Don’t forget Richard …

by Renton de Alwis

A little over a month from now comes a time of remembrance of the taking away of the life of a most talented and caring young man and there were many others the likes of him before and after. He was no ‘game karaya’, but a genuine seeker of the truth. If those in positions of influence, refuse to or do not learn from history, that would be an insult to human dignity and a sad consequence of lack of wisdom. The lessons to be learnt are many. As diversions are made and petty battles are fought, it would be prudent for those in power to take some time off to reflect and seek to find the deep seated causes for the demise of the likes of Richard. I wrote the following column in January 2011 of remembering a man who lost his life in February 1990. Some memories have a way of being covered by the sands of time, some teach us lasting lessons. We can not wait for the wind to blow to surface them, but learn lessons, we must.

I did not know Richard de Zoysa very well. Yet, I like to think I knew him. It was the year 1990, the year I left my country to only return a decade later. I was indeed disgusted with what was happening around me at the time. Yet I left, not because of that. I left because I had an opportunity to make it good in my chosen career. It was purely for selfish reasons and I do not claim having being anymore concerned or sensitive about those issues at the time, than most of you, my other fellow brethren. What was happening around us was indeed shocking and deplorable. Richard was then, still alive.

I read and heard with shock that Richard Menik de Zoysa was found murdered on the Moratuwa beach on February 18. He would have been 53 had he lived and another life of a most talented and outspoken young man was terminated at age 32.

Much to society

I have no special reason to remember Richard, except for he was a spirited human being and it was the loss of a most talented son of this, our motherland. Richard, like any of us had the right to live, right to express his opinion and the right to do as he wished as long as he broke no laws and he, as far as I know, did not break any.  Richard was in the prime of his life and would have contributed so much to our society, if he was allowed to live. His ‘crime’ perhaps was that he was a fearless journalist, not a game-karaya and had a real voice that echoed beyond our shores at the time.

I did not know Richard well enough like Rajiva Wijesinhe, to write a novel based on his life. Rajiva’s ‘Limits of Love’ is revealing and I am happy that Richard’s life and death and the many issues that it raised were documented. Last year, an event to commemorate his twentieth death anniversary had been organised by his friends at the Punchi Theatre. I could not be there. But I heard it was a fitting celebration of his life and work.

All in one

Apart from the public figure Richard we all knew, I knew him as someone I met occasionally, for in the early 80’s I was also associated with the communication ‘industry’. We happen to live in two corners of the same Nawala Road and I bumped into him sometimes, he driving his ‘vintage’ car and I, on my daily grocery and newspaper fetching walks. I remember one morning in the 1980s I was formally introduced to Richard by ‘Chief’, Dr. Anandatissa de Alwis, the then minister of information as “a young man with a lot of promise”. He was then a broadcaster we heard and saw often on national radio and television. As the head of an advertising agency then, I was to use his voice to enrich a campaign we were handling. He was the chosen prodigal son of Lester James Peries in the film version of Martin Wickramasinghe’s ‘Yuganthaya’. He was a socialist, human rights activist, social commentator, actor, broadcaster, media representative and poet all in one. I recollect faintly seeing him play Prince Hamlet on stage. I do not recollect which year, yet the line “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” rendered by Marcellus in his dialogue with Horatio ring in my ear and so is Richard’s rendering of “To be or not to be, that is the question ….”

Moral authority

The reason, if there was ever to be one for him to be taken away would have been ‘fear’, fear that grappled those that governed of those whose voices are heard loud and clear, even when they whispered, for they held moral authority, far superior to the usually touted political authority. Like Richard himself expressed in a poem he wrote titled ‘The Poet’ believed to have been written around 1989, referring to himself in the role of reporter and social  commentator, as the ‘eye of the camera’. Here is an extract, the last stanza of that poem: ……….

“I am the storm’s eye
Ceaselessly turning around me
The burning the death the destruction
The clichés that govern the world of the words
Of the prophets and preachers, and may be the savior
Are lost to my peering
Blind eye in the dark”.

Call of the birds

There were many others like him, whose names we did not even know or have conveniently forgotten. In 1971 and then again, during the dark ‘Beeshana’ period of 1989/90, there were others. Nanda Malini sang a song written by Sunil Ariyaratne of “Samarum nathi viruwan” of those forgotten youth of 1971, who gave their lives to what they believed was a need to achieve social justice, though misled and misguided of the way to achieving that end.

I remember Vasantha Wijewardena, the young undergraduate at the Keleniya University (1969/71). I was a tutor in economics then and he a student in my class. He was a very bright student, captain of the university soccer team, cricketer, musician; a person with remarkable talent and leadership qualities. I was shocked to hear that his young life was nipped in the bud the very first day the 1971 insurgency began. He was yet another and there were many like him that flew to the call of the birds and headed on to attack the Jaffna prison and other state apparatus.    

In 1989, as the head of Education Technology of the Open University, I was tasked to work with the well-known dramatist/filmmaker Parakrama Niriella. We were on a location selection mission to the Muturajawela marshes and were shocked to see burning piles of tyres with human bodies and limbs on them. All of voices that were silenced, voices of young people who today perhaps would have made huge contributions to our nation building efforts.  

Social conscience

Why we must never forget Richard and the likes of him, who stood for social justice, is because they represent our collective social conscience. That is the very reason that there should never be any attempt ever again to silence them, as long as they play according to the rules. If the rules are broken the path of justice need be taken to deal with it. That I believe is the rule of law. Taking that role over by the governed will never ever augur well for a nation that is seeking to be a society where justice, dignity and equality will need to reign supreme.

Richard in death has taught us many lessons as he did when he was alive. He wrote in the opening stanza of ‘The Poet’:

“I am the eye of the camera
Can only reflect, never reject
Never deflect.

……………….”

 

 

Richard playing Hamlet "To be or not to be"...
Pix credit : Daily News image on Google