The first family, first son, first dog and the first cat

(August 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In a traditional monarchy, the monarch as head of State is the principal member of the royal family but in the democratic socialist republic of Sri Lanka claiming to be democratic and socialist this notion is taken to ridiculous lengths taking the people for granted, encouraging their increasing servility, the ignorance and their indulgence prepared to forgive and reward those responsible for subjugating the Tamil militancy at the expense of the Tamil people. Sycophants and the hangers on keep proliferating, establishing a culture within which the Sri Lankan society is fast and voluntarily degenerating to the lowest level carrying with them the destiny of the entire Sri Lankan nation, if there would ever be such a thing. Those in power have failed in their responsibility to ensure the self respect of every individual living in Sri Lanka.

Like the crown in traditional monarchies, in Sri Lanka, the trade mark maroon shawl worn by the Rajapakses has become the symbol of the new Sri Lankan royalty giving the lie to the ridiculously cynical claim that it is worn to mark their concern for the peasantry. It is in fact meant to represent the conventional crown contrived with the puerile notion that the first family stand not only away but also above their subjects. The idea of the Rajapakse family being the exclusive “royal” family is being shamelessly promoted and propagated instead of this shameful notion being discouraged from being further developed. The queerest things in recent times is that the members of this ruling family even refer to themselves as the “first family”.

Indeed, in strong democracies like Britain, Scandinavia, Japan and Thailand their royal families are not elected by the people to be their subservient subjects but instead have come down through centuries. With the gradual evolution of the power of the people the concept of the monarchy has gradually transformed into being more ceremonial serving to forge greater unity amongst their peoples making their democracies stronger instead of being divisive. This has largely been due to the common sense, foresight, maturity and flexibility exercised by such monarchs unlike those in France and Russia who had to pay the supreme price for the lack of these during the respective revolutions. Quite apart from the traditional monarchies in other civilized democracies, the people have been electing their governments to serve them and hence they the electors are their masters and the elected their servants, at least in theory, but never the subjects of their governments.

In Sri Lanka, we have the case of the first son, although only a raw junior Parliamentarian who can bring senior cabinet ministers to their knees which they scramble to do considering it to be a privilege, evincing as to what low level the fawning sycophants can go. Consequent to the defeat of the Tamil militants in the racist war waged on the Tamil people killing tens of thousands of Tamil civilians, the Tamil speaking areas in the north and the east are being regarded the happy hunting ground of the Rajapakse family playing with their lives and destinies. Enjoying the indulgence and the latitude of the Sinhala polity, still basking in the climate of triumphalism, the first son enjoys unfettered and unquestioned freedom. He is like a toddler, playing with his toys leaving them all over to get on to other things, to be put back in place by his royal nannies.

His limit being the Sri Lankan sky, as if given the God given right to be so, he is in charge of the presidential secretariat, a teacher in law at the naval academy, the leader of the Sri Lankan youth to be led into the future, supervisor of the development of the railways and related infra structure, builder of a half completed swimming pool dug at his whim at a leading Jaffna school forgetting that it needs water, and walking away without any compunction or accountability. Yes, we agree that at the moment swimming is not a priority for a northern student. And above all, amongst other responsibilities, the first son is to be entrusted with the delicate development of the ravaged Tamil area with the view to learning responsible leadershipand management for the future, by trial and error, at the sufferance of the Tamil people already devastated unable to take any more. Besides the cynical disregard for the plight of the Tamils affected, this is evidence of the Sinhalese polity being prepared to enjoy a manner of sadistic pleasure at the adversity and the desolation of the Tamils being treated with such callousness as if all Tamils should pay the price for Tamil militancy, for which they themselves were largely responsible.

If the first son actually wishes to provide leadership to the youth of the future as claimed, he must not turn his back from the matter of the murder of Susantha Bandara, a southern university student believed to have been committed by the State, although the stains of the brutal killings by the Sri Lankan State of the five Tamil university students who were enjoying an evening out in the beach in Trincomalee during their vacation and the execution style murder of the 18 Tamil youth in Mutur in the east in August 2006 have not still vanished.

It is also known that the Rajapakse family have fast developed into a Mafia with layers and layers of it being developed to keep them secure even with the ramifications of the jealousies and tensions amongst themselves. Controlling more than seventy percent of the budgeted expenditure, the idea is to make the best of it while the going is good. While the first son is in control of the goings on within the presidential Secretariat there is also an intelligence service under the supervision of an army general that insulates him from any public criticism and any effective public scrutiny while he enjoys the freedom of the wild ass. The well meaning sections of the Sinhalese people and the independent media, though concerned, cannot speak out for obvious reasons. What chance have they when some senior cabinet ministers are at his beck and call prepared to do anything short of crawling before him. Sri Lanka, in its ancient days of its monarchy, it had had its share of recalcitrant royal sons but the degree of the liberty that they took with their subjects with impunity depended mostly on the sense of justice and the concern for the subjects of the king concerned.

We recommend that to make the mafia of the first family complete and foolproof, there should also be on the team our best friend, who could be a part of the investigations, if not the Head of it, to investigate into any intended threat to the first family. Given to bribery even at the highest level, even the most loyal dog however professionally trained, could be tempted with a fairly substantial bone. To ensure against this canine failing, we should also have the first cat, with its sturdy independence, watching the dog from a tree top ensuring that he keeps to the straight and the narrow path.

In an excellent recent paper, Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, on the excesses of the Rajapakse family, referring to Namal Rajapakse, says: “More Crown Prince perhaps than First Son, being given war ravaged Killi to dabble in development? Is there a precedent here of Killinochchi becoming the local Duchy of Cornwall?” and further: “The gratitude and appreciation of the citizenry for the defeat of the LTTE and expressed in two thumping mandates for the Rajapaksa family should not blind the citizenry to the dangers of authoritarianism and the corrosion of governance. Nor should we allow fear to silence protest and resistance to this and then wallow in regret for our complicity and appeasement at a later, god forbid, much later date. Whoever rules, whoever governs and for how long is not the issue. There must always be, as a basic minimum, checks and balances, the rule of law, due process, best practices and standards adhered to, rights protected and duties fulfilled.” It could not have been said better.

One is then, reminded of and tempted to quote John Dryden on Zimri, the character in his classic satirical poem, Absolem and Achitophel, 1681:
“…In the first rank of these did Zimri stand; A man so various, that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong,
Was everything by starts, and nothing long; But, in the course of one revolving moon,
Was chemist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon;.....”

The writer, editor,Eelamnation)