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The Storm's Eye by Prof.Rajiva Wijesinghe

I was sorry to discover, when I got back from the April holidays, that Arjuna Ranawana had resigned from the post of Editor of the 'Daily News'.

It was not because of problems with the management, but because he had been admitted to Canada as an immigrant.

As was pointed out to me, he had had no choice, with two young children, but to grasp the opportunity with both hands.

I don't think I have met Arjuna face to face, but I feel I have known him for a long time. He was one of those who left the country shortly after Richard de Zoysa's murder. The other was Waruna Karunatilleke, who was escorted to the airport by Lalith Athulathmudali to ensure his safety. I don't think Arjuna was as close, or required similar protection, but since then he has been associated with Richard in my mind.

I used to read his journalism on occasion after that, when he was doing very well in Hong Kong. He came back later than Waruna, but he did come back and added immeasurably to professionalism amongst journalists in this country.

Shortly after the government changed at the end of 2001, I was asked to write a column for the Daily News. I had already been critical of the Government (though seeing problems then in terms of individual blunders rather than fundamental incapacity or bad faith), so I was surprised to be asked. However I was assured that the new management was keen on quality independent writing, and wanted a guest column for each day of the week.

Shortly after I began to write, the Editor who had been appointed by the previous government, and whom I had found most amiable, was dismissed. I feared the worst, but was relieved when Arjuna took over, since that seemed to indicate a genuine commitment to professionalism.

It is not easy to keep a column going each week, on top of one's other work, and I noticed that soon my fellow weekly columnists had dropped out. Despite the strain I continued, satisfied that Arjuna published everything I wrote without omissions, except once, after a discussion as we had decided.

But the problem is that, with every good man who moves on, the pool of those who support each other under stress diminishes.

And of course, at the rate this country is going - or not going - we have to expect that people like Arjuna will leave whenever they can. Childless people like the Prime Minister or myself can stagger on for a few years more, since total disaster is still some years into the future.

But the simple fact that someone like Arjuna, at a point in his career that any journalist in Sri Lanka would have dreamed of some years back, now goes to another country where he has to start all over again, makes even clearer how sad our situation is.

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