Sunday Times 2
The Tortoise, the Korawakka – and the Depath Naya
View(s):I was musing during this month of June about that famous journalist of yesteryear, Varindra Tarzie Vittachi.
When I was a young man in the fifties, I used to love reading Tarzie’s popular columns in the Ceylon Daily News. The man had a wonderful way with words and a delightful flair for telling stories. His regular column Bouquets and Brickbats written under the pen-name Fly-by-Night, was as entertaining as it was informative about what was happening in the corridors of power. Tarzie was a fearless journalist who was not afraid to poke fun at those in power, particularly if he felt that they were misusing their power.
In one series of articles Tarzie, brilliant satirist that he was, wrote about a fictitious island populated by talking animals. His descriptions of animals such as the Tired Tortoise, the Rogue Elephant and the Black Panther left none of his readers in any doubt as to which particular politician he was referring to. In describing the doings of these aptly named animals, Tarzie allowed himself to satirise these folk without actually mentioning any of them by name.
He named Dudley Senanyake the Tired Tortoise because Tarzie felt that that Dudley was tired of the role which had been thrust upon him by his powerful father D.S. Senanayake, our first prime minister. Dudley, so Tarzie felt, was always slow – and too mild a personality to make a success of the cut and thrust and horse-trading of politics. Sir John Kotelawala, the leader of the UNP whose roguish ways and many lady friends were the talk of Colombo’s chattering classes in those days, was classed as the Rogue Elephant. J.R. Jayewardene, whose sphinx-like countenance gave nothing away as to what his Machiavellian brain was thinking about, was called the Seethala Kotiya – while Philip Gunewardena’s fierce, dark and powerful personality earned him the name of Black Panther.
Tarzie had a special name for S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. He depicted him as the Slippery Eel because of Banda’s penchant for changing his position on matters so often. But the best name Tarzie coined, in my opinion, was that of Depath Naya for Dudley’s cousin Richard Gotabhaya Senanayake.
Popularly known as RG, this Senanayake was a man who held seats from two separate constituencies (Dambadeniya and Kelaniya) at the same time. He contested elections as an Independent and was a minister in Dudley Senanayake’s UNP government from 1952 to 1956 – and then was again made a minister in the succeeding SLFP cabinet from 1956-1960.
Musing about Tarzie’s island of aptly named animals, I came to the conclusion that very little has changed in our country. Even today, many of our politicians can be characterised by their animal traits.
Tired out by being the loser of so many elections as party leader, so slow as to be quite ineffective and looking unlikely ever bring to fruition the prediction that slow and steady wins the race– today’s Tired Tortoise can be easily identified.
The title of Long Tall Giraffe would certainly go to the 77 year old six footer from Gampaha who towers over the rest of the cabinet. The military man who loves to dress up in uniform with a chestful of medals and carry his special baton would easily fit the description of a Field Peacock – while the lovable and podgy new minister of finance could certainly make the grade as a Baby Bear.
But in every island, there is always a Depath Naya (or two) – someone who has two heads and does not have a straight spine, a reptile who makes sure he can wriggle in both directions depending on which side he finds more advantageous to himself. There is such a man in today’s political jungle – a man who commenced his politics as an SLFP-er, who crossed in 2001 to the UNP and then three years later jumped to the UFPA. When Mahinda Rajapaksa was challenged by Maithripala Sirisena, this person made fun of the current president, describing him as a gutless Korawakka -yet today having changed colour once more to become a hanger on of the Korawakkahe once lampooned, he has now even taken it upon himself to advise our national cricketers how to play cricket by losing weight and taking catches.
Of all the animals in the present jungle, he is the one that the people are most laughing at – the warbling Depath Naya of 2017!