10 theSun | WEDNESDAY MAY 20 2009

news without borders

He talked of peace but

died fighting to the end
A worker LONDON: He was the most his hideout, a full 24 hours But despite Balasing-
checks reclusive guerilla leader of before the event. No indica- ham’s political savvy, it
a MP3 modern times, cocooning tion was given of when the soon became clear that the
player at a himself in the dense jungle great man might show up. implications of the confer-
small-scale of the Vanni in northern After hanging around in ence had not been thought
assembly Sri Lanka surrounded by sticky heat for half a day, through.
line of South
REUTERSPIX

bodyguards and his closest finally vans arrived to ferry Prabhakaran was held
Korean MP3 comrades, never photo- us to the venue, a tin-roofed responsible for the assas-
maker BBT graphed, never betrayed, hall open to the jungle in the sinations of Indian prime
in Seoul. never spotted. LTTE’s Political Academy minister Rajiv Gandhi and
Asians have It was ten years since he deep in the jungle. Sri Lankan president Ranas-

Asian consumers
gone back had given his last interview, We were obliged to leave inghe Premadasa and other
to basics and the only western jour- anything that might contain political leaders.
and are nalist to try to reach him a nasty surprise, including The Tigers had been
opting for since then, Marie Colvin of satellite dishes, computer proscribed as a terrorist
go back to basics in no-frills,
lower-priced
products.
the Sunday Times, failed in
the attempt and lost an eye
in the process.
bags and even wallets, back
at base. Ears, mouths and
socks had all been minutely
organisation by both Britain
and the United States. Prab-
hakaran had clung to power

downturn But in 2002 the Norwe-

SEOUL: Forget about bells and whis-
tles. Asians have gone back to basics
in the economic slowdown and are
opting for no-frills, lower-priced
products rather than brand names
and items with fancy features that
rarely get used.
Manufacturers across the region,
the world’s largest producer of elec-
tronics and white goods, are more
than happy to oblige as they scramble
for orders that will keep their heads
above water until the economic tide
changes. “People are hesitant to buy
top-notch, expensive models, but
they still want to buy decent ones
with some useful functions,” said
Kohei Ueda, a general manager at
Bic Camera, a major consumer elec-
tronics chain in Japan.
From laptops without standard
accessories such as CD-roms, to rice
cookers and microwave ovens with
minimal functions, brands such as
Samsung and LG Electronics are
quickly introducing basic items that
can be sold at lower price points.
It’s all about surviving the slow-
down which has dealt a severe blow
to Asia’s export-dependent econo-
mies such as South Korea which saw
exports drop 25% in the first quarter
of the year alone.
“In an economic downturn,
liquidity problems outweigh the
factor of profits. Therefore, it would
be important to keep their factories
running and pay back debt,” said
Choe Soon-kyoo, a professor of
Yonsei University’s business school
in Seoul.
“They are adopting that low-price
strategy to maintain liquidity rather
than to make profits,” he added.
Buoyant sales from these prod-
ucts are providing relief, and much
needed cash flow, to companies that
posted heavy profit falls or swung to
quarterly losses early this year such
as Samsung Electronics whose earn-
ings plummeted to 619 billion won
in the March quarter from 2.2 trillion
won a year ago.
Some companies such as LG
Electronics are introducing new
products to capture market share
during a time of uncertainty. Late
last year, it introduced the Cookie,
a smart phone that sells for 590,000
won (US$475), 20-40% cheaper than
other smart phones with price tags of
US$600-$800.
“Our Cookie phone is designed
to fit in the recession environment,”
Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG
Electronics’ Mobile Communications
unit, remarked at a recent media
event. “Acceptance of touchscreen
phones is growing but there’s a
price barrier. Our target is making
premium phones more affordable
and widely available”.
Doing away with redundancies in
functions and rationalising product
line-ups helps companies cut back
on costs. For consumers, it may re-
flect a desire for simplicity at a time
of austerity, a sharp contrast to the
rampant materialism of the bygone
boom years.
“Until now consumers had vague
expectations that multi-functioning
products would be good ones and
they could not help paying higher
prices to get quality functions,” said
LG Economic Research Institute in
a recent research note.
“But consumers started being
fatigued with multiple functions,
and (began) looking for divergent
products with core functions.”
The ‘no frills’ attitude goes
beyond electronics. Sales of cheap
staples such as noodles and fast-food
meals have risen even as purchases
of items such as meat have fallen
due to the slowdown. In Japan, one
of the country’s leading department
stores has reduced the range of
products it sells by 40% to cut down
on inventory costs as Japanese retail
sales slow to the lowest levels in four
years.
“It’s time for back to basics. Cus-
tomers have changed dramatically in
the past few months,” Motoya Okada,
the president of Aeon Co Ltd depart-
ment store, said at a news conference
in March.
“By reducing the variety of items,
the number of suppliers will be also
reduced, which will be reflected in
our bargaining power,” he added.
One store in Tokyo, run by Aeon,
saw its sales of frying pans rise after
it cut variety to 37 styles from 60, ac-
cording to officials from the firm.
Park Jean, an analyst for Woori
Investment & Securities in Seoul, said
reducing the breadth of product lines
is an effective way of cutting costs in
a difficult business environment.
“It is a matter of efficiency,” he
said. “Mass production of a few core
products can lower production costs
rather than producing a variety of
models on a small scale.”
Making profits is tough in a
difficult economy with the Inter-
national Monetary Fund predicting
that private consumption in Asia will
remain subdued as long as rising un-
employment, weak confidence and
low asset prices weigh on household
spending. Kim Rando, a consumer
science professor at Seoul National
University, said the trick is to dif-
ferentiate products and cut produc-
tion costs by designing easy-to-use
products that retain the functions
that consumers most want and need.
Picture: Getty Images
– Reuters
gians coaxed the two sides
in the island’s civil war to
the negotiating table where
they brokered a ceasefire
that for the fi rst time really
looked like holding.
And Velupillai Prabhaka-
ran, founder and undisputed
chief of the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was
persuaded that the time was
ripe to introduce himself
to the world. He decided to
hold a press conference.
But “thambi”, “little
brother” as he was known
to his supporters (he was the
youngest of four brothers),
was taking no chances.
He was not going to set
foot outside the jungle for
our benefit: we would have
to find our way to him.
And to minimise the
chances of his being killed by
a suicide bomb, the terrorist
device he had invented and
used to kill two South Asian
heads of state and hundreds
of other people, the security
was meticulous.
We were ordered to
arrive in Kilinochchi, the
rebel-held town closest to
The leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran,
has been shot dead while fleeing government troops. His death
comes as the Sri Lankan army claims it has liberated the entire country
Kilinochchi War zone
8km Puthukkudiyirippu
5 miles
Prabhakaran and
two deputies killed Mullaittivu
in ambush while
trying to escape
in ambulance
Kilinochchi
INDIA
INDIAN
Area under OCEAN
LTTE control
April 2008
SRI LANKA
Colombo
More
than 70,000
people have
been killed in 80km
26-year conflict 50 miles army overruns rebel-held area
inspected.
More hours of waiting
ensued in the sticky mon-
by killing off his rivals and
terrorising moderate Tamils
into silence.
soon heat of evening – then When the LTTE seized
suddenly he was among control of the Jaffna penin-
us, short, tubby, looking sula in the island’s far north,
its 40,000-strong
Muslim com-
Once these fundamentals are munity had been
recognised, and if the people given 24 hours to
are satisfied, we will consider flee.
giving up the demand for Eelam.” Now peace
– Prabhakaran was within his
grasp, was the
man who had
younger than his 47 years, devoted his life to the armed
dressed as usual in green struggle going to announce a
combat fatigues, pounding historic change?
up on to the stage closely Speaking in a squeaky
hemmed in by muscular voice at odds with his fear-
young bodyguards, all wear- some appearance, Prab-
ing sunglasses. Someone in hakaran insisted that he was
Prabhakaran’s camp had ready to compromise.
been watching too many The Tigers were commit-
videos. ted to a Tamil homeland,
The event was the brain- nationality and self-deter-
child of Anton Balasingham, mination, he said, but “once
long the political brains of the these fundamentals are
Tigers, a former employee of recognised, and if the people
the British High Commission are satisfied, we will con-
in Colombo, drop-out from a sider giving up the demand
South Bank Polytechnic PhD for Eelam” – in other words
course, married to Adele, an for the Tamil nation state.
Australian who was the only But could a man with so
known western Tiger. much blood on his hands
really change?
Could the ruthless brig-
and chief really mutate into
a democratically elected
leader in a suit?
We looked at him and his
goons and wondered. What
was he prepared to say, for
1956: Minority Tamils marginalised example, about Rajiv Gan-
after government makes Sinhala dhi’s assassination.
the official language “It is a very sensitive is-
1976: Rebel sue,” he fudged. “It is a tragic
LTTE formed by incident that happened ten
Velupillai years ago.”
Prabhakaran to And the suicide bomb-
ings, his own invention, the
fight for separate
LTTE’s hideous trade mark
Tamil state in until aped by Al Qaeda?
north-east of island
“Since we are now
1987: India deploys peacekeepers committed to peace,” he
to Tamil areas but they leave in 1990 squeaked, “we don’t want
to make any comment
1993: President Ranasinghe
about suicide attacks at this
Premadasa assassinated by LTTE stage...”
suicide bomber in capital, Colombo We piled back into our
2002: Government and rebels vans and rumbled through
sign Norwegian-brokered ceasefire the night to another corner
of the jungle where we filed
2005: Mahinda Rajapaksa
our stuff.
elected president Sri Lanka was finally at
2006: LTTE resumes attacks peace: all over the island,
Tamils and Sinhalese were
2008: Government annuls ceasefire
united in joyful relief.
Jan 2009: Army takes main rebel But not a few of us asked
bases of Kilinochchi and Mullaittivu ourselves if Prabhakaran
May: LTTE concedes defeat after could succeed in transform-
ing himself, or whether he
would die in those fatigues.
© GRAPHIC NEWS
– The Independent