{"id":110742,"date":"2021-01-16T17:20:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T00:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110742"},"modified":"2021-01-16T17:20:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T00:20:46","slug":"lessons-learnt-from-lies-of-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/01\/16\/lessons-learnt-from-lies-of-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons Learnt from Lies of Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

After giving leadership\nto his futile and disastrous insurrection to remain in the White House Donald\nTrump, the lame duck President of America, has agreed at last to move out \u2013 I\nwouldn\u2019t call it a peaceful transition of power — on January 20,  leaving\nAmerica in shambles. There are more troops (20,000 National Guards) now in\nWashington D.C.  than all the troops in Afghanistan, Iran and Syria put\ntogether to protect it from \u2013 no, not Russia or China \u2013but from internal White\nterrorist who are threating to raid the capital on the Inaugural Day. All 50 capitals\nof the 50 America states are under threat and the security forces are stretched\nthin to protect Democrats, journalist and dissidents  of the Trump by his\narmed followers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has shattered the\nRight-wing of America like the window panes of the Congress poked by mobsters\nwith the poles of their flags. Trump has also split America right down the\nmiddle. Whether the Right-wing can come together to its Grand Old status of the\nParty of Abraham Lincoln after the self-destructive shenanigans of Donald Trump\nis very much in doubt. Trump injected a passion  into politics which was\nheavily dosed with hate. Besides, he will  be remembered as the first\nPresident who summoned his followers and urged them to march down Pennsylvania\nAvenue to take another branch of the government with force, if necessary, by\nattacking and disrupting the democratic act of procedurally legitimising the\npeaceful transfer of power which would take the Presidency away from him. Above\nall, he incited insurrection against holiest shrine of democracy in America \u2013\nthe Congress. The House has impeached him. If the Senate fails to convict\nhim  history will. This will be the  deadliest blow to his ego \u2013 a\nman who always rated his actions as the greatest in American history!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will also go down\nin  history as biggest coffin-maker of America. His bovine refusal to\nconfront the pandemic scientifically has boosted the undertakers\u2019 industry\nwhich has sold 400,000 coffins under his regime and now sales are rising at the\nrate of 20,000  a week. President elect Joe Biden in his first rescue and\nrecovery\u201d speech told  last Thursday that America has lost 18 million jobs\nand  closed down 400,000 small businesses \u2013 the backbone of the American\neconomy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political violence\non an organised scale right across the nation is stalking America as never\nbefore \u2013 not since the American Civil War. The latest investigations emerging\nfrom those arrested and other connected sources indicate that those who raided\nthe Congress did not  come out of a void. Replay of taped conversations of\nthe mob indicate that they knew the floor plan and where to go to do what.\nObviously, in his doomed days wounded Donald Trump was  not  going to\nquit without fighting back to rescue whatever he  could unlike Richard\nNixon who fell on knees in the White House and asked Henry Kissinger too to\nkneel down and pray. In his departing speech Nixon admitted that he gave the\nsword to his enemies to stab him. Trump has  showed no remorse so far. In\nhis erratic , vindictive and discombobulated ways, he has even refused to pay\nRudy Giuliani, his loyal lawyer who fought for him. <\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drama he has\nstaged so far has echoes of a Shakespearian tragedy. Something akin to Julius\nCaeser<\/em><\/strong> where the law-makers \u2013 some of them the best of his friends like\nBrutus — came out with  their knives to stab to death the man who was<\/sub> stepping out of line and trending  to be a\ndictator. Trump became a tragic figure in his last days because he pursued\nfanatically his unsubstantiated, unsustainable lie that Joe Biden won the\nelection fraudulently. Lies of the political leaders have serious consequences\nto the people and to political institutions. Invariably racist leaders depend\nprimarily on lies to rise and the survive. Hitler\u2019s tragic adventures depended\nessentially on lies against the Jews. The lies of the Tamil leadership that\nlegitimised violence against  the Sinhalese in the Vadukoddai Resolution\nricocheted and eventually led to the decimation of the Tamil leadership \u2013\nmainly those who manufactured political myths and  lies like of Appapillai\nAmirthalingam and Neelan Tiruchelvam.  (More of this later.) Trump\u2019s lies\ndragged him all the way to the inevitable like the way the Tamils were dragged\nto Nandikadal.  <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The positive side\nof political lies is that they create monsters who turn against the\nmanufacturers of the lies. Bigger the political lies bigger the possibility of\nthe lies boomeranging and destroying the manufacturers of lies, if not the\nlies. By October 20, 2020 Trump had uttered 22,000 lies. He was totalling at\nthe rate of 50 lies day, according to Fact Checking Data Base of the Washington\nPost.<\/em><\/strong><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are just two\nof them: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. The ice\ncaps were going to melt. They were going to melt. They were going to be gone by\nnow, but now they\u2019re setting records, so OK, they\u2019re at a record level\n\u2013interview with Piers Morgan \u2013 Jan 28, 2018<\/em><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Indeed, polar ice set\nrecords  but it was for shrinking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • Global\nwarming \u2013 total hoax! \u2013 <\/em>Donald Trump Twitter — Dec 28, 2013.<\/strong> <\/em>He has also\nreferred to it as  bullshit\u201d, laughable\u201d, expensive hoax\u201d.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      It was the biggest lie\nof them all that nailed him finally: he was insisting that he won the election\nand that Joe Biden stole it from him. It would have gone with the winds like\nthe other ones if it did not have consequences. This lie was accepted  as\nthe truth by his followers \u2013 millions  of  them who were chivvied by\nhim to fight and win back what he lost. At this point things got worse. Lies\nhave a limited lifespan and eventually it reaches a point where they cannot go\nany further with  breaking into violence. When  lies meet the truth\nand fails to breakthrough it must necessarily end in violence. The truth can\ngrow non-violently like in mathematics, Buddhism, medicine etc. But lies can\nwin only by force. Lies can be propagated by charismatic leaders like Hitler,\nPonnambalam-Chelvanayakam and Trump in a certain climate of opinion. But they\ncan\u2019t sustain it for long. That is what happened to Hitler\u2019s lies against the\nJews. That is what happened to the Tamils lies against the Sinhalese embedded\nin the Vadukoddai Resolution which declared war against the Sinhalese. That is\nwhat finally happened to Donald Trump. Lies took the liars down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But it is the\ntragic consequences  to the victims of the lies that are unbearable and\nunacceptable. Who can forgive Hitler for the 6 million Jewish victims that died\nbecause of his lies? Who can forgive  or forget the anti-Sinhala-Buddhist\nlies of the Tamil leaders  (e.g., See Vadukoddai Declaration of War\nagainst the Sinhalese) that led to the deaths of more Tamils under the Tamil\nPot, Prabhakaran,  than any other force? Which historian will ever let\nTrump escape his responsibilities for causing  havoc to the America\ndemocracy because he was a pathological and inveterate liar? In the end, it will\nbe the consequences of his lies that will be measured by historians and condemn\nhim forever as the type that should never be allowed to take command of\nnational affairs at any level. It is true that he became a victim of his own\nlies. But the suffering and the debasing of values he leaves behind condemn him\nforever in the eyes of future generations.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      His refusal to\naccept reality was the primary cause of his  political decline into\ndelusion and depravity. Before the election he told reporters  that he\ncan\u2019t take defeat. He became the embodiment of the cynical words of H. L.\nMencken: The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed\n(and hence clamorous to be led to be safety) by menacing it with an endless\nseries of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.\u201d Demonising the other\u201d made him a\nracist, white supremacists, misogynist, xenophobic and an irredeemable rabid\nmyopic. He was defeated by his disability to face science, truth and reality.\nHe is an American Stalinist who tried to solve human problems by building \nwalls to keep them apart. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In the end he\nbecame a desperate loner because he would \/ could  not accept\nresponsibility for  the consequences of his own lies. He was paying for\nhis own incorrigible behaviour. In Shakespeare\u2019s great tragedies the leading\nfigures came to bitter ends either because  they could not face reality\nor  manage or cope with the flaws of their incorrigible character. The\nadditional element in Trump\u2019s tragedy is that he was aided and abetted by the\nleadership of the Republican Party and those in the intellectual class,\nincluding Fox News, that kept his lies alive and  kicking. They cannot be\nexcused. His lies have divided and polarised America as never before. \nEven the recrudescence of the racist North-South past was witnessed when a man\ncarrying a confederate flag was caught on camera wandering in the halls of the\nCongress. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      What is\nsignificant in all this is the power of lies and the  extent to which it\ncan influence even cognoscenti who refused to believe in reality staring \nin their face. A man who can tell 22,000 lies to his people and get away with\nit with a considerable degree of credibility is indeed a phenomenon. Trump was\nso confident of doing anything any getting away with it that he told his\naudience once that  he can shoot a man in  the 5th Avenue and yet win\nvotes. And to think that America is rated as the most advanced country in the\nworld! <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The new trend\nemerging from the American scene is frightening  because social media\nwhich was supposed to combat lies with the truth has become a negative force of\nmessaging hate-provoking information which has no foundations in reality. What\nis equally frightening is the role of the intellectuals who add fuel to fire\nwith their sophisticated theories and  models to sustain and  boost\nthe lies. . The political ambience created by Trump\u2019s lies is dangerous to the\nfuture of America\u2019s values, peace and stability. Latest polls show that a\nsizeable number of Americans still believe in the lies of Trump even after the\ninsurrection he instigated against a branch of his  government. It is not\nan exaggeration to say that he had reduced the image of America to that of a\nbanana republic. In the end he became the kind of simian described by Gwilym\nLloyd George, the son of David Llyod George. He said that politicians are like\nmonkeys. The higher they go the more revolting are the parts they expose.\u201d!<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In this tale what\nis relevant to us is the deleterious effect of lies that were believed and\npromoted by some of the best intellectuals in all fields. One of the biggest\nlies that led to the longest war in Sri Lanka is discrimination against \nthe Tamils. This accusation lacks substance because they were the\nmost   privileged community in Sri Lanka. How can the most privileged\ncommunity, enjoying all the privileges, perks and positions be at the same time\nvictims of discrimination? They held a disproportionate share of jobs in\nthe  permanent, pensionable, public service wielding administrative power\nat the highest level. At Independence the Permanent Secretary to the first\nPrime Minister, D. S. Senanayake was a Tamil, Sir Kandiah Vaithianathan. The\nfirst Sri Lankan Army Commander was a Tamil, Lt. Col. Anton Muttukumaru. The\nsecond Navy Commander was a Tamil, Admiral Rajan Kadirgamar. The globe-trotting\nRaju Coomaraswamy was the head of the Treasury. The head of Health Service Dr.\nS. Chellapah, the popular campaigner against malaria, was a Tamil.  The\nhead of the Government Clerical Services Union, the bastion of the Jaffna\nTamils was K. C. Nithyanandan, uncle of Minister Douglas Devananda. And they\ncried  discrimination from day one of Independent Ceylon, as it was known\nthen!<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Even the other\nmetrics that measured social conditions of the Tamils proved that the myth of\ndiscrimination against the  Tamils was nothing but that \u2013 a myth. The\nPeople\u2019s Quality of Life Index ( PQLI)  of Jaffna was higher than that of\nColombo. The economic conditions of the Tamil living in the South was even\nhigher than that of the Sinhalese in the South, according to a study of the\nMARGA Institute conducted in 1985. There was no impediment placed by the state\nor by the community to prevent Tamil professionals or entrepreneurs from\ncompeting  and  rising to their potential heights. The Tamils had\ntheir share of small businesses in all towns, cities  and villages.\nLanguage was no barrier for the Tamils to penetrate the Sinhala-dominant areas\nand thrive. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Nevertheless, the\ncritical bone of contention was the language issue. It was, no doubt, a very\nsensitive  issue with the Tamils. Prof. Swaminathan Suseendirarajah, an\ninternationally recognised authority on Tamil culture, wrote: When the author\n(Prof.S.S.) in his investigations put a question to several villagers as to\nwhat their religion was, their prompt answer was \u2018Tamil\u201d, meaning Saivism.\n\u2026.For these villagers, Tamil language and culture cannot be anything other than\nSaivism.\u201d (pp. 141 -142, Studies in Sri Lankan Tamil Linguistics and\nCulture,<\/em><\/strong> 1998). Tamil language was a sacred part of their lives. They\ntake pride in its antiquity and its richness. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So, when S. W. R.\nD. Bandaranaike passed the Sinhala Only Act in 1956 all hell broke loose. It\nwas easy to exploit the language issue more than any other accusation to\ndemonise the Sinhala-Buddhists. It was politically expedient to instil fear\ninto the Tamils that their world has come to end. They didn\u2019t need much\npersuasion to believe that their sacred language and culture was doomed.\nBesides, the main economic security was in earning their bread butter through\nEnglish in the public service and professions. The sudden overthrow of English\nlanguage was seen as a direct blow to their stomach, an act of discrimination. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The issue of\ndiscrimination centred around the Sinhala Only Act mainly. Then there was also\nthe sporadic violence that cropped up from time to time arising mainly from\nTamil extremism threatening to breakaway and establish a separate state. The\nTamils too were provoking the Sinhala lower-level ethnic leadership\u201d to attack\nthe Tamils, according to Prof. A. J. Wilson, to gain political sympathy and\nmileage abroad. Provoking the Sinhalese to attack the Tamils was a deliberate\nstrategy of the Tamils, according Prof. Wilson. Of  course, the main\nthrust of Tamil extremism was to strike fear in the hearts of the Tamils to win\nvotes. Demonising the Sinhala-Buddhists and fear-mongering became the main\nstrategy of the Jaffna Tamil political platform ever since G. G. Ponnambalam\nunleashed the first Tamil-Sinhalese riots in Navalapitiya in 1939. It was\nbasically a class issue of the English-speaking Vellala elite to retain their\ndominant positions in the public service and professions. The average Tamil who\nplied their small businesses and even petty trades had no problem with the\nlanguage issue in Sinhala areas. Despite Sinhala being the official language \u2013\nnow Tamil also \u2013 the affairs of the state and the markets are still conducted\nin English. C. V. Wigneswaran did not conduct his judicial duties in the\nSupreme Court in Sinhalese. He did it in English though he cries discrimination\nnow that he has to win Tamil votes in Jaffna. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      But the big lie\nwas that the Sinhala Only Act would kill the Tamil language and culture. We are\nnow in 2021 and no one can say that the Sinhala Only Act of 1956 has destroyed\nthe Tamil language and culture. Surprisingly enough, the threat to Tamil langue\ncame from Tamil Nadu. In fact, the Tamil intellectuals of Jaffna appealed to\nMrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the then Prime Minister,  urging her to ban\nTamil publications coming  from Tamil Nadu because they were polluting the\npurity of Jaffna Tamil \u2013 and she did. The Tamil wing of Radio Ceylon became the\ncultural haven for Tamil culture and with its powerful transmission it was even\ninfluencing the Tamil culture in Tamil Nadu. The Tamil artistes and script writers\nwho worked in Radio Ceylon have in their memoirs praised the Sinhala heads of\nRadio Ceylon for encouraging and fostering of Tamil culture. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The truth is that\nKumar Ponnambalam and M. A.  Sumanthiram, along with other Vellala\nprofessionals, have gone the other way and have become proficient in Sinhala to\npursue their legal and other professional careers, though S. J. V.\nChelvanayakam went from kachcheri to kachcheri urging the Tamil public servants\nnot to learn Sinhala.  Those who followed his advice failed the efficiency\ntest for promotion and then they cried discrimination. It is the duty of every\npublic servant to learn the language of the people. The Sinhalese had to learn\nTamil and vice versa. How can a Tamil doctor in government service serve a\nvillager in Matara if he does not know Sinhala and how can a Sinhala doctor\nserve in Nallur if he does know Tamil? But insisting on a working knowledge of\nSinhala for Tamil public servants was propagandised as an act of discrimination\nwhile the Sinhalese and Burgher professional took it as a part of their duty\nthough grumbled like hell about it.  The main thing is that they did not\nsee it as a political or communal act. Even the elitist Sinhalese resented\nSinhala Only because they were not proficient  in it. So, it was not an\nact of discrimination against Tamils. It was an act of enforcing public\nservants to learn the language of the people to serve their basic needs. The\nalternative was to ask the people to learn the language of the public servants.\nThe misguided perceptions and fears of 1956\u201d were whipped up by the Vellala\nelite as a political tool to push the Tamils to mono-ethnic extremism.  <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      There are many\ndimensions to the critical issue of language which I will skip because I would\nlike devote the balance available space to the other critical issue promoted by\nthe Tamil lobby to demonise the Sinhala-Buddhists, both nationally and\ninternationally. It was repeated once again by the visiting Foreign Minister of\nIndia, Dr. S. Jaishankar. He said, parroting the mantra of the Tamils : It is\nin Sri Lanka\u2019s own interests that the expectations of the Tamil people for\nequality, justice, peace and dignity within a united Sri Lanka are fulfilled.\u201d\nThis is a politically loaded sentence which in many ways sums up the ultimate\nEelamist objectives in the Tamil political agenda. The words equality\u201d,\njustice\u201d, peace\u201d and dignity\u201d have a politically explosive connotations as\nif the Tamils have been denied these essentials in their daily lives by what\nthey call the Sinhala state\u201d. So, India, accepting this part of the Eelamist\nagenda, is telling Sri Lanka give the Tamils equality\u201d, justice\u201d, peace\u201d and\ndignity\u201d if you want to get our vaccine. <\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Can India resolve\nSri Lankan issue based on lies? Since Dr. Jaishankar is an intellectual of some\nrepute shouldn\u2019t he base his remedies on researched analysis? Can lasting\nsolutions be based on lies?<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I shall explore\nthe answers to these questions next week.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      mahindapala8@bigpond.com<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      H. L. D. Mahindapala After giving leadership to his futile and disastrous insurrection to remain in the White House Donald Trump, the lame duck President of America, has agreed at last to move out \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t call it a peaceful transition of power — on January 20,  leaving America in shambles. There are more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-h-l-d-mahindapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110742","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=110742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110742\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}