Midweek Review

Sumathy’s Ingirunthu

Published

3 years ago

2023/04/19

Sahan Weerasooriya

Repatriation,

(Here and Now):

The Malaiyaha and Memory of the World 1823-2023

“It is intensely composed. I greatly appreciated the tension and obstacles to resolution along the way. We so rarely now see films that place that kind of creative demand/opportunity on the viewer.”

Anne Blackburn (Professor of South Asian & Buddhist Studies, Cornell University, 2017).

by Laleen Jayamanne

Structure and Process

Sumathy Sivamohan’s film Ingirunthu (2012), is astutely described here by Anne Blackburn. She highlights the unusually open ways in which shots, scenes and sequences are structured, which makes it difficult to immediately categorise the film generically and neatly thematise its several concerns and scope though it’s not a ‘difficult’ film, being very watchable. As the quotation indicates, the film invites us to think freely and imaginatively about what we have seen. As a film critic/scholar, I welcome this rare opportunity to provide a critical response, attentive to the film’s ethico-aesthetic crafting of Sivamohan’s own personal engagement (as an outsider) with vital aspects of life of the Malaiyaham people of the hill-country of Lanka. The experiences of this ethnic group, originally brought from South India as indentured labour to work in the coffee and tea plantations, by the Colonial British administration of Ceylon in the early 19th Century, have never been presented in all their historical complexity and violence, on film.

They, as an ethnically marked social group, speaking Tamil, have been hidden in plain sight. Sivamohan herself, as a Jaffna Tamil and Professor of English, who translates fluently between both Tamil and English, is a performer. She is well aware of the historical differences and tensions between the Jaffna Tamils and the Malaiyaha people whose very citizenship has been the site of post-colonial political violence and struggle. Among other stark differences, the differences in accents must be a powerful sonic marker of this fraught historical legacy which I can only imagine and read about because I don’t know Tamil. Within this historical context, the title of the film about the ‘here and now’ of Malaiyaha every-day-life is also presented as ‘Sumathy’s ‘here and now’ (in the credits), meaning that the very process of making of the film was part of the film’s story, folded into its telling. It’s worth recording that Sivamohan’s crew were multi-ethnic (as they continue to be in her practice), as was the case in the robust era of popular Sinhala cinema, from 1947 into the ’60s, when many technicians, producers, directors and musicians were both Muslim and Tamil. And of course, the star of the Lankan national cinema, Daisy Daniel or Rukmani Devi, was a Tamil who spoke and sang in a perfect Sinhala accent.

Intensive Composition

Also, the specification of what Blackburn calls ‘intensive composition’ invites a sustained conceptualisation, in terms of exploring the varying moods, tones, atmosphere and competing rhetorical moves of the film. This is the rich dynamic domain of sensations, feelings and emotions, which experiences have hardly impinged on the sensibilities of the Sinhala majority nation of Lanka except when the Malaiyaha people became an electorally significant block, as was the case with the Dalit of India. But we do know, as a general fact, the essential role their labour plays in the tea industry and the economy of the nation. But this awareness has mainly been culturally capitalised as picturesque images on tourist brochures or post cards of Malaiyaha women plucking tea with a smile or as smiling romantic couples in Sinhala genre films, driving sports cars through these scenic landscapes, singing love songs. The Malaiyaha people’s every-day life, their very here and now struggles, joys and aspirations have not been of much interest to the Lankans who may have glimpsed, through mist, their inadequate layams or line-housing (dotting beautiful hill-country landscapes, carpeted with lush green tea bushes), from a train window as we rode past them on up-country holidays, while their children waved to us.

Mobile Frames

: Peter the Accordion Player

Historians and theorists of Early Cinema (1895-1907), have linked the film frame to the window frame of trains, with their similar powers of mobility, selection and focus, unlike that of the still-photographic or painterly frames. They have also pointed out that historically, trains and the cinematic apparatus are technological products of 19th Century industrial modernity. The steam train and the movie camera are siblings, mechanical apparatuses that have transformed human civilization through industrialisation of production, distribution and consumption. They have also created new speeds in transportation and made human vision and mind adjust to the mechanisation of perception through technology. Some of the earliest black and white archival photographs (of those who became the Malaiyaha folk, as they arrived in Ceylon from several South Indian regions), are of them standing on railway platforms next to trains. Several scenes of the film take place at the Radella Station while trains wind through the landscape, tooting, from time to time. Some of the landscape shots are taken through train windows. Also, a popular genre of actuality films in the silent era were shot with the two mobile frames in concert. Among the very first films screened in Paris in 1895 was one simply called Arrival of a Train at the Station (1min) by the Lumiere Brothers.

One of the most powerful sequences in Ingirunthu takes place on the railway platform and on the train, taking a ‘repatriated’ group of Malaiyaha people back on their trek to India, which their own ancestors took on perilous boats and then on foot to the hill country, to create the coffee and tea plantations by clearing jungles, which also led to the building of the train tracks for commercial transport of goods. The shots of the women seated within the train compartments, the young girls hanging out of the several windows, become emotionally charged (intensive), because we have by then come to know some of them a little in the film; who they are, their families and their daily routines. They are now the victims of the 1964 ‘Sirima-Shasthri Pact’ of repatriation of some 500,000 Malaiyaha people back to India. A printed archival document and a voice over reportage provides this information. Then we are shown these handful of people subjected to its violent decree, shifting from historical document to the story embedded in framed shots on the railway platform and within the carriages. These doubly enframed shots (camera-frame and train window-frame) encompass a vast duration, and in so doing they become truly epic-memory (non-subjective), images of historical State violence and injustice done to the Malaiyaha citizens of Ceylon. This enframing, of history and individual memory within epic-memory, is a form of ‘intensive’ composition, the individuation of abstract historical forces (State decrees, statistics), that Blackburn spoke of. The intensity (dynamism), of this silent sequence is remarkable and we also become aware of how it is created (through enframing), at the same time, which is part of its Epic, rather than Dramatic structure. We see here how the mobile framed images are saturated with both thoughts and feelings. They also give us access to a deep historical time at a global scale of colonial expansion, of industrialisation of time, while keeping the individual subjects with their own person stories and the small provisional collective also in focus. This is intensive composition of time, intimating the dynamics of several competing durations within this silent sequence of shots, an epic memory or a ‘memory of the world’. I recall here the ‘Memory of the World’ archive, which is a UNESCO instrument for the preservation of the audio-visual heritage of mankind.

Modern Time

Railway travel in the 19th Century necessitated the standardisation and synchronisation of time and the invention of watches in the West. These in turn empowered the British Imperial project in the colonies. But these epic-shots and scene on the train are at the same time also individually tragic in terms of each person’s unique life story which the industrial magic of the camera acknowledges with its enframed close-ups of faces in clusters, one woman crying silently. The handsome middle-aged grandmother, of the orphaned, now adult mute Esther Valley, who we met at the beginning of the film (keening for her dead daughter and orphaned grand-child), is foregrounded at a window in profile, in a large handsome close-up, even as the train pulls out. This sequence leaves a sharp memory trace of the group and of the women focused on by the cinematic close-up with its unique sensory values of magnification of detail. The only person who stands on the platform watching the departing train, the silent witness to this historical wrenching of people he knew, from their homes, kin and country of birth, is Peter, the man with a piano accordion with whom the film opens.

The Accordion Player as Chorus

: Grandma expatriation

Ingirunthu opens with a man (Peter) walking towards us wearing a white verti, long white shirt, a dark wool vest and a multi coloured turban. He appears to carry something strung on his shoulder which we can’t quite see. His face has a natural intensity even in repose and as he walks forward and looks up, we cut to a large banner strung across the road announcing the arrival of MG Ramachandran, popular star of Tamil South India cinema who was in fact born in Kandy, Ceylon. Popularly known as MGR, he has a huge fan base on the estate with even a statue to him sporting a pair of dark glasses and a lamp lit in his honour. As Peter turns round to look, film music swells up and we cut to a clip of MGR in an open landscape near the Himalayas singing a song about his sacred homeland (janma bhumi), earth. We are now wafted into a very popular Tamil genre film musical routine which is played out for a while which cuts to the formal meeting welcoming the star to the estate. We get the feeling that this is not going to be a documentary about the tea estates. Peter joins the jostling crowd but soon leaves and next we see him seated alone in an open landscape playing his accordion for the first time, only to be chased off by a cop because his music would interfere with the proceedings of the meeting. The appearance of a cop out of nowhere is because of the presence of the star and the excited fans, one realises. But there is a hint of an undercurrent in that odd scene of casual censorship of music in the middle of a tea estate at night.

Sivamohan speaks of her process of creating the character of Peter in the following way:

“I wrote the character of Peter because I had met Shakthivel and spoken to him. I was fascinated by him and the role he could play as a figure who cuts across time. But wanted to give him palpable social space, too, in the layam. I wanted to begin with the MGR scene and Peter attending the event. I think he said he went to see him when he came to Hatton. If I’d not met Shakthivel and not had that conversation one evening in his layam I don’t think I would have had that figure. Doubt it. He triggered a lot”.

It would certainly have been a very different film without him! We can see that this character has a liminal presence, both a person living within the community but also one who stands apart watching, not least because of the accordion he carries and plays at whim. In real life he actually played his accordion in a band. But in the film narrative it’s unclear what he does in the community for a living, which ambiguity is emphasised as he is always dressed impeccably in white and disappears after the 1983 race-based violence, leaving his accordion on a railway bench. But he returns for the funeral (of two murdered political activists), almost like a phantom presence, as he lightly walks across Esther Valley’s room where she is absorbed in a picture book. At the film’s opening Peter enters a house where her grandmother (who we later see in close-up on the deportation train), is keening at the death of her own daughter who has left an orphaned infant who is Esther Valley. Peter goes up to the hanging cloth cradle, looks at the infant and then up repeatedly as he hears a distant hymn. A cut reveals the infant’s mother’s small funeral procession winding its way through the estate. When Peter goes out and is seated with hands clasped as in prayer, the parish priest comes up to him trying to soothe him with religious platitudes about heaven. He stands up respectfully and tells the priest firmly that the child has no mother and no father here, refusing the religious consolation of a hereafter.

All News Advertisement

Related Topics:Sumathy’s Ingirunthu The Malaiyaha and Memory of the World 1823-2023

Up Next

Blasphemy and Judgment

Don't Miss

The Shackled Giant

Click to comment

Features

Handunnetti and Colonial Shackles of English in Sri Lanka

Published

3 days ago

2025/12/10

Thilina Walpola

Handunetti at the World Economic Forum

“My tongue in English chains.
I return, after a generation, to you.
I am at the end
of my Dravidic tether
hunger for you unassuaged
I falter, stumble.”
– Indian poet R. Parthasarathy

When Minister Sunil Handunnetti addressed the World Economic Forum’s ‘Is Asia’s Century at Risk?’ discussion as part of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2025 in June 2025, I listened carefully both to him and the questions that were posed to him by the moderator. The subsequent trolling and extremely negative reactions to his use of English were so distasteful that I opted not to comment on it at the time. The noise that followed also meant that a meaningful conversation based on that event on the utility of learning a powerful global language and how our politics on the global stage might be carried out more successfully in that language was lost on our people and pundits, barring a few commentaries.

Now Handunnetti has reopened the conversation, this time in Sri Lanka’s parliament in November 2025, on the utility of mastering English particularly for young entrepreneurs. In his intervention, he also makes a plea not to mock his struggle at learning English given that he comes from a background which lacked the privilege to master the language in his youth. His clear intervention makes much sense.

The same ilk that ridiculed him when he spoke at WEF is laughing at him yet again on his pronunciation, incomplete sentences, claiming that he is bringing shame to the country and so on and so forth. As usual, such loud, politically motivated and retrograde critics miss the larger picture. Many of these people are also among those who cannot hold a conversation in any of the globally accepted versions of English. Moreover, their conceit about the so-called ‘correct’ use of English seems to suggest the existence of an ideal English type when it comes to pronunciation and basic articulation. I thought of writing this commentary now in a situation when the minister himself is asking for help ‘in finding a solution’ in his parliamentary speech even though his government is not known to be amenable to critical reflection from anyone who is not a party member.

The remarks at the WEF and in Sri Lanka’s parliament are very different at a fundamental level, although both are worthy of consideration – within the realm of rationality, not in the depths of vulgar emotion and political mudslinging.

The problem with Handunnetti’s remarks at WEF was not his accent or pronunciation. After all, whatever he said could be clearly understood if listened to carefully. In that sense, his use of English fulfilled one of the most fundamental roles of language – that of communication. Its lack of finesse, as a result of the speaker being someone who does not use the language professionally or personally on a regular basis, is only natural and cannot be held against him. This said, there are many issues that his remarks flagged that were mostly drowned out by the noise of his critics.

Given that Handunnetti’s communication was clear, it also showed much that was not meant to be exposed. He simply did not respond to the questions that were posed to him. More bluntly, a Sinhala speaker can describe the intervention as yanne koheda, malle pol , which literally means, when asked ‘Where are you going?’, the answer is ‘There are coconuts in the bag’.

He spoke from a prepared text which his staff must have put together for him. However, it was far off the mark from the questions that were being directly posed to him. The issue here is that his staff appears to have not had any coordination with the forum organisers to ascertain and decide on the nature of questions that would be posed to the Minister for which answers could have been provided based on both global conditions, local situations and government policy. After all, this is a senior minister of an independent country and he has the right to know and control, when possible, what he is dealing with in an international forum.

This manner of working is fairly routine in such international fora. On the one hand, it is extremely unfortunate that his staff did not do the required homework and obviously the minister himself did not follow up, demonstrating negligence, a want for common sense, preparedness and experience among all concerned. On the other hand, the government needs to have a policy on who it sends to such events. For instance, should a minister attend a certain event, or should the government be represented by an official or consultant who can speak not only fluently, but also with authority on the subject matter. That is, such speakers need to be very familiar with the global issues concerned and not mere political rhetoric aimed at local audiences.

Other than Handunnetti, I have seen, heard and also heard of how poorly our politicians, political appointees and even officials perform at international meetings (some of which are closed door) bringing ridicule and disastrous consequences to the country. None of them are, however, held responsible.

Such reflective considerations are simple yet essential and pragmatic policy matters on how the government should work in these conditions. If this had been undertaken, the WEF event might have been better handled with better global press for the government. Nevertheless, this was not only a matter of English. For one thing, Handunnetti and his staff could have requested for the availability of simultaneous translation from Sinhala to English for which pre-knowledge of questions would have been useful. This is all too common too. At the UN General Assembly in September, President Dissanayake spoke in Sinhala and made a decent presentation.

The pertinent question is this; had Handunetti had the option of talking in Sinhala, would the interaction have been any better? That is extremely doubtful, barring the fluency of language use. This is because Handunnetti, like most other politicians past and present, are good at rhetoric but not convincing where substance is concerned, particularly when it comes to global issues. It is for this reason that such leaders need competent staff and consultants, and not mere party loyalists and yes men, which is an unfortunate situation that has engulfed the whole government.

What about the speech in parliament? Again, as in the WEF event, his presentation was crystal clear and, in this instance, contextually sensible. But he did not have to make that speech in English at all when decent simultaneous translation services were available. In so far as content was concerned, he made a sound argument considering local conditions which he knows well. The minister’s argument is about the need to ensure that young entrepreneurs be taught English so that they can deal with the world and bring investments into the country, among other things. This should actually be the norm, not only for young entrepreneurs, but for all who are interested in widening their employment and investment opportunities beyond this country and in accessing knowledge for which Sinhala and Tamil alone do not suffice.

As far as I am concerned, Handunetti’s argument is important because in parliament, it can be construed as a policy prerogative. Significantly, he asked the Minister of Education to make this possible in the educational reforms that the government is contemplating.

He went further, appealing to his detractors not to mock his struggle in learning English, and instead to become part of the solution. However, in my opinion, there is no need for the Minister to carry this chip on his shoulder. Why should the minister concern himself with being mocked for poor use of English? But there is a gap that his plea should have also addressed. What prevented him from mastering English in his youth goes far deeper than the lack of a privileged upbringing.

The fact of the matter is, the facilities that were available in schools and universities to learn English were not taken seriously and were often looked down upon as kaduwa by the political spectrum he represents and nationalist elements for whom the utilitarian value of English was not self-evident. I say this with responsibility because this was a considerable part of the reality in my time as an undergraduate and also throughout the time I taught in Sri Lanka.

Much earlier in my youth, swayed by the rhetoric of Sinhala language nationalism, my own mastery of English was also delayed even though my background is vastly different from the minister. I too was mocked, when two important schools in Kandy – Trinity College and St. Anthony’s College – refused to accept me to Grade 1 as my English was wanting. This was nearly 20 years after independence. I, however, opted to move on from the blatant discrimination, and mastered the language, although I probably had better opportunities and saw the world through a vastly different lens than the minister. If the minister’s commitment was also based on these social and political realities and the role people like him had played in negating our English language training particularly in universities, his plea would have sounded far more genuine.

If both these remarks and the contexts in which they were made say something about the way we can use English in our country, it is this: On one hand, the government needs to make sure it has a pragmatic policy in place when it sends representatives to international events which takes into account both a person’s language skills and his breadth of knowledge of the subject matter. On the other hand, it needs to find a way to ensure that English is taught to everyone successfully from kindergarten to university as a tool for inclusion, knowledge and communication and not a weapon of exclusion as is often the case.

This can only bear fruit if the failures, lapses and strengths of the country’s English language teaching efforts are taken into cognizance. Lamentably, division and discrimination are still the main emotional considerations on which English is being popularly used as the trolls of the minister’s English usage have shown. It is indeed regrettable that their small-mindedness prevents them from realizing that the Brits have long lost their long undisputed ownership over the English language along with the Empire itself. It is no longer in the hands of the colonial masters. So why allow it to be wielded by a privileged few mired in misplaced notions of elitism?

Features

Finally, Mahinda Yapa sets the record straight

Published

3 days ago

2025/12/10

Thilina Walpola

Clandestine visit to Speaker’s residence:

Finally, former Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has set the record straight with regard to a controversial but never properly investigated bid to swear in him as interim President. Abeywardena has disclosed the circumstances leading to the proposal made by external powers on the morning of 13 July, 2022, amidst a large scale staged protest outside the Speaker’s official residence, situated close to Parliament.

Lastly, the former parliamentarian has revealed that it was then Indian High Commissioner, in Colombo, Gopal Baglay (May 2022 to December 2023) who asked him to accept the presidency immediately. Professor Sunanda Maddumabandara, who served as Senior Advisor (media) to President Ranil Wickremesinghe (July 2022 to September 2024), disclosed Baglay’s direct intervention in his latest work, titled ‘Aragalaye Balaya’ (Power of Aragalaya).

Prof. Maddumabandara quoted Abeywardena as having received a startling assurance that if he agreed to accept the country’s leadership, the situation would be brought under control, within 45 minutes. Baglay had assured Abeywardena that there is absolutely no harm in him succeeding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in view of the developing situation.

The author told the writer that only a person who had direct control over the violent protest campaign could have given such an assurance at a time when the whole country was in a flux.

One-time Vice Chancellor of the Kelaniya University, Prof. Maddumabandara, launched ‘Aragalaye Balaya’ at the Sri Lanka Foundation on 20 November. In spite of an invitation extended to former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the ousted leader hadn’t attended the event, though UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was there. Maybe Gotabaya felt the futility of trying to expose the truth against evil forces ranged against them, who still continue to control the despicable agenda.

Obviously, the author has received the blessings of Abeywardena and Wickremesinghe to disclose a key aspect in the overall project that exploited the growing resentment of the people to engineer change of Sri Lankan leadership.

The declaration of Baglay’s intervention has contradicted claims by National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa (Nine: The hidden story) and award-winning writer Sena Thoradeniya (Galle Face Protest: System change for anarchy) alleged that US Ambassador Julie Chung made that scandalous proposal to Speaker Abeywardena. Weerawansa and Thoradeniya launched their books on 25 April and 05 July, 2023, at the Sri Lanka Foundation and the National Library and Documentation Services Board, Independence Square, respectively. Both slipped in accusing Ambassador Chung of making an abortive bid to replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa with Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

Ambassador Chung categorically denied Weerawansa’s allegation soon after the launch of ‘Nine: The hidden story’ but stopped short of indicating that the proposal was made by someone else. Chung had no option but to keep quiet as she couldn’t, in response to Weerawansa’s claim, have disclosed Baglay’s intervention, under any circumstances, as India was then a full collaborator with Western designs here for its share of spoils. Weerawansa, Thoradeniya and Maddumabandara agree that Aragalaya had been a joint US-Indian project and it couldn’t have succeeded without their intervention. Let me reproduce the US Ambassador’s response to Weerawansa, who, at the time of the launch, served as an SLPP lawmaker, having contested the 2020 August parliamentary election on the SLPP ticket.

“I am disappointed that an MP has made baseless allegations and spread outright lies in a book that should be labelled ‘fiction’. For 75 years, the US [and Sri Lanka] have shared commitments to democracy, sovereignty, and prosperity – a partnership and future we continue to build together,” Chung tweeted Wednesday 26 April, evening, 24 hours after Weerawansa’s book launch.

Interestingly, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been silent on the issue in his memoirs ‘The Conspiracy to oust me from Presidency,’ launched on 07 March, 2024.

What must be noted is that our fake Marxists, now entrenched in power, were all part and parcel of Aragalaya.

A clandestine meeting

Abeywardena should receive the appreciation of all for refusing to accept the offer made by Baglay, on behalf of India and the US. He had the courage to tell Baglay that he couldn’t accept the presidency as such a move violated the Constitution. In our post-independence history, no other politician received such an offer from foreign powers. When Baglay stepped up pressure, Abeywardena explained that he wouldn’t change his decision.

Maddumabandara, based on the observations made by Abeywardena, referred to the Indian High Commissioner entering the Speaker’s Official residence, unannounced, at a time protesters blocked the road leading to the compound. The author raised the possibility of Baglay having been in direct touch with those spearheading the high profile political project.

Clearly Abeywardena hadn’t held back anything. The former Speaker appeared to have responded to those who found fault with him for not responding to allegations, directed at him, by revealing everything to Maddumabandara, whom he described in his address, at the book launch, as a friend for over five decades.

At the time, soon after Baglay’s departure from the Speaker’s official residence, alleged co-conspirators Ven. Omalpe Sobitha, accompanied by Senior Professor of the Sinhala Faculty at the Colombo University, Ven. Agalakada Sirisumana, health sector trade union leader Ravi Kumudesh, and several Catholic priests, arrived at the Speaker’s residence where they repeated the Indian High Commissioner’s offer. Abeywardena repeated his previous response despite Sobitha Thera acting in a threatening manner towards him to accept their dirty offer. Shouldn’t they all be investigated in line with a comprehensive probe?

Ex-President Wickremesinghe with a copy of Aragalaye Balaya he received from its author, Prof. Professor Sunanda Maddumabandara, at the Sri Lanka Foundation recently (pic by Nishan S Priyantha)

On the basis of what Abeywardena had disclosed to him, Maddumabanadara also questioned the circumstances of the deployment of the elite Special Task Force (STF) contingent at the compound. The author asked whether that deployment, without the knowledge of the Speaker, took place with the intervention of Baglay.

Aragalaye Balaya

is a must read for those who are genuinely interested in knowing the unvarnished truth. Whatever the deficiencies and inadequacies on the part of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration, external powers had engineered a change of government. The writer discussed the issues that had been raised by Prof. Maddumabandara and, in response to one specific query, the author asserted that in spite of India offering support to Gotabaya Rajapaksa earlier to get Ranil Wickremesinghe elected as the President by Parliament to succeed him , the latter didn’t agree with the move. Then both the US and India agreed to bring in the Speaker as the Head of State, at least for an interim period.

If Speaker Abeywardena accepted the offer made by India, on behalf of those backing the dastardly US backed project, the country could have experienced far reaching changes and the last presidential election may not have been held in September, 2004.

After the conclusion of his extraordinary assignment in Colombo, Baglay received appointment as New Delhi’s HC in Canberra. Before Colombo, Baglay served in Indian missions in Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, Nepal and Pakistan (as Deputy High Commissioner).

Baglay served in New Delhi, in the office of the Prime Minister of India, and in the Ministry of External Affairs as its spokesperson, and in various other positions related to India’s ties with her neighbours, Europe and multilateral organisations.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to examine who deceived Weerawansa and Thoradeniya who identified US Ambassador Chung as the secret visitor to the Speaker’s residence. Her high-profile role in support of the project throughout the period 31 March to end of July, 2022, obviously made her an attractive target but the fact remains it was Baglay who brought pressure on the then Speaker. Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena’s clarification has given a new twist to “Aragalaya’ and India’s diabolical role.

Absence of investigations

Sri Lanka never really wanted to probe the foreign backed political plot to seize power by extra-parliamentary means. Although some incidents had been investigated, the powers that be ensured that the overall project remained uninvestigated. In fact, Baglay’s name was never mentioned regarding the developments, directly or indirectly, linked to the devious political project. If not for Prof. Maddumabandara taking trouble to deal with the contentious issue of regime change, Baglay’s role may never have come to light. Ambassador Chung would have remained the target of all those who found fault with US interventions. Let me be clear, the revelation of Baglay’s clandestine meeting with the Speaker didn’t dilute the role played by the US in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s removal.

If Prof. Maddumabandara propagated lies, both the author and Abeywardana should be appropriately dealt with. Aragalaye Balaya failed to receive the desired or anticipated public attention. Those who issue media statements at the drop of a hat conveniently refrained from commenting on the Indian role. Even Abeywardena remained silent though he could have at least set the record straight after Ambassador Chung was accused of secretly meeting the Speaker. Abeywardena could have leaked the information through media close to him. Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe, too, could have done the same but all decided against revealing the truth.

A proper investigation should cover the period beginning with the declaration made by Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government, in April 2022, regarding the unilateral decision to suspend debt repayment. But attention should be paid to the failure on the part of the government to decide against seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to overcome the crisis. Those who pushed Gotabaya Rajapaksa to adopt, what they called, a domestic solution to the crisis created the environment for the ultimate collapse that paved the way for external interventions. Quite large and generous Indian assistance provided to Sri Lanka at that time should be examined against the backdrop of a larger frightening picture. In other words, India was literally running with the sheep while hunting with the hounds. Whatever the criticism directed at India over its role in regime change operation, prompt, massive and unprecedented post-Cyclone Ditwah assistance, provided by New Delhi, saved Sri Lanka. Rapid Indian response made a huge impact on Sri Lanka’s overall response after having failed to act on a specific 12 November weather alert.

It would be pertinent to mention that all governments, and the useless Parliament, never wanted the public to know the truth regarding regime change project. Prof. Maddumabandara discussed the role played by vital sections of the armed forces, lawyers and the media in the overall project that facilitated external operations to force Gotabaya Rajapaksa out of office. The author failed to question Wickremesinghe’s failure to launch a comprehensive investigation, with the backing of the SLPP, immediately after he received appointment as the President. There seems to be a tacit understanding between Wickremesinghe and the SLPP that elected him as the President not to initiate an investigation. Ideally, political parties represented in Parliament should have formed a Special Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to investigate the developments during 2019 to the end of 2022. Those who had moved court against the destruction of their property, during the May 2022 violence directed at the SLPP, quietly withdrew that case on the promise of a fresh comprehensive investigation. This assurance given by the Wickremesinghe government was meant to bring an end to the judicial process.

When the writer raised the need to investigate external interventions, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) sidestepped the issue. Shame on the so-called independent commission, which shows it is anything but independent.

Sumanthiran’s proposal

Since the eradication of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, the now defunct Tamil National Alliance’s (TNA) priority had been convincing successive governments to withdraw the armed forces/ substantially reduce their strength in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. The Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK)-led TNA, as well as other Tamil political parties, Western powers, civil society, Tamil groups, based overseas, wanted the armed forces out of the N and E regions.

Abeywardena also revealed how the then ITAK lawmaker, M.A. Sumanthiran, during a tense meeting chaired by him, in Parliament, also on 13 July, 2022, proposed the withdrawal of the armed forces from the N and E for redeployment in Colombo. The author, without hesitation, alleged that the lawmaker was taking advantage of the situation to achieve their longstanding wish. The then Speaker also disclosed that Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella and other party leaders leaving the meeting as soon as the armed forces reported the protesters smashing the first line of defence established to protect the Parliament. However, leaders of minority parties had remained unruffled as the situation continued to deteriorate and external powers stepped up efforts to get rid of both Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe to pave the way for an administration loyal and subservient to them. Foreign powers seemed to have been convinced that Speaker Abeywardena was the best person to run the country, the way they wanted, or till the Aragalaya mob captured the House.

The Author referred to the role played by the media, including social media platforms, to promote Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s successor. Maddumamabandara referred to the Hindustan Times coverage to emphasise the despicable role played by a section of the media to manipulate the rapid developments that were taking place. The author also dealt with the role played by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) in the project with the focus on how that party intensified its actions immediately after Gotabaya Rajapaksa stepped down.

Disputed assessment

The Author identified Ministers Bimal Rathnayaka, Sunil Handunetti and K.D. Lal Kantha as the persons who spearheaded the JVP bid to seize control of Parliament. Maddumabanda unflinchingly compared the operation, mounted against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, with the regime change operations carried out in Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Ukraine. Asserting that governments loyal to the US-led Western block had been installed in those countries, the author seemed to have wrongly assumed that external powers failed to succeed in Sri Lanka (pages 109 and 110). That assertion is utterly wrong. Perhaps, the author for some unexplained reasons accepted what took place here. Nothing can be further from the truth than the regime change operation failed (page 110) due to the actions of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana and Ranil Wickremesinghe. In case, the author goes for a second print, he should seriously consider making appropriate corrections as the current dispensation pursues an agenda in consultation with the US and India.

The signing of seven Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with India, including one on defence, and growing political-defence-economic ties with the US, have underscored that the JVP-led National People’s Power (NPP) may not have been the first choice of the US-India combine but it is certainly acceptable to them now.

The bottom line is that a democratically elected President, and government, had been ousted through unconstitutional means and Sri Lanka meekly accepted that situation without protest. In retrospect, the political party system here has been subverted and changed to such an extent, irreparable damage has been caused to public confidence. External powers have proved that Sri Lanka can be influenced at every level, without exception, and the 2022 ‘Aragalaya’ is a case in point. The country is in such a pathetic state, political parties represented in Parliament and those waiting for an opportunity to enter the House somehow at any cost remain vulnerable to external designs and influence.

Cyclone Ditwah has worsened the situation. The country has been further weakened with no hope of early recovery. Although the death toll is much smaller compared to that of the 2004 tsunami, economic devastation is massive and possibly irreversible and irreparable.

By Shamindra Ferdinando