Idioms relevant to our latest upheaval

December 22, 2018, 6:07 pm 

Writing that word ‘upheaval’ in my title brought the instant reaction of saying thank goodness, it is over, at least for now. The perpetual seeker of powerful posts, backed by his sycophants, some of whom have been silenced by being shown up to be ill-advisors and miss-interpreters of the Constitution, is again creating trouble wanting to oust Mr Sampanthan and become Leader of the Opposition. The Speaker, bless him, will give a ruling on Friday but as of today, Thursday 20th as I write this, we have all heaved a huge big sigh of relief with hope in our hearts. With a UNP government in power, having gone through fire, we look forward to enjoying the Season of good cheer and good will.

Political analysts and commentators will dissect and express opinions of what we Sri Lankans went through since October 26. I was impressed by the sections I quote below of an Economist article which expresses our own thoughts so succinctly:

"There is much to cheer in this outcome. Sri Lanka’s governing institutions and civil society proved strong enough—just—to withstand an assault not just by a rogue president but by a charismatic populist skilled at stoking majoritarian Sinhalese Buddhist sentiment, and backed by big money and powerful interests, particularly in the security establishment.

Mr Rajapaksa’s return had looked increasingly likely; now he stands disgraced in the eyes of many. The crisis may also empower Mr Wickremesinghe’s government, so far lacklustre in its achievements, to push through parts of its agenda that the president has sabotaged.

But judging from backstage whispers, the next acts of the play could still be ugly. Mr Sirisena, who is now supposed to work with Mr Wickremesinghe, has accused him of wanting to "punish the servicemen who saved Sri Lanka and protect the Tamil fighters who tried to destroy it".

Mr Rajapaksa in his resignation speech rapped his rivals as "anti-national" traitors. Henchmen blame outside meddling for their ouster, telling supporters that "certain foreign nations" siphoned millions of dollars to NGOs that interfered with national security.

Sri Lankans are used to loud, nasty politics, but this kind of talk does not fit a plot with a happy ending."

Yes and yes again. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s minions of the likes of Wimal Weerawansa keep accusing foreign powers, especially Western States of "interfering" in the affairs of our country and even accuse the UNP of being willing stooges. Representatives of the UN and countries, in Colombo, were naturally perturbed at the happenings of October 26 and thereafter and expressed concern about the stability of Sri Lanka. Admittedly they are not completely altruistic but they were perturbed for the country and not worried about their organizations or countries being affected. Small minded, loudly pontificating men behind Mahinda Rajapaksa are so narrow in their view both of the world and our land. They are also, as the Economist writer mentions, bringing in the twin issues of our armed forces and races. They have been beating their drum on punishments given to armed forces personnel and inalienable rights being restored to the Tamils of the land - to them unjustified benefits. They could not comprehend that the TNA and other non-Sinhala Parties joined hands with the UNP to restore democracy in the country. MR’s sycophants have already seen a division of the land and the so called minorities becoming the majority.

Succinct idiomatic expressions

Many English idioms and expressions were used in relevance to the upheaval we went through; and many more come to mind.

Rabble rousing defined as "stirring up public sentiment" is especially resorted to when certain politicians open their loud mouths. Young Namal Rajapaksa too pontificates in like vein, while their leader MR encourages them. He mentioned it in his farewell speech after five weeks of being an ill begotten Prime Minister. Raising the ire of people about armed force personnel being convicted of crimes and igniting the dormant flame of racial animosity are unforgiveable sins. If armed forces personnel are guilty of having committed crimes they HAVE to be punished, no two words about that. The worst fire to ignite is of racial disharmony which will soon lead to bloodlust and bloodletting and senseless waste of resources. One thinks of Roman plebs when one talks of rabble rousing. The term was first used by Sydney Smith in 1802.

Bedlam is what all Sri Lankans saw and suffered from October 26 to December 16. Some of its synonyms are: uproar, pandemonium (in Parliament by MR’s rabble); hubbub, hurly burly, ruckus, rumpus, and many more. Bedlam came in to usage being derived from Bethlem Royal Hospital, the first asylum for the mentally ill in England. It is currently located in Beckenham, Kent. The word bedlam came to be used generically for all psychiatric hospitals and used colloquially for an uproar. Bedlam – a place, a scene, or state of uproar and confusion.

Dragged down from the high horse

Now for the most apt expression that delights me as it connotes what happened to two VVIPs who jumped the gun. (Another expression!) I mean here eat crow. The origin seems fairly obvious: the meat of the crow, being a carnivore, is presumably rank and extremely distasteful, and the experience is easily equated to the mental anguish of being forced to admit one’s fallibility. That’s what our President Maithripala Sirisena had to do and then his earlier bête noir, chosen by him as the second in the land, not even caring or stopping ten seconds to dismiss the incumbent Prime Minister, joined him in the disgrace. They both ignominiously had to eat crow, dished out by the ruling of the seven judge Bench of the Supreme Court and loudly crowed over by the right seeing citizens of the land. The expression means suffering humiliation by having been proven wrong after assuming a strong position. Origin is an American 1850 story about a dim witted farmer of New York.

The two – MS and MR - had to also eat humble pie; less stinky than consuming crows’ flesh, that predator of all that isrotten. The expression derives from umble pie, a pie filled with the chopped or minced parts of a beast’s ‘pluck’ – the heart, liver, lungs and kidneys, especially of deer but often other meats. While ‘umble’ is now gone from the language, the phrase remains, as an idiom. Also only humble people ate umble pie. "To acknowledge one’s mistake or a wrong doing and accept humiliation that goes with acknowledgement."

The two also bit the dust or had to bite the dust. What’s the origin of this phrase? The same notion is expressed in the earlier phrase ‘lick the dust’, from the Bible, where there are several uses of it, including Psalms 72 (King James Version): "They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him and his enemies shall lick the dust." It means defeated, fall out of the running, be knocked for a loop. Both men have lost more than their dignity and integrity. They have lost future votes, even political future itself in one case.

In betweens

We had, saw and even heard many who mislead the Prez and ex-Prez and encouraged them to take the very dangerous steps that endangered the very existence of the country economically and almost dammed it internationally as a ‘banana republic’ or ‘failed state’.

The most vociferous were G L Peirs and Sarath N Silva, followed by ex-tuition masters and such like. They misinterpreted the Constitution and pushed the willing hand of the President to make a move, initially to oust Ranil and his men and ultimately benefit him (the Prez) so he could ride on a shoulder he betrayed in 2014/15, to be voted Prez come 2019/20. Thus the two mentioned and other lesser fry who shouted loud, all claiming to be attorneys-at-law and sporting kalu cloaks can be classified Judas Iscariots. He, as we all know, was one of the original Twelve Disciples of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him and addressing him as ‘Rabbi’ to reveal his identity to the crowd who had come to arrest him. So in the final run in Sri Lanka, advisors were betrayers.

One could also label these as False prophets prophesying lies and deceiving people with their dreams and "prophesying by the alleged authority of Baal."

The good ones

In our recent upheaval let’s cross to the other side, which literally means crossing over to the government side of Parliament now composed of UNPers, the Muslim Congress and a Tamil Party or two; which means minus Blues.

You could say they stood tall, closed ranks and held their heads high; to express staying loyal and committed to a person, Party or principle and being proud of it. They gathered at Temple Trees. Etymology is as follows: Hold our head high, heads up was first used as an interjection in the 19th century. Then, at the beginning of the 20th century, it began to be used adjectivally, as in: "He was always right on the job, and looking ‘heads up’."Then, around the late 70s, it became a noun, probably through shortening of phrases like "heads-up alert" into "heads-up":   It means having an air of heroic masculine dignity. Horse riders normally sit in the saddle, but they occasionally stand in the stirrups. Walking tall is to walk or behave in a way that shows one feels proud and confident.

Primarily Karu Jayasuriya who acted with such dignity and restraint we could name a gentleman’s gentleman who stood tall. The first documented use of ‘gentleman’ was in the 12th century AD. Then it meant "well-born man, man of good family or birth". Gentle arrived in English from Latin ‘gentilis of the same family or clan,’ via Old French ‘gentil/jentil’ meaning high-born, worthy, noble, of good family; courageous, valiant; fine, good, fair. Those epithets suit the Speaker fine and apply to Ranil W and so many other UNPers and other Party members who kept their heads while others lost theirs - to quote a half line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem If.