What would 2023 be remembered for in Sri Lanka? Nothing really, would probably be any historian’s deadpan retort say 20 years from now. Compared to the tumultuous years of 2019, 2022 and pandemic-hit 2020 for instance — years that had become known for economic meltdowns and attacks on churches – 2023 would be known for a great deal of rain, and political hopefuls announcing their intent, maybe.
As a sideshow which sort of became the main event, there was cricket, and Sri Lanka’s rout at the World Cup which was eclipsed by the hijinks involving the game’s administration at the highest levels. A Sports Minister (Roshan Ranasinghe) was sacked and a new one (Harin Fernando) was appointed.
But that would have been small beer, news-wise. Taxation and Cost of Living (COL), would also not hit the news headlines even though these would certainly be the headline concerns for the average householder, in 2023.
BIZARRE UPHEAVALS
So which is it? Was 2023 a boring but good year relative to the tumult of 2022, or was it a year that dragged along, and petered out, with nothing of significance happening, given what people expected after the bizarre upheavals of 2022?
Now that was nature’s work, and certainly needs special mention. The most extreme weather was probably recorded in October, but every month of the second half of the year was spectacularly rainy.
This filled the reservoirs and overall brought good tidings to the rulers if nobody else. This was manna — sorry raindrops — from heaven. In December, the cumulative effect of the rain in the last quarter of the year at least, was so phenomenal that Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara was able to announce that there would be a corresponding electricity tariff reduction factored into bills in the months to follow, perhaps from January 2024.
Devo Vassathu Kalena, Raja Bhavathu Dhammiko?. If the rulers are just, the rains would come on time, or so goes the historical incantation borrowed from the Buddhist Canon. But this was a deluge, and yet a good one. Was it then Vassathu Kalena — rain on time — times twenty?
In sum, apart from the fact that there were flood related deaths and lightning related accidents resulting in still more deaths, the mother-lode of rain that fell on the island in 2023 is probably off the charts.
COMFORT-ZONES
For many observers in comfort-zones, who at least have the time to take-in the passing scene and do not have to worry about keeping home fires burning 24/7, perhaps 10 years from now, 2023 would be recalled as the year of rain and cricket, and cricket and rain.
That is not something a year would perhaps want to be remembered by. If there was a heaven-appointed Guardian Deity of the 2023 calendar, what would this potentate be saying looking back at Nature’s handiwork and the cricket disaster of 2023? Probably, a face-palm would be registered. No potentate would like his or her year to be remembered by water and paddle-whacky pursuits in the form of a slow sport deliberately accelerated, surely?
But it is what it is. Year 2023 in Sri Lanka was, if you will, the year of news consolidation, if you would care to ruminate on what that means. That after a year or two of tumult, it was the first time there were 365 days of relative calm, with rain and falling trees being the most that happened, is what people would recall.
This certainly was not bad for a country in life terms of a reset. You could say we reset back to the relative normal pre-2019, save for the rain, which was anything but normal. Even the cricket was normal, a wag would say because we Sri Lankans have got used to serial dismal performances even though everybody who claims they did not give a toss about cricket were also in turns bewildered and heartened by the oversize reaction to the cricketing dramas of the year.
But seriously folks, no year is defined by the weather. At least human egos do not allow that much of prominence to be accorded to the weather gods, because we like to think we are in control, at least even if it is patently clear that the weather gods are nonchalant about our opinions.
But history would want to record human concerns. Historians would want to fill their tomes, with talk about political headwinds in the year 2023, rather than with a record about millimetres of precipitation. So seriously folks, what are the portends for Sri Lankans in terms of where they stand as social beings, weather notwithstanding?
Though uncertainty regarding the precise leadership contests we would witness in the near future is the most significant aspect of the current political landscape, for the record it can be said that all three key frontline contenders announced their candidacy for the Presidency early this year.
From around May to July, those announcements came with quick despatch, with President Ranil Wickremesinghe saying he would contest, followed by Sajith Premadasa of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) of the National People’s Power (NPP), the new avatar of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).
GERMANE DEVELOPMENTS
But if you, the reader, would look for clarity beyond this, the bald fact is that none exists. Though there were potentially significant politically germane developments such as the Supreme Court ruling that political parties may now sack members who have defied the party whip, none of these developments offer clarity with regard to the bigger question which is, where would we go from here?
Small wonder then that Sri Lankans chose to be distracted by peripheral developments. Self-styled prophet Jerome landed in Sri Lanka and was arrested. A Sports Minister was sacked for embroiling himself in cricket controversy, or rather because he chose to dance where angels before had studiously feared to tread.
Perhaps, then, Sri Lankans chose to be buoyed by the good news? Our tourism numbers were up, and Tarushi Karunaratne won Gold at the Asian Games in China.
Yet, even though developments in the passing year were not tumultuous, the country also hit global headline news. The Channel 4 video on the Easter Sunday attacks evoked blood and thunder reactions, all of which culminated in a predictably tame denouement. But the international media is insisting on keeping the issue in the news.
A week ago, a British newspaper carried a prominent feature that stated the previous Government is being widely blamed for the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019. At home here in Sri Lanka, this news has the feel of a TV picture screenshot.
Instead of a story that is seen in moving pictures, this story has become a still photo, and there it stays. The previous Government is being blamed, and being blamed, and being blamed. But there is no upshot. The story somehow does not appear to have legs.
That about sums up the state of affairs socio-politically speaking. There is no serious structural breakdown of institutions, at least relative to what obtained in the previous year, 2022. It is all relative of course. There is no significant repair of the political apparatus that is deep-going either, and that is going to take a long time to happen.
Political activity has been per se, muted. Of course protestors would say that civic space for protest activity had been cut off. There have been Bills that have attracted controversy in this regard, but 2023 was not the year that caused any of this to gain traction in terms of unsettling the apparatus of State.
Looking back, in this context, 2023 was something akin to the quiet child that came after the boisterous newborn. But it was also the year that refused to offer many pointers.
Most yardsticksYear
2023 was playing its cards close to its chest. About the only sign of anything stirring at all, was the promise of heightened political activity, and according to some people, substantial change in 2024.
But that was a promise and 2023 simply cannot be defined by a promise about the next year. No given year can flaunt itself that way i.e.: that it was a year in waiting.
But then by most yardsticks, if the year was the year that wasn’t, what was it then? Perhaps history will describe the year as the rain after the storm. A perfect rainstorm of course, that simply deposited copious quantities of water all over the place.
