{"id":165797,"date":"2016-07-27T01:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T19:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=165797"},"modified":"2016-08-03T00:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T18:30:25","slug":"in-the-name-of-sanity-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/in-the-name-of-sanity-reason\/","title":{"rendered":"In The Name Of Sanity & Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Uditha Devapriya<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Uditha<\/a>

Uditha Devapriya<\/p><\/div>\n

Malinda Seneviratne<\/span><\/a> has an eye for comment. He knows the political so much that he can engage in debate and win, and what\u2019s more without resorting to emotion and rhetoric. That\u2019s rare, one can conclude. Consequently it\u2019s difficult to imagine him playing second fiddle to anyone, politician or ideologue. He has his views and I don\u2019t agree with many of them, but the fact of the matter is that \u201clapdog\u201d is a word no one can tag on him. And why? Because of the one weapon he has at his disposal whenever someone has an issue with what he\u2019s written: reason.<\/p>\n

A few days ago, Ranil Wickremesinghe lambasted certain journalists<\/span><\/a>. He noted they\u2019d been in the pay of the previous regime and threatened to reveal their names. This is of course not the first time and certainly not the last time he\u2019s done such a thing. This article, however, is not about Mr Wickremesinghe or his gripe with journalists. It\u2019s about something else.<\/p>\n

Malinda wrote on the Prime Minister\u2019s rant<\/span><\/a>. Again, not the first time. If you peruse the articles he wrote to \u201cThe Island<\/em>\u201d, the now defunct Sunday \u201cLakbima<\/em>\u201d, the \u201cDaily News<\/em>\u201d, \u201cThe Nation<\/em>\u201d and Colombo Telegraph<\/em>, you\u2019ll come across so many instances where he has criticised the Prime Minister and understand why: because he knows Wickremesinghe\u2019s CV and disagrees with his stances on issues Malinda clearly is a nationalist on. That\u2019s not to say Mr Wickremesinghe is not a nationalist (he is), but then again there are degrees of nationalism and Malinda is ahead of most politicians (the populists of the previous regime included) on that count. This article, therefore, is about Malinda Seneviratne.<\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

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

I started reading Malinda in \u201cThe Nation<\/em>\u201d. No, not when he was Editor. He was, I remember, a contributor to a weekly political column. The first thing that struck me was his nationalist thrust, something I hadn\u2019t come across in those who wrote to English newspapers (not that there weren\u2019t others of course). He writes with a kind of clarity his opponents can\u2019t match. I suppose clarity tends to attract rubbish paraded as counterargument, which explains why, over the years, he\u2019s been at the receiving end of vitriol and third-rate, below the belt comments by those who have no clue about his stances.<\/p>\n

He has been called a Mahinda loyalist, stooge, sycophant, and shill. He has been vilified, lambasted, defamed, and debased. A lesser writer would have given up. He has not. Speaks volumes about the man, as it does about those who choose to slander and in other ways abuse him with words.<\/p>\n

Let me come out with it. For years, he pointed out flaws in Constitutional provisions, guarantees, and amendments. For years, he argued for reform. For years, he supported the nation, not Mahinda Rajapaksa. For years, he objected to intimidation and dissected dissent. For years, he made it clear that the end of war was not the beginning of peace. For years, all this was ignored and he got a lovely title: chauvinist.<\/p>\n

As such it\u2019s predictable that when he calls a spade a spade with respect to the Prime Minister\u2019s tirades, those who have an axe to grind with him will howl \u201cHypocrite!\u201d The hypocrite-tag is, however, both unwarranted and uncalled for, not (only) because Malinda doesn\u2019t deserve it, but also because using that on the dissident tends to concede power and ego to the powers that be. I\u2019m sure everyone knows this.<\/p>\n

No, I don\u2019t agree with him on everything (as I pointed out before). I have issues with some of his positions. We don\u2019t see eye to eye on certain matters. But I know one thing: he is less politically coloured than I am. More to the point, he is less politically coloured than any of us. Hardly reason for censure, wouldn\u2019t you agree?<\/p>\n

Moving on.<\/p>\n

We were promised change in 2015. Change, they say, comes in different shades. Some would say point at relative merits. Others would push for perfection. I think it\u2019s safe to say, as Tisaranee Gunasekara<\/span><\/a> has, that this regime has done everything it can to be marginally superior in terms of corruption, nepotism, and venality to the Rajapaksa Regime<\/span><\/a>. Telling.<\/p>\n

Forget all this, though. Ask yourself: does the revolution end with the changing of the guard or does it live forever? \u201cRevolution is Dissent!\u201d Warren Beatty (acting as John Reed, the American journalist who covered the 1917 upheaval in Russia) exclaims in his film \u201cReds\u201d. True. That\u2019s why dissent is predicated on critique. Healthy, necessary critique. The sort that survives regime-change.<\/p>\n

Now some will of course argue that there\u2019s a line between critique and sycophancy. Who decides that line, though? The government? The Editor\u2019s Guild? Malinda Seneviratne? Your neighbour? Then there\u2019s another argument: freedom must go with responsibility. Again, who decides the parameters of that responsibility? Didn\u2019t the Rajapaksa Regime try to do that? Didn\u2019t they fail? And didn\u2019t those who bring up these arguments now use to howl (by their keyboards and computer screens) whenever Rajapaksa \u201cblanked\u201d the media?<\/p>\n

2015 did more than change a regime, folks. It undressed a lot of people. Those who clamoured for revolution and bayed for blood in their rush to \u201cget\u201d good governance became silent. Their rebellion used to be for ABSOLUTE change. Right now though, I am willing to bet, they\u2019ll probably be content with RELATIVE merits. A totally different destination, ladies and gentleman.<\/p>\n

These are still early days. We don\u2019t really know this government\u2019s position on the media. We can cut them some slack. At the same time, we can guess. And we can have the likes of Malinda help us guess.<\/p>\n

As for the Prime Minister\u2019s tirades, they remind me of what the late S. L. Gunasekara once said. He was speaking at a seminar on the media. The year was 1999. The speaker before him was Ranil Wickremesinghe. Wickremesinghe had waxed eloquent on media freedom. The UNP was in the Opposition then. And two plus two equals four.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what S. L. said: “I think the press are somewhat paranoid when they think that all politicians hate them and want to destroy them. I disagree entirely. When the SLFP was in opposition, it loved the media in the same manner as UNP loves it now, with the enduring passion of a Romeo for his Juliet.”<\/p>\n

That was S. L. Spoke his mind. Didn\u2019t suffer mediocrity. To the point. Brash. And politically colourless. Like Malinda.<\/p>\n

*Uditha Devapriya is a freelance writer who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com. His articles can be accessed at fragmenteyes.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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