{"id":41769,"date":"2015-02-24T10:44:16","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T16:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41769"},"modified":"2015-02-23T14:06:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T21:06:23","slug":"rattled-ranil-panics-after-nugegoda-rally-summons-media-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/24\/rattled-ranil-panics-after-nugegoda-rally-summons-media-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Rattled Ranil panics after Nugegoda rally: summons media heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The 100-day programme of the My-3-pala-naya\u201d had no plans to encounter the Nugegoda rally. Not so soon, at least. They thought they could sail smoothly into the imagined ideal country\u201d located, of course, only in mythical Maithripala\u2019s Manifesto. But within 40 days the My-3-planners\u201d were hit by a backlash that no new elected government had ever faced in electoral politics. It is Ranil Wickremesinghe who is feeling the heat of the rising events going against his political ambitions. It is his Prime Ministerial seat that is at stake in the coming general\u00a0 election. Maithripala Sirisena has\u00a0 no such problems because\u00a0 he is ensconced safely in his\u00a0 presidential seat.<\/p>\n

It is this turn of events that has made Wickremesinghe nervous. He is showing signs of a panic-stricken, nervous\u00a0 wreck. He is hitting indiscriminately at anything that moves \u2013 from the Australian Prime Minister to editor\u2019s who have criticized him. He\u00a0 has now summoned newspaper owners to meet him to keep the media in line with his future. He has even invited anti-Rajapakse NGOs to this meeting, hoping to get their backing to suppress the press.<\/p>\n

It is time that someone started feeding him with valium sandwiches morning, noon and night to calm his nerves. This champion of free media\u201d \u2013 remember how\u00a0 he\u00a0 packed off Paul Harris, the correspondent of Jane\u2019s Weekly<\/em> and Daily Telegraph<\/em> for exposing his deal with Prabhakaran? \u2013 feels that the only way to control the oppositional forces\u00a0 rising against him is\u00a0 to muzzle\u00a0 the\u00a0 media. To do this he has to cook up a plausible argument. Having promised the electorate that the media will be free he cannot be seen to have gone back on his word to suppress the opposition. He has to provide an excuse. And the excuse is : media\u00a0 is\u00a0 rousing\u00a0 communal feelings!<\/p>\n

So has anyone seen the Bodu Bala Sena, or even Champika Ranawaka who raved and ranted against the Muslims and Tamils in his recent tour of Australia just before the presidential election, whipping up communal feelings after\u00a0 January 8 in the south? I was in the Monash University audience listening to Ranawaka predicting the end of the Sinhalese with the Muslims and the Tamils taking over\u00a0 the nation within the next few decades with their powers of prolific procreation, money and scheming politics. Even he is silent as if\u00a0 his mouth is stuffed with pittu <\/em>now on the communal issue.<\/em> Only Wickremesinghe has begun to see Sinhala-Buddhist communalists rising in the newspaper columns. Obviously, he hasn\u2019t read TamilNet<\/em> and Tamils newspapers. He is quitehappy to look the other way about Jaffna jingoism because it does not pose a threat to him. Only the alleged communalism of the Sinhala papers is seen as a threat to communal harmony. Which is Wickremesinghe\u2019s way of saying that raising Sinhala-Buddhist\u00a0 issue is a threat to him.<\/p>\n

Apart from this,\u00a0 there are early signs of Wickremesinghe cracking under increasing pressure. As a control-freak, with an obsession to gather all power into his\u00a0 hands, the work load is bound to overwhelm him. There is no one else to blame except\u00a0 himself for painting himself into this tight corner. Suddenly everything has begun to get on top of him and unsettle him.<\/p>\n

First, he is the unelected Prime Minister without a majority in the House. His position is hanging in the balance\u00a0 with his major political partners in the SLFP threatening to challenge his\u00a0 authority with a no-confidence motion against one of his most reliable partners, John Amaratunga. He wouldn\u2019t have given Police\u00a0 powers to anyone other than whom he can trust. Remember Amaratunga\u00a0 is the loyal Police Minister who concocted the story of Army trying target Wickremesinghe soon after he signed\u00a0 the deal with Prabhakaran \u2013 a ruse to leak the names of the deadly and elite LRRP forces for the LTTE to target\u00a0 them?<\/p>\n

Second the work load is throwing him into a dizzy spin, with pressures from various lobbies crowding him and pushing him into corners from which he cannot\u00a0 escape. His political IOUs are also coming home to roost. He is also struggling desperately to catch up with his 100-day time-table which he presented with President Maithripala Sirisena to the business community to impress that the My-3\u201d team can achieve what they promise.\u00a0 With each failure and falling behind his own time schedule he is beginning to look more like a lame duck than a dynamic reformer.<\/p>\n

Third, cracks are developing\u00a0 within his own ranks and his partners and he does not how to prevent these exploding forces from running\u00a0 out\u00a0 of control.<\/p>\n

Fourth, in his koka-tath-thai-laya <\/em>Manifesto he has bitten more than what\u00a0 he can chew. The rosy optimism of\u00a0 delivering promises on time is fading by the day. Ven Sobitha is now batting on the sidelines promoting\u00a0 the idea of postponing the delivery date to two years.<\/p>\n

Fifth, he wants to form a national government ONLY<\/span> with him at the head, without giving\u00a0 too much power to the other parties, even though they are in the majority. His obsession with power together with his paranoia is compelling him to poke his fingers into minute details in\u00a0 the administration which is spinning beyond his control incrementally. It is impossible for him be at the top overseeing\u00a0 the big picture and micro-manage the details at the bottom\u00a0 simultaneously. Nor is he, at 65, that\u00a0 healthy or physically strong to carry that work\u00a0load.<\/p>\n

Sixth, his gimmickry of presenting a seeni-bola\u201d budget has come\u00a0 and gone with hardly any impact on the electorate. He has already lost two Ministers \u2013 Faiz Mustapha and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha (possibly). And counting. There is no new blood to give a shine to his regime. He has fallen back\u00a0 on the tired old fogeys that led to his fall the last time.<\/p>\n

Seventh, he lacks the charisma of\u00a0 a leader who can win the confidence of the\u00a0 people or a credible mandate from the electorate. He is in a very vulnerable position of depending\u00a0 on manipulating a few ith-thas<\/em> (pawns) at the top. He is now screaming his head off saying that he can\u00a0 reduce Mahinda\u00a0 Rajapakse\u2019s majority. Isn\u2019t this\u00a0 another sign of his being on the verge of a nervous breakdown?<\/p>\n

Last but not the least, an election is hanging over his head like a sword of Damocles and he knows that there will be hardly anyone to pick up his severed head.<\/p>\n

His anti-Sinhala-Buddhist paranoia too is unsettling him. His first reaction\u00a0 is to summon Sinhala newspaper editors and accuse them of\u00a0 rousing communal feelings. He has blasted them as suck-killi-yas <\/em>who cleaned Mahinda Rajapakse\u2019s toilets\u201d. Not stopping at that he has decided to have a go at the media owners. He aims to tighten his grip on the media from\u00a0 the top and summoned the newspaper owners.<\/p>\n

The reality is that the media has been subdued sufficiently and the state media has been cowed down. The media that ttaked\u00a0 him aggressively when he was in the\u00a0 opposition has turned to play his\u00a0 kind of music. The state media, as per usual, has turned 360 degrees to be the Master\u2019s voice. For instance, an NGO apparatchik\u00a0 like Luxman Gunasekera has returned to The Sunday Observer<\/em> to resume his anti-Sinhala-Buddhist campaigns.<\/p>\n

The nervous and paranoid politics\u00a0 of Wickremesinghe is revealed when he first blasted the Sinhala editors and then followed it up\u00a0 with summoning\u00a0 the newspaper owners on far-fetched charges of rousing communal passions without uttering one word about the\u00a0 most\u00a0 damaging racist attack coming from Northern journalists, academics, NGOs and politicos. The most provocative statement to disturb communal harmony was the anti-Sinhala resolution passed by the North Provincial Council resolution on February 10, 2015.<\/p>\n

Not since the Vadukoddai Resolution was passed on May 14, 1976 has such a vicious, twisted, racist attack been unleashed by the North on the South. It is to\u00a0 the credit\u00a0 of the Sinhala-Buddhists that they have restrained themselves and not\u00a0 gone on the rampage. When the Tamil leadership passes\u00a0 a resolution projecting the entire Sinhala race as murderers of Tamils and accusing\u00a0 the entire leadership, including Wickremesinghe\u2019s blood relatives, as genocidal barbarians, it was his prime duty, as the Prime Minister, to defend the nation and its great leaders.<\/p>\n

Which prime minister in the world would not defend his\/her nation against such a sweeping denigration of its image? When, for instance, Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake, in passing made a remark that people\u00a0 in Sri Lanka had not died of starvation like those in India. Indira Gandhi reacted furiously and Dudley, being\u00a0 the gentleman that he is, apologized in parliament explaining that he\u00a0 did\u00a0 not mean to denigrate or insult India.<\/p>\n

Imagine, for instance, the reaction of India if any southern provincial council had passed a resolution condemning\u00a0 Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a genocidal murder for what he\u00a0 did\u00a0 in Gujerat? Whether true or not, is making such an accusation in sensitive times conducive for\u00a0 reconciliation or easing the tensions between Indian and Sri Lanka? So is NPC resolution aimed at promoting reconciliation? Or is directed at confronting the Sinhala-Buddhists with the sole aim of destroying communal harmony? Isn\u2019t Wickremesinghe\u2019s silence a deliberate act of giving consent and encouragement to the anti-Sinhala-Buddhists who are vilifying\u00a0 the nation\u00a0 for their political gain?<\/p>\n

If the Sinhala-Buddhists were the kind of genocidal killers as stated in C.V. Wigneswaran\u2019s resolution would they have rescued 300,000 Tamils fleeing from the Tamil Pol Pot? Would\u00a0 23,000 Sinhala soldiers have sacrificed\u00a0 their lives to liberate the Tamil children from the gulags of Tamil Boko Haram? Why has Wickremesinghe been silent on this internationally significant and nationally sensitive issue? And why was he quick to turn his wrath on Sinhala editors and threaten newspaper owners by summoning them? As opposed to this, why is he purring like a pussy cat in the\u00a0 lap of Wigneswaran and the NPC? Is it because\u00a0 he got\u00a0 their votes to get\u00a0 into power? Is Wickremesinghe appointed to play the role of the Prime Minister or Prime Traitor?<\/p>\n

Please note that the NPC resolution was sent to the UNHRC, demanding action against Sri Lanka based on the accusations listed in resolution. Any Prime\u00a0 Minister, who has any respect for his people, would react forcefully, being aware of the serious consequences that would\u00a0 flow from such grossly distorted and concocted lies. The silence of a prime\u00a0 minister on a vital issue\u00a0 like this is totally unacceptable by those people yearning for peace and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

At a time when Western leaders in liberal democracies are demanding from minorities threatening the values\u00a0 of the majorities total acceptance of the national way of life, language, and laws Wickremesinghe has no right to be silent when his nation\u201d (I hope he agrees?) is condemned as a genocidal state by another community which has benefited most from sharing the riches, benevolence and welfare programs of the country.<\/p>\n

It is inconceivable that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe can remain silent on a critical issue like this. His silence can\u00a0 only mean that his uncles and grand-relatives were all murderous barbarians as\u00a0 stated in the resolution. Besides, Wickremesinghe too was a part of the leadership that is accused of being genocidal murderers. The only missing part\u00a0 in the NPC resolution are the atrocities committed at Batalanda. Could this be the reason why he is silent on the NPC resolution?\u00a0 Is it with this record that Wickremesinghe proposes to contest Mahinda\u00a0 Rajapakse in the coming election and reduce\u00a0 his vote by five million?<\/p>\n

More importantly, will the media owners cave in and go along with Wickremesinghe? They have a duty by the readers and not by Wickremesinghe\u00a0 who does not even have a mandate from\u00a0 the people, or parliament to be the prime minister. To\u00a0 counter Wickremesinghe\u2019s media offensive they can politely hand over a copy of the My-3\u201ds\u201d Manifesto highlighting the segment on\u00a0 free media. They can even go further and cite the rules\u00a0 of the International Democratic Union of which he is a Vice President.<\/p>\n

The most incontrovertible argument against Wickremesinghe\u2019s demand for compliance on the grounds of communal harmony comes from the West which is waging a life-and-death battle to defend free media against Islamic fundamentalists. The right of\u00a0 the media to express freely, even when communal harmony is threatened, is exemplified in the case of Charlie Hebdo, <\/em>the French satirical magazine which has inflamed passions\u00a0 on both sides. Using\u00a0 the Charlie\u00a0 Hebdo<\/em> stand to defend media\u00a0 freedom, even above\u00a0 communal harmony, the media owners should unmask Wickremesinghe\u2019s fake hijab of taking cover behind communal harmony. He should not be allowed to import ISIS fanaticism duty free. He cannot promote communal harmony by imposing his dictatorship only on the journalists of the south. He must begin with the NPC politicians first. He must begin first by asking the NPC to apologize to the nation and withdraw its resolution. Communal harmony is a\u00a0 two-way process. It cannot be attained\u00a0 by suppressing the media\u00a0 of the south.<\/p>\n

The media owners should\u00a0 not tolerate Wickremesinghe\u2019s high-handed action to read the riot\u00a0 act to them under the pretext of protecting communal harmony. That is a bogus issue, as pointed\u00a0 out earlier. They must attend and\u00a0 listen to him carefully. If Wickremesinghe threatens them they can walk out. For once, they can be guaranteed that the people will be with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

H. L. D. Mahindapala The 100-day programme of the My-3-pala-naya\u201d had no plans to encounter the Nugegoda rally. Not so soon, at least. They thought they could sail smoothly into the imagined ideal country\u201d located, of course, only in mythical Maithripala\u2019s Manifesto. But within 40 days the My-3-planners\u201d were hit by a backlash that no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41769","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\/41769","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=41769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}