.

The blushing of the unseen flower

By Mallika Wanigasundara
Eight year old Buddhika Sujeevanie Kumari deserves a loud cheer from all of us. She is a champion of sorts. She has come first in the world in the UNFPA's International poster competition.

Recently, at a UNFPA function, the tiny tot jiggled her way past the invitees clinging uncertainly to a trophy almost one third her height, perched on two other prizes and got safely to her mother. She comes from a school in a little known village of Atakalam-panna, in the Ratnapura district - the Vijaya Maha Vidyalaya.

She deserves the special attention of the Department of Edu-cation and whatever assistance she could get from the President's office.

The occasion itself was an important one to mark the launching of the EC/UNFPA RHI project in Sri Lanka called the Reproductive Health Information Counselling Services for adolescents and youth.

Even Conservative parents and shy un-willing teachers saddled with the task of talking about reproductive health, sexuality of youth etc. are coming round to the viewpoint that young persons let loose in all manner of places are very vul-nerable and need coun-selling and guidance. This was the view of Ms. Suneeta Mukher-jee, UNFPA Represen-tative in Sri Lanka and of a spokesperson from the National Institute of Education.

It is now dawning on adults that if young adults and adolescents are to avoid the dangers of teenage pregnancies, abortions, STD/HIV/ Aids they must have information and counselling.

As Dr. Mukherjee pointed out, youth have problems, are too shy to talk about them or have no one to go to. She talked about what many parents may be facing: We do not know how to tackle this problem. So the time had come to provide counselling services for young persons so that their needs and problems will be looked at.

The project will be carried out by seven NGOs in Sri Lanka, explained Daya Abey-wickreme, Executive Director of the FPA Sri Lanka. Along with the FPA, Sarvodaya, World Vision International, Vinivida Federation, Centre for Development Alternatives, the Sri Lanka Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception and the Association for the Prevention of Cancer and Aids will implement the program.

Under the program around 100,000 young persons will be drawn in, 156 midwife areas in thirteen districts. Mr. Abeywickreme went on to explain that 234 part time counsellors will participate. Community leaders, teachers, young volunteers inside and outside the schools will assist with the counselling programs. This will include the sensitisation of parents and teachers, training and general motivation. The services of doctors will be made available, Mr. Abeywickreme said.

The Minister of Health and Indigenous Medicine Mr. Nimal Siripala de Silva who was the chief guest emphasised the urgent need of such coun-selling for rural youth, who miss out on accurate information. Urban youth may pick up some information in the course of their more open lifestyles, he said, but rural young people living in somewhat more closed societies need help.

He made the important point that the right type of people have to be chosen as volunteers to reach adolescents and young persons. They have to be people who under-stand the pulse of the beneficiaries and the rhythm of their lives, he said. It is a lack of this dimension that has led to some NGOs failing to deliver the goods, he warned.

He said the govern-ment was in the process of building up a 100,000 strong volunteer force for the cultural orien-tation of our people towards natural local foods, healthcare, nutrition, the value of Ayurveda etc.

Mr. de Silva said that 20,000 such volunteers have been recruited. The EC/UNFPA project document was pre-sented to the Minister of Health and the Minister of Social Services, Mr. Bertie Premalal Dissanayake by Dr. Mukherjee and the Letters of Under-standing were handed over to the collaborating NGOs by Mr. I. Uusitalo, Ambassador and Head of Mission of the European Com-mission in Sri Lanka.

The two year project will cost US dollars 744,699 of which the EC will contribute US dollars 840,000; the IPPF Dollars 25,000, the UNFPA 33,300 and the FPA Sri Lanka dollars 46,338, Mr. Abeywickreme ex-plained.

It is the EC Ambassador Mr. Uusitalo's hope that when the project is over, the NGOs would have gained both experience and skills to maintain the momentum of this program in the future as part of their normal work.

One interesting fact mentioned by Mr. Abeywickreme was that success in the field of population by Sri Lanka has become something of a problem for us. We were at the beginning left out of the project which included countries like Cam-bodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Finally, with con-siderable effort on the part of Dr. Mukherjee the donors were per-suaded that though Sri Lanka has a very favourable picture on population control, she is weak in reproductive healthcare. Two FPA surveys have shown the wide gap in knowledge on reproductive health among young people.

The results of the poster competition were most encouraging. All five entries sent reached the final round. Apart from Sujeevani Kumari the following received certificates; W Ranjith Dharmatilake of Raja-giriya of R. S. Y. Lokupitiya, Padukka, K. A. D. Danushka Gayan of Gonagala & C. H. Ratnayake of Colombo.

Review
The future of democracy in South Asia

by A. J. Wilson
This volume edited by John M. Richardson Jr. and S. W. R. de A. Samarasinghe under the title Democratisation in South Asia: The First Fifty Years published by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Kandy (1998) might have done better with a more appropriate and arresting title as for example Democracy in South Asia: Long Dead, Now Buried or Democracy at Bay in the States of South Asia or the caption given to this review The Future of Democracy in South Asia, for there is no absolute need for South Asians to prove to the rest of the world or for that matter protest too much that in the world of state they live in they lack something very essential because they do not conform to the requirements of democracy. Democracy is to south Asia an alien concept, a foreign political cultural phenomenon. For its successful growth, the environment must be suitable or be made suitable.

In the western world, democracy thrives because there is a base level of economic sufficiency, the people have reached certain minimum standards of education and the ideology of liberalism took root before the gradual introduction of democracy. In effect democracy should be in a position to buy off and thus allay social discontent. For which there is needed an adequate economy. Neither a deteriorating or stagnant economy which promotes social unrest will be conducive. An educated and therefore informed electorate would be able to better contribute its instructed judgement to the public good. Such a goal can fairly well be accomplished via the electronic and printed media unlike in relatively illiterate or semi-literate countries where the mob and the political thugs hold sway. All these factors, if not pre-conditions, explain the reason for the success of orderly parliamentary government in the West. Its absence can be attributed to the constricting of an already stagnant economic base and the absence of liberal traditions.

In their Preface, notably, the editors pay an affectionate tribute to the Director of their Ethnic Studies Centre, Professor K. M de Silva, for his role as their "leader, mentor and friend". He is today the doyen of academics in Sri Lanka and therefore deserves these respects.

There are three sections to this volume. Part I disposes of definitions and hypotheses. Part II focuses on individual countries, the South Asian Experience, and tries to encompass in nine chapters the economic, social and political situations in each of the individual South Asian states. Part III, the Conclusion on "Unresolved Issues" seeks to handle the residual problems. The Conclusion is a useful summing up of the answers to the questions raised by each contributor for each of the states under investigation: India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.

The process of democratisation and its failure in the implementation are relevant aspects that engage the scrupulous attention of each of the contributors especially the editors Richardson Jr. and Samarasinghe. While the latter has written a comprehensive and interpretive introduction, it is a pity that little or no attention is paid to the alternatives to democracy. The ultimate objective it seems is to gain maximum economic growth which has been reached by the Asian Tigers who did not however experiment with forms of democratic government but concentrated on the primary goal. They have in the process attempted without much success a mix of a little bit of totalitarianism to a democratic terms such as guided democracy or basic democracies, imperfect democracy, with pure democracy in effect we ask the question, must economic growth precede the expansion of democracy. This is in keeping with our thesis that a sound economic foundation is indispensable for the construction of a firm democratic superstructure. Without the firm growth of economy and politics, democracy is undermined. This has been the failure story of countries that have tried to have transplants of the Westminster model with little or no expanding economic base.

Nor is the question of economic growth the only factor in our equation. Regretfully and without any intention of cavilling, three corroding factors have missed the attention of our editors. These are the contemporary maladies, a veritable endemic plague that affects the body politic of Third World countries.

The first is the need to control if not provide institutional checks and balances to place a break on the contemporary unquenchable lust for power on the part of politicians. It is this power drive that has brought Third World states to the brink of disaster. A strictly enforceable charter of rights, a limit on the number of terms for which rulers and legislators may hold office, compulsory periodic elections and a strong and independent judiciary will prove necessary safeguards against the abuse of power. It is the lust for power that drives the power holders to extremes. It is therefore better to nip the malady in the bud than let it spread as a cancer.

Secondly, unpredictable though it now seems on hindsight, politics has been threatened by both moral and fiscal corruption. Its offshoots have been bribery, petty thieving of state funds and crony capitalism. Had this evil been confined to the power holders only, the universality of greed, avarice and corruption may have been contained. But we are now confronted by a Frankenstein's monster and there is no shining knight in white armour who will do battle and slay this dragon.

The London Economist for example referred to a cabinet in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. One half of its members were wanted on charges of murder and among these, there were many FAKE medical doctors, all of whom had purchased their degrees from Indian universities. With such sheer brazen corruption could there be any hope for democratisation? The phenomenon of greed and avarice should be eliminated root and branch if democratisation must move on apace.

Alternatively we will have the modern equivalents of King Croesus, men like former President Suharto, the Marcoses, the rulers of Pakistan (Mr. ten percent and all that) and Malaysia and so on.

Violence, with all the frustration that companies it, is yet another creeping cancer. Our politics are no longer regulated by the rule of law. Nor are the guardians of the law willing to enforce law and order obviously at the bidding of unscrupulous politicians. In such a context, violence and democratisation are contradictory terms. Violence in all its forms needs to be ruthlessly eliminated if the democratisation process is to survive.

These three factors might have been usefully dealt with by the editors in their splendid introduction.

Kenneth Kusterer in his penetrating chapter "On Democratisation: What is it? How is it Encouraged? How is its Progress Measured?" Has illuminating insights into these problems but though very comprehensive, he would have done better by including in this essay concrete examples of states that have surmounted and others that have failed, providing reasons for their successes and failures.

It is the economic factor that governs men's lives and greater emphasis on it would have been revocatory. More importantly, the unconscionable exploitation of today's developing countries during their colonial phase by the massive draining of their wealth by these colonial powers explains much of the states of underdevelopment that these impoverished countries are faced with at the present juncture.

Thus the formation of aid giving consortia and the handouts by the international credit agencies, exercises in pretended charity, when in reality all of these are efforts to pay back for the damage perpetrated on these countries. There is what is worse still another system of global exploitation that has taken a disguised form in the twentieth century.

The activities of ruthless multi-national corporations cannot be understated. They exploit the weak and downtrodden, the poor and needy. They are usually defenceless women and children, and they are worked till their eyes run out, sewing clothes and weaving carpets. These multi-nationals interfere in the political processes "of soft" states and they manipulate the ruling class to bend to their requirements which usually means the curtailment of freedoms, trade union activities and human rights. Can democratisation be implemented when there are such multi-nationals operating contrary to all the expectations of honest harbingers?

There is one other singular question that requires to be answered. The dismal picture presented here does not provide much hope for the politically weak and economically stagnant "soft" states of the Third World. Can the indigenous forces of the native religions fuel the locomotive of democratic progressivism? We can only respond partially for religion can be both advantageous and destructive.

Buddhism for example provides a foundation for peaceful co-existence, mutual tolerance, and the middle way of life. This indeed is the theory but many human rights documents have made us aware of the extents of which Buddhism has metaporphosed into a militant Sinhala hegemonistic exclusivism, the complete negation of the teachings of the Enlightened One. The same results would prevail if politics gets Islamicised in the Muslim states of those of South and Southeast Asia. Nor is Christianity far behind. A recent phenomenon has been the strong virus of Hindutva among the Hindu regionalists of India. All in all therefore religious observances will prove an unlikely flaky substitute for the liberal traditions of Western secularism and of liberal ideology.

The individual chapters contain the pith and substance of the socio-political fibre of the states being reviewed. The reader is spared the task of reading volumes because the contributors have got to the heart of the matter of what they think is relevant to their audience.

An unfortunate omission by the contributors is their failure to refer to the strong arm of the state that can be used when civil unrest goes out of control. So that the Maintenance of Security Act (MISA) of India, Emergency Role and the Prevention of Terrorism Act as well as the Public Security Act in Sri Lanka and the Internal Security Act of Malaysia ane potent instruments which; the states concerned can manipulate even to guide their state apparatuses into the dark and cavernous recesses of totalitarianism.

Thus whilst on the one hand, South Asian states try hard to match up to the ideals of Western democracies, on the other, they seem anti-democratic and readily equipped to put down popular protest with the army at hand which in most cases is prepared and willing to do the bidding of their civilian masters. In fact in Sri Lanka, the army has become an important component of the political process. In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the intervention of the army is intermittent but heavy handed. In India, it is still a matter for conjecture; while the style of Mrs. Gandhi's civilian operation was non-military, the parliamentary plant in New Delhi could only function in a beleaguered atmosphere with a permanent siege mentality that it was never possible to guess when the midnight hour would strike.

Democratisation and "de-democratisation" are a twin track process in the states under review. Amazing though the effrontery with which theft and pilfering of the treasury persist, there is little or no public opinion activated against such evil acts.

The concluding section by John Richardson and Kristine Herrmann makes an excellent summing up of the democratisation process in South Asia. We would have preferred the contributors to examine two other factors which in our opinion are indispensable to the process of democratisation: (1) the failure of a vibrant and informed middle class to actively participate in the political process and (2) the unfortunate collapse of any kind of constructive or enlightened political leadership to take control of a potentially self destructive political process and save their countries from metamorphosing into broken-backed states. This might be too much to expect from the editors. What this volume has done within its stipulated framework should be adequate for its purposes.

From all that has been stated in the aforegoing paragraphs, our intention has been hopefully successful. Our purpose was to draw attention to the gap between equality and freedom and secondly to emphasise that as long as irremovable inequalities prevail in society, the talk of democratisation can only be deceptive. With the multinationals acting as fobber barons and property persisting as the source of all faction, the dispossessed cannot hope to secure a fair chance in life. It is no wonder that Lord Action D'Alberg cried forth that the passion for equality makes vain the hope for freedom. This struggle is manifested both in the social and political systems.

Several years ago, a reputed left wing thinker at the London school of Economics wrote a most revealing book called The British Constitution. Greaves exposed the gaps between the classes. He argued that the Church, the officers in the army, the ownership of the newspapers, the higher level bureaucracy and the principal public (private) schools were all reserved for the properties class. H. R. G. Greaves asked whether in such an unequal society accustomed to be innately deferential to the upper echelons, there could be any hope for a successful democracy.

We insist that the same could be said for the feudal ridden societies of South Asia. And as for imbalanced structures of government, the great liberal historian, Ramsay Muir, dismissed the first-past-the-post British electoral system as providing every opportunity for a political party with a minority of votes from the electorate to form a government and have it implement a program which will not have the democratic support of the majority of electors. Ramsay Muir therefore argued in his book How Britain is Governed that this first-past-in-post system should be abandoned and Britain should seek the democratic option of proportional representation.

Third party insurance

Under a comprehensive motor insurance policy, an, insurer undertakes - two responsibilities in consideration of the premium paid by the insured. In the first instance, third-party insurance, which such a policy deems to provide, is mandatory for using a motor vehicle on a highway, in terms of the Motor Traffic Act (MTA). The MTA also specifies that a Certificate of Insurance, which a motorist has to carry is issued by an "Authorised Insurer"

Third-party insurance, as the term implies, is an insurance that covers parties other than the owner/insured of the vehicle. In other words it covers members of the public against any bodily injury, or damage to their property, caused by the negligence of an insured motorist or his driver. An "Authorised" insurers's Certificate is thus evidence that the insurer issuing such Certificate accepts liability to third parties on behalf of the insured. Thus when a third-party claim is preferred on a motorist, the motorist refers the same to his insurer, who handles the claim thereonwards.

A common mistake that is often made by third- party claimants is, to address their claims direct to the offending motorist's insurers, who invariably refuse to entertain such claims, as they have no contract as such with, a third party.

Third-party insurance is thus altogether different insurance from against damage to one's own vehicle; the one may be considered an insurance of liability while the other is one of indemnity. The latter is, moreover optional while the former is compulsory, it being a statutory requirement.

In Sri Lanka, since the monopoly days of motor insurance, local insurers, would appear to have become rather backward in going forward, so to say, in the disposal of third-party claims; aims; they seem to have got into a practice of deliberately discouraging third-parties from pursuing their genuine claims by adapting various dilatory tactics to the harassment of claimants, who are accident-victims. In consequence, settlement of third-party claims is virtually unheard of in Sri Lanka, rendering mandatory third-party insurance to be meaningless, if not a total farce.

The crux of the matter would appear to be that local insurers are only assumed to be "authorised" to operate third-party insurance, but in reality, they do not seem to be so authorised and there is no special authority that could be invoked over errant insurers.

According to the MTA an Authorised Insurer is one who is given authority to operate motor insurance by the Ministry in charge of the subject of insurance, i.e. the Ministry of Trade. Today, however , the subject of insurance is under the Ministry of Finance! Be that as it may, the Ministry of Trade may be the authority for authorising insurers to carry on insurance as a trade; but when it comes to a statutory requirement such as third-party insurance, an insurer should presumably be more appropriately authorised by the Ministry, or Department, which enforces the statute - and the Motor Traffic Act is a statute that comes under the purview of the Ministry of Transport and the Department of Motor Traffic under that Ministry, which would seem to be more appropriate, if not the most appropriate, authority to look into misdemeanours of insurers relating to third-party insurance, unless a special department is, preferably, set up to look into that aspect.

At present, the attitude taken by some insurers would appear to be that since the premium on motor insurance is paid by the insured (first party), to hell with the third party! Some insurers would seem to have the brazen audacity to flout even, court awards, after prolonged litigation when they try to compromise with third-parties against awards made by Court, after all reasonable means of amicable settlement have failed.

It, therefore, seemed time that, in the public interest appropriate action should be taken to rectify the anomaly that exists in the MTA.

C. S. A. Fernando

Cure for sick nurses and doctors

It was distressing to read the article in your issue of October 25, titled 'National Hospital or Belsen Camp" by Mr. Percy Ranasinghe of Homagama. Although we crow that we are a great Buddhist country full of compassion and so forth this is anything but the truth. As I can see it, the incivility, heartlessness and downright rudeness of doctors and nurses towards patients is due to a far more deep seated cause. To my mind, the prime cause is the state of our society and its politicisation after 1956.

I would suggest the following remedial long-term measures to stem the rot and stop the unseemly behaviour also of our "three minute medical mudalalis" and nurses.

Stop political interference in hospital administration and empower the hospital administrator of each hospital to take effective deterrent action including suspensions and/or dismisals of doctors and nurses . A Medical Disciplinary Commission of three competent persons should be the last Court of Appeal.

The GMOA and Nurses Union headed by a Bhikku should be asked to contribute to the upgrading of the standards of doctors and nurses not fighting selfishly all the time for better wages etc. Medicine is a vocation first and then a profession.

Doctors and nurses should be properly trained in patient care by setting up an institute attached to one of the Medical Colleges and Nursing Training Colleges. Free education must be stopped and let those seeking entrance to Medical and nursing schools pay a reasonable admission fee. See how expensive medical education abroad is and how different are their end products. They are far more caring and concerned individuals.

Following on (3) free education in all sectors as we now know it, must be given up. This does no good in the end. Levy fees once again and this will enable the state to pay for quality teachers. Denominational schools should be encouraged for obvious reasons. Private tuition should be prohibited by law and let teachers teach only in schools.

To put these ideas in a nutshell, society needs a radical transformation and all politicians should be downgraded. The time will soon come when the public will rise up against politicians of all hues in this country and end their undeserved position in society.

A. C. de Silva
Colombo

Captures nature on canvas

For Saumya Jayasekera painting gives pleasure and satisfaction. An artist who gave up a lucrative legal career to pursue her love for painting.

A lover of nature she captures the beauty around with her brush strokes and depicts them on canvas with much fervour. The study under Cora Abraham and Lathifa Ismail has helped to perfect her different techniques of painting using oils, acrytics, water colours and pastels.

Her themes are mostly based on different facets of nature. "Her first solo exhibition was held at Samudra Art Gallery in September 1975, when she was only 13. The second was in October 1978 at the Lionel Art Gallery. In August 1980, she had another exhibition teeming with young artists.

A lawyer by profession practiced for some time but later decided to give up to devote full time on painting. Painting was her obsession, she said, "painting has given me great strength in times of happiness and grief when my mother passed away in November 1996, it was this art that helped me to come to terms with my loss."

She studied art for three years and exhibited her works with a group of artists at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery in January 1997. At first it was an experiment with colours butterflies, trees, cock fight, vesak lanterns, to Indian women, deer, a glimpse from a railway carriage, were some of her themes.

Speaking about her paintings she said, they portray hermoods. Her landscapes, seascapes, countryside roads, valleys and mountain slopes in subdued colours convey her moods at different times.

In one of her themes ‘branches in winter’ she has mixed shades of blue and white to depict the cold atmosphere, reflecting her peaceful mood.

She depicts her violent mood by using reds and blues in a contrasting way. She has painted birds on similar lines. In painting landscapes she has used muted yellows and browns. This amply proves that she has a correct understanding of colours.

She will be exhibiting her paintings with her daughter Sarala’s at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery from December 4 to 6.

Favouritism isn't cricket

Vehement protests surfaced during last few days in the tabloids how our cricket at Sharjah was deliberately sacrificed on a platter and further, to the consternation of all Sri Lankans,, two incapacitated ones, Messrs. Upul Chandana and Muralitharan were taken in the bandwagon.

May I earnestly appeal to my fellow countrymen to purchase just a Post Card (before it zooms Rs 2/on 1.12.98) and drop a line to the Minister of Sports that he stands indicted for this glaring misdemeanour as he had APPROVED the contingent with the two injured cricketers and that he must be surcharged with the cost of their air fares and other expenses incurred by them. All are aware that there were two other cricketers who were readily available to be picked for this tour but they were ignored deliberately as FAVOURITISM appears to be the norm of the day. Flood and deluge the Minister's desk with protests.

L. J. E. M. de Silva.

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