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When the potato crop, the staple diet then in Ireland, began to totally fail with a fungal infestation that lead to the historic Irish famine (1845-1852), the Irish leaders in Dublin turned to Queen Victoria and the British Parliament for redress. However, the British government under which Ireland was then a colony, acted negatively repealing certain laws and tariffs that made food such as corn and bread prohibitively expensive. Tenant farmers were unable even to produce enough food for themselves, and hundreds of thousands died of starvation and diseases caused by malnutrition!
The exact role of the British government in the Potato Famine and its aftermath—whether it ignored the plight of Ireland’s poor out of malice, or if their collective inaction and inadequate response could be attributed to incompetence—is still being debated. However, even during the famine some food items were exported out of Ireland. Our situation looks very comparable to the Irish fiasco except that our leaders are not acting with malice but with foolish obstinacy, not analysing the issues at stake, not consulting experts in the subject and sticking coherently to their policy of organic farming with unattainable goals.
Our rice farmers may yet not be starving because they have at least the last Yala rice crop which has been reasonable despite the fertilizer and other agrochemical shortages. On the other hand, tea and vegetable farmers appear to be the most hit. Many tea smallholders complain that without adequate nitrogen fertilizer their crops have declined immensely and some are not even harvesting the meagre flush as it can hardly meet even the workers wages. The seriousness of the situation is further aggravated by our losing the markets which the industry claims can be substantial.
At the same time, for the general public, sky-rocketing prices of food and other essentials are unbearable. Our women won’t be able even to emulate what the French women did during the days of the French Revolution due to inflation, carrying the money in the shopping bags and bringinging back the purchases in their purses, because they have no money to carry.
It is regrettable that the President did not consult the agricultural experts in deciding to rush to convert the country entirely to organic from conventional farming within one season.He has not positively responded to the current fiasco of neither chemical nor organic fertilizer being available. His main consultants on matter appear to be a pediatrician who wants to go back to traditional rice varieties which yield less than half the new improved varieties and a professor of agriculture who identified sorghum as a rice variety, Swayanjatha wee’, with which, he claims, King Dutugamunu fed his ‘Dasa Maha Yodayas.’ There are many other ‘yes men’ behind him nodding their heads to every thing he says.
The President should be mindful that the world moved away from organic farming from about the 1850s to conventional farming because even in that era organic farming could not meet the food demand. The writer hopes that he would at least look at Table 1 here which shows how chemical fertilizers and new high yielding varieties pushed production from essentially organic farming and traditional rice to chemical farming and new varieties by three to four fold across many countries. Distinguished Professor Vaclav Smil, University of Manitoba calculated that 40% of the global population in 1999 would not have lived if urea fertilizer had not been invented.
The transition from traditional agriculture where fertilizer comprised essentially farmyard manure(FYM) and green manures, to conventional agriculture(CF), as we know it today, took place in the mid 19th century with two ground breaking inventions , the synthesis of soluble (super) phosphate(John Lawes,1814 to 1900) and the need for chemical nitrogenous fertilizer for crop growth (Justus von Liebig,1803-1873) by two great scientists. In 1909, another great German scientist, Fritz Haber (1868-1934) successfully synthesized ammonia by combining atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen which revolutionized the production of urea and other commercial nitrogenous fertilizers.
These inventions and the rapidly growing knowledge then in plant chemistry led to the substitution of natural dung with chemical fertilizer. The third important element, potassium, was provided largely by potash, a substance that had been known from antiquity. It has been said that without these inventions, the industrial countries of Western Europe could not have supported the dense population growth of the 19th century. It is the same reason that later led to the Green Revolution. This is ironically the fundamental question that we should ask: is there adequate organic matter and associated technologies to “go green” fully, as the President calls it, now, if it was not possible then with much lower populations but more farmlands. Sir John Russell (1942), the reputed British soil scientist, in an article titled British Agriculture states that: “it is difficult for us in this distance in time to recapture the feelings with which the farmers received the information that a powder made in a factory and applied out of a bag at the rate of only a few hundred weights per acre could possibly act as well as farmyard manure put on the land as dressings of tons to meet the nutrient demands of crops’. The question then is if organic matter was inadequate to meet the fertilizer requirements then, can it do so now on a global scale?
The main blame of the President and his cabinet colleagues is on health hazzards of agrochemicals. There is no argument that there are risks largely due to misuse of agrochemicals. One serious problem recently has been phosphate pollution of the Rajarata water bodies due to excessive application of phosphate fertilizers in the upcountry vegetable farms. On the other hand, no comprehensive studies reveal pollution of water or soil with heavy metals or pesticides, a subject much spoken about. Farmer training on judicious use can greatly reduce the risk of agrochemical misuse which sadly is not happening with the very ineffective extension services of the day. Strengthening this service is matter of highest priority.
On the other hand hardly any politician utters a word about ambient air pollution, which is a far more serious problem than agrochemical pollution. Records reveal that it caused 3.5 million premature, non-communicable disease- deaths, globally in 2017. These were from stroke, ischemic heart disease non chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, respiratory infections, and diabetes. Local health records reveal that our situation is no better.
The President and many of his cabinet colleagues including the Minister of Agriculture continue to lay the blame on agrochemicals for the kidney disease in the Rajarata and other non- communicable diseases, apparently the main reason for the President ‘going green.’ At some public meeting the President was heard to say that if he gives ‘chemical fertilizer with one hand he will have to give a kidney’ to the farmer with the other. He was prompted to say so by one of his key advisors in agriculture, a pediatrician turned agriculture expert. Sadly he has not sought advice from the health authorities as to the causation of the kidney disease. Numerous knowledgeable scientists and publications have revealed beyond doubt that hardwater and fluoride are the cause of the disease, and a recent comprehensive report by the Health Ministry reveals that there is no evidence to implicate agrochemicals in the causation of the disease.
In this crisis situation, of diminishing food production, the President does not appear to have sought the advise of real agriculture experts. In fact a letter delivered to him over a month ago with some 140 signatures of qualified agriculture researchers and academics seeking an opportunity to discuss the current agricultural calamity has fallen on deaf ears. Let alone the local expert knowledge, he should have sought evidence from what happens elsewhere in the world. Many countries are only gradually expanding their organic crop cover which, however, yet stands at 1.5 % of the total global croplands expanding annually at a meagre 2% per annum.Only 16 countries have exceeded 10 % of the crop cover in organic farming, and in nearly all them the major extents are in pasture fertilized with farmyard manure.
Policy blunders continue to be committed. To meet the rice fertilizer needs the government claims importing 2.1 million litres of nano fertilizer at a cost of USD 12 per litre. It appears to be nano urea although the Minister of Agriculture vehemently claims that it is not nano urea but ‘nanonitrogen’ to give it an organic stance. Urea is not allowed in organic farming. The authorities claim that the cost of a litre is USD 12, and it has 4% nitrogen, meaning there are 40 grams nitrogen/litre. As average rice crop of 5 tons/ha removes over 100kg nitrogen , meaning to meet the crop demand the farmers should spray 2,500 bottles of which the theoretical cost should be USD 30,000. However, the government makes the ridiculous claim that five litres/ha of nanonitrogen is adequate to meet the crop demand. God save the farmers!
The global synthetic urea prices have soared to about USD 750 per metric ton from about USD500 last November. Assuming that a farmer applies 100kg nitrogen/ha with urea (46% N) his cost should be Rs 32,608 without subsidy; and assuming he sells his crop of five tons at Rs 60/kg, his gross income should be Rs 300,000, and the cost of urea alone should be over 10.6% of the gross income. On the other hand, with the huge fertilizer subsidy in previous years the total fertilizer cost for rice farming was a mere 2 to 3% of the total cost of production or about 1.5% of the gross return. Incisive thinking on fertilizer subsidy is another matter that needs state attention.
The need for a national advisory body like the one in India set up by Nehru in 1963, which still continues with a name change made by Prime Minister Modi to give it more emphasis on technologies. Modi also recently reported repealing antiquated regulations that are adversely affecting small farmers. Moreover, whereas we have rushed to ban palm oil imports (now reversed) and oil palm cultivation, promoting coconut cultivation to meet the national oil yields despite it yielding only 20% of oil as oil palm, Modi has engaged in a policy of expanding oil palm cultivation extending it to irrigated lands and replacing some of the low-yielding arable oil crops. His target is to expand the oil palm cover from the current level of about 400,000 ha to a million by 2025. This writer repeats that our leaders should look at what happens elsewhere in the world apart from listening to proven experts in the respective fields.
“Perspectives on Constitutional Reform in Sri Lanka”
Govt acts as if there is no political question to be solved – Wigneswaran
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By Emeritus Professor Upali Samarajeewa
International expert on food safety
In the list of words most feared by many Sri Lankans, Arsenic stands among the top10. Historically, arsenic was a rat poison. This potential of arsenic was illegally employed later to get rid of unwanted friends and even spouses by some of the humans. However, arsenic had positive use and reputation as a health care agent. It is reported that Hippocrates used arsenic sulfide in the form of natural crystalline minerals, namely realgar and orpiment, to treat ulcers. Later, the arsenic containing minerals were used in making creams to remove unwanted hair in the human body. Since then, arsenides and arsenic salts in the form of creams for external application have been in use for centuries, in treatment of ulcers and syphilis. In the 1700s solutions of arsenic trioxide in potassium bicarbonate has been prescribed to treat asthma, chorea, psoriasis, anemia, and leukemia among several other health ailments. Some drugs containing arsenic have been prescribed to be inhaled as vapour, injected, or administered intravenously in the 19th century. Though the International Agency for Cancer Research classified arsenic in its pure form, and certain arsenic compound as a human carcinogens, Food and Drugs Administration of the USA approved the use of injectable arsenic trioxide for human treatment for relapsed acute promyelocytic leukemia. It may be considered an exceptional condition, but arsenic compounds do not deserve a total taboo without understanding their effects on the human body under each situation, beneficial or harmful. Arsenic trioxide was withdrawn from human treatment in 1950. There is evidence today on the effects of long- term exposure of humans to inorganic arsenic through food, water, or air leading to increased risk on bladder, lung, and skin cancers.
The World Health Organization records on incidence of cancer in Sri Lanka for 2020 shows 7% lung cancer, 2.1% bladder cancer and 0.4% skin cancer, out of the total annual cancer cases. Almost all incidences of lung cancer are among males predominantly associated with smoking. The same percentage distribution of all cancers was visible in records over the previous 20 years, with fluctuations only in incidence of lung cancer. Arsenophobia was created in Sri Lanka in relation to the chronic kidney disease of unknown origin, identified as CKDU. The global literature on kidney diseases do not consider arsenic as a crucial factor in chronic kidney diseases similar to CKDU. Sri Lanka is not the only country having chronic kidney disease of this nature. There are parallels in “Chronic interstitial nephritis in agricultural communities” (CINAC) in El Salvador and Nicaragua. CINAC is also described as Mesoamerican nephropathy (MeN) in several other central and south American countries, mostly along the Pacific coastline. Scientific studies in the USA on the above chronic kidney diseases have identified relationship with a few pesticides. Some of the pesticides were banned in Sri Lanka decades back, and one still in use though to a limited extent. The studies in the USA have not been able to recognise links between arsenic or other heavy metals with the chronic kidney diseases described above.
Arsenic was used as an ingredient in weedicides and wood preservatives in the past. Registration of companies producing pesticides containing inorganic arsenic were cancelled in 1988 in the developed world. Sri Lanka does not permit the use of pesticides containing inorganic arsenic. If there is violation of this condition, there is a way to handle it rather than banning everything. The registrar of pesticides operates an accredited testing laboratory for arsenic and other heavy metals in pesticides. If law makers possess doubts on arsenic entering our food system through pesticides, what is needed simply is to provide more facilities and activate the office of the registrar of pesticides to bring in necessary controls. That is the scientific mechanism used in the developed countries to maintain food safety in the production chains. Pesticides came into existence because it had a role in agriculture. Replacing pesticides needs to identify a scientifically equivalent substitute. The World has not been successful in it. What is needed is to implement checks and controls at the appropriate levels and locations.
If arsenic is the cause of CKDU, it should enter the humans through our main staple rice and drinking water. In Bangladesh and West Bengal, heavy and unacceptable concentrations of arsenic were reported in rice and water leading to major investigations by the United Nation bodies responsible for food and health. In the two locations the symptoms due to arsenic were quite different from the symptoms of CKDU reported in Sri Lanka. The writer, having examined 50 peer reviewed research publications and scientific reviews of acceptable quality by Sri Lankan and foreign scientists, found the arsenic concentrations in rice and water in Sri Lanka are far below the globally implemented tolerance limits of 0.2 milligrams per kilogram for rice, and 10 micrograms per litre for water. The average concentrations of arsenic in Sri Lankan rice are less than 25% of the tolerance limits for rice. The concentrations of arsenic in drinking water are less than 15% of the tolerance limit. The perused studies cover a period from 2005 to 2021. The scientific evidence has clearly proved that the arsenic concentrations in our foods pose no risk to health to Sri Lankans.
There are occasional reports on rejection of imported and locally produced canned fish due to presence of total arsenic. Total arsenic consists of inorganic arsenic and organic arsenic. Organic arsenic is present mainly in prawns and other crustaceans. Some fish carry lower concentrations of organic arsenic than crustaceans. Foods containing almost non-toxic organic arsenic carries no health risk unlike highly toxic inorganic arsenic in foods. Organic arsenic moves unabsorbed through our digestive system, getting excreted fast. Arsenic may be present in the environment and food in different inorganic forms and almost non-toxic organic forms. Main organic arsenic compound in fish is arsenobetaine. Arsenobetaine is of no toxicological concern. The issue of arsenic in fish need to be understood from a deep scientific angle before implementing controls.
The regulations implemented by our standards and food regulatory authorities apply 0.2 milligrams per kilogram as the limit for total arsenic concentration in all foods. Regulations unfortunately takes no recognition on the toxicity difference between the organic and inorganic forms of arsenic. Arsenic appears in different forms food. Of them the inorganic forms are the culprit with high toxicity. The organic forms are of negligible toxicity. Our authorities need to distinguish between inorganic arsenic (which is 50-90% of total arsenic in rice) and organic arsenic which is approximately 95% of the total arsenic in fish. This raises an important question as to whether application of the general limit of 0.2 milligrams per kilogram of total arsenic to canned fish, which contains less than around 5% of the toxic inorganic arsenic. Interpretation of regulations needs much more scientific thinking than blind interpretations. Research scientists understand that there is no world free of arsenic and other toxic compounds. Arguing for zero arsenic or any other harmful ingredients in food and water is an indication of ignorance on basic principles of risk based regulatory approach. The tolerance limits are fixed for each and every harmful agent is to ensure food security meeting only required level of food safety.
In arriving at decisions on food safety, the authorities consider the possible outcome of their decisions on food security of the country. First, there should be food for people to eat and live. Then comes the levels of risks associated with presence of harmful constituents. A good example is presented in the research by the USA scientists on problems linked to arsenic in rice. The mean arsenic concentrations expressed in milligrams per kilogram of rice in USA was 0.193 for white rice and 0.205 for brown rice against the regulatory limit of 0.200. The USA arsenic concentrations are at least 5 times higher than the values reported for rice in Sri Lanka. Applying the values to daily exposure of Americans consuming rice in 2-3 meals a day, it was postulated that they could reach high-risk level leading to bladder and lung cancer of the more vulnerable populations, especially the elderly and pregnant mothers. It was shown, using models, that reducing the tolerance level from current 0.200 to 0.100, would result in reduction of rice availability in the American market by a factor up to 90%, creating a food security risk. The study also postulated a reduction of regulatory limit from current 0.200 to 0.075 would bring down the food safety risk due to arsenic in rice from 11% to 79%. The regulations are maintained therefore, at 0.200 to ensure rice availability. The arsenic concentrations in Sri Lankan rice (approximately 0.04 milligrams per kilogram), is still far below the hypothetical USA limit of 0.075 limit, worked as a theoretical possibility. With all the scientific evidence, USA did not reduce the limit to 0.100. The scientific evidence clearly suggests that the ‘arsenophobia’ created in the minds of Sri Lankans is a hoax. It is continued even today by vociferous persons with scientific ignorance.
Arsenic enters food chain from soil or irrigation water. The earth crust is not free of arsenic. The crust contains 1.8 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil on the average. It could take the range from 1-40. Arsenic concentrations above five milligrams per kilogram of soil make soils unsuitable for cultivation. The arsenic content in agricultural soils in Sri Lanka average around one milligram per kilogram, implying no food safety threat through local rice. The arsenic toxicity in rice occurred in West Bengal and Bangladesh due to high arsenic concentrations rising to the order of 15 milligrams per kilogram in their soils. Their irrigation water contained 10-fold higher arsenic than the permitted limit, leading to serious health problems. Sri Lankan situation is not at all comparable with the situation in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Unfortunately, we import rice from time to time from Bangladesh and other countries having arsenic contaminations.
If the food chain in a country gets contaminated with arsenic or any other toxic entities, they get detected in the exports at the foreign border check points, resulting in rejections and notifications. Information on global trade does not show instances of Sri Lanka tea or any other food getting rejected due to arsenic, or other heavy metals, or unpermitted pesticide residues.
It speaks on the Sri Lankan agricultural system was managed. Unfortunately, there are pseudo-scientists with no understanding on agriculture and food production, all out to create doubts in the minds of public.
This brings in the question as to where Sri Lanka went wrong in its science. It started with a vociferous student reading for a postgraduate degree in a university in Sri Lanka, working totally outside the specialty of his first degree in 2011. In desperation, he went to a soothsayer in a ‘Devalaya’ reputed to utter to the gullible people, under trans state of the mind. She was given some soil from Rajarata. She yelled “asan asan” perhaps asking him to listen. The student came back and started testing for arsenic using equipment of inadequate sophistication, applying unrefined test methods, ultimately “innovating” non-existent arsenic in rice. Tabloid media were fast to capture information. The ‘innovation’ was further supported by a media-oriented professor, who excelled in many fields other than his trained expertise.
carried an article around May 2011 under the title “Arsenic in Rice: Playing God”. The article highlighted the seriousness of statements arrived at without following basic principles of analytical chemistry and risk assessments, misleading the public. The materials released to the press have not gone through scientific scrutiny and was obviously questionable. The ‘arsenophobia’ next entered the august house with appearance of a reddish colour in “Kohila” curry in the meals served to members of the Parliament. The reddish colour is a common biological phenomenon on foods exposed to oxygen from air under certain preparation practices. It was October 2012 and The Island carried a note titled “Arsenic and cyanide everywhere”. The news on innovation of so-called arsenic in rice was next carried to the ears of the first citizen of the country at that time. He with his usual smile and tact said, “I eat rice three meals a day.” The message was clear to the student. Later the first citizen warned the media professor on the dangers Sri Lanka would face in our export trade, with this kind of utterances through the media. At that time there was already a shipment containing rice from Sri Lanka which was detained at a port in Turkey pending testing for arsenic. However, the stock did not get rejected as no arsenic was detected. The arsenophobia did not get marketed with the next first citizen either. Later the innovator of arsenic story reached the august house with a promise to provide “Better Health for Rajarata.” Arsenic is forgotten at least in the public eyes.
The baton was taken up by another relay team consisting of a priest, medical professional and an academic (sanga-weda-guru) expecting blessings from the highest level in the country. Unfortunately, the struggle ended up with farmers and labourers (govi-kamkaru) facing the problem. Indications are that the country would have to bear the outcome of arsenophobia for many months, if not years to come with inadequate food at exorbitant prices. No country in the world has stopped use of synthetic fertilizer in food production. European Union countries maintain extremely high levels of food safety in the world. They have decided to reach 25% organic food production by 2030 very cautiously. Canada produce food only during the warm six months of the year. They export 68% of the produce. In the Canadian Agriculture policy food production for export is a high priority. They apply scientifically controlled methods in use of agrochemicals. It is said that Canada was the major supplier of red dhal to Sri Lanka in certain years.
Leaders need to listen to scientific facts generated through careful experimenting and scholarly thinking. Mature scientists do not rush foolishly to take risks; politicians only see short term benefits. The prosperity of a country lies in well discussed decisions arrived through scientific knowledge, and not based on ad hoc findings of half-baked pseudoscientists. The l strength of India lies on the initiative to apply science in its policies immediately after independence by the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The writer had the opportunity on two occasions to participate the Annual Indian Science Congress. On both occasions, the Prime Minister of India and four Cabinet Ministers participated at the congress and spent two days listening to the scientists. Unfortunately, interactions in Sri Lanka are nowhere near it. Sri Lanka gives the opportunity to the pseudoscientists to mislead law makers at individual levels.
Obviously, the Sri Lankan food production system affected by the absence of required fertilizer inputs is not in a position to deliver the staple and complementary food for the nation. It is already late to put things back in the track before everything gets beyond control. Let the country believe in science and its true scientists at least now and act sensibly.
Former soldiers becoming Buddhist monks is not unheard of in the history of Sri Lanka. We have examples from the time of King Dutthagamani whose army fought successfully with invading foreign forces and some of them finally ending as Buddhist monks. But with the departure of the most venerable Buddhangala Ananda Maha Thera, formerly, Major General Ananda Weerasekera, we are witnessing the end of a legend who combined his army discipline with that of the Buddhist monastic order and lived an exemplary life of virtue, concentration and wisdom (sila, Samadhi, panna).Born in 1943, as the eldest in a family of six and having completed his school education at Nalanda Vidyalaya, Colombo, Ananda Weerasekera joined the army in 1964 as a junior officer and completed his distinguished career as a Major General, winning such honours as the Uttama Sewa medal and the Purna Bhumi medal doing his way. One of the highlights of his army service was to have been appointed the Commissioner of Rehabilitation of the participants of the 71 insurrection. This was both a new experience in the recent political history of the country and a new experiment involving the harder path of reforming instead of punishing those who took arms against the state. Ananda Weerasekera accepted this challenge and completed his mission successfully. There were two predominant concerns in his life, they are: his country and his religion. The army career culminating as Major General is testimony of his love and service to the country. He served as the commanding officer of the North Central Province at a point when the country was suffering very badly due to separatist terrorism. He dedicated the most active phase of his life to safeguard sovreignity and integrity of the country and the nation. Born into a good Buddhist family of Mendis and Sumana Weerasekera and receiving his school education at Nalanda College, one of the leading Buddhist schools of the country, Ananda Weerasekera dedicated his life not merely for the protection and safeguard of the precious religious tradition of the country but also, perhaps, even more importantly, for learning and practice of this sublime teaching, which finally made him to choose the monastic practice as his way of life. He obtained a special permission from the University of Kelaniya to follow Masters of Buddhist Studies at Postgraduate institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies (PGIPBS) and completed this course fulfilling his keen interest to acquire systematic knowledge in Buddhism which he inherited as his religion by birth. This knowledge, no doubt, enabled him to engage in Buddhist activities with a sense of confidence. One such activity deserved to be recorded here is his service to the higher studies in Buddhism as a member of the Board of Management of PGIPBS. In 2004, as the then director of the institutes I invited him to join the highest administrative body of the institute, and he served a complete three year term (2004-2007) contributing to the wellbeing of the institute with his substantial knowledge and administrative experience. He was an ardent supporter of the Damrivi Foundation, a Buddhist social organisation for social, economic and spiritual development, of which his younger brother Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera, the Hon. Minister of Public Security of the country at present, among others, has been a founding member. After a successful service to the security and wellbeing of the nation, Major General Ananda Weerasekera entered the monkhood fulfilling a long-cherished desire for a life of more serious practice and service and guidance from the Dhamma to those who needed it. He entered the monkhood in 2007 at Buddhangala Forest Hermitage as a student of the Nayaka thera of the monastery and was conferred Full Admission – Upasampada – in the following year, thus becoming a full member of the Sangha. Although his admission to the Sangha was described in the press (Sunday Observer, May 13, 2007 by Premasara Epasinghe) as “a very strange transition”, it was only very natural for Ven. Ananda who had cherished ideas of renunciation particularly after the demise of his beloved wife and mother of his children. The choice of the forest hermitage far away from the hustle and bustle of city life as his residence was in accordance with his inclination to live a life dedicated to practice in meditation, teaching and dissemination of the Dhamma.Venerable Ananda had, from his early days, a great skill in oratory which he used very effectively as a forceful communicator. Although he had all the skills to be a popular preacher of the Dhamma, Ven. Ananda accepted invitations to go out very selectively. He was happier to teach and guide those who visited the Buddhangala monastery without disturbing his own peace and seclusion. I remember once he gave a memorable speech to the Buddhist Studies students of the University of Colombo when I visited him with them at Buddhangala in one of the annual educational field trips. The Venerable was an equally forceful and clear communicator in writing. Among practically dozens of writings on the Dhamma, one attracted much attention and admiration of the readers was his translation into Sinhala of the life story of the Thai Buddhist nun ‘Silamata Chai’ who was believed to have attained the Arahanthood.The life of the late Venerable Ananda, both as a lay person and a member of the Sangha, was substantial, fruitful and memorable. This note coming from a junior friend, who had the privilege and honour of teaching him academic Buddhist studies, is necessarily incomplete, but only a humble tribute to him on behalf of all those who came into contact with him in particular in Buddhist-related activities. May the late Venerable Buddhangala Ananda Thera attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana!
The late Bishop Desmond Tutu, whose life was closely intertwined with the engrossing political fortunes of South Africa over the past few decades, had his strong reservations over the integrity of the ‘cream’ of the country’s post-apartheid political class. Inasmuch as he was trenchant in his criticisms of apartheid and its white supremacist practitioners, he warned grimly those incoming native South African rulers against ‘mispresenting’ the country’s best interests.
If the charges currently being leveled against former South African President Jacob Zuma are anything to go by, then Tutu’s reservations could be considered as having a substantial basis to them. Zuma not only amassed personal wealth on a profligate scale at the expense of the state but went on to figure in a couple of high-profile corruption cases that are continuing to be heard before the country’s superior courts. Recently, Zuma was jailed for failing to attend court in connection with one of these corruption law suits.
Another African political strongman to enter the record books for eye brow-raising corruption is Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe. He is probed for corrupt links with British American Tobacco (BAT). Recent reports said that BAT was aware of discussions to facilitate a large payment for Mugabe ‘for the purpose of continuing its alleged corporate espionage activities in Zimbabwe.’
Needless to say, the above cases constitute only the proverbial tip of the ice burg. The charge of amassing personal wealth by questionable means could be made at quite a few members of the political class well outside the African continent as well. If the recent Pandora Papers revelations, for example, are anything to go by such parasitical public figures are numerous in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for instance. However, none should be surprised if all regions of the South are preyed upon by such self-aggrandizers with impunity.
The mind-numbing amassing of personal wealth by post-colonial indigenous rulers should not come as a surprise when it is realized that such ruling strata are an integral part of the transnational capitalist class (TNC) whose interests are at great variance with those of peoples worldwide. These local rulers are in league with international capitalist interests whose sole motive is the earning of profits at the expense of native populations.
For example, foreign investment and other forms of international business transactions are prominent among the mechanisms through which international capitalist interests are served with the willing collaboration of local political elites, who, of course, gain in the process, through shared profits, commissions, kickbacks and the like. Fortunately, for progressives everywhere, there is ample work by contemporary political science scholarship that sheds light on these vampirical processes through which the peoples of the South in particular are relentlessly pauperized. One such relatively recent book that merits mentioning is, ‘Politics of Globalization’, edited by Samir Dasgupta and Jan Nederveen Pieterse, a publication of SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd. (www.sagepub.in). This volume could be considered a veritable update on the state of the South, particularly in the areas of economics and society.
What the foregoing disclosures indicate in the main is the need for intense and continuing watchfulness on the part of Southern peoples and civic organizations, lest the promise of people-centric self-governance goes unfulfilled at the hands of their ruling elites. That is, accountable governance is the insistent need and local systems need to be in place to secure this imperative. Thus, Bishop Tutu was right in cautioning local elites against betraying the best interests of the South African public.
The lack of role models among local elites of the South needs to be factored in when assessing the multi-level degeneration that is gripping the hemisphere. It could be said that South Africa had the potential of developing as a model polity in the immediate post-apartheid years. It had positive trend-setters, such as Bishop Tutu and Nelson Mandela, to light up the path into the future. However, as could be seen, subsequent principal figures in politics and society have largely failed to measure up to the standards established by the likes of Tutu and Mandela.
What Tutu and Mandela conceptualized was a ‘Rainbow Nation’ or a South Africa that embodied ‘Unity in Diversity’. And they were prepared to pay whatever price was required to achieve this end. Mandela’s decades-long imprisonment proved the point. He remained true to the cause of national liberation and social equity and did not stray from this target, whatever the odds. The spirit of self-aggrandizement, seen in the likes of Jacob Zuma, was totally alien to him.
In these times when ‘reconciliation’ has become a much bandied around word in the South, it is important to recollect what this term meant for Tutu and Mandela. For the latter, reconciliation was inseparable from forgiveness. That is, unless antagonists to a conflict were willing to forgive each other in a spirit of brotherhood, reconciliation could not be achieved.
It is important to focus on the point that forgiveness is possible only among equals. It was on the basis of such principles that apartheid was ended in South Africa and the foundation for a democratic, multi-racial South Africa was laid.
Accordingly, we are left with no choice but to draw the discouraging conclusion from the self-aggrandizing tendencies of some post-Mandela political leaders that vital founding values of post-apartheid South Africa have been gravely eroded. Progressives the world over are likely to hope that South Africa would rejuvenate itself on the basis of the Tutu-Mandela legacy, with its focus on people-centric development and national healing based on forgiveness.
The experience of post-colonial states of the South is that power centralization, self-aggrandizement among rulers and repression go hand-in-hand. Democratization involves the elimination of these iniquities. With regard to political repression, Nelson Mandela states the following in his epochal autobiography, ‘Long Walk to Freedom’: ‘A man who takes another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.’
Insights such as the above are a measure of the yawning democratic deficits in the majority of contemporary Southern states. Once again, one is reminded of the fact national rejuvenation and progress are impossible without statesmen.
Now, another Maj. Gen. barred from entering US
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Better if ministers resign before criticising collective Cabinet decisions -President
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Sri Lanka has no choice but to Restructure External Debt: A Pathfinder Perspective
EC Chief says not informed of LG polls postponement
JVP: “Gotabaya-made” food shortage imminent
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