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Journalism of Courage
KANDY lies at the heart of Sri Lanka. In the last many centuries of the country8217;s history, the power that held this scenic city held Sri Lanka. Even today, as political and financial power has shifted to the port city of Colombo, Kandy asserts its prominence in the local appellation Maha Nuwara, or Great City. Its famous botanic garderns intimate the visitor to the longer and more enduring charms of Serendip, a blink of the eye and imagination recalls the pleasure pavilions of local rulers before the British took the city 8212; and thereby the country 8212; in 1815. Its Temple of the Tooth, holding Lord Buddha8217;s famous relic, is the most sacred site in the land.
And Kandy also lies on the road to Nuwara Eliya, the hill station of choice for Sri Lanka8217;s elite with its undulating tea plantations at higher than 6000 ft. With its Lady McCullum Drives, Hill Clubs and St Andrews Hotels, its mists blow in memories of a plantation society cultivating a profitable escape from the tropical routines of colonial life.
Yet, its location gives Peradeniya a catchment area for the hill country, or plantation, Tamils as they are called. These are the descendants of the hundreds of thousands brought from India to the island to work on the coffee and tea estates. Politically, they have not been associated with the Tamils in the north or in Colombo. Their struggle has been for the attainment of enfranchisement, a proper living wage and educational and social support.
As the plantation Tamils find greater place 8212; Muthiah Muralitharan is, for instance, a Kandy boy 8212; they cannot stay apart from the greater conflict in the land. Late evening on the main street of Nuwara Eliya begins the day8217;s work. Transporters are loading the potatoes and vegetables that form as key a component of the local agricultural economy as the tea crop. The violence of 1983, say the workers, huddling to the shopfronts in the persistent cold drizzle, has put on them on permanent alert to any development that could provoke extreme reactions.
But the simmering tensions come through most emphatically when a Jaffna Tamil, as a Tamil from the north and east is called, makes acquaintance with these words, 8220;Please, just don8217;t ask me about politics.8221; He8217;s come to hill country from Jaffna via scholarship in an Indian institute of management, and is visibly wearying from the burden of describing the pace and rhythms of life in LTTE-held areas.
TO the first-time, short-term outsider, Sri Lankans never cease to surprise by how articulate they can be in describing the conflict. Yet, in each telling, one gains another perspective. Jayadeva Uyangoda, head of the department of political science and public policy at the University of Colombo, says that at the moment the LTTE is demanding more internal sovereignty than the Sinhalese political parties can 8216;8216;ever conceive of conceding8217;8217;. He argues that there must be 8216;8216;a reconfiguration of political forces in favour of serious political engagement with the Tigers, backed by India and the international community.8217;8217;
Depending who you speak with, the Tigers are part of either the problem or the solution. Acts of provocation attributed to the Tigers, like the recent targetting of a busload of civilians near the ancient capital of Anuradhapura, are rallying voices in diverse places for an acknowledgement that the ceasefire is over. But others in Colombo, for instance young Tamils in the private sector and the media, ask, 8220;Where is the alternative to the Tigers at the negotiation table, who else is there?8221;
Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, minister of mass media and information as well as cabinet, appears to acknowledge the complex relationship with the Tigers as he counts off ways in which LTTE information channels are being countered while adding, 8220;We want to end this conflict by way of negotiation.8221;
That last sentiment, say foreign observers stationed in Colombo, fortunately still carries hope and a consensus.
