Politician as fiction hero

Reviewed by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

“They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or a military campaign, something to be done with some end in view, something which leaves off as soon as that end is reached. It is not a public chore, to be got over with. It is a way of life.”

Plutarch (46 to 120 AD)
Greek historian, biographer and philosopher

The spectacular progress of Sinhala fiction, in the last decade, has not been adequately assessed and sufficiently dwelt upon yet. The emergence of an impressive range of significant fiction voices in Sinhala, in the past few years, seems to have escaped the sustained attention of the discerning readers. Critical opinion does not seem to have taken note of this phenomenon in any worthwhile manner. State and private-sector awards for fiction, galore. Opportunities for earning prizes for Sinhala fiction, keep on escalating by the year.

In such an agitated scenario, trivialities may very well get disproportionately hyped – while solid achievements are allowed to suffer a pathetic neglect.

Writer Chamminda Welagedara, is one of those exceptionally gifted creators of fiction, who is yet to receive his due, in terms of proper recognition and well-deserved adoration.

Chamminda Welagedara has been a prominent presence in the landscape of Sri Lankan creative literature, for the best part of a decade. His unparalleled asset, as a writer of creative fiction, is his built-in capacity to squeeze out (as it were), the living and pulsating sap of the words he utilises.

Inspired utilisation of words

His special efficiency in the inspired utilisation of words, is amply demonstrated in his latest work as well. This fresh piece of fiction titled Satpurusha (Worthy, peerless individual), which is under review here, is a path-finding fiction effort, for yet another reason as well.

This is the first time in Sinhala fiction, that an actual individual (a real-life person) has been made the protagonist, with no attempt whatsoever to conceal this authenticity of characterisation. Names of living persons occur in the narration. The writer makes them portray their own – publicly known – personalities.

The central character in this trail-blazing work of fiction, is a leading politician. Professionally a lawyer, he – Wickrema – is ideologically left-leaning.

Author Chamminda Welagedara, speaks unabashedly, about his long-cherished attitude of identifying himself with this individual, who was of heroic proportions to the writer. To him, this young virtue-driven politician was an embodiment of peerless, moral uprightness.

His creative urge is to “read” this character properly, exploring it in every detail and arrive at his core inner make-up, to understand profoundly, what truly constitutes his essential personality. This creative intention, converts the total work, into a sustained and intricately detailed chronicling of the evolution of an outstanding human being, who makes a valiant and harrowing attempt to balance his conscience, his affection for his family and what he recognises as his political obligation.

The author introduces his protagonist – the young and successful lawyer – while he is in practice at the court.

Exquisitely crafted prose

The author's verbal portrait here, of the atmosphere, the personalities and the emotional nuances associated with a court, has never been bettered in Sinhala fiction. It is so graphic and memorable, that, the particular segment of the work Satpurusha, can stand out, as a captivating passage of exquisitely crafted prose.

From then on, until the disturbing finale is reached, the author, dwells intimately upon the routine of the protagonist's life-activities.

The absorbed reader, will invariably be intrigued no end, by the emotional and material detail the author re-constructs in his own style of language use. This must undoubtedly be an utterly painstaking creative exercise.

The author's sustained tracing of the bathroom behaviour of Wickrema's spouse, takes on the spirit of a keen sensual communication.

When the author concentrates on the intricacies of a political meeting, he records its urges and tensions, with equally absorbing prose structures.

The long and the short of all this is – Chamminda Welagedara is the introducer of a fresh and arresting diction to the genre of fiction writing in Sinhala.

In chapter ten of his work, author Welagedara, recounts an uninhibited picnic, in which, some of the outstanding politicians of the country-figure. Their repartee – banter and relaxed ways provide an intimate view of the private goings-on, of public figures.

When, such prose-areas are specially focussed on, one would at times tend to conclude, that the work is a collection of isolated rubrics. It is not at all so.

This work of fiction has a decided movement. It is structurally well-defined. It is in a way, didactic too.

Dedicated to masses' service

The central purpose of the novel, is to uphold Wickrema, the hero, as the politician par excellence, dedicated exclusively to the service of the masses. He is not tempted by office, adulation, pomp or glory.

The plot to maim him, is meticulously re-constructed, displaying the author's dexterity as a fiction-planner.

Of all those, who write fiction in Sinhala today, Chamminda Welagedara is the only writer I know, who has such a dedicated fervour for the proper use of words.

In most of his works – in his Sakkaram for instance – he has given a dramatic liveliness to the folk idiom.

This way, Chamminda Welagedara has infused an unmistakable indigenous flavour to current Sinhala fiction.

The sensitive reader, absorbed in the verbal attractions provided by his painstakingly created prose offerings, should be fittingly sympathetic towards the harrowing effort the author has to make to create his works, which seem so lucid and easily read, when we take up the finished presentation.

The bottom-line is from Plutarch's statement above “Politics is a way of life and not a temporary chore.”

Wickrema's life as fictionalised by Chamminda Welagedara in Satpurusha bears this out, unerringly.