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The Northern Ireland Agreement as a model for
divided societies Professor
Thomas G. Fraser The political Agreement reached in Northern Ireland on 10 April 1998 is seen as marking a new departure in the political and constitutional history of Northern Ireland, and of the island of Ireland. The Agreement was reached between the two sovereign governments of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. More importantly, it was reached amongst most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, parties of widely different ideologies, representing two traditions which had been looked in bitter dispute for at least a century. It was also agreed to by three political parties representing armed groups which had been engaged in violence for thirty years. By the time the Agreement came into effect, the Northern Ireland situation had claimed 3,247 lives and cost billions of pounds to the British exchequer. Northern Ireland has been western Europe's most intraciable ethnic dispute since the Second World War. The purpose of this lecture is to identify the nature of the Northern Ireland problem, to examine previous attempts at resolving the conflict and why they failed, and to explain the forbes which generated the present peace process. Finally, it will analyse the agreement, identifying the key elements which are currently forming the basis for political and constitutional compromise. To what extent can this provide a model for other divided societies? The Northern Ireland Problem 1. The Irish-British problem 2. The Nationalist-Unionist problem a. Economics. Nationalist economists argued that an Irish parliament in Dublin would promote Irish interests, unlike the Union parliament in London. b. Culture. Nationalists wished to safeguard and promote a distinctively Irish culture against the dominant British culture. This included such elements as literature, Irish sports, and, above all, the Irish language. Culture was increasingly defined in Irish or Galelio terms. They drew their inspiration from the myths and legends of the Irish past. c. Territory. Since Ireland was geographically an island, nationalists believed it was entitled to national self-determination. d. Religion. The prime generating force behind Irish Nationalism was religion. Some Protestants were Nationalists, but overwhelmingly Nationalists saw Catholicism as marking them out as distinctively Irish. Ulster Unionism a. Economy. Ulster's industries were linked with British markets and resources. b. Culture. Protestants identified with British culture, especially the English language. Their inspiration came from the Siege of Londonderry and the Battle of the Boyne, events which Nationalists saw as leading to their subjugation. Protestants commemorated these events, especially through the formation of the Orange Order, an exclusively Protestant order whose name honoured the memory of King William III, prince of Orange. c. Territory. For Unionists the national territory was not Ireland but the British isles. d. Religion. Protestants formed 25% of the Irish population. An Irish parliament in Dublin would inevitably lead to Catholic domination. 3. The third dimension to the Northern Irish problem which needs to be noted is a continuing tension between constitutional politics and violence, what in Ireland is called 'physical force'. These have been difficult to reconcile. The solutions What were the defects in the partition
solution? b. The system of government left Catholics excluded from political power. Although sovereign authority remained with the British parliament in London, to which Northern Ireland sent members, effective power was exercised by the local parliament in Belfast. This was set up on the 'Westminster model' but this rests on the principle that political power changes with the wishes of the electorate. In Northern Ireland this was never the case, since Unionists were always in the majority. Not only did Nationalists never form the government, but permanent Unionist control meant that patterns of discrimination built up which favoured the Protestant community and left the Catholic minority even more alienated and marginalised. c. This was compounded by economic decline. Economic difficulties meant that the Protestant majority was less inclined to make gestures to the Catholic minority which might win support for Northern Ireland. 1968-1972. The collapse of the 1920 settlement In the years 1968-1972, Nationalist frustrations in Northern Ireland finally boiled over. In 1968 Civil Rights protests demanded the removal of the most obvious Catholic Grievances. In 1970 there was serious rioting between Catholics and Protestants, with a number of deaths. This had the following results: a. The British army was used in a pacekeeping role, which meant that effective responsibility was passing from the devolved government in Belfast to the government in London. b. At the end of 1969 the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was formed, initially to defend Catholic areas from Protestant attack. By the summer of 1970, the IRA had engaged in hostilities to end partition, beginning attacks on both the British army and the locally-recruited police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). By 1972, the IRA had become a formidable force. Its political wing was Provisional Sinn Fein. c. Under the pressure of these events, the Ulster Unionist Party fell apart. By 1972, there was the Ulster Unionist Party, led by the Northern Ireland Prime Minister Brian Faulkner, but this was badly split. A rival party, the Democratic Unionist Party, was formed by a Protestant clergyman, the Reverend Ian Paisley. Two armed groups were formed on the Protestant side, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), which carried out attacks against the IRA and the Catholic community. The fragmentation of the Unionist community was to prove a major difficulty in finding a settlement and still does. d. A new constitutional Nationalist Party, the Social Democratic and Labour Party, was formed. Opposed to violence, it had to compete with Sinn Fein for Catholic votes, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Hence, it was also difficult to find a common voice on the Nationalist side. New solutions The Sunningdale Agreement 1973-1974 a. The negotiations did not include the Democratic Unionists, the UDA and UVF, Brian Faulkner's Unionist Party also split on the Agreement. The political base for the Agreement in the Protestant community proved too small. Faulkner could never deliver sufficient Unionist - the other parties to the Agreement failed to understand this. b. Protestants who might have supported sharing power with the SDLP would not agree to a Council of Ireland. Faced with the IRA campaign, they felt they were being pushed into a united Ireland - this was the basis of the May 1974 strike. Stalemate and the political rise of Sinn Fein The Anglo-Irish Agreement 1985 Political progress Within Northern Ireland, two strands were developing. The first was an escalation of violence. The strategy of the UDA and UVF was to attack Nationalist targets to convince the Catholic population that there was too high a price to pay for the IRA campaign. In an incompetent attempt to attack the UDA leadership the IRA killed ten innocent people in Belfast in October 1993; in relation the UDA killed seven people near Londonderry. Despite such violence, political moves were being made in December 1993, the British and Irish governments issued the Downing Street Declaration. This tried to send signals to both paramilitaries. To Nationalists it conceded that it was for the people of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively, to exercise the right of self-determination on the basis of consent, freely and concurrently given, North and South, to bring about a united Ireland, if that is their wish. Unionists were reassured that such self-determination 'must be achieved and exercised with and subject to the agreement and consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland'. Breakthrough In fact, progress proved uneven. The British government and the Unionists tried to insist on the decommissioning of IRA arms prior to substantive negotiations. In February 1996, the IRA ended its ceasefire with a large bomb in London. In May 1997, a new British government with a strong majority was able to move ahead. In July the IRA ceasefire was restored and substantive negotiations were able to take place. These involved all the main political parties, though not the Democratic Unionist Party or the smaller United Kingdom Unionist Party, which between them represented 40% of the Protestant electorate. (To be continued) A response to Kusal Perera (Continued from yesterday) Rohan Gunaratne says in the Indian Intervention in Sri Lanka The Role of India's Intelligence Agencies: 'Jayawardena had come up with the 'Eastern Province trifurcation proposals' at the Bangalore meeting, and impressed its merits on the Indian Prime Minister. These proposals were later communicated by India to the Tamil groups. The Tamil militant groups rejected the proposals. The TULF wrote to Rajiv Gandhi that 'the recent proposal for the trifurcation of the Eastern Province into three new Provinces has sinister connotations. According to the last official census - 1981 (though census figures, particularly in the Eastern Province have always been questionable), in the Batticaloa district. The Tamils are an absolute majority, 71.98%, the Tamil speaking Muslims 23.97 and the Sinhalese 3.21 %, in the Trincomalee district, the Tamil are the single largest ethnic group, 36,496 the Tamil speaking Muslims 36,496 and the Sinhalese 33,629; while in the Ampara district, the Tamil speaking Muslims are the single largest group 41,539, the Tamils 20,596 and the Sinhalese 37,649. The TULF leaders also claimed that 'the proposal for the trifurcation of the Eastern Province, as suggested, is also clearly aimed at grabbing for the Sinhalese the maximum possible land in the Eastern Province, primarily in the Trincomalee and Ampara districts.' (p.168) Gunaratne 'If the proposal had been adopted, Jayewardene would have persuaded the Sinhalese who would have agreed reluctantly, because the common belief among the Sinhalese was that the north-east was traditionally Sinhala before the South Indians invaded and occupied north-eastern Sri Lanka. As a follow up of the discussion Jayewardene had with Gandhi at Bangalore on November 16, External Affairs Minister Nawar Singh and Home, Pensions, Personal and Public Grievance Minister P. Chidambaram visited Colombo to work out a political solution. In the words of Chidambaram, their aim was 'to meet the aspirations and grievances of the Tamil speaking people, especially in the Northern and Eastern Provinces and for constitutional and administative arrangements to safeguard and satisfy their aspirations and grievances! India suggested that the predominantly Sinhala Ampara electorate be de-linked from the Eastern Province and attached to the Uva Province. But the Muslims opposed this, as this would make the Tamils a majority in the Eastern Province. The LTTE also opposed the de-linking of Ampara. The Indian delegation left on December 19. The proposals which emerged as a result of their discussions became known as the December 19th proposals. Sri Lanka agreed to consider bringing the two provinces together and even the creation of the office of Vice President. The proposals, incorporating the new idea and continuing the discussions held in the past, were; (1) The present territory comprising the Eastern Province minus the Ampara Electoral District may constitute the new Eastern Province. (2) A Provincial Council will be established for the new Eastern Province. The institutional linkages between the Northern Province and the Eastern Province discussed earlier will be further refined in order to make it acceptable to the parties concerned. (3) The Sri Lanka Government will be willing to consider a proposal for a second stage of constitutional development providing for the Northern Province and the new Eastern Province coming together subject to modalities being agreed upon for ascertaining the wishes of the people comprised in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces separately. (4) The Sri Lanka government is willing to consider the creation of an office of Vice President to be appointed by the President for a specific term. (5) The Muslim Members of Parliament of the Eastern Province may be invited to visit India to discuss matters of mutual concern with the Tamil side under the auspices of the Government of India. Traditional Homeland 'The Indian delegation comprised the two Ministers and High Commissioner Dixit, while the Sri Lankan delegation included the Deputy Power and Energy Minister P. Dayaratne (who represented the Ampara electorate in Parliament) Ranganayaki Pathmnathan, the MP for Pottuvil and H. L. D. Leelaratne, the MP for Seruwila. 'Siri Ratnatunga quoted the Tamil Minister K. W. Devanayagam as having said at a news conference that 'when he came to the Eastern Province as a young lawyer fifty years ago to start a practice, their were hardly any Tamils around, and the Eastern Province could not be considered traditional Tamil homeland'. The fear that the Tamils want to rule the Muslims in the east prevented the Muslims from supporting the Tamils' (ibid,pp. 168,169). Professor Kingsly M. de Silva once said of the Tamil agitation for parity of status for Tamil with Sinhala. That they have given into rhetoric rather than realities'. There is one fact that the Government must consider in its colonization policy, that is that Government sponsored colonization must be done in such a way as not to disturb the existing demographic pattern in the Eastern Province. I believe both Messrs. Gamini Dissanayake and Lalith Athulathmudali held this view. Sri Lankan Tamils in Sinhalese areas Not all the Sri Lankan Tamils live in the Northern and Eastern provinces. According to the Census of 1961, the Sri Lankan Tamil population is only 12.6 per cent. of the total population. This 12.6 per cent is distributed as follows: Areas claimed by the Tamils as their homeland: Northern Province...... 51.4 per cent Predominantly Sinhalese areas All the seven Provinces .... 27.3 per cent It will be seen from these figures that it is only in the Northern Province that the largest number of Tamils live. In the Eastern Province they are in a minority. The very first Government after Independence was installed in 1948 under Mr. D. S. Senanayake. In 1949, when the new Government had not got on to the saddle, the newly formed Tamil political party, Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadtchi (Ceylon Tamil State Party), later known as Tamil United Liberation Front adopted the following resolution, despite the fact Mr. D. S. Senanayake's cabinet represented all communities and also that Mr. G. G. Ponnambalam, the leader of the All Ceylon Tamil Congress and the most popular Tamil leader held a ministerial post in it. The ITAK's resolution is as follows: 'We believe that the present constitution is unsuited to a multi-lingual society, and is inimical to the interests of the Tamils living in Sri Lanka. The basic principles which the present government has proclaimed concerning the public good are pernicious, and the system of government is not conducive to maintaining the unity of the country. We believe that the only means of ensuring that the Tamils are guaranteed that freedom and self-respect by law, and of solving their problems in a just and democratic manner is to permit them to have their own autonomous State guaranteeing self-government and self-determination for the Tamil nation in the country, and to work indefatigably for the attaintment of this objective.' At the first annual convention of the party held at Trincomalee in 1951 it adopted several resolutions of the same tenor. One declared that the Tamil-speaking people constituted a nation, which as such is entitled to self determination. The strategy was to take under the wings of the Jaffna Tamils, the Muslims in the Eastern Province who were about 33% of the total population. The same resolution claimed that 'by reason of their territorial habitation of definite areas which constitute over one third of the island and demanded that the Government hold a plebiscite and determine the boundaries of the envisaged Tamil state. At the same convention the ITAK passed resolution protesting against the Government's 'colonizing the land under the Gal Oya reservoir and other such areas with purely Sinhalese people as an infringement of the fundamental rights and as a calculated blow at the very existence of the Tamil-speaking nation in Ceylon'. Mr. M. C. Sansoni, retired Chief Justice who was appointed commissioner by the J. R. Jayewardene government in 1977 to inquire into the communal disturbances in August-September 1977 quotes extensively from an article on the subject under discussion. I quote the relevant paragraph Mr. M. C. Sansoni's report which has been published by the Government as a Sessional Paper (S.P. No. II-1980): 'The Sri Lankan Tamils, as I call them to distinguish from the Indian Tamils who are not citizens of Sri Lanka, form about 11.3 per cent of the entire population of the island, according to the 1978 Handbook of Statistics. They do not all live in the area of the proposed new State. The Rev. Fr. Tissa Balasuriya O.M.I., in an article published in 'Racial Relations in Sri Lanka' (April 1978) had discussed the T. U. L. F. demand for Eelam. I understand him to have stated there that the area of Eelam is about one third of the land surface of the whole Island and in 1971 it was occupied by about two million persons, or less than one sixth of the entire population, it will have a coast line of about three fifths of the entire coast line and about 85 per cent of the entire population will be cramped in two thirds of the entire land surface.' (p.64) A contemporary writer, D. C. Wijewardena, in his book Revolt in the say Temple in connection with the founding of Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi or the Federal Party (presently known as the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF): 'The 'fifty-fifty' cry never troubled the Sinhalese because its leadership was patently opportunist. It is rather unfortunate that within recent time the communal bogey has raised its head under a new mask. We hear now the cry for 'Federation' and the creation of a 'Tamil Kingdom'. This new party, which had its origin in the All Ceylon Tamil Congress which espoused the fifty-fifty cry, calls itself the Federal Freedom Party. Its Tamil name is more illuminating. It calls itself in Tamil 'The Ilankai Tamil Arasu kadchi' which may be translated as 'The Ceylon Tamil State or Kingdom Party' (p. 445) As Wijewardena says the ordinary Sinhalese people do not brother themselves about the Jaffna Tamils monopolizing the jobs in the Public Service or about the language of the administration or even the medium of education. One hundred years of British rule had made them more less conditioned to the ... with and he was also made to believe that the British Government was 'noble and just' (utum sadharana Ingirisi). These matters for the simple illiterate Sinhalese peasant and fishermen were beyond understanding and remote. But the Tamil claimed for the exclusive ownership of the Eastern Province as the 'traditional homeland' amazed and angered the ordinary Sinhalese people. They were in the habit of going on pilgrimages to the ancient Buddhist places or worship in the Province and knew that there were a large number of ancient Sinhalese villages (Prana Sinhala Gam) in the area also that there were ruins of many ancient Buddhist temples in the Province. How can the Tamils claims the area to belong to them exclusively? As a matter of fact, the claim that the Eastern Province together with the Northern Province is the 'traditional homeland' of the Tamils was made neither by the Tamils of Mannar nor Vavuniya nor Mullaitivu; the districts in the Northern Province: nor was it made by the Tamils of Trincomalee and Batticaloa. The claim was originally made by the Jaffna based Tamil political parties, although the idea of having the Eastern Province exclusive to themselves might have appealed to the land hunger of the mainland Tamils. For an agricultural community land is the most valuable thing in life. We have seen how the Tamil as well as Muslim members representing electorates in the Eastern Province dissociating themselves from the fictitious claim made by some Jaffna Tamil politicians. Sri Lankan Tamils in Sinhalese areas The greater majority of these Tamils are of Jaffna origin. Practically all of them are English educated, belong to the lower and upper middle classes and comprise middle and higher grade employees both in the public and private sectors, professionals in private practice such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants, company directors, wholesale and retail traders, etc., and their families. Their children are educated mostly in Colombo schools. Continued tomorrow Liquid Assets: Is water privatisation the answer to access? Part II will be continued next Tuesday The
gypsy girl soothsayer E.C.T. Candappa was one of Sri Lanka's been feature writers in the mid-fifties till the seventies. He was an outstanding journalist at Lake House and distinguished himself as a reporter and feature writer. He is now domiciled in Australia but still very much interested in his country of origin. He visited Sri Lanka last year and interviewed many of the personalities featured in this book. Continued from yesterday Chapter 7 Raj was on his way to the YCW headquarters to meet Bill Wilberton. It was evening and the sun was setting over the Colombo harbour. The masts and rigging of many mighty ocean liners and humble craft stood silhouetted against the grandeur of another unrepeatable tropical sunset. Raj often chose to walk short distances rather than saddle up on his scooter. This was one of his favourite walks. It always throbbed with life. Now the air was warm and sticky, but not sluggish. A slight movement quickened the limp sails, passed over his head without ruffling his hair. It would take a tempest to do that. The thick growth of hair on his arms and chest was still damp with the heat of the afternoon. Familiar sounds and smells reassured him. The toot of a horn, the whirring motor of a launch below, the strident shriek of a gull, the distant damp, bellow of a fog horn, the whiff of spray-drenched barges and the salty tang touching his cheeks and licking his lips. He was passing the soothsayers again. The girl who foretold his overseas trip turned her face to him, wide eyes and betel stained mouth. "Dorai, you are lucky to cross the ocean soon. Sit, master, I can see blood..." Raj’s mouth dropped open in astonishment. This was three days after the first encounter. These girls saw literally thousands of people pass them everyday. She could not, surely, have remembered his face or associated the earlier forecast with him. This had to be a shot in the dark, he told himself. There ought to be a few stock forecasts which they tossed off, and some of them happened to coincide with the truth. He went past, then impulsively returned to the girl. Sensing a client, she grabbed his hand. "Sit, sit," she urged him. Quite surprised by himself, Raj squatted before her. The girl asked for a rupee, which he placed on her outstretched palm. She cracked her knuckles over it, a gesture to invoke good luck for herself, and tucked it away in a little velvet purse under her blouse. Raj had never done this before and had not seen a gypsy so close. The girl could not be more that sixteen or seventeen years of age, he thought. Her light skin was healthy and flawless, and a fine film of sweat covered her face. Her full lips and tongue were red with the stain of the betel leaf, and her black hair shiny with oil was combed back and held in a large bun at the back. Her wide open eyes were hazel. She began in the traditional manner, a parrot-like repetition of a formula learnt by rote, much of it applicable to almost anyone. "You will marry soon...will have seven children...inherit some property...change your job...travel abroad within an year (Raj attempted to trap her by asking to which country, but she ignored him and rattled on ) there is a risk to your life.(Raj smiled wryly: there was a risk to everyone’s life)." The girl then paused, peered closely into his palm, and added, "The gentleman is ill and has been troubled with a stomach ailment for many years. I can see blood and a danger to life." She said that in the same sing-song intonation that she used for other predictions. There was no indication that this was special. Abruptly she dropped his hand, like a discarded toy, straightened herself, and looked for other custom. "Sastra, sastra, dorai, sastra." The sitting was over. A multitude of crows was cawing overhead in an enormous Bo-tree. "Caw, caw, caw, caw." The branches groaned, and the leaves lisped and whispered. These were the final sounds of the day’s declining clamour. When the crows settled in to roost on the giant Bo-tree and on the peltoforum trees ablaze with golden blossoms down the road, silence would descend but for the low rumble of thinning traffic taking the last of the city workers home. By eleven there would remain only the occasional car. Raj crossed the road at this point to avoid the showers of crow excrement, the astringent stench of which assailed the nostrils sharply. It was a common hazard. Victims often had their clothes laundered afresh to remove the stain, or washed their hair to remove the foul stench. People who could not take effective remedial action immediately, scraped off the mess with paper, often with the assistance of very willing, passing strangers. Several people hailed Raj as he entered the YCW headquarters. He was well known here. A small, anonymous group huddled on a rough bench by the doorway. People were seated at tables consuming refreshments, talking. Others lounged about on easy chairs. Most of them were city clerks, sales girls, wharf workers. Others, evidently executives from the business sector, enthused by the ideals of Cardijn, were also there to help restore social justice. The aroma of fresh brewed tea and cigarette smoke lent an air of leisure and security and comradeship to the room. Raj looked round for some sign of the Australian. He looked up towards the balcony. The ever-smiling Pat Silva sidled up to him. "Hullo," he said, "what brought you?" "I’m looking for the Australian," he said. Raj had decided not to refer to the appalling sleeping conditions afforded to the visitor, to the guest, for fear of embarrassing Bill. Raj would not have minded a few red ears in the movement. At that moment a very foreign-sounding voice called out in a strange accent, "Ayubovan mahattaya. Jesu pihitai." They both looked up. Bill Wilberton was standing on the balcony, bare to the waist, with a towel wrapped round, a wide grin on his face. Raj noted that Bill had the well developed torso of the body builder, broad at the shoulders, tapering almost to a V at the waist, and bulging muscles between. "Join you blokes in a jiffy," he said. And he did. He was scrubbed red and smelling of a strong soap. "You’ve learnt the lingo quickly!" said Raj referring to Bill’s traditional greeting, with the Catholic Jesus-bless-you bit tagged on. Bill seemed greatly pleased. "No worries," he said. "Be soon nattering like you blokes. Goodness gracious," he added, "this country is hot. Like bloody Alice Springs." The allusion was missed by the Ceylonese and they let it pass. "Top man," said Pat, casting a sidelong glance at Bill, "he can’t wait to start work." "What work?" asked Raj, with the beginnings of a new story in mind. "I have come here to spend a year with the YCW and see what I can learn. I’ve already started with the lingo. Your Sinhala letters are like crabs." "You mean you’re going to learn how to read as well?" "That’s the way to get to know the locals," Bill said. Raj felt a pang of guilt. Although he came from an ethnic Tamil family, originally from the North, and settled in the South for two generations he could not use the Tamil language. He was as far removed from the Jaffna Tamils as the Sinhalese: he had no real connections there. He had been among the last of the students who could have offered Latin as a second language instead of Sinhala or Tamil. Other ethnic groups like the Burghers, Eurasians, and Colombo Chetties were permitted to skip the native languages altogether and offer Latin instead. Raj could speak and write in English but could only speak Sinhala and Tamil. The great majority of the Sinhalese did not know even to speak Tamil or English, and likewise many Tamils knew no Sinhala or English. "Is this your first visit to this part of the world?" Raj asked. "I wonder how many Australians have ever been here?" "Yes, I’ve been here once before on my way to Rome for a YCW convention. Oh, some Aussies were here during the war fighting the Japs." "That’s right," said Raj, "but by and large most people in Australia must think Ceylon is part of India. Matter of fact most people all over think so. Most people also think we live on trees, ride on elephants and are dressed only for sunbathing." "That’s ignorance," said Bill. No story here, thought Raj. "I’ve got to get back," he said. "I’ll keep in touch." "See what I mean?" said Bill. "I’m not news material. Just small fry!" Raj flushed. It was as though the man had read his thoughts. "It’s not that," he explained. "I think you’re an excellent story – for a religious paper. I don’t want my cynical news editor to scoff at it. But in a couple of months when you have been able to take a look around, then you might be able to give us a good story." A couple of paras in some abandoned inside page is probably all I'll be able toget, Raj thought. When Raj retraced his steps back to the Clarion office it had grown dark. People clustered round bus stops and rushed into halted buses. The trees were strident with crows battling for perches. The harbour dazzled with the deck lights of a hundred ships and their dancing reflections. The soothsayers had left. He shivered as he went over the bridge. The wind was cool as it wafted in from the sea, and thick with brine. He tasted it on his lips. It was sticky on his hands and cheeks. He stood awhile and rubbed his chin reflectively. He felt the rough bristle of his beard. He needed to shave in the evenings if he was assigned to evening functions. * * * Now how had that girl known about his hernia? he asked himself with a fierce contempt. They ought to have a wide spectrum of forecasts in such general terms that some ought to coincide with the truth. Almost anyone could have a stomach ailment. But what about that bit about the blood? he asked himself uneasily. Ah, silly clots, he thought, dismissing the soothsayers. Then he caught his own pun, smiled broadly and passed on. He tried to start his scooter after work. After attempting to kick start it a dozen times, he abandoned the attempt. Perhaps the plugs needed replacing. He wheeled it round to the huge yard at the back, parked it there and walked down to the trolley bus stop. A few other commuters were there. A withered middle-aged prostitute, most likely rampant with venereal disease, hovered hopefully. Raj watched the parade of humanity go past, walking, riding bicycles, motor-bikes, buses, cars – returning to the security of their homes, to warm dinners, to a fragment of time with their families, their pets, their routines, eating, mating, some sleep, some wakefulness; bearing shopping bags with converted realities, some hopes for the morrow, some plans, schemes, dreams, plots, machinations in the workplace, cunningly manipulated fornications. How many would make it home? he wondered glumly. How many would not wake up on the morrow leaving their plans and schemes festering to be binned and forsaken? Wasn’t that the way with almost everything? The bus meandered past the two main shopping centres, a few cinemas garishly lit, haunts of drug peddlers and more prostitutes, creatures of the night, predators on the prowl. He had seen a piece of stale cheese under the microscope once. He had been astonished by the corruption beneath the apparently bland surface. He wondered what society would be like under a corresponding microscope. Was the writer such a microscope or a mirror. What would the microscope as art achieve? Drive people into monasteries, make misogynists of them? Life would always contain the seeds of decay and death. Still, life had to be lived as fully as possible. His father responded to the first light tap on the door. He let Raj in, then went back to sleep. His mother came into the dining room to ask whether he had had his dinner. He had not, and he knew it was on the table, covered and waiting for him. She wished to know whether he would like the dinner heated, or something extra fried. "At eleven thirty, Mother? Why don’t you go back to sleep. I’m all right." He kicked off his shoes, loosened his necktie, turned on the radio by the table, fiddled around on the short wave band till he got any European station. The local radio station knocked off at eleven. Some Spanish music came on. He lifted the food cover, then the plates covering the dishes. The rice was cold, but the aromas of the curries still lingered, a mouth-watering rich smell of curried beef, fried vegetables and especially the sharp tang of onions on the tomato salad. He ate using the fingers of his right hand, the only way Ceylonese claimed rice ought to be eaten, mixing the accompaniments into the rice. He relished the meal. Having finished it he washed his hands, lit a cigarette, leaned back on an easy chair and shut his eyes. The tiredness of the day dropped like a garment. Half an hour later, he changed into a sarong and went to sleep. As he stretched himself, the tightness around one side of his groin eased a bit. Routinely he placed the palm of his right hand over the area and gently pressed down. With a slow sucking sound his hernia subsided. He had had it for twelve years as far as he was aware. He had probably ruptured himself, when he was fourteen, learning to ride an army push bicycle far too big for him. But it had been the only bicycle available to him, free of a hiring charge, from a neighbour who had also given him the early lessons pushing and puffing behind him till that unforgettable moment when he felt that he could ride unaided, free, free, hand off free, wing-still, gliding-free. There had been other unforgettable moments in between when having a choice of running into the path of a bus or hurtling two women pedestrians into a ditch, he had unhesitatingly chosen the latter path. He could still hear their shrill curses ringing in his ears. Raj was now reconciled to having his hernia surgically settled. It had not been a sharp or clear cut decision. Continued tomorrow |
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