R Chandrasoma

There is a long history of the Joy experienced by the elect on seeing the defeated ‘sinners’ being punished.  In the Holy Book of the Christians it is stated – Therefore the elect shall go forth…to see the torments of the impious, seeing which they will not be grieved, but will be satiated with joy at the sight of the unutterable calamity of the impious .” The Buddhist position is not very different – the Arahats with their super-normal powers of sense and vision witnessed the awful tortures inflicted on the wicked and were delighted at the outcome. This near-universal ‘trait’ or inclination of the devout puzzled no less a person than Bertrand Russell who wondered why the pious take delight in the punishment of the impious – or more generally, that piety gathers strength when sinning becomes a public spectacle. It is a political variation on this theme that is the substance of this comment. Of late, we had the sad case of certain high officials arraigned and convicted for the fraudulent misuse of public funds. It is conceded on all sides that the victims were honorable men suborned by officialdom to perform executive actions that the Courts found culpable. It is not the legal or political aspects of this matter that is our concern here – it is the psychology of the political reaction to the conviction. The Loud-Mouthed JVP found this episode an instance of the just conviction of sinners and expressed Hallelujahs at the turn of events. Their Joy was more than matched by supporters of the UNP who regarded this whole affair as emblematic of the robbery, deception and vice that (supposedly) characterized the regime of MR,

There is now a well-supported campaign to demonize the regime of MR with Newspaper Editors, Political Pundits and Sundry Writers declaiming in unison on the social mischief wrought by MR and his government. All this in spite of the fact that the veriest idiot will agree that Sri Lanka under MR was not exactly Paradise but robustly stable and an example to other countries in South Asia.