I’m in Anuradhapura. Every now and then Halik gets these strange bike trip ideas which never end as planned but are usually interesting. Right now it’s just nice to sweat and occupy body and mind.
I’ve been reading Game Of Thrones. It’s basically politics with knives. What do they say, in the game of thrones you either win or you die. But real politics isn’t like that. You can live either way.
In any politics, it’s tempting to say those are bad people, but it’s rarely true. Everyone in politics is doing something for or because of someone else, so it’s really hard to apportion blame.
Duminda Silva was a thug and a lot of people are calling for his death (he got in a gun fight and is critical). He also helped a lot of people (through dodgy probably underworld money) and was a top vote getter in Colombo.
The question isn’t whether Duminda Silva is a criminal, that’s been answered. The question is how do criminals get support. What needs is the law not serving? How did the social network get so distorted that a rapist and thug is a hero to so many?
Among my less thuggish circles, I’ve gotten a lot of flack for supporting a government candidate. Never mind that I liked and contributed to his ideas, it was like supporting that party was a personal betrayal.
But it’s not. This isn’t personal. My question is, how did the party system get so fucked that an intelligent politician like Milinda can’t find a portfolio in the UNP or votes from the SLFP? When did politics get reduced to symbols and numbers?
People have been calling for Duminda Silva to die or calling me a bad person for even supporting Milinda, and it’s just gotten really ugly. I don’t wish death on anybody and I think very few people are fundamentally bad. When did we become so casually vicious and harsh?
It’s not just Sri Lanka. People call Barack Obama a Muslim traitor rather than saying they disagree with him. People act like their opponents have evil intent rather than just different ideas, or different social networks where their ideas do make sense. I think this is changing, and it’s better than medieval Game Of Thrones style, but in those days there was at least this idea that people lived in a flawed system and did what we had to do to get by.
I think we need to be aware of that. That politics is by nature a social web and no one actor has that much control. Not even Mahinda. Even he rides the beast probably less than the beast rides him.
This is the fundamental attribution area, attributing things to personality rather than circumstance. But we are all born naked and squealing and depend a great deal on circumstance and luck. It is a bit of a mess, but we’re all in it together and understanding and respect is a prerequisite for finding a way out.
Politics is by nature about relations between people, so no one person is really the problem or the solution. We literally have to work together.
But I’m rambling. My broader point is that this isn’t personal, but it certainly feels that way.
Indi, there is no denying milinda is intelligent but the fact that he cant get any mileage from any party is the same reason his votes dropped down from 100,000 to 20,000 at the parlimentary elections. People saw that he has no priciples, the very man who promoted privatisation etc under the UNP has now taken a direct opposite turn. Actually the average person equates MIlinda with Ravi Karunanayake who was the most notorious waster of public funds. Hopefully now the higher authorities will see that Milinda is not a viable political commodity and select someone else to deliver the goods. Winning everywhere and loosing in colombo to a impotent UNP without a fight surely lies with milinda and his misconceived strategies. You cant talk cerebrally with people who are fighting for their daily bread…..
The rule of law and the right to bear arms. It is right to implement that the Police force who engage in prevention of minor crimes and traffic violation do not bear arms. Offences that require armed intervention must remain only with the uniformed Police STF. All matters relating to the security and sovereignty of Sri Lanka to be strictly only in the remit of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Most importantly any person carrying arms in Sri Lanka must strictly be in the uniform of the STF, Army, Navy or Air Force. All existing MSD or PSD officers to immediately revert to uniform. Declaring a gun amnesty of one month for all other arms with non-uniformed officers of law or citizens to be returned. Introduce new law, a non-negotiable sentence of three years in rigorous imprisonment for any citizen of Sri Lanka who are caught bearing arms. Whether a member of cabinet or private security individuals. The recent senseless killing at the recent local government elections illustrates the need for this with immediate effect. The Executive Presidency and the relatively average area of our motherland will make this task easy to implement. We must have a working supreme court and a judiciary that is equally powerful as the Executive Presidency enabling any errant cabinet minister to be brought to justice. The flouting of law, and the thuggery and violence practiced by many ministers in the cabinet must stop.
“People act like their opponents have evil intent rather than just different ideas, ”
Yes sometimes it does seem like this especially since a number of of people in power seem to have the same attitude. People are pretty suspicious of the rulers, especially when they are in the habit of springing surprises.
Milinda Moragoda – most people I know seem to say he was’nt too bad, it was just that they wanted an opposition and to register a protest. Have not come across anyone saying the guy was evil, although I found his radio ads that ended with “I am Milinda Moragoda” a bit creepy for some reason. He sounded a bit like Darth Vader or something, while his pictures reminded me of Lex Luthor.
“Duminda Silva was a thug and a lot of people are calling for his death (he got in a gun fight and is critical). He also helped a lot of people (through dodgy probably underworld money) and was a top vote getter in Colombo. ”
I see some parallels here that I’ve written about.
politics should not be personal it i don’t think it can be personal, generally speaking.
because even though they represent different parities and some claim to represent different ideologies, there are many thing similar.
and about duminda, well he got the result of his action…
Thugs die young and stupid thug die younger…
(what else can you call a guy a who goes to a fist fight with another guy who is known to have armed bodyguards, even though himself has much more body guards than the opponent) .
“That politics is by nature a social web and no one actor has that much control. Not even Mahinda. Even he rides the beast probably less than the beast rides him.”
And I suppose was not reponsible for the death of 11 million people?
I meant to write:
And I suppose Hitler was not reponsible for the death of 11 million people? :)
hey does anyone knows this Dumindaz condition b’se there are now wild rumors flying around…and this wld turn in to another grease yaka sort of thng soon…
How do criminals get support?
Four dead. Others injured, some in critical condition. Loads of weapons recovered, but only one suspect arrested.
Rumour has it he is doing quite well.
They are just holding him hospital until the heat dies down. Some news may come after the funeral of Bharatha Lakshamn.
Nail on the head:
“While a democrcy enfranchises the constituents to exercise their will to make collective decisions, it does not necessarily ensure that those decisions are the right ones. This really is the biggest disadvantage of the current model of collective voting as demonstrated by many occassions in the modern history; Election of Hamas and George W. Bush, just to name a few.
Without getting in to politcs, I guess what I am trying to say is that sometime the voters make unfortunate decisions, which are clearly detrimental to them directly as well as to those who are affected by their political decisions.
What happened in Colombo is exactly that. The city saw a tremendous upliftment and a level of positive energy that was not see for tha pst three decades, but the constituents for some reason were oblivious to this development and collectively voted to punish those who brought about this positive change and replaced them with the same incompetent clan that ruined the city for the past half a century.
The real shame is that every Sri Lankan will be negatively affected by this, through no fault of their own.”