5th Column

My dear Mother Lanka (or Sri Lanka Maatha),

I thought of writing to you this week because everyone is talking about you (or how to address you) for the past week ever since a singer sang the National Anthem and made you sound like ‘Mr Sri Lanka’. What has happened since then tells us much about our country – and what’s so wrong with it.

This is not the first time this anthem has led to controversy. It was initially written as ‘Namo Namo Maatha’ by Ananda Samarakoon and then later changed to ‘Sri Lanka Matha’. That was after ‘Namo Namo Maatha’ was supposed to have brought bad luck because two Prime Ministers died tragically. 

Samarakoon didn’t give his consent to the change, but the politicians changed it anyway, and he died tragically after that. Of course, it is not that a change in the anthem has brought us good luck. Look at where we are now, Mother Lanka, six decades later: we are even still fighting about the anthem!

That is not to say that what the singer, Umara, did when she mispronounced a word in the National Anthem was correct. Indeed, it was wrong. As a popular artiste, she should have known better and trained better for that event. That said, she has humbly acknowledged her mistake and apologised.

Instead of accepting that apology some are acting as if it was the greatest calamity that befell you, Mother Lanka. Of all people, the self-righteous Diana of passport and cannabis fame was upset that the singer got off so lightly, noting that in any other country she would have been hanged or whipped!

Then, that Vidura fellow is seeking legal opinion and wanting an investigation. His father, the late genial Ratnasiri would be turning in his grave if he saw this, watching how his son was cosying up to the bosses of today who were the nemesis of the two leaders he was so loyal to, Sirima and Satellite.

Is it that we are so hunky-dory that we are at war over the pronunciation of one word in the National Anthem? Shouldn’t we worry about our economy, health services, the brain drain and our general decline as a nation? Isn’t that why a certain ‘mahathaa’ was appointed to fix all of these issues?

If all this fuss is about ‘Namo Namo Maatha’ being sung so accurately, Mother Lanka, does it also not mean that we should follow this anthem to the letter? This is a good time as any to see whether we do so. What you will find is that, in fact, most of the time we do the exact opposite of what it says.

To start with, the ‘dhaanya, dhanaya, neka mal palathuru piri jaya bhoomiya ramyaa’ have vanished. The grain, flowers and fruits were destroyed by Gota maama’s organic fertiliser. Our only riches are loans from the IMF. The Ramyas are rushing to Dubai. We are losing to Pakistan in our own bhoomi.

We say ‘oba way apa vidyaa, obamaya apa sathyaa’ but we give knowledge and truth a low priority in our land. Why else are we throwing pots of water into rivers and feeding people some unproven concoction or ‘peni’ to ward off a pandemic? Why is every election called at an ‘auspicious’ time?

The line ‘oba apa aalokey’ should make us cringe. We had power cuts for months. Then we were told we can have uninterrupted power if electricity tariffs were increased. They did that. Now they say that if water is released to farmers for irrigation, we will have power cuts again. So much for ‘aalokey’!

Then, I don’t know what to make of ‘nawa jeevana demine nithina apa pubudu karan maatha’. Opinion is divided. If it means giving a new lease of life to petrol prices and water tariffs, we do it pretty well. If it means giving life to a new Government regularly, we are having no elections at all.

I think that the meaning of ‘gnaana veerya wadawamina regena yanu mena jaya bhoomi karaa’ has also changed. For many people, it now means that you should use all your brains and your strength to try and find a way to get out to a better land, as evidenced by the long queues at the Passport office.

What we are not doing is ‘prema wadaa sema bheda dureradaa’. Instead of finding ways to settle our differences, we go looking for new issues to divide ourselves even with the National Anthem. Now, it is Umara’s pronunciation. Previously, it was whether the National Anthem should be sung in Tamil.

All this is done, Mother Lanka, in your name. It is the same lot who wish to save the ‘rata, jaathiya’ time and again, be it from Natasha or Umara while many other offences and acts that disregard the law get ignored and go unpunished, raising the question as to why we are so tribal and primitive.

Whatever happens to that Vidura fellow’s inquiry against Umara’s alleged ‘offence’, there is one ‘mahathaa’ who is happy. That is Shammi. No one talks about him anymore. With all this happening at a cricketing event, makes you wonder, doesn’t it, whether he orchestrated all this hullabaloo?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: The great Ananda Samarakoon was blamed for the country’s ills after composing the National Anthem, but he prophetically got one line in the anthem absolutely correct: “eka mawakage daru kela bewinaa, yamu yamu wee nopamaa…”. I wonder how he knew of the Rajapaksas so many years ago!