A Saadambara Sri Lankaava
Sahan
Ranwala, livewire of the Ranwala Foundation which was the life-product
and life of that inimitable artiste, conservationist of things national
and teacher, told me on Sunday that the end of the war provided an
opportunity to extend the concept api wenuwen api (we, for us) to all
aspects of Sri Lankan life. He made two points.
First, he stressed the importance of figuring out ‘api’
(us/ourselves) and ‘apekama’ (that which defines us, our ‘ourness’ so to
speak). This is true. Years ago, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was briefly
Prime Minister, the UNP launched a policy document called ‘Regaining Sri
Lanka’.
It was an unadulterated blueprint to destroy anything and everything
‘Sri Lankan’ in the name of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans.
The problem was that the regime and the architects of that document
clearly didn’t have any clue about who we are as a nation, how we came
to be us, who our
ancestors
were, what they gave us that we should keep, what they gave that we
should throw and cultural foundations upon which we should stand when
doing the relevant choosing.
I argued in a Sunday newspaper that the api wenuwen api concept
that’s associated with the Security Forces and which could be taken to
have been the bottom-line guiding principle of the military offensive
against the LTTE could be and should be applied to the development
drive. I should have prefaced my face with Sahan’s important
interjection.
The second comment was as follows. Sahan said that it cannot be too
difficult for people to dedicate one day of the month to do something
for the country.
It could take the form of any kind of voluntary work and if such
sentiment is of a collective kind all the better. It could also take the
form of doing an honest job of work at one’s workplace, sans
clock-watching, shirking and extended tea/lunch breaks etc. It is a
personal choice of course but one which can be actively promoted by
leaders.
A friend of mine commenting on my api wenuwen api article said we
need not wait for budgetary allocation or some supposedly benevolent
donor to toss some coins out way to get certain things done.
It is as though we have been cowed down to a level of dependency that
has divested us of initiative, entrepreneurship, innovation and
self-belief. My friend asks, ‘Do you need a budgetary allocation to
plant few coconut seedlings in a village on a Poya holiday, Eid holiday,
Christmas or Thai Pongal?’ He illustrates with an example:
‘In my capacity as Secretary to the SLFP Branch of my village
(1970s), Thunduwa, Bentota, I invited Albert Kariyavsam , M.P. for
Bentara - Elpitiya for the Opening of Electricity supply and I whispered
into his ears to mention in his speech about the lands (just the home
garden size) are left uncultivated , be it even a few sq. meters, and to
warn everyone that he might be compelled to take some unpleasant and
drastic actions to assign the land to someone else who could cultivate
them.
The whole of next week I was able to see everyone fencing the land,
planting with banana plants, murunga, gahala etc. At the end of a year
we could see most lands were looking green. No Budget, no aid; just
calculated persuasion.’
It takes a different kind of leadership. A leadership that lets the
doing do the talking, so that when the talking happens, it encourages,
empowers and perhaps even shames people into doing the things they can
do. Architecht/Planner L.T. Kiringoda points out that the fascination
with Singapore that some of our leaders reveals more about a
loser-mindset than anything: ‘Singapore does not have rivers, water
falls and tanks, mountains, forests, paddy fields, villages and kada
mandiyas, world heritage sites, wild life etc. etc.
Also in Sri Lanka we have farmers, fishermen, tea pluckers, rubber
tappers, toddy tappers, craftsmen, dancers, etc. and Singapore has
exploiters of wealth with bloodless faces. If Sri Lanka is to be Asia’s
wonder then it should be as Sri Lanka not as another Singapore.’
There was a different in approach that worked (in a sense) for
Singapore and an absence of that approach in Sri Lanka which could be
the reason why we are where we are. It is not about being another
Singapore but being a different kind of Sri Lanka. Renton de Alwis told
me that it is not that we don’t have people or that we haven’t
understood the full potential. Maybe it is that we haven’t learnt the
lessons.
Renton wrote the following about the kind of people we should learn
from, be inspired by and try to emulate: ‘Teachers who worked for what
they were paid and went that extra mile to give us lessons in life,
doctors who chose not to go into PP but to serve the needy for what they
are paid, the policemen (perhaps the one in the pix) who keep their
heads high, farmers who put in such hard work, take such risks, unlike
others who collect cool commissions on funds borrowed from banks to
import cars and other luxury goods to sell regardless of if we needed
them, workers who work for they love what they do, no matter how little
they make, law makers and keepers who are honest, mothers and fathers
who give their all to make us what we are ...all those who suffer in the
service of the public selflessly... May all of them be blessed and may
they qualify to be Maithri Bosathwaru.’
We can. If only we know who we are. If only we understand that we are
who we are because our ancestors looked to the future, worked together,
worked hard, had self-belief and resolve.
Sahan is not saying that anyone should give what they cannot. They
should do what they can. That extra bit. Call it ‘My Nationalist Hour of
the Day’, ‘Nationalist Day of the Month’, ‘My api wenuwen mama moment’.
What’s in a name, after all, as long as it’s not a ‘Dinavamu wena aya’
(for the triumph of someone else) at the cost of hurting or bringing
down ape aya (our people).
One hour a day. Too much? How about one minute, just to ask if it
means anything to you that you were born in this country and was made of
its historic waters and its cultural breezes and other things ‘Sri
Lankan’? I think that would be better than nothing. It would inspire, I
am sure.
At some level, it’s a personal choice, as I said. A necessary choice
if we want to inhabit a Saadambara Sri Lankaava, a nation we can be
proud of.
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