Deep insights into troubled times
In his book Ben Bavinck takes you into a journey through Sri Lanka’s
war years. This book will certainly interest politicians, political
scientists, political analysts, students of politics, historians and
other readers who give primary importance to politics and related
subjects.
This is a brand new generic book published in UK by the Rajani
Thiranagama Memorial Committee and co-published by Vijitha Yapa
Publications. The book has 346 pages with 15 items: Introduction
(Editorial Collective etc etc), Foreword (Valentine Daniel), Personal
Foreword (Ben Bavinck) under which A Country in Crisis, War Breaks Out,
Stagnation Amidst Bombings and Massacres and Waiting for a New Thrust
and Map of Sri Lanka, Map of Northern Sri Lanka, Map of Eastern Sri
Lanka, Map of Mannar District, Map of Jaffna District, Sri Lanka
Timeline: February 1948-May 1994 and Acronyms which are useful. There
are also eight pictures in colour illustrating strategic points in
Lankan contemporary history.
 The book takes major portion in reporting and interpreting the hell
created by the now almost defunct military movement known as the LTTE
(Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam). While there are a few who support
and sympathize with this Movement who resorted to terrorism to pursue
its goal of achieving a separate state for the Tamil people especially
in the Yaalpaanam (Jaffna) peninsula in Sri Lanka, there were a majority
of sane-thinking people all over the world that abhorred violence as a
tool to achieve a political goal. However few resorted to do the
opposite.
This book is basically therefore anti-Tiger in its scope particularly
when it has been published by a Committee in the name of Rajini
Thiranagama, an intellectual who was brutally killed for her views. In
the name of “Liberation” thousands in the island lost their lives. Among
them were intellectuals belonging to different communities in the island
and lot more innocent civilians.
We learn that the author of this book had lived in Yaalpaanam for
nearly 27 years and this book is the first of two edited volumes of the
diaries that the writer had kept.
The first volume covers the period 1988-1994. And volume will cover
1994-2004 when he spent his time exclusively in Yaalpaanam.
Ben Bavinck was a Dutchmen and taught at Jaffna College in
Vaddukkoaddai. His diaries were original written in the Dutch language
and translated into English.
The book includes more than 10page Foreword by Prof Valentine Daniel
of Columbia University. That is also worth reading for the evaluation of
the contribution by the author as a humane worker, besides an analysis
of the political context.
The main text –the Diaries is fascinating reading beginning from 1998
August to 1990 June.
The author a Hollander was born in Indonesia of Dutch missionary
parents in the year 1924.
Between pages 337 and 344 he gives a run-through of major political
events from Feb 04, 1948 and October 24, 1994. As the blurb on the back
of the book declares “These diaries are a valuable historical record of
Sri Lanka’s War Years”
[email protected]
|
