Discover Sri Lanka- ‘The Gathering’

When I launched my TV series Discover Sri Lanka’ in 2008 on state television, my vision was to highlight some of the lesser known marvels of Sri Lanka. My first programme in the series was on one of Sri Lanka’s wildlife wonders which defies conventional wisdom - ‘The Gathering’, regarded as the most spectacular event in the international wildlife calendar.

‘The Gathering’ is a massive concentration of our Elephants, which takes place each year, from around July to October when the dry season sets in, and the elephants go in search of food and water. Over three hundred wild Elephants, from far away as the jungles of Wasgomuwa and Trincomalee converge on the receding shores of the Minneriya Tank, in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka.

15th SAARC Conference held in Colombo in August 2008

After I had severed connections with the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) in December 2006, I was looking forward to a peaceful life of retirement as a house-wife, which I found was far more challenging than any of my professional functions before. I promised myself that I will never get myself involved an any government service ever again, despite being an ardent patriot of mother Sri Lanka.

However my challenging but peaceful house-wife role was short lived, when the senior management of the state television station Rupavahini invited me somewhere in June 2008, to return to Rupavahini in order to produce programmes in English. I broke the promise I had made to myself, and this "for the sake of the country" mania I suffer from, sent me back to the state run TV in an honorary capacity, which meant I was working free of charge but in return, I requested for transport for official duties.

Peace in Pieces in Sri Lanka

(Following is a slightly different version of what the Frontline magazine of 1st February, 2008 carried under the title ‘Requiem for truce’)

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2502/stories/20080201501901700.htm

“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal”- Martin Luther King

Sri Lanka holds a record for its failed peace talks and ceasefire agreements! We have had so many since the Tamil national liberation struggle became militarised in 1983.

The first was signed prior to the talks in Thimpu in 1985. Then came the infamous Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord in July 1987. Thereafter came the rather carelessly worked out ceasefire in February 1990. Yet another one in January 1995, and the last- the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) of February 2002 which is now dead. Not that it matters, because it was brain dead any way!

There are many of us who regarded the CFA as born to the incompatible parentage of the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and ‘mid-wifed’ by the ‘peace’ facilitator Norway. The CFA was used by the LTTE for their own gain, and it maligned and abused all of us Sri Lankan Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese. I’m amongst many who believe, that it was the most damaging of all Ceasefire Agreements foisted upon this country.

Peace in Sri Lanka- What a Process! (Published in the Daily Mirror of 14th February, 2007)

Many were the frustrations and drawbacks we had to live with in trying to tame the blood-thirsty LTTE who violated the spirit of the CFA through and through with impunity, while all we at SCOPP could do was to change the adverbs in the GOSL ‘condemnation template’ i.e. “The Government condemns/strongly condemns/ unreservedly condemns/vehemently condemns/ condemns in the strongest possible terms the killing of……..” and dish out media releases which the LTTE couldn’t give two hoots for. The suppressed journalist in me could only sigh in frustration.

Dr. John- A Genuine Peace Pundit (Published in the Daily Mirror of February 21st, 2007)

As far as Sri Lanka goes, it has produced only one genuine Peace ‘Pundit’- Dr. John Gooneratne, a former Secretary General of SCOPP. Dr. John, as he was affectionately referred to at SCOPP, is a subject in propia persona!

Birth of ‘Business Matters’ 1989 to 2004

Somewhere in mid 1991, the management of Rupavahini decided to launch a series of programmes in English, in order to give the open economy of our country a boost. Ajita Kadirgamar Perera, who was my best friend and I were selected to handle the programme and we were granted carte blanche to carry out our ‘business’ with no interference from the management.

This was to be the beginning of a saga, which ended with the devastating Tusnami in December 2004.

Travails & Tribulations of a Television Interviewer

As I mentioned before, of the numerous hats I wore at Rupavahini was that of a TV Interviewer, and I had the privilege of interviewing a cross section of distinguished personalities, including visiting Heads of State, prominent business personalities, film stars, scientists etc. and a world infamous criminal as well.
One day in March 1992, around 4 o’clock in the morning, when yours truly was dead to the world, the telephone started ringing, right next to my ear. This had to be President Premadasa I thought, because he had a habit of waking people up and giving instructions at all odd hours, when the rest of us were fast asleep. Groggily I picked up the receiver. Lo and behold, it was good old A. J. Ranasinghe (AJR) who was at the time the Minister-of- State for media.

This is how the conversation between AJR and myself went:

Travails & Tribulations of a Television Newscaster (1989 - 2001)

I was thrown in at the deep-end when I was requested by the management of Rupavahini to read the English news bulletin on the 12th of August 1989, because the ‘others’ had vanished into thin air because of the death threats by the ‘red fellows’. I didn’t have any apprehensions about taking this challenge on because I had already undergone a thorough training in news reading in 1988, at SLBC, under veteran broadcasters such as Merle Williams, the late Livy Wijemanne and the late Jimmy Bharucha- regarded as a ‘colossus in Sri Lanka's broadcasting world’. Mr. Bharucha took me entirely under his wing thereafter and he became my Guru. This was the beginning of my twelve-year career as an English newsreader!

Rupavahini- My University of Experience! (1988 – 2004)

The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation was set up in 1982- a gift from Japan to the people Sri Lanka. At the time, there were the crème de la crème of professionals, from the very top to the bottom.

With the years catching up and before I start to suffer from dementia, I decided to indulge myself in reminiscing about those good old days at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation - the State television station, which I refer to as my ‘University of Experience.