Sunday Times 2
Wishing you a Miracle Year
Wishing you ‘A Very Wishful New Year’ was our greeting to all Sri Lankans for 2020. There was a very good reason for it because 2019 was an extremely ‘Promising Year’, with Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa trying to outbid each other with promises to people that would have truly made their life in Lanka a Heaven on Earth.
The knowledgeable masses truly believed in the promises made and supporters of both candidates went into ecstasies and finally to the polls in their thousands. We as observers of the passing scene could only wish the promises made and wishes hoped for would come true.
We will leave it to the people — the sovereign power of our democracy — to decide on whether their wishes have come true or not or will take time to become real. However, our thoughts on wishes coming true are also guided by that old Scottish proverb: If wishes were horses beggars would ride.
Some of our supposedly political intellectuals before the presidential election had researched intensively and put together a political-economic strategy called Visions of Splendour and Prosperity for the next five years. Critics of this endeavour point out that fervent loyal minds producing such glorious visions for the future before elections is a part of the democratic process and not something novel. Natural forces as well as political forces often stymie such wishes or visions.
Thus, if there is not much tangible or material progress to show in the first year of this five-year plan, it is attributed to three main causes: The usual cause attributed to the chaos caused by previous government — the last Yahapalana government having robbed and bankrupted the Treasury, leaving billion-dollar debts, a hostile parliament not cooperating with the president and the Covid 19 pandemic.
Under President Donald Trump's leadership, 18 million Americans have been infected by the virus, more than 320,000 Americans have died, but their president does not recognise the dangers, flouts all forms of medical advice but surprisingly had the backing of more than 70 million Americans at the presidential poll
Human mutations
Leaving aside the first two causes that will be debated ad nauseam, more worrying are the natural causes stalling the Pohottuwa (Lotus Bud) government. When will we get the Covid 19 vaccine that is the only known weapon to fight this virus? The question is rightfully asked.
To every unanswerable question, there is always a stupid answer and the latest we have heard is that the Covid 19 is mutating and the new miracle vaccines may not work against it. That is why Sri Lankans in their wisdom have not yet decided on the issue, is the reply. It’s not a question of billions of dollars required to buy it as critics say.
A biological theory of far greater dangerous implications is being discussed in closed circles is that whether the viruses are mutating or not, humans — homo sapiens — are mutating. The theory is that from observation and study of leading political figures and their loyal supporters around the world, a new strain of humans is evolving that is resistant to logic, reasoning, scientific research, civilisational progress and democratic evolution.
Americans cite their President Donald Trump as an example, under whose leadership 18 million Americans have been infected by the virus, more than 320,000 Americans have died, but their president does not recognise the dangers, flouts all forms of medical advice but surprisingly had the backing of more than 70 million Americans at the presidential poll. Climate Change is a fake to him and he refuses to accept that he was defeated at the recent election and reuses to leave the White House.
Trump is not the only national leader who seems to be affected by this human mutation, but it is spread out globally. There is Boris Johnson of Britain who too scoffed off the COVID virus in macho fashion only to be struck down by it and is now desperately fighting a mutating virus while trying to work out an agreement with the European Union on Brexit.
Narendra Modi of India has swept the polls in the past decade with the ultranationalist Hindutva philosophy. The destruction of the Babri Masjid Mosque by BJP activists has now been ‘legalised’ and the special status accorded to Kashmir, the predominant Muslim state, wiped off the Indian constitution while splitting Kashmir into two parts with its inhabitants and leaders being held under house arrest. Yet, Modi is being hailed as a leader of the biggest democracy in the world while Hindu India has become the ‘world’s largest exporter of beef accounting for 20 percent of the world’s beef trade on the buffalo meat industry’ (US Dept of Agriculture Review).
The mutation of national leaders impervious to logic, reason and science is well demonstrated in the antics of performance of President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, President Alassane Outtara of Ivory Coast — elected president thrice in defiance to the constitution which permits only two terms for a president. He was elected with a thumping majority of 95.95 per cent — the Opposition boycotting the polls.
This phenomenon of ‘national leaders’ defying logic, reason, science and democracy and acting according to their own demonic thinking is not new. The divine right of kings to chop off heads of people as and when they please, was all about it, till revolutions brought about constitutional rule. But more contemporary rulers and their followers who desire such divine powers find irresistible the call: Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer (One People, One Empire, One Leader). Though not new in the second decade of the 21st Century, this tendency appears to be on the ascendent even in potty little Third World countries.
The issue of logic and reason being impervious in Sri Lanka has arisen with attempts being made to ward off this deadly pandemic through ancient indigenous beliefs and medical practices, though authorities are not against scientific methods but want the two systems to work in conjunction.
It appears not to be a move to save people from the pandemic but to all intents and purposes a political strategy. Health Minister Pavitra Wanniarachchi first inspired a cure for the disease by carrying a pot of water on her head and tossing into the Kalu Ganga, of course, duly covered by state TV and loyal private TV media. This was followed by other politicians performing the ritual. Perhaps the usual dashing of coconuts was not resorted to with C-nuts now fetching more than Rs 100 a nut in the supposedly price-controlled market.
The Water Pot strategy was not working and then came a genius with a sure-cure for the global epidemic: Bees honey with some local spices. Pavitra Wanniarachchi, the Health Minister, naturally had to go through the performance of sipping Dhammika Bandara’s honey concoction. Some ministers and deputy ministers too posed for TV cameras while sipping the miracle honey.
The next day, the saviour of humanity, Dhammika Bandara, announced distribution of his magic portion free of charge from his home at Kegalle and thousands rushed in to collect the Magic Potion that would save them from the grave while the Kegalle police declared law and order: Wear masks and keep the stipulated social distance.
Only an unusual development was the Mahanayake of the Anuradhapura Sri Maha Bodhiya refused to be taken in by the miracle worker and refused him entry to the highest tier of the podium of the World’s most Venerated Tree to perform a ritual. It had Dhammika Bandara in a rather vituperative mood with the monk seen serenely smiling and unmoved.
Whether this combination of the of this miracle cure dating back 5000 years to the time of Ravana (as claimed) working in parallel to a locked-up people in accordance with Western medical strategies, will halt the epidemic is not known.
The miracle doctor certainly distracted attention from the need and demand of the people to get the vaccine — the only proven cure against the dreaded virus. But it did appear to have lifted up the spirits of a locked-up people. As we went to bed on Christmas eve, we heard the refrains of a carol being sung on the road by some devout believers of the miracle cure:
Oh come all ye faithful,
Come and have glass full
Of Dhammick’s Panni.
(The writer is a former editor of The Sunday Island, The Island and former consultant editor of the Sunday Leader)