Rajpal's Column

18th October 1998

That song and dance about the dance

By Rajpal Abeynayake

It is said that Sir John Kotelawala, that impossible Kandawala laird, was so out of step with his times that he allowed himself to be photographed carving a barbecued carcass of an ox at a dinner party. What's more, he was sartorially out of step as well, being attired in bow, three piece suit and all that type of regalia.

Bandaranaike's SLFP and all of the gathering progressive forces of that time then went to town with this photograph. They had it splashed all over the walls captioned appropriately. Sir John was labelled as a "geri mas kana" ( beef eating ) degenerate, as if that was a major crime in those times. It wasn't , but the whole photograph showed John Kotelawala did not belong in the era when there was a clamour for a return to homespun values.

Kotelawala lost the election in 1956, and the rest is eminently history. Analysts now say that the photograph had a major part to play in Kotelawala's humiliating defeat. It may be that there are many '56 vintage people at Lake House, because last week they decided to splash photographs of Ranil Wickremesinghe with dancing girls at a Los Angeles fund raiser.

Though there is no election in sight, its more than obvious that the photographs will be resurrected at the correct time when the polls do happen. Then, Ranil Wickremesinghe's will be seen on all the walls that were ever put up in this country, dancing quite dejectedly it appears, with giggling go go girls .

So is Ranil Wickremesinghe's fate sealed with these photographs? The state media, it seems, thinks so, but the state media is another story. Of all the politicians who love a good big party these days, Chandrika Kumaratunga is for example one of the most famous. We do not know about Epicurean tastes and all of that, but Chandrika loves a party and few would blame her for that. It was at one of her innumerable bashes that General Anuruddha Ratwatte for instance, made a name for himself as a awesome dancer, when he raised his stick, ultimately threw it away, and whirled to the baila.

So these are all party champions, from Anuruddha to Ranil to Chandrika, all belonging to the new post independence generation of yuppie politicians. So how does the nation know the difference from one brand of party animals to another? I do not know.

Perhaps, the state media might say, the difference is in the fact that the UNP leader dances with his wife surrounded by some pom pom girls, whereas the Deputy Minister of Defence dances with his stick pointed upwards. But, for all we know a dance is a dance— and the PA elite don't quite specialise in the waltz.

Who dances with whom with what on, and where of course is trivia for the "people". The people are that elusive quantity that largely defies definition. Everybody who splashed the Ranil photographs now want to say that the whole cabaret show was abhorrent to the "people.'' Ah, the people! I don't know, but to put it as plainly as it can be, their people must be different from my people.

Now, these "people'' they know that Madam loves a party as well, and that she doesn't have to bring pom pom girls for a dance because there are enough of them in the Cabinet. Just a joke. But, as far as proclivity to party goes, President Kumaratunga has always held that partying into the night is a person's private affair. She has even gone forthrightly to court maintaining that. So if Ranil parties in Los Angeles, and the funds go into the coffers of the UNP, how is that suddenly catapulted into the public realm?

Decadence must be the word. The purveyors of Ranil's dancing photographs will say that it is the height of decadence to dance with half nude cabaret girls, and that it is no way to raise funds for a political party representing the people.

But this decadence thing is not the preserve of the UNP. Thanks to the newspapers, the people ( ah the people!) can now know that what's good for the government is good for the opposition as well. If Ratwatte can jive with his stick up, then surely Ranil should be able to jive with his wife?

Though the state media has also tried to downplay the issue saying that the rub here is that Ranil was criticising the war from Los Angeles, the massive photographs that were splashed in full colour in the state papers say it all. The rub here was that Ranil was dancing with the cabaret girls, and that was supposed to offend the "people's'' sensibilities.

When in Rome they say do as the Romans do, and a cabaret in Los Angeles is as common as a baila bajau in Bentota. Besides, all the Trinitians Thomians and the Royalists, those decadent old boys belonging to such schools and who are in the cabinet as well, can be seen every March ogling the cabaret girls right here in Colombo at the CH or CCC grounds. That's not to hold a brief for cabaret dancing, but what's the hullabaloo about cabaret in Los Angeles when it goes on here right under our noses? After all Ranil was only dancing, and they want to impeach him already . (Clinton, they want to impeach for sexual misconduct and lying. They want Ranil's head for jiving with his wife surrounded by girls whom he probably didn't touch under penalty of castration by his feminist wife.)

So there! Ranil was at a cabaret party, and its all a great hula in the newspapers. Maybe they want to do a Sir John with Wickremesinghe, but times have changed —— and as a matter of fact even Bandaranaike was not averse to wearing a three piece suit for judging a dog show. When asked why he jettisoned his familiar national dress, Banda is famously supposed to have replied "balu vedeyta balu anduma." (….the dog's attire for the dog's work.)

Of course if we are going to look at the Ranil affair from a standpoint of cultural puritanism and purely from the angle of being in sync with the national identity, then Ranil could certainly be blamed for not doing the Kandyan dance instead. But let's call off the cant, because our privileged political elite lives on whiskey, travel by BMW, organises million rupee cocktail parties (Mangala Samaraweera for Lanka Telecom for instance) and then they think Ranil is different when he shakes a leg in LA. Maybe they should go tell that to the marines, — you can find a lot of them in that part of California called Los Angeles for instance……

Hulftsdorp Hill

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