There must have been great celebration, firecrackers, and festivities by the Wawula wearing Veddah's, Lanket clad Lions, Panamkottai Ponnambalams, Leisure Suit Lansiya's, and Tip Cut Thambya's, when the Brit Colonial Administration handed over power to the sons of the soil on that fateful 4 of February, in 1948?
Taking over the reigns, with good old DS at the helm, all those Nobodies who evolved into Somebodies, from Banda, Madam, JR, Ranil, Premadasa, and the MahaRajah's, have taken this beautiful island of Paradise from the Kavun Hattiya straight into the smouldering Fire.
It was quite obvious that the Brits didn't want to linger any longer in Paradise after having handed over India back to her natives. They probably didnt see any value add in remaining in South Asia once India, the plum of the British East India Company, was gone.
What resulted after their exit, across South Asia, is total pandemonium, hate, violence, destruction, and anarchy. India broke into two pieces and then Pakistan racked up into two, once more. The Hindu-Muslim conflict still simmers beneath the apparent peace and calm that may seem to float on the surface. Poverty is still rampant and gang rape has become the order of the day. Bangla Desh sinks in the cesspool of flooding and misery.
Good old Ceylon, the Pearl of the Orient, has had its own share of capitalism, socialism, ethnic upheaval, riots, insurgencies, and terrorism, to complete the vicious cycle of so called independent growth and development. The tea industry, that was the pride of the nation, is virtually in shambles. Rubber and Coconut are virtually extinct from the pride of place they occupied by way of exports.
So what is there to celebrate after 65 effing years of screwing up?
Flag hoisting, speeches, cultural shows, and Kiribath, will certainly adorn the event, back home as well as across al the Sri Lankan missions overseas. People will gather together, all dressed up, and sing the anthem, in Sinhala only of course, with some kind of oppressed pride within their hearts and minds. Do they truly believe that the occasion needs to be celebrated in a climate of total abuse of power, lack of the rule of law, corruption galore, and hatred spewing from within the hallowed Halls of Government and Temples?
Amen
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