{"id":71220,"date":"2020-12-09T15:23:24","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T20:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=71220"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T21:26:13","slug":"there-is-a-contradiction-between-the-democratic-dna-of-sri-lankan-social-consciousness-and-behaviour-and-the-harsh-rigid-stubborn-insensitive-monarcho-militarist-mode-of-the-gotabaya-rajapaksa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=71220","title":{"rendered":"There is a contradiction between the democratic DNA of Sri Lankan social consciousness and behaviour, and the harsh, rigid, stubborn, insensitive, monarcho-militarist mode of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe are not living an era of change, but a change of era\u201d<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Pope Francis<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a contradiction between the needs of recovery and progress on all fronts, and the regime\u2019s restrictive framework and retrogressive ideas.<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 proliferation and the Mahara massacre are but manifestations of the ideology of denial and the failure of the organisational doctrine-cum-model introduced by the GR regime.<\/p>\n

There is a contradiction between the propaganda of the regime and the basic requirements of public credibility. The rebuttal by the College of Psychiatrists of the story of riot-inducing drugs, mysteriously stocked in the dispensary of Mahara hospital and supposedly ingested en masse by the prisoners, is an example. (The Sunday Times \u2013http:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk\/201206\/news\/college-of-psychiatrists-disputes-claims-connecting-pills-with-violent-behaviour-424708.html)<\/p>\n

There is a contradiction between the ideology of the regime and the requirements of resuscitating the macroeconomy as distinct from corporate profits.<\/p>\n

There is a contradiction between the regime\u2019s self-image (another Israel) and its reality.<\/p>\n

There is a contradiction between the openness, kaleidoscopic patterning, and democratic DNA of Sri Lankan social consciousness and behaviour, and the harsh, rigid, brittle, stubborn, insensitive, monarcho-militarist mode of the regime.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Voodoo Maga, voodoo Chinthanaya<\/strong><\/p>\n

Making an acknowledged borrowing from President George H.W. Bush, Sajith Premadasa, the Leader of the Opposition, described the incumbent regime\u2019s economic policy as \u201cvoodoo economics\u201d. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s just the half of it. It\u2019s voodoo all the way down. Starting with voodoo anti-COVID medication. <\/p>\n

LankaCNews, a pro-regime website close to Minister Weerawansa broke the story of a wonder cure for COVID-19. The medication has been invented by a gentleman who claims to be an Ayurvedic physician, but the Ayurvedic Association has issued a disclaimer which ran on the same website. This expert\u2019s institutional base and rather ramified title is doctor of dharma (doctrine, theology) and traditional Ayurvedic physician of a \u2018devale\u2019, a Hindu temple or shrine, devoted to a female Hindu deity whose name is most commonly associated with the practice of black magic. She is the more powerful and deadlier, deified equivalent of Louisiana\u2019s Marie Laveau. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026The concoction is promoted by Shaman and \u2018Hela\u2019 Medicine Man Dhammika Bandara and has received wide media coverage. Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Minister of State for Vocational Affairs Dr. Seetha Arambepola, the Minister in charge of the COVID-19 pandemic Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle all have been photographed trying out the \u2018medicine\u2019 before the media. His cause has been publicised in Parliament and on the widely-watched \u2018Big Focus\u2019 interview program on Ada Derana TV. His main backer seems to be Sisira Jayakody, the State Minister for Indigenous Medicine.\u201d (Arjuna Ranawana, EconomyNext)<\/p>\n

Jayakody claims the decoction has been successfully tested on patients. With whose permission and under which controls was this administered? Have this concoction\u2019s results been tested in laboratories run by someone with the international credentials of Prof. Neelika Malavige? Who will be legally accountable for the results, immediate or delayed, of the ingestion by hapless patients of this liquid?<\/p>\n

Mahinda Pathirana, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Press Council and a prominent SLPP ideologue close to the supposedly moderate, enlightened (or moderately enlightened) Basil Rajapaksa tendency, defends the concoction\u2019s brewer and his brew from criticism on Facebook. Pathirana proclaims that \u201cEven medical professionals arise after persons engaged in other professions have found medicines for some diseases. Subsequently we gave them the name \u2018doctor\u2019. Even though Dhammika Bandara maybe a \u2018mason baas\u2019 as some people say, if this medicine of his works, he becomes a doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prof. Nalin de Silva, Co-Founder of Jathika Chinthanaya (\u2018National Thinking\u2019), guru of the Derana proprietor and Sri Lanka\u2019s Ambassador to Myanmar, has posted on his weblog \u2018Kalaya\u2019 a lengthy defence of the shaman-medicine man and excoriated \u2018Western\u2019 medical science. Minister Wimal Weerawansa too defended the exercise. <\/p>\n

What brings the grotesque character of the whole affair into the starkest relief, is the fact that one of the outstanding medical scientists at the forefront of the global anti-corona campaign is of Sri Lankan origin and very much in touch with Sri Lanka and its medical profession: Dr. Maheshi Ramasamy, a Principal Investigator of the Oxford University\u2019s program with Astra-Zeneca which produced a not-for-profit vaccine especially suitable for the developing world. (The Sunday Times \u2013 http:\/\/www.sundaytimes.lk\/201129\/plus\/science-and-medicine-were-part-of-my-life-423957.html)<\/p>\n

Another top expert is Prof. Kamalini Lokuge, awarded the Medal of Australia in 2020 for her contribution as an epidemiologist in the field of public health responses in humanitarian crises.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Prof. Tissa Vitharana, the island\u2019s most senior virologist, who has held top posts in Edinburgh and Melbourne in Virology and Infectious Diseases research. As he discloses: \u201c\u2026this is a virus, but as far as I know, there were no virologists in the committees that were set up\u2026We should have made use of the trained personnel we have, but the idea that it should be done by people with connections is the kind of thinking we have.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt started as a military exercise\u2026But now it is entirely a matter for the health personnel to handle which should be supported by the Army and the Police.\u201d (Daily Mirror)<\/p>\n

There in a nutshell is the inherent asymmetry between the irrational model of decision-making of the Gotabaya regime and the rational, scientific imperative regarding the wellbeing of the country. <\/p>\n

Easter carnage, voodoo fogging<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a voodoo-like effect of fogging of the discussion about the Easter massacre. Several top security and intelligence officials and officers admit that they received the Indian intelligence tip-off but did not raise the alarm nor really did anything much about it, and they seem to get away with that answer. Did they think that the prospect of a terrorist attack was not the sort of thing they were supposed to be dedicated to, and paid a salary for, preventing? <\/p>\n

More dramatically, a news story broke in Beirut and Colombo that the Saudi Embassy had by some intriguing coincidence, strictly cautioned its employees five days before the Easter massacre not to move around during the Easter season. Has that story been fully investigated? Why doesn\u2019t anyone talk about it?<\/p>\n

That story, with an embedded video, was as follows: <\/p>\n

Special instructions from Saudi Arabia to Embassy on Easter Attack<\/p>\n

Written by Staff Writer 04 May, 2019 | 7:49 PM<\/p>\n

COLOMBO (News 1st): Lebanese news outlet Alahed News reports that they have obtained a top-secret document sent by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Saudi Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Abdul Nasser al-Harethi.<\/p>\n

The letter which was sent 5 days prior to the attack seems to indicate that the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was aware of the attack that took place on Easter Sunday.<\/p>\n

The letter signed by Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz al-Assaf instructs the Ambassador to carry out the following steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst: You should delete all documents, computer data and latest correspondence with domestic and foreign members and groups, in addition to imposing a curfew for the embassy personnel unless it is necessary.<\/p>\n

Second: You should inform all those related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including counsellors, security forces and intelligence during the three coming days, especially on the Christian Easter Day, to avoid presence in public and crowded places namely churches.<\/p>\n

Third: You should send written news about the Sri Lankan authorities and their viewpoints regularly to this ministry \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

However, 2 days ago the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Sri Lanka advised its nationals to leave Sri Lanka, due to the prevailing situation in the country.<\/p>\n

The embassy, in a tweet, said;<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to the current security situation in the Republic of Sri Lanka, the embassy advises citizens in Sri Lanka to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Special instructions from Saudi Arabia to Embassy on Easter Attack (newsfirst.lk) \u2013 https:\/\/www.newsfirst.lk\/2019\/05\/04\/special-instructions-from-saudi-arabia-on-easter-attack\/.<\/p>\n

Voodoo politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s voodoo ethnopolitics. Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekara declared in Parliament that it was President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s mistake not to have banned the TNA after the war ended, and that the TNA\u2019s Sumanithiran should be banned from Parliament. He amplifies it in the State-owned Sunday Observer:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026They have taken the oath for the territorial integrity of the country. If they discuss with other countries to introduce federalism in our country, it is totally against the oath they have taken. I think former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has made a \u2018mistake\u2019. He was very sympathetic towards these Tamil politicians. When Hitler was defeated his Nazi political party was destroyed\u2026However, when we defeated the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world, the LTTE\u2019s proxy and political arm, the TNA was not banned. That could have been a \u2018mistake\u2019 by the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa because he was sympathetic towards the Tamil politicians. He forgave the Tamil politicians\u2026The TNA is an LTTE proxy\u2026Sumanthiran and other Tamil politicians who are always making hate speeches against the Sinhalese should be banned from coming to Parliament.\u201d (Sunday Observer \u2013 http:\/\/www.sundayobserver.lk\/2020\/12\/06\/opinion\/govt-right-track-deal-any-extremism-rear-admiral-retd-sarath-weerasekera)<\/p>\n

In a televised statement, Army Commander Shavendra Silva briefed us about a woman who boarded a bus while carrying a claymore mine. He preceded and followed that useful information by stressing that there were efforts to revive the LTTE ideology overseas and \u201ceven locally\u2026as we can see from certain things said in certain places\u201d. <\/p>\n

Speaking on 7 December, war-winning Army Commander and SJB parliamentarian Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka deployed factual argumentation as heavy artillery to flatten into rubble Rear-Admiral Sarath Weerasekara\u2019s self-commissioned personality cult, his call for the proscription of the TNA, and his labelling of TNA leaders Sampanthan and Sumanthiran as racists. <\/p>\n

The TNA\u2019s eviction from Parliament could be activated after some peaceful protest against land grabs or an especially powerful speech by Sumanthiran, Ponnambalam, Wigneswaran or Shanakiyan Rasamanikkam (prominent Federal parliamentarian Rasamanikkam\u2019s grandson), a freshman MP who made a searing moral indictment in his debut Budget debate. Ponnambalam and Wigneswaran aren\u2019t TNA, but to Sinhala supremacist ears they all sound alike, and equally uppity. <\/p>\n

The Tamil parties are trapped between the Government\u2019s unilateralism and Delhi\u2019s apparent shift of focus, or priority, from the north-east Tamils to the Eastern Terminal.<\/p>\n

A multi-track countervailing response seems strategically logical and likely: <\/p>\n

i) A Tamil United Front, bringing together the able Tamil oppositional parliamentary front-liners, which would facilitate interface with the world community at political, diplomatic and legislative levels. <\/p>\n

ii) A Tamil-speaking United Front incorporating the Muslim parties. <\/p>\n

iii) A self-reliant, self-propelled outreach and worldwide mobilisation \u2013 including of Indian political society\u2014through reasonable argumentation and leveraging of emergent new global Tamil influence. <\/p>\n

Only the full weight and reach of the global Tamil community and its new political and social influence at the higher end, rather than the Tiger-cult devotee enclave, can move the needle of decision-making in capitals including Delhi. Blocking the way is The Prabhakaran Trap. No global soft-power battle of narratives for justice, rights, non-discrimination and autonomy, can be credibly fought with the archetypally villainous Velupillai cast as the unconvincing hero of an epic tragedy. <\/p>\n

Voodoo doll democracy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The report of the consultations of the 11th round of diplomatic consultations between China and Sri Lanka confirmed the new dimensional thrust not only in Sino-Lankan relations but also in China\u2019s foreign relations in general:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026Vice Foreign Minister of China Ambassador Luo Zhaohui said\u2026China stands ready to \u2026continue to implement the consensus reached between the leaders of the two countries, constantly enhance mutual political trust, and strengthen the exchanges of experience in governance and administration of state affairs.\u201d (Daily FT \u2013 http:\/\/www.ft.lk\/news\/China-and-Sri-Lanka-hold-new-round-of-diplomatic-consultations\/56-709783)<\/p>\n

During the great friendship of China\u2019s Premier (and Foreign Minister) Zhou Enlai and Prime Ministers S.W.R.D. and Sirimavo Bandaranaike successively, there was no effort to \u201cstrengthen the exchanges of experience in governance and administration of state affairs\u201d. As good friends, Premier Zhou and the Bandaranaikes knew that between the different political systems of the PRC and Ceylon\/Sri Lanka\u2014one-party and Asia\u2019s oldest democracy respectively\u2014there could and should be exchanges of experiences in many areas but never in the domain of \u201cgovernance and administration of state affairs\u201d.<\/p>\n

As Asia\u2019s oldest democracy, our political system is and should remain qualitatively different and firewalled from that of China\u2019s one-party, \u2018party-state\u2019 system which has served China well. However, does President GR think the two are compatible and convergent to the point of \u201cstrengthen[ing] experience of governance and administration of state affairs\u201d (presumably including Hong Kong)? <\/p>\n

The new Chinese doctrine of \u201cMilitary-Civil Fusion\u201d (MCF), by placing \u2018Military\u2019 before \u2018Civil\u2019, appears a deviation from Mao\u2019s \u201cmass line\u201d and firm doctrinal insistence that \u201cthe Party commands the gun; not the gun, the Party\u201d. MCF appeared just before the Gotabaya Presidency and is curiously similar to the regime-model that President Gotabaya has tried to put in place, with negative social results in our contrasting local context.<\/p>\n

The Port City and its Chinese investment are decided pluses under any normal, democratic, non-aligned administration (Mahinda\/SLPP or Premadasa\/SJB), but when the Gotabaya \u2018MCF\u2019 regime model is keyed-in, the three components could morph into a qualitatively different offshore strategic platform with high-tech capability jutting into the Indian Ocean, while of course also acting as financial feeder-funnel and anchor for the power-elite. The regime would provide the garrison for the enclave; the enclave would be backup power-source for the regime. <\/p>\n

The Gotabaya regime\u2019s voodoo paradigm of converting or razing and redeveloping Asia\u2019s oldest democracy bases itself on the belief in China\u2019s irresistible rise and America\u2019s inexorable decline. That\u2019s unwise. <\/p>\n

Firstly, as the Chinese Communist Party enunciated in its Theory of the Three Worlds, when it was at pains to persuade the planet that Moscow was more dangerous than Washington (and succeeded in contributing to the USSR\u2019s demise, helping usher in US unipolarity), it is the rising world power rather than the declining one that tends to be more aggressive and dangerous by virtue of the fact that it is striving to redivide an already divided world. By that logic, if the theory of China\u2019s inexorable rise and America\u2019s inexorable decline is true, it is China rather than the USA that would constitute the greater source of conflict. <\/p>\n

Secondly, the present conjuncture in world affairs is a moment of transition from a waning stage defined by the rise of China and the relative decline of the USA, to a waxing stage defined by the contradiction between China\u2019s assertion and America\u2019s global renewal (aimed at re-ascendancy)\u2013and the working out of that dialectic. <\/p>\n

Will a grand coalition of democracy, envisaged by President-elect Biden as the cutting edge (or strategic \u2018Second Front\u2019?) of the planetary contestation of systems and their governing ideas, sit on the sidelines while the flipping of Asia\u2019s oldest democracy into a target-hardened Trumpism or systemic China-clone continues? Or will that democratic coalition rescue Asia\u2019s oldest democracy? <\/p>\n

The answer could demonstrate to the Global South and especially to Asia, who might prevail in a clash of wills. One camp believes a despotic system headed by an Emperor-figure or martial monarch can prevail because it enables the greatest mobilisation and concentration of the greatest willpower. Can democracy prove it wrong? Which system, which political order and idea, has the greater (Nietzschean) \u201cwill to power\u201d? <\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is to 21st century Asia what Spain was to pre-WW II 20th century Europe: a point of definition. Colombo is Madrid.<\/p>\n

Coirtesy:Daily FT<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Dr.Dayan Jayatilleka \u201cWe are not living an era of change, but a change of era\u201d \u2013 Pope Francis There is a contradiction between the needs of recovery and progress on all fronts, and the regime\u2019s restrictive framework and retrogressive ideas. The COVID-19 proliferation and the Mahara massacre are but manifestations of the ideology of …<\/p>\n

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