Opinion

Exploring editorials

Published

2 years ago

2023/03/10

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

In this era of despondency, one of the few things that keep our spirits up are The Island editorials. In addition to being incisive about politicians of all shades, rightly so, they keep us educated and entertained. With apologies to those who profess a higher degree of learning of Classics and English, I wish to share some of my experiences.

Although we claim to be the guardian of Theravada Buddhism, unfortunately, our history is replete with acts of savagery. One of those I seem to have missed, may be because I left for UK at the beginning of the second JVP uprising, I learned from the editorial “Tears of hypocrisy” (27 Feb.), which stated among other things:

“Among the politicians who decry the undergraduate monks’ appalling behaviour, which no doubt is condemnable, snuffle, blubber and boohoo over the debasement of the Buddha Sasana are some savages with a history of abducting and torturing Bhikkhus and thousands of others to death during the JVP’s reign of terror in the late 1980s. They invented a torture method, derisively called Dhamma Chakka, which was a horizontal iron bar mounted on two shoulder-high posts; Buddhist monks in captivity were placed on the bar on their stomachs and their hands and feet tied before being kicked to death by their torturers in such a way that they would rotate like wheels, screaming. Not to be outdone, the death-dealing sparrow units of the JVP gunned down many Buddhist monks, who were among the thousands of others murdered by the Rathu Sahodarayas for opposing their poll boycotts, hartals, etc.”

Whilst our neighbour India’s flag flutters with the “Wheel of Dhamma” at the centre of it, my heart aches to learn that our Buddhist politicians allowed it to be derided in this manner!

I was intrigued by the following statement in the editorial “Well of hypocrisy” (23 Feb.): “The National Police Commission has become a big joke and the IGP a lackey of the Executive. The police act as the President’s Brownshirts.” Though I initially thought brownshirt may be a casual reference to their uniform, on checking with the Oxford Reference Dictionary, I found the real, the more sinister, meaning: “A member of an early Nazi paramilitary organisation, the Sturmabteilung or SA (‘assault division’). The Brownshirts, recruited from various rough elements of society, were founded by Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1921. Fitted out in brown uniforms reminiscent of Mussolini’s Blackshirts, they figured prominently in organised marches and rallies. Their violent intimidation of political opponents and of Jews played a key role in Hitler’s rise to power”. What an appropriate term to describe the Sri Lankan police!

In the editorial “Farewell to franchise and justice” (28 Feb.), I found this paragraph interesting: “President Ranil Wickremesinghe claimed in Parliament, the other day, that there had been no election to begin with and therefore the question of a poll postponement did not arise. He faulted the EC for having declared the LG polls in contravention of the procedure established by the law. His claim ‘made one gasp and stretch one’s eyes’, one may say with apologies to Hilaire Belloc.”. Being not familiar with this expression, nor with Hillaire Belloc, I did some reading.

Hillaire Belloc, born in Paris to a French father and an English mother, lived most of his life in England and was a writer, satirist, poet and a politician. He was a devout Catholic which went against him in British politics but he was smart enough to make it to his advantage. During the election campaign, when a heckler interrupted his speech with “Are you a papist”, he responded: “Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This is my rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.” He won the election as the representative of the Liberal party!

Belloc’s best-known work is Cautionary Tales for Children, a collection of humorous poems though supposedly for children, are more to adult and satirical tastes. The tale of “Matilda who told lies and was burned to death” is one of the poems which starts with “Matilda told such Dreadful Lies. It made one Gasp and Stretch one’s Eyes”. It is very true that Ranil has lost all credibility and has turned into a Matilda!

In “Tears of hypocrisy” , we come across the following the paragraph: “Claiming that they were ardent Buddhists and expressing their dismay at the young monks’ agitation and deplorable behaviour, our lawmakers declared that the protesting monks had brought the Maha Sangha into disrepute. Those worthies seem to think that the people have drunk from the River Lethe, and forgotten their despicable behaviour. They behave in a far worse manner than undergraduate protesters; they trade blows and raw filth in the House and, at times, even threaten the Speaker with bodily harm.”

Lethe is the river that flows around the cave of Hypnos and through the Underworld, all who drink from it experiencing complete forgetfulness. It is also known as the Ameles potamos (river of unmindfulness). The other four rivers of the Greek Underworld (Hades) are; Acheron (the river of woe), Cocytus (the river of lamentation), Phlegethon (the river of fire) and Styx, the river that forms the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld.

“Farewell to democracy”

(16 Feb.) adds a touch of humour, to a very serious analysis, with the following paragraph: “The shamelessness of the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe regime reminds us of an apocryphal story about a Mudaliyar who was troubled by the womenfolk in his village entering his estate at dawn and removing the coconuts that fell overnight. He failed to prevent the theft, try as he might, despite all his powers and coercive methods. One of his lackeys undertook to keep the women at bay, and succeeded in his endeavour. Asked by his master how he had accomplished the task, the minion said he walked about in the buff, and women ran away! There are situations where the shameless succeed and the civilised fail.” By the way, apocryphal refers to a story of doubtful authenticity though widely circulated as true.

The most hilarious of all editorials, which I can read again and again, still laugh is “If wishes were Tigers” (15 February). You can laugh even more if you read the limerick referred to in this paragraph: “If wishes were Tigers, so to speak, Nedumaran and others of his ilk would ride them. He is one of the few politicians who rode the Tigers, smiling like the young Lady of Niger, but were lucky enough not to return inside the beasts.”

The original limerick, attributed by some to Edward Lear, who popularised limericks, by others to William Cosmo Monkhouse, goes as follows:

There was a young lady of Niger Who smiled as she rode on a tiger; They returned from the ride With the lady inside, And the smile on the face of the tiger.

The whole Tiger story becomes even more hilarious as confidence tricksters, former LTTE members, are duping Tamils in Europe by sending the resurrected wife and daughter to collect money for the treatment of gravely-ill Prabhakaran! They have been able to collect large sums of money, as detailed in D B S Jeyaraj’s column titled, “Fake news fraud using Prabha and family” in The Daily Mirror of 04 March.

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Opinion

HW Cave saw Nanu Oya – Nuwara rail track as “exquisite”

Published

38 mins ago

2025/03/16

Thilina Walpola

Plans to resurrect the Nanu Oya – Nuwara Eliya rail track are welcome. The magnificent views from the train have been described by H W Cave in his book The Ceylon Government Railway (1910):

‘The pass by which Nuwara Eliya is reached is one of the most exquisite things in Ceylon. In traversing its length, the line makes a further ascent of one thousand feet in six miles. The curves and windings necessary to accomplish this are the most intricate on the whole railway and frequently have a radius of only eighty feet. On the right side of the deep mountain gorge we ascend amongst the tea bushes of the Edinburgh estate, and at length emerge upon a road, which the line shares with the cart traffic for about a mile. In the depths of the defile flows the Nanuoya river, foaming amongst huge boulders of rock that have descended from the sides of the mountains, and bordered by tree ferns, innumerable and brilliant trees of the primeval forest which clothe the face of the heights. In this land of no seasons their stages of growth are denoted by the varying tints of scarlet, gold, crimson, sallow green, and most strikingly of all, a rich claret colour, the chief glory of the Keena tree’.

However, as in colonial times, the railway should be available for both tourists and locals so that splendid vista can be enjoyed by all.

Dr R P Fernando
Epsom,
UK

Opinion

LG polls, what a waste of money!

Published

3 days ago

2025/03/13

Sahan Weerasooriya

If the people of this country were asked whether they want elections to the local government, majority of them would say no! How many years have elapsed since the local councils became defunct? And did not the country function without these councils that were labelled as ‘white elephants’?

If the present government’s wish is to do the will of the people, they should reconsider having local government elections. This way the government will not only save a considerable amount of money on holding elections, but also save even a greater amount by not having to maintain these local councils, which have become a bane on the country’s economy.

One would hope that the country will be able to get rid of these local councils and revert back to the days of having competent Government Agents and a team of dedicated government officials been tasked with the responsibility of attending to the needs of the people in those areas.

M. Joseph A. Nihal Perera

Opinion

What not to do

Published

4 days ago

2025/03/12

Sahan Weerasooriya

Trump and Zelensky arguing in the White House

By Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

It is immaterial whether you like him or not but one thing is crystal clear; Donald Trump has shown, very clearly, who is the boss. Surely, presidents of two countries are equal; perhaps, that is the impression Volodymyr Zelensky had when he went to the White House to meet Trump but the hard reality, otherwise, would have dawned on him with his inglorious exit! True, the behaviour of President Trump and VP Vance were hardly praiseworthy but Zelensky did what exactly he should not do. Afterall, he was on a begging mission and beggars cannot be choosers! He behaved like professional beggars in Colombo who throw money back when you give a small amount!!

Despite the risk of belonging to the minority, perhaps of non-Americans, I must say that I quite like Trump and admire him as a straight-talking politician. He keeps to his words; however atrocious they sound! Unfortunately, most critics overlook the fact that what Trump is doing is exactly what he pledged during his election campaign and that the American voters elected him decisively. When he lost to Biden, all political commentators wrote him off, more so because of his refusal to admit defeat and non-condemnation of his supporters who rioted. When he announced his intention to contest, it only evoked pundits’ laughter as they concluded that the Republican Party would never nominate him. Undaunted, Trump got the party to rally round him and won a non-consecutive second term; a feat achieved only once before, by Grover Cleveland around the end of the nineteenth century. His victory, against all predictions, was more decisive as he got more collegiate votes and, even though it does not matter, won the popular vote too which he did not get when he got elected the first term. Even his bitterest critics should accept this fact.

Zelensky was elected the president of Ukraine after the elected pro-Soviet president was deposed by a ‘peoples revolution’ engineered by the EU with the support of USA. After this, the EU attempted to bring Ukraine to NATO, disregarding the Munich agreement which precipitated the Russian invasion. He should have realised that, if not for the air-defence system which Trump authorised for Ukraine during his first term, Russian invasion would have been complete. It may well be that he was not aware as when this happened Zelensky may still have been the comedian acting the part of the president! Very likely, Trump was referring to this when he accused Zelensky of being ungrateful.

Zelensky also should have remembered that he disregarded requests from Trump, after his defeat by Biden, to implicate Biden’s son in some shady deals in Ukraine and that one of the last acts of Biden was to pardon his son and grant immunity to cover the alleged period. Perhaps, actions of the European leaders who embrace him every time they see him, as a long-lost brother, and invitations to address their parliaments has induced an element of the superiority complex in Zelensky that he behaved so combative.

Trump wanted to be the mediator to stop the war and spoke to Putin first. Instead of waiting for Trump to speak to him, egged on by EU leaders Zelensky started criticising Trump for not involving him in the talks. His remark “He should be on our side” demonstrated clearly that Zelensky had not understood the role of a mediator. His lack of political experience was the major reason for the fiasco in the White House and the subsequent actions of Trump clearly showed Zelensky where he stands! PM Starmer and President Macron seem to have given some sensible advice and he seems to be eating humble pie. In the process Trump has ensured that the European nations pay for their defence than piggy-backing on the US, which I am sure would please the American voter. By the way, though Macron talks big about defence France spends less than 2% of GDP. Trump seems vindicated. Of course, Trump could be blamed for being undiplomatic but he can afford to be as he has the upper hand!

Ranil on Al Jazeera

Zelensky has shown what not to do: instead of being diplomatic being aggressive when you need favours! Meanwhile, Ranil has shown what not to do when it comes to TV interviews. God only knows who advised him, and why, for him to go ‘Head to Head’ with Mehdi Hasan on Al-Jazeera. Perhaps, he wanted to broadcast to the world that he was the saviour of Sri Lanka! The experienced politician he is, one would have expected Ranil to realise that he would be questioned about his role in making Sri Lanka bankrupt as well, in addition to raising other issues.

The interview itself was far from head to head; more likely heads to head! It turned out to be an inquisition by Tiger supporters and the only person who spoke sense being Niraj Deva, who demonstrated his maturity by being involved in British and EU politics. The worst was the compere who seems keen to listen his own voice, reminding me of a Sinhala interviewer on a YouTube channel whose interviews I have stopped watching!

Ranil claims, after the interview was broadcast, that it had been heavily edited reduced from a two-hour recording. Surely, despite whatever reason he agreed to, he should have laid ground rules. He could have insisted on unedited broadcast or his approval before broadcast, if it was edited. It was very naïve of Ranil to have walked in to a trap for no gain. Though his performance was not as bad as widely reported, he should have been more composed at the beginning as he turned out to be later. Overall, he gave another opportunity for the Tiger rump and its supporters to bash Sri Lanka, unfortunately.

Medhi Hasan should watch some of David Frost interviews, especially the one with Richard Nixon, and learn how to elicit crucial information in a gentle exploratory manner than shouting with repeated interruptions. He does not seem to think it is necessary to give time for the interviewee to respond to his questions. I will never watch Al-Jazeera’s “Head to Head” again!

Ranil’s best was his parting shot; when asked by Hasan whether he would contest the next presidential election, he said “No, I will retire and watch Al-Jazeera and hope to see you better mannered”!