Rajiva Wijesinha

“ I suppose that to laugh for people, to see the comic side of their lives when they can’t see it for themselves, is a way of expressing affection for them; and even admiration - of a kind - for the lives they try so seriously to lead. ”

“ The sympathy with which writers of different ethnicities treat all their fellow Sri Lankans is a greater reality than the polarizations beloved of commentators, especially foreign ones who assume that all ethnic conflicts are the same. ”

“ I cannot believe that even the British would actually want a divided Sri Lanka, with part of it run by the LTTE under Prabhakaran. That however is what undermining the current government will lead to, as should be obvious to anyone who studied what went on in 2002. However, as Scott points out, careful analysis of consequences has never been a strong point of the British, with their penchant for gifted amateurs. ”

“ It never will be, if we do not replace the abstract notion of literacy on which we pride ourselves with truly functional literacy. But it is there, for anyone who cares, even if they might disagree about details of implementation, about the principles on which a Sri Lankan constitution should be framed. ”

“ Even ‘Ideas for Constitutional Reform’, the revised version of the seminal collection Chanaka Amaratunga had put together nearly twenty years previously, had scarcely been reviewed in the media. In general we are not a country that values books or ideas adequately, rarely reviewing them in a discursive manner, rarely indeed looking at ideas very deeply. I am therefore quite sure that my books had nothing to do with my being selected for this position. However, as it happened, all the books that have appeared or will appear this year are singularly appropriate for the task I have taken on. ”

“ English, Sinhala and Tamil Short Stories from Sri Lanka, National Book Trust of India, August 2007
The other book published in India this year is very different. It is a collection of stories that will I hope allow readers to explore varying responses to continuing social complexities. Understandably, given the current situation, many stories deal with violence and ethnic problems, but to me the book is symptomatic of the real hope we live with in Sri Lanka, inasmuch as people to people relations continue strong. ”

“ And, with Wickremesinghe in place, with a virtual LTTE regime ensconced in Trincomalee, there will be much more scope for bit players on the world scene to extend their influence. Given too the enormous power the Tamil diaspora would wield in any self-governing LTTE entity, the opportunities for European and in particular British influence would be tremendous. ”

“ I should add on a personal note that, though I believe it is important that Sinhalese learn Tamil and Tamils Sinhalese, both races and Muslims too are generally highly motivated to learn English, and facilitating this will at least lead quickly to better communication as well as empowering youngsters to aspire to higher levels of employment. ”