By Narada –

 Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” ~ Immanual Kant

Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, then Governor-General, told Theodore Morgan—an American economist who served as advisor and later Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Ceylon (1951–53)—that “Ceylon is the best job the British have done.” *

The son of an obscure postmaster, Sir Oliver rose to become Auditor General, a close advisor to our first Prime Minister, Independence Negotiator with a the British and eventually the Governor-General of Ceylon.

Upon retirement he settled in the United Kingdom. He owned several racehorses that ran on legendary English tracks like Ascot and Epsom.

Strangely, no one questioned how a postmaster’s son, who spent his entire lifetime in public service, managed to own racehorses in the UK. His meteoric career perfectly epitomizes elite capture of the state from our pre independence days.

H.A.J. Hulugalle, the doyen of English broadsheet journalism of the day, explained Sir Oliver’s meteoric rise: “Sir Oliver Goonetilleke reached eminence by a combination of mental ability, physical energy and a happy knack of being always there.” And also, a knack of shaping his own destiny!

This happy knack of being in the right place at the right time has helped many others who followed Sir Oliver’s blazing trail.

We see this pattern repeated in a lady entrepreneur’s memoirs, where she recounts how her husband, while waiting to meet Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, overheard the Prime Minister’s secretary mentioning that Sri Lanka was confronting an imminent shortage of sugar. Her narrative continues by describing how an affable Food Controller helped leverage this insider information to make her fledgling enterprise with help from another budding tycoon a grand success.

Much later, when the Mahaweli Diversion Project was undertaken by the JR Jayewardene (JRJ) government, the irrepressible SP Amarasingam Editor of Tribune observed that “the diverted Mahaweli will flow to Trinco through Finco.”

These are irresistible reminiscences of a citizen who happily voted for AKD, and is very unlikely to be around for the next presidential election.

In his most recent, address to Parliament, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake laid bare the anatomy of Sri Lanka’s governance crisis: a state hijacked by powerful intermediaries, where political immunity has long been treated as a birthright.

Proclaiming that his administration will untangle the dangerous nexus between political power, organized crime, and financial fraud, Dissanayake issued a direct challenge to the nation’s culture of impunity.

This determined push by the National People’s Power (NPP) to ‘weaponize’ the rule of law equally against all citizens strikes at a rotten structure over seven decades in the making and decaying.

The roots of this crisis trace directly back to the pre-independence State Council, where British-supervised self-governance laid the groundwork for an exclusive domestic elite to monopolize state machinery. At independence Brown Sahibs replaced the Pukka Sahibs. Professor Sunil Ariyaratne said it with poetic precession, “ලේ හැලුනේ නෑ සුද්දා තරහා වුනෙත් නෑ යන්ට ගියෙත් නැහැ නොගිහින් හිටියෙත් නැහැ.”

By asserting that no one is above the law, the NPP is trying to break the cycle of elite capture that has defined post-independence Sri Lanka. The success of this monumental effort hinges on whether the administration can systematically overhaul these foundational flaws.

AKD’s pursuit of the ideal republic where everybody is equal before the law is undertaken amidst a global disorder where all nations face uncertainty, staggering inflation, and a global energy crunch.

In this chaotic reality, one hopes there are some in our parliament who have at least a passing acquaintance with Plato’s “Republic”.

The Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s ‘Republic’ imagines prisoners chained in a dark cave, staring at wall shadows cast by a fire. Believing these illusions are the only reality, they resist the truth. The allegory teaches that only ‘education’ or discovering of truth is the only painful journey to break free, see true forms, and come to terms with reality. Educating people while restoring the rule of law and minding the floating dollar amidst Global disorder is no easy task.

The Allegory of the Cave provides a striking lens to comprehend Sri Lanka’s current political reality.

The Aragalaya fundamentally rewrote the rules of the game. The subsequent election of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and a National People’s Power (NPP) government marked a drastic break from the past.

Today, our society exists in tense friction between a collapsing “shadow world” and an imaginary future of “clear light.”

For generations, Sri Lankan voters were Plato’s chained prisoners. We sat in the dark, watching a carefully orchestrated shadow play.

Elite dynasties and a post-civil war heroic dynasty of ‘Ruhuna’- were our puppeteers.

Using controlled state media and vast patronage networks, they projected a comforting illusion of stability and prosperity.

The public was conditioned to accept the smoke and mirrors. We embraced ethnic polarization, celebrated short-term handouts, and mistook unsustainable, debt-fueled projects for genuine economic growth.

Like the cave dwellers, we gleefully played these shadow games—fiercely debated superficial partisan politics while foundational pillars of our economy and the rule of law decayed beneath us. Can you imagine a sane nation making Basil Rajapaksa our Minister of Finance?

The 2022 economic crisis shattered the illusion. Crippling fuel shortages, hyperinflation, and a historic debt default finally broke our chains.

But, today, stepping out of the cave is proving painful and disorienting.

Dragged abruptly into the blinding light of global economic realities, we must now confront a sobering truth. Our national wealth was an imagined lie.

Today’s harsh climate of austerity—governed by IMF bailouts, crushing tax burdens, and painful structural reforms—is our agonizing road back to the real world.

The NPP administration positions itself as the freed prisoner in Plato’s cave. It has returned to the depths of the cave to dismantle old illusions.

Driving a fierce campaign for truth, the government has anchored its entire rhetoric on anti-corruption and the rule of law, promising an end to the era of political favoritism.

However, a two-thirds majority in Parliament does not fully reflect the complex ground reality. AKD must pay heed to Imanuel Kant’s timeless diktat. “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”

Sri Lankan society remains highly polarized. Traditional political blocs embedded bureaucratic structures, and sections of the population accustomed to the old patronage system actively resist these new, structural shifts. Facing a 25% poverty rate, severe public spending constraints, and environmental shocks, many citizens experience “reform fatigue.” They find themselves longing for the familiar, predictable comfort of the old shadow world, even if that world was built on an absurd lie.

* Morgan repeats Sir Oliver’s remark in a paper on Economic Development of Ceylon, published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.