Rajpal's Column

30th January 2000

The PA, Sarachchandra and the serial attacks

By Rajpal Abeynayake

The Sarachandra attack was also, for most people the beginning of the end of the UNP's spurious effort to cultivate a dhramishta samjjaya. ( righteous society.)

But, while the Sarachandra assault was received by the intellectual community and the collective community of artistes at that time with a great deal of chagrin, the attacks on artistes such as Anoja Weerasinghe, Rukantha Gunetilleke and Ravindra Randeniya do not seem to bother this group of elites.

That's despite the fact that the attacks on artistes are serial assaults which seem to be following a pattern since the Presidential election campaign got underway. Ravindra Randeniya is the President of the Film Artistes' Guild, and he has apparently decided to downplay the fact that toughs set upon him after a campaign rally. But, since then there have been two outrageous attacks on Anoja Weerasinghe, and other incidents which followed culminating in the particularly ghoulish attack last week on Rukantha Gunetilleke and Chandraleka Perera.

These attacks have largely been ignored by the coterie of powerful elite in the intellectual community who were agitated by the assault on Sarachandra in the seventies. It is correct that Sarachandra was a deity and elder statesman of the arts and that Chandraleka, Rukantha and Randeniya are in no way comparable to him in terms of stature in the artistic community.

But, though artistes such as Gunadasa Kapuge and Dharmasiri Bandaranaike have made statements against attacks on artistes in the recent wave, the newspapers essentially have had to take up the cause of these performers. In the absence of a vibrant opposition, the newspapers had to do the same by taking up the cause of election malpractices, suppression of media freedom and the subversion of the judicial system.

Now, the newspapers have had to take up the fight on behalf on a besieged group of artistes who are largely being ignored by the intellectual community and their peers.

Pop culture, which is the staple diet of artistes of the calibre of Weerasinghe and Rukantha, may not have champions who have the intellectual clout of Sarachandra. But, the Randeniyas for instance have also acquired some sort of respectability as artistes by attempting to keep the cinematic arts aloft at a time of an absolute depression for the medium.

Ravindra Randeniya's entire raison de entre, for supporting the candidature of Ranil Wickremesinghe during the elections seemed to be that Wickremesinghe had listened to him on his plans for resurrecting moviedom. For this, he came in for a great deal of criticism from Sanath Gunetilleke, media advisor to the President who does a day - job as an actor.

Gunetilleke is entitled to all of the views he enumerated in the televised debates with Randeniya. But, it was beyond doubt that Randeniya acquitted himself in these debates as a man who had the interests of film artistes at heart.

In this, he may have been in contrast to Gunetilleke. He didn't seem to have a political ideology that was holistic. In other words, as long as he and his fellow acting colleagues in the Guild were looked after, he seemed to convey the impression that it was the be-all-and-end all of his politics.

But, at least because of his devotion to the cause, he acquired a respectability that should have been appreciated by the larger community of artistes - the kind of coterie that was outraged by the attack on Sarachandra which was a defining event somewhat like Indira Ghandi's attack on the Armiristrar Golden Temple.

But, pop culture too, has its own gods, though the idea of pop idols is somewhat different to the idea of deities in a serious cultural and intellectual milieu. In this context, the wave of serial attacks now taking place may eventually arouse the fans and the followers. They, however, may be rabble, and may not be a strong political lobby, but that's hardly the consideration.

Eventually, they may call the bluff of the genteel members of the performing arts, and their intellectual backers.

It's not surprising that certain members of government have taken a serious view of the assaults on Rukantha and Chandraleka Perera. They were educated by the Sararachandara affair, and the repercussions of attacks on artistes of whatever persuasion.

Perhaps they may be right in the view that the attacks on Gunetilleke and Perera were cases of plain robbery masquerading as political revenge.

But, there is no doubt that some of the earlier attacks at least were politically motivated. When these attacks took place, there was no appaarent sense of outrage in the ranks of government. On the other hand, the TV appearances of government spokespersons and apologists betrayed a feeling of envy among government ranks that popular artistes seemed to have, by and large, jumped the UNP bandwagon.

If pop culture chose the UNP, the PA ranks had no reason to go into apoplexy. The PA for instance, seemed to have a preponderance of backers among academia, and should ideally have been happy with the kind of support it was getting from various diverse groups. As the President said in her recent TV appearance, the PA got the support of the public servants, the army, the police and various such groups.

If the President was right, the support of artistes that was not forthcoming should have been of minimal concern to the PA election machine.

But the PA reaped a public relations disaster by going at the artistes. As a result now, even if the PA didn't do it, it is inevitable that most fingers, by an association of ideas, point to PA ranks.

At least in this context, the PA may have created its own versions of Sarachandra.

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