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Between the Blinds by Dr.Nalin Swaris

For those of us who were children in the nineteen fifties, the next best friend after Santa Claus was Dononvan Andree. 'Uncle' Donovan that grand impresario, none has matched him yet, used to bring down some of the finest entertainers in the world, who held us spellbound with their artistry. Mercifully, we did not have television to bore us to death. This was good outdoor entertainment, shared with hundreds of other kids and grown ups.

I remember the spectacular Holiday on Ice and the marvellous magic of Gogia Pasha conjuring up rabbits and pigeons from nowhere leaving us wide eyed with astonishment. And of course there were those grand circuses he used to bring down periodically, the most memorable of which was the German Busch Circus. Circuses are no longer as popular as they were in the fifties, largely because of protests by animal lovers that they involve a lot of cruelty to animals. The only circus we are now left with is the Lipton Circus, and it inflicts much cruelty on humans. Located at a busy intersection, near the National Hospital complex, the large roundabout was designed to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

But this public space is regularly invaded by all sorts of agitators vociferating sundry causes and grievances, clogging up the traffic and generally making a nuisance of themselves. The smart ones organize their performances to coincide with the hospital visiting hours, because they are sure they would grab the attention of a captive crowd. They don't. The public are startled by the invaders, then irked.

Whenever a tragedy occurs at a real circus, like when a high flying acrobat misses a trapeze and comes hurtling down, the ringmaster quickly sends in the clowns, to distract the spectators. Lipton Circus is a place where many local clowns have taken the civic liberty let themselves loose. Sometime ago a trade union of government servants led by a cabinet minister made some typically working class demands like urging their government to continue the emergency and the prorogation of parliament. On another occasion, two other ministers of the same cabinet held a raucous demonstration demanding that their government resumes the 'peace process'.

Probably they must have felt that the cabinet room was much too dangerous a place to agitate for peace. If so, subsequent rumours seem to confirm their hunch. Even the hulky minister of the current cabinet has expressed his apprehensions about our own Iron Lady's handbag. The NGOs too pitch their tents every now and then for their own Lipton Circus. I must confess that I was once enticed to put on a clown's cap for a performance after the general election of December 2000.

Apparently, the General of generals had taken a wrong turn during a military campaign, ended up in the Central Province, and had proved that the bludgeon is more effective than the ballot. A hot shot NGO had monitored the entire affair and had to take some sort of public stand on it. One afternoon a dear civic minded friend of mine called to say that this monitoring group had organized a demonstration at Lipton Circus and that I should take part. The demonstration would demand that the General should not be reappointed to his old ministerial post. I decided to do my civic duty and participate.

I thought hundreds of like-minded civil society enthusiasts might have thronged to the place. To my surprise, here was hardly anyone. Someone had thrust a pathetic little placard into my friend's hand. It said something like: "Don't appoint perpetrators of election violence to cabinet". There were about ten NGO people. They stood there looking slightly bored with the whole thing. The former boss of the organizing group, not one likely to be seen loitering on our pavements, was also there. When I mentioned the election violence, and said it cast doubt on the validity of the whole exercise, he replied, quite even handedly, "Well, it was bad in places but I do not think by and large it affected the overall result".

He was the Chairman of a prestigious government commission. I asked his less patrician successor why there was such a small turn out and why the other monitoring group did not take part. He said, "Well, we did not invite them because they only do monitoring, we also do educational work". My feeling was that smart NGOs doing the same work, protest separately to ensure separate funding. Within half an hour the affair was over. It was a good photo opportunity. The monitors had done their show of protest.

No one at the Lipton Circus was educated, but I am sure the foreign funders were suitably impressed when the reports came in together with photos of the organizer against the backdrop of a crowded pavement. When the General was reappointed, everyone, including the monitors, had forgotten what the fuss was all about. Now our parliamentarians are getting bored with the Lipton roundabout and have decided to take the Circus into the very halls of parliament. It beats me how they smuggle in large banners and placards into this tightly secured sanctuary of decorum.

But at a given signal the banners are unfurled, the placards hoisted and the shouting of slogans in chorus begins, - just like at Lipton Circus. About two years ago, some local Guy Fawkeses tried to set fire to the parliament using, of all things, a draft constitution. Fortunately these pyromaniacs did not succeed and the grand building commissioned by Junius Rex was saved.

I am sure, from wherever he is he must be smiling when he thinks of this little gift he bequeathed to our legislators a luxury talk shop. He wrote a new constitution all for himself and placed himself above the law, but as chief executive he bloody well (sic) made sure that we the subjects obeyed it. He even gave this country a new name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. That was Junius Rex' little joke. Instead of democracy he reverted us to despotism, instead of socialism he gave us an unregulated free market economy, instead of a republic our state was turned into a monarchy.

When the celibate cardinal Alexander Borgia, father of Cesare and Lucrezia, ascended the papal throne he is supposed to have declared: " Since God gave us the Papacy let us enjoy it". The Presidents who succeeded Junius have likewise decided: "Since JR gave us the executive presidency, let us enjoy it". Lest the people notice the enjoyment, the important thing is to fiercely denounce and abuse "JR's bahubootha vyavasthava". With so much power in one hand it's no wonder that our parliamentarians are utterly bored and have decided to entertain themselves and us in the process.

Given their average level of education we cannot expect many of them to know what the word parliament means. For their benefit, the word is derived from the old French word 'parlement' which means a 'speaking together'. Monarchs like King Arthur managed to get knights and barons who spent their free time fighting and cracking each other's skulls with deadly weapons like maces, a cudgel with a heavy, spiked head, to sit together and settle their disputes by talking things out. That is why a mace, now ornately decorated, is carried by a sergeant-at -arms through the assembly and placed down flat in front of the Speaker. It symbolizes a willingness to lay down the cudgels and sort things out in a rational manner.

But every now and then some of our representatives jump into the pit of parliament and engage in fisticuffs and kick-boxing right in front of the Speaker. Some even make a lunge to grab the mace. One of these days an empty head or two will be cracked. Our school children are regularly brought to watch this circus. I suspect many of them will resolve to take karate classes, prepare themselves to do politics and enter parliament.

We are now enjoying a ceasefire. The government is trying to persuade the militants to enter what is called the democratic process, take part in elections and to enter parliament. I have the feeling that if they do they might not feel too uncomfortable in this august hall. They will surely be the winners in this type of peace. Will someone please lock up the clowns?

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