What are mans truths ultimately?

Merely his irrefutable errors

Nietzsche
Tuesday, 3 November 2015
When the Sri Lankan Presidents motorcade encounters a red light now on
the streets of the capital, Colombo, it does something unthinkable just
months agoit stops and waits for a green signal. This was the anecdotal
point of reference with which TIME Magazine accentuated the promise of
the Maithri presidency.
You cannot step in the same river twice. That is the perpetual tragedy of the
human kind. President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe are human.
This commentary is a plain speaking effort to repossess the spirit of the
movement that made 8 January possible.
8 January was an idea of which the time had arrived. Even Gotabaya knew
it. When he made those wide walkways on the banks of the Diyawanna, he
was in effect
conceding the
inevitable. The
people at every
level wished to
participate in the
leadership
process. The
walkways were
claimed by Bata
and DSI slippers
people. Nike,
Adidas and Puma
class still yearn for
Mahinda in their
Facebook.
The new President himself stressed the import of the movement that
catapulted him to the presidency with disarming sincerity. He told TIME
Magazine, For a short period after being elected, I was not really certain
that I am the President.
In less than eight weeks, we will reach the first anniversary of the Maithri
presidency. The avidity of late January has turned to abject apathy in early

November.
This commentary is constructed on the reasonable premise that history is
the sum total of things that could have been avoided. The election of
President Maithripala Sirisena was the result of an idea whose time had
come.
Ideas are not intellectual toys. Ideas have good or bad consequences. That
is what we call the real world.
This is an effort to understand that real world which holds the President and
Prime minister hostage to political and parochial compulsions. It appears
that both have put politics ahead of governance.
Now what is wrong with that? Governance is the process of steering and
managing the government. Politics is about parleying on who gets the
opportunity to either govern or to pull the strings of governance. One is a
process. The other is a vocation. Governance is about baking the pie.
Politics is about distributing the pie.
Though it seems unfair, the Government of President Sirisena and Prime
Minister Wickremesinghe has to be held to ethical standards with a cruel
scrutiny that has no precedent. They sought and obtained a mandate for
good governance. In the age of broadband connectivity their omissions and
commissions are condemned or hailed instantly and irretrievably.
Governance is a concept subject to qualitative assessment. Government is
a physical entity about which we can do nothing until the next election. We
the people can do little about government. But we can surely keep vigil and
scream from rooftops on the quality of governance.
"Governance is a concept subject to qualitative assessment.
Government is a physical entity about which we can do nothing
until the next election. We the people can do little about
government. But we can surely keep vigil and scream from
rooftops on the quality of governance"
That is precisely what this commentator proposes to do by citing the
example of Manoj Warnapala who has been appointed by the Government
that promised good governance as the new Counsellor in our High
Commission in London.
He is a Solicitor domiciled in the United Kingdom. Until his new diplomatic
appointment he practiced as a solicitor with Caveat Solicitors Ltd., TEK
House, and 11-13 Uxbridge Road, London, W12 8LH. The blurb in its website
informs us that Manoj Warnapala currently heads the firms housing
department. He joined Caveat Solicitors in June 2015 as head of the
housing department. Manoj qualified in 2013 and has over 10 years
experience in housing which has given him supervisory status with the
Legal Aid Agency in this area of law. He specialises in homelessness and
community care, challenging local authorities decisions by way of review,

county court appeal and judicial review Manoj is fluent in

Sinhalese and has a wide range of skills that enable him to
represent different types of clients from all backgrounds.
[http://www.caveatsolicitors.com/our-people]
Manoj Warnapala is the son-in-law of Austin Fernando,
distinguished public servant, Governor of the Eastern
Province, presidential confidante, and handpicked Defence
Secretary of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the
author of the tome My Belly is White Reminiscences of a
Peacetime Secretary of Defence. Austin Fernando is
therefore the quintessential insider of the Maithri-Ranil
consensus Government.
This commentator derives no pleasure in this distasteful exercise of
criticising a distinguished public servant he has neither met nor dealt with.
But for this injudicious episode, this commentator may have never
concerned himself with the career path of a young solicitor in London.
Austin Fernando is the author of the tome My Belly is White, He explains
why he titled the book My Belly is White, He says that on reading the
book, most readers will find that we were not the ghosts or hangmen as
projected by our political opponents. It would be as in the folk story I have
read in the Gab Boys written by Cameron Duodu a Ghanaian writer.
In the folk tale, the Snake Oprammire, unjustly accused and cut in two,
exposes its pure white belly and appeals to god that his heart is as white
as the underside of its belly. The author seeks to exonerate himself and his
colleagues from the charges levelled against them during the Cease Fire
Agreement. He makes the point that public servants can only rise to the call
of duty.
It was only after Austin Fenando emerged as a prominent figure in the post8 January 2015 firmament, that this commentator read the book My Belly is
White. It was only to discover the man who was publicly acknowledged by
the new President as one who mentored him in his early days.
The author of My Belly is White is an idealistic, upright public servant. On
page 189 of his magnum opus, Fernando reproduces an extract from the
poem God give us men by Josiah Gilbert Holland:
God,give us Men! A time like these demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie
Then he laments: For six decades God has not heard our prayers, even
sparingly.
With that detour to Gods garden behind us, we return to folk tales.
There is another African folk tale that is far more relevant to the good

governance project of President Maithripala Sirisena. It is a folk tale of the

Ndebele tribe in Southern Africa. It is about the Great Race between the
Hare and the Tortoise.
It is borrowed from that marvellous anthology of South African folk tales
The Quivering Spear by Thomas A. Nevin.
The tale narrated around Ndebele fires in Southern Transvaal is quite
reminiscent of the race between Mahinda the Hare and Maithri the Tortoise.
We all know that Mahinda the Hare did not go for a nap in the middle of the
race as in the tale of Aesop.
The story is about Umvundla the Hare and Ufudu the Tortoise. Once the
challenge was made and accepted the race was to be from the home of
Ufudu the Tortoise to the big rock pool. Ufudu gathered all the tortoises two
days before the race.
Now if you had been at that meeting of Tortoises you would realise that all
tortoises look alike. That was the Aluth Parapura. He told his Tortoise
colleagues This is what you should do. The race takes place from my home
to the rock pool. Each one of you must hide in a different place and wait.
Then sharp at noon each one of you must walk towards the rock pool.
Ufudu the Tortoise then allocated a spot for each tortoise along the race
course. Now to revert to Thomas Nevins engaging prose. At the starting
line, the Hare hopped from one foot to another. The Tortoise stood quietly
waiting. He was completely relaxed.
Indlovu the Elephant had been appointed the official starter. He lifted his
trunk and issued a piercing trumpet call. The race was on. The Hare
sprinted off. In seconds he was out of sight. The Tortoise took a few
lumbering steps and then walked off to the glade.
Meanwhile the Hare was baffled. Every time he looked up there was Ufudu
the Tortoise ahead of him. He took one last bit of strength and bounded
towards the finishing line. But before he got there, he gave a cry and
collapsed. Ufudu the Tortoise was waiting for him!
The race on 8 January was won because all we tortoises, 6,217,162 of us,
crawled to the rock pool in unison. It is no folk tale. It was a miracle. No one
has the right to maim a miracle.
We have now subscribed to the Open Government Partnership. We are yet
to agree on a code of standards in public life.
The Prime Minster is known to favour Latimer House Principles on Judicial
standards. His administration may not frown on House of Commons
standards recommended for holders of public office.
Citizens have a right to expect that holders of public office who take
decisions which affect their lives should do so with impartiality, should be
truthful about what they are doing and should use public money wisely.
Society expects decisions to be made fairly and on merit and not influenced
by personal or private interests.
We must return to the forgotten poetry of Josiah Holland. What was not

quoted from Hollands poem God give us Men by Fernando is a fitting end
to this lament on good governance or the lack of it:
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.
In this instance, Homer nods, falls asleep and slips off his pedestal.
Posted by Thavam