A Glimmer Of Hope?

By Emil van der Poorten –October 2, 2016

Emil van der Poorten

A plethora of reports on politically prominent individuals who are in the process of being investigated or even (God forbid!) prosecuted for robbing from the public purse could not but gladden the hearts of those hoping that Sri Lanka might yet be returned to the model democracy it gave promise of becoming in this old codger’s dim, distant youth! To say that some other pieces of positive news had this writer’s heart overflowing with gratitude would be overstating the case, given the fact that all the events we were witnessing or being promised were long overdue, to put it mildly.

What seems like the first positive step in the application of the internationally-acclaimed “Senaka Bibile Plan” in the pricing and distribution of pharmaceuticals was the most recent step in that direction that I see in the media as I write this. The only thing that gives me pause in that regard is the source of the announcement – Rajitha Senaratne – who has a justified reputation for shooting his mouth off and then having to eat humble pie (even if he chooses not to notice the fact!) Even there, perhaps, the pressure of public opinion, assuming that such is forthcoming from a justifiably jaded populace, might help keep the scales tipped appropriately!

In the year “dot” I wrote a piece titled “The Talibanization of Trinity” about the dress-code that the Principal at the time, with the support of his Board of Governors and several old boys, it seemed, sought to impose on visiting parents and even those invited to the school for reasons other than being parents or guardians. That appeared to raise quite a few conservative hackles not only among the general readership of the publication but in the ranks of some old boys of that school. I certainly find the pronouncement by Akila Viraj Kariyawasam with regard to the matter of “dress codes” for parents visiting their children’s schools for whatever reason welcome news. I hope that an old friend who took issue with my sentiments and his blue-stockinged friends have the good grace to re-think their ultra-conservative opinions (accompanied, perhaps, by an appropriate serving of the afore-mentioned pie). Often and with good reason, these dress-code fanatics have been referred to the Sigiriya frescoes and the fact that the torsos of the females depicted in them are totally devoid of clothing or cover of any description. The fact that the “conservatism” practiced, not only in the matter of dress but in other areas of our day-to-day lives comes from Victorian (Colonial) England is something that our zealots for “purity of race and culture” very conveniently ignore. These are, more often than not, colonial constructs that have nothing to do with “2500 Years of Sinhala Buddhist Civilization.” And the sooner that that fact is rammed down the throats of intemperate bigots, the better, because such action would truly be in the national interest in circumstances where the constant repetition of this nonsense has led to some members of the public, at least, being brain-washed into according it some credibility.

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