , Wen LIgopal on Written paper. tle to the broad the Statel
in relation to ion for poverty ELS to Titic Lullite 1st and provide pace' for the 1at are required. tries, the magsk is too great GO's and grassins alone, TEle Asia are looked e the necessary h a fundalenThe leatl role Stells from its id || GWEIT the TeJuntry and i Es
over the for l implementation
of a separate plan for the poor required not only total commitment of the States to the underlying principles but also the ability to mobilise and channel the required resources through a sensitised support system. The State has itself to provide 'sen. sitive' support and resources through its line Ministries along with the Banks, NGO's and others to re-inforce the initiatives of .rטטthe D
It is imperative that the strategies and action programmes of the industrialisation modernisation thrust (the first leg) are in empathy with the separate plan for the poor. The State is thus required to ensure that any pos. sible impediments are cushioned by damage limitation program. mes and eventually the developIn ent strategy as a whole moves in a co-ordinated and coherent fashion.
The lead role of the State is all the more important as the separate plan for the poor goes beyond charity, paternalism, delivery of fragmented inputs to the poor in a top down fashion and 'safety nets' and "adjust. ment with a human face', and requires all encompassing policy shifts which puts poor people in the centre as subjects of the բTOces&:
Chapter 7: Strengthening Other Sensitive Support Systems for Initiatives of the Poor
The essential features and lessons from South Asian experiences on the ground indicate that a sensitive support system is indispensable to bring the Initiatives of the Poor to fruition. These help to catalyse a ΓΗΠg: of important functions as sensitising organising homogeneous groups at the village level to meet COmmon needs and to provide or obtain services through collective action, nobilise new activities and knowledge, enhance net incomes, create assets and ensure that the real poor are the beneficiaries.
The support system comprising of government organisations, semi-government institutions, banks, academic institutions, priwate sector bodies and people's organisations have to be sensi
19

Page 22
tised on the need for total cornInitment to the separate plan for the poor. This requires a great deal of detailed collaboration and exchange of information between the support system and the poor.
Til Ost SAARC CollTitrieg Llē support systems have to be reoriented, strengthened and sensitised to comprehend and accept the new process involving powerty alleviation, sawings inobilisati C1, incone generation, skills development, social awa Teness creation, investillent and marketing activities. All this has to be integrated into a process of creating a self-actualizing and self reliant community. The support system has to abandon the conventional project delivery approach and fu Tinction with a great deal of flexibility and new norms. The existing innovative grassroots NGO's and participatory organisations of the poor nced be to Strengthen ed and The W. groups organised at Willage level for participatory development activities. The existing delivery mechanisills of the Government need to be strengthened by scnsitisi Ing the bureaucracy at all levels, especially at the district level and below. The procedures have to be made IIlore flexible and oriented to trusting the poor. The CT edit institutions hawe to be re-oriented for mobilisation of local savings and supporting Small income generating activi. ties of the poor, with flexible procedures and strengthening inovative credit Windows. The banking system itself which has been instrumental in reversing the flow of resources from poor to Tichı, Tural to urban, etc., have to be re-oriented and may have to create 'special windows' to support activities of the poor. They have to recognise that the poco T salwc, are båInkable and successfully create wealth and wthטrד.
In building up and strengthening a sensitive support system training in innovative approaches is a critical part of instilution building for multiplication. A range of intermcdiaries, facilitators, government officials and donor agency staff need innova
20)
tive training an This training its participatory and to fir Illa lectur has to adopt ex ing methods.
In strengtheni ing the support 1 TT100 Titant to Tec Old Traille work is deeply rooted operations and learning process, Orientation cant
Chapter. 8: A Se the Poor
The following Separate plan for from the discuss 4 on the Perspe, te TS 5, 6 ELIld 7 Policie 5 ind Mc
Towards a Hol. Selected Entry (i) Basic Educat: (ii) Food Securit (iii). Primary Hea (iv) Shelter (V). Alternative (vi) Alternative Institution Buildin (i). Organisations (ii) Re-Corienting (iii) Training the C)ʻthcr 11teTrm cil Mbilisa
Sources – El Trid All) { Re:SOLITCES (i) Natural (ii) Human
iii) Financial
This Will foTI com Ille dlaltico II i II Will be discussed Powerty Commissi Dhaka. No spec: dations a Te being divillial collIl trie: poor planning f however, be adap' rcquirements of ea: different socio po stail Ilceg Within coil
Chapter 9: The N
Tact het Ween the
State in South Asi
As early as th
ing signals began South Asia was

I Sensiti5ation.
lf as to be not confined methods. It
stricitial learn
g and sensitissystem, it is ginise that the שנIטpmטf the Wel in their current requires a debefore thic rcegin.
larate Plan for
lielcilts in the the poor flowed om in Chapter :tive and ChapIl Transitional hismis: stic Approach: ԹUIIlts" "
ion y / Daal Bhaat 1tlı - CalTe
Banking Marketing
of the Poor Support Systems
Catalysts and ediaries for St. tio II)
ation of
a major rethe Report and Further at the on Meeting in ific recõIlmenIllade for in3. This pro Tamework can, led tih sluit tille Ich country and litical circum1 ItTies.
ềW. Smitial C011Poor and the
1970's Wal
to emerge that a region in
decp crisis. In the 1980's, South Asiam countries began to face all even more critical crisis of development with the global system itself in disarray and the structures and institutions of Sou1th Asian natio Ill States unable to cope with the twin crises of development and democracy.
Despite the rhetoric of development, democracy and regional co-operation there was a steady slide of these societies towards anarchy and destablisation. Individually no country would be able to ster the slide. But Collectively there was a possibility of having an impact on some of the critical problems.
It was in this spirit that the Male , Summit called foT SAARC to möwe into core Areas of CDoperation and the Colombo Sum. mit identified Powerty Alleviation as a core are and established the Independent South Asian Commission on Poverty Alleviation. This was not a Tliother intesgovernmental study group. It is being led by an eminent political leader in the region and is expected to have a wider vision and take a political approach to the problem of poverty.
A second major recommendation of the Commission is being proposed as a response to this challenge. The specific recommendation for a pro poor and separate poverly plan has to be re-inforced by a major political declaration and Tcflects the collInitment of the seven Heads of States Governments to a total mobilisation approach topoverty alleviation in South Asia within a given time frame.
The details to be incorporated into this recommendation and how it is to be presented to the Summit has to be further considered at the Dhaka Meeting. What was clear was that this major commitment should not merely be subsumed under the more formal resolutions at the Dhaka Summit, but should be a special declaration with a historical significance and a collective commitment by the Heads of States Governments to the South Asian poor,

Page 23
Chapter 10: Poverty WatchIndependent Monitoring of the Strategic Options and the Management of Change
The Members of the Commission felt that the Strategic Option being recommended, the pro polo T perspective and the innovative separate plan for the poor had to be translated into detailed plans at the country level. While much of this work Would continue country by country, it was advisable to hawe an Independent South Asian Group to monitor the follow-up process over the next two to three We:TS.
The complex erty alleviation eyaluatico II, 45 i ter 1 is still The political
it be lowe institutions hav social transform derable magnitu
itiatel 5 Sout
IT IT" TI ft" | development growth, Ell Ilmail : equity are not
the recommendat lish1TIlent of Monitoring Gro Watch is essent
DuckSpeak...
(Corred for prg )
have to counter some objections. It can be asked. What action have they taken over the baboon ries, mentioned carlier, which made the public retch in disgust. They just made some passing remarks, and no more. It can be asked further, In which county in the World where opposi. tion parties are allowed their say in Parliament will they refrain from demanding that the miscreants responsible be dec. lared un fit for public office, It can be argue with some cogency that effective action on such matters canot be expected in Sri Lanka because Sri Lamkan politics are unique.
Our Counter-argument begins by noting that the Sri Lankan people's perceptions and attitudes are very different on such matters from those of the Government and the opposition. This view can be put to a straightforward and convincing pragmatic test, Let the reader ask members of the public, not the bigwigs but the average wholesome Sri Lankans, and it will be found that they certainly want effective action to stop political appointments. And they certainly want the the miscreants responsibile for the baboonerics to be punished. Our counter. argument is that the will of the people will prevail sooner rather than later, and therefore the Sooner the opposition follows
the lead given de Silva the bet
ROPE DANCE
The SLFP CF parties has speci
in this ilatter after all, maint da Tills, il the
wilith ctiլIld be baboon crie5 me als corrupt and behavior, will unithinkable Bandläran aike. therefore speak looking hypocriti
We WebLI Edli 115 positive Incote beca that are not ove dom of expressio cularly the one jurnalists a Te
läS SIIS protest that they only over purely cismi, not constr We have a const tion to lake.
The Gwere in a bit of a di יtlit laוןtfliiוןQ demand upward basis of merit, a of the egalitarian has been spreadi globe like the p seen by Tocques ryther hånd, the ( inherited the antiwhich became sat the 1977 Gower
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

process of pov.
Illonitoring and Was seen in Chap
in its infancy, COITTI LITEIt II d to flag. New Է. It it bլIIlt. A lation of consi. de 115 to be in1 Asian societies frts towards a a radigm where development and trade offs. Hence ion for the estabin Independent lp or a Poverty ill.
This recommendation needs to be discussed further at the Dhaka Meeting, as this kind of "think group' constitutes an illnovation in the South Asian context. How. ever, it is within the invitation issued at the SAARC Summit at Male for Scholars, Academics and Professionals to help re-inforce the official SAARC process. It should I lebt be altı afficial SAARC body, but can have the "blessing of the Gov. 11115. The Independent Group, through the SAARC SeCretariat would periodically address position papers, studies, make suggestions, citc., to the Heads of State Governments and other major actors in the process.
by Mr Siripala t.
e thall the Cothic all responsibility because it did. ain some stanForeign Service Tespected. The Lioned, as well sexually sordid ild I have been
under MTS The SLFP can out without cal.
3 t ed C1 a LISC gwern Ill CInts T-fold of freeIn 11 Orc partii lInde T which
thrash či ald hed, invariably
are impatient
negative critiLictive criticism. Tuctivic sugges
םם ראL 8ווןם טL_Sו lema. On the a people who nobility on the mänifestation principle which
ng HTոլInd the lagile as foreVille. On the
Government has merit principle TC)Sanct under ent. The di
lemma is how to accomodate the egalitarian thrust without thirdwing overboard the anti-merit. principle.
Is there a Way of allowing the hoi-polloi of Sri Lanka, not just the favoured few, to serve their country abroad without allowing the claims of merito It seems an impossible dileIl Ima. But a solution might be possible on the principle of appointment by rope-dance.
It is reported in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels that in the kingdom of Lilliput 'When a great office is vacant either by death or disgrace (which of tcn happens), five or six of those candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a dance on the rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling succeeds in the office. The sentence preceding it says that the candilates were “mot always of noble birth or liberal Education." which shows that something like the great egalitarian principle Was already at Work over two and a half centuries ago in Lilliput. Swift's book was originally pub. lished in 1726. Echoing Swift, the present writer must declare that in making his modest proposal he has been inspired only by his devotion to the public good, without any thought of private gain as he himself is well past the age for nimble footwork on the tight-rope.
21

Page 24
A New Europe and its
Horace Perera
Yugoslavia and more recently Somalia ha ve spotlight on “ hurranitariani intervention'', * Η Γενε macy' etc by the United Nations, or the E. C. offer under the U.N. timbrella.
When The “lante duck“ Pre Fident George B
28,000 US troops to Somalia, Henry Kissinge
objective was 'noble" but questioned the I irrirrg unilateral nature" of the US mission.
In Frost other situations the "conflict is for as Somalia, e.g. Yugoslavia where the EC too, οπιν το Produce the ghα κτίν Βουπία π τηess, Ir i violence and civil war which now attract world a Hajor powers, and the U. N., where decisions ar, a Security Council, controlled tore or less States, 'A foreign policy of וזri}{{q}ified ,וץ מתקשי Self-determination coild result in enofrious Worli IParns Prof. Joseph Nye of the Harvard Centre
Prĉi lia 77a I. Affairs,
This par per hy Horace Perera the Wellkrio 157 , | teacher, and Hory. President of the World Fe
U.N. Associations was presented to a recent Солfereлгe.
he overall theme of the present two eco Conference, in speaking namely the Eur 'A' New Europe and its Community and Tesponsibilities etc., seems to Free Trade A55 imply that there is today one is considerable Európe. UnforLunately this is operation within 19t so in spite of the Helsinki between the two Final Act of 1975 and the selves. For the subsequent efforts to promote human rights and
the CSCE process. Hence cautión must be exercised in con sidering the role of the New Europe” in the UN and in World Affairs. An overall glance at the political configuration of the Continent will reveal that there is more than one Europe.
To begin with there is what is loosely called Western 'Europe'. This term broadly covers all of Europe - including some Mediterranean islands - which were outside What till recently was called the Communist Block', in which it was customary to include Albania and the former Yugoslavia, though they Were not subservient to Moscow. The countries of Western Europe have, over the years after Wild War III, grouped together for Various reasons. There are a
2.
hawe ratified the vention on Hum have accepted t of European Col. als C military all NATO, consider defensive alliance Was recently this pire’’, and the r *Western Europea has a membershi is likely to incre With the admissi ber and two ass have been made by the European PITEIT 17 te the for
Clitical, ecclcom: union. It was a that this was leiders of the Co the Maistricht T Tesent, i Mistri derailed by the tive Wote of the

responsibilities
Irred the 'live diplo
te US,
W o Fere
岛ü芷 凸e Πη: είτε
as single Ig led seris feri tio F7, tie * Triade bij the United for rational " di5orero'" for Inter
| Sri Läylki II deration of Trifer Flafia F7I
nomic groupings, pean Economic the European ociation. There cciono Illic Coeach group and groups the 1protection of 1 freedo T15, sile European Conu
an Rights and he jurisdiction Tit. There arc
iam ces such as ed to be a against what : taSoviet EIIlecently for TI med tl Աnitin"* Which p of nine and :ase to tWel Ve Il of op Le Illepciates. Efforts
ower the years
Community to
Trilation of a ic and monetary ssumed last year chic wed1 when mnunity signed 'reaty. For the cht has bec Il lair fine negaDanish people,
the Wafer thin OUI' of the French Referendum and the delay to ratify the Treaty by the United Kingdom. It is anticipated than an enlarged Single European Market will emerge by the end of this year when the Single European Act comes into force. It is evident fron popular Teactions to the Maastricht Treaty that nationalis in is still a factor to be reckoned with in Western Europe', particularly after the fragmentation of the Soviet Empire.' But, with a few exceptions, it is a nationalism which has got used to settling disputes by negotiation rather than by ultimate or force.
Two comments may not be out of place here. One wonders whether, taking a page out of the history of German unification in the last century, the Single European Market should not have preceded Maastricht. By 1884 a Customs Union (Zollverein) including most States was in place. It demonstrated to all the inconveniences of differences of tariffs, currencies. Weights and measures and economic policy bct Ween individual German States and thereby contributed, inter alia, to the unification of Germany proclaimed in Wersailles in 1871. One also Wonders how leaders of long standing democracies in the West
expected to secure, in their states, popular support for Maastricht without involving
their peoples, through adequate information programmes, in the decision making process which led to the signing of the Treaty.
Another European consists of the three Baltic Republics and
the Commonwealth of Ildependent States. The events which followed the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and later of the Austro-Hungarian Empire make it seem inevitable that, when an empire maintained by force collapses its territories

Page 25
fragment into a profusion of small states driven by a strong Sense of freedom and a surge of agressive na Lionalism which can threaten the rights of minorities living within their borders. This has now happened with the disintergration of Soviet En Tn pire. In almost all these new states there are unassimilated minoritics and one sees the interesting phenomenon of the case with which dyed in red' communists of yesterday hawe become a Tident nationalists of today claiming the right to Selflicteriliation, This is indeed a great right provided that in efforts to secure it the rights of other nationalitics to itself determine' are not ignored or even destroyed. This is the phenomenon one is witnessing in Yugoslavia' and one callnot rule out similar trends in most of the new states, particularly those with ethnic Russian Illinorities. Leaders of ethnic Russians, like Mikhail Lysenko in Estonia, are appealing to the Russian army to intervene to protect them from discrimination by nationalist Estonians. Some chauvinist leaders of the defanged Russian army are backIng the 11. Yeltsil hlas So far resisted such demands and, except for the intervention of the 14th. Russian army on behalf of the Russian minority in the Trans-Dniester region of Molldavia (a republic in which 75%
of the population is non Russian), he has acted with courage and caution. How long
he'll be able to do so is any. body's guess. One way for the West to help is for it to champion the rights of 25 million Russian-speaking people in the Baltic and other post-Soviet states. Such action call help these Russians to feel that their
rights are a priority for the West and that they will not need the aid of the Russian
army. It will also help to reduce considerably the pressure to which Yeltsin is being subjected. Unfortunately the West is not likely to be of such help grip. pcd, as it is, by domestic poitical cowardice that has prevented it from taking an
effectively strong former Yugoslav hea T5 frol the the i West" the infamous, words in reference to Illent of Czech: “It is al qual Trel country between We ki. W II thil This brings us Yugoslavia, Agg isms have touc fն հtd HTitl 11 situation accom ethnic and cultu refiniscient of bestial barbariti and Stalin's p peoples of oth Political commer pressed fears t rmı:Lirish sitl:htion1 Kosovo bringing Wojwodina causin in Hungary fo Hungarians dwel to Macedonia, it lity involving Greece. Should materialise Euro self confronted, eastern doostep, War accompanied etic sight of stream of refuge has been seen an increasingly d tude eүеп, 1п liberal asylum la f'll the Balk. under Europe's ( Seefl5 Llable ti Europe seems to the USA to give the USA is to its presidential calidiidilte S T Lh spare atten Lion t Il fait off Coll Tht
people of who know nothing ab Two contrali
seems to be goir former Yougs lawi ITETET 5 Cf | iet Empire, whic brik. Ob ethnice I (a) Avoid reco ls the situation and get out of .
(b) As the We ly to interwene
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

position in the ia. OIle alIloSt : leadership of fallous, or rather of Chalmberlain the lis Illemberiliwakia il 1938. in the Fir of people of whom ஐ." | [0 tillę foTIIlęI ressive lationalhel Cliff : COIlTrenclus Wär panied by an ral + 'cleansing”
the brutal and et Of Hilter's policies towards
er nationalities, Lators have ex1at this nightcould spread to in Albania; to g deep concern r the 500,000 ling there, and all probabliBulgaria and these fears e can find itoil its SouthWith a barbaric With the pathEl never-ending es provokiTng, as racial riots of angerOls Tlag TNIithי t rigsוןווto WS. The blood ins is seeping loors but Europe Staunch it. be waiting for the lead, but absorbed with :lection for the eir advisers to o “a quarel in ry between a m they (we) it."
Ctory In essages ng out of the a to ther State erstwhile SW. are I the conflict. Llrse to Wiolence may spiral out
Introl. st" is not likeaffectively, vio
lence can help chuavinist groups to successfully achieve their ends.
For the present it appears as if the second message is getting through. If this second lessage is picked up strongly enough an apocalyptical situation can develop in a Ilmajor part of the former USSR, That is, in the three Baltic States ad te mellbers of the CIOI. Wealth of Independent States and it may be to late for the F WEST to do anything,
As for the so called cisatelli.
ties' of the former Soviet Empire, matters seem to be generally stable. The GDR has
incorporated into Germany and therefore needs no attention here. Apart from streaks of anti-Semitism, strongly condemned and opposed by the GovernIn ent, Poland appears a stable country unified largely by strong religious ties. Hungary also appears quite settled except for its justifiable concern for the rights of ethnic Hungarian in neighbouring states. Romania's problem lies with recognizing fully the rights of half a million ethnic Hungarians living largely in Transylvania and the rights of its Gipsy communities. Things are likely to remain tolerably calm in Bulgarian provided that ethnic, clicansing" does not spread from the former Yugoslowia to Macedonia. If that Were to happen Bulgaria may be compelled to intervene. Czecho
Solovakia, following the June elections held this year, is separa ting into two republics.
This separation may have consequences for Central Europe and clsewhere.
The peaceful nature of the divorce of Czechoslovakia into El Czech and a Slowak republic See I15 to hlave boli Ilded that West to the possible geopolitical conSequences of the separation. As a matter of fact, they are already appearing. In order to achieve self-sufficiency in energy the Slovak republic has begun diverting the Danube to create a riverbed in its own territory. Hungary has already protested that Slowakia's action constitutes.
23

Page 26
allilateral iteration of State borders and is in contravention of Article III of PETE I of the Fial Act. Herce it accuses Slowakia of territorial and cc)- logical violations. Capitalizing on this political dispute a chauvaist campaign has begun in Hungary calling on the Government to interwene and protect the rights of their “ “ Opp Tessed brethern' (namely about 500 thousand ethnic Hungarians) in Slovakia. The Czech republic may soon also have a problem to face. Strengthened by the fact hat a weak Czech republic lies by the side of an enlarged and powerful Germany. Sudeten Germans are de mai Ilding a Tc
negotiation of the Western borders of Bohemia. One hopes that these two issues can be
diffused. If, on the other hand, territorial chinges. El Te made, however peacefully there can be
a chain reaction in Central Europe and elsewhere. Ethnic Hungarians in Transylvania (Romania), Wojvodina (former
Yugoslavia) and in the Ukraine may seek similar solutions to their ethnic problems, Romania, on the hand, While resisting any at Lempts to incorporate Transylvania into Hungary, might consider that the protecrion if ethnic Romanians in Moldavia (about 65% of the total population) is its responsibility. In the Balkans, Serbia may fec1 that it is its duty.'" to, 5 fcle:LIlse” Kosovo of ethmic Albanians. One could go along like this. To make what may be a long story short, it suffices to point out that with considerEl tions of thi5 kild One cal mot rule out a wave of aggressive nationalis Ils spreading over Central Europe and else where.
All that has been said in paragraph 7 regarding the possible geopolitical consequences of the Czechslovakian divorce may be regarded as alarmist specullations. So did governments treat the warning of likely conflict in the former Yugoslavia HaLaLL S LLaL SLLLLL S LLLLLLaHLLLLSS S SaLLLLLLL the clemise of communism in that country showed clearly and stridently that voting had been
definitely on eth !arnings Ilo'ייטsטth with cynical scepti leaders it is pos present situation Yugoslavia might loped.
Til till: 55 Security Council tary-General Llo *Preventive Dipl as --Peacemaking keeping' operati explained in Ag: One can only members of the S severally and co. the political willt international obli sedated by consi next round of at
One can only GieleWl talks li presidency of Cy LITOWE WF || tlլը : 111flict in Yլ they fail the CS in all probability halt, the estab European order ly jeopardised a y aunted New W. have ended bef come, Europe h :| חצים - to put its Till that is di ation af its Tes the UNI lid i will be just al. crcise: e. Weina, Inc. lity, Until there order each Euro: cäch group of st
THE
A || Cowf Thiը5E E Wit. |n rEWL Nay, th CHITDTif Ch i y WםTh Trying
No c. TF RB Tir
Still ST Media They ar Thay Hf

Inici meg. Had bcc dislissed cism by Europe's siblic that the in thic for iller
Tot llavực dcwic
cCle for te
and the Secre
rc5ort to the omacy' as well '' and Peaceons so clearly Idal for Peace." hope that the Security Council, llectively, havc
disclarke thici gations and not lerations of the ional elections.
hope that the IIltit:T till: Էյprus Wance and help to resolve goslavia. Should CE process will, grind to a is hillent of :
fuld Ho ScrinusLld thic Lluc Illirl Would Te it had beHh Iillցի էth tlti 101.150 il OTder. է լիլը: Considerponsibilities in World affairs cicleIllic exExercise il futiis a European բean state, DT ates, will wiew
its responsibilities, not from the global perspectives of the Uniied Nation5 : Cha Titer blit fric T1 i 11 TT-3W nation of regional interests, That is certainly not the overall objective of this Conference. The Overall purpose is to strengthen the CSCE process with a view to securing stability and promoting co-operation Withiin and a Ilong States in Europe so that agreement could be reached along them as to measures which they as a body, could take to discharge their responsibilities in the United Nations and in World affairs. It is for each and every European UNA Lo strive, in co-operation With other national NGOs, for the realissation of this lili.
DutugamunLI:. . .
(Cor: ரிர நாரr 10)
Divayіла сопtгоyегsies represent a modern Illanifestation of this Sinh{1|{1 histüTỉt:1là cūT15C[[]us fless, The extent to which such modes of discourse produce inclusive (rather than exclusive) and progressive (in contrast to regressive) Forms of nationalisII hinges not om evocations of the past per se, but on the motivations and manipulations of monks, politicians, scholars, newspaper editors and readers. For it is they who, though widely available and influential edil Slichslev'S- papers, rei Interpret the past to recharge nationalism with varying symbolic significance.
DEMOCRATIC PROCESS
החם וEtl Thיים וח atוח שהוא, Bםחם tם ,IrdחםE WWוTh" " ingry young of tha SEwenties
at them marching
It against their own emply affluence? a white fire of the namas they chanted Bad dit the Endig of the garh 1. Uncls Ho, Could not radaen harI вra goiпg the othвг way really Lo stealth a thundar om a parallel track JmE5 the Ethal fall Out of thoir bil pe the World, E.D. frige And Easy
idle, Link timբt and gay,
to Vietnam, then leaving Dubichek to the tanks e On the midnight tra in from Pragu.
in for Mesqualing, Marijuana and finaily Aids a back, no matter, the Polit bureau proclaims. d the heroes of this detaidd.
U. Karunatilake

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