‘Foot in the mouth’ - Disease of politicians

Wijitha NAKKAWITA

Once again we have a General Election coming and as the trite expression goes some politicos are putting their foot in the mouth during each of these elections. The UNP has a particularly rich history of political pronouncement. To start about half a century back there was this leader Premier Sir John Kotelawala who led the party in 1956 to a self imposed rout.

During that campaign Sir John was addressing a UNP election rally in support of a candidate Gunawardena and each time he asked the gathering to vote for Gunasekara the candidate of the opposing party. The local UNP leader who was presiding kept on reminding Sir John that their candidate was Gunawardena, Sir John said he was sorry about the mistake. But as things turned out Sir John mixed up the name again and asked the people vote for Gunasekara. The local leader again reminded Sir John he had made same mistake again.

Losing temper

Now Sir John lost his temper. He said, “I don’t care for whom you vote. You vote for any fellow you want” ending the meeting in confusion and disorder.

During this time Prime Minister Sir John visited the Government farm at Kundasale off Kandy. He went to the livestock section and was shown the animals. Among them was well fed and bathed stud bull. The press was behind Sir John who said “I don’t mind exchanging places with the stud bull!”

Lavish entertainer

The year 1955 just prior to the election was also the year of the Sri Sambuddha Jayanthi marking the 2,500th year of the Maha Parinirvana, the Passing Away of The Buddha. As everyone knew then Sir John was a lavish entertainer and his Kandawala mansion parties were legendary. While the Buddha Jayanthi was being celebrated his party at Kandawala had a calf barbecued. It was nothing short of sacrilege for the Buddhists as they expected the person who ruled the country to live up to ancient traditions. There were strong protests of the Buddhist clergy and even cartoons in newspapers about the barbecue incident.

Defeat

Sir John was not to be put off that easy. Soon he was reported in the newspapers as saying that he would paint the backs of the Buddhist clergy with tar and chase them out of society. But it was the reverse that occurred. When the election results the UNP that had a majority in Parliament was decimated and the entire Cabinet excluding the Premier and minister M.D. Banda were defeated.

The UNP was reduced to eight seats and the LSSP leader Dr. N.M. Perera became the Opposition Leader. Sir John Kotelawala resigned from politics and left for England.

UNP has a history of waging war with the Buddhist clergy. More than 20 years after its debacle at the polls in 1956 the UNP leader J.R. Jayewardene was called a traitor by the Ven Labuduwe Siridhamma Thera of the Rajopavanaramaya Temple, Getambe, Kandy. On that occasion Jayewardene got the temple encircled with a barb wire fence claiming that the surrounding land was State land!

Monks killed

During the R. Premadasa UNP regime over a 600 Buddhist monks were murdered between the years 1988–90.

Though it was known that some well-known Bhikkus were killed by the JVP a majority of the monks were killed by the UNP para military outfits like the ‘green tigers’ or the ‘yellow cats’. Coincidentally the UNP and the JVP had become strange bedfellows during the last Presidential Election campaign supporting the so-called common candidate

Sarath Fonseka. Yet it was not strange at all as both parties have blood soiled hands.

Again the present UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe has taken on the Buddhist clergy, perhaps following the examples of the former UNPpers Sir J and JRJ. He has called the Buddhist clergy ‘Peviddo’ a derogation or even a term of disparagement in the Sinhala language he seems to ill-understand.

For the lingua franca he used may not have been intentional in devaluing the Maha Sangha who are traditionally held in high veneration by the Buddhists. Yet only an ignoramus would use the anachronistic term ‘Vaithulyavadin’ that died with the end of the Mahayana period of King Mahasena nearly 2,000 years ago.

Therefore politicians though they often speak balderdash cannot transcend the accepted tradition and norms of any society.

If they had the brashness to do so people will not have the patience or forgiveness to ignore their ignorance. Putting the foot in the mouth could indeed be dangerous.