Don’t venerate them

by Rajitha Ratwatte
fromoutsidethepearl@gmail.com

It is time we acknowledged the fact that the Pearl is a feudalistic society. Deep in our hearts, we live in times when our rulers used to be called ‘Deviyan Wahanse’ or literarily God. We still vote for our leaders, sit back and expect miracles. Miracles not based on any logical thought process or even a scientific one and when they invariably fail, we throw the book at them and give the “other side” our block vote.

73 years of independence if measured in human terms should have left us a little weary, maybe slightly dependent on medicines but it should also have left us wiser. It should have taught us to use our politicians properly. Surely our people, led by civil society leadership organizations, should learn to analyse our politicians. After all, they are only human, and they have certain strengths and weaknesses, it is up to us to harness those strengths and rein in those weaknesses. This is where responsible reporting from the press and organised pockets of civil society comes in. We need to set each of our politicians’ targets for work they need to accomplish in their electorates and their ministries and then hold them accountable. This should be brought down to the micro-level and if (God forbid) the provincial councils are resurrected it should start from here or maybe even the municipal councils.

Remember the Friday forum, created by some “intellectuals” for the edification and guidance (I use these words without the usual sarcasm) of the “Colombo 7” stratum of our society? That may have been the right idea, but it needed stronger leadership and a few young, brave and fearless youth (as in the Indian cricket team) to keep it from floundering like it seems to have. Maybe these people’s councils should be promoted and formed by actual political parties. A bit of partisanship is ok, the readers and assimilators of the information put out by them can decide what they think should be adapted and what should be consigned to the garbage heap of political rants and ravings.

We also need a strong press, much stronger than the pseudo efforts and the ridiculous funding numbers that prevail now in the Pearl. We do see an occasional effort from the ‘private’ broadsheets but of course, absolutely nothing from the government-owned newspapers. How the employees of that particular broadsheet even consider themselves journalists when they are simply copywriters is something that I find hard to understand!

Most of our politicians in the Pearl have certain strengths. To analyse them individually and include them in this article will not only take too long it will probably result in the untime destruction of this publishing house and the demise of its editor. We do have brave young people albeit somewhat reckless. We have experienced old foxes’ who can be used to come up with an elaborate foreign policy to handle threats from International forums. We have “fixers”, we have “organizers”, we have big talkers, all essential for running a country. We have people accustomed to providing leadership under fire (literarily) but under unquestioning disciplinary conditions. The problem is that they are given free rein and the people who they are supposed to serve, do not have control. Even after 73 years of independence and “democracy”, we have not learned this simple but vital lesson. A lesson so desperately needed for the health and strength of an efficient democracy. LEADERS SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE BY THE PEOPLE. This should be done under regular timelines.

There has been a report of many politicians’ relatives being appointed to High Commissions and E`mbassies abroad. How about a follow up report with details of those peoples’ qualifications or lack thereof? What about the interview process if any? Reactions from ANONYMOUS career diplomats and a call for action from those who have to get degrees with a class to get into the foreign service, if that is still the case! Above all else, what are we going to do about it? Organised protests and demonstrations, are we willing to participate? If not, how can we grumble?

Instead of giving landslide majorities to different sides at each election and then blaming the people we voted for, are we truly incapable of organizing ourselves to hold our leaders accountable?

A recent international survey has placed Sri Lanka 10th in a list of countries handling the pandemic efficiently. Now detractors can say this data could be tainted by incorrect numbers, but we seem to be doing something better than some “first world” countries. Leadership under military discipline may have something going for it? On the other hand, two ministers of the Pearl have made statements saying the economy is in good shape. This combined with the artificial “bull run” on the share market, is something to worry about!

Over here in Aotearoa, we have just had another scare with a few people with the South African strain of the virus “escaping” into society. However, a strong contact tracing system seems to have won the day and two long weekends in a row (something very rare over here) seems to be able to proceed with the people having no hindrances to their holidays and other festivities. The carnal activities indulged in by quarantinees (another new word) with those ensuring their quarantine (security staff), have hit the headlines and been cited as a possible reason for the spread of the virus! It seems like two weeks without sex seems to be too much to ask for from healthy, red-blooded Kiwis, even prompting calls for the distribution of ‘sex toys’ along with the other items given to those undergoing quarantine! Imagine this situation in the Pearl … the mind boggles.

We are told that tourism is not expected to be “normal” until 2022 as the borders of Aotearoa will be closed or only semi-open until then. A recent visit to the international airport left me stunned at the air of desolation. Every single retail outlet be it souvenir shops or food outlets was closed, the number of jobless employees from that institution alone left the mind almost unable to grasp the numbers involved. When one extrapolates this to the whole country of Aotearoa, where jobs are hard to find at the best of times, the future looks extremely bleak. The true impacts of the Pandemic will be felt only over the next few months. There is a housing crisis in the major cities of Aotearoa. Returning Kiwis’ who need housing and are able to pay above-market rates, has made the already existing shortage worse and has spread from the house ownership market to the rental market as well. The government subsidies have now run out, the school holidays and the summer vacations are over, reality, I fear, is about to strike.

Those who made statements that 2021 can only be better than the last year, maybe in for a revision of their opinions.