Beautification of Colombo: A negative move

by Ashley de Vos

Desamanya, Vidya Jyothi, Jathika Uruma Pranama Prasada

Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa had a vision for the beautification of the important parts of Colombo. Some may not agree, but to a great extent this was achieved. He did not hide, but was totally transparent with what he did. We saw trees being cut and the pavements and walkways built. The excessive use of pavements has increased the accumulation of heat due to the creation of heat soaks. Jogging tracks with trees planted away from pavements have benefited many who use them with great appreciation. We have got used to seeing and enjoying the spaces being created.

The trees and the road in front of the National Museum are precious where the beautification of Colombo is concerned. Many years ago, we fought hard to save the majestic Nuga tree in front of the Mayor’s residence at the junction with the Colombo Public Library. There were many meetings with the Director General of the Road Development Authority (RDA).

We were requested to make proposals as to how it could be saved. We did. The concept of the layby round the tree was the result. This concept was taken further to save the trees in front of the CNAPT and the Tennis Club and to create an essential space for a shaded car park. This was achieved and it is working well. The visionary RDA DG Malla, my classmate, and other decision-makers in the RDA should be congratulated on their focussed vision in helping Mr. Rajapaksa enhance his beautification scheme for Colombo.

The Museum and its front wall are part of a declared and protected monument, and as such, it is illegal to destroy or encroach into the museum premises for any activity other than works related to the enhancement of the Museum. The front wall by the road is an inherent part of the protected monument and should remain intact. The road as it stands reduces the speed of traffic that would otherwise be a danger to those trying to access the Museum. It worked well and everyone was

happy. The Museum Director General and garden staff should be congratulated on the great interest they take in the maintenance of the lawn and the low hedge line that defines the space. The lawn as well as the low hedge is an inherent part of the architecture of the period. But then not everyone knows or appreciates history. This expression in the extensive lawn and the low hedge with the statue in the foreground and the Museum building in the back ground has become a tourist attraction as many foreigners stand on the pavement outside and take photographs of the lawn and century old Museum building to take back as a memento of their trip to Colombo.

It needs an understanding of history to appreciate that even colonial buildings are periodised and had their facades detailed according to the building timefame of the period. With every passing decade identified by the changes in details. These buildings could be easily dated by a careful study of the details of the façade.

Unfortunately, every colonial period building restored in the recent past in Colombo has the same façade; and this has completely falsified the period during which they were constructed. It may not have been purposely done, but it is a record of a lack of serious historical research or understanding by those responsible prior to the work being undertaken.

Other countries except those with access to cheap oil, either produced by them or robbed from others are moving away from individual transport to mass transport. There is no need to endlessly keep widening roads as it totally destroys the carefully nurtured avenue planting and the quality of the humanness of the environment that every city needs.

Cities were made by people and never people for cities. Except in city states like Singapore, where they have over the years carefully cloned a human to live and work in their artificial environments. Those who could not adopt have already emigrated. These clones do not even smile any more, making one wonder they are even human. Nor was the vehicle made for the city. Otherwise, it would have scaled to the requirements of the city.

The availability of cheap oil led to the manufacture of large petrol-guzzling cars built in the US for people to move from the cities to the suburbs or to vast distances across the country in reasonable comfort with their families. It was the expression of a new affluence—the American Dream.

The Italians had a good vision for the city when Fiat put out the Fiat 500 Millecento to be driven in the narrow streets of Rome and Britain; it came out with the Mini in an effort to maintain the essential human quality of the city environment.

Visionless bureaucrats copy from others. But Sri Lanka with a rich history and an unbroken civilisation of over two thousand five hundred years—one of the oldest in the world—should have a proud vision of its own as to where it wants to be in the future. The vision should be totally different to what anybody else does. We should not become cheap copycats. Sri Lanka should stop being the dumping ground for crap ideas that are totally out of date and what many countries have rejected and moved away from.

Under the cover of the lockdown, a green plastic screen was put up just behind the front wall of the Museum and furious digging with heavy machinery, went on. One sincerely hopes that the trees carefully planted by a previous Director General of the National Museum to record important milestones in the history of the Museum will be safe.

The widening of the road that would cut across the Museum lawn and destroy what one visionary Director General of the RDA created and achieved to help Rajapaksa further enhance the City of Colombo.

Today, Mr. Rajapaksa, as President of the country, should be most disturbed by what is being done. If the aim of the project is what is feared, it will be most unfortunate as a display of utmost disrespect and insensitivity to a monument; it will amount to a wilful destruction of a very important part of Colombo that has been carefully preserved for the practical and visual enjoyment of all.