Civil society and a new hope?
View(s):Something funny seems to be happening all over Sri Lanka. (Ok, parts of it.) In the week gone by, I have felt a slight stirring that possibly hints at a light breeze of change. It’s a tingling of our country’s not yet fully connected well-being spine; a sixth sense that a civic sunrise is round the bend; the laugh out loud feeling that very soon our citizenry will be surprised by joy! Thus far and no farther, perhaps? There are the heavy rain clouds of a scandalous 13A+or-, shocking crime, and skyrocketing C.O.L. hovering overhead, after all. There is also space for some cautious optimism, though. A quick survey of four spheres of national life might help to clarify the matter.
The personal
Driving in heavy traffic is changing into something interesting, if not quite rich and strange. Motorists no longer honk or toot in abject frustration at the inevitable clogs in the city’s arteries and snarls in its nervous system. You put a foot wrong, for sure, and there will be the cacophony of klaxons to check or correct or critique. But Colombo’s drivers and riders are beginning to ease up on their once ubiquitous horns. Just the other day, a lady driver of a mean-looking van simply glared (no electric or electronic recriminations) at an upstart who dared to slide into the minute space between her jalopy and the bus ahead. The upstart was me; this was the start of manic Monday rush hour; there was still a sense of sweet and simple righteous anger – not blinding road rage… So could our metropolis be haltingly, grindingly, grudgingly coming to its senses? No longer on the horns of dilemma, dears; pardon the pun. Sound stuff!
The professional
Well, I’ll admit, there’s nothing much! But, if you’re willing to swallow the anecdotal as an antidote, the poison of bureaucracy appears to be easing up in a plethora of public banks, post offices, sundry government departments, and business in general. Don’t hold your breath, and don’t hold me to it if it doesn’t last… or isn’t in the postcard you wrote home about.
The political
Once-upon-a-time in Arsikland (unscramble that and swop a ‘d’ for an ‘a’ to get ‘Sri Lanka’), satire and exposé were frowned upon. As were yellow journalism, socially conscious art, and amateur criticism of the high and mighty. Now the wheel has begun to turn in the direction of a more liberated milieu. At least as far as English language theatre goes. A popular production that parodies the powers that be has been permitted to be put up on local stages. International interest has been evinced in the homespun script which lampoons the foibles of all-too-familiar politicos. The stern censor may have forsworn to cheer, but he or she has also forborne to cut. That play has tickled even the president’s fancy, it has been reliably reported. Could it be the beginnings of a gradual return to a more civilized era in which our leaders let their followers have their say in public forums? Can it be that the junta is becoming gentlemanly – and a good thing, too! (So say all of us, sir.)
The public interest
The media of the past fortnight has been rife with tragic tales of entirely avoidable accidents at unprotected railway crossings scattered across suburban and rural Sri Lanka. In the wake of some truly horrific incidents where lives and limbs have been needlessly lost, a public outcry has woken the relevant authorities out of their track-side slumber. That something will finally be done via the humanitarian measures being taken to prevent the future incidence of train-traffic collisions is the dominant mood. If only institutional apathy won’t botch it up again, we may well have safety and security as the hallmark of the railways once again – as it was of yore…
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