Great are the collective and individual uses of amnesia

By Gamini Weerakoon

(August 10, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) At the risk of being called a ‘traitor’ my thoughts once again go back to the trite observation of that serial killer Velupillai Pirapaharan. I have quoted him earlier in this column on it: Sinhalese have very short memories that last only about two weeks.

This collective amnesia of our people came to our mind again when we met a retired Archaeological Commissioner, Dr. Raja de Silva last week. It immediately struck us that he was not seen on TV, newspapers or even mentioned on radio at the grand opening of the Sigiriya Museum by President Rajapakse in the presence of the visiting former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.

‘I did not even receive an invitation, he confessed, explaining his absence.’

Dr. de Silva’s connection with Sigiriya may be unknown to a great many of the younger generations but much of the glory of Sigiriya that is still there and is admired by the young is partly due to his labours.

Desecration

In the late ’60s, vandals committed an unpardonable crime on the Sigiriya frescoes: They threw tar and some other substances on the breath taking frescoes making them a horrifying spectacle. The nation which regarded these frescoes as a part of the national heritage was aghast.

The government summoned a world renowned restorer of works of art from Italy, Luciano Maranzi to see what could be done. To assist him was a young chemist with a D. Phil from Oxford in Chemistry from the Archaeology Department, Raja de Silva. These two scientists laboured for long, painstaking hours and managed to salvage most of the priceless works of art to their near original state, for posterity.

The vandals were alleged to have been squatters living in shanties in the vicinity of Sigiriya rock whose shacks had been destroyed by the authorities. Desecrating the paintings was their vengeance.

Iconoclast

Dr. de Silva is not one of those who want to blow his own trumpet and he retired gracefully not asking for extensions in service when his age for retirement came. He has built his own modest home by the shadow of Sigiriya which he occupies for some days of the week and continues to write on his favourite subject — Sigiriya. He delights in taking pot-shots at the pompous.

In one book, Significance Of Sigiriya, he threw a cat among the pigeons with the claim that Sigiriya had been a Mahayana monastery rather than the traditional belief that it was the abode of the playboy king who set up his palace on top of the rock with pleasure gardens below and that the beautiful maidens to keep him company.

Gravy train

The paintings de Silva said were that of the goddess Tara, a Mahayana icon. Though there were muted rumblings among archaeologists and historians about this pronouncement, none dared to challenge his theory. He took much of the fizz off the story of macho Kasyapa and also the history of the rock. He has now completed another book, Historical Paintings Of Ancient Sri Lanka which will be off the press soon.

The story of Dr. Raja de Silva will be the story of many others who silently made their contributions to the nation and profession without seeking fame and glory for themselves. This is an age where long jumpers and high jumpers jump from institution to institution, party to party seeking positions, fame and of course jumps in their salaries.

Sigiriya is now becoming a very productive gravy train, now with the Japanese building a cultural museum for Rs. 480 million. Attempts have been made in recent years to make Sigiriya an its environs a Sri Lankan Disneyland with electric trains whizzing about, real life Sigiriya damsels prancing around ponds, trees gaily illuminated, piped music to soothe the ears etc.

Naturally those who say that this was no pleasure garden but a Mahayana monastery will be asked to keep off the grass when the notable and quotable gather.

The Sri Lankan habit about forgetting the good and achievements of others extends to ones own self. Some of us tend to forget our own skulduggery but happily climb on high moral pedestals to pronounce judgements on others.

Sunday Moron

Last week we had a self proclaimed journalist-pundit ponderously pronouncing judgment on The Sunday Leader editorial comment comparing Gotabaya Rajapakse and Pirapaharan. We are not commenting on the issue itself but questioning the right of this Sunday Moron to pronounce ethical and journalistic judgement on any such issue. This gentleman for 18 miserable years was the sheet anchor of Lake House while all cannons of justice and morality were flouted with gay abandon by his erstwhile leaders J.R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa.

The stoning of judges houses, virtually hounding out a highly respected judge, Neville Samarakoon, striking out a number of distinguished judges by a shift in the judicial administration, raw killings of JVP suspects by the armed services were all passé for him. But this man is a wonderful somersaulter. He (or the paper he was editing) even accused Upali Newspapers of burning Lake House newspaper vans but a few years later landed in an editorial chair in Upali Newspapers!

Great are the selective and individual uses of amnesia.

-Sri Lanka Guardian