All is not well that ends well

By Renton de Alwis

Written and published in February 2010, this column may once again serve as a baseline for critical review of what’s happening around us. The appeal is to look at and ensure fixes at the core of things and not, have mere focus on what unfolds before us on the main stage of the theatre….

 

Imagine the back stage scene when a play is staged. The drama there is more dramatic than what unfolds before our eyes as we sit in the audience. What we see maybe a well-scripted, well-rehearsed and the well-presented version of a play. What goes on behind the scene, behind the backdrop and the side screens, is often chaotic and borders on being a ‘mad house’. The actors, prompters, lighting gang, orchestra in the pit, costume handlers, prop- changers and the likes make the backstage chaos, to unfold for us the ‘Play’.

Suitability for the roles

The writer of the play or its director will have very little to do at this time to ensure that what they have scripted, crafted, rehearsed and presented will unfold as they have intended it to be. The actors and the backstage team take charge and what we see as the performance, is the collective and cumulative result of their effort. The critical success factor will be how well the actors and the rest of the team have been picked. Their suitability for the roles, talent, capabilities, experience, dependability and credibility, all matter to make it all gel well. The success or failure of the ‘play’ in the minds of the audience will be determined by the performance on stage of this team alone. Nothing else will matter to them in making their judgment. I have been to many plays and performances where things turned sour and the director got all the blame. This is in spite of a good reputation he/she held in the past.

Behind the scene

In running our nation’s affairs too this is no different. Behind the well-scripted play we see unfolding for us, there is so much else that goes on. We will judge if the performance had been successful based on what we see on stage from the audience perspective. Only the interested critic will venture to examine the goings-on in the backstage of things. Often we see columns appear in the media that present the ‘Behind the scenes’, be it on the affairs of Parliament, the judiciary, the executive, political parties, campaigns against terrorism, public services, activities of civil society organisations or INGOs. These seek in various measures to shed light on the backdrop to issues and the why, how and the way of those being addressed. They serve as tools for us to enable establish better judgement on our own positions on these issues and/or actions. The success of this process by far, depends on the strength of the tools we acquire from those who volunteer to present us with deeper analysis of what unfolds behind the scene.

Salute the yearning

It is with this at the back of my mind, that I salute writer Malinda Seneviratne. In a recent ‘Morning Inspection’ column of his titled ‘Do you know how Kanneliya celebrated Independence Day, Mr President?’ he took on the task of addressing an issue that otherwise would have made only a passing reference as yet another incident. It was a sad tale of how the affairs of the back-stage had gone wrong that may make a mockery of the play we begin to witness. When Malinda yearns in appeal on behalf of a sincere, hard-working forest-ranger and his team, he is indeed speaking of the many hundreds of thousands of back-stage people who work in earnest in the service of the public to make the lead director’s play a success. When he says “a five minute conversation with Sunil Ranaweera, Range Forest Officer, a veteran with 25 years of service behind him, who is in his 4th year at Kanneliya, having earlier served in Sinharaja, or any of the 4 field officers or 5 guides would immediately convince you of how much they know and how much they love their work. Their commitment to the matter of custodianship over the 10,133 hectares and all creatures within this area is absolute and speaks of a real time, real space, here-and-now patriotism that is far more worthy of salutation than the flag-waving, anthem-singing, kiribath-eating versions that are more visible”, he touches on a core issue that touches our nation’s collective psyche that needs urgent attention and strong corrective action.


Getting it right


Last week, I wrote commending the President and his green team for the

initiatives scripted to make Sri Lanka a green haven. Greening of Sri Lanka will only remain a pipe-dream, if the custodians of our natural riches such as Kanneliya, our various other nature reserves and parks are not allowed to carry out their jobs without placing undue pressure on them. It is time now to end this meaningless assumption of the authority and power of a ‘deshapalana bala adikariya’, a term I recently heard used by a regional public official, when referring to politicians of an area. That to me is both an anomalous and misconstrued term which should be immediately taken off our vocabulary, before it takes any further root. That must be replaced giving a new meaning, energy and credence in word and deed to ‘Jana paramdhipahtya’ or the ultimate power of the people.

Malinda in his column went on to state “I don’t know the villager who was assaulted, but I met Sunil Ranaweera and spent about two hours talking to him.  I value this man and the work he does far more than I value politicians as a tribe, and certainly far more than this errant minister. Kanneliya does not belong to him.  It belongs to all of us.  Sri Lanka does not belong to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he himself confessed, pointing out that he is but the temporary custodian of this land, its resources and creatures.  This particular minister would howl in protest for he has clearly acted as ‘owner’ and not ‘visitor’. The President must understand that the custodian claim loses a lot of its lyricism when underlings violate left and right the notion and its underlying principles”.

Loving the nation

We have read Malinda’s earlier columns and without doubt, know him to be an independent and rational scribe-person. He opposed politics of vengeance with strong conviction and called for sanity to prevail before and during the elections. No one can accuse him of being in the opposing camp with any axe to grind of his own. To me, Malinda belongs to the racial group of ‘those who love Sri Lanka’, and what his young and inquiring mind seeks needs to be taken extremely seriously by all others who belong to the same race as he does. Many others among our youth, the likes of Malinda, will not hesitate to defend the likes of our park-ranger friend, the villager who stood up for him and other well-meaning public servants, for they unlike the many political stooges, know and recognize the value of such people in their service of Mother Sri Lanka.  

A Post script

I can not but rest without quoting Malinda’s final remarks in his column, once again saluting him as I would, our leaders and the brave soldiers that wiped out the terrorist threat. For this is but only one incident that needs to be addressed by the script-writer and director of the play that will unfold the story of our future. “I am not a demanding kind of person and rarely ask for favours. This is not a favour that I seek.  It is a right.  I want Kanneliya for myself, my children and their children too. I want it because I believe it is my birthright.  The responsibility that devolves on me on account of that right includes speaking for the protectors of places such as Kanneliya and protesting violations such as this.

Mr. President, are you listening?”. P.S. Please do Mr. President.