Thursday 11th April, 2024

Astrologers were clashing over the traditional New Year auspicious times or nekath, at the time of writing. Some of them are of the view that the nekath prepared by what is described as the State Astrologers’ Committee of the Department of Cultural Affairs will have malefic effects on the country. However, Minister of Buddha Sasana, and Religious and Cultural Affairs Vudura Wickremanayake has ceremonially handed over the nekath seettuwa or the table of auspicious time to President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Everything is done in an astrologically-prescribed manner in this country. In fact, astrologers are the real eminences grises; they have politicians, including government leaders, eating out of their hand. It is they who decide when elections should be held, the only exception being the presidential polls during the tenure of a President elected by Parliament. There have been instances where they had Presidents advance presidential elections. Most citizens are also believers in astrology, which influences their lives from the cradle to the grave. If it is true that benefits accrue from auspicious times to those who observe them, how can one explain Sri Lanka’s current predicament? Why has the country had to beg for dollars and plead with its creditors to reschedule its debts in spite of following astrological guidelines to the letter?

There is no way Sri Lanka can come out of the current economic crisis without enhancing national productivity, which is the be-all and end-all of economic progress, and this is a task that requires hard work, longer working hours, and, above all, a radical attitudinal change. Everyone has to move out of his or her comfort zone and work harder if he or she is to help the country achieve economic progress. A prerequisite for realising this ambitious goal is to stop blaming others and planets and stars, and act responsibly while seeking guidance from real experts, and not self-proclaimed seers who are a dime a dozen.

The rice trick

Sri Lankan politicians do a Santa during election years. They throw public funds around generously as if they were spending their own money. They have mastered the art of bribing Citizen Perera with his own money and cheating him out of his vote. This has been going on for more than seven decades.

The SLPP-UNP government has allocated funds with a generous hand for poor relief in this election year. It has undertaken to distribute free rice among the needy families during the current festive season.

The rice trick has worked since Independence. In 1953, Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake had to resign amidst a mass uprising triggered by an increase in the price of a measure of rice, among other things. His successor, Sir John Kotelawala, had to restore the rice subsidy partially to bring the situation under control. Sirimavo Bandaranaike also played the rice trick to win elections. She promised what has come to be dubbed ‘rice from the moon’; she promised that rice would be made available even if it had to be brought from the moon, but later she imposed restrictions on the consumption and transport of rice.

In the run-up to the 1977 general election, J. R. Jayewardene promised eight pounds of cereal or eta raththal atak per week to alleviate poverty under a UNP government. His pledges were like pie crust made to be broken, and the people got nothing by way of free cereal. Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga undertook to lower the bread prices, and did not care to make good on her promise. President Mahinda Rajapaksa turned Temple Trees into a dansela of sorts by giving away food, especially on days of religious significance. His gastronomic bribes yielded the desired results, and he managed to win elections until his overconfidence overtook him.

The incumbent government, which has ruined the economy and inflicted unprecedented suffering on the public, is playing the rice trick in a bid to assuage public anger ahead of elections. But the poor do not live by rice alone, and they eat rice throughout the year, and not just during festive seasons. The vast majority of people who are struggling to dull the pangs of hunger will not get free rice even as a temporary measure. There’s the rub for the government.