I have stood Aristotle’s dictum ‘Politics is the art of the possible’, on its head,in consonance with the topsy-turvy political transmogrifications taking place in our little Island, today. Aristotle’s teacher Plato, conceived of an intensely purist kind of idealism which had at it’s very zenith ‘The World of Forms’, positing at this highest plane, ideals one could aspire to, but never achieve!

When one witnesses the all too sudden transmutations leading to unimaginable conflations of political caboodle, emerging with the impending Presidential election, one is stupefied at the desperation shown by even long established political parties to bed with the most unlikely partners in a feverish endeavour to throw out the present incumbent of that high office and ensconce themselves therein.One is again compelled to remind oneself quickly, that all this is happening within the democratic framework and hence should give little cause for alarm.After all, the man in the street as they say , is the one who has the final say!

In fact, looking at these developments in an altogether new light, one might even spiritedly argue that all this would show the resilient dynamism of the democratic credo in the face of changing times and circumstances!The world has after all come a long, long way, from the incipient beginnings of the rather primitive and simplistic democracy that was practiced in the ancient Greek City States where leaders were elected by a show of hands, at the market place.

Democracy, one is made to realize,is acquiring sophisticated nuances with changing times, particularly with the huge shifts in global power configurations resulting in some self- appointed guardians of the sacred credo, laying down norms which are applied by them selectively to penalize those whom they do not favour, by bullying and threatening to visit such hapless countries (which are themselves sovereign democracies),with the direst of punishments, bearing arcane nomenclature viz. R2P et al ! Ironically,these so called crusaders of the sacred trust,have infuriatingly conferred on themselves blanket immunity from prosecution for some of the most heinous crimes against humanity perpetrated in recent times.

One has therefore to take cold comfort in the fact that the mind boggling changes that are occurring across our confined political landscape are not peculiar to our good old democracy but are only reflections of certain weird ‘political imperatives’ taking place in professed democracies the world over. Sri Lankans are indeed an intelligent,highly politically aware people and would I am sure, know how to exercise their valued franchise wisely by electing a person for the prestigious and powerful office, who has their best interests at heart and who would strive his utmost towards realizing them.

I would conclude with Alexander Pope’s ringing lines, which I feel are most pertinent in the current politically volatile context.

"Who thirsts for glory finds no quiet repose,

A breath revives him,a breath overthrows".