Now that the curtain our politicians used over the years to hide their nudity of incompetence, inefficiency and ineffectiveness has finally been raised, I’m glad they will have to face the reality sooner rather than later. By their own claims, the war is ‘over’. Now, either they should make amendments to their failures or find a new curtain to hide behind. At this juncture, the first option would have been ideal. Unfortunately, the latter seem to be their choice.
The President in his speech in the Parliament introduced the new curtain, ‘Patriotism’. According to the government itself and its allies and supporters, this is the ultimate patriotic government. So all those who are behind it for right or wrong reasons are patriots. This includes the infamous Silva duo, bookie kings, child abusers, ex-terrorists, rapists, drug-dealers, political comedians, chakrawarthi’s, a good portion of typical emotional Sri Lankans, people who took part in the war through Facebook, Yahoo or Google and a handful of individuals who are really concerned about the country and its well being. The rest, including myself, are traitors.
Hiding behind this new curtain, they will continue to earn 10% commissions. White vans will continue to roam around to silence their critics. Media institutions will be tamed and those who cannot, will be attacked. Now that the ‘Tiger’ label is invalid, those who criticize the government will be tagged with ‘Traitor’ label. When the prices of consumer goods hit higher orbits, it will be put in to traitors account for conspiring against the government. 10-12 vehicles will continue to escort so-called VVIPs along closed roads. Opposition will be charged for having a secret pact with Prabhakaran’s ghost.
The new curtain will be smarter and stronger than its predecessor, the ‘war’, because we are a nation which could be easily fooled by acts like King Kong style chest-banging or pope-style soil kissing. We usually take things on the heart and hardly on the brain. So the new curtain of patriotism will make their lives easier and our lives miserable… as usual.
You are at your own right to be optimistic about politicians in our country, specially after a major military victory, but I wouldn’t. To me this is the same ball game in different attire. I wouldn’t believe in them even if thousand wars won, as long as they keep playing with average man’s emotions rather than addressing real issues, irrespective of the political party. Patriotism, like war, is quite a smart choice to keep burning issues away and fool around them.
Long story in short « Thoughts of a pessimist said,
May 22, 2009 at 9:51 pm
[...] May 21, 2009 · Filed under Patriots, Personal, Political · Tagged Cartoon, Politics, Sri Lanka, War This cartoon, appeared in Lakbima, the sinhala daily (21 May 2009) best explains the long story I tried to say in my previous post. [...]
Who defeated what? « Thoughts of a pessimist said,
May 25, 2009 at 2:37 pm
[...] around the country which have been going on for way too long. At the same time, they have created a new curtain to hide behind from all problems, which is none other than ‘patriotism‘, the magical vaccine for all [...]
tomiandimpots said,
December 13, 2009 at 8:08 pm
It looks like you are a true specialist. Did ya study about the theme? *lol*