By Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov –
In the crucible of chaos, there is a simulated search for a strong man a ‘Führer’ to take us to greatness, to preserve our culture , our values.
Hoopla is a European carnival game where competitors throw hoops around pegs. On Sunday 13th May 2018 Gotabaya Rajapaksa played ‘Hoopla’ at the Shangri la. He put the hoop round the peg – the ‘Presidential Candidacy of the Pohottu party. 
The hoopla at the Shangri-La last Sunday suggested that there is a strong and substantial body of thought in our polity, firm in its conviction that we are in need of a strong man, a man of action a man who delivers.
Last Sunday Gotabaya Rajapaksa delivered two messages. The first was to us – ‘we the people’. He defined our problem for us. He told us that we are too infantile to understand our problem. So, he explained what our problem was.
Our problem was structural. Structural problems called for structural solutions. He was kind enough to present the first person plural point of view. We must make structural changes to the manner we think, to the manner we address basic economic issues etc.
Now, you must remember that he defined the structure of the problem and offered us the structure of the solution. Now what is the solution?
Aha! Not so fast my friends. Solutions will come after 2020 when I am on the saddle on the white stallion – the presidency.
Right now, this is the ‘Viyathmaga’ – the erudite way to place the bridle on the beast.
The second message was for his Brother – the former president who restricted by the 19th amendment must propose a candidate for the presidency to his undoubtedly sizable constituency that awaits his counsel, caution, direction and instruction.
Look around you! In to this place that bears the brand and the name of the mythical kingdom of abundance and plenty- the Shangri-La I have summoned the barons of industry, commerce and finance, the brave soldiers of the realm, the thought leaders of the mother land. Behold the sight. Digest how docile and attentive they are!
Make no mistake. Here is a man who has a clear and a tight grip of conceptual power. He knows the difference between the government and the state. The government changed hands. The state moves on. He knows how it works. He knows, because he once ran it single handedly under the dispensation of his brother who presided over a fractious government listening to the smooth ticking of his watch never quite realizing the full genius of his brother – the watchmaker.
At the Shangri la on Sunday, he discovered how the watch maker assembled the intricate parts of the watch. And more! Mahinda heard the wake-up alarm.
The Shangri la gathering was a prelude to the possibility of our society being subject to an oligarchic collectivism. The term was coined by George Orwell in his novel 1984.
It describes a society that was already in the making before it was rudely intercepted by the change on 8th January 2015.
Then the new rulers decided to open the vaults of the central bank and all hell broke out. Greed to carveout political territory, mismanagement and sheer imbecility in governance prevented the dismantling of the edifice that was in place.
In the preceding five years – the post war years of development leaps and construction booms, government institutions, media and corporate interests moved under the control of a handful of individuals, linked together, collaborating to direct, regulate and benefit from each other and derive its share of profit, from the toil of the silent many- ‘we the people’.
It is all about control. It is control, that this government lacks. Although the government changed, the state mechanics remained intact.
Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency ended but Gotabaya’s shadow state persisted. It was cemented too deep. It held on to its group mind.
What we saw at the Shangri la is a phenomenon – a modern day Bonapartism. A determined man wants to replace the post-independence comprador class with post 2005 rent seekers wealth extractors and wealth creators of exceptional talent.
They are distinguished by their willingness to serve the state. Mind you, they will serve the state not the government. And you know who ‘State’ is.
The mainstream political parties have disintegrated in to power seeking, vote gathering machines operated by political freebooters.
As Hannah Arendt has painstakingly explained in her elegantly insightful prose, totalitarian movements are possible “wherever there are masses who for one reason or another have acquired the appetite for political organization.”
That was the spectacle we watched at the Shangri-La on last Sunday. What we saw gathered in the hugely opulent, hugely accommodative epitome of luxury was a “great flaccid body destitute of political education, almost inaccessible to ideas capable of ennobling action” ready to listen to a new ‘Pied Piper.’
In our current context, we should pay heed to Hannah Arendt one of 20th centuries great intellects who survived fascist tyranny and authored the classic political tract – Origins of Totalitarianism’.
As Hannah Arendt explains, masses are not held together by a consciousness of common interest. They do not have the capacity to either define their goals or to articulate them.
The ambitious manipulator and strong man not only notices this reality but takes in to account their sheer numbers, stupidity and indifference as factors that make up the equation of total control.
This indifferent segment of our society has begun to wake up after the hoopla in the Shangri-La.
Those “Kapuwatth Kola” UNPers and “Kapuwath Nil” SLFPers on both sides of the barricade waiting for the crumbs off the patronage table do not make or unmake regimes.
It is the party neutral, indifferent majority who bring about regime change. They alone constitute the majority that matters.
This happened before in other lands. That it will happen here, is now a real possibility. There may arrive a day, when parliament will wake up to discover its total and absolute disconnect with the great mass that is apathetic and indifferent.
Then, those in parliament can go home with the assurance of the ‘Strong Man’ that he will take upon himself the terrible and horrible responsibility for the conduct of public affairs in an orderly manner.
It is in that sure knowledge, that the merchant princes marked their presence in the front row at the hoopla at the Shangri-La.
wannihami / May 20, 2018
Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov: You are no Bolshevik even in the fictional sense, whom are you trying to kid?
/
Fathima / May 20, 2018
He sounds like a Tamil Nadu person to me. All too familiar.
Next time Muslims will split from Tamils at the election. Muslims need their own provincial council because Tamils have one. Eastern Province must be re-demarcated to create a perennial Muslim majority province.
If Kothapaya supports that, all Muslim votes are for him. Come ‘on Kothapaya, what do you have to lose? Tamils are never going to vote for you. Get the Muslim vote by promising a separate Muslim administrative province in the east. Everyone will be happy. We are happy to give Tamils and Singhalese their own provinces in the East as long as they give us what is due to us Muslims. Reciprocation.
Peace be with you all.
/
Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / May 20, 2018
Only the coastal regions of Ampari district has continuous a Muslim majority , in all other parts of the east the Muslims live in islands amongst the Tamils in the east or amongst the Sinhalese The most important district in the east, Batticaloa, has an outright Tamil majority and it is the eastern heartland. Coastal Trincomallee is Tamil populated. 90% Muslims are found in the Mutur enclave. There is no contingency. You can have the small overcrowded coastal Amparai belt as you province where you cannot do anything else other than wear black Burka/Nikab and Abaya and become Salafist/ISIS martyrs for your Arab masters . They will help you in this endeavour by building lots of Madrassas and Wahhabi mosques , to brain wash you converted Dravidian low castes and keep you firmly rooted in the stone age. Good riddance. The Sinhalese can have Amparai electorate and the interior Gomarankadawala of Trincomalee and the rest of the east will be Tamil. So racist fake Arab low caste immigrant Indian Tamil convert to Islam , the Muslims of the east who only came there a few centuries ago begging for refuge , first fleeing Portuguese persecution from the west of the island and then Sinhalese persecution in the central parts of the island from the eastern Tamilsm now are entitled to a province of their own , as a reward for backstabbing the Tamils and joining with the Sinhalese racists to kill murder and ethnically cleanse thousands of Tamils in the east, however the actual owners of the east the Tamils and the Tamilised Vedda of the east who have been there from time immemorial and ruled this land are not entitled to anything.
/
Fathima / May 20, 2018
Both Trincomalee and Amparei districts have a Muslim majority. Tamil speaking areas of Trincomalee and Amparei should be turned into 2 separate provinces. Tamils can have Batticaloa. Sinhala people can have their own provinces in Trincomalee and Amparei.
/
Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / May 21, 2018
No they do not . In Amparai district. Sinhalese make up 40% . Muslims 40% largely confined to the coastal belt from Kalmunai and Tamils 20%. Even here other than the newly created Sinhalese Amparai electorate , the indigenous Tamils own far more land than the Muslims , as they are indigenous and have lived there for thousands of years , whereas the largely low caste Dravidian South Indian origin Muslims, who are recent immigrants that came here as refugees. Muslims were not allowed to own any land until the late 1890s , as they were considered foreigners. The only two people who were legally allowed to own lands in the island were the Sinhalese and Sri Lankan Tamils , as they were considered indigenous . The British repealed this law in the 1890s . Even upto the late 1970s it was the Tamils who owned the land and Muslim, cultivators used to lease the land from the Tamil Hindu landlords. Trincomalee has a 40% Muslim population now , however they are largely confined to Mutur area. Tamils who were the outright majority in the Trincomallee district a few decades ago are now reduced to a 32% but still are the majority living along the entire coast including the city. This is due to large scale ethnic cleansing of thousands of Tamils from the Trincomalee area and the settlement of thousands of Sinhalese in the interior of the Trincomalee district. A very high percentage of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the Indian camps and internally displaced in camps in the north are from the Trincomallee district. If they all return to their homes and lands the Tamils again will be the single largest community. Trincomallee district is an ancient historical Tamil Hindu district , most of it was part of the Tamil Jaffna kingdom. The home of the prehistoric Ramayana famed Thirkoneswaran Saivite temple.. Everything there reeks of Tamils and Hinduism.
/
Taraki / May 21, 2018
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
/
Native Vedda / May 21, 2018
Taraki
–
Brilliant
/
Rohan / May 20, 2018
You must be joking! Muslim province? The ancient history of the island has always been Sinhalese /Tamil . All the island’s rulers have been either Sinhalese or Tamils or ruled in the name of Sinhalese or the Tamils . The island has always been Buddhist/Hindu. This is the culture of the island. There has never been a Muslim land, Muslim ruler or an Islamic history in the island. One or two Arab emissaries to the kings court( Sinhalese or Tamil) does not make Islamic history and they have nothing to with the present day Muslims. A few Arab sailors landing along the western coast and fornicating with low caste Tamil women of loose morals and producing a few hundred half caste bastards does not also make Islamic history. You are basically recently migrated largely low caste converted, South Indian Dravidian Tamil immigrants to the island and your history in the east is only a few centuries old. arrived there as refugees. You have now bred like rats and from independence backstabbed the island’s Tamils for favours from the Sinhalese. Now trying to make use of the situation and helpless plight of the island’s Tamils, especially in the east to steal large chunks of ancient Tamil Hindu land , with Sinhalese help to create another Islamic homeland in the subcontinent, Just like Pakistan and Bangladesh was created in the north and east of the subcontinent. We do not want another Islamic basket case terrorist headache. At least in these areas the native population converted to Islam and wanted separate homeland,. here a recently arrived South Indian origin immigrant population, who only arrived in the east as refugees a few centuries ago , are now trying to steal the land from the original Tamil population, who gave them refuge. Typical backstabbers, trying to gain advantage out of the misery of the Tamils.
/
Eagle Eye / May 20, 2018
Fathima,
“We are happy to give Tamils and Singhalese their own provinces in the East as long as they give us what is due to us Muslims. Reciprocation.”
These bloody Muslims are in the Eastern Province thanks to King Senerath, a Sinhala Buddhist King who saved them from persecution by Portuguese. Now these Parayas are talking about giving a part of Eastern Province to Sinhalese as if they own Eastern Province. Muslims do not have to give anything to Sinhalese in Eastern Province because you Muslims are squatting in land belonged to Sinhalese.
/
Real Siva Sankaran Sharma / May 21, 2018
Blind Eagle , the eastern province is not Sinhalese but had always been Tamil occupied and ruled by Tamil chiefs. When the Portuguese started to kill and persecute Muslims along the western coast , they first fled the neighbouring Kandyan Sinhalese provinces , that were not under Portuguese control , the Sinhalese were not happy about this but reluctantly accepted them, however when more and more Muslims fleeing Portuguese persecution, started to arrive in the Kandyan areas, the Sinhalese started to get alarmed and began to persecuted and attack them. In desperation King Senarath asked the Tamil chieftains in the southern parts of the eastern province , which came under his loose control , it they could accommodate these fleeing Muslims in their areas , as they will be acceptable to the Tamils , despite being Muslim , as they spoke Tamil and were ethnically Tamil. The Tamil Vannimai chiefs reluctantly agreed to this and settled them largely along the southern areas of the eastern province , away from the native Tamil Hindu villages and towns. This is the reason Muslims predominate in the southern parts of eastern province along the coastal belt. Their arrival in the Mutur area of Trincomalee is much later. Most of these Muslims fleeing and being settled were young men , just like the most of the Muslims now fleeing to Europe from the Middle East. Most probably the Portuguese had killed most of the women children and older people. The Tamil chiefs gave these men young Tamil Hindu Mukkuva women to start families and some land. This is the reason the eastern Muslims still largely follow the eastern Tamil matriarchal Kudi system and the Mukkuva law, as on their maternal side they are all descended from these Tamil Hindu Mukkuva women. These Muslims are squatting on land belonging to the Tamils and not the Sinhalese.
/
Native Vedda / May 20, 2018
wannihami
–
“whom are you trying to kid?”
–
Definitely not you.
How can anyone kid you when you are being consumed by the thought of Dr Gota and his clan? Do you discharge every time you think of him or utter his name?
/
wannihami / May 20, 2018
Under a nom de plume Rubochov another campaign of fear mongering and insulting the common man and woman has begun.
/
Native Vedda / May 20, 2018
wannihami
–
“Under a nom de plume Rubochov another campaign of fear mongering and insulting the common man and woman has begun.”
–
You are rest assured this article is not written by the public racist fear mongering Dayan Jayatilleka.
/
soma / May 20, 2018
If MAJORITY of Tamils and MAJORITY of Muslims are going to vote for one party I may decide my vote based on other issues like economy, corruption but if ALL the Tamils and ALL the Muslims are going for one party I am going to actively campaign for the opposite party with all my time, money and energy. We must do all we can to dismantle electoral basis of naked racism. Ranil Wickramasinghe’s UNP has based its calculation on ethnic division – sharper the better. So they would do anything and everything to enhance it.
Soma
/
Bharana / May 20, 2018
Rajapasksha’s never drew ethnic lines in their politics, they still don’t. It is the yahapalana crowd who drew the ethnic lines in Sri Lankan politics, for mere political advantage, they knowingly fabled stories to create a monster in the majority and divided people racially. Now they have to face the result of their own doing.
/
Native Vedda / May 20, 2018
Bharana
–
“Rajapasksha’s never drew ethnic lines in their politics, they still don’t.”
–
You may be right in some sense, when it comes to mass killing he has never been partial to one race, religion, region, …………………… linguistic groups, … he was a secular war criminal.
/
Rohan / May 20, 2018
Only thing racist is you. If the majority of the Tamils and Tamil Muslims are going to vote a certain party is because of nothing else but because it is the lesser of the two racist Sinhalese Buddhist evils. Whereas Sinhalese Buddhist Fascists like you will vote for the greater.
/
soma / May 20, 2018
Rohan
MAJORITY is democracy but ALL en masse is self imposed racial segregation deceived by viscous UNP propaganda. Take some time to think about it. And read Bharana’s comment above. Even half of the Sinhalese is bigger than all of minorities put together. Risking the ill will of majority of Sinhalese while expecting a solution to a ‘National Problem’ is pure lunacy. We the majority of Sinhalese will oppose any preselection deal reached with minority of us by bartering your votes.
soma
/
Rohan / May 20, 2018
Democracy is the will of the majority but not racist tyranny and genocide and war crimes to be committed by the majority on others who have equal claim to their part of the land , on the basis of a fairy tale full of lies and half truths called Mahavamsa. Democracy does not permit discrimination on the basis of language religion ethnicity or sexual orientation by the majority. Understood racist. You and most Sinhalese are totally mixed up. This is what the Nazis stated when they were passing racist laws to kill discriminate and commit genocide on others. The will of the majority.
/
soma / May 21, 2018
“Democracy does not permit discrimination on the basis of language religion ethnicity or sexual orientation by the majority”
Democracy does not permit geographic demarcations on the basis of language religion ethnicity or sexual orientation by minority.
Soma
/
old codger / May 21, 2018
Soma,
You are more intelligent than to write: “Democracy does not permit geographic demarcations on the basis of language religion ethnicity or sexual orientation by minority.”
Take a look at the map of India in 1948 and now. Unless you think India is not a democracy. And of course, do take a look at Ireland.
/
Native Vedda / May 21, 2018
old codger
–
somass is the modern equivalent/example of Swami Vivekananda’s “The Frog In The Well” where the frog had comfortable life since its birth never been compelled to learn about the environment outside its comfort zone.
–
Do you think we must waste time educating the good old frog?
/
oldcodger / May 22, 2018
NV,
We must give the devil his due. Soma is a professional, unlike amateurs John, Shenali, etc. Don’t you think it is our responsibility to help him keep up professional standards?
/
Native Vedda / May 22, 2018
oldcodger
–
“We must give the devil his due.”
–
Do you think somass has any redeeming values?
–
“Don’t you think it is our responsibility to help him keep up professional standards?”
–
Of course we do have responsibility not only to teach them but also to learn from them. I believe forums are for teaching and learning. However somass is neither learning nor teaching us anything inspiring or new.
–
Probably he is the last of Sinhala/Buddhist fundamentalist member of the Pancha Maha Balavegaya who thinks he is too clever. He is a clever dick and a naysayer.
/
Native Vedda / May 21, 2018
somass
–
Please feel free to read articles 1 – 46 of
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
–
http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf
–
You won’t find such modern materials on international obligations in your Mahawamsa (the guiding principles of Sinhala/Buddhism) or manifestos of parties or text books at school.
–
Modernisation, development, …………… can work only where people are generally receptible to new ideas, concepts, a laissez-faire attitude to life, … with open mind.
/
old codger / May 20, 2018
Soma,
UNP stand for “United National Party”. All the minorities and some of the majority will vote for it. Only the majority will vote for a Gota candidature. So, please do explain which party is multi-racial and which is racist/ monoethnic ?
/
soma / May 20, 2018
Old codger
What you don’t understand is that majority of Sinhalese will not feel bound to honour preselection deals struck with minority of them by bartering your votes. Why should they?. I for one definitely not. Encourage your people to vote freely between the two parties. Understand that UNP depends on ALL your votes and therefore likely to engage in any malicious propaganda piting minority against majority. Presently you are conditioned by that propaganda.
Soma
/
Native Vedda / May 20, 2018
somass
–
Under ‘Viyathmaga’ for Sinhala/Buddhists I see ” Professionals for a better future” a catch phrase to catch the professionals off guard.
–
Whom do you think the better future is aimed at, the usual crooks, war criminals, racists, bigots, murderers, …………….. ?
/
Rohan / May 20, 2018
There is a story floating Shangri La Colombo and Hambantota are owned by Gota and Rajapaksa family through proxies.
/
nalmen / May 20, 2018
gota, dayan and tamara and lesser professionals will lead us to the promised land in 2020
heil hitler
/
Jim softy / May 20, 2018
Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov: IS it True, tha tUkraine was sold to USA for $ 17 billion ?
/
Tamiloser / May 20, 2018
Look at his symbol. Chinese letters above the line, Tamil letters below the line. It says it all. Sorry, Gota, you will never get my vote.
We Tamils are always losers. No more. Time for Tamils to take a stand.
/
K.Pillai / May 20, 2018
Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov is versed in Modern Lankan History but a quick revision of 101 follows.
.
Late in 2014 United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) was formed. MS was poached with a tempting offer. He gave in, though not with his whole heart. For the first time language/religion-divide was not prominent in the hustings. Come 08 January 2015, MS won. In August Lankans reaffirmed faith in UNFGG. Vigorous horse-trading, bringing in defeated candidate via list, followed. Soon we were back to square one. The MPs forgot what UNFGG meant!
At the recent LG elections, a newly formed party SLPP showed how effective the language/religion-divide is. Gotabaya is trying a take over of SLPP. If he succeeds, the combination of the infamous ‘divide’ and his brand of ruthlessness will eventuate.
In the meantime the “New-Terrorism” has well and truly taken root. (New-Terrorism is a realm in which corruption/nepotism/impunity are legitimate). To get to the top lots of money is needed. Gota has plenty but so do others.
We reached this stage because successive GoSL did not address minority grievances. Do we deserve the ‘New-Terrorism’ rule?
/
Sajith / May 20, 2018
I think professionals written wrong in Tamil. Of course they are all professionals!
/
Jay Chambers / May 20, 2018
Rejoice! Despite his highly satirical nom de plume and malevolence the writer does inadvertently speaks an obvious truth. Gotabya is a man of many talents and he will make the best leader for Lanka. His ascendency is now inevitable, and thus Lanka may be spared the ignominy of losing its valuable heritage to Jihadi fanatics and low energy corrupt cowards such as Wickremasingh and Sirisena. A Golden Age may indeed dawn on Lanka under Gotabya but he will have to delicately handle the American, Indian and Chinese interests. He will also need to get the country on an economic war footing as soon as he has the power in his hands and not allow any remnant of the lethargic attitudes of Wickremasingh and Sirisena to prevail.
/
Estate Labourer / May 20, 2018
Sajith,
You are right. These people have always mutilated the Tamil language in all signs, name boards, banners, notice boards and all printed material, etc.
/
Agnos / May 20, 2018
The nom de plume comes from a character in an old Arthur Koestler novel. Regardless, the real identity of the author is easy to discern. I hope he takes care because the Fuhrer’s supporters are running around like feral dogs.
/
Hela / May 21, 2018
The yamapalana brigands have certainly got terrified at the gathering of the momentum of so called “stupid & indifferent masses”. They know their days are numbered………..
/
Lasith / May 21, 2018
Nicholas Salmanovitch Rubashov
How much did GOTA pay you for this article.
It looks to me you are a two penny arse licker looking for a fast buck.
I have no problem with that, cash in, but don’t think for a moment you can white wash a beast like GOTA in front of me just because you have some foreign sounding fancy name.
Best regards
Lasith.
/