Don’t malign the men who did much for the Sigiriya frescoes

Pluto is hardly the king of planets. But it was accorded right royal treatment when humanity’s ‘New Horizons’ probe swept by this week. After a very long journey, the NASA spacecraft finally came within hailing distance of the erstwhile planetoid. Eons ago, Pluto looked like a cluster of fuzzy pixels in the deep space probe’s forward scanners. Years after that, it was a dim glow. And now, agonising ages after NASA’s New Horizons began its lonely voyage out into the depths of extra- solar space, we have a view of the traditional ninth planet that makes it look like – well, the Internet has the most interesting memes on Pluto’s possibilities, to add colour and spice to the official photographs. (In one, my favourite, the forlorn planetoid looks like the foreboding Death Star from the increasingly misnamed space ‘trilogy’ Star Wars).

In the time since Pluto began to re-arouse the interest of more than merely astronomers, its status has undergone several changes. Initially, from the dawn of its discovery in 1930, even astrology considered it one of the planets. Later, after Homo sapiens came of age and reached a more sophisticated mien of seeing itself, and the solar system of which it is a suburban part, the planetoid was downgraded to dwarf planet (in 1992, following the discovery of other ‘plutoids’ in the Kuiper Belt, in the icy wastes of the farther solar system). But as with other objects of curiosity, the far-flung planetoid’s privileges were not entirely rescinded, despite the discovery of the more massive and more distant dwarf planet Eris in 2005, leading the international astronomical community to formally define ‘planet’. A learned lobby to restore Pluto’s fortunes contended that it deserved another look and a second chance. Not long after a warm and protracted debate in academic and astronomic circles, Pluto was back to being a planet – at least in some camps.

So, what makes a planet a planet? There are several criteria, it seems. One is size, or mass. (Pluto is smaller and lighter than many moons in the more respectable inner suburbs of the solar system. It is one- sixth the mass of Earth’s moon; one-third its volume.) The other is situation in space. (So far out, our erstwhile ninth planet oscillates eccentrically between being 30AU to 47AU out from the Sun, which means that at times it is closer to the centre of the solar system than Neptune. Yet, even at this range of an average 40 Astronomical Units – AU, it is still less than half as far away as another dwarf planet, Eris, at 97AU). A third factor is the angle of orbiting around the sun. (All other planets have a tilt of 7 degrees off the solar systemic plane. Pluto is angled by 17 degrees, and its elliptical and eclectic orbit makes it a likelier contender to be a strange and beautiful comet that has yet to make a plunge in towards its parent sun.)

By these yardsticks, Pluto is not a planet. And in the books of the likes of media- savvy astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, among others, Pluto will have to be content with being classified a ‘dwarf planet’ or ‘plutoid’. At least, until our present paradigm of planet- classification is challenged and changed.

In the same week that Pluto was making the headlines in the world’s news media, another King of the Underworld was making a splash in a backwater island-republic that shall remain anonymous. I felt like “a watcher of the skies, when a new planet swims into his ken”, when I read that Prez-ex (for that is what we shall call our returning star player in the firmament of politics) was making a comeback into the running at the next local election.

Prez-ex was once very much the king among our politicos. And he was accorded right royal treatment when his party’s leadership swept him back into the spotlight this week. After a short exile, Prez- ex finally came within hailing distance again of the crown he had once worn and had always coveted. Two decades ago, Prez-ex looked like a non- starter in the then incumbent’s unkind estimate. A decade after that, it was a revelation when the man led the charge that won the war. And now, a hundred and seventy five days after an ignominious defeat, we are forced to take stock once again of the man, the machine, the movement, that has swept everything in its path from Kataragama to Kilinochchi to Kurunegala, from Hambantota to the Hague, from Medamulana to the media-demographic complex.

In the six to seven months since Prez-ex began to re-arouse the interest of more than merely astrologers, his status has undergone several changes. Initially, from lips of the last one who served him poorly, he was considered to be a sure-fire winner. Later, after a resounding defeat which no one saw coming – least of all that clairvoyant soothsayer – we were compelled to relegate the Prez-ex to the ranks of the also-rans. But as with other objects of curiosity, the ex-Prez’s powers were not entirely spent. A garrulous group determined to restore Prez-ex’s fortunes contended that he deserved another chance and a second look. Not long ago, in fact just last week, Prez-ex was back to being a contender in the Parliamentary Cup and a possible candidate for chief frontrunner in the Prime Ministerial Stakes.

So, what makes an ex-Prez a pos-Premier? There are several criteria, it seems. One is character. The other is track record. A third factor is credibility. By these yardsticks, the albeit charismatic ex-Prez is not cut of the prime ministerial cloth. But in the books of the likes of nation- savvy astrologer Aiyo Sira, among others, Prez-ex – while having to be content with being classified as a has-been, at least for now – may have the last laugh yet, and go on to show how he can still rock and shock the nation. With Prez-ex, like with ex-Pluto, only time will tell. And we may never know who was in the right all along.

A wage earner faces a situation of wages chasing prices. Some are fortunate enough to receive wages with which they can overtake the escalating prices. Some are able to manage the situation as they get allowances commensurate with the change in prices. Some are virtually drowned. We the pensioners of the People’s Bank belong to the last category.

Our problems can be grouped under four categories:

a. There was no revision of pensions commensurate with the triennial revision of the salaries of the current public servants. The most senior pensioners must have been deprived of a minimum of eight salary revisions. These revisions have raised the salaries of our colleagues, who are junior to us.

Pension revisions are not an unknown phenomenon in our country. Central Bank pensioners enjoy it. So do the peoples’ representatives. In advanced countries, indexing of pensions is the accepted method to ensure that the pensioners receive a pension to meet the rising cost of living. It has been suggested that we should base the pension on the current salary of the parallel staff in service, and to replace the existing practice of basing it on the last drawn salary of the retiree. That would have eradicated many a problem and embarrassment.

b. The Variable Cost of Living Allowance, the cushion provided for meeting the escalating prices, has been frozen as at the retiring date for the retirees after June 1996. Those who retired before June 1996 continue to enjoy the VCOLA, but they were denied the 5 percent increase in the maximum pension entitlement of 90 percent of the last drawn gross salary and the concession of not being subjected to deduction of commuted pension.

Those who retired after June 1996 were given the 5 percent additive and non-recovery of the commuted pension but denied the VCOLA. The small increase and the non-deduction have been swept away by the denial of that allowance for the rapidly escalating cost of living, the very cushion devised and extended to all wage earners. This freezing robs the pension entitlement of a substantial amount now amounting to Rs. 26,000 a month.

c. Surviving spouses of public servants continue to receive the deceased spouses’ full pension. The Central Bank follows it with their best of both worlds’ policy, the ideal behind the corporate sector which stopped short of staff welfare in other corporate sectors. The Bank of Ceylon adopts the 50 per cent of the deceased spouses’ pension and we in the People’s Bank extend only a niggardly 20 per cent and on top of it the denial of the VCOLA is also superimposed. Thus we think that the surviv-

The July 12 Sunday Times article titled ‘Precious ladies have suffered from experts makeovers’ clearly places in the hands of the late Luciano Maranzi some responsibility for the damage said to have been suffered by the restored Sigiriya paintings. The Director of the Post-Graduate Institute of Archaeology is reported therein to have said: 1. “The Italian restorer L. Maranzi removed the green paint and retouched the frescoes with water colours in 1967 and 1968.” 2. “By 1972, however, the water colours had faded due to direct exposure to sunlight’. 3.“Right now what you see is the damage done by people who attempted to preserve the murals 30 years ago”. Maranzi maligned Luciano Maranzi, being no more, cannot answer these allegations against him. Your readers would likely believe that he was incompetent. I, having been associated with this expert in the restoration of the Sigiriya paintings, would like to refute these allegations. Firstly minimum restoration was undertaken, and this was largely in areas around the painted figures where the off-white overall background colour had been lost. And this “touching up” was done using not water colours but acrylic paints, which are mentioned in detail in reports of the work concerned (Raja de Silva - Administration Report of the Archaeological Commissioner for 1967 – 1968; and Raja de Silva – Sigiriya Paintngs, 2009). So, there is no question of water colours fading, as alleged in the article.

Secondly, there was no possibility of direct exposure of the paintings to sunlight for the reason that “an added protective measure introduced by me was to have movable khaki curtains along the top of the wire netting framework to protect the pockets from rain spray during ing spouses are the worst hit.

d. The salary revision based on the collective agreement is the mutually agreed method that ensures industrial peace. This has not been extended to the retirees, for they apparently lack the device utilised by those in harness. They apparently have neither the muscle power nor the political backing of the parties they are affiliated to, nor are the members active or vibrant enough to make the case heard at the proper quarters. Pensioners a few years back were few and the survivors for long too were fewer. Now the number has swelled to more than 6,000 in the People’s Bank alone and there are active nonagenarians. The senior citizens in the country will be in the region of 50 percent of the population in two decades. It is high time this crucial number presented a unified voice preferably with the active support of the current junior colleagues in service, who are destined to be retirees and swell the numbers, sooner than later.

It is an issue that should have been on the top of the agenda of the trade unions affiliated to various political parties to ensure that the benefits of salary revision and other staff benefits are passed on to the pensioners as well simultaneously and preferably intact. R. Suntharalingam

Via email the monsoons, and the direct play of the afternoon sunlight on the paintings” (Sigiriya Paintings, 18). Your readers, however, would tend to believe the unwarranted criticism that the Archaeological Department neglected the protection of the conserved paintings. Archaeology DG criticised Thirdly, readers may note that only trained and qualified conservators of the Archaeological Department were entrusted with the conservation of wall paintings 30 years ago, as the antiquities law provides for. Thus, this gratuitous denigration of the conservation done for three decades by the Archaeological Department at Sigiriya under the directions of former Directors General Roland Silva, Siran Deraniyagala, W.H. Wijepala, (and by Luciano Maranzi in association with the Department), as well as the present Director General of Archaeology, is as inexplicable as it is baseless; it brings no credit to the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology, a public-funded body. The Director of this institute needs to study published official archaeological reports carefully, before pontificating (read: maligning experts) on matters outside his sphere of expertise, which all painters who have had exhibitions are aware of.

Finally, the open criticism of the Director General of Archaeology (DG/A) by the Director of the PostGraduate Institute of Archaeology (D/ PG IAR) for allegedly permitting the Sigiriya paintings to deteriorate is a matter that requires a response from the offended party. The implications of one aspect of the baseless criticisms reported in the article could have adverse repercussions beyond our shores. It is possible that the UNESCO would be informed of imminent danger to the safeguarding of an integral part of the World Heritage site of Sigiriya on account of alleged continuous neglect of duty by its custodian – the D/GA. It is advisable that the Prime Minister, who is also Minister of Cultural Affairs take disciplinary action against the D/PG IAR for making the public statements which are calculated to bring the DG/A into disrepute, and by extension the GOSL into disrepute regarding a World Heritage site. He should be asked to substantiate his allegations by producing the relevant documents and show cause as to why action should not be taken against him. It is not in the interests of Sri Lanka and the public service to let this matter ride.

Raja de Silva Member, the Archaeological Advisory

Committee