{"id":62132,"date":"2018-12-12T21:48:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T02:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=62132"},"modified":"2018-12-12T21:48:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T02:48:32","slug":"coup-supporters-have-relied-upon-illegality-and-dishonesty-to-try-to-put-mahinda-rajapaksa-in-the-prime-ministers-post-lets-hope-they-dont-succeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=62132","title":{"rendered":"Coup Supporters have Relied upon Illegality and Dishonesty to try to put Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Prime Minister\u2019s Post.Let\u2019s Hope They Don\u2019t Succeed."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Taylor Dibbert<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s political crisis continues. The attempted coup is a huge mess. No one knows how the imbroglio will end, although the coup has been failing. Of course, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that the project to illegally put Mahinda Rajapaksa in the prime minister\u2019s post will fail. But the fact that coup has been failing is notable and, perhaps, mildly encouraging.<\/p>\n

On Monday via Twitter, I was reminded about the role that misinformation, intimidation and dishonesty play in Sri Lanka\u2019s ongoing political crisis. I guess I didn\u2019t need any reminders because the signs are consistently there for everyone to see.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa and his allies continue to use dishonest, deceptive and authoritarian tactics to promote their agenda. For example, they claim that a parliamentary vote must be held without delay. Part of democracy involves voting, yes. But democracy obviously doesn\u2019t mean that arbitrary votes can take place whenever. <\/p>\n

Rajapaksa\u2019s claim to the prime minister\u2019s position has been revealed \u2013 on numerous occasions \u2013 to be completely illegitimate and yet he still hasn\u2019t given up. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s turn to Namal Rajapaksa. Monday was Human Rights Day. Of course, he uses the opportunity to take a clear stand against the country\u2019s constitution and the basic principles of democracy.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the longstanding tactic of (baselessly) accusing people of being \u201cpaid agents\u201d for the Tamil Tigers. Along with many others over the years, I\u2019ve purportedly been part of some huge conspiracy. I\u2019ve been actively working to revive the Tigers; been bankrolled by the Tigers; anti-Sri Lanka; a Tiger stooge; a separatist; an interventionist; an imperialist; and a bunch of other things. <\/p>\n

Coup supporters have relied upon illegality and dishonesty to try to put Mahinda Rajapaksa in the prime minister\u2019s post. These are masters of thuggery and sophistry.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hope they don\u2019t succeed. Rajapaksa\u2019s return to power would be disastrous \u2013 particularly for ethnic and religious minorities.<\/p>\n

When I lived in Sri Lanka from 2011 to 2014, I spent most of my time in Colombo and Jaffna. I had access to a lot of information. Getting a sense of what life was like for people in the Northern Province, for example, was extremely powerful. <\/p>\n

There were places that I couldn\u2019t go in the north because it would attract too much attention. While travelling by car with colleagues, there were times when I had to hide so that military personnel would not see me at checkpoints. My colleagues didn\u2019t want unwanted questions or additional attention. For a host of reasons, daily life in the north was very difficult and most of that hasn\u2019t changed. It\u2019s impossible to forget how bad Rajapaksa was for the country \u2013 with brazen authoritarianism and widespread human rights violations. There was the clear anti-Tamil and then anti-Muslim agenda. There was fear, the brutal suppression of dissent and much more. <\/p>\n

The Coalition Government has been terrible. It\u2019s been so bad that it seems like some people may be forgetting about how much worse Rajapaksa\u2019s reign was, and how horrible \u2013 how much worse \u2013 his return to power would be.<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding all the chaos, Sri Lanka\u2019s institutions have mostly held up (thus far). The Supreme Court. The Court of Appeal. Parliament. Civil society. Protests. Public demonstrations against the coup. Bravery and resilience in the face of lawlessness, bullying and lies. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s no substitute for this type of bravery and resilience. Irrespective of how the crisis ends, it seems like those sorts of actions \u2013 that resistance \u2013 will become ever more important.<\/p>\n

(Taylor Dibbert is a writer and consultant based in Washington, D.C. This article appeared in the \u201cDaily FT\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Taylor Dibbert Sri Lanka\u2019s political crisis continues. The attempted coup is a huge mess. No one knows how the imbroglio will end, although the coup has been failing. Of course, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that the project to illegally put Mahinda Rajapaksa in the prime minister\u2019s post will fail. But the fact that coup …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Coup Supporters have Relied upon Illegality and Dishonesty to try to put Mahinda Rajapaksa in the Prime Minister\u2019s Post.Let\u2019s Hope They Don\u2019t Succeed.’ »<\/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\/62132"}],"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=62132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62133,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62132\/revisions\/62133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}