Kavantissa's Election Diary

Hard on the heels of the classic and historical statement by UNP Presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe that he will re-enact a Perakum Yugaya if he wins, and another statement which is as much a class though ahistorical regarding the pas dun rata and the story of cinnamon, came trusted lieutenant Doctor Rajitha Senaratne's damage-control effort.

The good doctor, who along with the indefatigable Hemakumara Nanayakkara, is one of the only two UNPers loyal enough to represent the party and its leader in public debates, has gone on record to say that what Wickremesinghe said when he referred to the Perakum Yugaya (which of course is antithetical to the party's avowed economic and political policies) was that he was going to create a mod goviya.

Doctor Rajitha, to his credit, has given some flesh to the rhetorical statement made by his leader. He has gone public with his description of the farmer that the party wants to create if elected to power. What is the goviya of the future is going to look like, according to Rajitha?

"Our farmers are half naked creatures, showing off their buttocks and barely covering their frontal private parts. They are typically men with hollow cheeks and teeth discoloured by chewing betel. Instead, under Ranil Wickremesinghe, we will produce farmers who will be wearing Nike T-shirts and bell bottoms."

Throw in a bracelet, a gold chain and a stick of chewing gum and you have it all, I suppose.

That was the tone of his denigration of the present day farmer and the image of the "Ranil Wickremesinghe Farmer". Reminded me of Winston Churchill calling Mahatma Gandhi "a half naked fakir".

I don't plough the earth, sow seeds and reap the golden harvest. My father did, though. And I still have relatives who do it. I have enough farming blood in my veins to feel insulted. But then again, one could put it all down to nostalgia. So I asked some real farmers what they thought. They were livid.

Understandably, understandably.

What was Rajitha thinking? It was bad enough for the leader to make that horrendous slip about the Parakramabahu era, a slip that will probably cost him the election (one wonders who is advising him).

When such a faux pas has been committed the best thing to do is not to return to the topic again. Ranil couldn't very well deny he said it or that it was said in jest because this slogan was plastered all over the country. And when the attempted damage-control is so stupid that it makes the original sin seem like a virtue, you are talking about monumental disaster for the candidate.

Regardless of the numbers actually living off agriculture, the fact remains that most of our people either belong to farming families or have close ties to the land. Indeed we have not industrialised (or liberalised for that matter) enough for us not to have pride in the fact that we are a rice eating culture.

We have the utmost regard for our farmers and the farmers themselves have enough pride not to feel insulted and humiliated.

What Ranil with his perakum yugaya and Rajitha with his mod goviya have done is to remind people of the bracelet-chain-chewing gum story.

In essence, he can't be serious about leading this country if he goes about insulting the intelligence of a vast section of the electorate.

On the other hand, reflecting further, it occurred to me that perhaps the man wants to cement his place in history. So I thought that he has been given a raw deal by his detractors.

Since we are into the whole perakum yugaya thing, I think Ranil deserves some credit. Indeed, I think he has a crucial role to play in the affairs of the State.

Our kings have had prime ministers, the maha emathi. They assigned their ministers to oversee various spheres of Government. There were those who devoted their time, energy and skills to agricultural affairs. There were those who built tanks and canals, cleared land and helped coin the term peradiga dhanyagaraya (Granary of the East). There were those who had to limit themselves to dealing with foreign affairs. There were others whose subject was trade.

In this sense, Wickremesinghe does have a role to play. He is the quintessential raja wasala jester. He seems to have dabbled in enough things to know something about everything. As we all know, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.