Pathways of the Privileged

Can you remember dear readers, probably from the time of your schooldays, certain individuals who made it into sports teams, became school leaders and even got prizes when they were no different or even inferior in skills to others? We often wondered why and how and then we resigned ourselves to what was the inevitable and some of us even decided on sycophantic friendships with these individuals in an attempt to get a ride holding on to these coattails of good fortune. In our culture in the Pearl, we sometimes told ourselves that these people had strong “stars and good horoscopes, hence the success at the cost of more talented individuals.

In my own career starting from a government school that had over 7,000 pupils at the time. I watched in “shock and awe” individuals get through vital exams with results that defied their grades in class, people play for prestigious first XI‘s and first XVs at the cost of more talented and deserving players. People worm their way into the ranks of the school prefects and with no real distinguishing features over their colleagues. It was only later after diligent research that some of us who were more interested than resentful, found out that it was apparently a word in the ear of the Principal or an official in the education ministry (officials who have kept records may I add!), by parents who held powerful positions, that these miraculous occurrences took place. As for playing in the teams, it was also due in some cases to personal grudges held by senior players who ensured that their targeted individuals didn’t play, or that a family member or a cousin had played with distinction in the past and therefore a place was reserved for their clansmen, all things that we accepted as “par for the course”.

We went on to the working life in the mercantile sector and as those who stayed behind in the Pearl and gave up to 40 years of their lives to single institutions are now slipping into the oblivion of retirement with nothing to show for it. Those that didn’t quite make it to the “top” have hardly anything to show for 40 years of their lives dedicated to the prosperity of an organization, in most cases at great cost to their families and to their own health and wellbeing. Nothing but a meagre lump sum that will not last for the long retirement ahead. Those that actually made it right to the top usually have large sums of money, sometimes ill-gotten gains, which they invest in a private enterprise which is then left to their progeny to run.

On the subject of progeny, have you noticed how many companies, ranging from blue chips to insurance, tea exports, hotels and supermarkets are being passed on from father to child? What happens to those who have given their lives and the welfare of their own children and families to contribute to the prosperity of what have become family concerns? Of course, a few have gained genuine recognition and prospered, and others have resorted to sycophantic “yes man” status (or bum sucking in my own parlance) and go on. Do these “yes men” and women, realise what they have done to themselves and what they have done to others, on behalf of their masters during the course of their mediocre careers?

Then again, we now have a family dynasty running our Country, don’t we? I saw a picture on the internet recently of the full clan in very pious attitudes, participating in some religious festival, captioned “the owners and directors of Sri Lanka Ltd”! At least some of us have not lost our sense of humour!

This too is nothing new as the United National Party was once (or is it still) known as the Uncle Nephew Party and it was the handing over of the leadership of this party from father to son that resulted in the massive upheaval in the political sphere that gave prominence to the Bandaranaike clan and the consequences thereof.

Are we not capable of thinking for ourselves, O denizens of the Pearl? Sure, we have excuses that the British colonial school system didn’t teach us to think, they simply wanted to create clerks to work at the lower levels of their companies run by white men. It has been 70 years since independence, is it only those few fathers’ who now have business empires that they are handing over to crown (or is it CLOWN) princes to run, who worked it out? Worked out that we don’t need to bum suck to reach the top? That we should believe in ourselves and our own abilities. That we should not stand for being exploited by ruthless, self-centred, unscrupulous companies. Companies run by individuals and boards of directors who think nothing of our personal needs and wants or those of our families. Companies that cause so much damage to us, our families and the future of OUR children to ensure profits!

Of course, these things happen in other parts of the world too. Old boys’ clubs of certain schools and other privileged institutions and on racial grounds. Members of the fair sex would say it happens on the basis of gender too. Although here in Aotearoa it feels that the gender bias is now in favour of the females! However, it is not as blatant as in the Pearl, that is due to the people refusing to stand for it and of course a strong and largely independent press.

It may be too late for some of us, but is it too late to identify these pathways and businesses and in our own small way discriminate against them? Don’t support them, if you have suffered under such regimes, protest vehemently, take your shopping and your insurance business elsewhere. Go on your holidays to other places. Drink different brands of tea and, of course, vote for someone else. Try to show that such exploitative behaviour and family bandism is not acceptable and we will NOT STAND FOR IT!