By

Vishnuguptha

“I’d be glad of a retaliation that wouldn’t recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies.” ― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Treachery plays a very significant and decisive part in all human endeavours. Its play is sometimes shaded by its own momentum, dependent more on the person at the receiving end rather than the one committing it. That’s the sad irony of it.

In every field of human activity, whether it’s voluntary or involuntary, the moving force and all-powerful navigator is treachery. One gets invariably caught up in this vicious cycle of human ‘folly’ when he attaches ambition to the endeavour he is engaged in. The degree of treachery may differ from one to another; yet the unfortunate consequences of such treachery might be too heavy a burden to bear and too shameful to endure. One who succeeds in executing those treacherous acts to almost clockwork precision and comes out ‘victorious’ may find it difficult to sleep in the night; look himself in the mirror or wear a happy face amid chaos; but the utterly diabolical one who is engaged in the planning and plotting of treacherous deeds would basically have no ‘problem’ whatsoever, for treachery is his second nature.

The ambition that is in him is so all-consuming, so pervasive and perverse; he is blinded by its own density and stress. For such a person, treachery becomes not only a second nature but an essential thread in the fabric of his daily existence.

In Sri Lanka, from the dawn of its history – Vijayan Period – the treachery that was plotted and executed without an iota of conscience or any moral righteousness by the ‘founder’ of the Sinhala race against the only one- Kuveni – who helped him in the first few months, years or so, has been officially mentioned in the’ ‘Mahawansa’ Chronicle. The narrator of the Great Chronicle of the Sinhala race has not left any detail for speculation; the banishment of Kuveni and her two children, Jeewahatta and Disala born off Prince Vijaya, their eventual migration to the jungles of Ceylon and the establishing of the local aborigine culture which is today known as the Vedda culture is all well penned in our Great Chronicle. So began the great story of treachery with the very dawn of our estimable race.

From then on and right down our history, whether it’s the Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa or any other period and especially during the Kotte period, treachery has been practised, plotted and exhibited in the most obnoxious fashion by kings and queens and other chieftains who wielded power to varying degrees. The tale is too long and winding. The webs that these tales had woven round the various dynasties and kingdoms are far too entwined for any ordinary observer to notice with any perceptive mind or heart.

Let us jump to the dawn of the 20th century and the beginnings of the Independence Movement and its rapid acceleration from then on until 1948, the year in which the British Raj left the destinies of Sri Lanka and its navigational rights to the locals in total.

Sri Ponnambalam Arunachalam/National Congress

The National Congress that came into being in 1919, as the vanguard body of the Independence Movement experienced its first treacherous act with its Founding President Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam leaving it and accusing the Sinhala majority of reneging on the pledges given to the Tamil community and its representatives by the then leaders of the National Congress such as F. R. Senanayake, D. S. Senanayake and Sir D. B. Jayatilleke. Then, after the untimely demise of F. R. Senanayake, the reins of the National Congress were manipulated by D. S. Senanayake, slowly moving out Sir D. B. Jayatilleke. Then it was followed by another manipulation by DS, now the first Prime Minister of Ceylon, paving the way for his son, Dudley to take over the Premiership instead of firstly, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and secondly, Sir John Kotalawela.

G. G. Ponnambalam/Chelvanayakam

Then the first fissure in the Tamil Congress (TC) occurred in 1949, once again initiated by D. S. Senanayake, with the offer of a Cabinet portfolio to the Leader of the TC, G. G. Ponnambalam. This resulted in a breakaway group led by S. J. V. Chelvanayakam forming his own political party – Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) or the commonly known Federal Party. Most of the radical elements in the Tamil Congress felt utterly let down by their esteemed leader, Ponnambalam and joined the ITAK which ultimately ended up as the sole representative political party of the Northern and Eastern Tamils in Sri Lanka until the emergence of the LTTE militants in the early eighties. Yet the Federal Party is one political Party that remained relatively unscathed by its own inner conflicts and squabbles to date. Treachery seems to be fairly alien to the Tamil political community of today. Yet the human condition is so pliable and subject to the vagaries of contemporaneous stresses and storms, it may not be too far away from the day we see political treachery in this circle too.

However, in the majority circles, this awful phenomenon of treachery took its toll on many a budding politician and some with such a treacherous demeanour who practised the art at the beginning had to ironically put up with a worse form of treachery that was fine-tuned and refined by their subordinates at a later stage. It happened so fast and so smoothly, it ultimately came to be accepted as a basic norm of political conduct.

One of the most tragic and unfortunate treacherous dramas were played by the Bandaranaikes – Sirimavo and Anura – against the then SLFP Presidential candidate Hector Kobbekaduwa, during the first Presidential Election campaign. The hold that the Bandaranaikes had over the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) slipped from them when Hector Kobbekaduwa was nominated for the Presidential Elections in 1982 and the shameful way both the Mother and Son conducted themselves during the campaign may have helped their party to linger on in the opposition for seventeen long years. However, when Chandrika took over the SLFP, the treachery shown by her own brother, Anura was even more dastardly and dishonourable. The seeds of treachery had gone too deep into the otherwise rich base of the Party; the plants that were germinated thereafter affected adversely the entire career of Anura Bandaranaike.

The theatre of the Premadasa-Dudley clash during the Citizens’ Front days and the Premadasa-Gamini-Lalith conflicts during the Jayewardene period in the eighties and the early nineties were enacted in open public. Both Gamini and Lalith made no bones about their shared distrust and hostility towards their leader, Premadasa. Unlike other treacherous acts that were enacted on the political stage, this animosity that existed between the Lalith-Gamini clan and Premadasa had a long term effect in that the United National Party (UNP) is still suffering from the pangs of fissures of this personality conflict.

This unhealthy feature in politics – treachery – is still continuing with rapid succession in both the government and main opposition ranks today. Treachery is purported to have been committed by the leader of the government and his family on the senior members of the SLFP and its adverse effects are beginning to manifest themselves, slowly but surely in open public and would eventually take their decisive toll. What was meted out to Mangala Samaraweera and the late Sripathi Sooriyarachchi came for severe criticism by the Party stalwarts. The latest rumour mongering regarding the dissatisfaction on the part of some senior SLFPers was well illustrated in the last Cabinet reshuffle that sidelined these members of the Party.

In the meantime Ranil Wickremesinghe is openly advocating and practising treachery and even has been successful in taking treachery to a new height. Sidelining of the most popular speakers of the party, Sajith Premadasa, Karu Jayasuriya and Dayasiri Jayasekera and the most unfair treatment dispensed towards Kurunegala District MP, Ashok Abeysinghe and Puttalam District MP, Range Bandara and the Provincial Councillors Maithree Gunaratne and Shiral Lakthilaka, are but a few examples of big-time treachery committed by the UNP leader, aided and abetted by the party machinery.

Treachery would continue in the future and there is no easy answer to it but one can be diligent and watchful so as not to create waves. But that – not creating waves – is simply not politics. Politics, in all its shades and substance, is treacherous and anyone who tries to disown treachery does it as a fake moralist.
COURTESY:CEYLON TODAY