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The tragi-comedy of serving the public

No, Minister! (Memoirs of a political appointee)

by K.C.F. Wijeyewickrema

Like most memoirs of senior public servants of this country, 'No, Minister!' by K.C.F Wijeyewickrema offers what may be described as a tragi-comic view of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service. It is packed with the simmering, unsettling, humour one comes across in the 'Dark Comedies' of the Absurdist playwrights of the mid-twentieth century.

'No, Minister!' is in a sense an 'entertaining read' but it would be simplistic of the reader to allow himself to be carried away by the veritable situational comedy on offer and to miss out on the dark undercurrent of tragedy which the upper echelons of the Lankan public sector amply bristles with. For, there are tears behind the laughter and amusement Wijeyewickrema's eventful public sector career exudes.

Besides larger-than-life public figures of yesteryear being cut down to size and shown in all their crippling smallness, 'No, Minister!' opens a revealing window to the macabre, behind-the-scenes personal vendettas, intrigues and power struggles which constitute the ugly underbelly of the Leviathan monster which was the local public sector in the starkly statist times of the 1960s and the early '70s.

The reader is left with the impression that the writer had to engage in a grim battle for survival in a macabre jungle - a wild in which only the most blustering and the most vily seemed to have survived.

Although 'No, Minister' covers mainly some past decades in the history of the Sri Lanka Administrative Service, it couldn't be denied that the book has an enduring relevance. For, from what could be gathered things have changed very little from those times.

The Service continues to be heavily politicized and the "Dark Comedy" related by Wijeyewickrema is in all likelihood continuing and perhaps with even increasing thrills and tensions which leave one wondering whether to laugh or cry. Besides serving as a window to those dark days, Wijeyewickrema's account speaks eloquently of the crying need for reform of the public service.

The book is a poignant reminder of the need to quickly bring into being and operationalize the much talked of 'Independent Public Service Commission' - a mechanism that years of blundering in the name of government has rendered imperative.

Lynn Ockersz

Empirical experiences of two media personnel

Janamadhyavedaya (Mass communication)

Authors: Dr. Tudor Weerasinghe and Dr.Chandrasiri Rajapakse

Publisher: Sanghinda Publication, Gangodawila, Nugegoda

The slowly and steadily growing media literature has just got a new addition. Two media academics, Dr. Tudor Weerasinghe and Dr. Chandrasiri Rajapakse have got together to bring out a timely and much needed introduction to mass communication under the title Janamadhyavedaya. The book is certainly welcome contribution to the meagre body of Sinhala texts in mass communication. The book is of special significance owing to the fact that the two authors have had empirical experience in the field of mass communication teaching and research.

There are many frameworks within which the eclectic discipline of mass communication can be studied. This new discipline can also be defined in many ways. For some scholars, the media are seen as the major mode of transmission of popular culture to massive audiences. For the student of politics, the media are viewed as critical in shaping the nature of public opinion and central to the process of selecting candidates.

The critical cultural theorists look at the media from a totally different angle. In their point of view the media are tools by which powerful corporations who own or control them manipulate the public for their own benefit. For the commercial world of the media industries, such variable as audience size and composition, and people's preferences for particular categories of content, are the significant issues influencing profit. For development workers and extension agents, the media are the potent vehicles for social and economic change in the under-developed societies.

This has led to many kinds of academics-linguists, anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, educators, economists, those trained in the humanities - to study the mass media within disciplines in which they are trained and familiar with.

As the distinguished mass communication scientist, Denis McQuail asserts, the key word 'mass' is almost impossible to elucidate on its own, because of its many connotations. The relevance for mass communication comes mainly from the meaning of multiple or mass production and the large size of the audience which can be reached by of an amorphous collectivity in which the components are hard to distinguish from each other.

Mass communication refers to the process by which a complex organization with the aid of one or more machines produces and transmits public messages that are directed at large, heterogeneous, and scattered audiences.

Janmadhyavedaya contains five chapters. As a matter of fact, all the five chapters lend support to the lofty objective of achieving a cohesive and coherent treatment of the subject of mass communication. As is characteristic of any established discipline, the authors use a plethora of technical terms.

Unlike in many other books in the Social Sciences published in Sri Lanka, the authors take trouble to provide a comprehensive glossary of such terms. The glossary is a handy ready reference for those studying and researching the broad and eclectic discipline of mass communication in Sinhala.

The media duo, Dr. Rajapakse and Dr. Weerasinghe, show the potential of producing more books of the calibre of Janamadyavedaya. I wish to recommend this book for media an communication students at universities and other institutes of higher studies and for the busy media practitioners in the electronic and print media organizations.

Dr. Nandana Karunanayake

Issue of water in a women's journal

Voice of Women (A Sri Lankan Journal for Women's Liberation)

Publisher: Voice of Women, 21/25, Polhengoda Gardens, Colombo 05

Voice of Women, a quarterly journal on women's issues has dedicated its September 2002 issue to 'water and women'. Why water? Why water and women?

The editorial of the journal justifies its cause.

"Why we took up the issue of water in a women's journal is because women are the first victims of water shortage. In the future, she will not only give more valuable time to procure it for the family also labour and stress under its growing difficulties. The rural women's trek in search of water during periods of drought which we witness even today in the South, East and part of the Western coastline will increase as the drops she will squeeze out of the sand will decrease".

How women are affected by water issues; but how small a role they play in the decision making and management of them? Why it is crucial that women act in the key areas and at the decision-making level of the issues around this most vital resource for human life are the underlying themes of all "major" articles of the journal.

First victims of water scarcity are women. This is more true of women in rural areas and in suburban slums. When water systems fail to function, it is women who suffer the extra burden of finding and fetching water. It takes women's time as well as good part of her energy. It has been calculated that water carrying under normal circumstances uses upto 12% of daytime energy. In dry and mountainous regions this may reach 25%.

The journal brings out several vital issues which deserve serious consideration of the decision makers concerning water.

"Sri Lanka never had a woman Minister not even a secretary in a line Ministry, nor as head or anywhere near the top in the National Water Supply and Drainage Board - the main agency for water in the government. There is not a single woman in Water Resources Council, nor in the Water Resources Secretariat or in the Community Water Supply and Sanitation Programme (WSSP). We also do not have any disagregated data on women in the water sector."

The essay on "Harvesting Rain Water" gives an overview of the rain water harvesting in Sri Lanka. Though seems a new concept, water harvesting has been an ancient technique in the country even in the 5th century' the writer points out. How this technique has drifted away even from the rural areas? It is with the introduction of pipe-borne water supply schemes, he says. The article quotes two women who have met their domestic water needs with the water collected through rain water harvesting system.

Several questions are placed before the reader in this article which in fact are the logical conclusions in disguise that the reader is made to take:

In addition to a number of most thought-provoking serious essays on topics which should concern any citizen, strewn in between are the creative pieces on water - little poems and snippets.

A valuable reader on water, the journal points out the integral bond between water and man/woman. While emphasizing the gross injustice of leaving women out in the key issues concerning water, it shows the urgent need to safeguard the birthright of people in the country - the right to own this natural resource and more importantly how and why women should be in the forefront of issues concerning water.

 Malini Govinnage

In-depth analysis of diverse issues

VISTAS

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

Vol. 1, No. 1, November 2002

Editor-in-Chief Professor G.I.C. Gunawardena

Publisher: The Open University of Sri Lanka

Review by Professor Sirimevan S. Colombage

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) recently launched the maiden issue of its annual journal, VISTAS. This is an outcome of the Faculty's continuing commitment to enhance its research and teaching capabilities.

With the rapid pace of global integration, the social, cultural, technological and economic landscape of Sri Lanka has been changing swiftly than ever before. Although these changes have facilitated socio-economic progress of the country in general, there have been various negative fall-outs as well. The knowledge gap between the rich and the poor, digital divide, deteriorating quality of education, inadequate skills development, social inequity, poverty, human rights violations, youth unrest, child abuse, increasing violence and drug addiction are some of the problems faced by our society today.

A proper understanding of these emerging quandaries is needed to find ways and means to deal with such adverse consequences. The academic community has an obligation, in addition to its routine functions, to investigate these problems and to create public awareness. Regrettably, there is a severe dearth of such research in Sri Lanka. Therefore, the universities, in particular, have been criticized for the paucity of research and their inability to contribute to national-level policy-making. In this context, the path-breaking initiative taken by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the OUSL not only to inspire such research but also to disseminate its research findings to a wider audience through this Journal is commendable.

The Journal contains several research papers and a few research communications. They cover a wide array of current issues including teaching techniques, youth empowerment, gender equity, children's rights, human rights and poverty.

Recognizing the need to integrate youth into development programs as a means to poverty alleviation as well as to conflict prevention, Markus Mayer investigates the potential of social science graduates to act as facilitators of development activities. Drawing from the experiences observed in selected locations in the Hambantota district, the author argues for strengthening of local authorities to facilitate mobilization of the youth.

Upali Vidanapathirana, in his paper, examines the nexus between poverty and indebtedness in two peasant communities using micro-level data. This study is based on a field survey conducted by the author in two villages in the Huruluwewa watershed of the North Central Province. The paper reveals a high incidence of poverty in these areas, and a mutually reinforcing relationship between poverty and indebtedness. The author points out that the denial of formal credit at affordable rates to rural entrepreneurs aggravates poverty.

Several authors have focussed on various teaching methods in their papers in this Journal. In her paper, Dinali Devendra looks at the implications of readability of text materials for teaching English as a secondary language. Based on a sample survey of students in the postgraduate diploma education programme of the OUSL, T.S. Fernando concludes that a majority of the students indicate an improvement of their teaching competence.

Focussing in the tutor comments on essay type assignments of the same diploma programme, Dayalatha Lekamge and Swarna Jayatilleke make several recommendations to improve the programme. Anne Gold. Elanie Unterhalter and Louise Morley of the University of London, in their paper, have addressed the question of managing gender balance in higher education across the Commonwealth.

The research communications contained in this volume have focussed on labour in small tea holdings (by A.S. Chandrabose), students' perceptions and reactions (by D. Devendra and V. Medawattegedera), gender analysis of managers (by R.M.J. George), web-based learning materials (by S. Karunanayake) and second language academic listening comprehension (by V. Medawattegedera).

Given the diversity of issues covered and their in-depth analysis, the Journal, VISTAS, will be a valuable reference material for teachers, students, researchers and policy-makers. A number of journals were launched by the universities and various research organizations in Sri Lanka in the past, but many of them failed to continue for long owing to various reasons. I sincerely hope that the same fate will not fall upon this valued Journal.

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