The optics of raiding Rohingya safe house When movements are led by low IQ – low T individuals
By Rathindra Kuruwita-2017-10-03
Attacking a group of refugees, housed by an UN affiliated body, does not look good on you. I mean this may go down really well with the small core of diehard fans, and I am also sure that a lot of Sinhala Buddhists would have nodded in silent approval of the motives behind those who led the protest/raid but no one would openly support anything like this and this makes you look really, really bad to the 'international community'.
The international audience
This is the problem with groups like these, led by low IQ dudes like Dan Priyasad; they have no understanding of how important the international audience is. They can only think about themselves and those who egg them on social media. And the lack of awareness is such that they don't get that; no credible politician would ever take your side because the 'international community' thinks you are an extremist and that the average person is not going to come out of his comfort zone and stand for unpopular beliefs.
They should just ask themselves whether Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is their god, has ever said a word in support of them and if not, why. Rajapaksa has actually condemned them several times over, in this way Rajapaksa is very much like Trump who really has no problem in throwing his supporter under the bus, because he knows that supporting these assorted weirdos would make him look bad. So instead of realizing that and without making themselves more presentable and respectable, these men keep on making bad spectacles, giving your brand, i.e. Sinhala nationalism, a bad rep.
And this is why ultimately the Sinhala nationalist movement is likely to fail, because it really can't attract anyone bright.
Earlier I have spoken about the sad state of the Sinhala nationalist movement and spoke about how the Sinhala nationalist movement was immediately taken over by a bunch of opportunists who wanted political power, without actually caring about the race or having ideals. Instead of developing a cohesive and coherent seat of ideas and policies about strengthening the Sinhala nation and addressing historic injustices, bigotry became the be all and end all of this movement. The Sinhala nationalist movement has no ideas, from Dan Priyasad to Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka, and most of its supporters seem to be really low IQ. But looking at photos from the latest debacle, also in a way confirmed what I had been feeling about the most visible leaders of the movement, they also seem to be low on Testosterone (low T essentially.) I mean look at the monks who led the attack and most of their supporters, all of them look like bugmen and in need of Testosterone Replacement Therapy.
What these low T dinosaurs don't understand is that their way of doing things no longer works and that the best thing they can do, if they care about the Sinhalese, is to just retire. Go home, Dan and make some babies.
Sad!
The last few years have been good for ethnic nationalism. In the United States Richard Spencer and the alt-right memed a president into power; Narendra Modi and his BJP won big in 2014 and the Identitarian movement in Europe has propelled a number of 'fringe' parties into positions of power.
And of course, startled by these developments, we have started hearing a lot about Sinhala nationalism again, from the liberal left and what passes on as the 'right' here. But the point everyone seems to be missing is that elements that try to pass as the political right in Sri Lanka, from Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) to Joint Opposition (JO), have learned nothing from what has been happening around the world in the last five years.
That is why you see the JHU repeating what they were saying in 2002 and Champika Ranawaka and Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe are trying to become the anti-corruption crusaders. Really? Anti-corruption? That's all you can come with? Anti-corruption is for Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe.
This is why this movement is unlike the intellectual framework of Darmapala, and Gunadasa Amarasekara who is the best out of the 'jathika chinthana' thinkers were unable to lift the movement and mentor a newer generation of Sinhala nationalistic thinkers. That is why we don't see Richard Spencer or even a Markus Willinger and that is why the national movement is trying to get Gotabaya as President.
Rathindra holds an M Sc in Strategic Studies from S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU, Singapore, and can be reached via rathindra984@gmail.com
