Conflict
and Cost of Living
Two
major issues that are uppermost in the minds of the public
are the informal resumption of hostilities between the LTTE
and government security forces and the escalation of the cost
of living.
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The
recent acts of violence are well known to need recounting. The Central
Bank has reported that the Colombo Consumer Price Index recorded increases
of 6.4%, 9.2% and 13.2% in the months of March, April and May 2006
respectively compared to the price level that prevailed in the same
months in the previous year. In other words inflation has accelerated
in the three month period. This index probably under-states actual
inflation especially for the urban middle class.
The
conflict as well as the escalating cost of living is symbolic of two
broader areas of national importance. The conflict stands for the
broader “political crisis” this country has faced, some
would say from as far back as the early 1970s. The civil war is only
one aspect of this crisis. Consistent attempts on the part of the
party in power to undermine democracy are another key aspect. Sirima
Bandaranaike's extension of the life of the 1970 parliament by two
years, J R Jayewardene's referendum, Chandrika Kumaratunga's Wayamba
election and Mahinda Rajapakse's disregard for the spirit of 17th
amendment of the constitution are good examples from the four respective
regimes.
Human
rights violations, rampant corruption at the highest levels, abuse
of power, and lack of transparency and accountability of the executive
are a few other key aspects of our political crisis. The cumulative
result is a relatively weak and not very effective state that fails
to fully discharge its developmental obligations. The escalating
cost of living is directly connected to this failure of the state.
The
escalating cost of living is but a manifestation of broader economic
problems. High oil prices are a major reason for rising prices in
the last two years. However, if inflation is matched by rising incomes
people won't complain as much. But for real incomes to rise there
must be improvements in productivity and more and better paying
jobs. This simply is not happening on the required scale.
For
example, giving 43,000 unemployed graduates “jobs” in
government was more an act of political expediency than an act of
development. What it really did was to redistribute the limited
government wage bill among more employees thereby creating more
underpaid and under-employed workers.
Significant
reforms in vital areas of the state sector are stalled because of
politics. The CEB that fails to deliver electricity at a reasonable
price is one example. The railway that has deteriorated almost beyond
redemption is another. The employees object to reforms partly out
of fear of the unknown and partly due to manipulation by political
interests, especially the JVP that is ideologically opposed to “privatization.”
For political reasons the Rajapakse administration is unable to
take on the JVP and go ahead with the reforms. Inefficiency in these
and such other services impose a heavy cost on the economy. It discourages
investment. The political uncertainty created by the recent escalation
in violence simply compounds the situation.
The
conflict and the cost of living are but two sides of the same coin
and need to be addressed in parallel. If the economy is doing well
and living standards are improving it will be easier to address
the conflict. If the conflict is resolved and peace restored it
would be easier to resolve the cost of living issue.
In
our view the tsunami gave that opening in 2005. For a short period
the Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others forgot their ethnic differences
and started behaving like Sri Lankans and helped each other. The
world opened its wallet and poured money into Sri Lanka to assist
the victims. Kumaratunga had the opportunity to turn the tsunami
into a blessing in disguise. But she neither had the vision nor
the political courage to grasp the opportunity the way the Indonesian
leaders did and signed a peace agreement with the rebels in Banda
Ache that was also devastated by the tsunami. By the time Kumaratunga
realized that something truly significant was possible and proposed
the P-TOMS six months after the tsunami it was too late. Our people
had gone back to being Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims rather than
Sri Lankans.
The
Rajapakse administration is unlikely to get a “tsunami”
opportunity. But the EU has banned the LTTE and currently the stock
of the LTTE is very low internationally. This has opened a small
window of opportunity. The president and his advisors have to be
courageous and creative risk takers to make use of that opportunity.
Unfortunately there is little evidence to believe that there is
much courage or creativity in present policy making. We have to
hope that it would change for the better in the near future.
Karunaratna
and Seimon Publish Biographies
while Edussuriya Summarizes the Mahawamsa
Reviewed
by Sam Samarasinghe
Nihal
Karunaratna, A Doctor Remembers The Life Story of Nihal Karunaratna,
Kandy, Sri Lanka. Colombo, Stamford Lake, 2006, pp.xii+241, Rs 450.00.
Reggie
Seimon, Of Days Gone By. Kandy, Reggie Seimon, pp.vi+116, Rs 200.00.
Bandu Edussuriya, The Mahawamsa: A Simplified English Summary, History
of Sri Lanka. Nugegoda, Sarasavi Publishers, pp.xx+70, Rs. 200.00.
Kandy's
medical community can be proud of the fact that amongst them there
are several who while practicing their profession have also ventured
out to display their writing and literary talents. General Practitioner
Dr Nihal Karunaratna whose biography A Doctor Remembers The Life
Story of Nihal Karunaratna we review in this column is one of the
best known among them. Professor of Medicine Nimal Senanayake is
nationally known for his creative writings especially in the field
of tele-dramas such as Ella Langa Walawwa. The Eye Surgeon Dr. Reggie
Seimon with his collection of autobiographical sketches Of Days
Gone By and ENT Surgeon Dr. Bandu Edussuriya with his The Mahawamsa:
A Simplified English Summary join this distinguished small group.
Seventy
eight year old Nihal's life story is also a part of the larger story
of Kandy in the second half of the 20th century. However, in reference
to his parents and grand parents he provides glimpses of the life
of colonial Sri Lanka, especially of the rich upper class Ceylonese
land-owning and professional families. Nihal was born to one such
family. Nihal traces his genealogy several centuries back to 1539
although there is some confusion in the dates that he mentions because
King Sri Vijaya Rajasinghe's reign was from 1739 to 1747 and not
1539 as the author suggests. Nihal's maternal grandfather owned
“extensive amounts of land” in Borella area. The present
Russian Embassy in Flower Road is housed in the house where his
mother grew up as a child. The adjoining property, a magnificent
mansion that today houses the Prime Minister's office, belonged
to one of Nihal's uncle's Sir Earnest de Silva.
Nihal's
childhood was comfortable and highly privileged. His dad George
W. Karunaratna who went to Clare College, Cambridge for his medical
degree returned to Sri Lanka and had one of the most successful
private general practices in Kandy. Nihal's parents lived in grand
style in one of the best houses in town named “Gun-fire”
and entrained, among others, Gandhi, Nehru, Indira, and Rajiv Gandhi,
DS and Dudley Senanayake and J R Jayewardene.
Nihal
started his schooling in Trinity primary, and spent a short period
at Dharmaraja during the Second World War, but much of his schooling
was in Royal which was a family tradition. He won colours for Rugger,
captained the Royal team in 1947 and played in the first Royal-Trinity
Bradby in 1945 that Royal lost.
From
his schoolboy days Nihal showed an ability to take on many things
and do all of them very well. He played rugger, was a public schools
champion athlete, had a good time with young ladies from Bishops,
Ladies and Vishakha and did his studies very competently to be admitted
to Cambridge.
Nihal
has always had a mischievous and playful eye for beautiful women.
He describes his first wife Elaine de Zoysa as a “stunning
beauty” with an “hour glass” figure. Nihal almost
never fails to create through a few words “…….
attractive lady with light brown, hair, roundish face and --- good
features” etc - an imagery of the prettier women that figure
in the book.
Nihal's
autobiography has two facets to it, the personal and the public.
He is very candid in describing both the “ups and downs”
of his personal life. He tells the reader of the failure of his
first marriage (1952-1971) and the trauma that it caused the family,
especially the three children, all sons. His second wife Suvimalee
also left him to become a Buddhist nun. He tells of the disagreements
among siblings over family property. In a way these episodes makes
Nihal's life which as he himself says has been “exciting at
times” and enabled him to do things “which few people
could have done” closer to real life.
The
personal life story of Nihal the man reminds the reader of the natural
life cycle of all of us. The early chapters “Early happy days,”
Crazy parties,” Around the World with Rupees 50” capture
the more happy-go-lucky and younger days of life of a successful
man. Later in the book he becomes more reflective in his old age.
Parkinson's Disease that has restricted his movements and activity
and deteriorating eyesight compels him to give up much of his social
life. He describes a very poignant moment when his divorced second
wife who as a Buddhist nun makes a surprise visit to his home and
chants Pirith to bless him and his staff.
Nihal's
professional and public persona as, among other things, a successful
general practitioner, social worker, environmentalist and author
of three important books on Kandy occupy the last quarter of the
book. From this book Nihal emerges as a man with a mission who would
fight for what he believes in and wants to achieve. In his role
as the Chairman of the Kandy Hospital Committee for a period of
twenty seven years (1976-03) what he has done for the improvement
of the hospital will be hard to equal. It was primarily his effort
that resulted in the fencing of Udawattakelle nature reserve that
was in danger of being encroached. The Doyen of Sri Lankan historians
Professor K M de Silva describes Nihal's monograph From Governor's
Pavilion to President's Pavilion as representing a “……….
commitment to scholarship and indefatigable pursuit of knowledge
………”
On
more than one occasion in the book Nihal vents his frustration at
what he considers as the “ruin” of the country “no
discipline, laws are broken with impunity, politicians are crooks
------, education is in shambles” and so on. Not all what
Nihal asserts have happened, at least not in that extreme form.
For example, whatever the faults of the education system may be,
we have more education equity and are a more literate nation than
fifty to sixty years ago. But we can't dismiss Nihal's complaints
merely as reminiscences of a person of a bygone era that laments
at the passing of the “good old days.” Discipline has
broken down in many areas, law is broken especially by the powerful,
and there is evidence aplenty to believe that a lot of politicians
are unrepentant crooks. Nihal’s many outstanding accomplishments
and the values that he stands for by and large represent the antithesis
of that decay that he sees in our society.
If
Nihal's Karunaratna's autobiography is a mixture of personal tales
and social analysis, Reggie Seimon's Of Days Gone By is almost pure
storytelling of a personal nature. And storytelling is something
that Reggie excels at. He does it with a great sense of humor and
sometimes it is self-deprecating as well “I was considered
an exceptionally bright kid, alas not any more.” etc. The
book contains twenty eight mostly highly readable stories. All of
them involve the author either as direct participant or as a key
witness.
Not
being an autobiography the book has no particular or strict chronological
sequence. Sometimes the lack of a consistent chronology makes it
a little hard for the reader to place the stories in proper context.
For example, the third story is “My Holy Communion”
that narrates an event that took place when the author was six years
old. This is followed by “Wooing My Sister” that describes
the matchmaking for Reggie's eldest sister. It is hard to guess
at what stage of the author's life as a child this event took place.
The majority of the stories involved the author's childhood in Beruwela
in the 1950s. The last few stories move to the author's life as
a medical student and doctor. It is his life as a child in Beruwela
in the 1950s that is most interesting. His accounts written with
great clarity in simple style captures the life of a middle class
family with a large number of children in the 1950s. They also catch
a glimpse of social life in a coastal Catholic village.
Reggie's mother, a practical lady who is a devout Catholic and a
father who is more an agnostic with a Catholic background make a
gallant effort to bring up the children in the proper way. Luckily
for them and for thousands of other families in similar demographic
and financial circumstances food was cheap, bus fares were only
in pennies, and education was virtually free.
The
stories involving the Church and the village such as “The
Church Feast” tend to suggest how well integrated the local
Catholic church was to local Sri Lankan culture and society in some
respects and how remote it was in other respects in the 1950s. Thus
the vespers hymns were chanted in Latin that “none of us understood
---” but the firecrackers were Pol Vedi (coconut combs filled
with gunpowder) and “ --- hoards of uninvited cousins, uncles,
aunts (and others) ----- drop in, eat drink, sleep and stay on for
the Feast day ---“ as was the custom then in Sri Lankan communities.
Going
by Reggie's accounts of life in his village alcoholism is not a
problem of recent origin attributable to the 'open economy”
and by association to J R Jayewardene all sins of omission and commission
are these days. Today Arrack and kasippu were a must in every village
festival and every male adult from priests to humble carters and
coconut pluckers abided by the dictum “let's drink, be merry,
and gay.”
In
some ways village life in Sri Lanka has been “liberal”
and probably still remains so. The author describes the “village
sodomite” who earned a living repairing bicycles and also
renting them.
Bandu
Edussuriya's, The Mahawamsa: A Simplified English Summary falls
into a different category altogether compared to the two books reviewed
above. Dr. Edussuriya's “simplified summary” is based
on Wilhelm Geiger's version (English Translation -1912) and the
more recent (1989) English Translation of Dr. Ananda W P Guruge.
The Mahawamsa (“Great Chronicle”) covers the period
from the coming of Vijaya around 543 BC to the reign of King Mahasena
(334-361). The Mahawamsa itself was written only in the 6th century.
The author Mahanama had relied on a chronicle called Dipawamsa that
had been written five centuries earlier.
Dr.
Edussuriya says that he has produced an “abridged version
(omitting most of the supernatural and the miraculous phenomena)
which could be used as an overview.” His goal is to provide
a “glimpse” of the history of the island to the “visitors
to the island, Sri Lankan Diaspora and others who may not have the
time or the inclination to read a longer version.
The
Edussuriya volume is not the first such recent attempt to abridge
the Mahawamsa. Ruwan Rajapakse's Concise Mahavamsa History of Buddhism
in Sri Lanka (2003) is another such version. Dr. Edussuriya's version,
not counting his Introduction, charts and other add-ons runs into
a little over 10,000 words or about one eight of the length of the
Guruge translation. In general the author focuses on the factual
and leaves out the more religious and emotional parts of the text
that the original author wrote for the “serene joy and emotion
of the pious.” For example, chapter 2 “The Dynasty of
Mahasammata” in the Guruge version has 33 verses (about 600
words) that in the Edussuriya version are summarized in a little
more than one verse or about 75 words.
The
Mahawamsa is essentially the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. From
a contemporary perspective what strikes the reader is the nature
of the relationship that existed between Buddhism and the Sangha
on the one hand and the King and the state on the other. Dr. Edussuriya's
abridged version is reasonably successful in bringing out this important
relationship. It is important not only to understand our history
but also to understand the contemporary debate concerning what we
as a nation are and should be and what place religion, especially
Buddhism, must occupy in the modern Sri Lankan state.
We know
that there are a variety of views on this controversial issue. Some
want a secular Sri Lankan state. Yet others talk of a multicultural
and multi-religious Sri Lanka. The 1972 First Republican Constitution
as well as the 1978 Second Republican Constitution do not make Buddhism
the state religion. But it allocates the “foremost place”
to Buddhism while guaranteeing the right of the people to practice
any religion of their choice. Yet others would like to restore the
close symbiotic relationship that appears to have existed between
Buddhism and the state in the times of the Sinhalese kings that the
Mahawamsa describes. Addressing this sensitive issue is a part of
the solution that we have to look for in order to reestablish peace
in our country. Dr. Edussuriya's little book makes a useful contribution
to that effort by informing the readers about how things were in the
early part of this nation's history.
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