Lanka’s Lone Star

The Bollywood glitterati now swarming Colombo’s five star hotels may still be recovering from a heavy bout of partying at all the after-parties Colombo hosted following the Indian version of the Oscars held in Colombo last evening.

Sri Lankans who have got an overdose of stars in the recent past with back-to-back ‘superstars,’ ‘megastars’ and even ‘dancing stars’ finally got to experience the real thing for a change with the IIFA awards coming to Colombo in somewhat surprising fashion.

With Colombo awash with stars of all sorts, we thought of searching for a different kind of star – the kind of star that can make a difference to the quality of life of the average citizen of this country. And to do this what better place to start than to scan the seats of government to see which of the present 90 odd ministers and deputies offer star potential.

Sri Lankans who take to star-gazing like ducks to water with their love of astrology, have so far only been seeing stars with their wishes for a better life being reduced to just that – wishes – thanks to unscrupulous politician promising the sun and the moon only to end up delivering nothing more than hot gas.
However, every government since independence has had its stars – some rising, some falling but at some point they shone. If we may start from the seventies, the government of Mrs. Bandaranaike had Felix Dias as the star that outshone even the lady chief at times much to her consternation.

The J.R. Jayewardene government that replaced the Bandaranaike regime in ’77 had a whole galaxy of stars that shone bright, shoving the mercurial JR himself into a distant galaxy. There was Ranasinghe Premadasa, Gamini Dissanayake, Lalith Athulathmudali and Ronnie De Mel among a host of others who shone bright, doing their part for the country. Of course mistakes were made and all that is history, but the fact remains that these men were allowed to do their own thing and in what they did, they truly excelled.
Then the advent of the Premadasa regime brought forth a new crop of star performers spearheaded by the likes of Ranjan Wijeratne, Sirisena Cooray and somewhat charitably even Ranil Wickremesinghe. They went about their work in professional fashion and were able to carve out an image as men who delivered. To have not, would have earned the ire of the great man himself, Premadasa senior, whose operating model was do or depart.

The Chandrika Kumaratunga years brought forth another crop of rising stars. Among them were Mangala Samaraweera, S.B. Dissanayake, Lakshman Kadirgamar etc. These ministers played their part well and were more or less responsible for keeping the popularity of the regime at a high end. Of course the big lady rarely gave any credit to her soldiers, even going to the extent of claiming that it was only she that did a proper job of work. Unfortunately as history would have it recorded, Mahinda Rajapaksa was certainly not among the performing stars of the era with his biggest promise of the time, the Workers’ Charter, yet to see the light of day.

Then of course with Mahinda himself, taking over in 2005, saw the stars of the Chandrika regime being systematically knocked out. Among the first casualties was Mangala Samaraweera, soon followed by Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi. Then it was the turn of Wijedasa Rajapakse, Arjuna Ranatunga and co. to be shown the door.

This trend was a big departure from the earlier scenario where without exception, all former presidents allowed those capable ministers to shine in their own way. With the advent of Rajapaksa, the message went out slowly at first and then loud and clear that there was no room for any other stars but one, and that of course being the boss himself. The general election of April 8 seemed to be a blessing in disguise for the star-struck chief and offered an excellent opportunity to clean the stables of any rising stars and true to form, the top performers of the last government found themselves with portfolios less than complimentary of their previous efforts.

For instance, one of the more accomplished of the present crop of ministers, Sarath Amunugama was rewarded for his trouble with a demotion – to that of deputy minister. The rising star Mahinda Samarasinghe, who held the high profile human rights portfolio and was seen as the face of the government on the burning HR issues, has been banished to look after the plantations. Of course the high profile Moragodas and Bogollagamas have not even been considered for the now fashionable ‘advisor’ posts for election losers.

Today we have a funny situation where no minister wants to be a star – lest they go the way of the fallen stars come reshuffle time in November.
So the message has filtered down. There can be no other stars than the ‘Rajastar’ – Lanka’s lone star. Might as well enjoy the Indian star parade while it lasts.