The era of Perpetual Ignorance

by Lucien Rajakarunanayake- Aug 5, 2017

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength ~ George Orwell

( August 5, 2017, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) If there is one lesson that the Perpetual Penthouse Minister has given us all, it is the value of ignorance.

Not knowing is the path to progress, which is shown so well by his having been chosen as the Best Finance Minister of Asia Pacific. He must have displayed to the judges in that selection game that he knew nothing of national budgeting and even less on matters of finance.

Just now he must be ignorant of anything to do with Foreign Affairs, having a bigger interest in having Visumpaya as his official residence. Foreign Affairs to hell; who wants to know or remember how one should deal with India, Pakistan or Bangladesh… or even the US, UK and Russia? All that is best left forgotten. We must know that Foreign Policy is not built on knowledge, but ignorance.

One should also decidedly forget the background of those who are appointed as ambassadors to foreign countries, because knowing or remembering will be more than embarrassing.

Know not what you do, and even less of what your wife and daughter, who re business partners in the same company do – That is the stuff of Perpetual Success.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance. – Confucius

This could well be a new trend for Yahapalana Governance.

There must be political strategists of the Amathaka Deshapalana school who are already advising the President and Prime Minister that it is best to take a lesson from the Perpetual Success of Ravi Karunanayake, and forget, or at least say they don’t remember, or are even wholly ignorant of any promises made to elect the Common Candidate as President in January 2015.

Why do anything to fight corruption if you don’t know about making any such promise to the people?

Why should the President even have to consider whether he will run in the next presidential poll, if he does not know he told us all that this would be his only term as President? We are the fools to know or remember such details of crooked politics.

Why on earth should he recall or know today what he told the country at the funeral of the late Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera, about putting an end to the Executive Presidency and fighting corruption? As time goes on in politics, it would appear that some things are best forgotten or not known at all. I’m sure the President can learn a lot about Good Ignorant Governance by giving Minister Ravi Karunanayake, a few more attachments beyond lotteries so that he could have nothing to do with foreign affairs. Imagine the problem in the future if there has to be a presidential commission to probe into ministerial actions in the foreign ministry?

The whole world would be interested, not like today.

The Perpetual Penthouse stuff of ignorance could well be the stuff of governance in the coming days.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. – Mark Twain

Ravi K, of those perpetual phone calls, must also be having a lot to teach his own party chief, none other than Ranil Wickremesinghe, just now celebrating his 40 years in politics.

The big lesson is that Ranil must be ignorant of what his own ministers are doing, and especially what Ravi K does.

Ranil must also learn to forget or not to know what he has said about wanting to be like Lee Kuan Yew, who was so strong in his fight against corruption. Such memories are bad in politics, especially of the Good Governance type that is being peddled today by him and the President.

Although not as far ago as the pro- Lee Kuan Yew thinking, he must also forget or erase from his mind whatever he knows about his Singaporean friend, who was made Governor of the Sri Lanka Central Bank. The Master Mahendran, who has in-law links to the Perpetual Crook.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. – James A. Baldwin

Bond Scams, especially when the EPF has been played out to the tune of many millions, are not the stuff you must know or remember. All that is best lost in forgetfulness or the ignorance of the Perpetual Politics of the Crooked that has been given a special boost by the masterly ignorance of Ravi K.

Are we moving to a stage of Perpetual Governance, where ignorance that is the stuff of crooked politics and even worse governance, will take this country on to a period of abysmal ignorance that cannot be elevated by any religious chants? Are we moving to a new age of the Star Gazers who will be planning the policies of government based on the movement of planets and ignorant of reality? Is anyone trying to tell us that we have abandoned the era of family rule of the Rajapaksas, and moving to the Era of Blissful Ignorance and a Perpetual Disaster?

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. – Winston Churchill