Princess Anne’s visit to Sri Lanka has seen a colossal number of Sri Lankans take to social media with many postings containing hilarious and subtle comments.
The top most comment doing its rounds is where Princess Anne is seen carrying her own hand luggage whilst boarding and disembarking the SriLankan Airlines flight that she travelled on with her husband Sir Timothy Laurence.
To many Sri Lankans it appears more of a culture shock to not see a lesser mortal carry the bags of a travelling Monarch, unlike in Sri Lanka where to lesser folk, it is considered an honour and a privilege to carry the bags of their bosses when travelling.
Two instances spring to mind in this regard.
It was commonly known that during Ranatunga’s captaincy days he ordered junior cricketers to carry his bags
The first is where it was a commonly known fact that the former Sri Lankan Cricket Captain Arjuna Ranatunga unlike Princess Anne, always got his junior cricketers to carry his own bags to practice and also to matches during his playing days. It was alleged that some popular cricketers’ careers came to an abrupt end for refusing to carry Captain Ranatunga’s bags.
The other instance is when A.S.P. Liyanage the former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Qatar was captured wheeling a bag belonging Rohitha the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son at the Doha International Airport.
Former Sri Lankan Ambassador to Qatar A.S.P. Liyanage seeing wheeling Rohitha Rajapaksa’s bag at Doha International Airport
Ambassador Liyanage who was labelled as “Porter Ambassador” by many Sri Lankans in Doha after this incident, also ordered Ruwan Dananasooriya a staff member attached to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Doha to push the trolley containing the rest of the bags belonging to the Rajapaksa siblings Yoshitha and Rohitha. Incidentally, this was at a time when the duo of brothers visited Doha as part of the visiting CH & FC rugby team and also at a time when their father was ousted from power by the then ruling Yahapalanaya regime.
Sri Lanka Embassy Qatar staff member Ruwan Dananasooriya seeing pushing the trolley with baggage belonging to Yoshitha and Rohitha Rajapaksa at the Doha International Airport.
Those pictures went viral on many social media platforms proving that the colonial mentality or the internalized attitude of ethnic or cultural inferiority felt by the people as a result of colonization still prevails amongst many Sri Lankans.
However, another post that appeared rather hilarious is where a commentator stated “It’s true Princess Anne carried her own bags. But she didn’t bring back any of Sri Lanka’s stolen national treasures or artifacts.”
