The Politics Of Fear In Sri Lanka:  Allowing Demagogues To Manipulate The Electorate!

By Mohamed Harees –JANUARY 21, 2021

Lukman Harees

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” – Edmund Burke

During a recent TV Quiz show, a Muslim girl named Shukra from Galle won not only two million rupees, but the hearts of millions too. The popular show attracted much social media traction. Innumerable social media in Sinhala not only complimented her for her superb knowledge in history and her command of the Sinhala language, she was also admired for bringing hope in an otherwise gloomy political environment tarred by racism. This is only a token reflection of the level of goodwill and the thirst for peaceful co-existence usually prevalent at the grass root levels in the South. How did this frank aspiration to live in harmony as was seen for more than centuries, became submerged in a cesspit of mistrust and hatred, in Post-Independence Sri Lanka? Why did the usually tolerant people of Sri Lanka allow barbaric anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983 to happen? How did a well-orchestrated hate campaign against the Muslims start off after the end of the war in 2009, the tempo of which increased after the much condemned Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 and who stood to gain by the latter? The people who have the effrontery to rule us, those who vie for power, who call themselves our government, understand the a basic fact of human nature- fear of the ‘Other’. They exploit it, and they cultivate it. And use it to their advantage.

Political analysts say that the victory of the Rajapakses which was consolidated in August 2020, were said to be powered by four factors: First, big corrupt deals  under the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe alliance; second, the Easter bombings of 2019; third, the split within the opposition; and fourth and finally, the handling of the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. These events secured a super-majority for the Rajapaksa brothers, clearing the way for uninterrupted, decisive, and forceful majoritarian politics. The 20th Amendment further consolidated the way towards democratic dictatorship. 

During one year+ Rajapaksa Rule, they continued to militarize public life (latest ruse is a proposal to provide military training to over 18 olds), render the country as a debtor and tributary to China, entrench marginalization of minorities, intimidate activists, and abandon the transitional process in the aftermath of a vicious war that left more scars. The COVID-19 pandemic was eventually used as a pretext to expand a surveillance system to monitor and control the population, fulfilling the prime role of the Leviathan: offering protection in exchange for control. But protection is for the majority, while the minorities are unprotected unless they navigate within the prescriptive nationalist parameters of majoritarianism. The good image of Sri Lanka today thus stands polluted due to the scant disregard for human rights, as well as the rule of law and impunity crises besetting the nation. 

It is a serious indictment of the present quality of our political discourse that predominant sections of the majority community in Sri Lanka were so easily led to believe that the numerically smaller communities(minorities) pose an existential threat to their well-being and existence and are just guests who should fall in line with the majoritarian reality. And it is an indictment of the way our democracy is currently operating that the mainstream society were so easily convinced by a populist government that burial of Covid victims are medically unsafe, even after the most important evidence presented— leading medical experts and professional bodies vouching otherwise. And it is also a clear sign of a slavish electorate when the narrative of Muslims being a bogeyman in the eyes of the majority, mostly with the blessings of he ruling politicians gains traction within the society. Clearly, the current administration has misused fear to manipulate the political process. The important question is: How could our nation become so uncharacteristically vulnerable to such an effective use of fear to manipulate our politics? 

Nations succeed or fail and define their essential character by the way they challenge the unknown and cope with fear. And much depends on the quality of their leadership. If leaders exploit public fears to herd people in directions they might not otherwise choose, then fear itself can quickly become a self-perpetuating and freewheeling force that drains national will and weakens national character. Fear diverts attention from real threats deserving of healthy and appropriate fear and sowing confusion about the essential choices that every nation must constantly make about its future. Fear is a very strong tool that can blur humans’ logic and change their behaviour. 

Tribalism has been an inherent part of the human history. At a tribal level, people are more emotional and consequently less logical. People regress to tribalism when afraid. This human tendency is meat to the politicians who want to exploit fear, as Sri Lanka saw in Post –Easter period. Thus, politicians, sometimes with the media’s help, do their best to keep us separated, to keep the real or imaginary “others” just a “concept.” 

Demagogues are political leaders, who always use fear for intimidation of the subordinates or enemies, and shepherding the tribe by the leaders. Demagoguery is nothing new. It has been a problem for democracy for 25 centuries, at least since the populist Cleon persuaded his fellow Athenians to slaughter every man in the city of Mytilene as punishment for a failed revolt. Demagoguery emerged in Athens concurrently with the rise of democracy. And it is the use of persuasive speech and the dependence on an electorate willing to be persuaded that marks the primary tool of the demagogue. The local demagogues in recent history – the Rajapakses used the fear factor to regain power, through measured doses of racism and Islamophobia. 

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