Sri Lankans are the happiest on earth!

By Gamini Weerakoon

(August 24, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This is the best of times. This is the worst of times. You can fly first class into New York and book a suite in the Waldorf Astoria, at state expense, or you can travel in a Black Maria to Welikada jail and sleep on the floor, also at state expense. With a little bit of influence you can be transported from Welikada to the ‘luxurious’ Merchants’ Ward.

We are a country that boasts to the world that we can now give postal tuition to other countries in fighting terrorism. We are also a country where terrorists bump off editors in broad daylight on highways and the police can’t catch the killers, even after six months. We are a country where the police thrash innocent citizens and these innocent citizens attack the police stations.

Indeed we are — as the Chinese say — living in interesting times. However, the Chinese, who are of a philosophical bent, consider ‘living in interesting times’ to be a curse. We cannot always fathom what these complicated Chinese mean. They also say this is the ‘Year of the Oxen’. Whether they mean it applies to China or some of its friendly Asian allies like ours, we cannot say. Who cares? They are giving us a harbour and power generating plants.

Election times

Whatever others may say about the times we live in, we are certain that we are living in election time. Now the invincible President Rajapakse, having by ballot or bullet won the war on terrorism and won eight out of nine elections, is going for the ninth election. Do we need star gazers to tell us who the winner will be — the ‘Gamay Kolla’ having transformed himself into Maha-Raja in just four years? After that it will be the presidential election and after that parliamentary elections.

After that what? What about the political solution to the ethnic problem which the entire nation was hotly debating about for over 25 years? When Mahinda Rajapakse’s forces were closing in on Velupillai Pirapaharan and world powers were breathing down his neck to find a political solution instead of a military solution, even Mahinda said the solution was political and not military. Since then he has not spoken about a solution for quite a while.

This writer, during the 25 years of the war, consistently maintained that a military victory had to be achieved before any political solution could be made because the warlord in the north wanted a separate state to be won with the force of arms — not through negotiations. We also said that if no political solution was available after a military victory, Lanka would be at square one, where J.R. Jayewardene started in 1977. Now we seem to be almost there. Are we to begin waltzing — sorry, warring — again?

Contrary to soaring expectations based on cock-eyed visions, the Tamils are not jumping for joy about being ‘liberated.’ Only 17 per cent of the registered voters of Jaffna cast their ballots at the Jaffna elections. When the polling cards that could not be distributed are considered, only about 35 per cent of the electorate actually voted. TNA Leader Sampanthan is now asking for internal ‘self determination’, which appears to take back the problem to the ’50s.

But will the Rajapakse government talk of a political solution before the Southern Province election? New Delhi may be in quite a pique over the deafening silence from Colombo. Have we told the Indians ‘just you wait till the election is over’?

Running amok

What of the 17th Amendment which the entire country, except the ruling party, is demanding to be implemented? The police, public service, judicial service and the Elections Department are all said to be administered by a Constitutional Council appointed under this 17th Amendment. This council has not been appointed and the President has taken on the responsibility of running this entire gamut of state machinery.

Delinquent sons of politicians and powerful officials are running wild with their fathers’ bodyguards and getting their opponents thrashed because there is no proper control of the police by an independent body. The police too, at times, are running amok and thrashing civilians — even killing them and civilians are attacking the police because there isn’t independent control of the guardians of the law.

And how righteously indignant we get with those Western nations when they try to pick holes in the way we do things. Some countries still have travel advisories detailing risks their nationals may have to face in this country. But then one Sri Lankan ‘traitor’ wrote to the newspapers asking why the government is objecting to these travel advisories when security check points are still all over Colombo and elsewhere and why VIPs and even non-VIPs dash through town in convoys armed to the teeth, blocking all side roads, if the country is so safe?

Last week, another weekly English daily ran a headline story claiming that the British High Commission embarrassed Sri Lanka Attorney General Mohan Peiris by calling him for an interview before issuing a visa to visit Britain. Indeed, that was a calculated insult to the country considering how respectfully those holding DPL passports, and even high officials not having DPL passports, were treated before.

But Lankan memory seems to be short, particularly about the fiasco about a passport sent by our Foreign Office for a visa to be issued to an ex-LTTE leader (under a false name). He was described as a high official of a government organisation. The British arrested this ‘VIP’ on finding that he was Karuna, one-time LTTE military commander of the Eastern Province, and he was put behind bars. Subsequently, he was released and on his arrival in merry Lanka he was elevated to the rank of a minister and today holds a very powerful post!

Some Sri Lankans are more angry with the Foreign Ministry’s complicity in this affair because Karuna had been the LTTE leader in the east when the Premadasa government ordered around 600 policemen serving in the region to surrender to the LTTE with the objective of saving his ‘peace negotiations.’ The policemen simply vanished without a trace and are reported to have been gunned down by LTTE cadres after being lined up before trenches which the policemen had to dig for themselves!

Unsatisfied desire

The amusing report last week was a study done by an advertising firm in 16 Asian countries on the ‘most satisfied people with their lives.’ Sri Lanka topped the list! Here at last is proof positive that the Mahinda Chinthanaya and all the preaching done in the press, radio and TV is working. A fundamental tenet of Buddhism: ‘Unsatisfied desire is the cause of all suffering’ has sunk deep into the minds of the people. We Sri Lankans seem to have curbed our desires and we should now be on our way to higher realms in our journey in Samsara.

Sadu, Sadu, Sadu, we say.

-Sri Lanka Guardian