Power play of the political kind
 

Power pirates fined over Rs. 5 million - News item

Power is the name of the game today. The news of the raids by CEB staff that nabbed power pirates at Nuwara Eliya, some of them bandits or brigands with high voltage political connections, gave a rare glimpse of the law taking its own course, unhindered by power.

If the CEB's concern is about power piracy from the National Grid, there are plenty of other ways in which power of a different kind is pirated in the great democracy that we live in. It has been a trend in our democracy, once described as five-star, that power play of the political type is how everything gets done.

While the concern of the flying squad of the CEB may have been about the pillage of power in terms of kilowatts or megawatts, the deliberate plunder of power that has become part of our political culture is in excess of gigawatts, which sends shock waves among ordinary folks like you and me.

We are not lacking in people who have mastered the skill of tapping into the political centres of power for a constant re-charge of their own cells of ambition. Energised by the power that flows from their political patrons these people tend to lord over every aspect of society, very often doing things that would surprise and even cause embarrassment to those who plugged them on the circuit of power.

Over the years we have reached a stage when the leaking of power to the wrong people is how most people get into the best jobs going, for which they have no just credentials. Their hold on the jobs of electrifying power is not to establish any records in efficiency or productivity, but to accumulate more power for oneself, to help in the accumulation of wealth and influence in ways that are generally not considered ethical.

Whether pirated or leaked, the power that flows from Political Generators manifests itself in diverse ways.

It was not long ago that we saw the offspring of misdirected power, with high voltage power surging through their bodies, insulated by official bodyguards not meant for them, giving public demonstrations of their power in hotels, social clubs and night clubs. These power surges in political offspring became so bad that just like the Nuwara Eliya Magistrate who fined the power pirates last week, the Colombo Magistrate had to warn their powerful parents on the need practice some control over their teenage heirs.

There is no proof that such demonstrations of wayward power may not emerge again. Which makes one think it would be helpful to have a special flying squad like that of the CEB to keep a tab of such pirates of political power.

Over the years we have seen how representative democracy and the Rule of Law gets distorted beyond recognition by the power surges that run through the kith and kin of political power. Some call it nepotism; others may refer to it as family bandyism; but in essence it is the coursing of high tension power through blood lines for power cables.

Some have got so used to such power charging their systems, that even after they are disconnected from the source of power they believe they still carry the charge within them. These are the victims of borrowed power.

There are others who will make devious calculations to get themselves hooked on to the sources of political power, for all the benefits that it can bring them. At the time of a change of government the keen observer will not fail to see those who have lost their links to the power grid making a desperate move to get them plugged on to the new source of power.

Some will creep; crawl or cringe while others will do huge political leaps to be re-energised with the power they have been so used to. Bureaucracy today is full of such types, whose purpose in service is to ensure that power will always be with them, and not to serve the powerless people.

It's worth remembering that it's all part of the power play that keeps our little world wobbling along.

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