And now for the other independence

Sunday, February 07, 2016

Another independence day – the 68th since we gave the British the brush off or so some say – has come and gone. The bugles are silenced. The swords are back in their scabbards, the soldiers back in their barracks. The high and the mighty who sat on the stage on Galle Face Green have returned to their state – provided homes in Colombo or wherever, their duty seemingly done. The country’s freedom and sovereignty are in safe hands.

A Mirissa resort that refuses to serve local customers

There was some early flutter in the official dovecotes when it was deduced that the sun’s rays would get in the way of public appreciation of the nation’s great leaders as they sat on stage with the solemnity the occasion demanded or when they sang the national anthem in two languages for the first time since the days of Don Stephen Senanayake, independent Ceylon’s first Prime Minister.

The public of course might have a different view of things. The public might see it as a blessing in disguise had the faces remained unnoticed or unrecognisable. For then the citizenry would be spared looking at those who pledged from other platforms a year or more ago they would ensure the greatest good for the greatest number.

The rhetoric in independence day speeches would wish us to believe that the country is on the march to the sound of horn and drum to greater glory as a united nation where every race and religion and every individual would be treated equally and with dignity, in which the law will prevail over the lawless and political delinquency would be replaced by adherence to a strict code of moral values.

But as T.S Eliot said about the plays of John Webster one must look at the skull beneath the skin. Alas, the skull on view is not a pleasant sight. It seems that independence is not just a highly misunderstood term but deliberately twisted and turned to suit the cravings and desires of individuals and groups. Freedom to perform some actions is often equated with the independence to do anything.

Some days ago the Daily Mirror, the sister paper of the Sunday Times, carried two news reports of hotels and restaurants in southern Sri Lanka that cater only to foreigners and refuse to provide service to Sri Lankans. Last Sunday this newspaper carried a further report of the national/racial discrimination that Sri Lankans suffer in their own country at the hands of owners and staff of hotels and restaurants, especially in Mirissa which was the local area in the spotlight.                                            Read More