08 October 2011

A story of three characters: Arjuna, Muditha and Pulasthi

No one ever got paid to coach chess in my school.  It was always old boys who coached the team.  The seniors coached the juniors, the juniors helped with the newcomers.  The coach handled the seniors.  No payment.  There was something about repaying debts owed to the alma mater.  There was also the joy of teaching, seeing players improve and securing trophies. 
Arjuna Parakrama

Each coach left a mark and speaking strictly for myself, Arjuna Parakrama, one of the strongest players in the country in the seventies, was the greatest influence when it came to chess, both in playing and coaching.  It was not just about chess with him.  It was how to approach a particular game and most importantly about what was important, over the board and outside it, particularly the latter.  Chess was a small part of a larger universe and what he taught about chess and in those long hours of having to suffer his sarcasm and caustic remarks was eminently applicable to life in general. 
We teach the way our favourite teachers taught or like to think we do.  I know I tried.  So did my successors, but no one I can think of matched the standards set up Arjuna as Muditha Hettigama, the most successful coach of this school and himself a National Champion. 
Muditha Hettigama
I recently heard that there are chess ‘coaches’  who earn around Rs.300,000 a month.  I know for a fact that most of them are unqualified to coach. Forget values and attitudes, their knowledge of the game is at best basic and are not equipped to push talent even half way towards potential.  When I heard this, I thought of both Arjuna and Muditha, especially the latter because Arjuna coached in different times where values were different, economic and social pressures different and therefore the idea of ‘remuneration’ was marginal.
Muditha has coached his old school for more than a decade now.  Given his success rate (his teams have won more national championships than any other boys’ school in the country), if he were to translate coaching time into opportunity cost, he would earn at least as much as a full time coach.  I did a small calculation, assuming he’s been coaching since 1998.  That’s 13x12x300,000, making Rs. 46.8 million.  I am trying to think of a single coach who has said ‘no’ to that kind of money.  The only person I can think of is Sarath Eriyagama, a man who has an equally or even more celebratory record as coach (Girls High School, Kandy) and who was instrumental in popularizing the game both in Kandy and in other districts of the country. 
There are people like that.   Pulasthi Ediriweera (I just heard that this colleague of mine actually is titled, ‘Kalapathi’; he is modest and it shows) is one of them.  Pulasthi has designed more than 150 stamps and that’s a fact that few would know; stamps don’t carry name and signature of artist.  Only philatelists would know.  More importantly, Pulasthi is the present President of the Society of Arts and has been so since 2008.  He’s also been the Principal of the School of Art run by the Society of Arts for more than 5 years. 
Pulasthi Ediriweera
The School of Art, founded way back in 1887, has been running this programme for many years now. Pulasthi, along with 7 other teachers, give all their Saturdays to this school, voluntarily.  It is a programme for those left behind and those who for whatever reason don’t have access to the mainstream art schools.  There are toddlers and there are retired persons who have the time and the inclination to pick up and explore something they loved but never had the opportunity to indulge in. 
Among the students are those taking ‘Art’ as an O/L or A/L subject, those who are in different streams but are interested in entering higher educational institutions offering visual arts degrees, and undergraduates, teachers and even principals who want to further develop their skills.  The Society organizes exhibitions every month to showcase the best works of the students.  They organize workships as well as educational trips.  They spend the occasional Sunday visiting schools where there are no art teachers or where the  art teachers are interested in exposing their charges to informed and more competent instruction. 
Pulasthi has been doing this for 6 years.  That’s over 300 days and close to 3000 hours.  I don’t know how much that would be in terms of rupees.  He doesn’t count, of this I am certain.  I know that there are times when he helps out a colleague who is crunched for time, copying the style and completing the relevant illustration, sacrificing his own work and time. All for free.  Few return the favour.  He would say, I am sure, ‘me mage vidiha, e eyaalage vidiha’ (this is my way, that’s theirs). 
I don’t know anything about art, but I do know this: we are not thankful enough to the Arjunas, Mudithas and Pulasthis of this country.    
 







07 October 2011

When Milinda opened a box and found himself

Years ago, during the time when a lot of people in Colombo were going ga-ga about the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA), I wrote (in both the Sunday Island and the Irida Divaina) very critical articles about negotiations/talks between the Ranil Wickremesinghe government and the LTTE.  Naturally, G.L. Peiris and Milinda Moragoda (now with the present government), both key players in Wickremesinghe’s government and in the so-called ‘peace process’ were mentioned and not in complimentary ways either. 
At some point, Milinda invited myself, Rajpal Abeynayake (now Editor, Sunday Lakbima News) and Bandula Jayasekera (Director General, Presidential Media) for a chit-chat.  All smiles.
‘So you think I am a kattaya?’ he asked.  I replied in the affirmative and explained why I thought he was a shrewd operator.  He kept smiling.  Not one of those have-to-show-equanimity kinds of grins, but a good spirited response.  We had our say. He had his.  All cordial. 
The next time I saw him was at an exhibition.  It was called ‘The Other Side’ and was held at Barefoot.  It showcased the non-advertising creative work of people at Phoenix-Ogilvy and was not limited to those in the Creative Department.  There were paintings, photographs and sculptures.  There was installation art.  I can’t remember all the exhibits now, but I remember one item that made me laugh. 
Harith Gunawardena (now at Grants), who wrote the extremely popular ‘King Barnette’ column in the Irida Divaina, had a box with a label: ‘Norway raajyayen milinda moragodata thaeggak’ (A gift to Milinda Moragoda from the Norwegian Government’.  There was an invitation to open the box and take a look inside.  It contained some ropes, all of them old and frayed. ‘Dead ropes’ or as we say in Sinhala ‘dirachcha (decayed) lanu’. 
This was when Norway played a ‘facilitating’ role between the Government and the LTTE.  To me, it was amazing copy.  It was a neat and powerful political statement.  It didn’t take long thereafter for everyone, including the most ardent (if naĂŻve) supporters of the CFA to realize that the CFA was a road to nowhere, that it was a flawed, in word and in operation and most importantly that the LTTE (as we who had been vilified as ‘war mongers’ argued) was never interested in negotiations.  The exhibit, therefore, also had prophetic value. 
Milinda, at the time and as pointed above, was a key player.  Harith knew that Milinda would come.  It was therefore an in-your-face objection.  He came. He saw.  He was amused.  He offered to buy the exhibit. 
I can think of countless politicians who would have been livid, and many who might have kicked the box or worse, assaulted the box-maker.  I can think of one politician who might have wanted to strangle Harith with the rope, frayed though it was.    Milinda, on the other hand, was amused.  That’s rare, I still think. 
Politicians are kapati people.  It is a goes-without-saying thing.  I still think Milinda Moragoda is an accomplished strategist.  He plans. He calculates.  He does his thing.  Like any other politician.  He is not one to hold a grudge, that much I figured. Doesn’t mean he agrees of course.  It is easy to agree to disagree, easy to criticize and even in the most brutal way.  He doesn’t seem to mind. That’s a first step to taking criticism seriously.  That’s something.  Something rare, in fact. 
Harith was Harith.  Milinda was Milinda.  Milinda changed his political position and Harith can claim victory.  Milinda was Milinda and that made Harith re-assess the man.  I had forgotten exhibition, exhibit and incident. Milinda may have too. Harith had not.  It was a simple political exchange but one with profound outcomes that were not as apparent then as they are now.  It took a sharp critic and a crafty but nevertheless humble recipient of criticism to get both to where they are now, politically and in terms of how they view one another.  That’s something. Something rare, in fact. 

06 October 2011

Stephen Harper and necessary commiseration

Does Canada deserve this embarrassment?
Politicians must continuously shape and reshape word to fit exigency.  They often don’t realize that when the expedient door is opened those outside get to see some of their insides.  Most often there are no half-way measures.  The door has to be fully opened or kept shut. Open it and it’s like dropping your pants.  It’s not always a beautiful sight.  I am thinking of poor Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. 
Harper is reported to be campaigning aggressively ‘to pressure Sri Lanka on human rights and political reconciliation’.  He’s stated that he will boycott the 2013 Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka if Sri Lanka’s government ‘does not show accountability for human rights abuses and take steps to reconcile with the Tamil minority’ and has wanted others to follow suit.  His Foreign Minister, John Baird, has complained (!) that ‘Sri Lanka barred UN investigators, showed a lack of accountability and used heavy-handed tactics since the war’.  He wants to see ‘action’, his spokesman, Chris Day, has said. 
These are times where mouth-shooting is the order of the day.  There is no necessity, especially after George W Bush’s WMD-related lies justifying monumental crimes against the people of Iraq, for anyone to support contention with evidence.  All that is required, Bush and Blair showed (and Obama, Brown, Sarkozy and their minions such as Susan Rice, Robert O Blake and Hillary Clinton as well as ‘tag-alongers’ like Navi Pillai and Louis Arbour have affirmed), is to have big mouths, big bucks and big guns. 
Just to put the record straight, though, let’s state the facts.  Sri Lanka never barred UN investigators.  The issue of accountability is adequately addressed and anyway the parameters of such exercises should not be determined by some meddling and ill-informed foreigner fed by terrorist proxies.  Most importantly, while the international community (with all its many flaws and crimes of myopia and selective vilification) has the moral right to call out nations with respect to rights abuse and other transgressions, such umbrage should be founded on hard evidence and not conjecture.  If this were not the case, the UN would have nothing else to do than investigating each and every member state because some ill-intentioned members level charges, using the correct language of indignation.
As for reconciliation with the Tamil community, let Harper be informed that the Sri Lankan security forces rescued close to 300,000 Tamils held hostage by the LTTE.  Now that’s a big favour (if indeed saving lives of fellow citizens is not responsibility but favour on the part of the state) he would agree. Of some 11,000 LTTE cadres captured or surrendered, more than 8000 have been reintegrated with society, something that Harper might find impossible to imagine if it happened to be Al Qaeda fighters held in torture chambers, sorry ‘detention centres’ by the USA and its NATO allies.  More than 98% of those displaced have been resettled, and not just in landmine-ridden plots of land but areas where important infrastructure has been restored with all complementary facilities to make for normalcy provided.   If he’s upset about ‘political solutions’, then let’s hear the man enumerate the grievances, especially since his heart bleeds so profusely for the Tamils. 
Enough of ‘record’.  Let’s move to pots and kettles and the colour black, and the assessment of blackness in the relevant utensils. 
First the righteousness. Harper outlined Canadian values: ‘freedom, democracy and human rights’.  For good measure, Harper said that those who do not share these values are considered a threat.  Nice words, but when it comes to application, all I know is that a few weeks after Harper said he will have no truck with dictators, he was making deals with a man who carried out a coup.  Makes me wonder what he means by ‘democracy’.
Freedom.  Harper’s government is trying to push through a new set of electronic surveillance laws that will make privacy history in Canada.  Jennifer Stoddart, Privacy Commissioner of Canada sums it all up: ‘Read together, the provisions of [these bills] would substantially diminish the privacy rights of Canadians. They do so by enhancing the capacity of the state to conduct surveillance and access private information while reducing the frequency and vigour of judicial scrutiny. In essence, they make it easier for the state to subject more individuals to surveillance and scrutiny.’
Human rights.  My fellow Yaka has a comment.  Well, more than one.
‘Tell me the basis on which Harper or any Canadian derives claim to discuss human rights with anyone or anything other than their off-pink navels!  Can they tell us how to take the asbestos they exported to us from our roof and out of our lungs, knowing well that it causes the worst and most painful carcinomas?  And how can we resolve his concern for humanity when an original aka aboriginal aka red indian aka first nations aka native person’s average mortality is 27 years?  Yes, now, in 2011.  Where is he speaking from? Windstruck in Prairie Winnipeg? Mounted on a war horse overlooking the Beaufort Sea? Under the Queen of England’s Hanoverian underwear?’ 
I would be less harsh, but we can’t get around the fact that my Yak friend makes: ‘Canada is NOT as it claims a parliamentary democracy but a constitutional monarchy!’  In fact Harper’s proposals have been backed by the UK, Australian and New Zealand.  ‘Who,’ asks me friend, ‘are these countries?’ and proceeds to answer: ‘Constitutional monarchies! Settler states!’  He puts it well, so I will continue with quote: ‘New Zealand? Give me a fokkin break…..let’s speak directly to the Maoris and the originals!’  Canada recently changed her colonial department from Indian Affairs to Aboriginal Affairs.  Now is that ‘reconciliation’ with the ‘originals’, forget minorities in Sri Lanka who have it better than Canadian minorities have and moreover has no evidence to buttress claims to territory? 
Finally, myopia.  If democracy, human rights and freedom is what count and if these things are what help distinguish friends from enemies as per Harper’s conceptualization, should he not immediately break off all diplomatic ties with his neighbor, the United States of America which led NATO’s massive gun-burst on democracy, human right and freedom in Libya (and of course Iraq and Afghanistan before, where their work is yet to end!)?   The attack on Libya, just like the invasion of Iraq was based on well-crafted lies and the process mimic, tragically, the very transgressions (purported of course) that was used to legitimate the invasion.
More myopia and unpardonable religious fanaticism.  Harper claimed ‘Canada is safer than when al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. (the jury is still out on the architects of that attack, just for the record), but that the major threat is still Islamicism.  ‘Islamic radicals’ are the biggest threat, in other words.  I don’t know.  All I know is that if we were to go by the claimed faith of those who have killed, sanctioned killing, applauded killing and are killing as we speak then Harper would have to conclude that the biggest threat to the world’s pace is ‘Chritianism’.  I personally think that it is corporate greed, but if Harper wants to be religious about it, this is where we have to go.  Only shows the man’s really got something twisted and I am not sure my friend was altogether wrong about Hanoverian underwear. 
There are Canadians and Canadians, fortunately.  Lovely people, at least those I know, have dined with, shared stories with.  Both in Canada and Sri Lanka.  I don’t know Bruce Levy, the Canadian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka.  If I do meet him someday (unlikely of course), I will ask him to convey my best wishes to Canadian citizens, especially those whose lands were stolen and now can expect only to live up to the age of 27.  I will ask him to convey my sympathies to Stephen Harper. 

[an edited version of this article appeared in the Daily Mirror, October 6, 2011]

I saw my future yesterday and laughed and laughed and laughed

Years ago, my friend Kanishka Goonewardena who was at that time an architecture student at the Moratuwa University told me something about art.  If I remember right he was repeating something that Tilak Samarawickrama had said at a lecture, or else a comment someone else had made about Tilak’s association with Dumbara Mats.  It was about the utility value of art.  The argument was that if there’s only ornamental value in Dumbara Mats, the art would die a natural death.
Kanishka mentioned a definition or at least an observation offered by Ananda Coomaraswamy.  It was in anecdotal vein and about a kattadiya who uses masks for dances associated with exorcism.  The man is said to go into the jungles, pick the right tree, obtain the necessary timber, craft it, paint it and use it for the dance.  The mask is thereafter abandoned and his wife would chop it up and use it as firewood. That, Kanishka quoting Coomaraswamy, is what art is about. 
I don’t know if that point had registered in my subconscious or whether it was because I have a fascination for used books stores, but about 7 years ago I wrote down a question which was in fact an answer, depending on which side of the punctuation mark you stand:  ‘Are novelists, poets and other writers aware that their final resting place is a dingy used-books store?’
I remember quoting this line in an article written some time ago in these pages, again on the subject of the future and the genesis and fate of words.   Last night a friend, Himali Liyanage, wrote to me saying she had translated a poem I had written from English to Sinhala.  The title was ‘Iron-made’.  She wanted permission to post it on the internet.  I wrote back saying that my words don’t belong to me.  She went ahead, after making a snide remark about my moods. 
It all came back last morning in Bambalapitiya.  I had come to have a late breakfast at a vegetarian restaurant opposite Unity Plaza.  String-hoppers, saambaru and an ulundu vadai.  Cheap, healthy and to my taste.  Such eateries usually have on each table a container with pieces of paper torn from newspapers.  That’s the ‘serviette holder’.   I eat, usually, because I am hungry and am more concerned about nutritional intake rather than taste.  I think I ought to focus more on the act of eating, but I tend to treat eating as a necessary evil, for better or worse.  I have a ‘bad habit’ of reading while eating.  It just happens.  I take whatever reading material is within reach and that’s for me the lunumiris or lunu-dehi or the pickle that others like their meals spiced with. 
Daily News.  I could tell from the texture of the paper, the appearance and the part of the illustration that remained.  Mine.  I could tell from a random sentence.  It was about a third of a piece I had written titled ‘A note on a singular  petal decorating the black bough of Havelock Road’, dedicated to one of my English teachers, Mrs Sujatha Dharmasiri. 
I couldn’t help laughing.  I know that Mrs. Dharmasiri read the article and I am sure some others must have too.  I doubt if everyone remembers what was written or who wrote it (readers skip bylines, I know).  The point was made.  The paper read. Discarded as papers usually are. They end up being sold for recycling.  Reminded me of a song by Sunil Edirisinghe where the ‘Sama’ and ‘Amara’ of our Grade One text book are used to roll a handful of peanuts.  The lessons were learnt, though.  Like that article.  Did its work and having done so, was employed in residual work.   We end up as serviettes and occasionally use our work to clean our fingers.  It is good to be reminded, now and then. 
Back-shelf of a used books store.  I won’t forget.  In my case, I was fortunate to actually see the book that I am, that my life has been and is. It came in the form of a newspaper turned into serviette in a roadside eatery. 
And this afternoon, writing this, I can’t help wondering if on the 25th day of February 2011, when she saw me and stopped to speak, tease, chide and hug as I was crossing Havelock Road and she was speeding past in a three-wheeler, Mrs Dharmasiri realized that I was one of the thousands of books she had authored as teacher. Only, it was not as a dust-laden less-read book on the shelf at the back of a used books store and neither was it as a serviette made out of a newspaper whose work was done.  Not a huge difference, though.  All things considered.  She continues to teach. I still write.  We are present tense people.  I saw my future.  That’s the only difference.  I laughed. That was important too, I think.

05 October 2011

The FMM: thick with thieves

FMM: nice logo, nice name but substance? Oh dear!
The Free Media Movement (FMM) mandates itself, among other things, to stand up for the rights of media personnel.  This is good.  Recently, the FMM took issue with sections of the state media for what it claims was a distortion of what had transpired in Geneva where former FMM Convener, Sunanda Deshapriya was alleged to have been put in his place by the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed. Deshapriya claimed that nothing of the sort had happened. 
The FMM, in a statement released by its present Convener, Sunil Jayasekara, has condemned what it terms are ‘false allegations against press freedom and human rights activists’, citing the above issue, and states that it awaits a response from the Government of the Maldives. 
In general, if there is some vilification or character assassination of a journalist via the publication of falsehood, it is certainly incumbent on organization espousing media freedom and decency to step up and object.  Indeed, even if the aggrieved party has no connection with the media or human rights, misrepresentation is not something that should be condoned.  In this sense, I salute the FMM for taking this stand, provided of course that Deshapriya’s version is accurate. 

I have some problems with the statement, though.  First and foremost, Sunanda Deshapriya is not really a journalist.  He is, all things considered, nothing more than a propagandist.  That’s legitimate of course, even though I for one would hesitate before agreeing to be mouthpiece for terrorists or those who vilify the country of my birth without any or very little substantiation of  allegation, especially if it can hurt my fellow citizens who paid for my education and many other conveniences.    He is not a ‘human rights activist’ as claimed, but a disingenuous prankster masquerading as one.  If the FMM wanted to be taken seriously, they would have hesitated in dishing out unwarranted character certificates to this shady individual. 

Now if Bada Mahinda, Kudu Noor or someone other underworld character’s human rights were violated, one would expect an organization that takes such issues seriously to call foul.  One would also expect that organization to quality their intervention by referring to their criminal records, just because the world is not black and white and because blank cheques can be abused. 
Sunanda Deshapriya is not your mafia king or minion of course, although he has in a white-collared way aided and abetted many crimes against humanity.  What is most strange about the FMM statement is the strange reluctance to qualify support for the man, considering that he is a known racketeer and has a proven track record of stealing money.  Paikiasothy Saravanamauttu, himself a navel-gazer when it comes to questions about financial ‘mismanagement’, has in his (Saravanamuttu’s) cute way hoofed out Deshapriya from the Centre for Policy Alternatives (for showing ‘lack of clarity’ in reporting on funds utilized).  Sunil Jayasekara can’t be ignorant about all this since the FMM was working very closely with the CPA at the time.
Most unpardonable, however, is the FMM’s absolute silence on the fact that Sunanda Deshapriya has point-black refused to cooperate with an investigation into alleged financial mismanagement (read ‘pilfering’) while he was that organization’s Convener.  The FMM has cited (and this is pathetic) lack of funds to carry out a proper investigation in Deshapriya’s misdoings.  I have offered to find the Rs. 1 million that the FMM has said would be required for such an exercise.  They’ve chosen the time-honoured method of sweeping under the carpet, the very crime they often accuse state agencies of indulging in. 
The way they’ve framed their objections in this statement shows that they have no quarrel with Deshapriya.  It raises the legitimate question that perhaps the current leadership of the FMM, Jayasekara and Udaya Kalupathirana (Ex-Co member of the FMM supposed to have been present in Geneval with Deshapriya) included, needs to sit on moves to investigate Deshapriya because they too have skeletons in their respective cupboards.
Jayasekara states: ‘[b]oth Mr. Deshapriya and Mr. Kalupathirana have conveyed to the FMM that they are in possession of a complete recording on audio-tape of the side-event which proves that these stories are false’.  While the meticulous precautions taken are certainly laudable, it is indeed strange that Jayasekara didn’t think fit to ask Deshapriya to furnish (along with these tapes) all records of all projects he was involved in or handled while he was in the FMM, especially those relevant to the management of funds, receipt books included. 
The FMM is giving Sunanda Deshapriya a break.  Is this because the current leadership of the FMM and its immediate predecessors need a break themselves with respect to who did what with the millions that came into the organization’s bank accounts? 
Jayasekara says, somberly, ‘The importance of this incident is that GOSL has dragged a head of a neighboring country into attacking press freedom activists. In FMM’s opinion this is a matter that requires serious consideration.’  The FMM has not really cared about this country and neither has Deshapriya.  This sudden concern for country-image, as implied in the above statement, is surprising, therefore, but nevertheless noteworthy.  But why bother about inter-galactic issues when there’s a lot of muck in the backrooms of this world, in this sense the FMM’s account sheets?
Jayasekara and this Kalupathirana are no babes in the woods, pampered with soothers stuck in their mouths.  They are adults and one presumes, know the basics when it comes to what’s decent and what’s not.  They know the difference between small change and the kinds of ‘change’ that’s allegedly been pilfered by Deshapriya.  They know that Deshapriya’s continued reluctance to furnish financial records indicates guilt.  And yet, they have studiously kept mum on all this.  They agitate for the Right to Information, but are keeping their books closed.  Why? 
It is good to defend the freedom of expression.  It is good to call for the truth. It is good to condemn misrepresentation, even though in this case the ‘victim’ is, as Saddam Hussein might say the ‘Mother of all Misrepresentation’.  Or ‘mother something else,’ did I hear someone quip?  It is not ‘all good’ when you go out and stand with a known thief and one who stands accused and is in all likelihood guilty of robbing one’s own organization.  It is not about standing for the principle of ‘truth’ when one deliberately leaves out the thieving and lying part of the story. 
Sunil Jayasekara, Kalupathirana and all the ladies and gentlemen of the FMM have indicted themselves.  They have no one else to blame but themselves for the sorry state that the FMM finds itself in today.  It is never too late in the day to come right.  The rank refusal to do so indicates happy complicity in the transgressions of a swindler.  I don’t know if they were ‘thick-as-thieves’ with Sunanda Deshapriya but this statement coupled with Kalupathirana baby-sitting Deshapriya in Geneva and thereafter demonstrates that the more appropriate descriptive is ‘thick-with-thieves’. 
The FMM could have turned over a new leaf, but it looks like it’s stuck in the old leaves (of a book that Deshapriya will not make public).  Sad. 


04 October 2011

A story about a stray kite on a string-less morning

Human beings accumulate almost as though it is a need. Like breathing.  Some collect wealth, some shares, some gold, some land and property. Some collect stamps, some coins and some memories.  I like books. 
There was a time I collected paper-cuttings of articles I had authored.  I would also occasionally bring home printouts.  I can’t remember when it happened exactly but at one point it became clear that it was not worth the bother.  I figured that since I saved what I wrote in word files it would all be ‘safe’. 
I didn’t factor in carelessness and laziness.  It somehow felt self-indulgent to diligently collect and sort things I had written.  So things got lost as I moved from one work place to another, one computer to another and as diskettes, and later compact discs and pen drives were misplaced or got corrupted.  I haven’t lost any sleep over any of this, though and looking back I think there is something to be said about forgetting. 
There are things that time covers with dust and the inevitable things that come later.  They get buried and forgotten.  Time, however, forces us to wipe off dust and clear out garbage or that which is considered disposable, to be more accurate.  In ou-r house, this takes a long time.  Both my wife and I like to read.  When we come across old papers, we flip through them. The same with letters.  The same with printouts of old articles. 
Sunday was a rare cleaning day and. as often happens, a day for unexpected unearthing.  I was writing my piece for Monday when she came to me with two pieces of paper and a comment: ‘meka harima lassanai’ (This is very beautiful).
It was an article written 8 years ago.  I looked for it on the web, but couldn’t locate it.  I am happy that in the relentless burying that is the passing of time, this piece survived.  It was called ‘Giants fall and kites fly’.  This is how it went (and I am typing it down in parenthesis):
[Two Saturdays ago a kite fell at my feet.  It was early morning and I had just stepped out of the house with my friend Anuruddha.  It is nice to drink tea, alone with my thoughts.  It is equally nice to have tea with someone who is eloquent and funny, and moreover, whose thoughts tend towards the same cultural, philosophical and political spaces.  I like to step outside in the morning with a cup of tea in hand, especially when Anuruddha is around.
It was a clear morning.  Everything exuded the freshness that descends on all things along with the dew.  I don’t quite remember what we were talking about when the air began to tremble with rain that literally came from nowhere.  One moment it was bright sunshine with the coconut trees, the mango tree, the araliya, the jambu and the leave, flowers and grass all sparkling with the newness of a good morning.  The next moment it was raining; large and insistent drops descending like so many silver arrows roaring with a total lack of ambiguity, confidently battering our sensibilities. 
We were too amazed to speak.  We just started laughing. At the same time.  And, again at the same time, we fell silent.  We both saw a kite, strange for that time of day, descending towards the tree tops not too far away.  It came down gently, so very gently, rocking along to its destined rendezvous with the all-embracing earth.  I don’t recall if we gasped or sighed.  I think it was a sigh that escaped not my lungs but my heart.  The same thing must have happened to Anuruddha, for he said, ‘Madihe Haamuduruwo nethi una neda….yodayek vetuna vagei’ (Madihe Hamuduruwo passed away…it is as though a giant has been felled).
A giant falling and a kite swaying in the winds, battered by the rain and yet obeying the dictates of gravity…what a juxtaposition, I thought.  But how appropriate!  I suppose this is how heroes fall.  Or leave us.  I quoted to Anuruddha a line from that week’s ‘King Barnette’ column in the Irida Divaina: ‘Sinhalaye rajjuruwo mala!’ (The King of Sinhale died).  
He didn’t have to say ‘yes’.  We both knew enough about the nation and the stature of the personality, and were persuaded by the same political beliefs to render acknowledgment unnecessary.
Two Saturdays ago, there was no reason to elaborate on a death.  Or a regal personality.  Such a giant was Madihe Haamuduruwo.  Two weeks later, there is still no reason to discuss the extrapolation.  Today I wish to talk just about kites, kite-flying and gentle giants who nourish the earth and its children even when they choose to die.
I remember Saturdays in years so long gone that I cannot name them. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays too. Everyday was kite-day for my brother.  He made kites, he flew them.  He lost them in the trees and in telephone wires. He might have been pained, but somehow I never saw him cry or even sigh. The next moment he would be fiddling about with bamboo, strings and tissue paper; diligently constructing another dream.
A kite is an adventure waiting to take off. Kite-flying is a child’s desire to escape to a different world.  They are stuff dreams are made of.  They teach us that our physical and social limitations are never too strong to keep us tied to the ground.  And, like all dreams, all things in fact, they obey sooner or later, one way or another, the enduring truths of impermanence.  They fall.  Much like how people do. Kites perish, but kite-making and kite-flying lives on.  All it requires is the determination of a child.  All it requires is a child’s creativity. And more than all this, a child’s innocence.
Two Saturdays ago a kite fell at my feet. Two Saturdays ago, it rained in my heart. I did not shed any tears then, but tonight my eyes are wet.  This morning my daughter showed me the tattered remains of a kite that had got entangled in some telephone wires.  She said, ‘eke hadapu aiya eka hondata alavala nethuva ethi neda?’ (the aiya who made it must have not done a good job, no?). How could I answer her? ‘Eya thava ekak hadanna ethi’ (he must have made another), I said.
There is just one tear.  A brush of my hand will wipe it off. Giants fall, Kites fly. Have I learnt a lesson? Should I learn a lesson? Is there a lesson to be learnt? I don’t know. I close my eyes and embrace my child as gently as I possibly can. Tomorrow, there will be another morning. Perhaps there will be another early morning kite-flyer generating dreams for strangers like me. Perhaps the rains will spare him.
Two Saturdays ago a kite fell at my feet. A giant passed away. I do not know why I am smiling, but there must be a reason.]
She is 10 years old and makes her own kites and dreams.  She loses things. All the time.  She delights when they re-surface.  Years later, long after I had forgotten incident, comment, title and sentiment, I put together a collection of poems. I called it ‘Stray kites and stringless days’.  My smile, right now, is wider than it must have been that morning, 8 years ago.  I really don’t know why and am not going to figure out why either. 
All I know is that I hold that little girl even more gently than I did that morning and just as gently as I do her little sister who was only a few days old that day when it rained kites.   


03 October 2011

Calling Naval Commodore Kanishka Kularatne (Rtd): your services are needed sir!

The war is over.  The idea of the war hero has lost its lustre.  Or so they say.  I am not sure on either count.  It would be ideal if we were left alone to resolve our differences and decide our futures.  This is not the case.  If it took men and women of exceptional courage, determination, skill and wisdom to bring to where we are, i.e. a terrorist-free Sri Lanka, such men and women are still needed so we can pick ourselves up, correct our systemic flaws and continue to move ahead boldly and with confidence.

There was a time when our security forces played a ceremonial role.  All that changed in 1971 when the JVP launched its first insurrection and taught this society what terrorism is and what terrorism is capable of.  Tamil chauvinism proved to be a quick learner and surpassed guru swiftly.  Tamil nationalistic terrorism ruled this country for almost three decades.  Freedom was recovered at great cost; all the more reason why it should not only be protected but made more meaningful. 
These are days of off-shore terrorism.  In a different era it would be called invasion.  The trick now is to get proxies within a country to deliver what foreign interests demand.  These are days, therefore, when vigilance has to be maintained.   On all fronts.  While securing national borders is no doubt of paramount importance, but as important is to put in place mechanism whereby national interests in other spheres are protected.  Weaknesses need to be addressed, loopholes eliminated, holes plugged.  Today’s heroes will be those who give their best to be principled in public and private spheres, have unquestioned integrity and are endowed with the skills necessary to put things right.  
Few politicians would make decent soldiers and not all soldiers make good politicians.  On the other hand, if discipline, courage and self-sacrifice are considered useful attributes and indeed considered to be absent in the political firmament, there is a strong argument for such people to contest elections.  Provided of course that they have an exceptional track record and their post-military performance has not left room for doubt regarding outlook and ability.
The end of the war saw many high ranking officers in the security services being offered high posts, including diplomatic appointments. Some made sense, some not.  Some contributed, some didn’t exactly help the cause.  All things considered, however, it can be safely said (and we should not be self-congratulatory in this) that the majority of these individuals were more effective than people who have the training and experience in the relevant fields.  One thing is certain: those who have stellar military records are far superior to your run of the mill politician.  This is why people have elected several such officers to parliament and to provincial councils. 
Navy Commodore Kanishka Kularatne is contesting.  I have never met the man, but when I saw the name I wanted to check him out, for there are officers and officers, some exceptional and some pedestrian, and we live in times when more mileage than is deserved is sought to be obtained on account of having served in the security forces.  I did the background check.
Kanishka Kularatne is an Old Anandian whose leadership qualities were noted even as a schoolboy; he was appointed Head Prefect.  He joined the Navy as a Cadet Officer and being among the brightest prospects in his cohort was selected to follow the International Midshipman Course at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.  HE was the Commanding Officer of several vessels including SLNS Balavatha and SLNS Ranakami and bases such as Gemunu, Tissa, Vijitha, Parakrama and the Dockyard. He also served as the Acting Director (Naval Training) at the Navy Headquarters.
Like many officers, he too won many medals.  Unlike many, he was honoured with the Ranashura Medal for bravery and gallantry, especially for his exceptional dedication and courage in combatting terrorism.  Does that single him out? Probably not.  He nevertheless stands among the tallest in the security forces.
In my inquiries I came across an interesting story about the man.  Sometime in the year 2003, i.e. when the Ceasefire Agreement was in operation, he had been detailed to search for a ship purportedly carrying arms for the LTTE.  Today everyone knows that the CFA was a sham and was a mechanism for the LTTE to rearm, recuperate, recruit and regroup in anticipation of renewed hostilities.  Back then, those of us who made that argument were vilified as ‘war mongers’ not willing to ‘give peace a chance’.  The Army knew, though, and so too the Air Force and the Navy.  Their hands were tied. 
Kanishka was directed to take whatever action was feasible.  On June 13th or 14th, 2003, the said arms ship was detected.  Two stories. One, that facing imminent engagement by a determined and superior weaponry, the terrorists opted for self-destruction.  The other was that Naval Commodore  Kanishka Kularatne engaged the rogue vessel and destroyed it.  The first story claims that the incident occurred inside territorial waters while the second claims it happened beyond waters that legitimately came under the jurisdiction of the Navy.
The matter was inquired into by the SLMM.  Strangely, they seem to have dismissed the fact that the LTTE had no business to engage in arms smuggling.  Naval Commodore Kularatne got a lot of flak.  He was exonerated. 
I am not versed in the relevant legalities, but it is clear to me that any rogue arms shipment which delivers people-killing instruments to a bunch of ruthless terrorists is a massive threat to the ordinary citizens of the country.  If the leaders sanction such smuggling for whatever reason then I don’t think it is incumbent on any right thinking citizen to uphold such laws.  It is different for an office of the Navy.  If it was indeed the second story that is true, then Kanishka is a hero in my eyes.  He would not have been unaware of the personal costs of embarking on such a course of action.  If it is the first story that is true, then too, the precipitating factor was his presence and readiness to engage.  Either way, a hero. 
That kind of sacrifice I do not see in our present day politicians.  Indeed few would expect our politicians to show even a fraction of the courage and to be ready to give up a fraction of what Naval Commodore Kularatne was ready to sacrifice. 
That war was won and it is because of people like Kanishka.  Today we are in the midst of another war, that of restoring dignity and effectiveness to public office.  Kanishka won’t be able to do it alone.  But then again, it will not get done if not for people like him doing what they can do: being courageous, determined, ready to sacrifice and putting country and fellow citizen before self. 

02 October 2011

The Australian Greens: dumb pawns of terrorism?

The word ‘green’ has benign political connotations.  It is a proxy for things related to environment and ecology, especially in terms of conservation.  Greens are environment-friendly.  Considering their opposition to the dominant modes of development and critique of capitalism given the destruction that particular economic model unleashes on the environment might believe they are radical and revolutionary.   Hence the sobriquet ‘Green-Reds’.  Such ‘greens’ are called ‘watermelons’, for they are green outside and red inside or at least considered to be thus coloured. 
Lee Rhionnan and the Greens: deficient in grey matter?

Greens, like others, have the right to talk about non-green things or things that are only marginally green, after all there are lots of things that are not directly related to the environment that decent human beings ought to object to.  If greens talk about, say, the global threat posed by terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, drug cartels, corruption, diplomatic double-speak, preference for double-standards, machinations of the pharmaceutical industry or how monarchies (e.g. British) remain anti-citizen just as military juntas and other tyrannical systems of governance (e.g. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain), no one can say ‘hey, that’s not your territory!’ 

So when the Greens in Australia deigned to speak about Sri Lanka, it is not illegitimate.  On the other hand, a passionate love for the natural world and commendable concern over humankind’s ingratitude to Mother Earth and indeed wanton destruction caused in the scandalous search for profit and instant gratification does not give anyone the license to engage in mischief, misrepresentation and downright dissemination of falsehoods. 

The Australian Greens, no doubt, enjoy some popularity for the stands they take in the territories about which they are well informed. Perhaps this is why people listen when they talk about other things that fall out of the domain of principal interest.  They may be right about certain subjects but when it comes to Sri Lanka they are not only ignorant but are way out of order, in pronouncement and demand.

They recently called for Sri Lanka to be suspended from the Commonwealth and have gone to the extent of demanding that delegates from the Sri Lankan Government to be refused visa to attend the CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) in Perth, if it is found they do not meet the ‘character test’ and ‘public criteria test’.

Sri Lanka, according to the Australian Greens is resisting the setting up of a tribunal to investigate war crimes.  Now would the Greens applaud and support moves to set up a tribunal to investigate war crimes perpetrated by Australia (in supporting mass slaughter courtesy NATO), or crimes against humanity perpetrated for centuries against aboriginal peoples in their country?  Let’s assume that Australia is not guilty of any such transgression and that these are mere allegations mouthed by parties interested in vilifying Australia.  Would the Greens agitate for the Australian Government to accede to demands for an investigating tribunal? 

The fact of the matter is that the Australian Greens have shown themselves to be ignorant and ready pawns in the machinations of anti-Sri Lankan groups, in particular terrorists, terrorist sympathizers and others who have an axe to grind with Sri Lanka because preferred outcome did not materialize. 

The wording is fascinating.  They plan to ‘hold a meeting of legal experts and community leaders to discuss how to build on growing international support for a tribunal to look into the deaths of 40,000 Tamils in 2009’.

So, it is not allegation any more, but fact!  Where did they get these numbers from and do they know who crunched them?  It has been proven beyond any shadow of doubt, using all data pertaining to the numbers held hostage by the LTTE that the sources that threw up these numbers got it deliberately wrong.  Verification and validation are not useful political tools of course but one would expect those who are principled about one thing (environment) would be principled across the board.  The Greens fail the character test here. 

The highest estimate of the population trapped in the conflict-zone was 305,000.  Some 297,000 were rescued.  The last LTTE communication intercepted indicated that over 4000 terrorists had perished during the period under review.  More would have died thereafter.  Witness accounts indicated that the LTTE killed hundreds if not thousands of Tamils they held hostage as they sought to flee to areas under the control of the Sri Lankan security forces.  Hundreds of others moved to other parts of the country and to India without registering at the stations set up to receive fleeing civilians.  Just doesn’t add up to 40,000. 

The original figure given was 7,000 by a UN employee who had to leave the country for cosying up to terrorists.  The UN dismissed this claim and disassociated itself from the figure.  Jacking up numbers is good for propaganda.  This doesn’t serve truth-finding, however. 

What is important to understand is that wild conjecture based on a number tossed up for propaganda purposes is now being treated as fact.  There are no ‘allegations’ any more.  ‘Allegation’ implies that ‘could be wrong’ is possible.  The Australian Greens are now complicit in the mischief-making, malicious misrepresentation and diabolical machinations of the rump of a terrorist outfit.  They run the risk of having their ‘green’ claims dismissed as fairytales and conjured horror stories that have no basis in reality. 

My friend Harsha Perera, a citizen of Australia has politely and eloquently responded to the malice and misinformation.  I reproduce here a paragraphs of his open letter to the Australian Greens. 

‘I am very concerned that the greens in its assessment of Sri Lanka haven’t given any consideration to the actual ground situation there. It could have ascertained this information through a fact finding visit to Sri Lanka, by making inquiries through Sri Lanka’s high commission in Australia and by engaging with Sri Lankan community members in Australia who are not a part of the LTTE’s international network. A golden opportunity to hear Sri Lanka’s side of the equation was missed by the Greens when they didn’t attend the presentation made by the Sri Lanka High Commission at the Australian Federal Parliament in August 2011. This absence was despite invitations being extended to the greens to attend this event.’

Seems to be extra-polite (to the point of silence) when it comes to proven crimes against humanity
Interestingly, John Dowd of the International Commission of Jurists, Australia, a QC and former NSW attorney-general , has echoed the Greens (I don’t know if he’s a member of that clearly confused political group): ‘The Commonwealth has to realise it can't keep being polite when one of its members is guilty of (such) crimes.’

Well, the Greens can get Dowd to use his legal skills to issue a note of horror on Britain’s guilt on the same grounds.  After all, the Deputy Prime Minister, no less, confessed that the invasion of Iraq was illegal.  The Greens, I assume, have enough intelligence to collate the data on atrocities, crimes against humanity, genocide and such perpetrated by or actively supported or defended by the British.  Being a colony of the Britain, I don’t know what the legal standing of moving against the Crown would be, but I am sure Dowd can figure a way to work through the legalities. 

Or would Dowd and the likes of Greens senator Lee Rhiannon remain ‘polite’?  And if so, would they deign to issue a statement on double standards and resolve to spend the rest of their political lives in navel-gazing?  I wonder.  I really do.