Prevarication: The politicians’ rhetoric

Despite the jabs the candidates volley at each other for the benefit of the cameras, they are a relatively chummy bunch away from the spotlight, presenting each other with awards – attending each other’s weddings and embracing each other with genuine affection

Being a voter is much like playing against a stacked deck – you are always going to lose. The game is rigged, and “we the people” keep getting dealt the same losing hand. Even so, most stay in the game, against all odds, trusting that their luck will change.

The problem, of course, is that luck will not save us. The people dealing the cards are the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the Police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media – you name it; and they have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the citizenry, while milking us of our money and possessions.

Politics is a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a sport, and for many devout Sri Lankans, a religion. 

It really doesn’t matter what you call them – UNP, SLFP, SLPP, JVP or SJB, they constitute a negligible minority, but they are the elite – the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the Police State, the surveillance State, or whatever, so long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favour and invariably against you all the time.  Incredibly, no matter how many times we see this played out, Sri Lankans without exception continue to naively buy into the idea that politics matter, as if there really were a difference between the political parties. There is not an iota of difference amongst any one of them.

In other words, it is a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and fighting over parties, communities, religions, castes. It is no secret that all political parties endless war, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by big businesses, care most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding Government and shrinking liberty.

Most of all, all political parties enjoy an intimate, incestuous history with each other and with the moneyed elite that rule this country. Don’t be fooled by the smear campaigns and name-calling. They are just useful tactics of the psychology of hate that has been proven to engage voters and increase voter turnout while keeping us at each other’s throats. 

Despite the jabs the candidates volley at each other for the benefit of the cameras, they are a relatively chummy bunch away from the spotlight, presenting each other with awards – attending each other’s weddings and embracing each other with genuine affection.

Are you starting to get the picture? It doesn’t matter who wins because they all work for the same sinister reasons. We the people, the general public, you and I, now belong to a permanent underclass in our very own country. It does not matter what you call us – chattels, slaves, worker bees, drones, it’s all the same. What matters is that we are expected to march in lockstep with and submit to the will of the State in all matters, public and private. Through our complicity in matters large and small, we have allowed an out-of-control corporate-State apparatus to take over every element of our society. 

We are living within a prison of our own making, a slave to what we have built.

Our failure to remain informed about what is taking place in our Government, to know and exercise our rights, to vocally protest, to demand accountability on the part of our Government representatives, and at a minimum to care about the plight of our fellow citizens, has been our downfall. 

Now we find ourselves once again caught up in the spectacle of another General Election. At this crucial juncture if you become completely disheartened and you decide not to vote because voting seems so statistically insignificant, or you don’t speak out, if you let things pass because you would rather avoid conflict, that might make your life a little more peaceful, but the result is an incremental increase in the suffering of others. By refusing to demand a solution, you are contributing to the problem. By refusing to fight for that solution, you are asking others to carry your part of the load. Be alert to the political undercurrents; here we find the political campaigns have begun ranting and raving on the politics of hunger, politics of religions, the politics of sectarianism, the politics of food, class politics, the politics of constitutions, and so on, with an unusually strong emphasis placed on religion in conjunction with politics.

Both religion and politics have one common goal: that is to acquire political power and use it to fulfil their aims and endeavour to win public opinion either democratically, or usurp power with the help of the military.  Therefore, in this power struggle, both politics and religion make attempts to undermine each other. If religion holds political authority, its ambition is to exploit it, to fulfil a racist mission under the guise of reforming society and in recent years we have seen an increase in racist discourse in politics on the part of mainstream politicians. This is without doubt also directly related to power as a constitutive force; having the power to establish and provide organised discrimination.  

Acts of discrimination and harassment by individuals, organisations and political parties with political backing should consider whether their engaging in hateful and vengeful practices towards other communities and rivals, intentionally or unintentionally, are having an adverse impact to the development and progress of the country as a whole. Failure to appropriately address them can result in serious repercussions. Here we have a situation where religion and politics both attempting to unite with each other in an attempt to monopolise political power.  

We cannot be oblivious to the fact that we have politics, marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness, which, after subduing and overpowering religion, in time, uses it for its interests. In this instance religion plays a subservient role to politics. 

There is no doubt whatsoever, that in time both politics and religion will come into conflict with each other which, subsequently will lead to their separation. This is a classic example of rivals who compete to struggle for domination. 

It is our fervent hope that the majority of intelligent people and people with wisdom realise this before we all plunge into an irrecoverable, frightening abyss.