Crumbling Credibility Of A Political ‘Hitler’ & The Nightmare Of A Slavish Electorate!

By Mohamed Harees –APRIL 19, 2021

Lukman Harees

“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”― Georg Hegel

Before the Presidential elections, a prominent monk asked Gotabaya Rajapaksa (GR) to reform this country even by becoming a Hitler. His thinking, to a great extent reflected the thinking of the majority community, fatigued by the impact of the Easter Sunday attack, which created a sense of unease and fear among them. Months later, GR came to power with a thumping majority, on a majoritarian mandate based on an illusion of building a Sinhala-Buddhist State, which obviously alienated the minorities. Barely one and half years in government, GR’s so-called ‘Sinhala-Buddhist government’ is in shambles, with the government machinery crumbling from all sides, Nation’s assets being openly auctioned, debt mountain rising to high heavens and social cohesion disintegrating as never before. With seven decades of broken promises and false hopes behind them, Sri Lankan people do not seem to be learning bitter lessons, the history has been teaching them. Even after a disastrous war , ‘the hopes of yesterday…have (thus) become fast evaporating fantasies once again, as S.J. Thambiah once wrote!

It is too late; but the sad state of affairs today is that the same people who voted in and later made this government all-powerful with tremendous potential to unduly subjugate citizens and eliminate liberties at will, are struggling to put the ‘disastrous’ Genie back into the bottle, they once opened with much enthusiasm! The very saffron robes (Siwura) which recrowned a ‘reborn Dutugemnu’ are today rising against him and his government built on false hopes and fraudulent promises. With no clear economic or political vision for the country, and with many allies in the ruling coalition in disarray, and with many questions being posed regarding shady deals, GR appears to be relying on quick fix measures for the time being- using anti-Muslim legislative measures (which may appeal to the gallery), as diversionary tactics, to stay in power. With minimal track records to boast of in his brief period in office, GR has also begun sending signs of  assuming his former ‘Defence Secretary’ persona, by threatening Opposition MPs, and mediamen. Recent instance is foul mouthing one of his own MPs who spoke against the controversial Port City Bill- Wijeyadasa Rakapakshe! 

The very bedrock of credibility of GR and his government is also beginning to shake. Apart from the false hopes and promise made out to create a Sinhala Buddhist State, many allegations are also being levelled at the ruling party to have created a conducive anti-Muslim hostile environment to come to power in the Post-Easter tragedy period. It was an exercise in foolishness for the clownish Minister National Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera to say that Noufer Moulavi (who has been in custody since the aftermath of the tragedy) was ‘selected’ as the mastermind. Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith once again debunked all such myths when he, this Sunday declared that the 2019 Easter attack was “politically” driven and had nothing to do with Islamic extremism. “Our brethren were attack not by (Islamic) religious extremism, but by a group that exploited it to use the attackers as pawns in order to strengthen their political power.”

Hitler also used racism to stay in power. In the context of Hitlerian discourses taking place in Sri Lanka, it is pertinent to quote Weimar Germany’s descent into Nazism which was one of history’s most evocative examples of democratic collapse. Historians point out that Hitler’s political position upon his appointment as chancellor in January 1933 was precarious. Yet, by July of 1983, Hitler and the Nazis had succeeded in dismantling democracy and laying the foundation for dictatorship in Germany. Few Germans believed this could happen. Over the years, led by Hitler, they entirely dismantled the democratic political establishment; instituted the worst genocide in human history, the Holocaust; and started the bloodiest war humankind has ever experienced, World War II. Time and again, they used legal means to give their actions a semblance of legality. Step by step, Hitler managed to erode democracy until it was just a hollow facade. The fall of Germany’s first democracy shows us the serious consequences when any country loses their democracy. 

Thus, when State Minister Amunugama suggested that GR should become a ‘Hitler’ to resolve them, as per the ‘people’s wishes, it was left to the German Ambassador to point out that Hitler was not a good role model for Sri Lanka to follow! It is apt to consider some of the lessons from Hitler’s ascent to power in Nazi Germany. This should give us an inkling of how despots like the Rajapakse brothers wrested power.

* Politicians commonly demand arbitrary power to deal with a national emergency and restore order, even though underlying problems are commonly caused by bad government policies. Bad economic policies and foreign policies can cause crises that have dangerous political consequences.

* In hard times, many people are often willing to go along with and support terrible things that would be unthinkable in good times.

Read More