One one things

Today’s post is outsourced to a man who would have done a far better job than I. Unfortunately, an assassin’s bullet exactly three years ago prevents him from being among us. The following is a speech that was made by Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar to the Sri Lankan cricket team during the Natwest Trophy 2002 involving Sri Lanka, England and South Africa. Sri Lanka had just lost to England but a few days later went on to lift the trophy, beating England in the final at Lords.

“Captain Atapattu and members of the Sri Lankan team, Members of the Sri Lankan community, Friends of Sri Lanka, Ladies and Gentlemen. Some historians say, I think uncharitably, that cricket is really a diabolical political strategy, disguised as a game, in fact a substitute for war, invented by the ingenious British to confuse the natives by encouraging them to fight each other instead of their imperial rulers. The world is divided into two camps - those who revel in the intricacies of cricket and those who are totally baffled by it, who cannot figure out why a group of energetic young men should spend days, often in the hot sun or bitter cold, chasing a ball across an open field, hitting it from time to time with a stick - all to the rapturous applause of thousands, now millions, of ecstatic spectators across the world. The game has developed a mystical language of its own that further bewilders those who are already befuddled by its complexities. In the course of my travels I have a hard time explaining to the non-cricketing world - in America, China, Europe and Russia - that a ‘googly’ is not an Indian sweetmeat; that a ’square cut’ is not a choice selection of prime beef; that a ‘cover drive’ is not a secluded part of the garden; that a ‘bouncer’ is not a muscular janitor at a night club, that a ‘yorker’ is not some exotic cocktail mixed in Yorkshire or that a ‘leg-break’ is not a sinister manoeuvre designed to cripple your opponent’s limbs below the waist.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me see whether politics and cricket have anything in common. Both are games. Politicians and cricketers are superficially similar, and yet very different. Both groups are wooed by the cruel public who embrace them today and reject them tomorrow. Cricketers work hard; politicians only pretend to do so. Cricketers are disciplined; discipline is a word unknown to most politicians in any language. Cricketers risk their own limbs in the heat of honourable play, politicians encourage others to risk their limbs in pursuit of fruitless causes while they remain secure in the safety of their pavilions. Cricketers deserve the rewards they get; the people get the politicians they deserve. Cricketers retire young; politicians go on for ever. Cricketers unite the country; politicians divide it. Cricketers accept the umpire’s verdict even if they disagree with it; politicians who disagree with an umpire usually get him transferred. Cricketers stick to their team through victory and defeat, politicians in a losing team cross over and join the winning team. Clearly, cricketers are the better breed.

It is said that the task of a foreign minister is to lie effusively for his country abroad. That may be true, but it is certainly true that he has to fight for his country and defend it at all times. Our cricketers may recall that in the run-up to the 1996 World Cup, Australia refused to play a match in Colombo, citing security reasons. Shane Warne said he wouldn’t come to Colombo because he couldn’t do any shopping there. The press asked me for a comment. I said “shopping is for sissies”. There was a storm of protest in Australia. A TV interviewer asked me whether I had ever played cricket. I said I had played before he was born - without helmets and thigh guards, on matting wickets that were full of holes and stones, and I had my share of broken bones to show it. My friend the Australian foreign minister was drawn into the fray and phoned me. We decided to cool things down. A combined India/Pakistan team came to Colombo at very short notice to play an exhibition match in place of the Australian match. It was a magnificent gesture of South Asian solidarity. Against strong security advice I went on to the field to greet and thank our friends from India and Pakistan. When the whole episode was over I sent a bouquet of flowers to my Australian counterpart. Flowers are also for sissies.

I remember vividly the incident that occurred in Australia when Murali was called for throwing and Arjuna led his team to the boundary, in protest, but cleverly refrained from crossing it. I was watching TV in Colombo. As a past captain I asked myself what I would have done in Arjuna’s place. In my mind I had no hesitation in supporting his decision. A few minutes later the phone rang. The President of the Board called to ask for advice. I said Arjuna was right because a captain must, on the field, stand up for his men and protect them, but the consequences must not be allowed to go too far; good lawyers must be engaged and a reasonable compromise must be reached. That was done. During that tour I paid an official visit to Australia. My friend the Australian foreign minister in the course of a dinner speech invited me to go with him the next day to Adelaide, his home town, to watch the final day’s play. I knew what the result was going to be. In my reply I said that at the end of the match I did not want to be the one to tell him that Australia had “won by a Hair,’. Accordingly, I went back home, as planned, to maintain the good relations that we have with Australia.

Foreign ministers sometimes find themselves in very difficult situations. Take the case of the Foreign Minister of Uganda. President Idi Amin told him that he wanted to change the name of Uganda to Idi. The minister was asked to canvas world opinion and return in two weeks. He did not do so. He was summoned and asked to explain. He said: “Mr. President, I have been informed that there is a country called Cyprus. Its citizens are called Cypriots, If we change the name of our country to ‘Idi’ our citizens would be called…Idiots”. Reason prevailed. A story goes that a shark was asked why diplomats were his preferred food. He replied “because their brains being small are a tasty morsel, their spines being supple I can chew on them at leisure - and they come delightfully marinated in alcohol.” Ladies and Gentlemen, as I approach the close of this brief address I wish to speak directly to our Sri Lankan team. Today we lost a match. But you lost to the rain and M/s Duckworth and Lewis. You did not lose to England. Only a few weeks ago you had a resounding victory against South Africa. You will win again tomorrow. What is important is to keep up your confidence and spirits. All of us, your fellow countrymen and women, have been enormously impressed in recent times by the commitment, discipline, athleticism and determination that you have displayed in the field. The people are with you. We all know that each and every one of you, are constantly busy honing your skills. We can see that you are maintaining a high standard of physical fitness. When the people see this it gives them not only immense pleasure but the moral upliftment that Sri Lankans are capable of in rising to the challenge of sustained performance. Every team loses. It takes two to play a game. One has to lose. It is the manner in which you play the game which gives the promise of success to come. It is a great pleasure to see how youngsters are being drafted into the national team. Our team is united; it reflects all the races and religions of our country.

Cricket, like all international sport today, is highly competitive; and so it must be, and so it must remain. It must always be regarded as a very high honour to represent one’s country at any sport. All of you are role models for our youth. They will be looking to see how you take defeat. To exult in victory is easy, to remain well balanced in defeat is a mark of maturity. Do not allow yourselves to be disturbed by the armchair critics who will no doubt engage in a display of theoretical learning on how the game was played. Many of these critics have never put bat to ball. It makes them feel good to indulge in the past time of amateur criticism. They do not know what it is to face fast bowling in fading light; to engage in a run race against daunting odds; to find the stamina and sheer physical endurance to spend concentrated hours in the field of play. They know nothing of the psychological pressure that modern sportsmen are subject to. Therefore, my advice to you is - ignore them. Go your way with customary discipline and methodical preparation for the next game, the next series in different parts of the world under different conditions. For me it has been a great pleasure and an honour to be here with you tonight. When I was invited to be the Chief Guest at this occasion on my way to New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations, I accepted with eager anticipation of meeting our cricketers and relaxing for a moment. Nobody told me that I had to make a speech, until last night when it dawned on me then that there is no such thing as a free dinner!”

“Our inland revenue department has more staff than the Royal Navy, it seems our government thinks that the best form of defence is a tax” - Yes Minister, The Economy Drive.

You’ve got to love the civil service. Well not really. Most of my exposure to civil servants involves peering at them through the wide array of files and tea cups on their desks, being interrupted when they answer the phone and then continue their conversation oblivious to my presence in the room, even if it’s about the neighbour’s cat. By the time the phone call is over it’s 4.30 and mid-sentence he (or she, sorry Amartya) stands up, smiles and makes haste to the bus stand. Some of the above are generalisations, but they are generally true. I’m still unsure what the difference between a civil servant and a government employee is. If there is no difference, then in SL there are more servants than masters. There are still a few good men and women in Sri Lanka’s administrative service, the remnants of the exam intake days. It’ll be another decade or so before we really feel the pinch of political appointees and graduate employment schemes. Anyway, this isn’t meant to be a rant though it is fast becoming one.

I was in Delhi last week and met some fascinating civil servants, mainly from India and Pakistan and their respective foreign services. Diplomats are like actors, you never really know what they’re up to. They’re trained to appear interested in the most boring of environments and to coat everything in five layers of sugar. But this makes them all the more intersting. A diplomat from Pakistan provided an absolute masterclass in backroom diplomacy over dinner. At the table were 5 of us from the SAARC countries other than India and Nepal. I asked the Pakistani diplomat whether it’s more pleasant working in India given the thawing of relations between the two countries. He first laughed and said that when things are “good” between two countries it’s not “good” for diplomats bc there’s more work for them, it’s better when they’re not on talking terms. (I had my doubts about this statement, I mean I’d much rather be Sri Lanka’s first secretary in the Bahamas than in Norway, but I guess he has a point). This guy was really interesting, I loved his use of language, analogies, and his background. I asked him where he’s from and he said ____ province. I use a blank bc I had never heard of the place, and now I can’t remember it. It was surprising bc you’d expect a senior diplomat to be from one of the major cities, Karachi, Islamabad or Lahore. Apparently this guy is from a tribal region, in his words “the part of Pakistan that isn’t ruled by Musharaff’s laws”. I asked him who’s laws does it fall under, to which he looked me in the eyes and said, “Our laws.” I giggled. He put down his fork and knife and said that he’s serious. “My father is the chief of our tribe, and I am next in line to be chief,” and then continued to eat. I couldn’t believe it. This man, in a suit, speaking in the most cultured English and quoting Humphrey Appleby, a tribesman? I asked him what he’s doing here, being chief sounds like it could be quite fun. But apparently he didn’t like bodyguards so he let his younger brother take that route. Fair enough. I tried to be clever and said that he doesn’t look like a Pathan, he didn’t look up from his Murgh Tikka and replied that not all tribesmen are Pathans and not all Pathans are tribesmen. D’oh.

In between our exchange, he managed to convince all around the table (now joined by an Indian academic) that the only reason Indo-Pak relations are not moving as fast as they should is the Indians. And not the politicians, but the bureaucracy, and in chief the military bureaucracy. He then explained how the power of the civil service is still massive in India and Pakistan, and how one letter to the Minister from the Secretary (or general) saying “Sir, if you go ahead with this, I can not be held responsible for the consequences,” would stop the minister dead in his tracks. The rest of us looked at one another unconvinced, the Pakistani diplomat then said “Have you watched Yes Minister? I rest my case.” He went on to say that Pakistan is run by a military man, not a politician, and he’s pushing for resolution but India is stalling. I asked why he thinks India is stalling, “Their army is 5% of your population. What will they do if there’s peace?” By now most of his conversation was aimed at the Indian academic, who in turn asked him why Pakistan is not giving MFN status to India in terms of economic relations. The diplomat cleverly side-stepped using some analogies which diverted from the issue at hand before killing the Indian’s argument with the hard facts about informal trade routed via Dubai and Singapore. (None of this can deny the fact that Pakistan doesn’t extend the most basic economic diplomacy to India).

He carried on with momentum, “So we don’t want you to solve Kashmir just yet, just start with the simple things like Siachen (glacier) and Sir Creek, then we’d have something to tell the ppl in Pakistan that it’s a two way process, and MFN can be considered” The resolution of both issues seems to require some form of concession by India, particularly at the glacier where India in all probability has more to lose from a joint troop withdrawal. Interestingly, Siachen glacier is the highest battleground in the world, and 80% of casualties are due to the climate rather than bullets. The Indian struggled to meet the Pakistani’s tact, and quietly left the table. The victor pounced on the opportunity to lobby the other SAARC diplomats to put pressure on India (and Pakistan, he said, almost as an afterthought) to solve issues that are holding back the region as a whole. There were nods all around. It was a classic case of bullying, the powerful diplomat armed with tact and words wielded like stealthy arrows, against a harmless academic throwing around a few textbook arguments in a political vacuum. He had no chance. All the other kids in playground were in such awe that they saw the bully as a hero. Uncivil bullying by a civil servant, brilliant. I came home from Delhi with a dodgy stomach and a fresh curiosity about the civil service. The former was cured by some tarivid and thambbum hodi, the latter by my newly acquired Yes Minister DVDs. It is as they say in Paris, Le shit.

P.s.
In other news, I thought I had discovered the world’s greatest irony and I was thrilled about it, but response thus far has been muted, and possibly slightly confused. Anyway the irony is this; everyone in the world is unique.

Due to ticketing issues Nepal didn’t quite work out. While it was a bit of a blow bc we were looking forward to it and had already planned quite a bit, it wasn’t the end of the world. On the bright side we’d be in Colombo to watch the World Cup finals and, as i’d find out a couple of days after the cancellation, new work commitments would have made things very difficult if the trip did go ahead. And Nepal isn’t really going anywhere so there’s always next time. We were considering alternatives within the country for the 4 days (including taking Monday 30th off) of Vesak and May day. The usual suspects were brought forward, Yala, Udawalave, Nuwara Eliya, Ella and even an out of season unawatuna trip. We eventually settled upon Wasgamuwa (also spelt Wasgomuwa for reasons i fail to fathom). I would have loved Yala but it’s a bit of a pain booking places at such short notice, and we were quite lucky to get rooms at Safari village in Wasgamuva so no complaints there. So about 10 ppl were due to show up between Sunday and Monday, after the last cricket watching session for a while.

The WC final ended on a sad note, not bc we lost but the circumstances. It’s a shame we didn’t have a full cricket match that would do justice to a final. But as is often the case in SL, things were put into perspective in the sharpest possible way. Power failures followed by explosions and the Colombo sky being lit up like a christmas tree. Phones rang frantically before the networks got jammed, and we watched through windows as planes flew around, not knowing whether they were SLAF or whatever else was out there. The rumour mills worked over time and nobody really had much idea what was going on. Things quietened down and we edged home nervously around half 3. I didn’t know what was going on in the match but knew it was raining and the boys had no chance in those conditions. Half the trip crew dropped out so it was just 5 of us who wanted to go anyway, we agreed to decide the next morning (in 4 hours time) to see if we still want to go ahead.

I woke up around 9am and a glance at the phone suggested that the 5 ppl were still in so we left Colombo around 9.45. The radio news headlines were about some random minister discussing wholesale prices and the latest in the French elections race, how very classy. We took the Kandy road to the Warakapola junc and went via Kurunegala to Matale. The drive from Matale through Laggala is one of the most picturesque in Sri Lanka. It takes you through the Knuckles range and the scenery is fabulous. The different shades of green on the hills, the trees interspersed with paddy plantations, natural bonsai created by the wind, the orchestra of crickets as you pass through tunnels of forest and the spectacular sheer drops from the road forced us to stop and admire for a few minutes. Along this route there’s a mini worlds end which isn’t all that interesting and a couple of nice looking bungalows which are pretty cleverly placed to capture the best of the views. Lucky sods. Naturally we made plans to revisit that area after setting up base in Wasgamuwa, it was much too pretty to be accorded just a simple drive through. The road quality depreciated sharply between the end of the knuckles forest and Wasgamuwa, and the scenery of course had a very tough act to follow.

We got to the little hotel around 4ish, which was pretty good time considering we stopped for brunch at Ambepussa. The rooms are pretty neat, we got a couple opposite the lake so the early morning view promised to drag you out of bed. But first things first, no time or energy for an evening round so we grabbed towels and bathers and ran off to find the nearest source of running water. A couple of the chaps had been to Was before so they rumbled through hazy memories but couldn’t pin point the location. We asked around a couple of locals about bathing spots, and an elderly villager said the place we wanted was now frequented by an elephant in musk. On another day we might have, but none of us had the energy to scamper away from an angry pachyderm. Instead we drove up along the bund of a water stream and picked a random place to take a dip. There was a fence bordering the stream which looked like it was electrified to keep the elephants away from the neighbouring farms. We asked a farmer whether its active and he said not till night, so we casually hopped over it. The water was warm and clean (what you can’t see or smell can’t hurt you) and I had the most pleasant swim since my shoulder decided to make a nuisance of itself. About half an hour later A yelps; “leach!” I was quite amused bc I had never heard of a swimming leach so I thought she was imagining things. She pointed to a twig like thing which she removed from her body. This added to the humour bc it was at least 3 inches long, far larger than any leach. And then to our amazement the twig doubled up and started swimming back towards her. She yelped and splashed out of the water. I was last in line to jump out of the water using the overhanging branch as a lever, and just before K had got out, the leach, or whatever it was, managed to attach itself on to me. I produced a melodramatic shriek and danced around a bit before hopping out of the water. The drama wasn’t over bc we were unsure about the status of the electric fence. K was the guinea pig and he got past unscathed. M was next and as soon as she touched it she quite casually said “it’s on.” Her tone didn’t suggest anything, but it seems she had actually scorched her finger and the shock had pushed her back. While she nursed her hand we crept along the wires until we reached a small gap and squeezed through to the safety of the jeep. Tiredness and lack of sleep saw us stagger into bed after a quick meal and a few drinks under the stars. There’d be 3 more days to enjoy so we needed all the rest we could muster.

My TV watching has reduced quite dramatically since returning to SL. Watching the World cup on Eye has made me spend more time watching tele and as a result i’ve noticed an interesting trend amongst some of the advertising. Several ads, three of which come to mind immediately, are based on a nationalist theme. The ads i’m referring to are the Lanka Bell ads, the Cargills advert with the salesman claiming to buy stuff directly from farmers and thereby supporting the farmers and finally the mihin air ads, the sky is ours. Of these the Lanka Bell ad is quite disturbing, they refer to the company being noble bc money doesn’t leave the country, it is a pretty obvious stab at dialog. The cargills advert is pretty harmless and the mihin air one is again a stab at SLkan airlines and its partial foreign ownership, I think.

The Lanka Bell advert is symbolic of the ideas of a lot of ppl i’ve interacted with in Sri Lanka. The idea is that foreign investment is all good but the profits leave the country, so we must stop that. People forget that profits make up just one part of economic activity. Employment generation, knowledge transfer, and services provided are several fold more important to the country than the profits that are repatriated. The telecom sector is easily the standout success story in terms of privatisation and liberalisation, it has its faults, but you can’t argue with the tremendous improvements in service provision in this sector and the benefits enjoyed by the consumer. The idea that ownership of the company needs to be Sri Lankan is an unfortunate misunderstanding of the macro impacts of investment. I personally care more that i receive quality telecom services than whether the company is owned by a Malaysian or a Sri Lankan. Even if profits “remain in the country” into whose pockets does it go? certainly not to the rural poor, so really the average Sri Lankan should not care whether profits go to Malaysia or to a few people in Colombo. Sure there is bad foreign investment, with little knowledge transfer and local employment creation only in low skill categories, but this is something that the BoI needs to look after. Taking a xenophobic view with regard to foreign investment is counter-productive, specially in a country where capital remains scarce.

The whole “deshiya” stuff is I think a gimic. I don’t think cargills will buy stuff from local farmers if they can import the same good for cheaper, nobody would unless they’re altruistic and not profit oriented. This nationalist image is pretty similar to the stance being taken by the govt at the moment. We hear the president, the ST and other key officials running around saying we don’t need donors, we can manage on our own, we have aid from India, China and Iran (wtp) and we don’t need help from the WB, IMF, ADB and what not. This whole image of being a self sufficient, sovreign nation is being portrayed everywhere. In fact I heard the head of the national resources department in a radio interview say that SL didn’t need foreign assistance to build the Parakrama Samudraya, so why do we need help now. But all this is just noise. The borrowing from the international financial institutions (bar IMF) have not changed. But there is increased borrowing from countries like China, and also projects funded through commercial borrowing, which are of dubious quality and have limited transparency. (WB, ADB borrowing require competitive bidding, these criteria are no longer required when the govt. funds a project using commercially borrowed (or printed) money, and from donors like China).

It can be argued that the emphasis on being an independent, sovreign state thing is, at least partly, an excuse to spend money in an irresponsible manner. Mihin air. Would any donor in their right minds fund such a project? I think not. The noise makes projects like this easier to achieve. And this kind of nationalistic mindset lulls ppl into believing that we can and we do need to develop on our own and will support the govt in such ventures. But clearly some of these projects have very limited benefits for the majority of the population. The funding for Mihin air was drawn from “emergency” credit through the treasury, i really don’t see the emergency requirement for a budget airline wholly owned by the state (surely a first), specially for a country with public debt around 100% of GDP.

I am firmly of the belief that the state has a role to play in economic development in developing nations like ours where market imperfections (specially information) are completely different to those which are prevalent in developed nations, and those which neo-classical economic theory is modelled upon. So there certainly is a role for the state, but there is again a huge difference between good state intervention and bad state intervention. I’m afraid at present in SL the former is being championed but the latter is the reality. I think the one exception is in the long overdue infrastructure projects, the Southern highway and the power plants. But that again is interspersed by poor infrastructure investments such as the airport in the South. The geographic concentration of the infrastrucure development (Hambantota port, highway, airport) is also a bit too much of a coincidence.

It’s important that people do not buy the gimics about nationalism and domestic ownership. We are a small island nation in a global economy, we don’t have the domestic markets which would allow us to be self sufficient and happily closed to the rest of the world. The sooner we understand this reality and learn how to deal with whatever pitfalls open economics brings, the sooner we’ll make any real progress.

Its been a while since I went out of town with my parents. Uncle B has a place in Ranna, which is near Hambantota, and I’ve never been there before despite it being around for a couple of years. Last time the rents went down there I was not in the country and they returned with rave reviews. So I was looking forward to a long weekend after a couple of hectic weeks of work, and it was nice to leave town early in the day and avoid the annoying traffic. I didn’t sleep much the night before so I fell asleep as we passed Avissawela and woke up when we got to Silver Ray. I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed bc uncle B had promised an interesting breakfast stop, and Silver Ray would hardly count as interesting. Luckily we only stopped for a piss break and set off loaded with some iced coffee. About half an hour (or less) down the road from Ratnapura we pulled up outside a little place just outside Embilipitiya on the left of the road with completely wooden structures and furniture. As we walked in uncle B whispered that the owners are hardcore JVP chaps and that it’ll be interesting to get them talking. At the time i was more interested in the food; string hoppers, red rice, kurakkan pittu with some top quality kiri hodi, fish curry and fresh pol sambol. There were no tables in the place, just wooden chairs arranged in circles. We sat down in a corner and in between munches I overheard the owner’s son having a chat with a friend of his. “Wimal Sahodaraya”, “Mawubima paththaray”, “Mangala Samaraweera”, “Mahinda mahaththaya” were little snippets I heard. The son would have been in his mid 20s, thoroughly pleasant, always smiling and encouraging us to eat as much as we want. Uncle B waved him over, “ithin malli, kiyanna ko meh pathi wala thorathura gena.” The son grinned and asked if he’s referring to the political situation, uncle B nodded, and he was off.

The guy was quintessential JVP. I had only ever spoken to JVP proxies in the past, but this was as real as the real thing could get. He started off on how he had just got back from Colombo bc wimal sahodaraya had held a meeting in Nugegoda the day before, where he had said “everything there was to be said to the government”. The current grievence was the fact that the MR govt had accepted the defections from the UNP in order to protect them from being implicated in corrupt practices. This had severely irked the JVP leadership, MR’s lust for power had compromised the ppl’s faith in the government at a time when the military situation was on a high. He said that the JVP has been trying to highlight errors, injustices and trying to correct the govt when they screw up. When asked about the chances of getting complete power he said that at this stage it is unlikely, but until then they will continue to make the public aware of the govt’s errors in their role as the de-facto opposition leaders. Ranil’s leadership has been marginalised and has in turn marginalised the UNP, which has laid the platform for his own party to show the country that they are a strong, capable party leading the opposition. Thaththi asked him what the JVP would do, if and when they do get into power. He emphasized the need to use national resources, the minerals, the alleged oil, the fertile lands, all of these are more than enough for us to get by without taking loans from the West. We asked him whether this economic process will be led by the state, and interestingly he said that the market forces will be the main player since domestic capabilities certainly exist, but that at this stage corruption at the centre doesn’t allow any honest small businessman to make his mark. He kept going back to the importance of not being slaves to the West, about how previous governments have sold national resources and that now we’re up to our necks in debt and bugger all has taken place for the benefit of the country. He kept saying that honest political leadership is the key, and that the JVP has the bottom up political structure that can provide this stability and leadership. The political decision making in the JVP is apparently driven from the lowest levels of power, and communicated to the highest levels of decision making, with accountability and transparency all along. Seems mildly idealistic. Anyway this was interesting bc it seemed to be the anti-thesis to what I know of communism where the power structures are very much top-down, and that it takes very little for corruption (a broad definition thereof) to set in at the top. When asked about this he said that this could never happen, and that any corruption amongst the leadership is quickly quelled and pointed to Nihal Galappaththi (former JVP presidential candidate) who was recently evicted from the leadership following some little known misdemeanours on his part.

We then pointed out that it would be very difficult to ignore the fact the the US, the EU and the rest of the west is still the major player in the world economy, and being a small nation, surely we cannot completely alienate them? He agreed, but also said that global power structures are also undergoing change, and that countries like China, Venezuela and Iran are rising fast. The latter two were quite surprising, and then he went on to quote Chavez at the UN General Assembly, referring to the devil and the smell of “vedi beheth” (sulphur) following Bush’s speech the previous day. He said that oil power has allowed Venezuela to stand up to the US, and that we no longer need to be ruled by a quasi-imperialism of the West. He went on with his perfect Sinhalese rhetoric while we ran through a good many delicious strings between the four of us. What we kept going back to was the fact that JVP has never as yet put forward a clear indication of what constructive actitivities they would do when they do get power, they only ever seem to say that such and such is wrong, but never give a cohesive solution of their own. He never quite answered this, continually referring to the fact that the time is not right as yet. He did say that they need to be patient, that they will continue to put pressure on the government to maintain the “right” stance in all its activities. Amusingly he gave the example of the 4 ministries they ran in the 2004 government as “success stories”. Now anyone who thinks fisheries was a success must be smoking something thoroughly potent, and the same can be said of the other ministries (well not much to be done in culture), and while the 1000 tanks program was very visible and sensationalised, the actual outcomes were minimal. Even though the 4 ministries were completely ineffectual, the JVP rhetoric is such that ppl may well start to believe that hey they’re right, they were successful at the time. Even in terms of economics, there seemed to be an underlying confusion despite his plucky, colourful language. He seemed to waver between the need for state sponsored equality of opportunity and the need for market led efficiency, all without any external influence, I guess the capital is going to come from the oh-so-fertile soils.

The final issue that came up in discussion was the ethnic conflict. His answer to this started off positively, recognizing the futility of racial differentiation and the fact that the average tamil and sinhalese have no problem with one another. He did not however feel that there needed to be any change in political power structures, and insisted that the problem was an issue of terrorism, not of political imbalances between centre and regions. His answer was that the military needed to continue to push the LTTE into a corner, and force them to the negotiating table to lay down arms, and then the government’s duty is to ensure a proper distribution of “manawa himikam”, and that way everyone can live in a just manner under the laws of one country, in equality. I hadn’t heard that much rhetoric in a long time, and I don’t think I will do for a long time. But unfortunately that was about it, rhetoric. His arguments had little depth and solidity when the surface was scratched, but like Wimal W, he expressed it in such a clear and confident manner, that for a moment you almost believe it yourself. I was impressed with some of his knowledge, particularly of international politics, he was well versed in the developments in the Maoist conflict in Nepal and in new left politics in latin America. But I realised later that this would have been enhanced by listening to Wimal Sahodaraya the day before. His arguments were also quite clearly well drilled and trained, he’s probably heard the same stuff at heaps of lectures that grass roots organizers like him undergo. Nonetheless, it was a thoroughly interesting chat in what was an entirely pleasant environment despite the divergence of ideology between the two groups (he had another uncle friend who backed him up most of the way). We set off after an extended lunch lasting over 90mins, and enjoyed the rest of the drive. Ranna itself is fantastic, and our first day there pretty much shaped the pattern for the rest of the journey. No sooner we arrived all of us wasted no time in getting into the sea. It was baking hot and we had to run across the sand to save our soles. Unlike where we normally sea bathe ie. kinross, unawatuna, hix, there’s no reef or bay to temper the sea in Ranna. It was violent and unwelcoming, but once you get past the initial waves its a good deal calmer, and the water is clean and refreshing against the late morning heat. Over here you need to give the sea the respect she deserves, you need to be aware of exactly where you are relative to the shore and you need to be tuned into her subtle mood changes. If you do this, she’ll tolerate you. Just. Thaththi caught the rough end of a wave and twisted his hip as he was swept onto the beach, so we called it an afternoon and eased into three days of conversation, interspersed by outstanding meals, naps, sea baths, sunset walks and star gazing. Ranil may have been marginalized as a leader, but he sure wasn’t wrong calling this the Sri Lankan Riviera.

Front page on http://news.bbc.co.uk “Sri Lanka Tourist Port Attacked”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6061184.stm

On the money chaps, make it sound like tourists are under attack. Thanks, thanks a lot.

The other day I went to see some ppl about a job. We had a standard discussion, and they said that I should be given a medal for coming home. Medals are always good, but this mentality that is taking over Colombo is a bit odd. Being a child of ‘84 I was born into a country at war and have lived pretty much all my life in a country at war. Now this is not a patch on what the ppl living in the NE face, but we do go through our share of crap. Right through the 90’s we lived through bombs, curfews, school closures, threats, but we batted on. We celebrated when we won the world cup in ‘96, we cried when we lost friends and family to the war, we went to school, went to work, cussed the govt, cussed the LTTE, cheered when Jaffna was captured, fretted when Elephant pass fell, shuddered when there was a big boom and got on with life.

And then there was peace, for four years, an uneasy peace but it was nothing like I had ever experienced before. I could go to Arugam Bay and Trinco (though we didn’t, thankfully in retrospect, bc we were due to go December 24-27th 2004, instead we went to Galle, smart), and even went to Vavuniya and Killinochchi, something I thought I’d never do. The army check points were replaced with corrupt cops seeking bribes for invented crimes. Everybody relaxed. But it was always a shaky peace, and from 2004 it felt like a matter of time before things got messy.

Now things are proper messy, there are serious military offensives going on in the North, bombs left right and centre in Colombo and everyone has got agitated. As far as I’m concerned there has been a sense of inevitability about this. Strangely everyone else seems to think that this is the apocalypse, war is upon as, we’re all going to die. Sure, things aren’t very rosy here but this is pretty much what it was pre-2002, and the country survived then and I’m sure it will survive now. If ppl managed from ‘83 - 2002, there’s no real reason why they have to quit the country now, though that is what every other bugger seems bent on doing, smacks of knee jerk in my book.

Yesterday I was having lunch with a sudda who asked me why I came back, and I said that SL has everything I could possibly ask for, in terms of natural resources, friends and family. And I also want to try give something back. At the moment the best way to do that is to bat on and try to keep moving with normal life. Any country’s best natural resource is their ppl, and sadly we’ve lost so many of them through war and the brain drain, and right now we’re in danger of losing even more. I think the present leadership in the country has almost no hope of providing a real solution to the country’s problems, my real hope lies with the next generation of leaders, the next generation of society as a whole. A more educated, open minded group of ppl who can hopefully learn from the bitter lessons of the post independence era. It’s important to understand that with time attitudes change, ppl change, the fabric of society changes, and eventually leaders change. About 40-50 years ago the vast majority of ppl in developing countries favoured protectionist economic policies. And their leaders implemented these policies. Today things are different. Similarly, when our society becomes more educated, more exposed to the rest of the world, the fabric of society will change and so will our leaders. I’m not saying that the war will end overnight, that we’ll start putting out brilliant economic policies willy nilly, but I’m sure it’s more likely that future leaders will be more willing and will be smart enough to hammer out a proper political and economic compromise that will help SL achieve the potential that it hides so very well.

And for that we need to hang on and contribute to the economy, to thought, to society. When we have kids we need to pass on to the next generation the experience we’ve gained, how not to make the mistakes that previous generations have made. We’ll make our own mistakes, but the key is to learn and improve. And that will never happen if we abandon home. Some ppl believe that we need revolution, I don’t think that can work. You can’t change attitudes of an entire society over night, that happens with time and experience. I think we need to be part of it.

A friend of mine was travelling to the States from the UK on the day the plot to blow up transatlantic flights was uncovered. They were obviously quite worried about the situation but decided to risk it and go ahead anyway. They expected delays and a bit of a wait at the airport, but little did they expect a 24 hour gap between getting to heathrow and their hotel room in the States.

Checking in at Heathrow had taken less time than expected, and the UK had been generally ok. When they got into the plane the story changed. The US chaps apparently wanted a list of all the names and further details of passengers on board before the flight took off. This took all of 3 hours, and passengers were grounded all that while.

On reaching Miami airport they were made to stand against a wall and let sniffer dogs sniff them. Following which all black, brown and Middle Eastern ppl were told to stand aside while police officers checked their passports. Then at immigration there was a separate line for brown, middle eastern and black ppl, the same for customs. After customs the usual suspects were again asked to stand aside and were taken to a room and had to wait for 3 further hours. They were interviewed and set free to get their bags. After collecting their luggage the browns, blacks and middle easterns were again sent in a separate line where their luggage was searched and screened. Apparently all the white ppl walk past the queues of non-whites, staring like goldfish. They spent a total of 9 hours at the airport in Miami, and they got off early.

This is touchy stuff, I know that bc of the present situation caution is needed and what not, but this really is the giddy limit. Segregation according to colour and race is not excusable. If there were separate queues for Tamils and non-Tamils at Katunayake the human rights chaps would be up in arms, and quite right too. But when it’s done in the states, it’s all in the name of “protecting our freedoms”. To assume that one is a terrorist based on colour, race etc. is simply wrong, it undermines human dignity in the greatest possible sense. When the IRA was at its height there would never have been separate queues for white ppl at Heathrow and anywhere else, it would simply not have been viable. They can do it to us and get away with it bc we take it lying down. Like the whole fingerprinting business, it’s ridiculous. A fundamental principle of justice is that one is innocent until proven guilty, and sure in these trying times these principles need to be tweaked, but there’s a way of going about it, a more subtle and considerate way. The US immigration officials in Miami are clearly neither of these. It’s completely unnecessary to have separate queues at customs, police AND luggage checks, that’s just saying it’s ok to trouble the coloured ppl but we don’t want to bother the white man. If security is such a concern they should have had one stringent check on everybody, instead of having 3-4 stringent checks on the coloureds and allowing the white ppl a fast track.

But really it’s no use complaining. I thought to myself the best bet is to just avoid going to countries where we’re treated like second, no, third rate citizens unless it’s absolutely necessary.

This afternoon the LTTE attempted to murder the Head of the Sri Lankan armed forces. Another stab at inciting retaliatory attacks by the military or some form of communal violence targetting Tamils. The obvious aim is that communal violence and or military strikes will give them a valid reason to go to war and thus saving face with the international community and yet achieve what they so clearly desire; war. This point has been quite blatantly missed by a lot of the media who have focused on attacks on Tamil civillians. What happened in Trinco last week was obviously not good by any stretch, but it needs to be explained within the correct perspective, taking into account the fact that the LTTE has been doing everything in its power to achieve this. The Military has been consistently condemned for Trinco and this is very unfair. First of all the allegations that the army stood by without stopping the violence are not well substantiated and could be exaggerated views. Secondly it fails to recognize the fact that the army has stood its ground despite continuous provocation and loss of its members and thereby exercised remarkable restraint. The media has failed to see this and has simply jumped on the bandwagon of accusations. Again I’m not condoning what happened in Trinco at all and communal violence is fallacious and playing into LTTE hands, but it needs to be understood in this context.

Today’s attack on the General was just taking things one step further. They tried in Trinco to trigger communal violence, that didn’t bear sufficient fruit so they took the battle right to the heart of the army. The army and the government needs to maintain the commendable restraint that they have been showing thus far, despite an attack on its leader. Mahinda Rajapakse made a very good start at this in his address to the nation. He clearly recognizes and states the aims of the LTTE and is refusing, at this point, to play into their hands by retaliating wholesale. “What the LTTE attempts to achieve by intensifying these attacks, while grossly violating the Ceasefire Agreement they are said to be bound by, is to bring about a clash of a communal nature among the Sinhalese and the Tamil people.” He goes on to urge the population to avoid any form of retaliatory action; “Therefore, I make a fervent appeal to all our people not to take the law into their own hands, and in a way give cause for such a communal clash.” Mr. Rajapakse is clearly making the right noises and one hopes this continues but only in a powerful manner, making it clear to the international media and fellow governments the sort of game being played by the LTTE and to make it clear that the government is refusing to play along. Thus far the government propaganda machine hasn’t done enough in this regard. This would ideally lead to greater pressure being placed on the LTTE to return to the negotiating table. The inability of the government to control the activities of the “paramilitary” forces is a quite pathetic excuse for not resuming peace talks. How can the government control the Karuna faction which is in itself another terrorist group using guerilla tactics? If the government could control terrorist groups there wouldn’t be any war in the first place. There is no solution for this problem other than a political solution, and at the moment only one of the two parties is not willing to take their seat at the negotiating table. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who is not being genuine.

A major worry is the security breach in what ought to be one of the most fortified buildings in Colombo. I do not understand why the General’s convoy would travel so close to civillians lining the road and it appears quite miraculous that he survived. The LTTE would have certainly lost a lot of ground in this event if there is no military backlash since they failed to achieve their objective and have clearly shown the international community that they are neither genuine about peace nor the interest of Tamil civillians. Let us hope the army maintains their non-retaliatory stance and that the government continues to look towards a negotiated settlement.

I was reading Moju this morning and it got me thinking about international collective action in the field of international security. Hotel Rwanda is a good film, it makes a good stab at portraying humanity at its worst. But more than the film production it’s the true story that is shockingly awesome. Moju suggests that it is Rwanda’s lack of international political leverage that saw the genocide (or should I say “Acts of genocide”) continue without external intervention. And Moju is right.

At this point it is quite natural to jump up and down and complain about American intervention in Iraq, (Operation Iraqi Liberation) and highlight the natural acronym. I did that in the comfort of my living room while watching the film. But, the issue is a very complex one. Think for a moment if Sri Lanka was The international superpower, with the grand musthache at the helm. Would we have sent soldiers to Rwanda? I think not. After the initial good will, there would have been plenty of domestic political backlash once the body count of “our boys” started to rise. The political gain is miniscule compared to the political loss. In politics ppl tend to remember the bad stuff and forget the good stuff, I mean ppl still talk about America’s cock up in Vietnam. Look at Iraq today, just over 3 years after the invasion and GWB continues to lick his political wounds. The reality of the world today (and well anyday really) is that you can not expect altruistic behaviour when the costs are high. If the Rwandan crisis could have been solved by humanitarian aid, everyone would have rushed in to give the bucks. But bucks are a lot less costly than lives, as soon as your soldiers’ lives are at stake there jolly well ought to be something tangible to show your voters.

So while it is easy and quite natural to blame the States, I don’t think any other superpower would have behaved differently. So what we need is a strong international solution. There are two ways of doing this. 1) As a club good, like NATO, or 2) as an international public good like the UN peace keepers. The obvious problem with the latter is free riders. It would be unfair to make economically weaker nations like Sri Lanka and Rwanda to supply vast resources for this international army. And yet it is in these economically smaller, less powerful nations that internal conflict is rife. So there is a problem of free riding. Altruism would be required, and this is not always forthcoming. This would severely hamper the implementation of a significant international security force. International collective action is difficult at the best of times. I mean, just look at the WTO, and that’s dealing with dollars and cents. An international security force would be dealing with lives, a far tougher proposition. Option 1 sounds more plausible, but think of this, a Sub-saharan Treaty Organization, strikes fear into one’s heart. But a fragmented system sees duplication of resources, smaller isolated countries left out and the same collective action problems though on a smaller scale.

Noting these difficulties, it is important to remember that international intervention into domestic issues is not always a good thing. I don’t know much about the IPKF action in Sri Lanka, but from what i’ve heard it wasn’t all rosy. Furthermore, what if the internal conflict is government sanctioned, and the government does not request external help. Does the international community watch while massacre takes place, or do they intervene nonetheless. If the option is the latter the implications are potentially undemocratic and there is an allowance for paternalism. It is in response to such concerns (among others) that the UN peace keepers are peace keepers and not peace makers. So there is a case for the argument that domestic problems require domestic solutions.

So where does this leave us. Despite the difficulties of international collective action, incidents like Rwanda ‘94 can’t be ignored with shrugged shoulders. A tentative answer would be to have an international body overseeing regional groupings. So for instance Asia could have her own version of NATO, and if there is some scene in Colombo requiring international intervention, the force would be made up by military support from India, Pakistan etc. but overseen by an international body to ensure there aren’t too many cockups. So if for instance the Sub-Saharan treaty organization is exceedingly weak, the international body can boost it with assistance. The international body I refer to would require less resources than one that is supposed to police the whole world, and therefore collective action problems would be less. Domestic voters would be less averse to mutual protection within a region than their soldiers fighting in some little village in the Ivory Coast. Using the regional input is also important since it is more likely that the government of India would be sensitive to the nature of the conflict and the culture of the people in Sri Lanka than the government of Canada would. The two tiers of power, viz. regional and international, makes the system less prone to blatant abuses of power as there are added checks and balances.

This solution is far from perfect, but it does make some headway in countering the difficulties of the more conventional methods of international collective action.