Kavantissa'a Election Diary

SINCE there is so much talk about Parakramabahu the Great with people saying they are his reincarnation and others saying "bloody tosh", we decided to interview the monarch himself.

Question: Is it true, Sire, that your era, so marked with prosperity, can be replicated in the 21st Century?

Parakramabahu: Not in a one-to-one sense, no. Our information technology was different, the global political economy was not defined by multi-lateral agencies skewed against our interest, we didn't have television and the internet.

However, I believe that there is always currency in the idea of prosperity. Prosperity can always be achieved as long as political thinking recognises that agriculture is the foundation of our economy, that food security is the cornerstone of national security, and that policies should not cater to the interests of a small coterie of rich people but rather aim at lifting the common man socially, economically, politically, culturally and spiritually without compromising our resource base and the balance of ecological forces.

Question: Faced with a terrorist outfit insisting that part of the country is their traditional/historical homeland and demanding the right to secede, how would you have responded?

Parakramabahu: I would proceed from the notion that our dignity is non-negotiable. If I have the means, I would deal with a terrorist according to the laws of the land.

If I didn't, I will do everything within my means to prepare for such a confrontation, beginning with securing our food security and ensuring that I don't drag the country to a point where we are so beholden to those who assist us that we become mere implementers of their agenda.

Question: Yes, but wouldn't it be simpler, and democratic too, to devolve power by way of a federal framework and thereby protect the people from the threat of terrorism ?

Parakramabahu: Compromise is of course a valid course of action given certain constraints. On the other hand, compromising to a thief and a murderer would in the long run result in the whole idea of the nation being scuttled. I might as well abdicate under those circumstances.

Question: But what if these people took to arms because their grievances were legitimate and they were not accommodated?

Parakramabahu: In that case, I would first invite them to articulate their grievances not as slogans but as substantiated arguments. If they are not willing to do that then I have no option but to consider their intentions to be sinister.

If, in the process of negotiations, they assassinate people, pick off my intelligence men, then I will exercise the right to fight and protect my people. Statecraft is not about being "above board" all the time. Politics is never clean, you know. Read Machiavelli. One talks to reasonable people.

If one is forced to talk to unreasonable people, then one talks, but employs subterranean techniques to weaken the enemy. Someone who falls on his knees the first sign of being threatened is not fit to govern, in my humble opinion.

Question: Let's get back to the economy, and the issue of self-sufficiency. Any comments on the policies of the one who believes he is your reincarnation?

Parakramabahu: Well, to tell you the truth, it is confusing. When those red boys wanted to rehabilitate tanks and other irrigation structures, he ridiculed them.

He wants our farmers to grow baby corn and gherkin, even though he knows the markets for these commodities are prone to sudden collapse and that we really can't depend on baby corn and gherkin to obtain the full nutritional complement our children require.

Question: But you would not disagree that there is nothing wrong in modernising agriculture, would you?

Parakramabahu: Of course not. We have to make use of technological development. However, we should not lose sight of who we are and what we really need. We should not forget the greatest lesson of the Green Revolution: that quick fixes have to be treated with caution.

The Green Revolution was a promise. It was a lie, time proved. Modernising agriculture requires modernising our research outfits, not decentralising them into oblivion. When private companies take over research, their findings and recommendations are invariably coloured by profit-objective, not the national interest.

Question: How about the goviya as a gum-chewing, bell-bottomed, sunglassed, Nike T-shirt clad dude?

Parakramabahu: Let's be serious here, shall we? If I was a farmer, even in the 21st Century I would feel gravely insulted. As a person whose legacy is one of overflowing granaries, I am greatly saddened and extremely perturbed.

Q: What in your mind is "good governance"?

Parakramabahu: That has to be answered in a PhD dissertation! Ok, I will offer some ideas. Anyone who wants to govern well, must first and foremost understand our culture. You would recall that I began by cleaning up the Sasana.

This was done by examining the Bhikkus on their knowledge of the Dhamma and evaluating their track-record as practitioners and their adherence to the vinaya rules. Our culture is unmistakably stamped with the doctrine of the Buddha and practices thereof and this has to be recognised.

Good governance involves the availability of checks and balances and mechanisms by which the voice of the people is not just articulated but given ear to.

Good governance is not about allowing some foreigner with absolutely no regard for culture, heritage and well being of our people to formulate policy, and not about appointing one's friends to formulate strategies (in the name of development) so that their pockets get filled.

Q: One more question. What about the manifesto that has been produced by the reincarnation ?

Parakramabahu: Well, I don't know if he is my reincarnation in the first place and if so then I would humbly state that I have degenerated to an unrecognisable extent.