Master Sir’s Political Sycophants In High Places – The Bane Of The Nation!

By Mohamed Harees –JANUARY 21, 2022

Lukman Harees

The song “Master Sir” which remained a hit in Sri Lanka for over thirty years is not merely a song but a powerful message that talks about the dignity of labour and social justice. The lyrics of the first verse speak of how the last salary increment of 8 Panam is enough to feed the protagonist’s child with some rice, but it is still less than what he deserves; and asking “Master Sir” to have mercy on him. The second verse covers how the colonial masters used to carry out Corporal punishment on the workers, and how they would be kneeling and shivering in fear when conversing with the master.

‘මට මතක් වෙනවා සුද්දා තැලූ පෙලූ හැටි

අපි කතා කලේ පන ගැහි ගැහි දනින් වැටී

මාස්ටර් සර් මගෙ හිමි තැන මට දෙන්න

අනේ සර් කරුණාවෙන් සලකන්න’

The chorus takes a more hopeful tone, exploring the Tug of war between master and servant, and whether it will end one day and the two will become friends. This Song aptly reflects the subservient slavish mindset of the Sri Lankan worker during the slave-driving days of the early 1900s. The protagonist also expresses a wishful hope that such a day will come. But will it? In a saying attributed to famous Voyager Robert Knox, ‘the injured spine resulting from a fall can be repaired; not the one resulting from a subservient mindset’. Judging by the subservient mentality generally prevailing among people in Sri Lanka in current times too – from the slavish electorate to the civil servants, law enforcement officers as well as some influential sections of the Maha Sangha – sadly dignified living, with the spines standing upright, may only be a distant reality, until, this slavish mindset is repaired, which the ruling class will always exploit to both gain and stay in power. How the Rajapaksa ruling dynasty and their cohorts are still enjoying ‘royal’ status in the minds of a substantial part of the electorate, despite the national wreck they have heaped on Sri Lanka, is demeaning to say the least! Particularly, the country cannot stand tall as a dignified nation when the administrators paid out of the public purse, sell their dignity and souls to the rulers.

The irony was that the singer Neela Wickramasinghe, who sadly passed away in Italy, had the call for mercy (in the song lyrics) being answered when the ‘Master Sir’ (in this context, Gotabaya) rewarded her for helping his election campaign, by appointing her as Sri Lanka’s consul-general. This undeserving appointment was widely condemned and considered as controversial by many. These types of political diplomatic appointments have become common, making them sycophants, going overboard with compliments, to gain various kinds of advantage.

This week, social media was also agog with a shameful story of the Director of Road Development Authority slavishly falling almost on his knees and worship the ‘Master Sir’ at the toll collection point during the opening of an Expressway. This subservient behaviour was way out of the usual respect shown to a superior officer as per Sri Lankan cultural traditions. This officer apparently re-enacted the scenario described in one of the verses of this song, denoting how workers shivered and knelt down in fear in front of the white masters during yesteryears. In the process, he demeaned the dignity of his position and office. These are just inklings of the degeneration of standards in Sri Lanka, and shows that it is just wishful thinking and hope that such a day where tug-o-war between the Master and servant will ever come to an end in Sri Lanka. In a tweet, popular cartoonist Awantha Artigala brilliantly articulated this subservient and sycophantic mentality thus:

Ceylon Civil Service, later transformed into Sri Lanka Administrative Service, has been a dignified public service. Even in recent times, there were many great men who adorned this strikingly distinct public service like Bradman Weerakoon, M D D Peiris, and Mahi Wickremaratne.  There were also exemplary public servants too in the calibre of Dr Wickrema Weerasooria, Lal Jayawardena and Warnasena Rasaputra, whose legacy, in addition to their splendid work in their official capacity also included a total apolitical demeanour before the public. The grave damage that the likes of Rajapakse stooges such as DB Jayasundara, Lalith Weeratunga, and Anusha Palpita caused to the once-dignified public/civil service was colossal, comparable only to what Sarath Silva did to the dignity of the bench in Sri Lanka. Resultantly, the ‘once highly acclaimed’ public service is now gone and has become a derelict of the dead past. Today, bar some, most of the current crop of public servants who are dominating the upper echelons of the government are political slaves and sycophants whose professional standards seem to have fallen by the wayside. Adding salt to injury, the entire Rajapakse family is inside the government machinery, interfering with even day to day government business. Recently, so-called Dr. Rohitha Rajapaksa, the personal secretary to his father PM Mahinda, was seen flexing his muscles within the establishment.

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