Left, Right, Left

In the good old days politics was clear cut - Left, Right and later Centre, which unable to stand on its own ultimately leaned either to the Left or to the Right. The division was not so much about personalities but about policies.

With detente and Khrushev the Left began to fade away and the distinction between Left and Right got so blurred that one could not identify which is which. In the local context this phenomenon was aptly described by late Rohana Wijeweera as “Vama - Ney” meaning “no Left”. Now his epithet applies to his own party which is flirting more with divisive communal politics than with doctrinaire socialism.

Latest on the scene is Barrack Hussein Obama. To some he is a “Socialist”, a “Red” for he pursues a policy of taking over bankrupt private banks and running them. Though decried as “nationalisation” by the far Right, it in effect is a measure to preserve the banks under the same management by channelling poor man’s coffers while the bankers make merry serving handsome bonuses to themselves from state funds in AIG style.

As a Hindu editorial in this page describes politicians in Tamil Nadu are changing colours so fast that what matters to them is not so much policy but political expediency. Witnessing such change of colours even the chameleons would feel ashamed. Of course, the gentlemen and gentlewomen across the Palk Straits would have got the clue from our own politicians who were in one party when the sun set and were in another when the sun rose the following day.

A cynic