Extensive study on Sri Lanka's foreign policy

Reviewed by Indeewara Thilakarathne

Foreign policy of Sri Lanka - a research study by Prof. W. M. Karunadasa, a book in Sinhalese is perhaps, one of the resourceful academic contributions that has recently been made on foreign policy of Sri Lanka.

The book, primarily, stands out as an authoritative contribution in the realm of foreign policy of Sri Lanka on two accounts; firstly as its author Prof. W. M. Karunadasa is not only the head of Department sir at the University of Colombo but also an expert in the field of Foreign Affairs with international exposure and experience; secondly the book is in Sinhala which undoubtedly would help a large number of students who study in the Sinhalese medium.

Prof. Karunadasa mooted the idea that since the independence from British, Sri Lanka has been following a non-aligned foreign policy and that difference between the two major political parties, the SLFP and the UNP, is in the diverse approach to the non-aligned foreign policy.

He argues that Foreign Policy of Sri Lanka (FPS) should be based on the objective of achieving economic and development goals rather than succumbing to the dictates of doctrinaire politics.

It has been pointed out that time is ripe to discard the conventional schools of thinking that SLFP followed the non-aligned foreign policy while UNP regimes followed a pro-Western foreign policy and that the UNP regimes did not show any interest in establishing diplomatic relations with socialist block of countries.

The book extensively deals with diverse school sof thinking with regard to the foreign policy of Sri Lanka.

It has pointed out that the first school of thinking was developed by leftist politicians which had also influenced the scholarly work of the first generation of scholars on Sri Lankan Foreign Policy.

Understandably the first generation of scholars were Indians who heavily depended on firebrand type ideas propagated by leftist politicians in parliamentary debates.

The crust of their argument seemed to be that Sri Lanka was not an independent nation as it did not gain independence through a struggle.

They have highlighted that Britain exercised a considerable influence on Sri Lankan foreign policy through a Defence Agreement and maintaining its military presence in the country.

The erudite leftist politicians pinpointed that Sri Lanka was following a pro-Western foreign policy by not establishing diplomatic relations with countries belonging to the socialist block, like the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

This school of thinking also propagated the idea that Sri Lanka has virtually mortgaged its freedom to the Britain by having a nominal Governor-General.

However, the author emphasizes the fact that the UNP's foreign policy is in contrast to that followed by SLFP led regimes.

The UNP considered economic gains as more important than following a vociferous doctrinaire politics at international fora.

UNP believes that Sri Lanka should play a low profile role in the arena of international affairs and should follow friendly ties with countries of the world without making enemies which Sri Lanka could not afford. In establishing ties with countries, priority should be accorded to those countries which would accrue economic benefits to the country rather than dictated by political concerns and Sri Lanka should follow non-aligned foreign policy.

In other words, the author is of the view that corner stone of Sri Lankan foreign policy should be economic concerns such as attracting direct foreign investments, opening up foreign markets for Sri Lankan products etc.

Prof.Karunadasa has identified two principle schools as The Theoretical School and Pragmatist School.

The author describes the foreign policy approach adapted by SLFP led regimes from 1070-77 was dictated by the theoretical school while UNP's foreign policy belongs to the pragmatist school.

Foreign Policy of Sri Lanka, a Research Study is , perhaps, the only book available in Sinhala which would be a source book for students of foreign affairs and also be interesting read for serious readers in Sinhala. The book is published by Image Lanka Publishers.

Blasting the bias of British historical records

Reviewed by Carl Muller

The historical record of Ceylon, their new colony, was documented by British writers of the time and subsequently strengthened by native writers influenced by their British upbringing. So, says Raja C. Bandaranayake in his Prelude to this fascinating book, 'Betwixt Isles'. It is a book about a little-known (and now near-unknown) piece of our history. It tells of the 'Isle of France' - the small island of Mauritius, in the early part of the nineteenth century, and the 'hero' is none other than Ehelapola Maha Nilame, who betrayed his king and brought about the fall of the Kandyan kingdom. But, as Bandaranayake says, 'the real villain was the powerful and cunning British coloniser.'

There is little doubt in our minds today. We don't have to claim to be 'nationalists' to tell of the greed of the three powers that occupied this island - and it was certainly not the military might of the British that brought about the conquest of Kandy in 1815. It was subterfuge, political intrigue and, after the rebellions of 1818 and 1823, even Ehelapola, who styled himself 'Friend of the British Government' was arrested and banished to Mauritius. That was Britain's answer to what it saw as a threat to its administration. Nobody had the right to become an 'over=popular local personality.' Such a man could raise a following could wield power. It preferred a 'leaderless vacuum' rid the kingdom of the king, gain the support of the chieftains, lull them with the singing of the Kandyan Convention, then get rid of them....and Mauritius was to be their place of exile, even death.

Let me elaborate. Many factors led to the events Bandaranayake tells of. As he says in his Introduction, there was another phase of development. Kandy's later rulers brought in queens from South India, giving to the kingdom an alien foothold. When the kings had no issue, the brother of his queen was made king, and so were the last four kings of the Nayakkar dynasty. This was how, after three centuries of uninterrupted history, there came a combination of interlopers, aliens and the in-fighting among the Kandyan nobility.

The Portuguese were unable to subjugate Kandy. The Dutch turned their greedy eyes on the kingdom. The French could not survive for long. When the last Sinhala king of Kandy, Narendrasimha, died in 1707, he was succeeded by his South Indian queen's brother who called himself Sri Vijaya Rajasimha. He was followed by Kirti Sri Rajasimha, Rajadi Rajasimha and a puppet Malabari, Kannasamy who was jockeyed onto the throne by the Chief Adigar, Pilimatalauve Senior Kannasamy took the name of Sri Vikram Rajasimha - the last of Kandy's kings and later accused the Chief Adigar of plotting against him. After executing Pilimatalauve Senior and Ratwatte, the king made Ehelapola his First Adigar on the wishes of the other chiefs of the kingdom. I gave you all this if only to show what compelled Ehelapola to conspire against the king. He was accused of administrative excesses and pushed out to Sabaragamuwa and again summoned to Kandy to answer charges, having been accused of many iniquities in Sabaragamuwa.

In the meantime, the king had made Ehelapola's rival, Molligoda, the First Adigar, Ehelapola fled to British territory and the king, in fury did the unimaginable. As Bandaranayake says: He punished Ehelapola in absentia by cruelly executing his wife, children and close relatives...The brutality of the executions horrified the Kandyans and cast a pall on the whole of Kandy.

In the network of British spies, at its hub, was John D'Oyly. Brownrigg was determined to seize Kandy. Ehelapola opened negotiations with the British. We know what happened. The king and his queens went into hiding in Medamahanuwara and were deserted by a number of his leaders. He was tracked down, taken prisoner with his queens, sent to Colombo and thereon to Vellore. So were his Nayakkar relatives. The Kandyan kingdom ceased to exist.

Ehelapola may have wished to take the throne of Kandy, but the rebellion of 1817 made Brownrigg suspicious. Ehelapola had asked that his brother-in-law, Keppetipola, be sent to restore order, but Keppetipola joined the rebels. It raised a question. Was Ehelapola disgruntled that he was not made king?

Captivity

Did he support the rebellion? Ehelapola was summoned to D'Oyly's house on some pretext, and when there, placed under arrest. And so, the only man who had helped the British all along was held in captivity in Colombo for seven years. In Kandy, when the rebellion was crushed, the instigators were sentenced to death.

They included Keppetipola and Madugalle. Others were banished to Mauritius - the first Ceylonese to be sent there - and thus does Bandaranayake's real story begin.

Let us follow Bandaranayake. Leaving Port Louis, Mauritius, a road leads to the district of Pamplemousses - the setting of this book, while there is the Power Mills, the epicentre of the story.

There stands a white monument, the tomb of Ehelapola. In the thick brush behind the Skin Infirmary at Powder Mills is the prison, and as for the tomb, there is someone who will always place a lighted candle, an incense stick, a clay urn or a posy of flowers on the day of Ehelapola's birth and death and on other anniversaries of events in his life. Taking a supernatural twist, Bandaranayake reminds that the female apparition around the Kandy Lake to this day is that Ehelapola's first wife, Keppetipola Kumarihamy. After she has been forced to pound the heads of her children in a mortar after they had been beheaded, she drowned herself in the lake.

In South India, the house in which the last king of Kandy died, is said to be haunted. The Power Mills prison houses up to 30 Kandyan prisoners. Ehelapola lived near by and, with no charges against him, lived in greater luxury and enjoyed greater liberty. He would always visit the prisoners in a horse-drawn carriage.

People say they still hear the trundle and gallop of that carriage at night. On the Western Cape of Mauritius, walks the military ghost of Dr. James Barry, who attended on Ehelapola during his terminal illness at Pamplemousses.

People called Ehelapola 'Prince' during his four years in Mauritius. Perhaps as Bandarnayake says, The reverence displayed at his grave is simply the manner of the superstitious inhabitants to keep Ehelapola's ghost at bay."

The first batch of Kandyan to Mauritius included Pilimatalawa Junior 25 prisoners and two servants. Throughout Ehelapola's brief stay, he was accompanied by his interpreter, Don Bastian, and his servant and also by a group of Kandyans. It was apparent that there were two groups of prisoners those who had been tried for insurrection and banished, and those who were criminals but not connected with the rebellions. In the second group were those of the labour class, an iron smith, even murderers. Clearly this second group were used as hard labour on the island's public works, but Bandaranayake refers to a letter by Captain Henry Bates:

"...for the purpose of being employed at hard labour (they) are of little or no use in that capacity as they are in consequence continued to be maintained at the cost of the (Ceylon) Government.

I beg to propose to His Excellency the Governor that these people - viz. 14 men and I woman with child, being placed at my disposal, when they shall be made useful both here and with the Kandyan Chief Ehelapola and in such other ways as they may be suited for."

Of course, exiles were also sent back to Ceylon from time to time, but the British in Ceylon did not much care for such returns. They wanted that prevented, pleading inadequate security. But as Bandaranayake points out.

"IT was most likely that the returning exiles only wanted to spend the remainder of their miserable lives in peace among kith and kin. The concern for security was a figment of the imagination of the British authorities at the time. To have prevented any of the prisoners from returning due to inadequate security in spite of the good reports forwarded by the superintendents of the prisoners was merely exacerbating the cruelty wreaked on these wretched souls by a heartless ruler."He then tells of the creature comforts of the prisoners: food, clothing and shelter - two coconuts a day, salted fish, preserved pork...prisoners of the first class also received ghee, tamarind, onion, mustard and coriander, rice, tobacco, arecanuts, betel leaves, tea, sugar, curry powder, pumpkin, potato, green dhal, beans, pepper, salt, ham, lime juice, coffee, an iron kettle every three years, cups and saucers.There also comes the consumption of wine and the chief medical offers, Sibbald's note in 1825 that the chief, Mattamagoda 'gets fanciful and wishes for some change in his diet and an allowance of wine" He recommended "one fowl and a bottle of Maderia wine weekly, in addition to the supplies he already receives, none of which he is disposed however, to relinquish."

We learn that Mattamagoda liked his wine even before he left Ceylon. When the British forces were closing in on him, ten bottles of fine Madeira was found in one of the huts. Also, the ruler, Sri Vikrama was notorious for the way he drank. Major Lockyer, who was present at the fall of Kandy noted.

"Every description of expensive wines was available, and champagne was in abundance, at a dinner given by Ehelapola to the British officers and Kandy chiefs after the occasion and before the rebellion broke out. Ehelapola had in fact proposed a toast when all the chiefs had their glasses filled. This the imbibition of expensive imported liquor was not unusual among the Kandyan nobility even at that time."

Hapatagamuva Senior also liked his alcohol. Doctors noted the strong smell of rum and arrack in his breath and when examining his body after death they found a large quantity of arrack under his cot.

Attire

Regarding attire, you should not miss Chapter 13 - the tuppotis, cavery and toppis, Ehelapola received the best - the topi, shawls, sleeved brocaded jacket with a white ruff, white ornamental cap with gold lace, European handkerchiefs.

It was no wonder that the people called him "Prince". When he died,his clothes were distributed among the prisoners.Chapter 14 tells of shelter of some who were kept in other prisons in the island, while the sick were confined in some of the hospitals, in other parts.

Barnes to Cole "(Ehelapola) who is consequence of very strong suspicions attaching to his general conduct Sir Robert Brownrigg thought it necessary in the early part of 1818 to arrest and send the prisoner to Colombo."And so we come to Ehelapola's house. I must say one thing, however, Bandaranayake has repeated himself a great deal.

This does make for tiresome reading at times and which is why I need to hop skip and jump so much. This is not downright criticism but I'm sure he will find that what I say is very true. I wish he had a strong editorial hand to lead him through what is certainly marvellous story between isles.

There is little doubt that Ehelapola lived in style. His house was 200 yards from the Royal Botanical Gardens and he could take pleasant walks, had a spring of pure water and the home stood on nine to ten acres of fruit and coconut. It was actually called "House of the Candyan Prisoner" or simply "Candyan Minister."

The building was demolished to construct the Merton College. We are told of his social life, his dietary habits, and his death, his head in the lap of the faithful Don Bastian.

The mild dysentery he had was thought to be of little consequence by a Dr. Hant, but the gravity of the illness soon became evident.

He was cremated on April 6, 1829, consumed in a coffin on a funeral pyre.

Well supported by pictures, diagrams, maps and sketches, this book tells us of a "Prince" among men. He could not abide the tyranny of the Nayakkar kings and was ready to help the British all he could to get rid of them.

But he was very human too. He though he would gain the throne in the end. It was the scoundrelly attitude of the British, of D'Olyly and Brownrigg that had him treated so evilly.

But he showed how a prince should be in the island he was banished to, earning the respect of all who saw in him not a man of traitorous intentions but one who saw and tried to follow a true light and drive out the interlopers.