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by Krishantha Prasad Cooray
Crisis and turmoil are probably the opposite of sun and sand. The very whiff of these words associated with a country in the news deters most travelers from visiting even the most beguiling of destinations. The discerning traveler, however, spots opportunity, for not all crises are equal. Some can, in fact, lead to a six-star vacation at a three star price.
Put another way, a European for example, could consider the option of a four-month tropical holiday as opposed to footing a gas bill four times the cost of such a vacation.  Consequently, today, if we were to mark the countries in crisis on a map, the country that immediately fits this criteria would be Sri Lanka.Among the many heart-warming stories of how humanity rose above all the trauma and enforced deprivation produced by the Covid-19 pandemic is one that didn’t really go viral worldwide. Some 40 tourists, mostly young backpackers on shoestring budgets, were stranded in Ella, 200 km East of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
Darshana Ratnayake, a cafe owner, knew that the small bed-and-breakfast lodges would soon run out of food due to severed supply chains and be forced to shut down. He offered free food and shelter for the tourists.For Ratnayake the decision was easy: ‘Our livelihood depends on tourism. We must help tourists when they are in trouble. Money isn’t everything. We must help and share at difficult times like this.’
The Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan ways of this story are timeless. They have survived all manner of calamities, human-made and natural, from floods, droughts, cyclones and a debilitating tsunami in recent years and, in the longue durée, half a millennia of colonial rule, over 70 years of gross mismanagement after Independence, two bloody insurrections and three decades of war.Turmoil. That’s a word which seems to have become a ‘must’ in all news related to Sri Lanka over the past few months. There are others such as crisis, bankruptcy, unrest, agitation, uncertainty and loan default. These, for three months ending on July 9, 2022, were often accompanied by visuals of mass protests.
A bloody overthrow or else a bloody crushing of dissent was on the cards. Neither happened. The people protested, a leader abdicated. A peaceful transition of power. A case study, in fact, about democracy in action, in constitutional terms and in spirit.Political change does not immediately translate into economic prosperity. This is especially true when the antecedents are congealed in institutional arrangements, established procedures and cultures of administration. Sri Lanka remains in the throes of unprecedented crisis which, in addition to precipitating local processes, is reflective of global economic turmoil.
The human being is a resilient creature but it would be hard to find a people as resilient as those who live in Sri Lanka, an island which floats between being the pearl and the teardrop of the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka was known to other ages and peoples long gone as Taprobane, Serendib, Asia’s Granary and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It could also be referred to as the Island of Spices or indeed Cinnamon Island given that Sri Lanka produces the best cinnamon in the world. Perhaps Island of Smiles is also apt. And if a tag is demanded then Island of the World’s Best Tea would work considering the priceless flavours of what’s known as Ceylon Tea.
Accounts from as far back as the time of the Pharaohs and indeed the legendary epics of India speak of the island’s innumerable natural and human-made endowments. They’ve not failed to mention the ability of the people to bear with fortitude the bludgeoning of chance, the readiness to smile through catastrophe and to shelve personal tragedy at will in order to welcome and shower with hospitality random strangers.
To put in a nutshell that’s easier to comprehend, through good times and bad, Sri Lanka is probably the only country in the world where two friends who have dined together and enjoyed an evening of easy conversation laced with frequent peals of laughter actually fight each other to pick up the cheque. It happens all over the country. One should not be surprised at the generosity for Sri Lanka, after all, has been gifting eyes to the world for decades, hundreds of thousands volunteering for eye-donation upon the eventuality of death.
Sri Lanka is in an economic crisis, there’s no reason to deny it. And yet, there is a Sri Lanka that has enchanted so many travelers over millennia and from all continents in ways that have made almost every single one of them want to return again and again. This Sri Lanka stands firm, unbowed and continues to smile despite trade imbalance, shortage of fuel, gas and fertilizer, and other hardships.
What is this resilient and unmoving and indeed immovable Sri Lanka, though? What is it that remains unchanged and unperturbed by descriptions such as turmoil, crisis, bankruptcy, agitation, scarcity and foreign exchange woes? Unfortunately, the answer cannot be offered in a few hundred words, but a preview for those unfamiliar can be put together.
References to Sri Lanka’s physical and cultural attributes inspire the will to visit, but they are nevertheless misleading. Sri Lanka is much more than the eight World Heritage Sites. This is partly because of a rich, varied and many-layered history that goes back far beyond events and personalities of two and a half millennia formally chronicled.
It is also partly due to a diversity of fauna and flora due to Sri Lanka’s enviable location as a tropical island in the Indian Ocean blessed by winds and rains from the Southwest and the Northeast, not to mention a unique geography with three climatic zones sub divisible into no less than 46 ecological zones.Sri Lanka has the highest biodiversity per unit area of land among Asian countries. The wet zone rain forests are home to nearly all of the country’s woody endemic plants, and about 75% of its endemic animals. And it is not just rain forests; Sri Lanka has a striking variety of forest types thanks to spatial variation in rainfall, altitude and soils.
One can imagine the range of exquisite culinary diversity all this translates into. As someone pointed out, all fruit and vegetables grown in Sri Lanka, including those originating in far off lands, and even the fish in Sri Lankan waters taste that much better due to these multiple diversities. Economic crisis has taken away nothing of the relevant fragrances and flavours.
You may have heard of the World Heritage Sites such as Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Dambulla, Anuradhapura, Kandy and the Galle Fort, each replete with exotic histories and equally remarkable archaeological treasures that speak of rich heritage. The archaeological maps tell a richer story. The entire island is dotted with archaeological sites, each replete with references to chronicled history and each attended by legends conveyed and obviously embellished and made richer by oral tradition.
Fascinating are the multiple narratives which remain in the peripheries of and beyond the touristic routes. It is an island that awaits and welcomes explorers and exploration. That island is not agitated by crises of any kind.
The Central Hills are also under ‘World Heritage Sites,’ but there are hills and there are hills. The roads cut through tea plantations, where the delicate plucking produces what appears from afar as lush and finely made carpets of green. They roll down from forest lines of a darker hue and fall to vegetable gardens or paddy fields that sit among hamlets that seem to have come from folktales centuries old.
There are other hills that rise from relatively flat terrain outside the central massif. They have their own histories and unique ecologies. Again, made to delight the explorer. Again, undeterred by economic downturns.There are religious and cultural pageants around the year. There’s dancing and drumming. There are chants from Buddhist temples and Hindu Kovils, the call to prayer emanating from mosques and hymns that descend on adjacent communities from churches every Sunday and on festival days.
There are destinations for pilgrimages such as Adam’s Peak, revered by all faiths, some who believe the footprint at the top is that of Adam, made when he was hurled from Paradise, some who believe it is Lord Shiva and others as a mark left by the Buddha. Adam’s Peak has known travelers from ancient times. Adam’s Peak is as immovable as can be. Unmoved by economic crises that have at times engulfed the island and the world.
There are rivers, 103 of them, all originating in the central hills, radially flowing to an ocean where waves, calmed by coral reefs, break into shallow waters lined by golden sands. And each beach has its own character, each attended by particular gifts, from surfing to brilliantly coloured marine life among corals to whale-watching and diving to shipwrecks several hundred years old. Untouched by crisis, obviously.
All these places, all these festivities and living heritage are peopled. And they are always smiling. They know of crisis and turmoil because they are the obvious recipients or victims of such things, but they survive and their ancestors have, with good humour that makes it easier to suffer deprivation and an ethic of giving and hospitality that is as enchanting as anything you would encounter in the island. It is an island of smiles.
Sri Lankans, for example, were full of smiles when an Australian cricket team visited the island recently. They braved all manner of scarcity to fill the stadiums. They were so grateful to the Australians for disregarding horror stories about the island that they turned by in Aussie colours; the stadium was a riot of yellow, putting aside a long history of sporting antipathy. They were all smiling. The visiting Australians essentially told a doubting world a simple story: Sri Lanka is not just ok to visit, but it is a place of so many small miracles, all contained in less than 66,000 square kilometers.’
Alex Degmetich, a 31-year-old American cruise line entertainment director, who benefited from Ratnayake’s largesse, put it well: ‘We were totally blown away. Coming from Western society, where nothing is really given to us and we have to pay for everything which is fine. But here, locals providing us tourists with free food and accommodation, is really humbling.’
Rebecca Curwood-Moss, a tourist from England, also a beneficiary, went further when referring to the meals Ratnayake had offered: ‘In the box, we didn’t just find the delicious homemade rice and curry, but we found hope.’
There are things to which one cannot really assign stars. Sri Lanka is made of a million such things. And there are hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans ready to reveal them all to you, one by one.
Tribute to Professor Dr Ronald Lewcock
“THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER!”
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We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever; the goal is to create something that will.
Chuck Palahnuik
I felt very sad when I heard of the death of Ron Lewcock on August 13. He had not been his usual self ever since Barbara Sansoni Lewcock, his wife of 42 years, died just two and a half months previous. They were in Sri Lanka and at home in Anderson Road, Colombo 5, when she passed away. Ron continued living here, well looked after by Barbara’s son Dominic, daughter-in-law Nazrin, their grandchildren and members of the household – Kavidas and Mallika. I personally feel Ron just could not accept the fact that Barbara was no more. They shared life completely; and when she was declining in health he had been so concerned and considerate to her.
Ron was a truly distinguished architect, world renowned, and a university lecturer in demand. His special field of research was the architecture of the Middle East and Asia about which he wrote much. He was also deeply interested in the vernacular and colonial-era architecture of South Asia, particularly of Sri Lanka.
I first met Ron in the early 1990s. Tall and gentle, always smiling and with a twinkle in his eye, he seemed to be the quintessential absent-minded professor. He and Barbara made a great team and when you met them you felt uplifted by their sense of humour and joy for life.
Student and professional life
Ron, an only child, was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1928. As a sailor from age nine, he was keen on the design of boats, houseboats and houses up until age 15. In 1947, he started his architectural degree at the University of Queensland, and completed it in 1951 at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. While a lecturer in architecture at the University of Natal, he obtained his Doctorate from the University of Cape Town for a thesis titled Early 19th Century Architecture in South Africa: the interaction of two cultures – Dutch & English.
He earned a visiting fellowship to Columbia University, New York. His subject of study, which he continued to explore throughout his career, was European Colonial Architecture in Africa and Asia. In 1968-69, during his sabbatical, he undertook fieldwork on this subject. This brought Ron to Sri Lanka, where he met Barbara Sansoni. He travelled extensively through the country and became enchanted by its varied architecture. He also found an affinity to the Arab and colonial architecture of the East African Coast and South Africa. This led him to the study of Asian and African indigenous architecture, especially to Islamic, but also Hindu and Buddhist architecture
In 1970, he was awarded a research fellowship to Clare Hall in Cambridge, England and became a Foundation Fellow two years later. He taught at Cambridge University and the Architectural Association in London.
Ron returned to Sri Lanka for three months of each year during the 1970s and early 80s for his colonial architectural research, broadening it to include the local vernacular. In this he was assisted by Barbara Sansoni and Laki Senanayake, who became his close friends. The previous year he was commissioned by Habitat to undertake the listing and preservation of historic buildings and zones in the Colombo urban area which was completed the next year. He began to prepare his magnum opus The Architecture of an Island for publication with Barbara Sansoni, who did almost all of the perspectives, and Laki Senanayake, vastly extending the archive of measured drawings which had been initiated by Ulrik Plesner in the early 1960s. The book was hand collated and produced with the help of Architect C Anjalendran; not yet being the age of digital technology. Unfortunately more than half the 100 examples in the tome have disappeared – mostly brought down, destroyed!
In 1972, Ron was appointed architect of the America Research Center in Egypt’s conservation of Bayt al-Razzaz, the largest Mamluk Palace of the 15th century. Subsequently he was requested by the World Bank to prepare a proposal for the conservation of the northern half of the old walled city of Cairo. Having obtained funding from the “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” Fund, administered by Lawrence of Arabia’s family, he participated in the University of Cambridge expedition to Yemen in 1972. Here, though arrested seven times, Ron single handedly measured 40 major buildings and exposed over 40 rolls of film. When the exhibition of this work titled Nomad and the City was held at the Museum of Mankind – a section of the British Museum – as part of The World of Islam Festival in 1976, it became the most attended British Museum exhibition up until that time.
Kuwait and the Northern Gulf
was published in 1976 and Ron was appointed UNESCO consultant and advisor to the Sultan on the conservation of the heritage of Muscat and Oman. In 1983, he led a four month conservation mission to China for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. A year later, Ron became the first Aga Khan Professor of Architecture at MIT and was also often chairman of the Aga Khan Programme at Harvard and MIT.
From 1991 Ronald taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology as Professor of the Doctoral Programme in Architecture, and was appointed Professor Emeritus in 2008. In the same year he was appointed an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland, where he conducted a senior course on Architecture in Asia. Till very recently he advised on the conservation of the Great Mosque of San’a, which is one of the oldest mosques in the Islamic world, originally built in the lifetime of the Prophet.
I quote from the presentation made by Architect C Anjalendran at the third cycle of the Geoffrey Bawa Awards 2013/14 for Excellence in Architecture, celebrated at Park Street Mews on the evening of 23 July 2014.
“Ronald has three segments in his illustrious career. Firstly, his research and writing on architecture of Sri Lanka, Africa as well as of the Islamic and Colonial world. Secondly, his contribution to the building of several educational institutions. Thirdly, and perhaps, most importantly, the empowerment of younger generations of architects in their understanding and appreciation of architecture and art, appropriate to their countries of origin.”
Ronald Lewcock has many more publications and honours to his name; more than a hundred articles; and contributions to major architecture, art and culture encyclopedias – 1970 onwards.
Ron the humane person
He married Barbara Sansoni in 1980 and was devoted to her, insisting she travel with him to Australia, Cambridge and the US, right up to 2020. Christmas was always spent in Colombo with family and local friends.
I must add here that Ron was a perfect person, truly so; kind, considerate, humorous and fun loving. He would have moved with kings and nations’ presidents but he never lost his generous ability to speak showing genuine interest and friendliness to the very ordinary person. I have chatted to him and Barbara at the Galle Literary Festivals; visited them in their home, had them in my home and met more often and for longer evenings when I holidayed with my son in Atlanta, where Ron and Barbara moved to from Boston. They looked to my son’s well being when he was new in Boston.
Then he moved to Atlanta for his higher degrees and when Ron and Barbara moved to Atlanta, he was helpful to them in various ways. My son would invite them both along with other friends for drinks enjoyed on the rooftop of the building. Ron would make it a point to sit with me, often on the half wall of the entertaining area, and listen with interest to what I chatted about. He was such a kind and affectionate person.
Within Ron’s many accomplishments is the significant legacy of hundreds, nay thousands of students who studied under him, many of them pursued their PhDs under his guidance. Most are now academics and leaders in their fields, heading departments and making their own contributions to the realm of architecture. So Ron’s influence, his humanism, his love for buildings and the people who inhabit them, will continue to live on.Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived that distinguish one man from another. Ernest Hemingway.
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By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca
Plans for a Big Trip to 16 countries
“Congratulations! You have fulfilled all the requirements with flying colours to obtain the M.Sc. degree in International Hotel Management from the University of Surrey. I am proud of you, Chandi!” My dissertation supervisor, Professor Richard Kotas, told me the good news over the phone and then invited me to lunch. “Let’s meet in London to celebrate”. At lunch, he told me that the convocation would be held at the University of Surrey within two months, by early December of 1984.
Professor Kotas told me his inspiring life story over lunch, “I landed in the United Kingdom as a Polish refugee just after the end of the World War II. I was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp in Germany during the war.” He said, “I worked very hard after gaining my freedom, to progress in life and my career in this country. Your work ethics remind me of my younger days in England. I will help you.” Thus, he became my mentor for the rest of his life.After lunch we walked around a few art galleries and a museum. Professor Kotas was impressed with how well I knew shortcuts in London. “Chandi, I have lived in London since 1946, but I see that you are far more familiar with Central London than I. You’d do well as a London tour guide,” he joked.
When he heard that while searching for a suitable management position in an internationally branded five-star hotel, I also wanted to continue to travel the world, he encouraged me to do so. “That’s a good idea. You’ve worked very hard to finish your master’s degree on time. Take a break from your busy schedule and explore continental Europe further. Chandi, the World is your Oyster!”
When I went home, I planted some seeds in my wife’s mind. I reminded her of the famous proverb from the seventeenth century, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. We then decided to tie up some loose ends in London during the next three months, and do a long trip. Our desire was to do a long multi-country trip by rail and ship, soon after the New Year’s Eve of 1984. Our ambitious plan was to visit 16 countries in the European Union, Eastern Europe and a quick visit to the African continent.
I scheduled many job interviews before the trip. I also spent a lot of time visiting embassies in London. Travelling with Sri Lankan passports meant that we needed visas for most of these countries. After a quick calculation, we budgeted to do the whole trip within six weeks, by spending a maximum of £1,000. The trick was to spend some nights in the trains and not to buy any presents. We planned to carry only backpacks. When my wife said that the winter would be very cold in the Eastern Europe, I said, “Yes. It is going to be our biggest adventure!”
Continuing Professional Development
Having earned a master’s degree, which was unique for a hotelier at that time, I was not prepared to stop learning or studying. London was a good place for a lifelong learner. I had a few irons in the fire. I attended many professional and trade events in London such as Hotelympia – the UK’s largest food service and hospitality event, World Travel Mart – the leading global event for the travel industry, annual British Bartender’s Trade Show, and the annual general meeting of the world’s largest professional body for hospitality managers – Hotel & Catering International Management Association (HCIMA).
I was also invited to attend the meetings of HCIMA’s largest branch – London, which at that time had 2,000 members. The contacts I made in 1984, were helpful in being elected to the Board of HCIMA – London Branch six years later when I lived in London again. That experience encouraged me to commence HCIMA – Sri Lanka Chapter, HCIMA – Jamaica Chapter and HCIMA – Ontario, Canada Chapter, as the founder in later years. Finally, several doors opened for me to be elected as one of the two international members of the HCIMA’s main council, a Board Member, Chairman of the International Development Committee, and eventually the World-wide President of HCIMA, and the Chairman of HCIMA Limited, UK. In those roles I travelled the globe as an Ambassador for HCIMA, and was also involved in inaugurating chapters in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Goa, India.
I took a few other courses while in London in 1984. I successfully completed part three (out of four parts) of the Trainer Skills program run by the Hotel and Catering Industry Training Board (HCITB). I was also successful in completing the Senior Certificate or part two (out of three parts) of the famous Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), a must have qualification for a sommelier. For two months, every evening I went to the WSET world headquarters in London, happily learning about and tasting six different wines and spirits every evening. My wife laughed whenever I came home after the classes jolly and extra talkative!
Busy Social Life
Our circle of friends in London expanded rapidly. After completing my studies, we became busy entertaining and visiting friends. My mother-in-law, who is a great cook, came to stay with us for six months. She and I planned many elaborate menus to entertain our friends. We also became unofficial tour guides of London to many visiting friends and family. Our good friends from Austria spent a week with us. The former guests of the Hotel Swanee which I managed in late 1970s, frequently invited us to their homes and visited our home to enjoy home-cooked Sri Lankan food.
One weekend we visited the family of Mark Bostock, then Chairman of John Keells Group of companies. On our second day in the Bostock residence in Tunbridge Wells located in Kent, a large group of their English friends arrived to spend the day. When we heard that they had all visited Sri Lanka and loved spicy food, my mother-in-law and I offered to make a surprise Sri Lankan dinner, which was a big hit. “Chandana, please don’t tell anyone in Sri Lanka, that the Chairman of John Keells was your cooking assistant in Kent!” Mark Bostock, joked after giving me a helping hand with cleaning and cutting vegetables from his back garden.
A Memorable Meeting
One day I befriended a leading Sri Lankan politician, Gamini Dissanayake. He was visiting London for his work in his capacity as the as the Chairperson of the Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka. He was pleased to hear that I had completed a master’s degree in my field. He showed keen interest in graduate studies in the United Kingdom. Eight years later, when I heard that in the middle of a hectic, political career he completed a master’s degree in International Relations at  Cambridge University, I was not surprised.
When I invited Gamini for a dinner at our home, he said that, “Thank you. I will be at your place tomorrow evening. I am delighted to try your cooking, but it will not be too much work for you. I am a vegetarian, but eat eggs occasionally.” He came to our home around 8:00 pm with a security details arranged by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. As a senior cabinet minister at that time in the midst of a civil war in Sri Lanka, Gamini was a top target for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
We had a long and enjoyable chat before and after dinner about terrorism, tourism, politics, graduate studies and cricket. Gamini was a great story teller. The funniest story he told me that evening was how he in 1970, at the age 28 as a newly elected opposition member of the parliament, tried to become friendly with some older politicians holding senior cabinet posts.
Gamini spoke fondly about the leaders of the leftist movement of Sri Lanka, Dr. N. M. Perera and Dr. Colvin R. de Silva. Gamini said, “eventually I became a friend of Minister N. M. Perara, who invited me to his house for a drink. N. M. then spent a few minutes unlocking some large padlocks to open his liquor cabinet, complaining that his cook and the gardener drank his liquor without his permission!” Around 12 midnight, when a coordinator came to give Gamini a gentle reminder that he has an early meeting next day at the London Buddhist temple, he left. Gamini also left a very positive impression in my mind.
I knew that Gamini Dissanayake had worked hard to obtain Test status for Sri Lanka, from the International Cricket Council (ICC). Various previous attempts had been repeatedly stopped by the founding members of ICC – England and Australia, who had continually exercised their veto power. Gamini’s charisma, diplomacy and negotiating skills finally allowed Sri Lanka to compete in the highest level of Cricket from 1981. He had pulled off the greatest victory for Sri Lankan Cricket off the field.
Fifteen years later, Sri Lanka won the World cup for Cricket beating Australia. Unfortunately, Gamini did not live to see that great achievement. In 1994, at the age of 52, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, Gamini was campaigning to become the fourth Executive President of Sri Lanka. While addressing an election rally, he was assassinated by a suicide bomber of the LTTE.
Cricket at Lord’s
In the summer of 1984, Sri Lanka was scheduled to play their first, test cricket match at the Mecca of the gentleman’s game – Lord’s Grounds at the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in London. Like many Lankans living in England at that time, my wife and I rushed to purchase tickets for this historic game. It was five days of great entertainment.
Sri Lanka surprised England by scoring a massive score of 491 for seven wickets and declaring the inning closed. Two of my schoolmates from Ananda College excelled in that game. Sidath Wettamuni, who was three years my junior at school, scored 190 and won the ‘Player of the Match’ award. Arjuna Ranatunga was ten years my junior at school, but I used to meet him frequently when he visited our class, as his mother was our geography teacher in Grade 10. Arjuna scored 84 and had a strong 148-run partnership with Sidath. I was proud of their performance. This game was the test debut of another great cricketer – Aravinda de Silva. In 1996, Arjuna and Aravinda steered the Sri Lanka team to win the World Cup Cricket, the third most watched sporting event in the world.
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By Kumar David
Life is depressing; the media perpetually serious; Lynn Ockersz solemn in “Impact of security on foreign policy” ( https://island.lk/impact-of-security-considerations-on-foreign-policy-crafting/. Inflation we are warned may rise to 60%. Come on, let’s take a day off, let’s have fun!
I admit to coveting a Jonathan Swift like glee to satirise for the delight of my readers, but my take is not that absurd. I am also a fan of Samuel Johnson’s quip that “patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel” though in these parliamentary times we need to add politician to scoundrel. We carry passports to cross borders not because of nationalist zeal but practical reasons. If your parents copulated on the right bank of the Indus you are obliged to loathe Indians, if they took a ferry a few hundred yards across the river and satiated their lust on the other bank, you have to despise Pakistanis. What diabolical hypocrisy!
Here is my solution to all our nationalist ills and travails, and it’s not all tongue in cheek; I have Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift and Albert Einstein on my side. My thesis invokes donating, leasing, gifting or abandoning parts of our fair Isle as follows.
Lease the Northern and Eastern Provinces to Tamil Nadu for an agreed period. Imagine the relief! No more Thamil Eelam, LTTE talk or Sun God worship. For the Tamil Nadu situation see ‘Rajiv Gandhi Assassination’, New Dawn Press, ISBN 1 904910 04, by D.R. Kaarthikeyan who tracked the murder, prosecuted and secured convictions. (My comment is not to be confused with the deadly serious Leninist concept of the ‘Right of Nations to Self-Determination’)
In line with current practice grant the Chinese a 99-year lease on the whole Southern Province on condition they agree to drown all surviving Paksas far out to sea south of Hambantota.
Hand over the Central and Uva Provinces to Scotland for 50 years. The Scots not the English developed the tea plantations – remember upcountry names Dunsinane, Aberdeen, Caledonia, St Clair’s, Hatton, Dalhousie and dozens more. Older middle- and upper-class folk speak ever so fondly of colonial times (“We did not know who was Sinhalese, Tamil or Muslim; “We played as one and ran in and out of each other’s homes”; “The government was not so rotten”). They will, one and all, secretly or openly, welcome switching to Scotch, single-malt or blended.
The NCP and NWP can be leased to Switzerland on a commercial basis for 20 years so that the Cultural Triangle and the beaches from Kalpitiya via Puttalam to near Mannar can be made world class tourist resorts.
So far so good. This leaves only the restless Sinhala provinces, Western and Sabaragamuwa, which nobody in their senses wants to have anything to do with. I have a solution. Levy a tax on the other seven provinces as annual payment to any foolhardy foreigner who has the temerity. Japan may have a go if the occupying power is allowed use of unlimited force as during WW2.
You see the problems of a dysfunctional, broke and racial-religious strife-ridden island can be cured if Lankans can be coaxed out of their adolescent measles. My Editor, a man of courage and humour, may find my tongue in cheek proposal to solve our legendary ‘national question’ sailing rather too close to the wind. Is it rash to enrage saffron costumes and Burma-returned white poplin reddhas? But dear reader, please do give my proposals a little thought.
OK, I will get serious and change track to China, a giant where deification inextricably interweaves leader and nation; a condition not unfamiliar in Lanka. For nearly two decades Lanka has been a Rajapaksa fiefdom. At the 2005 election Prabhakaran ensured Mahinda’s victory over Ranil (with a mere 50.3% of the poll) by ordering Tamils not to vote for the latter. Then he had himself shot like a dog on the shores of Nandikadal. Mahinda as demigod is a Prabhakaran construct and the 69 lakhs who voted for Gota an outcome of this favour.
Deification in China destined the distinction between leader and nation to vanish. A constellation of fibs turned into gospel truth, fake science, grossly erroneous Lysenkoism (rejection of Darwin, Mendel and genetics), absurd notions of extending class-struggle to close crop-planting and deep-ploughing (plants, like the proletariat we were told, bond tightly and deeply!). Cross-breeding rabbits and pigs and farming half-melon half-papaya fruit as per Lysenko’s notion that environment not genetics is all pervasive was the game.
Such are the screw-ball theories that manifested themselves in Party factions. Reliable sources claim the Great Helmsman was suffering multiple personality disorder by the time of the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962). I remember Prof. S. Mahalingam, one of Lanka’s finest old-school engineering researchers, teasing an ardent young Maoist lecturer in the corridors of the Peradeniya Faculty about backyard furnaces. With a rolling motion of his palms and a twinkle in his eye he inquired “Dr X do they make ball-bearings like this from cast iron in China?” Steel output in 1957 using conventional methods was 8 million tonnes but the ridiculous target set for 1960 using backyard furnaces was 22 million. Most of it crumbled like sundried animal dung.
Only two leaders consistently fought Mao’s extremism which led to 30 million famine deaths and cannibalism in a self-inflicted calamity. The great opponents were Marshal Peng Dehuai, Commander in Chief of Chinese Communist forces during the Long March and Defence Minister of the PRC after the revolution, the other was Liu Shaoqi. Both were murdered in prison by pro-Mao party cadres. The other leaders (Deng Xiaoping, Chou Enlai, Zhao Zemin, Hu Yaobang) ducked the pre-Great Leap forward struggle.
While millions died in the famine fake figures of bumper harvests were issued. The moral of the story is very pertinent to Sri Lanka; if you allow a leader to become a demigod the distinction between leader and nation disappears. The reflection of this is 69 lakhs of buffalos. The lesson for current times is do not allow Ranil to overstep democratic spaces, restrain him within constitutional legitimacy and prevent renewal of this unwarranted State of Emergency.
There is a second lesson and like the first the scale is 1000 to one. It is the abuse of science. Mao’s psychosis invaded scientific space. We see something similar though on a tiny scale in Gota’s hilarious fertiliser “policy”, ignorance of renewable electric energy and his dumbo treatment of medical experts on how to deal with Covid-19. As for witchcraft, amulets, ghosts, goblins and the likes of Gnanakka, he is the same as Mahinda. Neither has taken an elementary course in science, they are dumb about technology but these dolts made science, technology and environmental policy.
A third lesson from Maoist China with obvious overtones in Sri Lanka is that plans to modernise the nation, rationalise the economy, extend industries, build elevated railways and roads, simply to do things in a sensible and rational way, were undermined by political instability which undermines rational decision-making. Decision making in China went bonkers after Mao’s illness reached a clinical stage. On a smaller scale we see the same during the Mahinda-Basil-Gota regime. The overthrow of Gota by aragalaya, a great service to Lanka, has had a side effect. A few enthusiastic activists are encouraging instability now when the economy appears to be picking up and prospects of IMF and foreign financial support seem to be improving. They must reassess their theories.
[For a study of the Mao-famine, “Hungry Ghosts” by Jasper Becker, a British journalist who spent 17 years as Beijing Bureau Chief for Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post is a good starting point for researchers willing to ignore Becker’s anti-communist, anti-Marxist biases and use the book cautiously as a study tool. That Becker is an anti-communist will be obvious to any reader and quotations without citation of sources should be handled with care unless the information is well known or backed by good references. The book includes a useful Bibliography, an Index and Biographical Sketches of all the important leaders of the period. Publisher Holt and Company, New York.
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