From Here to Hanoi
Vietnam was the first country to be informed by Sri Lanka of its victory over the Tigers. It was from the on the record remarks of a top Vietnamese leader that I learned that. In their separate speeches of welcome, the President, Prime Minister and Secretary General of the ruling Communist party of Vietnam all congratulated the Sri Lankan President for “the country’s historic victory over the LTTE” and promised to cooperate in “the elimination of the remnants of the LTTE”. On the issue of whether or not the Sri Lankan victory over the Tigers was one worth celebrating, the word of leaders who, as young men, actively fought the world’s mightiest superpower and won has an overriding credibility and authority.
Vietnam hosts an international Buddhist Conference next year but it’s purely part of the cultural matrix and plays no role in the identity of the state. This is because they have separated religion from the state and government. Vietnam is successfully Janus faced, balancing the continued emotive commemoration of its sufferings, sacrifices and victories in the wars against imperialist intervention ( so much for those who say we must forget the Tigers and the war) with a forward looking, liberalized economy (so much for those who want to stay mired in a wartime mindset and mood). There is a lighter ideological touch in Vietnam than there is in Sri Lanka. The past is part of the fabric of identity and culture and ideology weigh less heavily on the people than they do in Sri Lanka.
On April 30th 1975 as I watched on my TV screen in London, a North Vietnamese tank pushed its barrel through the bars of the main gate of the Presidential palace in Saigon, broke it open and rolled over it like some war elephant. 34 years later I was at a banquet hosted by the Chairman of the Peoples Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, who had joined the resistance fighters while in his teens. Next to me was a highly articulate and relatively young man who had done two years of postgraduate studies at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts and had just sat for his advanced political training examination at the Higher Party Academy. Throughout the dinner we discussed and debated Vietnamese foreign policy options in the 1970s. And this was a cadre attached to the Municipal authority of Ho Chi Minh City; the interface of the Foreign Ministry and the Municipality! We should be lucky to have Ministers, let alone officials and Left party cadres of this intellectual caliber and pragmatic open-mindedness. At one point President Rajapakse interrupted from across the table and at the center, mentioning smilingly that he had just told the top Vietnamese official next to him that I was very knowledgeable about the history of the Vietnamese CP and the revolutionary struggle.
Flashback: The first thing I did when having finished a lengthy chat over breakfast, Mahinda Rajapakse invited me to join him the next day on the first ever state visit by a Lankan leader to Vietnam, was to go to the BMICH and switch my tickets for the Mt Lavinia Hotel jazz concert from the Saturday to Sunday. There was only one disappointment: percussionist Sunil de Silva, my first cousin, hadn’t turned up from Sydney, but the rest of it was great and Sanja and I were glad we had got away from the high politics and the house repairs. It was good to see Mignonne still in action, guiding the band, Grooving High. We should all look so good and be as gracefully spirited at her age. In my early 50s, I belong to the generation that knew her as Mignonne Ratnam and had the Jetliners at the Taj album. I still remember her from my boyhood, when she used to play the Yamaha organ at the Taprobane’s Blue Leopard (wearing a long slinky, glitzy slit dress). My mum Lakshmi had taught her at St Bridget’s and Mervyn knew Tony Fernando. Jerome Speldewinde was of course the maestro, the Man, El Hombre, though I wish he had given himself a more challenging repertoire. With that voice he should be singing Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen. He did the very best version of Nat King Cole’s Nature Boy that I have heard, supercharging and Latinizing it in the same go. I told him he’s good enough to be playing Montreaux. He told me I was lucky to have been there and more than once and that if I’m back here maybe people like himself should think of coming back too. I didn’t know what to say.
Good as he was, and he was the best, what made me happiest were young Dellain Joseph and Natasha Rathnayake though not necessarily always in that order. It’s a heck of a lot easier for me to answer some of the questions that GV posters ask me like “what’s a nice intellectual like you doing with someone like Mahinda Rajapakse?” or words to that effect, than to decide whether Natasha or Dellain is the better singer. Depends on the song I guess. Natasha was better accompanying Jerome on God Bless the Child than Dellain was, but it was reversed when the same trio did Ain’t No Sunshine. I’d love to hear Jerome, Natasha and Dellain sing with Harsha Makalanda on the keyboard.
Mignonne represented continuity and Natasha and Dellain connected us back with the great Sri Lankan singers such as Yolande Bawan and Erin de Selfa. We‘ve still got the talent and social and cultural space; Cultural conformism hasn’t been able to stamp it out, I thought.
Flash forward: This new candidacy thing, maybe it’s the Black Swan event we needed; the game changer. In the first place it makes all those speculations about how we are almost the same as the Tigers look silly. Godfrey Gunatilleke (Uncle Godfrey to me) had told me some weeks back that he believes in the “reiterative principle in History”. He was right. The very possibility of a close run race reiterates the quintessentially competitive, democratic character of the Sri Lankan system, in contradistinction to Prabhakaran’s rule in the North east not to mention Hitler’s and Stalin’s. (Some Gulag Island, though my favorite bit of punditry was the quote propped Hitler-MR parallels of a Sunday before turning into cheering a possible democratic renewal a Sunday after). The Black Swan entry splits the ultranationalists and will draw a line of demarcation between the militarist hyper-nationalists and the relatively more moderate or pragmatic nationalists. It potentially enables the demarcation of a Third space between the militarist “majoritarians” and the neoliberal “minoritarians”. It enables the recognition that if anyone is auditioning for Hitler or Mussolini, it sure ain’t Colombo civil society’s favorite bad guy MR or the trimmer mustached GR! The peeling off, jettisoning or marginalizing of the hardest line Sinhala chauvinists elements from the mainstream ruling coalition is a necessary precondition for the reassertion of a centrist nationalism and unblocking the transition to a stable peace. It enables the posing of the question, to whom does Sri Lanka belong: the Sinhala Buddhist alone, the pro-west Fat cat elite, or all of us who were born and live here; all of us citizens?
Back to Jerome winding up the show and zipping his guitar case at the Mount. Some BB members and GV bloggers may say it’s the Dayan Paradox, though I prefer the more alliterative and accurate Dayan Dialectic: how can Dr DJ dwell in both the (erstwhile pro-war) statist-patriotic space and the (pacifist) nonconformist jazz space. Sri Lanka is one of those few places that would be considered a paradox, but the Sri Lankan cultural and political personalities are split, and this schizophrenia is a key to comprehending our crisis. F. Scott Fitzgerald, echoing Blaise Pascal, commended the ability to hold together two absolutely antithetical ideas at the same time, the hallmark of a first rate mind. As for me, I’m thinking, we produce – we have—singers like Natasha and Dellain and soldiers like Shavendra de Silva and Prasanna Silva.
Damn it, we’re good.
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So,Dayan is being ‘rehabilitated’ from his Thirteenth Amendment phobia.He had
not realised that the president, the junta and cronies never had any intention of devolving powers to provincial councils.This is what drove Varatharajaperumal to declare UDI after his frustration in quest of same from President Premadasa. The puppets Karuna and Pillayan are now realising the same truth. The new mayor and cohorts of the jaffna municipality are slowly
becoming aware of this. Devananda who knew this long ago is sitting pretty with his henchmen who are reportedly extorting businessmen to survive. We need not be bothered about Vietnam.We have our own brand of governance – of the junta,by the junta and for the junta. Human Rights be damned.What is important is political survival for as long as possible – but now General Fonseka is a threat to this. He will be ‘removed’ soon.
My “Thirteenth amendment phobia”? I have (or had) a phobia about… the 13th amendment? Surely that’s Thirteenth amendment-philia? And this howler from someone who affects a Latin pen-name?
Antithetical ideas?No way. It’s perfectly understandable, that’s what international relations is also partly about.
The splits, flips, flops, etc are all part of the nature of the game of politics.
“On the issue of whether or not the Sri Lankan victory over the Tigers was one worth celebrating, the word of leaders who, as young men, actively fought the world’s mightiest superpower and won…”
The Vietcong did not “win.” The Americans simply withdrew due to unpopular protests back in the USA. In general, the *Vietnam War* was extremely complex… one cannot say it was simply the Americans and South Vietnamese vs. the North Vietnamese… the North Vietnamese had crucial support from China and the Soviet Union. They were able to seek refuge within the confines of Cambodia and Laos at any time. Let us just imagine what the situation would be if northern Sri Lanka were geographically contiguous with three or four other countries…
Here is some estimate of the casualties on both sides:
North Vietnamese: 1,100,000 Vietnam People’s Army
United States: 58,209 KIA and other dead
South Vietnam: 184,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties
Reminds me of Soviet casualties in another war, in the early 40′s… for some reason, Dayan’s communist buddies never fare well during war.
Let me rephrase: they (North Vietnamese) won, but did not win in the conventional sense of a military victory.
Dayan is fabulous as always! And I hope he is right about the third party candidate!
Heshan,
We are greatly impressed by your cavalier attitude which tells us that, at heart, you are a Republican with an attitude. We don’t find people like you in America anymore. Most of today’s younger generation find it uncool to be associated with ultra-conservatives like us.
I am sure you can put Rush Limbaugh to shame. You should come over to the US of A.
Oh Hehsan, who the are you to say that US didn’t lose when then defense secretary Robert McNamara admits that US LOST! Watch Fog of War if you haven’t already. That my friend is unabashed arrogance! You need to shift a gear low and think before defending everything the US does/have done. Everyone has faults.
As with Afghanistan now, the buzz word is it’s a war that the Coalition can neither win nor lose.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/view/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist
The fact that this documentary is ironically named “Obama’s War” highlights the fact that how bad a burden it has become to the US.
That’s what they called Vietnam as well and I see a definite replay here as well. While the top echelon US Army strategists scramble to find an exist strategy, you’re here singing Baila! lol
Mind you once the Sri Lankan civil war was classified as a neither win nor lose stale mate as well. Except the Sri Lankan military and administration rose up to the challenge, took definitive hard action and succeeded. I think it’s quite commendable.
This guy Heshan needs to register at a decent university, and actually pass a course in international relations or contemporary history.
Heshan….
Whether conventional OR otherwise, war is a war and has to be fought by (02) sides.
The side that is innovative and fighting to defend the home terrain will overcome.
However, SLDF overcame fighting the tiger terrorists on their home turf and the support of vested interest from the Western World.
The defeat of the Tigers was a loss of face in certain quarters of the Western World AND also a defeat for the West & pro-Western Alliance as they were supporting the Tigers with a view to gain their assistance to obtain inside information on Al-Quaeda and to fight them.
As such, they overlooked Tiger brutality in Sri Lanka & the TIGERS were involved in a double game with Al-Qaeda and other Terrorists Organisations.
Also, they were involved in destabilisimg India and Nepal.
India having discovered Tiger support for the Maoist rebels to their dismay to keep her country unstable in control and aligned to the West played truant when it came to Tiger annilation.
In this whole episode, the outsourced Agent of the West, was the Norwegians
The “Paraiah State” who was responsible for bloodshed & ruination of Sri Lanka.
With the West playing truant have now pushed GOSL to find a new axis.
With the present financial crisis plaguing the World, Sri Lanka has made a GOOD CHOICE of people to be their friends as they are prople with financial clout.
Unfortunately, India is sandwiched. Her former ally, the Soviet Union has changed sides and is under an able Leader Mr. Valdirmor Putin.
In the past, at the request of the Soviet Union, India denied Sri Lanka of Western support by backing the Tigers and now it has come to HAUNT them.
From Okinawa to Middle East, USA Navy have no safe port to dock other than Sri Lanka & yet the USA has failed to protect Sri Lanka from the smarting Western & their interference in Sri Lanka.
In Dayan’s view the SL war was a justifiable one, no matter what the cost was both civilian and milliitary,as it liberated both Sinhalses and Tamils.
But the Tamil question is the unresolved part of the war.Now it’s time for the candidates of the SL presidential election to spell out their view/vision for the national question.
SL is and should remain a muliethnic,multicultural pleuristic democracy no matter what the short comings are.
The history is calling all in SL to make it a secular accommodating space for all ethnic and religious minorities with no descrimination and no special favors for any one.
Who ever is contesting should rise above the nationalist rancor, act and behave like statesman, accept the pleuristic nature.
Act to improve civil liberties ,good governance , eliminate nepotism,accept and implement 17th A,Improve upon 13 th A to bring about meaningful devolution of powers to the provinces.
Now if they can bring about seperation of state from Religion ,make it secular and practice independance all three branches of Govt ie:Executive,Legislature and Judiciary ,With meaningful devolution of powers to all provinces that will be very progressive indeed.
This is a second chance for SL to get it right .I hope and pray that every one realize this and act responsibly.
Or else we can expect more of the same, history repeating itself with anarchy and stagnation.God bless SL.
;
If you folks consider 1 million casualties to 580000 a “victory”, good luck with that. Germany only lost 5,533,000 military men after 6 years of war (WWII); this was despite taking over a quarter of Europe, fighting in Africa and the Baltic/Mediterranean, and close quarter conventional combat with practically every nation that had a modern army. On the other hand, the Soviet Union had 8,800,000 to 10,700,000 casualties. Again, proving my point that Communist nations fare poorly during war. They have a lot of manpower (a large part tend to be poor conscripts) but technology-wise they lack the West by decades. The 1-million man Chinese army of today is a fine example.
Dear Dagobart:
Sri Lanka is a tiny dot on the map with zero geopolitical significance. As much as you are inclined to exaggerate its status via conspiracy theories, it pales in comparison to India and Pakistan, the two nuclear powers of South Asia. Unfortunately, that is how things are likely to remain for some time to come, so carry on with your fantasies.
Slight typo: 58,000, not 580,000.
Pacifist non-conformist jazz space?
Mount Lavinia was conformist jazz at its sad and tired worst… right down to the sand between the toes of the ‘pro-west fat cat elite.’
Pacifist jazz… maybe Pascal was right… he believed in the mind, that most capable space that would even allow us to kill, fornicate and amass power at an indiscrimate rate of knots… Just call it something else. Democracy? Love?Development?
Two antithetical ideas? Too simple for Pascal. He saw beyond, deep into us, recognised what the mind was capable of above all – and that is to pretend. Pretend most convincingly so that we forget we’re pretending.
So, do anything. Just make sure we call anything something else. Just make sure we believe what it is called.
Jerome’s Nature Boy was spectacular.
Space d, read Pascal, man and you’ll come across it.
“Pacifist jazz space”… weren’t you listening to what Jerome said, with feeling, before he sang Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On?
I think the phrase people should be using for SL’s war is ‘Pyrrhic-Victory’.
The war-mongers, those who didn’t have to sacrifice, will always paint a rosy picture of our war. So that they can say they were right. But the truth, well, that’s the first casualty in war, so where does that leave us?
Heshan makes some good observations about the Vietnam war,some of which can be applicable to the SL context.
As I see it even though the North Vietnamese prevailed it came at a great cost. In the end there are more Vietnamese in the U.S. than Americans in Vietnam. Same with Sri Lanka.
The GoSL spent a lot with help from India, China, U.S and Europe to defeat the LTTE. Above all the cost in human casualties, should be cause for mourning. But what did we have? Celebrations! That shows what this war was about in reality – revenge and irredentism. It was simply a racist war! After all the overwhelming casualties were Tamils, that made the war easier to wage. And what did we get? the media, overwhelmingly if not tacitly supporting this war as a humanitarian/liberation effort. (the Sunday Leader the only paper that tried balanced reporting, with deadly repercussions. The business community supporting this effort, with a future for exploitation for profit. The religious clergy, especially buddhist and some christian invoking blessing on the SL army.
And if people like Dr. Jayatilleke want to justify this, that would not be surprising. As he seems to love people like Fidel Castro and Stalin.
By the way there are more Cubans in American than the other way around. And there are more Russians in America than the other way around. The same goes for Sri Lanka. Why is that???? Why oh why????
myil selvan, writes : “By the way there are more Cubans in American than the other way around. And there are more Russians in America than the other way around. The same goes for Sri Lanka. Why is that???? Why oh why????”
I am on your side, Mr Selvan. Let me give an analogy of the type of hypocrisy you speak of. There are many Sri-Lankans in the US of A, well settled and living the American dream; but for some unknown reason they seem to condemn our American life-style as a “corrupting” influence on their children. While enjoying their share of the American pie, they are dreaming – or were dreaming – of a separate homeland back in their old country Sri-Lanka. Why is that???? Why oh why????
As for the Cubans, yes, we have been trying to get rid of Fidel Castro since time began. To our consternation, North Americans are rushing off to Cuba to get medical treatment and for vacationing. Why is that???? Why oh why????
It is nice to know that some Sri-Lankans give us their unconditional support, despite our own people criticizing us. Thank you, Mr. Selvan.
In the end there are more Vietnamese in the U.S. than Americans in Vietnam.
…..
Why is that???? Why oh why????
Yeah lot of them were air lifted as baby orphans during the pull out, thanks to the Napalms and other sorties US delivered they had no parents. Did I mention poisonous gas they used? What a hollow argument!
I always thought that Sri Lanka is bigger than Chagos or is it?
Dr Dayan J,
Observed you performance in defense of Sri Lanka at the UN. Your arguments were succinct and very telling. Congratulations. SL needs more people like you.