Patriotism that sadly lacks in Opposition...

By Wijitha NAKKAWITA

As the old year 2008 was ending and the new year dawning the package of relief offered by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the public kept the main opposition party, the UNP blowing hot and cold once again back to square one in disarray.

With the Provincial Council election date announced the Opposition seemed to be groping for new political slogans as their old slogans had become too stale.

It was therefore no surprise that even the brothers of the former strongman, S. B. Dissanayake too had left him to his own devices and joined the UPFA after meeting President Rajapaksa and pledging their support for him.

It was in this scenario that the common man, the three-wheel driver, small farmer and even the man who lived on daily wages found the country could not be made a better place to live in with a change of government that none other than the small minority, the UNP and the other spent force the JVP may have dreamed about. The package of relief especially the reduction of prices of diesel and kerosene had helped the common man in whose name many crimes had been committed by certain politicians in the past.

Yet today when one takes a three-wheel taxi for a short trip and if the question was posed non-committal to the driver about what he thought about the present situation in the country, nine out of ten drivers would say that even the common man had sacrifices to make to defeat the scourge of terrorism. Today when the bastions were falling one by one the common man knows better than some of the Opposition politicians the war against terrorism was the most urgent of all national issues and in that regard the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa had proven its strength.

One is reminded about a story during the Second World War when the British Premier Winston Churchill had to reach the BBC for his weekly talk to the nation about the war situation. Somehow his car had developed some trouble and he was waiting outside his office at Downing Street after dark to catch a taxi - those times were austere even for the British Premier and he hailed a taxi and asked the cabby to drive him to the BBC. The cabby had not recognized Churchill but told him,

"Okay Sir, I would take you there but you have to release me before 10 O'clock because I have to listen to our British Bull dog when he speaks about the war."

So Churchill to whom the reference about the Bull dog got off the taxi opposite the BBC and the cabby sped home to listen to Churchill's broadcast not knowing it was the very same Bull dog he had taken in his taxi.

At that time the Labour Party and the Liberal Party of England backed Churchill and extended their unstinted support to him but what we see in this country was that certain opposition politicians even the so-called leaders constantly criticising the war effort but not extending any support to President Rajapaksa. Yet the public and even the common man like the British cabby are more patriotic and more sensitive to the national issues.

The past week saw many such pronouncements of the leaders of opposition political parties but the public who had become accustomed to hearing such allegations have clearly demonstrated their support for the government and the war effort and this time again with the two provincial council elections coming there was better support for the government and the issues today were very clear - the war against terrorism and humanitarian operations following it - the economic relief measures announced in the government mini-budget and the continuing development programmes reaching the very grass roots level. The main opposition party the UNP will have to wait for a very long time and the JVP even longer, that is what appears in the political horizon.