Thoughts from London

And men have lost their reason
In this part of the world it is the time of mid-summer madness. It is a convenient diagnosis to explain away everything from the periodic peccadilloes to the peccant misdeeds of politicians and the public.

Since blurb writers and promoters of sun and fun portray Sri Lanka as the land of perpetual summer, this madness seems to have a more permanent presence there. That, I suppose, is the most charitable way of explaining the malaise that afflicts the Sri Lankan body politic. It is a SARS of the mind where the antics of politicians goes unchallenged and if and when challenged is answered with brutal responses.

Those who came to power offering the moon can now offer only the stars and stripes and more recently the rising sun. But the New Day the politicians and their cronies said would dawn has been covered with a blanket of darkness and the new political culture promised the people has turned to be even more abusive behaviour and thuggery by ministers and MPs.

The country's leaders who have the responsibility to order errant politicians to conduct themselves with the dignity of office or send them back to the obscurity from which they emerged behave like the heroic Nelson and see only the peace process.

Having littered the path to power with broken promises, some of our leaders can still serve their respective religions as key "dayakayas" and now and then walk behind the symbols of their religion at ceremonies meant to remind us of the great teachings of our religious leaders- the belief in non-violence, in tolerance, in righteousness and the eschewing of greed.

The one teaching of the Masters that is practised with great fervour is tolerance. So the blatant misuse and abuse of power within your own ranks is tolerated so that the same miscreants can continue their personal aggrandizement unrepentant and unpunished and new monsters (or mobsters?) are bred in the incubator of official unconcern.

Supporters of the current attitude of indifference and nonchalance at the burgeoning corruption and thuggery in official circles will argue that the leadership is constrained from acting because of the government's thin parliamentary majority.

The logic then is that any kind of political conduct and moral turpitude is acceptable as long as the leaders and their party cling to power. Yes, would say the supporters, that is why they are politicians and it is to gain power that they contest elections.

If, however, supporters of the cynical view of politics is to be believed then it is a dangerous heresy, one that could well lead to people power and peoples' revolutions not to mention the military seizure of power. Army chief Pervez Musharraf's seizure of power in Pakistan is an example of what could happen when politicians fail the people or the military believe that the deteriorating conditions can only lead to social upheaval.

The other day I read that Rupavahini, the state television station had telecast a programme on LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. I gather it was about the life and times of the Tiger leader and it was aired to time with Pongu Thamil festival in the north at which the people had demanded an interim state in the north and east, upping the ante from the interim administration demanded earlier.

Once again there are those who do not find anything wrong in telling the Sri Lankan public about Prabhakaran since the government is negotiating a peace deal with him, after all.

That argument is naïve for several reasons. To begin with in the 25 years or more since Velupillai picked up a gun and launched violence in the north and then elsewhere killing thousands of people including many Tamil leaders, his life has been publicised in newspapers, journals and videos in several languages- Sinhala and English included.

So the people of Sri Lanka or for that matter India, need no refresher course on what a gentle soul the man is and how when he was three years old he almost choked on an ulundu vadai.

Just because the government is engaged in discussions- stalled right now- with the LTTE is no reason why the state media should portray the life of the man, especially when he is a criminal wanted for murder in Sri Lanka and by India for his involvement in the Rajiv Gandhi killing. This wasn't a police "wanted" notice, I take it.

Rupavahini would not have telecast such a feature unless its production and airing had been ordered from the very top. Had an opinion poll been taken I have little doubt what the public reaction would have been to the screening.

If High Commissioner Faisz Musthapha is not spirited away so often to help prepare regular presents for the King of Kilinochchi which he keeps kicking into the long grass, he might have been in a position to edify our leaders of the danger of political arrogance.

Tony Blair believed he was god's gift to the UK and seemed to delude himself that political power is permanent- as far as he was concerned. But now he is learning that he was chosen by the people and not anointed from above and that those who chose him no longer trust him. His personal popularity has plummeted largely because of his unholy alliance with Washington that took Britain into a war against Iraq on flimsy evidence that is beginning to unravel faster than the seven veils.

Now his own MPs are rebelling against him even during parliamentary voting. This is the man who came to power over five years ago promising to be "whiter than white" and claiming he will bring open and accountable government.

Far from making government open and accountable Blair's government has just blocked an investigation by the parliamentary ombudsman on ministerial conflicts of interest.

What is worse, the government has issued a certificate banning the ombudsman from such investigations, which according to political experts, is a tactic that has not been resorted to in living memory.

To add to Blair's misery the Bush administration with whom the British prime minister pledged to fight shoulder to shoulder, is pulling its own shoulder away as lies about Saddam Hussein's weapons arsenal, are exposed daily.

That has left Blair stranded in the middle of the Atlantic unable to put his foot anywhere except his mouth which he does with a particular dexterity. So much for dependence on the stars and tripe.

As Britain's best known bard wrote: "It is the time's plague when mad men lead the blind". And it is not only the UK, admittedly, that has a fair share of both.

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