Paranoia in the nanny state

PARANOID ABOUT CORRUPTION: a week-long anti-drug drive ended yesterday. Civil society would do well to ask how many minnows were netted in the name of political expediency, to prove the care and concern of those who practise realpolitik? Champions of social justice would do better to enquire whither the sharks of yore… are they still swimming free, in the vested interests of not-so-hidden agendas?

A week is a long time in politics. In terms of the type of realpolitik practised in certain republics, it’s a grain of sand. Or, to coin a phrase, a line of crack on a glass table. Today (your yesterday, dear unsuspecting reader), marks the end of a week-long campaign against drugs. Declared by the president of the republic, it was expressed in another fit of pique that is becoming typical for certain republican politicians. 

In an interesting irony, the anti-drug drive was inaugurated a week ago. That day, 21 January, marks the 69th death anniversary of English journalist and author of 1984… George Orwell – who wrote at least two seminal novels about the police state and the infringement of personal rights. The public hotline declared active for the people of Sri Lanka to alert the policing forces in our republic about any suspicious activity was – wait for it – yes, 1984. It seems that ‘Big Brother’ is watching you. 

The problem, I’d like to submit in the spirit of worthy movements militating against the president’s narco-state, is that nobody seems to be watching ‘Big Brother.’ By that I mean this about our neo-nanny state. The source, agency, instrumentality of the drug peril in Sri Lanka today is a public secret. There have been turfs wars fought over it. Some of those violent battles and their victims are still very much in the public eye. But apart from indictment for alleged murder, no politico putatively associated with the drug trade has ever been brought to book. By either the president or the police of the republic. Thus, 1984 has been ringing; but there’s no reply.

That phenomenon has, distressingly enough, come to characterise the state of law enforcement today. One can’t fault 1984… it’s ‘Big Brother’s’ deplorable political machinations that must take their pinch of snuff or blame for it. After all, it’s been over four years since Good Governance swept on the national stage, undertaking to rid the republic of a plethora of evils ranging from authoritarian regimes to rotten apples in the previous administration. I can’t think of a single big-name suspect – compelling bureaucratic strongman or silly busybody stirring up chauvinism – who has been properly investigated, thoroughly admonished and put away for good…

In fact, quite the opposite seems to have happened. While the expectant public waits for Godot, the promising politicians appear to continue gadding about. To add insult to injury, they’re fraternising with the very same goblins whom they once – in the heat of the moment in parliament or the cold calculated trek to power along the campaign trail – declared to be public enemies. Those telling images of a would-be statesman hobnobbing with a has-been strongman doing the rounds on social media paint a better picture of the state of the nation than any presidential outburst or plaintive wail from champions of social justice.

It’s not only the literal big guns but the small fry too who seem to have gotten off the hook lightly. While seasoned bureaucrats were handed down stiff sentences for their role in the wrongdoings of a previous government, those who seasoned their parliamentary appearances with a handful of chilli sauce (bottled water mixed with itty-bitty chillie powder pieces) have been treated leniently. Sorry to say that Big Brother wasn’t watching them, or so it would appear. Where’s the hotline for an irate and concerned public to phone in egregious excesses perpetrated by their elected representatives in the House? Is it 1948… a symbolic number to suggest that ‘liberties’ are being taken by MPs indulging in a ‘free-for-all’, independent of any accountability to their political masters (i.e. we, the people!)?

We the people need a wake-up call. Never mind 1984… there’s probably no one at the other end, anyway? Take 1948… the 71st anniversary of which we will commemorate in a few days! Let us not shamefully surrender our sovereignty to the Republic of Realpolitik. It is time to pick up that phone and make a few calls. To ask our president and prime minister what’s really going on? Stop playing truant with the people’s will and mandate! 

Cease and desist from these stage shows for the pleasure of the naïve and sentimental who still fondly imagine that politicians are acting in our best interests when they publicly manage the spectacle of care and concern for the republic! Start defining corrupting to include appointing friends and relatives to offices ranging from central banks to national telecom operators. Leave the small fry – crack passport cheats and street pushers of crack – the hell alone until you can crow about netting the sharks you shamefully swim with. 

Crack the whip on the high and mighty who have ripped off national assets from public bonds through state transport carriers to former floating armouries with impunity. Start there, would you, Big Brother? Leave us free independent libertarians a legacy we can be proud of as Sri Lankans who will forget 1984 tomorrow but remember and cherish 1948 as long as we have life and breath.      

(Journalist | Editor-at-large of LMD | Writer #SpeakingTruthToPower)