The ship that has lost its bearings; of both the helm and the helmsman-The metaphor
Posted on July 2nd, 2019
Laksiri Warnakula
What would you expect from an unfortunate ship that has lost its helm and the helmsman, owing to bearing-malfunctioning, of the helm and the head of the helmsman, as well? Inevitably, it will become uncontrollable and lose all sense of direction resulting in becoming incapable of sailing safely and soundly along mapped-out lanes towards its desired destination. It won’t be seaworthy anymore.
It will become an ailing ship that will be tossed to and fro by the waves, battered
from all sides by the water and the wind and sooner or later will succumb to
the inevitable. It will sink.
Now leaving aside the above passage that I have written with a somewhat
metaphorical slant and tone, let’s muse about what our country has been going
through, particularly since ‘Yahapalanaya’ took over the reins, even though
this has already been done, most likely for an umpteenth number of times by an
equally umpteenth number of people.
We all know that it came in with lots of fanfare and full of pledges and
promises. And the people probably may have sighed in relief, telling
themselves; ‘Oh at last the bright lights of decency, fair play, justice and
eventual prosperity in sight at the end of the tunnel, which was kept dark far
too long. Now no more to white vans, cronyism, nepotism, deals, plots and
thuggery, so on and so forth’.
And just four years on, we find ourselves on a cursed ship, which has lost
direction in every conceivable sense and is adrift, left to float on its own,
in stormy seas bereft of accountability and responsibility, full of chaos,
disarray and lies. And to top it off, it is, having been already hit hard with
the massacre of more than two hundred and fifty innocent worshipers including
children, now facing a new form of threat, different from what Mr MR fought and
finished off. (The good part of him, in spite of the bad and the ugly
justifiably attributed to his conduct during his tenure as president for the
second time, in particular).
In fact, there is hardly anything new that I could add here. Many concerned
citizens including the editor himself have voiced their opinion on paper
without mincing words and many times over, at that. Almost everything is in the
doldrums. The accusation, denial, denigration, manipulation, you name it and
it’s there, but fair play, sensible, sustainable and far-sighted economic
plans, policies without political bias, law enforcement, much needed reforms in
many a sector and industry-building, to mention a few.
Yet, the corrupt, dirty deals of the nation builders and their cronies continue
uninterrupted, with scant regard for decency and honesty. And the perpetrators
are frolicking amidst the riches with gay abandon, enjoying what has already
been gained and salivating at what is in the offing and yet to come. Their
adventures are too numerous and so varied, one would find it hard to assign an
identity to each one of them, whether it’s betrayal, corruption, sell-off,
mischief, theft, sheer daylight robbery or whatever.
And there is always something to keep people busy; blabbering, discussing,
dissecting and guessing. There is a mind-boggling array of events and
happenings so varied and weird, akin to a kaleidoscope, an ugly one though,
that it’s hard to keep track of them, let alone make any sensible analysis of
each one, as one becomes lost amidst hearsay, rumour and divided
expert-opinion.
From inexplicable silence that many of the Diyawanna Oya inhabitants
maintained, yet knew in advance of an impending terrorist attack, through a
case relating to female reproductive system, then onto a Ven. monk going into a
‘fast unto death’ protest and now to the current hot topic of ‘whether to hang
them or let the noose rest in peace’, we are never short of drama, be it comic,
tragic or downright stupid. Perhaps, this is how they want it; keep us busy
arguing, debating, fighting and fuming over who, what, where and why and make
us forget that we are in reality being ceremoniously, yet cunningly led down
the garden path by them.
All in all, anything and everything is possible in ‘la-la land cruise ship’ helmed by ‘la comedian’, who seems to have lost few bearings in his head and helm too.
Laksiri Warnakula