1. I recently visited Sri Lanka after seven years. End of it I was overwhelmed by nostalgia and wanting to go back home. When I left my country for higher studies I had plans to come back. Right after the PhD, I wanted to stay a little longer and get some more research experience. So I took a postdoctoral position at a prestigious university. Of course I had to give up my probationary lecturer position and pay back the bond. After coming back from the recent visit, I searched for suitable jobs with enough chance to do scientific research in Sri Lanka. I actually sent my resume (CV) out. I am still waiting to hear. No vacancies! I also looked into becoming a lecturer at a university. That is the only viable option for science graduates. Starting salaries of a senior lecture positions are dismal. I don’t expect American salaries but I think it is not overly greedy of me to expect Indian salaries.
2. One of my friends who has a PhD and a considerable postdoctoral experience in immunology wanted to returned to Sri Lanka and work at a well known research institute Kandy. He has been getting ready for this move in June of 2010. He has been offered a position. All but the letter was sent to him. He has told his current research director that he will be leaving and helped him to recruit and train a new person to take over his duties once he leave. He even asked me to bring a Sinhala 2nd grade book for his daughter so that she will have a smooth transition upon returning. Suddenly he received an email from this institute indicating that someone had filed a complaint against his recruitment. While I am not aware of all the details, the institute ended up retracting the job offer. I know my friend is a  very good scientist and his research idea was to develop a vaccine for a common illness unique to the South Asian region. Knowing his capabilities and plans (research and funding) he would have succeeded too.
3. One of my former students was offered admission by two universities in the USA to pursue her PhD. She wrote and ask me about the quality of those two universities so she could make an educated decision. While writing a reply to her I did a Google search to find the rankings of those universities. I ended up using http://www.4icu.org/; a site where universities in the world are ranked. For fun I searched my work place, which is ranked number 59th in the world and the two top universities in Sri Lanka. The numbers were dismal. I am not literally going by these rankings but if they were within the first 2000, I would have been happy.

People of Sri Lanka, after the war and electing a strong government are hopeful of development and making our country the wonder of Asia. Infrastructure building and other investments and are flourishing. As it has been for the last 50 years Science and Technology is neglected. H.E. the President named 2009 as the year of Information technology (IT) and English. Ministry of Science and Technology has an incomplete website with most of the data outdated. Sri Lanka recently invested in a coal power plans and oil resources exploration while the whole world is talking about going green and developing alternative energy resources. One wind farm was started but this was done without proper planning. For a small country land wind farms are a waste of space. They are noisy and eventually people will start complaining. Some of the smaller European countries are building wind farms off shore solving both noise problem and the land problem. We need to get little more organized in out efforts. Need to take lots of baby steps and pay attention to the details. Need to be smarter even when doing the right thing.

If we are to achieve the goal of becoming the next wonder of Asia, we need at least few of our universities to be in the top 500 universities in Asia. If India can do it we definitely can do it. There are lot of trained and very capable Sri Lankans from chemistry, physics, molecular biology, immunology, pharmacology and other biochemical and biological sciences,etc. are eagerly waiting to return. Most of my Indian friends were able to return after finishing their degrees. Some of the Chinese students have started returning. We spend a lot of money in educating people in sciences and other than in IT, we lose most of them to the developed countries.

In addition to all these we as a country need an attitude change. Let the young blood to take over and inject new ideas. We have to feel less threatened by them. In a world where molecules are imaged using atomic force microscopy (AFM), barrettes have to make some space for AFMs. Things like what happened to my friend makes the young generation to move further away. We need these fires under the ashes to completely burn out. Hope someone is listening!

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• An education to die for
• Behind the IMF bail-out and the state of the Sri Lankan economy with Harsha de Silva
• What Is The Future Of The Eastern University?
• Imagine and innovate to honour Sir Arthur C Clarke!

Sunday: Catch up on sleep and go to funeral. My cousin goes through religious rituals, with the priest dragging on. He is a nice guy, my cousin, meticulously following all instructions from the priest. When in his position, at my dad’s funeral a few months ago, I had a quiet word with the priest: “Itupaththu Oraam nootaaNdu aiya, vEhamaahap pOngO (it is the twenty first Century, priest, go faster)”, and he obliged. Doesn’t matter though, because the only person at the event with good knowledge of Sanskrit was my dad, and he was dead. At my aunt’s funeral, I think of her amazingly peaceful life. “Wouldn’t hurt a fly” is most appropriate.

Monday: Email from a friend inviting me to an event on Sunday afternoon in memory of Kailasapathy, the founding President of the Jaffna University. Annoyingly, when the invitation was emailed on Saturday, I was already in the plane. I could easily have joined the event, if only she had informed me earlier. I tell her off: “Silly girl, your Jaffna habits!” She won’t take offence. Kailasapathy and I are also “He comes from Jaffna” type Sri Lankans.

I remember Kailasapathy, the great scholar whom I have met once or twice. After a seminar he gave at Peradeniya, back in 1978, I had sneaked along with the VIPs for plain-tea and vadai at a canteen. That’s how you get the real stuff – tea with the speaker after the seminar. I remember being so impressed with the man’s vision for his university, a non-sectarian, inclusive scholarly vision. A fantastic scholar of Tamil literature was warning of the dangers of Tamil (and Sinhala) nationalism. That is something about great men. It takes 30 years to establish the accuracy of their predictions – and at a massive cost!

On facebook a friend notifies: “Watch Rupavahini at 6:30”. The programme is on eco sanitation –on constructing toilets with minimal use of water, and making compost from our posterior outputs. Not just the theory, but evidence of successful take-up in dry-zone villages. “We are using this for over a year now”, a woman says in Tamil, another chap echoes the same in Sinhala. The star cricketer batting on behalf of the concepts in the programme was particularly great.

Tuesday: Kandy bus stand, when it rains, is rather a tough place. It was a miracle I protected my books and computer from getting drenched. The hotel still has very low occupancy, as on my last visit in July: Eight Europeans, twelve Indians and myself, sharing a 120 bed facility. A group of about six young Sri Lankans have come up for beer and snacks, behaving like spoilt kids.

Kandy Bus Station

Across the corridor, the Indian group is wide awake at 4.00AM. I open my door in anger. Pause. They outnumber me twelve to one. Is it wise to pick a fight? Hasn’t the futility of this approach been demonstrated in recent times? I need a different strategy. With a broad Mr Bean grin and Madras accent I say “thookkam varElliya aiya? (don’t you feel sleepy)”. It works. “Sorry saar”, one of them responds, “shhhh…” to the others. At 6:30 I find no hot water in the shower. No…, you don’t even think that! Some of my good friends are from India.

Wednesday: I take a three-wheeler ride to the University. The campus is as beautiful as ever. Here, the hills are alive. The river has something majestic about it: “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed”. The huge trees inspire you, if you stay quiet without disturbing the young lovers’ simulated privacy under umbrellas. Walk through campus, stopping on the way for a vadai and plain-tea. Brilliant, they still taste the same. I see portraits of Marx and Lenin on the canteen walls, just as it was then, though something tells me the current iPod generation may not be fans of these characters.

Over to the Engineering Faculty, where I settle down and do a couple of hours of serious work reading my student’s draft thesis on automatic translation between languages. I take a walk across the river to meet the new Vice Chancellor, who is gracious enough to see me without an appointment. Talking to him, I am confident he will fix some of the bad habits the institution has accumulated over half a century.

Clockwise from top left: Hantana mountains, Mahaweli river, tree and University building

On the way back to Kandy, the bus stops near Regal theatre. There is Alimankada showing at 6:15. I look at my watch, 6:10. “Bahinawa (getting off)”, I shout. A very nice film it was, speaking of ethnic minority issues in Sinhala, and portraying the emotive responses. For too long, our politicians have only spoken in Tamil, to Tamil people, about how evil the Sinhalese were; and in Sinhala, to the Sinhalese people, about how evil the Tamils were. Both great vote winners. The dialogue in this film seems a welcome change. I give the film 7/10 (slow moving, unrealistic bird-watching in places and bits of Rambo). In my scale, Pura Handa Kaluwara scores 9/10. (Remember the powerful scene in PHK where the sister gets the message even before she sees the coffin — the strength of context making language redundant, and acted out first class to Schindler’s List standards?)

Thursday: Breakfast, back to the campus. I am making myself really useful today, talking to recent graduates who want to know about research opportunities. I am saddened by the low access to journals. Regular reading of journals is important to stay abreast of latest developments in science. I give them tips on accessing stuff that commercial journals protect and tell them about the Public Library of Science initiative (www.plos.org).

Strict Instructions – where is the “please”? (Avoid taking the drink bottle out of the canteen)

The students are all incredibly polite here, having been instructed in a strongly hierarchical setting. I insist they call me by my name, and not “Sir”. That is too much of a shock to their system: “OK Sir, I won’t call you Sir, Sir.” I know how to make them change (wait till I start calling them Sir and Madam!). Nuke will come next week, guys.

Friday: Morning with a control engineer – and a good old friend, discussing the use of control theory in understanding some aspects of molecular biology. We converge on a project plan for a junior member of staff. He will contribute theory and supervise her, and I will supply the biological problem and data. It is a win-win deal.

I want to try the trains. Railway guy says there are only three trains a day to Colombo. I mention this to an engineering professor – “It is the most under-utilized parts of our infrastructure”, he says of the railway tracks. “But still they go on building highways”. He is cynical. “I think the aid agencies influence it – after getting us to build roads they can make money selling us cars, no?”

I settle for a bus journey. Where is the investment in roads? 40 km per hour is the best speed. Despite low speeds, you need to close your eyes and hold your breath when the guy overtakes, or else you think your transition between this world and the next is imminent.

Train (left) and Dangerous Driving

To make political predictions, I count the number of images of the contestants in the forthcoming election. At 300 images of the incumbent I stop the experiment. In that time I saw just four of the main challenger. Given that the contest is not about any substantive policy issue, familiarity is the main determinant of success. The outcome is a no-brainer.

In a local bus to Battaramulla, I start a conversation with the guy in the next seat. A 20 year old, “I am in IT” – type guy. He is paying Rs 400,000 a year for a degree programme run by the University of Westminster.

“In Sri Lanka, you need a degree for anything”, he asserts. We chat a bit, and I gain his confidence, before coming back to the 400,000.

“Four lakhs a year is a lot of money, isn’t it? What do your parents do, to be able to afford it?”

“My mother doesn’t work”, is all he says.

“So, did you sell some family land or something?”

“Yes”, he agrees.

A plethora of foreign universities are here, offering IT and other degrees. Ambitious people, with parents willing to make sacrifices, create the business opportunities for some. From the other side, I know this phenomenon as “Internationalization”. Just before getting off, he says from the footboard: “Still cheaper than going to the UK”.

Why our own tertiary education system has not built up the capacity, I wonder. Perhaps I have no right to blame anyone for that. In my youth, I was opposed to expansion in medical education via the Private Medical College. That was the Red in me then, just like it was in the eminent scholar, Kailasapathy.

A great week it was, and I am looking forward to my next three.

• Celebrating war victory and banning commemoration of dead civilians: this is “home grown & indigenous” reconciliation and freedom in Sri Lanka?
• The Death of a Priest
• Doing It in a Foreign Language
• Can we End this Cycle of Hatred?
• Federalism in verse: An idea

Ragging is thought to have begun in educational institutions in the 18^th Century and was very much in vogue in European countries. The concept was then adopted in the US in a milder form known as ‘hazing’, and spread across the world during the era of colonization, entering the Indian sub-continent along with the British education system. Stern laws against ragging have resulted in its eradication from the West and most of the rest of the world. However, in Sri Lanka, it remains.

In 1975, Peradeniya University was the first to report a major ragging related incident when a fresher of the Faculty of Agriculture became paralyzed as a result of having jumped from the second floor of the hostel to escape the physical ragging being carried out by the seniors. She later committed suicide.

Dr. Anoma Abhayaratne, the Dean of the Arts Faculty at the Peradeniya Univerisity, says that ragging continues to take place at Peradeniya, albeit in a milder form. “A lot of the time we get anonymous notes and parents call us anonymously to complain about ragging,” said Dr. Abhayaratne, going on to say that few students are willing to identify the raggers due to the fear of what might happen to them. However, some weeks ago, for the first time in the history of the university, a fresher lodged a complaint against twelve senior students who had ragged him excessively. “We are very concerned about the security of this student because of what might happen to him due to his having had the courage to stand up to the raggers,” Dr. Abhayaratne said, “The court ordered police protection for him but that is a big challenge especially in an university environment.” The Dean went on to state the case of another fresher who had been physically ragged to the point of sustaining internal injuries to his head. He is still undergoing medical treatment.

Unlike in other countries affected by ragging such as India, no official movements against ragging exist in Sri Lanka, and related information and statistics are almost impossible to come by. However, in recognition of the magnitude of the problem, the Sri Lankan Parliament passed a Bill in 1998 entitled the Prohibition of Ragging and Other Forms of Violence in Educational Institutions Act No. 20. Under this Act, ragging is defined as “any act which causes or is likely to cause physical or psychological injury or mental pain or fear to a student or a staff member”. The Act makes ragging a distinct and punishable offence under which any individual found guilty would be subjected to two years rigorous imprisonment, ten years if the rag were to lead to sexual harassment or grievous hurt. In addition, depending on the gravity of the offense, students found guilty could face expulsion from the University.

More than ten years after this law became effective however, ragging continues.

In 2002, Samantha Vithanage, a third year Management student at the Sri Jayawardenapura University, pioneered an anti-ragging campaign in the University in an attempt to stop the practice. On November 7^th that year, the anti-ragging campaigners sat down for a discussion with the JVP controlled student council who defended the practice. Midway through the discussion, a mob of around 200 JVP supporters armed with clubs and stones stormed into the room and viciously attacked Vithanage and others in the anti-ragging camp. The attackers stabbed their victims with shards of glass and Vithanage who was struck, fell to the floor and had a computer monitor dropped on his head. Two days later he died.

Although the death of 22 year old Vithanage subdued the rag at the Sri Jayawardanapura University for awhile, students say it still occurs. While the rag is now less physical, it continues to be brutal, and a third year Management student recalled her rag as a fresher two years ago where one of the ‘activities’ the freshers were forced to do involved rubbing their hands in mud just before meals and being told by the seniors that they could only wash their hands once; either before eating or afterwards. Needless to say, many freshers went without meals for days.

A senior Professor at the Moratuwa University, who declined to be named, says that ragging is no longer the problem it once was. “Ragging has been eradicated to a large extent, especially in Moratuwa,” he said, “The administration doesn’t really consider it a big problem and because students don’t come forward to complain about it there is no real pressure on the administration to take any measures to prevent or stop it.” He went on to say that some students even consider it a “badge of honour” to have been ragged, but also said that he knows of students who have quit their degrees because of the humiliation they have been subjected to during the rag.

Kanthi Wickramasinghe (name changed) is one of those students. Having secured a place at the Bio Science faculty at the Colombo University, Kanthi endured two months of ragging before she finally decided that it was not worth it. “The last straw was when they singled me out and told the rest of the batch that they would be punished if they spoke to me,” said Kanthi who had also been banned from going to the canteen and attending meetings held for the freshers. “It was one thing to be ragged as a batch but to be targetted personally, partly because I had studied at a private school in Colombo, was unbearable,” she said.

The Arts faculty at the Colombo University has been free of ragging for the past five years. This year though, that changed. A group of students who themselves had never been ragged at University, began to randomly corner students in the canteen and verbally assault them, making demands that girls could only wear skirts or dresses to campus. Malini Fernando (name changed), a fresher at the Colombo Arts faculty, said that if a student not from Colombo wore jeans to campus, the raggers would yell at those from Colombo, accusing them of corrupting the others. “They go to the extent of threatening to kill you if you don’t wear a skirt,” said Malini, and even though the freshers are confident that the raggers do not mean this seriously, casually dishing out death threats is not something to be condoned.

The administration at the Colombo Arts faculty, for their part, seems to be willing to control the rag. “The lecturers gave us their numbers and told us to call them if we get ragged or see anyone getting ragged,” said Malini. However, she went on to say that many lecturers seem reluctant to be identified as being anti-ragging. “The lecturers don’t come while the rag is happening,” she said, “they only come afterwards.” One wonders about the wisdom in that.

At Kelaniya University, which has seen its share of student clashes, the authorities have taken an extreme and certainly unpopular approach of having police officers stationed both outside and inside the university. However, students say that the presence of the police does little to curb the ragging. “Most of the time the police just watch and laugh while the students get ragged,” said Sasha Perera (name changed) a fourth year Arts student, who went on to say that a few senior students had taken to saving freshers from the rag. “We try to flank them on either side when they enter the university so that the raggers can’t get to them,” she said, “But obviously we can’t save everyone and strangely, a few even say they want to be ragged.”

Michael John (name changed), a recent graduate from the Kelaniya University, sees ragging in a different light. “My batch-mates and I still laugh together about what we went through at our rag,” said Michael, who had in turn ragged his juniors when in his second year. “I tell people to think of ragging as an experience,” he said, “I’m very glad I went through it because I would probably have been more of an obnoxious prick if I hadn’t.” While he does not condone any form of physical or extreme ragging, Michael feels that there can be positive side to ragging which is not necessarily demeaning.

In Michael’s opinion, ragging is a complex class issue. He identifies those who protest against it as belonging to the middle or upper-middle classes in society and sees those who practice it as coming from the poorer strata of society. The hue and cry over ragging, he says, is a reflection of the intolerance of the rich about being dictated to by people they look down on. He argues that far from the raggers suffering from an inferiority complex, the complainers instead, suffer from a superiority complex, and he sees those who quit University due to ragging as those who can afford alternate forms of higher education either abroad or in private institutions.

To the vast majority however, ragging is bullying. To them, most of those who practice it, do so to make themselves feel important, feared and respected. A few more do it out of peer pressure. Whatever the perspective, there is no justification whatsoever for depriving any student, whatever his or her background may be, from pursuing the University education that they worked so hard for. There should be little debate that ragging violates civilized norms of behavior and established human values and there should be no place for it in modern society, let alone in institutions educating and nurturing the best brains in the country.

Perhaps it is useful to analyze how Western societies where ragging originated, have succeeded in eliminating it. Is it due to strict laws and their effective enforcement? Or is it due to the fact that the disparities among the student populations there are not as vast as in a developing country like ours? Does the fact that all students pay for their education make them feel more equal?

There are many views on the root causes of ragging varying from it being a psychological problem to it being a form of expression of frustration against inequalities, injustices and disparities in society, particularly the wide urban – rural and rich – poor gap that continues to exist. Proponents of ragging see it as a means of equalizing the wide disparity in social status that exists in a university student body, as well as a means of ensuring that those from more priviledged backgrounds become aware that they are no better that those from less priviledged ones. Politicization of university student movements, which exist despite claims to the contrary, may also be a contributory factor.

Is the Western success in eliminating ragging replicable in a country like Sri Lanka? Perhaps legislation can only go thus far and no further than in eliminating extreme forms of ragging that lead to grievous hurt or death. Depending on one’s view on the root causes of ragging, until some of the wide spread disparities in society are addressed and the gaps bridged, ragging may be one of the few negative consequences of an otherwise equitable free education system, that students just have to put up with.

Having said that, apart from legislation and deterrent punishment, a more effective approach to address the problem of ragging in Sri Lanka, would be through creating awareness and conviction about the futility of ragging among the students themselves. In this context, anti-ragging student movements starting within the universities is a step in the right direction and presents the best opportunity to effectively address this long standing problem. It should therefore be wholeheartedly supported and encouraged by everyone who wishes to see Universities in Sri Lanka rid of ragging.

By Nishika Fonseka, Groundviews Staff Writer

• What Is The Future Of The Eastern University?
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• An education to die for
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All elections are important and these will be no exception. It is worth reminding that we are still in a post-war situation and far from the post-conflict one we ought to be in. What this requires is the prioritization of peace, reconciliation and unity and the firm commitment to ensure that the causes of ethnic conflict are not reproduced and sustained.  This means at least the rights of the IDPs as the litmus test for all else, a political settlement of the conflict and a reversal of the culture of impunity in respect of human rights along with facing up to the questions of whether there can be unity without reconciliation and reconciliation without accountability.  This is not all.  There are serious questions to be considered on the economic front with regard to employment and indebtedness – the real consequences of the fate of GSP Plus and the IMF loan – and most importantly in light of recent demonstrations, the ability of the system of education to meet the requirements of the economy.  And given Angulana, what happened to Nipuna Ratnayake and the Bambalapitiya drowning, the overarching issues of the Rule of Law, the supremacy of Constitution and the intentional violation of the Seventeenth Amendment.

Constitutional reform, at least in terms of the abolition or reform of the executive presidency will be on the agenda, as a consequence not so much of the requirements of governance but the emerging imperatives of regime survival and stability.  There is the danger that on this score, what is in store is the abolition of the form and title of the executive presidency with the transfer of its substantive powers to an “executive prime minister”.   The electoral system too, could be up for debate with the virtues of the ‘first-past –the post’ system and constituency MPs being eulogized to discredit proportional representation.

There is a crying need for a national debate on the future of the country and the issues on which the next presidential and general elections are to be fought.  The challenges ahead are far too serious to treat these elections merely as opportunities to register electoral approval, appreciation, admiration and gratitude for the defeat of the LTTE.  There has to be a tomorrow and a time when the war is truly behind us.  We need a plan to move towards that time and in order to design one, as many of us as willing and able must be part of that process.  An agenda for change and reform is critically needed and it will not come from the politicians who are trapped in fighting yesterday’s battles.

The island wide debate, discussion or conversation on change and reform is a vital and integral part of this.  Where however, through or on what medium or channel or site can it be conducted?

The obvious answer is the mainstream print and electronic media.  For a variety of reasons, very real and crucial constraints ranging from official displeasure, threat and sanction to self censorship, ideological disposition, market demands and problems of professionalism, the robust exchange of ideas called for will not happen here and not beyond the efforts of a persistent few, as required.  Moreover, since it is an exchange of ideas – a discussion, debate or conversation- that is called for, many voices need to he heard.  This is not about letters to the editor, about comment and observation alone but about participation and engagement with passion and conviction about the Sri Lanka of the future, we desire and deserve.

Citizens’ journalism and given its record as a forum for quality debate, Groundviews is ideally positioned to make a major contribution to this exercise in national rejuvenation and renaissance.  Is it not possible in the lead up to the elections that citizens use Groundviews to canvass their ideas for constitutional reform, governance, human rights and the economy and whatever else they see as constituting essential elements of an agenda for change and reform? The exchange could, but need not be time bound. As in the nature of a conversation it should be ongoing and active.

This would be a convincing demonstration of the strength and value of citizens’ journalism and its substantial utility in empowerment for peace, governance and human rights – An enabling facility for a functioning democracy.

• Abolition or reform of Executive Presidency in Sri Lanka?
• In conversation with Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
• 1,000 posts on Groundviews: Bearing witness, shaping peace
• Strange proposals and broken promises: Constitutional reform in Sri Lanka
• Strengthening democracy in Sri Lanka: An open invitation to generate fresh ideas

I was seventeen, which you’ll be surprised about if you’ve seen my youthful appearance and I was in Sri Lanka on one of those “extended” studenty type of holidays that we all wish we could have now. It was the summer between the first and second year of my ‘A’ levels and my parents had paid for me to go there and stay with my Uncle and his Australian wife for a couple of months.

My mother is Tamil, as were her parents, an incredible coincidence I know. I went to stay with her brother who was working for a couple of years in Lanka. He had left the country as a child with my Mother’s family, had subsequently settled in Australia, then gone to Sri Lanka with his wife as an expat worker. He was an Australian citizen, but still a Sri Lankan and still a Tamil. I went with my maternal grandmother, a proud old Tamil who hadn’t been back for a few years, and we were meeting my first cousin, one of my grandmother’s other grandchildren, in Sri Lanka. That particular cousin lived in Denmark. His mother was my mother’s sister and his father was Danish. It was his first time in Sri Lanka. They were confusing times indeed!

I’d had a few weeks in Sri Lanka before that day. I’d done some hanging around, some sightseeing and travelling, but it was all with people. Looking back I can see that I was a dependant seventeen year old much more than the independent backpacking type that many seventeen year olds are now. One of these excursions was a few days up country to see something to do with my family. I don’t know the exact dates involved but we’d been up country, out of contact with most people, for a week or so. Then, on what must have been July 25th or so, we headed back to Colombo by car.

These were the days before mobile phones, satellite TV and many of the things we take for granted today. Computers were things that scientists used, mostly because they were the size of a room, the internet was unheard of and even Kottu was only in its infancy, version 2.0 or something.

We broke our journey in Kandy, where we stopped off at someone’s house for tea and things. The first leg had been uneventful. There were five of us in the car; my Uncle who was driving, his wife, my Danish cousin (I’ll call him DC), my grandmother and me. We had been chatting happily and watching the scenery go by with that sense of awe that up country Sri Lanka inspires in people.

Once we left Kandy things became different. The roads were quiet and there was a strange lack of activity. After passing Kadugannawa my Uncle and his wife became very concerned, it was all too quiet and too eerie for comfort. Shutter on stalls were closed, people were absent and the usual hustle and bustle of the Colombo Kandy Road was missing.

We turned on the radio and only then did we find out what had been happening in Colombo in the preceding days. It’s important to remember that this was twenty five years ago. We had been up country and communication wasn’t in any way like it is now. It was the first we’d heard of the rioting and looting, of the murdering and violence. It was also the first time we realised we were driving while there was a curfew on. A bit of a bummer.

I was in the back seat with DC and my grandmother. DC, being of mixed parentage, looked very western and not at all like a Sri Lankan. I, being seventeen and thinking I was some sort of fashion god, looked unlike the average Sri Lankan. My hair was long and I had tried to dye it blonde so it had that reddish colour that blonde hair dye turns jet black hair into. I had an earring and wore clothes that made me look as if I was about to go on stage with a band. These days, when I do go on stage with a band, I look like I’m in a car on a trip.

My grandmother wore a white saree, as she had done since my grandfather had died many years before, not the same one every day though. I’ve never thought about it but I suppose clothes shopping for her must have been quite easy.

My Uncle looked brown, mostly because he was, but he was very western in his clothing and demeanour. His wife was white and looked like an Australian tourist.

I was very much a child in terms of my input to the conversations and plans that followed. I mean that I had no part to play other than to do what I was told. I didn’t understand the conflict at the time and all I knew was that there was a big risk involved in being Tamil, seen to be Tamil or with a Tamil. My Uncle and his wife decided that the best course for us was to continue on our journey and get to Colombo as quickly as possible.

The plan, if stopped, was to say that we were unaware of the curfew and that we were tourists, except my Uncle who would be called the driver. It seemed like a good plan and we continued on the road. The eerie stillness followed us on our journey for some miles. It was like something from an episode of Star Trek when the crew have beamed down to an old abandoned planet.

Then we rounded a corner and almost drove headlong into a mob of people in the road. As mobs go this one didn’t look like the friendly type. They were carrying guns, sticks, things on fire and others bits and pieces that were only going to do damage. My Uncle slowed the car, he had no choice as they were blocking our way. There must have been about a hundred or more people, or a hundred and five if you include us in the car.

We stopped the car and I thought we were going to die. I had never had the feeling before and I’ve never had it since. We were surrounded by the mob and one man was standing in front of the car with a gun pointed at my Uncle’s head. To this day I can remember the look on the gun toting man’s face. He was wide and red eyed, he looked wild, angry and like he’d shoot just for the fun of it.

It’s funny what goes through your head during something like this. I guess many people face danger of this sort regularly and are able to think all sorts of rational stuff. I thought my Uncle would be shot and that we’d be killed and that bit, the bit about dying, didn’t scare me. What did scare me was the thought that no one really knew where we were. We’d die and never get found, never be traced. I felt afraid of that.

The gun toter was evidently one of the leaders of the mob. He walked around the car to the driver’s side. My Uncle wound down the window and a discussion in Sinhala ensued. The car was surrounded by people and I thought that anything could happen at any point. It was all well and good that my Uncle was talking to the one chap but anyone else around the car might have decided to smash a window and do something at any time.

The minutes of discussion felt like hours and during this period, while the conversation went on, the chap continued to point the gun straight at my Uncle’s head. Everyone else in the car was quiet, not that I could have joined in even if I wanted to. After a while the mob let us pass. I don’t mind telling you that, even as I type this, I feel nervous and jittery to think about what might have been. The mob had believed and “spared” us. They were happy that none of us were Tamil.

We carried on our way. I recall looking briefly out of the rear windscreen as we drove away. I looked at the mob and felt a sense of relief mixed with dreaminess. It was as if the last minutes had been a film or a fantasy and I’d just woken up again.

There were no more mobs on our route, there was no more direct danger but, as we entered Colombo, we saw the sights that so many others have talked about. The debris and residue of what had been happening, what was still happening, was everywhere. Buildings were burned, looted and smashed. Roads were deserted and filled with nothingness and the smell of fear.

We got back to my Uncle’s house. It was a wealthy street and three or four of the houses, the Tamil ones, had been looted or destroyed. Ours was untouched and undamaged, perhaps because it was rented, maybe because it had been empty. Either way it’s not the sort of scenario that fills you with feelings of security and safety. By this time we knew what had been happening, that the mobs were going round looking for the “enemy”.

The next days were timeless ones. I can remember detail but not exactly when it happened. For about a week most of the household went to bed at night not knowing if we’d wake up in the morning. I remember lying in bed (I shared a room with DC) and we’d hear the shouting and raging of the mobs as they roamed the city. Me and DC spoke a lot and he was more scared than I was. He was right, I was wrong. I was filled with a mix of teenage naivety and youthful ignorance. He was older and understood more about the immediate danger we were in. I had one of those “It won’t happen to us” mentalities. It was only some years later that I realised it so nearly did.

Staying in the country for my grandmother, DC and I wasn’t a favourable option and my parents back in the UK were desperately trying to organise flights for us. Flights were limited and packed and it was only after a few days that they were able to get DC out. I look back and feel admiration and gratitude to my Uncle and his wife. They were in a state of mutiple loco parentis and had to look after themselves, my grandmother and their two nephews. It was like going through the different stages of a computer game. Complete level one to get to level two and so on. But each person only had one life and starting the game again if you die wasn’t an option.

I was dispatched to some good family friends to stay with, my grandmother went off to some cousins of hers and we reconvened some days later when we had been put on a flight. We stayed in one of the airport hotels the night before the flight, for fear of travelling during the hours of darkness, and were under strict instructions not to tell anyone our ethnicity.

My grandmother suffered from this. She hadn’t been back to Sri Lanka for many years prior to this trip and she never went again. Two years later she died. I know that she felt immensely betrayed, as if her motherland didn’t want her. Having to deny her identity was something she hated doing as she was so proud of her heritage.

My Uncle and his wife left to go back to Australia afterwards. They have returned many times since ’83 and have mixed feelings about Lanka.

DC has never been back. I talked to him about it a while ago and he hasn’t ruled it out at some time in the future, just not now.

Me?

I didn’t go back for five years. I know I was one of the privileged and lucky ones. I had a home to escape to and I didn’t have to leave my home to live. Tens of thousands of people, Sinhala and Tamil have suffered so much more in the last twenty five years than I did or any of my family did.

Living through those weeks and those events added something to me, to my passion for Sri Lanka. It was only a few years ago that I stopped thinking, every time I left Lanka, that I might not see it again. It’s made me so determined to try to instil some of that passion for Sri Lanka in my daughters, so that they can love the country like so many of us do. I think I’m doing okay there.

My little story is only a drop in the ocean of stories that have been told already. Those that have been told are only a drop in the even bigger ocean of ones that exist.

[Editors note: A version of this essay is published on the author's personal blog, London, Lanka and Drums.]

For more articles on July 1983, please click here.

• July: Life after 25 years
• Memories of a Black Moon – the 1983 riots in Sri Lanka
• Deepavali Dilemma: Reflections from the Diaspora
• My life and my choices in a country at war: A personal reflection
• Christmas 2008 in Sri Lanka

“We urge the UNO to evict three million aliens from Sri Lanka as an effective measure to prevent the conspiracy of exterminating the Sinhala race. The present war, the scarcity of food, obstructing development projects, murdering Sinhala leaders, anti-Buddhist campaigns led by Marxist movements, political instability, depriving Sinhalese of land, employment and business opportunities, mud slinging against Sinhalese throughout the world, the conspiracy to hatch an alien religious state in Sri Lanka, underworld gangs, promoting liquor, gambling and smoking, encouraging corruption and rackets, so-called campaigns of human rights, media and peace- are all happened to be direct consequences of alien forces”.

This, he says, is a publicity poster of a formal petition later to be signed by some thousand intellectuals, like Prof. Mangala Ilangasinghe, Prof. Abhaya Ariyasinghe, Prof. B.K.Basnayaka, Prof. Robert P. Liyanage, Prof. H.M.Moratuwegama, Prof. A.A.Abhayasinghe, Prof. H.T.Basnayaka, Dr. Piyasena Dissanayaka, Lecturer Laksman Watawana and Dr.Bandula Siriwardene.

As a live example of the pathological state of our national ailment this is an ideal document to refute the stance of those who disclaim the existence of any national or ethnic question in Sri Lanka.

This monk is concerned only about the Sinhala leaders getting killed. Laksman Kadiragamar and T.A. Amirthalingam allegedly killed by the same people are not to be grieved. Others like Raviraj, a charismatic democratic leader and an MP of the Tamil people allegedly killed by the government-affiliated paramilitary groups are unimportant, reason being their non-Sinhala origins. The apparent conflict between this racial compassion of a Buddhist monk and the universal value of all lives in true Buddhism is astounding, where nothing but the Gouthama Buddha’s very doctrine itself is at peril. Therefore, to save not only race but also Buddhism, how many more millions would be liable to be evicted from this holy land warrants some fresh calculation, indeed!

Though the practice of deporting citizens from a country of origin was one of the punishments meted out to traitors or criminal elements in the period of ancient kingdoms, modern world hardly resorts to that practice anymore for the simple reason that no other country can be expected to receive those banished. Prince Vijaya and his clan of cohorts, great forefathers of our race were such people deported from India, some two and half millennia ago, according to legend. A fairly contemporary case in point was the edict of Idi Amin, the psycho pathetic former leader of Uganda to deport some tens of thousands of Indians from his country for the sin of one Indian lady not willing to sleep with him. However much he was insane in his own way, his decision affected only those Indians who were not Ugandan citizens, whereas our (B.A. Honors) priest’s vengeful wrath encompasses his own citizens, most probably those who may have lived in this country from the time of Vijaya.

When a mad man is asleep his insanity is hardly visible. But, once he is awake he is unable to keep his mouth shut thereby exposing his derailed state of mind to the whole world. It is from the commandments of this monk that we came to know that the UNO role is also comprised of petty activities like the monitoring of liquor consumption and gambling in Sri Lanka as well! Not only that, a world body that practically failed in arresting alien forces from invading a sovereign state called Iraq is empowered to evict three million people from Sri Lanka, this erudite monk faithfully preaches.

Quoting from two dictionaries he invites us to have a proper understanding as to who would be qualified as aliens:

1.The Oxford Dictionary- NATION (n) community of people of mainly common descent, language, history.
2. Chambers Dictionary- NATION (n) a body of people marked off by common descent, language, culture or historical tradition.

Well, in the first place this is not a definition of aliens or non-nationals as you may see, but of a Nation. Anyway, by way of deduction (while keeping in mind the broad political implications of the term, nation) the most probable meaning of a non-national could be a person not belonging to the aforesaid categories, leaving only foreign nationals like tourists and other immigrants, temporarily resident in the country as aliens. But if this is all our monk is worried about, the best way to address that problem is to inform our Board of Investment, which has some fresh experience in revoking the work permit of a foreign national at Sri Lankan Airlines! Yet, one can hardly believe that there are 3 million foreigners of this type in Sri Lanka, a number nearing one sixth of our population.

He further urges the UNO to evict these 3 million from Sri Lanka and settle them down in, “Norway, Canada, Australia, US or any other place in the world”. When a newly wed husband is not satisfied with the bride, he takes her back not to other people’s houses but to her parent’s home. By what whimsical logic that this priest could be possibly wishing to dump these people in “any other place in the world” is incomprehensible, unless the whole world is to be held responsible directly or indirectly for our own predicament.

Then he goes on to assess the economic gains by way of deporting these people. Three million loaves of bread and one million kilos of rice a day, in addition to business and employment opportunities and land and health sector savings that can be used for the welfare of the true Sinhala Buddhist people in the country are the immediate benefits.

Finally, he refers to the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution as historical precedents where he thinks the national question had been resolved once and for all in 1789 and 1917. As for the Bolshevik Revolution, we are at a loss to reconcile his scathing attack at the beginning of the poster on “anti-Buddhist campaigns led by Marxist movements” with this last minute favorable lesson drawn from the annals of the Bolshevik Revolution.

However, for the benefit of his so-called professorial advisers this much has to be added as an appendix. It is true that the formal concept of Nation State was originated with the French Revolution. But that Revolution had got nothing to do with what we call a national question of ethnic origin, which we witness in Sri Lanka, and which this Thero also has in his mind when pointing an accusing finger to alien elements amongst us.

In fact, the Bolshevik Revolution did have a proper national question and a Commissar for Nationalities as well, by the name of Joseph Stalin who ruthlessly massacred thousands of Bolshevik cadres in Georgia to suppress a national revolt while Lenin was in his sick bed. Having come to the knowledge of this unhappy incident after recuperation, Lenin was swift in categorically condemning this irresponsible and brutal act of Stalin and making an apology for not intervening himself at the proper moment to avoid that catastrophe. (For further reference one can read Lenin’s Last Testament).

However, the fact that after seventy years of Bolshevik Revolution former Soviet Union was fated to be split into some 15 odd separate states on ethnic lines is common knowledge today. Whatever the case may be, in none of these revolutions no one has ever thought even in a daydream of deporting one sixth of its population as a viable solution to the National Question, apé hamuduruwané!

• A question to the government and the LTTE
• What is the solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka?
• Concerns over Cattle Population
• Freedom of Speech, Violent Fascism, Democracy, Nick Griffin and Mahinda Rajapakse
• Beam Me Up to Planet Football!

In the wake of numerous interpretations and reinterpretation of the present political situation as a result of the recent crossover by the political elites, the authors of this article attempt to discuss how citizens perceive the crossover. The results of the latest poll, that was conducted by Social Indicator – Centre for Policy Alternatives are used to discuss the public views in this article. This survey was conducted amongst 1300 individuals residing in 17 districts using the interview technique. It should be noted that this survey was conducted Islandwide with the exception of the North & East and therefore does not capture the opinion of the Sri Lankan Tamil community.

Who’s hurt the most: UNPers or JVPers
Despite the justifying rationales put forward by the MPs who have crossed over, the present political accusations and counter accusations indicate that the crossover has hurt many parties who lost their MPs as well as who lost their political positions. If we were to look at the UNP itself, it lost a group of heavy weights including its deputy leader as a result of the recent crossover. Also it led the opposition leader Mr. Wickramasinghe to a new battle in order to retain the opposition leadership from the JVP; a party that has shown a remarkable capacity in mobilizing the masses against any ruling party. The present government too, is faced with issues resulting from the crossover. President Rajapakse’s main electoral ally, the JVP, permanently walked into the opposition while vowing to topple the Government, accusing the government of going against the electoral mandate, it received in November 2005. Not only that, but this parliamentarian exodus triggered a battle between the president and the two ministers, Mr. Mangala Samaraweera and Mr. Sripathi Suriarachchi, who have done tremendous work in bringing President Mahinda Rajapakse into office. On one hand the crossovers shook the status quo of the government while on the other hand it annulled the memorandum of understanding signed between the SLFP and the UNP even before its ink dried up. In addition, this disappointed the groups who were optimistic and overjoyed about the rare opportunity of a southern consensus.

The disapproval of the crossover is highest amongst the JVP loyalists – 68% disapprove while 15% approve of it. Perhaps this could be a reflection of the feeling of humiliation that they are undergoing after the SLFP sidelined them ignoring the crucial role they performed at the elections. Amongst the UNPers, only 48% disapprove of its own party members crossing to the SLFP while 34% of them could not decide whether to approve or disapprove of it. However, 18% of the UNPers approve the crossover. While on one hand this reflects the frustration of the UNPers with their leadership on the party reforms, on the other hand this is a clear indication of the confused status of the UNPers in the aftermath of losing a group of the most senior members of the party. Interestingly, this survey does not indicate that the SLFPers are over-jubilant about the newly captured elephant herd. This is apparent as only 50% of them approve of the crossover while 30% disapprove.

Crossover for Democracy or Vise Versa:
In the present electoral system, more primacy has been given to the parties than to the MPs. When selecting candidates for an election, most members are at the mercy of the party leaders. Even after being elected to the parliament, MPs will have to support the party decision rather than acting on their conscience. In this context, MPs do not have much option other than crossing over to another party that allows them to voice the concerns of their communities or adhere to one’s conscience. Therefore, MPs crossing over to another party can be considered as an expression of democracy that one may want to practice. This was not the first time where MPs crossed over to another party in the parliament and neither, we suppose, the last time. However, when analyzing the history of crossing over, usually it has been the opposition MPs who crossover to the ruling party instead of otherwise. Some get cabinet portfolios with other privileges while others allegedly receive huge sums of money. Therefore, it is very difficult to decide whether it is principle or perks that matter when deciding to crossover.

It is interesting see on what grounds people have approved or disapproved of the recent MP drain from the opposition to the ruling party. Amongst the people who approve of the recent crossover, 50% think that the move strengthens the Government and the President while 24% think that it would help the Government’s present war with the LTTE. Only 6% approve of the crossover on the basis that it is an expression of democracy. Interestingly, more SLFP loyalists than UNP loyalists approve of the recent crossover as it strengthens the Government and the president. Nevertheless, even for UNPers who support the crossover, the main reason for their approval is that it strengthens the Government and the president.

Amongst the people who disapprove of the recent crossover, 46% disapprove on the basis that it adds a bigger burden to the public due to the the increased number of ministerial posts. However, 9% disapprove on the basis that it damages democracy while 7% and 6% reject the crossover as it goes against the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ and as it will lead to the abrogation of the SLFP- UNP MOU, respectively. It is interesting to see the varying reasons on which different party loyalists disapprove of the recent crossover. The primary reason for the SLFP and UNP loyalists to disapprove of the crossover is the fact that this will become a bigger burden for the already suffering Sri Lankans. However, JVP loyalists who disapprove of the crossover seem to have two main arguments. They think this is a clear violation of the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’ that they successfully advocated during the presidential elections and that the large number of present ministerial posts would (will?) increase the burden on the citizens. 29% of JVPers see the recent crossover as against the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’, while only 9% of SLFPers think that way.

Hence, when looking at the rationales for approvals and disapprovals, it seems that it is based on three arguments, namely forming a national government, waste of public funds and betraying the mandate received for the ‘Mahinda Chinthanaya’. According to Mr. Karu Jayasuriya, his motive of crossing over was the dire need to join the two main parties in the South, in order to solve the ethnic conflict and establish good governance. When analyzing the (often vague) interviews of President Rajapakse in the wake of the crossover, it seems that both the President and Mr. Jayasuriya are trying to voice that they have the same objectives. If it is the case we do not think anyone would disagree with such a noble objective. Nevertheless, unfortunately what we see in the government today does not reflect the stated objectives.

If the recent cross over means to assist the Government in solving the protracted ethnic conflict, then the Government must be keen on a negotiated settlement on the basis of a federal structure, because, the heavy weights of the reformists who crossed over were the individuals who led the UNP Government’s peace process that insisted on a solution within a federal united Sri Lanka. However, having had their cabinet portfolios, they have not yet shown any active engagement in such activities. Therefore, Minister Thissa Vitharana has to be engaged in a solo battle at the APRC, in bringing forward a constitutional transformation. Given the SLFP’s negative stand on the CFA and the passive commitment to constitutional arrangement, it is not clear what the role of UNP reformist is in transforming SLFPers to perceive for the federal solution that has been agreed in the Oslo Communique in 2003.

Given the wastage of public funds in maintaining the large number of ministries, which was the primary result of the crossover and the prevailing impunity that has high potential to worsen in months to come, do not show a rosy picture on good governance that Mr. Rajapakse and Mr. Jayasuriya are dreaming about. Therefore, the rationales given as the basis for the crossover are difficult for people to stomach.

However, it is undeniable that this recent crossover has made President Rajapakse stronger – a personage whose popularity is anyway on the boom in the context of the recent military victory in the East. Therefore, we believe President Rajapakse enjoys a stronger political position, empowering him to make drastic political decisions in order to solve the country’s ethnic conflict even if he is unable to clean the office of corrupt officials and politicians.

Therefore, in next few months public can witness the real impact of the cross over on the Sri Lankan society and how distance the reality from the claimed motives of the UNP reformists.

Authors:
Pradeep Peiris and Rangani Ranasinghe are researchers of the Social Indicator, the survey research unit of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

• Crossing over into chaos
• The General and his necessary evils
• Political solution or political illusion?
• Federalism: Some debates never die
• Public Perceptions: National Security and/or Human Rights