A legacy much needed for the country

A review of SLGunasekera’s book- "Where angels fear to tread’

by Gunadasa Amarasekera

(February 07, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In dedicating this book to his deceased parents SL Gunasekera has inscribed this epitaph:-"Their legacy to me was not material wealth but something far more worth-an independent spirit."

That SL has not only preserved his legacy but has also enriched it needs no elaboration: not only has he preserved and enriched it, he has seen to it that, that legacy becomes the legacy for the present generation as well as generations to come. Those parents where ever they may be must surely be proud of having bequeathed that legacy to their son.

This collection of essays by that independent spirit is an invitation to most of us to invoke that independent spirit that lies within, hidden and buried, unable to confront that spectre of fear that haunts us now at every turn. The captions chosen for these essays-‘ Where angels fear to tread’, go to show that the author is fully aware of the severity of the fear that inhibits and deters us.

SL Gunasekera in his introduction to these essays sets out his intentions in bringing them out in the following words:" I am not, and lay no claims to being, a historian, a political scientist, a moralist, a saint, or a jurist; nor do I seek to identify or map out the historical evolution of our problems and the root causes thereof. What I do seek to do is to identify and expand upon some of those problems that now beset us, expose some of the falsehoods used by our enemies to discredit us and our military operations against the terrorists; expose the myth that the solution to our problems lies in constitutional reform and the devolution of power: as well as some other hypocrisy and fraud that is being committed and being sought to be committed by politicians of various hues, native compradors of the ‘Rich Foreigners’(euphemistically called the "international community"} and others as well; and finally to identify the high task that may be accomplished to resurrect ourselves from the morass in which we find ourselves".

Reading this introduction and going through the contents of most of these essays I see in them a blue print for a future Sri Lanka bereft of this scourge and curse of terrorism that has plagued this country over the last 30 years. As pointed out by SL, this is a task that would be far more difficult to achieve than the military defeat of the LTTE. He sees the failure to achieve this as paving the way to a state of anarchy, a fate worse than the present one.

Looking at the situation presented in these essays from a different angle – the behavioural pattern of our younger generation, I have come to realize that the seeds of anarchy that SL speaks of are already there, unseen by most of us. Our main political parties, however corrupt and despicable they may be, have provided a conduit to give vent to the frustrations, sufferings and humiliations that the people undergo. They hope against hope that ousting the regime in power and replacing it with another regime would provide the solution. The younger generation, as I see them, no longer harbours such hopes. They have lost faith in politics; have become cynical, apolitical and alienated. Is this not the mental state, the breeding ground that allows those seeds of anarchy to take root?

As I see, anarchy appears to have come into being already where this younger generation is concerned. One more step in that direction will make them members of an animal farm, ready to be manipulated by a dictator in a new mask thrown up by this growing anarchy as it spreads across the entire society. Have we not witnessed this in the recent past? The corruption, the nepotism, the patronage, the sycophancy that the author speaks of will be what will provide the necessary inflammable ingredients. It was these evils that were mainly responsible to plant those seeds in the younger generation and alienate them. I would have been happy if the author had touched on this point since it flows invariably from his penetrating analysis.

This book of essays consists of seven parts with an introductory preface to each part. The preface introduces the reader to the events and issues, while the chapters that follow examine them critically. This approach makes these essays very readable without taxing the reader unnecessarily.

I have detected a feature running through all those essays. All those reforms he suggests in these writings are presented as a debt we owe to our poor soldiers who have sacrificed their lives to keep us alive. He sees us as morally bound to honour this debt. His strident voice in which he speaks betrays a pained conscience that is ill at ease. It’s a wake up call to the collective conscience of our society.

Most of the material as contained in the first five parts is bound to be familiar to readers of SL Gunasekera’s writings-his earlier publications. Separatist Myths, Political Solutions ,The LTTE and their lackeys have figured very much in those earlier writings. But I think presenting them at this point of time once again and afresh is very necessary, for we are a nation notorious for our short memories. This short memory of our’s has proved to be very useful not only for Prabhakaran but our own opportunistic politicians too. There is every possibility that with the crushing of the LTTE terrorism those opportunists may well hark back to political solutions and devolution that have been exposed and summarily dismissed by patriots like SL Gunasekera. The political solution, the devolution of power may well now be presented as an act of mercy on the part of the victor to the vanquished with the blessings of the Sangha nayakas and bishops, backed by some sayings of the Buddha - nahiwerana werani. (We already see signs of such moves). Even the bard’s lines ‘ it blesseth him that gives and him that takes’ may prove handy to the opportunistic politician. It may help him to take the path of least resistance so as to maintain his status quo and cling onto power.

It will absolve him of the responsibility to make radical changes in the governance and economy and put him back in the role of that familiar figure, going round the world with the begging bowl-a spectacle we have seen from the day we got independence. The IMF, the World Bank ,MNCs, INGOs will all be happy and only too eager to part with their dollars and praise these opportunists-their lackeys as great democrats. Such an eventuality can be prevented only by arming ourselves with these writings of SL and others and keeping a perennial watch over our opportunistic politicians.

On that vexed question of devolution of power, SL Gunasekera has presented a new approach which should draw our attention. While maintaining that it is a condition laid down by the 13th amendment which needs to be adhered to, he sees it as a useless exercise that will not bring power to the people or the provinces. This is what he has to say about the devolution proposals:

"The system of ‘devolution’ envisaged by the 13th amendment and even by the disastrous ‘new constitution’ hatched by GL Pieris in one of his previous political incarnations and unsuccessfully presented to Parliament in August 2000, did not envisage any kind of devolution to the people ,but only to the leadership of political parties so as to give them more and more opportunities to extend patronage to good for nothing loafers, unemployables, thugs and hangers on, and to plunder the public purse…It is therefore evident that nobody really wants devolution and that whatever else the 13th amendment may have achieved, it has not established, and is incapable of establishing devolution of power to the people. Why then does the government and the opposition not have the courage, commitment, and political will to repeal the nonsensical 13th amendment?"

One cannot agree more with this observation of SL Gunasekera in the background of what has happened in the name of devolution of power to the provinces. Though forced on us by the Indians it has been very useful to the centre- to the President to extend his dictatorial powers to the periphery, to every nook and corner of the country. As can be seen from what has happened so far this has enabled the President to have a gang of warlords selected from lackeys, sycophants, stooges and thugs to carry out his diktat. This is a clear case where the wily politician can turn even a curse to the rest of society into a blessing for himself, for his survival. JR was a past master at this. The most amoral society became a ‘dharmista samajaya’ in his hands. The creation of provincial governments has neither given the Tamils the Elam nor democracy to the rest of the country. But it is being paraded as the flagship of democracy and the one and only means for solving the so called ethnic problem.

The independent spirit in SL Gunasejkera finds its full expression in the essay, ‘The evil triplets; nepotism, patronage, sycophancy’. Quite rightly, he spares no one who has contributed to the political quagmire this country has come to be. Chandrika, Ranil, Mahinda- they are all there with their evil deeds - Waters Edge, Mihin Air etc.I think such an exorcism is absolutely essential if we are to turn over a new leaf and look forward to a new country. We owe it to those poor soldiers who laid their lives to save this country for us.

SL expresses this sentiment very strongly: "It was certainly not to perpetuate a disgusting system like this that our youth in the armed forces sacrificed life and limb. Most of those youth come from families that are poor or in marginal economic circumstances; they have no kith and kin among those ensconced in power, no personal connections to them, all they have is their merit and enviable record of service to the country. Do not these youth deserve to live in a country where objective merit which is all they have, is the most important qualification for appointment to any office, and matters such as relationships and other connections to those in the corridors of power, matters of supreme irrelevance in that regard? If we in this country cannot give to youth such as these what they have earned with enormous sacrifice and suffering what are we but a set of detestable worms?"

Knowing SL Gunasekera as I do, I can well understand the supreme disgust that he harbours in his heart for the despicable power- hungry politicians. But he has been rational enough to see that his heart does not rule his head always. Here are two examples:

"It must be remembered that just as much as a relationship to a Head of State or Minister, is not a qualification to high office, it is also not a disqualification, provided such a relative has the requisite qualifications and ability. Thus in my view one of the best appointments made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa was that of his brother Lt. Gotabaya Rajapaksa as Defense Secretary."

"Far be it from me, to even suggest that the present regime is faultless. To my mind about the only thing it is doing correctly is its relentless and well planned military operations to restore peace by the only means available to do so, which is to destroy the LTTE militarily. This manifest ‘plus’ in favour of the government overrides for the time being, until a better alternative is found, its manifold minuses.. While the credit of the inevitable defeat of the LTTE must necessarily go to our troops and all those in the police and civil defense force who actually fought the LTTE and the intrepid villagers of embattled villages such as those in Welioya, we must not, and indeed cannot forget that they never have cleansed our country of the excrescence called the LTTE but for the steadfast and unprecedented support and political leadership given to them by Mahinda Rajapaksa, despite the enormous pressure brought to bear upon him to desist by powerful foreign governments, INGOs, and their native compradors in Sri Lanka."

The essay I find most interesting, which I am sure many others would find equally interesting is -" The tarnished jewel in the crown- The independence of the judiciary." It is here that we find the author really trespassing on grounds where angels would fear to tread.

I think any citizen concerned with the well being of our society should buy this book just to read this one essay.

-Sri Lanka Guardian