Political Fugitives and the ‘Other Direction’
“In a world of fugitives, the person taking the opposite direction will appear to run away”
- T. S. Elliot
Watching and reading with a disinterested eye the rigmarole that is Sri Lankan politics seems to seriously question the presence of any politician with an iota of commonsense and decency.
So to refresh your memory we have a President doing his best to woe opposition politicians, the UNP trying to deal with their gender-confused leadership and glue ‘the party’ back together and the JVP running away with the Mace when they don’t have their way. As if that wasn’t enough the JHU all but shames any sense of respect and dignity that the clergy in Sri Lanka possessed and the TNA is obviously functioning under a different agenda while the Muslim Congress and the CWC use their few seats in Parliament to make the best life for themselves and their children. And with the growing number of MP’s who are at present in court/on the way to court to protect their party membership that has been taken away for obvious reasons one must seriously wonder as to how we manage to constantly vote in 225 people who have quite obviously been dropped from balconies as babies.
As a friend of mine remarked the only symbols left to vote for are the “katussa” and the “gemba”. And personally i have no problem with the fact that a bunch of complete morons get together a few times a month to hurl abuse at each other and make statements that might hopefully garner them a spot on TV. My itch is that this charade is paid for out of public funds; funds which can be used for more practical purposes. Not to mention the colossal hassle to the transport of everyone else on the road as well as the fact that they are handed added perks while we do our best to keep voting them in to office year after year(sorry 6 years is it? Seems a lot shorter here. Does anyone remember the last Parliament that served it’s entire term?)
Let me also stick the proverbial oar in at this juncture to point out that I am referring to the general perception of Sri Lankan politics and that this is not a promotion of some other sorry excuse for a Democratic state.
With a Cabinet the size of Anura Bandaranaike and the not so subtle indication that it is likely to grow larger (if that is possible. The way the cabinet keeps expanding I would not be surprised if most of the functions at Water’s Edge would have to be cancelled to accommodate weekly cabinet meetings) Sri Lankans need to get a grip of the charade that is government in Sri Lanka.
The point is that Sri Lankan politicians have seriously let down any idea of Rousseau’s Social Contract. The question though is how do we as supposedly sovereign and in possession of our wits if not our vote respond to this severe breach of duty by the legislature which is supposedly a pillar of government?
My point earlier with regard to the labels we attach to ourselves in our thinking is I believe one of the chief culprits. So since our parents voted for the SLFP in the 70’s we vote for them now. There is more than an identification to a point where there is a definite sense of belonging attached to a party. “Our buggers are sure to win this time”, “Apo, they are of no use… our fellows are the only fellows who can do anything properly”. And then come the usual ‘Grass-Hopper’ time we retire to bed with panadols and fervent prayers for a brighter tomorrow.
Which begs three questions as I see it…
- What is the ideal of the proper MP?
- Why is there an almost obvious dichotomy in real life?
- What should we be doing as the Sovereign power to ensure that our views are voiced and our concerns met by our ideal of representatives?
Practically speaking it would not be an easy task to change the political culture here overnight. Yet the step needs to be taken.
My limited exposure to politics does not qualify to me to answer the above questions in any academic manner. However based on my knowledge so far i believe it is safe to assume that…
- The Ideal Politician will change from person to person but that ideal needs a certain extent of realization.
- That dealing with the first would answer the second
- That a new culture needs to be shaped at the cost of the old and that we too should be doing our best to keep our representatives on their toes.
The constant griping about how we only see our MP during election time is a convenient excuse to cover up the fact that we rarely try to meet the MP ourselves to follow up on their promises. We go looking for them when we need something done and then wonder about them returning to request a favor in return.
So it is high time we explore methods to change the unfortunate perceptions of politics here in SL not merely collectively but on an individual level as well.
The faster we find out how to create the ‘person going in the other direction’ the faster we will all be able to pack off the circus and pull this big top down permanently. And I for one can’t wait for that day.
Contributory to What?
“Person X is standing at a bushalt when he observes a man repeatedly slapping a woman who appears to be his wife/girlfriend. Person X does not take any action and remains a bystander. Was Person X’s action violent or not?”
At a recent workshop one of the activities that the participants were asked to do was to “Vote by Foot” on a variety of issues such as the one above. (For those unfamiliar with this we started out in the middle of the room (0) with the wall to our left being a -10 and the wall to our right + 10. The activity asked us to vote based on how we felt about the issue.)
As I found myself leaning against the wall (much to my surprise) in the firm belief that Person X’s action’s were violent I noticed that the number of people who saw things in the same light was surprisingly few and surprisingly mostly male. But that’s for another time
It also got me thinking about how exactly people in general here tend to see any type of violence or crime. The general rule goes basically if it doesn’t affect me, it’s not harmful to anyone. General rule mind you not in every single instance.
This to me, highlights the fact that we have become a greatly apathetic society. The over-saturation of violence that Sri Lanka has come to be so accustomed to as a result of the conflict has desensitized us and we are mostly unaware of it.
So the crime rate rises, the Police love the new traffic laws, and we wonder why Sri Lanka doesn’t progress from it’s current proximity to Banana Republic. It is interesting that while doctors willing to diagnose this cure are a cent a dozen those actively willing to participate in making a change are; in view of the enormity of the task, almost negligible in comparison. So the cycle continues.
The inherent lack in all of us, myself most definitely included is that we fail to see acts of omission as being contributory to the common problem. And it is probably the little things that slowly slowly add up. It’s the milk packet that just missed the bin and the silence when a conductor goes nuts in the bus.
We let these things slowly accumulate till it either effects us or we don’t care anymore. This in none so apparent in terms of the violence prevalent in Sri Lankan society. We seem to be brought up on the Bismarckian precepts of blood and iron and this has eaten in to our outlook on violence in general. True we are the war generation – we grew up with it, we dealt with it and we experienced it (some more directly than most). And unsurprisingly things no longer affect us anymore.
I maybe stating the obvious here but this desensitization has led to a blinkered view of contributory violence/crime/corruption/bribery/theft/prostitution/et all. The question for those who do not think agree is to attempt to remember the last time you stood up for someone who you didn’t know just because it was morally correct to do so.
The more we ignore this issue the more we accept anything that comes our way. So we vote commonly accepted ganglords in to parliament, pay off a cop here and there to escape the paperwork and ignore the obvious symptoms of a decaying society.
Please allow me to be clear. I am not saying that there is such a thing as a perfect society. An examination of the issue at hand though seems to suggest that Sri Lanka in itself maybe quite far away from that particular ideal. So at what cost to ourselves do we turn a blind eye to the abductions taking place?
For how long will we allow violence to permeate our society. Again as I have done earlier I do not wish to merely rant and rave and leave without providing answers. My first suggestion is that we sit back and take a good look at the extent to which we have become desensitized. From this understanding it would be possible to move to greater attempts at rectifying this rot that seems to be taking root in Sri Lanka. As i said before let there be change in the world and let that change begin with me.
The choices as i see it are rather straightforward. Either to let it be, let it be, let it be and allow violence to grow in to a proportion that will definitely have to be dealt with and will be impossible to ignore. Or to take a stance against it now. To say no to verbal abuse. Try not swearing for a day. Tell off a cranky bus conductor. Pay the whole fine. Cast a thinking vote. Make a change.
To be or not to be that is always the question.
Developing a Common Identity
“The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.”
- Richard R. Grant
With the first post having garnered an interesting discussion on identity, I thought it fitting that I examine exactly why that post was written and what this blog is about.
Most Sri Lankans seem to suffer from a serious need to label people – a kind of labelling logocentricism. Thus a person is veiwed in terms of Race – “He’s a Tamil, She’s a Sinhalese”. In terms of political ideology -”She’s a JVP supporter, men! He’s got the hots for Mahinda”. Even in the unlikeliest of places we find ourselves labeling people we meet. “Eyage kadda mara polish machan!” “He’s a Trinitian”.
It seems an almost ingrained mental need (logocentricism) that helps us to polarize our world. Those who fit in and those who don’t. It would also be very interesting to consider who exactly determines what ideology is “in” and thus how “the other” is formed.
Be that as it may it is high time we start questioning this attitude to people and their identity. This is a call to begin this process by first examining our own identity. I could, as I did in my earlier post categorize myself into the many labels that I applied. But what pupose would that serve in defining how i approach the people I come in to contact with. And also how much of that post affected your views of me and your interest in reading my blog.
So it is time we start to first find acceptance for ourselves and who we are. It is also a call to stop the active participation in and promulgation of pigeonhole identities in bite-sized chunks. It is time we begin to develop a common identity as Sri Lankan.
A very good friend of mine sees this lack as being one of the main reasons for the inability to mount a national peace initiative. While agreeing I would like to add that I also see this trend worryingly continuing to spread itself further in our society even as far as interests in music and newspapers.
At the same time I wish to be realistic. Theory is easy to understand yet difficult to put in to practice – refer Marxism. And by no means do I wish to sound patronizing and contrived. Yet I air my views in the hope that someone somewhere will start journeying down the long road that this challenge brings with it. I’m still on that particular road and still dealing with the issues that arise daily as a result of it. But there will be a change one day and that change may begin with you or me.
So what then is this blog trying to say?
This is a call for nationalism not along the lines touted ad nauseam by all manner of politicians but Sri Lankanism above petty political ideologies and interests. And ever so often we will find that with that ability we will begin to find our Purpose as well and with that purpose we could well begin to see Change take place in this generation.
Minoritist – n. – belonging to a particular minority
A Burgher-Tamil, educated in the Sinhala medium, a private school student now in university, a Christian, English Honors student in a majority Sinhala Buddhist Campus- so what’s that You said about being a Minority?
~Introduction~
long train
came down
stared me in the face
sat down
looked around
linings on the case
stared at you
stared at me
mirror like glass
welcomed you
cursed at me
Negligible Minority
