By R.A.Ratwatte –

R.A.Ratwatte

With the local Government elections getting closer and speculation on bigger things to come in the near future, a well oiled military type operation seems to be swinging into motion.

Opinion leaders (mostly self styled – some with doctorates, others who claim to be professors and most of them involved with NGOs) are pontificating in SPADES. We have Colombians (to borrow a phrase coined by advocates of this regime) urging similar drawing room patriots to vote for the JVP. Doom and gloom about what is going to be done to us post the Geneva resolution are rife, without any concrete scenarios.

Divisions are being promoted in even the lesser known political parties. The General has a lot of defectors who it would have been easy to buy out and “convince”. The JVP Western Province stalwart has died in a motorcycle accident. As if the current divisions in the main opposition party were not enough, we have a counterfeit currency scandal that has surfaced. Meanwhile feeble bleats are heard from the opposition asking the people to exercise their franchise.

As an expatriate confined to reading the product of “lap top journalism” in order to glean some sort of idea of what is going on in the debacle of Asia, I look at the emphasis given to the above incidents by the aforesaid “journalists”. My analysis is as follows:

A free Laptop from President to Daily News Editor Rajpal Abeynayake

The Geneva decree is given HUGE publicity but no one bothers to give any likely scenarios. The inference ranges from sanctions hurting just the ruling elite to India invading and creating Eelam on the lines of the recent Russian incursion to Crimea. The plan is to urge the people to be patriotic and keep the current regime in power.

Asking the “intelligentsia” (for want of a better term) to vote for the JVP is given coverage in most of media. This is simply a ham handed attempt to shift some of the ‘Colombians” to get off their posteriors and vote against the UNP. A clear sign that the incumbent regime is worried about the western province and the indigenous mostly unshakable UNP vote that lies therein.

Two consecutive “jilmarts” to stymie the General maybe beyond the realm of even this bunch of scallywags and more importantly may shake the apathy and the fatalism of the general populace. Hence, large scale defections from his party and inferences that all will be revealed about involvement in murders and assassinations. All very easy to engineer for a regime with so much ill gotten gains at their disposal and targets very much from the struggling middle class. What should be pointed out is that it is not petty officials of a political party that would have inside knowledge on such activities but the rulers themselves who would have, in such an event have issued the orders to carry out these deeds. If not and if this was done by the General with his private squad of killers, how come the ruling family have escaped the wrath of the General?

It certainly looks and I hasten to add from AFAR, that the JVP is making resurgence under new and more credible leadership. How come one of its leading candidates dies in motorcycle accident just days before the poll? Was he afforded proper medical care? What were the circumstances of the accident? A deafening silence prevails from the LAPTOPPERS who even have the effrontery to call themselves “investigative journalists” on occasion! It is far too late now to register another candidate isn’t it? So what about that campaign and the votes that would have been earned?

We are told that a Garment Factory Managing Director has been arrested in connection with counterfeit notes given to the Daughter of  a former president. Why are we not told the name of the perpetrator? Do we know if he is related to the first family or a sympathiser? Even if this is not the case if an arrest has been made why can’t the laptoppers give us all the details? This bullocks about sub- judice exists only when it comes to well connected people doesn’t it?

The vital call by the opposition for people to exercise their franchise is given hardly any coverage by our press. Isn’t it ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL” to salvage any vestige of democracy that may be left in this Country, to urge the people to vote. The current culture promoted by this Government is to tell those who are opposed to it not to vote! The populace says “what’s the use?”, “We lose anyway”, Ranil is a loser” and words in that vein which, if they were to stand away from themselves and analyse….they would realise are burying them deeper in this mire! There should be headlines and editorials written on how important it is to vote SPECIALLY if you oppose the incumbent regime. It may be difficult to educate a populace that doesn’t have the slightest idea on how to budget (that all the daily expenses add up at the end of the month!) that every single opposing vote will add up and may even outnumber the ayes!

Maybe it is the lack of any real “journalism” and the abject non value of what is spewed forth by the fourth estate, which has resulted in so many pundits on the Internet? Most of us read the media for INFORMATION and informed (carefully researched) opinion. Instead what do we get is biased information or misinformation fed to us with an ulterior motive. Ulterior motives of the people who “own” not only the presses but the very souls of the personnel involved.