War, Peace and the Manufacturing of Rajapaksa Myths

Photo courtesy the Daily Beast

by Tisaranee Gunasekara 

   

- on 05/28/2014

“Twenty-five years ago, I said there would be a hero-king from Ruhuna…now he’s the one we believe, President Mahinda Rajapaksa.”

Sumandasa Abeygunawardane, Astrologer; Executive Director, National Savings Bank; Director, Employees Trust Fund; Advisor, Independent Television Network[i]

Lankans in general are distressingly indifferent to the plight of the country’s most majestic mammal, the elephant. But an unaccustomed wave of public outrage ensued when a plan to send two elephant-calves to a private zoo in South Korea leaked out. One of the claves marked for exportation was five year old ‘Dinuda’. And Dinuda, it was claimed and believed, was born on the day the Tigers were defeated. Thus the name, Dinu-da: ‘Victory Day’.

War, Peace and the Manufacturing of Rajapaksa Myths by nelvely