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| Sunday, 8 August 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The coat and tie in grassroots politics Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake So, Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation, Livestock and Land, did wear western dress complete with coat and tie at a reception in the gardens of the Royal Palace in Bangkok, during an official visit. He was said to have been nattily dressed by "The Island" which made this the peg to hang a whole editorial coat on what it saw as possibly the new sartorial trends in society and in the JVP. We anti-imperial types still look with scorn on the first Prime Minister of independent Ceylon, wearing the full ceremonial western dress of 'top hat and tails', when hoisting the flag of the new dominion, on February 4, 1948. It symbolised the dreams of the Brown Sahibs, ever willing to be the lackeys of even the departing colonial power. Senanayake's dress code on the occasion of the first independence was in sharp contrast to what Jawaharlal Nehru wore at the time of India's declaration of independence, in August 1947, when he said that as the clock strikes the midnight hour India would awake to life and freedom, adding that it was the time when India would keep its tryst with destiny, not in full measure but very substantially. He was clad in the homespun sherwani and typical Nehru cap, the dress that had symbolised those who led the freedom movement in India. What puzzles the editorialist of "The Island" is that if it is now good for one of its Cabinet Ministers to be dressed in lounge suit, why did the JVP criticise the "tie coat" politicians of the UNP. The question is asked: "But then why did they take pot shots, even recently at UNPers decked up in coat and tie". Indeed the JVP did make strong criticism of the "tie-coat" politics of the UNP, in the run-up to and during the recent polls campaign. It was not merely a criticism of sartorial taste in the UNP, but of what was identified as the "tie-coat" mindset of the UNP. It must be admitted that but for that poor symbolism on the occasion of independence, D. S. Senanayake was a man who had his feet planted deep in the mud of Sri Lanka's paddy fields, and certainly not a "tie-coat politician". In the same way Anura Kumara Dissanayake, even when clad in western lounge suit, is a minister who has launched a scheme to rebuild and restore 10,000 rural tanks, to revitalise our rural sector. The "tie-coat" politics of the UNP, especially in its recent short spell in office was to suggest that paddy lands be filled up, and made use for industry, beginning with the Western Province. This was the profound "tie-coat" thinking of Ranil Wickremesinghe himself. The "tie-coat" politics of the UNP that came under heavy attack from the JVP was the removal of the 100 per cent tax on foreigners purchasing land in Sri Lanka. It is a decision that has already caused major harm to the Dutch Fort at Galle; the 38th World Heritage site identified by UNESCO, and has also led to huge chunks of the south coast being bought up by foreigners. It is the culturally shallow politics that sought to make a night-life showpiece of dancing maidens at Sigiriya, This shallow "tie-coat" thinking was obvious from the time it came to office in December 2001, when it announced that Colombo will be made a "Night City", to promote tourism, with promises of all-night shopping, dining, wining, dancing and plenty of other night-time entertainment, too. The UNP controlled Colombo Municipal Council was full of "tie-coat" enthusiasm for this idea. We saw this in the one month of lighting up of the streets of Colombo for Christmas (shades of Oxford Street) in the December that followed the UNP coming to office, which clashed so glaringly with the yellow flags put up by the people to mourn the loss of the Ven. Gangodavila Soma Thera. Minister Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who usually wears slacks and open necked shirt to office, has proved he is no "tie-coat" politician of the UNP type that the JVP criticised by his commitment to prevent the privatisation of water management, which was agreed to by the UNP and maybe even the SLFP or PA, under the recommendations of the ADB. With this new commitment of the government the ADB has agreed to await the new policy guidelines on water management, intended to be people-oriented and not serve the interests of private exploiters of our water resources. He has also launched on a challenging new task of increasing the country's milk production, to make this country less dependent on imported powdered milk, and finally be self-sufficient in our own fresh milk. Whatever the dress may be, whether pants and red shirt or lounge suit, this is the stuff of grassroots thinking, feeling and politics. All this is a far cry of the "tie-coat" politics of the UNP, whose so-called leading "thinker" of the day, Milinda Moragoda, dared say that we should accept the hegemony of the United States (led by George W Bush to boot) and also accept that fact that the world needed a good policeman and the USA would be ideally suited for the task. It was the same "tie-coat" thinking that made Ranil Wickremesinghe, as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka say at the United Nations that the US-UK invasion of Iraq was justified, because there was a delay in the UN Security Council coming to a consensus on the issue. The UNP's one time leader President Ranasinghe Premadasa was not a "tie-coat" thinker in politics. His feet had the feel of the soil, although his ideas of grandeur led to his political undoing, despite touching the people's hearts in many ways, in which his "tie-coat" successors are unable to do. The JVP's Propaganda Secretary explained this "tie-coat" attitude of the UNP and most of its upper middle class supporters, describing Milinda Moragoda. His definition of the man was that his feet were so distant from Sri Lankan soil, to the extent that if he saw a scarecrow when passing a paddy field he would stop to ask "who is this man?" After its "tie-coat" humiliation, the UNP has now launched a campaign to give ear to the people, at grassroots level, with Moragoda stealing the show. Interestingly, the UNP's Hema Kumara Nanayakkara, a qualified agriculturist, in criticising the party's road map, "Regaining Sri Lanka", after the rout in April, said the chapter on agriculture in this much vaunted policy statement had been prepared by those wearing coat and tie who knew nothing of agriculture. No doubt, the JVP will be able to cope with and solve whatever its sartorial metamorphosis is, from pants and red shirt of the bearded revolutionary to elegant lounge suit or even the Red Sea Rig. May be it is a sign of weaning away from the rhetoric and practice of bloody insurrection, possibly achieved by Chandrika Kumaratunga, as suggested. Whatever it may be, one can only wish that it will not lead to the JVP embracing the "tie-coat" politics of the vulgar marketplace that is the policy of the UNP and its fellow travellers. |
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