By Koththa-Malli
My dear Mahinda Aiya,
Ayubowan, vanakkam and assalamu alaikkum as we enter May with the once vibrant May Day being downgraded or degraded while ‘May day, May day’ alerts are ringing loud on several fronts. The ruling UPFA, this year, did not hold the May Day rally but instead there was a meeting of political and trade union leaders at Temple Trees. Analysts say the rally was called off apparently because of physical exhaustion after the long campaign for the Western Provincial Council elections or perhaps because the government feels there is no need to rally the people any more with millions already whipped up by the war mentality if not hysteria.
The main opposition UNP also did not hold a May Day procession or rally. Instead we saw a front page picture of party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe with Ranil the worker acting as a May Day painter at a Children’s Home in Kotte. The JVP was the only major party that conducted a rally at Campbell Place but there was no procession. JVP leaders, charged at the rally,that the UNP was now so bankrupt or broken down that it would never be able to draw a large crowd for a May Day rally. But party politics like all factors in life is transient and impermanent. Within months the balance of power or public support could swing dramatically.
With May Day going to the back pages like an obituary notice, the news headlines were again dominated by what is happening or not happening on the northern battle front. Though battles in the five-kilometre conflict zone appeared to be less intense than in the weeks before, Sri Lanka last week came under its heaviest political bombardment from the international community. Sri Lanka’s giant neighbour or big brother India harbouring dreams or aims of becoming the super power of the continent, continued to play a double or treble game on the Sri Lankan crisis while Tamil Nadu blew hot and cold with a fast on one side and a farce on the other. The Congress government’s position was also muddled in a political mystery.