A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Sri Lanka’s social dichotomy and its micro-effects
2017-06-07
2017-06-07
“In a country
well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly
governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.” -Confucius
In a desolate landscape, orphaned by any promise of rain or wind, in a
still gloomy surrounding of trees and shrub, a lone farmer is tilling
his land until sunset.
Sunset in this arid zone is a spectacle of rioting colors, all the
colors of the rainbow, from crimson red to violet and orange and blue,
all dancing to a riotous order. But our farmer is woefully oblivious of
that brilliant splendour. Far out on the horizon, a hazy column of
clouds deters any human eye from seeing the fine line that divides land
and the skies. But the hoeing goes on for it is the season for
preparation of the soil before rains arrive, filling the manmade tank
allowing the field channels to gush along the precious waters to the
land of the farmer.
Bare-bodied
and exposing a half-starved, an almost emaciated figure of man, our
farmer’s daily life is made up of physically tiring tasks. Whether
driving a heavy digging hoe into a hardened earth and turning it around,
one hammering after another, with sweat pouring down from his frail
shoulders to his hollow parts of the outer stomach, or finishing flimsy
repairs to a worn-out thatched roof of his old shack of home, he is not
impeded by rain or shine. Demands on his labour are not foreclosed.
We have not yet arrived at the doorstep of a total disarray of our economic life.
We hope that
where administration of Governmental affairs are in tatters, the economy
collapsing, where all vital indices are showing an alarming downward
trend, men, women and children drifting on the streets like ants without
a queen-ant, will not arrive soon.
Today there is
no foreign enemy to point the finger at or as against a target to
galvanise a hapless army of unarmed men; instead we have wretched
politicians taking credit for an
unknown accomplishment.
unknown accomplishment.
- There is a palpable feeling especially among the business leaders and academics that the Government is not competent. That is a very shameful badge to wear.
- Today there is no foreign enemy to point the finger at or as against a target to galvanise a hapless army of unarmed men; instead we have wretched politicians taking credit for an unknown accomplishment.
- This is the broad overview of Sri Lanka’s plight today. Politician on the one hand and bureaucrat on the other have played out the common man.
- We hope the day that where administration of Governmental affairs are in tatters, the economy collapsing, where all vital indices are showing an alarming downward trend, men, women and children drifting on the streets like ants without a queen-ant, will not arrive soon.
The
farmer had gone through this worthless terrain of
early-twenty-first-century-politics. Snaking from one selfish leader to
another, he has gone weary of the journey. The social burden he carries
is enormous and his knees are buckling down- one physically and the
other spiritually. Physically it’s emaciating him beyond recognition.
The strapper of a man at the time he married his village sweetheart, is
now a mere skeleton with some occasional flesh here and there. Our
farmer was never affiliated to any political school of thought nor was
he attached to any political organisation at village level.
This great
human odyssey is being played in every corner of our rural hamlets and
villages. Their inhabitants’ inexorable struggle to keep their families
contended and their stomachs full and spirit breathing, is a hard daily
routine. To relieve their melee of cruel hardships imposed by their own
lack of education, their being born with no bequest of land from their
parents and with many mouths to feed, their being exploited by the
village lender and a heartless system that keeps trampling the poor and
rewarding the rich and avaricious is a great story to tell. It is a
great tale to chronicle. Successive
Governments have failed to do the bare minimal for the poor, except
perhaps the exception of R. Premadasa, despite his dubious record in the
exercise of Governmental power, somewhat dictatorially- as argued by
some, in a Stalinist-fashion. Premadasa is one political leader who has
no match when determining to accomplish quite difficult tasks for the
poorest of the poor. When Premadasa spoke for the poor, no political
leader doubted his commitment. No organisation doubted his authenticity.
Ranasinghe
Premadasa did not hail from those exalted halls of urban sophistication.
In fact he did not pay any respect for that class, which was rich in
snobbery and miserably deficient in real commitment to alleviation of
poverty.
The real issue
with the current rulers, among others, is their lack or inability of
fighting back in the pages of print media or on the wide screens of
television. Strong criticism, in the most severe form and fashion
without any mercy is the only answer.
Classified as belonging to déclassé, Premadasa is one leader who
commanded the respect of those so-called sophisticated class to an
infinite degree and at the same time treated them like mere mortals
whose riches were mainly owing to the closeness of connection they
enjoyed with those in power.
I have written
extensively on the subject of ‘Premadasa Exceptionalism’, but that was
principally limited to his social and political milieu.
Premadasa’s
accomplishments in the field of economic development are creditworthy to
say the least. Although his Executive Presidential tenure was slashed
down way before he completed his full term, his term as Prime Minister,
as second-in-command in the J. R. Jayewardene Government was the one
that brought much fame and praise. As Minister of Local Government,
Housing and Construction, Premadasa’s contribution to the massive
development programme undertaken during that time was not second to the
stupendous accomplishments of Gamini Dissanayake in the Lands and
Mahaweli field and Lalith Athulathmudali’s achievements in the
development of the Port.
When one looks at the present set of politicians, one does not find another R. Premadasa. R. Premadasa’s rivals were not limited to the traditional Opposition. Late in his career they came from within. And he did not handle that with prudence and wisdom. With the departure of Premadasa, the destiny of the United National Party also took a nasty twist. Seventeen years in power is too long for any party to be holding reins of power.
When one looks at the present set of politicians, one does not find another R. Premadasa. R. Premadasa’s rivals were not limited to the traditional Opposition. Late in his career they came from within. And he did not handle that with prudence and wisdom. With the departure of Premadasa, the destiny of the United National Party also took a nasty twist. Seventeen years in power is too long for any party to be holding reins of power.
The Governments
that succeeded did everything for their cronies and friends in the
upper class of society and neglected the poor. That is one reason, among
many, that our farmer is in this stifling cycle of poverty, whose
constant struggle for survival is just another sad chapter in the
worsening human saga in the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
This is the
broad overview of Sri Lanka’s plight today. Politician on the one hand
and bureaucrat on the other have played out the common man.
Farmers, manual
labourers, office peons and clerks, who are now known as management
assistants, all low and middle-level workers both in the public and
private sectors have become collectively subordinated to the massive
mega-deals the politicians and officials are trapped in.
In a land
totally barren of decent cultural practices and creative art, completely
devoid of financial integrity, yet thirsting for accountability and
transparency from the Government sector, which was the promise that was
held in the hustings, the people’s wishes have taken a back seat. It
is not because the Government is otherwise engaged in massive
development undertakings. There is a palpable feeling especially among
the business leaders and academics that the Government is not competent.
That is a very shameful badge to wear. Whether it is incompetence or
lack of motivation or even deliberate disregard for the promises held
out during an election campaign, masses cannot be patient beyond average
human endurance. Why the Rajapaksas score all points in the media is
directly ascribed to this lack of action by those in power. How can
anyone justify Mahinda Rajapaksa’s criticising the current Government
and writing to the media under the heading, ‘Irregular Appointment of
High Court Judge Threatens Independence of the Judiciary’?
What does he think about the voter public?
True, our
people have a very short memory. Yet, for the person who abused the
country’s Judiciary to such an unprecedented degree by removing the then
Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake in the most disrespectful manner,
sending the real war hero General Sarath Fonseka behind bars under the
most flimsy charges, after using the then Chief Justice Mohan Peiris
like a doormat, to hurl stones at the current regime is laughable.
The real issue
with the current rulers, among others, is their lack or inability of
fighting back in the pages of print media or on the wide screens of
television. Strong criticism, in the most severe form and fashion
without any mercy is the only answer.
Mahinda
Rajapaksa, as Donald Trump in the USA is living in his own universe of
alternative facts. Mahinda Rajapaksa simply cannot relate to the
reality of being out of power. His daily routine of getting ready in the
morning, setting his red shawl (Satakaya) around his neck, arriving at
his ornate Presidential desk and shouting orders at his security staff,
receiving visiting foreign dignitaries is irreversibly changed.
His present
routine might be totally different. But getting used to that routine
where there is no ‘power’ is a very hard thing to digest. But his
unlimited wealth apparently has the capacity as well as enormity to
sustain a planned campaign against a ‘media-unsavvy’ administration.
But in the
midst of this brutal conflict between two antagonists, Mahinda Rajapaksa
and Maithri/Ranil combination, we should not forget our farmer, who was
sweating it out far out in the lost land of the arid zone.
His day is not
yet over. After finishing the day’s work in the field, he is eagerly
trekking towards his home where his wife and child await, not
particularly with any hope or optimism. Yet, when the family’s
breadwinner reaches home in his usual depressed state of mind, the whole
panorama of the human drama becomes visible to the discriminating eye.
Now, his landscape is a shack of home. The roof is leaking and the
cow-dung-floor is uneven and rough to the feet of his little child. His
plight is pathetic and his future is gloomy. This is the story of our
rural folks. It is more cruel than sad.
The writer is available on vishwamithra1984@gmail.com
The writer is available on vishwamithra1984@gmail.com