Ever since the last parliamentary election perceptively changed the country’s political topography, there have been constant discussions and debates on where Sri Lanka would head in the coming decade or so. Not that the country’s politically conscious population has not been averse to sensitive change or had shut their eyes and ears to what might [...]

Columns

Digging for cans of worms—and witches’ broth too

View(s):

Ever since the last parliamentary election perceptively changed the country’s political topography, there have been constant discussions and debates on where Sri Lanka would head in the coming decade or so.

Not that the country’s politically conscious population has not been averse to sensitive change or had shut their eyes and ears to what might be ahead, sharply and devastatingly as we did some years back, imposing political and severe economic revival.

After all, it is not that we did not raise some alarm bells as early as the beginning of September 1970 in an article in the UK’s “Guardian” newspaper. For this, a couple of the government henchmen castigated me for trying to spoil its image abroad at a time when Minister Felix Dias Bandaranaike was in Britain.

That master prognosticator of Ceylon’s political future later disappeared from the scene of political story-telling after I asked him whether he would like to place a worthy wager. That was several months later (April 1971) when the Rohana Wijeweera-led Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launched its armed attack on the Mrs Sirima Bandaranaike government with shotguns and sticks and stones.

Some of those remnants who are still around dreaming of dreams but in more tempered ways might well remember the days of Marx and Lenin and be dreaming of a resurrected Engels, as many ambitious youth probably still see in their revolutionary ardour and some still do in their eagerness, one supposes.

Turn the coin upside down, and there lie those who believe in different political and economic theories and those who sell their own western magic to which they are embedded and glued, as modern capitalism would permit.

Where the country is headed in the coming days—be it months or years—a tussle, and not simply a push and shove—for political and economic supremacy lies ahead, whether one believes the tea leaves or not. The trends pushing for change, be they from the left or right, appear from both sides, though more vigorously from some than from others.

If the momentum from the monied class—and not just here—has gained vigour, it surely is because its chief ‘batsman’ is still waving his batten and not the lethal baton, which has seen more officials disappear from the White House and other federal institutions than any other president except the current incumbent of the White House.

Many people thought that when the current NPP leader launched his and his party’s election campaigns, what they watched, heard and listened to on various media or in person were the usual pomp and bluster that poured out of well-packed propaganda packages, one hardly different from the other except in some parts of the content.

When Anura Kumara Dissanayake and his cohorts spread their political campaign beyond Sri Lanka’s territorial waters and into foreign lands as the former western power did in power and glory, it seemed our new political setup had reversed history. It seemed they were in search of support, but not among foreigners as such, but among their own people now resident in foreign lands.

If this excursion beyond the shores in search of political, economic and financial support had a meaning, it seemed to mean little to the politically overheated, who dismissed the new campaign efforts as largely gimmicry, or empty.

The NPP leadership threatened to turn Sri Lanka upside down, rid the country of the old order and turn it into new. It appeared to want to repeat, in a way, what the poet Lord Tennyson said in Morte d’Arthur—about the old order changing to new.

I would not bet on how many members or supporters of Arthurian belief in his particular religion, but it seemed to me that when AKD and his near and dear announced loud and clear they would stand the prevailing Sri Lankan society on its head, there was only some sniggering and niggling as though it was a good joke.

But what Sri Lanka has seen over the last couple of years is not just turning the earth in the hope of resurrecting the past but in producing the new. But something much deeper and calling for fundamental structural and cultural change.

However, when the newly elected NPP government failed to clean up the past as quickly as the irate party urged the government in pre-election times and the ambitious NPP leaders expected to do but not fast enough for those egging on those who were behind the seats of power—those who till then wielded power and those who shielded those who exercised power and influence in that arena where such trading is possible among the new rich and the old.

So the defeated and those waiting to laugh at the defeated, who seemed as free as the Dickly bird, were engulfed in ire and fire.

But this first-time story is not yet over. It may not with the story spreading to the United Nations. It may not catch fire at the UN General Assembly, where many more things that have begun and are expected to start burning will find their day before long.

News that has reached me from a fellow scribe of many a year tells me of a possible cricket match to be played on the UN grounds, which is easily the biggest encounter between Royal/Thomas’ and other all comers, including a team led by NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

I am told that the match would be some time in the second half of September, the date chosen by the UN Secretary-General when he will toss a coin himself before being accused of partisanship now that there is already still another report from the UN Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka has violated multiple rules of the UNHRC and should be dragged before the International Criminal Court.

Given the possibility that the government side might erect roadblocks to stop the Royal-Thomian side from facing any over that the NPP could mount against the Royal-Thomian team, playing in a sense of genuine camaraderie, they have agreed they will not hit the ball beyond Staten Island even if Donald Trump were sitting on his White House lawn, waiting for a free hit.

While the anti-NPP demonstrators are expected to rally a massive two dozen against a gathering of several hundred fighting against fixed rules, news tells me that the anti-NPP side has already ordered several drones to counter AKD’s NPP rocket bought at bargain prices from Rajapaksa Rocket Retailers.

In the event that they might return home in reverse.

 

Share This Post

WhatsappDeliciousDiggGoogleStumbleuponRedditTechnoratiYahooBloggerMyspaceRSS

Buying or selling electronics has never been easier with the help of Hitad.lk! We, at Hitad.lk, hear your needs and endeavour to provide you with the perfect listings of electronics; because we have listings for nearly anything! Search for your favourite electronic items for sale on Hitad.lk today!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked.
Comments should be within 80 words. *

*

Post Comment

Advertising Rates

Please contact the advertising office on 011 - 2479521 for the advertising rates.