{"id":186739,"date":"2018-01-25T00:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T18:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=186739"},"modified":"2018-01-29T14:49:27","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T09:19:27","slug":"intoxication-in-a-kakistocracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/intoxication-in-a-kakistocracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Intoxication In A Kakistocracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>

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

There\u2019s a word in Sinhala that is widely used for which there is no English equivalent. \u2018Pevunaa\u2019 is a word used by those who drink, mostly. Those who almost drowned also use the word to indicate that a certain amount of water was swallowed, clearly without intention to do so.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the key here; lack of intention. Tipplers usually add a qualifier: \u2018tikak\u2019 or a small amount. So, if we take the claim literally, a small quantity of alcohol had got into their system without even the slightest desire or help on their part.<\/p>\n

Inadvertently is a word that comes close, but it only suggests lack of planning. \u2018Pevunaa,\u2019 on the other hand suggests that the particular person had his or her mouth open and some alcohol fell into it. It\u2019s not as though he or she tripped over a word as in the phrase \u2018slip of the tongue.\u2019 It\u2019s more like getting wet in the rain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something like this that has happened under the yahapalana government.<\/p>\n

The Central Bank was not tricked, it got tricked of its own accord. No, we are not talking about Arjuna Mahendran\u2019s agency in the scam. It\u2019s the building that robbed itself or allowed itself to be ransacked. And it was a \u2018tikak\u2019 matter if we go by the deliberate trivializing that the Prime Minister has indulged in since President Sirisena read out sections of the report submitted to him by the Commission of Inquiry he appointed. It was, if we are to believe Yahapalanists, a \u2018tikak affair\u2019 and even then it was of a \u2018pevunaa\u2019 kind of misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

Arjuna Mahendran was not appointed as Central Bank Governor, he got appointed (almost as if no one appointed him, that he descended from the sky, literally and metaphorically). The Bank of Ceylon had no inkling that it was giving a massive loan to Arjun Aloysius\u2019 company Perpetual Treasures. It happened. Just like that. Aloysius didn\u2019t purchase a luxury apartment for the then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake; it got purchased. Karunanayake didn\u2019t occupy it with his family; they walked into it in their sleep without any intention to do so. Sujeeva Senasinghe didn\u2019t make dozens of calls to Aloysius after he wrote his book on the bond scam, the phone made the calls of its own accord.<\/p>\n

The President and Prime Minister did not decide to dissolve Parliament just before the COPE report on the bond issue matter was released; Parliament dissolved itself.<\/p>\n

The Attorney General did not, it follows, instruct his men not to grill the Prime Minister at the Bond Commission; they just lost their tongues and not due to any fault of their part either. The Attorney General did not sideline the most qualified personnel at his disposal in the matter of acting on the Bond Report; they sidelined themselves.<\/p>\n

These are all little things or \u2018tikak affairs\u2019 and there was never an intention to do wrong. Tell yourself that. All the time. And see if you believe.<\/p>\n

The President didn\u2019t appoint his brother as Chairman, Telecom; the brother got appointed. The President didn\u2019t take his son to the UN; Daham Sirisena was teleported to New York to his utter surprise and dismay. The President and Prime Minister didn\u2019t accommodate in the national lists of their respective parties candidates who were rejected by the people; they woke up one morning and found that they were MPs.<\/p>\n

It was not rank ignorance of global realities that prompted the Yahapalanists to badmouth China and grovel before the USA and it was not that they decided post-Brexit to look to the East (read as \u2018China\u2019); no, the earth started spinning the wrong way all of a sudden and they lost their bearings. Sorry, their bearings were made to be lost. Not by omission or commission, let us say, if all this sounds a bit confusing.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that Yahapalanists didn\u2019t and don\u2019t believe in Yahapalanaya; maybe Yahapalanaya didn\u2019t believe in them. It\u2019s not that they allowed Yahapalanaya to slip out of their fingers, but Yahapalanaya slipped out of its own accord (if it was in their hands in the first place, of course).<\/p>\n

The issue is about responsibility and accountability. The outcome is clear. This Government cannot govern, doesn\u2019t know how to govern and don\u2019t care about governance. It\u2019s as if they are claiming (without even the apologetic tone of the tippler) \u2018pevunaa\u2019 but the fact that stands out is intoxication. This means they can\u2019t think straight, can\u2019t walk straight and can\u2019t get anything right.<\/p>\n

So they might say that they didn\u2019t want to make a kakistocracy and that they don\u2019t know how they became kakistocratic, but kakistocracy is what we have right now. Just for those unfamiliar with the term kakistocracy refers to \u201ca system of government which is run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question then for the citizen is whether or not they want to mirror their leaders. Do they want to say \u2018we didn\u2019t elect this government, the government got elected (by whoever) for us\u2019? Well, they voted. Their votes didn\u2019t \u2018get cast of themselves.\u2019 They will vote. Their votes won\u2019t be cast for them.<\/p>\n

The follow up question is simple: \u2018do you want to strengthen kakistocrats and kakistocracy?\u2019 Do they want to play \u2018snug and dumb\u2019 and offer apologetically at the end of it all some political equivalent of \u2018pevunaa\u2019 that is an insult to their citizenship?<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. malindasenevi@gmail.com. www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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