Motives for Glorious Jaffna Education Sponsorship Program

It has been brought to my notice that several members of the Tamil Diaspora have expressed suspicion and surprise and  inquired why a Sinhalese man  from the South should take an interest in the orphaned Tamil children in the North. It has come up too often to be ignored and when Tharindu  who directs theGlorious Jaffna programme  asked me this question recently, I felt it needs to be addressed. That is the purpose of this short note.

Since my childhood I have been deeply moved  by the parable of the good Samaritan. Surely a Jew should not question the motives of  the Samaritan  if his deeds were humane and kind . I am a Christian first and a Sinhalese only second, and as a Christian I believe that when God shows us individuals indistress, He is directing us to assist those people.  My Tamil friends should not question my motives because I am a gentile and not a Jew.

I wish to add a short word on my own personal experience. In 2010 October, I was felled by an aneurysm . When I was being operated on, to relieve the pressure in my brain, I had a short experience (NDE) which is not unusual. In the West it is called Near Death Experience.  For a brief period I was conscious of being out of my body  and travelling through a long dark tunnel.  At the end of the tunnel  I saw an astral figure and a bright light. When I was revived after surgery I discovered that as in the case of other semi-paralytics , my left side was  paralysed. In that state of suddenly finding myself helpless  and in seeing a vision of the hereafter, I questioned myself as to the purpose of my life.  My idea of Glorious Jaffna came out of those experiences and by being deeply moved by Tarindu Amunugama’s Coffee Table book on Jaffna in transition after the war.  I believe the Glorious Jaffna project gives me a sense of purpose and mission for the remainder of my life.

One of my favourite sayings is that National reconciliation is too important to be left  to the Government alone. It is the responsibility of each and everyone of us, whatever thecommunity .

I have been assisting a programme similar to the Glorious Jaffna in the South named Bosath Padanama and one of the children I have assisted   is currently holding a fairly high technical position in Saudi Arabia and has achieved success in his career.  The second child  I am happy to say has now got admission to aMedical School , his lifelong ambition in becoming a doctor. 

I hope my Tamil brothers  would help to assist disadvantagedSinhalese  children  in the South in the cause of National reconciliation.  Such selfless action could form the basis of National reconciliation after a 30 year brutal war in which bothcommunities have been scarred and damaged.

I am happy to say that my elder daughter who has just entered Medical School has volunteered to support one of the children who has passed the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam and entered a better school in Jaffna.

I hope this is the first step for her in a lifelong commitment to giving back to society rather than merely taking out.

Address At Rotary Club of Colombo Metropolitan

It is good to be back at a Rotary  Club Meeting. The last time I addressed  the club was in 1987  as a member of that club.

In 2011 soon after suffering a stroke, I launched a Corporate  Social Responsibility programme for Asia Capital PLC.,  where I was then the Chairman and Managing Director.  It was titled “ Put a bit of Jaffna into your Life”.  I wish to talk to you today on that programme. Young Tharindu Amunugama who is sitting over there who looks like a large prize fighter was primarily responsible for the launch of that programme.  With his assistance I published a Coffee Table book of photographs  of Jaffna in transition soon after the war.  This book is available for sale if you are interested in purchasing a copy .

The programme was built on the foundation  that National Reconciliation is too important too important be left to the Government. It is a personal responsibility of each and everyone of us.

There are 10,000 children who have been affected seriously by the war.  Their education was disrupted and many have lost either one or both parents.  Selection  criteria of children were that they were  between  6 and 12 years old,  children who have lost both parents or lost  a single parent, those disabled, and in detention camps. We  are using this programme to extend a hand in friendship  to these children  to help them in their  healing.  The programme  provides them Rs. 12,000 per annum to help them in their education.  These funds are used to provide study books,  stationery, tuition, access to counseling  and other little  nick-knacks  that children love  on an individual scale and also to assist their families for certain expenditures.  In addition when those  children show  are falling behind in their studies, Glorious Jaffna arranges to tutor groups of such children in those studies . Together with Lanka  India  Oil Company  (LIOC) we organized an English coaching programme for  some children who needed extra attention.  However  currently due to lack of resources we are supporting  only 500 such children.  I would like to increase this figure significantly over the next coming years.  We encourage the donors to have a direct link with the student.  The student’s performance in school can be checked by them using our website. www.gloriousjaffna.com .  Each donor is provided with log-in  facilities to the website where they can get information about the children they support.  Through this methodology, we want to provide a direct link between the donor and the child (child’s wellbeing/fund utilization etc)   Asia Capital PLC supports the programme in the administration costs . Donors have the knowledge that all funds  go directly to the children, and it is not spent on administration of the programme.   An evaluation was carried out to measure the progress of the 500 students who were benefitting under the Glorious Jaffna Educational sponsorship program.  A total percentage of 67% increased performance was attained by the children since the educational sponsorship was given to them.  This performance was based  upon the child’s overall performance in his/her academic subjects in school .  This percentage was arrived at after comparing the overall marks of the child before sponsorship and after sponsorship. For example, 8 of our children have performed very successfully in the Grade 5 Scholarship examination and have been identified to proceed to some of the best schools  not only in Jaffna but in the context of the entire education system  in Sri Lanka. Several of them have been selected to schools like Hartley College,  St. John’s  and  J/Kondavil CCTMS(Church of Ceylon Tamil Mixed School) .  We are now entering the second phase of the programme where we can focus our resources  to evaluate the progress of these children who will now  have to relocate  to enter the better schools.   We believe once these children who have been in the programme  are successfully integrated into the community , we will take away the  incentive  for them to look on violence as a  means of resolving their bitter history.   These kids are our future Chartered Accountants, Engineers,  Doctors and Bankers of Sri Lanka.   The Glorious Jaffna Programme  will propel these children into the forefront of Sri Lankan Society by  providing them assistance for their education.  To quote Mahatma Ghandi  “ Hatred cannot  be overcome by hatred it can only be overcome only by love” and to quote  Chapter 5 Vs. – 9  of the Gospel according toSt.Mathew “Blessed are the Peacemakers – they will be called the children of God”  and further to quote Martin Luther King “ Blackness cannot be overcome by blackness. It must be overcome only by light”.

The link we form between the  children and adults of the Sinhala community  in particular  and their easy passage through a very hard world is expected to form the bedrock of National reconciliation.  For those of you who are more interested in supporting the programme  please talk to Tarindu before you leave and establish contact with him.

As the victors of a long and bitter war, it is imperative that  the Sinhalese extend a hand of friendship to the Tamils. Therefore the Sinhalese must make the first move.  I am particularly calling on you the members of the Sinhalese  community  of the Rotary Club to help me in this effort.  Please help me to achieve this noble goal.

I am available to answer any questions you may have.  

Beware,'flying fish' may sting!

Some time in July 2013 an ITN reporter who was himself  under investigation for alleged criminal activities ran a scathing attack on myself personally and a movie I produced - viz:” Flying Fish “ and also on the Director of the movie Mr. Sanjeewa Pushpakumara.   The subject dominated the newspapers  and that particular TV station news for several weeks and then disappeared without a trace.  To date the CID has been involved in investigating the film and the various allegations I presume, and the authorities have been silent on the matter and no charges  have been framed to-date and apparently  there are no issues.  I felt it was appropriate for me to keep quiet until the frenzy of bloodletting concluded before I stepped up to speak.  I feel now , that there is some distance between those events  it may be opportune for me to record  my side of the story for the more discerning public. 

To paraphrase the preface to the book  “Film, Faith and Cultural Conflicts the case of Martin Scoresese and The Last Temptation of Christ” by Robin Riley, this article is linked to a rather simple proposition and human nature and behavior.  We all blame someone at some time for something which  we are unwilling to take responsibility.  We will readily place blame on those who threaten our ideas and beliefs. We conveniently label them with tags, such as liberal and fundamentalists. On these victims we place our feelings  and shortcomings thereby alleviating our anxieties and renewing  our sense of purpose.  Scapegoating enables us to transfer our failures to others and continue living  guilt free.  

Let me record how the film “Flying Fish” came about.  I have been fascinated with films since my youth but unfortunately my career took me in a different direction towards commerce.  With the advent of new digital technologies into the cinema, I felt it would be appropriate to use the that technology as a means  for my entry to the industry. Since about 2005 I have been having discussions with fringe players in the industry regarding the future of the cinema.  I recall very vividly an early discussion I had with Mr. Tissa Abeysekera the respected film Director and script writer at his home seated on a spiral staircase..  At about the same time I was introduced to a young lady named Suranga Ranawaka who went on to become a Sinhala Film Star who herself had ambitions in directing movies  rather than merely starring in them. She in turn introduced me to many others in the industry. After the film “The Road from Elephant Pass” in which she starred was released, one day she introduced me to a young man named Sanjeewa Pushpakumara who had an idea for a movie treatment of the impact of the war on people living in a border village. I read the synopsis which I liked and asked them  the cost of getting a treatment of the film that could be viewed. So that I could assess the merits of both the artistes and the concept more fully.   They indicated a relatively low figure of Rs 2.5 million. Other than the treatment of the war, there were other issues in the synopsis that I was interested in. It dealt with issues of war between the sexes or sexual politics, a subject I had been interested in since I read Susan Brownmiller’s  seminal book on the subject of Woman’s Liberation   viz: ” Man, Woman and Rape”.  In further discussions with the Director and his planned use of symbolism on film , I recognized the depth of the subject matter and his degree of sensitivity to the issues of the movie.

I found Mr. Sanjeewa Pushpakumara to be somewhat in-articulate, however both  passionate and sincere, a boy from a poor village in Kantalai who had raised himself by his bootstraps.  As a person who respects education as a true means of social mobility in developing countries such as Sri Lanka, I was inclined to assist him to make his dream a reality. 

After a process of formalizing the arrangements, I released the funds to the Director who went on to make the film keeping it well within the budget.  In due course I saw the first cut of the assembled film that was done by Mr. Ravindra Guruge.  Viewing the first cut, I realized it was important due to the subject matter. I also realized that it was unlikely to be approved by the censors for viewing by the Sri Lankan audiences, particularly due to its violent ending and as it included a very passionate and erotic scene of an Army soldier having sex with his girlfriend, a Sinhala village girl. My instructions to Ravindra and Pushpakumara on viewing the film was to delete at least 20 minutes of the film and to conclude the film which had 3 independent story lines each climaxing in violence, so that the film concludes in a crescendo of violence.  I advised both the Editor and the Director to go back and have another look at the film Francis Ford Copola’s  “The GodFather”  which I have long admired.

 Despite my concerns of the sexual contents of the movie, I did not request the Director to delete such content, although at that point as a fairly large corporate, we  may  have to dis-associate ourselves with the movie, I did not request the Director to remove such elements, as I did not feel that I had a right to do so despite controlling the intellectual property of the movie. This comes from my core beliefs about the innate rights of individuals. I did not see myself nor my company as the true owners of the film. I believed the true moral owner of this film was Mr. Sanjeewa Pushpakumara, who the French Film School would call the “Auteur” or the Author or the Creative Force.  This has been a principle that I have strictly followed in all the films I have financed.  The complete treatment was then forwarded to the  Rotterdam Film Festival  linked to Hubert Bals Foundation with an application for a Grant for Post Production and completion.  The movie received a Grant of  approximately USD 25,000/- for its completion and was invited to be exhibited at the Rotterdam Film Festival in the competition category. The film was premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival in February 2011  and the observers have indicated to me that on each of the six days of screening of the film, the audience burst into spontaneous cheers, which I believe was rather more for the violent climax of the movie in which the young girl confronts the Army soldier. It may be somewhat accurate to say that I sponsored the film for that last scene.

 The film then went onto achieve a list of triumphant screenings at over 30 countries winning several awards . These included being invited to the New York Museum of Modern Art for a one week exhibition. The movie won the top award at the Korean Film Festival  and the Netpak Award at the Bengalaru Film Festival.  Mr.Sanjeewa Pushpakumara the Director won the Best Director Award for this film at St. Petersburg Film Festival in Russia. The film was also exhibited in London  and was invited by the Australian Cinematheque  to be exhibited in Australia together with Vimukti Jayasundera’s  “Sulanga Enu Pinisa” (The Forsaken Land)  another film about the civil war which I believe has been misunderstood by the local audiences. Of course despite all these accolades, the circle would not be complete unless “The Prophet is honoured in His own Country” so when the French Embassy requested us for a copy of the movie to be shown  at the Film Festival organized by the Embassy, we co-operated but we did caution the Embassy that the subject matter of the movie is controversial and as such they should obtain censor board approval before the screening . I believe they  followed our advice prudently and obtained censor board approval for a single screening of the film for invited audience only.  The Film Festival opened with the screening of the film . The film I believe shocked the audiences  due to its frank depiction of the impact of the war. Although some have claimed that the film is anti-Sri Lankan Army, it is not. In fact it is quite the opposite. It is very anti-Tigers, depicting them as monsters brainwashing children with propaganda, and recruiting child soldiers and massacring the poor innocent Tamil families caught on the fringe of the conflict.  

Why do I believe that “Flying Fish” is important ?  I believe that Flying Fish is important as the Country has gone through several  decades of violent conflict where we have observed the fruits of such conflict and the terrible price all of us have had to pay directly or indirectly.  Getting young persons like Pushpakumara who had been damaged by his life experiences  to articulate  their  anguish, agony and grief is important not only to them as catharsisbut also as a form of  social or collective catharsis  but also to us the audience. To quote “ if someone does not stand in the darkness he will not be able to see the light ” dialog of the Saviour 34 quoted from “The Lost Sayings of Jesus”  “Teachings from Ancient Gnostic  and Islamic Sources” by Andrew Philip Smith” . 

The initial burst of outrage from the television stations  accused the movie  of depicting the Sri Lankan Army raping Tamil girls and accused me of being an Agent of the Tamil Diaspora  who were the true financiers of this movie.  This makes me wonder what movie the journalist  watched. Certainly it could not have been the movie that was made by me. Those who are familiar with  the Rosharch test will be aware that  individual who view images project their own internal desires and aspirations and see what they wish to see in the image. It is my humble opinion that those individuals who saw the Army soldiers raping Tamil girls are deeply disturbed  

I have not pursued seen Flying Fish  as a profit making opportunity.  When the film was completed we essentially shelved it for 2 years  and did not seek censor board approval to distribute the film . However,  I am very proud of this movie.  The initial bloodletting was followed by a series of  comments by various parties . First the Chairman of the State Film Corporation whom I have met and believe is largely a decent human being made a statement “that we cannot allow art for art sake”  I cannot understand this statement. But I guess he must  felt he must make some sort of gesture of support to put him clearly on the side of the critics of the movie . Remember, Peter the Disciples  denied Christ on the eve of  his crucificston. So this is nothing new. In any event I do not believe the State Film Corporation  exists  to allow or not allow art. Their function is solely to promote cinema and implement the Film Corporation Act within the spirit of the legislator who approved that particular legislation.  This was followed by an Editorial in the Daily News where  the Editor further politized the issue,  denouncing the movie for showing Sri Lankan Army engaged  in debauchery, which makes me believe he has never seen the film. If the Editor of the Daily News wishes us to believe that soldiers do not  have sex, all he has to do is to visit the sacred city of Anuradhapura where all Army soldiers returning home spend a few days recreating but not necessarily resting. This is rather a well known phenomenon of soldiers behavior whether Sri Lankan soldiers engaged in a civil war in Sri Lanka or the American soldiers  during the Vietnam war. Subsequently, Mr. Lakshman Hulugalle the Director General of the Media Centre for National Security  made statements indicating that the film has used images of Army Uniforms and guns without permission. On the contrary, I have provided him letters from his Ministry giving  approval to the film makers for the use of such uniforms and weapons.  I have written to the Director General with evidence of such approval..  However, all of this free propaganda on behalf of the movie appears to have created an underground demand for the movie, so much so, that a titillating sex content has been uploaded for UTube probably being viewed with great interest by lusty teenagers and on the Face Book. 

I have also been informed by the State Film Corporation that this film has been banned and should not be shown to overseas audiences. I am puzzled as to under what legislation the Sri Lankan Government could  prevent the movie not being shown as it is outside their jurisdiction.  However being a prudent person living in Sri Lanka under the jurisdiction of the  State . I do not wish to test the waters. I have also heard the term “being banned” in relation to the film. But in my  lexicon it is a great honour for any individual to claim that any their activities  has been banned  . Because those who are banned are generally individuals  and ideas who are fighting on the right side of history. To quote Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones” Time is on my side”.