Their Paradise; Our Pandemonium
The price of petrol went up, again, as Colombo was being
geared up, on presidential orders, by the military for the Night Races – a pet
project of Namal
Rajapaksa.
Colombo,
this weekend, is a microcosm of the Rajapaksa present afflicting us and an omen
of the Rajapaksa future awaiting us. The Night
Races are symbolic and symbiotic of Rajapaksa Sri Lanka, a land in
which the very worst features of capitalism and feudalism commingle in a toxic
concoction, sweetened with generous doses of populist nationalism.
The
Night Races ensure an evening of exhilaration for the few, bought at enormous
inconvenience for the many and immense cost to the country. The Night Races
promote a sport which is non-democratic by nature (motor-racing is the
antithesis of most other sports which are open all citizens; any child can play
cricket with a few sticks and a rubber ball; a toy racing car is beyond the
means of most Lankan families). The Night Races are also utterly incompatible
with Lankan geographic and demographic realities such as small towns/cities with
dense populations.
The
Night Races have no national fan base; most Lankans are unaware of their
existence. Their purpose is not to showcase Lankan talent or to satisfy Lankan
sporting palate but to satiate a whim of some of the younger Rajapaksas. The
Presidential offspring in particular seem to nurture quite a passion for fleet
cars and for racing. In and of itself, this is a perfectly comprehensible
phenomenon, something common to youth across countries and cultures, and across
time. Unfortunately, the very nature of familial rule has turned that perennial,
and essentially harmless, youthful desire into a national malaise. That is
because in patrimonial oligarchies such asSri Lanka, the youthful passions of a
ruler’s progeny inform and shape national policies, consume national income and
discommode the nation.
The
Night Races constitute a crasser manifestation of a development model which is
motivated not by national needs or capacities, but by Rajapaksas interests and
desires. Billions are being spent on unnecessary highways while lack of funds
has turned 900 railway crossings into death traps. There is no profit and no
glory for the Rajapaksas in building rail gates. Rail gates can save ordinary
lives, but that saving ordinary lives, Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, is not a
Rajapaksa priority. The only reason Sri Lanka entered the ‘space age’ is because
the youngest presidential offspring wants to become the country’s first and the
world’s youngest astronaut. Again in and of itself there is nothing wrong in
forming such mountainous ambitions. The young must dream, including impossible
dreams. The problem is when presidential fathers gut national wealth to satisfy
the outlandish whims of their sons.
The
Night Races are not only being held in the country’s busiest city; they are
being held in a manner which maximises public inconvenience, unnecessarily. Half
the roads leading into and out of Colombo are closed, this weekend; and Friday’s
road-closure, at the time the city’s working population was heading home,
created mammoth traffic jams. If the Rajapaksas are
intent on having night races, they could have done so in a less populous suburb,
thereby minimising public inconvenience. But public convenience or inconvenience
would have never figured in the Rajapaksa calculations. Their sole consideration
is their power and their interests, their needs and their wants.
The
most destructive Rajapaksa meme
is not sadism (though that impulse too is not absent) but indifference. The
Rajapaksas are as indifferent to public welfare in the South as they were
indifferent to public safety in the North. They do not care. They did not care
how many innocent Tamils they killed, in their pursuit of military victory; they
do not care what hardships they impose on their own Sinhala-Buddhist base,
in their pursuit of power and glory.
A
pathological indifference to repercussions (and to the consequent plight of the
poor and the powerless) is the deadly thread which connects many a Rajapaksa
deed, from the ‘humanitarian operation’ to theColombobeautification programme,
from the impeachment to the Night Races.
Pathological
Indifference
Vellupillai
Pirapaharan’s commitment to Tiger Eelam was rock-solid. And in his
pursuit of Tiger Eelam he did not hesitate to sacrifice Tamil lives and Tamil
interests and undermine Tamil future. His single-minded commitment to a Tiger
Eelam under his sole control not only made him indifferent to the horrific
plight of ordinary Tamils; it made him deaf and blind to the harm he was causing
to the Tamil nationalist project. For him Tamils were pawns, to be used and
discarded, in propelling his megalomaniacal project forward.
Only
a leader who is pathologically indifferent to the wellbeing of his people could
have turned his own people into human hostages.
The
Rajapaksas too regard the Sinhalese the same way Mr. Pirapaharan regarded the
Tamils. The Rajapaksas need the Sinhalese the same way Mr. Pirapaharan needed
the Tamils. The Sinhalese are the main pawns in the Rajapaksa project of
familial rule and dynastic succession, and in that capacity, the Sinhalese are
indispensable to the Rajapaksas. But the safety or wellbeing of Sinhala people
is of no consequence to the Rajapaksas.
This
dissonance between Rajapaksa rhetoric and Rajapaksa action is clearest in the
indifference the Siblings display to the actual welfare of flesh and blood
military personnel, even as they venerate the war-hero in the abstract. For
instance, even according to official sources, nearly 400 soldiers have committed
suicide, post-war. “A majority of soldiers who committed suicide were suffering
from Adjustment Disorder (AD). Only five of them were those under treatment
for Post-traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), military Spokesman Brig. Ruwan Wanigasooriya
said” (The Island – 24.12.2012). Though the army is said to be taking
remedial measures, for many it will turn out to be too little too late. If the
inevitable psychological issues were acknowledged and dealt with as soon as the
war ended, most of those 400 lives could have been saved. But for the regime
building victory monuments and holding victory parades were more important than
attending to the human needs of the men and women who made that victory
possible. For the Rajapaksas, lionising the army in the abstract will always be
more important than helping ordinary soldiers in real life.
The
maximalism of fanatical leaders includes a visceral unwillingness to contemplate
a life without them. Adolf Hitler believed that aGermanydestroyed was better
than aGermanydefeated. Vellupillai Pirapaharan tried to take as many Tamils as
possible down with him to the grave.
The
Rajapaksas are taking the same annihilationist path. They are clearly determined
to destroy any institution which stands in their way, including the most august.
In their pursuit of power, nothing is inviolable, nothing is sacrosanct. This
annihilationist mindset is evident in their orchestrated attacks on the entire
judiciary, in the dangerous talk about a Hulftsdorf-coup, and in their attempt
to cause a devastating schism in the Bar Association.
For
the sake of Rajapaksa power, the Rajapaksas will not hesitate to
undermine/destroy anything, including the unitary state they purport to
venerate.
