R Chandrasoma

It is commonly assumed that a factual statement or a proposition of some importance is deemed true or authentic only if there is proof of its validity. In other words, a proposition – if acceptable – must rest on sound evidence.

In the world of politics this wisdom is rarely seen. To be more focused, let us see how a ‘political truth’ spreads. It is ‘propagated’ as a ‘meme’ – term first used by Richard Dawkins. A meme is an unconscious conditioning of the mind through the infective spread of a captivating idea. The truth is eclipsed by the allure of a specious idea.

Let us take a striking example from the recent political drama in our own country. That MR was a rogue, a killer of his opponents and a vast swindler of the countries resources was shaped by crafty propagandist both here and abroad. The key feature to be noticed is that this spread was as a mental infection without the reasoning and questioning that characterizes ordinary political discourse. The conquering strategy of the UNP and its associates – both in Sri Lanka and abroad – was to repeat the Great Lie ad nauseam until it became a public fixation – a political stance that few found possible to question.

Currently the land that they (the UNP and its foreign and local allies) wrested from the MR and his government is in dire distress. Their ‘response’ is to magnify the imagined villainy and to blame all on the previous regime. Thus public bankruptcy is supposedly rooted in the ‘big loans’ taken by MR.  A great harbor built by MR becomes a capital nuisance that burdens the efforts of the New Dispensation to reduce the sufferings of the poor masses.

A Land that exported rice is now importing cheap Indian grain to forestall a food shortage. Crooks abound and killing is now done by sophisticated assault rifles. Sri Lanka has become a dynamic centre for the global trade in narcotics. Killings and cruel maiming on our high road due do vehicular accidents now greatly surpasses the deaths due to such things as kidney disease and Dengue Fever.

The Yahapalanaya fraudsters are notoriously silent on these matters – for good reasons. They cannot put the blame on MR as public discipline was the forte of the previous Government. The treacherous ‘meme’ that rocketed the UNP and its hangers on to power and political glory is now rotting in the brains of the deluded masses.