Gota’s Citizenship: a political red herring?
Posted on November 13th, 2019
RUWAN RAJAPAKSE Malabe.Courtesy The Island
There are problems we must overcome if we are to accelerate Sri
Lanka’s socioeconomic progress. As such, my well-intentioned
provocations in the media have been about fundamental issues, such as
intolerance, vengeance, and superstition.
But I feel
compelled to step out of this neutral frame of mind, to counter some of
the asinine thought processes surrounding Gota’s citizenship, in which
the underlying concern can be traced back to racist or sectarian
intuitions. I think a good many decent, ordinary folk whom I know and
love subscribe to this “worry” about Gota, simply because they haven’t
meditated on this matter deeply enough. Perhaps I might be able to open
their eyes to this brazen political red herring.
Gota is a
natural born citizen of Sri Lanka, deeply imbued with a Sri Lankan
outlook, more than many of us and certainly far more than someone like
myself. He is attuned to Sri Lanka’s culture, politics and development
needs. His love for Sri Lanka was amply demonstrated, not by his having
come back to help his brother after a stint in the USA, but by the
output of his efforts after he came back.
His fearless
strategic contribution to winning the war against terrorism, the
transformation of Colombo under his supervision into a garden city, the
innovative way in which he facilitated the reduction of Global Sea
Piracy, and his commitment to the eradication of organized crime are
some excellent reasons for believing in Gota’s sincerity of political
purpose. I don’t wish to discuss other candidates here, but I have to
say that I don’t see a “pro-Sri Lankan” track record of such magnitude
in any one of the other candidates vying for presidency.
I
say this while acknowledging that the present government and their
constituent members have indeed done useful things, contrary to popular
opinion, such as passing the Right to Information Act. But as a civil
servant, Gota’s record is truly exceptional for recent times.
Some
interested parties who didn’t like Gota’s candidature challenged the
validity of his Sri Lankan citizenship last month. The case was
dismissed by the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka. The Elections Commission
of Sri Lanka endorsed his candidature shortly thereafter. So, as far as
the law of the land is concerned, Gota is entitled to contest for the
presidency, and take office if he wins. Period.
Perhaps out
of sheer desperation on seeing the tide move against them, we now have
an 11th hour attempt at discrediting Gota, by political forces on the
opposing side of the campaign. The gist of their argument is that “Gota
still retains US citizenship”. The “basis” for this latest
conflagration is that A) His name has not appeared on an annual
register of persons who relinquished their US citizenship, prepared by
the US Government, and B) The fact that his legal team and his nephew
shared a visual of his passport, stamped with the grammatically
incorrect pronouncement “Cancel” (instead of “Cancelled”).
There
could easily be an innocent explanation for both of the above
frivolous concerns. I’ll let Gota and his political opponents thrash
this point out, if they feel it’s worthwhile doing so. I don’t.
Why
are we worried at all about Gota’s passport? As I said before, he is a
native born Sri Lankan, who decided as an adult to live in the USA, in
all likelihood for sound personal reasons. He lived out his experiment
and returned to Lanka after some years, and performed exceptionally for
his country as a civil servant, and more recently as a political
leader. If there is some pending paperwork regarding relinquishing US
citizenship, which is taking time – and mind I don’t say so –, then by
all means let him sort it out quietly! He is a human being who merits
our patience, on account of the services he has rendered to our
country.
As far as any impropriety is concerned, the
impartial judgments of the Elections Commission and the Court of
Appeal, which concluded that he is a Sri Lankan and can contest for the
presidency, is good enough to bury this concern and move on. No one,
other than Gota himself, was hurt by this unsubstantiated bureaucratic
concern. This is not a White Van; and whilst White Vans too were
unsubstantiated concerns, at least they involved someone being hurt, in
principle. So this concern is a category error, in a scientific sense.
The
motivation underpinning this 11th hour “passport conspiracy” theory
runs deep. In a country with many burning issues, which possibly
requires a sturdy, proven candidate like Gota, we must ponder why some
of us eagerly latch on to such a bureaucratic technicality to try and
disable his political movement, instead of allowing a fair contest.
I
suspect that at least part of the reason for this rather
uncharacteristic love of bureaucratic details takes us on a journey away
from reason, and into the realm of our tribal past, to instincts
evolved on the African plains. “Gota might be one of them, not one of
us”, and worse, “HE’S LYING!” It is these two voices in our heads, and
the anachronistic instincts behind them, that also make us racists, and
propels us towards vindictiveness and punitive justice. It is these
instincts that stifle progress, through the shallow, inflexible social
posture that they help create.
As former US president Barack
Obama once said, “This idea of purity and [that] you’re never
compromised and you’re always politically ‘woke’ and all that stuff.
You should get over that quickly. The world is messy. There are
ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws. People who you
are fighting may love their kids.”
What are we afraid of,
ultimately, if Gota is indeed half-American (which I think he isn’t)?
Are we afraid that Gota dreams of relaxing in the Rockies smoking
cigars and listening to hillbilly music? Is that what we fear?
Why,
ladies and gents, we had such a president before. Good old Mr. Yankee
Dickie, who loved Buffalo Bill and smoked Hawaiian Cigars.
Incidentally, unlike his able nephew, he was not such a bad performer,
he liberalized our economy, raised our GDP, and took us away from
abject poverty and Gantara Sarongs.
Sure, there was social
upheaval during his administration, which led to violence. Some of this
upheaval might have been influenced by poor decisions of his, like the
lapse of policing on 25th July 1983. That’s why we say that no one is
perfect, and certainly no politician is. Similar lapses occurred in
April this year, under his nephew. We should look upon politics and
politicians with a touch of pragmatism.
As a voter, I
personally will ignore both Gota’s passport and Sajith’s cement bags,
and not yield into my primitive, vindictive instincts. These types of
concerns get amplified unnecessarily because of the competitive nature
of the election process, and are difficult to judge at a distance. So
instead, I’m going take a good, hard look at each candidate’s intentions
and past contributions, and vote for the relatively better one.
RUWAN RAJAPAKSE
Malabe.