From the Green Corner

Look at your proud record in governance

By Viruddha Paakshikaya

As the week draws to an end, I know I must not disappoint my Sunday Times readers so I must respond to my friend Paakshikaya who occupied a whole page of the newspaper last week.

But I shall not indulge in such loquacity in prose, for two reasons. First, most of Paakshikaya's arguments are baseless flights of his imagination, needing no reply. Secondly, as I write this, I am pre-occupied with the Emirates Cup Final now being telecast on TV. The cricket match is far more exciting than Paakshikaya's harangue, but it also reminds us that all our country can now do is try to win the Emirates Trophy. When the Emirates has done one better and bought over our country's pride - it's national carrier, thanks to the "generosity" of Paakshikaya's government!

So, let's keep it short and to the point, shall we, Paakshikaya?

I must, first of all, summarily dismiss the charges Paakshikaya has made against the Rajahs, for I need not repeat what I said of them a fortnight ago - that you cannot blame the Rajahs for their "get up and go" attitude while Paakshikaya and others of his kind can only scream "Dutugemunu-Dutugemunu", a blatantly communal cry. My only advice to Paakshikaya on this is to try to learn from history: Your revered leader unleashed this cry in 1956 to win elections; his beloved daughter, ironically, has to go to the other extreme of selling the Sinhalese, to undo the damage initiated in '56!

It is just enough to say here the number of tenders you claim the Rajahs won at least shows there was some economic activity in the country during the UNP's rule.

Paakshikaya attempts to discredit the Rajah's deeds by listing their tenders and says they don't even belong to Ranil Wickremesinghe's "Top Ten". He (or she) claims it will take ten weeks to list Ranil Wickremesinghe's Top Ten business friends.

But that only proves the point that there was so much economic activity during our time, Paakshikaya!

As for me, I was able to cover ground from the 1960-1965 and 1970-1977 SLFP governments' economic activities in a single article. Then I ran out of things to say - simply because there was nothing to say as there was nothing else happening at that time on the economy.

It all reminds me so much of that slogan -"Apata puthe magak nethe" "If you recall, Paakshikaya, this slogan has an interesting story behind it - The slogan was actually a title of a play by Henry Jayasena made during the 1965 -1970 Dudley Senanayake regime. At first, it was banned, but the then Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs, I M. R. A. Iriyagolla intervened and the ban was lifted. There was an unnecessary fuss as a result of the banning and thereafter political parties were quick to use the catchy title of the play as a slogan. The LSSP, in particular used it to ridicule Dudley's government. But, come 1977 with all it's food shortages, the UNP's creative genius came up with a second line tagged on to the first, which decency forbids me from quoting here. It suffices to say that the word " Nethe" is retained and that the word 'Puthe' had a letter altered so that the new line means "our bowels are so empty without food, we don't even need to go to the toilet!". If you are of that vintage Paakshikaya, by now you would have recalled the slogan I'm alluding to.

But such slogans do tell a tale. They mirrored the economic woes of the country at that time. It was with apologies to Dickens, "the best of times and the worst of times"; the best to the ruling elite, the worst to the common man.

If I may jog Paakshikaya's memory, a person living in Sri Lanka had to queue up for the weekly rice ration. A mere two metres of cloth was given also on ration. Transparency - of a different kind - was the order of the day then and the sarong material, smelling of kerosene oil, was called "gantaara mark" by those who dared wear it. Rice was not available on Tuesdays and Fridays - Manioc was the prescribed food, and people had to wait in queues from four o'clock in the morning for their bread.

No foreign exchange was allowed for anyone but the children of the ruling elite who were able to study in foreign universities - even if they had to mop floors to earn those extra bucks!

And, do you remember, Paakshikaya, how anyone going overseas had to surrender their rice ration books? If, by any chance, you were not getting a ration you had to go to the Food Commissioner's Office at Barnes Place and get a certificate to say you had already surrendered your 'B'slip!

Then, you had to get an "Exit Permit" and also get a certificate from the Central Bank for any jewellery you took overseas. Then, you had to obtain a pre-paid ticket, because you couldn't buy your ticket in Sri Lanka.

These were the "reforms", Paakshikaya, introduced by your Marxist 'golden brain' Finance Minister whose grand statue was unveiled along the Parliament Road last week, with two fingers raised in something like an obscene gesture towards all those travelling to Parliament!

And so, in 1977 the Marxists and the Communists lost every seat they contested, the SLFP won eight and the UNP and the TULF won the balance. Since then, the country has undergone an economic revolution, thanks to the initiative of the UNP though some of it's achievements have been diluted by becoming embroiled in a separatist war.

It is because of the Open Economy that this country survives today. It is because of the UNP that your GLP can boast that the GNP and GDP are still growing despite an ongoing war. It is because of this economy that your pink socialists from Sorbonne, your Trotskyites and your Communists can hang on to power, while supporting capitalist polices unashamedly. (I can understand GLP supporting these policies as he became a SLFPer only after the Southern Province elections were won by the PA in March 1994!)

But, Paakshikaya, after inheriting this great economic legacy from us, what have you done? The PA has handled the economy in such a way that whatever the BOI says, investor confidence is at a very low ebb. The President and her ministers are always saying that somebody is investing in some project somewhere, but we do not see any development anywhere. The youth are increasingly becoming jobless; the only avenue for employment being in the Army and the Police, but they desert from them when they realise that they are mere cannon-fodder for ambitious generals.

Then, Paakshikaya, since you wrote so much about the Rajahs I shall write of one such person in the PA.

It is the Princely Sumal. You say you helped the Sinhala businessman. Well done. This must be the kind of Sinhala businessman you help. The young man from Wattala (you seem to have a penchant for Sinhala businessmen from Wattala) is in London this week with 20 of his buddies watching - cricket - having a ball indeed!

How they have gained access to the amount of wealth they have acquired in four short years (not seventeen!) is by itself something that might require ten weeks for me to chronicle.

So, only the "war economy" has grown under the PA and only a handful of people have benefited - as opposed to the UNP when the entire economy grew and the masses benefited.

Then, Paakshikaya talks of Super Secretaries in the UNP regime. Believe me, Paakshikaya, the problem with the PA is that it doesn't have Super Secretaries to oil the wheels of your government.

What you have is a public service which is being accused by the President of being dishonest and inefficient - and they are also "accused" of being UNP saboteurs trying to bring down the government! But when they give a studied opinion regarding some locomotive tender, they are summoned to Temple Trees and told how to give their opinions and why trains running on ship engines are more preferable. That is how you treat your public servants!

Then, Paakshikaya, you refer to the appointment of an Ambassador by this Super Secretary. To tell you the truth, we know nothing of this appointment. I wonder, Paakshikaya, whether you have got your facts right. How on earth can anyone outside the President or the Foreign Office appoint an "Ambasssador", more so when there is an accredited Ambassador in Washington DC?

When he refers to someone who did negotiations on garments while being in Washington, we know whom he is referring to. But an Ambassador? Surely not.

So I think, Paakshikaya, I may have allowed some of your major grievances .But I have also given you some food for thought about previous SLFP regimes and about the new look PA regime that you so stoutly defend.

Now, that you have completed four miserable years in office, I am only sorry that our country was destined to suffer in this manner.

I have just now seen today's (Friday's) editorial of the Ceylon Daily News, now under another new editor. It touts the PA's "Proud record in governance" of the last four years.

Interestingly, this is how it describes the last days of the UNP rule: "An uncontrolled open economy had crushed them under the torrent of consumerism; human rights were observed more in the breach, corruption was a way of life and no solution to the ethnic problem was in sight. The people had lost all hope....."

Now, Paakshikaya, we must preserve this brilliant piece of journalism.

Then, in another two years time, we could reproduce the same editorial, because I'm sure, Paakshikaya, by that time, we will be telling the same things about your PA government too! You wouldn't want to bet on that, would you?

Quest for Godseism without Godse

By Our India Corres pondent

The Indian middle classes seem to approve of Godse's militancy and what he wanted Hindus to do in the context of the continuing conflict with an aggressively Islamic Pakistan outside, and growing Islamic fundamentalism within. But they have a problem. They don't want to own Godse, the "assassin".

This ambivalence, which according to Dr. Nandy, has significant political spin offs, is due to the fact that the Indian middle classes have not accepted assassination as a legitimate political instrument. They love Godse for what he said and stood for, but are embarrassed by what he did it to a fellow human being, and a loved and respected national figure at that. "The bottom line is that the Indian middle classes want Godseism without Godse !" Dr. Nandy said.

Present day India abounds in Godseism. As examples, one can cite the demolition of the Babri Masjid; the violent campaigns against M.F.Hussein ( the avant garde painter who exercised artistic freedom in the true Hindu tradition) ; the burning of the Bible in Gujarat and the expulsion of Muslims from Randhikpur village in that BJP ruled state; Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray's saying that his men "acted like soldiers" when they killed Muslims in Bombay in the aftermath of the serial bomb blasts set off by Muslim hot heads; and last but not the least, the jingoism which accompanied the May 1998 nuclear tests.

Significantly, in the 50th year after Godse's hanging, Godseism seems entrenched in the higher echelons of power in India. The ruling BJP stands for it, albeit in an attenuated form. But the real powers behind the throne, namely, the RSS, VHP and the Bajran Dal, swear by it.

However, Dr. Nandy points to an ambivalence in the modern Hindu mind which is equally important for the existence and continuation of the conflict between Gandhism and Godseism. He says that the significance of the ban on the popular pro-Godse Marathi play Mee Nathuram Boltoy by the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra, on the advise of the BJP-led Central government, cannot be lost sight of.

Even the author of the play, Pradeep Dalvi, had to go on the defensive to say that that there was no room for panic as he had not "denigrated" Gandhi but only "projected" Godse's point of view. At any rate, he added, the assassination of Gandhi had not killed Gandhism!

"The Indian middle classes are clearly confused," commented Dr. Nandy.

The political psychologist, who has made a deep study of Gandhi and Godse, says that the conflict between the two will never die out because Gandhism and Godseism represent two contradictory world views, both of which exercise a strong pull on the Indian mind.

Gandhi had unleashed new forces in Indian society. He wanted the traditional caste and class elites to yield place to the traditionally peripheral but more numerous communities. He wanted women in the forefront, thus challenging male domination. He wanted Hinduism to be true to itself and be loose, open ended and tolerant. He saw no conflict between Hinduism and Islam. He talked of soul force, and passive resistance to evil. He eschewed aggressive responses and abhorred realpolitik.

But the Godseists saw India as a mono-cultural country, in which the survival of Hindus lay in defining themselves clearly and organising themselves politically to face the challenge of organised Islam. They were sold on realpolitik. They saw Hinduism and Islam as being antithetical to each other.

With minor modifications, these contradictory perceptions are the substance of Indian politics even today. The Godseist BJP is in power, but is shaky, indicating the power of the "Gandhian" opposition.

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