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POLITICAL SKETCHBOOK - by Rajpal Abeynayaka

Looking for a “yes man’’? Ask Ashly Wills

The outgoing US Ambassador while delivering a regular ambassadorial speech on 'productivity' last week, said he disagrees at home with his wife, even though he wished she agreed with him on all domestic matters. "It would increase productivity a lot,'' he said pausing just that wee bit expecting some laughter at the end of the punch line, the way speakers pause at an applause line. But no guffaws, just audible murmurs only. "I would wish that the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and I agree on all proposals that I make to him, but that doesn't happen either'', he then said, gazing towards the audience, and hoping for a little bit more appreciation of his humour. This time he got a guffaw here and there, but not as much as he would have liked.

What could have been the reason? Here was a US Ambassador wishing that there was a Sri Lankan Prime Minister who will agree with him on all matters, when there was a man called Moragoda waiting in the wings to do just that. It is basic -- one cannot elicit any humour on an issue when what's being laughed at is beginning to look closer to the truth.

Was he subtle? “The Prime Minister does not agree with me on everything I say (particularly when there is another guy out there who will agree with anything I say even without knowing what I say.)' The part in brackets was unsaid, but it was the part that killed the Ambassador's effort at lightening up the stuffy environment of the productivity awards tamasha.

The productivity issue got some measure of levity from other quarters though, and a hoarding saying www.SLproductivity.org has been altered to read www.SLOproductivity.org. That's something that Ashly Wills could not have thought of -- slow productivity. But the question is whether he was aware of the subtleties of that quip about the 'PM not agreeing with me on everything?'

The Ambassador has an avuncular manner about him, but he plays hardball, and it doesn't show though because he looks a College professor, more than shrewd diplomat, especially when he is bent over that lectern. Therefore when he said "I wish the Prime Minister agrees with me on everything'' could he have been setting the tone for the new Ambassador to come? Was he sounding out the man -- with a maximum of subtlety albeit -- who said I will do anything the US Ambassador tells me -- no questions asked?

Maybe it was different. At least on the eve of his departure, Ashly Wills may have been mollified that there is someone in Sri Lanka who he can really identify with, which is perhaps why he chose to mention all of this at the productivity seminar - - perhaps it was a let-it-all-out swan song kind of speech that he made, forgetting the diplomatic straight jacket for the moment.

Moragoda has an American wife, and so does Ashly Wills we presume. Wills says his wife does not agree with everything that he says - - and Moragodoa's wife, being American too, probably doesn't agree with everything that he says. As if other wives will? But Moragoda has Ashly Wills who agrees with everything he says and Ashly Wills has Moragoda who agrees with everything he says.

Two very typically assertive American wives who can't get into the boys club, where two men perfectly identify with each other and mimic each others thinking? It is an ennobling picture - - one that may not enhance productivity the way two people enhance productivity when they usually get together closer upon Valentine's day -- but nevertheless, a very productive combination, that needs to be hinted at subtly at least ?

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