{"id":107429,"date":"2020-10-09T15:22:36","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T22:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107429"},"modified":"2020-10-09T15:22:50","modified_gmt":"2020-10-09T22:22:50","slug":"clarity-is-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/09\/clarity-is-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarity is power"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

While\nsurfing the net this morning (October 6) I saw a flash of a You Tube video\npurportedly uploaded by Niroshan Premaratne, former UPFA Matara District MP\n(2015-20) from the Wimal Weerawansa-led Jatika Nidahas Peramuna. He failed to\nenter parliament in the general  election held on August 5 this year. It\nmust have been a great disappointment to him personally; but it certainly was\nmore so to the JNP and its loyal followers, and the general public who \nloved to hear him talk in parliament while championing the nationalist cause\nand launching  devastating verbal onslaughts on the yahapalanaya. Before\nbecoming an MP in 2015, Premaratne was a  popular TV host of star quality\nat ITN. In that capacity, he had demonstrated his skills as a well informed and\narticulate journalist. When he became a politician, the nationalist camp\ngreatly benefited from his oratory. Premaratne lost the election this time, but\nnot through his fault; perhaps he was too good for his own survival among his\nrivals. At only 40, he need not worry about that. Though he belongs to a\ndifferent party, he also took to parliamentary politics under MR\u2019s tutelage.\nThere is time for him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nvideo that  I glimpsed today bears testimony to his brilliance as a\npolitical commentator and communicator. In the video someone offers one half of\na cracked coconut with its fresh white kernel to a hungry grey monkey gazing\ndown from a tree at the invitingly gleaming food. The person places the coconut\nhalf on the fork of a lower branch, where it sits rather precariously. In\ntrying to grab it, the clumsy monkey drops it. Poor monkey! Because of his\nstupidity or clumsiness, he lets a golden chance of having a sumptuous meal\nslip through his fingers. The very short episode shows that Premaratne\u2019s ability\nto communicate a message with clarity remains intact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndon\u2019t know whether Premaratne actually intended to convey what I am arbitrarily\nattributing to the video here. But, I wonder, doesn\u2019t  he want to suggest,\nnot seriously though, I mean with a touch of relaxed humour, that the\ngovernment is running the risk of losing the opportunity offered by the\noverwhelming popular mandate that the SLPP won at the August election to repeal\n19A and bring in 20A in preparation for introducing a completely new\nnation-friendly constitution that will ensure a safe future for all\ncommunities, while also confirming the survival of the Sinhalese and the Buddha\nSasana, through the Rajapaksas\u2019 apparent preoccupation with the appeasement and\naccommodation of the likes of Rauff Hakeem and Rishad Bathiuddeen? I for one do\nnot believe that  they want to go out of their way to please these\nnincompoops, and kick themselves down the ladder  by disowning devoted\nnationalists like Wimal Weerawansa and the monks who were basically\ninstrumental in recalling the Rajapaksa rule that ended terrorism in 2009 and\nushered in an era of communal harmony and general national resurgence. Besides,\nwhere is the need for the Rajapaksas to run after duplicitous opportunists even\nsuspected of having had dealings with Islamic suicide bombers, when the SLPP\nhas in its ranks genuinely unbiased Muslim politicians like JNP\u2019s national list\nMP Mohamed Musammil, who, while serving as his party\u2019s media spokesman, proved\nto be a great communicator? Will the sensible Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims who\ncompose over 90% of the parliament allow a handful of Muslim turncoats to\ndecide the country\u2019s future? However, there is an important point that the\ngovernment leaders should pay heed to. That is, the clarity of information it\nprovides about itself and its actions is an essential item in its defence\narmoury.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2018In\na world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power\u2019, says Juval Noah\nHarari (44), Israeli historian, author and public intellectual (introducing his\nbook \u201821 Lessons for the 21st Century\u2019, 2018). We may usefully adapt this\nobservation of a scientific thinker to suit our country which is faced with an\nunprecedented threat to its very survival from doubly serious ethnicity- and\nreligion-based extremism compounded by relentless geopolitical victimization,\nthus: In a country suffocated by anti-national misinformation, clarity is not\nonly power, but the source of the very vital force that rejuvenates it. To be\npurblind to reality in this context as much as to deliberately obfuscate it,\nhoping that it might become something more acceptable, and more livable with,\nis dangerous, to say the least. Political correctness has its limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPresident has assured that there is no political deal behind the release by the\npolice of Rishad Badiuddeen\u2019s brother. Unlike the previous regime, the present\ngovernment will not interfere in such matters, leaving the law enforcement\nauthorities to do their job properly without let or hindrance. Actually, I\nfeel, it is unfortunate that situations arise that cause the President who is\nuncontaminated with the poison of party politics to issue such statements which\ngive at least a modicum of recognition and dignity to those who don\u2019t deserve\nit at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Providing\nclear information without ambiguity to the public and the outside world about\nthe good things that the government is doing is as important as the good work\nitself. Relentless witch-hunting from 2015 to 2019 failed to substantiate the\nmany false allegations that the  yahapalana champions had raised against\nthe previous MR government. This means that the war winning government\u2019s\nfailure to answer false corruption and other allegations against it in a proper\nconvincing way without the truth being left to be accepted as self-evident,\nbelieving in the consoling thought that \u2018satyameva jayate\u2019 \u2018Truth alone\ntriumphs\u2019, led to disastrous domestic and diplomatic consequences. Why risk the\nrepetition of a catastrophic omission like that once again?  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala While surfing the net this morning (October 6) I saw a flash of a You Tube video purportedly uploaded by Niroshan Premaratne, former UPFA Matara District MP (2015-20) from the Wimal Weerawansa-led Jatika Nidahas Peramuna. He failed to enter parliament in the general  election held on August 5 this year. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}