Kumara Chapabandara
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Kumara Chapabandara (කුමාර චාපාබණ්ඩාර) is a professional journalist, political activist. He had been working for
Lakhanda (
ලක්භඬ)
( Voice of Lanka ) Radio, TNL channel and also for Rawaya newspaper
during the years of 1999–2001, then he launched a new media movement
named Nidahas ( Free Lanka Media Net ) and published the '
Nidahas' (
නිදහස්) newspaper,
[1]
He is the author of
Elangata (
ඊළඟට),
Army Army (
ආර්මි ආර්මි),
Jala Rakusanta Erehiwa (
ජල රකුසන්ට එරෙහිව),
Rawayata Sakshiyak (
රාවයට සාක්ෂියක්),
Ukthiya Pramadai (
යුක්තිය ප්රමාදයි),
Kumbi (
කූඹි) and
Hikkaduwa Heluwen Newai(
භික්කඩුව භෙලුවෙන් නෙවෙයි).
[2][3]
He became a political activist while working for Sri Lanka Army
Medical Corps in 1980s. He experienced the war in the zone of North East
and realized what the war was; He wanted to further study the political
context in which the war began, he wanted to expose fraud and
corruptions in the military activities in public being in the Army, he
did his further studies in the field of photography and journalism
during that period. He was arrested while writing a column to Rawaya
named
‘Balakotuwa’ (
බලකොටුව) against fraud and corruptions
in the army, he was jailed in the prisons respectively of Army Medical
Corps and Military Police while a court-martial was being conducted, he
was finally jailed in Welikada prison for one year, but the authorities
had to release him after three months due to an order from the appeal
court.
He later developed a new discourse called
Open Dialogue, a
knowledge based process to make the entire society better based on
social sciences such as Political Science and History, in this context
he Introduce a new theme as
Media & Human Relationship to the
private sector. He has worked for the Jetwing Hotels, Mount Lavinia
Hotel and Club Benthota – sister company of Mount Lavinia in advisory
capacity for several years. He is now working for
Maxies & Company (Pvt) Ltd as
Head of Department, Media and HR/ Advisor to the Chairman. He has launched a monthly newspaper for Maxies also named
Wedabima (
වැඩබිම)
and does suggest to develop an industrial dialogue in the country. He
has introduced another new discourse while working in Maxies as '
art of music vs science of life'.
He Joined Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps
He joined Sri Lanka Army Medical Corps in 1986 after having done GCE
A/ Level in Bio Science at Balangoda Central College, in Rathnapura
District in Sri Lanka. He had his basic army training in Diyathalawa
Army Training Academy and he was attached to Sri Lanka Army Medical
Corps Head Office at Colombo 3 ( near Gall Face ) in which the army
Hospital also was situated. He worked for the department of Dentistry
and he was sent to
Jaffna battle Field time to time with the medical teams, he joined
Yapa Patuna (
යාපා පටුන) Radio Service broadcast by Sri Lanka Broadcasting Cooperation at
Palaly (
පලාලි) to present a special first aid program for the army personnel.
He Later did some programs for
Vishva Sravani broadcast (
විෂ්ව ශ්රවනි විකාශය) which was operated in Colombo, SLBC head Office too, he then did a Diploma in Journalism in the year of 1992 in
Colombo University, he was qualified as a photographer in
Hegoda Seya Nikethanaya (
හේගොඩ සේයා නිකේතනය) also during that period.
To LAK HANDA (ලක්හඬ) Radio
He joined Lak Handa Radio
( Voice of Lanka ) as a communicator in 1998 being in the army and produced several programs, such as
‘Gini Weta Addara’ (
ගිනි වැට අද්දර),
‘Gan Iura (
ගඟ ඉවුර) ,
‘168th hour’ (
168 වෙනි හෝරාව) and
‘Andaheraya’ (
අඬභැරය)
etc. his ambition was to become a professional Journalist, by 1998 he
decided to leave the Army at the completion of 12 years’ service
according to the service agreement, he was not permitted to leave the
service due to a special gazette related to the war situation in the
North and East in the country.
He became a freelance Journalist of
Lakhanda and later joined
Rawaya newspaper also as a political columnist, he wrote a column to Rawaya named
‘Balakotuwa’
exposing fraud and corruptions in the Army and criticizing military
authority, political authority as well.
He was arrested and questioned while keeping in the jail in the army by
the Military Police at the end of year 1998 and a court martial was
executed against him; allegation was disobedience to the hierarchy of
the Army, he was finally jailed at Welikada Prison for imprisonment of
one year. He was able to continue his political column even being a
prisoner against military and political authorities, he exposed several
hidden issues in the prison also during this period. This is very rear
incident ( may be sometimes first time in the history ) to be recorded
for the history – he could perform as a journalist being a prisoner
against the system in which he became a prisoner.
He was released after 3 months of imprisonment due to an order of the
Magistrate, Court at the Fort Colombo, considering the case which was in
the Appeal Courts too filed by his lawyers - this is also a remarkable
incident i.e. judgment of the magistrate court is against a Court
Martial.
He later published a book named
‘Army Army’[4] to illustrate this history.
With RAWAYA (රාවය) NewsPaper
He was questioned by senior army officers and warned to stop the
media activities as some of them had some illegal deals with outside
parties, specially there had been a hidden drugs ( medicine) deal which
was later exposed by him through Rawaya ( it is exposed in the book of
Army Army too ), he did not give up his attempt, in that circumstances
he was transferred to Wauniya war front where the military forces lost
the battle. His 12 year’s service in the army had also been completed by
that time and he refused to accept the movement order to Waunia war
front; a court martial was executed against him for the charge of
disobedience.
Then he joined the editorial of Rawaya newspaper while working for
Lakhanda Radio also in the middle of year 1998 as a political columnist,
he wrote
‘Balakotuwa’ in which the fraud and corruptions of the
Army were later exposed by him, within couple of weeks he was arrested
by the Military Police and kept in a shell ( he was later kept open
arrest ) at Military Headquarters at Narahenpita. He was questioned by a
team of Military Police Officers to find how he had got such secret
information; he was able to continue the column ‘Balakotuwa’ even in the
custody – after couple of weeks he was released due to this media
involvement.
After a few weeks Chapa was again arrested once the court martial
was implemented at Panagoda Army Camp, he was kept in a shell at Army
Medical Corps premises in Colombo for 3 months until the court martial
was over, he could continue the column ‘Balakotuwa’ in Rawaya even
during this imprisonment.
Hearing of court martial was going on for nearly one year and at
last he was sent to Welikada Jail for one year’s imprisonment; Mr.
Manjula Makumbura, Attorney - at - law handled first part of the court
martial. Mr. Kalinga Indrathissa and his assistant Mr. Viraj
Premasinghe, attorney - at - law continued the process and made an
application to appeal courts after the said judgment, after three months
he was released on an order given by the Magistrate, Fort, Colombo
considering the application of the court martial too – it is a
remarkable incident of the judicial system as this is against the
military authority in the country.
Chapa kept on writing his column for Rawaya during his imprisonment at
Welikada jail too, he then exposed of several hidden issues in the
prison also through his column ‘Balakotuwa’
Then he worked for Rawaya as a freelance journalist, but full-time till
beginning of the year 2001, that was very critical era of the country as
there had been various political crises, specially the war in the North
and East had come to its peak level; there were serious allegations
against the president Mrs. Chandrika Bandaranayake Kumarathunge ( Mr.
Victor Ivan, editor in chief of Rawaya has very clearly analyzed that
situation in his
‘Chaura Rejina’ (චෞර රැජින) book too),
during that period Chapa was very active political activist who did
various investigations against fraud and corruptions, political violence
as well in the country – he stood for social justice for any cost
introducing a new dimension for the field of journalism, specially Chapa
was struggling for free and fair elections during the president
Chandrika’s era to strengthen democratic practices in the country; media
practice of the Rawaya newspaper was also remarkable in Sri Lanka in
that era as it did a tremendous role to make the governing system of the
country more democratic. He has written various articles and involved
in different political activities against NGOs also which have become
international political partners in the historical crisis in Sri Lanka.
He has analyzed this history in his book
‘Rawayata Sakshiyak’ in detail.
He did an investigation on water management policy which was
suggested for Sri Lanka by international organizations led by IWMI and
developed a media campaign against that criticizing the said project as a
‘commercial crime’; he wrote a book named
‘Jala Rakusanta Erehiwa’[5][6]
on this issue and some of professionals whom have been exposed in the
book filed cases in the Supreme court on defamation, Mr. Sarath Perera,
Attorney – at – Law appeared for the cases on behalf of Chapa and the
cases were dismissed due to some technical grounds. He still keeps on
educating and guiding the community against this so-called water
management policy.
While working for Rawaya and Nidahas newspapers he participated for
various TV discussions in TNL Channel, Sirasa, Swarnavahini, Max TV and
MTV – he worked for TNL Channel and Sirasa as a TV presenter too, then
he could expose several hidden issues related to governance of the
country for betterment of the society, he introduced with these media
activities a new dimension for investigative journalism.
To be ‘free’ (නිදහස්)
At last Chapa has very clearly emphasized in his book
‘Rawayata Sakshiyk’
on his vision ( according to him, his practice! ) for social justice
and how the media does make barriers against his way serving for its
capital; he further explains in his book, in that circumstances how any
media involvement does support the political system available in a
country as a major partner of the global market creating economic
disparity and social injustice everywhere in the world.
Chapa left Rawaya editorial in the year of 2001 to launch a free
media movement named ‘free Lanka media net’, he formed the new media
center at Nawala, Nugegoda, there was a team of members for his media
center including Miss. Dinuksha Paththiniwasam and Mrs. Amali Konara,
they got a new web site registered named
‘free’; by that time
‘Unilever’
the well-known company had suddenly closed its Mabole factory
dismissing nearly 810 workers and those workers had been asking media
support to solve their crisis in more democratic manner. Most of the
reputed media stations do still depend on Unilever advertising budgets
and therefore none of them could stand for rights of the said workers.
Chapa joined the particular workers with his team to develop a media
protest launching a monthly newspaper named
‘free’, the protest
went on for more than one year and ultimately all the workers were able
to get their compensations, this is also a remarkable incident in which
practice of the media gets another political dimension.
Chapa had met financial challenges to continue his work and decided to
do commercial arts using his born talents in arts to raise funds to run
the movement, he did photography, TV documentaries, illustrations and
also cartoons for various organizations on commercial basis. Name of the
said paper was changed from English to Sinhala i.e. ‘free’ to ‘Nidahas’
from the second year and it had been published for 10 years, i.e. till
the year of 2011, in fact
‘Nidahas’ is not a usual newspaper, it
is a political involvement, most of the articles had been written while
protesting against social injustice on the ground, it is a new media
practice - it is a miracle! He did this struggle without any capital and
also without advertisements, he has published a book named
‘Kumbi’
analyzing this long history, he has explained in this book how
difficult this journey was. He has developed a new political discourse
named ‘open dialogue’ with this experience and in the book of ‘Kumbi’ he
has described that he and his activities are in the same ‘process’ of
open dialogue. ‘life and the world remain in open dialogue!’ he has
written!
He had then developed a new discourse named ‘Media and HR’ for the
private sector to make the business organizations better and fair for
the both parties, employees and employers. He joined Maxies &
Company ( Pvt) ltd - Wennappuwa, Jetwing Hotels, Mount Lavinia Hotel and
its sister company Clunb Benthota at advisory level to introduce this
new discourse.
In Maxies (මැක්සීස්)
Chapa introduced the discourse of open dialogue to Maxies to
reorganize the company up to a certain level, he introduced the new
concept of Media and HR into Maxies while launching the
‘Maxies Media Center’ also for the company, monthly newspaper
‘Wedabima’ is being published now and it does suggest an industrial dialogue among all the industries in the country.
He has introduced a series of programs named ‘life – to
experience…’ with the theme of ‘ art of music Vs science of life’ into
Maxies, these programs are being conducted by him in the organization,
in schools and in the prisons.
‘Struggling to make the society fair and better is a
historical challenge which has to be analyzed in open dialogue, there
may be many ways to follow and many grounds to work!’ he says!
