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| Sunday, 12 February 2006 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Reviewing the Independence Day parade by H. L. D. Mahindapala After 28 years President Mahinda Rajapakse's return to Galle Face green to celebrate the Independence Day gives confidence to the hope that he can capture the rapture the nation lost in between.
In the first few years of the post-independence era, celebrations at the Galle Face Green were on a modest scale. It was mainly ceremonial and the parade of a few jeeps, trucks and foot soldiers hardly constituted military hardware. Nor did any of it carry a political meaning. I remember the first time when S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike too stood there when he was Prime Minister. I was a cub reporter covering it for the Observer. The podium, facing the sea, was somewhere where his statue stands now. It was a bright sunny morning. The glare of the shiny silvery sea that lapped the shore lazily that morning was almost blinding. The only ship of the Sri Lankan navy was bobbing up and down close to the shore. In fact the waves were larger than the ship and at times it would disappear under the rising waves for brief moments. Our one-ship navy in 1957 was the butt of many jokes. I think it was the London Daily Mirror that headlined "The fleets in" when the solitary ship of the Sri Lankan Navy docked in the harbour. With his customary, irrepressible sarcasm Bandaranaike turned to Vice-Admiral Royce de Mel and asked: "Is that your navy Royce?" Royce replied without batting an eyelid: "It's our navy, Sir." Bandaranaike nodded his head in agreement. Khaki bureaucracy A one-ship navy bobbing on the waves like a cork with an engine was the total strength of our nominal naval force at that time. The total strength of our Army (which was kept a top secret more to protect its impotent size) was around 4,000. The biggest battles fought by the Majors and the Colonels who sat at Army Headquarters - now occupied by the Twin Towers and Galadari Hotel - were among themselves. They fired paper missile from one desk to another desk in a bid to capture power within the in-fighting khaki bureaucracy. Our biggest naval operations were against the "kallathonis" from S. India. The Navy relied on the intelligence provided by the indigenous Jaffna Tamils who resented and resisted the alien invasions. Occasionally, Sandhurst-trained, mustachioed lieutenants would raid ganja plantations singing "Foggy, foggy dew..." That was all!
Those who witnessed the Galle Face parade on February 4, 2006 could not have failed to notice the difference. The forces that saluted President Rajapakse on Independence Day reflect another era with another political and military agenda. In a sense it is ironical that the President who refuses to go to war with the LTTE should display a powerful array of military hardware. But these are the ironies and contradictions of our time. To win peace you have to be armed because reasoning, appeasement, pressures (both national and international) and negotiations have not yielded the desired results. President Rajapakse has to carry baggage left behind by his predecessors. The arrogance and the intransigence of the enemies of peace is based on the military bases built primarily on the concessions made by Ranil Wickremesinghe to the LTTE - all in the name of peace, of course. Missing from the Independence Day scene were former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and her new-found buddy, Ranil Wickremesinghe. Both seem to be working in tandem. Where one doesn't go the other also goes missing. One theory propounded by a cynical journalist is that both were expecting the LTTE to blow up the entire platform holding the President, after which they were hoping to step into the power vacuum to jointly hand over the rest of Sri Lanka to the LTTE. Now this may be a bit far-fetched but knowing that both are "kuththufiers" - that is under-cutting whilst pretending to be "Mr & Mrs Clean"- it is possible that they thought of hiding as the best form of defending the nation. (Or is it their skin?) This theory seems plausible in the light of the lame excuses trotted out by them. According to a UNP spokesperson, their leader had another engagement on February 4. It is for this day that his patriotic grandfather, D. R. Wijewardene, and his respected uncles and other close relatives dedicated their lives. Did they fight all their lives for Wickremesinghe to have a private engagement on February 4? In any case, what kind of leader avoids facing the nation on February 4 by fixing another engagement to do some "kuththufying" on the side? Another engagement It must be conceded that every other ordinary citizen has a right to indulge in "another engagement" on February 4 but not Ranil Wickremesinghe. His place was on the podium to affirm his solidarity with the nation. His absence proves that he is not engaged with the nation. No wonder the people refuse to trust him. No wonder he had to wave a national flag at the tail end of his election campaign at Maharagama to pose as a nationalist before a suspicious electorate that was reluctant to entrust their nation to him. It is the most pathetic performance of any political leader of the nation. It is, indeed, sad to say that he has been a disgrace to the respected and patriotic Wijewardene tradition that laid the foundations for the dawn of February 4. People recognise their leaders by what they do and what they stand for in their day-to-day actions and not by the desperate and frantic waving of a 6" x 6" flag at the eleventh hour of the election campaign. The negative reaction of Wickremesinghe is plainly because he can't accept the fact that he lost the election. "Mrs. Clean" It is a peevish act of an immature boy who has lost his marbles. And yet he dares to fancy himself as the great leader who can save the nation. He has been a negative force for his party, for the nation and for himself. When will he come to his senses and admit that the people have told him 13 times that he cannot be trusted as a leader? His boycotting of the Independence Day confirms that he cannot be trusted even to join the only day assigned to celebrate the spirit and the meaning of the flag he waved at the elections. Now to "Mrs. Clean" who is increasingly turning out to be the alter ego of Wickremesinghe. According to reports, she refused to attend the celebrations unless she was given the right to bring her retinue. The only person she had left out of her list was her hair-dresser, it is said. Her idea was to put on a rival show of her own with her puny army of 198 men financed not by the funds of Ronnie Peiris (her caretaker in London) but by the poor tax payers of the nation. Like Wickremesinghe, she refuses to believe that she is not the president. Presumably, driving in with her pigmy army was to make her believe that she is still the Commander-in chief. Does she really believe that her Lilliputians can do what the entire armed might of state could not do on Independence Day? In fairness to her it must be said that she is showing signs of improving in other areas. She has, for instance, shown some signs of time management. On the first occasion she was late to catch her plane at Katunayake by one hour. Second time it came down to half-and-hour. And in Canberra she arrived well ahead of time to catch her flight back. Isn't that amazing! She was equally punctual when she caught the return flight from Heathrow. Of course, it must be left to her to explain what miraculous power she posses to reform overnight and desist from abuse of powers and privileges when she goes abroad. If only she could do at home what she does abroad, leaving Ronnie Peiris out, of course! So can the nation expect these two leaders to set an example in the future? Don't bet on it, good people. Judging from their past behaviour Wickremesinghe can be expected to sulk in his corner sniping at the nation. And as for Chandrika, well.... not even B. V. Raman, the famed Indian astrologer, can predict her next move - not even to the Katunayake airport.
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