{"id":100728,"date":"2013-08-17T13:51:21","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T08:21:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=100728"},"modified":"2013-09-01T03:18:39","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T21:48:39","slug":"when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"When The People And Leadership &#8216;Are Friends&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Rajpal+Abeynayake+&amp;x=8&amp;y=4\">Rajpal Abeynayake<\/a><\/span>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0The state run Daily News\u00a0Editorial &#8211; Saturday, August 17, 2013 &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Those who operate in the cesspits of the journalistic world, maintaining websites that are for the most part repositories of what in Sri Lanka we refer to as &#8216;raw filth&#8217;, have tried to tell us what we can or should do as commentators, opinion-makers and media practitioners. As they say, that will be the day when the law can be laid down to us by ex-ambassadors hurting at their most recent job loss, and their hurrah boy squads in the morally depraved terrorist Tamil Tiger rump.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_64634\" style=\"width: 322px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/full-text-of-the-petition-contempt-of-court-action-filed-against-daily-news-editor-rajpal\/rajpal-abeynayake-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-64634\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-64634\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64634 \" title=\"Rajpal Abeynayake\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"312\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg 312w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Rajpal-Abeynayake-130x300.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 312px) 100vw, 312px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-64634\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Editor Rajpal Abeynayake<\/p><\/div>\n<p>There is simply more to life than what the Tamil Tiger rump wants &#8212; and that&#8217;s to put things mildly and in a way that can be understood by any pathetic narcissist, be it ex-ambassador or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It would be a cold day in hell&#8217;, as they say, before the Tamil Tiger rump and the new champions of regime destabilization could start laying down the law on what we write, and how we respond to con-artists that try to interpret what our contributors write in a way that suits their desire for another grievous calamity in Sri Lanka, such as July &#8217;83, for instance.<\/p>\n<p>This is a new era. Nobody is cowed by con-artists, &#8216;andayas&#8217; and\/or the other detritus of society that&#8217;s left behind in an unprecedented national effort to make Sri Lanka the best example yet in the world, of post-war economic success.<\/p>\n<p>The most important aspect of this economic upsurge is the fact that people identify with this post-war project, despite the stupendously cynical efforts of the Tamil Tiger rump and the frustrated con-artists back home in Sri Lanka that are their joined at hip twins. That&#8217;s why they came in their millions, literally, to see for themselves the South Terminal of the Colombo port recently, this project being one of the most representative of the government&#8217;s efforts at transforming the economy in a way that fires the imagination of citizen, investor and observer of events alike.<\/p>\n<p>What the Tiger rump and their handmaidens and cheer squads cannot reconcile to is the fact that there is a paradigm shift in the Lankan condition. The same old tired tactics of calumny, vilification, race bating etc., do not work any more in this nation.<\/p>\n<p>The people feel so liberated that they have begun to work with their heads down, but their spirits up. There is also a symbiosis &#8212; a friendship if you will! &#8212; between the masses and the regime, which is a rarity in politics, be it in Sri Lanka or anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n<p>There is a time when people begin to feel in their gut that they have found leadership, and that they are, plainly put, fond of that leadership. Such a time has come in Sri Lanka, and it is at such a time that no force can really come between the leaders on the one hand, and the re-energized masses on the other.<\/p>\n<p>Though &#8216;friends&#8217; may sound facetious, caricature-like even, friends will be the best way to describe leadership, and the masses, when it is dawn in this brand new day in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n<p>That is why what&#8217;s seen as calamities by the disruptive elements are never seen remotely as such, by the people. That&#8217;s why the people of Rathupaswela sat down with the President, and hammered out an agreement despite the Cassandras saying that Weliweriya was the &#8216;beginning of the end.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Never again would con-artists, mountebanks, the self-aggrandizing and the plain boorish be able to lay down their own law on how things are done, in this country. Nobody who is part of the project to make Sri Lanka a brave nation of possibility, can be bamboozled by sanctimonious claims such as &#8216;this would have never happened in the past.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>There are those who, for instance, purport to tell us how journalism should be practiced. A polite no thank you to this deracinated, unimaginative wedded-to-the-herd coterie of losers. Nobody will bamboozle us any more. Opinionated, pompous buffoons so full of themselves who think they can teach us either journalism or ethics, are on the one hand the most venal and self-serving at bottom &#8211; and on the other, the most hilariously misled about the scope and effectiveness of their own capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>However, in a free country, they are free to stew in the juices of their own monumental delusions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":44744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,2938,6968],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editorial","category-popular","category-popular-columns"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When The People And Leadership &#039;Are Friends&#039;  - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When The People And Leadership &#039;Are Friends&#039;  - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-17T08:21:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-08-31T21:48:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"141\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/\",\"name\":\"When The People And Leadership 'Are Friends' - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-17T08:21:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-08-31T21:48:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg\",\"width\":\"141\",\"height\":\"200\",\"caption\":\"Rajpal Abeynayake\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"When The People And Leadership &#8216;Are Friends&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"When The People And Leadership 'Are Friends'  - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"When The People And Leadership 'Are Friends'  - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-08-17T08:21:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-08-31T21:48:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":141,"height":200,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/","name":"When The People And Leadership 'Are Friends' - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg","datePublished":"2013-08-17T08:21:21+00:00","dateModified":"2013-08-31T21:48:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg","width":"141","height":"200","caption":"Rajpal Abeynayake"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/when-the-people-and-leadership-are-friends\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"When The People And Leadership &#8216;Are Friends&#8217;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Rajpal-Abeynayake.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100728"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100739,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100728\/revisions\/100739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}