| ice Fis. 10.00 August 15, 1996 pe ° Wd P.A,: GRAND ALLIANCE oR MISALLIANCE: SMORITIES : 0 min ——SAITIES : 1 CHANAKA eniBITY AND CONVICTION DEFENDING THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE LAKSIRy JA YASURIyA MINORITIES AND THE U.N. DECLARATION NEELAN TIRUCHEL, vam RE-INVENTING SHAKESPEARE REG). ‘SIRIWA IRDENA THE FEDERAL OPTION HARTHUT ELSENHANG SAARC. - imme SING SMALL PRODUCERS AMERICA SRI LANKAN IMAGEs I PO, Shi Lar GUARD Regigeredaztine Gi Vol. 19 AAS, GOONETILEKENow Available Second Enlarged E “SRI LANKA: THE DEVOLUTION DEBATE" ICES, 1996, 255p. ion Articles: * Introduction by Regi Siriwardena Towards Effective Devolution, by G. L. Peiris Some Thoughts on the Devolution Package, by Lakshman Marasinghe * Devolution and Power Sharing, The Means to Peace and Development, by Bertram Bastiampillai * Devolution of Power, The Problems and Challenges by Neelan Tiruchelvam * Towards A Compromise Solution, by Sumanasi © Breakthrough in Sri Lanka, by S. Guhan * Control of State Land — The Devolution Debate, by Sunil Bastian © The Structure and Content of Education: Policy Choices and Problems of Implementation in the Context of Devolution Proposals, by Sasanka Perera Liyanage * President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s Address to the Nation, August 3, 1995 Text of Government's Devolution Proposals of August 3, 1995 Text of Government's Devolution Proposals of January 16, 1996 * A Commentary on the Devolution Proposals of the Government January 16, 1996, by G. L. Peiris The Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam Pact The Senanayake-Chelvanayakam Pact Annexure C Text of the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement of July 29, 1987 The Interim Report of the Mangala Moonesinghe Parliamentary Select Committee, 1992 + Excerpts from Gamini Dissanayake's “Vision for the 21st Century" © Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution (1987) Price: Rs. 250 U.S. $ 15.00 for SAARC countries (Airshipment) U.S. $20.00 for other countries (Airshipment] All orders to: ICES, 2 Kynsey Terrace, Colombo 8, Sri Lanka. Telephone 685085 /698048; Fax 696618NEWS BACKGROUND THE P.A.: Mervyn de Silva W.B, Yeats is backin fashion. Neither leader-wilter nor speech-maker neglecis to quote : "Things fall apart; tha cantre cennct old”, Naturally." columnists Cannet forget the great Wish peot eltner not when the |. R.A. is stil thwarting Prime Minister John Major in his resolute bid to stop “ine longest war" — of iis king, that is. Its the Tamil question, not the Irish, northe violenca in northem Iretand which attracts Yoatsian intervention. It was the massacre in Mulalivy and the ebvious questons tt raised that prompted com- mentators to reach once again for theic Yeats, But “ihe centre” thay had in ‘mind was not tha Sri Lankan capital and administrative cent but the regime, the eight party "Peoples Alliance” (PA) of President Chandika Kumoratunga. Mrs. Kumaratunga rushed back to Colomino, cutting short a wal-deserved holiday: in’ Egypt with her famiy. But she Was off, again't9. South Korea, a stata visit f “escuriy* isthe explanation for these frequent tips overseas, no farmindec Sti Lankan would fail to understand her anxiaties whon her main enemy, the same enemy tat overran the heavily fertfied Mulaitivu base, is the No suspect in two assassinations — the former Prime Minister of India, (Nenru's grandson) and the President of Si Lanka, Mr. R. Premadasa. Suicide- bombers, young men ang women, repre- sont tho deadliast waapon in the armoury of the mast formidable terrorist ‘organisaton-curmiberation movement in tha world. MULLAITIVU BATTLE But Mullativu represented something ‘else altogether. Of the 1,407 inthe camp, ‘ver 1,000 were soldiers and policemen, Officially, 1,395 were reported “missing in action’. Well over 1,000 have been kiled in the LITE, raid. Apart from casualties, it is the “huge quantiy of weapons” and ‘tho nalure of the arme, the firepower” of the weapons selzed by the guerrlas which make Mullaiiv @ disaster and a stunning blow to the P.A. AS Opposition MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawarcena pointed out in Parliament, the L.T.T.E's Paris-based spokesman, Lawrence Thilakar (Europe is his parish} hhad boasted about the firepower of the new weapons in the “Tiger” armoury. Two 122 milimetre arillery guns, two HOW LONG MORE? 120 mm. heavy mortars, 1 81 mm heavy mortars, 15 mactine guns, 108 light machine guns, 654 7-56, automatic rifles and 29 40 mm grenade launchers, TIGER TACTICS Queniity at some point can make a qualtative change. From a formidable, ighly motivated and disciplined terroriet group, the LTTE in the late 80's was tumed into a first-rate guerilla organisa- tion by its founder, Velupiliai Prabalcaran. ‘Those Sri Lankans who have folowed his career and studied the man, realised that he was a gifed milliarist. Leaming from both Tamil miltary history anc the classics, Clausewitz to Mao and Cho Guervara, Prabakaran has bull up a smal: regular army... but without the weaponry in the hands of Its enemy, tne Sit Lanka ammed forces. He is now attending to thet problam and closing the gep. This is a pollica-miltary swuggle. Perhaps to satisfy the Tamil diaspora and respectable middle-class Tamil fund- raisers, LT... went through ne motions of "peace talks”, found the fist plausible excuse to scuttle “te negata- tons” iniiated by-the P.A, soon after Chandrika Kumaratunga ‘the poace oan- jidato” and Prime Minister was Installed Executive President. When the LTTE. ‘gave up the ceremony of jav-jaw and etumed to war-war, the “peace cancida- to" could not afore any longor to afonato the Sinhala-Buddhist constituancy. So back to war-war. The first casually was Prof . Pioris, Minictor of Coretitutional ‘Affairs end Depuly Finance Minister. His thesis was clear enough — devclution, the peace package approved by the S.LF.P'S_ moderale partners and its ‘Tamil supportars. Anxious no! to alonato the minorities, the U.N.P. will go along. IU ¢ic not work ike that in practice. What was olferod was not enough even for the moderate TULF, but “too much” to the Sinhala hardiners in the U.NP. ‘and PA. President Chendiika played safe by “cropping” the offer of pro. autonomy, ard gating into khaki hors DEFENCE VOTE Tho ontire Pieris game-plan collapsed 5 the amy called the shois, and the defence budgat soared high enough for the IMF-World Bank to get. seriously worried. But warwar meant 2 major sethack (on the parliamentary front.In the num- bers game, the T.U.LF and the E-P.D.P. give the P.A, more than a dozen votes, amt0 survive. How Jong will ittake these anies to. decide enougn’s enough 7 Meanwhile Prosidont Chandrxa and tho SLFP. are having trouble with the EP.D-P. of Douglas Devananda and the DUNE. of Mrs, Srimani Athuathrudeli, Both could bring the P.A. down. And with prices soaring, the trade unione, led by the leftwing partners of the P.A. are on a collision course with the Kumaratunga Presidency. GUARDIAN Vol 19 No.8 August 15, 1986 Price Rs. 10.00 Published fortnightly by Lanke Guardian Publishing Co, Ltd. No. 246, Union Place Colombo - 2. Edtor Mervyn de Siva Telephone: 447504 Printed by Ananda Press: 82/5, Sir Ralnajothi Saravanamuitu Mawatha, Colombo 13, Telephone: 438975 CONTENTS ‘The Fale of Minotiies Farewell to Chanaka 3 Reciaiming Sri Lanka's Socal Democracy Tho Two Lears Inplcations of the Fedaral. Option 8 Can Small Producers Survive. 18 Loters 2 Books 20MINORITIES: The Fate of Minorities Neelan Tiruchelvam hen the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being debeted in the General Assembly, il was pointed out that the Organisation should not remain indifferent “to the fate of minoriies’. Tha Commission ‘on Human Rights and its Sub-Commis- sion on Prevention of Discrimination and the Protection of Minorities could not effectively advance thase concems However in recent years there have been sionticant intemational and regio- ‘ral developments. with regard to the Protection of minortias. The General ‘Assembly in 1992 adopted the Declara- tion on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National Ethric, Religious and-Lin- uistic Minorities. At the Helsinki Sum. mit of the Conference on Security and Cooperation. in. Furope..on. 10th July 1992, the participating slates decided to establish a’ High | Commis. sioner of Nationel Minories, as an “instrument of confit prevention’ at the earliest possitle ‘stage. In 1995 the Council of Europo rectified the lack Of powers directly. concemed with ‘minority protection in European human rights legislation, by adopting a Frame- work Convention on National Minorities In 1995. The Framework Convention hhas been described as a unique piece Of human rights legsation which lays down principles on the protection of minorities, but leaves it to the state parties to chose the ways and means in which to implement. them. These developments, which were partly fuel- led by the impending cisintegration of Yugoslavia, and the revival of ethno- nationalism in Central and Eastern Europe, pointto the increasing importa- ‘nee that is being accorded 10 minority potection questions in the international ‘and regional humans egendas. Establishment of the Working Group ‘The Norwegian member of the UN ‘Sub: Commission played an important role in the establishment on the UN Working Group on Minorities. Norway had played @ similar role in the 2 establishment’ 6f the UN Working Group on Indigenous population and Asbjom Eide as its frst Chairman had played a significant contribution to its success, Eide wes also engaged in 3 years of study and consultation with Sub Commission members and outsi- de experts on the implementation of the UN. Declaration, He submitted a set of recommendation at the Sub Commission's 1993. meeting which addressed ways and moans of facilita- ting the peacetul and censtructve fesolution of disputes involving minor'- ties One of these recommendations rela- ted to the establishment of a Working Group. He argued "The Commission on Human Rights should consider ‘stablishing a Working Group on mino- lly Issues, which should provide accose to roprosontatives of both governments and minorities. The man- date of the group might bo to examine ‘he stuation in diferent parts of the word and: to develop more specific guidelines for the implementation of the 1982 Declaration on Minorities, The Commission and its Working Group should thereby be made the focal {or all UN activities undertaken within tespestive mandales. By providing a voica for. the groups concerned, it would serve to facilitate communication between minorties and goverments and to develop methods for confict resolution o direction of the’ confict into peaceful chennels, As a consequence of these recom- mendaticns, the Commission on Human Righ's in. 1994 decided to estebish a new UN Working Group ‘on Minorities. The composition of tha Working Group. was to_Include 5 members cf the “Sub Commission drawn {rom each region. lis mandate was to— 8). reviow he promotion an practical n of the UN Declaration tn the Fighis of Persons belonging to. National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minories; ). examine solutions to _problams involving minorities, including the promotion of mutual understanding botwaen and among minorities and govemments; ©) recommend further measures, as appropriate for the promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic religious and linguistic minorites. The role of the Working Group The first mooting of the Working Group took place in Geneva on the 28th August 1935. In his opening statement, the High Commissioner for Human Righis Jose Ayala Lasso called Upon the Working Group to suggest “concrete, constructive and peaceful ‘solutions to minonty. stuations", He further argued that: close ‘cooperation ‘between the Office of the High Com- missioner for Human Rights and the Working Group was required for effec- tive protection of the rights of persons belonging to minorities. Several mem. bers ofthe Working Group also empha- sise the importanca of focussing not only on concrete minority. situations and_ problems: but also on possible solutions and the framing of construct ve proposals. Thay arguod that’ the Working. Group should therefore endeavour te engage goverment and minorities in a constructve dalogue. ‘At least one. observer argued in favour of a step by step approach in the realisation of the mandate of the Working Group. These sieps. were ‘identified as (@) the consideration of ‘national legislation (b) practical moasu tes in building confidence and (c) the Promotion of relevant rights. included iin the declaration. He argued that the ‘emphasis should be on studying the experience of atterent states in promo- ting understanding and tolerance: and accommodation of minorites. At least ‘one member of the Working Group {elt thet there was a need to go beyond approaches which were base cn mere tolerance and acceptance, The issues‘of minority protection must be asse- ‘ssed-wilhin a broader framework of multi-cultural sociely and in streng- thening the values. and institutions which promote cultural versity. In this tegard, working group should focus (a) on the analysis of national lecisiation, (0) the role of education at the interna- fional, national and community tevets in maintaining culture, language end other characteristics of minorities, (c) tho relationship between the media and the issues of minority protection. The Nordic countries seom to have argued that the Working Group should more sharply focus on the norms and stan- dards embodied in the UN Declaration and be a moritoring mechanism. for tha protection and promotion of the fights of persons belonging to minori- les, ‘The Ghairman-Rapporteur conciu- ded thet the role of the Working Group should be viewed in the context of Aticlo 7 of tho. Doclaration, which stated “Slates should cooperate in order to promote respect for the rights set forth In the present Declaration’. He pointed out that the Working Group should serve as a forum for dialogue and mutual understanding based on the factual intormetion submitted in a concrete and. specific manner. The actual experiences of minofities should provide ideas ard proposals for con- structive group accommodation. It was further important thatthe Working Group should not seek to overlap with the work of other UN institutions and organisations which are empowered to address the problems of groups such as refugees, asylum sookers, and migrant workers. The Working Methods of tho Group A threshold question which was addressed at the first meeting of the Working Group related to participation. Should participation ba limited to non- govemmental orgenisations with con- sultativa status with the Economic and Social Council or should it be opened to all non-governmental organisations The Working Group on Incigenous Population had adopted the practice of open participation which had consi- derably enhanced the effectivenoss of the Group, As Douglas Sanders poin- {ed out “For the first time incigenous people had specific access 10 the United Nations, They had their own Intemational forum”, NGOs were also. able to exercise influence on the actual content of the agenda of the Working Group on indigenous populations. ‘Their parti¢pation also enabled aggrie- ved groups to address the United Nations directly, and to provide direct testimony on theit experiences. It was acoordingly argued that opening part paticn to al non-governmental orga- risations would encourage the exch- ‘ango of information particulary in res. ‘pect of the situations of ethnic minon- tios of tho local levol. Mombors of tho ‘Working Group Were thetelore easily ‘convinced of the importance of achio- vving the wicest possible paiticipation in the Working Group meetings. Second category of participation which was emphasised was that by scholars and professional researchers who were familiar with the problems of ethnicity and could therefore provide insights into minosity situations and the resolulion. of minofty problems. The Chairman-Rapporteur therefore sum- marised that participation at the Wor- king Group meetings would include four categories of observers — “frst by goverimont cbservers who could provide the Working Group with infor- mation on steps taken to promote the principles of the Declaration as one function of the Group was to share experiences on such matters; second, by United Nations and regional bodies ‘and agencies which could provide the Working Group with information on their activties in the field: third, by Intemational and national non-govern- ‘mental organizations which dealt with mninority issues as part of their manda- te: end finally, by scholars and profes- sional researchers altached to acade- mic institutions who carried out re- search in the fleld of minorities and (group accommodation and who could provide the Working Group with scient- fic insight into the issues it was exploring’. ‘was also pointed out that observers should be oncouragod to submit written ‘communications on the problems in- volving minoritios: and their possible resolution. The: Intemational Labour (Organisation and UNESCO agrood to share information complied by their respective orgarisalions on issues relating to minorities. The Chairman. Repporteur also pointed to the impor- tance. of taking note of information contained in the’ relevant reports of the Secretary-General, the Commis- sion of Human Rights and the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission and the Commission. Wherever special studies of specitic minority situations were required, the Working Group agreed thet t could commission stucles by the United Nations Rosoarch institu- tions for Social Development or by the United Nations: University. The Promotion and Practical Reali- zation of the UN Declaration ‘The main task of the UN Working Group was to promote the implemanta- tion of the UN. Declaration. In doing 0, it could also. take into account Specific obligations undertaken by states from time to time induding the League of Nations and those underta- ken in more recent years, These would include several bilateral treaties adop- ted by several states in Europe within the context of the Stability Pact adop- ted at a meeting of the Organisation tor Security and Cooperation in Paris in March 1995. Article 8 of the UN Declaration states that “Nothing in the present Declaration shall prevent the fulfilment of intemational obligations ‘of States in relation to persons belon- ging to minoritias. In particular, States Shall fulfl Int good faith the obligations ‘and commitments they have assumed under international treaties and agree- ments to which they are partios”. ‘The first.step. in promoting. the practical realisation of the UN Declara- tion would be to review the consiitu- tions and legislations of nation states with a view to examining the extent to which there 's effective protection Of the rights of parsons belonging to ‘national of ethnic minortles. During the first session of the Working Group held in 1995, the Yugosiav Repubic of Macedonia stated that the Constitution ‘and other laws quaranieed national ‘minorities “al rights derived from inter: national norms and standards". Sit larly Slovakia represented that it had ratified the European Framework Con- vention for the Protection of National Minovites, and “incorporated its norms into national legisiation’. Second, go- vernment and non-governmental orga- nisatons should be encouraged io periodically submit reports on the siluation of national or ethnic minorities awithin their country, their geographical tribution, numerical size, history and the measures. and policies thai have been implemented, designed, preser- ved and safeguard their identity, chare~ teristics and rights. Austria. mado reference to the "Federal Government Generel Report on the Situation of Ethnic Groups in Austria” which scught fo describe the concrete siluation of ethnic groups and. the measures to- wards their protection. Third, the Wor king Group could commission a study ‘on special measures. Including the affirmative. action programmes desi- ned to protect historically disaqvanta~ gedand marginalised netional or ethnic minorities. Such a study would enable the Working Group to identity situations in which such speciel measures would be appropiicte and the legitimate mits of affirmative action programmes. In ths regard, Artcie 83 of the Declara- tion states’ “Measures taken by. the Slates to ensure the effective enjoy- ment of the rights “set forth: in. the present Declaralion shall not prima facie be considered contery to the principle of equality contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights". Fourth, the Working Groug could ‘commission academics and oxports to undertake studies which would elucisa- te the besic concepts and idess which fare embodied in the UN Dederation Such studies should include concepis ‘such as tha right to existence, the right to dentity (including culture, refigion and languago), tho right to education, the rignt to partcipation, the right 10 association, the right to cross-border contacts with other members of their ‘group, the relationship between incivi- dual rights and those rights which ean only be exercised in community. with olhers. Such studies would enable the Working Group to issue commenis on specific aricles in tho Declaration, and in the preparation of a manual which explains the provisions of this Declera- tion One observer urged the Working Group to pursue @ more amblious standards setting project and to consi- der the elaboration of a drait conven tion on the rights of national or athnic, feligious and linguistic minorities. No member of tho Working Group or ‘Observer hs commented on this idea. Waiting — 27 Voyage Out ‘An uncle, Colombo's Chief Postmaster Sald, may be the War is over But stray mines still lurk In seas you have to ernss To often sUill we have report, of all mails lost Ships don't keep to convoys now Mine sweepers miss a mine or ‘wo Safe seas we cannot (alk about But itt your eyes, T see no fear or doubt. So the ‘Arundel Castle’ sailed, On to Bombay. big city spite ils cows And clopping horse traps, street corner flowers. Colomibo seemed so suburban and bare ‘As you tried a konde maale in your hair And mingled’ with Mother India's multitude. ‘Your boat was P & O once more Aller six years of Loopship duty Ales nt from Singapore ‘The wistful Punjabi major Jed off the ship at Bombay He had kept you people (already tired of the liner’s English fare) Gratefully fed on rice & curried chal ‘The first of many casual farewells tin On this journey where paths hardly ever Cross again, Sirens toot you from Asia's last outpost On to Aden, the Red Seas heat, mails at Suez, Port Said, and the Mediterranean, then Biscay ‘Turning your stomachs Inside out Sufficiently recovered at Southampton To be snapped in saree, shivering without overcoats Shaking hands with the lady from Colonial Office Who put all safe on the train to Newport At Newport again, Colonial Office and Press (Talk of Ceylon’s Independence being much In the news) ‘Then handed over to the College Head, ‘Whisked olf to Usk where the holly hadn't yet bome flowers To betray approaching Winter, whether mild or fierce. U. KarunatilakeCHANAKA: Farewell to a Liberal Anura Bandaranaike, M.P. Ve, nave, sattered ere tie ‘evening to bid our final farewell to our friend Dr. Chenaka Amaratunga. It is an occasion of bewlderment and sadness. It Is an occasion of sadnass because we have lost a dear and faithful friends a groat fiberal democrat; a fiereely independent politician and an absolute gentlemen to his fingertps. ItJs also an occasion of bewiderment because no one present bere this ‘Sunday evening would have imagined ‘ week ago, that we will gatrer hore this evening to say farewell to Chanaka, His was @ fife filed with success anc achievement, disappointment and betra- yel. And, he treated al those imposters just the same. Rudyard Kipling would have been proud of Chanake Amara fungal ‘Academic success at St Thomas’ Colge, Oxtord University, and at the London Schocl cf Economics came easily (0 Chanaka, Whilst in the Urited Kingdem he distinguished himeelf es 2 scholar of repute and a debator par excelence. On his retum to Sri Lanka, Chanake plunged into the world of poitcs, forming ‘is own Liberal Party, wit its own vision forthe future. For a idealistic young man reluming from Oxford, 1o a country where the two party system was fimly entren: cched, it wae no easy task to cull ancthor Party; another vision. But, Chanaka undertook this dauniing task with a missionary zeal. He fought for what he beleved was night respective of what thers might think of hin. ‘The success of a poltcal party doos oi solely rest with the number of members they have or the number of times they heve won an election. It also rests with te principles tney siand for ‘and how sincerely end articulately they are placed before the people. When Chanaka spoke or wrote ne id so with passion, clarity conviction ‘and zeal. Ha may havo boon at most times alone; a voce in the wildemess, but that made Chaneka more coherent and more determined. I have personally witnessed before the Presidental Elections of 1988, when we were trying 10 put to-gether a coailton of different forces, where Chanaka was: at his best: arguing, cejling, persuading. But Chanaka being Chanaka, rarely geve in and finally when out shcuted and outvoted he accepied the verdict of the majorty with grace. That was tho democrat: that was Chaneka. Amara funga. He fimly ard sincerely believed in the very essence of derrocracy, tha ‘teedom of choice. He did not pay mere lip service unlike some politciane; he practiced the very essence of democracy to the leter. Chanaka was the quintessential Li ral in is truast form. He argued relent- lessly for the tighis of the minorities, the oprested and the voiceless. Ha espousad thelr causes wih dignity and ‘conviction. None would have found a more sincere man to espouse their couse. ‘As | ssid at-the beginning of this speech, Chanake's fe was also filed with diseppointment and betraycl, Both in 1988 and 1994, Chanaka was assured. a seal in Parliament and on. both occasions he was betrayed. Though he. threw himselt into these campaigns with enthusiasm and vigour, addressing rel- lies in all parts of the country, the fruits of his hard work was reaped by others. The disappointmant for Chanaka was ‘even more bitter because betrayel was laced with personal treachery. The rema- rkable thing was that he neverharboured. ‘a grudge nor said @ harsh word about thom; he laughod it away with irony and this makes him stand tall and proud amongst those politicians who made use ‘of him and finaly let him down! For it Chanaka had indeed entered Parlia- ment, he would have contributed subs- tanlially and added colour and style to that august assembly. Chanaka like most others, enjoyed the best that Ife offered. Book, the theatre, the cinoma, food and wing. it was a Pleasure to spend an evening with him. ‘Tho conversation ranged from Bosria to Burund, to the Dalai Lama and Miss world, to the devolution package and the latest Andrew Lloyd Webber musical paying In London's West endi His breath (f vision was unique and for this alone we shall miss him. Personally for me,. Chanaka's deth leaves a void not easily filed. Ho wae a olose friend. | sought his advice on sensilive poltical issues before | made up my mind and hie advice wae always balancsd and sincere. He may have had ‘seficus dis-agreements with the poltical stands taken by the Party | represent yel, he gave me his unstinled suppor ‘and cooperation, which was puraly personal. ‘The cherubic and portly Chanaka has left us never to retum, We shall miss im and miss him greatly. His untimely demise has left us poorer. When the world lay before tim, this nation has lost.an outstanding son. Kahl Gibran, the great Lebanese post ‘and philosopher, whom Chanaka quoted often wrota in his monumental work The Prophet *Yot | cannot tary longer, ‘The Sea tat cals all things unio ner calls me & | must embark, For to stay, though the Fours bum in the night, is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould, Fain would-I take with me and all that is here, But how shall (? ‘A voice cannot cary the tongue and the lips mat gave k wings ‘Alone must it seek the ether, ‘And, alone and without his nest shall the eagle fy across the sun” ‘And, Chanaka has flown across tho ‘sun alone, leaving us with sad memories, of a Ife Ivod to the ‘ull | offer my heartiett condolences to his mother whose entice life was davoied 40 the well being of her only chid and the courage and fortitude with which she has taken her son's “death is indeed, cmirable. Cur heerts go out to her in her hour of grief. 6THE WELFARE STATE Reclaiming Sri LaksIri Jayasuriya Introduction It is 2 great privilege and honour to be inviled to present ih sbth JE, Jayasuriya Memorial Lecture. This address and iis theme is intended as 2 tribute to an cutstanding scholar and genteman, and on a personal note, as ‘en expression of my gratitude and thanks to JE (as he was known to all of us), and also Delicia (not just his wife but accorpice and ally in his many endea- ‘yours) for the warmth of their friendship ‘and collagialiy. It is now nearly 40 years sinco my wife and I came to know JE anc Delicia ‘85 new comers to the beautiful campus of Peradeniya as it then was. | vividly recall, as a young academic in Peradeni- ya in 1958,-the vibrant. social and intellectual ffe and remember with aifec- tionate nosiaiga, many triands, collea- gues and students of years gone by. Peradeniya has indaed mary pleasant merrovies and, of all hese, I rata highly ‘my good fortune in being closely assecia- ted wilh bwo outstanding academic col leagues, both porsons of high personal and intellectual integrity, driven by the ureuit of scholarly excellence in their respective tields of expertise, and above all deepiy imbued wih sense of moral and secial purpose. | publicly acknowle- dge that ore of these was none other then JE Tho thome of my lecture: ‘The Challe rnge of the Wellare State in Reclaiming Social Democracy in Sri Lanka’, | believe, fellects JE's deep and abiding commit. ‘mentas a liberel intelectual to the pursuit Of social goals — those of equality and justice. As a decicated scholar, his was ot an ivory towered distinteroctod search for the truth, His credo may be admirably cummed up in tho words of Norm Gharrsky that itis the responsi ty of intellectuals to spoak the truth and to expose lies’ (1987), Let me recall these sentiments, in JE's ewn words? 1 S2e the Pretace ‘0 his excelert review and cltque of Sri Lanken education in Jayasurys (1989) Lanka’s Social It is necessary to point out that two commitmcnis underlio my approech 10 educalion and the assessments | make. | am-deeply commited to the ideal of @ system of education that ‘guarantees genuine equally of oppor tunity tol children irespective of their ethnic. orn, sodal and economic ‘dass, and religious and other efiia- tions. | am also deeply committed to the defence of the freedom of leaming ‘and thinking from: the: forces: that ‘seemed determined to destroy this freedom by the exercise of an axcossi- Ve control over-tha. community of school and universily teacher. lacho and emphatically endorse thase sentiments and. commend them 9 all ‘academies and intollactuats to act foar- fessty in the pursuit of their moral ‘convictions. Let me tum to my theme. In understa- nding tne tals and tibulatons of conte- rmporary Sti Lanka the years, 193, 1956 ane 1977 stand out as epocnel historcal landmarks. Equaly, | believe, 1894 100 will rark es an eventful year, ushering a new sense of destiny and drecion a Si Lanka enters the next mienniurn. AAS It 18 widely recognised, Si Lanka has en unenviable record es a pioneer Thitd. World. sociel democracy, firmly established in liberal democrat: insitu- ns such as the rule of law, a dynamic cll society, and electoral politics, posse- sing a high dogroe of polieal particioa- tion, and most important, securely entienched in a wellee state cornmited to equity and justice. Aagrettably, ll these have been severly tractured or dismanilod in tho recent immadiato past, and itis in this context that | believe the reclaiming of, the los! traditions, bfinciplas and values of the Sa Lankan s0cel democialic stale 10 which this government is cirect her, must rato highly ch the paitcal agenda of the new coalition government. Let me hasten to add that this mandate must recessariy incorporate a soluton to the damaging athnic. conflict and violence which has Democracy ravaged ine couniry over the years, Dut more intensely since 1983. Admittedly, the poltical agenda of all parties seem hopelessly contused and ‘overwhelmed by the gravity of the ellnie Contlct. In the process, it has. | believe, been driven to piecemeal, fragmenied and discordant pubic policies — econo- mig and social policy. These pragmatic ‘and populet responcos aro characterictio of a dul and arid poltical culture. Rograttably, the infollectual community too, barring some notable excentions, appears to be afficied by the same malaise It is in this context that wa need to re-think and re-slate the values and fundamental principles of sociel ‘derrocracy— those of freedom, equality and justice — which have been seriously damaged in the recent pas!. We nead 10 reinsiale and ertculate these values and principles in @ marnor rolovant and meaningful to tie present crcumsiances ‘of Sri Lanka —viz.aplural socialy under: going rapid economic changa-in a period of globalisation, In brief, the burden of my argument rests on 2 Wo-fold assumption: first and foremost is thet reclairring social demo- racy is fundamental for the future well being of the nation, its poltical social and economic daveloomert in the foro sesable future; and, Secondly that the ictinctive feature of Sri Lankan social emocracy, indeed, its most outstanding achievement has been the Si Lankan welfare state as it existed atts peak in the 1960s. This has al but collapsed along with social demecracy in S1i Lanka. Hence, the enss of the wellare state is synonyrrous with the ciisis of social democracy in Si Lanka; of stated ifierenty, the dismanting of the wettere state hae aleo witnessed the rejection of social: democracy. The decline of social democracy applies equally to developed and develo- The autour i Eremus Provssor Universty ct Wet Austra,ping counties. in that the ‘social contract” ff the post war period is being reregctia~ ted cn terms that increasingly depart fiom the sociel democratic notion of woFare. In the case of Si Lanka, what wa observe is that the orthodoxy of the Keynesian wellaro siato — a legacy of Bri'sh liberal potical thought —nurtured in the unusual erviconment of non industrialised, partially modemised €co- omy of a devetoping country — has bbeen rejected by the nao-Rberal regimes of the post 1977 period committed to Unadultorated frome of laissez faire Capiaism, an economic indivcuatism, fa social philosophy of greed, and a ‘markel economy hostile tothe principles of a welfare state. In the language of Gabraith, tne pubte policies of. this period were characterised by private affluence ard public squalor. Against this backgrourd, a cenial feature of ry argument is that a priory consideration shoud given to the justiicaion of the Weare stale. This requires a restato- ment of its value base, ts rationale anc polcies. This must be viewed not just as a defence of the welfare state bul 2s a response to its philosopical rejec: tion by nao-tberal conservative gove- ments. ‘The chalenge of the wetare sia‘e, ‘a3 a basis for reciaiming sociel democra- tic ideals lies, as | shall argue, in its ability to refashion the wellere state in ‘a manner that itll be able to accommo- date. the economic imperatives and poltical raaliies of an cpan_ market economy commited to rapid economic growth. In shor, to use the poliical Thetoric (je. siructurel adjustment with fa human face) of the current Centre Left coalition government in wanting to humanise capitalism, we need to recog rise that social policies cannot be formulated. without reference 10 econo: mic policies for the simple reason that social poicles are dependent or the economy for their implementation, Hence, a primary consideration must be the functional integration of economic and socal policies. hh developing the broad lines of this ‘argument, | shall irst endeavour to briefly identify the poliical fale of the social democratic siate in S1i Lanka in recent times as one which involves. not just the ‘dismanting of democracy’ (Tham- biah 1992) but. in particular the disma- ning of the wollare stato. The latter ‘more than the former has been central fo the demise of socal democracy Following this, the main focus of the presentalon revolves around an expos tion of a policy rationale In the ight of the criticisms of wellarisrt by conservat- ve erilics of the Sri Lankan wolfare state. In reconstructing the wetere stata, itis argued that one has to also to teke info account the present poiiteal and ‘economic realities. This exposition bears, ‘on the proverbial ‘means-end" debate ‘about wellare by identlying 2 policy rationala as well as a polcy strategy able io realistically contront he needs of welfare in the foreceoable futuro. It will be argued that the practice of what has come to be known as ‘market socialism’ based on a radical concept of citizenship and societal corporatism, hopatuly provides a defensible rationale for the Si Lankan wellere state and social democracy in the late 1990s. The ‘combination of market socialism, a racl- ‘al ctizenship which incorporates com- munitarian ideas, and societal corpora- tis nt only enshiines the essence of a revitalised social democratic siaia as a wefere slate but also as the added attraction of responding to key issues of Sn Lankan democratic poltics, viz the need to the incorporate diversity and pluralism within the social democrate state. Ih brief, this conceptualisation in terms of citizenship theory and market socialisin enables us to restructure the woltare state by providing a democratic foundation wrich incorporates diversity But, reconstruction of the welfaro stato cannot de completed untl_we start building a new polticel community that recognises the diversity of interests in various communtiies. Contoxtualising Wolfare and Social Democracy It is now commonplece that Sri Lanka has an outstanding record of actieve- ‘ment as a post colonial socioly moulded in the iberal democratic tradiion of Westem democracies. The democratic poliy, its institutions and practices that have evolved over six decades of the ‘oxarciso of univarsal suffrage hae gained wide acceptance and forms part of the polifcal culture cf.a bichy Iterste and Polticised communty. Athough the viel ssitudes in the evolution of this fascina- ting experiment in tberal democratic poltics: in @ post colonial socety have been well documented and dissected by ppoltical and social theorists, the record Of the recent past, especialy of the las! four decades remains relatively unexplo. Tee or examined only superficially. Over tho last two dacados, those accounts have understandably been heavily focu- sed in understanding the sub-plot of Sr Lankan politics, namely, minority poitics The escalation of ethnic poitics into Violence has transformed this sub-plot (on to the centre stage of not just Si Lankan poitics but all aspects of Sri Lankan developments — poltical, social and oconomic. This has, unfortunately distorted a balanced and proper appre: tion of the achievements and short comings of the Si Lankan experiment in democracy, and in particular, its culsianding recordin social development aS a unique example o! a wellare state in the Third Woe. What is perhaps tosi regrettable bout this iterature is that i is heavily biesed towards one theoretical pare: digm, namely, a culturalist explanations ‘of ethnic poltics, These are deeply immorsed in a brand of arthropotogical ‘theorising, stemming trom one particuar ‘radtion of American cultural anthropo- logy, which focuses on an_ idealist inlerpretaion of culture (Jayesuriva 4992). Within this research framework, the topics of religion and selected aspects of ‘Sinhala nationalism’ have been given undue prominence. Given the limitations and controversy surroun- ‘ing this mode of cultural theorising, and also in the absencs of a critcal examine- tion of the logic of this discourse and is evidence, ii is most regretizble that this mode of discourse has become the ‘orthodoxy of Sr Lenken social theorising. Intorostingly, those. shertcomings are beginning to be appreciated by schdlars. Spencer (1996), in.a judlcous carefully ‘worded review of two recent publications on Sd. Lankan culture and. ethnicity, chatacterstic of this orthodoxy, poitaly admonishes the writers for having shngu- larly fated to pay heed to tho social and poitical context ot the arguments’ advanced by them in pottraying the tragedy of ‘unhappiness’ in Sri Lanka, itis not-my intention 1o-enter into this emerging debate except to use this‘occasion to urge Sti Lankan researchers to adopt alernaive perspectives in locking at Si Lankan palites and ite poltical and social development. More ‘appropriate explanations for the ongoing ethnic contlict are more likely to be found in the logic of poltical institutions than In any ideological conception of culture. In tracing the evolution of Sri Lankan social democracy, with Its commitment to the ackievement of freadom, equality and justice, it is Important to note that ‘vor and above the infusnco of the liperal traditon of politics, coming from the Briish colonial past, the single most Important force which has sustained and maintained social democracy in Sri Lanka has been the Sri Lankan labour movement (Jeyavardena 1973) and Cconeurrenily the impact of the associated left poltical parties. The social democra- tic tradition of politics, uniko the orthodox liberel democratic form of government is commitied not eniy to the protection OF individual toeries and freedoms (civil ‘and political rights) but more importanily to the pursuit of equality of opportunity ‘and distibulive justice as regards resou- reas allocation, In short itis the corm ‘ment tothe pursuit of equally and justice a3 a collective responsiblity which co- niets a valid interventonist role for the stato in fashioning public policy, even {0 the extent of imposing on individual freedoms for the sake of the public good. These principles of social democracy Were fully atticulated ia pubic policy terms primarly by the Lat coaltion governments of the post 1956 era which Wore responsible for the consolidation of the now defunct or fractured Sri Lankan welfare state Unioturataly, the sccial policy record and performance of social democratic governments of the post 1956 period, aricularly the social and economic Consequences of welfarisin have been Pocrly researched. Whenever oxarrinad, social policy has been viewed meray as an adjunct of economic poley, ard ever in lis own right. This is likely 10 change largaly bocauce the regime change of 1977, which saw the emerge- nee of a neositeral conservative gove- mment, inveduced dramatic changes in all especis of the poliical, economic and social Ife of the county, including tho dismantling of the wellare state. These changes. eorved to bring about the disjunction between economic and social policy which heralded the demise of the SriLankan welfare state asithas evolved in the 1960s and 1970s. More spocii- cally, the social policy changes invodu- ‘cad in the post-1977 era create an unbridgeable chasm between the ost-1956 and 1977 era, and throws into sharp relef the nature and signiicance of social policy. Indeed, the ciitcal turning point in the post-1858 regimes has been the rele of social policy which has had a profound impact in shaping Social structures. We thatelore need to contextualise the 1984 regime change and its implica- tions fora tberal democratic goverment commited to. the principles of social democracy (Jayasuriya 1995). A doler- mining bnfluence on the. substantive issues affocting wolfere concem the severe poitical crisis inhented by tha prosont government. The escalating of ethnic conlict leading to conditions. of @ civil war-anc the dsmanling of democracy which began in the early 1870s was inlensifed, paticuatly alter 1883. This led to serious violations of the rue of law, the exercise of arbtrary executive authorly, the poliiccaton of the ludilary andbureaucracy, andabove all, tho cutaiment of the civil sociaty Imposed by secions of the poliical elita ‘whe vigorously pursued authoritarian Policies, Al these infringed on basic civil and poitical rights, ‘One of the justifications offered by tha neoliberals of the post 1977 era for the infringements of the rule of law, ‘suspension of civi Iberties and clizens’ Tights as well as the denigration of democratic process such as press tree- dom, and rights of assombly and pretest, was that consttutional and legal re- straints were necessary and inevitable, To quote Hayek (1979): when an external enemy threatens, ‘when rebellion or lawiass violence has broken out, or a national catastrophe requries quick action by whatever means can be secured, powers of ‘corrpullscry organisation. which no- body normally possesses must gia- tad to somebody (1978, 124), ‘Wnatever be the neo-berals (usually depicted as champions of liberty) dele- noe of ‘regimes of excention’ — either as a defence of authoriarianicm or of dictatorship — based on a costiine of a just war or for roacone of state, as Loveman righty points out, they tend to 'make the unthinkable not only thinka- ‘ble out doable and to result in tyranny! (1983, 404). There is no doubt thatthe ost 1977 govemments, as ‘regimes of ‘exceplion’ in Loveman's sensa, stable shed a constitutional foundation for an ‘oppressive antl democratic regime and helpad to secure what Giddone has aptly ‘called ‘he unhappy neo-Iberal mariage cof market principies and authoritarianism (1985, 32). The “tesioralion of the democratic rocassas of the state requires not just the return to the rule of law, and me removal of oppressive and discriminating legislation and emergency provisions, but elgo the reconstruction of Sri Larka’s battered ‘civil society’ Above all, it requires the grant of acequate represe- tation of the minorities in the democratic state with equal rights and the fullest degree of participation in determining the destiny of the nation. The envisaged ‘model of constitutional reforms, guara: inteeing devolved power to constitutiona ly defined ‘tegions’, tezrtorially demarca- ted as areas of ethnic conceriration, is as I have suggested elsewhere (coo CON 14/08/95) a first step in the right direction. We nocd to recognise the Tuttle allegiances that citzans may hold ina poitical community. Consttuto- ral reform must racognise thesa multiple ‘sources of loyally. This, emong other considerations, neecss lobe entrenched ina reatfrmation of the values and principles of social damocracy based on a conception of clizenship rights, which expicily reco- gnises the ‘poliies of difererce' (Taylor 1992). We need a radical view of clizenship which acknowledges tnat ‘when a socialy is socal diferentated, ten clizership must bs equally so° (Philips 1992). This task wil be fecita- ted, by te-conceplualsing social demo- racy within a radical view of ctizenship theory which is capable of incorporating issues of diversity and pluralism as well ‘as wolare. In other words, citizenship theory has significance for questions of minority poltles and wetare paoltics,The Two Lears Regi Siriwardena in ihe 1960s Peter Brock directed ja famous production of King Lear on both siage and screen. | never had an ‘opportunity to see the stage version, but Idd see the film. What was pervasive in Peter Brook's production was a sense Cf the meaninglessness of the human ‘conddion and the ferocity of the destructi- vo impulcos of human boings. Thora was a jot of controversy at the time about whether Brook had been, as they say, ‘tue fo Shakespeare’. In one scene, Gloucester is blinded before the audie~ ree. But in what had become the standard tex! of the play, wo of the ‘sorvarts, oven though they sesist in the Biincing, are, when left alone, tull of ‘compassion for tho old man. At tho end f the scena they want to out eggwhite ‘on fis bleeding eyesockels and have im escorted to Dover. Peter Brook cut ‘out that conversation between the ser vants, and for this he was roundly febuked by some critics who seid ne had changod Shakospoaro's humane view of people to suithis own pessimism, This gave me one of the starting-points for my play The Blinding, periormed in Colombo in April and June 1995, There the director Ajth also wants to cut the Conversation between the servants after the binding of Gloucester — but not for Peter B100K's philosoptical reasons, Ajth rejects what he calls the ‘moral consolation’ that Shakespeare offers because he thinks it contrary t the actual behaviour of people duting the Si Lankan violence of 1988-89. He says: ‘Twant to rub the roses of the audience In the EIcod and the gui and not let them get awey with a litle soothing egovihite!. But he is talking not in the ‘sixties but in 1995. So on stage there's a scholar, Premila, who to begin with defends Ajil’s right 19 do whatever he wants with the text. But near the ond of the arqumert she ciscioses, to Aith’s surprice end delight, that Shakespeare rad probably made the seme cut himself in a later, revised version of the play. (ms paper is pased on a tak given to the Englch Associaton of Si Lanta.) My tak joday Is really a kind. of postscript to that part of The Blinding, |r shall ty: to. answer. the following questions. Is it likely that Shakespeare revised King Lear after its fist performa- ees? If he did, in what weys did he change the play? And further, what can, we learn from the case of King Lear about Shakospoare's mathoce of work as a playwrant? But before | can answar these quo- sions, | must fist offer you some facts. ‘As in ‘tho caso of Ke other plays, we have no manuscrpt of King. Lear in ‘Shakespeare's hand. All we have are the eatliest printed ecitons. There are two of them. One is a separate book ofthis play, published while Shakospea- re was ving — that ts, in 1608. This ig known as the First Quarto. Tha other is the tex of Kng Lear found In the fist collected edition of Shakeopearc’s plays, known as the First Folio. This ‘wes brought cut by tis feloweciors seven years ater his death — that is, ini 1623, I must explain that Quarto and Folio ara just printore forms for dfforont age-szes; a Folio page has a stancard sheet of printing peper folded once, and a Quatto folded twice. Every later edition of King Lear derives in one way or another trom these two earist pinted texts, ‘The Quarto text and the Folio text of King Leardiffer vastly rom eech other, ‘The Folio cuts out nearly 300 lines that are in the Quario, but W also adds about ahundrod that aro not foundin the eadior edition. In addition, some speeches are assigned 10 different characters as be- tween Quatio and Folio, and there ara hundieds of variations in individual words. How do we explain these differences? Uni 1986 al editors of Shakespearo assumed tiat there was a single orgnal manuscript of King Loar wien by ‘Shakespeare — now si, of course, The cuts in the Folio were oxplained as ‘mutilations made in the theatre, 1o save time in performance. But then, how reconcile this with the fact that the Fala added a hundred tines not found in the. Quarto? Editors answorod this by corj- luring that those hundred lines had been there in Shakespeare's manuscript but had been dropped out of the Quarto by mistake. There were various theories eonsinscted to ty to explain how such ‘an error could Nave occurred, but! dont intand to spend time on thom. What's more important 's to realise thal behind the practice of aditora, there were certain assumptions about the ways in which Shakespeare's plays were transirilied ‘rom manuscript to, theatre to. printing house, In particular, wo assumptions. Firs, that behind the printed tents. hare was one and only one auihentc manuscript in the author's hand. it was the task of the ediior to reconstruct as far as Possible the text of this menuscrc. In the case of King Lear it was believed that this could be: done by conflating the two otiginal edilons — in elect, acting from the Quaite the Ines. cul ftom the Foto and making choices betweon other variants The second assumption made by ‘ecitors was that once the supposed authentic manuscript left Shakespeare's hand, any changes i underwent could only ave been a process of corruption. Its virginal purty was thought of-as violated by the rough hands of actors and theave-managers, cutting, interpola ting and. altering, and of serri-iterats compositers in the printing-nouss misreading the manuscript they were working fom. Editors were right about Elizabethan printers, but their picture of the fale of ‘Shakespeare's plays in the playhouse came from nothing more solid than the Scholar's prejudice against the popular theatre. To’ilustrato this, | shall read you a passage from GK. Hunter, a distinguished scholar, eciting King Lear for the New Penguin Shakespeare. ‘About the cuts in the First Fofo, Hunter says These cuis have an extraordinary aPersistence in the stago tradition, and ‘one must presume that they preserve the theavical fabric to the satstaction Of the stace, however abhorrent they are to literary connoisseurs.”. To oonirast the play as it existed ‘to the satisfaction of the stage’ with the Play as perceived by Titsrary connois- seurs' surely entirely wrong for Shakespeare. Shakespeare didn't write forlitzrary connoisseurs. Allthe evidence Wo heve suggests thal he tock no interest even in the publication of his Pays because he was content 10 com ‘municate with his aud'ence trough the ‘medium for which the plays were created — tho theatre. i's the academic and ccitcal industry that hes turned Shakes- eare inio a book, a sel of printed texts for study in the classroom and fer the weaving of criical webs round them Shakespeare would have found this ‘Meiamorphosis of his work bizarre. He was a complete man of the theatre who began life as an actor and continued to de one, while becoming ne most Popular playwright of he moat successful theatre comoany of his ime. He was ‘a shareholder of hat corrpany and mace a lot of money out of i. Like Charles Dickens, Charie Chapin or Lous Atrrstrong, Shakespeare was a popular entertainer who was also a great artist, and like ‘them, he is a permanent Teminder that the two roles aren't at all incompatible, As anybody iamliar with theatre knows, plays: offen undergo changes in rehearsal or after first performance. if tha. scholars rojocted this possitiliy in the case ct Shakespeare, itwas because ‘thoy must have fel that it detracted from ‘Shakespeare's canius F ona suggested that he couldn't get it right frst te. But if we soe Shakespoare not as the lonely genius but as a man working in the collaborative art ofthe theatre, there's Nothing improbable in the image of him ‘trying out tis creations in rehearsal ot Performance and modifying them, when ecessary. Whether a particular change ‘was intiated by Shakespeare himse! or by an actor is irelevant. What matters: fs that all such changes would have emerged trem tho theatre as part of a Collective process of production in which Shakespeare participated. 10 These ae the fundamental ideas behind the textual revolution launched In 1985 by the Oxford Shakespeare — that ie, the Complete Works, ealted by Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor. The formidable-locking volume sitirg on this table is tha Oxiord Shakespeare, in the form in Which it was published in 1986 = large, heavy and experisive. It has since been reprinied also in a three-volu- me paperback, which is cheaper and ‘more manageable. In contrast with al earlier edtors of Shakespeare, the Oxiord editors: tock the view that ther business was to get as closo as possible to the texts as eriommed in the theaire of his tima. This obliged them to take seriously the ossibifty of post-composition or post- production revision. The Oxtord editors found that in al, there were six plays which have come down in two original Printed versions difering substantially ‘tom each other. in all thase casos, thoy concluded, one version came from an author's manuseriot and the other has behind it 2 playhouse transcript representing the play in perlormance. The Oxtord editors ragarced the latter as closer to the Shakespeare of me theatre. But most sting of all was their weaiment of King Lear. Here the Quarto ‘end Folo versions difer so wicely that Wells and Taylor took them to be two distinc! versions writen and. pectormed at diferent times. Accordingly, the Oxford ‘Shakespeare pnnis not one but two separate toxts of the play. While challen- Ging the editorial orthodoxy that there was one and one only Shakespearean tex of King Lean, the Oxford ediors have in the same breath demooratised tho discussion of this question. Earlier the textual problems of the play could be. dscussed only by scholars who not only had tha necessary expertise but ‘also had agcess to facsimiles cf the Quarto and the Folio, which were not only expensive but also dificult fer the ordinary person to read because of the misprints in the original editions, the old Spelling and other such obstacles as the long s's which look like fs. Now We have in the Oxford Shakespeare tho two texts, with the misprints corrected and the speling modemised, so that any Of us, It’ we ate interested, can read them and make up our own minds, Hf ® can be shown that Folio. Lear = with cuts, adaifons, substitutions and all — is a botter play than Quarto Leer, then the case for saying that it is the Product of a revision that Shakespeare Carfied out, oF in which he paricipated, {is greally strengthened. But | am now in the camo position as Premila in The Biiniing, who says of tha two versions of King Lear There are lots of dlifere- ‘ices between them. | can’ talk about all of tiem row’, There Is In fact a 500-page book titlod The Division of the ‘Kingdoms, writen by a group of scholars about these differences,* as well as several other leamed papers published elsewhere. | can't even try thereiore to cover this ground in the timo | have. What 1 have decided to: do is to concentrate on two scenes and to ‘demonstrate from ther how Shakespea- re worked as a reviser. The Wo scenes are, in what was untl 1986 the standard text, numbered Act IV Scene 3 and Act WV Scone 7. In the first of these scenes Kent and a Gentleman discuss the condition of Lear and Cordelia’s emotio- ral state belore their reunion. In the ‘second of nese scenes thatreunion isal! ‘and Lear's restoration from his madness are enacted. ‘The first thing 10 say about the differences between the two versions in respect of these scenes is that the Folo diops entirely the first of thom — that 's, the convarsaton between Kent and the Gentleman. For eariier editors, this was an unautnorised out in the theatre that had to be compensated for by restoring itfrom the Quart. if we accept, ke Wells, and Taylor, the hypothesis that Shakespeare revised the play for later performances, then we can try to think of reasons why Shakespeare drop- ped it while rathinking the play: | suggest ‘that he may have found this scere both ‘superfiuous. and infaior. In. that scene, as | have. already indicated, Kent and the Gentleman talk ‘about Lears shame and guit about his. carlior rejection of Cordelia, and ner ‘continuing love and devotion to him. But in the ‘ater of the two scenes that | ‘am discussing, these fesiings of Lear ‘and Cordelia are enacted on the stage by father and daughier themselves, in action and cialogue, Isn't fkaly that‘Shakespeare, on reluining to the scene ‘as a rovicor, felt that the earlier scene — 2 scene of reporting and not of dramatic enactment — vias unnecessary ‘and should be eliminated? But it's not only because of the less dramatic quality of Act IV Scene 3 thal Wt may have been dropped in revision. would arguo that the quality ofits witing is inferior to the g2neral level of the poetry in. King Lear. Take, for instance, the passage in which Kent talks about Lears recollection of the wiongs he had done Cordolia: these things sing His mind 30 venomous that buming shame Delans him irom Corolla. Guilt as stinging and'shame as buming these are wellawomn and unremarkable images. Very differont is tho effect of the lines given to. Lear in the reunion scene: | am bound Upon & wheel of fie, thet mine owe t6ars 1 seal ke mitten load, This too is derived from a traditional ‘mage of the purcatorial re, Doth pun shing and purifying, but renewed in poetic power in its dramatic context. In tho eceno between Kent and the Gentleman lets 100K also at the latter's account of the way in which Cordelia received the news of Lear’s sufferings: patience and sonow stove Yo should exiess her goose. Yeutieve sen Sunshine and ran at orcs; her eras ard tears Wore ike & beter way; tnose nappy smiles That ployee en her sg lp coord net to know What quests wer inher ayes, which pated thenee As pears tom diamonds repped, The imagery here is pretty, decoralive and full of arfice, especially in the pears and damonds at the end. So the scene as a whole fails short, bolh in dramatic and in poetic power, of the best things in the play; and Shokeepoare. probably decided on these grounds to drop the enlire scene in revision, Let's consider now what-he did to the feunion ‘of Lear and Cordela (Act TV Scene 7 in the hitherto standard texts) ‘mn reshaping the second tine round. ‘Sovoral yoars ago I discussed this scene in an essay, ‘The Pure Water of Poetry’, that hes bean reprinted in Navasdu 17 and 12;\ should ike to begin by reading What I said then, al a time when | hadn't studied the hypothesis of revision: "When Lear emerges from the dark fight of the soit, woken from his restoring oop by music, Cordola at frst adcresses him with ceremo- nial reverence as King and father: How does my royal lord? How fares Your Majesty? For Lear, however, the higrarchies ‘of power and even of age no longer have meaning: later in the scane he appalls Cordella by kneeling to her. He has died and boon reborn (You do me wrong 0 take me out of the grave), and his first utteran- ces ave like those cf a child groping fo make sense of an. unlemilac word... The blank verse is halting and broken, as i language itself has fo be reconstituted; yet it follows in thosa very tentative mythms the moverrents of the seeking and fexpioring consciousness. And the movernent is in the oppeste dire- ation from that of ho mad epooches: here the language marks the striving towards purgation of hatred “and pride and towards a humbling self-knowledge. Never before Shakespeare writen fon such a scala and with such intensity poetry So austere in its ‘simplcity and yat so masterly i ite ‘emotional truth: LEAR Pray co 9 mock rm, am a very sah Joe old mn, Feurcore and wpward tan our ote oF lee: ‘And to dea pai, or | am nat ny padost min Matirks I shoud tnow you, snd know tis ran; Yet am dot fr 1am rainy Sonera iat ple hiss and al he eI nave Ramonbors not hore garments; rot | know ro Where 1 it oe test nig. Do wot aug at ne, Foy, 92 Lan a man, | nk ie ey “To be my chid Cordelia. ‘ccADELA ‘dso fan, em ‘As Lear had abrogaied the passions, £0 Shakespeare, in his own act of renunciation, has cast off comploxiy, verbal richness, melaahor. all ha ‘common appurtenances of poetry. All that remains isthe pure, rarsparent pelucd water of the bares, most ‘elemental wellprings of human uite- france." And so. |-am, am, | am = what could be seemingly more commonplace then Cordele’s ine? But itis part ofits sirengh that she speaks to him inthe tones of a mother soothing @ trouled chid, so that the parent-child relationship is reversed. And is vary simpiciy, its aveidance of all emotional ostertation, is the mark of the pury of Cordala’s love. Bearing as it does al the selfless generosily of hor natura, and with the whole. weight of the play, which has bean moving towards this mo- ment, behind i, the ne Is in fact one of the poaks of Shakespearean poetry s thal iis language crarged with meaning to the utmost possible degree. I 50, then surely Cordela’s line ie groat pootry” In revising the scone Shakespeare dd very litle to its words, which in their poriecton indoed demanded few chan- ges. He cid cut te concluding prose dialogue botwoon Kent and the Gertla- ‘man, which 's merely informative, 50 that in the Folio the scone onde on Loars closing ines: Pray you now, forget ‘od forgive, | am oi and foaien ‘With this cut Shakespeare ended the scene on an emotional hignpoirt, avol- ding the drop. in intensity which the original conclusion involved. But the main changes thal Shakespea- re seems to have made to this scane in revision concem its staging. To match the powerful simplicity of the language, he apparently decided to aive ine stage action an equally oxprossive simplicity. Modam edtions of Lear have in Act IV Scene 7 some such stage direction as thiet ‘Enter Lear in & char carid by servenis.” This direction derives from the Folo, and therefore presumably bafongs 10 the revision. There is no carespending drecion in the Quer Wiha’ has therefore been conjectured is thal when Shekaopoare wete. hi fist varsion of the play, what he enitsaged 11was that Lear should bo reveeled (or, to Use the technical language of the Elizabethan stage) scovered’, asieep in bed by the drawing apart of curtains. ‘The change in the Foto 10 him being brought on stage in a chair is more effective because the chair reminds us of his throne, from which he started the ‘tragedy in tho frst eceno by his divi Of the kingdom. In the Quarto, end in ‘modern conflated texts, the Docior says to Cordelia, ‘Please you draw noar — that is, 10 Lear in-bed. This goes cut In the. Folio. because when Lear is brought-in in a chair, it could ba set down where Cordelia: was. In Quaro version of this sceno we have on stage, besides Lear and Corda lia, Kent, a Dector and a Gentleman, ‘The Doctor manages the awakening of Lear from his restorative sleep with the command ‘Louder tha “music ther Music Is, of course, often in Shakespeare a symbol of restored harmony; itis used in this way in the stage action in The Winter's Tale and -The Tempest No doubt Shakespeare provided fora similar Use. of music for Lear's awakening in the fist productions of the play. But i revision he ccome to have abandoned {MS for a simpler etfect. In the Folio Version the Doctor disappears, so that attention is wholy concentrated on Cor- delia as the agent of Lear's recovery. And there is no music, so thal thers {is nothing to cistract the audience from the. words in their unadorned, austere strength. Its ory ikaly, too, that Shake speare revsed King Lear after he had writen The Winter's Tale and tne Tempest, so that whan he came beck 10 Lear, he didn't want to repeat a theatrical eifect he hed already used in the other plays. An inieresting point arises here with regard to Peter Brook's production of the play, which I nave already ralerred, In this: production the Doctor and the ‘music ware both excluded in tha reunion ‘scene, and as already mentioned, the conversation between the wo servaris at tha end of Act IV scene 2 was cut, All these cuts correspond to excisions in the Folio, but it unikely that Brook 2 made them on textual grounds, since in the sixies. thoro was. no school of textual scholars arguing that the Foo incorporated Shakespeare's last known revsion of the play. However, i's possi- ble that Brook looked at the Folio text land took ideas from i fo: his production Of course; Brock introduced innovations ‘of his own: in the scene of the blinding of Gloucester, he had the servants at the end ct ihe scene moving ihe furniture, indiferent to the plight of the binded man. But this, seen by somo cittioe in the ‘shilies, basing themseivas on the conileted text, as a violation of Shake- ‘speare, can now beclaimed as a creative development of the scene in the Folio version. This raises the general question of what text-a clractor should use in producing King Lear on the stage. When the play passes into tho hands of a director today, it becomes part of a new creative act, and the drecter's freedom of interpretation — in fzct, of re-creation — can't be circumscribed by any tex. But thoro remains the question of what text he should slat from. Why begin Wih the conflated text, which, as now seams likely, is nothing more than a construct by generations of scholars suffering trom 2 miseporehension?® Brock’s example shows that a drector ay find the Foto text theatrically more fruitful, which isnt surprising since it was Drobably evolved in tha theatre undor Shakespeare's own direction’, though Brock was unaware of this. Ihave boon able only to demorstrate from a small part of the play ‘hat Quarto and Folio Lears must be treated es two iinet vereions. There are mary other Gilferences between them thel | have ro time to discuss — for instance, the fact that the Folio ciminishee the roles of Albany and Kent and enhances that of Edgar; that it culs a number of moralsing speeches: and that, in gene- rel, the Folio version is darker in tone. But | want to end with some comments on the impact of the new Oxford Shake- ‘peare text on the present and future image cf Shakespeare's mothods of work as a olaywright, | must make it lear at this point thal I's not only in respect of King Lear that tho Oxford ‘Shakespeare gives Us a text very dife- rent from that to which we have boon accustomed. As | mentioned. eerler there are six plays of Shakespeare for which we have two original printed toxts which difer-subsianvally trom each ‘ther. In all these casee, one text seems to derive from an author's. manuscrp and in the other there is the presence of a playhouse transcript. What editors before 1986 did win each of these plays ‘wae to conflato the ‘wo versions. It is arguable that in doing so, they preduced «text that never existed In Shakespea- ‘2's time, either in manuscript orin stage production. in all such cases the Oxford editors give us texts that can be taken to approximate as closely ac possible to the text as acted in is latest siage of ovis’. They airy through this Principle even if ii means relegating to {an appendix some famous lines, as, lor instance, one soliloquy of Hamlet. At this point | wish to anticipate question that may occur to some Isie- ‘nor. In the firs! collected ecition, the First Folio, thera are 36 playe. To these We have to add two plays thet are party by Shakespeare — Pericles and The Two. Noble Kinsmen — making 38 in al. So you may eal ike objecting. ‘You say Shakespeare. probably revised six Plays alter he finished their original manuscrpis. Sk Out of 38 — that isn't 4 large proportion. So revision couldn't have been $0 frequent or so important in his work as a playwright But such an argument wouldnt be sound. To decide wnether or no! a play was revised after first composition was competed, We need to have two original printed ‘exts that’ we can compare with each other. But this condition is satisfied only with 8 of the plays; for the other twonty we have only one text. In the case of these twenty Shakespeare may have tevised none, or some, or all of them — there's no way of telling, So the real Proportion is that among the 18 plays where we can judge. Shakespeare soome ‘o have revised six of them. And ‘among these six, there are three whors the revisions were very extensive, and these ara among Shakespeare's ackno- wledged masterpieces — Lear, Hemet ‘ond Othello. So the process of revision ~eppears to have played a more sigrift-‘cant role in the making of his art than the simple arithmetic would indicato. ‘When the Oxiord Shakespeare appoa- red nine years ago, orthodox scholars were shocked by the novelly of is conclusions and the unfamiiarty of ‘several features of ils text. But in these rine years, there has been a noticeable hit in. favour of its argument. that Shakespeare did revise some of his plays. To some exient,| believe, that shit was duo to the essential soundness of the case made out by the Oxford ediiors. However, there are probably also other factors that have helped. In the intelectual climate of postmodernist literary theory and literary criticism, poo- ple like to think of a text as not being fixed or finally defined. Of course, the process of what Gary Taylor callod ‘reinventing Shakespeare’ in ris wity and peneirating book of that name has gone fon avar since his tme, We know that the plays have been subject to continual transformations and re-interpretation by ‘editors, critics, drectors and actors. But Tow there is evidence that even in Shakespeare's own time and it his own hands the plays existed in a process of fx. As Gary Taylor writes: What happened when Shakespeare finished King Lear? According to the traditional story, he never revised his work, and so afier he had writen the last page of King Loar ho dosed the book & and that was that. But fewer and fewer crlics believe in closure. Shakespeare may at some point have closed the book, but he could reopen 1 again whenever he wanted. There is no Last Judgment enymore.® There is, however, another fact thet has helped in the ascendancy of the ‘theory ot Shakespearean revision, and that is the financial power end academic prestige of the Oxford University Press through whose Impfnts the new Image of Shakespeare is being disseminated. Certainly, if Wells and Taylor had edited their Shakespeare for a lass prestigious publisher, their mnovations, would heve hhad much less impact. And the texts ‘of the Oxtord Shakespeare are, now being distibuted also through cheap paporbacks — a took to a play — in the World's Classics series. It seems safe to say thal these editions are already ctrong fivals throughout the English-speaking world to the New Penguin Shakespeare, hitherto the most popular versions used in schools and universities. As Gary Taylor himsett admits: Uke IBM and the Betiner Ensemble ‘and the ASC, OUP can afford to experiment, because tts risky innova- tions are subsidized by I's safe market leaders. The Cxtord editors, too, can atford to experiment, because they know that the global power and prestige of CUP wil’ bo mobilized in suppor of ‘thair experiment. Their stocking edition fs empowered by, and in tum ompowars, the mutinaticnal business interests of Oxiord University Press."° ‘Another sign that Wells end Taylor have begun to change academie thinking about Shakespeare's play is that the fresh series of the Arden Shakespeare is gsing to fall in line with ther view. You may know that in the fst half of this century there was the original Arden Shakespeare; then, begming in the ‘fitias, there was the New Arden Shake sspeare, Now we are tc have.a re-edting of the series under the tile Arden 3. Tne general editor, Jonathan Bate, has ‘announced that he stenaly endorses the View that some of Shakespeare's Plays existed in more than one version, and that Arden 3 wil take account of this fact. So | am incinod to think that by the frst decade of the 21st century the hhypothesis of Shakespearean. revision will be well estebished in. scholaty favour, and that edtiors of Shakespeare repared on ths besis wil become ‘generally acceptable. As often, the here- Set of one time will probably become the orthocoxies of anotner. Notes 1. should the to acknowedgo my indebted: ass tothe editore ofthe Oxford Shake- spaere and other scholare wno nave 10 Promoted the textual rxOUION Fi Shake speare for many of the leading ideas in this paper GK. Hunter (od, Shakespeare: King Laer (1972: Penguin Beoks), pp.25-4. Starley Welle and Gary Taylor (eds) ita Statespre, To Comore Werks (1006: Oxor Unieraty res) Gary Taylor nd Metaet Viaren (eds), The Division ofthe Kingdoms (1983: Cxtord University Pass) ‘Act IV Sane 6in the Oxtord Shakecpeare's editing ofthe Foo txt, ‘Tha misaperonension, as indicated In the fearler argunert, is tat the Inegrty of ‘a Shakcopoarae play, nce itt hie hand, would have-been Vola fn the theatre bby sectors dong what they tked with ‘without roloronc to hi. ‘The Elesberhan and Jocoboen theate cdot have @ recognised insitton of trpate rector, but sombody wouk have fad to instuct the actors nd decide on rmattrs of stage business, ec In he e282 (oF Stakespoar's lay. who woud have tboen' bates suited 10 do tie than the playwightsctocemanber of the company ‘who, it is pausble to suppose, would romaliy unl his retrement to Stratford, hava bean ther on the spat? The elk playe ere. King Lear, Ham Othelo, Richard Nl King Henny WV and Trois and Cressi. I's only nthe fst three, however, that the revisions are c0 ‘sustartial as to make a difrence tothe (general sivcuse of he pay, and In King ‘Loar hay are 20 extonsve and so fervoa- ching 96 to justly the Oxtor! eto in spealing ot two distinct versions. Gay Tayler, Reverting Shakaspaare (199%: Vinge), p. 361 Gary Taylor. Aalnverting Shakespeare (1991: vintage), p. $21 13DECENTRALISATION (2) Implications of The Federal Option Hartmut Elsenhans Problems of the distribution of legislative powers in a federal system All federations have es one as their primordial tasks to defend the security of the body poilic against encroa- chments from the outside In the necessary distibution of legislative powers, forsign policy and miitary affairs belong to the federation. This basic ink through which the state preserves order and security implies that civi rights, penal laws, the orgeni- sation of the legal structure and similar matters have to be dealt with at the federal level. Wharever duo to histor- cal circumstances there exist aiso stata human rights bill, they have to be conformity with the federal legisla- fions which overarch it, There is no uniform elizenship it ctizens of diife- rent states enjoy diferent rights to any neticeable degres. The exceation to be mentioned here are statutes relating ‘rly to the very private domain of personal law and, here as already shown in the Indien example, not on the basis of teriitoral division of the citizens. ‘As well, federations are_normally associated with the attempt to pool econvimc resources in order to co- mlement the market with the capacity to influence it on the own teritory against vagarios or undesired results of the world merket. Foreign economic policy and the currency are normally attriutions of the federal level. Foreign economic pdicy especially with its instruments of controling foreign trace and iransborder capltal flows allows to cifierentiato conditions of profitabii- ty of investment and employment in the domestic and to influence the patter of spacialisation, the level of employment and the rate of long-term growh, The size of a market. over ‘which such influence can be exercised is essential for the resuits of auch a ditferentiation of domestic corditions of production with respect to levels of profiabllty of various activities which would result from the world market because of the following base condi- tion of technical progress: Technical innovation consists of investing resour- cces in development which once the innovation is made exploitable are easily reproducible. Is costly 10 dovelop a motor or 2 machine, but when It is. discovered. and. made fit for use, it is easy to build a second, thitd or nth one. The larger the market the more important the’ possibiilies to spread the costs of an innovation on the number of replications, i.e. pro- ducts, and theretore to cheapen techni eal progress. In Industries wh cost degression, and most innovative indy: stres are characterised by achieving Stable urit costs only at rather high levels of production, the size of the market Is Important especialy it is mado possible 1o compensate initially Frigh costs of innovation by a protected rational market which allows to sol bread at prices higher than marginal costs bul lower than average cosis. German pharmaceuticals are cheaper abroad then at home with the result that levels of outpet are high end unit ‘costs low from which home consumers teenefit also, despite the prices charged to them being highar than those abroad, The promotion of productivity and economic civersifcation through a large home market which allows to enjoy economies of scale anc intansiti- cation of competion between local producers which otherwise would have each 2 monopdly on a terilotally soparata markst requries not only sheltering from the world. market but also abolition. of all internal bariers to frea competition. As tha resulting growth will be invariably spread over the territory in an uneven manner, cconsurrers wil aocept such an inteara- ted market for products ony, i freedom ‘of establishment forall citizens all over the country is guaranteed, es most federations have experienced. vast migratory movements. The rules which organise the market are therefore invariably tederal and if there are state legislations as in the Unted States, federal rulos have to complement it as was the case with the labour taws, the laws of contracts ete., in brief: The organisation of equality of business before the market in analogy to the equality of people before the lavr are domain of federal lecislation. But not all economic regulatione wil be uniform over the territory of a. federation. Migration is not the only way to deal with uneven regional development. In all nations there are regional policies which try to balance regional back: wardness in order to meke economic opportunities. for all citizens in. the whole territory of the federation at least comparable. Constitutions even men- tion. the obligation. for the federal {government to provide for compensato- Ty mechanisms. Such ules can be federal in principle, especially vinere limits to subsicies and promotional activities are concemed. The principle of subsidiarity implies, however, that the legal frameworks for pesitive action may be federal, but the deiailisic propositions end rules may bo a esponsibility of the sate, especialy as such rules imply the use of tax Payers’ money so that the lowest unit ear those who are intended to benefit shotid be responsible for the efficiency 1 such operations. There are therelore areas whore fedoral and state legisla- tlons coaxist. A civision of tasks can he achieved by listings of items reso- ved to. one or the other level, but it is equally possible to reserve for tho federation the establishment of frameworks within which the state [eve Is allowed to take concrete action and to have an area of indetermined competences. The balance between stale and federation Is actually shifred in Wesiern states in favour of the federations because, whithin the area of simulta- neous competences, more and more the federation extends its regulative power by passing {rom general rules to more detailed prescriptions. This is 18the reason for the actual rejection of (Washington) big goverment in parts ‘of the United States pubic opinion, but such davelopments occur also in other federations especially with the actual ebb of statist tendencies in the West. Areas of legislation which are reserved to the state such as education In Germeny contibute to reinforce the states in all other areas as they provida the political elites in te siate instiu- ions with a genuine field where they can secure allegiance from their body polite. The tendency to guaranties Uniformity ot basic condttions over tartitoyy of tho fodoration will make Itself felt Pere nevertheless. Altnough ‘education is a state matterin Germany, No German state government as ‘endeavoured to depart in a fundame- Ntal_way from the structure of the ‘education eystem and the requric- ments ‘or exams’ especially the ones relevant for gradation in the labour market or for access to higher edhuca- ion, and this despite very serious divergencies. in educational matters between major poltical forces. subse- quent to the students’ unrest in the late 1960s, Enlarged autonomy in ‘administration The principle of maintaining uniiocm rules within a federation in order to have equal rights of citizens and equal ‘opportunities of labour and capital can have important repercussions for the pattern of application of rules. Two systams for the execution of law can be distinguished. At a first glance it ay seam to be iogical that each level executes the laws it hes statuted. This wil lead to a muliplicty of administra. tions and offices active within the same fea of concern. The other model consists in having purely federal areas of logislatin executed by federal admi- nistrations. All other areas would then be [aft to stato administratons which then simultaneously execute state and fedoral laws. This system is in vigour in Germany. It has led to a dose ‘cooperation between both levels and the divestment of the federation trom ‘administration in a variety of activities where the federation was entitled to create it A large variety of settings for maintaining the chain of command is possible. In the great _majority of cases, the 16 feceral level adds to fis laws rules for their administrative execution which are binding on state administrations. Contre! its exercised by the courts to which the potential beneficiaries. can ‘appeal. With respect to the exocution f laws conceming the peaceful use ‘of atomic oncrgy, th federation has found it sometimes necessary to send mandatory instructions to state admin sirations In. states with anti-nuclear ‘governments. Inthe very. sensitive domain of financial laws, the constitution in Ger- many provides for state collection also of federal taxes, Here, the federation has reserved its agreement on the ‘organisation of respective administal- ve bodies and the nomination of top ‘office holders, but conflicts are not reported, Federal means of transport such as ‘trunk railways or trunk roads (motor. ways) are an important element for the creation of a natonal markot and ‘equal opportunities for economic activi- tios over the whole territory. In Ger- meny, the federation has, however, dologated this task to atate adrninistra: tions over which tt can exercise & dotailed control on levels of spending and projects to be executed. ‘The cooperation between the federa- tion and the states takes therefore 2 multioicty of forms largely influenced by pragmatical considerations and his- torical circumstances uncer which 2 Particular arrangement has been orga- rised, This leads even to an area whare both levels decide not to esta- biish formal rules of partitioning respo- sibilities but to establish joint author- iss which execute agreed upon pro- grams. These are not very cifforont from joint ventures between business nisations whero sometimes equal and sometimes less equal and partners pool rosources. Participation of the states in the federal decision making pro- ‘cess: The control of the purse Systems of cooperative federalism can survive only i the different lovels respect each other's financial stength, When each level is tras to raise taxes It assumes to requite, constituional conflict can be expected where some {erttorial tepreseniatives at the federal level may well take the federalior’s view in case that they expect their regions to bensfit from the increased Tevenues at the federations level. The richer regions which become net contr utors will: become alienated, a result that probably nobody realy strives for. Fiscal problems require state partic- pation in order to increase the com mitment of the richer states in the endeavour if the federation pursues extensive economic and social pro- grams. The less the federation attempis to use its budget for redisti- bution, the less the necessity to coope- tate with states and vice-versa A more wellarist state will therefore have a higher degree of cooperation between the diferent lavels in financial matters than a more free-market oriented one, SUBSCRIPTION RATES Air Mail Canada /US.A. USS 65/ for 1 year USS 45/ for 8 months U.K., Germany, New Zealand ‘Australia, Netherlands, France, Japan, Holland, Phillippines, Austria, Norway, Sweden, China,” Ueland, Switzerland, Nigeria, Belgium, Denmark, Paris, London. USS 55/ for 1 year USS 35/ for 6 months Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Eoharin, Arabian Gulf, Syria, Singapore. USS 45/ for 1 year USS 25/ for 6 months India, Pakistan. USS 40/ for 1 year US$ 22/ for 6 months Local Rs, 250/- for 1 year Re, 150/- for 6 monthsA Selection of the Finest International Brands. DAPPY (CHEESE DIAPERS: BREAKFAST CEREALS sue. 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South “‘Acion Preferential ‘Trade Agreement (SAPTA), which Is, ‘expecied 1 transform itself Into the ‘South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) bby year 2000 or 2005, gives Sri Lankan ‘small ard medium-scale industilists the siters. A certain level of preferertial trade under SAPTA was ggreed upon. in Docombor 1995 by the soven-nation ‘South Asian Association for Regional Ce-operation (SAARC) comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, the Maldives and Si Lanka During @ second round of talks by SAARC in Colomto in March 1996, tariffs between the seven countries were lowered on 228 items. This meant that trade was liberalised on these items, but itis estimated that some §,000-6,000 customs lines, relaling to at least 35,000 items, remain, Under SAFTA, all tari barriers and on-iarif bamiers such as restrictions through import licences, quotas, etc wit be eliminates, ‘Small and mediim-scale industrialists have nighimarish visions of an avalanche ‘of Indian geads swamping the local market and wiping them out. Low-priced Incian les, buckets and. saucepans, batteries and light onginooring spares, elecvical accessories, rubber and leather ‘goods, anda milion other items manuia- lured wih India's highly developed technology could enter Sri Lanka freely. As i is, under Sri Lanka's present economic climate, the small and medium industialists are facng many reverses, ‘The community is strapned for cash, has fow rosorves, is dragged down by high Interest rates and unable to pay. back The wir (6 2 Beer jouralst win te Cbsower ‘and Daly Hows by Comba, i a faite wrier on ‘devon nd enirormont sven, Sh has en 179 Unie tascas ErvioreialProarin (UNEE)¢ Global 500 var 18 ‘bank toans, and faces dwindling markets in some instances. In addlton, the whole industrial base is suffering severely because of the daly power culs — scaled down to five and half hours a day from the eadier eight hhours. Fuel costs for the running of generators are much higher than electi- ‘lly, Dut industialists are soldering on to Keep the creditor away trom the door. ‘The tend is on the same lines as ‘ASEAN, the European Union, the Ameri- can and Paciic agreements. The name of the game Is efticency. Industriaists are being told that they have to buckle down to produce: goods which are of globally acceptable standard, cost elfecive and at compeliive prices. This seme a tall order for the small man hedged. in by many. constraints, although the Sri Lankan industialict has been successtuly competing inthe international market in a variety of items fang also in the home marke! against Imports under Sri Lanka's open economy ané liberalised trading systom. Sri Lanka exports light engineering and electrical items, boats, hcusehold gacds, a variety of food items, rubber and feather goods, ceramics, garmants, and packeted tea. ‘The trend In freer trade Is on, and ‘seems inescapable. The queslicnis: how free or liberalised shoud t be for Sri Lanka's small man, struggling, inexper- ‘enced and sill unable to put his act together? “The message om goverment autho- files is clear: SAFTA is ro! a threat; it is @ challenge. Manuiacturess and producers will have to prepara themsel- Ves for it. Some will go under; others wil Benefit enormousi. Spokesmen for tho govermmont of Chandtika Bandara- nalke Kumaraiunge, which in a complete aboutface since the 1934 alection has embraced the free market Mleology ard the pivale enterprise system advorated by the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund, urge the advartages of free regional trade. Economists take the view that prefere= nial trade agreements, though they have their uses, tend tobe outdated anc loose. They beleve that tighter, more unified trading agreements are necessary 10 expand trade batwoen countiies in the fegion and to meet the demands of modem competitive markeis success- fully. D: Gamini Femando, Chairman of tha Peoples Bank of Sri Lanka, which has funded thousands of small and madium- scala industrialists and put them on their feet @ couple of decades ego, says: ‘The region has a population of 1.2 tilion People and the market potertial is massive. There isa Rs 100 crore marcet ‘out there and S1i Lanka has to bite into Ie The Peoples Bank carnot afford to ignore the fale of these industrialists whom they have funded with small loans ‘of Rs 5,000-10.000 (US$ 100-200) to begin with Some industiaets havo singe then developed and taken loans tunning into several hundred thousand tupees. Some loans have been rasche- Uled and the Bank is at the sara tina trying to inform, educate and guide its clientele towards the SAFTA process. ‘There is of course enormous potential fof vade between SAARC countries and this is not being exploited. Only around 9% of toial trade of these countries Is betwean SAARC nations. Kingsley Wickremeraine, Minister of Trade and a prime advocate of SAFTA, says: We can make sizeable profis in this massive market without even boing noliced. Even 0.005% of that market would be good enough for a small country like Sti Lanka’. * indike Gunawardene, Minister of Fi shefies and Aquatic Resources, says;“The Soviet bloc industies collapsed ‘becaico they could not compete in the Global market. Even Vietnam has joined ASEAN and has agreed to abida by policies’, This is suprising coming from tha son of one of Sii Lanka’s best known Monists, tha late Philip Gunawa- dene, and hmselt a reputed lest. For consumers SAFTA would be @ bonenea — lower prices. and. wicer Ghioices of goods. They will no longer ‘accept substandard goods in captive merlele and govomments are no longer prepared to shore up inefficient, loss-mia- ing industios. Many food items from Incia such as potatoes would cost one fourth the prico Cr less if they are let Ino the county. But thon what would be the fata of tho Sri Lanka farmer? The Ministers. cf Agricultura and Trade find themselves locked in an argument about the import (of potatoes from India. in Sri Lanka they ‘cost anything between Hs 30-60 a Kilo. In Inda they are Rs 3-6 2 Kilo, Consumers do not usually pay high prices cut of patriots t is 2 qu ff price and preference, cays Mini Wekremaratne. Which would you prefer = tho Indian poiaio or ours which is $0 costly?" The same applies to sarees. ‘rom India, he says, Chandra Kannargata, an_entrepre- eur from Lakpa, ‘says: ‘Lote faco i. SAFTA Is here to slay. Let's not fight it Lets make inroads into less. known markets instead of the more:sophistice- ted ones. He has saen Lakoa rubber slippers and Sri Lankan tyres eolling in Macras. The Lakpa rubber slipper weighs 400 grams whilo the Indian one ‘weighs 665 grams. “Which would the consumer preiar?” he asks. But the fear of dumping is real. There is an arrangomert under SAPTA which ‘enables countiies which find that imporis are threatening their local industies, 10 appeal 19 the SAFTA aulhoiites for agjusiments. How effective such a pro- cess would be in the face of time lags and prevarications over negotiations 's ‘ot diffcult to anvicage and the prospect seems pessimistic, Besides, Inca for instance has its own way of dealing wih these matters. Ina id agree to a. duly reduction on tho import of cloves, but then she has a system of import lcerces to restrict Impons. This has been brought to the notice of the SAPTA secretariat Manufacturers are athe time asking for protection, says the Govamar of tha Central Bank, A'S Jayawerdene. ‘We protected matches for 70 years and what did we get for it. One manufacturer of ‘substandard pencils complained to us about competion from a superior Chino- se pencil, and asked for greater prote- ction’ ‘We asked him’, says the Governor. ‘it we cannot ovon produce 3. good uality pencil, how can we survive and infact we lowered the Import duty further. He now produces a high quality peneil and even exports t ut across the board, what the small and medium-scale. industrialists area- king for Is not protection but assistance — Incentives, lower interest rates (which now range around 20%). duty conces- sions on the. import of raw materials, lower up-front costs, technological know: ow and markt information. ‘The official massage is: adjust and buckle down and we will help you. But producers. feel they have to stablise themselves at home and gat thelt- act together before they can think in terms cf batting in @ regional market Small and medium-scale industrialists particulary fool vary frustiated and unce- ‘tain about the future: beyond the Indian ‘Ocean thore is indeed a goXd mine, but do they have the capablily to-mine it = Thre World Network Factures. LETTER Images of America Through Expatriate Sri Lankan Eyes \ was pleasantly surprisod to find Images of Sri Lanka through American Eyes, being subjected to a a analysis two decades after its first publication to mark the. American Bicentennial — and by.a citizen of both the New and Old Worlds, in the latter of which Jeanne Thwaltes was bom. (Lanka Guardian 01 July and 46 July). When the dock appeared it wes enthusiastically received, revie- wed by discerning eyes, and went into three printings in seven years. Those who both read and reviewed it percel ‘ved the collection in the latter and spirit cf lis complation as 2 collection of ‘revellers’ tales spanning two centuries, In my Introduction | had made a ciean breast of the genesis, aim, scope and purpose of the anthology. What began 28 a modest complimentary souvenir grew into a 442 page volume with 22 plates and a specially commissioned cover painting by stanley Kirinde. In the limited time at my disposal to meet prining schedules and to save the affable Ambassador the embarrass- ment of mounting costs, | cut down ‘the number of chapters trom tity to thirty six. In 1993:Jeanne Thwaltes discovered its author when she retumed to Si Lanka on a Fulbright:gfant and in the course of both personal and written inquiries, | was hoppy to fil her in further on the moda and contexts of how 1 had approached this: congenial task for a epocial occasion. | thought I had made it abundantly clear that |was in no wise attempting a Franz Funon — Alme Cesaie — Albert ‘Memmi Arle! — Caliban interpretation of either the psychology of the coloni- 00 or, that of a master-race mission That Is a whole separate ball ‘game towhich | have made frequent raferen- ‘ce in more relevant writings. | was merely offering a delectatie choice of aperitfs, hors d'ousvres, hambur- (gers, “palties and sandwiches” and a few choice slices of love cake for which Ms Thwaites confesses to a more than ordinate passion. The qua- intum leap in 160 years from Newell's ‘saving. souls in Cylon to Merton's finding salvation at Gal Vihare is quite 12 spread, and, perhaps, goes to the hear of the matter ‘As for Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington, my wife and | heard him with profound respect and attention in the enomous Gymnasiumin Peradeni- ya in 1963, and had the good fortune to-be living in new York when ho diod 18in 1874, The funeral sarvice wo atte ‘ded in the Cathecral Church of St. John the Divine was one of the more memorable even'sin a crowded sabba- tical year. In fact it was the stimuli of that tine which prompted the 1976 book at the invitation of an. American ‘Ambassador — a scholer and huma- nist whom | had the pleasure of ‘meeting again In my home In Sep- tember last year. | want to keep this contribution brief and. will end. with two appropriate ‘quotations — on acuiatory, the other hypetbolically Shavian, When the book was reprinted in 1983 | was allowed to add a brit Postscript to my Introdu- ction. Tha demand for a third printing, within seven years, of thisidiosyncralic tribute to the povipatetic American who ‘Spoited his waveler’s heart on his sloave for two hundred years proves the point of this evocative exercise. Long before the ubiquitous travel age- ey and the seductive package tour there was the passionate pilgrim who chose his intellectual itinerary and framed his perceptions relying on his ‘wn sensiblity and Imagination. The success of this book is a testimony to the enduring charm and quality of bis observations". And in the year | was born all of 75 yoars ego, HL Mencken (who needs no introduction) in his essay On boing an American had this to say : “The United States te essentially a commonwealth of third rate men — that distinction is esay here because the general level. of culture, of information, of taste and judgement, of ordinary competence, is 80 low ... Thitc-rate men, of course, exist in all countries, but it is only here that they are in full control of the state and with it all of the national standerds." H. A. 1. Goonetileke BOOKS Exploring Confrontation: Sri Lanka, Politics, Culture and History By Michael Roberts, Chur, Switzerland; Harwood Acader Publishers, 1994. xxi, 377 p. ISBN 3-7186-5506-3. Reviewed by Chandra R. de Silv Provasser of Histon, Deparment of Hetory, Indona State University, Tere Haute, IN 47608, usa) his volume consists of a Cellection of essays. About half the book consista of articles and chapters which have never been published belore and many of the others’ have besn amended or updated. Wnilo the subjecis of the essays range in scope {from Sinhala tistory and culture to the ‘current ethnic confit, they are strung together by several themes which pervade the collection, First, there is Robert's consistent attack on what he terms the ‘instrumentalist. interprota- tion of Fistory (p. 42) and in this book, the assembles a wide range of avidence through which he seeks to introduce the ‘emotive’ element into the reco: Nstruction of history. In-a fascinating early chaptor ho deftly uses photo- raps to document how the Manxist paltical leadership cracually gravitated towards ceremonial attendance at Bu- dihist temples and, perhaps correctly, 20 he Cautions us against interpreting this ‘a5 a purely politiccl move. Secondly, Rover's retums to bis theory of the ‘Asoken Persona’ in Sinhala culture, ‘specifically in four apecific essays in the collection, but also in scallered references throughout the volume. His argument here is not merely that Sinhala society and culture has been Nerarchic.teditionally, but that there are peculiarly S1i Lankan elements in this hierarchy and that respect for hierarchy and authority continues. 10 prevail in the minds of contemporary S7i Lankan leaders as well as in their followers. This is perhaps the most complete and elaborate defence of Robert's theory of the ‘Asokan Parso- a’, The bockis elso a auto-commenta- Ty on Michale Roberts himsef, of his Conversion from beng a postivist historian to a solt reflective anthropolo- gist, and ct his own perception of having been a marginal person in Sinhala society. He sometimes writes in @ confessional mode and some of his old friends and acquaintances will find that casual references they have made to the author have boon deftly ‘woven Into the Ricbers’ interpretation fess of tha Sri Lankan realty. Tho bock as a whole, however, also contans some of Michale Roberts test work. For insance Chapter Seven (p. 149-181) which is @' reworking of his essay on 'Nose as Custural Struggle’ explores how the different ways in Which Brilish and Buddhists. viewed shabdha (noise) impacted on. the ‘events which led to the ricte of 1915. A reprint of his 1978 essay on ‘Ethnic Conflict in Shi Lanka: Barriers to ‘Accomimodation’ tesilies to his persp= cacity. While his use of. the word ‘progrom’ to cescribe wnat are genar- ally tormand ethnic riots in S1i Larka Is certain to atouse controversy, his ‘essay on 1989 reflects his cespening avarsion to the violence which has spread in the couniry of his birth. This is a volume which embodies tho esearch and mature reflections of one of the premier hictorian- anthropologists cf Sri Lanka, It will amply reward the iscaming reader. (Avzilable at Vijtha Yapas Bookshop and Lake House Bookshop at Rs. 878/-) [e1esy ThSEU Pu eC Ul) CCU RUC of my members be Pc Bec RU Privatization will in no way dilute or reduce the powers and rights of your union. British Airways wes privatized in |987,and the urions remain to protect worker incerests just 2s before. Some of the world’ largest, most powerful and vocal unions exist in the private sector: Fer cexample,the United Auto Workers (LAW) represent ever 100,009 workers at the three biggest American car companies, nono of which are state owned. Infact, chor i every likelihood thet workingconeitions wil actualy improve in privatized companies, sice there will be substantial investments made to upgrade facies and taining You cen look forward co representing 2 considerably more pprospercus union, leis important co relize privatization fsa means to an end [tis a means to improve our living standards foster technological progres, create employment and take our ration into a more prosgerous tomorrow. In order to achiove these alms, privatization has to be executed inthe appropriate manner. That is the task of the Public Enterprise Reform Commission (PERC) tts mandate is to make privatization work for Sri Lankans today and for generations to come. Erery privatizationisa carefully considered decision ‘hat takes inco account the imeresis ofall sectors ofsockety; the goreral pubic, the state emplayoes, the consumars, the Supple, 2s well asthe country’ overall economic vision PERC's mission isto see that privatization works. In doing so, your interests are always being well looked after. ‘With privatization everybody has a stake. PERC WATCHFUL IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST PUBLIC ENTERPRISE REFORM COMMISSION, Bn Caen: 38h For a3 0 Boe 20, ako spon Pe ‘Coonbe |S anaINTEREST FREE CREDIT? CONVENIENT REPAYMENT TERMS, LOWEST JOINING FEE? Yes. All and many more benefits are yours with the CEYBANK VISA CARD. Contact the Centre Manager, CEYBANK CARD CENTRE, Bank of Ceylon No. 4, BANK OF CEYLON MAWATHA, COLOMBO - 1. BE WISE. CARD - WISE BANK OF CEYLON Bankers to the Nlation TELEPHONE: 447823 — Ex. 4180 & 4185