Commonwealth, In Nineteen Eighty-Four
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two makes four”. - Orwell (Nineteen Eighty-Four)
The Commonwealth Summit will cause no traffic jams; the public will not be inconvenienced; there will be no disruption of normal life.
So the government has decreed.
The public are being advised to avoid many of the most-used roads. Schools are closed, at a time when teachers and students are busy preparing for GCE OL exams. Universities are closed – so that the students can study the Commonwealth, “in freedom and with a clear mind, from their homes” according to the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission, Prof. Kshanika Hirimburegama[i](whose husband was made the VC of the University of Colombo in violation of proper procedure and despite the opposition of university academics[ii]).
Traffic jams in Colombo are an everyday occurrence. When some of the roads are closed, some of the time, this normal congestion cannot but exacerbate. But such logical, rational assumptions are abhorrent to the regime. The public is being told to disbelieve the evidence of their eyes and ears and accept the regime’s version, unquestioningly: “A road will be closed for about 20 minutes when a head of state travels by. Even during the closure public will have alternative roads for their transportation. No shops or state institutions will be closed. Therefore the public will face no disruptions to their day-to-day life. Everything will continue as usual”[iii].
Anyone disagreeing with this version of reality will be committing a punishable offence. According to DIG Anura Senanayake, “Police, including their intelligence unit, have already begun investigations to nab such people”[iv].
Such repackaging of reality would be a trivial matter for a government which conjured up ‘the Humanitarian Offensive with zero-civilian casualties’ and ‘Welfare Villages’.Read More
