By Vishwamithra –

“If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years.” ~ Bertrand Russell

Anura Kumara Dissanayake fought the Sri Lankan elites and won. His party routed this same elite class one month later. The story of the Ceylonese elite against the common man has had its fascinating past. Its gradual escalation in stature since Independence and its all-consuming ramifications in the twenty first century were all too manifest in the sudden collapse of the country’s economy. Ceylon, which was once described as a way too ahead of Singapore in the nineteen fifties, reached her  the most distressing stage in the year twenty twenty two (2022) with the shameful declaration of bankruptcy. Who was responsible for the collapse and who managed the country’s economy for the preceding seventy five years in that deplorable phase, needs no more explanation nor any justification.

The Colombo elite, foreign-educated with all the educational qualifications under the sun and the arrogant breed of the class that navigated the land’s economy and its governance machinery had no answer. Corruption that had no place in politics or in governance before the nineteen sixties assumed an irreplaceable tier in the ladder of administration. In the fifties and sixties, those who engaged in politics lost their assets; some had to mortgage their Colombo Seven properties to finance their election campaigns. SWRD Bandaranaike, albeit his radical and shortsighted policies on language and economic management, had to obtain a Bank loan placing his Rosemead Place property as collateral. The Senanayakes, Kotelawalas and Jayewardenes did not have to depend on the corrupt Mudalalis and businessman’s contributions to run their campaigns.

That was another era and its death had already occurred. The corrupt practices that enveloped the body politic of the country has already claimed its drastic results. While the lot of the rural man, both of the Up North and the Deep South, degenerated from year to year, those who engaged in the art of running the government machinery, politicos as well as the bureaucracy, made a steep  a climb  on the socioeconomic journey. And they did it with enviable ease. The elite achieved its well-cushioned social status; their presence in the state-sponsored cocktail parties and five-star hotel dining rooms extended its cavalier joy well beyond all imagination. The endurance of the rural man’s suffering was too weak to overcome the deformed desires of his counterpart elite.

This distorted social condition continued for almost five decades, unbroken and undisturbed. The poor got poorer by the day while the elite became richer by the hour. The fissures of this social paradigm had to come; its explosion was waiting to happen; only a triggering mechanism was missing. And the Rajapaksas provided that unkind hand. Within one single decade, a collection of members of one single family conspired, willy nilly, to set ablaze a long dormant ember of political corruption and dishonesty. That is history now.

But the elite class that sustained this despicable family-cabal may have wrongly assumed that they could continue with their society-destroying modus operandi unimpeded. Sadly, they were mistaken. A social class that nourished and nurtured only one of its exclusive segments cannot be indulging in that disturbing sustenance without coming into clash with its counterpart segments, socially, economically and politically. The elite may have thought that the current President and his political Party were made of the same fragile ‘stuff’ of that vulnerable segment.

They were sadly mistaken. That mistake may not have been due solely to the falsehood that has been nourishing the social paradigm that was in existence since the elite class was in power from 1947. That false premise was founded on another social falsehood that each and every ruling power was dependent upon continuing the flow of money and luxuries to the holders of that power. AKD and the NPP were not fundamentally and ideologically committed to that premise. Having been promulgating a total contradictory stance to the status quo, having been preaching and genuinely being seen as emerging from the same working class of the vast masses in the country, AKD and the NPP cannot deviate from that primary assertion.

Furthermore, the country’s abysmal record with its performance in the sphere of economy and its related sub-phases, the expectations of the vast masses went sky-high after they were installed in power in the 2024 elections. Therefore, committing to the fulfillment of the pledges so made on the election platforms takes a position a priori. Such a theoretical posture would demand sincere commitment not only from the top leadership of the government, it also challenges the second and third tiers of the government and to a large extent from the grassroots of the party that worked tirelessly for the election of the NPP to power.

The polarization of our society is complete. Us vs. them or elite vs the commoner cannot be more elaborately and succinctly defined than it is being evident today. The country’s official political Opposition has decided to be intimate with that dreaded elite class; its unceasing justification of the terrible injustices visited upon the common man by the Rajapaksas and Wickremesinghes have positioned the Opposition in a very unenviable status, condemning them to utter disgust and disparage of the masses. However, the continuing barrage of questions and demands for explanations from the NPP and its leader President Dissanayake seems to have had some effect on the mainstream media and its siblings in the social media.

Apparently, it renders some justification for their survival in the fast-paced media market to be destructively critical of the government’s manner of handling matters of governance affairs. While the media should be critical, both constructively as well as in a critically justifiable manner of the government, its policies and their implementation, the public conduct of AKD, his Cabinet, NPP parliamentarians and in all other related matters, they, the media, must also show some discipline in the manner in which they disseminate information to the public. When that discipline breaks down, the main stream media and the social media lose their marketplace; but if that loss of the marketplace is associated with indulgence in gossip-mongering, the possible resultant anarchic situation would in turn convert a possible anarchy into uncontrolled mass upheaval. It is not the time for such a socially detrimental paradigm.

Nevertheless, we seem to be very fortunate that AKD, at each of his turns, seems to be acting with not only skill and intellectually rich manner, he  is displaying to the country that he is a wise man. It is one thing to be led by a bright and skilled politician, but to be gifted with a wise man on top is indeed the fortune of the country. Such men are far and in between. The elite class will not give up its battle; nor its hope.

The elite is entrenched in a last-minute war. Its very existence and its survival are intertwined with what is being exposed on the conduct of the leaders of the previous governments. The people’s cry for justice and accountability shall not stop until all and every wrong-doer is accounted for. The problem the government is facing is not only handling of the corruption and accountability or lack thereof, its main concern is handling that very issue while making every attempt to manage an economy with the ultimate aim of bringing relief and prosperity to the voters who made no mistake in electing them. In the coming months, the elite vs AKD/NPP battle will get much more demanding and defined.

Can AKD maintain a process of introducing prophylactic measures to our wounded economy and still be engaged in a brutal warfare with the country’s elite class whose fundamental function has been to aggressively engage in resisting the changes that are being introduced? A system change does not have to be clothed in a violent and revolutionary garb. It could be disguised and visit you accompanied with multifaceted roles and a clever and a wise leader would not only recognize them, he would also adopt them as his own.

The battle lines have been drawn; the elite that has been sulking away since the NPP came to power  should not be afforded any chance at redeeming itself. Having brought down the country since its Independence, the elite does not deserve another chance, none at all.

Power is no alien creature to these elite groups; they have been immersed in it for seventy six years and the results that they can show is abject bankruptcy. Any movement from there is oriented only in one direction- up. But in the same vein, the NPP government simply cannot relax. Remember, they have to be successful again only once whereas AKD and the NPP machinery have to be near-perfect at all times. That is not easy.

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