Lanka Citizen

If our electorate chooses to elect an “Arthika” President over a “Jathika” president, as some advice them to, it will prove that we are a “jathiya” which gives priority to “bada” over “rata-jathiya”. The latter signifying what we value above and beyond the mere “bada wada genima.” A university Professor who takes his profession not simply as an “arthika” means to live a jolly good life but more as a vocation which proves to us that we humans are capable of seeing ourselves as more than “arthika” animals, would agree that a man without a strong sense of “jathiya” even if it is the idea of being an American rather than a Sri Lankan, would be lost to this world. It is clear that the founding fathers of the USA, a country which today has turned out to be the nation living more for its “bada-kata and enga,” the pleasures of eating drinking and merry-making rather than promoting the excellence of being human, would not have meant the Americans to place the “arthika” before “jathika”.

It is one thing to evaluate the merits and demerits of the policy agendas of the two presidential candidates, but it is an entirely different thing to suggest that we place our economic needs before those of our nation, or the collective or common life as Sri Lankans. We may not agree about what we consider the priorities of the nation and how we would like them to be resolved, but an ordinary peasant brought up in a Buddhsit culture could enlighten us that man does not live for “bada wada genima” but that we need to satisfy our “bada” in order to do the things we value more as human beings, to engage in a “pinak dahamak” activities that bring us merit.

Economics, as historians would tell us, does not make man excellent. But it is the common world we create that gives us a sense of continuity and stability. Giving priority to economics over politics, in Sri Lanka since 1977, has created a small elite of crony capitalists who are eager to make colossal profits at the expense of the larger masses as well as of the nation. One cannot expect good governance from a political leadership based on crony capitalists. Truly good governance can occur only if there is room for active participation of public in political life. Are our political party leaders willing to make room for the public? Then only we will have a “jathiya” which not only does not give priority to “bada wada genima” but also looks after the deprived sections of its community without selling off the “jathiya” for a few dollars.

It is only the strong sense of such a “jathiya” that will be able to restore to Sri Lankans a sense of a strong identity that will enable them to withstand the recurring Tsunamis unleashed by the globalized modernity.

We need to remind ourselves that human beings have excelled throughout history by being able to value freedom above the “arthika” aspect of mere existence.

Kusum Kumarage

courtesy The Island
http://www.island.lk/2005/11/12/opinion2.html