After two years I revisited Japan, where I once served over two decades ago. Japan is in the throes of change and what is happening there could be of interest to your readers.

Japan is currently described as being in recession; Japan is of course not alone in this Predicament. 'The Asian Economic flue' which earlier engulfed Malaysia, Korea,Thailand and Indonesia with disastrous consequences has now spread to Russia and is causing a serious turbulence in the Stock Markets in the United States and Europe.

With the spillover effects of the above mentioned currency and economic turmoil and the collapse of two of Japan's major financial institutions, Yamaguchi Securities and the Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, and with the uncertainty and erosion of confidence created consequently, Japan is in deep trouble. They are blaming inept politicians and they in turn are blaming it on the once revered bureaucrats of the Ministry of Finance. During the Mexican crisis a few years ago and more recently when the current crisis broke, it was said that the situation had come about because the economies of these countries were structurally weak and were therefore at the mercy of the rapid flows of investment funds in and out of these countries. But now that so called strong economies have gone down with the 'flue' other theories are being propounded. Global financial liberalization is being blamed. It is being stated that the necessary and adequate supervision of banks and their transactions has become an impossibility in this day and age of electronic bank transfers. Banks now operate in an ultra sensitive environment. Investment funds flow in rapidly when the going is good and flow out even faster at the slightest change in the economic or political environment.

There now appears to be a chicken and egg situation that has developed with regard to the whole region. The situation elsewhere in Asia has affected the economy of Japan and Japan's inability to recover is affecting the rest of Asia and in fact the world. It does appear that no country would be able to escape a prolonged economic crisis.

The confidence the global market and the IMF has also been shaken. The IMF failed to support Russia despite its decision in July to support that nation. There is also a deepening sense of distrust of the IMF regarding its double standards. It set loose standards for Russia but extremely strict standards for Asian countries. In this regard it is worth quoting from President Kumaratunge's address to the NAM Summit. She stated "The International Monetary mechanism has proved desperately inadequate in handling the recent crisis. In toady's globalised world, the problems of one country can rapidly become a problem to the whole world. Today we need international cooperation more than ever. We must work towards a new financial architecture through fundamental reforms of the International Monetary system". The President went on to explain the reforms she advocated. Whilst the idea should be given serious consideration it would be a stupendous task to "institute a comprehensive and international surveillance system of large scale capital investments, so that problems can be anticipated and measures taken, before speculators move in ". This does not seem feasible in practice.

To revert to the situation in Japan, it is stated that the financial system is crumbling and only three of Japanese financial institutions in fact hold unrealised stock profits. The bad Loans are said to amount to over four trillion yen. It is being alleged that this situation has come about consequent to incompetent management and a lack of any sense of morality or accountability on the part of the Bank management. The great debate now raging in Japan is whether these financial institutions should be rescued with public money or not.

The Government is seeking to put through a comprehensive "Financial revitalizing plan", a comprehensive "Fiscal restructuring plan"(including permanent tax cuts amounting to over six trillion yen) and a ten trillion yen public works programme to kick start the economy. This is in addition to the political reforms currently underway (they changed from a complete 'Proportional Representation'system to the German system, under which a section of the house is elected under the PR System and the rest under the "First past the post" system). The biggest 'victim' of current crisis is that feared apostle of bureaucracy, the Finance Ministry bureaucrat, whose reputation has been badly dented. They are being held largely responsible for the current crisis. Consequently the Government has pledged to reform the Finance Ministry, the most powerful Ministry in Japan.

The Americans meanwhile are calling upon Japan to open its markets to foreign exports and investments. Some Japanese, like the famous Ishihara, who wrote the book "Japan that can say no", protest, stating that their economy is as open as that of Europe and that the US is seeking to bully docile Japan.

That relationship is also undergoing change. A perceptible change began to occur with the end of the cold war. With the erosion of the policy of 'containment' and with the US reaching out to make best of the emerging opportunities in China, a new scenario began to unfold.

The Cold war was to the absolute advantage of Japan. With the Nuclear umbrella for cover, she used the cold war to concentrate on her economic development and succeeded beyond belief. The elite spawned by, and a consequence of that situation, wish the old relationship with the US to continue at the same level of intensity, but as to whether the US feels the same, in the light of the changed security situation, is another matter.The policy of 'containment' being over, Japan is no longer absolutely essential to the US. As for Japan, sandwiched between China and an unpredictable DPRK, which only recently exhibited her missile muscle, she would wish the security relationship to continue as before. There are many persons of influence in the US who question the logic of the US spending its resources (though Japan picks up 70% of the tab) to defend one of the richest nations in the world.

The uncertain situation has been further spoiled by friction in Japan-US economic relations. The US continues to use its leverage to demand that Japan open its markets still further and also allow for American investment into areas yet "subtly blocked" to foreign private investment. The present economic crisis would further weaken Japan's options.

Meanwhile, despite her somewhat precarious situation, the right wing, which essentially comprises of the older Japanese politicians and some of the younger MPs wish Japan to ease up on her almost total dependency on the US, whilst yet retaining the relationship with the US as the cornerstone of it defence and security policy. They feel that 50 years after the war Japan should use her economic might to play a more assertive role in the affairs of the world, more particularly in South East Asia, the Far East and the Pacific, where her main interests lie.Their view is that Japan should play a security role in the region, perhaps complementing the role of the US. Japan has already developed a forward defence capability.The Japanese Navy today patrols sea-lanes beyond its territorial waters with the concurrence of the US of course. They have developed force structures, which are complementary to the Americans. Defence cooperation is at a very high level so much so that a joint force doctrine could even be realised.

Japan, despite the very real crisis she is facing today, would no doubt, use her economic and technological might, and in tandem with the US, emerge as the second superpower from the region, in the 21st Century.

We shall thank you to please permit me through your columns to bring to the notice of the Government a serious problem and also to warn the Embassy officials that they will not be able to humiliate respectable citizens of the country with impunity.

Mr Editor. We presume that you are aware of the rude treatment meted out on a daily basis by the so-called consular officers of western Embassies in Colombo and also the Embassy of Japan. Most of them are moronic.

We do not think that if they were any better they would have accepted the type of job they do, in countries far from their homes..

These Consular officers seem to be working on the presumption that everyone who wishes to travel to the west or to Japan is an asylum seeker. The interrogation is humiliating. Quite recently a lady doctor in her 50s was asked why she was not married and how she came by the wealth she had. But for the fact that the Doctor, who incidentally had traveled to the west many times before, needed to get her visa, she says that she would have slapped the uncouth idiot who interviewed her. This is not some isolated incident. Many respectable citizens are being humiliated almost daily by these small men dressed in brief authority. In another instance the wife of a former Ambassador to Japan was subject to rude treatment, even after she said she was the wife of a former Ambassador to Japan. In another instance a leading businessman who was also the President of the Business Association with a particular country was given the treatment by a stupid consular officer. If the Ambassadors cannot correct this we shall no doubt have to do something about it , after all this is our country. The most amazing thing is there are touts and 'agents in Colombo who will guarantee a visa from ant of these countries for a heafty fee. There is truth in this. How else have all those thousands entered even Island states like Japan.

There is no doubt that a some hundred thousand or more Sri Lankans are overstaying their visas in these countries and many of them have requested for asylum on dubious grounds. To apprehend them and return them to Sri Lanka is the responsibility of the governments of the countries where these bogus asylum seekers now live. We should not have to suffer on account of their inability or their unwillingness to arrest and deport these people. The Foreign Ministry needs to take up this matter with the Ambassadors on our behalf,

We wish once again to state, with a sense of responsibility, that many who are now overstaying their visas have obtained their visas on the payment of large sums of money to agents of the consular officers working in many western embassies. This is a well known fact in certain Colombo circles. There are people who would guarantee a visa for a fee. Loud may the protests but we know what happened after 1983 and what is happening now. We, the respectable citizens of this country should not and need not suffer these rude barbarians, who cannot distinguish between a bona fide traveller and an asylum seeker. We invite people who have suffered at the hands of these imbeciles to write of their individual experience to the papers indicating if possible the name of the person responsible for their embarrassment to enable a newly established citizens rights watch to take appropriate action. We say enough is enough. Do not forget that you are guests in this country and we are its citizens. If we are not afforded the minimum courtesies we are entitled to then you must be prepared to face the consequences. Your immunity is from the law but not from the people.

Continued from yesterday

About the author
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.

Fr Grutzner leaned uncomfortably at the edge of one bench, attempted unsuccessfully to adjust his huge bulk into a comfortable position. Only the biggest couch could take him in without letting him spill over. His white cassock was evidently in need of laundering. He had put away the black sash, loosened a button at the neck in deference to the steamy weather.

He was squinting through a thick pall of smoke from his cigarette. ‘What do you understand by the word Justice?’ he asked. This was all part of the Gospel enquiry, the mandatory part of a cell meeting.

As chaplain, it was his duty to ensure that the movement did not degenerate into a secular meeting with secular aims and objectives. The purpose of the YCW, as he never tired of repeating, was to sanctify the worker and through him to evangelise - to spread the Good News of salvation and strengthen the Kingdom of God.

To do this they had to enter secular spheres, and because they dealt in secular matters they were suspect. And because they were in conflict with whoever short-changed the worker, they were often on the wrong side of employers and governments.

And because they had a religious motivation they came into conflict with religious bigots who accused them of taking part in Catholic Action. The term which in the Catholic idiom was synonymous with evangelisation and acting out the Gospel in everyday life was twisted by the bigotry of ignorance to mean a sinister activity to subvert Buddhism.

After the Gospel enquiry, the meeting went into the classic YCW mode. Each member had to report on how he lived the injunction to see, judge and act.

Each member was to take a closer look at his or her environment; the home, neighbourhood, workplace, parish and wherever else, then judge whether the values of the Kingdom of God were observed or violated, whether truth and justice prevailed in these areas, whether any person needed help to gain full personhood, and then to report on what action had been taken or needed to be taken. It was a great exercise in living Christian charity. There never was an intention of converting anyone through this process, and the concern was not confined to Christians.

Raj had been to such meetings occasionally though he was not a member of the YCW. Fr Grutzner always welcomed him as a friend and also as a contact whose assistance he could use. He kept these two areas separate. He was too refined to make gross use of people in that way.

If anyone, especially a journalist, was reluctant to divulge any information that he sought he never pursued it. He respected their reticence for whatever reason believing always that it must be a good reason for refusing.

Bill had attended a few of these meetings in Colombo and a few in some of the suburbs. He always remained silent because his function was to observe, to learn.

Besides, he was not quite fluent in Sinhalese.

A girl related how the other salesperson in the tiny shop where she worked had no place to rest in the lunch interval, had no toilet, and had to use a public latrine which was unspeakably filthy, how they had no chairs to sit on and had to be on their feet for more then eight hours.

They were not unionised and they risked dismissal if they mentioned the word union.

The YCW met such managers individually and by numerous well-honed methods of wheedling concessions out of the proprietors - mostly wealthy Indian merchants, improved working conditions among unorganised labour. This particular case had been going on for some months but they were working on it. Oddly, no minutes were kept, no notes were taken, but the leaders kept steadily on the job.

They disposed of small matters before they came to the union contacts. This was the big time.

Contacts with the Banks’ Union, the Clerical Service Union, Hospital Workers’ Union, the various port unions, reported on all these fronts. The YCW had contacts within the executive committees of several major trade unions.

Infiltration was the word that Fr Grutzner used to describe the action. One could not say that he used the word gleefully but the expression on his face rarely, if ever, showed emotion. A narrowing of the eyes, the merest hint of a sort of triumphant amusement or a trifling elevation of his eyebrows with a slight furrowing of the wide intellectual brow, were the closest one could have got to his reactions.

One could easily have imagined him working in the Dutch underground during the war, or tramping across wintry mountains with a loaded back-pack and a sten gun slung across one shoulder, smoking, taking long deep draughts on the cigarette.

At meetings and discussions he was icy cool.

It was in the secrecy of the confessional that the privileged came to know the real man, the priest.

There were two other priests also attached to the YCW, one Frenchman, Fr Labatut, an agitated bundle of emotions and flailing limbs, a man with an amazing alertness and swift responses. Like Fr Grutzner, he belonged to the same religious order and like Fr Grutzner he smoked without ceasing, only he smoked cigars, an aromatic French brand of which he received a regular supply from the French passenger liners that called at Colombo.

The other priest was a Sinhalese, Fr Stephen Silva, a diminutive man, taut as a stick of dynamite, his dark skin tight as a drum across his bony face. One expected him to explode at any moment, and he did quite frequently. For some unknown reason he despised journalists and lost no opportunity to have spiteful digs at them.

Raj comforted himself against his attacks by repeating to himself, ‘Only those who have something to hide fear journalists.’ Honest people believed that journalists could keep politicians clean and cleanse society.

These two priests were not present at this meeting.

Raj enjoyed a measure of the sixth sense which was almost spookish. He felt an unfriendly presence in the room, not a hostile presence, and he could feel the hair on the nape of his neck bristle. When the feeling became quite unbearable, he turned round. And there he was, Tony Miguel, seated on a long bench behind them ostensibly reading a newspaper. His gangling limbs were relaxed. He had a mocking smile. Raj caught him looking around in that quick, darting manner.

Raj felt the blood drain from his face. He did not react otherwise. He tore off a sheet of paper from his notebook, which was always handy even when he slept, and scribbled a note.

‘There’s a stranger in the house, a spy - adjourn meeting for any reason.’ He passed it on to Fr Grutzner.

The priest glanced at it and folded it. After a few seconds he put it in his pocket. Then in a very leisurely manner he lit another cigarette. He took over the meeting by starting to talk, blandly, on an administrative matter - the re-organisation of the library. After five minutes of this diversionary tactic, he said abruptly: ‘All right. Let’s have a short tea break.’ With that he walked directly to his office, knowing Raj would follow. Raj soon gave him the background to the visit.

Fr Grutzner agreed to wait until Raj had disposed of the stranger. When he got back, Miguel was talking, literally, down to Bill. Miguel was a clear head and shoulders above Bill. But he was unable to use his height to his advantage though it would have suited him because of the constant twitching of his head. He lost the power of eye contact.

Bill was better than a match for Miguel because of his quick mind and good humour.

When Raj came in Miguel was quite agitated and Bill was grinning. Miguel then turned to Raj.

‘Ah, one of your extra-curricular activities.’

‘But not espionage,’ Raj thrust with some ill temper. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

‘Counter-espionage,’ Miguel said smoothly. ‘Ah, what’s this...’ he thumbed in Bill’s direction, ‘character doing here?’ he asked.

‘It’s none of your affair,’ said Raj, ‘you’re snooping here. You’ve no right to be here...’

‘This is a public place. Anyone can come here to have a cup of tea at the so-called workers’ canteen...’

‘Well, you haven’t come here to drink tea...if you ever drink tea. Now get out before you get thrown out.’

The large figure of Fr Grutzner loomed over them. He tried not to make enemies, anywhere. One did not make collaborators by having them thrown out.

‘I don’t believe I have met you before. I’m Fr Grutzner.’

Miguel did not return the courtesy.

He was uneasy against any frontal attack. He worked insidiously. He grinned and mumbled something about having heard much about the YCW.

‘I heard Cardijn speak when he was here some years ago.’

‘That was in fifty four. When he came with Douglas Hyde.’

‘I’ve read, ëI Believed’.’

‘So, you are a well-informed journalist...’

‘But I can’t understand your paranoia about Communism.’

‘Have you visited any of the countries of Eastern Europe?’

Miguel shook his head.

‘Well, I have. Every one of them. I know from first hand what life under Communism is. I also receive regular information about these countries. And not American propaganda,’ he said, smiling ever so slightly, anticipating the customary jibe of Communist sympathisers.

Fr Grutzner pressed a tactical advantage.

‘Your employers, Clarion Mansions, are solidly capitalistic, yes? They won’t be happy with a Communist reporter on the staff.’

Miguel felt the sting.

‘I’m not a Communist,’ he said sharply.

‘But a fellow traveller?’

‘That’s not true.’ He sounded alarmed.

But a counter-move had been made even before a move had been made.

‘Come and see me when you are free. We’ll have a chat. But now it’s back to the meeting.’

He was confident the intruder would not stay on.

By the time they had returned to the long table, Miguel had slithered into the night.

Chapter 18
Dusk was deepening as Raj set out to work from the congested suburb where Raj lived. It was his weekly turn of night duty - six till two in the morning. Routine stuff mostly - check with the Fire Station, Railway Control room, Hospital Post, Police Headquarters. Every hour. On the hour.

‘Any fires tonight?’

‘No sir, everything very quiet.’

It was after midnight that the goodwill evaporated. Three newspaper groups waking sleeping public servants. Well, at least the watchdog of the nation, as Raj’s rival newspaper was called, ensured they did their duty.

‘Any train crashes tonight?’

‘No sir, everything running smoothly on rails.’

The reporter observes ten seconds’ silence as a mark of respect for the pun.

‘I’m ringing about that young man who crashed his motor bike this afternoon.’

Long pause.

‘Well, what’s his condition?’

A bitter female voice answers: ‘His condition is stable. You want him to die, no? Then you can have a story!’

‘Oh, come on. I’m only doing my job.’

Raj knew, as every night shift reporter knew, that you could make eight calls every night shift for a thousand years, but the call you don’t make was the one that could lose your job, and your reputation, for ever. That went for sub-editors too.

An extremely conscientious sub on the Clarion was on his way out of the office at four one morning. Some ingrained instinct told him to go back and look at the ticker just once again. For no reason at all. He had quite finished his turn, put the paper to bed, locked it and given the order for the presses to roll.

When he went back and glanced at the machine, World War Two had broken. He got goose pimples all over. If he hadn’t seen it then, it wouldn’t have been his fault.

But the rivals would all have had it. And life would not have been worth living after that. Reporters had resigned for much less than that.

As Raj rode his scooter through the narrow streets he felt the cool evening breeze run through his hair, glide past his arms and chest. He could hear the sounds of a typical evening in his suburb: the Portuguese shoemaker playing his trusty fiddle, as he did every evening in his tiny shop; the children doing their homework, the sing-song multiplication tables: four times four is sixteen, four times five is twenty, four times six is twenty four, the early aromas of cooking, the fragrance of incense round the family altars, the melody of chanted litanies, and as he passed through the bazaars, the rumble of traffic, the overpowering scents of exhaust fumes, gasoline, and acrid dust; past the predators, the pick pockets, the confidence tricksters and the diseased whores, and finally down the home stretch. He pulled himself short. What was he saying? He was going to work, not home. And yet such a confusion existed in many reporters’ minds. They did spend more time at work than they ever did at home. Home time, anyway, was mostly and merely sleep time. It was at work that they lived, really lived.

It was just past the first edition deadline when Raj reached the office. The atmosphere twanged like a plucked string but it was the sound of unwinding.

The canteen trolley was up and about and reporters and subs were lazing around eating hot pastries or beef rolls and drinking tea with milk, sickly sweetened. There was no choice. It was prepared thus and served in chipped cups.

The men who served were innocent of the English language. They were the butt of inoffensive jokes.

Sometimes the pastry rolls were filled with canned fish, salmon mostly. There was also a British-appointed MP by the double-barrelled name of Singleton-Salmon representing British commercial interests.

‘What’s this?’ the office wag asks the unsuspecting vendor.

‘It’s fish,’ the man replies.

‘Is it Singleton-Salmon?’

‘I know it’s salmon sir. But I don’t know exactly what salmon it is.’

The wag is happy. He bites into the hot, crisp roll.

Life moves on.

(Continued tomorrow)