|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 1 August 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
An 'Insider's' story - brilliantly constructed Rendering unto caesar by Carl Muller
Born under the sign of Libra (like me), Bradman Weerakoon is an old Kingswoodian, then a product of Holy Cross College, Kalutara and S. Thomas', Mt. Lavinia. He was named after Donald Bradman, and did become a fiery batsman himself. In one Royal-Thomian big match he chased a target of 116 in 65 minutes, receiving a standing ovation when he returned to the pavilion. Today, this quintessential civil servant gives us another half-century of totally different srokes - a unique first-person account of fifty years of public service as a senior advisor to nine of Sri Lanka's Prime Ministers and Presidents; nine of our most historic figures. The narrative is initimate, penetrating and of anecdotal richness. The time span: April 1, 1954 to April 2, 2004. Neat figures indeed, and yet, as he says in his Epilogue: "..when the dust of the [2004] elections settled, I see an instability that disturbs... the present composition of Parliament carries its own pyrotechnic quality - a formidable JVP; a strengthened Tamil Alliance, the ITAK; and the unexpected (and somewhat disconcerting to some) entry into active political life of nine monks of the Jatika Hela Urumaya. These Parliamentary 'body parts' have introduced elements of 'fundamentalism' that create a new and rather uneven pitch to bat on." What delights the reader - so immersed in politics today - is the author's record feat of working and dealing with such a multitude of personalities. Rendering Unto Caesar tells of the distinctive mark, often memorable, made by the nine leaders he personally served. And, as he says: "Life at the top in Sri Lanka has generally been perilous, not only politically, but in a physical sense as well." To meet with Bradman is to consider a mild-mannered, wry-humoured, gentle man who immediately shows interest in you. Within a few moments of conversation, you begin to feel that he lives for you and your interests, forging bonds of sympathy and empathy. His eyes are full of sincerity and friendly understanding. This is a man who believes that no one is inherently bad". There is an essential quality of good in all people which -if correctly motivated - can be used for the good of all." It is this that makes him an affectionate friend, an inspiring motivator, a true man for all seasons. Yet, the steel is unmalleable inside him. There is Iron beneath the velvet and it could be seen as will, courage, immense faith in his beliefs, heroism even, for he had functioned in the best and worst of worlds with forthrightness and fearlessness. Bradman took the 'time-honoured route' in the Civil Service: to Anuradhapura and Jaffna, then to the Badulla Kachcheri as AGA - a transfer that was abruptly changed, thrusting him into the PM's office. It was the beginning of a saga. First, it was Sir John Kotelawala, our "Bandung Booruwa' who upset China's Chou En-lai so much that it called for the mollifying efforts of Jawaharlal Nehru. I will not regale readers with all Bradman has to say about each of the leaders he worked for. That would be unfair. After all, it is all in the book that simply begs to be read. However, to whet appetites, some nuggets should do. Sir John Kotelawala - his coterie of pretty women were the 'purple brigade' as the press dubbed it. He was part of the 'dynastic democracy' disparagingly referred to as the 'Uncle-Nephew Party'. When he was shelved by a majority of the Parliamentary group who made Dudley Senanayake the PM, he sued and denounced all the 'plotters'. Even SWRD, watching from the wings, said it was "the culmination of a long, shabby and discreditable intrigue." His publication, "The Premier Stakes" made Dudley see red. He demanded Sir John's resignation and Sir John suggested that Dudley thrust his demand in a rather unseemly place. It took a lot of patching up to get the two together again. Succeeding Dudley, Sir John worked like a beaver for the Queen's visit. When a playful breeze lifted the Queen's skirt at Sigiriya, Sir John yelled to the official photographer, Rienzie Wijeratne, "Ganing, yako, ganing!" He also threatened to tar-brush the monks who took part in politics. The Bandaranaike family - Bradman makes some homely observations: "Chandrika, coming home after her ballet lessons, and the father introducing her to some visitors with the words: 'and here comes my Pavlova'. The girls, Sunethra and Chandrika went to St. Bridget's... and the morning departure always seemed very rushed. Chandrika was usually the late one." SWRD Bandaranaike - "The era of the brown sahib... was coming to and end." At the opening of Parliament, "the people... invaded the sanctum - the floor of the House itself - and some of them disported themselves in the Speaker's chair." Bradman also says that "the death of my father... built a special bond of appreciation and obligation to the Bandaranaike family... The Prime Minister, who had been out of Colombo at a swearing-in parade at Diyatalawa .. cut short his weekend stay in the hills... took an overnight train to be in Colombo on time. I have never forgotten this extreme act of caring... and the personal inconvenience he must have accepted to be on time at the funeral." Other remarks come fast and furious: [SWRD Bandaranaike] "was kept at home in the country estate at Horagolla and tutored by English teachers until he was 15. The private tuition was not a success as Henry Young, the first master, had a fondness for the bottle and was soon go rid of." As PM, "Mr. Bandaranaike's public speeches were pure gems, with sonorous cadences studded with classical allusions." Bradman also tells of the doing and undoing of the B-C Pact, the 1958 violence, labour unrest and Cabinet crises and finally, the assassination. He has to also refer to the then Gampaha MP, S. D. Bandaranayake who was referred to as the "unguided missile". W. Dahanayake - The PM who believed that walking barefoot in the lawns of Temple Trees at dawn helped "clear his brain", and who kept his weight down with a diet of raw vatakolu, rice bran and aggala spiced with pol-kudu. We have details of his defeat, departure by Humber Hawk to Galle, the regaining of the Galle seat, his political somersaults, his death at 95. Dudley Senanayake - the Short Parliament - "A sticky wicket I have to bat on," he said. Defeated at the Throne Speech. Sirimavo Bandaranaike - "Once reported to have said she 'would not take the Prime Ministership even if it were handed.. on a platter' but her fighting qualities took over... She was formidable enough personal magnetism to draw the masses." Bradman details the State takeover of assisted schools; arrest of FP members; the abortive coup; the appointment of William Gopallawa as Governor-General. Bradman himself took the letter from Mrs. B to London in this regard. Also the visit of the West Indies cricket team to Temple Trees: "Walcott Weekes and Worrell were distinctly uncomfortable in the Prime Minister's presence." We have the state visit to China: "equipped with heavy fur overcoats and headgear, so that we all looked, as Felix remarked, 'like cuddlesome teddy bears', and how Sirimavo was rendered speechless by the cold. Then the 1965 elections and Sirimavo's delay in resigning. "I was being given a difficult time by the Left members. They resented my advice to Sirimavo that she resign... That night... my car was stoned..." Then the return to power in 1970s, her ouster in 1977, the Weeraratne Commission and the deprivation of her civic rights; her return to Parliament as Leader of the Opposition in 1988, then Prime Minister under her daughter's Presidentship and her death on October 10, 2000. Dudley Senanayake - back in the saddle with his 'hath havula'. "I found him pugnacious and more confident," and Wimala Kannangara's remark to Bradman: "What are you doing here? Aren't you Mrs. B's blue-eyed boy?" He records the food/rice production drive, Dudley's New Year greeting card with a cartoon of himself wearing a paddy farmer's amude and shouldering a mammoty. "I do not think any other leader in the world would have wanted to show himself publicly in this manner." We have the Kachativu debate and the Mackie Ratwatte case that caused a souring of relationships between Bradman and Sirimavo. Then to negotiations abroad: ...The Ceylon delegation was pontificating at the World Bank in Washington on the serious state of malnutrition in the country and in Asia generally. The delegation comprised Raju Coomaraswamy, 6'4" in height and weighing 210 lbs; Gamini Corea, 6'1" and 190 ibs; and Dudley himself who was no chicken at 5'10" and close to 200 lbs at the time. After the impassioned presentation, the three of them just managed to squeeze into a lift on the way down... A World Bank staffer... pushed against the back of the lift [muttered softly to himself] 'Asia's starving millions my foot!" 1970 elections. UNP defeated. Dudley drives up to the porch of Temple Trees, "grinned broadly and said, 'hell of a thing, no?' and rushed up the stairs, shouting out... 'I must empty my bladder,' He then signed the resignation letter. "When the umpire rules you out, you walk." This is but a small sampling of what this delightful and yet serious book is all about. I am tempted to go one and on, but space forbids it. You will get a wonderfully sincere picture of the author's tenure under J.R., Premadasa, D. B. Wijetunga and Ranil. When in 2004, Ranil stepped down, He says: "I decided it was time to make my final bow." Brilliantly constructed, holding back little, studded with anecdotes and an unsparing approach to detail, this book will be eagerly read by everybody in high places and low, by the man in the street, by every community, and I hope it will bring true realization to many. So much popular thought has been spawned by political rhetoric and even slanted reportage. Bradman writes as an insider and as a man who has observed, assessed, yet never been moved to condemn. As he may well say, "There can be no life without mistakes." He still seeks and finds the good in every man. Remarkably, too, he has taken a carriage-load of memories and put them down with a facility that is truly remarkable. I can well imagine a conversation in the street, in a drawing room, even in a canteen: "What do you know about Dudley?" "Read Bradman." "What about Dahanayake?' "Read Bradman." "Then Ranil?" "Read Bradman." Hell, is that all you have to say?" "Yes, Read Bradman. If you don't you'll know nothing." ###### Poetry with a uniqueness and variety Reviewed by Tilak A. Gunawardhana The very bulk and thematic variety of the poetry brought together in this anthology present to the reviewer and critic a formidable task of comprehension and assessment. Because the writer has not deviated much from his familiar territory covered the poems in the `Lanka Guardian' and the two earlier volumes, the complexity of that edveavour is reduced to a degree. Much of the more serious lines have appeared before, for instance `The Scholar's Tale', and hence what is altogether new does not constitute a substantial component in the present work. However they all share the distinctiveness and individuality of Karunatilake's meditations of an earlier vintage. The uniqueness of this collection lies in the large number of renderings from the Tripitake, a few of which have already appeared in Vesak Sirisara, the Buddhist Annual published by the Government Services Buddhist Association. Most dedications of books are often a formal affair, but here in this anthology, again there is something noteworthy. It is dedicated to none other than the late Mervyn de Silva, the inimitable journalist in whose Lanka Guardian Karunatilake's poetry appeared regularly. Mervyn shared some of the poet's interests even though his political stance was very different from that of his colleague. Yet they complemented each other in a peculiar insistence on radical and critical approaches to our domestic economic and political problems. As an unsurpassed political commentator, there was none sharper, more analytical, and as witty as Mervyn, and he won recognition not only here, but also abroad through his contributions to prestigious international journals devoted to serious intellectual comment on current issues. Even though Karunatilake was not of the same persuasion as Mervyn, much that became grist to his poetical mill had a substantial political content and colouring. He was gifted in the use of words that wit and humour came naturally to him, and there was no other Lankan poet writing in English who could surpass him in this genre. No wonder Mervyn chose Karunatilake to supplement his incisive prose with breathtaking verse and not only kept his readership informed, but also kept them imaginatively engaged. Among the new breed of poems, the renderings of lines from the Pali Tripitake must take pride of Place. True, there were few works in Pali, rendered into simple English translations by Mrs. Rhys Davids, herself, a renowned Pali scholar and co-founder of the London based Pali Text Society, with her husband. Not exactly following Mrs. Rhys David's footsteps, but doing something similar, Karunatilake has devoted a considerable part of his leisure to making the Pali scriptures more accessible to those who would not want to get lost in meandering Pali prose, either directly or in prose translations. Here is an extract from the Ariyapariyesana Sutra " Listen Bikkhus, I have won the deathless, So I shall instruct you, I will teach you the Dhamma". Karunatilake has included in this volume a number of appreciations in verse, of a few well-known left politicians of the past, whose life and work could provide examples to left politicians of today. Comrade Pieter "Call me comrade You said that quietly without a flourish May be this nomenclature Didn't come easy on out under-gradiate tongues Conditioned to Guru culture That looked up to the wandering scholar Tempered fine, moreover In the cautious intellectual forge of Cambridge". Yes, Cambridge University at the time produced some of the most outstanding British Marxists and fellow travellers of a later day. Dr. Arnold Kettle, Senior Lecturer at one time in English at University of Leeds, whom I had the privilege of knowing very closely, and who authored the well=known critique of the English novel, was sad that Pieter did not get the recognition he richly deserved, in Sri Lanka. I hope the autumn will not be followed by a bitterly cold and fruitless winter, and Karunatilake will in future surpass what he presents in this volume Tilak A. Gunawardhana ###### The tragic saga of Kandy The Kandyan Kingdom, a remote and unexplored field of study has in recent times come into the limelight and historians, sociologists, fiction writers and even poets are taking an interest in it. Kandy survived the attacks of three European powers at the height of their prowess and the British had to wage three wars against it until in 1815 the rivalry between the king and nobles finally led to the kingdom being ceded to the British Crown. Not a single soldier died in this conquest; not a hand was lifted in her defence. When the British forces with the help of Ehelepola marched to Kandy in 1815, none of the peasants, who for three centuries had defended their king and country against European foes stirred to oppose. "Led by the invitation of the Chiefs and welcomed by the acclamation of the people the forces of his Britannic Majesty entered the Kandyan territory and penetrated the capital." By 1815 most of the glittering crowned heads of India had succumbed to the might of British arms. How did Kandy survive so long ? And why did she fall as she did ? These are some of the questions the author Captain Elmo Jayawardena tries to unravel in this drama of patriotism and treachery, blood and tears. How he, an airline pilot chanced to write this historical novel is in itself interesting. The author Elmo Jayawardena has taken a unique approach in telling this story. The fictional saga is interspersed with chapters in italics giving authentic historical events as background information to the narrative. In chapters such as "Some Reflections about Senkadagala" the author details the history of the Kandyan Kingdom from the time of Senasammatha Wickremabahu (1469-1511) till the last ruler Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe (1798-1815) complete with genealogical tables and maps. In others he fictionalises mingling historical personage with characters representative of individuals who occupied this period in history. The frequent use of contemporary titles and forms of address, the reference to Kandyan customs amidst the Kandyan landscape and depiction of the pervasive influence of Buddhism conjures in the mind of the reader a vision of a lost past. The author had in a very subtle way drawn the attention of the reader to a lesson of history that the Sinhala people have not yet learnt; how the fraternal struggle in the Kotte Kingdom brought the entire Western seaboard under the Portuguese rule and the hostilities between the king and the nobles placed the Kandyan Kingdom in the hands of the British. The author should be congratulated for this very readable and informative novel that he has written combining very skilfully history and legend and fact and fiction with authenticity and imagination. - Dr. Lorna Dewaraja, M.A. (Ceylon), PhD (London), Director Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute. (Foreword from the book) ###### 'Variations on the theme of Homecoming' by Milan Kundera
Ulysses' voyage is symbolic of homecoming. In ignorance, published in France in 2003, Milan Kundera, the Franco-Czech writer used this theme to evoke the return of Irina and Josef to the Czech Republic after having been expatriates for twenty years. The Communist "iron curtain" no longer exists. However, the long expected meeting with their former friends and relations becomes a source of misunderstanding in a country that is totally upset by the sirens of capitalist theories. How can one bridge the gap between twenty years spent living differently? This novel was written in French, like the two former novels, Immortality (1990) and Identity (1995). It is a combination of an essay and a novel. The different characters embody and bring to life the themes of exile, loss of memory, non-communication and language through the stories of their lives. In their own manner, they express the thoughts of the writer concerning exile as a positive experience. Happy the traveller, like Ulysses ... who came back experienced and wise wrote Joachim du Bellay, the 16 century French post in les Regrets. Suppose Ulysses had not been happy to go back to Ithaca ... disappointed by the attitude of his relations who were not very interested in hearing about his adventure. Suppose that on his return he felt as if he had been deprived of his new identity. This identity had been achieved by overcoming adversity. In Ignorance the latest novel by the Czech born French writer Milan Kundera, born in 1929, Irina and Josef the two heroes face the dire reality of returning to their native country (in this case the Czech Republic). This return was fraught with insurmountable misunderstandings, impossible dialogues and insinuations arousing a sense of guilt. Irina, whose friends and relations (her new husband Gustaf and a French friend) convince her to go back to her country, is very upset by the cold reception she gets from her former school friends. They are not interested in hearing about the life she led during her twenty years of exile in France and do not bother to drink the vintage Bordeaux offered by her in a cafe in Prague. They insidiously check whether the facts and details related to her past life in Czechoslovakia are still vivid in her memory. There is however nothing more personal than one's memory. A memory which sometimes consciously rejects nostalgia and brooding over the past in order to live somewhere else more intensely in the present. Irina, also experiences this inability to share the same memories when she meets an old friend who has come back after an exile of twenty years in Denmark. As for Josef, he pretends that he does not recognise her in order to start with her a meaningless relationship. This, in his novel, Milan Kundera expressed his thoughts concerning memory, nostalgia, love or the loss of love of our relatives and the advantage of being able to forget, Ignorance is a very personal novel in contradiction with the traditional rules. No, exile is not always synonymous with nostalgia. Milan Kundera confided that: "In France I had the unforgettable feeling of being reborn". Exile is a way of fulfilling one's destiny. As Irina says, on leaving Czechoslovakia, she was also escaping from an interfering mother. As for Milan Kundera exile allowed him to run away from a Communist regime which after the Spring Rising in Prague in 1968, tightened its hold on intellectual dissidents. He took advantage of the opportunity or rather the invitation to come and teach at the University of Rennes (in the West of France). The author of The Joke (1967) arrived in France with his wife in 1975. He continued to write in the ironic vein of The Joke (1967) which was about the absurdity of the Communist regime. As in The Unbearable Lightness of Being published in 1984, history is the background of the writer's intrigue. In Ignorance, Josef's return to Bohemia brings the reader back to Communist Czechoslovakia and all the compromises with the regime. Going back home can be motivated by the re-discovery of a personal journal, the desire to discover the young and not very attractive man one used to be, a confrontation with another self. Going into exile also means adopting a new language. Thus, his hero Josef finds it difficult to be fluent and use the right intonations in his mother tongue. Kundera became so familiar with the language of the 18th century French philosopher Jacques Diderot (Jack and his Master is the title of one of his plays) that he chose to write his three latest novels in French, Ignorance, Immortality (1990) and Identity (1995), a trilogy that is both an essay and fiction. Faced with the ordeal of going back to their native land, Kundera's heroes are confronted with a conflicting choice. They must either stay or leave. nevertheless, if staying means annihilating part of oneself then going back home is a delusion that one had better forget about. As for Milan Kundera who said: "France has become my second homeland" it seems that he has made his choice. He has written a fine philosophical novel that is worth meditating, filled with such absurd situations that they become ludicrous. Milan Kundera regards human beings and objects with irony and detachment. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
