Parades, empty stomachs and amendments

President Wickremesinghe attends this year's 75th Independence ceremony at Galle Face Green

We never had a situation where so many were going hungry, living on two meals a day or less, living on bare essentials, with so many reduced to poverty

The way independence was celebrated this time shows how conventional the government’s thinking is during a time of unprecedented crisis. It was a show like in the good old days, except that Independence Square had more soldiers than civilians. It looked like a military coup in gloomy weather.

There is a political need to prop up the national psyche, but it will take more than parades and fly pasts for that. Hunger is real, and cannot be assuaged by speeches and parades. Doctors are issuing dire warnings about the health of the medical system. We should have had a simpler ceremony, with the colossal amounts spent for it going for vital food and medical supplies.

Conventional thinking will not do at this point because the problem we face isn’t conventional. We have faced hard times; hunger and malnutrition were facts of life for many despite all the boasts of being a middle income country. But we never had a situation where so many were going hungry, living on two meals a day or less, living on bare essentials, with so many reduced to poverty. Worse, never had so many felt they have no future. It’s an unprecedented man-made catastrophe, and conventional thinking simply would not do in a country where many can’t afford an egg or a can of sardines.

The clock is ticking. President Ranil Wickremesinghe needs to act wisely, decisively, and bravely

Of all our national level politicians, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has shown an ability to think unconventionally in some contexts. His political scoop of signing the Norwegian-backed CFA accord with the LTTE, along with his attempt to project an unconventional, business-like image of himself when he ran against ex-president Chandrika Kumaratunga in the 1990s, as well as his choice of Norwegian diplomat Eric Solheim as his climate advisor are all indicators to his unconventional thinking.

Unfortunately, his ability to think this way (apart from the appointment of Solheim) seems to have dried up. Perhaps the very conventional thinking of our electorate is to blame. His ‘relaxed’ campaign image of the 90s did not go down well with voters, even his close supporters. They simply couldn’t understand the idea of a politician looking relaxed. Ours usually look grim. This is what Ranil Wickremesinghe has become, or  it is the image that he wants to project – that he can be as tough and grim as anyone. 

Unfortunately, it’s exactly the opposite that is needed in this crisis, someone who can connect more humanely with people battered beyond belief. We see grim faces in the streets every day. What we need at the top is somehow who looks sympathetic and reassuring.

What we need at the top is somehow who looks sympathetic and reassuring

If the police attack a peaceful protest in front of the Elphinstone Theatre on the evening of Feb. 3 is a warning of what is to come, the future looks grim indeed. After Mahinda Rajapaksa and his pals used goons to attack Gotagogama last year, this is the first time thugs were used by the ruling party (or state) as the police simply watched, and then moved in to attack the seated protesters with tear gas, water cannons and batons.

With all our woes, the past year had one thing to cheer about. You felt free of the unwelcome attention of state-employed thugs and white vans. No white vans have appeared yet, but you can hear the engines ticking. Why can’t we rid ourselves of these cancers? Why are our politicians so blind to existing realities and emerging truths?
Luckily, we have a judiciary still capable of independent decisions. The decision to grant bail to inter university students’ federation’s Wasantha Mudalige after more than six months’ detention under the PTA is a welcome step. 
The old feudal thinking is at work here. The IUSF has always been viewed by the ruling elite has riff raff, dismissed as prone to violence (hence terrorists) and to be dealt with harshly. But the old class barriers have been broken down further by the economic meltdown, with the middle class dissipated and the upper classes too, facing serious setbacks. Nowadays, everyone is riff raff as viewed through elite prisms.

Hence, a fresher political thinking is urgently needed to deal with this new society. Instead of class barriers, we have huge economic gaps. This is nothing new. But the post-2022 meltdown has widened them even further. Though the upper classes feel the pinch, that’s nothing compared to lower strata (including the middle class, or what’s left of it) who feel destitute.

The urgency goes beyond food and medicine, as much as we need sustenance

A famous professor reputed to be a think-tank wrote a few weeks ago in a Sinhala paper that he didn’t care about what happened to the middle class (I wonder to which class he belongs). This is similar to the ‘let’s deal with the riff raff’ thinking of the political elite. After the aragalaya, a poorer middle class can be dismissed as riff raff, too, by the ruling elite especially since the middle class began the Gotagohome campaign. This professor’s words show a devastating lack of humanity that runs through our ruling structures (professors are very much part of this structure). 

In short, the president needs to be both wise and compassionate to deal with this volcano. The urgency goes beyond food and medicine, as much as we need sustenance. He has pledged to implement the 13th amendment. Now that the Rajapaksa juggernaut has been rolled back after economic catastrophe and a massive people’s awakening, the time is right to put the country on the right track.

But the Mahanayakes have already issued a warning. This is the moment the Rajapaksas are waiting for – as the economy gets worse, they will be back saying only they can put the country right again.
The clock is ticking. President Ranil Wickremesinghe needs to act wisely, decisively, and bravely.