Sweeping the state clean with a rhetorical broom

Where once hat-in-hand humble and ostensibly on the side of the cost-of-living crippled, footboard-travelling, serially suffering masses, the former opposition is slowly but surely transforming into its own antithesis now that it senses the trappings and traditional security of being ensconced in power – as opposed to its erstwhile mantra of service

The NPP government’s ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ initiative has much to commend it. It’s visionary, programmatic, a sea change for a country steeped in waste, delinquency and corruption. For a nation wracked by ruinous politicking over the years, it comes as a breath of fresh air. 

But the new brooms have left more than merely dust motes lambent in the room with their tendency to pontificate, yet – the truth be told – deliver little by way of practical results. Yet.

PTA? Still there. Executive Presidency? In situ. Easter bombings masterminds? MIA. Cost of living adjustments? Ask the IMF. Crimes past and present punishments? Pending. Those files? Ah. Online Safety Act? Still muzzling the media and dissent in civil society.  

And time may be running out in the larger scheme of things, as the widespread goodwill given so freely to the then opposition is being squandered by the now-incumbent administration. 

The all-important ‘honeymoon’ in which new governors are given a free pass of sorts has been unutilised in the main by a puzzlingly lax regime of governance. 

More to the point – there has been a distressing rejection of (and in some instances, reversal of) the JVP-led regime’s policies.

This would be par for the course in a nation where no sooner the wolf is in the fold, off come its sheep’s clothing. 

But it is a great pity for a country on the cusp of what once appeared to be great potential for a paradigm shift in the sociopolitical ethos that the seemingly sea-green incorruptible National People’s Power is going down the same route. 

But the new brooms have left more than merely dust motes lambent in the room with their tendency to pontificate, yet – the truth be told – deliver little by way of practical results

And even in a milieu where the political opposition is shamelessly hijacking the people’s ongoing – if somewhat attenuated – mandate, the state of things is such that the polity would be forgiven for starting to run low on empathy for it present rulers.

Part of the problem is probably the volte face that the countenance of the JVP-led NPP leadership has undergone since sweeping three successive polls. 

Where once hat-in-hand humble and ostensibly on the side of the cost-of-living crippled, footboard-travelling, serially suffering masses, the former opposition is slowly but surely transforming into its own antithesis now that it senses the trappings and traditional security of being ensconced in power – as opposed to its erstwhile mantra of service. Power corrupts?

Decline and fall

Leading the charge so to speak in this respect is arguably AKD himself, as he appears to democrats majoring on more than mere mandates. 

While there is little doubt except among the morally lax that the NPP has earned the right to govern the nation through the executive and judicial systems, it is not so clear at local government levels where over 100 urban and town councils as well as pradeshiya sabhas (of a total 341 contested) were hung. 

Threatening to use the NPP two-thirds majority in parliament to change the law of the land to ensure that the National People’s Power gets to enjoy its right to control those councils may well be more than sabre-rattling. It may be the first signs and symptoms of yet another tyranny of the ‘moral majority’ in the making? 

There have been too many so-called messiahs in our recent history to let the early indications go unnoticed, unheeded and not critically engaged with in a bid to ameliorate in the national interest. Regrets eventuate later, when the state of the nation reveals the saviours to not only have had feet of clay but hearts of stone and cold, clammy, grasping fingers to boot. 

God and the Ghost of Marx spare us such a repeat degeneration of the ranks of the promising republicans into rotten despots out for only the spoils!  

Drama and folly

As Lord Acton had it, power not only tends to corrupt but absolute power corrupts absolutely. It also tends to make less nuanced individuals, not accustomed to the rigours of self-discipline in terms of speaking out, a tad deceptively self-righteous and sometimes downright silly.

What else can one make of a situation when – given the parlous state of a nation sliding into the economic red zone again – the mandarins in government express fatuous sentiments to the effect that ‘the war/blockade/genocide in Gaza must end now!’?

Where the NPP rhetoric no longer speaks convincingly to a nation hungry for more than bread but rather truth and social justice, the ‘newspeak’ of the UNP, SJB and SLPP is blandly proclaiming a fresh gospel of coalition politics that is nothing less than a hijacking of the people’s sovereignty

Are the plethora of ills that are beginning to bedevil our beloved island again somehow a second class of situations or contingencies that have not become national priorities yet? Much like a respected opposition politician’s fervent desire that disgraceful politicos should not presume to grace schools functions transmogrified into a prime minister’s personal view not tantamount to government policy?

We (I dare say we all) still look to the likes of Dr. Harini Amarasuriya – respected academic, ardent civic activist and vociferous champion of the moral good – to bring to the ethos of governance a modicum of dignity and decency much lacking in previous sociopolitical dispensations.

It is with regret that we might note the ham-fisted handling of cases making the national headlines that could and should be handled with kid gloves being botched in terms of principle, policy and lack of empathy – especially for instance, in the recent allegations against a predatory school teacher whose misconduct with a student seems to have spared him the rod because of purported connections to the ruling party’s national organisational machine.

Of course the stalwarts of the red brigade have leapt to the government’s defence, claiming that what seemed like callousness in the case of an MP’s statement in the House to the effect that action would be taken no sooner a formal complaint reached her ears was a misinterpretation of the facts of the case.

Decisiveness and fortitude

It remains to be seen whether the spark of self-respect so brightly shining among a new generation of younger, smarter, tech savvier NPP executive committee members will be sufficient to rescue the ruling party’s now slightly tarnished image from the doldrums.

If such a decline and fall in the JVP-led government’s standings is an accurate reflection of public sentiment at large, it must redound to the older ranks in the left-leaning Marxist/socialist party’s old guard who insist on playing politics by the old rules of the game.

For instance, it will no longer wash with a polity fed up to their back teeth with tripe from dissembling and disingenuous past administrations to hear that the NPP is in possession of X number of files fingering Y number of politicos and other miscreants which will be revealed in Z number of days. Crime? Punish the miscreant, already – as promised – and cease and desist with the pontificating at cabinet press briefing pulpits.

Also, while we’re on the subject of promises: may we mention – for the umpteenth time from this soapbox – abolishing the executive presidency, dismantling the draconian PTA and odious OSA, and getting a move-on with it?

Rhetoric is a great tool on the campaign trail. However if it doesn’t resolve sooner than later after three successive election victories that cemented its political capital, even the most empathetic and on-your-side-after-all regime is slowly yet surely destined to lose its social standing and national credibility ratings.

Pity, that. For as the horse-trading of the past fortnight has amply demonstrated, there are plenty of decrepit nags and spavined mares ready to trade places before you can say ‘aragalaya’ backwards in aborigine-speak. 

Where the NPP rhetoric no longer speaks convincingly to a nation hungry for more than bread but rather truth and social justice, the ‘newspeak’ of the UNP, SJB and SLPP is blandly proclaiming a fresh gospel of coalition politics that is nothing less than a hijacking of the people’s sovereignty.

Or even if you are persuaded by the principled argument of a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank – that capable entrepreneurs and skilled managers must run the urban and town councils et al. rather than ‘senior’ politicos or ‘successful’ polls winners who may not fill the development bill well – what is there left for a hamstrung and hoodwinked polity to do than bemoan the state of play in politically retrograde Sri Lanka today?     

(Editor-at-large of LMD )