Black & White; No Shades?
By Vishwamithra –
“Politics is about a lot more than winning and losing. I think politics at its best is about compromise, shade of grey and about issues.” ~ Matt Taibbi
It’s quite difficult to survive in politics if one sees only black and/or white; or even right and/or wrong answers and solutions do not exist in the real world. Great idealists who have dedicated their lives to the cause that they chose, one time or the other, have compromised in order to reach agreement with their adversaries. From time immemorial man’s pursuit of happiness has invariably been entwined with the give and take principle. Those who are glued to their positions without making any concessions to the other side, more often than not, have ended up in the ‘unsuccessful’ category. That is how our civilization made advances; that is how man has progressed over thousands of years of his time on earth.
The above is on the more idealistic plane; such analyses have proven that in a secular world, man has made his progress without the aid of any external super-mundane force but by his own inner force and volition. He has had his share of being gifted by his own fellow men and women; never has he achieved anything by himself nor has he advanced alone. No ‘god’, no supra being has helped him other than his own kind.
The world is eternally moving towards a dynamic equilibrium. In that movement, when confronted and challenged by issues hitherto unbeknownst, when the pull is tense and tight, it has always moved towards the center, the middle, never towards the fringes. On numerous occasions history has shown us by many an example that this dynamic equilibrium is keeping all of us balanced and yet moving. It is a beautiful spectacle. When one is devoid of religious and cultural irrationality, which are consequent upon religious beliefs and faith, it dawns on man that without that center, absent that middle ground, he hardly travels in real terms. However, every now and then, the world has seen extremities which are beyond endurance, beyond compare and beyond all precedent, but their existence has always been short-lived and those who have driven man towards such extreme ends have not really made man realize a fresh enlightenment; on the contrary, such men and women have cornered their subjects to insufferable pain and agony for the path to be righted had actually looked like an extreme.
In the context of this profound volatility, such is the case of the appeal of the National People’s Power (NPP) today. The irony stares in your face. The NPP, which is a progressive footstep of the old Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), is appealing to the saner minds whilst those who are purported to be the ones who are treading the middle-path are being driven, by their own extreme thought and deed, literally crazy. They seem to be severely affected by the open endorsement shown by the thousands of Sri Lankans showing up at the rallies organized by the NPP. It is in that paranoia the status quo is responding to the palpable and magical surge of the National People’s Power.
What is that status quo consisting of? All the traditional political parties and their respective leaderships along with their dwindling numbers amongst the masses in general and of the so-called intelligentsia in particular. The status quo was so confident about the lavish loyalty of their own followers. Now the fundamental question arises whether the NPP, one time considered as a fringe political entity, has been moving further away from the center and the traditional political parties have been moving to the center.
What is happening is quite the contrary. Gripped by the potentiality of an election-loss, the traditional parties have been slowly but surely, instead of moving to the center, driven away from the middle-ground while the then a party of the fringes, JVP, is visibly moving to the center. It is being expressed by their leadership, especially Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), in their mass meetings and press briefings and also in special programs aired every now and then by the mainstream television media and the fast-developing social media. This political dynamic is constructively increasing the very optics of the respective sociopolitical stances adopted by the NPP.
The ’87-’89 period in our country is being fast forgotten by the electorate. Both Ranil Wickremesinghe and his main UNP cohorts along with the Rajapaksa-clan may remember the gruesome atrocities committed by the then JVP; but when one considers the average age of the leaders of the UNP and SLPP, their very age indicates that their preoccupation with an age gone by is an investment with the past. However, both Sajith Premadasa and AKD belong to the ‘now’. Sajith is 57 years old and AKD is 55. Both are at the prime of their lives. The masses relate to them much more assuredly and smoothly and with a fair sense of authenticity. Voters who belong to the ‘now’ not only demand a more empathetic leader, they are also more attracted to a leader who is more authentic. Yet Sajith’s cosmetic approach to public relations is proving to be a chronic display of in-authenticity and an utter sham. The open and easy reference to Sajith Premadasa as a person who is seriously devoid of real leadership qualities and is being caught up in a vortex of narcissism contribute to this emerging adverse image. The departure of Patali Champika Ranawaka and the imminent leaving of Sarath Fonseka from the ranks of the Samagi Jana Balavegaya are two glaring examples of the leadership traits or lack thereof Sajith Premadasa.
Yet AKD’s challenge is not limited to his performance and public image amongst the masses whose main concerns are not constrained to the overt aspects of leaders. His real challenge lies in the very performance of political flexibility and adaptability when he is faced with real machinations in the field when elections are held, results declared and efforts under way to form a workable government. If AKD can show that amount of flexibility to accommodate some men and women who are now very critical and disparaging of the policies and principles of the NPP, the country will see him as a mature man. When a compromise is the answer, clinging on to an idealistic stance is a great obstacle in politics. Being the ‘art of the possible’, in politics, AKD will have to exhibit maturity and wisdom when challenged by circumstances beyond his control.
Compromises could be reached without sacrificing one’s core principles; holding on to an inflexible position could lead to total loss of political present, leave alone the future. Is AKD capable of such political craftiness? Is he prepared to make concessions to his political adversaries so that, at least for the sake of the country’s economic stabilization, a manageable governing machinery could be constructed and run efficiently without resorting to or coming to terms with corrupt practices?
AKD’s speeches in Canada and his answers in the Q & A sessions are an eye-opener in that, he not only denounced the old JVP’s policies of violent machinations during the ’87–’89 period, he also emphasized the NPP’s commitment to the policies and enactments oriented more to the left of center policies than to the ultra-left.
In other words, AKD seems to be seeing the shades that dwell in between black and white. So long as he commits himself to a rational and balanced system of governance, there might emerge a chance of AKD coming out as a winner at the forthcoming Presidential Elections. Commitment aside, the very possibility of AKD seeing the colors of gray among the extreme colors in the spectrum is a matter for relaxation by all who are concerned whether the NPP would install a government representing the outdated communist or socialist economic theories.
Yet it is not assured that AKD and NPP have divorced from the fringe-principles of left-wing communist regimes of Eastern Europe. What lies ahead for AKD and the NPP is a challenge that has not been tackled. Joseph Conrad in his magnificent novel, ‘Nostromo’, wrote thus: “Kings, ministers, aristocrats, the rich in general, kept the people in poverty and subjection; they kept them as they kept dogs, to fight and hunt for their service.” Anura Kumara Dissanayake would be faced with the challenge of unleashing the power of the people (which rulers consider as ‘dogs’) as Conrad writes.
A miraculous phenomenon, indeed it would be, if AKD becomes our next President. It would be the greatest challenge not only for AKD in particular but in general for all those left-wing politicians whose rhetoric alone is standing as a challenge to the status quo. A binary choice is awaiting the voting masses. In that choice, the voter has to make a judgment call, which if incorrect, after all the dust settles, AKD and the NPP would in turn be judged by history as another set of demagogues that appeared on the horizon and faded away long before sunset as a bunch of fake messiahs. However, they, at least for the time being, appear to be remarkable and better than ordinary.
*The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com
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