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LTTE in South Africa
On the run in most other parts of the world organisationally, the terrorist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is in the process of finding a haven and even striking roots in South Africa. An investigation.This is the first of a two part article.
by Rohan Gunaratna
Intelligence agencies and security personnel from around the world are focusing their attention on South Africa in the wake of recent reports about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) having developed a clandestine political and military infrastructure in South Africa. This information did not come as a surprise to many people because unverified reports about groups such as the Hamas, the Hezbollah, the Partiya Karkera Kurdistan (PKK) and alleged terrorist leader Osama bin Laden operating out of South Africa have been doing the rounds from time to time.
Away from the glare of the international media, the LTTE is operating a state-of-the-art network involved in disseminating propaganda, fund-raising and procurement and shipping operations in South Africa. Compared to other countries from where it operates, the LTTE has greater influence in South Africa because of the presence of a politically active Tamil community there.
The LTTE exploited the situation and started conducting a series of camps to train South Africans of Indian Tamil origin. (The South African Tamils have come together to form the South African Tamil Tigers). Many of them were trained by LTTE trainers who came from Sri Lanka and retired South African military personnel drawn from the Koevoet and the 32 Battalion, two elite military outfits of the apartheid era. The Koevoet and the 32 Battalion spearheaded the counter-insurgency drive against African National Congress (ANC) fighters operating out of bases in southern Angola and northern Namibia. The Koevoet and the 32 Battalion troops fought not only the fighters of the ANC and the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), but also regular Angolan and Namibian forces.
There are also reports that LTTE activists from Sri Lanka received specialised training on South African soil.
Although the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the National Int-elligence Service (NIS) institutions responsible for the internal and external security respectively of South Africa, were aware of the LTTE’s ruthlessness, they appeared to be powerless in containing its influence in South Africa. This was because the LTTE had won the support of key political leaders, particularly those belonging to the Indian Tamil community in South Africa. The LTTE’s strategy was to lure them into supporting it, either by winning them over with money or by appealing to their Tamil nationalism.
Influence
The LTTE established its influence in South Africa through a series of front organisations. It attracted sympathy by exploiting the Hindu cultural and religious affinity that existed between Sri Lankan Tamils and South African Tamils. The Hindu temples in South Africa have many Tamil priests hailing from Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. Initially, the LTTE raised the funds it needed to procure weapons for the war it was waging in Sri Lanka, through these priests.However, after consolidating its presence through propaganda, the LTTE ventured to win over key South African leaders, including parliamentarians representing the ANC.
From 1995, the LTTE began operating a series of training camps in South Africa. It established its training programme by registering itself as a "closed corporation" by paying Rand 200 in February 1995. In a closed corporation, the company’s name and the constituent members can be changed without informing the Registrar. For the sake of expediency, the company even provided security guards to private and government organisations. The compound walls around the camps were well concealed from the public eye. The perimeter was protected by barbed wire, spikes and high walls. The first three camps were established in three Tamil neighbourhoods.
The camps had the facilities to train recruits in guerilla warfare. The recruits were provided with accommodation inside the camps. Initially, all the trainers were Sri Lankan Tamils. Gradually, however, South Africans were also recruited as trainers. Each camp had between 10 and 20 trainers, many of whom were rotated among different camps. For instance, one camp had 18 trainers. The recruits were taught the history of "Eelam Tamils" by four trainers, put through rigorous physical training by six trainers and provided basic military training by two others. Armed and unarmed combat were also included in the training programme. Instructions about how to evade surveillance, various aspects of counter-intelligence, the use of explosives and communication facilities were also given. The other trainers who were present at the camp silently observed the recruits’ performance. The training period for each batch was three months. After graduation, the best recruits were sent to Sri Lanka via India by boat or via Maldives by air. Reports of some recruits being sent to Sri Lanka by LTTE ships frequenting South African ports is currently under investigation.
Although the NIA became aware of the training camps within a year of their being set up, the influence wielded by ANC hard-liners within the NIA prevented it from advising the South African Government to close down the camps. The NIA, however, inducted an agent, who provided them with details about the trainers and the training methods. The main reasons behind South Africa’s reluctance was the effectiveness of the LTTE propaganda and the ANC Government’s susceptibility to supporting violent movements.
A confidential South African Foreign Ministry assessment on Sri Lanka (1996) cites a United States State Department human rights report as guidance. Although this report gives a negative picture of the LTTE, a report from the Sub Directorate for South Asia in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs implies that it has no objections to the South African Government raising in multilateral forums the issue of alleged human rights violations committed by Sri Lankan armed forces.
Among the South African diplomats who supported the LTTE quite openly was Jacky Selebi, former South African Ambassador to Geneva and the Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission and current Director General of the Foreign Affairs Department in Pretoria. During one of his visits to Geneva, he is reported to have met representatives of the LTTE (on August 10, 1998), and pledged support to the Tigers’ cause.
The relationship between the ANC and the LTTE dates back to contacts made in London and Paris in the late 1970s. Through an umbrella organisation - the Friends of Palestine - LTTE activists frequently met ANC representatives at the Arab League building in the United Kingdom. The LTTE also established links with SWAPO, which had close relations with the ANC. This relationship, which included providing military assistance to ANC fighters, opened the doors for the LTTE to enter South Africa when Nelson Mandela took over as President.
However, some influential ANC activists in the U.K. distanced themselves from the LTTE after it assassinated Dr. Rajini Thiranagama, an LTTE activist turned human rights activist, in 1989. It was Thiranagama who had forged LTTE ANC relations in the U.K. After the LTTE assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, the resentment of ANC activists grew further.
In South Africa
After 1994, LTTE activists, including Tharmalingam Shanmugam Kumaran alias Kumaran Pathmanathan, the head of the LTTE International Network, travelled to South Africa. Close links were forged between South African Tamils and the LTTE through the International Secretariat in London. The LTTE’s links with the Mandela Government were consolidated in late 1994 when LTTE activists won over a few ANC hard-liners. It also established contacts with South African missions in Canberra, New Delhi and London. In fact, the LTTE continues to feed South African missions, particularly the one in U.K., with propaganda.After the ANC Government assumed office, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was the first Sri Lankan dignitary to visit South Africa. Around the same time, President Nelson Mandela received a 14-member LTTE delegation in his office. Except one delegate who joined the group in South Africa, the others came from Sri Lanka via India on airline tickets which came through the South African Government. Their programme was organised by the ANC with the assistance of the South African High Commission in New Delhi. (Both the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (I.B.), India’s premier intelligence organisations, apparently failed to monitor the ANC-LTTE link and the fact that India was being used as a transit point). The high level meeting between Mandela and the LTTE delegation was followed by several meetings between ANC and LTTE representatives in India. Among the ANC officials was a South African Foreign Ministry official. The South African mission in India, particularly the Office of the Deputy High Commissioner, was involved with these discussions.
Before Kadirgamar left South Africa, he received an official briefing from a white South African intelligence official. Although Sri Lanka supported the ANC through the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), it continued to maintain contact with the apartheid regime on matters of intelligence. This was a necessity because Sri Lankan groups were undergoing training in Lebanon and in Syria, particularly in the Bekaa Valley with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the ANC. Senior Sri Lankan intelligence officials visited South Africa regularly. South Africa also assisted Sri Lanka in developing its military and intelligence gathering capabilities. The intelligence official told Kadirgamar that the LTTE was disseminating propaganda and raising funds through four front organisations and that there were around 100 Sri Lankan Tamil families in South Africa.
Continued tomorrow
Courtesy: Frontline
People and privatisation
By a Special CorrespondentPublic sector Corporations are the products of sweat and toil of Sri Lanka’s labour and have been funded by the taxpayer through public savings. They represents assets belonging the people of the country and technically they should not be alienated by way of sale lease or otherwise except on terms that have the approval of the people- their owners.
However, since it is not possible to assemble people in a kind of a shareholder meeting government of the day assumes the role of dealing with the public sector as a custodian of the people’s property. This is in the nature of a Trust that the government owes to the people of the country- which trust the government has to execute with a high sense of integrity
It is appropriate therefore to consider in the context of the country’s experience in the recent past as to whether the government of the day discharges their trust in the manner that inspired public confidence
The government elected to power in 1977 coceptualised economic progress and the well-being of the people in terms of an open economy promoting free enterprise and inviting foreign investment and deregulation at the public sector. Privatisation became a part of the government’s agenda. Little progress however was made during the tenure of the JRJ government except for some piece meal changes paving the way for eventual privatisation though some enterprises were sold away.
The tempo of privatisation increased dramatically with the election of the Premadasa government in 1988. He appointed an Economic Czar who presides over the destiny of the country’s economy. The Economic Czar came increasingly under the influence of the thinking of his mentors of the international financial institutions who were pushing hard for the elimination or downsizing of the public sector as a conditionality for providing assistance.
The government was therefore under pressure to sell the idea to the people. The exercise of privatisation assumed the nomenclature of an exercise called ‘PEOPLISATION’ only because 10% of the shareholding of an enterprise was awarded free to the employees. The people are deluded to believing that it is done in their interest, masquerading the fact that the majority of the shareholding up to 90% is being alienated to the private sector
The device to which the government opts to do so is the ‘DIVESTITURE’ committee established by government at the level of each Ministry. These committees comprise of top Ministry officials along with a representative of the Treasury. Ministry officials who constitute the majority of the committee are the Minister’s appointees and are beholden to him. The result was that more often than not these committees do the bidding of the Minister. No representative of the people or the trade unions were appointed to these committees and process of privatization become seriously flawed. It was alleged that many of the privatisations done through these committees resulted in valuable assets of the people being sold at less than their market value. The country and the people become poorer as a result.
The case of privatisation of the Sugar Corporation which has drawn comments from a person who was closely involved with the Corporation through out his career illustrates the deeply flawed manner in which the Corpoation was privatised resulting in the closure of the two sugar factories at Hingurana and Kantale. They were the first of their kind where the government of the day had invested large sums of money
to grow an essential consumer crop in Sri Lanka on a plantation scale. The writer himself was a Director of the Corporation in the early seventies and is aware of the dedication with which employees worked to make a success of this industry.
Privatisation has brought about a ‘Slow and painful death of a once flourishing industry’. The new owners were never interested in running the enterprise as a profitable proposition and close down the factories soon after they aquried ownership of the enterprise. It may be that between them the sugar factories produce around 10% -20% of the requirements of the country. These two factories however serviced a large number of outgrowers providing employment and the means of livelihood to around a hundred thousand-farm families- the poorest of the poor in Sri Lanka
The policies of downsizing the public sector goes on apace with no proper alternative in place to fill the void left by them in terms of servicing disadvantage group’s in our economy. The Paddy Marketing Board and the Ceylon Fisheries Corporation were similarly run down with the assets being sold or leased out at unbelievably low prices. The monolithic SLTB was broken up in to 93 so-called peoples companies only to provide very poor service to the people
The sordid story of the so-called peoplisation exercise raises an important question of the remedy open to the people in circumstances where their interest are seriously compromised. Apparently there is no available remedy.
Today the government appoints commissions of inquiry to probe transactions of this nature by a previous government for purposes of political gain. This is however unsatisfactory as the government of the day may or may not probe particular transactions depending on the political mileage it will obtain. The present situation inexorably calls for the appointment of special tribunals as a fora to which people aggreived by political decisions of public officials could access to ascertain as to whether any wrong doing has been done and the public interest had been betrayed. These special tribunals should be vested with the power of investigating public complaints to expose the wrongdoings of any of public functionaries with a view to at least acting as a deterrants to malfeasance in the future.
Indian Tamils and the Kandyan peasantry
Continued from Yesterday
by Citizen-D
It may also surprise Tea Puthra et al as to what the well known Tamil leader, the late C. Sunderalingam, MP, had to say in Parliament on this subject. He stated (Hansard) in 1954:
"Any man who reads an account of the rebellion of Uva, cannot but help shed tears today. The Kandyans have been deprived in practice of their elementary rights. Our people (refers to Kandyan peasants — brackets mine) have been kept down for the benefit of British capital and Indian labour."
Tea Puthra should re read the last sentence, especially the point about Indian labour, in the above passage, which is by a Tamil chauvinist and not by the Sinhala Commission or by some ‘Sinhala hardliner’. Need we say more on the subject.
It certainly was not the intention of the British to employ Sinhala labour on the estates. The latter were used as slaves to initially cut the roads and clear the forests and then were unceramoniously thrown out of the region. The whole exercise of grabbing the land and then planting an alien labour force was done for one reason and for that reason alone. That was, to keep the Sinhalese in perpetual poverty and servitude so that they would never be able to rise up again. This was the basic fact. And it is this fact that Tea Puthra and others want to hide because this truth is unpalatable to them and is objectionable to their sinister agenda.
There was an earlier British proposal to bring in Chinese labour. This was later changed in favour of cheaper Indian labour.
This same destabilization programme was enacted in Malaya (rubber estates), Fiji and several S. American countries where the British had problems with the local populations. This fact is revealed by colonial records.
All Indian workers were temporary and migrant. Colonial records on immigration and emigration which are available, reveals this fact very clearly. The annual arrivals and departures were almost equal. Any discrepancy was due to deaths, difficulty in travel in certain years etc. They were like our present Middle-East labour.
They had no rights here, but were alien workers. However, since both countries were under the same colonial regime, the only common factor was that both populations (Indian workers and the local population) were considered subjects of the British empire. Prof. Patrick A. Feebles in his Royal Asiatic Society address of June 1986, gave complete statistics to prove the foregoing facts.
Thus, according to all available records, it has been proved beyond doubt that Indian labour had never been resident permanently for over one hundred years. Permanent settlement commenced only during the second world war (1939 onwards), when India imposed travel restrictions, thus preventing those who had already come from getting back. Since then, the population gradually increased as women also came and settled here.
Population increase was seen even after independence due to illicit immigration. This was the time the word "kallathoni" came to be used and the TAFAII (Task Force Anti Illicit Immigration) was set up by the armed forces. Large numbers were caught every night in the seas off Jaffna and especially Mannar and deported. But an equal number escaped detection and entered the plantations. Some settled in Mannar and Vavuniya and today these illicit immigrants have merged with the local Tamils and Muslims there.
Regarding citizenship, according to prevailing law, any alien who has a provable resident ancestry dating back to two or three generations, is eligible for citizenship. Non of these Indian workers qualified, thus proving that they had never resided here permanently since the coffee and tea estates started. This proves that the Indian Tamils had never been a 150 year old resident poplulation as claimed by Thondaman and others.
At independence, the concession granted to those having seven years continuous residence from 1.1.1939 (ie., the year the war started) enabled only 134,000 to qualify. These were the workers who had come just before the war and could not get back due to Indian travel restrictions. This also proves that only this number had continuously resided here for more than seven years. It also proves that the rest were recent arrivals. However, according to subsequent agreements between India and Ceylon, our government, having considered the labour requirements on estates and also the fact that some families had children born here during the interim period, it was decided to grant citizenship to a further number.
For instance in USA, large numbers of Mexicans are alien workers who cross over illegally. They have worked in USA for years. But the US government is not obliged to grant them citizenship.
Even if some are selected for citizenship, they have to undergo a period of ‘naturalization’ when they have to become proficient in English and American culture. But here, Indian Tamils are encouraged by their leaders not to integrate with the Sinhalese, lest their hold on them is lost. This is also why Thondaman does not want the workers to leave the estates or for the Sinhalese to obtain any land within the estates.
At independence (1948), Indian labour retained their Indian status. This is proved by the fact that in all agreements and correspondence with the Ceylon government, the Indian government referred to these Tamils as Indian citizens. Thus, ‘statelessness’ is a total canard.
Disenfranchisement is another canard. Indian labour being British subjects before independence, were granted limited voting rights by the British because Ceylon too was part of the British empire. This concession automatically lapsed at independence. Thus, "disenfranchisement at the stroke of a pen" is a total lie. Can Tea-Pluthra cite any example in the world where a migrant worker who is not a citizen, can excercise voting rights.
It is a well known fact that Prime Minister Nehru and the Indian government wanted to keep these Indians here, because they saw a good chance of either taking over or destabilizing
Sri Lanka through such an alien population. Today, both India and the local Tamil separatist movement see the large Tamil population in the heartland of the country as a very significant advantage for their future designs. It was none other that the former P.M. of India, V. P. Singh who revealed at the Jain Commission:—
"The intention of the LTTE to form a new Tamil country comprising parts of Tamilnadu in India and Sri Lanka, was well known to Rajiv Gandhi’s government." (India Today, 24.11.97. p.29).
One should note that the above is a profound statement by a former PM of India. It is obvious that ‘Eelam’ is going to be the whole of this country and not just the north and east. And the Indian Tamils in large numbers, kept isolated in the ‘thottams’ are going to be a very significant factor in these grand designs. One can visualize Tea Puthra’s and Naganathan’s cynical laugh. But VP. Singh knows his Bombay onions an we Sinhalese know our onions as well. It is no laughing matter as far as we are concerned.
The Sinhalese peasant is being harassed in his own ancestral territory today. Successive governments have been pandering to the block vote of an alien group, granting them all kinds of goodies (citizenship on affidavit included) while our people do not have one square inch of land even to bury their dead.
This is why I said that the Sinhala worm is going to turn and that a volcano is about to erupt in the hills. Such a course of events can only be prevented if government nails the Indian Tamil canards once and for all and sets about genuinely redressing the Kandyan peasants’ grievances. We do not advocate that all Indians be chased out. But a sane (not emotional) policy has to be put in place to work out a fair deal for all including the rehabilitation of the ravaged hill country environment.
If this is not done, the volcanic eruption is a certainity notwithstanding all the IPKFs and all the UN colours put together. After all, what will the Kandyan peasant have to lose?
Shades of Fiji, my dear Tea Puthra, don’t you think?
(Concluded)
Environment
The Menace of Environmental Pollutionby Ding Mo
In the 1950s Chinese leaders and people celebrated industrial chimneys streaming smoke over their cities, considering them a symbol of development. In the 1970s squares and streets were paved in an effort to modernize and keep pace with the rest of the world. Now in the 1990s lawns, trees and flowers are being planted in cities as a further step toward modernization.
Tens of thousands of dead fish float on the surface of Guanqiao Lake in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province. The stink is noticeable a dozen kilometers away. According to tests done by the environmental protection department in May, the lake’s nitrite content was five times the national limit, causing a proliferation of plant growth that depletes the lake’s oxygen. The water has turned green and murky, and a heavy rain has further complicated the problem. Many fish, forced to the surface in search of oxygen, have died.
About 250,000 kilograms of fish died within a day, and the local people suddenly realized that their famous scenic spot had become a cesspool. The incident was immediately reported by the news media. Actually, many such incidents of pollution have been reported by Chinese television stations and newspapers in recent years, and more and more people are becoming concerned with their living environment.
In October 1997, toxic waste water leaked from a paper mill in Shanxi Province, polluting a nearby reservoir used for drinking water. As a result, over 40,000 residents of the city of Yuncheng did not have drinking water of three days. The director of the factory was later arrested and accused of destroying natural resources—the first time such a charge was made in China. The offence is classified as a crime under the new criminal code of October 1, 1997.
Many Chinese paper mills and leather processing and chemical plants discharge polluted waste water into rivers. The Huaihe River has been seriously polluted and the city of Bengbu, Anhui Province, cannot get its drinking water from the river any more. The people must dig wells or fetch water from other cities.
Caohai is a national nature reserve in Guizhou Province, and many migratory birds winter there. There is a zinc mine nearby, and the life of the birds is threatened by the dust and gases emitted by the smelter.
Coal is China’s main fuel, and the sulfurdioxide it produces is the major cause of acid rain. In some Chinese cities, such as Changsha, Chongqing and Liuzhou, 90 percent of all precipitation is acid rain. Shanxi Province is the largest coal producer in China, and its backward coking methods fill the air with sulfurdioxide and particulates. Taiyuan, the province’s capital, lives amidst a shroud of dirty air, and the situation in the city of Linfen in southern Shanxi is even worse — at noon the visibility is only about 100 meters.
Beijing, the national capital, is also suffering from serious air pollution. The Beijing municipal government started to publish a weekly Air Quality Report as of January 1, 1998. The city’s air is usually grade three to four, sometimes even five, which is defined as heavy pollution. Many people experience discomfort under such conditions. The main causes of air pollution in Beijing are waste gases from industrial plants and exhaust from cars. An iron and steel plant in the western suburbs is emitting sulfurdioxide, carbon monoxide and particulates every day, but sufficient funds are not available to move this plant away from the city. Beijing residents worry that their city will become the most polluted capital in the world.
Xie Zhenhua, head of the State Bureau of Environmental Protection, noted in a recent report that about 70 percent of China’s rivers are polluted, and one-third of China is threatened by acid rain.
In the 1970s, when most developed countries were suffering the effects of environmental pollution, the Chinese people were enjoying blue skies, fresh water and clean air. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) was set up in 1972, and the following year the Environmental Protection Committee of the State Council was formed in China. Subsequently, administrative and supervisory bodies were established. Environmental laws — The Environmental Protection Law, The Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution and The Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution—were enacted.
Environmental pollution is without a doubt a big problem in China, and people are upset and worried. But the Chinese government has heeded their cries and made great efforts to solve the problem, otherwise the situation would be even worse.
The Chinese economy has been developing rapidly since the late 1970s, and the standard of living has improved. Fast industrial growth produces some side effects, and environmental pollution is one of them.
As numerous industrial plants appeared, waste water, gas and solid waste polluted the environment, especially in the countryside where equipment was outmoded. Meanwhile, as Chinese cities expanded, high buildings, flyovers and roads were constructed across the country. The whole nation looked like a construction site in the 1980s. Even now, the noise, dust and emissions from factories and cars are deteriorating the environment.
There are environmental protection laws in China, but they have not been seriously followed due to a lack of government supervision. The new criminal code issued on October 1, 1997, classifies destruction of the environment as a crime to be seriously punished. Hopefully, law will play a more important role in China’s environmental control in the future.
–China Today
City as a Social Space
Social aspects of the emerging urban landscape in Colomboby S. T. Hettige
Professor of Sociology
University of Colombo(Continued from yesterday)
Recent economic transformation that has had a major impact on the city’s landscape has also influenced the patterns of public and private consumption. As mentioned earlier, before 1977, Colombo city was predominately a site of public consumption with government departments, public enterprises, public hospitals, government schools, state - run retail shops, public transport, etc. dominating the landscape. Today the situation is quite different. With the gradual contraction of the public sector paving the way for an enlarged private, corporate sector, the disposable incomes of a sizeable segment of the population living in the city and its environs have increased rapidly. The members of what has been already referred to as the New Urban Middle Class earn much higher salaries than their counterparts in the state sector.
There are also those who have launched new business ventures and earn substantial incomes, not to mention the owners and share - holders of large firms. As a result, the demand for expensive consumer goods and services has increased rapidly. International restaurants, etc. have come up to meet this growing demand. The city streets are being improved and widened to accommodate an ever increasing number of cars with no signs of any easing of the worsening congestion in the city and the nearby suburbs.
Traffic congestion is worse near private hospitals, international and privileged public schools, shopping centres, fashion houses, etc. On the other hand, those who use public transport complain that they have to spend hours on the road due to traffic jams on roads leading to the city. These are signs, increasing competition for public space between two interest groups, namely, the users of private and public transport. This, of course is one among many arenas where groups with divergent interests and desires are competing for space and resources. In many of these conflicts, the market has proved to be increasingly incapable or resolving them. It is here that the need for sound public policies and sensible planning strategies arises.
Planning for urban development is not a simple, technical exercise. While technical aspects are important, social dimensions of planning are equally important. Physical planning devoid of social content and sensitivity can have adverse social consequences. On the other hand, economic growth and material prosperity do not automatically solve social problems which require specific policy interventions.
Unplanned urban growth, even when it is accompanied by increasing material prosperity, can lead to various problems. The situation can be worse when the economy stagnates. It is, therefore necessary to identify key areas which require policy interventions. The listed below are some of these areas.
a) Allocation of urban space for public and private consumption.
b) Housing, in particular low income housing.
c) Modes of transportation
d) Functional allocation of urban space
e) Public and environmental health
f) Crime, law and order and public safety
g) Integration and accommodation of marginal and disadvantaged groups.
h) Creating a sense of equity and community.
In a situation of intense competition for urban space, it is almost natural for various interest groups to carve out urban space for their exclusive, private use. Given the rising value of urban property, allocation of urban space for non-commercial, public purposes such as public parks, community centres, and play grounds is a not an easily defensible proposition. Since the beneficial effects or such public use cannot be easily quantified or measured, authorities may be tempted to transfer urban property from public to private use. This may be particularly so when certain influential individuals can derive personal benefits from such transfers.
On the other hand, the availability of adequate public space is critical to the social, psychological and physical well-being of city dwellers who otherwise have to remain indoors, often cut off from the other members of the community. The lack of open public space affects certain social groups more than the others,. i.e. the elderly? house-wives, pensioners, domestic workers, youth, the disabled, children, the poor, etc. The market can hardly meet their need for public space which only a socially sensitive resource allocation policy can address to the satisfaction of the groups involved. As part of urban development projects, community needs for public space should be assessed using social science research techniques. This should be part of both macro - and micro level planning.
Difficulties of management, maintenance and cost recovery often discourage authorities to invest in public housing. On the other hand, private investors do not invest in low income housing which does not generate a good return for the investment. This situation has persuaded authorities to promote self help housing which often requires only the provision of building sites and low interest credit to low income families. This kind of policy leads to the proliferation of small, single story housing units on minute plots of land. Given the scarcity of land and the need for public space for various common purposes, this does not amount to an optimum utilization of urban land at all.
The transportation of commodities and people which is vital for the functioning of the urban system is an area which needs careful planning. What modes of transport can perform this function more efficiently and effectively depends on a whole range factors. On the other hand, the actual modes of transport that may be popular among different groups of people depend on their income, values, tastes and state policies on international trade and transport. With rising incomes of a significant segment of the population, many people turn to conspicuous consumption as a defining feature of their identity. This applies to a whole range of people such as professionals, businessmen, higher level employees of the corporate sector, politicians and public officials. So, the motor car becomes the focal point in transport and physical planning. Roads are often designed so as to accommodate as many cars as possible, as against bicycles, pedestrians, buses, etc. This is true in both urban as well as rural areas. With this sort of preoccupation with the motor car, other modes of transport do not receive adequate attention from the policy makers, planners, investors and professionals.
Allocation of urban space for various functions is often a function of the influence of diverse interest groups. In the process, urban public space may be used for sub-optimal activities creating various social and environmental consequences. This necessitates a review of the existing functional uses with a view to reallocating urban space within an overall framework of urban development. Such a review may point to the need to relocate certain activities and institutions in order to reclaim urban public space for certain critical functions. On the other hand, if the allocation of urban space is left in the hands of dominant interest groups, they may appropriate urban public space for their parochial, private purposes leading serious social problems.
Public and environmental health constitutes a critical issue in an urban setting. It is an area which receives almost no attention from private institutions, and, therefore, left in the hands of state and Municipal authorities. Since public health is affected by a whole range of processes such as transport, industry, income distribution, public utilities, population movements, etc., the presence of a public health unit in the Municipal Council alone is not sufficient to ensure good public health in the city. What is needed is comprehensive planning involving a whole range of institutions and actors including public health professionals.
In many modern cities, both in the developed as well as undeveloped countries, crime, lawlessness, and public safety have emerged as major issues affecting the quality of life of both residents as well as visitors in the city. The situation can get better or worse depending on a whole range of factors such as the extent and nature of poverty alienation of youth, community participation in the management of local affairs, efficiency and impartiality of low enforcement authorities, drug abuse and containment of organized crime. The nature of urban development that takes place has a direct bearing on the above issues. On the other hand, the process of urban development can be guided in such a way as to contain crime, law and order and public safety issues.
Unplanned cities can alienate or socially exclude many marginal or vulnerable groups. In fact, some developments can even be threatening to such groups. The lack of adequate public space in the neighbourhoods can almost imprison old people, children, domestic worker and housewives in their own boundary walls. Walking alone the road or crossing the road can be more than life threatening for pedestrians, in particular old people, the disabled and children. Inadequate play grounds, indoor stadiums, youth clubs, etc. can push youth into dark video palours, cinema halls, drug dens, etc. Inadequate opportunities for socializing outside homes can breed loneliness, mutual misunderstanding, and accommodating marginal and vulnerable groups within the overall social space of the city rather than exclude or alienate them. They should explore the possibilities of checking the widespread tendency on the part of dominant interest groups to appropriate public space for private purposes.
And finally, urban development and planning should be guided in such a way as to contain extreme forms of social inequality and eliminate abject poverty. Municipal taxation and social expenditure could be used to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, privileged and underprivileged quarters. The development of social infrastructure which benefits the non-affluent segments of the urban population such as public transport, neighbourhood parks, public housing, etc. can go a long way in creating a sense of equity, social justice and community in a densely populated city like Colombo. Discouragement of private transport, for instance through such measures as high insurance and parking premiums, and road tolls, private vehicle free zones and streets etc. might be perceived as a pro-poor social intervention which also has beneficial environmental and public health effects.
Conclusion:
So far in the present paper, an attempt has been made to (a) locate the issues of urbanization, urban development and urban planning in the largers historical and spatial context, (b) point out certain social consequences of market - driven urban development and (c) look at a few social considerations that deserve attention in the context of urban planning. It has been emphasized that the market forces and dominant private interests, if allowed to operate freely, will give rise to serious social issues which, in turn will not only have an adverse effect on the smooth functioning of the urban system but also undermine the physical, social and psychological wellbeing of a sizeable segment of the urban population.
