Sahan Ranwala, livewire of the Ranwala Foundation which was the
life-product and life of that inimitable artiste, conservationist of things
national and teacher, told me one Sunday that the end of the war provided an
opportunity to extend the concept api wenuwen api (we, for us) to all aspects
of Sri Lankan life. He made two points.
First, he stressed the importance of figuring out ‘api’
(us/ourselves) and ‘apekama’ (that which defines us, our ‘ourness’ so to
speak). This is true. Years ago, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was briefly Prime
Minister, the UNP launched a policy document called ‘Regaining Sri Lanka’.
It was an unadulterated blueprint to destroy anything and
everything ‘Sri Lankan’ in the name of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans.
The problem was that the regime and the architects of that
document clearly didn’t have any clue about who we are as a nation, how we came
to be us, who our ancestors were, what they gave us that we should keep, what
they gave that we should throw and cultural foundations upon which we should
stand when doing the relevant choosing.
I argued in a Sunday newspaper that the api wenuwen api concept
that’s associated with the Security Forces and which could be taken to have
been the bottom-line guiding principle of the military offensive against the
LTTE could be and should be applied to the development drive. I should have
prefaced my face with Sahan’s important interjection.
The second comment was as follows. Sahan said that it cannot be
too difficult for people to dedicate one day of the month to do something for
the country.
It could take the form of any kind of voluntary work and if such
sentiment is of a collective kind all the better. It could also take the form
of doing an honest job of work at one’s workplace, sans clock-watching,
shirking and extended tea/lunch breaks etc. It is a personal choice of course
but one which can be actively promoted by leaders.
A friend of mine commenting on my api wenuwen api article said we
need not wait for budgetary allocation or some supposedly benevolent donor to
toss some coins out way to get certain things done.
It is as though we have been cowed down to a level of dependency
that has divested us of initiative, entrepreneurship, innovation and
self-belief. My friend asks, ‘Do you need a budgetary allocation to plant few
coconut seedlings in a village on a Poya holiday, Eid holiday, Christmas or
Thai Pongal?’ He illustrates with an example:
‘In my capacity as Secretary to the SLFP Branch of my village
(1970s), Thunduwa, Bentota, I invited Albert Kariyavsam , M.P. for Bentara -
Elpitiya for the Opening of Electricity supply and I whispered into his ears to
mention in his speech about the lands (just the home garden size) are left
uncultivated , be it even a few sq. meters, and to warn everyone that he might
be compelled to take some unpleasant and drastic actions to assign the land to
someone else who could cultivate them.
The whole of next week I was able to see everyone fencing the
land, planting with banana plants, murunga, gahala etc. At the end of a year we
could see most lands were looking green. No Budget, no aid; just calculated
persuasion.’
It takes a different kind of leadership. A leadership that lets
the doing do the talking, so that when the talking happens, it encourages,
empowers and perhaps even shames people into doing the things they can do.
Architecht/Planner L.T. Kiringoda points out that the fascination with
Singapore that some of our leaders reveals more about a loser-mindset than
anything: ‘Singapore does not have rivers, water falls and tanks, mountains,
forests, paddy fields, villages and kada mandiyas, world heritage sites, wild
life etc. etc.
Also in Sri Lanka we have farmers, fishermen, tea pluckers, rubber
tappers, toddy tappers, craftsmen, dancers, etc. and Singapore has exploiters
of wealth with bloodless faces. If Sri Lanka is to be Asia’s wonder then it
should be as Sri Lanka not as another Singapore.’
There was a different in approach that worked (in a sense) for
Singapore and an absence of that approach in Sri Lanka which could be the
reason why we are where we are. It is not about being another Singapore but
being a different kind of Sri Lanka. Renton de Alwis told me that it is not
that we don’t have people or that we haven’t understood the full potential.
Maybe it is that we haven’t learnt the lessons.
Renton wrote the following about the kind of people we should
learn from, be inspired by and try to emulate: ‘Teachers who worked for what
they were paid and went that extra mile to give us lessons in life, doctors who
chose not to go into PP but to serve the needy for what they are paid, the
policemen (perhaps the one in the pix) who keep their heads high, farmers who
put in such hard work, take such risks, unlike others who collect cool
commissions on funds borrowed from banks to import cars and other luxury goods
to sell regardless of if we needed them, workers who work for they love what
they do, no matter how little they make, law makers and keepers who are honest,
mothers and fathers who give their all to make us what we are ...all those who
suffer in the service of the public selflessly... May all of them be blessed
and may they qualify to be Maithri Bosathwaru.’
We can. If only we know who we are. If only we understand that we
are who we are because our ancestors looked to the future, worked together,
worked hard, had self-belief and resolve.
Sahan is not saying that anyone should give what they cannot. They
should do what they can. That extra bit. Call it ‘My Nationalist Hour of the
Day’, ‘Nationalist Day of the Month’, ‘My api wenuwen mama moment’. What’s in a
name, after all, as long as it’s not a ‘Dinavamu wena aya’ (for the triumph of
someone else) at the cost of hurting or bringing down ape aya (our people).
One hour a day. Too much? How about one minute, just to ask if it
means anything to you that you were born in this country and was made of its
historic waters and its cultural breezes and other things ‘Sri Lankan’? I think
that would be better than nothing. It would inspire, I am sure.
At some level, it’s a personal choice, as I said. A necessary
choice if we want to inhabit a Saadambara Sri Lankaava, a nation we can be proud
of.