 Re-opening
of Kandy's Garrison Cemetery
All Souls Day - the 1st of November - will
see the re-opening of Kandy's Garrison cemetery, that 1817 resting place
that has almost slipped into oblivion due to neglect and disrepair. Thanks
to the concern of the British Ministry of Defence, the British High Commission
here, and the Trustees of St. Paul's Church, Kandy, the cemetery is now
transformed. Complete re-fencing, the removal of four to five feet of top
soil that has eroded on to the gravestones and tombs, new run- off drains,
rebuilding of some of the tombs and turfing has made this cemetery the
quiet, beautiful place it always was.
The British Wives Welfare Association has turned the old Chapel of Rest
into a small museum cum office and there yet remains the need for a sponsor
for the proposed establishment of a Garden of Remembrance, where it would
be possible for ashes to be scattered.
Pitching into restoring that road to this historic place, were the Kandy
Municipality, the Sri Lanka Army and the Cultural Triangle authorities
who have all helped in the maintenance and in overall beautification with
turfing and flowers.
I am told that High Commissioner David Tatham and Robert Kendall of
the British High Commission will be at the Garrison Cemetery on November1:
also the Mayor of Kandy , Harindra Dunuwile, Dr. Nihal Karunaratne, Mrs.
Jenniffer Blacker, Mr. Chris Worthington, Mr. Durand Goonetilleke, the
archdeacon of the Kurunegala diocese and representatives of the Army, Police,
Planters and Professionals of the Central Province.
It will be a simple memorial service among the graves of many illustrious
men and women of the 19th century. The Restoration Committee wishes to
set up "Friends of the Garrison Cemetery Inc," a concerned body
of people who will ensure that the cemetery is maintained and who will
also seek fund endowments for this purpose.
So history sleeps..... and history rises on November 1. Flowers and
greensward and the stones that record those who sleep the long sleep. Will
a Committee of All Souls also nod approving heads? 1'm sure they will!
Anura gives a month's Parliamentary salary
Remember my recent piece on the Blue Gold and Blue Exhibition and Carnival
by the Royal College Old Hostllers Association as a fund raiser for a new
hostel building? Things got a bit hairy what with a newspaper exposure
of Midnight Frolics at the Hostel and the Association was naturally most
disturbed. The members went in delegation to the Principal demanding that
a full inquiry be conducted. This is now being done. Met Padmasiri Dissanayake,
the Association's Secretary who insists that it is virtually impossible
for any of the present day hostellers to be party to any of those midnight
frolics. "Our current hostellers consists of the poorest segment of
the students at Royal," he says. "There have been cases where
the parents of some of these boys have not been able to afford the Rs.
1030/- as monthly boarding fees. The boys have no money. I know for certain
that if all the seniors in the hostel pooled their money they would barely
have Rs. 500".
Meanwhile , I learn that Bishop Kenneth Fernando, the Hon. Lakshman
Kiriella and Journalist Karel Roberts and many others including a number
of old Thomians and Trinitians are solidly behind the hostellers. The Association
has already addressed an appeal to the President for financial assistance
from the President's Fund for the building of the hostel and has launched
a global fund raising project. And for the cheering news, the Hon. Anura
Bandranaike has sent the Association the following letter.
"..In these times where conscience and sympathy remains insensitized,
the Royal College Hostel Project deserves our every support and assistance.
My heart melts for these youngsters who come to Royal from the villages
to bring credit to the school in public exams and inter collegiate sport.
I am aware that our good results at GCE O and A Levels directly bear a
relationship to the performance of the hostellers and without them, it
would be a different story. There is no question that we must help them
if we can make out of these rural scholars well balanced and integrated
young men who will fit the bill of 'scholars and gentlemen.'
"I am not a rich man but be my guest to have one month of my Parliamentary
salary pledged for this good cause.."
As an old Royalist, I feel that what is most important is the new hostel.
It is the new hostel that is vital for the ultimate goal of the Association's
a "Super Hosteller" programme, a programme that will transform
poor village boys into polished, self assured, smart young men to be the
pride of this country. This is what needs all our energies. This column
thanks and salutes Anura Bandaranaike.... and see you at the Blue, Old
and Blue.
Politician with a heart
No one is more pleased than our Central
Pro vincial Council Speaker, Mr. Sarath Sikurajapathy, that the Kandy District's
first Rural Hospital at Mampitiya, has been upgraded this year to the status
of a District Hospital. After all, it was his father, G. Piyadasa Sikurajapathy,
who donated the land for the building of this hospital which was declared
open by the then Minister George E. de Silva, in 1942. A second Rural Hospital
was later opened at Titthapathgala, but Mampitiya has a special place in
our Speaker's heart. He gave one acre himself for a Regional Health Service
Centre there, which is today the Regional Health Office. He did so, he
told me, in the name of his mother, Mrs. Sumanawathie Sikurajapathy. Also,
while remaining patron of the Health Service Centre, he donated a Budu
Medura at the same premises and again, half an acre for a village burial
ground.
"I'm simply continuing a family tradition of care and concern for
the area," he said, and reminded that his mother also gave two acres
for a temple in the same village. Sarath Sikurajapathy is very concerned
with rural upliftment and is a tireless worker. It is heartening to know
that he had initiated the distribution of spectacles to over 5000 persons
in the Udunuwara, Gampola and Hewaheta electorates. And, most important,
he has been instrumental in the opening of as many as 86 Rural Welfare
Societies (Maranadharas) over the years in the Udunuwara area. He dislikes
detailing what he does because as he says, he's a worker, not a talker,
but I dug around and spoke to many in his own home turf at Handessa. "He
did not just say, let's have a society," a man said, "he has
given equipment to all the societies too."
As far as I can make out, our Speaker has given to each of the 86 societies
10 chairs, two mammoties, a crowbar, a Petromax lamp, a national flag and
a Buddhist flag. Multiplied by 86, that's a lot
I'm not giving you these details for the heck of it. Just to tell you
that we have, in the hills, a politician with a heart!
The illicit firewood line
Followed Kandy's illicit firewood line the other day... all the way
from the Hantane Forest Reserve to Suduhumpola. Nice green forest saplings,
chopped down by an organised gang of men and women. The women carry out
the bundles of wood on their heads. The men do the chopping and hacking,
and are ready to brandish wicked-looking knives at anyone who gets in their
way.
Hantane Forest Reserve has 1700 acres of spectacular trees. Even the
road that skirts it is called "Forest Reserve Road". It is the
property of the Municipality and the Municipality pooh-poohs the thought
of handing it over to the care of the Forest Department.
So it's a reserve, mind you, but slowly, surely, it is feeding the firewood
trade and the trees are being cut most methodically and unfeelingly.
Nearby residents have tried to intervene and been threatened by louts
and thugs and received a barrage of the choicest Sinhala from women with
sweat in their armpits.
The whole racket is well organised. The firewood is taken to a point
on the road, dumped into a waiting pick-up and taken to Suduhumpola. All
the cutters and fetchers and carriers sit upon the wood and they simply
sail through town, looking for all the world like a grimy labour gang on
their way to some quarry. The wood is gathered into bundles for sale at
Suduhumpola. Price per bundle - Rs. 65!
If the Municipality cannot effectively protect this Reserve, why hang
on to it? Or are we to expect yet another dust bowl here after all the
trees are cut?
A Satyodaya summing-up
Among the trustees of Satyodaya, Kandy,
are Dr. (Mrs) Lakmini Illangasinghe, Sudarshan Seneviratne, S.F.M. Zavahir,
and Jesuit priest Chriso Pieris. The Satyodaya Centre for Social Research
and Encounter, I am told, began work in April 1, 1997, and, the trustees
claim, is on its way to becoming a "true peoples' organisation".
Anyway, with no further comment, I give you some extracts from the Centre's
annual report:
* According to figures computed by us in September 1997, the cost of
living, meaning by it only the cost of basic food, house rent and a few
toilet articles (but not clothes and medicines and travel) for a family
of five, was Rs. 7071 a month.
* The five-cent and ten-cent coins have completely gone out of circulation
and are being followed by the 25 cent and 50 cent coins. Only ten years
ago, even the Rs. 100 note was hardly seen in daily circulation. Today
it would be foolhardy for a poor housewife in a working class family to
venture into the market for the day's provisions without a Rs. 100 note
in her hand.
* The rich, including the specialist doctors in the "channelling
centres" and the tutors in many private tutories, are making a lot
of money which is not even declared to Inland Revenue. Even the Government
school principals make it clear to parents that a "donation"
should be made if the child has to be admitted to school...
* These practices are violations of the law but in an era where everything
revolves around money, law enforcement officers prefer to look the other
way.
All this may be most valid and known of full well, but certainly bears
repeating. As for the rest of the report it has its obvious Marxist undertones,
but who cares? As it says in conclusion, "we shall have to swim against
the current of the social order promoted worldwide by international capital
buttressed by international financial institution." See what I mean?
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