Opinion

This Pretentious Plenitude

Published

2 years ago

2023/02/7

(loketa parakase, gedarata maragate )

“On 3 June, 1400, the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus entered Paris. By the showy standards of contemporary state visits, Manuel cut a sory figure. Accompanied by fewer than sixty of his own attendants, speaking nothing but Greek, mounted on a borrowed white charger and dependent for his travelling expenses on his hosts, he had come to beg for money and troops in the hope of preserving his shrunken domains from the Ottoman Turks.”

– Cursed Kings, The Hundred Years War IV, 2015)

By Usvatte-aratchi

A few days ago, I went to Panadura to see my brother, 95 years old. We parked the car to go to the Arpico Supercentre at the southwestern corner of Galle Road and Nirmala Mawatha. From the park, I did not go into the store; I sat in the car. There were about 20 cars parked and people went into the store and drove away after making their purchases. There were more women shoppers than men. The women were distinctly well-clothed and appeared well-fed. They all wore slacks or skirts and upper garments, all in good taste with no garish hues. None wore a sari. All men wore slacks and shirts and none a kapati suit or sarong. All the cars glistened in the morning sun; none had scratches or worse damage. One car had a number plate BK; all the others had number plates with three letters. There was plenitude; where is the austerity the country is published to undergo? Or is austerity the burden borne by only one category of citizens? A few days later, as I entered through the gates to a hospital compound, I noticed that the man who issued tokens from a little cubicle in the heat and humidity wore a necktie. Public servants assembled before ministers invariably wearing a suit. The rooms are airconditioned to accommodate them. Doesn’t it make more sense to wear simple shirts in rooms cooled to a higher temperature to save fuel? Why this pretence of plenitude in this land of austerity? It is so poor that it bears the odium of having defaulted on its sovereign debt.

What are the rules of etiquette that require us to wear evening dress, no matter who the dignitary that one has to meet? Well, of course, anyone is entitled to wear funny clothes, even silken wigs in this high temperature and high humidity in torrid tropical weather. But in this impoverished hungry land, where children who attend school faint from starvation? There are reports of stunted and underweight children. I expect to read infant and maternal mortality rates for 2021, 2022 and 2023 higher than the excellent levels that our health services had ensured for us. The age cohorts born in 2020-2024 will bear the scars of this scourge throughout their lives.

Sometime in the mid-1980s, a friend of mine was the Indian Ambassador to Vietnam. She was very keen to learn Vietnamese. After a few weeks in the country, she hired someone to teach her Vietnamese. Although now written in Latin script, there is a range of diacritical marks to help one to speak a word with the proper tones -more complex than in Mandarin or Thai. (The Latin script was introduced in the 17th century by Portuguese Jesuit priests.) In the second week of lessons, the tutor took the liberty of raising a question with the Ambassador, one evening after the lesson. ‘Madam, with the flaps of the dress you wear, I can make a pretty blouse’. Isn’t it a pity that so much cloth must is wasted’? (Vietnamese are still small-made, perhaps genetically and the result of centuries of malnutrition.) The ambassador who was very sympathetic to what Vietnam was trying to achieve, was shocked by how right the tutor was. She took her lesson seriously. I was a student in Britain in the 1960s and stayed in my lodgings all summer, except to go to the theatre in London. One summer, I was invited to tea in the garden with the queen. Many students from Commonwealth countries were so invited. I had no suit to wear for the occasion nor did I consider it wise to invest in one, just to attend a tea party. (Mad Hatter might have considered it otherwise.) We are still a poor country and anyone who yearns for the use of expensive clothing must seek a fitting clime. Some of you must have observed the army-style warm collarless cardigan that President Volodymyr Zelensky wore when he addressed the US Congress, a rare honour bestowed on men from outside the US. Does a caparisoned elephant look more dignified than the real thing in the wild? Do murderers, plunderers, women abusers and forgers gain dignity when they wear kapati suits buttoned up to the chin? If clothes make for dignity, mannequins in shop windows must present the most dignified postures in the world.

Take the case of cars. In this small island with a short mileage of expressways and a speed limit of 100km per hour, where do people go in a Mercedes 350 or BMW 740 ? Those gas guzzlers, V8 vehicles which even Bhikkhu covet, are symbols of pretentious plenitude. I recall some MPs explaining in parliament that they needed expensive vehicles because they had to travel in their electorates on uneven roads. When NIssanka Wijewardene was the government agent in Badulla in the early 1960s, he toured the district on horseback and Uva is still not an area roads in good condition in that part of the country. Leonard Woolf, 123 years ago, toured the Hambantota district on horseback. Riding a horse on rough tracks and rural roads is no fun. I cannot see why MPs cannot travel about in cheaper cars which are less expensive to buy and also consume much less gas. All this plenitude is at the expense of rich and poor taxpayers. The frequent use of helicopters by the president and ministers is something we cannot afford. Once a relative of a president flew in a helicopter from Ratmalana to Maharagama, at government expense. A president travelled by helicopter several times to ‘inspect’ construction work on the Moragahakanda dam. I wondered how much engineering the man had in him to waste so many resources for so flimsy a reason. When a dam was built across Gal Oya at Inginiyagala in 1950-52 with two months to spare before the end of the contracted date, there was nobody flying around in helicopters. The Ampara-Siyambalanduwa road was a decade away and one had to drive to Chenkaladi to get to Inginiyagala, a tiring journey for a young man even in 1968-69. When a poor population struggles to climb higher in the income ladder, it does not help to grease it with opulent lifestyles by its leaders. That grease pulls down people back into poverty.

Our religious leaders do not help. The Durutu perahera was held a few weeks back. Navam perahera is on a grand scale. Then comes Avurudu when the whole country takes a holiday and eats and drinks as if there were no tomorrow. May is for vesak. June, and people sojourn in Anuradhapura. July is for many festivals in devale in the south. August puts up the spectacle in Mahanuvara. September opens a period of quietude in pansal only to begin again in November. Who objects to religiosity among believers but please undertake them without denying the rest of this economy resources. It is more important that a child goes to school regularly than that votive candles are lit on an altar.

Some places of religious importance in this country are mighty rich. Their daily income probably is in the millions. What is the educational institution or hospital that they financed to build and run? Even the Vidyodaya pirivena receives, to date a subvention out of taxpayers’ money. Why isn’t it maintained with the collections in the shrine with a Bo-tree in Kalutara? The collections are administered by the Public Trustee but why not give a sense of ownership to those that collect the money? The Venkateshwar kovil in Andhra Pradesh runs a fine university with a part of the huge income it earns. Superstitious politicians from our country contribute to that income. Satya Sai Baba organization in Bengaluru runs schools and provides pipe-borne water to villagers close to their offices. The Rama Krishna Mission in India has a brilliant record of having established and run many schools and colleges in India. Tatas have established research institutes that put out high-quality work. In the 13th and fourteenth centuries when England was probably poorer than Sri Lanka then and certainly poorer than even impoverished Sri Lanka today (2023), colleges that now comprise Oxford and Cambridge universities, were built and run by Roman Catholic churches, monasteries and rich individuals. Many Bishops established colleges in Oxford and Cambridge. Walter de Merton started Merton College in Oxford; Peterhouse in Cambridge had similar beginnings. They had to wait for Edward III and Henry VI to meet Royal benefactors of colleges. In the first settlements in Boston Bay, the immigrants established Harvard College (now Harvard University) in 1635 well before a systematic government came into being there. Someone needs to inquire why well-endowed religious establishments in this country, do not find it fitting that they establish educational facilities for bright students. They would rather gild with 13.5 kg of gold, a fence around a venerated tree.

Why do we so often mistake appearances for substance? More than 120 years ago, Thorstein Veblen coined the term ‘conspicuous consumption’ to identify behaviour patterns of people in opulent societies. What does one call this pretentious plenitude in a land where hunger haunts almost every household day after day?

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Opinion

Bitter truth about laws and animal welfare

Published

1 hour ago

2024/11/20

Sahan Weerasooriya

Draft Animal Welfare Bill
National Dog Spay and Rabies Eradication Programme
Draft Animal Welfare Bill

By 2023 when the Draft Animal Welfare Bill was taken up for its first reading in Parliament, it has been made into a legal mess, denying legal protection to animals from cruelties.

In June 2023 our Coalition intervened and by March 2024 we got Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) to approve amendments that would make this bill exemplary, offering legal protection to all animals from cruelties, coupled with fines increased from Rs. 100,000 to 250,000- 500,000 to Rs. 5 million for animal abuse, with the fines doubling for abuse of pregnant animals.

But even after that Constitutional intervention and clear instructions to the relevant Ministry by the SOC to include the approved amendments, the Bill was prepared by that Ministry for the Second Reading in Parliament, dropping many crucial PARLIAMENTARY SOC-APPROVED AMENDMENTS.

Fortunately for the Animals of Sri Lanka, the Draft Bill was not taken up for the Second Reading.

The Parliament stands dissolved.

Attention President, Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Justice: This draft Bill must be presented in Parliament again ONLY after including the SOC-APPROVED AMENDMENTS.

Anyone trying to scuttle the process to pass a Bill that comprehensively provides legal protection to animals citing ANY reason, cannot have animal welfare in their hearts and minds.

2) The National Dog Spay and Rabies Eradication Programme

All one has to do is to travel round Sri Lanka to witness the enormous numbers of ownerless dogs, some in shocking conditions, to judge how “efficient and sustainable result-oriented” the National Dog Spay and Rabies Eradication Programme has been, after functioning under the Health Ministry with contract veterinarians for 15 years since 2008 till now, at a budgetary allocation ranging from Rs.100 million to Rs. 280 million annually.

Right now Rs. 200 million has been allocated to this fruitless, unmonitored, unevaluated activity, to SUSTAIN A BUSSINESS and not an accountable programme.

The move to have this programme executed by the ONLY State Entity that is responsible for handling and eradicating zoonotic diseases, the Department of Animal Production and Health (DAPH), having recruited 500 additional veterinarians, was scuttled in 2019, and the Programme was taken back to the Ministry of Health, a State entity responsible for diseases that afflict humans and not animals and hence has no Veterinarians, for BUSINESS AS USUAL.

Attention President, Minister of Health, and Minister of Livestock: This programme must be immediately vested in the DAPH so it can be made into a scientifically executed, accountable, sustainable-results-generating programme that can be monitored and evaluated regularly.

Such a scientific, professional, and systematic DAPH-executed accountable programme, coupled with Owned Dog Registration will see significant results in two years towards zero dog population growth and dog rabies control towards eradication.

CPAPA – SL (The Coalition for a Pro-Animal Protection Act – Sri Lanka)

Opinion

Landslide victories

Published

1 day ago

2024/11/19

Sahan Weerasooriya

by Chula Goonasekera
Nagananda Kodithuwakku

President AKD and the NPP deserve applause and heartfelt congratulations for their organisation, information gathering, and dissemination of a vision that resonates with the people. They have successfully created an enormous wave of funding and support, culminating in a decisive victory over the corrupt factions that have contributed to the destruction of our nation and motherland. The NPP’s anti-corruption message resonated deeply with voters who have suffered across many sectors of society, including the economy, education, healthcare, and nutrition. The public trust generated by this movement has led to an exemplary landslide victory for the NPP in this general election.

However, as voters, we must remain mindful that Sri Lanka has witnessed landslide election results in 1970, 1977, 2010, and 2020—all of which ultimately resulted in a landslide toward the nation’s ill-being, leaving the country burdened with massive debts, corruption, indiscipline, brain drain, and economic collapse.

What is ironic in 2024 is that this landslide victory may be one of the most significant of the century. However, it also calls for critical reflection. For the first time, even Jaffna voted in favour of the NPP. This could indicate the beginning of the end of the divisive politics that have historically exploited racial and religious divisions. Perhaps this marks the dawn of a new, more unified political landscape—one that promotes a united Sri Lanka as one nation working toward an equal society across every corner of our motherland.

Despite the landslide, we must be fully aware of the potential for disinformation if proper actions and preventive measures are not taken. The constitutional gates of covert and overt political corruption remain open while, as a nation, we lack the compensatory capacity to face another political or financial crisis. Therefore, we must remain vigilant and ensure the continuity of national oversight to keep our new parliament and president on track despite the many distractions that could hinder their efforts for national freedom and development. One key strategy is to remain non-aligned but work with external forces through clear, transparent, and fair agreements that prioritise national benefit.

In this context, the priority for the NPP should be to make the Judiciary and the Bribery Commission independent, supported by a robust quality assurance system and a clear definition of ‘contempt of court’ to embed accountability. No national institution—especially the judiciary—can thrive without accountability and transparency. A recent example from the UK, the Post Office Scandal, underscores this point: a national service organisation made wrongful decisions that destroyed the lives of many innocent people, wrongly labelling them as criminals. A documentary exposing this injustice was widely circulated in the media, leading to justice for many victims, some of whom were no longer alive to witness it. In Sri Lanka’s current legal environment, such exposure could easily be misconstrued as contempt of court, with all involved potentially facing jail time.

An independent Judiciary and Bribery Commission, free from political interference, can be achieved through a parliamentary act requiring a two-thirds majority. This is paramount and should be implemented at the earliest opportunity to prevent politics from undermining legitimate processes. Such reforms will help resolve the deadlock that has stifled progress—particularly in addressing political corruption, including linked severe offences such as rape and murder. Furthermore, these reforms will clarify the constitutional changes necessary to prevent the legitimisation of political corruption, enabling the cleanup of a constitution that has been manipulated countless times to allow corrupt politicians to act with impunity despite blatant violations of good governance.

Opinion

Srinivasan believed in Sri Lanka’s true potential: An appreciation

Published

1 day ago

2024/11/19

Sahan Weerasooriya

Historical ties between Sri Lanka and India date back to the Ramayana era and the visionary missions of the Great Mauryan Emperor Ashoka. The emperor tasked his own son, Arahant Mahinda, and daughter, Bhikkhuni Sangamitta, with spreading the teachings of Gautama Buddha (dhamma), laying the foundation in the island nation of Lanka, probably visualising its potential in cultivating a unique culture.

In 1977, Sri Lanka opened its economy while our great neighbour India had a closed economy. The Indian Bank, a wholly owned entity of the Government of India, decided to set up the bank’s first offshore banking unit in Sri Lanka. The unit became the first Foreign Currency Banking Unit (FCBU) owned by a foreign bank in Sri Lanka and started operations in 1979.

The bank appointed the young banker V Srinivasan to head the FCBU unit in Colombo, which led to many transformational changes in banking and entrepreneurial relationships between the two countries. Late V Srinivasan had the rare opportunity to leave his footprint, being the only officer serving as the CEO of Indian Bank’s two overseas branches in Sri Lanka and Singapore.

The Indian Bank’s FCBU unit raised foreign currencies and arranged investments in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone and several other BOI-approved projects. Under Mr. V Srinivasan’s leadership, many projects were financed, including the first multi-purpose apartment and shopping complex in Kollupitiya, and value-added rubber and textile manufacturing projects in the Free Trade Zone in Katunayake. These projects enabled industrial technological know-how to flow into Sri Lanka. The Indian Bank recognised V Srinivasan’s leadership and promoted him to the bank’s CEO in the Colombo branch in 1985, thus managing the bank’s decades-old domestic operations specialising in international trade. During this period, he identified the true potentials in the Sri Lankan economy, such as financing value addition and branding of Ceylon Tea, and financing the construction of a glass-bottomed multipurpose boat as a tourist attraction.

Unfortunately, all the innovative projects came to a grinding halt with the July 1983 riots in Sri Lanka. Although the bank’s assets were subject to many risks impacting viable operations, V Srinivasan demonstrated his kindness by saving the bank’s vital intellectual capital, the human resource, from destitution and distress because of the ruthless communal riots in Sri Lanka. His passion for spotting talent and his caring attitude towards the well-being of staff probably made him the bank’s youngest General Manager, leading Human Resources prior to his retirement from the bank in 2011.

This writer was fortunate enough to sense and learn the social orientation of the business of banking as a budding banker under his stewardship. During his tenure, I had the opportunity to engage in negotiations as a young trade unionist. Our friendship continued even after both of us left the services of the Indian Bank for many decades. The last time I met Mr. V Srinivasan, his wife Kalpana, and his son Prasanna and family was while he was holidaying in Sri Lanka in 2010, catching up with beautiful memories. Mr. Srinivasan passed away at the age of 73 on 9th November 2024 in Chennai. May his departed soul rest in peace. Om Shanti.

Jayasri Priyalal