Cultural factor in elections

How come that so many artistes worked dedicatedly for the President in his campaign when there were virtually no artistes to bolster the campaign of the UNP led Opposition? It is indeed strange that the UNP, being the oldest party and the one that governed this country for a good part after independence could not find some artistes to stand by the party while the President’s campaign was backed by a star studded ‘Artistes brigade’. Reason again is the inherent cultural differences of the two leaders who spearheads the UPFA and the Opposition campaigns.

President Rajapaksa talks in terms of the need to be patriotic, gratuitous and Gunagaruka (respect for ethics) which are terms associated with our culture while Ranil Wickremesinghe talks in terms of ‘democracy’, ‘good governance’ and ‘media freedom’ which are somewhat abstract to our ethos. National culture is the bread and butter of artistes and hence they will not find anything in common with leaders who are culturally disoriented.

Aesthetic faculties

Culture is the harmonious development of all aesthetic faculties of man; but since men have evolved for centuries in different social groups such development in aesthetics and values have come to form the identity and diversity of those different civilizations in their social evolutions. Hence culture is an ingrained value and behavioural pattern of social group and that fact makes that group distinct from the rest. The culture to which a person is born is like a sixth sense to that person and no matter how superimposing the subsequent adopted lifestyles he has been through, he would always take to the culture of his birth like duck to water.

Cultural values

Sri Lankan aesthetics and cultural values came out of hibernation after independence. But they essentially remained the stock of the Godaya (vernacular) people for want of patronization by the influential sections of the society who have by then re rooted themselves in the Western life styles. But the Godaya people, even though they lacked influential patronization, always had the strength of their majority and hence there was always an audience to be entertained by the local cultural artistes.

However with time, even though nurtured only by the marginalized locals, the indigenous artistes have developed a unique brand of Sri Lankan art form during the past 62 years, surviving through the winds of social upheavals and commercials vicissitudes. They have enriched their arts borrowing from outside but yet without losing the unique ‘ourness’ of it all.

For instance Amaradeva’s songs are rich in their Eastern musical chords but they unmistakably have a Sri Lanka character. Hence Sri Lankan music, dance forms and motion pictures today stand side by side with the best in the world adding pride to the nation and exemplifying a role model to the other field of national endowments as well. What is even more significant is that our aesthetic senses have essentially resisted pernicious and colonial imbalances that have besotted other forms of national activity such as commerce and education.

The fact of this cultural permeation is increasingly becoming evident in the country’s music and dance fields that even those artistes who are more inclined towards English are compelled to adopt a vernacular attitude due to the need to obtain majority patronization. Hence even though those Western inclined artistes find themselves more at home with their own brand of art they find that it is difficult to make a mark in Sri Lanka with Western art and music due to lack of demand; and they cannot make their mark abroad either due to lack of uniqueness. That reality eventually drives those artistes to sing Sinhala songs even with an English accent. This is what should be called realistic national integration in this age because it imparts the richness of Western music into our traditional bera pada.

However while this cultural evolvement was taking place in the country, courtesy common man, there was a set of people who had consigned the local ethos and mores to their servants. Chandrika and Ranil, though they belong to opposing political parties, belong to that same class of persons. They belong to the post independent colonial generation who have not felt the humiliation of being a subject in a colony but have experience only the good side (the manners, the language and the elitism) of being a citizen of an ex colony. Ask Ranil Wickremesinghe who is Sunil Edirisinghe and he will want to know whether he is an old Royalist: or ask him who is Vasantha Obeysekera and he will tell you that the Obeysekeras’ are related to Mrs. Bandaranaike. But on the other hand ask him who is Stevie Wonder or Shirley Bassey then he probably will fare better. Similarly during Chandrika Bandaranaike’s regime it was quite evident that she found herself uncomfortable at official ceremonies when Jayamangala gathas were recited while she made herself quite at home when carol parties visited her during Christmas.

Cultural President

Mahinda Rajapaksa makes no bones about his goday origins and this is why Jackson Anthony repeatedly maintained that Mahinda Rajapaksa is the first cultural President of the country. That is also why Senanayake Weralliyadda called Mahinda, a colossus who could resuscitate our indigenousness (Apey kamata pana powana pana athi minisek) in his songs. Therefore the advent of Mahinda Rajapaksa in to the country’s leadership, after years of culturally barren leaders was palpably felt by the artistes in general. In addition President Rajapaksa had that knack of making local artistes quite at ease with his rustic village ways.

This was quite a contrast to the other leaders who often took part in cultural events, not because they wanted to but because they did not want to offend the majority sensitivities.

A nation cannot be rejuvenated without reinvigorating its cultural cords because culture is a part of a nation’s self-confidence and its identity. This lacuna, in the post-independent history of this country, was felt by the artist and hence they put their hearts and souls to the campaign to re-elect their cultural representative.