Thoughts from London

Where tsunami reveals the inner self
Those who had their eyes glued to television screens, wherever they might have been, could not have remained unmoved by the tragic consequences of the Asian tsunami that devastated the coastal areas of several countries.

It was unprecedented since that part of Asia had never experienced such a widespread natural disaster of that magnitude and scale. While the world cried and relief poured in from nations and their peoples, some have seized on this tragic happening that ended tens of thousands of lives and ruined even more, to promote personal agendas, cover up mistakes and lapses and even seek glorification.

Unfortunately that is the reality on both sides of our north-south political divide which will be taken up at another time. Since the tsunami struck with such tragic consequences there has been much soul-searching, many even questioning the compassion and loving kindness of the deity they believed in.

If those troubled by their conscience questioned hitherto held beliefs of a merciful and all-powerful God, there are those who probably find even a catastrophe a God-send in the pursuit of their personal ambitions or to camouflage political incompetence and short-sightedness.

It was a former university colleague of mine who drew attention to a report in the sister paper Daily Mirror that he had picked up on a flight back to London. Suffering with the flu raging in this part of the world I would have missed this great piece of rationalisation by a government minister had it not been for my friend who hides a keen eye for the bizarre in news behind his more sober professional exterior.

It is widely known, of course, that the collective intellectual power of the current cabinet is hardly measured in megawatts. When half the members of parliament are ministers or their immediate underlings, who could expect such an agglomeration to be even a distant representation of the convecticles of Socrates?

Reading the words of Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana at a news conference early this month, one was left wondering whether a scientific mind was at work.

At least Minister Vitharana was honest enough to admit to the media that the government's failure to address some shortcomings contributed to the destruction caused by the tsunami. One might give credit for this rare political honesty though the report did not say whether the minister identified the shortcomings and who was to blame for them.

Yet he cannot be excused for his subsequent ramblings that indicate the kind of thinking indulged in by our political leaders that has landed this country in the ninth hole. After the immediate danger of the tsunami passed questions were asked why nobody had warned the public about the impending natural disaster, whether Sri Lanka had the technical capabilities and the scientific personnel and equipment to detect undersea quakes or even receive urgent warnings from those able to detect such eruptions.

Minister Vitharana is reported to have said that the Pallakele Monitoring Centre and the National Building and Research Organisation could not take responsibility for ignoring the alert that came from Hawaii as it was a Sunday when the office staff was on holiday.

As though to clinch the argument the minister had asked the gathered journalists: " It was a poya day. Do you work on a holiday?" It was not stated whether the journalists replied yes or absorbed such ignorance in studied silence.

What is surprising is how a supposedly educated person is capable of such piffle. Are we to understand that this minister makes and approves government policy, does not watch television or listen to the radio on a holiday and does not read the newspapers the next day?

Who does he think produces the newscasts and reads the news on the electronic media on a holiday? Who does he think puts together the next day's newspapers?

Unless of course, unknown to the public, technology under Minister Vitharana's brief stewardship has made such incredible advances that automaton look-alikes read the news and robots man the studios and machines.

If such advances have indeed been made to replace real people with robotic doubles one could only hope that these scientific innovations be extended to our political leadership and the cabinet.

To extend minister Vitharana's logic that officials do not work on holidays (some might ask whether they work on any other day) further, are we to understand that in Sri Lanka, firemen stay away on a holiday keeping the home fires burning, doctors and nurses attend to their own chores leaving the emergency services to run themselves and the police-well they know best what they do, no?

Has Tissa Vitharana ever wondered how aircraft would be guided for landing and take-off if air controllers decide that every Sunday or other holiday is a day of rest? The fact is that some services need to be manned holiday or not.

How would Tourism Minister Anura Bandaranaike cope if word got around that aircraft are flying to and fro without a by-your-leave to those mandated with the task of keeping some order in the skies instead of looking like the Pettah bus stand.

But would Minister Bandaranaike mind at all if officials are working or enjoying their Sunday bath, beer and buth since he is not very much at home to notice such mundane matters?

The country's tourist hotels not only took a battering from the tsunami, some were literally blown away. From the East to the South and Southwest coastal hotels suffered losses amounting to many million dollars. Tourists lost their lives, others went through experiences many recall with horror.

While tourism took a beating, the tourism minister stood as sturdy and unshakeable as Gibraltar. But then he was thousands of kilometres away from home and much closer to the Hawaii tsunami detection centre that declared no danger to any US Pacific coastal city in one of which Bandaranaike was apparently sojourning.

He was probably so overtaken by grief at the death and destruction especially to the tourism industry and foreign investments which he also oversees, that the minister could not bestir himself to return home expeditiously.

It was not just death and destruction that bestirred VP's boys in the north and east to cry foul and seek salvation from anywhere in the world. As unfortunate as it was, the tsunami was even a bigger god-send to the LTTE and its stooge organisations such as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO).

If cash from the Tamil diaspora in the west was gradually drying up and international attention was diverted from Sri Lankan conflict to Iraq and other exigencies, the tsunami quickly restored that primacy.

While the British authorities, as always, looked away as monies were collected even on the streets and by non-charitable organisations in violation of British laws at the behest of the LTTE, at home the Tigers set in motion a well-orchestrated orgy of spin doctoring that tugged at the heart of the international media and western bleeding hearts.

They forgot their own so-called war on terror and determination to bring democracy and good governance as they bent over backwards to accommodate those who run a virtual police state that would make Saddam Hussein's regime seem more benign.

The public has always known about Norwegian duplicity. It should come quite easily to those who come from a country where quislings supported another fascist group, the Nazis. Now we hear of LTTE front-liners being taken aboard a British Royal Marine naval vessel that is in Sri Lankan waters at the pleasure of the country's government.

Was it merely to share a meal of fish and chips or are the compatriots of High Commissioner Stephen Evans trying to fish in troubled waters?

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