{"id":147207,"date":"2015-07-10T00:02:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T18:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=147207"},"modified":"2015-07-17T23:59:49","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T18:29:49","slug":"will-the-real-sirisena-stand-up-please","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/will-the-real-sirisena-stand-up-please\/","title":{"rendered":"Will The Real Sirisena Stand Up Please?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Malinda Seneviratne<\/span><\/a> \u2013 <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

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

Nalaka Gunawardena, social media guru, recently tweeted about a monumental gaffe by \u2018The Hindu\u2019 which carried a picture of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> in the company of fellow presidential candidate Arachchige Rathnayake Sirisena.<\/span><\/p>\n

The picture had been used to decorate a story titled \u2018President Sirisena\u2019s position on Rajapaksa\u2019s nomination remains unclear\u2019. It is well-known that A.R. Sirisena contested or was persuaded to contest (for whatever consideration) to confuse would be voters for the eventual winner, Maithripala Sirisena<\/span><\/a>. The Sirisena camp for its part \u2018fielded\u2019 a Namal Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a> probably for the same reason (for whatever consideration).<\/p>\n

\u2018The Hindu\u2019 ought to have known better, but we all err, so this slip is understandable. The image was subsequently removed from the story.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s interesting about this mix-up is Nalaka\u2019s comments. The wording tells a story but misses a bigger story.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one comment: ‘Having mixed up @MaithripalaS with a cheap imitation @TheHindu quietly removes image frm story’. Some of the retweets, shares and comments have used the word \u2018fake\u2019 instead of \u2018cheap\u2019. The use of the word \u2018imitation\u2019 is legitimate obviously but that\u2019s where the it stops. Nalaka implies that Maithripala Sirisena is somehow of greater worth than A.R. Sirisena. If ARS is \u2018cheap\u2019, then MS is \u2018valuable\u2019, constitutes value for money or \u2018rich,\u2019 Nalaka would have us believe. It\u2019s all relative of course. MS is no doubt more important and powerful than ARS, but is he of greater worth simply on account of power and position or rather position of power?<\/p>\n

\"Hindu\"<\/a>If it was all about rhetoric and promises, if it was about winning and losing, if it was about the reasons for contesting, then of course it can be argued that MS stands a few inches taller than ARS. On the other hand, has MS covered himself in glory in the first six months of his presidency? There\u2019s nothing to brag about, really.<\/p>\n

Winning itself can be called an achievement considering how powerful his key opponent was and if one subscribed to the view that Mahinda Rajapaksa had become intolerably arrogance and surrounded himself with so many unsavory characters that his savory-claims had to be taken with a cartload of salt.<\/p>\n

Yes, the 19th Amendment was passed. But then again, the 20th was scuttled. The Right to Information Act was dumped. There was talk of a Code of Conduct for MPs. Just talk. Then came the bond scam. MS\u2019s \u2018running-mate\u2019 Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed friends to \u2018investigate\u2019 his friend, the Governor of the Central Bank. Apparently things were so rotten that even these friends couldn\u2019t say \u2018all\u2019s well\u2019. They recommended further investigations. Nothing happened. Then came the COPE investigation. Coincidentally, just before the relevant report came out, MS dissolved parliament. That\u2019s almost like orchestrating a jail break. Nalaka has tweeted about this too: “Meet #lka’s new Own-Goal team: @RW_UNP @RaviOneNation & Arjuna Mahendran @officialunp will lose lots of votes defending @CBSL scam #GenEleSL”.<\/p>\n

Over and above that is his identity crisis; even as he is the Leader of the SLFP, he lets that party\u2019s arch rival, the UNP to use his image to go with the color green and the elephant symbol in the middle of elections! That\u2019s \u2018rich\u2019, sure. Cheap too, ironically!<\/p>\n

If this is what MS could do or \u2018oversee being done\u2019 in just six months, one trembles at what kind of monster he could turn into if he were to rule for 9 years! ARS, perhaps thanks to being \u2018untried\u2019, does seem benign. \u2018Cheap\u2019 cannot be IRS\u2019s preserve. Neither is MS untainted by \u2018cheapness\u2019.<\/p>\n

The real-fake dichotomy is also interesting. We know who IRS is. Do we know who MS is? MS is now blue, not green, now the Leader of the SLFP and now (as pointed above) pin-up boy of the UNP. One day he talks of \u0db8\u0ddb\u0dad\u0dca\u200d\u0dbb\u0dd2\u0dba (maithree or compassion) the next he is all \u0dc0\u0ddb\u0dbb\u0dba (vairaya or hatred). One day it\u2019s about clean-up the next it\u2019s about cover-up. If all this doesn\u2019t describe \u2018fake,\u2019 what does? IRS, in comparison, looks quite the real deal.<\/p>\n

All things considered Nalaka, in hi \u2019cheap\u2019 shot, undresses himself in ways that gives \u2018The Hindu,\u2019 MS and the MS-is-the-real-thing bandwagon a good run for their money. Nalaka doesn\u2019t exactly redeem himself in a subsequent tweet: \u2018WHAT IF\u2026real @MaithripaaS & dummy Sirisena have been switched? Might explain bizarre recent actions. Suba & Yasa?\u2019<\/p>\n

Note, once again, the derogatory term tagged on ARS, \u2018dummy\u2019. Speaking of dummies, though, hasn\u2019t MS operated as though he\u2019s a dummy and much more for Ranil, the UNP, the LTTE rump and lots of other entities besides? We\u2019ve covered a lot of that already.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know what Nalaka thinks was\/is \u2018bizarre\u2019. The re-embrace of Mahinda, perhaps? Yes, that is bizarre except that Nalaka knows about the permanency or otherwise of political friends and enemies. Perhaps he\u2019s thinking of MS\u2019s identity crisis and how UNP candidates are using the leader of the \u2018enemy-party\u2019 to prop their respective campaigns. We don\u2019t know. What we do now is that had ARS and MS exchanged places, things could not get worse.<\/p>\n

So there are many Sirisenas. There\u2019s MS and there\u2019s ARS. And there are the many versions of Maithripala Sirisena. Now that is bizarre. So bizarre that the question we have posed cannot really be answered. Too many \u2018reals\u2019 and too many \u2018fakes\u2019 around. Some even contain both fake and real. So bizarre that one cannot blame \u2018The Hindu\u2019. Really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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