Where are the statesmen, gone with the wind?
The criminalisation of politics has reached dangerously high proportions during the past few months with at least 10 local council members, many of them chairmen, being arrested on charges of murder, rape, bribery, corruption and other crimes. The latest crime was reported from Laggala where a Pradeshiya Sabha chairman's son was allegedly involved in an incident which led to the shooting of a little child. That is why it is not surprising that a London-based peace group has identified Sri Lanka as the ninth most dangerous country in the world with Elsalvador being the first and Iraq the second among 183 countries. Contributing to this increasing trend in the political crime wave has been the corruption in the police service. Transparency International reported recently that the police service, which is expected to maintain law and order and can take action against those involved in fraud and corruption-is itself the most corrupt state institution in Sri Lanka.
Saroja Savithri Paulraj, co-president of the Women for Rights group, on Monday revealed some figures that are shocking and scandalous, and for which we all should hang our heads in shame. She said a woman was raped every 90 minutes in Sri Lanka and politicians were behind most of these crimes. Addressing a news conference she said the crime wave against women ranged from the murders of women in Kahawatta to the horror of a female teacher being forced by a local council member to kneel before him and her students in the classroom.
During the past decade specially the quality of politicians and party politics has worsened to such a grave level that millions of people believe most ruling party politicians are both lawless and corrupt committing crimes with impunity and also plundering the wealth and resources of the people and the country.
In the early years of independence there were many politicians or statsmen including D. S. Senanayake, the father of the nation, Doudly Senanayake and several socialist leaders like Dr. S. A. Wickremasinghe and Pieter Keuneman who came forward to give to the country and not to grab, to be servant leaders of people and not to deceive and plunder them. Even as recently as 1994 when Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge became the President we saw the emergence of a statesman like Lakshman Kadirgamar. He was one of Sri Lanka's leading lawyers and was known to earn several lakhs a month. Yet he gave up all that when he accepted the post of foreign minister and the statement he made at the swearing-in ceremony needs to be etched in letters of gold or drilled into the minds and hearts of today's politicians. Mr. Kadirgamar said; “to a large extent today we see politicians plundering and pillaging the wealth and resources of the people. I have received so much from my country including free health services and free education, which made me what I am today. So I have come forward to give to my country and people at least some portion of what I received from them,”. Where or where have such politicians gone? How many ears will it take till today's politicians hear the cry of millions of suffering people? How many deaths will it take till they know that too many people have died? The answer, as Bob Dylan sang, is blowing in the wind or is gone with the wind.
One hopeful note is the nomination of two eminent judges C. V. Wigneswaran and W. T. M. P. B. Warawewa for the Northern and Central provincial elections. If more men and women with such high values and principles, servant leaders who sincerely want to serve the people not to abuse them, men and women who are not corrupted and are incorruptible, are brought into mainstream politics, then the nature and image of politics might change. Then we will have statesmen or women who work for the next generation and not self-centred or deceptive politicians who work for the next election.