Relic-Politics And The Slow Erosion Of Rajapaksa Magic
“And the people bowed and prayed, To the neon god they made” Simon and Garfunkel
(The Sound of Silence)
By Tisaranee Gunasekara
Relic politics to bridge popularity deficits
How more blatant can it get?
President Mahinda Rajapaksa had reportedly wanted a special exposition of Kapilawastu-relics at Temple Trees.
‘Relic diplomacy’ is a standard weapon in the arsenal of those in possession of movable holy-objects, from the Catholic Church to India and China. The Rajapaksa version is relic-politics: using sacred items venerated by masses of believers as a means to bridge popularity deficits.
Kapilawastu-relics were brought to Sri Lanka in 1978, when the Jayewardene administration was implementing a broad expanse of less than popular measures (such as the abolition of the rice-ration book), in an economic atmosphere reeking of steep inflation and growing income inequalities. The UNP government, though more popular than the SLFP-led opposition, needed diversions to keep public attention away from insalubrious economic issues. The Opposition understood the stratagem and condemned it as a blatant attempt to use religion to gain political mileage; the more radical elements within the Opposition even claimed that the relics were ersatz.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was a leading light and a very vocal voice of that opposition which condemned the UNP’s unholy use of relic-politics. 34 years later the same Mahinda Rajapaksa made a far crasser effort to exploit relic-politics to his electoral and familial advantage. The first round of provincial council elections conflated perfectly with the arrival of the relics in Sri Lanka. Even if that timing is passed off as a fortuitous coincidence, the fact that the national peregrination of the relics made the three first stops in the three provinces where polling was scheduled indicates that the relics were used to buttress the UPFA’s electoral fortunes. From Kelaniya, the relics were taken to Pelmadulla (Sabaragamuwa Province), Anuradhapura (North Central Province) and Kantale (Eastern Province). That schedule was a blatant political decision aimed at drumming up electoral support for the UPFA; just as the appointment of Presidential offspring Namal Rajapaksa as the ‘lay custodian’ of the relics was motivated by the need to create an identification in the public mind between these objects of public veneration and the Ruling Family.
Race and religion are potent weapons in the Rajapaksa arsenal and the Ruling Family does not hesitate to use both with a meaty-fist. Burnishing the image of the Rajapaksas as the ‘sole protectors’ of Sinhalese and Sinhala Buddhism is especially handy when the regime’s Southern base is in need of fortification. For instance, during the grand finale of the Defence Ministry organised reality-show, Ranaviru Real Star in the election year of 2011, actor-filmmaker Jackson Anthony claimed that the Rajapaksas are related to the Buddha himself via King Dutugemunu!
The request to allow a special exposition of the relics at Temple Trees was taking the relic-politics to a new, embarrassingly coarse low. The Indians reportedly refused, arguing that Temple Trees was not a “place of worship and that it is merely the official residence of the Prime Minister or the President” (Ceylon Today – 9.9.2012).
This need to strengthen the nexus in the public mind between the Rajapaksas and Buddhism/Gautama Buddha becomes explicable when the election results are analysed.
Electoral Truths
The UPFA won the first round of PC polls as anticipated. This wholly expected and totally unsurprising victory hides a deeper malaise – the UPFA’s vote base is eroding. Compared to its performance at the 2011 local government elections, the UPFA’s tally has declined by 58,908 votes in the North Central Province and 60,454 votes in the Sabaragamuwa Province. Even if the decrease in the Sabaragamuwa province can be partially attributed to the CWC factor, it is not so in the case of the very Sinhala and very Buddhist Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The UPFA vote in the North Central Province has decreased by about 15% in just one year; clearly the water-starved farmers of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa found the UPFA’s fairy tales somewhat harder to stomach.
The UPFA base is eroding, and not very glacially either; and that erosion is symbolic and symbiotic of the slow weakening of the Rajapaksa magic.
This decrease in the UPFA’s vote should be seen in conjunction with the small vote gain by the UNP, a party in the midst of a veritable existential crisis. The UPFA lost votes despite the best efforts of the Rajapaksas to win votes. The UNP gained 50,670 votes in the North Central province (it lost 9,090 votes in the Sabaragamuwa province), despite the untiring efforts of Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Alternate Leader Sajith Premadasa to push ordinary UNPers into apathetic despair with their ill-timed and juvenile antics.
The JVP is finished as an electoral force. It cannot compete with the Rajapaksas on the ‘patriotic’ front with its anti-devolution, anti-Indian platform (the mainstay of the Second Insurgency) under Rajapaksa occupation. If the JVP cannot remake itself as a modern left party, it will decline into total irrelevance a la the old left.
But the UNP is still not dead, and that is a measure of the growing public disenchantment with Familial Rule. However, the elephant’s unexpected return to flickering life will be lost, if the UNP does not get its act together. Consequently the Rajapaksas will do all they can to worsen the internal conflict in the UNP.
Apart from the TNA (sometimes the SLMC), the UNP is the sole surviving opposition party. No serious effort at resisting Rajapaksa rule can get off the ground without taking into account this reality. There will have to be a return to Ranasinghe Premadasa’s alliance of the poor and the powerless, of the economic have-nots and the minorities (plus the discontented elements of upper and middle classes) – a policy prescription which seems to be as alien to Sajith Premadasa as it is to Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Massive billboards (managed by the Presidential media unit) hailing President Rajapaksa as ‘Our President forever’ are mushrooming in Colombo. The first principle of Rajapaksa politics is familial power. Anything which impedes familial power is opposed while anything which enhances familial power is promoted. So the forthcoming rounds of provincial polls will be characterised by even greater abuses of state power and resources. So Mahinda Rajapaksa, the progenitor of the Workers’ Charter, is trying to impose arbitration on the striking University dons; as the FUTA pointed out, this demand indicates “duplicity on the part of the government…(and) raises issues of tremendous concern with regard to the state of governance in this country” (Colombo Telegraph – 11.9.2012). So the Education Ministry works tirelessly to militarise the school system: “Selected school principals are being offered the ‘Colonel’ rank, following a one-week training programme which commenced this week… 23 principals had been called for interviews in Rantambe…” (Ceylon Today – 13.9.2012).
The realisation that the Ruling Siblings are nothing but illusion-manufacturing ‘neon gods’ is beginning to seep slowly from the cities into the Sinhala-Buddhist heartland. In the absence of a strong opposition this erosion of Rajapaksa magic will happen too slowly to challenge Rajapaksa Rule any time soon. But its very existence will make the Siblings nervous. The foreseeable future will not contain a regime change, but it may well bring about more dissent and greater repression.
Political Vacancies are now available in the “Democrazy Theocrazy Banana Republic of Idiot Island.”
Now that many more Provincial Council elections are around the corner, a number of Political Vacancies are available in the “Democrazy Theocrazy Banana Republic of Idiot Island.” Only opposition MPs hoping to crossover, Patriotic Underworld Personages and Retired Peacekeeping Personnel will be deemed eligible to apply.
Given below are some of the vacancies:
1. Ambassador to the Bermuda Triangle.
2. Special Envoy to the Arctic Circle.
3. Ambassador to the South Pole.
4. Secretary of State to the Khyber Pass.
5. Special Representative to the Gaza Strip.
6. Permanent Representative to the Swat Valley.
7. Secretary General of Siberia.
8. Viceroy to the Christmas Islands.
9. Secretary to the Defence Secretaries Secretary.
10. Governor of Wooly mooly why call.
11. Mayor of Put the Kuddu Rip Poo.
12. Chief Minister of Nerdy Cuddle.
13. Sheriff of Full of Thieves Jungle.
14. Minister of Nation Building. (15 Vacancies)
15. Deputy Minister of Inland Fisheries & Ornamental Fish.
16. Minister of Bus Halts & Pavement Construction. (8 Vacancies)
17. Advisor to the Presidents Chief Advisor.
18. Chief of Staff to the Ministry of Peace.
19. Advisor to the President on Astrology, Asteriods and UFOs. (12 Vacancies)
20. Minister of International Conspiracies. (5 Vacancies)
21. Ministry of Zero Casualties and Satellite Images. (7 Vacancies)
22. Deputy Minister for Swine Flu & Dengue Mosquitoes.
23. Government Spokesman for Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics.
24. Minister for Welfare of Journalists & Media Personnel.
25. Minister of Welfare Holiday Camps & Internally Displaced Holiday Campers.
26. Minister of Monsoonal Rain & Cyclone Management.
27. Minister of Election Violence & Unnatural Disasters. (111 Vacancies)
Applicants are kindly requested to send in their CVs including the contact numbers of 2 non related family members on or before or after 21st December 2012AD. A cheque for 5 million US Raypees should also be enclosed as a donation for the ongoing election campaign and mailed to the address given below.
His Hex-A-Lunacy President Percy Jilmart Bean,
Caretaker of the
Democrazy Theocrazy Banana Republic of Idiot Island,
No. 9/11, Hum-Bug-Thotta
Girl Face Groin,
Koolamboob,
Idiot Island.
Bean, that was veru funny, at least we Sri Lankans see the funny side of things even in worse case scenarios, which exsist in our Country(As Bean had very rightly called it Idiot Island) coz even though many refrained from voting in sheer disgust of this Criminal Govt: and fedup with the importent UNP & it’s leader RW, who is a greedy, incompitent idiot, the rest of the immotional idiotic Sri Lankans voted this egoistic Rajapaksas clan to power!! Tisaranee you better be carefull, that you dont step on the big toe of MR (ouch!) coz this guy surely needs Pscycatric treatment, he and his brood had gone stark raving mad(Rabid)
Mr. Bean
This is just brilliant. Wish someone would publish this in the newspapers. If not could you get it done please. Hilarious. ha! ha! I hope MR read this and starts to crawl on from Hambantota to the North.
PresiDunce Bean
Would you mind my adding a few more to your vacancies
1. Minister of Leptospirosis [there are lots of mee una suffers in your Republic]
2. Minister in Charge of Maniacs, Megalo Maniacs and Sex Maniacs
3. Lord of Kudu and other Addictives
4. Minister of Traffic Accident Promotion & Highway Code Violation
5. Promoter of Hideaways
6. Chief of Graft & Corruption
7. Public Muscle Flexer
8. Minister in Charge of Men and Women of Easy Virtue
9. Importer of Obsolete, Discarded and Throwaways to Govt. Depts.
10. Premier Arsonist [to set fire to all the unwanted tenements and settlements, also forests for ulterior motives]
11. Top Level Liquidator Squad [to get rid of all opposing vermin]
With all these vacancies the unemployment problem in your Republic would be solved forever.
Arunachan
Be my guest :)
Most are already held by Rajapaksas themselves!
Sam SamNorway
Do I detect an attempt at sarcasm on your part? If that is so, your time would be better spent contemplating your navel or some other less conspicuous part of your anatomy, than trying to be an “intellectual.”
Fantastic comment
Dear Emil
Sarcasm ? Me ? Not at all. I am woulded that you would think such a thing
I was merely commenting favourably on Ms. Gunasekera’s ability to take the meanest subject, head it up with a meaningless/obscure quotation culled from a song or obscure book, add a medley of accompanying half-truths and outright flights-of-fancy and present it as fact
It’s a remarkable skill – where facts need not get in the way of Good Conjecture
To Sam-Sam and Nipun
Tisaranee really gets to you doesn’t she?
The fact that sycophants of the Rajapaksa Regime like you two write under pseudonyms says one thing very clearly – they are part of the “dirty-tricks squad” run by a puffed up Phd who gets his bread and butter from Percy Jilmart. If you are on the same side as this murderous regime, why would you otherwise need to conceal your identity?
And one more thing Pacha Epa. Iam not here because Tisaranee Gunasekara get to me. I just love a good debate, I enjoy one.
Pacha Epa, i see that you have used your real name.
What Iam saying is that if you want to criticizes the government; please do so. But do so in a proper stream of thoughts that is coherent and substantiated by facts.
I know that Tisaranee Gunasekara is under pressure to find another case of government tyranny each week to publish here openly. But we can do without these childish linkages that dont exist.
My own support to this government arises from sense of national dignity. I think for most people in this country it is the same.
What must dumbfound Tisaranee Gunasekara why with all her confused, nonsensical and “analytical” input is that the nations has a whole gives her much attention has bull gives to a hovering fly.
Her talents lie in re-feeding back the already processed heads through another article such as this.
The elections last week further solidified the Rajapaksha government. How would she explain those election results?
I hope that at least by these results she understands that she has no grasp of reality. She can not understand the fundamental forces that moves policy and power in this country. She has much understanding of culture and people of this country as Hilliary Clinton did for Libyans and her brightest idea of an Arab spring. (I would love to talk of our international relations in another comment).
the eventual arrival of Kapilawastu-relics is in line with the tendencies of this nation as ancient Buddhist island. When million can not go to India to worship them, they need be logically brought here. And if the president for his own religious beliefs part take to his utmost; then so be it.
I do not think that relics bounds the Sinhalese in to unity with the president. For i know of my own relations who worshiped the relics, but remain loyal to the opposition party.
The lost UPFA voters depicts strongly the vibrancy of democracy in this nation. It is logical as the president can not move monsoon winds to favor his political images, he would loose some of his unhappy farmers. And at the same time showing greatly that he is not an all powerful dictator.
She understands none of the social sciences, evolutionary psychology of societies and groups. Her arguments fail to find any grounds what so ever in evolutionary social tendencies of a human society.
And for those of us who have the unfailing understanding and intellect in the knowledge of social evolution of the human world, this is an essay is an example of how a confused and lost a mindless English teacher can get.
What she is nothing more than a English school teacher not befitting the role of a political analyst that she claim to portray in her writing. If one is unfit to comprehend what is beyond ones intellectual capacity to decipher, then at least not humoring others who are might be considered wise.
While we enjoy the strong wording of an increasingly frustrated individual who is slowly loosing touch with the country that she lives in, for the sake of democracy and and free speech, i do hope that she will continue ( for that that would be impossible under a dictatorship)
But i hope that at least she will have the good sense to not humorously tie everything good or bad that Sri Lankans will win, loose, do or say as another example of a dismal failure of our country’s (lets face it) very popular president.
Faith is to religion: The unquestioned acceptance of information that is either unverified or that may actually be in conflict with factual evidence. In the words of Gautama Buddhism is a way of life not a religion. Similar to religion, patriotism is an emotion, as opposed to a rational thought process.
Nipun the kindergarten teacher your analysis of the writer Tisaranee Gunasekara is nothing but – Emotions trailing a lost humor in flowers fangs.
“Fifty ways to leave your Lover”
You don’t need to be coy,
Just listen to me, Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Nipun
And get yourself free
Iam not religious. I care none for fantasies we mortal needed many thousands of years ago to give meaning to our existence and explain the stars. But how ever there is ample unarguable sayings and deduction within the philosophy of Buddhism that greatly challenges my rather atheistic and scientific view of the world.
But on a personal view point; i enjoy cultural implications that Buddhism had on the island. I hope that the people spend more and more to keep alive parades, pirith ceremonies, vessak and other unique things that connects us to the history and culture (what i call the soul) of this island.
let me explain what science of patriotism is as can be deducted from the “selfish gene” by Richard Hawkins.
Primates (specially humans), wolves and lions live in social groups and seem to help each other. And would die to protect others of the group to keep hunting and roaming territories. They may die without creating offspring themselves making it looks as a violation of evolutionary logic to bring about ones own demise without passing on ones genes to the future!!!
But one must understand that they are fighting mostly to protect others that are related to themselves, in that all of that individuals genes are present in the rest of the related population. And upon ones sacrifice and victory in battle by ones tribe, the others of the tribe can pass his genes in his behalf. By benefiting what his exploits he has gained.
So in the evolution in social animals only those that can work together and corporate at war would survive and all others would have become extinct through conflicts. and after 200 thousand years of war we are only the children of those who are patriots and we all carry the genetic disposition for a patriotic course. And those who ignore this will can go extinct on a later date!!!
Hopefully you now understand the violent world we live in. And why in religion and kinship is what it is and seem to unite people as one. Now that is the correct image of the human world.
What the hell is this “Fifty ways to leave your Lover”?
my point being that this government is more in line with that part of human mind than the UNP. Rajapaksha is seen as a leader with a backbone by the people of Sri Lanka, thus they are willing to sacrifice some of their comforts for the common good of all.
People always seemed far less moved by economic concern in this island thus far.
So So So true. What can we do about these crows that put to waste our delightful morning jogs when spit out their morning toothpaste. Iam sure Tisaranee can get to the bottom of that.
I bet Tisaranee can find the link between these corrupt crows and the president.
Nipun the social engineering candidate you speak the truth and sandwich it with lies. Sociology is neither an art nor a science but impulsive as much as no matter what excuse politicians dream up for waging war, the underlying cause of all wars is economic in nature.
All wars are instigated by power hungry megalomaniacs, the politicians; managed by professional killers, the military; and fought by the brainwashed members of their respective populations, the canon-fodder.
War is nothing but blood and gore. War shreds people into bloody little pieces, it tears them limb from limb, or it burns them alive. War is the ultimate horror that man inflicts upon man.
Any big bully, who feels confident that he can win the war, can start a war at any time.
Sound of Silence by Paul Simon is about Japan – People talking without listening…..
Fifty ways by Paul ….. is about folk like you who are constantly decidedly undecided.
Mahinda did not wage war, he concluded it here in Sri Lanka. Afterall they declared war on us.
I did not say social engineering, I was talking of biological evolution and how it explains all aspects of human behavior in today world.
Let me explain again the logic of evolution is those individuals and populations that are fittest (due to genetic dispositions) survives while other (pacifists) become extinct.
Thus we are all the children of those who successfully waged war for the last 200 thousands or may be 3 million years (check out war fare between chimp societies, 1/3 male chimp is killed by organized war like violence. so what economics do chimps display than survival of the fittest and reproduction).
Evolutionary logic IS A FACT OF SCIENCE.
part 2
USA spend more than the rest of the world on their military budget (663.84 billion). They clearly could have passed that given free health care to all in US for a fraction of the cost of their military.
They are going bankrupt with a huge debt deficit but are increasing the military expenditure.
Economically they could have given more for the stimulus, created more jobs, cut their deficit, invested more in infrastructure developments to facilitate more new businesses had they reduced their military spending.
Their military is bankrupting them, but they wont give it up because if they do they will violate Darwinian evolutionary logic !!!!!
Agonistic folk like us don’t beat around anyone’s bush like …. in your earlier statement about you being atheist/scientist etc.
Anything for free has no value! Late Bavis Bawa would be rolling in his grave to hear what you are saying from the practical experience of opening his garden for free. Free is for greedy politicians like you to come to power and of course never your money.
Evolution and Darwin Well you sound like a biscuit boofer…..
US is the largest manufacturer and exporter of arms and ammunition in the world and it’s the number one export item- last year $66billion so why not it’s living on line to its birth- pedigree of the pirate.
While Lanka’s main exports is to US not China. While seated on a box of razor blades its licking both back side, perhaps its Buddhism the religion accustomed to 69 – biscuit boofer…..
Export more housemaids if thats all that is possible shameless lot of politicos who can just boast of ….. literacy level but not IQ
Agonistic folk like us don’t beat around anyone’s bush like …. in your earlier statement about you being atheist/scientist etc.
Anything for free has no value! Late Bavis Bawa would be rolling in his grave to hear what you are saying from the practical experience of opening his garden for free. Free is for greedy politicians like you to come to power and of course never your money.
Evolution and Darwin Well you sound like a biscuit boofer…..
US is the largest manufacturer and exporter of arms and ammunition in the world and it’s the number one export item- last year $66billion so why not it’s living on line to its birth- pedigree of the pirate.
While Lanka’s main exports is to US not China. While seated on a box of razor blades its licking both back side, perhaps its Buddhism the religion accustomed to 69 – biscuit boofer…..
Export more housemaids if thats all that is possible shameless lot of politicos who can just boast of ….. literacy level but not IQ
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