By Vishwamithra –

“I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore

On the surface is seems placid; its usual character has assumed its customary waves and strokes. The macro numbers are encouraging; inflation, not coming down, yet, they say, stays within manageable limits. Unemployment is not representing jaw-dropping escalations as in the Sirimavo Bandaranaike era.

Each night Colombo looks like another Singapore, or even more resplendent, resembling the sense-captivating Las Vegas Strip. Cited in the midst of blinding evening lights, modern structures built to bewitch the richer class with international smorgasbord of hors d’oeuvres, lobster bisque chowders, imported rack of lamb and filet mignon followed by exotic deserts washed down by Triple XO cognac, would indeed entice the most pious Rishi out of his holy trance. An unholy sepulcher is inviting the unsuspecting seeker after mundane pleasures to its yet-unseen womb. When affluent men and women pursue worldly pleasures so described, they become willing victims of circumstances still within their control. But they wouldn’t dare challenge, nor defy the desires and joy that these well-lit creatures entreat them with.

All seven days of the week, after each sunset, these pleasure seekers visit these catacombs, leaving whatever that is left of their moral lives behind and hound the interim sources of gratification and delight. And the irony is that they do find the delight and amusement they so greedily solicit. The government, the legislature, the Executive or the judiciary has no role to play to control human avarice. One cannot legislate morality or ethical conduct. That operates in the extralegal realm. Human weakness is the common denominator in all extra-ethical enterprises.

Nevertheless, what’s generated by the pleasure-seekers contribute to the growth of the domestic economy. The State cannot say that ‘we don’t need their money’; such an extreme stance by the State would drive the country to the brink of economic disaster once again. That, we can’t live with.

You, the reader, must be surely wondering as to where I’m going with this preface to my column. What I’m trying to say is, with all the propaganda and publicity generated by the government quarters on the moral character of politicians, they cannot afford to let slip-by the cash and other attendant incomes generated by the Colombo-based night-life businesses. The macro picture that depicts a satisfactory position of the country’s economy does have to take into account the accommodation that the the economy is extending to all activities of the economic life of a nation; its growth or lack thereof, its susceptibility to littlest of negative global dynamics, its sensitivities to the immediate geopolitical econopolitical processes, with emphasis on the country’s fuel, energy and power needs are the current subjects that must be irking the minds of the Cabinet and the Chief Executive.

While Colombo and other big cities are immersed in a pool of luxury and great abundance, the rural sector of the country, from Point Pedro to Point Dondra, is still struggling to cope with the inflating essential household goods and groceries; the migrant population from these remote hamlets to the big cities for employment and other ‘deals’ naturally overcrowds the thoroughfares, bus stands and railway stations. For them the demand for daily needs takes priority above everything else. When their stomachs are shrunk beyond endurance, resorting to minor robbery or theft of a pound of bread from a shack of a boutique does not appear to be a felony. What they have learnt in their Poya Day schools in the villages would fly out of the window.

This unmerciful, pathetic social drama never ends. Defying all macro economic numbers, whether they tell you a very rosy tale or one that’s not all that ‘bad’, the gulf between those who enjoy material comforts beyond all imagination and those who strive daily to put food on the table for the family keeps widening. The middle-class keeps vanishing; if that middle-class is disappearing towards the top, one can be content; but when they realize that the cause of the disappearing is because the middle-class is losing its grip on the their ability to sustain a quasi-comfortable life for their families, they will be confronted by a looming tragedy.

They will be forced to cut down on their daily, weekly and monthly expenditure. The first item that has to be done away with will be their monthly entertainment. That source of entertainment might a family’s trip to the close-by theater for a movie screening; it might be a monthly dinner out to the township’s restaurant; or it might be an evening get-together of friends and family members at their own home. They are all innocent ways of spending their disposable income. But with the steady rise in essential household goods, food and other groceries, they have begun to tighten their proverbial belts.

Politics apart, life in general has started to show its obscenities to the average middle-class families, island-wide. If its merely a tightening of belts for the middle-class, just imagine the peril such an economic condition would impose upon the poorer segments of the population. That segment’s battle would not be confined to intelligent ways of grappling with the scarcities and exorbitant prices of their food. They would be faced with a very disagreeable choice: their usual two meals a day or one single meal per day. That choice would drive any sane man to the insufferable limits of the human condition.

Such brutalities may manifest themselves, they may not. If they do, it may not be solely due to the domestic circumstances that surround the current administration. The developing worldwide model, its very sustenance by the perpetual and undisturbed supply chain of modern weaponry, the emergence of far right-wing authoritarian leaders and completely apathetic subject people make up the current global condition. In such a massive bubble, Sri Lanka’s positioning would be hardly recognizable.

We are surrounded by two giant international players: India and China. Both are economic monsters; their military power, put together, would be a reasonably counter-challenge to the US mite. Balancing dynamics of this equation would prevent either of these two camps resorting to the nuclear option. But the day this ever-moving equilibrium of the present international tensions reaching a breaking point might not be too far away. Each and every country, whether their econ-military power is at the bottom or far up at the top, an unbroken supply of energy, fuel and power sources would ultimately swing the balance between bankruptcy and keeping the head above the water level.

In such an intriguing and breathtaking context, Sri Lanka cannot be taken to have fallen asleep at the proverbial switch. Unlike four to five decades ago when the flow of information was painstakingly slow, the twenty first century has gifted mankind with enormous power of the internet and the I-phone supremacy. What is happening in the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the deserted regions in Russia could be known within sixty seconds in the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and his Cabinet can be summoned in minutes if an emergency situation arises in the far-out corners in the globe that demands their attention and reciprocal measures. Building up reserves of gas, oil, petrol, diesel and other essential commodities must be done today, now. Because it’s coming!

It will be too late if we wait till it knocks on our door. Such procrastination would classify AKD and his NPP cohorts with the same old fellows who waited, sleeping, until we ran out of gas, petrol and diesel. The Second Aragalaya would overwhelm the AKDs and the NPP government in no time.

AKD’s emergence as our leader and the forming of the NPP government should not be shown in our history books as a dress rehearsal for the ‘second and real one’. Kerensky being put in power in 1905 before the 1917 October Revolution in  the then Tsarist Russia was only a dress rehearsal because it exposed the vulnerabilities of the Tsarist regime and highlighted the deep-seated issues that led to the 1917 October Revolution. Our people will not forgive AKD and his NPP if such an economic debacle recurred.

Sri Lanka as a nation got one last chance. Anura Kumara Dissanayake was elected as President and the NPP voted into power in Parliament with a three fourths of majority; both are no ordinary occurrences. But the international econopolitical currents are not curving our way; their strengths and depths are not yet properly visible and their devouring power is palpably overpowering. We, as a tiny speck in the Indian Ocean, cannot afford to be caught in this gruesome and unpredictable wave. Yet, we can prepare ourselves, at least to shield ourselves against the mightiest of the storms.

It’s coming…for sure.

*The writer can be reached at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com