{"id":95225,"date":"2019-11-14T16:57:41","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T23:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95225"},"modified":"2019-11-14T16:57:41","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T23:57:41","slug":"liars-and-lies-damned-lies-okama-boru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/14\/liars-and-lies-damned-lies-okama-boru\/","title":{"rendered":"Liars and Lies damned lies (Okama Boru)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by A. Patabendige Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

This is the season for lying. With a few days left for the Presidential election panic and distortion, lies and damned lies have overtaken supporters of one side as they fight tooth and nail to survive an impending change of leadership. One minister on TV (11 Nov 19) produces a snarky looking man with a palpably false beard who says he transported 7000 tons of gold after the war from Jaffna. He named the person who allegedly gave the order, a rival candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to be out done another minister on the same day lamented that Army HQ was moved out of the location it had been for \u2018150 years\u2019. The 10 acres of land was sold for US $ 125m to Shangri-La Hotels, Hong Kong. This Minister accuses the same rival (named) of having got US $ 5 million (about 5%) for his labours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Benjamin Disraeli who said \u2018lies, damned lies and statistics\u2019\u2019. Liars can be of many types. The most common are pathological and compulsive liars. Pathological lairs have high levels of self assurance and are verbally dramatic. The compulsive liar can be habitual or narcissist. They are also called \u2018pseudo logic fantastica\u2019. They lie for self preservation or to practice deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liars are wholly indifferent in the choice of truth and falsehood. Pathological liars are “aloof, self centered, with little concern for others. They have a chronic tendency to lie driven by an innate personality disorder. They are cold and calculating. They lie for self preservation having mastered the art of deception. They start with an element of the truth and end with lies. They avoid eye contact and fix their gaze on you. The Compulsive liar is one by habit. He breaks out in a sweat, also avoids eye contact and blinks while rambling and tripping over words. Readers can take their pick in identifying members of this obnoxious tribe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gold \u2018robbery\u2019 canard was immediately squashed by a veteran wrecker. Goebbels had been out done. The Reserve Bank of India has only 60 tonnes .The value of just 7000 tonnes of gold would be worth nearly $ 30,000 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister who sorrowed over Army HQ selling its land needs to know that Army HQ was not situated there for \u2018150\u2019 years however suddenly he is attached to that memory. The Ceylon Defence Force was established in 1910. Presumably some type of a HQ even if it was not an Army HQ may have been built around that time- about 109 not \u2018150\u2019 years ago. Army HQ raised in 1949 moved to its last location about 30 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Defence HQ will certainly not be the colossal waste of money spent on Diyawanna which may have cost about 10 times its actual value according to the first Vice Chancellor of the Minister\u2019s Katubedde University. He should also have known, though he failed to state it, that the Army land was sold for 3 times its market value according to former deputy Minister Yapa.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The land called Echelon Square where the WTC, Bank of Ceylon HQ and Kingsbury hotels are, also belonged to the Army from 1900 to the late 1970s. They were sold by the UNP. The Sinha Regiment finally and the SL Artillery before, were stationed there. The land on which Taj Samudra stands was similarly sold by the same government. It was also in Army hands until the late 1970s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 2 suicide attacks on Army HQ during his time killing a total of over 25 people. Another attack killed the SL Navy Commander Admiral Clancy Fernando in front of the Taj Samudra hotel, 500 m west of AHQ. Moving Army, SL Navy and SL Air Force HQs and the Defence Ministry to Akurugoda is a well planned move for many reasons including security. Even SF would scarce forbear to cheer ante bellum. After all he wanted a 400,000 army after the war ended. Developing remorse 5 years later for 100 years of half Colonial history is not a convincing performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister produced a pamphlet \u2018Charge of the Lion Brigade\u2019 immediately after the SL conflict that spanned nearly 30 years. It was not a very wise title to begin with even if the other side called themselves \u2018Tigers\u2019. It was actually a silly attempt to use the title of a heroic if not also shambolic \u2018Charge\u2019 of the Light Brigade that was over in 30 minutes in the Crimean war over 170 years ago. It was over in 30 minutes. Has it anything in common with SL Army\u2019s victory or history?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister with disdain for intellectual honesty states Prussian Major General Carl Philipp Gottlieb Von Clausewitz (1780- 1831) the author of the best known book on war Vom Kriege (On War) as a \u2018military \u2018philosopher. He quotes that “war is an extension (continuation) of politics”. This is an over simplified statement that has been misused often. Was it used to show how important politicians like him were in war?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Von Clausewitz fought as an officer in the Russian army at Jena (1806) and was at Waterloo on the staff of Marshal von Blucher. The Minister may have misinterpreted Clausewitz\u2019s philosophy of war that still influences strategy, for this reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some excerpts from the pamphlet make very revealing reading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I find it difficult to forgive both the JVP and Premadasa for what they did\u2026”\u2019My wrath towards Premadasa knew no bounds when he gave a new breath to the LTTE\u2019 (page 12) “\u2026 we formed a citizen\u2019s front to fight against Premadasa\u2019s gross violations of human rights \u2026.. I saw over 147 dead bodies in the Mahabodhi premises (1989) \u2013 (page 10). “\u2026. although we knew that Chandrika Kumaratunga was an anti nationalist and staunch supporter of federalism”…(page 14) “Ranil Wickramasinghe showed his inherent hatred towards the Sinhalese and especially Sinhalese Buddhists”(page 16”).The JVP “committed the most traitorous act when it left .. and worked against Mahinda Rajapakse”. The SL Muslim Congress is the only fundamentalist Muslim party to be funded by Western Embassies. . (pg 77). “\u2026. with Western backing, their stooge -the SLMC – crossed over to the Opposition” (pg 78).The LTTE was provided with \u2026 fighter aircraft\u2026” (pg 72). He justifies the killing of VP\u2019s family (page 68). He was then a Minister in MR\u2018s government. Will his next pamphlet be called \u2018Elephant Walk\u2019? Will he add \u2018Easter Sunday carnage\u2019?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by A. Patabendige Courtesy The Island This is the season for lying. With a few days left for the Presidential election panic and distortion, lies and damned lies have overtaken supporters of one side as they fight tooth and nail to survive an impending change of leadership. One minister on TV (11 Nov 19) produces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95225","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=95225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}