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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Features |
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News Business Features
Editorial
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The Fast: Stuff of political farce
Anyone reading about the current political situation in Sri Lanka must be puzzled at how a third-world country that suffered so badly from the recent tsunami, could be having such well-fed people ready and willing to "fast unto death" to win political and other demands. Many news items one reads today are about the high cost of living. There are paid political advertisements about the inability of parents to feed their children, posing the politically charged question as to who is responsible for this.
And yet we find so many people ready to start a "fast unto death". There is some possibility that if at least a substantial number of people who oppose the P-TOMS or any other political action carry out such fasts, more frequently and for much longer periods, the cost of living would soon plummet, with so much food left unsold in the markets, with fewer takers. The political fast is not something new to this part of the world. It was used to best effect by Mahatma Gandhi in giving leadership to the "Quit India" movement against British colonial rule. The Mahatma gave "political fasting" an aura of respectability and even sanctity, with it being as part of satyakriya with no violence, and always upholding the truth. The first political fast in recent Sri Lankan history took place more than 10 years after independence. I recall F. R. Jayasuriya as the person to carry out the first such fast, although he did it much too often later, always against any concessions being granted to the Tamil minority. Such fasts unto death ended with an important personage giving the fasting protestor a glass of orange juice. I recall F. R. Jayasuriya giving up his first "fast unto death" when Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike himself gave him a glass of orange juice. It could be that those "fasters" had a particular liking for orange juice offered by political leaders. Rajaratne and others too joined the fasting bandwagon at that time. There have been many such "fasts unto death" since then, but no one has died as a result of it. Of course the LTTE claims one ageing female did fast unto death against military presence in the North. There was also Thileepan, already in death row due to cancer, being made to fast till death by the LTTE, which led to wrong political moves by the late Lalith Athulathmudali, resulting in the LTTE's war against the IPKF. Suddenly we seem to be in a fasting season, much more severe than the Christian fasting during lent, and certainly getting more attraction than the pre-Ramazan fasting by the Muslims. The digital and TV cameras of the media and the words of reporters are at present focused on fasting by Buddhist monks. It is indeed surprising how persons who observe the strict Vinaya rules of the Sangha, which permit them to have a light meal for breakfast and a single substantial meal by noon, and take only light beverages till dawn next day, could become so weak, so fast, no sooner they begin a "fast unto death". As for medical reports they are indeed very strange. Doctors are seen keeping a stethoscope to the chest of the fasting person, and report that his condition is fast becoming critical, even when carrying out a fast with liquid sustenance. There are no special medical bulletins on the condition of the person. No journalists ask questions about the blood-pressure, pulse rate, kidney functioning, liver function and other vital organs. All they report is that day by day the condition becomes increasingly critical. The impression is given that the person is at death's door. But no sooner the fasting is stopped for one reason or another, hey presto; the person in such a grave and critical condition does a turn for the better almost immediately, making a recovery even more rapid than the earlier regression into a critical condition. These raise questions about the veracity of the person fasting as well as the doctors allegedly monitoring his descent into a critical condition. In that touch of farce at Kandy, the principles of Mahatma Gandhi's fasting in conditions of non-violence were given short shrift. Those who supported the fasting monk went on the rampage ordering shops and offices to close down and even threatening the journalists covering their riotous melee, allegedly in the cause of protecting national sovereignty. It was so violent and threatening that no one is prepared to come forward as witnesses to the damage and destruction that was carried out, all in support of a "fast unto death". In Colombo, we saw pictures of crowds protesting at the monk who began his fast near the Fort Railway Station being taken away for treatment, allegedly with him about to suffer renal failure. His "fast unto death" was just five days old. The same newspapers that reported the public anger at his being forcibly taken for medical treatment, also reported that he was removed at the request of a senior member of the Sangha, and at the insistence of the National Bhikkhu Front. The photographs showed him being carried away by Buddhist monks too. Curtains on another act in the Fasting Farce. Not to be outdone by these highly publicised "fasts unto death" there were nearly 20 prisoners also "fasting unto death" atop the roof of the Moneragala prison last week, demanding punitive action against a prisons officer who allegedly assaulted one of them. Of course the Commissioner of Prisons made haste to Moneragala to probe the matter himself, and transferred the alleged offender to another prison. The prisoners quickly took their meals after that, with no demands for special orange juice. Whether you call it P-TOMS or the Joint Mechanism, while others did their act of "fasting unto death" against it in the South, there was "fast action" in the North too, but in support of P-TOMS and against "majoritarian chauvinism", the obsessive phrase of Tamil journalists today. The 'token fast" took place at Chavakachcheri, and interestingly enough it was from 11 a.m. till 1 p.m. One wonders how anyone who had a hearty breakfast, "a la Jaffna", could carry out even a token fast in these two hours, being certain of another sumptuous lunch immediately after. The days of fasting and subsequent feasting are not yet over. I'm sure there will be more such feasts of fasting entertainment in the weeks and months to come. As long as there are people around who believe they could whip up racist and religious feelings by the pressure of the "fast unto death", and a media ready to give it all the encouraging publicity to mislead the public, there will be no end to the pressure of the fast in Sri Lanka. As long as that glass of orange juice offered by a national leader is not
there, I would tell these fasting fakes, their doctors with questionable
ethics and their supportive media to go on with the act. It fools very
little people indeed. |
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