By Vishwamithra –

“…Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” ~ Ravindranath Tagore

Siripala woke up early morning. Under a canopy of a foggy sky, he walked up to the tiny garden in front of his little house and felt the cold of the morning dew under his feet; it was so soothing for the dryness in the previous night had parched his entire body. His skin was not soft, nor was it even as one would expect of a man of his young age would be clothed in. His esoteric needs have been satisfied the previous evening; his young wife’s demands are a few yet rigorous in the time within which her needs are satisfactorily met.

A young couple whose mutual needs are simple, yet ambitious in the context of the present economic conditions that influence the whole nation, could easily get carried away and retreat into a cocoon and wither away after making children, submitting themselves into a lethargic and wholly languid lifestyle. Siripala is not of that ordinary mindset; his ambitions are more than average; he hates to get  bogged down in ‘what is’, but determined to inch forward, if he had to, to attain his lifetime goal of making a comfortable living for his loving wife and children. He is ready to make the change, even one of radical order, in order to arrive at his objective with his wife and children beside him.

But Siripala had to make a choice; an inspiring one. He is a Buddhist by birth but rarely went to temple. His religion was very personal to him. Not believing in the exaggerated miracle-like tales in reference to Prince Siddhartha’s life, he had tremendous faith in Buddha’s noble teachings. Adopting the more supple aspects of the profound doctrine, Siripala, however, did not intervene in the blind-like faith his wife had in the ritualistic practices of the great religion. On the contrary, he never hesitated to lend a second hand to Menika, his wife, whenever and wherever she opted to pay her respects to Buddha. A very civilized and exemplary manner in which a newly-wed couple should share a life together, Siripala’s involvement in lending assistance to his wife, without the aid of a ‘servant’ is remarkable- a very proud way of showing humility.

But times have changed. Despite the fact that Siripala had a very secure job, his finances could not be stretched beyond a certain boundary. His wife and the one who is about five months away from being born come first. He loved his family. There are no compromises he was unwilling to make in order to safeguard and sustain them. Issues that bother Siripala and Menika are no more serious than the ones that perturb hundreds of thousands of young couples scattered all over the island;  stagnating in the mobility of the societal ladder, without any hope of an upward movement, they silently suffer and endure unspoken hardships; Siripala not letting Menika know of the dearth of opportunity for him in the workplace, lends his sweat for the improvement of efficiency in his company without a murmur of a complaint.

Siripala and Menika are facing a generational problem; the issues that confront the average Sri Lankan today are not unique, yet the urgency is unprecedented. Their generation has reached the threshold of patience and endurance. Aragalaya-22 made way for this groundbreaking occurrence. An occurrence that becomes real and picks up space and time within and outside the territories of political conversation. Rise of AKD is, not solely, but largely owing to the mindset that was created in the aftermath of the Aragalaya-22.

Both Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa and their respective cohorts made a strategic error: they misread and underestimated the power of the effects of the Aragalaya-22. If both of them end up at the wrong end of the stick come September 22, it would be solely due the collective stupidity of the Gas Cylinder (Ranil’s coalition) and Telephone (SJB) guys.

On the other hand, if one of them, either Ranil or Sajith, ends up victorious on September 21^st night, the country’s psyche should be a curious subject of acute study of many a social scientist. Let us not get there. When one begins looking beyond the obvious, the dynamic of confusions and psychological chaos starts playing their unruly tricks. Analysis after further analysis begets confusions and chaotic theories become the order of the day. In the wake of these countless analyses, one ends up coming to the same place: beginning.  utter waste of time and writing space.

When the voter is presented with a clear and binary choice, keeping the status quo going or a change, a complete and absolute change, clarity dawns on both sides of the passageway. Neither party needs to explain away how and why each asserted that stance. The slates are clean. Who and what will fill the space is totally up to the voter. He and he alone shall decide which way the country’s next part of the journey is taking him. Whether he arrives at this crucial decision after careful thought or through sheer emotional feel, none of us would know for sure. Future historians and social scientists would be left to do that job.

Yet the country has to go on; it has to move forward and cannot wait for bystanders to delay its journey. Ranil, Sajith, Namal or Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whoever takes up the task of assuming leadership at the top,  cannot dictate to the people anymore. That is what the Aragalaya-22 taught us. What the old JVP tried to instill in the tender minds of the then youth of the country in 1971 by way of ‘panthi paha’ (five classes), Aragalaya-22 made a valiant attempt to do to all segments of our society. Wijeweera attempted and failed to accomplish, to install a Marxist regime; the twenty first century version of the same old JVP in a new name as NPP and a new set of principles and a fresh approach to resolution of the nagging issues of the country is trying to accomplish the same: install ‘change’, devoid of Marxian theories. Their efforts should not be ignored; nor should they be underrated.

Sociopolitical transformation, either by armed and violent revolution or by democratic means through the ballot is not easy. If it were easy, every country would have gone through these means and attained what they originally wanted to achieve. The people are not waiting for the occurrence of an   unlikely event to happen. They are waiting and praying for a miracle. An NPP victory at the Presidential Polls would be nothing short of a miracle. At least two thirds of those who voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa (6.9 million voters) need to have decided that AKD is their new choice.

The context of the political dynamic has changed drastically. The workings of the social media have accelerated and the unchecked use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has added further nourishment to an already scrumptious smorgasbord of political inter-relations. The intellectually curious and maddeningly lethargic sections of our community as well are being affected by these ultra modern technical advancements. In a marketplace of susceptible consumers, those who stand to gain the ultimate fruits are the ones who command the controlling machines of the economy. Whether they hail from the public sector or private ventures, consumers, voters at large, would be at the receiving end of the goodies or hardships.

To go back to my old cliché, the people are waiting to eat a savory omelet, but it’s not Ranil, Sajith or AKD who is going to break the egg. It is the voter, hundreds of thousands of Siripalas and Menikas, waiting in line to enter the polling booth today, along with their brothers and sisters from the North and the East, men and women of all color, creed, religion and ethnicity; they shall enter the dark enclave of the polling booth, without allowing any outsider to watch; they shall break the egg or choose not to.

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