DAILY NEWS ONLINE


OTHER EDITIONS

Budusarana On-line Edition
Silumina  on-line Edition
Sunday Observer

OTHER LINKS

Marriage Proposals
Classified Ads
Government - Gazette
Mihintalava - The Birthplace of Sri Lankan Buddhist Civilization

A southern tortured soul cries out loudly

Tortured Island

Author: Malinga H. Gunaratne

Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha Publishers

INDEED I felt honoured when I was asked to write a review about Malinga H. Gunaratna's latest book Tortured Island.

Then my second thought was, how to write critically about this highly controversial and political book as I am a German: A foreigner should not get involved in and write-even constructive criticism - about politics in Sri Lanka as foreigners doing so could still be declared a "persona non grata" and kicked out of the country.

However, as a foreigner living here for the last 11 years I have every right to gather information to understand my second motherland.

And Tortured Island is a precious piece of work adding to my attempts of cognizance of what is going on in Sri Lanka, of what has happened so far, of the feelings of the people. Malinga H. Gunaratne is one of such people, a true son of the southern soil without question.

Curiously I started to read the last chapter to find out the conclusion of the author's 205 pages effort to deal with the history, the recent past and present of his beloved motherland.

The headline "It is not the end" does not disclose whether he is optimistic or pessimistic about Sri Lanka's future. Actually it is a synopsis of the hard-hitting chapters of the book.

However, to me the final lines of the book sound conciliatory and hopeful, because the author has chosen a poem of W. S. Senior - the second poem of the famous English poet in this book - to conclude this publication:

The Call of Lanka

But most shall he sing of Lanka

In the brave new days that come

When the races all have blended

And the voice of strife is dumb

When we leap to a single bugle

March to a single drum

Hard hitting

Now my fingers were racing over the headlines of contents. Where to start? The headlines of the 17 chapters are already appetizers.

Eventually I was not prepared for what I read although I have read Malinga H. Gunaratne's other book "For a Sovereign State" some time back, which was not as hard hitting, but this book is a full knock out blow.

This outspoken man from the South narrates important, dramatic parts of his colourful life, discloses his opinions and confronts the reader with his way of thinking.

He reveals his very own, sometimes dangerous harrowing experience in an exciting and understanding way. He does not mince even one of his words and he does not miss any punch.

In "Tortured Island" he verbally wallops politicians, clergy, culture, friends and enemies of the "sovereign" State, I wonder whether he has spared anybody?

Atrocious times

Having been an editor of a leading German daily by myself I recognize the stature of Malinga H. Gunaratne as a no holds barred author.

I admire the fact that he is a steadfast and devoted Sri Lankan who cares for the well-being of his beloved motherland. In his book he is expressing his inner feelings, he is exposing his tortured soul to the gentle reader.

Naturally I was keen to read the chapters about the LTTE and JVP. About the first ones, because I want to get to know more different points of view to really understand the sense of this brutal, inhuman war with its present fragile ceasefire.

The latter ones, because my husband himself was a victim of the southern insurgents as well and has plenty of experience. Reading what has happened is quite different to listening what has happened.

Now I do understand much better the atrocious times my husband went through after he survived three attempts of his life and finally lost almost everything after his ancestral estate bungalow was mercilessly burnt down, his estate devastated, his life shattered for some time. A horrible past - beyond human imagination.

Chapter 12 attends to an important, might be even vital, ingredient of Sri Lankan culture and tradition: Astrologers, Soothsayers, Witchcraft, Mumbo-Jambo, Hocus-pocus. Auspicious times and horoscopes are fragments of the daily life in Sri Lanka.

Astrology was an admired art centuries back. It is true that there are a lot-not all-of money oriented fraudsters and hocus-pocus clowns among those who predict the future. But isn't it true too that belief can move mountains?

And it is so that many people, almost an entire nation can't do without "magic", if it is a part of their ancient valued culture, I feel one has to respect it, if one cannot accept it. Ridiculing does not make matters better. Even in Germany more and more people feel attached to astrologers and soothsayers by the day.

When it comes to the religion again public disparagement is not the way to criticize the actions and antics of various clergymen and their lackeys.

More public sensibility and intensive personal dialogues with the people in question might be a more fruitful way of changing the attitudes and creating more awareness, might be a way to find a common path of understanding.

These two examples show without any doubt the frustration and disappointment of the author about the current situation - they reflect the loss of values and moral and to which extent the country has come down today in comparison with the rich history of days gone by.

What makes this book so controversial also is that the author voices his views and impressions so blatantly and frankly. He ventilates countrywide, what many think and talk about in close circles, but don't dare say loudly.

Unfortunately in Sri Lanka voicing his or her political view openly is life threatening. Still people are murdered in cold blood if they practise their freedom of expression with words, not with bullets.

Sharp words

This very interesting book is a subjective, very personal testimony written with great passion by the author in the best of interests of his motherland.

After reading it is crystal clear to me that Malinga H. Gunaratne could not any longer watch helplessly and with anger what is happening around him.

Instead of being silent he chose his most powerful tool, his sharp words to write this book. I am sure "Tortured Island" will encourage many heated and, most important, fruitful discussions.

As a foreigner I got to know much more about Sri Lanka. Yes, the current situation and how it came that far I understand better now. But after finishing this book I have in fact much more questions to ask than before.

With great curiosity, I am looking forward to the next book.

In chapter 7 the sub headline reads "Patriotism is the refuge of the scoundrel". My Oxford Dictionary, however, explains a patriot as "a person who loves her or his country, especially one who is ready to defend it against an enemy: a true patriot".

For me Malinga H. Gunaratne is a true patriot, because that is what he is verbally doing from the bottom of his southern heart, defending, even more, trying to save the tortured island of Sri Lanka.

I certainly do agree with the headline of the last chapter: It is not the end.

-Susanne Loos-Jayawickreme

The writer, German born Susanne Loos-Jayawickreme, has been living in rural Weligama for the last 11 years. She has worked for the Frenczy Press Agency in Munich and later became an editor of one of Germany's leading daily newspapers "Neue Ruhr/Rhein Zeitung", WAZ Group Essen.

She is a member of the English Writers' Cooperative of Sri Lanka. Today she works as a bilingual freelance journalist publishing in German and English. Since 2001 she is working fulltime for the Jayawickreme Foundation, a charity, which helps the poor and needy in Weligama.


Four Kandyan Families launch tomorrow

VIJITHA YAPA Publications will launch the company's 100th publication Four Kandyan Families in Kandy tomorrow (July 23).

Written by Sunil J. Madugalle, a teacher of history and political science, the book is a genealogical study within the historical background and the geographical spread of the Kandyan Kingdom.

It contains a social history cum genealogy of four Kandyan families of the upper nobility; the Ehelepolas of Matale, the Madugalles of Dumbara, and the Katugahas and Rambukpothas of Uva. The latter three are intimately connected to the author, whereas the Ehelepolas appear to have been selected independently for comparative purposes.

The launch will take place at the Governor's Secretariat and Governor's Residence, Palace Square, Kandy at 4 p.m. on July 23. The chief guest is M.C. Gopallawa, Governor of the Central Province.

In the book, Madugalle covers the three fundamentals of family histories, the traditional demand that a story must revolve around a hero or heroine that it needs a well-known historical event to rally round the common lore that has been passed down to generations and thirdly that the story should contain doses of folk and family-lore.

Sunil J. Madugalle was born in 1942 into a dignified Kandyan Sinhalese family and educated at Trinity College, Kandy.

He obtained his B.A. (Arts) degree from the University of Ceylon Peradeniya and was later handpicked to join the academic staff of Trinity College.

He is the co-founder of the twice international-award winning Trinity College National drum and Dance Troupe and was the initiator and manager of Sri Lanka's first ever and only collaborative project launched by a school in association with a state department, the Manikdena Archaeological Reserve and Arboretum Development Project in Dambulla.

In 1989 he was invited by the then President of Sri Lanka to pen his first literary work on the life and times of Raja, the Sri Dalada Maligawa Tusker, Sri Lanka's one and only pachyderm declared a national treasure. In his retirement he is engaged in the studies of history of the Kandyan Kingdom in Sri Lanka.

FEEDBACK | PRINT

 

| News | Editorial | Business | Features | Political | Security | Sports | World | Letters | Obituaries |

 

Produced by Lake House Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.

Comments and suggestions to : Web Manager