Sunday Island Editorial

May Days then and now

30 April 2017

 

Time was when reporters covering the various May Day demonstrations and meetings in Colombo used to time how long it took a particular demonstration to pass a fixed point to get at least a rough idea of whose was longest. Admittedly this was not an accurate method of measurement; the JVP demonstration, for example, was more militarized than the others in those days and there were sections, separated from each other by a fair distance. Then there was the various stopping and starting, all of which took time. But the slogans were catchy and memorable, sometimes tilting towards the bawdy. They also made statements on the politics of the day. Who can forget the May Day after Mr. Dudley Senanayake formed a government that included the Federal Party of Mr. Chelvanayakam. The SLFP-led United Front had a joint demonstration with its leftist partners and one of the slogans there was Dudley-ge badey, Masala vadai. Believe it or not, parties like the LSSP and CP who boasted of their non-racist politics marched in that demonstration!

The late Sarath Muttetuwegama of the Communist Party used to relate a story of a May Day when the late Vijaya Kumaranatunga was alive. He was standing on the platform with Vijaya and as each section of a massive demonstration entered the rally ground. He said that Kumaranatunga made brief eye contact with the sectional leader, and that activist who had striven might and main to put up a good show, knew that the boss knew what he’d done. "It was truly amazing," Muttetuwegama would say. Those glory days are now history and the memorable leaders of another era have gone beyond the sunset. Perhaps the most recent memory of a vintage leader was that of the late Bala Tampoe, then all of 90-years old, riding to the CMU May Day rally – decidedly smaller than what it used to be in earlier times – on the pillion of a motor cycle. Comrade Bala did not live to see another May Day.

Thanks to television, the average citizen can treat himself to the sights and sounds of May Day in Colombo and elsewhere from the comfort of his home instead of roasting in the April heat. Recent weeks have shows the scramble among political parties to put up as big a show as possible. It will not be possible to compare the performance of the Maithripala Sirisena-led SLFP rallying at Getambe and the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led Joint Opposition massing at Galle Face. Both sides are scrambling to present themselves as the more credible. Guesstimates will surely be the name of the game with media partisan to either side projecting the best possible pictures. Boastful claims will follow for sure. Cynics have been wondering aloud whether granting Galle Face green to the JO to hold their show was a gesture of goodwill, unlikely in the present political context, or a backhander from those in power confident that it will be not possible for anybody to fill that venue. The UNP has chosen the more fill-able Campbell Park. The various political chieftains of the different political parties will as usual try to marshal their troops to show the bosses that they can deliver, no doubt with an eye on patronage gravy.

Many ordinary people, who don’t owe politicians of whatever side, will surely wonder what all the May Day fuss and bother in this country is all about. It is obviously far removed from the European spring festival it was once or from the events in 1886 when over 300,000 workers walked off their jobs in 13,000 businesses in the USA to demand an eight-hour working day. The Haymarket massacre in Chicago and the violence that followed a peaceful worker demonstration in that city helped internationalize May Day which was made a public holiday in this country in 1956 although rallies have been held from 1933 according to reports. It was traditionally a left affair and when the UNP decided to join the May Day frolics at a time it was in office, the reds jeered, Chee Dudley lajja nadda, Kola patata May dinayak koi ratey the pavathvanney?

Here is Sri Lanka it has long been an exercise of demonstrating how popular (or unpopular) a government or opposition is. Incumbents have commonly abused state resources to boost their performances, particularly transport services to bring in the crowds. A buth packet and a bottle of arrack has commonly been an inducement to participate and caps, tee shirts and sometimes saris in party colours distributed. We’ve seen some television advertising of the different rallies in addition to the hoardings that have mushroomed over the city. The assurance that that the TV ads were paid for carried by some the advertisers is some consolation in the context of the vast unpaid bills from the 2015 election campaign. Hopefully, the state TV stations have managers with the gumption to demand upfront payment for these ads given the sorry experiences of the past.

Given the organizational effort, the massive expenditure and everything else thrown into May Day, some important political statements are to be expected. We will not hazard a guess on what these would be but draw readers’ attention to a letter from Father J.C. Pieris of Galle published in yesterday’s issue of The Island. In essence the good father lays the blame for the Meetotamulla disaster on Presidents Rajapaksa and Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and all MPs of their different groups and asks how they got the gumption to hold a May Day rally at all. He says that they all boast they’ll get the best attendance adding that anybody attending any of these rallies will be a traitor to the martyrs of Meetotamulla, Rathupaswela and Chilaw. No doubt his words will resonate among thoughtful citizen – particularly those who owe nothing to any politician.