Sri Lankan politics without race or religion: Will it be politics?

By Gamini Weerakoon

(August 16, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) An old yarn of the oldest watering hole in town was recalled by an old timer last week. The story goes back to the aftermath of the 1956 election victory of the SLFP led by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. Both Bandaranaike the winner and Sir John Kotelawala who led the defeated UNP were members of the club in its halcyon days.

Sir John, the story goes was, in the ‘Gents’ buttoning down (zippers had not come into vogue by then) when S.W.R.D. had come in. On seeing Bandaranaike, Sir John had immediately turned to the wall and buttoned up soon which had made Bandaranaike to be sarcastic: Why Lionel, are you scared of me? (Lionel was the name intimates used for Sir John). The irrepressible Sir John had cracked back: ‘Of course I am scared Banda. You tend to ban or nationalise everything that is big and functional.’

Urge to ban

The occasion to repeat this half century old yarn by a senior member of the club was a Sunday newspaper on the table which had a 10 column headline right across: ‘Racial and religious parties to be banned.’ The news report said that legislation will be introduced in parliament soon to outlaw all political parties bearing the identity of a race or a religion.

Bandaranaike soon after becoming Prime Minister banned British military bases from the country and nationalised private bus companies because they had worked for the UNP against his party at the election. He could not continue with this trend for long because he was assassinated two years later but his widow Sirima continued with this frenzy of nationalisation and banning till she met with her disastrous defeat in 1977.

Now that we have power…

The SLFP in the name of socialism banned and nationalised all institutions which they did not like and even banned foreign elocution and pianoforte examinations. Towards the end of her term of office even Buhari Hotel which was famed for its buriyani was nationalised and named the Government Owned Business Undertaking of Buhari Hotel. Like most nationalised projects, it failed. As a wag remarked: buriyani is for eating, not nationalising.

It has been observed that in the flush of victory, the SLFP seems to be inspired to take over or ban many things which are not to their liking. The thinking appears to be: Now that we have the power lets ban and nationalise. Mahinda Rajapakse’s SLFP which is the main constituent party of the ruling coalition seems to be in such a frame of mind.

Quite recently they banned ‘adult only films,’ brought press, radio and TV advertisements under government censors and even went to the ludicrous extent of banning school children taking mobile phones to schools. This combined with its campaigns against alcohol and tobacco are making deep inroads into the privacy of individuals and it does appear that the intention is to keep breathing down the necks of ordinary citizens who want to lead their own way of life, be it good or bad for them. As we commented in a previous column, this country is turning out to be a nanny state.

Nannies and dictators

Nannies are good for children but when children grow up they want the nannies kicked out however much they may be good for their health and morals etc. But permanent nannies do become a problem. In government, nannies with their codes of conduct, at times have turned out to be deadly dictators like what Joseph Stalin did to the Soviet people, perverting the Communist Manifesto as he wanted and Adolf Hitler did with his Mein Kampf. Let us hope that the Mahinda Chinthanaya code of conduct — repeated ad nauseam by zealous supporters — will not extend to private lives of citizens.

The newly proposed laws of banning racist and religious parties however appears to be a quantum jump from all other bans proposed by the government. Last week many Tamil parties and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress were to appeal against certain provisions to the Supreme Court.

Race and religion

Is it the intention of the Rajapakse administration to take religion and race out of Sri Lankan politics? Prima facie it would be fine because religion and race are the basic causes of most of the global conflicts. But it is more easily said than done in Sri Lanka because the very basis of politics is race and religion, and even caste.

It is undeniable that today’s much revered founding fathers of the SLFP played a predominant role in bringing religion and race into politics. The so-called 1956 revolution was powered by Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. Sirima Bandaranaike’s 1972 constitution which did away with specific safeguards to protect minorities such as: ‘No community or religion shall have privileges conferred on them not granted to other religions and races’ and a predominant place was ensured for Buddhism.

The SLFP and its leaders inundated the Sri Lankan political landscape with Sinhala Buddhist racism and now the present motivations of the Rajapakse government needs careful scrutiny.

Even though the SLFP and the UNP includes members of most other communities they are quite obviously parties competing with each other to be guardians of Sinhala Buddhism. It is undeniable that President Mahinda Rajapakse is riding the crest of a wave of triumphal Sinhala Buddhism after having defeated Tamil terrorism of the LTTE. So who is trying to fool whom or what are the basic intentions of this proposed legislation?

Patriots and traitors

After his triumph over the LTTE Mahinda Rajapakse came out with new chapter of his philosophy: ‘There are no communal factions in this country but only patriots — those who are with my party and others who opposed to me — traitors.’ Whether this new political divide declared by him can be put into practice is to be seen.

At the last presidential election he got a bare three percent lead over Ranil Wickremesinghe. That is, almost 47 per cent of the country voted against him and therefore they were traitors!

Other complications are also bound to arise which the ever retiring Commissioner of Elections would have to face. For example how would he classify leading lights of the Rajapakse administration like G.L. Peiris, Sarath Amunugama and Rajitha Senaratne? Traitors or Patriots or Born Again Patriots? They still retain UNP membership on which they were elected to parliament.

Perhaps the Elections Commissioner would do well to remember the words of American poet and essayist Waldo Emerson: ‘When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanliness of its hands and purity of its heart.’

-Sri Lanka Guardian