Today’s refrain differs from yesterday’s

Well, Paakshikaya, we don’t grudge you getting excited about the Brazilian cabaret artistes who performed at the dinner, at Los Angeles. Then, on an earlier occasion Paakshikaya also penned something about the fund raiser in New York. Clearly, Paakshikaya must be a worried man! 

So Paakshikaya, all your advice about the UNP having to win the votes of the Sri Lankan voters in Lunugamvehera or Nochchiyagama and not those of UNPers in Los Angeles or New York - who cannot vote is like pouring water on a duck’s back, my dear. 

That is because I can confidently tell you that our leaders are preparing a European sojourn in Paris and London. We need the Francs and Sterling in addition to the Dollars because Buddy, it seems we cannot trust our local private sector lounge wearing captains of industry anymore. (The saronged Mudalalis are with us, anyway!) They have now entered the arena of politics, but I’ll come to that in a moment. 

I want to make a point about Paakshikaya’s comments on our leader’s trips to New York and Los Angeles which he poked fun at. During the past few days I came across an interesting fact of your own leader’s trip to New York and London almost co-inciding with our leader’s trip. It is more about her visit to London. We shall stick to London because I feel one should not drag personal issues into this and refer to Cambridge. 

Now, Paakshikaya, what was your leader doing in London? Was she in London, as the Nursery Rhyme goes visiting the queen? I don’t think so. At a time when your government has referred to a “most decisive moment” in its war with the LTTE here, your leader, who is also the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces is in London. At a time when the government had decided to take control of Mankulam (and in the process, losing Killinochchi) she was attending meetings in London, held to commemorate your beloved founder and her father S.W.R.D Bandaranaike. 

And who was seated next to her at this meeting, Paakshikaya? It was someone by the name of Barry Gardiner, the Labour Member of Parliament for Brent. 

And who is this Hon. Gardiner, MP? The same fellow who goes and advocates “Eelam” at an LTTE.-sponsored conference at Chatham House also in London - just a week later! 

Here is your Justice Minister attacking our leader at a Washington Academic Institute for suggesting talks with the LTTE. And here is your President seated next to a man who says there must be an “Eelam”. Funny isn’t it, if it was not. Tragic for our country? And, talking of your Justice Minister, one of your many “Reporters” in the Cabinet told me that your leader had asked him “out-of-the- blues” at a Cabinet meeting why our Party does not want to talk with him. 

The learned law professor’s knee jerk response had been, ‘why, Madam, that was The Sunday Times that reported it, isn’t it?’ As if to say what The Sunday Times says should not be taken seriously. The fact is however, he did not deny what he said. 

Having waved The Sunday Times “red flag” to the President, the Professor says he used the words “Vacuous” and “irrelevant” about our leader’s suggestions for unconditional talks with the LTTE deliberately. After all, he said “Vacuous” means “Empty”, so what’s the big deal and why was the UNP annoyed, he argued sheepishly. 

I went for my dusty Oxford English Dictionary (as most people do when the Professor starts talking!) to do a double check, because you must never trust what the Professor says Paakshikaya as even some of your party people are finding out now. Anyway, I do remember my old English Master using this word “vacuous” when some of my classmates made “clever” statements. 

And what does the OED say? It gives three meanings. 1. lacking expression, 2. un-intelligent, 3. empty. The Professor picks No 3, very intelligent indeed. 

Be that as it may, Paakshikaya. I shall revert to the private sector “initiative” which you talked about. You referred to the UNP as the darling of the private sector and the “Mahanayakas of capitalism. 

It is appropriate to discuss this subject particularly this week when we mark the second death anniversary of our late leader, Junius Richard Jayewardena, “JR” to all and sundry, the man whose vision has enabled this country to understand the pressures of a war and the collapse of other economies in the region. 

I don’t know how old you are Paakshikaya, but if you don’t remember, someone will tell you of the economy we inherited in 1977. That was an economy running on it’s rims - no food, no clothing, no foreign travel, no jobs, no industry, no nothing except queues, rice ration books and clothes which came with the complimentary perfume of kerosene oil. 

J.R. Jayewardena turned the economy around, no one can dare deny that. He made men out of minions. Some of them, backing the PA now are sucking up to the government of the day in the guise of expressing their political views. Never mind, we say, Paakshikaya because that is the way of politics. But when they do that, some of them going to the extent of criticising JR - JR-bashing is fashionable today - remember, Paakshikaya that they were there with long tongues around the Great helmsman of yesteryear. Then, Paakshikaya talks of our leader’s “Business Buddies” well, - some of them come to see him at night while they are with your leaders by day. That, Paakshikaya, is the business of businessmen: running with the hare and hunting with the fox. 

During our time, they got land to build their hotels but today they are into many, many deals with you: sea cargo terminals, air cargo terminals, opening their own banks and advising the government to give tenders to only those listed on the Stock Exchange so that the Maharaja and those with Access (people who backed you and still back some people in your government) can be kept out. 

Here, Paakshikaya, I must elaborate on just one of these ‘deals’ -the decision to award the Queen Elizabeth Quay (QEQ) development project to the Australian company P & O. We know that those in this government gave specific instructions to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority not to deal with the Japanese in this project (see: letter sent by the Secretary to the Chairman of the Ports Authority reproduced in this page). 

That, Paakshikaya, must be the height of absurdity. The Japanese were the ones who expanded the Colombo Port during Lalith Athulathmudali’s tenure as Minister of Trade and Shipping. Then, Colombo became the 18th best port in the world, after development by the Japanese who did their work scientifically and systematically even going to the extent of surveying and studying the waters around the port. 

And your government follows that up by asking that the Japanese be kept out of the port, Paakshikaya,instead awarding the development project contract to the Australian P & O company of which the local agents are better known for their sausages. Little wonder, then, that a ship recently keeled over! So, workers in the port who used to say “Sinhalaya Modaya, Japana Hapana” now say “Sinhalaya Lokaya, Japana Kapalaa”. 

So, these are the type of people now around you Paakshikya. They are no doubt beholden to you. They get duty concessions on the sale of Beer. Others haven’t paid employees their EPF dues but talk eloquently about bi-partisan politics. And your government, Paakshikaya, tolerates them all. 

The more I think of them, Paakshikaya, the more my blood boils. This is why I simply must agree with the NMT which calls upon these trousered Mudalalis to contribute 10 percent of their profits to the war effort. 

Probably extracting water from a stone may be easier than that. Campaign funds are a different ball game and here I must pay a small compliment to the much maligned Ceylon Tobacco Company. For, whatever questionable industry they are in, they are at least looking after the wounded soldiers in some way, because I understand these war heroes are being provided some kind of self employment in CTC ventures. 

Now, Paakshikaya, I understand that your Minister - yes, the same Professor G.L. Peiris is using the private sector initiative to try and rope in his non-starter devolution package. 

Of course, given the implications for business, the private sector might take note of what the NMT has said if they want some permanency - fifteen years of non-interference by the government on policies regarding agriculture, industry, education and then if the Professor’s package is going to devolve all these powers, shouldn’t the private sector be dealing with the LTTE as well? 

The Central Government we have today is nothing but a minority government, Paakshikaya, technically lasting on a one vote majority in Parliament. They are getting through the business of the day, thanks to the minority parties in Parliament and J.R. Jayewardena’s Executive Presidential system. 

Recently your leader told some Tamil citizens in a question and answer programme over TV (I’m told the question came from the Information Department, as is now usual in these programmes) that she cannot do anything with the Constitution that J.R. Jayewardene enacted because even if they have 80 percent of the votes in the country (statistics - here we go again!) she is short of 16 votes in Parliament to change even a comma in the Constitution. 

What a shame no one asked a supplementary question, Paakshikaya: “But Madam, the UNP’s willing to give their 16 votes and more for you to abolish the Executive Presidency. Why are you ignoring that and carrying on with a system your partymen said was evil and you yourself promised would be abolished by July 15,1995" 

Shame, Paakshikaya, Shame. 

Komisam Varthawa: Sins of Commissions

Upali Gunaratne, a retired Supreme Court Judge, has been appointed by the President of the country to write a commission report – to suit the exigencies of the appointing authority. Already another retired Supreme Court Judge has written two such reports, but these have been so obviously biased and the conclusions so ludicrous that they have come for considerable criticism by the media. Therefore this time the President is keen to enlist the services of a man known and respected for his principled conduct in the past. 

Upali Gunaratne’s task is to prove that a former President was not assassinated by the Tigers, as the police report concluded, but by two of his own colleagues – former Minister Vishvapala and former deputy minister Vidushaka. The bait – an ambassadorship. Gunaratne, though an honourable man, still has an Achilles’ Heel – the need to financially support his son Palitha who is studying in the US. 

Gunaratne knows what is expected of him – but the facts simply do not add up. The secretary of the commission, a young lawyer by the name of Herath offers a way out - imagination. 

Herath belongs to the generation of students “who studies law in Sinhala. Their self confidence increases with the lack of knowledge of law – like JVPers”. Herath comes up with a suitable basis for the report - just before he was assassinated the President waved a white handkerchief: a blood stained national dress which was discovered near the site; and the Municipal Council washed the site clean within half an hour of the incident. In fact Herath is writing a play on the assassination and Gunaratne is told by the President’s envoy that the report can be based on Herath’s draft. 

The play begins with the assassination of a former Minister who had set himself as the rival to the then President. The assassination is obviously the handiwork of the President’s two confidantes, Minister Vishvapala and Deputy Minister Vidushaka. 

The President, who is concerned about public backlash, threatens to expose everything. Eventually he is mollified because his confidantes succeed in putting the blame on the LTTE. An innocent Tamil youth who came to get a passport is killed; a cyanide capsule is forced down the throat of the body and the corpse is dumped in a ditch, to be discovered by the Police. The confidantes then come up with a new conspiracy – a mock assassination attempt to get their boss much needed public sympathy. During a public demonstration, the President’s domestic servant turns up with a flask which actually contains the Presidential milk coffee. As soon as he sights the boy the President waves a white flag, which is the signal for a small bomb to go off. This will not harm the President but injure some of the demonstrators slightly and will be immediately blamed on the opposition. 

In the confusion the completely unharmed President dons a (pre-prepared) blood soaked shirt, goes straight to the Galle Face and addresses the crowd. So far, so good. 

Unknown to the President however, his confidantes plan to turn the illusion into reality – because they are worried that the President will betray them in order to save his own skin. There is a large bomb instead of a small bomb, and the President is killed. 

Gunaratne wants facts. He also points out that a previous Presidential Commission headed by a respected senior Judge Bamunusinghe has proven that the former Minister was actually killed by the LTTE. 

Herath responds by saying that he is not interested in facts or the law. Why bother, he asks because “the people have already concluded that the Presidential Commissions always come up with conclusions desired by the President who appoints them”. Moreover the current President carried out a campaign against the Bamunusinghe Report. What is expected of Gunaratne is to “prove the correctness of that campaign”. 

Gunaratne, aware of his familial responsibilities, decides to go along and write the Report that is expected of him for the sake of his son’s future. However he discovers that “My conscience, and yours are no longer the same conscience” (Nietzche) – and he cannot ignore the dictates of his own conscience, irrespective of the cost. He will forego the proffered ambassadorship and instead sell the only thing he possesses, the house he lives in and send the money to his son. That night his son calls to say that he has a job which will enable him to pay for his education – a job found by a former subordinate of his father who respects Gunaratne for his unimpeachable conduct as a Judge. Gunaratne can only say, repeatedly, “The Lord has answered our prayers”. 

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