By Vishwamithra –

“If the ruler wants to play the game by himself and follow secret policies, he must present a decoy to the masses. He cannot escape the mass; but he can draw between himself and that mass an invisible curtain, a screen, on which the mass will see projected the mirage of some politics, while the real politics are being made behind it.” ~Jacques Ellul

The stirring of the leaves in the woods and their dancing to the melodious breeze would vanish in a little while. A rainstorm is imminent. What it takes away with the branches and trees could be anyone’s guess. Yet the fragrance of fresh raindrops on earth would continue to linger on for discerning men and women to relish. The aftermath of heavy and mighty rainfall has its own intrinsic merits; it’s a harbinger of even better things to come; with the dawn of the sun next morning, the dew that shields the plain green grass will evaporate in a flash. Yet another day begins. That is precisely how the cycle of human endurance spins.

In that ceaseless spinning cycle, Sri Lanka is wedged right in the middle, willy nilly consuming itself like a greedy python trying swallowing an oversized chicken as its day’s supper. Demand for restructuring of our debts is the focus of discussion. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has its own demands and the pressure buildup is seemingly intense. Belt-tightening is becoming functional without finding its articulation by the government’s politicians. Daily shopper carries many a testament to painstaking and frugal living. Politics as usual has adopted its own lewd stance; it has occupied its own exclusive space and those who do not wish to be disturbed by the vagaries of this unkind enterprise are involuntarily heaved into its deepest bottom. 

Sri Lanka today has become the most visible and shameless panhandler of Asia. With a promising future in the early nineteen fifties, Ceylon’s economy ranked second only to that of Japan. Now, even Bangladesh and Nepal are ahead of us. Her rich and flashy coastlines have become the roaming grounds for day-to-day tourists who are in the lowest layer of these wandering men and women from the West. They are looking for the cheapest hotels, cheapest food and cheapest entertainment.

Marauding thugs who also happened to be politicians embarrass the country as well as themselves when they come across beautiful white-complexioned women on the roadside and an incident which saw one of our southern politicians ran after such a pretty visitor with a handgun is still in our memories. The cultural decay was manifestly tearing apart the drapery of our society; socially what was considered first-class and affluent have been exposed beyond recognition and alleged killings of mega players in the business world has shocked an otherwise dispirited wealthy class. At various MacDonald’s restaurants, one can see the gulf glaring in your face. While in a designated area reserved by a wealthy parent the kids of those wealthy parents dance to the tunes of modern day Rap music; outside, hanging on to the window, children of a hapless parent look on, every inch of their being burning with envy and hatred with an unanswered question: why can’t we have the same fun?

Then the economic collapse arrived. Like an old wound oozing its corrupt mixture of puss and blood, the economy first began the bleeding until it reached the unenviable stage of bankruptcy. A national tragedy of massive proportion occurred and yet the politicians would not care a damn. They were still wandering in the wilderness of ill-gotten wealth and comforts. 

Ranil Wickremesinghe understood the underlying dynamics of this crisis. He became the president of the country, virtually has no one to account to. He was not elected as a result he is not answerable to the electorate. He has two more years to govern by virtue of the powers of a parliamentary selection. However, he can only go on exercising those powers as long as the Pohottuwa group of parliamentarians wishes. 

Into this mixture of political chaos only fell the local government election. Ranil saw a way out of this mix and emerge as a winner. In the 1956 General Elections, the United National Party (UNP) was led by Sir John Kotelawala. He was second only to Ranil Wickremesinghe as the leader of the UNP. SWRD Bandaranaike floated his election campaign purely on cultural grounds. A ‘place in the sun’ for the ‘Common Man’, Sinhala to be made the official language in 24 hours and great emphasis on Buddha Jayanthi Celebrations were the leading banners during the campaign. Buddhist Monks led the campaign and SWRD was victorious. The polarization along ethno-language lines so created by SWRD and his Buddhist Monk was so deep and inerasable, it exists even today, especially after the 30 year old war and irrevocable division between Northern Tamils and Sinhalese living south of Vavuniya. No economic issue was even highlighted during the campaign.

Today it’s the total opposite. What’s utmost in the minds of the Lankan voter is the economy. It is warfare for the parents to feed the children; it’s a battle for the car owners to pump petrol or diesel for their vehicles; it’s a struggle for the small boutique owners to sustain their businesses at the exorbitant costs of their supplies. 

Coming back to the local government elections scheduled for March 9, the most obvious difference between the ‘56 elections and this LG election is, while the ’56 election was exclusively on a sociocultural platform, this one is basically on an econopolitical one. More than six months have elapsed since Ranil assumed Presidency. To date these six months have hardly produced any tangible advantages to the majority of the population- middleclass and the lower middleclass and poor class.

Ranil being a shrewd and cunning politician, being the nephew of old JRJ, has decided to resort to whatever means available for him to distract the voting majority from the economic crisis. He wanted any other polarizing subject to dominate the national conversation. What other subject is there other than the Sinhala-Tamil division.

By declaring interest in the full implementation of the 13th Amendment, Ranil introduced another pivotal subject into the voter’s mindset. Away from the current economic hardships, a socioculturally volatile and politically susceptible people would always seek refuge in a fake patriotism. It is not only leaders, followers too tend to go along this treacherously devious path in order to satisfy themselves that they committed no wrong at the eleventh hour if their patriotism is called into question.

Ranil very cleverly found that secret weapon; his aim is not to serve the people; he simply has no concept of service of man, on the contrary, what he has is service of self. Blinded by and utterly delusional in self-serving visions, our current President is one master in deception, depravity and decadence. 

13th Amendment to our Constitution is quite a controversial matter. Discussion of its contents would bore the average non-Tamil/Muslim politician But its contents and non-implementation to the fullest extent possible by the Executive branch of our Government is much a provocative subject for out Tamil leaders. Devolving Land and Police powers to the provinces other than the North and the East would not be a bone of contention for our Sinhalese political leaders. But they seem to be dreading when these same powers are devolved to the North and the East. These are the after-effects of the ’56 revolution. SWRD’s destruction process of our body-politic is still continuing at alarming pace.

Nevertheless, during the recent Aragalaya period, that Sinhalese nationalism seemed to have gone into a coma. Ranil’s attempt to implement the 13A to the fullest is to reawaken a sleeping giant. That sleeping giant is Sinhalese nationalism. Unleashed to the most ruthless limit during the various racial breakouts in the fifties, sixties and seventies, Sinhalese nationalism bared open the oozing wounds in the Sinhala psyche. It had to reach a climax with a 30-year war, and being victorious seemed to be the answer. But we do not seem to have any empathy for our Tamil brethren. Racial détente along solid principles and a stable architecture seems far away from our Sinhala mindset.

However, Ranil Wickremesinghe playing the 13A card on the eve of a crucial local government election is another crudity of our kind of politics, exclusively to Sri Lanka. Only the National People’s Power (NPP) seems to be in favor of or neutral on the 13A. Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB), Maithripala Sirisena-led factions and Pohottuwa groups are totally against the full implementation of the 13A. Blasting rhetorical nonsense such as sovereignty of the nation, national security and territorial integrity would not resolve this issue. Nor would Ranil Wickremasinghe’s underhand political gimmicks offer any solution. We have come back to where we started.

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