5th Column

My dear Mother Lanka,

I thought of writing to you because you were ‘celebrating’ what we called ‘independence’ just the other day. There was a long ceremony at Independence Square, and watching that, it suddenly made me realise that we are now just one year short of being ‘independent’ for three-quarters of a century.

This year, Mother Lanka, watching fuel-guzzling jets fly past at the ceremony, people ask ‘are we really independent?’. We are, after all, living a hand-to-mouth existence, surviving on a day-to-day basis, wondering where the next dollar loan is from and when the next ship with oil will arrive.

Some are even questioning whether ‘independence’ was really worth it when countries where the British left later, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong have fared much better than us, and we are getting loans from countries like Bangladesh which didn’t exist when we became ‘independent’!

Of course, nothing good will come from wishing we were still under the British, or blaming them for leaving us early. At one time, we were the envy of other nations and even Singapore wished to be like us. So, we have only ourselves to blame if we made the wrong decisions or elected the wrong people.

I understand why ‘independence’ has been important to us, and we have had some notable achievements that we can be proud of, over the past 74 years. After giving the world its first woman Prime Minister, we have remained a democracy despite two insurgencies and a civil war.

Our democracy hasn’t always been perfect, though. Our first lady PM, ‘Mathini’, extended her term of office by two years without a mandate to do so. JR, who resigned his seat in Parliament to protest that decision then went on to hold a referendum and extend the life of his Parliament by six years!

While those who led the country before that are still hailed as role models, we find that JR is being blamed even now, over 30 years after he retired, for his Constitution which they say is the root of all evil. Several leaders came to power promising to abolish it; but when in power, they didn’t do so.

Even ‘Mathini’ is being remembered these days because of our current shortages in gas, fuel and rice, with queues being a common sight and also because the prices of many other items are high. Yet, that lady did many a good deed and commanded more international respect than most of her successors.

Though it is hard to say exactly when, it seems as if at some point, the people we elected to represent us were not those who wanted to serve us and our country but those who wanted to serve not just themselves but also wanted to ensure that the futures of their families will be secure for generations.

Some have pointed to JR’s PR system which made it difficult for people who had made a name for themselves, for example simply by being ministers, to be voted out because they secure more than enough ‘manaapa’ even when their actions meant that the whole country was ‘amanaapa’ with them.

Before that system, even political giants like NM, Colvin and Felix lost their seats to men of much lesser talent, because the government they represented was unpopular. Now, however, we find that those who were elected under the first PR system in 1989, have stayed put in Parliament since then!

Another reason our ‘Paradise’ is what it is today, Mother Lanka, is because politicians have become extremely powerful. They can hire and fire people at will, not only Secretaries of Ministries or Chancellors of Universities but even Justices of the higher courts. Now they don’t hesitate to do that.

They have also begun to believe the law doesn’t apply to themselves. Why should they when charges made by the Attorney General’s Department are being dropped by the same Department when the Government changes? Then, even if you are convicted of murder, you can always get a pardon!

So, only certain types of people want to enter politics. Even when ‘intellectuals’ or ‘professionals’ do, rather than changing the ‘system’, they get changed by the ‘system’. As with a law professor and Vice-Chancellor who became a politician, they are worse than the others in upholding bad behaviour.

In the end, it is not politicians alone who are to be blamed for our plight today. We have remained a democracy. After saying ‘unuth ekai, munuth ekai’, we have elected them over and over again, so we must also share the blame. Most importantly, are we certain we won’t do so again, Mother Lanka?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: There was much speculation that Ranjan will be pardoned by you-know-who this Independence Day. That did not happen. Many people who confidently predicted his freedom will now have to eat their own words. As in many other matters in our land, those who promised, have failed to deliver!