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Racism The Final Rajapaksa Refuge
Racism The Final Rajapaksa Refuge
| by Tisaranee Gunasekara
Increasing light throws darker shadows.
AC Grayling (Toward the Light of Liberty)
astrologer was used for the purpose. In 2009 Chandrasiri Bandara made history,
inadvertently, by becoming the first astrologer to be taken to the Fourth Floor . He had
predicted governmental collapse and was promptly arrested. Mr. Bandara emerged
from his ordeal as a born-again Rajapaksa-devotee. Last week he promised to shoot
himself if Mahinda Rajapaksa does not win a third term.
Asked for an astrological analysis of the current spell of bad weather, Mr. Bandara said
that nature-gods are angered over the evil acts of an evil person. He claimed that the
inclement weather began on November 21st, the day this evil person commenced an
evil campaign to divide the people . This act of superstitious buffoonery was aired on
the main news telecast! Lankan state television has an inglorious record in
sycophancy; but never has it stooped so low or sounded so antediluvianly stupid.
Last week saw a sudden hike in election-violence. But according to Basil Rajapaksa,
the opposition is not being attacked; it is attacking itself. At a recent party hosted by
the chairman of the Ceylon Tourist Board, a journalist had asked Minister Rajapaksa
about election violence, with particular reference to the Wanduramba incident.
According to Irida Divaina, the Presidential Siblings reply was: You are mistaken.
Who will attack those? The whole world knows that if a stage like that is attacked at a
time like this, popular sympathy will go to the other side. What if they did it? They plan
and attack their own stage. People think they were attacked. We knew early on, that in
an election like this, they will use such cheap tricks.
In the next two weeks, the Rajapaksas will churn out more drivel and unleash more
violence. But their real dependence will be on racism.
Racism is in the very blood of Rajapaksa politics. The Siblings can neither retain power
nor rule without inciting majority racism and minority phobia. Without racism, the
Siblings cannot retain the support of the economically distressed Sinhala masses.
The Siblings know that if this election is fought on economic/cost-of-living grounds
they cannot avoid defeat. That is why they are making a desperate attempt to reframe
the election from a democratic exercise to a war. In this rendition, the election is really
a continuation of the old Eelam War and the first battle of a new Jihadist-war. If the
Rajapaksas lose, separatists and Jihadists and their Western backers - will occupy
and dismember Sri Lanka.
The Rajapaksas are deliberately sowing the seeds of a renewed ethnic conflict and a
new religious conflict in order to retain power. They obviously do not care about the
consequences of making Sinhalese hate and fear their Tamil and Muslim neighbours
and vice versa. They obviously do not care that embedding such a fear psychosis in
Southern society will create a fertile breeding ground for race riots. They obviously do
not care that majority violence will sooner or later give rise to minority violence, to the