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| Thursday, 18 March 2004 |
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| Off the cuff: A conscientious politician is like an honest thief by the Monitor The United National Party has reduced its election campaign to promoting Ranil Wickremesinghe. So much so, that one gets the feeling that Rajitha Senaratne was right after all: the UNP has given up on April 2. Instead, it is concentrating on the next presidential election. This may be the reason why G. L. Peiris who during his PA avatar was talking of constitutional change through simple parliamentary majority plus referendum, suddenly screams, "No, no, no, you can't do that; it is undemocratic!" Anyway, I think the UNP is being sensible in focusing on Ranil. Sure, he has a poor track record. He has done nothing. But then again, not doing anything is infinitely better than doing the things his key lieutenants have been doing. I am thinking of G. L. Peiris, Ravi Karunanayake, S. B. Dissanayake, Bandula Gunawardena, Mahinda Wijesekera and Jayalath Jayawardena. With an entourage like that, no one can blame him for being a bit self-centered (so to speak) during this campaign. He could have got some help from Karu Jayasuriya, I suppose, but then again, since he deliberately side-lined Karu, it would be a come down to appoint him as campaign manager now. The man, the party claims, has been "true to his conscience, true to his country". Quite a presidential statement, I must say. It is certainly not something that your run-of-the-mill politician can state for they, being politicians, not only do not have a conscience, but probably don't even know how to spell it. Either in Sinhala or in English. I find the juxtaposition of conscience and country in this line extremely interesting, under the circumstances. Somerset Maugham defines conscience as "the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation". Montaign says it in a different way: "the laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from custom". Being "true" to the conscience, then involves being in tune with those things which the community has evolved for its preservation. In our country, the way I see it, these articles are the weva and the dagoba. The UNP's election manifesto does not mention the weva. It says nothing of the dagoba. The UNP might as well have come out with its true, three-sentence manifesto: "We will sell whatever is left to multinationals. We will give Prabhakaran half the country (or more). I believe that one could argue that Ranil Wickremesinghe has indeed been true to his conscience, and to his country. The claim runs into trouble only if he was talking about our country and if his conscience has as its general referent the customs and interests of our society. The UNF is bragging about some 4.5 billion dollars (given in the rupee equivalent to enhance the notion of volume) worth of "peace dividends" dissolved along with parliament. Two things were not said. First of all this is a loan. Spelt L-O-A-N. We will have to pay it back. Chances are our grandchildren will also be paying it well into their retirement. As for the "peace" part of the package, the ground situation negotiated by the UNP amounts to handing over the North and East to terrorists, whose brand new state will be supported by providing money for infrastructure development obtained through other loans which people in this country will have to pay back. If this is what his conscience dictates and how he obeys these dictates, and if this is how he conceptualises the "country", I would have to conclude that he has to be talking about some other country and that his constituency does not include the people of this country. The question therefore is: "Why is the UNP advertising in Sri Lankan newspapers, Sri Lankan TV stations and Sri Lankan radio stations?" Ranil Wickremesinghe has been described as a liberal fundamentalist. Such people do not subscribe to notions of nation, country or any form of cultural identity. They cannot have a conscience. Montaign and Maugham if they were alive would have proved this very eloquently. The sad thing is that Ranil Wickremesinghe's is not some solitary voice, misdirected and inarticulate. Almost every single candidate would tell you, "I act according to my conscience". Our politicians are so true to their conscience that a little over a year ago, some of them tried to bring in a "conscience bill". Someone called it "obtaining conscience by legislative writ!" The mafia promises a yukthigaruka society. The murderer promises law and order. Those who never declare their assets promise accountability and transparency. Terrorists promise democracy and peace. Someone who claims he is not interested in anything for himself says nothing about doing away with the executive presidency. The comis-kaakka promises tough anti-corruption laws. Those addicted to constitutional tinkering promise democracy. Those who have no clue about generating jobs, promise them by the million. Those who are capitalists promise the welfare state. Socialists promise a mixed economy. The faceless and the poker-faced promise as human face. All these promises are mouthed by the best of the best, the first among equals, those who are most true to their conscience, and the most vocal patriot. These immaculately conceived pledges, they would have us believe, would automatically result in a country overflowing with milk and honey. They will never tell us which parts of the country would prosper thus. Or how many people. Every party that has ruled us, every politician who became "our" leader, they all claimed Mr/Ms. Clean status. "We will not give empty promises" they all said. "We are not in this for ourselves, but for our country," they promised. "We will deliver," they all shouted. We had rice from the moon. We were offered 8 kinds of grain. Bracelets, necklaces and chewing gum. Peace, Peace dividends. We were threatened with war. Held to ransom with talk of loans we might have to forego. Ranil Wickremesinghe suffers because he is simply the most recent politician to slip over his promises. This is why he is getting tongue-tied in his promises this election. The Freedom Alliance has the advantage of having two years pass since their paradise of promises caved in. The JVP has had a 15 year break. They are, all of them, culpable. Two things are clear after 56 years of independence. Hypocrisy has always been the watchword of the politician. Worse still, we are a nation made of suckers. The time around, I will not listen. I won't trust anyone who tells me, "I am trustworthy". I will not believe a man who has to make a statement about how true he is to his conscience. I would doubt the patriotic sentiment of someone who has to advertise his patriotism. I would mistrust someone who says "I am honest". I would cling to my purse if someone said, "I will not rob". I will not listen to anyone trying to sweet-talk me into voting for him or her. |
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