During the election the Elections Commissioner ordered the police to take down political hoardings (billboards). In the most public display of (illegal) defiance, Mahinda Rajapaksa erected a 60 foot high image of himself at the end of Horton Place. This image was later stripped, leaving a Mahinda shaped skeleton. That too was stripped, leaving only a vertical spine. It was this structure that a lone protestor climbed today. He was literally trying to get into Mahinda’s head. The man has sat there all day, in hot sun and now darkness. He is wearing a motorcycle helmet which permanently obscures his face. He has no visible source of food or drink. He has no shade. He must be tired, hot and hungry, but still he remains. His only demand is to meet the Mahinda. What on earth does this mean? What is going on?
Post-Terrorism
It used to be that you had to kill people to get what you want. Then it became that you just had to make it look like you were killing people to scare people off. That was the great trick of terrorism but it’s a trick that, in Sri Lanka at least has worn off. In this way Sri Lanka is a microcosm for the rest of the world. What comes after terrorism? What we saw on top of the hoarding post today may actually be the future.
Terrorism is fundamentally a media phenomenon. 9/11’s major coup was not killing thousands of people but garnering years of media time and changing the course of American and international thought. To quote Captain Hammer, today it’s not enough to bash in skulls. You need to bash in minds. The desired quantity is not death but attention. Death is simply a way of getting attention. What if there’s another way of getting attention.
Sri Lanka, secured against terrorism, has seen a boom in quasi-legal public theatre, with a point. Wimal Weerawansa fasted unto saline in front of the UN office. This made international headlines. Mervyn Silva tied a government servant to a tree for not attending a dengue seminar. This brouhaha occupied ample column-space until Mahinda rammed his Constitutional amendments through. Mervyn was reinstated as Minister immediately after. This public theatre can work, it can deliver results.
So far, however, it has mainly worked for the powerful. The man on the post has climbed to a space usually reserved for political mugs and he is demanding something too. What I don’t know, probably something deeply personal and mundane. But in this authoritarian age, one may have to appeal to the highest authority. The sign written and hung below him reads:
Till the honorable President gives his special attention to me, calls me and talks to me about those responsible for this injustice and cruelty I will continue this peaceful protest. I’m wearing this helmet for the protection of my mother who is a widow and my two sisters
Post-Democracy
Fundamentally, this is what people have to resort to in order to get justice in this country. It’s not just a case of one man on a post. Mahinda has amended the Constitution to give himself authoritarian powers. He is now the authority that appoints all major commissions and even maneuvers the justice system into prosecuting his political enemies. Journalist Tissainayagam and former Opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka have both been tried on trumped up charges, driven only by the President. The former was freed by the President’s decree. No one knows the fate of the latter. There’s no justice, there’s just us (Rajapaksas). It follows that a person with a serious grievance would appeal directly to the king, and in this day and age only this sort of stunt will get their attention.
Like the ancients had to appeal Hindu Gods to get powers, like they had to fast and sacrifice in order to get their attention, this is the example and the model we have set. There is a holy trinity which can do anything, beneath them scurry an array of lesser gods with lesser powers. Even these lesser gods fast and undergo penances to get special attention from above, and they do. The average mortal has no particular access to this world, but there is a Hindu story which may be relevant here.
There once was a king named Trishanku who wanted to go to heaven in his mortal body. He got the great Guru Vishwamithra to perform great rites, upon which his body began ascending into the skies. The god Indra blocked his ascent, knocking Trishanku upside down, but Vishwamithra refused to give up. Trishanku was stuck in the middle. Finally the Devas and Vishwamithra made a compromise. The great guru made a parallel heaven where Trishanku and only Trishanku could reside upside down. The phrase “Trishanku’s heaven” is now used in India to refer to many real situations.
Situations like this, should our masked man get his boon from the President. One man may appeal to the President and get an exception. One can obtain direct results like this. Indeed, the powerful and connected know this all too well. We do not, however, have the institutions to make democratic dispute resolution effective. Mahinda saw to that when he vested almost all authority in the Presidency and himself.
We live in a post-terrorist nation where people don’t blow themselves up in the streets anymore. This is very very good. Thank you Mahinda (and General Sarath Fonseka). We also live a post-democratic age where almost all authority is vested in one man and his family. So institutions became a bit pointless. If you want to get anything done you need to go to the top. Even if that means the top of a hoarding post.
“The latter was freed by the President’s decree.” I guess you meant “former”, not “latter”.
This man reminds me the Kandyan era. People used to climb on to trees nearby the palace and scream loudly for days and weeks about injustice happened to them or request for permission to shave. If he manager to catch attention of the king in a pleasant mode, he may got permission to shave or whatever he beg for. But he was unfortunate enough to catch king’s attention in not so happy mode; he may put in a barrel with nails mounted inside it, and roll him down the hill or stick an sharp object into his anus and leave him hanging in there until his miserable end. or cut off his hands and hang them around his neck and make him walk back to his village.
Thank you for the correction Dark Lord.
That would be very interesting kolu. Are there any sources or can anyone else confirm?
I will try to find the name of the book. it is always good to start from knox’s book.
By the way, As this continues Ranail is furious, that this man going to break is world record of sitting on a high place doing nothing.
Should we be thankful for small mercies then? Tyrants in SL seem to be pussycats these days. Here’s a quote from Knox “During the native dynasty it was the practice to train elephants to put criminals to death by trampling upon them, the creatures being taught to prolong the agony of the wretched sufferers by crushing the limbs, avoiding the vital parts. With the last tyrant king of Candy, this was a favourite mode of execution”
I don’t think tyrants are pussycats in SL or any other place. The world is in a deferent dimension at this point. One can be far more tyrannical without been all that physical.
Robert Knox, An Historical Relation of the Land Ceylon in the East Indies can be read online or download here: http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=113489&pageno=1
excerpts:
“The Kings Prisoners; their Misery.] Moreover, he hath a great many
Prisoners, whom he keepeth in Chains, some in the common Gaol, some
committed to the custody of Great Men; and for what or for how long
time none dare enquire.”
“[Appeals to the King.] Some have adventured to Appeal to the King
sometimes; falling down on the ground before him at his coming
forth, which is the manner of their obeisance to him, to complain of
Injustice. Sometimes he will give order to the great ones to do them
right, and sometimes bid them wait, until he is pleased to hear the
Cause, which is not suddenly: for he is very slow in all his Business:
neither dare they then depart from the Court, having been bidden to
stay. Where they stay till they are weary, being at Expence, so that
the Remedy is worse than the Disease. And sometimes again when they
thus fall before him, he commands to beat them and put them in Chains
for troubling of him; and perhaps in that Condition they may lay for
some years.”
“[The foolish ambition of the Men and Women of this Countrey.] It
is generally reported, and I have seen it so, that those whom he
prefers unto the greatest and weightiest Imployments are those
whom he intends soon to cut off, and contrariwise those whom he
doth affect, and intends to have longer Service of, shall not be
so laden with Places and Honours. Howbeit altho they know and see
this before their eyes daily, yet their hearts are so haughty and
ambitious, that their desires and endeavours are to ascend unto the
highest degrees of honour: tho that be but one remove from Death
and utter Destruction. And the Women’s ambition is so great also,
that they will put their Husbands on to seek for Preferment, urging
how dishonorable it is for them to sit at home like Women, that so
they may have respect, and be reputed for great Ladies.”
: D Love that comparison to Ranil. Also enjoy reading kolu’s blog.
Well why not…why do we need to follow white man’s democracy…. which hasnt worked at all for Sri Lanka. Why not go back to the way the things were before white ppl started telling us what to do..
I keep hearing the kind of sentiment Acromantula expresses these days, and can’t believe how people can become so bereft of self respect and the instinct for self preservation! Besides, I’m not sure that democracy is white man’s creation, I thought the Gana Rajyas of ancient India including the Sakyans of Kapilavastu, practiced some form of democracy.
No, modern democracy is the white man’s creation starting with the Magna Carta in 1215. There was a form in ancient Greece, which contributed to forming some of the later philosophy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_democracy
In the modern form took over 500 years of struggle to wrest power from the monarchy. The British took their institutions with them so most of modern the democracies are former colonies of Britain. Post-independence from Britain many colonies reverted to various forms authoritarian rule.
Acromantula, I strongly believe that you should quit advocating retrogression simply for want of something to say, and return forthwith to your make-believe world.
I thought I was reading about medieval England, very similar.
My dad has this book. He used to go on about it. Might give it a read if I find some free time, in the next 20 years. :D
I guess the gana rajyas are considered to be republics.
been said before..
http://cerno.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/feudal-monarchy-sri-lankan-view-of-government/
excellent comparison … to Thirisanku
Well, what happened afterwards? Were his demands met?