By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA

With the advent of GR government to power the jubilant youth of this country, heeding to the election campaign of Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaka saying that ”you fulfil your responsibility and I will fulfil my responsibility” launched campaign of beautifying the old walls and towers covered with moss, dilapidated walls and betel chew spit walls with colourful, historically and culturally significant pictures.  This new wave I understand was started from Weeraketiya spread like a storm to all parts of the country and people belonging to all walks of life, all ages including school children, all ethnicity, (I say all ethnicity because there were TV pictures showing Muslim girls wearing Abaya and hijab were also participating in drawing the pictures) and even foreign tourists joined the trend.

This art popularly known as mural paintings or Graffiti art is not something new and alien to Sri Lanka.  It had been a tradition in Sri Lankan temples to make mural paintings on the underground chamber walls of Temples and during my schooling times I have seen such mural paintings at the underground chamber walls of the Veherahena Taemple in Matara and at kushtarajagala Temple in Weligama and understand that sch mural paintings are availab;e at the temples in Mulkirigala, Dambulla and many other temples.  These paintings mostly depict the Jathaka stories, Lord Buddha’s visits to Sri Lanka, arrival of Arahat Mihindu Thera to Sri Lanka and his meeting of the king Devanampiyatissa, and the arrival of Sagamitta Therani witjh the Sri Maha Bodhi sapling.  The the Sigiri Frescos is also a form of these arts and it has noe become a world heritage.  The dyes used for all these paintings had been home made with the sap extracted from various native herbs and plants.

The origin of this graffiti arts or mural paintings can be traced to pre-historic stone-age people who lived in caves and made imprints of their stone tools and the animals they hunted.  An article published in the Daily Mirror recently said thatalthough graffiti is considered to be an art form in the popular culture, it originated during the Paleolithic period and early civilizations made use of symbols carved on caves and other materials as means of communicating with one another.

As such Petroglyphs are considered to be the first form of graffiti which are created on a rock surface by incising, carving and abrading it. The article said that during World War II, ‘Kilroy was here’ was a graffiti phenomenon that flourished across the globe followed by the construction of the Berlin Wall which is a perfect example of modern graffiti and around the 1980s, graffiti was seen in many hip-hop tracks and it still has strong ties to this culture. Along with DJing, MCing and breaking, graffiti became a central part in hip-hop culture which could be traced back to Bronx in New York. From NYC graffiti art was then seen in London, Paris, Rome and many other countries. By the 20th century it had further advanced into a mode of communication between people. One of the 20th century artists that gained much popularity for his satirical work was Banksy. His street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. It said that today graffiti art is one specialization in modern art and has taken its place in the popular culture and any artists use spray paints, stencils, stickers and new techniques for their creations.

Many people in sincere appreciation of what is being voluntarily done by our the youth devoid of politics giving meanings have identified these Activities with what Winston S. Churchill, the former British Prime1 Minister said tht A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.”

Professor NAlin Abeysekara attached to the Faculty of Management Studies of the Open University in writing an article to the Daily Financial Times (Daily FT) has pointed out many incidents the youth volunteers carrying out other than mural paintings.  Theyinclude

• Removal of posters, cleaning beaches and trying to keep the city clean and he says that they are enjoying their work despite gender, ethnicity or any other and heir smiles will tell us many positives for our future. 
• A youth called Nalaka Senadeera has initiated a project of re-cultivating hundreds of acres of paddy fields in his village with a large number of young men and women supporting him.
• Dulanjana Vithanage, a third-year student at the Department of Marketing Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura has started to promote jack fruit in Sri Lanka (the jack tree is sometimes called bath gaha” or ‘rice tree’ by the Sinhalese).
• A small trash bin is placed in some three-wheelers which had not seen before which the Professor says convey the message Please don’t throw garbage out. Keep them in the trash bin.” 

He says the above are one of the best indications that the common man in the country has changed drastically and in simple terms the people have overtaken politicians, which is a good sign for the country!

 In  conclusion of his article Prof. Abeysekera quotes from Rev. Dr. Martin LutherKing Jr. that One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change”

Shown below are some of the wall paintings that can be seen in various parts of the country including Jaffna. Reports from the North said that the Sinhala and Tamil youth of the North also joined this trend.  It said that the Sinhala youth painted pictures depicting Sinhala cultural aspects at the Bus stand and other places while the Tamil youth painted pictures depicting Tamil cultural aspects.  The reports a;so said that Yoshitha Rajapaksa who was on a visit to the North with his wifw to worship at religious places also joined in the painting work.

Munasinghe. 

Youth from Batticaloa (COURTESY = Daily Mirror)

(Above picture shows that some racist hooligans in Norwood envious of the Mural painting programme have splashed some black oil on a wall cleaned for Mural paintings to prevent it taking place  – Courtesy – Lanka C News,lk)

While the new trend has been highly appreciated by almost all Sri Lankans with local paint manufacturing companies providing paint and brushes free of charge, neighbours providing meals and refreshments, and TV stations (not all) providing wide publicity some Tamil racist politicians who deserve to be banished from this country have come out with critical comments. 

The detestable Tamil racist alleged to be a descendant of a South Indian Kallathoni who invented the ‘white van’ story to discredit this country and who was a close ally of megalomaniac Prabhakaran has strongly criticised the programme and has said that drawing pictures relating to the war and war heroes will remind the Tamil youth about the repressions they had been subjected to by the Sri Lankan army and implies that our heroic army repressed people whereas in fact they rescued, fed and nursed nearly 300,000 innocent Tamil people who were being held by the Tiger terrorist as human shields.  This idiot should understand that the War Heroes represent the symbol that the people of this country would be admirably relished by the people of this country for several future generations.  It was these war heroes who were responsible for halting the people leaving the country with their kith and kin having lost hoprd for a future for them and were instrumental in building new hopes and stimulate the people to return to the country.

If this idiot cannot live in this country under the present setup it is better for him to go back to his motherland India or seek asylum anywhere else. This racist who day dream about creating a racist unit called Malai Nadu in the hill country areas was an insignificant character in the past and he had been elated to prominence by the UNP and he was even allowed to function as a spokesman on behalf of the UNP.  All patriotic voters in the UNP must make it a point not to vote for this racist and at the same time the media personnel should also shun all publicity to him. 

Prabhakaran’s cousin Sivajilingham has also criticised this programme saying that it will erase the cultural and religious prominence of the Tamil and Hindu people and hence it should not be carried out in Jaffna and in the North and his call has already been ignored by the Jaffna youth.