The New Upper Class
If this can happen to a DIG’s son, then good luck to you.
Back in the day the hallmarks of class mobility used to be educating your children and getting them decent jobs. Now the elite seems to raise completely ignorant children and help them get away with being criminals. Honestly, Mervyn Silva is the flagship boor, but everyone from Ministers (Maithripala Sirisena) to provincial counselors seems to be or be raising third-rate thugs. This is the new upper class. It’s like having the Sopranos running a country.
Recently Sirisena’s son seemed to be exposing himself at a resort and beat up a Deputy Inspector’s son when the latter complained. Which goes to show you the pecking order. More horrifically, a Pradeshiya Sabha member in Tangalle beat and killed a British tourist and assaulted his girlfriend, and is now out on bail with the case going nowhere. The basic rules are that a certain class can get away with anything, and the unscrupulous are scrambling to do whatever they can to get into that class.
The hallmarks of this new Thugocracy are getting away with crimes – everything from rape to murder. It seems like almost a status symbol, how much can my idiot son get away with. There used to be a time when people were proud of their kids education or work or marriages. Now it seems like the new elites give their kids money and cars and ignore them while they go to clubs, do drugs and rape and assault people. It’s like the parents aren’t even there and the kids are being raised by gangster rap.
The new status symbols are money and foreign goods gained without working and the ability to break traffic laws and white glove and assault rifle regular civilians aside. I have been watching a lot of Soprano’s and it’s honestly striking how similar our new ruling class is to New Jersey mobsters. What a pathetic and embarrassing state of affairs.
Mohsin Hamid, author of How To Get Filthy Rich In Rising Asia, has a nice 
I’m happy to be featured in Echelon magazine’s 40 Under 40 feature, profiling young people who contribute to the economy in some way, mainly in business but also in terms of innovation and thought leadership. It’s an interesting article not just in that I’m in it (mainly for work on indi.ca and 
I won’t add too much commentary, but just read I guess. The youngest Rajapaksa, Rohitha (Chi Chi) has given an amazing interview to the 
In 2009 this strange character appeared on the Sri Lankan Internet scene, getting angry, flaming, trolling whatever. Then he started naming anonymous bloggers, posting comments as people’s kids, nasty stuff, for which I removed him from 
@indica Good post. Thinking the same about the similarities. There seems to be a points system. A piece of the action has to go upstairs.
It’s no wonder we’re starting to see vigilante justice now, with people taking the law into their own hands. No one has any faith in the police or other law enforcement authorities.
@indica that’s the way it’s been 4 a while just mo public now. No1 can pretend the emperor is clothed but there’s nothing any1 can do #lka
@SarongJohnnie @indica in a feudal system impunity of lesser aristocrats ties them 2 the throne. I the king falls so will they.
@cernoblog @SarongJohnnie @indica They’ve amassed a fortune & money buys impunity. They won’t fall until that’s redistributed.
The govt provides tacit support to all this and makes sure their henchmen don’t get punished and the culture of impunity prevails. People get what they vote for. Sri Lankans deserve it for voting MR and co.
@AmmoVanderbilt power buy impunity. Money buys the toys. Redistribution creates the next round of Nomenclatura
@sarongjohnnie @indica
To refer to them as the “upper class” is to dignify them. Even “elite” is too nice a term.
We need something that better captures the essence of banditry of the rulers. Its something like the outlaws that rule the bad lands of the wild west.
Douchebags?
@cernoblog @SarongJohnnie @indica In my experience, money buys EVERYTHING, including power and impunity.
@cernoblog @SarongJohnnie @indica Good point about the soviets though. But there has to be a correct way to reclaim the loot.
Perfect
The form of government would be described as kleptocracy
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-kleptocracy.htm
http://economics.mit.edu/files/4462
I think it’s a wrong account of facts with respect to Min. Sirisenas’ son. Think he was dragged into it. Instigated by his friends and they are the real culprits behind the incident.
Yeah sure, there was a fly by of some pigs past Galle Face Green a few hours ago…
http://indi.ca/2013/03/the-new-upper-class/