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| Sunday, 14 July 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Muller pulls no punches Four fine monographs - Carl Muller's gift of "Total Grasp" 1. "Glorying in the Great Divide" Published by Stamford-Lake, 2001 by Ajith Wickramathilaka If versatility is the mark of the writer, Carl Muller will continue to surprise us with the outpourings of a most unquiet mind. Mark well, this is the novelist who caused a literary sensation in this country. His first novels made him infamously famous. He then moved into historical fiction, romantic writing, short stories that exuded immense power, poetry and essays, a collection of which was launched at the International Book Fair staged recently at the BMICH. It was at this book fair that I was struck by the fact that, turn where I will, there was no escape. Practically every local stall had his books on display. It was at the stall of Stamford-Lake Publishers that I saw the four small monographs I wish to comment on. Forget Muller's novels, forget his raunchy Burgher stories, forget the way he spat and polished.... this was simply superb! The monograph is a study on ethnicity, racial discrimination and those ego-centric attitudes that are the bane of social unity. He pulls no punches: "The greatest evil is racism - the new dirty word that reveals a crisis of the human spirit; a sense of separateness between individuals and groups, and is dominant in nations which allow the barriers of prejudice to be erected." Considerately enough, Muller has emphasized what he considers of importance in bold type. Racism, he says, reflects the basic contradictions in ethics and values within society; and he has given due consideration to the position we are in today where "the minorities, especially in this country, by the very reason of their numbers and closeness, pose a powerful force and thus, are the invisible factor that determines the destiny of the country." This monograph must be in the hands of every member of State, policy maker and humanist. There is something in the way Muller writes that makes his words echo his essential Lankan-ness, even in the forceful minority role he plays. He can be abrasive and often too, but the truth spills out to the discomfiture of many who ostrich-like, wish to bury their heads in the sand. This is a simple truth, isn't it? Minorities have been quick to establish links with countries where their races are dominant; so we have a scenario where the Tamil militants of the North remain in close affinity with a vast body of Tamils in South India, and the Muslims with established links of inter-dependence in finance, technology and communications with other Muslim-dominated countries. What happens to the dominant race here? Its vulnerability to such a global integration cannot be denied." In a small monograph of 24 pages, Muller has made his subject resound and re-echo and tells us how unreasoning we, as a nation, can be. As he says, the test of a democracy lies in the treatment of minorities, and stresses: "Nowhere in the world does territorial sovereignty coincide with ethnic identity?" And he asks, as many do: "What good is the Sinhalese majority in this country if it is split, engaged in its own political power struggle... and all because of the appalling lack of Sinhalese unity.... This is the most politically ridiculous situation any country could get itself into!" There is no doubt about it. Carl Muller has displayed, in these four monographs, that "total grasp" few writers can boast of. "Conflict in Cinderella's Kitchen" is a study on the unrest and conflict that arises in the plantation sector. Muller quotes Professor S.T. Hettige of the University of Colombo: "We must think that the estate worker, the estate youth, are part of our national society - not marginals or human discards". He also quotes TRI Director, Wester Modder: "I'd like to see the day when a worker from a line room can rise to sit on the board of a plantation company. That will be the day that all conflict ends." This particular monograph makes compelling reading. I am not being to full of praise when I tell of Muller's total grasp because I see, plainly enough, what could only have come through his many years of newspaper experience. His study of the Service Economy is extremely forthright. "let's admit it, shall we? We never gained industrial might. Indeed, today we are fast losing the claims to being an industrialised country.... but when the trumpets are blown as often as not we wallow in the publicity and fanfare that attends each export of biscuits to Azerbaijan and a consignment of batiks to the boondocks." The typical Carl Muller flashes come and go, leaving the reader blinking. "Despite our Free Trade Zones and Industrial parks, it is admitted today that 'factory work' is a sort of last resort to many (even though that inane TV program 'Lunch Time TV' colours it purple!)" We are certainly shifting to a service economy and the pundits don't seem to relish the thought. Economy, to them, means production, Muller terms this a nascent snobbery! The next monograph is on Productivity, where, having traced a brief history of the word and its implications, Muller endorses the formula of "working smarter" and adds: There's no getting away from the fact that the countries that raise the productivity of their workers will remain economically dominant." This monograph can be, in every business had, a tool for making things better. The subject is presented in a precise manner and in that typical Muller-style where the reader feels that he is in earnest conversation with the writer. He is able to put his views across with such confidence that one simply has to listen. Muller draws the line between jobenrichment and job impoverishment and insists that no two jobs in a single office can be assumed to be homogenous. "Each must be distinctly categorised." He does not spare the "deadwood" either - the misfits who are sent to take salaries, do little, sent by some bigwigs in the government who demand that these misfits be employed. He says: "Even as I write, so many industries, companies, hotels, business undertakings, carry their loads of deadwood. This makes people with political power or with political clout the prime enemies of productivity! Yes, as Muller says, productivity is the first social responsibility of management, of executives everywhere in Sri Lanka. These four monographs are, I feel, contributions of a rare sort from a writer who has finally let it be known that he can turn his mind to any subject and display that total grasp. Stamford-Lake tells me that the next in the series, "Tourism - Aiming for that magic million", is now ready and will be on the shelves shortly. And, I am told there are more to come. At only Rs. 80 a book, everyone with its distinctive sameness of cover design, with no frills and no colour either, they are each as perfect as a well-shaken cocktail. Never was small so beautiful. Refreshing and heartwarming book of poems Ripples on a Lake is a refreshing and heartwarming book of poems by Eileen de Silva with a foreword by Yasmin Gunaratne Emeritus Professor of English, Macquarie University, New South Wales, where the author now lives. It was launched recently in Sydney by the Consul General for Sri Lanka, amid a representative gathering including former pupils who had migrated down under. Eileen who comes from that vintage of dedicated teachers for whom teaching was a vocation, loved to impart her knowledge and expression of the beauty of the English language and its literature to the many generations of Holy Familians she taught, this writer included. Lessons were such fun, spiced with humour and anecdotes. Students developed a warm personal rapport of friendship and an appreciation of the language which has withstood the test of time for many in Sri Lanka and others scattered all over the globe. A lover of Shakespeare, she can still quote flawlessly and knows his works like the back of her hand. A foreword by Yasmin Gunaratne says Eileen de Silva's poems reflect the occasional meditations of a happy and productive life that has included the often traumatic and difficult experience of migration from the homeland to another country. Ripples on a Lake embodies the products of a well-stored mind and a lively, inventive imagination. Best of all, her verses express at every turn that indispensable quality which unfailingly calms and refreshes the human spirit, a sense of humour. Eileen de Silva, a Sri Lankan, now residing in Sydney Australia is an English Honours graduate and a Licentiate of the Trinity College of Music & Speech London. She has been writing poems since childhood, but has never had them published, except in magazines and periodicals. Some have appeared in the "British Book of Short Poems" in the UK. This collection presents a broad spectrum of scenes, incidents, feelings and situations from the past, and also 'sites' from the present - both in Sri Lanka and the world outside. They are simple and straightforward - sometimes personal, sometimes sad. She seems to feel her way towards her own identity, and to discover the beauty of living; and this collection shows a love for the experience that is life. |
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