By Thulasi Muttulingam
Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) veteran Vasudeva Nanayakkara earlier this week opened a can of worms by talking about caste’s role in the presidential election to a web interviewer. Oh, the horror! How dare he?
Many of Colombo’s denizens were left clutching their pearls and sniffing their salts due to this affront to their delicate sensibilities. One could almost think they applied a monocle to a watering eye to read the accompanying article that announced the veteran leftist’s views too, because most of them missed out on significant chunks of exactly what Vasudeva had said and how he had said it.
It was enough that he used the dreaded “C” word at all – did he not know that it was not at all de rigueur to use that word in polite company?
We’ll vote for only a Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama president, most of us – but how dare he say that out in the open? How dare he? Oh, it’s not to be borne. Let’s all collectively claim he has lost his marbles.
Shooting the messenger
At least part of the blame lies with the sensationalist, misleading headline that a leading English web portal used to announce the news. “Only A ‘Sinhala-Buddhist-Govigama’ Candidate Can Win the Presidential Election: Vasu,” it blared. Many people then pontificated their views of seeming anti-casteism after reading only this headline and nothing more. Below the headline are the texts of what Vasudeva actually said, and an accompanying video of the interview in which he said it, which makes it clear that those are not his own views – he was just talking about the ground reality in Sri Lanka. And despite all the pearl clutching and calling him a casteist himself for daring to talk about the matter at all, what few people are willing to acknowledge is that he called it right – this damned well is the ground reality in Sri Lanka. Not talking about it doesn’t make it go away, it only entrenches the problem while those who benefit from the status quo pretend that it’s not happening at all.
Now, let’s clarify exactly what Vasudeva said. He was asked by the interviewer whether it was true that only a Sinhala-Buddhist would be voted in as the president.
“Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama,” Vasudeva corrected – and he’s absolutely right.
In the seven decades since our independence, we have notably elected only one non-Govigama president whose caste is still being held against his son in the current lead-up to the presidential elections in 2019, so don’t say caste doesn’t matter and there is a tic in the eye of the person saying it.
The problem is that most of us have our eyes shut fast on the matter; it’s not Vasudeva’s problem for either seeing the matter clearly or stating it. It’s interesting to see the many ways in which people uncomfortable with addressing the matter seek to discredit the veteran politician for washing our societal dirty linen in public.
I saw many on social media claiming that Vasudeva is the racist because the view that only a Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama can be elected president is his alone and not of the people. Well, that’s easily discredited. One only has to take the time to read what he actually said. The antics of most of these people are like that of the overly excited aunty at a community gathering, engaging in histrionics to deflect the crowd’s focus on a troublesome family matter.
From the individual to the family to the nation as a whole, we have the same habits. “Oh putha, oh dear me, look at this, look at that, look at the state of the world these days, I am going to faint – and so something, something, somehow black is white.”
The next antic in these people’s arsenal of histrionics was to claim that Vasudeva was deliberately sabotaging Sajith Premadasa’s chances of winning by highlighting his caste.
*Newsflash* Premadasa’s caste is not new to anyone living in Sri Lanka. Enough and more has been written about his caste lineage, still in wonderment and anger at how Ranasinghe Premadasa made it at all, and decades after he made it, still ensuring there are blockades in Sajith’s way.
Vasudeva was not making a point of highlighting Sajith’s caste when he brought it up. He rightly pointed out that senior Premadasa’s election was the one exception to the rule, which remains an aberration in our history, one he made clear that he wants to see repeated and improved upon instead of the closing of the ranks again as happened post Premadasa’s election in 1988. The exception proves the rule – it is only Sinhala-Buddhist Govigamas who can make it in the presidential race.
Aberrations do not disprove the rule
We have a habit of using the exception to negate the rule…we Sri Lankans. Ranasinghe Premadasa was once elected and therefore, anyone of any caste can contest and win the elections. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected as the first woman premier, so we have no problems with women in politics. And we can say that blithely when women have a parliamentary representation of only 6%, one of the lowest in the world. Even Saudi Arabia has more than triple our representation with 20% women in their consultative assembly in place of parliament under their monarchy.
The problem is that caste in Sri Lanka – while alive and kicking – is a taboo topic to discuss. It’s a taboo topic to discuss because discussions would bring out rampant discriminations in the open and – heaven forbid – might bring about reformations to address them too. Whatever will the hoi polloi think of next? We must shush them at all costs and make them think they are barbarians for talking about caste at all. Deny. Deny. Deny. That’s the formula and it has worked well for us since Independence.
Caste? What caste? There is no such thing as caste. Don’t be such barbarians. If it’s practiced at all, it’s only by those barbarians in Jaffna. We are much more civilised over here. Of course, a non-Sinhala, non-Buddhist, non-Govigama, non-male person can become President of Sri Lanka – that it has never happened before doesn’t mean there is anything blocking them. It just means that the Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama males are obviously superior – that’s why they alone keep getting elected, save for one or two aberrations.
Meanwhile, we’ll also look out over the pond at India and snicker about their caste problems which are aired much more openly because they have policies and mechanisms to address the problem. What barbarians. See all those news articles about caste problems in India? We do not have such problems in Sri Lanka, we are so much better, lucky us.
Err…No! This is just like Saudi Arabia claiming they are a much safer country for women than most of the western nations because the western nations have some of the highest incidences of reported rapes while they in Saudi have one of the lowest. The reported incidents are not a scale of the problem – how the country empowers the oppressed to report or not as well as how they deal with the reported problem is. No one except the deluded falls for the claim that Saudi Arabia is one of the safest countries for women. So why would we fall for the claim that Sri Lanka has no caste discrimination?
We have no affirmative policies, unlike over in India, to act upon caste discrimination here, which is actually rampant, and then because no one says anything, because that’s how we have geared the system which will further marginalise and stigmatise oppressed castes if they highlight their problems, we’ll pat ourselves on the back and call ourselves more civilised. And we’ll enforce the status quo by immediately socially lynching (can’t physically lynch anymore, more’s the pity), the likes of Vasudeva, foolish enough to highlight the problem. It cannot be borne. What next? Caste reservations like in India to address the discrimination? This must be stopped at all costs.
We let the feminists get too much leeway and now look what happened! 25% representation for women in local government bodies. This is too bad and we are fighting it rigorously too, but in the meantime, we have to stop the other castes from getting ideas above their stations, along the same lines. Oh, get us our smelling salts. What is this world coming to?
And so, we will do everything to ensure the status quo. Then we’ll also act hyper shocked that someone spoke about it. And work to portray him/her in a poor light for daring to do that. If we engage in enough histrionics, we can perhaps make him out to be the problem and deny the problem exists at all.
Good luck to the next Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama president – who’ll make it on merit alone. Don’t listen to naysayers (even if they happen to be within his own party) who say otherwise.
*Disclaimer: Since Vasudeva’s clear quotes were lifted out of context to portray him as having said what he patently did not say, God knows how my above words will be portrayed. To those who don’t get sarcasm – go dunk your heads in a bucket of water. And don’t quote me.
(The writer is a freelance journalist based in Jaffna. All views expressed are her own and not of any organisations affiliated to her)
photo pradeep dambarage
Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) veteran Vasudeva Nanayakkara earlier this week opened a can of worms by talking about caste’s role in the presidential election to a web interviewer. Oh, the horror! How dare he?
Many of Colombo’s denizens were left clutching their pearls and sniffing their salts due to this affront to their delicate sensibilities. One could almost think they applied a monocle to a watering eye to read the accompanying article that announced the veteran leftist’s views too, because most of them missed out on significant chunks of exactly what Vasudeva had said and how he had said it.
It was enough that he used the dreaded “C” word at all – did he not know that it was not at all de rigueur to use that word in polite company?
We’ll vote for only a Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama president, most of us – but how dare he say that out in the open? How dare he? Oh, it’s not to be borne. Let’s all collectively claim he has lost his marbles.
Shooting the messenger
At least part of the blame lies with the sensationalist, misleading headline that a leading English web portal used to announce the news. “Only A ‘Sinhala-Buddhist-Govigama’ Candidate Can Win the Presidential Election: Vasu,” it blared. Many people then pontificated their views of seeming anti-casteism after reading only this headline and nothing more. Below the headline are the texts of what Vasudeva actually said, and an accompanying video of the interview in which he said it, which makes it clear that those are not his own views – he was just talking about the ground reality in Sri Lanka. And despite all the pearl clutching and calling him a casteist himself for daring to talk about the matter at all, what few people are willing to acknowledge is that he called it right – this damned well is the ground reality in Sri Lanka. Not talking about it doesn’t make it go away, it only entrenches the problem while those who benefit from the status quo pretend that it’s not happening at all.
Now, let’s clarify exactly what Vasudeva said. He was asked by the interviewer whether it was true that only a Sinhala-Buddhist would be voted in as the president.
“Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama,” Vasudeva corrected – and he’s absolutely right.
In the seven decades since our independence, we have notably elected only one non-Govigama president whose caste is still being held against his son in the current lead-up to the presidential elections in 2019, so don’t say caste doesn’t matter and there is a tic in the eye of the person saying it.
The problem is that most of us have our eyes shut fast on the matter; it’s not Vasudeva’s problem for either seeing the matter clearly or stating it. It’s interesting to see the many ways in which people uncomfortable with addressing the matter seek to discredit the veteran politician for washing our societal dirty linen in public.
I saw many on social media claiming that Vasudeva is the racist because the view that only a Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama can be elected president is his alone and not of the people. Well, that’s easily discredited. One only has to take the time to read what he actually said. The antics of most of these people are like that of the overly excited aunty at a community gathering, engaging in histrionics to deflect the crowd’s focus on a troublesome family matter.
From the individual to the family to the nation as a whole, we have the same habits. “Oh putha, oh dear me, look at this, look at that, look at the state of the world these days, I am going to faint – and so something, something, somehow black is white.”
The next antic in these people’s arsenal of histrionics was to claim that Vasudeva was deliberately sabotaging Sajith Premadasa’s chances of winning by highlighting his caste.
*Newsflash* Premadasa’s caste is not new to anyone living in Sri Lanka. Enough and more has been written about his caste lineage, still in wonderment and anger at how Ranasinghe Premadasa made it at all, and decades after he made it, still ensuring there are blockades in Sajith’s way.
Vasudeva was not making a point of highlighting Sajith’s caste when he brought it up. He rightly pointed out that senior Premadasa’s election was the one exception to the rule, which remains an aberration in our history, one he made clear that he wants to see repeated and improved upon instead of the closing of the ranks again as happened post Premadasa’s election in 1988. The exception proves the rule – it is only Sinhala-Buddhist Govigamas who can make it in the presidential race.
Aberrations do not disprove the rule
We have a habit of using the exception to negate the rule…we Sri Lankans. Ranasinghe Premadasa was once elected and therefore, anyone of any caste can contest and win the elections. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was elected as the first woman premier, so we have no problems with women in politics. And we can say that blithely when women have a parliamentary representation of only 6%, one of the lowest in the world. Even Saudi Arabia has more than triple our representation with 20% women in their consultative assembly in place of parliament under their monarchy.
The problem is that caste in Sri Lanka – while alive and kicking – is a taboo topic to discuss. It’s a taboo topic to discuss because discussions would bring out rampant discriminations in the open and – heaven forbid – might bring about reformations to address them too. Whatever will the hoi polloi think of next? We must shush them at all costs and make them think they are barbarians for talking about caste at all. Deny. Deny. Deny. That’s the formula and it has worked well for us since Independence.
Caste? What caste? There is no such thing as caste. Don’t be such barbarians. If it’s practiced at all, it’s only by those barbarians in Jaffna. We are much more civilised over here. Of course, a non-Sinhala, non-Buddhist, non-Govigama, non-male person can become President of Sri Lanka – that it has never happened before doesn’t mean there is anything blocking them. It just means that the Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama males are obviously superior – that’s why they alone keep getting elected, save for one or two aberrations.
Meanwhile, we’ll also look out over the pond at India and snicker about their caste problems which are aired much more openly because they have policies and mechanisms to address the problem. What barbarians. See all those news articles about caste problems in India? We do not have such problems in Sri Lanka, we are so much better, lucky us.
Err…No! This is just like Saudi Arabia claiming they are a much safer country for women than most of the western nations because the western nations have some of the highest incidences of reported rapes while they in Saudi have one of the lowest. The reported incidents are not a scale of the problem – how the country empowers the oppressed to report or not as well as how they deal with the reported problem is. No one except the deluded falls for the claim that Saudi Arabia is one of the safest countries for women. So why would we fall for the claim that Sri Lanka has no caste discrimination?
We have no affirmative policies, unlike over in India, to act upon caste discrimination here, which is actually rampant, and then because no one says anything, because that’s how we have geared the system which will further marginalise and stigmatise oppressed castes if they highlight their problems, we’ll pat ourselves on the back and call ourselves more civilised. And we’ll enforce the status quo by immediately socially lynching (can’t physically lynch anymore, more’s the pity), the likes of Vasudeva, foolish enough to highlight the problem. It cannot be borne. What next? Caste reservations like in India to address the discrimination? This must be stopped at all costs.
We let the feminists get too much leeway and now look what happened! 25% representation for women in local government bodies. This is too bad and we are fighting it rigorously too, but in the meantime, we have to stop the other castes from getting ideas above their stations, along the same lines. Oh, get us our smelling salts. What is this world coming to?
And so, we will do everything to ensure the status quo. Then we’ll also act hyper shocked that someone spoke about it. And work to portray him/her in a poor light for daring to do that. If we engage in enough histrionics, we can perhaps make him out to be the problem and deny the problem exists at all.
Good luck to the next Sinhala-Buddhist Govigama president – who’ll make it on merit alone. Don’t listen to naysayers (even if they happen to be within his own party) who say otherwise.
*Disclaimer: Since Vasudeva’s clear quotes were lifted out of context to portray him as having said what he patently did not say, God knows how my above words will be portrayed. To those who don’t get sarcasm – go dunk your heads in a bucket of water. And don’t quote me.
(The writer is a freelance journalist based in Jaffna. All views expressed are her own and not of any organisations affiliated to her)
photo pradeep dambarage