Entitlement And Misrule

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara
When crimes begin to pileup they become invisible.
Brecht (Poems 1913-56)
( December 5, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Last month three members of
Shashindra Rajapaksas security-detail died when their speeding vehicle clashed into a
parked lorry .
Why would Shashindra Rajapaksa or any other chief
minister/minister/parliamentarian - need security convoys?

The LTTE is no more. The government boasts that the country is at peace and
demands that people vote for Mahinda Rajapaksa, again, for this reason. So why the
ubiquitous sight of politicians and their massive security details driving at breakneckspeed, signals flashing and sirens screeching? Why speed as if Satan himself is after
them, ignoring traffic lights and every other road rule, and endangering lives and limbs
of fellow citizens?
It may seem an insignificant detail in a country mired with far more horrendous and
colossal problems. But this unnecessary, illegal and dangerous habit is symbolic of a
mindset which is responsible for many of Sri Lankas macro-ills.
Power not just corrupts; it also turns the heads of the powerful until they think they

are a breed unto themselves. In functioning democracies, such politicians come down
to earth when they are voted out. This was always the case in Ceylon/Sri Lanka. Until
1977, almost every election produced a new government. Even afterwards, the termlimits provision provided an essential dose of reality to the powerful.
With the 18th Amendment all restraints vanished. Now rulers can realistically hope to
rule for life.
Little wonder that their sense of entitlement is becoming so total and absolute.
Security precautions, however excessive, made sense so long as the LTTE was alive.
Now the Tiger is gone and the rulers and their kith and kin do not face any serious
threat. Logically, the extraordinary security precautions should have been scaled down
post-war. Instead, against all logic, they remain. They remain because they no longer
need a reason. They have become a way of life for the powerful (and their minions) - a
symbol of their absolute sense of entitlement, an expression of the belief that they are a
special-breed and a manifestation of fact that laws and limitations do not apply to
them. The country is their legacy, their playground, their private cornucopia. They are
the eternal, infallible adults; ruling over their eternally juvenile subjects is their right
and responsibility.
Under Rajapaksa rule, dishonour is becoming honour, dishonesty honesty, indecency
decency, extremism moderation and indiscipline discipline. But then is any upending
impossible for a regime which turned the war into a humanitarian operation with zerocivilian-casualties and open prison camps into welfare villages?
Perhaps nothing highlights the appalling state of the new normal than the Presidents
public mention of The Files. The President is saying that his underlings have
committed crimes and he will protect them so long as they support him. He has the
evidence to be used against them, but he will not make use of the evidence so long as
they stay with him. They will be punished only if they turn against him. So long as they
remain his acolytes, they are safe.
The President has proclaimed that for him law is just a tool to be used to punish
opponents and shield supporters.
This is our President, the head of our state and government, and our commander-inchief! A man who, by his own tacit-admission, is devoid of honour or shame. A man
who protects criminals and uses evidence as tools of blackmail. And this president
wants a third term! If we allow it to happen, we should erect a Shame Pole for
ourselves.

How can the rule of law survive in Sri Lanka under such a president?
What sort of new generation will this country breed, with such a leader at the helm?
Already we have a minister who states, publicly, that the electorate should vote for the
UPFA because the UPFA has plundered to its hearts content and does not need to
plunder anymore . Going by the same logic, serial-criminals should be set free once
they have committed enough crimes.
At a recent public meeting, Minister Janka Bandara Tennakoon recalled that once he
complained to the President about the illegal conduct of a UPFA politician in his area.
According to him the President said, This man should be kicked out (Mu thiyanne
vatinne ne). But of course he was not kicked out . He remains a powerful being; he
wallows in riches and privileges; he is seen by society as a success.
And the President keeps his files, not to prevent him from committing more misdeeds
but to prevent him from crossing over.
The opposition may or may not be able to usher in good governance. But the
Rajapaksas cannot. A third term will only serve to enhance their sense of entitlement
and their belief that the national moral-ethical clock should be set by their own
monstrous moral-ethical timepiece.
Making Us Complicit
Many compulsions can make a collective opt almost instinctively for silent compliance.
Fear is not just fear of repression but also the fear of violating dominant opinion, the
ruling commonsense. David Hume pointed out that the many are governed by the few
and citizens willingly submit to their rulers because the rulers have opinion on their
side. It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded, and this maxim
extends to the most despotic and most military governments as well as to the most free
and most popular.
And the Rajapaksas are trying to cajole/force us to accept a set of opinions which are
beneficial to none but themselves. Their offering to us is a pill, consisting of abuse and
illegality of every sort, and covered with a rich marchpane of patriotism. They are
telling us scary stories about enemies and threats so that we become too frightened to
look beyond the rhetoric and glimpse the truth.
For example, of how they really treat real-life war-heroes.
Early this year, a group of disabled soldiers filed a case, asking the army to pay the
salaries they are legally entitled to. Initially the army promised to do so. But this week,

the army filed objections asking the judge to dismiss the case. As the head of the
Disabled War Heroes Association, PVS Shanta, said, This is a great injustice. We are
the real war heroes.
So why are these disabled soldiers not being paid the salaries they are entitled to
legally? It cannot be lack of money after all this is a government which is spending
Rs.54,000 million (Rs.54 billion) to build an expressway between the deserted
Rajapaksa Airport and the Rajapaksa Port which would have been deserted, if not for
the vehicle-carriers compelled to berth there, by government orders. The truth is for
the Rajapaksas war-heroes are nothing but a necessary means to their sole end
power for family, for life.
Rajapaksas are power-addicts; and they will sacrifice anything/anyone to keep feeding
their habit.
How a post-Rajapaksa government will conduct itself is uncertain. But there is no
uncertainty about what will happen if the Rajapaksas win. Their ethics and morality
will go national. And we will have a new generation incapable of seeing anything wrong
in corruption, repression, abuse or impunity because that is the only normal they
know.

Posted by Thavam