Rajpal Abeynayake writes …
Is there a Novak Djokovic in politics — an all-time great who now can’t give up the game
even if he is serially losing?
Not in Sri Lanka, because we don’t have any all-time greats here, certainly not in politics. But
why should ‘old’ come into it? There is Anura Kumara Dissanayake. Perennial presidential
hopeful, now president. He had no political capital to speak of, but he did a Djokovic before
he became old, and before he became an all-time great or had any kind of greatness
rubbing off on him.
Today there are no Djokovics in politics in this country — but there are jokers pulling at the
leash.
It would have been funny had it not been such serious business. Why have potential
leadership head-hunts become a calamity in this country?
- This is not a Djokovic trying his best to get his 25th Grand Slam type of affair.
Leave alone all-time greats, we don’t have anyone whom you can even thrust
greatness upon. Of the NPP and the alternative to the mainstream type, we have
Kumar Gunaratnam, Udaya Gammanpila, etc. They are trying to give an alternative to
the alternative, but that’s like trying to stop the rain with a water sprinkler. So, we have
to look at the mainstream. - The problem with the mainstream: They have ceded already to the alternative. How
can this help? It only hinders, because they have bought into a status of having to
make a comeback. Not just a political comeback, but a total comeback as in one that
justifies their very political and general existence. - This is our modern-day political story. We can’t think of a political leader because
those who are straining at the leash are those who are trying to do a Djokovic, not
having been Djokovic.
All this means that our politicians have to find their confidence back. This columnist will try to
help.
Come here and have a chat with us. Though it may sound as if I’m joking, I’m not. It has
come to a point that our politicians have to be reminded as to how things were. That there
was a time when they could seriously think of themselves as being viable and not as an
alternative to the alternative.
If you come here and have a chat, please relax. There is no reason to fidget. Worry and
haste didn’t win elections.
But you have to get rid of this nostalgia for the past. The recipe is to try something new, and
that’s not achieved by salivating about a lost past.
SOME DON’TS:
The Stale Pol Roti of Recycled Politics: The tragedy of our current political
marketplace isn’t just that the shelf is bare. But various vendors are trying to sell us
yesterday’s hardened leftovers as a lip-smacking alternative to the bread we are
already struggling to afford.
Shadow-Batting in an Empty Stadium: We are trapped in a perpetual loop of
political recycling. Men are pacing the boundary lines with their batting pads on. They
are completely oblivious to the fact that the match moved to an entirely different
stadium years ago and the pitch has been dug up.
Playing Djokovic with a Broken Racket: No can do, simply put. Even Djokovic is
trying to reinvent himself, but the only racket he is creating is the fuss on the court,
most times. No broken racket — or record.
Haunting Empty Offices Like Political Ghosts: True viability cannot be engineered
in a staged media briefing, where everyone looks as if they don’t quite know if they are
coming or going.
Curing the Collective Amnesia: The country has permanently moved past the era of
the grand political dynasty and the entitled elite, meaning the recipe for a comeback
requires a raw blueprint for the future — not a desperate prayer that the voters are
suffering from collective amnesia.
But I’m anyway not giving up too much here. Come for the lesson. Tuition fees may be
charged, but very nominal.