Sri Lankan Government: An asylum run by the inmates

“Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children;”

~Henry Ward Beecher

Tragic flaw

From the time Sri Lanka gained Independence from the colonial powers, all Sri Lankan political leaders, barring none, have been

indulging in a frenzy of electoral politics; every national issue has been viewed through the electoral eyeglass and solutions to those national issues have been skewed and screwed to such an undignifying degree in almost all instances that the solutions that have been found and effected have proven time and again to be more radical and damaging than the original problem. This tragic flaw ever so manifest in our pattern of governance over the last six and half decades has taken its toll on our national character, giving it an appearance of an incompetent and untrained technician trying to meddle with a machine about whose intricate workings, he does not comprehend at all. Not a good one.

Nothing positive to write home

When you pour into this pot of confusion, the sons of Ministers playing havoc on the beaches, at nightclubs and on board planes in mid-air and also hammering army personnel, the common masses must be really wondering as to what kind of government and governance we have been ‘blessed’ with. To paraphrase Churchill, never in the short history of Sri Lanka’s post-independence era have so few a number created so much chaos in so short a time as at present. The war-victory psyche is still playing out and the second generation of those who govern has taken upon itself the task of undoing whatever the positive that this Government has done, if only there is anything positive to write home about, over the last eight years.

The second generation – and upbringing

This second generation problem which is basically related to the upbringing at home via parents and relatives is not a novel phenomenon. It has been haunting the human mind since the dawn of civilization and many a philosopher and pundit has tried to understand and written volumes of books explaining the causes and effects of such upbringing. Psychologists have pondered over many a sleepless night burning tons of midnight oil and making every possible assumption and presumption in order to ascertain the reasons for man’s behavior.

New culture

But what appeals to the reasonable, ordinary and average mind and what seems patently obvious, is that the values that have been held aloft for so many centuries have been left behind and a totally new culture based on material values and quantifiable benefits has replaced the traditional system of values and determinations. It looks as if religions have played only a minor and marginal role in shaping the minds and behavior of society. The age-old debate whether attitudes change facts or facts change attitudes is still being deliberated. But when politicians become pundits and when they assume that people listen to them purely because they exercise so much of influence over the electorate, the whole argument of human behavior becomes murky and muddied so that distortions become truths and certainties give way to asymmetrical falsehoods.

Comic opera

It is in that imprecise context that we are witnessing today a comic opera of administration which is falsely named governance.

Pontification from political platform, especially when such pontifications cascade from the mass-worshipped victors of a brutal war, becomes an all-powerful balm for the masses whose daily existence is an ardent struggle against unbearable odds, both financially and socially. Nevertheless, when the average Appuhamy sees the vagaries of the second generation politicos (offspring of politicians), he wouldn’t have to wait far too long nor will it be far too distant that a real revolt replaces the complacent outlook of life and its hardships.

Lack of programs

The chaotic conduct of these ‘children of power’ would eventually have to give way. It won’t last forever as most government politicians wish and hope. Ordinary men and women too have hopes and aspirations which are no less substantial in the development and growth of a nation. The present regime’s lack of attention to this aspect of governance is glaring and its play on the minds of the masses seem to be waning, yet the lack of implementable programs and policies towards the youth of the country is the most grieving aspect of this nagging issue.

Education policy in ruins

The education policy of this government, both in the secondary and higher levels, is in ruins and the Ministers in charge are either totally incompetent or insensitive or both. When the youth so orphaned by the governing party is witness to the dastardly behavior of their counterparts who are born to the powers that be, the sense of frustration and distress that is consuming these minds would know no

bounds when they choose to explode, willy-nilly. Hardly a day goes by without a demonstration of one kind or another held by the students of the Universities. When this is considered against a background in which two or three students share the same meal, not because they value sharing but because none of them separately have enough money to bring a meal a day, the picture assumes a much darker shade.

It’s they who are abandoned and orphaned by their leaders, both inside and outside the campus and it’s they who are starving and having only a piece of garment to wear day in and day out. When such discrepancies exist, it is more than just easy for any trouble-maker to fish in that ‘troubled water’.

Government clueless

But the Government looks even more clueless than those whom they govern. Report after report states that three main institutions of the public industry- electricity, power, and airlines continue to make losses of unprecedented magnitude and such losses are directly attributed to corruption, negligence and nepotism and when in that gloomy atmosphere, the governing bigwigs keep gallivanting the globe at the country’s expense, what appears to a reasonable man and woman is that a mental asylum is in charge of running the country’s affairs and it’s being steered by the inmates of the asylum rather than by competent administrators and executives.

Most talked about issue in the country

The plot gets thicker when it comes to the most talked about issue in the country today- the Thirteenth Amendment. Two parties of the

coalition, namely the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress and the group of left-wing Ministers are openly canvassing against any changes to the 13 A. In the meanwhile, Champika Ranawaka and Wimal Weerawansa, two powerful Ministers in the Cabinet are holding major rallies against any constitutional reconciliation proposed to the Tamil question.

Desperate statements

While India is watching, with as much a hawkish eye as one can imagine, the local ‘walas’ are playing ‘pandu’ with our constitution. The pressures that are being exerted upon the Sri Lankan polity are reaching unbearable levels and it could be seen in the desperate statements that are being delivered every now and then by key government figures. Leadership, which is the most significant character of any politician, seems to be ebbing away from all our leaders, both in Government and Opposition.

Children of power

The first generation is bleeding the country white while the ‘children of power’ are enjoying the ill-gotten benefits like drunken sailors on a furlough. A rudderless boat is adrift. The present government, resembles an asylum run by the inmates.

 

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