Book Review

* The Sri Lankan self help guide to Jesus

* War: reverse the trend

The Sri Lankan self help guide to Jesus

The Jesus Way, by Oranee Jansz; reviewed by Rajpal Abeynayake.

Whether Oranee Jansz is an evangelist or not is another matter, but, her handbook of liberation, 'The Jesus Way'' is certainly not meant for the faint hearted.. Then again it is for the faint hearted. The book is blunt and direct in its evangelism, but also there is a gentleness about it that disarms the responding reader.

Oranee Jansz is a Chemistry honours graduate who eschewed chemistry to teach English in campus. She comes across in the book as a type who wouldn't love chemistry anyway. (there are types and types of people in Chemistry.) One Nobel prize winner said that he is in love with chemistry,. Another said that he is a nuts and bolts mechanic type, who is involved in the subject because he wants to make things work. Certainly Oranee Jansz is not in love with chemistry, that's a certainty. She is not immersed in the elements, at least not in the kind of ones you would find in an Avagadro classification. So naturally she veered towards teaching, and then fell in love with God.

Oranee's fascination with nature is touching; and its novel and refreshing that she describes Sri Lanka's scenic beauty in order to show the reader that there has to be a higher being. Many will ring a hosanna in agreement when she writes with uninhibited gusto about the beaches, Hindu temples and Buddhist shrines that occur in the Sri Lankan landscape. Lassna Pollonaruwa was an essay she wrote for a school magazine, and as memories of a pungently natural past whizzed past her, she says almost in undertone that there should be a greater force behind all this greatness. In that way, refreshingly, The Jesus Way is not a didactic sombre prayer book about reaching towards God.

Nevertheless, the book is a practitioners guide. The writer is serious about her mission to want people to be in touch with the creator, if this reviewer may put it quite that way. She has therefore no qualms or excuses about the fact that she is an evangelist.

This utter uninhibited devotion is compelling in this sense. Why Oranee Jansz, and why God? I mean, for the layman, its like "why is an academic so interested in God?." It's not as if the two situations are mutually exclusive, but they don't usually occur in this kind of tandem.

Also, in these times when there are several routes prescribed for reaching God, this straightforward, rigorous but no- nonsense route recommended is a tad original. It's a throwback of course to the times when there was discipline involved in reaching God. But the throwback is almost new in its novelty in an era when God has also become reduced to the "instant.''

Oranee Jansz doesn't seem to prescribe any shortcuts. But, her lifestyle is that of total immersion in relating to God..

That's a candid assertion. But, the entwined personal experiences that she uses to answer the questions "why me?'' and "why God?'' are by themselves interesting. And refreshing.

It's a good book for the converted, and a challenge for the skeptical. Either way, its meant to instill good discipline in forging a relationship with God, and for those who are wishing to embark on that endeavour, it's must reading.

War: reverse the trend

"Sri Lanka's Ethnic Crisis and National Security" By Rohan Gunaratna, South Asian Network on Conflict Research, Colombo, pp 416, Price LKR 750/-Reviewed by a special correspondent

Unlike some of Gunaratna's earlier works, "Sri Lanka's Ethnic Crisis and National Security" is not just a mass of meticulously collected but undigested data on the LTTE and other dimensions of the island's Tamil problem.

In this, his latest work, he has brought to bear a coldly objective and analytical mind on a mind boggling array of data and has gone on to make a set of very concrete policy and strategy recommendations for solving the problem.

Basically Gunaratna's recipe is the adoption of an innovate and comprehensive politico-military strategy to achieve two inter-related objectives, namely, containing the LTTE and weaning the Tamils away from it. While urging the abandonment of the current conventional military strategy in favour of an imaginatve one, he underscores the need for giving the Tamils their due, as unless the LTTE is denied its 'political' support base among the Tamils, it can never be militarily vanquished.

Recognising none as a holy cow, Gunaratna is unsparing in his criticism of the current mindset in Sri Lanka's political/bureaucratic/military structure and says that the policies and strategies that flow from it are utterly unsuited to meeting the challenges of the situation.

Of immediate interest is his assessment of the current war strategy. He challenges the view that success can be measured in the number of square kilometres recovered from the LTTE. Such conventional wisdom is unsuited to measure success against a hit and run guerrilla group which has the ability to merge with a floating population indistinguishably, he says. The army should "search and destroy" and not go for territory.

Specifically in regard to the capture of Jaffna, he says that it has "diminished the capacity to conduct offensive operations".

In the unconventional war against the LTTE, military success can be measured only by the number of LTTE cardres killed or injured, the number of weapons destroyed and by thwarting LTTE recruitment, he says.

Re-orienting strategy

Gunaratna strongly urges some basic changes in military strategy to meet the growing challenge from the Tigers. Special, elite or advance infantry units which conduct offensives far removed from the base must be at least 30% of any formation not just 10% as is the case now. Foreign advisors have suggested 50% close combat and stealth become important in conditions when the visibility range is an average 50 metres, he says.

The level of training also has to be enhanced a great deal. US advisors had suggested the average level has to be higher than the LTTE's. The recommended period is 9 months to two years. But the training period has been cut by 50%.

Well trained and psychologically conditioned small units should be able to penentrate LTTE lines and deprive them of initiative, on which they count a great deal.

Gunaratna deprecates the tendency among Lankan political leaders and military strategists to go in for short terms political and military gains rather than for the less spectacular but long term strategies. These have led to the poor soldier being treated as cannon fodder."

Military commanders have to be mindful that good strategy will mean the military not losing more than 5% of soldiers as casualties in a campaign - if they do, desertions become imminent," he warns.

The author regrets that neither the army nor the navy has bothered to adopt the technique of deep penetration cover operations to hit the Tigers in their bases.

There is no answer in kind to Black or Sea Tigers's offensive techniques, which have a deadly destabilising effect on the forces' morale. Gunaratna would like the navy to cease being a blue water force and become a brown water force, to engage the Sea Tigers, one of whose key jobs is to transport weapons from mid-sea to the shore. He urges that the government take foreign assistance in this area.

He regrets that the co-ordination with intelligence agencies of other countries, especially India, has not been up to the required level. He says that it would not do to merely plead with foreign governments to curb the activities of the LTTE.

But formal international state level mechanisms are necessary. The author has called for UN backed mechanisms for the sharing of information on dangerous non-stage groups. The mechanisms must be backed by mandatory sanctions.

But all this will come to naught and the LTTE will remain a military force so long as it enjoys the support of the Tamil people, says Gunaratna." To quote him fully on this: A military victory against the LTTE will be feasible only on the ability and the willingness of the Sri Lankan government to politically isolate the LTTE by exhausting the LTTE support base.

Both Sri Lankan and military leaders must be mindful that the current predicament was precipitated by poor governance leading to ethnic violence. Prolonged ethnic, social economic and political unrest created the conditions for the spawning of a terrorist and an insurgent campaign.

This trend is not irreversible. The key to reversing the trend rests in exemplary governance and the pragmatic use of force, both formidable challenges to the Sri Lankan leaders of today and tomorrow."

First go to school then think of going to war

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi

Peace, peace is what Sri Lanka is hankering after. Some would like to achieve it through a military solution, others through devolution packages, still others through unconditional talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

But a few dedicated teachers from several remote villages in Anamaduwa seem to think differently.

Teachers from far flung schools in this area, had cycled long distances, gathered in humble homes, literally burning the midnight oil - as some villages are still without electricity - and discussed into the night what the ethnic problem was all about.

And they have come up with some shocking findings - that school textbooks, be they Sinhala, Tamil or English — in direct or subtle ways encourage racism among children.

Forming themselves into a group called, "Sama Shakthi Guru Sanwada Sansandanaya", they have decided to pinpoint the flaws in the textbooks, and as a first step, published a "Bahuwida Samaja Sahajeewanaya Sandaha Pasel Pela Pothe Bhoomikawa" (The Role of the School Textbooks for Multi-Social Reconciliation) in Sinhala, with the hope of putting out a Tamil version soon.

The research publication has studied the texts of six subjects in the school syllabus and come up with the problems teachers face when attempting to promote co-existence among students. They also suggest how the texts can be improved. At a simple ceremony organised in association with the Centre for Family Services, the teachers said the publication was the first step in generating discussion and debate how textbooks, the basic learning tool of children, influence them. Their aim was to persuade the powers that be to take the suggestions for improvement of texts into consideration.

What sparked off this thinking? Anamaduwa is a "border" area with a mixed community. Several teachers explained with much emotion and sadness how they helped carry the coffins and bury the youth they themselves had taught and nurtured not so long ago.

These were the victims of the war. Others had come back maimed. Some younger children in the schools where they taught had questioned the need for war.

They had organised themselves into "peace groups" and asked the teachers for assistance. This had led the teachers to look deeper.

Teacher Sidney Marcus Dias said most attempts to bring about peace were centred around Colombo. There was hardly any activity in far away places.

They realised the useful role teachers could play in restoring peace.

It dawned on them that for lasting peace a change of attitude was essential. A change through art, literature and education.

"We looked at the subjects not connected to peace at all. Then it emerged that children should be led away from racism," Mr. Dias said. Stressing that education could play a major role in bringing about peaceful co-existence in a multiple society, he said unity could be built on religious, social and cultural education.

Gamini Kumarasinghe, another teacher, explained that the country's education policy has always emphasised the need to work towards peace. As far back as 1943, even before independence, the father of free education in the country, C.W.W Kannangara visualised that education should forge unity among the different communities, propagate tolerance and help character-building.

From then on up to the present, recommendations or proposals on education had underlined the national need for unity and that education should perform this function. He said the four pillars on which our education policy was built on were:

* Learning to be
* Learning to acquire knowledge
* Learning to act
* Learning to live with others in unity

Though the National Education Policy stressed the need for unity, there was no link between this and the textbooks of schoolchildren. More thought should be given when developing texts.

Even the exercises in the present books were framed badly, Mr. Kumarasinghe said.

The teachers touched on the famous historical "Dutugemunu - Elara" battle which is used as a weapon by extremists. In texts it is dubbed a war between the Sinhalese and the Tamils.

What was it? Wasn't it a battle between two regional kings over territory, which had nothing to do with race or religion? they questioned adding that there was even a Tamil Buddhist monk called Buddhagosha Thera.

In the Mahavamsa, unlike the textbooks, Elara is portrayed as a righteous king.

Teacher Wijaya Krishnan cited many an example where communal differences among children were highlighted in texts. The Year 1 Tamil text, deals with one Hindu family: how they light the lamp and worship god. What about Tamil Christian children and also Muslim children who speak Tamil? Won't they feel alienated, he asked.

Take the Year 5 text which describes how the Sinhalese and the Tamils celebrate the New Year. The problem was that the Sinhalese and Tamils did so separately and not together, giving the child the impression that both groups did not mix even during the New Year.

Another flaw was that the Year 10 Tamil texts quoted Indian scholars. What about Tamil and Sinhala scholars from Sri Lanka? he queried.

During the discussion that followed the presentation, a few hecklers argued that this was an attempt to erase "Sinhala culture", to which the teachers pointed out that their ultimate goal was to build a Sri Lanka, on the concept of "unity in diversity", where all communities were proud of their motherland and lived in peaceful co-existence.

These humble teachers from Anamaduwa have left us with much food for thought.

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