Lakmahal 14 – Different Perspectives: New Politics

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Dudley Senanayake, Esmond Wickremesinghe, J R Jayewardene, John Kotelawala

Esmond Wickremasinghe

By the time I knew him, my mother’s eldest brother Esmond was emphatically a supporter of the UNP. Soon after I was born he had been sent to New York by Sir John Kotelawala, to negotiate the entry of Ceylon into the United Nations, and family legend had it that it was the charm displayed by him and his wife that finally ensured our admission. Until then the Soviet Union had opposed this, on the grounds that we were still a colony, with the British still having troops here. But, long before Mr Bandaranaike came into power and asked them to leave, Esmond had succeeded in averting a Soviet veto, in terms of a compromise that saw the admission also of other countries that had been disputed.

Esmond was by then seen as Sir John’s right hand man, or rather one of them, for that wily old bird made use of several capable people. But none of them was able to prevent his shattering defeat in 1956, when he led his party to an election called prematurely. Blaming him however would be wrong, for a clear reading of what happened that year suggests that he was forced into calling an election he did not want, and contesting it on a platform he abhorred. Or, rather, blaming him alone – he cannot escape all responsibility for allowing such a situation to arise, and letting himself be carried along by it, a practice that has been followed since by many other Sri Lankan leaders.

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Colombo Changes 11 – Resignation

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Bandaranaike, J R Jayewardene, Jaffna Library, Lakshman Wickremesinghe, Peradeniya

Innocence about what was going on in Sri Lanka did not in fact last very long. Though the country had seemed full of hope after the economic reforms introduced by the Jayewardene government in 1977, by 1980 the flip side of the reforms was evident. In July there occurred the General Strike that was dealt with, not so much firmly, as brutally.

That particular episode did not worry me unduly, for it seemed to me that an elected government had every right to try out new policies. If the opposition decided on violent confrontation, government was entitled to respond. The relentless critiques of my uncle Lakshman however, Chairman by then I think of the Civil Rights Movement, in addition to being Bishop of Kurunagala, made me realize that the government’s response was disproportionate. Perhaps as a mark of what still interested me most, what brought home to me most vividly the determination of the government to use violence to crush even mild opposition was the manhandling of Prof Sarachchandra, when he was to deliver a lecture that would have been simply mildly critical of government policies.

The bitter anguish of the students who insisted on taking me to see the burnt out shell …

Lakshman was more concerned by then about what was going on in the North. Though initially I had thought he was being dramatic in predicting civil war if the government did not moderate its violence, it gradually became clear that Jayewardene’s policies were almost deliberately provocative. I only properly understood the situation however in 1981, when I went to lecture at Jaffna University shortly after government goons had set fire to the Public Library. The bitter anguish of the students who insisted on taking me to see the burnt out shell made me realize the great gulf the government had created in trying to impose its will on the North.

Bridging Connections – Poetry conveying sadness of parting

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Anne Ranasinghe, Aryawansa Ranaweera, Bridging Connections, Farewell, Kamala Wijeratne, Poetry, The Weaver-bird's nest, Thirumavalavan, Yasmine Gooneratne

Poetry can often convey a sense of place vividly. In the Sri Lankan context this has been used often recently to convey the sadness of parting from places to which one belonged. Earlier we looked at poems that talked about exile, in terms of the difficulties of creating a home in a different environment. Here we see descriptions of the familiar, accompanied by a sense of loss.

Kamala Wijeratne has been the butt of criticism on occasion by authorities in some English Departments for what is seen as chauvinism. Indeed I remember the sad occasion when the English Association tried to celebrate Sri Lankan writing in English by asking academics to bring out collections of criticism for poetry and fiction and drama. The last never happened, and the fiction collection was interminably delayed because the editor could not get enough contributions in time. Finally what he had got was put together as part of one number of ‘Navasilu’, the journal of the Association.

Lakmahal 13 – Different Perspectives: Blue and Green

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Cyril Wickremesinghe, Esmond Wickremesinghe, Lakmahal, Lakshman Wickremesinghe, Mukta Wijesinha

Cyril Wickremesinghe had obviously planned Lakmahal for his family, and it was on the basis of his four very lively children that he had built four large bedrooms upstairs, apart from the massive one he occupied with his wife which she used for nearly half a century after his death. The four bedrooms for the children shared two bathrooms, my mother’s and Tissa’s the green one, placed between their rooms, and accessible also from the central hallway, so that it could be used by visitors too.

The other bathroom however, the blue one, was awkward for sharing, for it led off Lakshman’s bedroom which was directly opposite the passage to the green bathroom. That bedroom also connected with Esmond’s bedroom, which was opposite Tissa’s. Cyril may have well thought that Lakshman, not yet ten when the family moved into Lakmahal, required to have his eldest brother, then sixteen, close at hand, but the design he finally chose meant that access for the bigger one to the bathroom lay only through the smaller one. This contributed to making Lakshman’s room very much the least attractive in the whole house. It was also dark and very dull, looking out only on a tiny semi-circular balcony, over the bay windows of the dining room below.

Bridging Connections – Children’s poems dealing with social problems

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children, Regi Siriwardena, Siri Gunasinghe, Siththaanthan

The three poems about children that will be featured this week deal, each of them, with social problems that are of deep concern to the different communities in this country.

The poem written by Siththaanthan and translated by Thava Sajitharan deals understandably enough with the traumas of children in a conflict situation.

The details are telling, mothers using armed men as bogies to get their children to eat, the empty swings, the little boy looking at the cart he made that he cannot drive on the streets.

And then, after we have been lulled into thinking that it is just the situation that is being described, we have the shock of the child killed by the speeding truck, with the emptiness that follows.