Jaffna onion cultivators are unable to market their produce, but it is sad that Sri Lanka imports onions from India and China.
In Colombo onions are selling for Rs110 per kg. But in Jaffna onions sell at Rs30.00 per kg. One month ago Jaffna onion cultivators sold their produce at Rs7.00 per kg by going house to house on bicycles and land master small tractors.

A news item in the Daily Mirror 17th November said Sri Lanka importers will buy 30,000 tons of onions from India to augment supplies in the domestic market.

Agents are waiting at Tutricon and Chennai ports in India to buy the bulbs on the hope of a lifting of restrictions and will import 30,000 tons of onion by Decmber, the Essential Service Commodities Importers Association Spokesman said. Sri Lanka had recently imported 20,000 tons of onion from China.

If Colombo traders could purchase onions from Jaffna, Jaffna onion cultivators could earn their investment and be content. Transport and waiting other wages also lower than from India or China compared with Jaffna.
Sri Lanka imports onion from China and India, but Jaffna onion cultivators are unable to market their product.

Poll closes on 31st December 2007.

The first Rajapakse I knew, closely related to the current President, was from over ten years ago, in a different country at a time when the Executive of the day had begun a “war for peace” campaign that was also sold as the only way in which peace could be achieved and soon.

We were both undergraduate students in the same University though in different colleges. He kept an immaculately clean apartment, tastefully furnished with a well appointed kitchen which always harboured the delicious promise of homemade Sinhalese food. We worked closely together on many projects. He was precise, sensible, quick witted and reflecting back on his nature, essentially a political animal in training. I realize now why I was then attracted to that which he embodied and represented. At its most basic was an effortless Southern hospitality that he exuded, the equivalent of xenia (ξενία), the Greek concept loosely translated as hospitality, or generosity and courtesy shown by a host to those who visit. In him and through him was the comfort and attraction of kinship, of a strong and shared Southern Sinhala identity and a sense of belonging, of course rendered more immediate and real by the fact that we were both in a foreign land, far from home.

I look back now and find it ironical that my introduction to politics was through a Rajapakse though I realise that what I saw in and through my erstwhile friend were prescient markers of so much of what defines the essential relationship between the Southern voter and the incumbent President and his government. Fundamentally, the appeal of Mahinda Rajapakse is that his messages are simply powerful. The idiom of Sri Lankan politics today is a battle between patriots and pariahs, a lexicon exclusively defined and used extensively by the President and his brothers. Using a language of hate and harm and often in Sinhala, they promote a simple message – supporting their war on terror is patriotic and the right, sensible thing to do. Opposing it is to support the terrorists and terrorism, which should and will be dealt with extreme prejudice. Tamils are our friends, but they can’t really be trusted and must be held in check. Occasionally and not without a measure of some violence, they must be reminded that their fate lies in the hands of Sinhalese munificence.

Put up or shut up. And there’s the rub.

There’s no real debate or engagement possible with this visceral logic, because it is impregnable, exceedingly intolerant of critiques and as extreme as that which drives the damnable violence of the LTTE. Yet, it is also the fundamental appeal of this President who is now a mirror image of the bunkered Sun God in the North, which I find is particularly telling of the societies that gave rise to and legitimized them both. This appeal lies not only in the man’s personal charm, but in the idea he represents and articulates to a Southern constituency. It is a promise, never delivered yet always portrayed as imminent, of a return to peace and of a Sri Lanka harmonious and prosperous sans the LTTE. It is an existentialist argument of a return to stability and security, deeply resonant in an essentially anxious and fearful Southern polity and society. Tilling muddy fields in a hitched up sarong, stepping into Kfir cockpits, standing amidst the machinery of war after the “liberation” of the East, speaking in Sinhala at the UN, an audience with Shah Rukh Khan, television appearances simulcast on multiple channels where he expounds his Chintanaya and the ever present threat of terrorism that must, at all costs, be defeated – these and more are cumulatively a performance spectaculaire designed to appeal to the lowest common political imagination of the Southern constituency.

Thing is, it works and how!

I went into some detail about my memories of the only Rajapakse I have known personally because it helps one understand to a degree why who they are and what they say finds a receptive audience, at least for the moment, in the South – a constituency that will continue to support them and their self-styled war on terror. This war (that I have repeatedly said is not in my name) is waged with a vengeance because its ultimate objective, implicit in so much of what the President and his government does and says, is more than just the complete eradication of the LTTE – it is to establish a totalitarian Sinhala, Buddhist regime in the guise of a benevolent dictatorship which does not want to kill you, but will in an instant if you question it too much. It is essentially that which the JVP sought to establish, the JHU would love to see and the UNP today is powerless to prevent the establishment of. I was over a decade ago attracted to the rhetoric and image of a Rajapakse in precisely the same manner as many today are convinced their President holds the key to peace. It is an easy trap to fall into. Recently, I spoke with a leading and committed Sinhala civil rights activist who immediately after an audience with the President was so completely charmed that the person wanted me to tone down and delay the release of a rather strong statement I had drafted against the regime at the time. It was a stark reminder that dislodging this government from power is a formidable task. Further, that my own parents have always voted for the SLFP or JVP and are staunch supporters of this President is a valuable reference point. Though I have weaned myself away from the regressive and exclusive nationalism they believe and I grew up in, I find that I am as much a stranger to them as I am to the rest of polity and society in the South that today continue to support this regime despite the fact that nothing they can and will ever do will bring peace to Sri Lanka.

How really can one deal with this phenomenon of a reprehensible regime legitimized by a population that violently alienates those in opposition to it? This administration in two years has manipulated public opinion to such a degree that everything and everyone is part of an all consuming, omni-present war – from the garbage-man to the CEOs of our largest conglomerates, one is with it or against it. This is because Mahinda Rajapakse’s skill lies in the adept manipulation and stoking up of fringe Sinhala Buddhist radicalism fuelled by his own dynastic aspirations, completely overwhelming the growth of a tolerant, inclusive and progressive civic nationalism in the South. By doing so, this President has beguiled us into a sense of security and safety when in fact there is none to be found or gained through what he has done or proposes to do.

I note that there is often a clarion call for regime change from within or without in many articles by political commentators today. I fear that neither is forthcoming soon or in the near future. Our greater test is to endure what we have brought upon ourselves and for a few of us at least, to continue to write against not a war, but more importantly, an attitude and mindset that will not bring us closer to peace and also exacerbate the root causes that gave rise to the violence that bedevils our progress today. Jayadeva Uyangoda writing recently said that “Sri Lanka’s ethnic war has now reached a point beyond redemption. It can only escalate, escalate and escalate. Some of us might not even be around to record and comment on the outcome of it.” In my mind, what is more important than whether we are around or not to see the outcome of this current phase of Sri Lanka’s tryst with war is what we say, do and write here and now, that serve as a vital record for posterity. If we are silent, this regime would have won.

My erstwhile friend, himself of the Rajapakse clan, will understand. After all, it is he who taught me to believe in what I do and say and in spite of all odds, to persevere, because our time will come.

Published in the Daily Mirror, 24 November 2007.

About the Film
Filmed in Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2005, the art of forgetting attempts to shatter the silence and statistical anonymity that characterizes dominant discourses of war by highlighting the personal stories of the people whose lives have been altered by war and political violence. The film is structured around a journey from the northern-most tip of Sri Lanka to the southern-most and uses this journey to loosely trace Sri Lanka’s overlapping histories of conflict in both the North and South of the country through the stories of people met along the way.

The film is not intended to explain, analyze or provide a comprehensive history of Sri Lanka’s recent past. Volumes of written text have been produced that seek to do just that. There are many stories that are not overtly told… the story of the East, the story of the IPKF, the story of 1983, the story of Colombo, the story of the border villages, to name a few. Thus, from a historical perspective, the art of forgetting may be seen as incomplete. But to focus on what is not there is to miss what is. For within the particular lies the general. Within one story of loss is contained a chorus of suffering, strength and survival.

The art of forgetting grew out of a three-year collaborative documentation and documentary film project through which I, and my colleague Iffat Fatima, with the help of countless others, explored and documented the ways in which people remember past violence. Throughout the project, we sought to create space for people to tell their stories: space that has been fundamentally missing in Sri Lanka. Through ongoing dialogues and largely unstructured interviews in which we invited people to tell us their stories, the project has attempted to engage in “the intentional act of remembering,” as termed by Alex Boraine, former deputy chair of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Both the process of documentation and the film itself seek to open space to remember – space within the public discourse… within peace processes, policy debates, and negotiations… within our collective conscious… within our hearts and our minds.

With the art of forgetting, I challenge those who advocate amnesia: those who say the past is better left in the past. Because the past is the present. It is the here and now. One needs only to read the headlines to know… or to speak to the newly widowed, the daily orphaned. It is this moment and the next, reinvented again and again. It is the legacy we leave our children. If we keep the past buried it will only rot and fester further. To reveal it, to give it light and air to breath, to expose it to the elements – the wind and the rain – is to free ourselves from its stranglehold.

Adapted from “The art of forgetting: A facilitation guide” by Lisa Kois (FLICT 2007)

About the Clips
Two short segments of the art of forgetting have been made available on Groundviews, along with the film credits. Although these segments will introduce you to the style and some of the themes of the art of forgetting, they are, in many ways, unrepresentative of the film itself. The essence of the film is the personal narratives of suffering, subversion and survival for which the film is a vehicle. I have refrained from including people’s stories online as I believe the nature and content of the stories demand that they are treated with the utmost sensitivity, which may not be possible in such a forum. The film, however, is available for distribution. Please contact Perera Hussein Publishing House at ph-books@sltnet.lk for information on how to purchase a copy of the art of forgetting in Sri Lanka or abroad. English, Sinhala and Tamil versions are available.

Preview 1

Higher quality preview available here.

Preview 2

Higher quality preview available here.

Film credits

Higher quality version available here.

Today, Karuna Amman is in the police custody of British authorities, charged with entering Britain on a forged passport. As reported in last week’s Sunday Leader, this forged passport used by Karuna had been issued under a name Kokila Gunawardana by the Department of Emigration and Immigration in Colombo. This is not a normal passport that we civilians usually use but a diplomatic one especially issued to diplomats, high-ranking government officials, heads of governments and parliamentary members and ministers etc. If under special circumstances such a passport is issued to a person not holding some important position in the hierarchy of the state, a written request from the Presidential Secretary is needed. It was with this passport with all privileges of diplomatic immunity that Karuna has landed in Heathrow airport in London on last 18 September.

How did Karuna obtain a British visa for this forged passport? It is on the strength of a Third Party Note furnished by our Foreign Ministry to the British High Commission in Colombo. In this letter the Foreign Ministry is reported to have stated that the holder of the passport called Kokila Gunawardana was going to participate in an international conference on “Climatic Changes”. Taking the details on the passport and the authenticity of the passport holder for granted, as is the normal practice of diplomatic protocol, the British High Commission in Colombo readily issued a visa for this forged passport on the 05th of September.

So, where this Kokila Gunawardana was employed? As the details given in his visa application suggest, at a Department of the Ministry of Environment that comes under the Jathika Hela Urumaya Minister, Champika Ranawaka. And, what was Kokila Gunwardana’s profession? “Director General- Wild Life Conservation”.

A reported discussion that took place in Geneva on 15 June with President Mahinda Rajapakasa and Social Services Minister Douglas Devananda by a third person called K.T. Rajasingham was crucial in the sense that it was at this discussion that they had decided to get rid of Karuna Amman. This K.T. Rajasingham is the editor-in-chief of Asian Tribune, an online news magazine. As the Sunday Leader exposure reports, in pursuance of the above discussion, K.T. Rajasingham subsequently wrote to President’s adviser Mr. Sunimal Fernando requesting him to do the needful as regards the matters decided upon in consultation with the President in Geneva. It is learnt that child soldier recruitments by Karuna, role of the Defense Ministry in protecting Karuna, changes that should be effected in the Foreign Service, setting up an effective propaganda network to combat the LTTE on international arena and a program to win over India are the matters discussed on that day.

Rajasingham has emphasized in this meeting with the President and Douglas Devananada that Karuna was an unbearable liability to the government and a spent force that had no value, politically or militarily, any more. Karuna’s second-in-command, Pilleyan was about to arrest Karuna but waiting, since he was not sure of the government’s reaction. Therefore, the best course of action as suggested by Rajasingham was to get rid of Karuna as soon as possible and seek the support of Pilleyan who is quite popular in the East. Whatever may be the case, finally, Karuna has siphoned off Rs.500 million he had amassed by way of resorting to abducting businessmen and extortion, as well as the money lavishly provided by the government for the upkeep of his cadres, according to Rajasingham.

What is a forged passport? Most probably, name and other details given on the passport might be fictitious, or the photograph attached therewith does not conform either to the person holding the passport or to the details given on the document. In this case, the photograph may have been of Karuna, I guess, for otherwise it might have posed problems very easily either at Katunayaka or at Heathrow. But Karuna’s name, as we all know, is not Kokila Gunawardana. (What a nice Sinhala name for a Tamil, by the way!). Economically marginalized desperate Sri Lankan youth, when caught in the attempt of emigrating to the developed world on a forged passport are mercilessly put in remand prison, if not convicted into imprisonment by law enforcement authorities, and ridiculed by publicizing such incidents in the media.

Now, from the first stage, that is, issuing a fictitious passport under the name Kokila Gunawardana and getting a British visa by knowingly providing wrong information to a foreign diplomatic mission, up to the last act of accompanying Karuna to the aircraft personally by no less a personage than the deputy chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, clearly testifies to the involvement of the government in this sordid affair. So, the question arises as to whether this “legal Mafia” that consists of the bigwigs whoever that may be that recommended a diplomatic passport to a pseudo personage and Champika Ranawaka as the Minister of the relevant Ministry responsible for attesting to a non existent post called “Director General- Wild Life Conservation”, is to be prosecuted forthwith. In retrospect, what seems to be somewhat ironical in this affaire is that this Jathika Hela Urumaya which was initially said to be formed to make Sri Lanka a Buddhist state is now allegedly involved not only in selling duty-free Mercedes Benz in the black market by their monk politicians but also in forging passports and human trafficking too, by their lay leaders! Remember, amending our Penal Code in the last year human trafficking was criminalized!

When Karuna broke away from the LTTE, instigated on a whim by parochialism camouflaged in championing a separate liberation for the Tamils in the East, I wrote at that time in my column called “Avaradiga Avarjana” in Ravaya newspaper, thus: “It is quite evident that Karuna plays an important role at this precise moment in the national crisis in Sri Lanka. He is neither a Douglas Devananda, sustained by the Sinhala state, nor a ‘Mahatthaya’ spirited away like a baby rat at the hand of the LTTE. But, as soon as this moment fades away, no other alternative but these two would be left for the character called Karuna”.
Let me “read” this affaire in a somewhat semiotic fashion. According to the passport used by Karuna, he is a high-ranking official in the Sri Lankan state bureaucracy. Yet, the sworn stand firmly maintained by our government all along was a point-blanc refusal of any kind of direct or indirect dealings with Karuna, in its military or political matters. It was this view that the government relentlessly maintained nationally, and before the international community. Now, the conference Karuna had intended to attend to was on “Climatic Changes”. Yes, certain drastic climatic changes in the field of political opportunism of Sri Lankan variety to the detriment of poor Karuna have been taking place for some time now, which definitely entitle him to be a true participant in that Conference of “Climatic Changes”. As stated earlier, according to the application form for the visa, his profession is “Director-General, Wild Life Conservation”. That position fits him so nicely that the immense weight of the cruel truth underlying that apt terminology crushes all sense of humor, if there is any in this farcical drama.

We all know he lived for a long period in the dense jungles of the eastern province. And then, as a person who voluntarily used a large dose of violence whilst living there makes himself to be labeled as “wild”, ferociously then and mildly now. As there is an imminent danger to the very existence even of this “reformed” wild life, due to unforeseen political “climatic changes” in the prevalent political atmosphere, “Director General of Wild Life Conservation”, who now happens to be none other than Karuna, decides to represent himself at the Conference of Climatic Changes.

There is a human mechanism in the western world where a person like Karuna can claim protection to his life, if in danger of being likely to be harmed by a third party on political or ethnic grounds, although he himself has previously harmed others’ lives. It is called the Right of Political Asylum. Once Mr. Somawansa Amarasinghe, the present Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna enjoyed this right in the same country as Mr. Kokila Gunawardana alias Colonel Karuna Amaman happens to be today, who has reportedly applied for the same refugee status now.

I hope this facility, which is an accepted human right privilege largely sustained and afforded by the Western World would not be attacked or ridiculed by the like of Mr. Wimal Weerawansa as another ploy of the Imperial Conspiracy financed by the Catholic Church against our Sinhala Buddhist Motherland!