{"id":21597,"date":"2013-05-27T00:46:32","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T04:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=21597"},"modified":"2013-05-27T16:15:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-27T20:15:39","slug":"current-govt-is-incompetentinsensitive-and-immoral-but-the-opposition-seems-to-be-even-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=21597","title":{"rendered":"Current Govt is Incompetent, Insensitive and Immoral but the Opposition Seems to be Even Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Vishnuguptha <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTrue patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.\u201d<\/em>
\n ~Clarence Darrow<\/strong><\/p>\n

T<\/strong>he political culture has taken a turn towards a nasty culmination. Ever since the opening of the economy in 1977, the \u2018good\u2019 that came with it may have outnumbered the \u2018bad\u2019, yet the socially-unsavory facets of that system that essentially exudes a negative aroma would invariably have a lasting and pungent effect on a growing democracy. A society that was not used to the modern-day amenities, a society that was badly grappling with putting some decent food on the table and a society that was totally enmeshed in an utterly politicized environment needed a shock-treatment to wake it from its long slumber and get it adjusted to the ever-so-demanding pressures of the Twentieth Century gadgetry revolution and its attendant challenges. <\/p>\n

A society that was subjugated by three successive colonial powers despite the legendary glorious past illustrated in the pages of the Great Chronicle (Mahawansa) which placed the Sinhala Kings as \u2018world-beaters\u2019, could not find itself standing long lines at three o\u2019clock in the morning for a loaf of bread!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A sizeable segment of those who made money via arrack-renting businesses in the 19th and early 20th centuries, converted themselves into Roman Catholicism or Christianity as a fashion to show allegiance to the ruling visitors from Europe. This class, whose second generation males consisted mainly of English-educated, Brown-sahibs, as Kumari Jayewardene in her most informative book, \u201cNobodies to Somebodies\u201d points out, formed the upper echelons of the Sri Lankan Mercantile class. Their lavish life styles- at least some of the most notable ones that bordered on being obscene and vulgar, went to the extent of throwing evening parties at which imported whisky and cognac were readily available for the guests who were dressed in gowns and tail-coats and who retired into their studies for the customary cigars and pipes. Some even served food on real gold cutlery and crockery to visiting foreign dignitaries. <\/p>\n

The lavishness reached such an obscene order, the dignitaries themselves were embarrassed. Yet to their eternal credit, apart from transforming a semi-feudal society into a mercantile\/capitalist one, they granted their offspring one single gift that is most vital and crucial for any person growing up in post-industrial revolution era. They educated their children by sending them to some of the best universities in the world such as Oxford and Cambridge.When they returned home, most expectant, would be mothers-in-law were waiting to get their daughters married to them.Lawyers, doctors and civil servants were among these most eligible bachelors. And then they got into politics. <\/p>\n

They dominated the so-called struggle for Independence in the early part of the Twentieth Century.They were the ones who occupied the seats in Legislative and Executive Councils. They were the ones who fought elections sometimes purely on caste basis, sometimes on family roots basis. They were the upper echelons of society; they were the elite and they had it so good for themselves while the ordinary villagers in the Deep South, in the hill country and in the North, hidden deep in the remote corners of the land, did not have access to the exclusive schools of Colombo, Kandy, Galle and Jaffna and hardly had any education at all, until education, as a matter of national policy was offered free to all barring none.<\/p>\n

Despite the free education policy introduced by the late C W WKannangara in 1946, political leadership in the Councils remained in the hands of those who attended the Colombo elite schools and among those who excelled in the early years were those who attended the Oxbridge-combo in England. <\/p>\n

Appointment of government officials, from Government Agent (GA) to the Assistant Secretary to the Chief Clerk remained in the hands of Public Service Commission and it was done purely on the basis of merit. However, the class struggle between the \u2018haves\u2019 and \u2018have-nots\u2019, between the English-speaking and the vernacular-educated, between the Colombo-elite and the rural-educated and in short, between the rich and the poor that was dormant up to the time without finding the precise expression on the political platform found some distorted enunciation on the left-wing political platforms dominated by the Colombo and\/or overseas-educated Marxist leaders. Among them, Dr. N M Perera, Peter Keuneaman, Phillip Gunawardena, Dr. S A Wickremesinghe and Dr. Colvin R de Silva featured most prominently. <\/p>\n

But there was one distinct feature that differentiated this group from the present day \u2018half-past-two-thirty\u2019 left wing leaders. All the pre-\u201977 left-wing leaders were, firstly educated and secondly they played the game according to some accepted norms that were basically decent and respectful. They controlled their rank and file and they kept their junior parliamentarians within traditional parliamentary constraints. They hobnobbed with the \u2018capitalist-class\u2019 UNPers, yet did not lose the \u2018common touch\u2019. <\/p>\n

The dams broke in 1956. The flashy waters of socio-political change that flew through the sluices of tradition and decency buried all decency; they submerged the essential \u2018needs\u2019 for election to Parliament, our main legislative body. The profession that was hitherto dedicated to the service of man overnight became a handy tool in the hands of this new \u2018class\u2019 of sycophants to garner \u2018power and respectability\u2019 which they did not have the skills or talents to acquire from anywhere else. Politics became a tempting instrument for this new class of politicos to brandish about in their villages and towns and cities to get an additional income, to lure maidens to go to bed with, to apply pressure on government officials to grant favors. <\/p>\n

The relentless flow took in its course many a victim. Only once there was a bribery commission case against some sitting parliamentarians where they were all found guilty. The judiciary was still \u2018independent\u2019, unlike today. Even in 1977 when the new Prime Minister J R Jayewardene appointed a Special Presidential Commission to probe into the suspect dealings on the Land Reform law enacted during the Sirimavo Bandaranaike regime, that Commission consisted of two judges of the Supreme Court (Justice Sharvananda and Justice J. G. T. Weeraratne) and a member of the minor judiciary (K. C. E. de Alwis), all of whom were appointed to the Judiciary by Mrs. Bandaranaike when she was in power. <\/p>\n

The appearance of justice being done was in effect. Let us not go into the findings of the Commission, yet the motive behind the action that was taken after the probe was obvious. J R wanted his most formidable opponent eliminated from the field at the next elections. There were only two lone voices against the removal of civic rights from Mrs. Bandaranaike in the Cabinet. They were Ananda Tissa de Alwis and Gamini Dissanayake. But, to the credit of JRJ, both de Alwis and Dissanayake survived. Free expression of another opinion was tolerated.<\/p>\n

What followed thereafter, as they say, is history. J R was followed by Premadasa, Chandrika Bandaranaike and Mahinda Rajapaksa. With each successive power-holder, the enormous power invested in the Executive Presidency came into play, this time for the enrichment of the holder and virtual disenfranchisement of the average Appuhamy, Thangaraja and Mohamed. The legislature became a totally impotent machinery to be manipulated and maneuvered by the Chief Executive. <\/p>\n

The judiciary assumed new proportions of distortion and ineptness. Under the present regime this took a decisive turn when the Chief justice was summarily dismissed by way of a Parliamentary Select Committee. Then they brought her before a Bribery Commission, to add insult to injury. The motives seem to be clearer than bohemian crystal. The only victory that this Government could boast about which of course is quite substantial in historical terms, is the total cessation of hostilities between the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka and the terrorists of the North led by Prabhakaran and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam. <\/p>\n

But instead of moving forward with the natural flow of political dynamics, the Government chose to indulge in triumphalism and self-glorification. The Tamils are as desperate today as they were fifty years ago. The second-class treatment that is being meted out to them by some fringe elements- backed by, of course the ruling elite is so apparent and the international pressure is building up gradually and rapidly against rulers\u2019 obvious march towards racial-profiling and ethnic polarization. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, the breakdown in law and order seems inevitable. The Bharatha Lakshman- Duminda Silva episode, Mervyn Silva\u2019s periodic tantrums, the corruption in the Petroleum sector, the alleged Stock Exchange frauds, the messy education Ministries, unhindered practice of corruption, nepotism and bribery at every stratum of governmental institutions, insensitive politicians and their offspring gallivanting in obscenely expensive vehicles, manipulation of the Police Forces, Chief Ministers running amok in the Provinces, Government Pradesheeya Sabha members making a mockery of justice in their respective arenas of hegemony, all these are dangerous symptoms of a much more dangerous disorder waiting to take over the body-politic of Sri Lanka and consume it to a finish. These symptoms have been present for some time but the decision-makers don\u2019t seem to be sensitive to these malefic indicators, neither are they competent to identify them nor do they have the moral compass to gauge them. <\/p>\n

The chaotic way the vehicular traffic is using our roads, the willing condoning on the part of the Police to disregard violations, the mad rush to get somewhere with no apparent goal in mind, the alarming increase in the commitment of pedophilia and incest, the growing incidence of robberies are alarming and when all these adverse societal conditions are coupled with venomous misinterpretations of Buddhism by some \u2018thugs in robes\u2019 driving an aimless people to \u2018point-of-no-return\u2019 corners, we are left with dregs and scum, with debris and garbage and with bare skeletons with no meat or flesh or marrow. <\/p>\n

The conditions are further compounded by a group of silent opposition politicians whose political goals seem to be just to replace the present lot with their own kind and to carry on with same old comic drama. When each and every layer of society is sick with this sort of malignant malady, the turn towards the right direction might take a longer time than usual; it may take even a more radical way to be implemented. The writing is on the wall. This current Government is incompetent, insensitive and immoral. But the greater tragedy lies in the fact that the opposition seems to be even worse. <\/p>\n

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By Vishnuguptha \u201cTrue patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else.\u201d ~Clarence Darrow The political culture has taken a turn towards a nasty culmination. Ever since the opening of the economy in 1977, the \u2018good\u2019 that came with it may have outnumbered the \u2018bad\u2019, yet the socially-unsavory facets of that system that …<\/p>\n

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