The Doomsayers are the Rulers in the Fraternity of Editorialists of Sri Lanka.
Posted on January 24th, 2013

R Chandrasoma

It is true that the good has little impact as news while the ugly, the bizarre and the disorderly are ardently sought by news-mongers. This reflects a bias common to mankind as a whole and we ought not to be too critical about its prevalence. Things take a more sinister turn when this natural propensity to highlight the bad is pursued as a policy to demean and diminish a country. It becomes heinously bad when the target of vilification is one’s own country and the presentation of the news is blighted and distorted to bring discredit to a society or commune of which the offending newspapers are part. We have dealt with matters abstractly – but any reader of the editorial comment and whoƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  glances – even cursorily – atƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  the presentation of the news in the major English periodicals of Sri Lanka will understand what we cavil at. Let us, first, enter a caveat. Those publications that directly serve what may be described as the ‘interests of the rulers’ are exempt from our strictures for obvious reasons. Their patriotism is arguably forced and even meretricious. We focus our attention on the major newspapers in private hands that serve an anglicized elite that is currently the articulate leader of opinion-building in this country. More importantly, it is this elite that interacts with the world outside and any ‘picturing’ of the situation in our country is necessarily based on these slanted and bilious reports.
Let us flesh out this philosophy of contempt by reference to the current scenario in our land . The prior assumption that shapes the news is that Sri Lanka is a contemptible country ruled by high-level thieves and miscreants who have wrested power from the people by corrupt practices and grand deceptions. It is taken as axiomatic that a politician in Sri Lanka is a villain at heart and their ‘productions’ are fancy feats to deceive the public. Cartoons are psychologically potent and they are used freely to insult and demonize the rulers. If a Harbour is constructed it is a rock-chocked joke according to these pundits. The economic indices that indicate progress are dismissed as bogus artifacts churned out by stooges of the government in the Central Bank. The Health Services in this country are dismissed asƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  an inferior and debased service for the poor that is chronically afflicted with problems. On education, the same tar-brush treatment given as for the Health Services. Our schools employ the unemployable and bombinate worthlessly in isolation from world. Only the bad is seen while the extraordinary achievement of a poor country is blithely ignored through the ‘blindsight’ of these editorialists. To the latter, ‘praise’ connotes ‘succumbing’ or ‘kowtowing’
and anything outside the saturnine has no deep news-value.
We must not ignore another aspect on this wholesale assault on Sri Lanka. It is not the rulers alone that serve as the wellspring of public rottenness. This country -supposedly – is a seething cauldron of failed and contemptible souls unleashing through their wickedness a total breakdown of law and order. Women and children are not safe on our roads as this Buddhist land is the happy hunting ground of rapists and child-molesters. The editorialists weave common sinfulnessƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  into a tapestry of a failed and benighted state where corruption at the gubernatorial level is said to seep down to the level of the common people – who see lawlessness at the top as the incentive not only to rob but to unleash those bestial tendencies that are held in check in healthy societies. Thus, consensual sex among those not bonded by marriage is treated as a crime and the newspapers carry screaming headlines about such alliances as a reflection of the moral chaos that engulfs our country.
This machinery of diabolical misrepresentation is not new. Throughout the War Years, these same newspapers fought valiantly a ‘paper war’ on behalf of the Tamil Tigers. Sinhala Chauvinism (nationalism) was seen as the great enemy while the Tamils had honourable ‘aspirations’. The traitorous pen-pushers of that age are still in employment in the newspapers that gave them enthusiastic coverage in those bad days. Indeed, they have lost little of the anti-national fire that they displayed in the years gone by. The man who loudly declared that the Sinhala forces can never defeat the Tamils because the former cannotƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  match the ‘brain-power’ of the Eelamists is still in action lambasting the Sinhala race and its leadership. He declaredƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  with great hauteur that the defeat of the LTTE would remove the last safeguard of the Tamils in a state ruled by Sinhala chauvinists. While the Tigers have gone their surrogates and friends are alive and kicking.
It remains to ask why this strange phenomenon is so strongly rooted in our country. That newspapers across the world – especially the Western Press – has a wild independence that cares nought for authority is a well known fact. That they routinely ridicule those in power and fearlessly denounce perceived enemies is a feature of the fourth estate in those lands that is, in many ways, admirable. They are, however, deeply patriotic and their venom is directed as those – local or foreign – who diminish their country. Thus the religious right in the USA commands an arsenal of news-media attacking Obama and the Eastern Liberals but they do not ‘spit upwards’ as our leading English Journals do. As to whyƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  we have nation-haters of this anomalous kind, many ‘explanations’ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  can be given. Briefly, it pays to be unpatriotic.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Great forces outside love the ‘bashing’ of Sri Lanka in an age when the Great are threatened withƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  catastrophic ‘devaluations’ while the
newbies among nation-states seek a significance that was denied to them for centuries.

3 Responses to “The Doomsayers are the Rulers in the Fraternity of Editorialists of Sri Lanka.”

  1. Ratanapala Says:

    It would be interesting to note who these traitors are! 90% of Sinhala Christians are Anti- Sri Lanka. 90% of the so called educated Sinhala Buddhists are Christian boot lickers.

    The so called Free Press is owned and controlled by Christian interests inimical to the well being of the Sri Lankan state. Throughout they have campaigned for the devolution of power in Sri Lanka. Christian Church’s agenda is to dismember Sri Lanka so that it can be evangelized and converted to a boot licking Christian nation of the Christian West. In effect Free Press itself is a misnomer as it is only the views of the affluent – mostly Chrisitan that are expressed there.

    Even the so called Government media there are sleepers and moles who carryout the Christian agenda from within quite effectively at the correct place and time when activated. Even in the Government media the outlook remains pro-western and pro- christian by and large.

    In any Anti- Sri Lanka situation it is pertinent to see the religious / ethnic affiliation of the person or persons involved.

    Sri Lanka is truly between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. In any other country these traitors will be exposed, ridiculed and treated appropriately.

  2. douglas Says:

    Mr. Chandrasoma: In paragraph 2 and 3 – Are you re-emphasising what is actually happening in Sri Lanka?

  3. Nimal Says:

    Ratnapala
    Please don’t bring a religious conflicts in Sl,bad enough we suffered over 30 with a separatist conflict.We have no other option but to follow the way the countries that are highly developed,perhaps you are living in one?
    Then only we could win the threat of the terrorist lobby.Sadly what you wrote up here doesn’t help at all.
    Writing open letters to leaders in the world is not helpful as the separatist rump is well established with wealth and high numbers in voters.
    So develop the country on acceptable secular line and definitely not on mad religious line.True there are Christin fundamentalist,pretty strong in US and they are a force to recon with and a big problem for US.They too are linked to the gun lobby perhaps and sadly a few more massacres by those nutters might force them to do something about it.They are dangerous and lethal as the Al qaeda terrorists.They dictate the mad US policies.People themselves in that country will hopefully deal with these nutters in time.
    There are many faults in the west,but good out number the bad,at least we could make a decent living peacefully.I have a business in SL as well and it is a challenge there.I was nearly killed two years ago during the election fever,only trying to get some kattasamol for my converted Su**s and I happen to be in the wrong place and wrong time in the stree.So what is my life compared to the innocent village boys that died for our county fighting that ruthless lot of terrorists? So don’t discredt them by bringing in devisive statements and give these terrorist rump a reason to get back.

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