• Cat's Eye
  The peace movement and women
• The UNP's Electoral prospects: talking of the leader
• The Sinhala theatre has lost a true friend

• A problem of history
• Business leaders rekindle hope
• The Tamil Homeland Concept
• A Tamil heroine unmourned and the sociology of obfuscation....
  Burying a heroine

Cat's Eye
The peace movement and women

Cat's Eye congratulates the business community for initiating discussions among political parties, human rights groups and other NGOs in order to seek a solution to the protracted civil war that has been waged in this country for almost two decades. The All-Party Convention which was held last week (at which unfortunately the UNP was conspicuously absent) was a preliminary step that was taken in this direction by the business community. Though the convenors of the meeting had set out ten points for discussion, it was the unanimous decision of those present at this meeting to make the first point - the effective resolution of the North-East conflict - the central issue in all the follow up meetings that are being planned. We are particularly pleased about this decision and hope that the bi-partisan peace talks that are being mooted will get off the ground without further delay.

The Business Initiative

The All-Party Convention last week was also attended by several delegates representing the newly-formed Women's Coalition for Peace which comprises of women from all classes and all political, ethnic and religious communities who are not only committed to the restoration of peace in Sri Lanka but also want to ensure that women's voices will be heard in the peace process. Indeed the lack of women's voices was particularly obvious at the All-Party Convention where the majority of the participants present were male. Even more disappointing was that all seven representatives of the business community were male - the only women present were there to perform various menial taskes for these "Captains of Industry" (as a further insult, one of them was paternalistically referred to as a "pretty girl"). While this is a clear indication of the male dominance of all positions of power within the business community even during a period where some women have finally acquired managerial positions despite the glass ceiling well in place in this country - we are curious to know why there was no representation even from the Women's Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

It is particularly important that women's voices are heard at all peace deliberations, as it is women who have suffered (and continue to suffer) disproportionately due to the escalation of generalized violence and the militarization of Sri Lankan society: "They have been subject to rape and other forms of sexual abuse, particularly at checkpoints. They have been traumatized by the loss of family members, their mobility severely curtailed by the deteriorating security situation, and consequently, have found it increasingly difficult to go about their everyday lives, engage in income generating activities, and support and sustain themselves and their families."

Timely Statement

Last week, both the Sunday Island and the Daily News published a statement by the Women's Coalition for Peace which made several demands of the Government, the Opposition as well as the LTTE. Firstly, they called upon the People's Alliance Government and the Opposition to rise above using the conflict and the war for political gain, to build an atmosphere of cooperation towards collective problem solving, and to restore civility to national politics. Secondly, they called upon the Government and the Opposition to arrive at a consensus on constitutional reforms aimed at satisfying the democratic and peaceful aspirations of all Sri Lankans. Thirdly, they called upon the Government and the LTTE to take steps towards resuming peace talks. Fourthly, they called upon the Government and the Opposition to work together to seek third party facilitation to promote negotiations between the parties and all other political groups and interests concerned with the conflict. Finally, they called upon the LTTE to take into consideration the immense loss of life, livelihood, displacement and insecurity of the Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim communities in the country and the aspirations for peace expressed by all people living in the conflict areas, and to being a process towards the recommencement of the peace talks.

This statement by the Women's Coalition for Peace was signed by a diverse group of women from a variety of fields and professions. They include Dr Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake (anthropologist), Sunila Abeyesekera (human rights activist), Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy (Director, International Centre for Ethnic Studies), Dr Malathi de Alwis (anthropologist), Kumudini Samuel (Women & Media Collective), Dr Sepali Kottegoda (Co-ordinator, Women's NGO Forum), Dr Kumari Jayawardena (political scientist), Nimalka Fernando (lawyer), Dr Yasmin Tambiah (historian), Kishali-Pinto Jayawardena (journalist), Shafinaz Hassandeen (Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum), Annathai Abeysekera (women's rights activist, plantations), Dr Deepika Udagama (lawyer), Dr Selvy Thiruchandran (Director, Women's Education and Research Centre), Pearl Stevens (women's rights activist, Kandy), Bernadeen Silva (human rights activist), Ameena Hussein (researcher), Lisa M. Kois (lawyer), Rani Saverimuttu (University of Peradeniya) and Rohini Weerasinghe (Kantha Shakthi).

The Women's Coalition for Peace has now launched an island-wide signature campaign in support of their petition. Those interested in signing this statement or lending their help and support in any way possible are encouraged to contact either Lisa Kois or Tharanga de Silva at 685085 or 679745.

History of Women's Peace Movements

This is of course not the first time that women have come forward to call for peace. The multiethnic group Women for Peace, formed in October 1984, also agitated for a peaceful and politically negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict. This group which was also initially begun as a signature campaign was successful in collecting the signatures of 10,000 women from all walks of life, religions and ethnicities. Over the years, Women for Peace has consistently spoken out against the increased militarization of Sri Lankan society, organized peace education programmes in schools, worked among Tamil women refugees and prisoners, and run trauma-counselling programs for the families of the "disappeared" in the south.

The Mothers' Front in Jaffna was also formed in 1984 to call for a political solution to the North-East conflict and an end to human rights violations perpetrated against Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan forces in the North. At a time when Tamil parties represented in Parliament were outlawed and there were violent militant struggles in the North, this mobilization of women in non-violent, peaceful protest was particularly significant. When the LTTE attempted to co-opt this mass movement, many women decided to leave Jaffna rather than work under the dictates of a male chauvinist group. The northern Mothers' Front also inspired Tamil women in the East to begin their own branch. In 1986, the eastern Mothers' Front took to the streets with rice pounders to prevent a massacre of members of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) by the LTTE.

In July 1990, a Mothers' Front was formed in the South to protest the "disappearance" of their male kin during the JVP uprising from 1987- 1990. While this group was mainly active only for two years, it enabled the creation of a space within which issues of peace, democracy and accountability could be raised at a time when many other such voices had been silenced either by the state or the JVP. This group also significantly gendered the discourse of human rights and was without doubt a powerful catalyst in shifting the political balance of power. Active during this period was also the Mothers and Daughters of Lanka, a coalition of autonomous women's groups and women representatives of human rights and religious groups. This coalition has also consistently and continuously mobilized women of all classes, ethnicities and religions to call for an end to armed conflict and human rights violations by the state as well as militant groups.

Women against rape

Another significant event that occurred last week was the demonstration against rape that was held at Lipton's Circus. This picket was organized by the umbrella group Women's NGOs Forum and attended by over 200 women and some men too.

What was particularly heartening, according to the chief organizer, Dr. Sepali Kottegoda, was the participation of the general public, at the demonstration. Many who had seen the notice about the planned protest, in The Island, as well as those who had heard interviews with the organizers over the radio, had made it a point to attend and raise their voices in protest.

Women protesting against violence...

While many of the placards that were carried at the demonstration referred to the recent rape and murder of Rita John, other posters and slogans shouted sought to call attention to all the less publicized acts of rape and other forms of violence and harassment that have taken place and continue to take place in our country. While it is an undeniable fact that incidences of rape and other forms of sexual abuse have increased due to the various consequences of war such as military occupation, the setting up of security checkpoints, mass arrests and "disappearances", attacks on border villages, and internal displacement, such abuses also occur in peacetime and thus reflect a deeper, structural problem of society. As we noted in our column last week, rape and other forms of sexual violence and harassment are patriarchal ploys used to control women by controlling their sexuality - both physically and psychologically.

Postscript

Talking about our column last week, the collective of writers who contribute to Cat's Eye gratefully acknowledge the kind words of praise and encouragement we received from those of you who called and wrote to us to thank us for writing such an informative piece on Femicide in Sri Lanka.

To all those who persistently accuse us of being Christian agents, foreign spies, bourgeois women, provocatrices, traitors, foreign educated, anti-Buddhist, anti-Hindu and anti-Muslim etc. We can only say "So what's new ?" Anyone working for peace, democracy, human rights, devolution and gender justice has been subject to this type of hate speech and slanders from a small minority of extremists. The dogs bark, the Peace Caravan moves on.

The UNP's Electoral prospects: talking of the leader
By C. A. Chandraprema

I had occasion to read Tisaranee Gunasekera's piece in last Wednesday's mid week review where she had crossed swords with me over what was wrong with the UNP. Firstly, I must congratulate the Premadasa Centre for its restrained and polished style of writing. I was pleasantly surprised to see a reply which was not full of personal invective and casting aspersions about everything about me including my sexual habits. This is probably the first time that the Premadasa Centre has stuck to the issue without hurling insults at the writer of an article! That article seems to have been written more as an addition to what I said than as an invitation to debate. This reply too is not an invitation to debate, but a further addition to what Ms. Tisaranee Gunasekera has said.

Firstly, let's take up the issue of the present UNP leader's lack of concern for the ordinary rank and file,... the accusation being that he has been having Baccanalian orgies in the USA while the poor rank and file UNP'ers have been getting assaulted by the PA. The main issue here is the matter of CONCERN or the lack of it on the part of the leader. Concern is a subjective feeling. I have grave doubts as to whether President Premadasa had any concern for the party rank and file. He treated everybody like dirt. Nobody in the UNP had any respect for Premadasa, what they have was nothing that FEAR. Even though Premadasa is dead, they still fear his followers. When Mr. Premadasa was campaigning for the Presidency in 1988, he went round the country saying he did not know who was behind the acts of violence that were taking place, and that it was wrong to accuse the JVP of everything, and this while thousands of UNP rank and file members were being gunned down in cold blood. Then when he became President he released over a thousand identified members of the JVP. They went out and killed more UNP'ers. He never cared a tuppence for the lives of ordinary UNP'ers. To him, the whole party were just expendable slaves whose whole purpose in life was to serve him. Not even Ranil's worst enemy will accuse him of being co-evil with Premadasa in this respect!

Secondly, we should come to the problem of harassment of UNP activists by the PA and what can be done about it. The fact is that when a party is in opposition, they have to expect harassment by the governing party. Especially a somewhat unstable and desperate governing party like the PA. The more unpopular it becomes, the more desperate its methods. This is part of political life. Now, if Mr. Cooray were in the party, what can he do about this? Everybody in this country remembers well how the premadasa UNP got thrashed much more severely than the Present UNP and when they were in power too! During the Kobbekaduwa and Wimalaratne funerals, many luminaries of the UNP government were thrashed by the enraged mob including Mr. Sirisena Cooray, who had to flee for dear life with the help of his security guards. His goons had taken off before him! Then during the Southern Provincial Council elections in 1994, Mr. Cooray went to the South and at the Matara District office announced that they were going to win the election by hook or crook. What happened? There too, he had to flee across the Bentota river before the mob got him. There is nothing that any member of the Premadasa group can do to stop the PA from thrashing the UNP. On the contrary, if the Premadasa group gets control of the UNP even ordinary people will line up to thrash the UNP as what happened at the Kobbekaduwa and Wimalaratne funerals. At present it is only the hired goons of the PA who are doing this. Why exacerbate a bad situation? As Ms Gunasekera says, Ranil may be "the most alienated and in organised leader in history on par with Sir John Kotelawala" but in contrast to this, President Premadasa was clearly the most unpopular leader in this country after Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe. Had the UNP been defeated at a power transferring election when President Premadasa was alive, the UNP would still be getting thrashed. Due to the good karma of the UNP'ers, BBW and RW were leading the country at the time of the fall from power,...men with a different image, and who diffused the atmosphere of hatred which existed during the Premadasa regime.

Every leader may have his shortcomings, who is the perfect leader? Not President Premadasa surely! Ranil's shortcomings are nothing compared to Premadasa's shortcomings. If it comes to a choice between Cooray and Ranil, the choice has to be Ranil. Mr. Cooray has not come into the UNP, we are still discussing this in the abstract. If he ever actually came in, you would see what I mean when I say that there will be an immediate ADVERSE reaction from the public. No politician can retain power for ever. There comes a time when you have to go. What Mr. Cooray fails to see is that the entire country wants him to retire from politics. People are not interested in legalistic arguments about "proof" of wrong doing etc. Nobody in this country wants a President Cooray — period! President Premadasa was bad enough.

I can fully understand the resentment of the Premadasa Centre against Ranil Wickremesinghe. But they forget that Ranil was one of those who gave Premadasa a chance. While Premadasa was alive, he stood by him and after he died, he has refrained from criticising any of Premadasa's actions. This in spite of the fact the he has had to suffer public fallout for Premadasa's daft actions, like for instance the handing over of weapons to the LTTE an issue which PA is still using to flog the UNP with. Just as Ranil gave Premadasa a chance, I think the Premadasa Centre also should not prejudge the issue. Let Ranil be tried and tested. If he fails, then they can come forward with their claims. Not that their claims will have any chance of success even then!

That Ranil will fail if he does not get the Premadasa faction into the party, is rubbish. J. R. Jayewardene kicked out the vastly popular Senanayake faction from the UNP and won resoundingly in 1977. Chandrika kicked out Anura and some of the SLFP's best organisers and still won resoundingly. Sometimes, these "parting of ways" are not really "splits" as such. Rather than weakening the party, they tend to strengthen the party by uniting it under one head. The fact that Ranil has kept the Premadasa faction out of the party is not going to reduce the votes of the party. On the contrary, it will go to increase the votes of the party. Premadasa it must not be forgotten, was the most hated ruler this country has ever seen after Sri Wickremarajasinghe. I have pointed out an umpteen times how President Wijetunga got the highest number of votes in the UNP's history in 1994, by marginalising the Premadasa influence in the party.

Among life’s myriad frustrations, disappointments, and disillusionments, there are some events which make us profoundly conscious of our existential helplessness as human beings embroiled in a futile tussle with an intrinsically sorrow-fraught universe. The death of Professor A.J.Gunawardana was one such event to all those who knew him. How much would we have given, if ever we had been able to prevent his untimely demise.

Indeed, AJ. should have died hereafter. He owed it to himself to have lived longer. He had just five months ago retired from his professoriate at the University after a conscientious academic career of over thirty years where, with meticulous care and a high sense of responsibility, he chose and measured every word he taught his students. He was just ripe enough to enjoy the fruits of a well-earned rest and an intelligently lived life. With careful foresight and punctilious planning he had put his two children on their feet and had built himself the background for a domestic peace that only maturity can understand. It is true that AJ. went the way of all flesh but what makes it difficult to take is that AJ. was not all flesh.

All who knew him will agree that AJ. deserved to have lived to realize the total fulfilment of his rich personality. He had nurtured it with prudence and discretion. Way back in the fifties, I knew him as a fellow-undergrad, and since then I saw him handle his life as if he would balance a dewdrop on his finger-tips.

Deep Concern

From the selfish point of view, for us of the Sinhala Theatre, AJ. died when he was most needed. He was there from the beginning of the Sinhala theatre renaissance that started with the work of Sarachchandra. He arrived in the theatre scene, in the very frontline, to help set its standards and build its audiences shortly after Regi Siriwardana and remained with the Theatre Movement long after Regi left for ethnopolitics. Both these men, as critics, had in fact been resposible for capturing the English-educated audiences for the Resurgent Theatre of the fifties. AJ continued with us to his last day.

On that dismal evening before the day of that fateful surgery, seated at his bedside in Navaloka Hospital, I learnt the consistency of his deep concern for the Sinhala Theatre. A blunderbus journalist, a tourist among the Sinhala audiences, had written in a Sunday newspaper that the Sinhala theatre was done for, that in fact it had been dead long ago. The future was in the English-language Theatre. If Sri Lanka is to have a Theatre at all, he had said, we must look to the English dramatic societies that are working in the Lionel Wendt and the like~AJ. was no parochial nationalist and believed in, to use AJ’s own terminology, both the national and the international. He was actually a member of the Board of Directors of the Lione1 Wendt. But he was full of indignation at this youthful temerity or, shall I say, stupid sensationalism. From his sickbed he said to me "You must take it up. Now don’t be indifferent. Don’t be afraid, I’ll join you when I’m back from Hospital". ~ (Has this man been out of the island for the last fourscore years") he asked rhetorically and laughed his soft muffled laugh.

AJ’s full soul was in our Theatre Movement. He soon became its loyal and only critic and in that voluntary function, he was there at all performances of plays in the fifties. In fact, he married into it. In the hey-day of Maname, he fell in love with the Maname Queen. Gunasena Gallappatty, his chummery mate, refused to introduce Miss Trilicia Abeykoon to him unless he gave a promise that he would never take her away from the stage, and this pledge AJ. gladly gave and stuck to it. Even without this promise, such was his devotion to drama, AJ. would never have got Trilicia to leave the theatre. On the contrary, throughout his married life he gave her every encouragement to continue there.

Frank and Forthright

But AJ’s commitment was not involvement, not sentimental. He was able to, and probably decided to, stand apart from the Theatre Movement for its own good. His reviews were always unpartisan, impartial, objective. He had numerous friends in the theatre, active participants in the Movement, but he never wrote with favour or prejudice. When I produced my play Berahanda, AJ. wrote a serious piece on it with restrained praise, but when my next production came a cropper, he fe11 judiciously silent knowing that the harshest criticism that can be made of a poor artistic piece is to ignore. When Galappatty, his long time friend and go-between died, he did not write an eulogistic dirge that a more sentimental and irresponsible journalist might have written. Instead he wrote a careful assesment of the contribution the playwright-producer had made to the Theatre.Nothing was more inportant for the Sinhala Theatre in the early days of its growth than such responsible, frank and forthright criticism.

Universal Standards

AJ. kept himself well-informed of world trends and Universal Standards. His mind; infused with a contemporary awarness, he gave his views and opinions with great sincerity but with equal tact. Honest critic as he was, he was never a ruthless one. And to ensure that he remained impartial and impersonal, he wrote under pen-names. He was Rasika for "the Daily News" at the beginning of his career as a critic and continued as Jayadeva for "The Island", writing a regular columnon on the arts. Although he joined the academic world for a busy schedule of work at the Jayawardhanapura University, where the teaching of English had become of paramount importance, he never ceased, to do his duty of writing on the theatre. The bilingual audiences that were the mainstay of the Sinhala theatre in those early days were mostly readers of his column. As a matter of fact, the regulars at the Lumbini, the birth place of the Theatre Movement, were the regular readers of his column, Arts and Letters.It is true AJ. later wrote for the cogniscenti but this was because he firmly believed that it was the bilingual elite alone who could help the Sinhala Theatre to attain and retain standards. As early as 1960 AJ. advocated the creation of a critical tradition for setting standards. (Javanika I, Jana Ranga Sabha publication, 1960).

CRISIS

Never as now was a critic who had matured and seasoned with our Theatre, who had a serious interest in it and an honest affection for it, more needed than now. The Sinhala Theatre is no more in its infancy. It is now a stripling in its gay -but irresponsible-youth, needful of sober and informed guidance. Today it is in a serious state of crisis as never before. The audiences have been decoyed away by the glitter of the TY screen, a comfortable and convenient entertainment for all who would not dare the perils and hazards of Sri Lanka’s crumbling transport system and its lawless roads. The indigenous theatre stands threatened with an untimely extinction unless the bilingual audiences are whipped up to realise the difference between stage and screen and to return to the auditorium, abandoning the celluloid pleasures of the tele drama. AJ. was very much alive to these circumstances and would have done everything he could have to save our theatre from rotting to death by its decline in quality and consequent loss of audiences. Who is there to take over?

In his silent service of the Theatre, AJ. did nothing for the time being. He always took the long view. Planning syllabuses in Drama for the Advance Level Examination and Guide Books for teachers of Drama together at the NIE, he used to remind me that brief as may be life, it could spread its little beams to several generations. Moderating the A/Level Question Papers at Slave Island, he told me that answering the question must also profit the examinee.

Versatile sensibility

His versatile sensibility was awake to everything that was happening to his fellow-men around him. The current national crisis weighed heavily on his mind. "We do not read the newspapers to study the stock market," he once told me. "We read it because we are concerned about People. AJ. was for individual and collective Freedom, and for freedom of Expression. He stood strongly for Media Freedom and in this he saw with insight something more than the average Media Freedom-fighter saw. His devotion to the Arts made him perceive that the Arts were a sensitive and powerful mass medium particularly the Theatre-whose freedom of expression must be safegaurded at all costs.

When he became aware that the autonomy of the Arts Council was under threat from politicization and bureaucratization, he wrote fearlessly in his column: "Don’t make the Arts Council a cog in the and bereaucratisation, he wrote fearlessly in political machine. And don’t bureaucratize it. Nothing is more stultifying to the Arts than a bureaucracy asserting its rights and privileges from every nook and cranny. And with a witty sting in the tail be concluded. Nothing except philistine politicians...

"He was in earnest and pleaded. "please sort out the respective duties and responsibilities of the

Arts Council and the Department of Cultural Affairs.

AJ’s pleas, of course fell on the proverbial pachy derm’s deaf ears. (*Marginal Comments, The Island, 15.12.1996).

When the proposal to abolish the Arts Council was succeeded by a Proposal to set up an even more politicized structure to govern the Arts, AJ. was in the forefront of the opposition and was in the first delegation which met the Minister of Cultural Affairs to object.

When the Minister failed us and 150 artists of repute and intellectuals of standing signed a petition of protest to the President, the normally suave and sober AJ’s name led all the rest.

The Bill was shelved but the threat remains and AJ, is dead in our most needful hour. And therefore, may we be pardoned for wearing our sorrow on our shirt sleave and making our grief public, for the Theatre, a Free one-we have a long way to realise - is integral to the life of a nation.