Try swearing, Prime Minister

The demand for such ‘episodic’ news framing ––as distinct from ‘thematic’ coverage that places political issues and events in some general context––is sought by all desperate politicians who share the cynical objective of diverting public attention from systemic problems within government structures.

by Dr. Kamal Wickremasinghe

(February 3, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Prime Minster Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tirade on the media and journalists can, and should be viewed at many levels. Firstly, the threats are most objectionable coming from a man who pays lip service to media freedom and everything that is wholesome. Obviously, he seems to believe in quid pro quo from the media for his promises to safeguard media freedom.This constitutes a conspiracy to distort democracy.

At another level however, the threats expose his desperation, sourced in factors beyond his control. A politician, Ranil should know that the only important feature of politics is that political actions have important consequences. But, his obvious disregard for the consequences of this dastardly action points to the actions of an extremely desperate man;

There are many reasons why Wickremesinghe would be desperate; not only has the new dispensation he nominally leads deceived the people of Sri Lanka with a much-hyped Yahapalanaya promise, it has failed to provide them with any Palanaya at all; The country seems to be running chaotically in “auto-pilot” mode, without a hope of any political, economic or social correction.

The so-called national government is proving the suspicious farce it always appeared to be: an arrangement designed to share the spoils of government among those who participated in a political plot. Cracks that began to appear before long, starting from the ranks of the hoard of Cabinet and state ministers with their snouts deep in the trough have now deepened down the middle of the untenable structure, making effective state administration the victim. Currently, the SLFP ministers are not attending ‘joint’ Cabinet meetings and they are at cross purposes, apparently led by a Cabinet spokesman who seems to have modeled his briefings policy on Joseph Goebbels’ motto “In propaganda, as in love, everything is fair.”

Looking at the farce from the very top, the President seems to be preoccupied with consolidating his leadership of the SLFP – a seemingly unlikely prospect in view of the obvious grass-roots level rebellion against his betrayal of the party back in November 2014. Some of the statements he is making, compelled by the need to portray a more ‘patriotic’ persona in order to have any chance of winning the local government elections, are adding to the rift with the Yankee-lackeys of the UNP.

Wickremesinghe’s immediate softening of Sirisena’s recent statement about never allowing the ‘hybrid courts’ to come to Sri Lanka showed the depths of divisions at the top on key issues. To add to his woes, Wickremesinghe had to deny making the statement the following day though the video of his interview was publicly available. Ranil’s move to rapidly launch a “new” constitution has become a distant memory and so will be the moves to legislation to cover monk’s behaviour.

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