Image courtesy Mercy Corps

Today, in an integrated and inter-dependent world, Sri Lanka does not have the leverage to reverse climate change but mitigate and adapt. Climate change is caused mostly by human actions which began with the industrialised West and followed suit by emerging economies exacerbating this. Some consider climate change to be a negative result of human efforts for development whilst others consider it as irresponsible efforts for profit making at the cost of the planet. Wherever the argument lies, Climate Change is real and an effective response is very urgent.

Human development is a necessity irrespective of one’s bearing towards the West or East.  The economic & development planners and the political leadership should seriously consider the sustainability of the society, region, country and then the world to achieve development that satisfies human needs without tipping the ecological balance that supports us. Overriding market capitalism that drives on the seats of global power today is an obstacle to sustainable development. This is evident in the failure of missions of the climate conferences hitherto held.  This is because large corporations in their profit centric drive for hyper consumerism generate insatiable needs and greed that are beyond the limits nature could provide. This tips the ecological balance to the detriment of mankind whilst giving profits to corporations that are masquerading as Angels of sustainability.

Sri Lanka is economically linked and inter-dependent with the world economy but physically it is an island nation. As an island nation, it has opportunities to be independent as regards its sustainability policies to protect its ecosystem. In an inter-dependent world, flow of goods by way of imports and exports do lead to over extraction and exploitation of nature and at the same time a country becomes a dumping ground for imported waste which is harmful to the ecology. Sadly, the economists and development planners’ yardstick of measurement is the GDP. If the GDP is high and derives a high per-capita income, their bottom-lines are met. Unfortunately the environmental and social cost incurred to achieve such GDP is not reflected anywhere. This leads to a situation of one step up and two steps down in respect to the sustainability of a nation.  This is the reason why in spite of all the attractive and indoctrinating rhetoric by planners and politicians, the ground reality has not changed. More often than not, modern market economic concepts are more destructive than otherwise. Professor Stuart Sim of Northumbria University in his book The End of Modernity: What the Financial and Environmental Crisis is Re-ally Telling Us says: “modernity has reached its limit as a cultural form, all because it is ―destructive of both the planet and…socio-economic systems”. This is an incisive edict by a Western scholar on the imperative of an alternative economic philosophy to answer the current situation.

Climate Change

Climate change influences human behaviour in their lifestyles, consumption patterns and migratory patterns. As a cyclic effect this influenced a host of other things like urbanization, industrialization, wars, colonization and the resultant destruction of societies: all in the name of development and civilization in an unsustainable way. The last three centuries of unsustainable development globally snowballed to what is to become now ‘the climate change’ threatening mankind and the planet.

Climate change if not successfully addressed can create havoc in society. It can have cyclic effects influencing our micro climate; impede our agriculture by flood, depletion, temperature change and scarcity of water. Socially, it can influence internal migration to resource rich and safe areas creating new socio-economic and political issues. This can also possibly deplete the forest cover by human settlements that exacerbate conflict with animal habitat and flooding and scores of new problems hitherto un-confronted. This can also create the problems of food insecurity, water scarcity, extinction of businesses & industries and consequent unemployment, the issues of energy, power etc.

In reality, this can potentially change our lifestyles to keep up with the changing scenario brought about by climate change. Therefore, we cannot face this problem in the ‘business  as usual’ way, instead we have to frame policies, educate people, lead societies and set examples of sustainable living to make this a positive change.

The pitfalls that climate change could bring to Sri Lanka are many and need serious and urgent deliberations. However, dwelling on them all is beyond the scope of this article and hence this attempts to dwell on the problems of food security and virtual water that is newly emergent.

Food Security

The issue of food security in the world is not a new phenomenon. It varies from country to country due to climatic and geographic factors. In an inter-dependent and peaceful world, exchange of goods between countries sustains the whole of mankind in terms of satisfying the needs for food. However, today due to population increases, affluence and climate change, sustainable sources of food is becoming a major issue that threatens the security of nations in a geopolitically unstable world. Compounding this, more attention to production and consumption of consumer goods and other ephemerals have rendered agriculture and food production secondary. Also industrialization, urbanization and consequent profit motivations have driven food production to the third or fourth place in some economies. Most developing economies prioritize investment in non food producing industries seeking economic growth without realising the fact that dependency for food threatens their national security.

Hierarchically, water and food are fundamental for human survival and all other goods come later. Therefore it is prudent to give priority to water conservation and food security over and above other needs. All other secondary goods are obtainable in a competitive market but food and water are vital assets to be secure within the domain of a nation state. Dependency for food and water on external sources are not sustainable to a nation even if they are industrial giants. At times of crisis, food and water as commodities can be withheld to make a country subservient. Therefore sustainability of water and food becomes almost important as having a standing army protecting the boundaries of a nation. The command of these resources cannot be delegated to outside sources.

Responding to this emerging crisis of food insecurity, resource rich countries which are having resources other than food are buying large tracts of agricultural lands in the form of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in other countries. They are maintaining these as their national assets as contingencies vis a vis food insecurity. The host nations that focus on increasing their GDPs are rarely aware of this emerging new trend that casts potential food insecurity to the host nation in the long run.

Host nations catering to the food security of other nations by permitting FDI in the food and agricultural sector would possibly face severe political problems within the country when food is exported whilst the citizens are starving. This would define very clearly the rich and the poor gap in a society and would set one against the other in their quest for survival. Therefore it is imperative for a country like Sri Lanka to have policies that ensure food security to its citizens first and then concentrate upon economic growth that uplift other sectors.

Discussions on food security cannot be discussed in isolation of the water management of a nation, since water is the source of life that underpins food production. Sri Lanka is blessed with abundant water though there are regional disparities. It was this source of life that once made Sri Lanka the ‘Granary of the East’. Today, we are dependent on imports for some of our food items creating a potentially unwarranted security breach impinging on our national integrity.

This is common in most of the developing economies, in their rat race to achieve high GDP they forge ahead focusing more in the development of technological, industrial and service base of the economy at the expense of the development of the agricultural sector. In line with this, our economists and development planners too were keen on merely achieving higher GDP and per-capita income derivatives and focussed on economic growth. Surprisingly, to an average citizen, economic growth makes no sense unless it reflects food security or self sufficiency in food. How many citizens’ basic needs are satisfied in this country by the so-called increase in the per-capita income? In the contemporary Sri Lankan economy, the middle class sector is narrowing whilst creating a wide gap between the rich and the poor. This is unsustainable and is a clear proof of a majority living below the so-called stated ‘per-capita income’.

Economic growth increases only the profit of the investor with extremely marginal upsurge in the income level of a worker or a citizen. Apart from this, the per-capita income varies from province to province within the country and it serves only a small percentage whilst a large population is below the per-capita income level and some are below the poverty line.

Therefore considering the current economic status, it portends that, if climate change and consequent food insecurity is not addressed prudently now by adjusting our economic policies to strengthen the food security of the nation, the results would be catastrophic.

For Sri Lanka, the potential food insecurity currently experienced is reversible to ensure food security and to attain self sufficiency. The expertise and the resources as an agricultural nation that we have is still dormant and once the right atmosphere and incentives are provided, would spur an agricultural revolution in a very short time. Directing us towards being a successful agricultural nation is possible but it is dependent upon how we manage the following emergent issues:

Water Management

Being abundant in water, Sri Lanka receives rain from the sky and is surrounded by sea. We have an annual average rainfall of 2,000 millimetres covering a total area of 65,610 Sq.Km representing a total volume of 131,220 million m³. This gives an annual rain water per-capita of 6,165m³/person.

Generally, rainwater is stored as blue and green water. Blue water is what is stored in the rivers, lakes and ponds and green water is the water that saturates the soil. In managing this vast reserve of water that we get annually, we are very much behind in making optimal use of this. Considering the usage cost of this water, green water generally has zero cost since it is saturated in the soil and can be harnessed for agriculture directly whereas blue waters require irrigation and therefore incur distribution and management costs.

In addition to the above, according to studies by the UNEP, Sri Lanka has a ground water potential of 78,000M³ per annum.

Therefore, considering the availability of water resource in plenty and ready for direct use, the policy makers must frame policies encouraging the citizens to make maximum use of the green water and ground water available to produce food by engaging in home gardening and informal agriculture. This would make the cost of food cheaper; reduce food miles and its carbon-foot print to sustain the economy of the people whilst enhancing food security of the nation. Remarkably, the traditional Sri Lankan ‘Chena’ cultivation is a success story, as this makes best use of the green water and does not rely on inorganic fertilizer producing healthy and nutritious food.

Similarly, the blue water that is used for agriculture through irrigation requires strict water management due to the following factors:

• Irrigation systems require proper conveyance and distribution system that does not waste water.
• The system should solve the instances of excess water use in the upstream which preclude sufficient water reaching downstream.
• Encourage responsible and frugal use of water by famers and cultivators.

Noting the above, it should be emphasised here that successful water management especially of the blue water would help double-cropping in the paddy lands and would potentially make us self sufficient in rice.

Apart from rainwater being used in agriculture, successful harnessing of waste and grey water with proper recycling can be a potential renewable resource to augment water supply for agricultural and other uses

Soil Contamination

Soil contamination in Sri Lanka is becoming a major threat to the food chain. Intensive use of inorganic fertilizer is denuding the soil of its nutritive elements and thereby rendering them barren. Therefore to overcome this negative soil development, it is becoming ever dependent on inorganic fertilizer to invigorate its capacity to produce. Apart from this, contaminants such as the residues of inorganic fertilizer leach into the ground water thereby contaminating the drinking water sources.

In developed nations, soil decontamination is widely used as a mandatory process of environmental protection and unfortunately in Sri Lanka this is nonexistent. Instead, soil remediation is done only to improve its productivity.

With the advent of Climate Change, its influence on hydrology can potentially exacerbate the problems of soil contamination caused by excessive inorganic fertilizer use. These can also potentially impact the future of agricultural productivity in Sri Lanka and therefore strict governance and regulation is required on inorganic fertilizer use.

Dependence on Inorganic fertilizer

Sri Lanka was once a successful food producing nation. Sri Lankan farmers were once evidently successful in producing food using their centuries old traditional expertise in agriculture using organic fertilizer. Their methods had high productivity, high nutrition and were environmentally sustainable. With the introduction of modern methods and in particular the reliance on inorganic fertilizer has diminished the traditional knowledge of the farmer on one hand and on the other, has made the farmer ever dependent on the imported inorganic fertilizer.

Compounding this, next to imported food, Sri Lanka relies on imported inorganic fertilizer to sustain its agriculture. If the current trend continues, our farmers may become reliant on imported patented seeds, thus putting the last nail on the coffin by surviving on external sources of sustenance for food.

Facing the future in particular in a divided and geopolitically threatening world compounded by the on setting Climate Change, Sri Lankan policy planners must be cognizant of the impending threats not just from terrorism but from the ever expanding Corporate Business Organisations that are aiming at owning the sources of human life like food and water in the name of development and management. The collapse of Ireland and Greece are lessons in modern economies and how such collapse is substituted by corporate leaders who are unelected rulers in the name of stabilizing the economy. This evidences how Corporate Business Organisations takeover national economies.

FDI in Agricultural & Water Sector

FDI in these sectors should be taken cautiously as this has potential threats to the nation considering the evolving scenarios of domination by global giants in business. As mentioned before, investment in and the ownership of food production and water by foreign companies in a country with untrammelled freedom, can potentially withhold food supply to the producing nation when faced with food shortages but export to profitable markets overseas. This should instead be on the other way round by supplying first to the producing country and only exporting the surplus. National agricultural and water policies should prioritise on national sustainability as opposed to opening up the vital resources to foreign extraction that threatens sustainability. Mismanagement of this would create serious political repercussions in society, as these can worsen food and water poverty already experienced in some regions of the country.

Virtual Water

Virtual water is said to be the amount of water required to produce a unit of crop.  Virtual water is measured in cubic metres per kilogram M³/Kg. Sri Lanka compared to most other countries in the SAARC Region is water rich and its population density derives a per-capita water availability of   6,165m³/person per annum. Apart from this, forecast of per-capita water availability by the year 2025 on a District basis gives a bleak picture needing prompt action by all concerned.

The above table shows that water is a dwindling resource in Sri Lanka and some districts would experience acute water shortage. It should be noted that the impacts of climate change is possibly not accounted for in the above table and therefore needs corroboration with latest forecasts.

Colombo and Gampaha districts are highly urbanised with high population densities where major services and industrial bases of the country is located, the forecast of 449 and 971 cubic metres/ person respectively is threatening. This is due to the ever increasing use of water for industrial and other purposes which can potentially aggravate this situation affecting the environment and the population living in these districts. Location of industries with intensive water use or of high extraction can potentially make these districts environmentally vulnerable to the extent of damaging the region’s water supply. Similarly, Jaffna, Puttalam and Kandy would experience acute shortages requiring effective water management. Since major industries are not located in these districts it is less concerning, however population growth and regional developments would impose a strain on this and therefore would require strict environmental regulations to mitigate this.

Considering these evolving scenarios, future-proofing sustainable food production and water management would require well defined policies and regulations that direct not only sustainable use but also caters to the national demands.

Having understood the potential scarcity of water predicted in the ensuing years, national policy planners should take note of these new issues that virtual water can impose on the already unsustainable water availability.

In an inter-dependent free market led world, virtual water plays a bridging role between the ’water surplus’ and ‘water deficit’ countries. For example in ‘water deficit’ countries, investing in agriculture is exponentially high due to water scarcity. Therefore importing food from ‘water surplus’ countries are cheap and a prudent choice. This does not endanger their indigenous agriculture if available due to import of foods. However, in ‘water surplus’ countries, importing food is unsustainable as it destroys the indigenous food production. Producing food is cheaper in ‘water surplus countries than in ‘water deficit’ countries.

Exporting crops contains virtual water, similarly, the beverages and mineral water bottling industries contains real water. This also aggravates the water scarcity in Sri Lanka due to extraction of water from aquifers and streams for export overseas. These extractive industries impose a severe strain on the nation’s dwindling water supply sources. Notwithstanding this, export of crops from a ‘water surplus’ country is analogous to exporting water in ‘virtual form’. Therefore virtual water and its much tangible cousin, the mineral water that are exported should serve its citizens first and only the surplus should be exported. This would give an asymmetrical advantage to a country like Sri Lanka if it is used as a commodity to counterbalance the importation cost of fuel and energy etc.

It should be noted here that future wars are going to be fought over water and not over oil, therefore it is vital that this resource is conserved, protected and the system leak proofed so that it will be available to Sri Lanka to serve in a sustainable manner.

The threat of peak oil and having secure and sustainable sources of energy to run our economy is very expensive. But paying for such an expensive commodity would in the long run be possible if Sri Lanka regains its status as the ‘Granary of the East’. So that energy producers in turn would be dependent on food producers.

Today, as global scenarios evolve, inspite of the world being inter-dependent, it is also multi polar and asymmetrical when it comes to the survival of nations. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each nation to be on guard about its own survival. Sri Lanka taking advantage of being an island, developing robust sustainable policies and achieving self sufficiency in food and water would definitely get an edge to survive as a sustainable nation. Achieving this by using sustainable food and water as an asymmetrical tool would also create a sustainable balance of power in real politick in the region.

Investment in education & training in Agriculture and Water Management

Ensuring self sufficiency in food and sustainable water cannot be achieved without formulating policies, producing personals and relevant infrastructure.  Our investments should not only be in imported technologies but also in recreating the traditional balance and the relationship our people had with our environment and its people. Our centuries of agricultural traditions and knowhow’s should be improvised to answer current needs and the farmers should be provided with training and practical education thereby binding them with the land they till. They should be recognised for contributing for our food security like the security forces for our defence against our enemies. Farmer education should have academic & professional recognition for their expertise and economic & social recognition for what they are, so that sound farmer education, training, motivation and recognition & facilitation would spur an agricultural revolution to give Sri Lanka a sustainable food security.

Responding to the foregoing factors is an imperative to resuscitate our food security. To bring about this response, the policy planners should develop policies and regulations that ensure national security in respect to our food. The policy makers and other stakeholders in areas of Food & Agriculture and Environmental Protection and Sustainability must work in tandem to bring about this security and give the nation this asymmetric tool.

The writer is a Chartered Environmentalist, Architect and Sustainability Consultant. He can be contacted on rizayehiya@gmail.com

• Agricultural Madness
• Subsidizing Addiction?
• SRI LANKA MAY WANT – AN ECONOMIC VISION 2030
• Future of Farming in Sri Lanka
• De-globalisation: A paradigm for sustainable development?

Photo courtesy World Bank

“If a tree falls in a forest and lands on a politician, even if you can’t hear the tree or the screams, I’ll bet you’d at least hear the applause.”

Paul Tindale

Something is of universal value if it has the same value or worth for all, or almost all, people. This claim could mean two importantly different things. First, it could be that something has a universal value when everybody finds it valuable. This was Isaiah Berlin‘s understanding of the term. According to Berlin, “…universal values are values that a great many human beings in the vast majority of places and situations, at almost all times, do in fact hold in common, whether consciously and explicitly or as expressed in their behavior…”. If such were the case, it would seem logical that ‘a benign quality of life’ would constitute a most fundamental universal value.  From there arises the various issues of fertility, pleasure, or democracy as universal values.

The term quality of life is used to evaluate the general well being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics. Quality of life should not be confused with the concept of standard of living, which is based primarily on income.

The quality of life may be benign, free from perturbation and stress or malign, constantly exposed to perturbation and stress. These two states are two poles of a continuum that describes this  ‘quality’.    Thus the maintenance of a benign environment that protects the human being should be the primary concern of any development programme.  After all, it is for the benefit of humanity that all development programmes are mooted.

The human being is a biological entity. The ideal state for such an entity is when it is healthy and free from any harmful or injurious input.  Both science and tradition have identified many inputs that are harmful or injurious to the biological being.  Since the ideal conditions for biological organisms are being free from these negative inputs and since development must be a movement towards the ideal state that enhances our quality of life; we can summarize that ‘Any process or activity that leads to the reduction of the biological quality of life cannot contribute to real development’ or that ‘any process or activity that produces physical or chemical inputs demonstrable to be injurious to human well being leads to mal development.  Such a stand will allow people rather than abstract concepts to attain greater importance in the assessment of ‘development’.  Thus no amount of economic gain, media or propaganda should be able to justify the erosion of the well being of people.

Development, beyond the provision of human well-being, becomes a particular word view or set of values.  In today’s declining quality of life, the development paradigm addressing public health or agriculture is still driven by the same values that created the problems.  How to incorporate the scientific reality of the erosion of public health and environmental sustainability in setting development goals?  Will certainly be a question that calls for urgent answers.

Traditional society worldwide represents a wide diversity of expression, reflecting a long history of co-evolution with the local landscapes. The product of these incredibly long processes of ‘informal research’ is codified as traditional knowledge and practice.  The inroads of modern consumerist society, the present claimant to globalization, are rapidly homogenizing many traditional societies, in pursuance of development.  Often it is neither democratic nor requested by traditional people.  There is no recognition of the fact that each society has a worldview that must be recognized and incorporated into the international agenda of development.

In addition to being sensitive to the needs of the land, there must also be recognition of the fact that agrarian societies with long histories, posses the credibility of having sustained themselves successfully under the rigor of survival in the natural world.  The concern for the future is that the model chosen for sustaining future global agrarian society is an energy and resource demanding production system.  The sustainability of which is dependent on the timely delivery of external inputs.

Agrarian societies have existed on this world for a very long time.  Many in existence today have historical records that attest their capacity for sustainability. The challenge is to understand their structure well enough, so that it provides the paradigm for development.  Development, in this context will mean capacity building within the traditional paradigm.  The aspects of globalizing such a plurality are challenging, it requires addressing phenomena that have meaning to all members of such a plurality.  For instance, climate change is a global phenomenon that has the potential to affect all agrarian society.  Sustainability of the production base is another.  Yet no investment is being put into developing the traditional approaches to agriculture.  Development funding is still narrowly focused towards ‘Economic Development’ and ignores all other considerations of ‘Development’.

Perhaps it is time to revisit development once again.  Economic yes, but it must also be ecologically and socially valid.   In Sri Lanka the tragedy of uneducated and greedy politicians, tutored by conniving bureaucrats mindlessly cheering the process of ‘economic development’ is evident. The fact that they do not consider any other aspect of sustainability, must demonstrate the bankruptcy of a national vision and of any responsibility to the nation.

A development process that creates massive infrastructure, mega buildings etc. requiring enormous quantities of energy to maintain them, without considering the long-term cost of providing fossil based energy, cannot contribute to sustainable development.  It will result in the construction of more and more polluting energy plants dependent on external sources of fossil energy that we will have to purchase from an ever-expensive market. Borrowing money for such an extravagant lifestyle is no way to make the future sustainable.

Our political pundits are fond of using terms such as Universal Values and Accountability to window dress the ongoing charade. It is even more tragic to read the words of politicians who claim to represent the Buddhist view when they state:

“The so called development based on greed and excessive utilization of the natural resources of the world, …Excessive consumption of meat is a sacrilege of vegetation and animals… To build artificial towns that are only a travesty is the motivation (of developers).”

And then go on to support enthusiastically the addiction of the nation to energy consumption. What hypocrisy!

To see the consequence of the current ‘ Economic Development’, that our politicians so unquestioningly participate in, should be obvious to the educated.  Energy addiction is the worst form of addiction as it impacts a whole nation, not just the individual. To miss the obvious connection between ‘Economic Development’ as sold today and the need for ever-increasing deliveries of power, is to blind or ignorant.

As for accountability in Sri Lanka, the response of Mahatama Gandhi to the question of what he thought of ‘Western Civilization’, might be well applied. His response was  ‘What a good idea !”. The challenge before us is, how to make manifest this ‘good idea’ of accountability in the sea of impunity and corruption that we are mired in.

• Desire, Violence and Leadership
• Future of Farming in Sri Lanka
• Right to Food: Ecologically based agriculture
• Agricultural Madness
• De-globalisation: A paradigm for sustainable development?

Editors note: Groundviews is very pleased to host the web premiere of Longing and belonging series: Diaspora shorts by Kannan Arunasalam. We’ve featured Kannan’s visually stunning and compelling work before in Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience, part of the Moving Images series commissioned by Groundviews. Over the coming week we’ll progressively upload Kannan’s short videos, so check back often. Finally, if you have a good broadband connection, we highly recommend that in the trailer below, you turn on HD and view it full screen.

Please see From London to Jaffna for the first time, The science of planning in Jaffna and Returning lives, rebuilding limbs.

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August in Sri Lanka is a month of religious festivals in the north and also a chance for the diaspora to return and reconnect with their homeland. What better time I thought than to try and meet members of the diaspora returning to visit Sri Lanka.

My own journey started six years ago, and since then I’ve made Sri Lanka my home, putting down new roots in the country of my birth. It’s fascinating for me to observe others go through what I went through years ago.

I’m was now looking at ways in which the diaspora are engaging with development work in Sri Lanka, to find out what challenges they face and how their experiences might help others who are also thinking of returning.

I began my assignment for International Alert in Jaffna at the annual Nallur festival. Last August it drew thousands of devotees. This is my hometown and the sights, smells and tastes took me back to my own childhood, growing up here. Jaffna is also home to some Tamil Diaspora and I could understand why they return to experience these things that are still very much a part of their culture. It was nice to see they were back, tracing lost roots and reconnecting with family and friends.  I wanted to meet them, to understand what it was like being back.

One of these visitors was a young Tamil family from London. For the two daughters, it was their very first time in Sri Lanka, visiting what they called their mother’s “home country”.  The family had been helping a local charity from afar and were in Jaffna to visit the charity, as well as to take in the “carnival” atmosphere of the Nallur festival.

I also met Dr Narendran, an associate professor who had worked for many years in Saudi Arabia, but who was back in Sri Lanka with ambitious plans for agriculture and animal husbandry on the islands off the Jaffna peninsula. We talked over coffee at the famous Malayan Café about his plans and later he took me along to the arid environment of the islands, which he compared fondly to the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

From Jaffna I travelled to Mannar where I met Dr Panagamuwa, a Sinhala doctor from Birmingham and a specialist in rehabilitation medicine. He had set up a limb-fitting workshop at the Mannar Hospital, coming under his British based charity, the Metha Foundation. Together with his team of technicians, he attended to the needs of amputees and the disabled. The vast majority were victims of war, but there were also polio sufferers and injuries caused by everyday accidents.

The three individuals have very different stories to tell as were their connections to Sri Lanka. Meeting them underscored what Dr Naredran had told me, that the diaspora is not a homogenous entity – it is a diverse group, with myriad perspectives, motivations and experiences. There were others too, with very different views, and who were not willing to return.  Even the ones who are returning to visit seemed to have reservations. I met many who were engaging with projects here, but who were uncomfortable being open about their views, preferring instead to keep a low profile.

They ones that were prepared to be filmed, inspired me to capture their reflections on being back and engaging with the needs of the north of the country. The three short films under my Longing and Belonging series on the Sri Lankan diaspora aim to encourage constructive discussion on what is no doubt a complex and sensitive aspect of Sri Lankan politics. Tapping into the large resources of the diaspora would greatly benefit the people of Sri Lanka. Not all will be willing to come, but those that can be won over, need to feel more welcome.

• Longing and Belonging series: From London to Jaffna for the first time
• Longing and Belonging series: The science of planning in Jaffna
• Longing and Belonging series: Returning lives, rebuilding limbs
• Paper: The incredible story of Uthayan in Jaffna
• Koothu: Theatre and leprosy in Jaffna

When we ask the question, who uses pesticides?  Followed by the question who promotes pesticides? It is relatively simple to see who gains and who looses by the promotion and use of these poisons. In Sri Lanka the farmers are asked to indulge in prophylactic spraying i.e. spraying in advance of any pest appearance. Such practices have to be held responsible for a sinister malaise that affects almost everyone; the malaise of Pesticide Accumulation.

Pesticide Accumulation refers to the tendency of some biocides and heavy metals used in these biocides to concentrate along the food chain. The biocide residues that are diluted as they are washed by rainfall are slowly taken up by simple plants, which are eaten by small animals, which are in turn eaten by larger animals. The toxin concentrating more and more as it rises in the food chain.  This is particularly evident in aquatic systems, so producing or consuming fish from areas that have a large amount of biocides leaching into them, should be done with care.

Of even greater concern is the cavalier use of these toxins when processing fresh food for the market. Many vegetables are harvested soon after an application of biocide; often these are washed in unhygienic drains that add a bacterial load onto the produce. In some sinister cases, chemicals are applied directly onto the produce (fruits, vegetable) before they are sent to market as it ‘keeps it tighter’. The absence of support for a robust checking on the quality of food that enters the local market means the sub lethal poisoning of many of us. We do not feel the effects now, but as the substances concentrate within our bodies, we will feel the illness.

The monster of direct deaths by pesticide poisoning has yet to be effectively addressed. These toxins have been promoted as ‘Beheth’  (medicines) and the true toxic nature is never addressed in use and storage responsibilities.  One result in Sri Lanka is that suffer the highest pesticide related death toll on the planet! Not a nice statistic by any measure.

The environment that we create for ourselves in urban areas is not very salubrious. The ‘pest control’ of mosquitoes and cockroaches and other ‘pests’ release vast quantities of toxins into our living spaces. If we consider just mosquito coils, it has been estimated that over seven containers worth of mosquito coils are burnt daily, in the Western District alone. Scientific studies indicate that the burning one mosquito coil would release the same amount of particulate matter as burning 75-137 cigarettes and the emission of formaldehyde from burning one coil can be as high as the amount released from burning 51 cigarettes. The rising incidence of lung cancer among youth who never smoke cigarettes can now be better understood.

As if this was not enough, there is an increasing rate of ingestion of chemicals through the advent of food processing and colouring. Often one chemical by itself is not too dangerous, but in combination they become a deadly cocktail. An example can be drawn from a study in the US that looked at the effects of Sodium Cyclamate   (a sweetener), FD&C Red No. 2 (a food colouring agent) and  polyoxyethylene (20) sorbitan monostearate, (a food emulsifier). In animals tested, each substance given individually did not produce ill effects, but given in combination resulted in the deaths of all test animals within fourteen days. If one reads the labels of the food and sweets that we consume today the varied combinations are obvious.  For instance, one study on a popular cereal, Keloggs berry yoghurt crunch, demonstrated that it contained more than 13 different additives, preservatives, and food dyes, including Red 40 and Blue 1, which are known to cause allergic reactions in some people and mutations leading to cancer in lab animals. It also contained BHT, monoglycerides, and cellulose gum.

And it’s not just food. A number of additional toxins also enter our systems from other industrial sources and often come in the form of phthalate plasticizers and parabens both of which are widely used in personal care products. According to a recent (2010) study, parabens and phthalates can clear our bodies relatively quickly but only if we are not exposed to them on a regular basis. If used regularly, these substances accumulate in the body. Phthalates are associated with infertility, obesity, asthma, and allergies, as well as breast cancer; parabens are suspected of causing breast cancer.

The tragedy is that, chemicals used in all of these industrial products are big business.  Food corporations own some of the largest personal care companies so that they can profit on multiple fronts with cheap, industrial ingredients. For example, Nestlé owns 30 percent of the world’s largest cosmetic and beauty company L’Oreal. Tightly regulating these substances and evaluating potential harm could mean a loss of profits.

The other spectre rising in the field of public health are prescription drugs. In Sri Lanka the word ‘prescription’ is a misnomer as most commercial drugs can be obtained over the counter.  In the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported that in 2009, legal drugs were responsible for the deaths of more than 37,485 people—which equals one person killed every 14 minutes. Many of the deaths are related to prescription pain and anxiety medications, which are readily accessible and often misused, and these types of drugs now cause more deaths than cocaine and heroin combined. The abuse of legal drugs in Sri Lanka is exasperated by unscrupulous ‘doctors’ who act as promoters, for the multinational pharmaceutical companies. We need to watch the statistics of drug poisoning in Sri Lanka very closely indeed!

In discussions on national health, a process vital for the sustainable development of any nation, there are some disturbing trends that seem to cry out for immediate attention. The Health ministry has stated that ‘between 300 to 400 persons die from Non Contagious Diseases (NCDs) in Sri Lanka daily’, it is reasoned that ‘negative changes in the lifestyles of people, bad food habits, stress and urbanization are some of the main reasons that stand behind this situation. To this list must be added agrotoxins, food additives and domestic pest control inputs.

The Health Ministry has appointed a National Steering Committee to inquire into the situation. This is a laudable action; they should embark on a public discussion on the toxins and dangers that we are being exposed to and how we can minimize personal risk.  In the face of the gauntlet of risk, that we are all supposed to endure under the label of ‘development’, it would be charitable to inform us on how we can mitigate our personal risk.  The Sri Lankan State is after all, the Sri Lankan people, of what value is ‘economic development’ if the price is a sick state?

• Food or Poison?
• Concentration camps for animals
• Agricultural Madness
• The vicious cycle that is eating away Sri Lanka’s healthcare: The Sri Lanka Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC), the Ministry of Health and the Treasury
• President Rajapakse donates monthly salary and ‘malu banis’ to farmers attacked by LTTE

I was delighted when asked to review Right of Way: A journey of resettlement by Sharni Jayawardena and published by the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA). Sharni’s skill in photography is enviable, and was the co-creator of Walkabout: Slave Island, supported by Groundviews. At the time of review, the publication was not in the public domain, and given what I had seen of Sharni’s previous work, I expected it to be a largely photographic record, in a coffee table book format, of the human displacement that occurred as a result of the E01, Sri Lanka’s first highway. And yet the book features few photos. 72 pages long, the book has just 8 photos included in it. I’ll come back to why I think this makes for a less compelling way of grappling with what the book sets out to do.

Thousands, since E01 opened late last year, have taken the highway to Galle from Kottawa. The focus when on the road, particularly if one is driving, is on safety at 100kmp/h. In its early days, the highway was a high-speed slalom of road kill and stray dogs. Today, even a driver is more at ease to take in, especially if driving around sun-rise, the spectacular beauty of the countryside the E01 snakes through, without the visual pollution of billboards.  Few if any would have given even passing thought to the issue this book deals with – the displacement of thousands to make way for the highway. The book’s aims are three-fold. One, it “is an attempt to document what happened to the people who had to move, and the different impacts the project had on their lives. It is based on a structured monitoring process carried out over four years, that involved a survey of 400 households, more than 30 group discussions with affected households, and over 450 individual interviews with residents, experts, local government officials and donors” (page v). Two, it attempts to show how “the Road Development Authority, comprising engineers whose primary task was supervising the road building, also implemented the project’s social programmes, often under difficult and contentious circumstances, working with a diverse group of people who, as in any real-life situation, acted and reacted in diverse ways” (page v). Finally, “it attempts to visualise the place and circumstances as it used to be, before the road came” (page vi). The first and second aims are achieved far more than the third.

Sharni’s style is easy to grasp, avoids jargon, convoluted sentences or arcane references.  Right of Way is very readable, well researched and insightful. It sees the E01 through the perspectives of those who are affected by its development – the families forced to relocate and in some cases, live close to a highway on which traffic volume will continue to grow with little or no benefit to those passed by at 100kmph. Sharni quotes the statistics, but what the book does is to go beyond the numbers and through personal narratives, humanise these vexed issues. The statistics alone are revealing. As the book notes,

“An estimated 1,338 families were displaced by the Southern Transport Development Project (STDP), of which 509 families obtained land in 32 sites provided and developed by the Road Development Authority (RDA). This figure would have been much higher if the project had not made a deliberate attempt to avoid highly populated areas, sometimes though at considerable cost to the environment as well as to agriculture. Much of the land acquired was agricultural; consisting of paddy, tea, rubber and cinnamon cultivation, and close to 4,000 households were affected due to loss of their landholdings. In addition, about 550 households were indirectly affected.” (Page 3)

Even approximately, the number of those affected in some way by the development of the E01 is mind-boggling. At a conservative 4 members per family, around 5,300 children, women and men were displaced. Another 4,000 had their incomes disrupted, and their livelihoods placed at risk. It’s currently 400 rupees one-way from Kottawa to Galle or back on the E01. Few of us give a second thought to paying that amount. Sharni’s research highlights the hidden costs of E01’s development, where to date, families that had for generations lived where they did, had stable income, well-established business and fecund land were forced to give it all up. It’s a humbling, vital narrative. Sharni deals with the history of how the E01 came about, but the process and politics of compensation, relocation are the book’s most important contribution to public record. It is unclear, as the book itself notes at the end, how much of what was employed during the construction of the E01 to deal with displacement feeds into current and future mega-development projects. Recording and sharing failures as much as lessons learnt is vital, but it’s also quite obvious that neither is done well in Sri Lanka. And yet, the book flags what was done well, and the innovation – not just in terms of mechanical engineering but also in terms of compensation and responsiveness to human displacement – seen during the construction of the highway. As it notes,

“The project’s Resettlement Implementation Plan (RIP) took a radical departure from Sri Lankan law on land acquisition, compensation and resettlement and the Land Acquisition and Resettlement Committee (LARC) could be considered its most important mechanism. LARC was notably different from the instrument the State usually turns to when it wants to acquire private land for public purposes – the Land Acquisition Act (LAA) No. 9 of 1950. A key difference is that the LAA does not deal with the broader issues of restoring livelihoods or living standards of the displaced people.” (Page 9)

The book goes into great detail about LARC, and the legal aspects aside, it’s interesting to take-away from this example how, if government authorities set their mind to it, they can choose to be more citizen-centric and less heavy-handed in their approaches. The research brings out some notable facts with broader implications. For example, in negotiating compensation, the report notes that the LARC process “especially benefited two contrasting groups: households seen by the Committee to be particularly vulnerable and households with well-informed family members who were able to convincingly argue their cases.” This has implications for Right to Information legislation for example, where vulnerable people through access to information are better able to negotiate with higher authorities, and all communities stand to benefit from more accessible information on governance. Perhaps more expensive for government in the long run, but the fear of heightened public spending over compensation is its own potent mechanism for better developmental planning and strategies. Sharni deals with the complex process of compensation and appeals, particularly for those displaced, extremely comprehensively. Particularly with regard to the exact sum of compensation, there is great scope when reading through the book for the development of decision support systems that aid both government and citizens, on the lines of Smartsettle.com for example. Sharni examines in detail the constitution, efficiency and effectiveness of bodies like the Grievance Redress Committees (GRCs) and the so-called Super LARC, a process of appeal. On page 17 there is a very interesting breakdown of the type of households that fed into the sample that the report is based on. More could have been done with this data. For example, there’s no comparison between the compensation first offered to and subsequently agreed upon by male and female headed households, the working assumption being that a male headed household would have a higher median than a female headed household. The report itself flags this,

“But there were some instances where female householders perceived that they were not taken seriously simply because they were women. “My husband was abroad when the acquisition took place and I had to deal with it until he came down. I think they paid us less compensation because I am a woman.” (Householder, female, age 39, 2006)” (Page 21)

There is however no further study of this in the report, which is a gap. I could also find no explanation as to how and who exactly, for the E01 project, defined what was an ‘extremely vulnerable household’. The term is often used by never clearly explained. There are other shortcomings. A trivial one is the strange inclusion of a Sinhala phrase (Honda sahayogayak dunna) in the excerpt of two female householders on page 22, when the entire book is in English, even though the responses would have been largely if not all in Sinhala. Not clear why Sharni thought it fit to keep this one phrase in. More seriously, gaps emerge in comparative analysis. On page 22 the book notes,

“About 60% of the displaced householders opted to move into other plots they owned or to buy a new plot. The project also provided 32 resettlement sites, which was the preferred choice for relocation of the balance 40% of displaced householders, who did not have a viable alternative or could not afford to purchase land.”

There is however no study into whether the resettlement sites identified and offered by the RDA where better (infrastructure facilities, quality of construction) than the plots and areas selected by the affected families, that on their behalf, the RDA negotiated the purchase of. Again, Sharni deals with what appears to be significant variance in passing, noting on page 33 that,

“The infrastructure facilities at resettlement sites are generally well developed, even if this development did not always take place at a consistent pace. However, there seems to be some differences in the quality of the infrastructure provided both within and across sites, often due to factors that could not be immediately dealt with by the project.”

Highlighting the nuanced interplay, the study of caste, gender, profession, skill, neighbours and a sense of home by Sharni make the book more interesting than just a cold survey of numbers and statistics. Yet we don’t find the voices of youth and children. From memory, the youngest voice reflected in the book is 30. How the youth feel about development and displacement is vital to how the E01 will be perceived and used in the years to come, and arguably more important to record than the opinion of a septuagenarian farmer. Through the book, graphs underscore points Sharni flags in the text, but on page 36, there is an illustration with smiley faces that is impossible to fathom. Some of the smiley faces are truncated, it is not clear what the two stick figures holding hands represent or what the unit of measurement is for a smiley face that is whole. It is noted in the book that there is a definite drop in productivity related to all crops as a consequence of relocation. This is a major economic and existential challenge, and yet the book doesn’t explain, how, if to any degree, local chambers of commerce and industry have stepped into help and support SMEs and farmers during and after the construction of the E01.

Sharni notes that during the 10+ years it took to build the E01, “People had to live for an extended period of time with severe air and noise pollution, and vibrations caused by blasting, compaction, pilling, and heavy vehicle movement.” Driving down it now, you don’t even think of this. But the scale of this air, noise and visual pollution is many times more than the ruckus and fuss we create when there’s a pavement been made, or a road re-tarred in our own neighbourhoods. It’s hard to imagine how it must have been for those close to and living in this maddening environment for so long. The last chapter deals with how the best features of dealing with resettlement, relocation, displacement, compensation and grievance mechanisms around the E01 can and must be more broader applied. It is unclear whether author or publisher intend to follow up on the E01 development beyond Galle, and revisit this study and the sample base say 10 years hence, to ascertain to what degree lives, livelihoods and perceptions had changed.

Right of Way is a genuinely useful contribution to the sadly sparse debate on balancing infrastructure development with human development, and how the former is often ill-secured by an insensitive, centrist, obdurate approach to the latter. I do wish however the book played to Sharni’s strengths as photographer more, or as much as her skill in writing. CEPA itself has the model. As Kannan Arunasalam notes, “CEPA’s photography ‘policy’, an informal understanding which came about as a reaction to the way ‘poor people’ are generally photographed by photojournalists and development organisations, taken without thinking of their rights to privacy and profiting from the use of their ‘faces’, was another challenge that we needed to creatively work around.” Kannan went on to create To Escape or Maximise: The estate worker’s dilemma, CEPA’s first audio visual ‘think piece’, aiming to communicate the findings of its substantial research on the plantation sectors of Sri Lanka to a wider audience. It is a compelling presentation of a complex issue through photography. I wonder why a similar model wasn’t used for this book. CEPA and Sharni could have also gone beyond, and given those affected their own (cheap) cameras to document, through their own eyes and process of selection, the change in their lives brought about by the construction of the E01. Juxtaposed and curated, this could have been a marvellous photographic essay and collection, mediated not through Sharni’s occasional visits and eye, but by those at the heart of the issue the book deals with. Such an approach would have made it far more effective in the book’s avowed goal of being a visual record of the E01’s development.

Yet warts and all, Sharni through this book brings to light a distressing world beyond the dotted lines usually followed on the E01, and the blur of lush green. Sharni ends the book by noting that,

“When we take to the expressway, perhaps we should spare a thought for the many who gave up their rights over this land – their right to use it as a home, a business a cultivation – to allow others the right to travel on an expressway.”

I couldn’t help but think after I read Right of Way cover to cover that it’s not really our right to travel on the E01, but more a privilege we enjoy only because of the real, incredibly hard and on-going sacrifices of those who lands we traverse in our vehicles.

Let they not be forgotten.

• The Incomplete Thombu: A compelling interlace of architecture, drawing, memory and art
• Homeless in one’s homeland
• The Muslim question and resettlement of Muslim IDPs in post-war Sri Lanka: Two comprehensive interviews
• Human displacement
• Forcible resettlements in East

Assorted charlatans and religious zealots across the island of Sri Lanka must have heaved a collective sigh of relief when they heard that Dharmapala Senaratne was no more. He had made it his business to make life difficult for those preying on the gullible public.

Rationalist and myth-buster Dharmapala made his final exist a few days before 2012 dawned. At 67, he still had a few more years of the good struggle left in him. He would surely have enjoyed countering the false prophets of doom — and their credulous followers — who predict the end of the world on 21 December 2012.

Although Dharmapala was also a teacher and lawyer with decades of experience, he was best known for his public activism as a rationalist. His was a determined and sceptical voice questioning fanatical peddlers of all kinds of dogmas, faiths and (mutually exclusive) brands of ‘salvation’.

Even more importantly, he fearlessly took on confidence tricksters hoodwinking superstitious people with black magic and cheap conjuring tricks. He was a courageous public intellectual in a land woefully short of their kind.

At its core, rationalism involves nurturing the spirit of enquiry and critical thinking in every aspect of life and living, at both private and public levels. In short, rationalists and sacred cows are mutually exclusive.

Dharmapala was President of the Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA), a small group of earnestly sceptical enquirers who won’t take anyone’s word about anything. They want to investigate and debate.

The voluntary group was originally set up in 1960 by the late Dr Abraham Thomas Kovoor (1898 – 1978), a Kerala-born science teacher who settled down in newly independent Ceylon and, after his retirement in 1959, took to investigating so-called supernatural phenomena and paranormal practices. He found adequate physical or psychological explanations for almost all of them. In that process, he exposed many so-called ‘god men’ and black magicians who thrive on people’s misery and superstitions.

In 1963, Kovoor issued an open challenge (with the then princely sum of LKR 100,000 tagged to it) for anyone who could demonstrate supernatural or miraculous powers under fool-proof and fraud-proof conditions. He also challenged the high profile Sathya Sai Baba of India, arguing that the latter’s ‘materialising’ of holy ash (vibuthi) out of thin air was nothing more than a sleight of hand. Kovoor’s challenges were consistently dodged by Sai Baba – and all others of his ilk.

Kovoor was fond of saying: “He who does not allow his miracles to be investigated is a crook; he who does not have the courage to investigate a miracle is gullible; and he who is prepared to believe without verification is a fool.”

These words, and the far-reaching influence of other well known rationalists like Bertrand Russell, inspired young Dharmapala Senaratne to promote rationalism in his spare time. Two other young men who joined Kovoor in the heyday of the Ceylon Rationalist Association: Amunugoda Thilakaratne and Ajith Thilakasena, both of who became writers of their own merit. Pooling their talents, the trio popularised Kovoor’s thinking and work among the Sinhala reading public.

Sri Lanka’s rationalist movement lost its lustre after Kovoor’s death in 1978, even though (lawyer and poet) Mervyn Casie Chetty kept it going for some more years. When the sceptical flames were reignited in the new millennium, Dharmapala became its new President by popular choice.

“Dharmapala was the bridge between generations when we set out to revive the rationalist movement of Sri Lanka in 2005,” recalls Tharaka Warapitiya, general secretary of SLRA. “He helped enormously to connect us with activists who had been heavily involved in its work during the Kovoor era.”

Different Times

By this time, however, the island of Lanka had been completely transformed. The Children of 1977 – products of economic liberalisation and Sri Lanka’s first television generation – had come of age.

Partly reflecting this new reality, Dharmapala’s style was different. While Kovoor had been charismatic and flamboyant, Dharmapala was measured and studious — yet no less passionate when it came to separating the wheat from the chaff.

He was astute enough to realise that the public moods and media attitudes had changed drastically from the more conducive 1960s and 1970s.

That was when a recent Indian immigrant (well, aren’t we all that, historically speaking?) could speak truth to power and command a sizeable audience of discerning Lankans as well as attract sufficient attention of the island’s media.

That was also a time when an eager young medical graduate (Dr Carlo Fonseka) could debunk the much-hyped ‘spiritual base’ for the ‘holy’ practice of fire walking. His finding – that ‘it’s the thickness of the sole and not the soul’ that matters in walking over red hot coal – shattered a core myth that propped up sacred cows of Kataragama.

While such acts elicited predictable resistance and threats from those afflicted, societal support at the time was more open and forthcoming. Many intellectuals and newspaper editors accommodated Kovoor, Fonseka and fellow sceptics, with a gleeful Arthur C Clarke cheering from the sidelines (he would later feature them in his global TV series).

It was the song — not the singer — that mattered then. Alas, not now.

Paradoxically, we now have far more communication channels and technologies yet decidedly fewer opportunities and platforms for dispassionate public debate. Today’s Lankan society welcomes and blindly follows an entirely different kind of Malayalis who claim to know more about our personal pasts and futures than we’d ever know ourselves. And when we see how our political and business elite patronise Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy and other gurus so uncritically, we must wonder if there is intelligent life in Colombo…

Sacred cows, it seems, have multiplied faster than humans in the past half century. Our cacophonous airwaves and multi-colour Sunday newspapers are bustling with an embarrassment of choice for salvation, wealth, matrimony, retribution and various other ‘quick fixes’ for this life and (imagined) next ones.

Embarrassment, indeed!

So Dharmapala had to adopt different strategies to reach the same goals.

He was well versed in scientific thinking and principles, to which he added his own legal perspectives.

His position was unequivocal: “Let anyone believe in anything privately if they choose to — but no one has the right to mislead others or to hoodwink them into parting with money. That’s fraud, which is against the law!”

As he repeatedly pointed out, Sri Lanka has strict laws dealing with fraud. If anyone has been tricked into paying money on false promises, the affected may take civil or criminal legal action.

In reality, however, very few do so – lest it exposes their own gullibility! Apparently, when it comes to the occult and paranormal, many ignore the time-tested caution of “Caveat emptor” (Latin for ‘Let the buyer beware’).

“This is the very weakness that fraudsters exploit,” Dharmapala said. “These are organised rackets to rob people of their hard-earned money.”

Confronting conmen

Dharmapala took on the assorted charlatans by publicly exposing their conjuring tricks and bogus claims. He also used the media (especially television, not available during Kovoor’s time) to counter the mesmerising hype peddled by the other side.

A memorable example was when, in 2010, he pooh-poohed the hilarious practice of a ‘possessed’ wooden stool (kanappuwa) ‘walking’ down the streets in search of thieves.

“Inanimate objects are completely incapable of self-propelled motion,” he argued citing the laws of physics. “These furniture items are being manipulated by the humans involved. Kanappuwas most definitely can’t catch any thieves, or the police would employ them for their own crime investigations!”

On prime time TV, he offered LKR 100,000 for anyone who could prove beyond any doubt that a stool could ‘walk on its own’. He added: “This is a complete rip-off – further victimising persons who have already lost their belongings. It’s cruel to exploit such misery!”

He also cautioned against community divisions and hatred nurtured by dubious practices like walking stools and light-readings (anjanam): those falsely implicated are immediately (and unfairly) maligned by neighbours.

As an antidote, he called for more scientific thinking and attitude at all levels of society. “If we can get our people to think more logically and critically, we can easily dispel many myths and superstitions.”

But that is just not happening enough in Twenty First Century Lanka: a majority among its 20 million believe in a broad range of superstitions, some more harmful than others. Confronting conmen can be hazardous in a post-war society where trigger-happy goons are available for cheap.

Dharmapala reserved his most scathing criticism for (apparently) educated Lankans dabbling in unproven or fraudulent practices. This includes a number of credentialed scientists trained in disciplines such as astrophysics, geology, atmospheric physics or nuclear chemistry.

“Tragically, certain individuals with legitimate Ph Ds in various branches of science also engage in peddling pseudo-science and bogus practices. Some are doing it with commercial motives. Others, for cheap popularity,” Dharmapala said.

As we saw during the 2011 controversy over arsenic in rice, some of these learned men and women won’t allow hard evidence get in the way of a good conspiracy theory! And large sections of our media (especially in Sinhala) hero-worship them uncritically, labelling them as ‘patriots’ and projecting them as ‘defenders of indigenous knowledge’.

Dharmapala entered many contentious debates when a majority of our intellectuals diligently avoided them. He didn’t mince words when taking on scientists indulging in pseudo-science or complete non-science. He wrote in one such debate on hypnotism as ‘proof’ of reincarnation: “When learned people like Dr. J propagate and disseminate misconceptions, ordinary folk tend to be misled and embrace wrong notions thereby rendering their thinking faculties blunt.”

Rational communicator

Frustrated by the limitations of our uncritical mainstream media, he also communicated through books and the new media, so that discerning readers can make up their own minds.

His lasting contribution to rationalist literature was translating two seminal works by Kovoor: Begone Godmen, and Gods, Demons and Spirits. He also penned three original books: Kovoor saha Hethuwadi Darshanaya (Kovoor and Rationalism); Sai Baabage Anduru Paththa (The Dark Side of Sai Baba); and Elowin Aa Jeewakaya saha Wenath Hethuwadi Lipi (The Healer from Outer Space and other Rationalist Essays).

Unlike many others of his generation, Dharmapala kept up with the march of communications technologies. Early on, he recognised the web’s potential for nurturing public debate and promoting the public interest. He joined the Secular Sri Lanka group blog, well aware how its thematic focus evokes the wrath of Sinhala Buddhist nationalists. He was also active in various online discussion forums and social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, All Voices and LinkedIn), and was fond of sharing interesting weblinks.

While engaging the new media, Dharmapala never gave up on the old media. He was a prolific writer of letters to the editors of English newspapers in Sri Lanka. Whatever the topic – from faith healers and vegetarianism to demons and reincarnation – he was an indefatigable practitioner of this quaint craft: he would doggedly pursue an exchange until editors intervened to close a prolonged debate.

Hopefully, these multiple communications woke up a few from their culture-conditioned and society-enforced slumber. But how do we awaken those who only pretend to be asleep?

Why do otherwise moderate people turn emotional and fiercely defensive in any discussion about their religious faith?  Why is it that a majority of Lankans seem so threatened if anyone were to even mildly question the ‘certain certainties’ of a dogma randomly assigned to them at birth? How come any discussion on secularism in Sri Lanka elicit so much vitriolic comment from the virtuous defenders of a religious state?

Could it be because, as Mark Twain once remarked, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t true”?

Sure, it’s a free world: every individual may choose what to believe in, and also change beliefs from time to time. That’s fine — as long as believers confine it all to their own private lives. But when some try to force their beliefs on everyone else, or institutionalise these as state policies, it becomes hegemony.

In a heated newspaper exchange on the ultimately unverifiable existence of an afterlife, Dharmapala said December 2009: “Having been brainwashed from the very first day of birth and then throughout a lifetime, different religionists hold a deep rooted conviction in mind that only the particular dogma, taught by their respective religions, is the absolute truth and what is taught in other religions is false. Thus, while Buddhists and Hindus are absolutely certain of rebirth, Christians and Muslims are equally certain of Almighty God and Creation.”

Associates confirm that Dharmapala had worked on another Sinhala book, a critical look at reincarnation. Its posthumous publication could restore some sanity to the emotionally charged debates on this topic.

Credulous Nation?

Meanwhile, true Buddhists – may their tribe increase! – could finally start following what the Buddha taught. For half a century, Lankan rationalists have been citing, as one of their favourite quotes, the Buddha’s well known advice to the Kalamas, captured in the kalama sutra.

Kovoor used to quote this regularly at public meetings, as do his successors to this date. The Buddha’s rejection of authority, tradition, hearsay and dogma, and his position that one should accept something as true and valid only on the basis of verification by oneself, is probably one of the earliest rationalist principles expressed in history.

But as Colombo University’s historian and public intellectual Dr Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri told a rationalists’ meeting in Colombo last week, a majority of today’s Lankan Buddhists would rather not follow that sound advice. Doing so risks shattering too many dogmas and contradictions on which their history and current political posturing are based…

It remains to be seen who among our rationalists would take up the daunting task of keeping the sceptical flame alive. Doing so now is even more critical than when Kovoor founded the movement. At stake is much more than debating religious faiths, or safeguarding the public from exploiters of ignorance and misery.

As astronomer and science populariser Carl Sagan put it so well in his last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995): “If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.”

Early in life, science writer Nalaka Gunawardene was influenced by educator and free thinker Dr E W Adikaram, and later worked with Sir Arthur C Clarke as his research assistant. He thanks Dr Kavan Ratnatunga and Tharaka Warapitiya for some information used in this essay, but the opinions are entirely his own. 

• Sir Arthur C Clarke: A life-long public intellectual
• Political Opposition in a Nihilistic Sinhala Society: Responses and clarifications
• Notes of a Citizen Journalist
• Some rudimentary thoughts on Arthur C. Clarke’s funeral
• ICTs, science fiction and disasters: A conversation with Nalaka Gunawardene

(Photo credit: Claude Dupuis, IDRC-CRDI)

The current  ‘development’ madness that affects agriculture also prevails over agricultural research and does not bode well for this nation.  It begins with the fact that, young agricultural scientists have to find support for the projects that will ensure their career from the only available source, the ‘chemical agriculture’ companies. Thus they are forced to carve out their futures supporting the only system that they have been trained in. In this way agricultural science in Sri Lanka has largely ignored the knowledge and wisdom that had guided our agricultural traditions for the last three thousand years or more.  Although politicians and bureaucrats, in search of money or foreign jobs, have been insensitive to this destructive process, farmers have regularly questioned this approach to agriculture:

For instance, in 1998 a meeting of farmers convened by the CGIAR (Consultative Group in Agricultural Research) to ascertain the farmers viewpoint of agricultural development, submitted the following statement.

“We, the farmers of Sri Lanka would like to further thank the CGIAR, for taking an interest in us.  We believe that we speak for all of our brothers and sisters the world over when we identify ourselves as a community who are integrally tied to the success of ensuring global food security.  In fact it is our community who have contributed to the possibility of food security in every country since mankind evolved from a hunter-gather existence.  We have watched for many years, as the progression of experts, scientists and development agents passed through our communities with some or another facet of the modern scientific world.  We confess that at the start we were unsophisticated in matters of the outside world and welcomed this input.  We followed advice and we planted as we were instructed.  The result was a loss of the varieties of seeds that we carried with us through history, often spanning three or more millennia.  The result was the complete dependence of high input crops that robbed us of crop independence.  In addition we farmers, producers of food, respected for our ability to feed populations, were turned into the poisoners of land and living things, including fellow human beings.  The result in Sri Lanka is that we suffer from social and cultural dislocation and suffer the highest pesticide related death toll on the planet.  Was this the legacy that you the agricultural scientists wanted to bring to us?  We think not.  We think that you had good motives and intentions, but left things in the hands of narrowly educated, insensitive people.”

The statement was listened attentively by the top agricultural scientists from the around the world.  Hopefully some were sensitized to these realities and are addressing the stated problems internationally. But for us in Sri Lanka, what has transpired?  From 1998 to 2012 have any of the stated problems eased? Has the rate of pesticide poisoning gone down? Do we have a national campaign to sensitize our rural population on the dangers of pesticides? Have we reduced the huge volumes of toxins being applied on the country? Have we instituted a monitoring system for pesticide residues vegetables to protect the citizen’s health? The answer to all these questions is a resounding no!  We need to ask why?  Could it be a result of a lack of interest in creating a healthy and sustainable agriculture for this nation?

It is patently clear that agriculture must begin to look at the long-term health of the consumer, the energy cost of production and maintenance of biodiversity as three clear goals of the production system. In a fossil fuel energy deficient country like Sri Lanka, a national composting program and a reduction of external inputs should be instituted, but this cannot be done without a planned, phasing exercise. Just giving a farmer a bag of compost without the requisite seed and knowledge’ is a recipe for disaster,

The other major concern as stated by the farmers is the rush to get our farming systems addicted to fossil energy.  The statement that current trends in agricultural research were creating a “complete dependence of high input crops that robbed us of crop independence” is an indictment of this trend.  ‘  It demonstrates an erosion of our traditions and of our humanity.   Today, much of the traditional rice agroecosystem has disappeared to pave way for new varieties and management measures.  With this new ‘vision’ the quantity of toxins sprayed into the environment begins to increase and the component of fossil energy used in agricultural production continues to rise.

In today’s world, energy accounting must accompany economic accounting or dealing with the relative value of goods and services.  It allows for predictions of change in state of ecosystems as well as trends in cultural changes.  For instance, the ecological impact of increasing energy input into any ecosystem has been well documented.  In any ecosystem, an increase in the flow of energy tends to disrupt that ecosystem. Field studies on identified agricultural systems at various levels of organization have confirmed the loss of original stability following a large influx of fossil energy. Studies of insect communities have shown that pest outbreaks are characteristic of systems with lowered species diversity, requiring the application of ever increasing quantities of agrotoxins to obtain a good crop

Thus an increase in the input of energy to an ecosystem does provide a measure by the model of agriculture can be evaluated.  In heavily energy dependent industrial agricultural systems, the natural or biological system has been dispensed with and an artificial environment has been created to allow production.  While it can be argued that such systems of production is sustainable as long as the inputs are provided, it raises biological questions, for this system is clearly not sustainable in a biological sense.  It also raises economic questions, especially in regard to input costs and subsidies.  Further, this process has been demonstrated to be increasingly dependent on a steadily increasing rate of energy input to produce a unit of output. In the United States the energy return from corn went from a +3.70 energy return for each unit invested in 1945 to -2.50 by the year 2000.  This has led to the comment that in the US  “all the energy one derives from eating comes from oil”. Is this where we are heading towards  ?

While sunlight provides the primary source of energy for agriculture, the present levels of productivity are biased on a technology, which is totally reliant on fossil fuels. In Australia for example, by1988 two billion liters of fuel oil were being used every year for agricultural production.  This is not accounting for the other inputs such as fertilizer etc.

In Sri Lanka getting farmers addicted to fossil energy seems to be regarded as a good thing. There is no plan for transitioning towards optimal production with little or no external inputs, just the distribution of more of the addictive fertilizer. Concomitantly, no subsidy given to farmers who opt to generate their own fertilizer, however there is great interest in maintaining the massive fertilizer subsidy of Rs.50 Billion and increasing it. 50 billion is a lot of money, there is no questions raised as to who receives it, nor what commissions are paid to keep us addicted

Change we must, but it needs to be done in a judicious manner, incrementally, building our farmers to the goals espoused by the Hon. D.S.Senanayake in his book “Agriculture and Patriotism”.

“ Agriculture is not merely a way of making money by raising crops; it is not merely an industry or a business; it is essentially a public function or service performed by private individuals for the care and use of the land in the national interest; and farmers in the course of securing a living and a private profit are the custodians of the basis of the national life. Agriculture is therefore affected with a clear and unquestionable public interest and its status is a matter of national concern calling for deliberate and far-sighted nati0onal policies, not only to conserve the national and human resources involved in it, but to provide the national security, promote a well round prosperity and secure social and political stability.”

The farmer statement to the CGIAR would seem to signify that we have wandered far from these goals. Our farmers are amongst the most poorly looked after, their traditions are being broken and their contribution to society ignored. Their economy is in ruins; Farmer suicides have become commonplace, one consequence that effects everyone is the poisoning of the nation. It is time to become more aware that the old saying “you are what you eat” and begin to look after our children and ourselves

If the increasing rates of cancer, diabetes and organ failure, are not seen as a sign of the quality of the food and air that we ingest and we choose not to act on this knowledge, we will have no-one else to blame but ourselves when we ourselves become afflicted. With the statistic that 78% of us will die from such non-communicable diseases our individual chances are high indeed !!

• Future of Farming in Sri Lanka
• De-globalisation: A paradigm for sustainable development?
• Subsidizing Addiction?
• Right to Food: Ecologically based agriculture
• Packets of White Powder

When Sri Lanka vied for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, there was a telling photograph taken at one of the bashes the regime threw in the Caribbean, the culminating event of a labour intensive, extravagant self-indulgent exercise. The photograph has Hon Namal Rajapaksha MP leading a conga line followed by the Governor of the Central Bank. They both seem…well, happy. However, though a good time was had by all no doubt, that conga line led nowhere. We did not win the bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games; agnostics and atheists alike were put on notice about the existence of the divine. The country was saved. Yet the conga line as both a metaphor and description of the structure of power and the ruling regime remains. Into 2012, where will it head?

The old year 2011 like all others before was interesting in the sense of the Chinese curse. It saw the steady decline of governance and the Rule of Law, the steady rise of militarization and the interminable decline of the opposition; more attacks on the freedom of expression and association and the re-emergence of disappearances; grease yakkas, plastic crates and the fatal private pension plan; an unnecessary, yet revealing controversy over the national anthem; the release of a COPE report confirming losses by state enterprises running into billions of rupees and at the same time legislation deemed urgent in the national interest to take over underperforming and under utilised private sector enterprises. Sarath Fonseka continued to be harassed and is now to be written out of the history books Soviet-style, including the revamped version of the Mahavamsa; monitoring MPs and presidential advisors fought to the death and probable permanent disability, High Noon style, and in the dying days of the year, a Pradeshiya Sabha chairman alleged to have engaged in fatal political violence during the last presidential election, is now implicated in the murder and serious assault of tourists. There is of course the fiasco of the release of exam results and the sham/e of Sri Lanka Cricket.

Significantly, some 40 years on from the last pre-war election in 1977, one party was overwhelmingly returned in the south and another likewise in the north in local government elections. The regime – TNA talks are more and more reminiscent of the lines from Macbeth – tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow… it is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

On a positive note, the economy is supposed to be booming. Every index is up – number of tourists, remittances, exports, and foreign direct investment (FDI). Inflation, indebtedness and the cost of living too! The trade deficit remains in billions of dollars despite the increase in remittances, exports, tourists and FDI. The capital city is being beautified – a direct boon of the pairing of defence and urban development we are told and many believe, irrespective of the number of city dwellers who have paid the cost in eviction. There is a highway to the south and an aptly though controversially named Mahinda Rajapaksha Performing Arts Centre with state of the art facilities, as well as night racing to boot.

And there is the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) Report, the document, which, the regime has maintained, will answer its critics and lay to rest the charge of war crimes and the call for accountability in respect of them. This the Report does not do, thereby lending credence to the criticisms leveled at it in terms of mandate and composition and most importantly, thereby reinforcing the call for international investigation. The LLRC concludes that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians by the armed forces or use of siege tactics by the regime with regard to the provision of food and medicine to civilians in the Vanni. It acknowledges that, “…material points towards the implication of the Security Forces for the resulting death and injury to civilians, even though this may not have been with the intent to cause harm”.

This is largely based on the testimonies of the security hierarchy and suffers from the lack of witness protection, which would have facilitated a more comprehensive account of what transpired. The LLRC makes reference to the technical difficulties in reconstructing what happened and notes the near impossibility of doing so, now. On the key issue of war crimes and violation of international humanitarian law, the report is a whitewash of the regime. This is very disappointing given the urgent need for accountability at the community level in particular, as demonstrated by the number of civilians who testified before the LLRC despite the difficulties and subsequent dangers they faced in doing so.

It is a curate’s egg, however. Its conclusions on reconciliation, the atrocities of the LTTE, militarization, a political and constitutional settlement based on devolution, the politicization of governance, the erosion of the rule of law, the naming of para-militaries and the call for further action on this and on disappearances and detainees as well as the Channel Four documentary, on right to information legislation, are all to be welcomed. All of this begs the question of how any “independent’ or “proper” investigation the LLRC recommends can be done nationally. None of this is new; most of this has been championed by civil society for quite some time. That a regime appointed commission reiterates all of this, underscores both the scale and nature of the challenge the regime faces and accordingly, the scale and nature of the paradigm shift it has to undertake if it is to, as it must, implement these recommendations without delay.

Quo Vadis, the Conga line in 2012? Can the tiger change it stripes; the leopard its spots?

Can pigs fly?

• The LLRC report and ‘accountability’ in Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka’s Dirty War
• The Final Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission: A Response
• THE LLRC AND COMPLAINTS OF DISAPPEARANCES OF PERSONS
• The verdict sans representation

Photo courtesy Arsenic and toxins found in baby rice food – what you need to know

Suddenly, scores of packets of white powder began appearing in the homes of many farmers we were working with. They were organic farmers, who respected their field and soil. They would never poison their farm knowingly.  When questioned, they made a wry face and declared that ‘the stuff was forced upon them’ as a part of some government program.  Some resorted to putting it onto their home gardens to get rid of it.  This means that, the poisoning of our soils is extending from the agricultural field to the very home garden and the farmer’s enslavement to the chemical salesmen becomes further confirmed.

Addiction is an easy ploy for enslavement. In a port city in France, goes a story; there used to live some of the most unscrupulous criminals. They were the drug traffickers who deal in the cruel drug heroin.  Heroin is addictive, it creates a sense of well being; but one requires increasingly large doses to maintain this sense of well being. The victim who begins to take it becomes even more dependent on the drug and freedom from it becomes increasingly difficult. The traffickers it is alleged, give free doses to children in the 12, 13 age group, in packets of white powder, knowing well that the gullible, naïve, children will soon become addicted. When they become addicted they have to pay and the price they will have to pay increases with the addiction. They are trapped in a vicious dependency cycle and there is no way out. They end up being the chattel of the criminals.

To understand the game being played before us, it is important to understand soil. To many of us soil is the stuff that holds trees up.  We see it as a solid surface for us to walk, ride or construct upon.  Its usefulness in our daily lives does not exceed much beyond providing a substrate and nutrient for our crops.  On closer examination this ‘solid mass’ is home to thousands of species, it acts a sea to thousands of species that travel through it.  It is also the biological filter that detoxifies a large proportion of the poisons that we apply to the environment we live in.  It is a world as complex as, and most certainly older than, the world that lives on its surface.  It lies continuous over most of the land surface of the planet it is in a very real sense the ‘living skin’ of our planet.

The world of soil is bizarre to us who live on the surface.  It is opaque to light and mostly solid.  Communication is by chemicals, such as pheromones, or physical, such as vibrations.  Movement is slow; the faster organisms like the worms are the giants of this world, tunneling through at a fairly rapid rate measured in centimeters per minute.  More common are the fungi that move by growing through the soil at rates measured in centimeters per month, or the bacteria, which have rates, measured in centimeters per year.

It is a busy world, one gram of ordinary farmyard soil can contain over 1 billion individual bacteria, over 100 million individual actinomyctes and over 1 kilometer of fungal hyphpae, notwithstanding plants like algae and animals like collembolids, nematodes or worms.  But most importantly it provides the energy for the plants that grow on it. It is estimated that a hectare of good farm or forest soil provides over 10 Horsepower in energy to the system daily. When chemical fertilizers are added to such soils, the ecosystem is destroyed, biomass is lost and the productive capacity goes down dramatically often to less than 1 horsepower. To maintain productivity in these soils will now require the balance to be provided from outside in the form of chemical fertilizer. Once destroyed the soil ecosystem is slow to recover. Thus the farmer is trapped! As the nation needs to produce its food the government is trapped! It has to provide the drug (fertilizer) to the farmer at a subsidized price. Currently over 50 billion rupees and we are increasing the land area addicted by distributing free packets of white powder ?  Where is the gain? To answer that question one has to ‘follow the money’, one has to answer the question as to ‘where does that 50 billion rupees go?’  After all, someone must benefit from it.

But one thing is clear it is certainly not the farmer or the nation.

• Subsidizing Addiction?
• Agricultural Madness
• Jaffna People Back To Barter Business
• Development or maldevelopment?
• Dial a White Van for a pest-free life!

Prof. Gupta teaches at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and was in Sri Lanka recently to deliver the first Ray Wijewardene Memorial lecture. Prof. Gupta is one of the world’s leading voices on social innovation, and the development of social capital. We began our conversation with Prof. Gupta defining what he sees as social entrepreneurship, and why it is important to recognise and nurture it. He then talks about the difference between big science and small science, and how the support of the former through national budgetary allocations does not necessarily address or strengthen the latter. Prof. Gupta also shares some insights into how grassroots innovation can be supported and through the blending of what he calls formal and informal sciences, development made more sustainable and equitable.

Prof. Gupta’s multi-disclipinary background holds him in good stead when he talks about the double-helix of language and culture, and how the preservation of one is to support the development of the other. He speaks of the knowledge rights of people and how at the grassroots, innovations that address common problems and shared socio-economic challenges exists that multi-national companies and even national governments are often unaware of. Prof. Gupta also has a rather unique take on Intellectual Property rights!

Given that so many today use the phrase ‘grassroots’, Prof. Gupta explains what it means to him, and notes that when he started to use the phrase, it was one that was rarely used or recognised.

Throughout the conversation, Prof. Gupta brings up a number of examples from India and elsewhere to support his argument that innovation exists in the unlikeliest of places, and that these innovations often have a broader applicability and in some cases, even push the frontiers of established science and technology. To listen to him is to realise the untapped potential of this innovation, and in fact, how much of it exists even in Sri Lanka. The other important point Prof. Gupta flags is that this innovation often exists amongst children and youth.

Towards the end, we talk about what impedes innovation of the kind Prof. Gupta’s most interested in. Prof. Gupta also ends with five key points, or lessons if one chooses to see them thus, on how a country can strengthen grassroots innovation, and why doing this is vital to its growth.

• Interview with Prof. Tissa Vitharana on the 13th Amendment, Constitutional Reform, IT and English language
• In conversation with Prof. Sumanasiri Liyanage
• Strengthening democracy in Sri Lanka: An open invitation to generate fresh ideas
• Democracy in Sri Lanka: Ideas and responses
• Ground realities in Jaffna and its environs: Two key perspectives

Lessons from China or Tunisia?

Just few months ago, in response to a public outcry for more accountability and transparency in the use of public funds, the State Council, which is the Cabinet in the Chinese government, directed 98 public institutions including ministries to make public their budgets and expenditure on  official receptions, official overseas visits  and public vehicles. Why these three items? China has recognized these as the most abused items of public expenditure, which have long been viewed as major sources of squandering and corruption. Though the nature of lavish and wasteful expenditure varies from country to country, one can see similarities of the operation of such expenditure.

I begin this article on extravagance on public expenditure, with this Chinese example to demonstrate that criticism on extravagance is not a Western concept, as probably our coteries of political advisors and self-serving propaganda experts would always say.  Those great people who have found solutions for their own countries have always identified the problem first.

There is nothing in Sri Lanka without lavishness. From birthday celebrations of the Head of the State or a Minister to an insignificant event, waste of public finance becomes so obvious.   Inauguration of the second term of the President marked two weeks of celebrations with specific instructions being given by the Presidential Secretariat itself to heads of departments and public corporations to engage in various activities,  such as planting of millions of  trees, decorating and illuminating  public institutions at night, having over 10,000  flexed-hoardings and bill boards with specifically designed artwork  and having bodhi pujas at temples – all expenses being met with State funds. Detailed arrangements were made through security establishments to ensure that celebrations are not disturbed. The entire State mechanism worked on the celebrations for one whole week. Though the costs were obviously more than what one could imagine, no head of a public institution dare oppose such wasteful expenditure for fear of the repercussions. Even if a minimum Rs. 1 Million (much below than actual figures) was spent on an average by each Ministry and Corporation the cost would be over 1000 million for this extravaganza, in addition to direct expenditure from the President’s office and defense establishments and waiving off of numerous costs.

Consider the waste of State funds when over a hundred and fifty handpicked people including the Governor of the Central Bank of this economically ailing country, are taken to the Caribbean island, St. Kittes,  to bid for the Commonwealth Games.  Only a mere 20 had arrived from Australia, a country, which is over 117 times larger than Sri Lanka, but has about the same population.(http://www.srilankabrief.org).

Take the foreign visits by our Head of State even when he goes to address the UN General Assembly – free passage for hundreds of politicians, state officials, supporters, relatives, beauticians etc. at public cost. The costs include accommodation in five star hotels; possibly they also enjoy other perks like transport and being invited to official parties.  Usage of Air force helicopters for local holiday travel, together with state protection, for even political appointees such as Central Bank governor is just acceptable.

Look at the public purchases. Sri Lanka Air Force has received two Bell 412 helicopters in December 2011 from USA and, according to media; these helicopters have been configured for VIP passenger travel. This is obviously not for security concerns but purely post-war luxury. Who pays for them? Are we dreaming of the fallen Tunisian dictator Ben Ali’s collection of private jets here in Sri Lanka?  Whatever the counter arguments may be; let us not forget that the money spent are ours – money that belongs to you and to me.

One of the six key globally recognized principles of public expenditure is “the principle of economy”.

“The principle of economy requires that government should spend money in such a manner that all wasteful expenditure is avoided. Economy does not mean miserliness or niggardliness. By economy we mean that public expenditure should be increased without any extravagance and duplication. If the hard-earned money of the people, collected through taxes, is thoughtlessly spent, the public expenditure will not confirm to the cannon of economy.” (http://www.economicsconcepts.com)

In that context we need to understand what is extravagance? The dictionary meaning is “excessive outlay of money; wasteful spending”.

To enter the discussion on this topic, let me place before you the thoughts of Samuel Johnson, who lived in 18^th Century and who is considered by many to be the most distinguished man of letters in English history.

“As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.”

From Parliament to Finance Ministry and then to Individuals 

There is a difference in extravagance at public expenditure and lavish expenditure by those who have accumulated wealth by corrupt means. This article only deals with the former.   It does not discuss how some of the corrupt individuals have become billionaires overnight with political power or resorting to other means. How did the elected leaders, officials and their families get the authority to spend public money lavishly?  To answer this question, “the public expenditure element” must be understood with basic principles of accountability of public finance. As in many other democracies, Article 148 of our Constitution states,   “Parliament shall have full control over public finance”. This is a fundamental constitutional principle since parliamentary democracy was born. The often quoted words of Gladstone summarize the basic principle of British parliamentary accountability of public finance thus, which is worth reflecting again and again:

“The finances of the country is ultimately associated with  the liberties of the country. It is a powerful leverage by which English liberty has been gradually acquired. If the House of Commons by any possibility lose the power of the control of the grants of public money, depend upon it, your liberty will be worth very little in comparison.”

According to constitutional conventions and the law, the Parliament is mainly responsible for the protection of public finance. This includes the responsibility of the parliament to prevent abuses such as extravagance and waste of finances.  However, we need to find out why Parliament is so weak in Sri Lanka in this regard. I can cite FIVE main reasons for the present  status.

Firstly, its Constitutional position – Parliament has been placed subservient to the Executive. There is nothing that the Executive cannot get done through Parliament.

Secondly, Parliament is distorted in today’s context. Does anyone know who is in the Government and who is in the Opposition?

Thirdly, there is no strong and transparent financial committee system that is capable of holding the Chief Accounting Officers (the Secretaries of Ministries) accountable, let alone the Ministers.  A good example is to ask whether any of the parliamentary committees would summon the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and question him effectively?

Fourthly, the quality of parliamentarians matter for the protection of public finance and liberty. Today, most of the parliamentarians are motivated by perks and they are themselves responsible for a lavish lifestyle; Extravagance is part of their life and except for a few, they are unwilling to go back to their roots.

Finally, there is no effective and genuine follow-up action on any findings of a finance committee.

Let me move on to the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance. It is the Ministry of Finance, or the Treasury,  that is the guardian of expenditure because the Treasury is entrusted with the authority to disperse the funds, once funds are allocated by Parliament.  In any respectable democracy, the Finance Minister is a Member of Parliament but in our country for more than a decade the President has been the Minister of Finance. In other words, the Minister in charge of the Treasury is not available for questioning by Finance Committees.  The Minster in charge of Finance (the President) is the main spender through other Ministries such as Defence, and how can such an authority act with responsibility in the case of a conflicting expenditure.   In my view, prior to a post auditing exercise by the Auditor General, it is the Treasury that has some idea about what goes wrong in expenditure.  Chapter III of the Government Financial Regulations gives sufficient directions for the Treasury to supervise management and accountability of “government monies” and “general oversight of all financial operations of the government”.  There may be a few weaknesses but in my view, if the Financial Regulations are given effect to by the Treasury, some of the extravagant spending could be minimized.

I would be failing in my duty, if I do not touch upon the individual responsibility because, none of these institutions can operate with accountability without individuals – whether politicians or officials.  Not all individuals do have the authority to control public finance or to get anywhere near a revenue source.   The knowledge or qualifications neither make great institutions nor great countries; unless those who run them have their own integrity.  Qualifications and integrity are two distinct values; one does not necessarily depend on the other.  If those who run our finance, including the Ministers, Parliamentarians, Treasury officials and other public officers cultivate integrity in their own lives and respective professions,  the political leadership might reform. Why shouldn’t they be taken to task in the normal course of law enforcement?   If such honest people are present in higher positions, no power can overcome the liberty of the citizens. No abuse or extravagance of any Ministry including the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Defence would then be tolerated.

Acute & Corrupt Extravagance

Admittedly, Sri Lanka is not the only country which has resorted to extravagance at public expenditure, for many decades, not to mention the present status when it is absolutely appalling.  Swindling of public resources under the guise of a perfectly justified expenditure can easily be recognized. Acute and continuous extravagance has its own uniqueness.  There lies deception and corruption at highest levels, particularly when extravagance continues with impunity.  It is no secret that such acute extravagance is covered under a conspiracy of silence, generally coupled with bad governance.   To me, the following deadly realities and features emerge, wherever such large scale corrupt extravagance exists, particularly, where there is virtually state capture:

1. Coteries of corrupt political and bureaucratic network create or find an event, assignment or project,  suited for such expenditure.  They have a common element – vested interest in the government, economy or business.
2. An identified and trustworthy mastermind plans the expenditure under the guise of “national” or “economic” advantage, with the support from a state propaganda machine. Without exception these groups exploit the ego and megalomania of the political leadership.
3. Political leadership, if not directly involved in such operations, will be convinced of two things; firstly, that their names will not be dragged into an unsuccessful operation and secondly, that they will have the comforts of the outcome of such extravagance.
4. All avenues of a challenging probing are effectively blocked – from parliamentary level to law enforcement levels – through manipulation of institutions and appointments into key positions.
5. In case of a backfire of exposure resulting in street protests or unmanageable criticism, another strong public resources is kept ready to deal with it – that is the military, that is prepared to execute unlawful orders of a political master!

I request the readers to apply these principles carefully to the major areas of extravagance of the Government of Sri Lanka today, be it buying of Bell Helicopters, construction of Cricket stadiums, Hambantota airport, all types of projects ending with the word “Neguma”   or unsuccessful attempt to win Commonwealth Games busting public money. Wayne White, an adjunct scholar with the Washington-based Middle East Institute, cited  the fall of the Gadaphi regime for his extravagance and says he will be remembered for waste, misgovernment and corruption. Should our political leadership be worried? Is there a lesson to learn for the New Year?

The core of the issue of corruption, extravaganza and abuse of power lies in the hearts of the people, who either tolerate it or fight it. Some of them believe that the Constitution and  the law alone can find solutions to these deep seated problems;  for some,  the judiciary  is the forum to address all the issues. As Gladstone pointed out (quoted earlier,  the finances of the country is ultimately associated with the liberties of the country. However, the hearts of the ordinary man and woman matters to protect them. Let me wind up by quoting Judge Learned Hand on this very point and urge you to take the responsibility to realize a dream for our country – a country free of corruption and extravagance at least in the coming year.

“What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon Constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes.

Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies, there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no Constitution, no law, no court to save it.”

• (Mis)-apportioning the Public Money
• Attacking the North – Marching Forward or a Downward Spiral?
• The post-Prabhakaran government strategy in Sri Lanka and overseas
• BUDGET OR NO BUDGET? IT IS A CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION
• In conversation with Nelum Gamage: Does anyone give a damn about corruption?

It looks like the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) took their job far more seriously than expected. Some stake holders in the Government who insisted that it is fully worth spending time to bring about reconciliation through the LLRC came out on TV to say that LLRC has over-stepped the bounds of its mandate. For the first time, they articulated to the citizens that the mandate of LLRC was mainly limited to study why the 2001 ceasefire failed, and to find out the parties responsible for the damage caused thereafter. The report also triggered a shower of letters from local patriotic organizations to the president urging him to neglect the recommendations. Facebook and email forums were in full swing exchanging views that ranged from the argument that there is no need for reconciliation at all because the war was with a terrorist organization, to those ridiculing the LLRC report as an eye-wash. However, it is interesting to observe that human rights watchdogs that originally expressed concerns about the limited scope of investigation and jurisdiction of the committee seem to be the group that encourages the Government to implement at least some of the recommendations of the LLRC. Meanwhile the Indian Government re-iterated that the Sri Lankan Government, while taking speedy measures to implement the recommendations of the LLRC could readily implement the 13^th amendment to the constitution with broad power devolution.

Talking to friends of both ethnicities, I wanted to find out views about a frequently surfaced question as to why we need reconciliation when the war was with a terrorist organization. The argument posed by those who ask this question was that discrimination is everywhere. Even Sinhalese in remote areas face the same economic hardships the Tamils face in the North. It is a question of Colombo-centric development model than one of ethnic discrimination. They agree that these economic digital divide is magnified by inefficient and corrupt centralized Government system. However, most of then did not see power devolution like in the 13^th amendment as a solution because it may open the path to separate states especially when there is a separatist movement in place. Their concerns were based on a sense of suspicion and insecurity too. Questions like “what if they become powerful and demand for separation? Can a small country like Sri Lanka afford to fight another war?” were underscored in their concerns. They also argued that the whole notion of North and East being identified as a Tamil region is problematic, citing historical and archeological evidence.

However, others who argued for devolution of power had reasons transcending mere economic disparities between the Western province and the North and East. It was often argued that Sinhalese in the South or even Tamils in the South may choose to live with the status quo. They may choose of live with sustained economic development largely confined to Colombo now seen also in Hambantota mainly due to President Rajapaksa’s personal interest than a National policy of balanced regional development; they may choose to live with the fact that the higher education prospects of their children should be limited to a quota system limited to about 3% of the population no matter how hard they study in the school; they may choose to tolerate deterioration of rule of law and corrupt law enforcement; they may even choose to live with a cultural recognition given predominantly to Sinhala-Buddhists. However, it was questioned if they have the right to impose that choice on others who have stronger aspirations of their own. They argued that broader devolution of power will allow people in the North and the East to come up with drastically different economic, justice, and law enforcement models to stimulate a faster growth with dignity for their cultural identity, wider access to university education, research and innovation, more efficient trans-National trade through better usage of ports like Trincomalee for trade, etc. The differences in identity claims and gulf of aspirations between two groups of people in the small Island of Sri Lanka could be more complex if other layers of the society are also brought within the discussion. People I knew were by far academics and professionals. How about business communities, farmers, laborers, fishermen, etc? I won’t dare to investigate with the limited time I have to do my citizen politics.

It seems to me that a major need of the reconciliation process is to more accurately understand the differences of aspirations between the groups who contributed to the conflict that can not co-exist in a centralized administrative structure. The mere fact that LTTE was a terrorist outfit does not rule out the possibility that Tamils who sympathized LTTE at least in its early stages of development (ex. formation of Ealam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS)) do not have reasonable aspirations different from the South that is best realized in a devolved administrative structure. The mere fact that Sinhalese in the South feel insecure about power devolution amidst a separatist movement on the move does not mean that they are not willing to settle for a viable political solution either. It is equally wrong to take only one cross section of the society to arrive at conclusions. For instance, it is wrong to take a Tamil or Sinhalese farmer who spends a simple life-style to argue that there is no gulf of aspirations between people in the North and the South. It maybe also be true that a businessman is only interested in the bottom line (profit or loss figure) than his/her cultural identity, opportunity to obtain a local university education, or to enjoy rule of law. Therefore, it may well be that this whole problem is limited to middle and upper middle class communities. I am not sure if LLRC or other efforts towards reconciliation addressed this dimension of people’s aspirations deeply enough, partly due to their inherent limitations of mandates.

Whatever the factors contributing to any gulf of aspirations may not be static too. Therefore, peace can not be frozen with an accord. It is a more dynamic phenomenon orchestrated by co-existence of continuously changing conflicting human aspirations. What are identified as Tamil aspirations today maybe different in twenty years from now. The Sinhalese who choose to accept Colombo-centric decision making and development may choose another model in twenty years. What is important therefore, is to have an administrative structure that recognizes and facilitates the co-existence of ideologically and culturally different people with well articulated aspirations within the small island of Sri Lanka at any given time. What is dangerous is to be dishonest in the process of reconciling any gulf of aspirations if at all. In this regard, the Government should avoid duplicity of engagement as much as possible. For instance, the Government held secret discussions with the Darusman committee while using its appointment by the UN secretary general to do Nationalistic local politics overlooking the danger that the credibility of LLRC would be eroded as a result. Moreover, the Government could be more sensitive to the sentiments of those who lost their loved ones in the last phase of the war.

Finally, any reconciliation process should address the legitimate concern of those who do not wish to see separation of Sri Lanka into two or more states. Just like gravity keeps locally chaotic water bouncing off rocks in a waterfall, co-existence of conflicting ideologies in any devolved administrative structure should have its own chaotic dynamics within a single national identity which can be more effectively sustained by fostering trade links among regions and by strengthening the notion of citizenship, rule of law, justice, and respect for human rights than by an enforced sense of stability in a centralized regimented system.

• Archive of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) submissions and media reports
• FEDERALISM AND THE UNP
• A slumbering LLRC: The image of reconciliation in Sri Lanka?
• 13th Amendment: Plus? Or Minus?
• A response to Dayan Jayatilleka’s “Mindless emotionalism and absence of thinking in Tamil politics”

Sri Lankan photographer Devaka Seneviratne has some of the best photos on the web on the recently concluded night races held in Colombo for the first time. While Facades of Development: Of Commonwealth Games and Drag Racing at Green Path by Darini Rajasingham Senanayake is a critical take on events like this, it appears that going by the numbers present and the media coverage of it, this was a rather popular and well-attended event.

As one blogger recently put it “Both events [referring to the Electric Peacock Festival] are young people getting permits and stuff through the President’s sons, which is actually fine by me”. Such a wonderful, uncritical and simple model for post-war Sri Lanka’s democratic governance and equitable development. While we think this can and must be contested, the photos of the night races by Devaka give a sense of what to expect on the streets of Sri Lanka’s capital city in the years to come, and indeed, the country writ large. Don’t stop the party indeed!

See Devaka’s complete public album on Facebook here.

• In conversation with Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu
• Any inspiration Joanna?
• Voldemort rising
• The future of tourism in Sri Lanka: A conversation with Renton de Alwis
• Wishes for a peaceful and a happy New Year from the President

Image from The Seventeenth Century Dutch Hospital in Colombo by C.G. Uragoda and K.D. Paranavitana

Being Poya with nothing much else to do, we strolled over to the newly restored and opened Old Dutch Hospital, which Colombo’s oldest building and now a shopping and dining ‘precinct’.

A plaque at the entrance notes that restoration work was done by the Army and that the project was basically the brainchild of the Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who as head of the Ministry of Defence also directly oversees the Urban Development Authority (UDA), responsible for a lot of the beautification of Colombo. This at times involves the bizarre and wanton destruction of the environment.

The Dutch Hospital restoration, however, is just beautiful. We don’t know when the Hospital premises were last open to and seen by the public, but it was only when restoration work began a few months ago (the area the Old Dutch Hospital is located in was heavily fortified and guarded during the war, given the close proximity of the Central Bank and World Trade Centre) that many first caught a glimpse of this heritage building. Work is still on-going at the rear and in many of the business establishments within the premises, but it’s now possible to amble around and admire the architecture and ambience of the edifice.

Image from The Seventeenth Century Dutch Hospital in Colombo by C.G. Uragoda and K.D. Paranavitana

The building is quite large, and the what’s most striking is the sheer thickness of the walls. This was a hospital, but it’s built like a fortress. Upon entering it, you forget you are in the very heart of Colombo. The World Trade Centre twin-towers are visible only when you look up and because the walls are so thick, there’s no sound of traffic in the courtyards or in any of the eating of shopping areas. Well-known names from Colombo’s retail, entertainment and catering sectors have set up shop, and a few more are under construction. The Ministry of Crab, clearly destined to become one of the places to go to and more importantly, to be seen at, is yet to open but ‘Work in Progress‘, a restaurant / coffee shop run by Hilton Colombo serves up a very interesting menu in a very nice space (the hanging lighting fixtures are particularly interesting!).

It’s quite hot during the day, but in the evening and night, this would be a wonderful space to relax and unwind. Since during lunch time the premises are bound to be packed with those from the surrounding offices, the best time to visit would be in the morning, late afternoon, or evening.

However, as much as the Old Dutch Hospital in Colombo is a tremendous draw to both tourists and locals alike, it is very sadly not the state of affairs in other parts of the country. In a city where public optics matter so much post-war, and social relations are still very strained with the heavy presence of the Army, recent reports in the media and by august groups like the Friday Forum suggest government servants and the military are engaged in the destruction of similar Portuguese heritage sites in Jaffna.

Tragically then, what is so wonderfully, and lovingly restored in Colombo is being irrevocably and vengefully destroyed in Jaffna. It just doesn’t make any sense. Beneath a veneer of development, these actions by government officials sow the seeds of future violence. The underlying politics of reconstruction in post-war Sri Lanka are vexed and not openly debated. Many, including us, will enjoy the beautiful and welcome space of the Old Dutch Hospital. Post-war, Colombo is looking, and indeed becoming, increasingly cosmopolitan. And yet, as we have flagged earlier, even in Colombo, no one dares question the plans of the MoD / UDA, or seek to know more about how things are done, which for governance and public accountability is even more important than how things look.

Forget that, and never mind how resplendent the Old Dutch Hospital in Colombo now looks, we seriously risk going back to those horrible years when its foundations would have rocked to the sound of truck bombs.

• People Reading Newspaper At Shop In Jaffna
• Cutting down trees to make Colombo beautiful?
• Inheritance
• Dealing with law and order as an issue of the Presidential elections
• Pecha Kucha: Celebrating creativity in Colombo

The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) for 2006 found that an average Tamil family in the estate sector consumed 17.4 Kg of wheat flour per month when the cost per Kg was less than Rs 40.  At the time the national monthly average was 2.4 Kg per household.  Even though price of wheat flour more than doubled since then to close to Rs 85 a Kg currently (the increase was much higher relative to rice), the HIES for the year 2010 found that estate Tamil households consumption fell only marginally to 15.4 Kg per month indicating how price inelastic these household are to wheat flour.  The 2010 data, which covers the entire island, also show that the household wheat flour consumption in the Jaffna district was 19.3 Kg per month while in Vavuniya it was 18.1 Kg per month in contrast to Hambantota at 0.4 Kg per month and Matara at 0.8 Kg per month.

Therefore, someone must explain to the Prime Minister that given the preference for wheat flour in their daily meal even at much higher prices, not only Tamils living on the estates but in the North as well continue to purchase significant amounts of wheat flour.  This is because this segment of our population is used to, and simply enjoy, consuming rotti and other food prepared using wheat flour.

By banning the import of wheat flour, or even increasing the taxes on wheat flour to very high levels, would exacerbate what in economics we call ‘Horizontal Inequalities’ or policies that impact only particular segments of society; in this case, ethnic.  Simply put, the Prime Minister must be briefed that such half-baked policies will have significant negative impacts on the Tamil people of this country just when policies must be designed to reduce such inequalities.

[Editors note: The author is a National List MP representing the United National Party. Download spreadsheet with figures used to create graph above here. The spreadsheet was provided by the author.]

• Record-breaking rice cakes, but at what cost?
• Different forms of terrorism
• No one to listen to our pleas
• Anti-competitive Activities, the source of rice crisis
• Queue For Pongal Rice

The World Meteorological Organization, part of the United Nations, have just stated that the warmest 13 years of average global temperatures have all occurred in the 15 years since 1997. That has contributed to extreme weather conditions that increase the intensity of droughts and heavy precipitation across the world, it said.

“Our science is solid and it proves unequivocally that the world is warming and that this warming is due to human activities,” WMO Deputy Secretary-General Jerry Lengoasa told reporters in Durban. This view, articulated by a responsible organization should be recognized and acted upon by society at all levels.

There are also the disturbing data sets that clearly show a co-relation between temperature and concentrations of greenhouse gasses. While it is an undeniable fact that global temperature and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are interrelated. The question is when was it initiated? Once a change is initiated, that there exists obvious feedback mechanisms that keeps driving the process, until a regulatory mechanism, such as glaciations, intervenes.

Thus the geologic past is marked by a constant pattern of dry regimes with the water locked up as glacial ice alternating with wet regimes awash with unlocked glacial water.  The oscillation from one state to the other involves massive heat transfer processes and accounts for the phenomena of global warming and cooling.

There is debate, certainly on the frequency and amplitude of the changes before us and of the causes that drive such changes.  However, if there is one unifying feature to the debate it is that: ‘There is a change in the climate.’  This change is already affecting both the quality of human life and quantity of glaciers the world over.  A result of melting land glaciers will make the ocean levels will go up.  Models looking at the affect of an 5 – 6 inch rise in sea level over the next thirty years suggests 16 -34 million environmental refugees, depending on the preparedness of the affected regimes.

The global effort on addressing the problems of climate change is also hampered by the fact that the IPCC is consisted only of people who are nominated by their Governments. Commenting on this feature Paul Reiter   of the Pasteur Institute says, “Its Governments who nominate people, you will find in many chapters that there are people who are not scientists at all”.  This has allowed such fundamental scientific and economic realities such as differences between biomass carbon and fossil carbon to become blurred. One obvious result is that, there is no differentiation of value between these two pools in current carbon accounting by the IPCC.  Until this reality is recognized, disjointed markets will prevail.

Carbon dioxide is not the only contributor to warming on the planet; there is Methane, Oxides of Nitrogen, water vapour etc. In the atmosphere water vapour accounts for 60-80% of its natural greenhouse effect.  Water vapour has been the most dominant greenhouse determinant for the atmosphere and has probably been so over the last four billion years.

In terms of water vapour, forests account for some 48% of all terrestrial evapotranspiration. Thus the loss of forests worldwide, through a climate or biological event, could result in initiating changes in the climate system. As Walter Jehne of the CSIRO states, “It follows that the destruction of up to 80% of earth’s primary (old growth) forests by humans during industrialization could have resulted in a marked loss of the natural cooling capacity and therefore increased global warming.” The deforestation of the planet could very well have been the trigger that has pushed us along the current course.

Sri Lanka was no stranger to the process, forests that remained largely inviolate since their time of formation was felled and destroyed within a period of two hundred years. The natural cooling capacity of the Island was reduced by over 80%. This conversion of the massive forests into carbon dioxide would also have been a significant contribution to increasing carbon dioxide concentrations at that time.

Could the massive rates of deforestation and the removal of the cooling factor that initiated the warming trends that were then amplified by the increases in carbon dioxide as a consequence of the industrial revolution? This process being amplified through the burning of fossil fuels. The Vostock Ice core data looking at past atmospheres seems to suggest such a scenario.

The most obvious way is to address the problem is by reducing reliance on fossil carbon as an index of human development, but there may be other ways as well. One interesting possibility requires us to go back to the forests.

Forests produce vast quantities of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) that enable the condensation of clouds in the atmosphere. Clouds occur in many states, from the thin haze clouds precipitated by pollution and dust to the thick cumulus clouds precipitated by forests and oceans. Each type provides a certain degree of shading from solar radiation, a phenomenon termed albedo or, “the amount of incoming solar radiation reflected back into space”. The albedo of the planet determines the amount of sunlight reaching the surface, the amount of sunlight reaching the surface in turn determines the heat of the atmosphere. The mean value for reflecting solar radiation back into space by cloud albedo is about 30%.  The cooling effect of this action is so great that a 1-2 % increase in the albedo of the planet would be enough to reduce the warming effect of current CO2 levels back to early-industrial levels. Creating a 1% cooling by albedo can help definitely stabilize the climate.

Restoration of the cloud creating potential of terrestrial ecosystems has to be seen as a critically important activity and the financial instruments designed to mitigate the effect of global warming must recognize this potential. This means designing and implementing long maturing, multi age, and multi species systems that mimic or are analogous to the natural mature ecosystem.

Sri Lanka is ideally poised to do so.

• Climate Change
• Sri Lanka can Lead the way for us to Win at the Game of Climate Change
• “Don’t be stupid! The climate deed is done, so let’s move on to solutions!” – President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives
• SRI LANKA MAY WANT – AN ECONOMIC VISION 2030
• The Growth Ideal or not so Ideal

We drove down to Galle today on the newly opened E01 road, more commonly known as the Southern Highway / Expressway. Setting off at 6.33am, we were in Galle at 7.45am, and setting off after a leisurely breakfast at around 9.45am, we were back in Kottawa around 10.45am. Many will take this same journey in the days and weeks ahead just to experience the road, Sri Lanka’s first highway. To be able to go to Galle and return in such a short time is, for those used to the 3 – 4 hours it takes along Galle Road, nothing short of incredible.

Our impressions of the journey follow along with some photos of E01.

The drive just before sunrise, weaving through countryside as day breaks is nothing short of spectacular. It is beautiful to the point of distraction, since though driving at over one hundred kilometres an hour demands complete attention on road conditions, the eyes are in constant competition with the pull of the scenery. The complete absence of any billboards and advertising is wonderful.

There is very little traffic on the road. And yet, the toll gates in Galle and Kottawa (the Colombo side entrance) struggle to deal with traffic. There is no automated toll system / lane, there are too few lanes at the toll booths, the ticketing is manually conducted and exiting the expressway takes time on account of the payment. These are bottlenecks, and will grow worse over time as traffic flows also increase. Doesn’t seem to be room for expansion of existing tollgates, but we hope there are some plans for enhancing and increasing them at every entry and exit point.

Road conditions from Kottawa to Nugegoda vary widely. The famous ‘debichchiya‘ on High Level Road remains a bottleneck, and though the road has been considerably widened on both sides, the Delkanda Junction is also a major bottleneck. The junction is currently under construction, adding to the delays. The Maharagama area is full of pedestrian traffic. The widening of the road from Maharagama to past the Pepiliyana Junction (up until the Nugegoda flyover) has been done without any consideration at all for a pavement. People are forced to walk on the main road, amongst cyclists, three wheelers and other faster moving traffic. The newly carpeted road is considerably high in some places from the ground and for the elderly, shopping laden pedestrians as well as cyclists, this is extremely dangerous. Though another was promised, the Nugegoda fly-over is still a rather small affair, with traffic from two lanes nudged to a single lane on it. Bus halts placed too close to it, coupled with the atrocious driving habits of private buses in particular, add to the congestion. At school times, traffic basically comes to a complete standstill in this area.

What all this essentially means is that travelling from the heart of Colombo to Kottawa will take, particularly during rush hours, far more time than travelling from Kottawa to Galle.

E01 clearly cuts through the countryside. This means that it cuts through areas previously inhabited by wildlife. It is unclear how effective measures to prevent wildlife from entering the road are successful. Even during the day, the animals on the highway are a life-threatening danger. This is a serious problem, and we do not recommend driving on the road at night.

We counted at least 50 dogs on the road going to and returning from Galle. They are on the driving lane and lounge as well as sleep on the overtaking lane. The highway undulates, and upon reaching a crescent, there are occasions when corrective measures to avoid running over a dog result in driving that can lose lives. The mist that enshrouded parts of the highway in the morning makes this worse. Dogs were seen crossing the road, lolling on the emergency lane and in between the road dividers, and darting across the highway.

In addition to dogs, there are sections of the highway were low flying birds almost hit the vehicle, suggesting that the highway is cutting through what may have been traditional nesting grounds. A photo above captures the problem – we weren’t able to make out what this bird was, but it just cut across the vehicle, which at the speed one travels in, is most disconcerting.

As another photo above shows, there are also sections of the highway where there are a lot of peacocks. They literally glide down from the cliffs alongside the road, and then meander across the highway.

We didn’t see any other wildlife (e.g. cows) but the abundance of stray dogs alone poses a risk we believe can lead to serious injury and even the loss of life if unchecked.

We noticed a number of vehicles stopped by the side of road with mechanical defects, suggesting that motorists keen to experience the new highway aren’t aware of the toll it takes on a vehicle at sustained high speeds.

Police presence was marginal. Those who were roadside seemed more interested in lane discipline than checking speed. We averaged around 110 – 115kmp/h. Many cars, including for some reason a large number of unregistered vehicles and those with garage plates regularly overtook us doing upwards of 140kmp/h. Even the Minister in charge of highways publicly stated he went on the road at 180kmp/h. It is unclear therefore whether the stipulated speed is going to be strictly enforced. The road itself allows for higher speeds, but encountering a stray dog at this speed is not a physics experiment we are inclined to try or experience.

There is no signage at all with emergency telephone numbers, so if you do get stuck and need help, it’s not at all clear to dial 1969, which is the highway’s dedicated emergency hotline.

The emergency lane / hard shoulder seems far too small, and is barely wide enough for a family sized car, leave aside a larger SUV. The road itself lacks adequate rest areas for drivers to rest. Microsleep at high speed kills, and its unclear why there are so little places for R&R.

Google Maps does not feature E01. We don’t know if local satellite navigation devices and databases (e.g. Dialog SatNav) have been updated with the road either.

E01′s greatest achievement is not so much in the engineering of the road, but in its ability to make Sri Lanka smaller and more easily accessible. We imagine the road will be extensively used during the up-coming Galle Literary Festival. But aside from this, the gastronomical delights of Spaghetti & Co in Hikkaduwa to the beauty and diversity of Galle Fort now feel closer, more easily reached. It’s a great and welcome development.

Photos of the highway from Kottawa to Galle

Photos of the highway from Galle to Kottawa

• Terraffic
• Bus Terrorism and Justice
• Review of ‘Right of Way: A journey of resettlement’
• For a quieter Colombo – Ban the bus horns!
• Colombo: Under Siege?

“You are horrified at our intending to do away with private property. But in your existing society, private property is already done away with for nine-tenths of the population; its existence for the few is solely due to its non-existence in the hands of those nine-tenths.” Karl Marx

No one knows how far the government is planning to go to gain control over nation’s wealth and sell it to those who patronize its economic and political agenda.

The controversial expropriation bill that plans to grab 37 properties is likely to be followed by another proposal to amend the Town and Country Planning Ordinance to acquire lands for economic, social, historical, environmental and religious purposes within municipal and urban areas. It will also end taxes and restrictions on foreigners buying and developing land anywhere in the country. The opposition’s parochial politics and ideological bankruptcy prevent constructive engagement with the procedural and substantive issues pertains to these the new property laws that are likely to create disastrous consequences for Sri Lanka’s economic and political sovereignty.

Expropriation or eminent domain—in which a government exercises its right to acquire private property for the common welfare—has a long history. “Property being an inviolable and sacred right no one can be deprived of it, unless the public necessity plainly demands it, and upon condition of a just and previous indemnity.” states the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.  A ‘just indemnity’ is the central issue here. In democracies, these appropriations are expected to follow substantive public deliberation and the advice of experts, to involve Supreme Court interventions, and result in payment of just compensation based on rigid criteria and transparency. In reality, though, the acquisition of property under the capitalist system has always been one of dispossession and alienation.

Here in Sri Lanka, an electoral majority achieved through ‘variety of different means’ is being substituted for transparency, accountability, fairness and justice! Public anxiety about the motives and the consequences of these Bills continues to grow. They are published in English language and approved within 48 hours, leaving us little time for reflection. Conflicts of interest are inevitable because the country’s defense, economic development, and finance are under the control of small group of people.  “The Parliament has lost all its powers merely because the government has obtained by dubious means a two-thirds majority.  This House has been reduced to a mere rubber stamp.” argued Mr. Sumanthiran of the TNA. The bill is deeply ‘flawed as it arrogates powers of the judiciary and executive and amounts to ad hominem legislation targeting a specific citizen….the bill tantamount to the suspension and/or amendment of the Constitution of the country and could not be passed by simple majority of Parliament or otherwise.  Simply put the bill misleads the public,’ says Sri Amaresekera, a public litigation activist

New property acquisition Bills are likely to be implemented under the surveillance of highly centralized ‘defense-development industrial complex,’ which seems to be enjoying liberty to avoid standard practices of accountability and transparency, much more than the military industrial complex does in the United States.  Although both complexes follow the same capitalist logic and have been driving their respective nations into debt and deeper economic crises, the United States, relatively speaking, is less vulnerable because of its national economic and political bases are much stronger than Sri Lanka.

In the current ‘culture of fear,’ the “subject ministers” (political appointees now empowered by the new Bills to declare to acquire assets) are unlikely to heed to expert advice in assessing property value.   The technocrats and civil authorities are as opportunistic and parochial as the politicians.  In response to Supreme Court Approval of the Bill, Mr. Sumanthiran noted that the Cabinet has abused its power in referring this matter as an Urgent Bill to the Supreme Court. “[How] can the Supreme Court rule on whether a particular enterprise is underperforming or not without examining the accounts of that enterprise – without examining other material?   The reason for such Supreme Court Verdict is the 18^th Amendment where “judges are no longer vetted by the Constitutional Council, there is no independent judiciary in this country.”

It’s nonsense to say that the state is ‘nationalizing property’.  When socialist or social welfare democracies nationalize property, they do it with the intent of maximizing social good. But the neoliberal state perverts the term when it uses ‘nationalization’ as a cover for mere privatization. (President Premadas cutely refers to this as ‘peoplization’.)  The neoliberals’ intent is to create a global property market, transferring property to the highest bidder.  They care only about the short term market value of property, and the transaction benefits only few who can pay.  The most misleading aspect of the bills is their claim to benefit ‘national’ interests.  Can these property laws that are undemocratically approved and predicated on inequality-breeding economic system safeguard inclusive national inclusive interests?

The progress of the capitalist system depends on the institution of private property and its continual acquisition (land, social safety nets, education, health, intellect etc.).  Historically this rapaciousness has taken many different forms: nothing is considered beyond commodification.

In capitalism, disposed and alienated labor creates private property, which is then used as a means to further alienate labor. It is the fundamental cause of inequities in material wealth and the power and privilege associated with it.  But as capitalism matures the even capitalist class and the state could lose the control of the value of property. At this point, national security is introduced to safeguard the interests of the property-owning class and suppress public complaints about the state’s failure to manage public property for the benefit of the people and the environment.  The gap between the property owning class and the wage earning class then widens even further.  Global economic recovery is highly unlikely, and the poor will suffer a disproportionate share of the social and economic costs of bankrolling real estate development.

Although the government has not yet specified the criteria for declaring assets to be ‘underperforming and underutilized,’ we can be sure that its commitment to neoliberal policies will dictate their conformity to market values. Social, economic and environmental costs and benefits will be treated as if synonymous with market value.   But ‘market values’ alienate people from land and property, and make their benefits accessible only to the wealthy classes.  Market values neither provide an accurate assessment of values to an eco-system, nor compensate for the loss the eco-system suffers due to realization of market values.

Government also could under-value the properties it intend to acquire in order to generate revenues by selling them cheap to bank roll it’s administrations expenses, real estate development, and to expand its political support base.  Similarly the state is also vulnerable to demand for easy access to country’s wealth by those geopolitical powers that help the country to withstand the internal pressures regarding international human abuses.  Unlike the East Asian states, Sri Lanka state is a rent seeking state – a state that seeks short term rents rather than economic efficiency of the enterprises, either public or private.

The Sri Lankan state is unlikely to reap even the capitalist efficiency.  In a climate of nepotism, corruption, and surveillance, there is little reason for us to believe that the state can run the institutions more efficiently than the private sector.  Change of ownership does not automatically change work ethic and politics.  Increasing inequality and erosion of popular legitimacy of the state will increase the possibility that the possibility that goals of nationalization will be determined by political rationale than by economic rationale.

The current economic global economic crisis has been caused, and is continued, by market values.  Trillions in investments aren’t helping governments to restore their troubled economies.   The drop in markets has cost governments and people alike their economic safety nets, and governments are increasingly forced to adopt drastic austerity measures and to suppress public dissent by military means.  When privatization is couched in the language of national or public interests, the state can hide the fact that it is subsidizing the private sector with public funds. It can also pretend that suppressing dissent against privatization is legitimate.  They can try to mask the truth, but they cannot erase it.

Transfer of property is not a simple matter of economic efficiency. It is a technique of social and political engineering.  When the government calls privatization ‘nationalization,’ it casts doubts upon its interest in and sincerity about power sharing with the minority communities. Privatizing via nationalization will disempower minorities through dispossession, reduce their bargaining power, and make devolution meaningless.  Nationalizing property in the name of ‘recreation’, ‘beauty’ and ‘safety’ is a cynical tactic to displace politically troubling populations and increase state capacity to suppress protest against dispossession and inequality.  One can then be arrested for exercising freedom of protest in public spaces, rather for trespassing or endangering private property.

In a situation of acute ethnic and class polarization, and politics over-powered by exclusive nationalism, the government’s rhetoric about acquiring property for ‘public’ or social purposes can easily obscure the specific interests and vulnerabilities of communities. In the worst case, it can sow the seeds for another conflict, particularly when the land and property at stake is closely intertwined with the identity and economic and political securities of these communities.   The acquisition of property could easily cast doubt about the governments’ sincerity of power sharing complicate peace process because political power is closely intertwined with economic power embedded in land.

Because Sri Lanka is fiscally bankrupt, the state may not even realize the economic value of property it acquires. In all likelihood, ‘nationalization’ will simply transfer this property to private investors and use the increased rents to maintain the state machinery.  In a climate of nepotism, corruption, and surveillance there is little reason for us to believe that the state will run any institutions it appropriates more efficiently than their current owners.  The greater the inequality and erosion of popular legitimacy of the state, the greater the possibility that nationalization will be over-determined by a political rationale that prevails over any economic rationale.   The investors are already becoming anxious investing in Sri Lanka when the political expediency and rhetoric treat them ‘gullible voters.’

The capital poured into property development is driven by highly volatile speculative financial markets, which in many ways shape the behavior of the commodity markets.  There is no reason to believe that markets will stabilize, and much reason to believe they will continue to fluctuate wildly. Under the new system of ‘nationalization,’ the consequences of a sudden drop in property values will transferred to the general public, while private investors will safeguarded with public funds. (We have seen this happen again and again in the enormous financial bail-outs of the super-powers.)  For example, the crisis of the US financial markets caused real estate values in the Middle East to plummet, leading to layoffs of migrant workers and reducing remittances in Egypt. This chain of events culminated in the overthrow of Mubarak.

None of the mainstream opposition parties have provided a competent analysis of the two Bills. Nor have they conducted campaigns to create public awareness about them or organized protests against them.  Instead, they appear comfortably complicit. The left-wing allies of the government support these Bills in the same spirit that socialist China has become the vanguard of the market economy.  The JVP too is unable to make a difference because it has failed articulate an alternative approach to property rights, radically different from the one held by the UNP, JHU and the UPFA.

UNP’s opposition to ‘nationalization’ is motivated by political expediency.  But if they cede control over wealth to the government, they’ll be even more economically and politically bankrupt.  Protecting property to serve the common interests of society is antithetical to the economic ideology of the UNP, which is now being perfected by the UPFA.  UNP is patronized by capitalists and fears losing access to their wealth. Thus, when UNP claims that the government is trying to take over the properties of Sinhala businesses, it’s merely evidence of their opportunistic exploitation of ethnicity and their moral bankruptcy. The UNP and UPFA debate over the expropriation bills represents competition between capitalist classes, rather than an effort to ensure the welfare of the non-proprietary classes.   Where was the UNP (and JHU) when the Dole Banana Company took over more than 62,000 hectares of land including the land belong to Somawathi Chaithiya sanctuary , many temple lands and Wildlife department?

For nationalists like JHU, the issue of economic and political sovereignty is a concern only insofar as it relates to power sharing with minorities. They are apparently unconcerned when Sri Lankan sovereignty is undermined by the transnational capital (anything to the investors, not an inch to minorities!)  In the meantime, the Tamil political parties are also preoccupied with identity and power sharing issues, and their economic ideologies are as capitalist as their opponents.’   WikiLeaks continue to provide ample evidence of the contradictions between the anti-Western and anti-imperialistic rhetoric of the ruling class and its secret collaborations with the Western countries, the IMF, and the World Bank.  Nationalism in contemporary Sri Lanka is not organic. Instead, it is designed to prepare the nation for exploitation by the global market and to punish those that protest against it.

Many of the civil society organizations, such as Transparency International, are either powerless or similarly rooted in capitalist ideology. Their donors will permit them to talk only about transparency and accountability of private property acquisition.  Discussion of its capitalist underpinnings is forbidden.  In truth, there are hardly any differences between the ‘good governance’ project of the NGOs, and the goals of the neoliberal state and corporations.

When Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investors downgraded Sri Lanka’s investment rating they weren’t in the least concerned with public welfare.  They responded to the erosion of investor confidence: investors feared that the government might fail to sell the properties to highest bidder and chose to punish the private sector when face with public dissent.  This is evident in the threats of legal action against Sri Lankan government by British and Indian companies.  The UNP seems joined the international campaign to protest against the acquisition Bill.

Neoliberal economists provide the ideological underpinnings for the institution of private property and when private property is threatened they call for ‘good governance’.  Their prescriptions are based on abstract models, and their so-called objectivity depends on probabilities and uncertainties.  Without attachment to the reality on the ground or anchored by a realistic assessment of the nature of human behavior and its effect on market outcomes, “economics is restricted by… socially restricted vision,” notes Richard Peet, a Geographer at the Clark University.

We must not buy into the oft-debunked myth that social benefits will ‘trickle down’ via ‘privatization through nationalization.’  Self-proclaimed prophets of capitalism like Fredric Von Mises like to promote the fantasy of ‘free markets’ navigated by ‘egoistic and self-interested’ individuals ‘imbued with Freedom’.  They trumpet that markets harmonize selfish interests and make them socially and environmentally responsible because market outcomes the result of spontaneous and unplanned decisions made by rational, freedom-loving, self-interested individuals.  It’s a pretty story, but it’s not a true story, and we can’t afford to believe in fairy tales anymore.  Markets are constructions built and maintained by hierarchical social, economic and political institutions that deprive individuals and nations of equal opportunities to realize their full humanity.   Political propaganda and advertising shapes public opinion, not free choice or rational self-interest.

Marx, in his critical remarks on elevating competitive self-interest in the markets into common interests, noted that ‘common interests’ proceed “behind the back of these self-reflected particular interests, behind the back of one individual interest in opposition to that of other.” It is worth paying attention to Karl Polyani: “There is nothing natural about Laissez-faire. Laissez-Faire itself was produced by the state.” The violence and protests that we witness around the world today are evidence of the markets’ failure to harmonize human interests for the common good.

The ‘occupy movements’ and ‘citizens’ movements’ around world are expressions of frustration with the state, corporations, technocrats, and NGOs.  These protestors, now indentify as “99%” of the society, may lack ideological or programmatic coherence, but they signal an emerging global solidarity against the consequences of loosing of their common wealth to 1% of the society.  Although these protest movements are fluid, assemblies of diverse interest groups, ranging from those fighting for sexual rights to proponents of universal health care, are signs of an emerging global solidarity that is likely to pose serious challenges to the hegemony the property owning class.

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The Sri Lankan government is callously gambling with investor confidence. The effects are already evident, and will get worse. 

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One can understand President Obama’s urgency. His legislative programme has been delayed by a divided Congress, his approval ratings have fallen and next year is election year. Hence his new slogan is ‘We can’t Wait’. Despite claims of unconstitutionality and abuse of power he has resorted to issuing executive orders to get things moving. Obama would envy President Rajapakse. With complete control of Parliament, the latter enjoys high approval ratings and an election is not any time soon. Yet Rajapakse’s government is in an equal hurry. Thus certain legislative proposals are being pushed through Parliament as ‘urgent bills’. Around a year ago, the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution was presented as an urgent bill. The latest is the Expropriation Act previously known as the ‘Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Underutilized Assets Bill’.

There a lots of things wrong with the Act. Apart from sloppy drafting there are arguments of abuse of power, political victimization and unconstitutionality. But President Rajapakse is not the first to make maximum use of a very generous constitutional arrangement and a very compliant Parliament. There are is a certain déjà vu about the Act. After all it is reflective of a more general problem that ails democratic governance and Sri Lanka in particular and that is, not everything can be left to be decided by politicians elected through a vote.

Yet, democratic decision making has an appeal that other means don’t have. Whether it be deciding on a family holiday, activities of a social club or even governing a country, there are several reasons why we adopt a system of voting and pick the choices backed by a majority. For one thing, everyone feels consulted and no one feels left out and in any case, if most of us agreed on something – it probably was the best option after all.

However this is not always the case. The protests in Zuccotti Park in New York, St Paul’s in London and the European solution to replace the Prime Ministers of Greece and Italy with technocrats buttress the argument that democratic decision making do not guarantee good decisions. In fact democracies are known for making bad choices. Laws have been passed for example against women – when they were a weak and voiceless minority, against political opponents of the majority and most notoriously against ethnic and racial minorities. The Sinhala Only Act was a product of an elected legislature which had the backing of a majority of the voters.

There are reasons that cause this kind of defective decision making.  For one those who are in power have a tendency to try and hold onto that power – hook or by crook. A common strategy is to weaken or eliminate opponents or change the rules to ensure that those in, stay in, and those out, stay out. The imposition of civic disability on Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike by the J R Jayawardene government belongs to this classic type of majoritarian tyranny. But not everything results from malefic intentions. After all sometimes certain majorities may simply not understand the needs and aspirations of the minorities – despite their best intentions. For example to overcome this systemic defect at least with regard to gender and age based minorities, political parties are now required to nominate a certain percentage of female and youth candidates at elections on the basis that their male/more senior colleagues have difficulties in understanding feminine/youth perspectives when formulating government policy.

So majority decision making needs a braking system. Something that tells them – wait, think again, do you really want to do this? This is where, of the three arms of government, the unelected one – the judiciary plays a critical role. For example, when White majorities oppressed Black minorities, the judges of the US Supreme Court in Brown v Board of Education ruled that laws that promoted racial segregation were unconstitutional. They opened the doors for racial equality and in the long term those of the White House to a Black President. Similarly the Indian Supreme Court has contributed towards making Indian society more equal through their judgments attacking the caste system, bonded labour and gender inequality amongst a host of other issues.

However when judges do take on this role, they are often attacked for acting ‘anti-democratically’. But in reality when judges stand up for equal rights, political freedom etc they are not undermining democracy but strengthening it. When judges act to ensure media and political freedom, free elections, gender and ethnic equality they are enlightening majorities, creating a climate for effective debate, establishing an environment where people converse with respect and as equals. Thereby judges contribute towards strong, inclusive and vibrant societies. Therefore in the present Sri Lankan political context, the important role played by the judges of the Superior Courts cannot be overstated. As the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Ifthikar Muhammed Chaudhry demonstrated, the political impact of a judicial order ought not to be underestimated. It is in this regard that the opinion of the Supreme Court with regard to the Expropriation Act was a disappointment. No doubt the opinion of the Supreme Court demands great deference and respect. Yet article 12 (1) of the Constitution demands that equals be treated alike. Then when a law singles out a specific enterprise and certain specified assets leaving out others of a similar nature, there is a prima facie violation of Article 12(1). At a cursory glance another underperforming enterprise is Mihin Lanka. On the day the Expropriation Act was passed, Parliament was informed that the Government had pumped over Rs 10,000 Million between 2007 and 2010 into Mihin Lanka despite colossal losses. If the principle of equality were to apply, the Act ought to apply to Mihin as much as it applies to Hilton. After all under Article 123(3) of the Constitution all that the judges need is to have ‘a doubt’ about constitutionality and in such case they are entitled to declare that the bill is inconsistent with the Constitution.

If the court had ruled that the bill did threaten the rights of citizens several possible scenarios could have played out. In the very least the judges would have made the Government pause and reflect on their course of action. The Government could have either considered the views and concerns of the judges re-drafted and re-submitted the bill or forged ahead and passed it using its special majority in Parliament. If the Government had taken the first option, then we would have seen a better considered bill. If on the other hand they chose the second option then the Government would have been put under pressure politically to explain itself in very clear terms as to why the law is needed. Both scenarios help the quality of democracy and decision making in the country. On other hand what we do have is a scenario where people feel that their rights have been violated, a wrong policy adopted, yet the powers that be seem unconcerned – nothing like how a democracy should feel like.

The last time we had this same feeling, it was when the Supreme Court stamped its approval on the private sector pensions bill. On that occasion a young man sacrificed his life before the bill was withdrawn – surely democratic governance in Sri Lanka can find better means for participation, political expression and impact.

[Authors note: This is an expanded version of an article that was first published in the Daily Mirror on 15 November 2011]

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Photo courtesy Sarvodaya Media Unit

When Dr A T Ariyaratne, founder and president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka, turned 80 years on 5 November 2011, felicitations poured in from all over the world. This spontaneous act was an indication — if any were needed — of how much and how widely he has touched the lives of millions.

For someone with global stature, Ahangamage Tudor Ariyaratne is completely devoid of pomposity. In a career spanning six decades, he has received some three dozen awards and honours — including the ‘Asian Nobel’ Magsaysay Award (Community Leadership, 1969), honorary degrees and doctorates, and the highest national honour from his own country, SriLankabhimanya (Pride of Sri Lanka). But he remains a simple and amiable man. He is still ‘AT’ to contemporaries, ‘Ari’ to us fellow travellers, and ‘Loku Sir’ (Master) to all at Sarvodaya – the largest development organisation in Sri Lanka. The apolitical people’s movement has a presence in over 15,000 villages.

Ari is also our elder statesman of inclusive development. For over half a century, he and Sarvodaya have advocated a nuanced approach to overcoming poverty, illiteracy and various social exclusions. Unlike some die-hard activists, Ari doesn’t ask us to denounce materialism or revert to pre-industrial lifestyles. Instead, he seeks a world without extreme poverty or extreme affluence.

Suddenly, his quest for social justice and equality is resonating all over the world. In fact, Ari has been speaking out for the 99 per cent of less privileged people decades before a movement by that name emerged in the West. In a sense, those occupying Wall Street and other centres of affluence are all children of Sarvodaya.

While Ari shares their moral outrage, his own strategy has been quite different. He didn’t occupy physical spaces in his struggle; he went straight to the fount of all injustice – our minds.

Shared work, voluntary giving and sharing of resources form the bedrock of Sarvodaya’s approach to doing good, but these are not random acts of charity. They are all means to achieving the ‘awakening of everyone’ – starting from the individual and family, and going up to village, national and global levels. There is strong spiritual base to Sarvodaya, albeit a non-doctrinal one. It is inspired by Buddhism, yet not deep immersed in it.

Ari is the lead thinker of Sarvodaya. He has guided the movement from humble beginnings in 1958 to its globalised, internationally recognised level today. Luckily for everyone, Ari wasn’t just a deep thinker but also a practical and passionate activist. Early on, he struck a healthy balance between theory and practice.

Thanks to him, Sarvodaya’s vision is thoughtful without being pedantic; its work is systematic without being too bureaucratic. Sarvodaya staff and volunteers are not robotic do-gooders controlled from their headquarters: they are motivated, disciplined and resourceful (I’ve worked with many). At all levels, they know what to do, how – and more importantly, why.

In Ari, we find elements of Mahatma Gandhi (non-violent pursuit of the greater good); the Dalai Lama (interpreting Buddhist philosophy for the modern world); Martin Luther King, Jr. (struggling for the rights and dignity of marginalised people); Nelson Mandela (nurturing democracy and healing society); and Jimmy Carter (globalism with a humanitarian agenda).

Yet Ari is more than the sum of these noble parts; he is his own unique visionary. And an adroit ‘remixer’ who constantly blends the best of East and West. He adapts our civilisational heritage to tackle the Twenty First Century’s anxieties and uncertainties. Thankfully, though, he doesn’t peddle simplistic solutions to today’s complex problems.

On the Frontline

Ari is a man on the move, endlessly criss-crossing his island, leading from the front. When he turned 75, he told me that he was still averaging 100 to 150 km of inland travel every day. Come Hell or high water – he has faced plenty of both — he goes where the needs are. And he shows no sign of slowing down.

Ari has built more ‘bridges’ in Sri Lanka than all its post-independence governments. His ‘bridges’ are between people: he has connected all ethnic, religious and linguistic groups who share our island, nurturing trust and cooperation among them. As policy analyst Chanuka Wattegama says, Ari is perhaps the only leader in Sri Lanka to rally all Lankans under one umbrella — not a single politician has achieved this feat.

So how many lives has Sarvodaya saved over the decades?

The movement’s wide-ranging social development programmes have improved the lives of millions through better health, nutrition, literacy and education. Meanwhile, its humanitarian programmes have literally made the difference between life and death in times of disaster or conflict.

When the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck in December 2004, Ari and his team were the first responders, reaching some affected communities within six hours; government relief efforts took two or more days. Likewise, Sarvodaya maintained its non-partisan and humanitarian presence even during the height of hostilities between Lankan armed forces and Tamil Tigers in war-ravaged areas.

However, we must look deeper to discover Sarvodaya’s greatest accomplishment in preventive action. Consider the large number of Sarvodaya-affiliated young men and women who simply refused to join the Marxist insurrections in 1971 and 1987-89, and the separatist terror that triggered our civil war. If not for Sarvodaya’s positive engagement of youth, the death toll of our trinity of uprisings could have been far higher…

Courage of Conviction

While Ari is an avowed man of peace, he can be an indomitable defender of his movement and its principles. Faced with injustice, the genial ex-schoolmaster becomes a mighty force to reckon with. I witnessed that facet of Ari when I first interviewed him in early 1991.

For unclear reasons, President Premadasa had unleashed the full powers of the state to persecute Ari and Sarvodaya through an infamous NGO Commission. As the people’s movement was confronting a ruthless bureaucracy and opportunistic critics week after week, most of the media was too scared to carry Sarvodaya’s side of the story. My seniors at The Island were hesitant to interview the man at the centre of this storm; being idealistic and curious, I volunteered.

Ari spent an entire morning talking with me, then a cub reporter, placing everything on the record. I asked some piercing questions, all of which he answered with clarity and purpose. He systematically debunked the many allegations against Sarvodaya. He also called for a co-existence between government, private and people’s sectors: the problems of under-development and social exclusion were too enormous to be tackled individually, he argued.

Photo courtesy Sarvodaya Media Unit

Half way through the interview, I popped the question that everyone was asking: Are you politically ambitious?

“I have no ambition to hold political office,” he answered. Then he quickly added: “But I am very political – in the sense that I want power at the centre to be totally brought down to the people, so that we can enjoy our human rights – freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of participation, and decision-making. Democracy to be really with the people.”

I had an explosive interview. But our editor was overseas, and no one else was willing to take responsibility. So my transcript went right up to the company’s managing director. James Lanerolle, the retired civil servant heading Upali Newspapers at the time, deemed it should be printed in full. So it appeared on one and a half broadsheet pages in The Island on 2 February 1991 with the provocative headline (not mine): “I am very political!”

Photo by Amal Samaraweera

A few months later, while the state was still bashing him mercilessly, Ari and I found ourselves departing Sri Lanka on the same flight. Concerned strangers surrounded Ari at Immigration, Customs and the flight gate,  expressing their dismay at the prevailing injustice and urging him to stand his ground. Ari later told me that this had become a daily occurrence: such solidarity only steeled his resolve.

It took a dramatic — and brutal — turn of events before Ari and Sarvodaya could breathe more easily again. Ari didn’t rejoice at the assassination of his tormentor. He just picked up from where he’d left off.

Before and since, Sarvodaya-bashing has been a popular pastime for some. Its critics remind me of the Lankan fable about five blind men meeting an elephant. Each feels one part of its body and imagines – very differently – what the whole being is like. None of them gets close to the real picture.

While a few critics helped the movement to sharpen its focus, many only held up progress. Journalist Gunadasa Liyanage, who wrote Ari’s first biography (Revolution Under the Breadfruit Tree, 1987) asserted that Ari had probably spent 75 per cent of his time defending himself and the movement from unfair attacks, or repairing the damage. Just imagine…

In his time, Ari has prevailed over many naysayers, back-stabbers and oppressors. He has survived thugs and death squads, and astounded doubting Thomases. He can have the last word and last laugh — but chooses not to. Such equanimity and compassion are uncommon.

Best of Sri Lanka 

Despite the occasional rough handling he received nationally, Ari has consistently promoted his country internationally. He is one of the best known Lankans in the world today, held in equally high esteem in both the East and West. In countries like Japan, India, the Netherlands and the United States, people pay and flock to hear his talks. From the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to economies in transition (in Eastern Europe), planners are studying Sarvodaya’s development model.

It’s not just talk. Ari’s global engagement has produced some tangible results. Beginning in the mid 1960s, Ari travelled the globe addressing numerous gatherings of academics, activists, development workers and politicians. His thinking influenced development and humanitarian policies. His vision inspired thousands of well-intended young people to pursue meaningful careers in the development and voluntary sectors. He gave purpose to hapless UN officials searching for the UN Charter’s goals of peace, security and development.

Each such act accrued goodwill for his country. With no official status or state resources, Ari has also done more to project a positive image of Sri Lanka than has our entire Foreign Service combined. Unlike our diplomats who feel the need to ‘lie abroad for their country’, however, Ari just speaks truth to power. He is accommodating and open to dialogue, with none of the dogma and self-righteousness of our nationalists.

As the Sri Lankan state searches for ways to reposition itself in the world after three decades of war, it can learn a few lessons from Ari. Sarvodaya showcases the finest that Sri Lanka can offer the world intellectually, spiritually and culturally. These experiences are well documented and available for free — even to expensive spin doctors!

The movement epitomises Lankan ‘soft power’ at its best: engaging the world on our own terms, and earning global goodwill for fresh thinking, principled positions and exemplary service or performance. Also in this select group – albeit for different reasons — are the Sri Lanka Eye Donation Society and our Cricket Team. We must nurture many more.

Trouble maker?

Ari is still as open-minded, eager to learn and willing to share as I first found him two decades ago. He is a voice of reason and moderation, fearlessly speaking out on matters of national and global importance.

He is also a first class communicator. He speaks eloquently, passionately – and with malice towards none. His writing and speeches are philosophical yet eminently accessible for their simplicity and sincerity. The science teacher who followed his own conscience to work for rural upliftment and social justice has now become the conscience of a whole nation.

His mastery of modern communications technologies is impressive. He keeps up with his email. He carries around his own digital camera, and clicks liberally. He knows the power of still and moving images. He can convert cynics, disarm critics or energise thousands – all with a few carefully chosen words or images.

Oh, Ari isn’t perfect – but I find his imperfections just as endearing. He trusts people too much, and hasn’t changed that trait even after many betrayals. He can be a bit naïve in believing that mass meditation by peace-loving men and women can dissuade warring politicians or rebels.

Speaking his mind has often landed Ari in ‘trouble’, but the man refuses shut up. At 80, he still plays the role of that irrepressible little boy who had the courage to say the Emperor was naked. He speaks not just for the voiceless majority, but also for many tongue-tied intellectuals who seek refuge in conformist – and cosy — silence.

Here is a recent example. In November 2010, Ari gave an outspoken submission to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) of Sri Lanka, set up by the President as part of the post-war healing process. Drawing on Sarvodaya’s many and varied experiences, he offered seven salient lessons for a more stable and prosperous future for all Lankans (see: http://tiny.cc/LLRC-ATA). We shall soon know if he was heard, when the Commission report is released.

Sprinkled throughout his submission are profound insights and cautions not just for the current custodians of political power, but all of us who have entrusted them with that power. Here are a few striking quotes: Governments cannot legislate the feelings of people. State should be sensitive to feelings, needs and aspirations of people in a plural society. Militarisation of the country is not the answer. Every non-Sri Lankan is not out to destabilise the country. Treat the voluntary sector with respect and understanding. Governments should never depend on corrupt people, thugs, criminals and lawless elements to come into power or remain in power.

Ari kept his best to the last: “If any government thinks that national problems could be solved by military might, bureaucratic control and media propaganda, hasty legislation, over-reliance on the Prevention of Terrorism Act and such other legislation, it is committing a grave mistake which will reverberate on the government later.”

No wonder his submission didn’t get much media coverage in Sri Lanka. It was just too hot to handle.

Do we — as citizens and voters — have the capacity to heed such distilled wisdom? It’s not good enough to celebrate Ari’s eight decades of life or hail him as the Pride of Lanka.

Ari keeps on speaking for many of us who don’t have the right words, or the courage – or both. He is the conscience-keeper of our bruised nation.

We ignore this little man at our own peril.

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Science writer and development communicator Nalaka Gunawardene considers himself a ‘critical cheer-leader’ of Sarvodaya. As a secular humanist, he has never felt out of place in Sarvodaya’s form of inclusive Buddhism. He blogs at http://nalakagunawardene.com

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