{"id":100787,"date":"2013-08-18T00:04:08","date_gmt":"2013-08-17T18:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=100787"},"modified":"2013-08-28T01:40:43","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T20:10:43","slug":"the-staunchest-friends-of-the-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-staunchest-friends-of-the-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"The Staunchest Friends Of The Regime"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

The word in the street is that Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/a><\/span>\u2019s is the regime\u2019s best friend.\u00a0 Inept leadership, fuelling division in opposition ranks to prompt defection, refusal to take on the Government in any meaningful manner on crucial issues of public concern, rhetorical slip-ups made to be pounced on for purposes on ridicule and being conspicuously out-of-touch with the sentiments of the masses are often cited as evidence to support this friendship claim.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it must be mentioned in Ranil\u2019s defence that the 1978 Constitution<\/a><\/span> does not grand the opposition any favors. In fact, just as it confers dictatorial powers on the executive president, it also disempowers the opposition.\u00a0 Sarath N Silva<\/a><\/span>\u2019s horrendous crossover ruling that made parliamentary traffic a one-way matter hasn\u2019t helped.\u00a0 These factors helped scuttle the 17th<\/sup> Amendment<\/a><\/span> and worse paved the way for the 18<\/a>th<\/a><\/sup><\/span>, further strengthening those in power and conferring further disempowerment on the opposition.\u00a0 Ranil\u2019s detractors might say \u2018Still!\u2019, implying that he could do much better.<\/p>\n

But is Ranil really the only friend that the regime can count on among those who object to it on matters of policy and policy implementation, and of course corruption, incompetence, inefficiency and overt and covert attacks on democracy?<\/p>\n

Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> had few friends when he was running for President in 2005.\u00a0 Today he has few enemies and fewer still have the courage to stand up and object.\u00a0 That\u2019s not unusual.\u00a0 Power corrupts.\u00a0 Power also attracts.\u00a0 There was a time, after all, when there were countless \u2018friends\u2019 swarming around his predecessor.\u00a0 That was not the case before she became President and it is not the case now that she is Ex-President.\u00a0 It is about playing the right card.\u00a0 It is about mutual benefit.\u00a0 Important no doubt, but still less critical than friends among the enemy in times of declining popularity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Ranil.<\/p>\n

In the past few years there have been ample reason for many to object to the regime.\u00a0 Not just object but to be appalled, in fact.\u00a0 The umbrage however has not translated into mass protests. \u2018Fear,\u2019 some explain, but that\u2019s just a part of the story.\u00a0 A small part, one might add.\u00a0 Where does the anger find expression, then? Why, in social media!<\/p>\n

Facebook is full of people who have serious problems with the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.\u00a0 Among them are the usual sour-grapes types, i.e. those who wanted a different outcome in November 2005, May 2009, January 2010 and April 2010.\u00a0 There is a sizable number though of case-by-case assessors, who would cheer some and critique some.\u00a0 There are also many who have voted for the President and his party but have run out of patience and are convinced that astute political thinking is about burying gratitude along with the LTTE<\/a><\/span>. They have a point.\u00a0 The President and the Government did what they were elected to accomplish.\u00a0 That\u2019s \u2018job\u2019 and therefore does not necessitate \u2018unlimited bonus\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0But what do these objectors do and what do they accomplish?<\/p>\n

Many of them rant and rave. Some are more academic with objection.\u00a0 They all call for \u2018uprising\u2019 of one kind or another.\u00a0 Some even organize protests, run campaigns to mobilize people and make it out that it is all spontaneous, free of any agenda except expressing objection, and borrow from the extensive material pertaining to rebellion from all parts of the world.\u00a0 They cry, \u2018Occupy Colombo\u2019.\u00a0 They say \u2018Sri Lanka Spring\u2019 (never mind seasonality ignorance).\u00a0 They put up campaign-related profile pictures. They \u2018like\u2019, they \u2018share\u2019 and they \u2018blog\u2019.\u00a0 Some say \u2018wish I was there\u2019 and others pip in, \u2018I am there in spirit\u2019.<\/p>\n

They seem to be so busy doing all this that they forget to make it to the events they organize, endorse and cheer.\u00a0 Then they wait for the \u2018Next Big Moment\u2019.\u00a0 They move from \u2018spark\u2019 to \u2018spark\u2019 and meanwhile the regime moves from one crisis to the other, not in a crisis-snowballing context but in the classic getting-by of doing it, dealing with it, counting on \u2018forget\u2019 if not \u2018forgive\u2019.<\/p>\n

Facebook and other social media sites are therefore regime-friendly.\u00a0 Of course there is nothing to say that activity therein will not add up and contribute to regime-change at some point, but it is safe to say that impact will be marginal.\u00a0 In the end it boils down to feet on the ground, feet marching together, voices raised in real time and in real space in unison and not in the artificial congregation of feel-good solidarities.<\/p>\n

There are other \u2018friends\u2019.\u00a0 There are the many \u2018news\u2019 sites that are hardly better than gossip rags capable of mild titillation and deflecting and dispersing righteous anger into feel-good laughter.\u00a0 Objectors who laugh at regimes and do nothing else, don\u2019t challenge regimes.<\/p>\n

There are of course \u2018serious\u2019 web-gatherings.\u00a0 Like Groundviews<\/a><\/span> and Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span>. The former is clearly slanted in favor of federalism and federalists, those who have poorly disguised hatred for Sinhalese and Buddhists or feel a compulsion to attack them to be counted among \u2018intellectuals\u2019 and those whose communalism, racism, religious fundamentalism is thinly covered by a cloak called \u2018neutral\u2019.\u00a0 The latter\u2019s content is more eclectic, more in-your-face. There\u2019s news and views.\u00a0 There\u2019s greater generosity of accommodation.\u00a0 Those who run these objection-forums if one may call them that would probably agree that they are frequented by roughly the same clientele.\u00a0 Both writers and commentators.<\/p>\n

Perhaps some of these people actually meet up for chat over coffee or wine, but if gatherings and protests organized by the movers and shakers are anything to go by, they don\u2019t add up to regime-overthrowing-by-mass-uprising. A perusal of commentary reveals untrammeled invective, penchant for abuse and foul language, a privileging of emotion over reason and a conspicuous lack of sobriety.\u00a0 A neutral may be swayed by argument but would think more than twice about joining hands with the cheering squad.<\/p>\n

All these \u2018sites of resistance\u2019 (let\u2019s be generous here) function as outlet, opportunities to let off steam, and spaces to feel you\u2019ve done your bit (and inflate contribution to oneself).\u00a0 Ironically, in Sri Lanka, the more effective users of this space happen to be those who are ready to walk the talk and not all of them walk in peace.<\/p>\n

In the end, therefore, true challenge to regime would probably come from those who for whatever reason don\u2019t use these spaces to vent their anger.\u00a0 They get the bullets, history has shown.\u00a0 Those others, the \u2018friends of the regime\u2019 as argued above, will cry foul, weep virtual tears, like, share and blog, but in the end they will not count. Most of them will remain the internet versions of Ranil Wickremesinghe, doing their bit to prop a regime they love to hate.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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