Common man in power
Editorial-January 15, 2014,
India’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) or the Common Man Party has become a source of inspiration for anti-corruption activists not only in India but also in the region. In Pakistan, as we have reported, some concerned citizens are trying to float their own version of AAP.
Sri Lankans, too, have pinned their hopes on campaigners against corruption and even voted them into office in a bid to make this country a better place. In 1994, it may be recalled, the SLFP-led People’s Alliance promised to eliminate dooshanaya and bheeshanaya (corruption and state terrorism) and obtained a popular mandate to form a government. But, alas, it started doing more of what its predecessor had done. Those who had claimed that they and their children had been using hand-me-downs from friends and relatives and living on bank overdrafts became rich enough, all of a sudden, to spend billions of rupees on their election campaigns and acquire properties overseas. So much for their anti-corruption drive!
Ironically, AAP on a campaign to rid India of corruption is now at the mercy of the scandal-ridden Congress to remain in power. If the Congress withdraws support, its state governments will come crashing down. They are already at loggerheads over AAP Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s move to reverse the previous administration’s decision to allow foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail trade in New Delhi.
Most of our present-day parliamentarians entered politics as ordinary men and women. As the late Anura Bandaranaike known for his not-so-lambent wit put it very eloquently in Parliament once, some of the ministers notorious for ostentatious display of opulence had been wearing flip-flops and riding bicycles when they took to politics. This is the problem with ordinary people in politics in this country. Once ensconced in power, they become part of the power elite, amass ill-gotten wealth sufficient for generations and live in clover. Our experience is that they end up being worse than aristocrats.
Politics is all about greed, power and ego. Integrity of politicians, in our book, is lack of opportunity. It is hoped that AAP leader will make a difference in Indian politics and remain incorruptible.
A lobster honoured
Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them, as Malvolio says in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Never has a truer word been spoken about greatness.
However, it is not only humans who have greatness and fame thrust upon them. Even animals such as horses, elephants and canines have become great by association. Horses such as Alexander the Great’s Bucephalus and Napoleon’s Marengo have become legends.
There has been a report that a humble squat lobster which had been leading a very secluded life near the Southwest Indian Ocean seamount has had the honour of being given the same name as one of the greatest human beings—Mandela.
Described as a crustacean relative of the hermit crab, this sea creature measuring only seven millimetres in length had lived, hidden from the prying eyes of meddlesome bipeds, 750 metres below the ocean’s surface for centuries until a researcher chanced upon it recently. It has been named Munidopsis mandelai.
Opinion is divided on the choice of name for the tiny lobster. Some people are of the view that it would have been more appropriate if a bigger, gregarious creature had been named after that great South African leader who went the way of all flesh last year.
However, that is the way with naming animals and plants. A new species of a flying frog found in Vietnam last year was named after the mother of the researcher who made the discovery.
Now that a sea creature has been given Mandela’s name, what are the animals that deserve the names of our political potentates who think no end of themselves? We have some suggestions: buffalo, fox, vulture, crab, viper, chameleon, frog and wild boar. But, why should we insult those animals?
