Bradman

Balapatabendi

by Rajiva Wijesinha

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
And never brought to mind? (Robert Burns)
Uncle Brad is clearly a great favourite in Colombo’s drawing rooms. I thought I had merely expressed some mild surprise at his appointment, for the umpteenth time, to a position he had shone in as a sprightly thirty year old. This however is seen as harsh criticism of a sweet old man, and has led to several reprimands. The most recent was the categorical assertion, ‘At least you have to admit he’s much better than that Balapatabendi.’

But that, I thought, was a much ruder insult than any I could have dreamed of. I suspect Brad would feel the same. To be compared to Bala is unlikely to please anyone, least of all a CCS star.

But that led me to wonder why Chandrika has persisted in keeping Bala as her Secretary for so long. There is a school of thought that holds that, apart from Uncle Anuruddha, it is Bala who is responsible more than anyone else for the collapse of her popularity. Of course it was her own messianic streak that led her to try to hold all reins in her own hands. But with some capable assistants, as Premadasa had had, she could have at least gone forward in some areas. The total chaos that reigned in her office however prevented this, and for that Bala should be held responsible.

Or should he? He has after all never claimed to have had much grey matter, or the sort of moral sense that would have prompted the advice she needed. Instead, his approach on any issue was geared to pleasing whoever contacted him, irrespective of the merits of the case. Trying to influence the appointment of school principals, whatever an interview board had decided, came naturally to a man who thought principles belonged only in schools. Again, diverting the Presidential Investigation Unit from misappropriations to red herrings was a small thing to do on behalf of a friend.

So the incapacity to move forward became endemic. And what I suspect poor Chandrika never knew was how often she was invoked to justify interference. After all it would be a very brave official indeed who would challenge the assertion from the President’s Secretary that the President wanted something done.

To give Bala his due, he is an amiable man, and I do not think he would have tried to punish anyone who ignored his interventions. But he would have succeeded often enough, and forgetting his failures would have contributed to his survival, since there would have been no reason then for people to complain.

But even if Chandrika did not realize how much damage he was doing, she must surely have realized that she was not getting very far on anything that required concerted and thoughtful action. And it was not as though she was without loyalists who were also intelligent and capable. She could for instance have appointed Mano Tittawella, or P. B. Jayasundara or Tara de Mel to that position, and at least had a Presidential Secretariat that could be taken seriously.

Why did she not? Why does she not, even now, try to provide herself with an office that can actually function constructively?

Some time back, when Bala was away in England, there was a theory that Chandrika could not afford to part with him, because he knew all her secrets. I found that implausible, since no one in Sri Lanka has any secrets anyway. More likely I think is the explanation I heard recently, that she likes Bala because, ‘If you ask Bala to bark, he’ll bark.’

If Chandrika continues to be content with that, however, she may as well give up now. A happy and prosperous retirement like Wijetunge’s is probably open to her if she wants. But if she sees herself as continuing to have an impact on public life, she should ensure that her Secretariat has some bite to it.