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| Sunday, 6 March 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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In the playground of politics Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake "The government had lost its majority in Parliament" the wire services reported last week. Some political analysts rushed with predictions of the imminent fall of the government. If the government did fall, as the doomsday pundits of sections of the media had it all worked out, it would have been the first time anywhere in the world where a government had collapsed over a dispute about a playing field.
However, the matter was ultimately settled by a visit to President's House, and the government had its majority intact. The type of politics that we have in Sri Lanka there is all likelihood of governments being propped up or falling, all because the politicians in the game had no room for play. Knowing the many games that politicians are involved in these days it is not always possible for a government to provide a playing field for everyone who wants to play politics. It's certainly not as easy as giving some portfolio without Cabinet rank to keep everyone in the team. The next time we may hear that the Government is under threat it could be because some rash politician played out of turn in the fast growing poolrooms and bowling alleys in the country and toppled the ninepins that were arranged to be toppled by another. At one stage of the progress of democratic governance there was the important rallying cry "No taxation without representation". That's how the franchise gradually expanded. Politicians here are in the happy situation where they have no taxation at all, and most of their perks are tax-free too. However, with this tax-free state getting somewhat stale with the accretion of things that are obtained tax-free, I begin to see the day when our politicians will have a new rallying cry of their own saying "No representation without play." When that day does dawn one must not grudge the politicians their demands for greater play, because there is even a slim chance that the people will not be so badly affected by their decisions if they are more at play than at work. As it is, the more our politicians work or give the appearance of working, all it results is creating huge problems for the people who have to sustain them whether at work or at play. There was a time when people said that all work and no play made Jack a dull boy. However, no one has said that all play and no work will make Jack, Jim, Bill, Jaye, Sira, Sara or Chella anything other than a playboy. Whoever said there was anything wrong in being a playboy, especially if one is in the game of politics? As we can see it so well today, and have been seeing for several decades, when it comes to politics we do have an abundance of good players, who knows how to have fun at the expense of the people, from the Pradesheeya Sabha level all the way up to the more comfortable chambers by the Diyawanna Oya. We now have it from the President herself that there are no more than ten members of that august assembly by the Diyawanna Oya who are not there for the business of politics. She's really come out with a home truth that many did not declare so openly in public, knowing that the business of politics has a lot of privileges that go along with it. But now, it's out there in the open, one can only feel sorry for those ten or so members who are there for that dull thing called honest politics, which translates into service to the people. I don't wish to hazard any guess as to who these could be except to say that as far as my limited knowledge goes I can count such honest politicians on the fingers of one hand and still have a couple of fingers left. The President has done better by them by counting them on the fingers of both hands. This is no place to describe to you what this business of politics is. You are only warm to it if you think it is all about winning elections. It is a business that lasts long after the winning, and for those who are really good players help them to retire in the comfort of unexplained abundance for the rest of their lives, be it short or long. No sooner one enters politics there are the compelling attractions of the playing fields of business. These extend from the fields of mega players in the corporate sector, blue chip investments, large entrepreneurs, the tender types and the commission wallahs, as well as the lesser players in the wholesale and retail business, not to mention the holders of liquor licences, who sell it without a licence, and the games that go on in the criminal underground, which the IGP stoutly denies the existence of. It's quite a collection of playing fields and the chances of scoring high in whatever game one chooses are very good indeed. If this is the overall picture of the game of politics in Sri Lanka, one must not ignore the playground of that team known as Liberation Tigers, who are cheered by a wide range of NGOs as they play their game of hit and run. It now appears that even members of the SLMM are good game for their type of sport. Sri Lanka is one large extended playground for these liberators who kill for the game of it, stretching far beyond their officially recognised area of control. They are so skilled at the political business of kill, kill and kill
again, that no one among those who they claim to liberate would dare talk of
tigers being in politics for the business of it. All this I think is a fair
picture of the playground of politics in Sri Lanka that has been unaffected
by the angry waves of the tsunami. So, if politics be the path to profit,
play on, you're sure to be a winner. |
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| Produced by Lake House |
The CWC may have had a long list of unresolved issues with the
government, but the most proximate reason for its minister and deputy
minister to hand in their resignations and for the other six members to
announce their future seating with the opposition, was over the opening of a
playground up in cool hills of Sri Lanka's tea gardens. It appeared to be
the case of a Deputy Mayor of another party having no fun in his life,
deciding to have some fun by forcibly declaring open a playground that was
meant to be opened by a member of the CWC. One could call it some naughty
play in the hills or a "kachal in the thottam" of the CWC. 
