When shamelessness becomes a virtue

Wednesday 16th June, 2021

Prof. Sasanka Perera has, in a hard-hitting column published in the Midweek Review section, today, castigates all political potentates who do not have an iota of shame and are ready to stoop to anything morally reprehensible to further their own interests. His consternation is understandable, and his astringent criticism will surely strike a responsive chord with the discerning public outraged at widespread bribery and corruption, the plunder of state funds, the abuse of power and the culture of impunity.

Unfortunately, shamelessness is a virtue in a moral wasteland. It does not pay to be shameless in societies where morals and ethics are cherished, but it certainly does in this land like no other. An apocryphal story about a Mudliyar and his coconut estate comes to mind; villagers, mostly women, would trespass on his property at dawn and remove all the coconuts that had fallen overnight. Try as he might, he failed to stop this. One of his workers offered to help him, and accomplished in double-quick time what he had undertaken, much to the surprise of the big man, who asked how he had done it, and the latter said he roamed around in the buff, and villagers ran away. Likewise, shamelessness has worked for the members of parliament and other elected representatives as evident from their social positions, privileges, influence and wealth.

The nabobs at the levers of power do everything except fulfilling their election pledges. This, we have witnessed over the past several decades. The MPs of all political hues seldom knuckle down anent their legislative duties and obligations; most of them are notorious for absenteeism among other things, and the Speaker has a hard time, trying to have quorate sittings. But these worthies have all the luck thanks to the fealty of the public to political parties and politicians.

The JVP is the only Opposition party that has torn into the government for having shamelessly ordered vehicles for the MPs while the country is struggling to raise funds for its fight against the pandemic. The ‘comrades’ have called for auctioning the vehicles to be imported and utilising the proceeds for the benefit of the public. Let them be commended for their principled stand, which, however, will not translate into popular support for their cause thanks to the threadbare ideological shibboleths they cling to, as Prof. Perera has rightly pointed out. Unfortunately, other Opposition bigwigs are prevaricating on this vital issue. What the government deserves for being so shameless as to waste public funds on luxury vehicles for the MPs amidst crises on all fronts is a knuckle sandwich, but these worthies are pulling punches.

(The government claims to have cancelled the vehicle imports at issue, but it is doubtful whether anyone will buy into that claim.)

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa says he is opposed to public funds being used to buy vehicles for the MPs. He wants the money spent on the vaccination programme instead. Will the SJB MPs reject the super luxury vehicles to be imported? Such perks will make the members of parliament even in the developed world green with envy. In Sweden, as we have pointed out in a previous comment, only the Prime Minister is given an official vehicle.

Meanwhile, shamelessness seems to beget shamelessness, which has stood the elected in good stead; the vast majority of electors are also without any sense of shame. They shamelessly vote the shameless into office alternately while complaining of being taken to the cleaners by every regime. Thus, this country has governments of the shameless by the shameless for the shameless.

There are, of course, intelligent Sri Lankans who desire a radical departure from the rotten political culture, but they are thought to be hoping against hope. However, in some other countries, people have sought to make a difference by rejecting career politicians and candidates from political families. The frustration of Ukrainians with established political parties and their leaders led to the election of Volodymyr Zelensky, a professional comedian, as their President. The French elected as their President a virtual political unknown, Emmanuel Macron, who recently got slapped by a man during a walkabout, but remained composed. What prevents this country from attempting such experiments is the constancy of the majority of electors’ blind loyalty to the shameless politicians.