The New Nation - Internet Edition

Ameen Izzadeen

I HAVE never seen a Sri Lankan politician sneezing or blowing his nose in public. Whenever they appear in public, they are surrounded by scores, if not hundreds of media photographers and cameramen. But none has so far brought a photograph of a politician blowing his nose so that editors could carry it on page one.

During a journalism training programme in Britain years ago, our trainer told us a story of how a British photojournalist working for a leading newspaper got a lucky shot of a politician doing something unusual. The story was told to us to emphasise the need to discard run-of-the mill photographs showing politicians or VIPS cutting ribbons, adorning the head table at a conference or laying a foundation stone for a building. "Look for the unusual," was the point our trainer was trying to drive home.

So the story goes that this British photojournalist went to cover the Conservative Party convention in the 1980s, looking for an unusual photograph. And he brought one - a picture of a politician - a backbencher - picking his nose. The editors had a tough time in deciding whether to use it or not, because the picture was in bad taste, though it was unusual. They finally decided to use the picture and the publication of it drew both bouquets and brickbats.

A youtube search will bring out scores of funny video clips of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and former Italian Prime Minister Silvia Berlusconi doing the unusual in public.

But the unavailability of pictures showing Sri Lankan politicians in similar actions shows that either there are no good photojournalists here or our politicians are image conscious. I think it is more a case of the latter.

Our politicians will do things the common folks do to make sure that they are identified with the poor. Accompanied by an army of photographers, they go to the village, donning a vest and sarong to join the paddy sowing festival of the farmer. At lunch time, they sit on the floor of the poor farmer's hut and eat rice served on banana leaf by village women.

But they won't sneeze, blow their noses or lick their fingers. Simply, they don't appear to catch a cold or suffer from flu, even though every Sri Lankan is like to go through a bout of flu two to five times a year. If our politicians sneeze or show their illness in public, they feel their image as a superman will suffer.

They are keen to show they are one hundred per cent fit to lead the country as they know that the image of a superhero has vote-buying power.

During the 2005 presidential election, Mahinda Rajapaksa got on to the stage by running up the steps. The people saw him as physically more powerful than his closest rival, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and believed that he could deal a killer blow to Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) whose violent campaign aimed at creating a separate state for minority Tamils has pushed Sri Lanka several decades behind in development.

Barack Obama's brisk walk at campaign-stops is also an image-building exercise to send a message to the voters that he is physically fitter than Hillary Clinton and the fittest of the lot, if you bring in John McCain also into the picture.

Last week, Prabhakaran appeared in public in what is seen as an image-boosting and message-delivering exercise. His appearance ended months of speculation that he was wounded in an air raid and that one of his legs was amputated.

Tamil MPs who visited the rebel-controlled territory on Saturday March 8 to attend the funeral of parliamentarian K Sivanesan say Prabhakaran walked normal and appeared relaxed and confident. The LTTE also released pictures of Prabhakaran's latest appearance to convey a political message to Rajapaksa and the Tamil people that Prabhakaran was very much in command.

But Rajapaksa who scored a great victory at the 2005 presidential election by portraying an image of a strong patriotic leader is fast losing his international image, which is as important for a leader of a developing country as the image he or she builds up for local consumption.

It looks like that Rajapaksa does not have good advisors or he does not take the advice from good advisors. When Sri Lanka's former President Ranasinghe Premadasa died his popularity was at its lowest ebb. One analyst pointed that the president paid a big price for keeping 'yes men' as his advisors. There was hardly any advisor to put him on the right track when he resorted to dictatorial governance. Premadasa fought two insurrections - one by Tamil youths in the north east and the other in the south by largely Sinhala Marxists - and he justified his iron-fist rule as a necessary evil to fight the war on terror. But internationally, the country's image suffered.

Rajapaksa is also probably doing a similar mistake. His advisors appear to go along with him rather than telling him about the need to respect human rights and practise good governance even though the government is on a drive to crush terrorism.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch dealt a big blow to Rajapaksa's international image when it described him in a report as a human-rights champion turned human rights abuser.

The ultimate insult to Rajapaksa came when the George W Bush administration, a regime which shows scant respect to human rights and individual liberty, released a damning report last week, accusing the Sri Lankan government of gross human rights violations.

Bush can be the emperor without clothes but still he will command the respect wherever he goes because he is the president of the United States, the sole superpower. Rajapaksa can do a Bush but can he expect that he be treated like the US president?

(Ameen Izzadeen is a Sri Lankan journalist based in Colombo)