{"id":42138,"date":"2015-07-13T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-07-13T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42138"},"modified":"2015-07-13T17:00:28","modified_gmt":"2015-07-13T21:00:28","slug":"political-cut-out-culture-continues-under-ranil-wickremesinghe-as-it-was-under-mahinda-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42138","title":{"rendered":"Political “Cut out Culture” Continues Under Ranil Wickremesinghe as it was under Mahinda Rajapaksa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Malinda Seneviratne<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone said that Ranil Wickremesinghe had ordered his \u2018cut-outs\u2019 to be dismantled. I haven\u2019t seen any RW cut-outs. So if an order had been issued it must have been on the following lines: \u2018Make sure there are no cut-outs of me!\u2019 <\/p>\n

Whether any of this happened we do not know. One thing is certain: a Ranil Wickremesinghe larger-than-life would not attract. If a move was made, it was wise. If a move hasn\u2019t been made, that\u2019s wise too. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s disappointing is that RW hasn\u2019t rapped the knuckles of the cut-out heroes in his party. It is disappointing because these very same worthies were howling not too long ago about Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s cut-outs. <\/p>\n

Some of them said that cut-outs take away from the city\u2019s beauty, never mind that they didn\u2019t attribute the \u2018beauty\u2019 part of it to the very regime they vilified. But they were right. Beautification is no license for subsequent desecration. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is funny, really. There\u2019s Wijedasa Rajapakshe claiming that he is the Wise Man of the Parliament. ‘\u0db4\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0da5\u0dba\u0dcf’ (\u2018Praagnayaa\u2019) actually translates as \u2018intellectual\u2019 but \u2018wise man\u2019 somehow goes better with the pomposity. This \u2018wise man\u2019 held membership in two political parties, both representing both the lumpen proletariat and the lumpen bourgeoisie. <\/p>\n

He uttered not a word of protest about the dictatorial nature of the UNP Constitution. Nothing about the Central Bank bond issue. His intellect, sorry wisdom, appeared to have gone to sleep when Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed three party loyalists to inquire into the bond matter which implicated a hand-picked Governor and a hand-picked chairman of a bank who was also a party man. He went along with his leader\u2019s attempt to institute an all powerful executive prime ministership in place of the much vilified all powerful executive presidency. He did his bit, wisely, to help scuttle electoral reform. He looked the other way when his party dumped the Right to Information Act. Wise. Very wise. <\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Sujeewa Senasinghe, the copper-colored MP who has done nothing of significance in or out of Parliament. He claims or rather he has got his minions to claim that he is our future. One worries. Period. <\/p>\n

Oh, Ravi! That\u2019s Ravi K. K for Karunanayake. He\u2019s a big boy. He\u2019s gone to town. Lee Kuan Yew described Sri Lankan politics as a periodic auctioning of non-existent resources. He got it all wrong. Ravi K is bragging about doing what he has not done as though the doing\/not-doing was all done with his own money even as the said money is essentially public funds. He\u2019s a master at taking credit for what other people have (claimed to have) done. Check the hoardings. It\u2019s Ravi who brought down prices (they are all up now, but that\u2019s another matter) of less than a dozen items, some of which hardly figure in the average consumer\u2019s desirable-list. He brought down the price of fuel, he would have us believe. He\u2019s done everything. <\/p>\n

And he\u2019s cute. He\u2019s even inserted a picture of the President (leader of the SLFP and not UNP, let us not forget) to decorate his brag. Smart. He is Mr Generosity Unlimited. Lovely.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Upul Shantha Sannasgala grabbing the walls for his campaign. He\u2019s used to it, being a well-known tuition master who has been peddling his wares in much the same way for several decades now. <\/p>\n

There are others and no doubt we\u2019ll see other wise and generous people from other parties including those who claim they too are our future laughing at us from walls and hoardings. But those other parties were supposed to be like that. The UNP was supposed to be different. <\/p>\n

How could we forget Harin Fernando. He came to Colombo with a bunch of people. They came in \u2018CTB buses\u2019. Harin no doubt would have hired these buses. They remain public property though. Harin\u2019s face was plastered all over those buses. That\u2019s \u2018difference\u2019? A \u2018better political culture\u2019? What does the Wise Man say? What does the philanthropist say? What does the Man of the Future say? <\/p>\n

So what has changed from the Rajapaksa days, huh? <\/p>\n

Courtesy:malindawords.blogspot.ca<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne Someone said that Ranil Wickremesinghe had ordered his \u2018cut-outs\u2019 to be dismantled. I haven\u2019t seen any RW cut-outs. So if an order had been issued it must have been on the following lines: \u2018Make sure there are no cut-outs of me!\u2019 Whether any of this happened we do not know. One thing …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Political “Cut out Culture” Continues Under Ranil Wickremesinghe as it was under Mahinda Rajapaksa’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42139,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42138\/revisions\/42139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}