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| Sunday, 10 February 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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First and last an 'Observer' man by Ajith Samaranayake Kirthi Abeysekera's death in Canada where he had been long domiciled snaps one of the last surviving links with what many would consider to be the golden age of the 'Observer'.
The 'Observer' has every reason to mourn his death for unlike most newspaper people Kirthi Abeysekera never worked in any other newspaper. Even within Lake House itself he never worked even for the 'Daily News'. Joining the 'Observer' rather late in life he gave the best part of his adult life to that newspaper and Lake House until he resigned from that establishment following its appropriation by the United Front Government in 1973. Born in Badulla Kirthi began life as an employee of the Department of Local Government but yearned always for a career in journalism. Normally it is only starry-eyed adlocents who are bitten by this particular bug but Kirthi was an exception when as a husband and father he gave up a comfortable government job to walk the pavements of what an English novelist has called Heartbreak Street. However the fates looked down kindly on Kirthi. In his case there was no breaking of hearts. From day one he never looked back. In his memoirs titled 'Among My Souvenirs" Kirthi recalls his interview with Denzil Peiris, the legendary editor of the 'Observer' who like George Orwell made political writing into an art. Denzil Peiris introduced Kirthti to D.C. Ranatunge, the news editor, who later excelled himself at the Ceylon Tobacco Company and still pursues his first love on an inside page of the 'Sunday Times'. Peiris with that fine sense for the unorthodox which surely characterises all great editors put the cub reporter to work on the Police round to succeed Nalin Fernando who was leaving for other pastures. Although Kirthi later made a name for himself as a feature writer it was as a crime reporter that he shone. This was the time when the armed services were nothing more than a ceremonial outfit to be paraded on Independence Day and the designation of Defence Correspondent was unheard of. It was the Police which took the spotlight and the Inspector General of Police was something of a demigod. It was also a time when crime had a certain finesse to it. Firearms were rarely used and a great deal of subtlety went into the commission of crime. And Kirthi was in the front line to witness some of the most daring crimes of his times and make friends with some of the men who struck terror into the hearts of law-abiding citizens such as 'Cheena' and 'Yakadaya'. The highway robbery involving CWE cash, the Pauline de Crooz case, the Kalattawa murders and the April 1971 Insurgency were among the major achievements of Kirthi's career. In the Kalattawa case it was a letter sent by the widow of one of Alfred Soysa's victims followed up by Kirthi which led to the uncovering of a series of murders in the dark heartland of Anuradhapura. And Kirthi and his constant companion the late Chandra Weerawardana created history when Soysa, the terror of the Raja Rata kicked Weerawardene's camera and smashed it in the precincts of the Anuradhapura Magistrate's Court. In an age such as today's inundated as it is by the media with a particular emphasis on the electronic media it will be difficult to properly assess the contribution made by a crime reporter such as Kirthi Abeysekera in the 1960-70 period. What characterised his writings was both the unravelling and reporting of crime as well as a human interest approach to the underworld. In his mature feature writing Kirthi brought to bear on the pimps, prostitutes and IRCs who peopled the underbelly of our society an objectivity and a compassion which equalled that of a Daymon Runyon. It was perhaps no accident that the only other contemporaneous journalist to have done the same was Edward Mannapperuma also of the 'Observer' but better known as M. Edward. Edward who later managed a cinema hall in Kandy was more James Hadley Chase than Daymon Runyon but both Kirthi and he brought a polish to crime writing in Sri Lanka which has not been equalled since then. Kirthi Abeysekera lived a full life and even in domicile used to contribute to the 'Sunday Observer', 'Sunday Island' and the 'Sunday Times' from Canada. He is survived by his wife Olga, a sister of Bob Harvey, the legendary rugby commentator, and children. Kirthi's death brings to an end a chapter in Sri Lanka's social life which married high society to the less fortunate of our social system in what was a spacious and leisurely time when the crises which we are undergoing as a nation and people were still in the womb of history. |
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