Foreign Policy By Psychotics
| by Tisaranee Gunasekara
“Amma! I have committed a big mistake; Forgive me; Give me life.”
The wording on Tamilnadu billboards depicting Mahinda Rajapaksa craving forgiveness from Chief Minister Jeyalalitha
( August 14, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, ‘One of these days,’ is set in a small town. The town’s mayor is also its military-torturer. When the dentist refuses to treat the mayor’s toothache, the mayor pulls out a gun and threatens to shoot him. The dentist too has a hidden gun but decides not to use it. Unlike the mayor, he is not a killer and is unwilling to become one.
The Rajapaksas rule like Marquez’s mayor, using violence and the threat of violence to have their arbitrary way. Nationally it works because the Siblings have a near complete stranglehold on the state.
