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Indian real estate rowdie. Photo by lecercle

Mahinda has formed a new Ministry of Law and Order which, like when he gave Mervyn Silva the Ministry of Public Relations, may be another joke. The new order is that certain people are above the law. If you have or cite connection to the first family or the defense establishment you have access to your own police, army, etc. As they say about the mob in Goodfellas – “what the organization does is offer protection for people who can’t go to the cops. That’s it. That’s all it is. They’re like the police department for wiseguys.” Now, if you’re connected, you’re above the law.

I used to write about politics, but this is different. The current state of ‘law and order’ is more like how a mafia operates than anything else. Within the mafia everybody kicks money up and the upstairs resolves disputes below. There are no institutions, it’s all within the family. Anyone that isn’t within the family is fair game. They can be robbed, beaten, raped, killed, whatever.

This, more and more, is the situation Sri Lanka finds itself in. Mafia democracy.