Columns

It was just last month that firecrackers were bursting here and there. Sky rockets were aiming for the stars as though India and China were competing to grab the dark side of the moon.

Hours before that, Colombo city and elsewhere were plastered with posters that sang out that good news was only hours away, so to say. All well organised, long before the news was even good.

Then came the restructuring ‘dan salas’ doling out kiribath liberally at the UNP’s Siri Kotha HQ and in other places where the Grand Old Party’s business cronies—some still to pay their due taxes as others claim—had reached for the sacksful under the beds.

It may have been good news for the Ranil clan and hangers-on with no place to hang otherwise, except perhaps the kaju puhulan tree, as the old ditty goes—but not everybody accepted it as good news. It seemed there were several holes in the restructuring agreement with our bilateral friends.

But did that worry the likes of Nimal Siripala de Silva, who has been hanging on to most parties one can think of, like bats to the closest tree, as long as some portfolio was available? And he has been singing the praises of President Wickremesinghe in and out of the Diyawanna Oya abode, even saying that there is no leader in the country to take Sri Lanka forward as the suddenly crowned president plays night watchman.

If only one were to hark back and unearth some of his previous comments about Ranil Wickremesinghe, one might be surprised at the sea change. But then Nimal Siripala de Silva is Nimal Siripala de Silva, a man for all seasons and all parties.

He, of course, is not the only one to change courses 180 degrees, like those who move from culture to agriculture. Take Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, a convicted extortionist, whose earlier impressions of Wickremesinghe are best not repeated. But then those epithets were hurled when Ranatunga was in a different party and paying pooja to the Rajapaksas, as it were.

Then came Aragalaya ’22, which saw the unexpected fall of the once-powerful Rajapaksa clan and the dramatic rise of Wickremesinghe, the sole UNP MP in parliament, and that too not by a popular vote but through that hardly respected National List.

All this might surprise the citizens of other countries where parliamentary democracy and democratic traditions are respected. But then this is what somebody unable to read the future, like Gnana Akka, who unexpectedly predicted it, called “a country like no other.”

Some might recall those days in parliament when one side of the House addressed the other, calling them “hora, hora”. Then came the time when the side that was called “hora” returned the compliment, asking the other “kowda hora”.

Today politics in this country is such a messy mix as politicians jump from side to side as alliances are formed and others disappear that horas have got together as the elections draw near and salivating politicians liberally distribute state land, property and slash prices of domestic essentials long demanded by the citizenry but only now granted, accompanied by long speeches and smiles that stretch from ear to ear.

Before long, there will be little state land left, for they are already being allocated to political cronies and relatives as though Sri Lanka is suddenly turning into what President JR Jayewardene, the self-centred architect of the executive presidential system, cynically called the “Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka”.

Now we see the spectacle of long-time neoliberals who joined hands with that pro-western capitalist IMF, advocating far-reaching reforms that called for disposing of state assets for a fistful of dollars.

They travel the country handing over land rights and ownership of houses and apartments, not to mention cheaper electricity, making one wonder whether we will end up as a part of India—as that returnee to the Wickremesinghe-led UNP Harin Fernando once said—or some other power, big or small, before long.

It was not too long ago—in fact, after the Rajapaksas fell and Ranil Wickremesinghe arose like Lazarus—that we heard even basic socialist welfare policies had been damned and laissez-faire and free market policies were the ultimate bliss under which their fat cats could fatten further, adding to growing obesity, the least of our troubles.

From the time Wickremesinghe stepped into Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s shoes (there might be some difference in shoe sizes, not to mention approaches to governance), there were those who hailed the part-time president as the Messiah the country needed.

Others saw him as a modern-day Moses who was powerful enough to make the Red Sea part to cross to the other side with his Israelites.

Just as an aside, might I add that in days gone by when I was attached to the Ceylon Daily News, I used to walk down to Chatham Street for lunch at Pagoda Tea Room, or either of the two Chinese restaurants—Peking or Nanking—also on Chatham Street?

Also on Chatham Street was a beer bar—I think it was called White Horse Inn—where one would almost always find Henry Jayasena, the renowned actor, playwright and producer, at around lunchtime sipping a beer, reading or writing on some paper.

In those days, I was also a film and theatre critic for the CDN and would meet with playwrights, actors, and dramatists at the Lionel Wendt Bar upstairs, at the Galle Face Press Club where the Indian High Commission now stands, with Sinhala theatre groups such as “Ape Kattiya” and famous film stars, or amble along to White Horse Inn for a nice quiet chat with Henry Jayasena.

At that time, Henry was very much tied up with “Hunuwate Kathawa,”  his Sinhala version of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which was an instant hit and was on stage for many, many years, with a younger cast in the later years.

I was very interested in Brecht’s original play, which had a prologue and plays-within-plays, and several themes. I was eager to know how Henry was going to convey it all, if at all, for Brecht’s play ran for several hours on stage.

What intrigued me was when President Wickremesinghe, speaking in parliament, compared himself to a modern-day Grusha, a maid and a principal character in the Brecht play, who was portrayed as carrying a child across a damaged rope bridge to the other side of an abyss and safety.

Wickremesinghe saw his acceptance of the presidency and the task of pulling Sri Lanka’s economy away from the abyss and into safety as comparable to Grush’s heroic act in the Caucasian Chalk Circle.

His repetition of his role as real-life Grusha might impress many of them who have never heard of Brecht or his play with the character of Grusha.

But those more acquainted with Brecht’s work, especially the one under discussion, might dismiss Wickremesinghe’s more simplistic view of the play in general and the other broader socio-political themes that actually capture Sri Lanka of modern times.

I find it rather amusing that a pro-western neoliberal such as Ranil Wickremesinghe should turn to the plays of a committed communist to justify accepting the task by citing Grusha but ignoring the more didactic themes that are relevant to our own predicament.

If President Wickremesinghe is to ask someone more competent on the subject, he would be told that Brecht’s play is a treatise against political, social and economic corruption. Brecht’s position is that power, privilege and wealth lead to both moral and political corruption. The result is the continuation of the suffering of the lower classes.

Surely, as a reader of the Caucasian Chalk Circle, he could not have missed Brecht’s trenchant references to the misuse of power by the ruling classes and the imposition of its laws that more likely deny justice. The argument is that law may not deliver justice, a lesson for this government that boasts it has passed some 75 laws in parliament.

But to Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ardent supporters, without him at the helm, it would be aprḕs Ranil, le deluge, as the French would say.

(Neville de Silva is a veteran Sri Lankan journalist who was Assistant Editor of the Hong Kong Standard and worked for Gemini News Service in London. Later, he was Deputy Chief-of-Mission in Bangkok and Deputy High Commissioner in London.)