Aubrey Joachim

The Politics of Politics. Has Dutton mis-read the audience? – By Aubrey Joachim   Politics refers to the activities relating to the governance of a country. The word also means the art of improving one’s status or standing. Over the last year nearly 70% of the global populace has been observing various political actors casting their spin on the political stage each proclaiming their credentials to be next at the helm of their respective countries. Landslides have been seen in the major western democracies such as Britain and the United Sates and even a small nation like Sri Lanka witnessed a historical political change in the country. In the world’s largest democracy – India, while the baton did not change hands a clear message was delivered to the ruling party. It is now Australia’s and Australians turn to witness the performances of would be leaders casting their spell and spin ...

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Australia – a home away from home Lankan diaspora have settled well into this land down under – By Aubrey Joachim Despite the heated political debate surrounding Australia Day, most peoples of this land will today celebrate an event that laid the foundations for what we all enjoy in this sun-baked country. It was on this date in 1788 that Captain Arthur Phillip commanding 11 convict ships from Great Britain raised the Union Jack at Sydney Cove. While some may view the event with disdain due to unfortunate and perceived unpleasant happenings that followed, it must be appreciated that it was the beginning of modern Australia which many refer to as the ‘lucky country’. True, Captain Phillip may have been desperate to find a location to deposit his ‘undesirable’ cargo of miscreants, but that as they say is history. Over the 236 years that have passed, peoples from every corner ...

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Jesus Christ Superstar. A journey down memory lane ……. Reminiscing the Lankan theatre scene of the 70’s – By Aubrey Joachim It would not come as a surprise that most baby boomer Sri Lankan diaspora in Sydney went along to the Capitol theatre in Sydney in the last few weeks to watch one of the most viewed stage plays of all time – Jesus Christ Superstar. The double album emerged in 1970 with the music score put together by the famed Andrew Lloyd Webber and the lyric writer Tim Rice. It was rock music at its best with the soundtrack being one of the greatest progressive rock albums of all time which achieved platinum status. It portrayed the seven days in the life of Jesus Christ between Palm Sunday and Good Friday as perceived by the main characters during that historic period – Judas, Mary Magdalene, King Herod, Pilate, St. ...

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Clean minds essential for a Clean Sri Lanka. The system change must begin with mind-set change. – By Aubrey Joachim Resemblances to the early pre-transformation days of Singapore are beginning to show up with the new regime in Sri Lanka. Six decades following Lee Kuan Yew’s cleansing and development of that nation has given rise to a world leader in a number of contexts including corruption elimination and cleanliness. More recently, it has also emerged as a leader in digitalisation. Ironically at the beginning of Singapore’s transformation journey Lee Kuan Yew set out to model his fledgling nation on the Ceylon of the 1960’s. Ceylonese were invited to help with setting up administrative and other processes. To date, Singaporeans of Ceylonese descent hold important positions in the country and are held in high esteem. In the six decades that followed, while Singapore scaled the heights of economic and governance achievements, ...

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Degrees of doubt and degrees of discontent A Christmas letter to AKD……. – By Aubrey Joachim   Dear Mr. President, Firstly, a very Merry Christmas to you and yours. This year it must be a very different Christmas for you. You seem to have been a good boy and Santa came early for you. All your Christmases came at once. It is good to see that now you are playing Santa Claus and distributing goodies all around. Some are gleefully dreaming of their bright and shiny new cars in the near future! Hopefully you are making sure that all those naughty little boys and girls who brought our country down to the lowest ebb will also receive their just desserts in due course. It’s just been three months that you have been riding the sleigh and what a ride it has been. The economy seems to be doing well and ...

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A two thousand year old story brought to life …….. At the Sri Lanka NSW Catholic Association Christmas event – By Aubrey Joachim “Once upon a time, in a small town called Nazareth……. And so began the Bethlehem story narrated by the grandmother to her eagerly listening grandchildren spread out on the floor at her feet. It was the annual Nativity Play enacted by some twenty children aged between four and twelve years of age – and a real life grandmother! The entire 30-minute play was a juxtaposition of a two-thousand-year-old story narrated in a current day setting on one and the same stage. The grandma opening the door to three loud knocks on her door, welcomes her three grandkids with big hugs and takes them into her drawing room to relate to them the Christmas story. As grandma relates the story of the birth of Jesus, the town of ...

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Your chance to re-write history Mr. President! A second letter to AKD……. – By Aubrey Joachim Dear Mr. President, Your victories have been stunning to say the least. Winning the top job was good enough. Your virtual clean sweep of the legislative chamber is more than impressive. However, unprecedented is your victory in the North where for the first time in modern political history a Sinhalese Buddhist has been given a mandate by the Tamil Hindu populace. Let this be the last time that Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans have to be referred to by race or religion. You have ensured that our great country is but one nation of people who can achieve greatness. The last time that our island nation was under one ruler – except when a British Monarch held sway during colonisation – was is 1153 AD when the Great King Parakramabahu I reigned over the ...

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Time to drain the swamp……… The opportunity to make significant change in Sri Lanka’s political, economic and governance landscape! – By Aubrey Joachim If one thing has come out of the Donald Trump playbook it’s the political clichés that he has come up with. Some of these fit well into the Sri Lankan political context. One that is most apt at this point – with parliamentary elections around the corner – is ‘drain the swamp’. The slight modification might be replacing ‘swamp’ with ‘cess-pit’! Three weeks after the Presidential election opinions are still divided. While the victors are going about their business as best as can be expected in the short elapsed time and limited ministers, the vanquished are still licking their wounds. However, they do not seem to have learnt the lessons that their vile stories, falsehoods and misinformation regarding the victor taught them leading into the election. They ...

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Go for the low hanging fruit Mr. President! A letter to AKD……. – By Aubrey Joachim Dear Mr. President, As they say in the classics, it’s done and dusted. Your long cherished dream of leading your country has come to fruition. It has been a long struggle from your humble beginnings in the village of Tambuttegama to the Presidential Palace in Colombo. Yet you have not lost your humility and simple way of life and the kitchen staff at President’s House will need to change menus to village style rice and curry dishes instead of French cuisines including award winning wines. Your victory is a case study in marketing. You turned a 3% market share to a 43% market share in the space of 5 years despite all the false marketing propaganda by your competitors. Despite most of the media working against you, your digital keyboard warriors conveyed your messages ...

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A hard road ahead…… Irrespective of who is driving the bus! – By Aubrey Joachim In all probability Sri Lanka will be waking up to a new chapter in its history. The chosen leader will come with bright and shiny ‘L’ plates as this would be his first shift at the wheel of the bus with a long and rough journey ahead on difficult terrain. There is a mountain of debt to negotiate, pot-holes on the road and deep precipices on either side that demand utmost care and caution lest the bus end up in an even deeper chasm. Over the last few weeks the driver and his team have been charting the course of the journey and laid out the planned route. Predictive analytic models have been used to fine-tune the outcome. The throngs of passengers have analysed the route map to select the best driver and what they ...

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