{"id":42344,"date":"2015-07-28T00:21:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T04:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42344"},"modified":"2015-07-28T00:21:40","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T04:21:40","slug":"six-months-of-yahapalanaya-introduces-old-wine-in-new-bottles-made-out-of-old-bottles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42344","title":{"rendered":"Six Months of “Yahapalanaya” Introduces Old Wine in New Bottles made out of Old Bottles."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

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

It\u2019s an old and tired adage, the one about permanent friends and enemies in politics. What makes it \u2018new\u2019 in this instance, however, is the fact that the good governance hype whipped up by Maithripala Sirisena and those who supported him against Mahinda Rajapakasa generated a lot of hope. Things wouldn\u2019t be the same. <\/p>\n

There could be new friends of course but the doors would be closed to those with bad records, the voter was made to understand. And if anyone turned bad, he or she would be shown the door.<\/p>\n

Well, six months of yahapaalanaya has given new life to another old adage, old wine in new bottles. Of course the bottle, so to speak, is made of old material for the worthies who were posing off as saints had more than a few blemishes. \u2018That\u2019s in the past,\u2019 the voter was made to understand. And new mechanisms would be brought in to ensure that old ghosts would not be entertained. Old wine, it turned out to be, in not so new bottles. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bucks were made by the near and dear of a man handpicked by the UNP leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, bucks to the tune of several billion rupees. The Parliament was dissolved and this helped toss the relevant report on the sordid deal into the garbage truck. Coincidence, perhaps, but someone got breathing space, one should not forget. <\/p>\n

Champika Ranawaka knows how it happened. He knows who is implicated. He has gone quiet. That\u2019s \u2018old wine\u2019 stuff. The loudest voices from \u2018civil society\u2019 have gone silent. So it\u2019s not about the \u2018good\u2019 stuff of governance, we have to conclude. It\u2019s about who gets to do what. It\u2019s about faces that are thought to be pretty, about friends and foes. Old wine. <\/p>\n

If all politicians were made to read out in public statements they have once made about current political friends, i.e. when those \u2018friends\u2019 were on the \u2018other side\u2019, they might learn to watch their mouths. <\/p>\n

But things have got so bad that it\u2019s not even about a loose word here and there. You can say whatever you want and pretend that either you did not or that such contradictions don’t really matter. They are indulgent in part and obviously because the voter is as indulgent. <\/p>\n

So when Mervin Silva is virtually embraced by Arjuna Ranatunga or has a few laughs with Rajitha Senaratne, saying \u2018short memories\u2019 or \u2018old wine\u2019 doesn\u2019t mean much politically. \u2018Hoo-hoo\u2019 doesn\u2019t stick for political skins are as slick as they are thick. <\/p>\n

In the end, what a Facebook commentator said about Champika Ranawaka\u2019s memory loss, drawing from the title of a book he wrote, can be applied to anyone and everyone in politics these days: \u2018Power and Power\u2019. <\/p>\n

All this \u2018same-old, same-old\u2019 and all this \u2018old wine\u2019 indicates a serious situation in the country\u2019s political culture. Maybe the conditions for greater insistence on accountability have not matured yet. Maybe the human resource problem needs to be resolved before we can legitimately demand better choices from political parties. But memory-loss is a condition that spread. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s a terrible political moment whose anniversary came and went and indeed went unnoticed. It is a moment that few were made to forget in more than thirty years, again in a selective kind of politics of remembrance for other terrible moments were hardly ever commemorated. <\/p>\n

But what happened to \u2018Black July\u2019 in 2015? Did the political economy of short memory suddenly result in a drastic devaluation? Did its currency decline because the old \u2018old wine\u2019 business took precedence? Or were all those vigils, seminars and chest-beating associated with July 1983 just part of a drama which really didn\u2019t care about the victims or the culture that produced the tragedy? <\/p>\n

What does all this say about the political maturity of the nation?<\/p>\n

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

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By Malinda Seneviratne It\u2019s an old and tired adage, the one about permanent friends and enemies in politics. What makes it \u2018new\u2019 in this instance, however, is the fact that the good governance hype whipped up by Maithripala Sirisena and those who supported him against Mahinda Rajapakasa generated a lot of hope. Things wouldn\u2019t be …<\/p>\n

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