Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

15 September  2019

Kaakka Muttais and Rajapaksas

One who reads through her/his truth identifies with the truth in another’s manifestation / expression. That is the power of the soul.

On 26 August 2019, Dr Laksiri Fernando published his review of ‘Kakka Muttai’ Tamil film through Colombo Telegraph, under the heading ‘Kaaka Muttai (The Crow’s Egg): The Poor Under Globalization & Neoliberalism?’

The same Dr Laksiri  published on 13 September 2019, his review of Rajapaksa under the heading ‘Gotabaya Rajapaksa At Viyathmaga: Vision With An Authoritarian Zeal!’. One who sees through her/his truth would appreciate that Dr Laksiri Fernando has indeed highlighted the commonness between the Kaaka Muttai Brothers and the Rajapaksa Brothers. 

(1). In the film review – Laksiri presents the characters as follow:

[What are the names of the two kids? No one knows the real names, the elder being called ‘Periya Kaaka Muttai’ (Big Crow’s Egg) and the other, ‘Chinna Kaaka Muttai’ (Little Crow’s Egg). The names are given because they are well known for collecting crows’ eggs and drinking them for extra strength and vitality. They are school dropouts given their abject poverty. Otherwise it is said that Chennai schools supply eggs to poor school kids at lunch time. They are ingenious in collecting crows’ eggs from nests.]

In the Sinhalese parallel he states as follows:

[Gotabaya Rajapaksa has unveiled his national strategy or vision as a presidential candidate with an authoritarian zeal. This is clear from his Viyathmaga speech. He should be commended however for his fairly clear expression of views and objectives. His definition of objective of government was the following at the outset. 

“The objective of any government should be to develop a prosperous nation of productive citizens, living in a disciplined society with content families.” 

Such a definition or interpretation gives the authority to a government, although elected by the people, to direct the economy, the society and the people unreservedly. If Gotabaya Rajapaksa is elected by any chance, he can claim that he has a mandate or ‘referendum’ for that purpose. In this rigid scheme of things, ‘prosperous nation and content families’ are the objectives. ‘Productive citizens and disciplined society’ are the main means to achieve them. ]

Given that Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa has thus far no proven record in National Economics – one can conclude that the above represents the Periya Kakka Muttai – Mahinda Rajapaksa. In terms of Defence, Dr Laksiri says about Chinna Kakka Muttai:

[Gotabaya Rajapaksa after outlining his vision for International Relations, has ventured into a more controversial domain of National Security. Many of the general premises could be considered correct given the past experiences, but could one consider the following statement to be correct?  

“During this post-war period, neither the police nor the military were engaged in any activity that would pose any harassment to the people.” 

Has he forgotten or hiding what happened at Rathupaswala in July/August 2013? He was the Secretary of Defense or de-facto minister at that time. The experience of the people in the North and the East almost continuously was also the same. There were no efforts to demilitarize, remove the unnecessary army camps, reduce the number of soldiers, give back the lands which were taken over, or investigate the alleged atrocities or excesses during the war or thereafter. ]

(2) The two boys in the film – drink crow’s egg for vitality. Their parallels in Sri Lankan politics drink ‘debt-money’ instead of ‘earned money’ – for the simple reason that they cannot afford ‘earned money’.

The boys’ goal is presented by Laksiri as follows:

[The story with the background of slum dwellings in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, revolves around two boys who become obsessed with tasting a piece pizza. Pizza here is the symbol of globalization.]

The Sri Lankan political parallel of pizza is Democratic Leadership which is the symbol of globalization.

The following actually fits the Tamil community left behind in Northern Sri Lanka:

[While the mother struggles to find money to get the father released on bail, the two kids get influenced by pizza advertisements in the area and on TV.]

While relatives of those in prison are struggling  to have their sons and husbands released from the custody of Rajapaksa prisons – the young leaders strongly influenced by the Diaspora are watching UN sessions through local performances and on TV – including through IBC Tamil.

(3) The highlight for me is the identity with MGR – whose influence I connected to LTTE Chief  - Chinna Kakka Muttai - who called MGR ‘Anna’ – Periya Kakka Muttai. Mr Mano Ganeshan responded to one of those articles.  I thanked the system of truth for opening that pathway which becomes the express highway through which we learn about each other’s truth. Now I identify with such in Laksiri’s mind  through my contribution to SBS and Sri Lanka Reconciliation Forum Sydney. Laksiri indicates the sharing as follows:

[How did they get TVs, while being and living in a dirty slum? Undoubtedly, neoliberalism has a ‘trickledown’ effect! Or is it a lingering ‘welfare-measure’ coming from M. G. Ramachandran’s era? They in fact have two TVs! Not only the mother, but also the grandmother gets a free TV during the election time being ration-card holders. While watching TV commercials on pizza, the two kids salivate in the presence of the grandmother. ]

Neoliberalism for Indians and Keynesian Economics dished out by Armed leadership for Sri Lankans???

(4) Then there is the following home-rule:

[Granny tries to appease the greed or the desire of the two kids by trying to imitate a pizza by using dosa as the batter-base, and topping it with tomato slices, capsicum and onions. She tries her very best, but the boys are obviously not satisfied. Only their pet dog eats it. The two kids cannot understand why their mother or grandmother cannot supply what they want, whether pizza, toys or eggs. This is the predicament of the poor kids all over the world. ]

I also made the dosa-pizza -  local democracy – in Thunaivi – a toddy tapper village. The TV parallel of caste system - made for the westernized Tamils is presented  through social discussions – as past baggage to be left behind ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyEKQ88skqo) – just like the Tamil community left behind in Northern Sri Lanka are discussed. Mine is the grandmother’s dosa-pizza that was chucked away.

Laksiri presents the ultimate reality as follows:

[The Businessman offers pizza to the two kids and in fact feeds them. Their appetite is really gone. Faces are woeful. Periya Muttai asks Chinna Muttai: “Do you like it?” Yuck is the answer. “Granny’s dosa-pizza was much better,” he adds. ]

Likewise my  Thunaivi-pizza also as opposed to IBC-picture-pizza

In terms of Sinhalese – aren’t the Rajapaksa’s saying the same about Western Democracy – that it is sour! Did Gotabaya not throw away American pizza to taste Mahinda Aappa/Hopper?

The commonness is the truth. It was revealed more naturally in the film review when writing which Laksiri would not have been as conscious of supervision as when he wrote the political review.