{"id":134409,"date":"2014-12-07T00:03:33","date_gmt":"2014-12-06T18:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=134409"},"modified":"2014-12-12T04:23:51","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T22:53:51","slug":"non-issues-and-the-nonentities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/non-issues-and-the-nonentities\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-Issues And The Nonentities"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"Malinda<\/a>

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

Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri<\/span><\/a> is better known by a nickname he earned as an undergraduate, \u2018Vamaa\u2019, translatable as \u2018Lefty\u2019. Whether or not this had anything to do with ideological preferences, Nirmal has certainly been fascinated with Left politics.\u00a0 Indeed, to the extent that left-right distinction is still valid in Marxian and subjective terms (read self-identified) Nirmal is still \u2018Left\u2019. Perhaps this is why he posted a \u2018left\u2019 question as a Facebook status update.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are at least four \u201cleft\u201d presidential candidates. Of them, the NSSP (Nava Sama Samaja Party) candidate has pledged to support Maithripala. If Duminda Nagamuwa (Frontline Socialist Party) poses as the \u2018Common Candidate of the Left,\u2019 let me ask, \u201cwhat makes him more \u2018left\u2019 than the other two, namely those of the Socialist Equality Party and the United Socialist Party?\u201d\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

This maybe an important question for Nirmal, but \u2018who is the most \u201cleft\u201d of the lot?\u2019 is not even of marginal interest for the vast majority of the voters. Nirmal has also suggested (in another status update) that Nagamuwa<\/span><\/a>\u2019s candidacy can only help Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>. Nirmal of course is supporting Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a>, this should be remembered. Leftists\u2019 crying foul is old hat. Leftists have always accused each other of serving the interests of \u2018the enemy\u2019. In this instance the questions are prompted by a need to justify choices more than anything else.<\/p>\n

\"Duminda<\/a>

Duminda Nagamuwa<\/p><\/div>\n

The only \u2018left\u2019 issue that is of political interest in this election is the face-off between the JVP and its breakaway, the FSP.\u00a0 The FSP seems to have stolen a march on the \u2018Mother Party\u2019 by putting forward a candidate in a context where the JVP has opted not to. Whatever the radical\/Marxist readings of \u2018bourgeois elections\u2019 may be, elections figure in popular perceptions and numbers obtained, however small (relatively), are taken as indicators. Whatever the FSP gets will be read as numbers drawn from the JVP.<\/p>\n

\u2018Show\u2019 matters too.\u00a0 So, even though the JVP is not contesting, if it stamps presence during the next few weeks, that \u2018show\u2019 can overtrump FSP \u2018gains\u2019. Convoluted arguments and practices to support Maithripala will compete with the need to protect the ownership claims to the red flag.\u00a0 The likes of Nirmal (and other \u2018leftists\u2019) will howl in horror that the JVP is not really \u2018Marxists\u2019 or \u2018Left\u2019.\u00a0 Be that as it may, in popular perception (and this counts!) \u2018red\u2019 belongs to the JVP, for now.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most interesting about Nirmal\u2019s angst is that at least these are \u2018issues\u2019 for him whereas the absence and silence of many good-governance fellow-travelers of the past couple of years have not bothered him at all. What happened to the \u2018Friday Forum\u2019 which was at one time ready to fire off press releases at the drop of a hat?\u00a0 What happened to the \u2018Platform for Democracy\u2019?\u00a0 What happened to that pawn of USAID and thinly disguised UNP front, the Bar Association which made a lot of noise but whose voice has diminished to the occasional whimper?\u00a0 What of the NGO wallahs who would rise as though from a drunken stupor when they sniffed regime-change potential each time someone gave the finger to the President?<\/p>\n

There are other questions. Why is Kumar David<\/span><\/a> singing the praises of the key representatives of the class enemy, namely Ranil Wickremesinghe<\/span><\/a>, Chandrika Kumaratunga<\/span><\/a> and Rajiva Wijesinha<\/span><\/a> while treating his current \u2018Marxist favorites\u2019 the JVP like those only fit to polish the floors of the walawwa<\/i> and the people he loves to hate, the JHU, as vote-swinging adjuncts?\u00a0 Where\u2019s Maithripala in his analysis and why is this candidate who is wooing the vote treated like a puppet?\u00a0 And why is Dayan Jayatilleka<\/span><\/a> handing out character certificates to Champika Ranawaka<\/span><\/a> and Ven Athureliye Rathana?\u00a0 Don\u2019t these questions trouble Nirmal?<\/p>\n

Perhaps all this is because \u2018regime-change\u2019 need has effectively footnoted or ever dismissed outright political ideology.\u00a0 While this is clearly an indication of widespread and justifiable antipathy to how things are in the \u2018land of miracles,\u2019 it also points out to widespread confusion on the usual regime-change suspects.<\/p>\n

Consider the following (crude, yes) depiction of politics over the past twenty years. Chandrika drove to power in the SLFP vehicle on which she painted the word \u2018federalism\u2019. In 2005, Mahinda shoved her off and replaced the word with \u2018nationalism\u2019. Mahinda still has the car. Maithripala has jumped into the UNP car. He\u2019s in the driver\u2019s seat but there are many hands on the steering wheel. Too many for him to look like a driver the people can trust, but that\u2019s a separate issue.\u00a0 The \u2018problem\u2019 for the Saravanamuttus<\/span><\/a>, Jayantha Dhanapalas<\/span><\/a>, Sudarshana Gunawardenas and other \u2018democracy-voices\u2019 could be that this hodge-podge is volatile. It can go anywhere and that includes places they would not be comfortable in.\u00a0\u00a0 What if, for example, at the end of the day they find the Maithripala Bandwagon has got a \u2018Nationalist\u2019 make-over? What if that vehicle with those colors wins the race?\u00a0 Would be ironical, would it not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nNon-Issues And The Nonentities - 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\/non-issues-and-the-nonentities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Non-Issues And The Nonentities - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/non-issues-and-the-nonentities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-06T18:33:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-11T22:53:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\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\/non-issues-and-the-nonentities\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/non-issues-and-the-nonentities\/\",\"name\":\"Non-Issues And The Nonentities - 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