How ‘Sri’ Is Lanka?

The events of last week confirmed the one thing we did not want to know; Sri Lanka’s degeneration is happening at a rapid pace. In which country today will one find a government minister tying a public official to a tree while a contingent of policemen nonchalantly looked the other way?
In which country will one find elected members of parliament telling their voters to go to hell six months after they elected the MPs? Last week two more opposition MPs did just this by crossing over to the government, in the process, abandoning the thousands who voted for them against great odds.
In which country will one find the head of state going down on his knees to offer a drink to a government minister on a death fast because he doesn’t like what the head of the UN was doing? Even if the man didn’t die, his boru show patriotism sure died a natural death.
In which country will you find the man who led the army to end the world’s most ruthless war put behind bars, less than a year after he did what was long touted as the impossible? These are but a few of the events that have occurred in the recent past that go to confirm that this land like no other, Sri Lanka is degenerating…and fast.
Which is what brings us to the question, how ‘Sri’ is Lanka?
The term ‘Sri’ it must be remembered was added to ‘Lanka’ only in 1972 when the Sirimavo Bandaranaike government introduced the republican constitution presumably to confer a degree of reverence to ‘Lanka.’ ‘Sri’ is primarily an honorary salutation and throughout history has been used as a title of reverence mostly on people – Sri Rajiv Gandhi, Srimath Janadhipathi etc. Therefore, when one is called a ‘Sri’ Lankan, that person is automatically conferred a title of reverence.
It is in this context that we can’t help but wonder how worthy of the title ‘Sri,’ Lankans like Mervyn Silva are. But then again the architect of much of the present day chaos and degeneration, S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in his infinite wisdom decided to confer the title ‘Sri’ on everything that moved on our roads in the heady days of ‘Sinhala Only’ in 1956.
We have our doubts as to how suitable it is to attach the prefix Sri to the name of this country of Mervyns when the same reverence is given to such holy places as the Sri Mahabodhi, Sri Pada, Sri Dalada Maligawa etc. President Ranasinghe Premadasa having presided over a most shameful period when Sri Lankans in the South were killing Sri Lankans in the South in opposition to Indians killing terrorists (using today’s parlance) in the North, certainly saw how unsuitable that term was and tinkered with it adding the letter ‘h’ to make it ‘Shri.’ That did not result in much of a difference and the issue died along with him.
Sri Lankans by nature love to wallow in self-importance. At the drop of a hat we speak about our ‘glorious’ history of 2500 years. In any conversation with a foreigner we assume an air of superiority and will not hesitate to look down on others. One only has to look at the foreign policy of this government to realise the ideology that drives it.
All this is well and good if we deserve it. What we need to ask ourselves is what is it that we have done in the recent past to earn the respect of the world…the fact that nothing comes to mind in a flash is evidence enough that we have been found wanting in this regard. On the contrary, we have done everything possible to lose the respect the world had for Sri Lanka.
Post 2005 we have had a disgraceful human rights record where even the basic freedoms the constitution has bestowed on the citizens of this country have been trampled upon without so much as a whimper from a bullied people. Media freedom comes at a great price. We have leaders who are in the habit of tying people to trees – a disgrace to mankind it self. Our best friends are the world’s outcasts like Iran, Libya and Myanmar. Our economy is surviving on costly bank loans that the country will be hard put to pay back. We have a police force that looks the other way when crimes are committed. We have scant regard for the laws of the land and bribe our way to get things done or to evade the law. We have a government that is building cities in the sea when half the nation is suffering from malnutrition and essential medicines are in short supply at government hospitals. We have a post war government that cuts the budgetary allocation for education while increasing the allocation for defence when there is no necessity to fire a single bullet. Our passports are viewed with suspicion in much of the developed world.
These are but some of the things that make us wonder how worthy we are to be known as ‘Sri’ Lankans. It is about time that the Mervyn Silvas and Weerawansas realised that attaching name boards demanding respect will just not do anymore. If we want respect, we must earn it. Mahinda Rajapaksa, by pandering to the antics of the clowns in his government, is guilty of presiding over the rapid degeneration of the once proud nation of Sri Lanka.