Understanding Tyranny
“Muammar is leader of the revolution until the end of time…. When they (the protestors) are caught they will beg for mercy, but we will not be merciful.”
— Muammar Gaddafi (Address to the Nation – 22.2.2011)
By Tisaranee Gunasekara
Muammar Gadaffiand Saif al-Islam Gadaffi
On January 18, 2011, Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of President Rajapaksa (‘The Universally-Renowned Lord of the Three-Sinhala Lands’), met Muammar Gaddafi (‘Eternal Brother Leader of the Revolution’ and ‘King of Kings’). The picturesquely attired Gaddafi embraced young Rajapaksa, who vas heading a ‘parliamentary delegation’ consisting solely of UPFA representatives: Sajin Vaas Gunawardena, Duminda Silva, Lohan Ratwatte and Thirantha Basnayake. Rajapaksa fils reminded Gaddafi that he owes Sri Lanka the honour of a reciprocal-visit, as Rajapaksa pere has visited Libya, twice.
Since then the democracy contagion has infected Libya and ‘Brother Leader’ is busy launching a blood-bath to save himself. Appearing on state television, he called the protesting Libyan youth ‘drug-infested mice’ and threatened to ‘cleanse Libya, house by house’. 48 hours previously, his son and putative heir, Saif al-Islam, also came on TV, declaring his father will fight to the last man, woman and bullet to prevent an Egyptian/Tunisian outcome in Libya.
The Egyptian and Libyan Revolutions provide a rare window into the inner-workings of despotic-political dynasties in the Third World. These insights are of immense relevance to us, as President Rajapaksa works indefatigably to tighten his grip on power and entrench his own dynasty. In Sri Lanka, the process is being fast-forwarded; unlike his brother-despots, Rajapaksa came to power not as a young man but on his 60th Birthday, and must work faster to implant Familial Rule and Dynastic succession. Thus the indecent haste with which the First Son is being promoted; for instance, Namal Rajapaksa, though a mere junior-parliamentarian (and no cricketer), presented the ‘Man of the Match’ award at the first Cricket World Cup game in Sri Lanka — held in a stadium named after his Presidential-father, in the family-fief of Hambantota.
Tyrants are vainglorious. They collect titles. They also amass wealth. Having a world to lose, they fear political demise; so do their families. This fear is a key catalyst in the creation of a state-form which has mushroomed in the Third World in the last four decades: familiocracy – a republic manipulated and distorted into a de facto monarchy, where presidential father is succeeded by presidential son. When tyranny is conjoined with dynastic-succession, the family becomes the final and the most obtuse rampart of the ruler.
Thus in Egypt President Mubarak’s son Gamal “…pushed his father to hold on to power even after his top generals and the prime minister were urging an exit…. The defiant tone of the President’s speech on Thursday…was largely his son’s work.” (The New York Times – 13.2.2011). Gaddafi’s sons were notoriously fractious, fighting over spoils of power; but faced with a popular rebellion they have set aside personal differences and liberal pretensions, rallying as one round their Ruler-father.
The West’s main concern in the Third World is not political or social liberalism but economic liberalism (thus the liberal West’s foremost Middle Eastern ally is the politico-social antediluvian Saudi Arabia). From anti-communism to anti-terrorism, Western leaders never lacked arguments to justify their modus vivendi with accommodative familiocracies. Gamal Mubarak and Saif Gaddafi were welcomed in the West as reformers (Saif Gaddafi’s doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics was on creating ‘just and democratic global governing institutions’). But as a Gaddafi-opponent said, “It’s all just a game. Saif cannot do anything without his dad’s blessing. They have a great relationship” (Time – 5.4.2010). Today the ‘liberal’ Saif is the main defender of the Gaddafi-tyranny.
Naturally. Tyrants and their families have too much to lose. The longer they are in power, the less they want to leave. Corruption is a disease common to most politicians but tyrants see no distinction between national and personal wealth. According to a 2006 Wikileaks cable, “All of the Qaddafi children and favourites are supposed to have income streams from the National Oil Company and oil service subsidiaries”.
Meanwhile 33% of Libyan people live below the poverty line, despite the country’s vast mineral wealth. Tyranny is inimical to socio-economic development; tyrants don’t enrich their countries; they enrich their families. But they are excellent showmen and stuntmen. “Shop owners around the Mahinda Rajapaksa Cricket Stadium in Sooriyaweva have been told by the police to put on sale large king coconuts, bananas and full-grown vegetables to create a good impression among foreign visitors…..the police has advised them also to dress the children in ‘lama sariya’…or other national outfits when they take them on the roads while the matches are played” (The Sunday Times – 20.2.2011).
Last month Sri Lanka imported her first stretch-limousines, even as food-prices soared and nearly 50% of the children in the Eastern Province were diagnosed as malnourished. Colombo police stations are demolishing their walls, because Sri Lanka is safe, while the Emergency and the PTA remain in force, even during election times.
Post-18th Amendment Realities
Tunisia and Egypt mark the moment the banner of democracy and human rights was appropriated by the peoples of the Third World. Until then, it was possible to dismiss democracy and human rights as colonial legacies and Western imports. No more. The Arab revolutions demonstrate that the desire for democracy is a universal one, stemming from man’s natural inclination to escape the permanent political adolescence imposed on him by autocratic-rule and become adult-citizens. The 21st Century will thus be defined by the Third-World wide contestation between despotic rulers (often nursing dynastic-projects) and their people, with the West playing the role of uneasy spectator. The West’s preoccupation with terrorism has made it abandon the banner of political freedom even in its own heartland. The Open Society is putting-up its shutters, corroded into political-agoraphobia by fears of terrorism, immigration and Islam.
The Rajapaksas, as new entrants to the Third World tyrants club, have cause for alarm. The key role played by new information technologies in enabling Arab uprisings has convinced tyrants that they need to control cyberspace, if they are to maintain their control of geographical and political spaces. For instance, the Chinese Politburo has reportedly decided that “efforts to criticise and control microblogs must be sharply increased…” (New York Review of Books – 20.2.2011). The Lankan Army Commander is already talking of the need for ‘cyber soldiers’ to wage a ‘cyber war’ against ‘pro-LTTE and anti-Sri Lankan elements’; he mentioned, as an example of cyber-foes, Wikileaks, which became a catalyst of the Tunisian Revolution via its leaked cables.
The upcoming local government poll is the first post-18th Amendment election. Already the insidious effects of that anti-democratic constitutional-change are visible, not just in the high levels of violence and malpractices but also in the anti-vertebrae decision by the Elections Commissioner to unilaterally postpone polling in 56 councils, sans even a court order. As per plan; after all the transformation of independent commissions into appendages of a presidency without term-limits via the 18th Amendment was intended to turn the Elections Commissioner (and other officials) into presidential stooges. Such a transformation is vital in instituting an electoral system in which many parties compete but only the ruling party wins, enabling decades of Rajapaksa-rule, Father and Son.
for more information, please refer the link below
http://transcurrents.com/tc/2011/02/parallels_between_the_gaddafis.html
Sri Lanka also Must take a lead from what is happening in Tunis, Egypt and Libya.
The stories and the leaders all have similar style ruling ONLY to be literally Kicked Out.
‘Not Long now for Sri Lanka as our President’s stroy and actions are nothing different..All of deceit, corruption and shamelessly dishonest.
Tome for Sri Lankans to show our rights..The Peoples’ rights.
Common features of the countries in turmoil-
…. Dictatorial regimes
…. Family dynasty
…..Gross corruption, bribary, mismanagement by first family and cohorts
…..Victimisation of political opponents who stood up for the country
…..Inability hear the cries of people
….Gross wastge of public money as personal wealth while refusing to give people a decent living standards
…Accumilation of absolute power by hook or by crook
….Manipulation of elections
… Deterioration of every strand of the govt. due to appointing henchman as opposed to professionals
…. Sleeping, tickling,bedding with criminals, some are part of govt.
…. Feel that they are ‘untouchable’
DON”T THEY SOUND VERY SIMILAR TO ALL SRI LANKANS!!!
To Thisaranee and Horapakshaya
Sri Lanka should not follow the idiots in the middle east. We are a cleverer lot. We have elections every six years. With reference to Hugs received by our delegates, from Gadafi, even British prime minister had that fortune, when they signed up to sell Libya millions of pounds worth of arms. Hugging men is the form of greeting by all Arabs. Sri Lankans don’t have to fight for food. We are type of people who will give our dinner to someone else and go hungry. We can also grow our own food. JR was the closest to a dictator we ever had. Stayed in power for 12 years without a general election. JRJ heartlessly crushed the 100 thousand of workers who asked for a Rs 10 pay rise and made them beg on streets and stop them sending children to school(sacking all the workers) until Premadasa re-instated them, when he became the President. It was too late for the families. In 1955 when Dudley increased the price of rice to Rs.1 people started the “harthal” led by LSSP. Dudley resigned and gave the power to second in command Sir John Kothalawala. That was it. Don’ try to start an unwanted protests now you idiot. Even if you can work hard and collect 100 thousand people to come out like the Libyans you can’t represent 20 million people. You just want to create an opportunity for LTTE to come up again and destroy the country. Gadafi been a dictator for 42 years is not our problem. It shows how clever(bunch of idiots) Libyan people were.
wat he is trying to say is, the current regime is becoming a dictator regime.
SRI LANKANS R CLEAVER LOT????
do u know 14 percent of sri lankans earn less than Rs 100 a day and 40.2 percent of us earn less than Rs 200 a day?
u think its a good news? get out of ur colombo 7 house n see out side.
ANOTHER TIP IS, STOP EATTING FROM MR’S PLATE, SO U CAN SEE THE TRUTH PROPERLY.
NOW dont show us the LTTE ghost n scare us, wat the government has been trying to do ever since. the war is over, paid a heavy price, so many civilians died, suffered so much , stayed in camps for years without proper facility. now its all over. DONT TRY TO SCARE US.
Addiction to absolute power makes tyrants. Gaddafi,Mubarak, Hugo Chavez and a whole lot of middle east rulers are among them.China practices another form of tyranny, so is Mayanmar by ruling the country using terror,intimidation,rigging polls etc.,At least those countries are ruled by ruthless despots for many years until things
started changing in several countries fighting for freedom.
It’s time for Ahmedinajads & arrogant rulers to go. So Gaddafi & Ahmedinajad can
rest in peace in paradise Srilanka until it becomes a true democratic nation.
Whatt do you know about the world?
Orpheus, you are definitely part of the 20 Million who are totally Blind and Uneducated people who Only know Sri Lanka, There is a Huge outside world around that is Changing Rapidly, Sri Lanka is Not the Worlds Biggest Country, Nor is it a Super Power, nor Does it have the Worlds Greatest etc etc etc etc etc,you have been Lied to, about Time you wake up to reality,
Che!
I lived in Sri Lanka, the UK ,US, Sri Lanka and then Australia. I was watching the news (TV) and reading international news since 1970. I kept my eyes on political events happenings all round the world. I have associated and listened to people from all over the world from Pacific Islands to Latin America via the middle east. I had lots of Egyptians, Iraqi Indian and Chinese class mates(35 years ago). I have bathed in 3 oceans(Atlantic, India and Pacific) According to statistics Sri Lanka has the highest % of educated people. Although I was out of the country for the last 20 years I visited Sri Lanka 10 times and followed every event (political) that took place in Sri Lanka. So few of youare clever guys who want to overthrow the elected government and put an army General ,like Colonel Gadaffi or General Pinochet. 99% percent of people are stupid. That is exactly what the dictators in the Middle east and the Latin America thought when they set up their army regimes (overthrowing elected governments in Latin America).
@Orpheus
wow, u been to so many countries, magic na. lol
mixed with so many people, learn so many things, fought so many wars, a real hero na.
hahaha……just stop all these self praise dude.
THE MOST FUNNIEST PART IS WHEN U SAID “According to statistics Sri Lanka has the highest % of educated people”????????
when was that statistics taken? before ur grand father was born?
let me tell u about the current state, we r in 94th place in literacy rate out of 180 country. countries ahead of us r bangladesh,china,indonesia,zimbabwe,jordan.
so wat happen to all the reading u did, u dont seem to be updated
WELL THE WRITING ON THE WALL SHOULD BE READ, BY “OUR CARDBOARD DICTATORS” OR RATHER “CUT OUT DICTATORS”.
GADDAFI HELD ON FOR FOUR DECADES, BEN ALI AND HOSNY MUBARAK FOR OVER THREE DECADES AND ABDULLAH SALEH.
ALL OF THEM HAD AN “IRON GRIP” ON THEIR PEOPLE. BUT ONCE THEY
BROKE DOWN THE “WALL OF FEAR” NOTHING COULD STOP.THEM
IT WAS THE YOUTH.THEY DID NOT FEAR FACING GUNS AND BULLETS.
GADDAFI TOO WHO HAD HIS TWO SONS WHO PLAYED A PROMINENT PART IN DAY TO DAY GOVERNANCE, LIKE MUBARAKS SONS.OUR
“FIRST SONS” TOO PLAY A BIG PART IN THE MISGOVERNANCE OF THIS COUNTRY.
AS YOU HAVE RIGHTLY QUESTIONED, WAS THERE NO ONE OTHER
THAN NAMAL TO PRESENT THE “MAN OF THE MATCH” AWARD.?
THE ACT OF ONE TUNISIAN YOUTH WHO SET FIRE TO HIMSELF, A
SPARK BECAME A FLAME AND GREW TO A BIG CONFLAGRATION THAT HAS ENGULFED THE ENTIRE ARAB WORLD.
THEY COMPLAINED OF UNEMPLOYMENT AND DENIAL OF RIGHTS
AND FREEDOM.
WE SRI LANKANS HAVE A PARALLEL. IN THOSE WHO GOVERN US
AND ALSO THE PROBLEMS.
AS LONG AS WE HAVE FEAR,WE CANNOT ACHIEVE ANYTHING SURPRISINGLY BUDDHISTS, WHO TALK ALWAYS OF THE IMPERMANENCE OF THINGS. DO NOT HAVE PEOPLE WHO CAN STICK THEIR NECK OUT.FOR THE GOOD OF THE NATION-PATRIOTS !!??
IT IS IN SITUATIONS LIKE THIS, THAT “HEROS” ARE BORN.
BUT THEN WE ARE BUDDHISTS, WHO DONT LIKE SLAUGHTER OF ANIMALS BUT CARE TWO HOOTS ABOUT SLAUGHTERING A MAN.
IN SHORT WE CANNOT SEE THE ARAB WORLDS SCENARIO- BECAUSE
WE ARE A NATION OF COWARDS. ABSOLUTELY NO GUTS!!!!!!!!
WE HAVE TO HANG OUR HEADS IN SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
vintage voter
Mubarac “faithful dog of America is too old to rule the idiots in Egypt. He will be replaced by a younger faithful dog. Chinese people who were starving to death 60 years ago are laughing now. America who exploted all the worlds natural resources will be crying soon.
He is Colonal Gadaffi, like General Fonseka or General Pinochette of Chilie.
Orpheus:
Why do you insist on displaying your ignorance (over and over again) and your terrible spelling and grammar to add to the misery of those on whom you insist on inflicting your stupidity?
Justitia! I forget my grammer and spelling when I see fools like you(and your Ava Mangala Samaraweera) giving wrong information to readers .It is my old age nervous condition.
@Justitia omnibus
dont say such thing about ORPHEUS,
he been to so many countries,mixed with so many people, learn so many things, fought so many wars, a real hero…..lol
get a life ORPHEUS, ur just a nut living in sri lanka who is bored n has a computer at ur mercy. all u said is wrong, u with ur anti american pro mahinda ideology
Unlikely that the Rajapakse family will last very long. Its very obvious that this families day’s are numbered looking at in from the global point of view.
If you had General Fonseka, like Colonal Gadaffi and if Sri Lankans were worse idiots than those in the North of Africa(and the entire area except Israel) you would have to go to the road in another 6 years.He will shoot down all the protesters with the help of CIA like General Pinochett in Chilie or like Colonal Gadafi in Libya. Why are you all so gullibal(except Ruwan from Canada who has seen the world more). Just because few of you are idiots like Libiyans or Egyptians don’t think Sri Lankans are idiots.
Father, son and holy ghost. The holy ghost is waiting on the wings
We all have to go to the roads and have to protest against this Mahinda Rajapakshe. He is the worst leader in our history. He distroyed Prabakaran and tigers, he captured leader of LTTE from another country, he built a habour, airport and ICC ground and many more. He defeated UNP for morethan 10 times. He call elections always ( that is not democratic). He is bringing tourists and building tourists hotels. So we all have to get together and send him home with other rajapakshe brothers.
MR.CANADA
stay in canada n dont comment or come live in colombo and comment.
The credit for war victory should be shared between MR,gota,ranil,SF.
building ports n grounds, keeping his name for it. cool thing ha?
do u know,all this is built via IMF loan. any fool can build anything from loan. and how many percent did our economy boom after the war?
some think this is sign of development….lol
some canadian guys like u…u cant even vote in an election. so dont talk too much, worry about canada, we’ll tc of sri lanka.
Ohhh Ruwan . for your info LTTE was never a threat to us even during RW ‘s time because his non violent way of addressing a problem that is created by the mjourity of Sri Lanka ( u know who they are ). yes Rajapaksha built a harbour with commercial loans taken from China ( any1 could make it ) but as i’m aware of it not even a single ship is coming to see the beauty of wonder of Asia :-) . yes , he’s about to build an airport too but due his image as a VERY PEACEFUL AND DEMCRATIC leader no airline would be willing 2 fly there . anyone who’s in to the tourism business knows that during the CFA we had a record number of torists than the present time :-)…so rajapaksha and his family might be good to u and other bootlickers but the majourity of Sri Lankans who live in this country is now realizing the huge mistake they have done and sooner or later these bogus patriots will have to run away from this country to Libya ,Iran or Myanmar seeking asylum …. the sooner it happens the better …. anyway if your such a patriotic person y dun u come bk to sl and help MR to build the economy :—-))))) ??? WHY WHY WHY
Chamalika! when were you born. LTTE was killing innocent people for 30 years. They were bit quiet during RW because they were trying to get all their demands. How many times did they walked out of the negotiation table? mean while they were collecting more and more arms and getting stronger. MR came to power just in time to save the country. If Sarath Fonseka(who was brain washed by UNP and JVP) came to power, you could have compared Sri Lanka to Egypt or Libya or to be worse like in Chillies between 1972 and 2000. In Chile CIA set up few traitors to organize and protest against newly elected president due to souring food price. Alliande and army general Pinochet came to power. Prices kept on going up and when people took to the street they were massacred by the army. General Fonseka could have been a worse ruler than Colonel Gadaffi.
Colonel Gaddaffi came to power with the help of the soldiers. Fortunately majority of our soldiers would not support such a coup.
for that i think we have to wait a loooooooooong time. Because here the opposition couldn’t change their leader for a better.
According to Gunasekera..
This week, Rajapakse = Gaddafi
Last week, Rajapakse = Mubarak
The week before, Rajapakse = Ben Ali
Next week., maybe Rajapakse = Saleh…
.. or maybe Abdullah., Or Khameini.. or the Pope …
Or will you surprise us all and say Rajapakse = Some puppet of the West like the Shah, Talabani or Karzai ?
Poor Sri Lanka!!
Tissaranee permits every Western countryto have a cyber-security unit.. and even wage cyber-war against it’s percieved foes (like the US did with WikiLeaks recently)
But somehow, SriLanka is not allowed to have it…
Why ?
But if Ranil sold the country out to the LTTE, there was deafening silence from Tissaranee
The massacre and blood letting in Libya, is identical to that done by the Government of Sri Lanka(GOSL) in Tamil Eelam(TE). And Mahinda Rajapakse is the ruthless and murderous “Gaddaffi” to the people of TE.
The Sinhalese agenda was and is always to oppress Tamils, employ “differential justice”, miltarily occupy TE, desecrate memorials and cemeteries and keep TE as a colony of SL; which is dictatorial on Tamils and undemocratic.
Any democratic attempt at conflict resolution should mainly aim at seeing justice and human rights. Peace is merely a by-product of justice.
The democratic mandate given by the people of TE in 1976 for the independence of TE and the subsequent democratic affirmations by Tamils were never the base or foundation on which political talks were held, though it should have been so in true democracy.
Peace, the by-product, was the main objective and not the legitimate rights of Tamils.
We see such autocratic and undemocratic regimes in the Middle East(ME) collapsing but the GOSL is still intact.
“Justice” in the ME is to cut off the hand of a thief. Why were the hands of the leaders in the ME who stole billions of Dollars of people were not cut off for so long?
There is “differential justice”. Law is for the oppressed and exemption is for the elite !!
In SL, the Sinhalese are treated as the elite and those who commit Tamil genocidal acts and war crimes are exempt from the law.
The hands of such criminals even shake with the hands of the UN Secretary General, let alone cutting off as in the ME !!
No wonder the events of human massacres are becoming uncontrollable and the UN ineffective.
Till now we don’t have a dictatorship in SriLanka. If MR acts properly understanding the common aspirations of the MASSES who voted for him he could survive at least 12 years. The people needs not Provincial councils, Municipalties or other extreamly unproductive Institutions for their survival. If MR can’t understand that reality the people will rally round to create a huge Momemtem to topple this regime. Then only MR will have to act as a dictator for his survival.
Sri Lanka will have It’s Time too,
It’s the entire world that must be ashamed of not doing anything at all to stop
these dictators putting their people in suffering for decades.The world must be ashamed of calling itself living in the twentyfirst century while a main part
of its body-the entire mideast had been rotting in the hands of dictators.Can
anybody say ,no we have nothing to do with it?The world must explain how come Israel is a democracy and Arabs as a whole, are dictators.Current events across the region show they were robbed of their freedom.
orpheus ,
who ever you are , why do you try to write endless fairy tales here , let me remind you , there are so many government sponsored blogs and news papers around ,those sites are there for a reason , that is to cater fools like you , so why do not you waste your time on those blogs , i do not think it is really worth responding to your immature , ignorant comments.
The knowledge was collected from BBC, American and Australian media over the years (as it happened). These blogs came out only recently. Of course, lots of unwanted problems, incorrect news are spread by these blogs which is something new. What is wrong with SL government having close relationships with Libya, when the west does it to sell their dangerous weapons to Col. Gaddafi’s Libya? West become good friends of these dictators and sand kings when it is convenient for them. It is hard to find the news; you missed, in the internet. You may find it in old “Times” magazines.
sri lal
So you are the one of those fighting for freedom, democracy and free speech?
How come you want to deny those very things for “orpheus” ?
You are no better than those you claim you fight against., and if you replace them with you, we shall see no difference
It has become like hosting OLYMPICS, ASIAN GAMES or COMMON WEALTH GAMES. It has become a competition as to who will get it next. There is a good clear chance for Sri Lanka to get it, once the one in LIBYA is over. Sri Lanka is a good friend of Libya. People here are frustrated and eagerly waiting to happen here. God Help us. Sooner the Better. We will have better relationship with our fellow citizens and all the countries of the WORLD. God Save Us.
In the west democracy leads to debauchery and moral decay, plain and clear. In the east it contributes to rapid ascension to affluence in addition to the above. This is the legacy of democracy. Purveyors of democracy please shut up.
sam thambi,
for you its only singhalese killed tamils, not tamils some of them pro ltte who murdered, hacked, cut innocent civilians mainly farmers. thisaranee or who ever that is can only pin point issues committed by this govmnt.
it clearly shows who is under take.
the Author is clearly wishinng and hoping for revolt in Sri Lanka – but judging from her previous record, it is wishful thinking
Hopefully, those in tune with the Author will note that the entire Middle East crisis has first resulted in the rocketing of fuel prices across the world.,
Where fuel prices increase, everything else follows.
But of course, I am sure Gunasekera will then find a way to blame the government for that as well..
Be careful what you wish for ..
Hmmm , it’s pity that so many people don’t seem to understand what Tissaranee G
is trying to explain, in this column !