Political Culture Of Sri Lanka

| by Helasingha Bandara
( December 9, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This is election time. Seeing what
is happening, hearing what is being said, recognizing who comes to the fore, it is
inevitable that our attention is drawn to the concept of South Asian political culture.
Some highlights may shed light on the direction this article is taking. The other day
someone took about ten minutes to remove the garlands from around the neck of
Maithreepala. Maithreepala claimed that he will continue to call Chandrika, a Madam
and Ranil, a Sir. Starting from Polonnaruwa, huge rallies are being organized and
massive crowds flocking to hear politicians. The entire country is littered with
campaign material, particularly of the current regime at the cost of billions of public
money. Politicians of all hues come out from their dens and start shouting at the top of
their voices that they are for the people, with the people and they want to win to
safeguard democracy, ensure economic prosperity and social wellbeing. The country
has a circus atmosphere and it really is entertaining. For a whole month or so the poor
and the rich alike are entertained. Indeed the entertainment value of this whole saga
should not me undermined because at least for the poor masses, elections are the only
means of entertainment. Thanks to the politicians, some form of election is held
somewhere in the country at least once a year.

Garlands and beetle leaves

The current politicians, prospective politicians, potential politicians and even the
retired politicians are garlanded and given stacks of beetle leaves by the citizen
bending 135 degrees even at the smallest of political and other events. The irony that
the citizen does not understand is that the beetle leaf gesture is an invitation to rob the
citizens wealth, commit all forms of crimes against the citizen and to discard the
citizen as a Bulath Hapa (a lump of beetle waste) after the invitees are elected. In
return a politician has never garlanded a citizen for whatever he/she has achieved. 135
degree bending is impossible for the politician because they are a different entity after
being elected as their egos rise sky high. It is the lesser humans who garland higher
humans. A while after the election they cannot bend anyway because they are too fat
with bulging bellies. In Sri Lankas political culture this one sided garlanding is
accepted as the norm. The citizen would not comprehend if he heard that in other
cultures, garlanding, giving beetle leaves or similar gestures are a two way process that
is always reciprocated.
Sir/ Madam
In Sri Lanka those terms have different connotations. The person who calls another
sir/madam usually assumes inferior status. Although the politicians gleefully accept
the honour, it is never returned to the citizen. Only during an election a politician does
manage to put his/her palms together and address the citizen your honour
(Obathuma). After this holy period if the citizen calls the politician by name or Oya,

Meya (you) the politician would be outraged and the citizen would not get anything
done because everything in Sri Lanka is decided by the politician. Sri Lanka citizen
would be shocked to hear that there are other cultures where people believe in you call
me sir/madam and I call you sir/madam. The citizen of Sri Lanka will be amazed if
they hear that there are other cultures where people call each other by name
irrespective of their social, economic, educational or political status.
Politician does everything
In Sri Lanka political culture the politician assumes the status of the deliverer. So it is
the politician who decides who gets what. He/she has the authority in every sphere of
life of the citizen while the citizen has no say in what he gets from the state or what he
gives to the state. The politician is anything and everything in that political culture that
the citizen believes it is the norm. The citizen of Sri Lanka would not believe that there
are other countries in which politicians are limited to legislating policies. Those
policies are implemented by others and the politician has no say in that process. The
citizen would not even recognize most of the politicians if they meet on the road.
Politicians get on with their work and get by like any other person
I did it/ I gave it claim
I defeated terrorism and I gave 30 Million Rupees to your temple are some
examples to highlight this trend. The politician in Sri Lanka political culture is not
used to the term We. To the politician it is I who did it. I gave you roads, I gave you
pensions, I gave you motorcycles etc. The citizen does not think beyond such
statements but blindly believes that politicians give them jobs, roads, pensions etc.
They do not know what the politician has claimed to have given is owned by the citizen
by default. The citizen does not understand that they are entitled to a share of their
own wealth. They do not know that the politician is expected to do some work for the
salaries they get paid and numerous undue luxuries they enjoy. Our citizen would be
surprised to realize that there are other countries where politicians never use I but
we. Instead of I gave you two measures of rice they will say we will continue with
the current economic policies that have brought economic prosperity to our country
under our administration during the past five years. Sadly the citizen of Sri Lanka
believes that it is the politician who has the right to give or not to give.
Democracy
Some politicians have made it a habit to use the term democracy
(Prajathanthrawadaya) and the economy (Aarthikaya) at every five word interval like
how some people of English speaking countries use the F word every five words.
Unfortunately Prajathanthrawadaya and Aarthikaya have lost their meaning in the
same way that the F word has. They have become commonplace that people do not
think beyond the sound of it. It is like Bata for flip flops and Hoover for vacuum
cleaners. In Sri Lanka political culture democracy probably means holding elections,

be they fair and free, or not, and economy means salaries. There are millions of Sri
Lankans who do not know what is meant by democracy and there are millions who do
not get a salary. If someone can talk about freedom of speech, freedom to write,
freedom of assembly, freedom to elect representatives without being intimidated, right
to life, right to work, right to equal opportunity etc, instead of Prajathanthrawadaya
and Aarthikaya the citizen may understand better.
Corruption
Our culture is about agriculture. We used buffaloes to thresh our rice harvest. They say
Kole yana haraka Kole kanawamai (It is unavoidable that the buffalo eats some of the
rice harvest while going round and round threshing it). For Sri Lankans, mainly being
the farmers or being the descendents of farmers, such eating is generally acceptable. In
such a culture it is not surprising that the citizen accepts that the politician is allowed
to eat a bit. This means, collectively people believe and accept corruption to be an
integral part of politics. Sadly the politicians of todays political culture of Sri Lanka do
not eat like buffaloes but like elephants emptying the coffers pretty quickly. Politicians
have no shame or fear to be corrupt in the open and even to admit it. It is a fact that
developing countries have to undertake development or infrastructure projects on
borrowed monies. If the citizen falls into a debt of 10 Rupees having got 10 Rupees
worth of work done, that is fair. Yet if the citizen is in debt of 100 Rupees for 10 Rupees
worth of work because the rest of the 90 Rupees is stolen by the politician, it spells
disaster for the citizen. The citizen of Sri Lanka does not understand this. For them the
argument is we have got roads, the previous government did not even do that. The
consequences that todays children and their children will have to face have no effect
on the todays ignorant citizen. Corruption in Sri Lanka culture is boundless. From the
Pradeshiya Sabha member to the MP and their cronies, all steal. The head of the
government allows this to happen because if he does not please them, his victory at the
next election is doomed.
Same politicians
In Sri Lankas political field the same names appear again and again. The passing of
the baton from farther/mother to son/daughter is such that new people however
educated and talented they are, have a very slender chance of getting into politics. The
fathers have been stupid and corrupt and the sons or daughters are worse. They
change parties when the opportunity arises. There is no difference in policies of the
two main parties. So the pole-vaulting from one party to another is the norm in Sri
Lanka politics. Those pole-vaulters still bear the same names of the politicians who did
the same over the years of independent Sri Lanka. The citizen supports the name not
the person. Even if it is a moron of a son of a reasonable father, they just vote for the
name of the father.
Promises never kept
Promises and price reductions, preceding an election, are the two major phenomena of

Sri Lanka political culture. The citizen is immune to the fact that those promises have
never been kept. The major highlight of this is that Mahinda Rajapaksha has promised
to abolish the executive presidency twice and twice he has failed the citizen. He is
promising again. The citizen will believe him again! The citizen knows that the price
reductions are very temporary until the election is over. But they can still be bought by
such promises. The Sri Lankan citizen would be gob-smacked if they knew that in
other countries such promises are condemned as bribes and people suddenly change
their mind. For example at the recently concluded Scottish referendum the expected
margin between the Yes vote and No vote was 20 percent. Since the British Prime
Minister and his cronies came to Scotland in the last week before the election and tried
to bribe people with false promises, the expected original margin was reduced to 10
percent.
Blame culture
The politicians of the two main parties blame each other for the same things that both
parties are guilty of. The opposition blames the Government of corruption, crime, the
law and order situation and so on. When they come to power they usually forget all
that and continue to govern the country in the same way. Once the defeated party is in
the opposition they use the same criticisms to come to power. This goes on in cycles.
The best example is that the UNP having murdered more than 60 thousand people in
two years, alleges the current regime murders opponents. Sadly our citizen forgets
what the politicians have done before once a few years have passed with them being
powerless.
Autocratic personality and goon culture
It is part of Sri Lankas political culture that democratically elected political leaders
turning into autocrats. JRJ, Premadasa and Mahinda are the prime examples. Sri
Lanka may not have seen a more autocratic politician than MR, given Premadasa did
not live long enough to be the worst. The change in him from a meek Mahinda who ran
errands for Chandrika and her parents to be an absolutely undisciplined monster is
beyond comprehension. The whole country raved about corruption and lawlessness at
the previous presidential election. MR was not shaken. The present lawlessness,
prejudice in the armed forces, police and the judiciary is unprecedented. It has become
the main slogan of the opposition at this election. So far, MR has said nothing about
the accusations and has made no promises to rectify the situation. He seems to have
been immune to such accusations, maybe for unavoidable reasons. He is still
surrounded by people like Mervin Silva, Johnston Fernando, Sajin Vass, Duminda
Silva and so on who allegedly plunder public wealth and engage in crimes and other
nefarious activities with impunity. The Sri Lankan citizen would be astonished if they
heard that in other countries such Ministers would have gone home ages ago even for
much lesser offenses such as having a mistress.
Revealing culture

It is customary in Sri Lanka that parliamentarians reveal the secrets or misdeeds of a

government only when they change sides. There is absolutely no way for Maithree,
Navin and others to absolve themselves having remained in the government for so long
raising their hands to everything MR had proposed. If they claim that they feared for
their lives, it is untrue. Mahinda is greedy for power and wealth but he is not known to
murder people to retain that, notwithstanding allegations of war crimes during the
war. The truth is that they did not stand up to the misdeeds of a government for the
fear of losing position, power and the perks that come with them for themselves. No
two ways about it. Yet the decision to stand up against bad governance even at the last
minute has to be appreciated.
Misuse of public resources culture
It is accepted in Sri Lanka political culture that those who are in power are allowed to
abuse state resources at elections without fear, shame or remorse. The law enforcing
authorities turn a blind eye when the regime breaks the law. The Sri Lanka citizen
would not believe that there are other countries in the world that do not allow the use
of state resources for any party and give equal opportunity to use the platforms to all
parties to present their point of view peacefully. No violence, no intimidation and no
abuse of any sort are allowed.
Protective culture
The richest in Sri Lanka society are the politicians, their families and the cronies.
Whoever comes to power protects the previous culprits because they intend to do the
same as politics is the most lucrative occupation in Sri Lanka. If there is a system to
check how they become that rich within a short period of time, most of the politicians
can be held accountable for stealing public money. Some of the defenders of the regime
have stated that no money has been misappropriated. It is only a matterof looking into
the assets of politicians and asking how they have amassed such wealth within a short
period. It is impossible to justify that it is what they have saved from their salaries. In
Sri Lanka political culture such stealing is accepted as the norm. Because of this
protective culture, the killers of Sri Lanka under both parties still roam the countrys
streets murdering more people.
Posted by Thavam