{"id":212127,"date":"2020-07-27T19:12:14","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T13:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=212127"},"modified":"2020-08-03T11:30:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T06:00:03","slug":"only-sinhala-buddhist-catholic-votes-anatomy-of-a-tribal-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/only-sinhala-buddhist-catholic-votes-anatomy-of-a-tribal-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Only Sinhala-Buddhist-Catholic Votes: Anatomy Of A Tribal Democracy\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sarath de Alwis<\/a>\u00a0–<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarath de Alwis<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe who can make an exception is sovereign\u201d ~\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Carl Schmitt in 1922\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The pen was once mightier than the sword. In the age of the smart phone the tongue has taken over.\u00a0<\/span>The point of departure of this essay is digital electioneering amidst social distancing.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to the smartphone, behavior tends to leave behind digital footprints. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Covid-19<\/span><\/a> has substantially altered the cacophony of the electoral process.\u00a0<\/span>The main contenders have made a definite, meaning full switchover to digital campaigning, micro targeting and online mobilization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About twelve years ago I got a PC \u2013 not the black coated variety now overspreading in Hulftsdorp. It is something called a personal computer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a maddening contraption which compelled my daughter Rashmi to gift me a clever compendium on how to get the basics right in the digital world. It was most appropriately called \u201cUnderstanding Computers \u2013 a handbook for the perfect idiot\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to that early fortuitus happening I have followed the current electioneering process on YouTube, Facebook and most significantly on WhatsApp. (Twitter eludes me still. I still cannot deal with ATMs. I fill a form and operate a savings account with a passbook.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The viral constraints on public rallies – humongous swarms of humans has compelled political parties and candidates to focus on YouTube and most enjoyably one on one interviews.<\/p>\n

It has produced a number of inquisitors who represent different political shades. My favorite is the bearded baldhead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clearly, the ruling party \u2018Pohottuwa\u2019 commands the digital advantage.\u00a0<\/span>They have been in the business for more than three years. They have the digital resource advantage both official and unofficial. The others are catching up. Thanks to the Elections Commission since the announcement of the date of elections some levelling of the playing field is thinly discernible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I oppose the policies of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>. But that opposition does not diminish my capacity to make a rational assessment. Gotabaya is a very popular product.<\/p>\n

There is a strong conviction amongst a large swathe of the populace that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will take the right call for the country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think they are wrong. That is my opinion.\u00a0<\/span>I cannot prove them wrong. Only time will tell.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Time is always telling. Time never stops telling. But we don\u2019t listen. Only when we are kicked in the derri\u00e8re that we blame time for not telling it loud enough.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is the world of reality. There is the world of fantasy. What separates the two is the wall of fallacy. You cannot attack the false while you are mired in fallacy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mangala Samaraweera has a point. I don\u2019t know what he will do next. But he got out of a charade – meaningless and futile. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We must not confuse our choices.\u00a0<\/span>There is always a good choice and there is always a better choice. Then there is the best choice which we will not have during my lifetime because clientelist politics is too entrenched.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Politics is not about who does what but who gets what and how much and how fast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this parliamentary election the \u2018Pohottuwa\u2019 has leveraged digital technology to brand a single product – the President defender of the faith under whose benign guidance we will glimpse \u201cvistas of prosperity and splendor\u201d. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither Anurakumara\u2019s promise of integrity nor Sajith Premadasa<\/span><\/a>\u2019s capacity to bleed for the have-nots present a viable alternative government.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>If they on other hand wanted to preserve the democratic gains and arrest our slide into an autocratic rule, why are they contesting each other?<\/p>\n

There is the \u2018Peratrugami\u2019 left\u00a0 <\/span>fighting the Vimukthikami left. On the liberal democratic circus, the \u2018Samagi\u2019 party is fighting the \u2018Eksath\u2019 party. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All these well-meaning people have failed to tell voters what needs telling. If\u00a0<\/span>they vote for the thug, the extortionist, the child molester, the smuggler, the fraudster they are in reality declaring their own oneness with those despicable deeds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On YouTube I watched the Chili powder dispenser pleading self-defense. The chap who started off with a suburban communication center assured on YouTube that he possessed no tangible assets and that his current affluent home was the result of his good wife making lucky breaks in her business ventures.<\/p>\n

Cynical mockery of obvious truths can no longer be dismissed as unfortunate gaffes that time would repair. The digital records will continue to haunt them but that will be only if the other side has the creative will to not let them forget.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The internet is a great instrument for citizen participation in democracy. The digital platform can either promote decency and truth or assault decency and subvert truth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently I received a video clip on WhatsApp. It showed two young ladies engaged in passionate canvassing at the doorstep of a woman voter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The conversation runs like this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have come here not to promise you anything. We will not tell you that we will give you this or that. We have come to tell you that we must send a \u2018Sinhalaya\u2019 to speak on behalf of the Sinhala people. You will know about the national movement started by the late \u2018Soma Hamuduruwo\u2019. This is a person who was in it from its very inception. He was a \u2018pioneer\u2019 in the struggle to bring the President in to that high office. Then, the lady dressed in a smart saffron blouse pronounces the exotic Sinhala name of the candidate and says emphatically \u2018we want only Sinhala Buddhist Catholic votes. Why? Because we strongly oppose Muslim extremism. We also oppose Tamil separatism. We want to a send a \u2018Sinhalaya\u2019 to parliament to speak for the Sinhalese.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Then she says the preference number of the candidate is number two. His \u2018Jathiya\u2019 is number one. \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n