How many more?

Will the heightened sense of their own mortality following the deaths of several colleagues since the beginning of this year force parliamentarians to take another look at the conflict and do something to end the killing once and for all?

By Dharisha Bastians
For Sri Lankans, especially those living in the more privileged quarters of the island, the war raging in the north east rarely becomes reality until it strikes at home. For the Bawa designed house by the banks of the Diyawanna Oya, the war has hit home over and over again in a deadly fashion in the first three months of the year alone.

Since the first of January, parliamentarians, whether Blue Green or Red have played pall-bearers to the coffins of several slain colleagues. The late Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle’s coffin may have been the most recent one of all to be laid in state in parliament, but to the public watching on their television sets, it is simply a repeat telecast of something that become a very familiar scene of late.

Fernandopulle’s fellow parliamentarians looked visibly moved by the suddenness of his death. Even his arch enemies within the chamber of the 225 seat legislature were teary eyed and Speaker Lokubandara put it best when he said that it would be within the parliamentary chamber that Jeyaraj’s loss would be most keenly felt. Indeed, eulogies about Fernandopulle’s demise being a tragic loss for the country are nothing more than politeness. That the colour and life he added to the legislature would be sorely missed is however very true. He never had much oratory skills to speak of, but he could come up with the most ludicrous answers to questions posed in all earnestness, creating screaming headlines that the press loved to publish. He played a stoic and stubborn role as Chief Government Whip buffering the administration from most of the brickbats thrown at them by evading questions or buying time. In that sense, Fernandopulle’s loss will undoubtedly be a difficult one for the government to bear.

Having said that, it must also be acknowledged that however pathetic public perception might believe the conduct of the legislators to be, they have known each other extremely well in the many (often useless) years spent inside parliament as MPs. Despite the screaming and assaulting that goes on inside the chamber on a regular basis, outside the chamber and out of sight of the cameras, there is much camaraderie between the members. Thick as thieves might be an apt if not altogether appropriate description. But propriety is for eulogies not political commentary, fortunately. In any case, when the tears were shed, it is hard to believe that they were all of the crocodile variety, because having spent more than a decade together in parliamentary politics the death of Jeyaraj Fernandopulle could not have been easy to bear. No less bearable no doubt, is the fact that each one would have been very much aware that it could have been any one of them lying in state if the suicide bomber had struck at a new year festival in another location. The LTTE has all but wiped out the best and brightest of Sri Lanka’s political leadership in the past and now, continues to strike against the mediocre breed of politicos, just to prove they can.

The question is whether this heightened sense that they might all be doomed to die will motivate Sri Lankan parliamentarians to seek an end to the problem of terrorism and the ethnic conflict once and for all.

No doubt, to avenge Fernandopulle’s killing, air force jets will pound a location somewhere up north and claim to have taken out a Tiger base, gun point or armoury.

Then life and the war will move on, back to being in its stalemate state. Sri Lanka, the state has adopted a hideous ‘eye for an eye’ tactic that promises only to prolong the cycle of violence and result in collective annihilation sooner rather than later. Blissfully ignorant, or choosing to be, about the downturn the economy has been taking over the last year, the fact that formerly middle class people are struggling to give their children three meals a day and foreign investors are running away as fast as they can, the government continues to harp on the war effort; an effort that for the last one year has been stagnant despite boastful deadlines for ‘finishing’ it.

The actual fighting is not as easy as the rhetoric the government is learning the hard way. As they continue to toy with this experiment to ‘finish’ the terrorists, how many of their own are they prepared to lose along the way? The plight of the suffering Punchi Singo might not lay heavy upon on their consciences but will the risks to their own lives and families at least have an impact on the way they approach the ‘national question?’ More war? Or some other avenue perhaps – one that will mean less bloodshed and more stability? How many more deaths will it takes before someone says enough?

Wimal’s fall from grace
It was a long time coming but it was an eventuality. Wimal Weerawansa, with his Rs. 200,000 PDA phone, his slick coiffeurs painstakingly achieved at a Ramani Salon at Cinnamon Grand and his wife’s love of trips to Disneyland was never comfortable ensconced in the JVP’s ‘we stand for the oppressed masses’ box. Weerawansa, if anything is capitalist through and through.

In recent times, particularly since the 2005 presidential poll, Weerawansa has always seemed more SLFP than JVP, clashing with his more revolutionary disgruntled comrades within the party such as Anura Kumara Disssanayake and K.D. Lalkantha in order to smoothen out the path for the incumbent administration. The latter has made no bones about his suspicions of Weerawansa’s shifts in allegiance and with his band of trade unionists has been one of the beleaguered JVP propaganda secretary’s worst nightmares.

During last November’s budget fiascos, the fissures within the JVP really began to show. The hardcore JVP cadre was adamant to vote against the government but Weerawansa, then a force to be reckoned with within the JVP, insisted on supporting the government to ensure its survival. Weerawansa struck his deals with no less than Presidential Senior Advisor and UPFA National MP Basil Rajapaksa just hours before the vote on the third reading of the budget soon after which the JVP struck a monumental blow to the UNP by deciding to vote with the government. The JVP’s loss of face from that about turn, given that it voted against the very same budget during the second reading might have been the beginning of the end of Weerawansa.

It might seem that Weerawansa, once sacked from the JVP would be in political oblivion and at risk of losing any JVP support he might have had from the rank and file of the party. But the truth of the matter is that the SLFP will welcome the ousted JVPer with open arms. One more mouth to feed is no problem for a government spending millions on a massive cabinet and no doubt, Weerawansa will serve them well with his razor sharp tongue and bullying ways.

Had Weerawansa ever appeared to be truly JVP to the core we might have imagined that he would have winced at his fate, having to be inducted in to one of the mainstream political parties after yelling about ‘unuth ekai – munuth ekai’ all these long years. But it’s unlikely that he will experience any skin crawling when Basil and Co. usher him into government benches in the coming weeks. It is one of the most interesting political incidents in a long time, more so because Weerawansa has spared none with his tongue lashings over the years. Seeing such characters ignomiously treated by their own kind results in a slightly perverse satisfaction for the casual political observer. As for Weerawansa, he ought to rejoice at this new turn of events. He might have received a swift kick in the behind by his party, but finally, the farce is over and he can shed his pseudo-revolutionary garb and hang up his beret. The time has come for him to be nothing but himself – a middle-aged, jaded, run of the mill politician.