Cabarets or Beer, Boys and Baila?

The state controlled Daily News displayed an unusual set of pictures yesterday. On the front page it had a group of UNPers immaculately dressed – Messrs. Anura Bandaranaike, J. A. Amaratunga, Pradeep Hapangama – with dapper UNP leader Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe lighting the oil lamp at a UNP fund-raiser held in Los Angeles with a caption that referred readers to an inside page. The inside page was in full colour entirely devoted to the UNP fund raiser.

Inside was the handsome UNP leader dancing with his beautiful wife, Maithri. But the rest of the pictures that filled the page would have dashed the hopes of UNPers that the government mouth piece has had a change of heart. They were pictures of cabaret artistes in the flimsiest of flimsies whom the readers are made to presume had performed at the Los Angeles UNP fund-raiser.

This tabloid like ‘scoop’ of the once staid and respected Daily News is obviously an attempt to show Mr. Wickremasinghe and his fellow UNPers as a carousing, licentious, debauchers who had engaged in a Bacchanalian orgy in Los Angeles in an attempt to raise funds for the party. Despite the pictures having no captions, this is the message that is being attempted to be conveyed to puritan Sri Lankans as well as the poor masses who are yet to see voluptuous cabaret artistes in their bikinis.

Cabaret artistes are no new phenomenon to this country. In the sixties, no university ‘social’ was considered a success until a cabaret artiste at the end of it all brought the house down by ending up in her ‘birthday suit’. The JVPers put an end to all that. Today at ‘Club nights’ of social and sports clubs and particularly when ‘Old Boys’ get together, cabaret artistes are a compulsory feature. But this is all confined as they say to the’ Colombo Crowd’. And thus the PA is likely to strike a holier than thou posture and show these pictures to one and all.

Immediately after the Cultural Revolution of 1956, anything western was anathema. The picture of J. R. Jayewardene dancing on a New Year’s night with a dunces cap was a trump card to’ nationalists’ who abhorred what they called the ‘Thuppahi Culture’. Much has happened since then. Today our women athletes and swimmers in their cutaway costumes make old grandmas faint and grandpas have heart attacks. But not so the younger generation who are quite familiar with Michael Jackson and Madonna. Thus, whether the drums of piety that are likely to be beaten will have a response is in question.

Sri Lankans at the dawn of the 21st century is in a schizophrenic state when it comes to sex and politics. When the occasion demands, they can strike a very puritanical note to their political advantage and can be very liberal about sex when in embarrassing situations. Most of them are liberal in their thinking having studied, lived or travelled to the west. For example President Chandrika Kumaratunga who studied in Paris for a long time, most probably will not be horrified at the pictures of the cabaret artistes in yesterday’s Daily News. Their costumes are almost identical to those performers at the two world famous Parisian shows: Folies Beregeres and Moulin Rouge. Perhaps the French, connoisseurs of culture and those artistically inclined will object to the comparison — Los Angles cabaret artistes not being refined and arty as the Parisian counterparts.

It appears that the subject of sex is no different to any other subject where Sri Lankan politics is concerned. It will be exploited to the political advantage of a party and the consensus appears to be that puritanism carries a greater political clout than a liberal view. Whether it be sex, liquor or religion, hypocrisy rules the roost.

What women libbers such as our Gender Columnist Cat’s Eyes views will be on this UNP fund raiser, we await with eagerness. Is this body exposure of women, crude commerical exploitation or is it the right of women who consider cabaret dancing a form of art to perform at such functions?

UNP fund-raisers in Los Angeles will however point out that fund-raising in Los Angeles will not be a success with the staging of cultural dances such as the Kohombakankariya or Kolan Natun as with cabaret performances. Those committed to Sri Lankan culture will however differ. When considering the cultural point of view it appears that the objection to cabaret performances may be that it is too new to this country. For example no one objects to the Beer , Boys and Baila tradition which has seeped into all strata of society. If the UNP had staged a Beer, Boys and Baila party it is very doubtful whether the media bosses of state controlled organisations permitted colour pictures in their journals.