‘No one takes the call for an Arab Spring in sl seriously’

27 January 2014 08:42 pm Views - 2268

“Arab Spring” is a term used by the West and its acolytes in other parts of the world including Sri Lanka, to describe the Arab awakening in the Middle East whereby the people threw away the shackles of dictatorship and demanded `democracy’.  

``Democracy’ ’, however, is not by any means desirable only as a demand. It must be implemented to bear fruit.  Further, `democracy’ does not connote indiscipline and is not an end in itself, but a means towards an end – that ‘end’ being a society in which PEACE, ORDER, and GOOD GOVERNANCE prevail.  Many a person appears to have forgotten or ignored conveniently the fact that `democracy’ does not connote the freedom of the wild ass, the freedom to be undisciplined, the freedom to break laws and the freedom to behave in a rowdy manner as one wishes.  They tend to forget that `democracy’ is of no use to man or beast unless there is order in a Country.

Though, much is said about the wave of `Arab Spring’ sweeping through the countries of the Middle East that lived under the shackles of dictatorship, few appear to have realised the fact that of the people of those countries which experienced and continue to experience the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, hardly a person has benefited  or gained any  relief therefrom.

" The call for an ‘Arab Spring’ in Sri Lanka is emanating from two contenders to the ‘throne’. Wickramesinghe and Fonseka make at least three matters perfectly clear"

 

`Arab Spring’ is  virtually in full bloom in several Middle Eastern Countries – Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen and Sudan come to mind.  However, while one sees on television news bulletins, scenes of unruly crowds gathering in various city centres and behaving in a manner that would make a rowdy blush, one does not see any sign of any economy being developed or the people gaining through the ruins of dictatorship.  

Indeed, the ‘Arab Spring’ has been so infectious as to spread to many other Non-Arabian Countries, Ukraine and Thailand are cases in point.  In none of those countries have the people gained one whit.  The economies of those countries both Arab and Non-Arab in the grip of the so- called ‘Arab Spring’ have remained stagnant – for it is axiomatic that no economy can grow unless there is discipline in the country, and discipline seems to be the last thing that appears to exist and/or to be capable of arising in any of those countries.  

In the midst of all this chaos one sees Ranil Wickremasinghe and even General Fonseka (of whom one would naturally have expected a greater devotion to discipline) exhorting the people to emulate their Arab brethren, to get onto the streets and import ‘Arab Spring’ into Sri Lanka so as to topple the Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Perhaps, the greatest achievement of Mahinda Rajapaksa was to restore relative peace and relative order to this country.  I will not say `good governance’ because that is just not there.  

Toadyism, cronyism, sycophancy, colossal waste and nepotism flourish in our country. But rising about all these ills is the fact that some element of order prevails here while countries in Europe, the Middle East and even our neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have experienced and are experiencing virtually unprecedented riots and chaos.  What could have happened if Sri Lanka too was in the grip of this type of rowdyism that appears to have gone hand in hand with what the Westerners and the likes of Wickremasinghe call the ‘Arab Spring’??

Our economy is by no means on a sound footing. I am no economist and do not claim to be one. The only reading I have done on the subject was to read the text book on economics by A C Benson for the G C E Advanced Level (London) Examination over 50 years ago.  From this smattering of knowledge I have of economics I can confidently state that where a person or country takes a loan purely to pay off another loan he/it must be in dire-straits and that evidently is what has happened to Sri Lanka.  

However, our economy has not collapsed.  The country appears to grow and keep growing; new and better highways keep arising, factories keep opening, buildings keep being built and the economy appears to grow before our eyes.  

How one can explain these conflicting phenomena, I do not know.  However, what I do know is that none of these phenomena of growth appear in any of those countries ‘afflicted’ by the ‘Arab Spring’. Thus, the one thing that this country must avoid is the rowdyism attendant upon and apparently inseparable from that which is termed the ‘Arab Spring’.  

In this context, one is constrained to wonder how any person with any kind of love or affection for this country and/or concern about its growth and development and/or about the welfare of its people could even dream of hoping or calling for an ‘Arab Spring’ to overthrow the Government in power.  That the call for ‘Arab Spring’ is a call for indiscipline and rowdyism is beyond question – for no government can be overthrown by force otherwise.  What will the country gain by such an exercise?? It might end up with Mahinda Rajapaksa being deposed but will that serve the needs of the country unless there is in the wings, some person who can replace him and to a better job??? 

As I have had occasion to say on several occasions the greatest strength of Mahinda Rajapaksa lies in the weakness of his opponents. One shudders to think of what would happen to the country if Wickremasinghe, Fonseka or Amarasinghe were in charge and control of its affairs.  We must remember that toppling a government is never an end in itself.  Just as `democracy’  is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end,  so also is the act of toppling a government - for no country in this world can survive as a civilized Country without a government.  Thus, however much one might dislike Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Government and the evil that goes with it, one must not or indeed cannot forget the fact that Rajapaksa has restored some kind of sanity and order in this country.  








No longer do coffins containing the smashed bodies of our youth flow into Colombo in a never ending stream from the battlefields of the North and the East:  No longer do bombs and explosive devices explode in crowded city centres, shops etc; no longer are scenes of body parts of human beings strewn along the streets seen by any person in Sri Lanka.

 These scenes are, however, now seen in those countries that have had doubtful benefit of Western attention.  Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan are cases in point.  
Was Wickremasinghe perhaps hinting or suggesting that he should be placed in command  and/or that he should replace Rajapakse at the helm of the Country upon his hoped for overthrow. If so, what solution does he offer to our problems??  It is of no use to say that he will implement a new constitution and abolish the Executive Presidency because what is needed is something far more.  We had a new constitution in 1978, and its principal architect J R Jayawardena proudly boasted that unlike in the game of cricket where the rules remain and one must play according to them, in politics, he changed the rules as they went on. Thus, changing a constitution alone can do the country no good unless and until a different type of thinking arises in the minds of the powers that be.  

Unless and until our rulers genuinely believed that the people were indeed their masters and that their function was to serve the people and not to serve themselves their kith, their kin, their friends and supporters  this country can never grow, be it by an ‘Arab Spring’ or otherwise.  
Neither Wickremasinghe nor Fonseka has spelt out in any kind of comprehensible detail, accounts of how they would tackle the problems that face the country.  There is no use in shouting “democracy”, “democracy”, “democracy” at the drop of a hat.  If they intend restoring `democracy’ they must disclose to the people how they hope to do so and what they hope to achieve by so doing. 

Wickremasinghe in particular must apologise to the people for the conduct of the UNP in sabotaging the referendum of 1983 by rigging it, and for revoking the journalist’s visa of Paul Harris, the renowned defence analyst and journalist for showing the people the dangers inherent in his Ceasefire Agreement in the short period when the UNP was in power.  He must explain what he hopes to achieve and how he hopes to do so to the People without prevarication and uttering total rubbish like saying that it was the ceasefire agreement engineered by him that resulted in our victory over the LTTE.  He might believe that but nobody in his right mind could.  

In these circumstances the call for an ‘Arab Spring’ in Sri Lanka emanating from two contenders for the ‘throne’. Wickremasinghe and Fonseka make at least three matters perfectly clear.  Firstly that they detest Mahinda Rajapksa with a visceral hatred that defies description; that they want him overthrown by force and the people to forget his achievements, and thirdly that they wish to come to power and  attain the reins of office purely to benefit themselves their kith, their kin, their friends and their supporters.   

Fortunately for the country, no one appears to have taken this call seriously.