The power of the cross and a crossover in power styles

The power of that cross must slowly but surely transform the nature, principles and practice of power in the land. Else it would be only a transactional double-cross fit for the dustbin of history – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara

In the run-up to the Presidential election of 2024, the then emerging aspirant for executive office Anura Kumara Dissanayake once waxed eloquent about “the power of the cross” (‘kathiraya’). 

He intimated that it was not simply, deceptively, one person’s expressed preference for a particular individual; but rather, a powerful exercise of the franchise which could reap a wide-ranging harvest of repercussions. 

Rest assured that those ramifications are being felt in nation, state, country, bureaucracy and beyond today. For better or for worse, only time will tell.

And those reverberations of a crossover from closed, elitist/olympian and autocratic/authoritarian to open, pluralistic/inclusive and democratic/republican power styles span a gamut of eventualities that are slowly becoming visible as the edifice of the establishment creaks. 

From a fleet of super-luxury vehicles being ‘released’ into the care of government again; through shock and awe as a (not to coin a phrase) ‘bourgeoisie’ prime minister is appointed to oversee the ‘proletariat’ as much as the ‘patrician’ class, causing bloody-minded male chauvinism to squeak up; to lightheaded pushback from plutocrats ensconced in the City... although the Bourse rallied to the tune of a billion bucks, as if to endorse AKD?

Meanwhile, shall we rehearse (for the sake of the naive or sentimental for a shattered status quo or isolated urban communities in their ivory towers) the litany of that ‘study in scarlet’ by the author of a new style of power?

AKD intimated that the ballot was not only a vote for the change that many people had yearned for since the Aragalaya. It was also a bullet fired against the once insufferable status quo. And he didn’t shy away from naming names and other odious realities of recent political dispensations.

Under the hammer of a vote for the National People’s Power (NPP)-driven reshaping were: 

• hangers-on freebooting off friends in high places being given ‘the order of the boot’;
• a surfeit of ‘presidential palaces’ around the land, which would now be pressed into state service, and not remain at the pleasure of so-called ‘statesmen’; 
• the extensive fleet of vehicles and fuel quotas allocated to spurious advisors at state cost;
• untenable retirement benefits in perpetuity to previous incumbents in the highest offices.

But why do I feel we’re losing the interest of at least some of you? And dare we go on to lose more of you? That is hardly the question in such a time of ‘rad’ happenings: the revolution is being televised and social-media-fied! 

A better one would be: is Caesar – or Castro or Che – above suspicion in this case? There are some surges of shock in NPP ranks already, with questions being asked by the power and energy sector about the new government’s appointment of a public figure with vested sectoral interests to head the all-important CEB. 

Quo vadis?

AKD promised what is below into the bargain of the crossover into a more transparent style of power, by promising then to appropriate the mandate he anticipated receiving from the masses: 

• the dissolution of parliament (now done);
• constitutional governance until the next general elections (to be QED-ed); 
• small and accountable government in the interim (to be QED-ed); 
• appointing appropriate heads of public institutions after the ‘cross’ had ridden the state of parasitic appointments tantamount to cronyism, nepotism and state capture by elite cabals (ditto as above);
• the rationalisation of ministries now groaning under the embarrassment of superfluous offices (ditto); 
• a comprehensive cabinet of 25 (a small step in that right direction has already been taken with an interim government of three ministers: concentrated, quiet and cost-effective); 
• the abolition of duty-free vehicle permits for a plethora of officials (to be QED-ed); 
• a discontinuity of the panoply of perks supplied to supporters of the government – running from water and light bills paid, to flunkeys in uniform opening “dignitaries”‘ doors and taking their spouses out shopping (his words, disdainfully phrased) in state cars

 In his implementation of these campaign-trail promises will lie the answer to AKD’s question: “Is this not the type of government the country needs and its people want?” 

We can hope or trust, for the sake of a voter base from all walks of life fed up with cronies and the corrupt sponging off the state, that AKD will be able to say sooner than later: “QED!” (QED being: ‘And so it was done, here is the proof.’)

The power of a vote

The power of that cross must slowly but surely transform the nature, principles and practice of power in the land. 

Else it would be only a transactional double-cross fit for the dustbin of history, belonging together with other past incumbents who began well – with similar shows of power under control attended by ostensible simplicity – but lost their way soon... or were never on it.

One recalls – almost with nostalgia – that lone Mercedes limousine driving up the parliamentary avenue to a swearing-in less than five moons ago. 

God or Marx forbid that the people be gulled again, and we place our faith once more in political messiahs or putative saviours. 

But from the man’s humble demeanour at his low-key inauguration into high office – no overt religious fanfare, nil appeal to race or historical patriotism – it would seem that AKD already knows he has clay feet, and is counting on our commonwealth to help him and his administration walk the talk. 

The potential power of a vote under a ‘promising’ NPP polity:

Politically – to break the stronghold of power elites subjecting the country to state capture, and introduce a sterling new ethic of transparency, accountability and practical implementation

Socially – to bring a better equilibrium to society whereby there is a more equitable distribution of wealth; and not, as under successive kleptocracies or plutocracies in the past, an equal distribution of poverty outside the ranks of the ‘1 per cent’ or the ‘3 per cent’

Culturally – to release Sri Lanka from the morbid embrace of tribalism, debilitating traditions, the customary appeals to ethno-centric chauvinism and pseudo-patriotism masquerading as types of nationalism that always had an audience (and Nazi-style rallies at Nugegoda once upon a time) 

The new ‘GDP’

Back if you will, for half a moment, to that memorable campaign trail:

Also included in AKD’s prediction as an extension of ‘the power of the cross’ phenomenon was that come the general election (now, scheduled to be held in November), after this parliament was dissolved, any vote cast for this president would spill over into a legislative deluge that could flood out two-thirds of sitting MPs. 

In which case, in flushing out 150 parliamentarians, the ballot was likened to the opening of the sluice-gates of the Kala Wewa. “After us, the deluge?” 

Let us hope it does not come to “I am the state” any time sooner than later. We have been down that gazetted and gazette-less road before, to our inconvenience and an erstwhile executive president’s eventual ignominy. 

Long did we labour then under political messiahs and putative saviours of the nation who brought us to the brink of bankruptcy, and helped push the people over an abyss, from which it will take more than debt restructuring and economic reforms to rescue and restore.

From that dark bourn – the Sheol of sovereign debt default – few countries across the face of the earth returned (vide Argentina, Venezuela) to weave tales of what paradise lies beyond the vale of hardship that augmented tax burdens and austere tightening of belts across the board entail. 

And not even the spectacular recoveries such as Greece, based on such vastly improved fiscal discipline that its trajectory is well on track from country in dire crisis to sustainable growth, can mitigate the basket-cases like Lebanon – a cautionary tale for Sri Lanka, not so long ago! – where elites still rule the roost.

Best left to experts, I’d still wager to essay that in the short to medium terms, “It’s the economy, stupid!” that is going to make or break the AKD presidency and the NPP’s first outing in governance. 

But since we’re all dead in the long run – as that man said whom Marx wouldn’t have voted for – at least those destined for the fields of asphodel this time round will go to the grave quietly. Not like in the people’s protest fuelled by popular sovereignty with a fire lit under it by authoritarian yet incompetent politicos. 

And unless we’re much mistaken, the plebeian governors we got this time courtesy the power of the vote intend sweeping the Augean stables clean – corrupt patricians, self-serving senatorial classes, elitist equestrians, et al. For those willing to allow until 2048 for any real signs of growth, development and progress (the ‘new GDP’), a few months may not matter much...

Of course, the strongest signal that the new government could send any time it feels sanguine enough to venture a bold move, it would be to use to ‘the power of the cross’ to crucify one of its own rank and file who fell foul of the law, a new sense of order, and the emerging ethos of sterling incorruptibility.  

| Editor-at-large of LMD | 

The power of a vote |