Viyath Maga – Reverting To The Dictator State
Sarath de Alwis
‘Viyath Maga’- Professionals for a better future is the latest spectacle or circus in town. The Rajapakse brothers Mahinda, Gotabaya and Basil occupying the front row at the ‘Viyath Maga’ event explains the purpose of the well-choreographed spectacle. Also seen in the front row in rapt attention were, former CJ Sarath N Silva, former Central Bank boss Niward Cabraal and Professor G.L Peris, proven trapeze artists in disciplines of Law and Finance. That makes it a circus.
The former defense czar Gotabya Rajapaksa told the estimated two thousand plus purported ‘professionals’ that the country can be redeemed only by daringly decisive action. He described how land across the Galle face promenade was released for a massive hotel project. The move to transform a war weary ‘Serendib’ in to an overnight ‘Shangri-La’ was made with lightning speed said the macho mustachioed soldier son of D.A Rajapaksa who according to legend, followed the leader whose Russian made bronze statue now appears in sprint, hurrying away from the Rajapaksa Shangri-La.
Politics is a competitive game. In this game, immoral people who have no regard for truth command a decisive advantage over those who play by the rules. The professionals of the Viyathmaga are good at making their own rules. It has assembled a group of people with varied talents, proficiencies and interests. Its composition is a commentary on the exceptional abilities of Gotabaya Rajapaksa who is undoubtedly a man of decisive action. They are professionals and academics. They are also the left over remnants of the oligarchy that thrived under the previous regime. The bulk of that oligarchy has successfully ensconced themselves under the benign sanctuary of the more pragmatic business as usual faction of the UNP.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has a critical approach to power dynamics of the land. He is a maestro in orchestrating interactions among influential stakeholders. They include businessmen, political elite, the military and the media. He also has the uncanny gift of locating and mobilizing potential talent who can serve the family project. He commands the abiding loyalty of a privileged few in the military who enjoyed his largesse when in office.
They are positioning themselves to reverse the gains of 8th January 2015. We ignore these signs at our own peril.
We live in dangerously tumultuous times. A vast segment of our populace do not know what democracy means. A small but a significant segment of the urban middleclass decided enough was enough under the Rajapakse monolith and opted for the common candidate. It was this segment of the middleclass that made the transition from an autocracy to a democracy. They were willing to risk short term democratic chaos instead of stability under coercive autocracy.
Today, these positive middleclass attitudes towards democratic institutions are beginning to falter. The goons of the GMOA were docile disciplined doctors under the Rajapakse regime. Some even doctored postmortem reports for the convenience of the regime. The Sinhala middleclass mostly monolingual is not convinced of the virtues of democracy as is the case in India where independence from the Raj did not undermine the achievements of Thomas Babington Macaulay. The mostly monolingual Sinhala middleclass is middleclass only in terms of affluence. Its ethical priorities are shaped by Buddhist priests such as Elle Gunawansa and Bengamuwe Nalaka seen at the Viyathmaga conclave carrying the authority of saffron robe and Talipot palm leaf fan.
We are yet to understand the meaning and vitality of life in a democracy. Democracy has to be lived and experienced. The millennial generation knows of only a shadowy democracy with periodic manipulated elections held under the pressures of a civil war. Our youth are largely monolingual and insular. While they are comfortable with the IPhone, they are absolutely uninformed of the trajectory of progress that moved humans from the dialing up telephone to broadband access. Our adolescents including my own grandchildren cocooned in limitless connectivity equate progress, development and democracy with shopping malls and access to global brand names.
