On Blasts from the Past

by Tisaranee Gunasekara-September 17, 2016, 8:36 pm

Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Eliot (Four Quartets)

It should have been a time of confidence. The long Eelam War had been won, the opposition was floundering and the Rajapaksas were at the acme of their prestige and popularity. Sumanadasa Abeygunawardane, the astrologer (whose pleasing predictions were rewarded with directorships at the National Savings Bank and the Employees Trust Fund and an advisor-post at the ITN) proclaimed the verdict of the stars: "President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the Rajapaksas will rule this country for a long time…. The Rajapaksas will become beloved leaders of this country…. The next chapter in Sri Lanka is reserved for the Rajapaksas."i

Unfortunately success led not to relaxation but to paranoia. The Rajapaksas saw treachery behind every bush, conspiracy under every stone. So when Chandrasiri Bandara, an astrologer known for his pro-opposition views, made an unfavourable prediction, the regime reacted with ferocity. Mr. Bandara was arrested, taken to the CID and grilled.

This unprecedented act of repression had its desired effect, in the short term. Mr. Bandara came out of custody in the safe guise of a born-again Rajapaksa man. During the run up to 2015 Presidential election, when astrological predictions played the role allocated to opinion polls and statistical forecasts in less superstitious lands, Mr. Bandara predicted a resounding Rajapaksa victory and pledged to shoot himself if proven wrong – on live TV.

The Buddha in Samaññaphala Sutta categorised astrology, demonology et al as ‘animal arts’ii (The extensive list mentioned in the Sutta includes palmistry, reading omens and signs, interpreting celestial events and dreams, making predictions for state officials, chasing demons, casting auspicious times, predicting life spans, forecasting political or natural events and casting horoscopes). But in Sri Lanka, said to be repository of the Buddha’s teachings in their purest form, his followers regard astrological predictions with the reverence that adherents of theistic faiths accord to the words of their particular god or prophet.

In the second decade of the twenty first century, it is not uncommon to hear of pious Sinhala-Buddhists dying because they threw ordinary commonsense to the four winds and obeyed the orders of an astrologer, an exorcist or some other practitioner of ‘animal arts’. The latest such example comes not from a rural backwater, but from the urbanised Piliyandala, a town close to Colombo. An artist died after drinking a concoction given to him by an exorcist as a cure for a skin ailmentiii.

The exorcist has been arrested. It is to be hoped that he will be charged formally and tried in a court of law. Perhaps the publicity garnered by such a trial would make at least some Lankans – including the country’s current leaders - understand the idiocy of trusting one’s future and one’s life to dabblers in ‘animal arts’.

On a Time Machine?

One of the most satisfactory outcomes of the defeat of the Rajapaksas was the relegation of astrology from the public to the private sphere. Most Lankan leaders were slavish believers of stars and their untutored interpreters; but none of them went as far to use state power and resources to reward or persecute astrologers as the Rajapaksas did.

Recent media reports indicate that the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration might have taken a step back to that silly past.

Wijemuni Vijitha, an astrologer known for his anti-government views, has been summoned to the CID over a prediction he made about the future of President Maithripala Sirisena. While violent crimes are rampant, the Criminal Investigations Department is busy chasing astrologers.

But there, the similarity between 2009 and 2016 ends.

In 2009, the astrologer was arrested and grilled. In 2016, the astrologer informed the CID that he has already given one statement, has no intention of giving another and will complain to the Human Rights Commission if harassed any further.

In 2009, the astrologer came out of custody with his political sympathies changed from anti-Rajapaksa to slavishly pro-Rajapaksa. In 2016, the astrologer has not changed his political colour or deleted the video which drove the CID out of its collective senses.

That difference is due to the democratic transformation brought about by the regime change of January 2015.

The attempt to persecute an astrologer demonstrates that the current crop of rulers is as seeped in superstition as the Rajapaksas were.

The failure of that attempt demonstrates that unlike the Rajapaksas, the current rulers cannot abuse state power and resources at will.

That inability is a result of the positive changes which resulted from the electoral ouster of the Rajapaksas, especially greater accountability and partial restoration of the rule of law. As the case of Mr. Wijemuni proves, these are changes which benefit even those who voted against them.

In post-Rajapaksa Sri Lanka, the past is not dead. Abuses remain, but impunity is less rampant, as the tragic case of GG Gayashan demonstrates.

Disappearances and deaths in police custody became a Lankan problem long before the Rajapaksas won power. But as with so many execrable practices, this too was turned into a norm during the Rajapaksa years. The North and the East had to bear the brunt of it; but even the South was not immune, both during and after the war.

Twenty year old Gayashan, a resident of Bandagiriya, Hambantota, vanished after being taken into custody on an allegation of theft. The police initially claimed that he was not arrested, that he escaped. The story would have ended there, just two years ago. Not now. His family demanded the truth and the media picked up the story. Immediate inquiries were launched by the National Police Commission and the Human Rights Commission, two entities empowered by the democratising 19th Amendment, a key achievement of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. A team from the Police Commission visited the area. The IGP personally called the family of the victim and promised a quick investigation. The police spokesman admitted to the media that the arresting officers had falsified the records.

Whether Mr. Gayashan is alive or not remains to be uncovered. Even in the worst case scenario, the authorities will not be able to sweep this story under the carpet. The truth will come out and if a crime was committed, the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

The whole episode might persuade the police to be a little less abusive in the future, at least in their own interests.

The Rajapaksas promised to enact a Right to Information Act and broke the promise. In 2011, they defeated the much delayed Freedom of Information Bill in parliament.

Today the Right to Information Act is law in Sri Lanka.

Thanks so that Act it will be harder for politicians and state authorities to use the power vested in them to the detriment of ordinary Lankans. Increased transparency cannot eliminate power-abuse; but it can make those inclined to abuse power think twice.

The current government is not immune to superstitious cures or dictatorial solutions. But thanks to changes of post-January 2015, the space for such cures and solutions has shrunk. It is in our own interests as citizens to safeguard that achievement and build on it, rather than let thins slide.

Two Steps Forward One Step Back?

This week Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa met the Chief Incumbent of the Malwatte Chapter with a tale of horror about a new constitution. The Mahanayake reportedly advised the parliamentarian not to succumb to paranoia or propagate phobia since the constitution-making process has been open and transparent so far.

Whether the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration will actually come up with a new and a better constitution, whether that constitution will be able to gain a two thirds majority in parliament and a simple majority at a referendum remains to be seen. But so far, the process has been more open and more inclusive than anything Sri Lanka has previously experienced.

Be it new constitutions or amendments to existing one, every past effort had been top-down ones where leaders decided and people accepted – willingly or unwillingly. In stark contrast, the new government is encouraging a public discourse about the nature of the new constitution and has provided the necessary space for such a broad discussion.

This new openness has created opportunities to place on the drafting table issues which had languished in the outer darkness despite their seminal importance to broad swathes of Lankans. An excellent case in point is the effort made by progressive groups such as the Women’s Action Network (WAN) to place on the constitutional agenda such ‘taboo’ issues as the rights of Muslim women and girl children.

Article 16 of the 1978 Constitution upholds, in its entirety, the Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act of 1951. One of the many egregious results of this is that Muslim women and girl children are, denied by the constitution, several key constitutional rights and protections enjoyed by non-Muslim women and girl children. For instance, though the minimum age of marriage for Lankan girls is 16, a girl child from a Muslim family can be married at 12, or even below with consent from the Quazi courtsiv.

According to media reports, traditional Muslim political and religious leaders are opposed to any change in the Article 16 even though many Muslims countries have enacted laws criminalising child marriage (according to UN sources, in Algeria, Bangladesh, Jordan, Iraq, Malaysia and Morocco, the legal marriageable age for a female is 18; in Tunisia it is 20v.). This issue has now been placed on the public stage, not as a divisive slogan but as a serious topic of discussion, thanks to the open and inclusive nature of the constitution-making process.

Sri Lanka is not a paradise of good governance. But it is indubitably a better place for its people today than it was under the Rajapaksas.

In 2013, Sri Lanka was one of the saddest places on earth, according to the (UN-sponsored) World Happiness Report. Of the 156 countries rated, Sri Lanka ranks 137.

By 2016, Sri Lanka’s rank has improved to 117vi.

A long way more to go, but the direction is the right one; more advances are possible, unless economic intervene.

The Rajapaksas placed absolute faith on superstition and none on science. That is why they paid no attention to one of the earliest warning signs about growing discontent in their own electoral base.

As the CPA’s Top line survey revealed, in 2011, a mammoth 70% of Sinhalese thought that the general economic situation will get better in the next two years. In 2013 only 38.5% of Sinhalese thought that the general economic situation will improve in the next two years – a decrease of 45%, in just two years.

Had the Rajapaksas heeded such findings instead of clinging to astrological predictions, they may not have lost in 2015.

The current government can launch any amount of propaganda blitzes about the necessity of the VAT bill; it can scream to high heavens declaring that the VAT increases will not affect ordinary people. But people will feel the pinch, when they make a purchase, take a call or channel a doctor.

And they will begin to lose hope, as they did between 2011 and 2013.

This government can make its share of mistake and survive. But if it repeats the mistakes of the Rajapaksas as well, the future will be like the past we escaped from in January 2015.

Take two steps forward and one step back, you can still head to the future. Take one step forward and two steps back, the past will be the unavoidable destination.

i Silumina – 7.6.2009; the astrologer in another interview predicted that President Rajapaksa will get the Nobel Prize. http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2001/pix/PrintPage.asp?REF*/2009/09/06/spe03.asp

ii http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.02.0.than.html

iiiiii Lankadeepa – 14.9.2016

iv http://adaderana.lk/news/36624/wan-seeks-repeal-of-article-16-of-lankan-constitution-as-it-hurts-muslim-women