{"id":50024,"date":"2015-12-06T23:20:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T05:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=50024"},"modified":"2015-12-06T16:15:25","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T23:15:25","slug":"is-patriotism-the-last-refuge-of-the-scoundrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/12\/06\/is-patriotism-the-last-refuge-of-the-scoundrel\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Patriotism the last refuge of the Scoundrel?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>R Chandrasoma<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In an impassioned address to Parliament recently the President MS concluded his speech by quoting the words of that illustrious statesman Jawaharlal Nehru \u2013 that \u2018Politics is the last refuge of the Scoundrel\u2019. It was Samuel Johnson who first made this quip to his famous buddy Boswell and it \u00a0was said facetiously. Whether Nehru took it seriously is a matter for debate but in the context of what is happening right now in Sri Lanka it is singularly inappropriate &#8211; if not downright diabolical, \u00a0The need of the hour is patriotism &#8211; of the kind that deems it an honour to speak against those plotting to destroy the Sinhala Nation. There is a curious imbalance in this respect \u2013 that racism is flaunted openly as a right and a duty by the Tamils and Muslims of Sri Lanka with not a murmur of protest by the President and his Ministers. Indeed, these worthies speak tirelessly \u00a0of the \u2018injustice\u2019 done to these group as a direct consequence of the decisive military defeat of the Terrorist Prabhakaran . No word of exculpation for those who took patriotism seriously and spoke brave words in defence of our forces when traitors within and enemies outside conspired to derail the war-effort of our heroic forces. If traitorism is the opposite of patriotism, is not the former that was the \u2018refuge\u2019 of the loud-talking defenders of human rights for the enemy while looking away when their own nation was in great peril due to the depredations of a racist monster?<\/p>\n<p>That the present leadership was at the forefront of those who gave covert support to \u00a0the separatist enemy is known to all. That they acted to weaken our nation at a critical moment in our history on the initiative and behest of Western Powers hell-bent on defeating the stout nationalist MR is also well known. It is the patriotism of a resolute few in the leadership of that time that saved our nation from the fast road to political oblivion. When the current President of our land mocks the patriotic spirit by declaring to a full Parliament that it is the last refuge of scoundrels, the entire nation must weep that we have reached such a sorry pass in our political affairs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R Chandrasoma In an impassioned address to Parliament recently the President MS concluded his speech by quoting the words of that illustrious statesman Jawaharlal Nehru \u2013 that \u2018Politics is the last refuge of the Scoundrel\u2019. It was Samuel Johnson who first made this quip to his famous buddy Boswell and it \u00a0was said facetiously. Whether [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-r-chandrasoma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50024","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=50024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}