Clarifying The Bond Controversy – Joint Opposition Throwing Dust In Our Eyes
Shyamon Jayasinghe
From day one of their defeat on January 8th, the seedy camp of the former regime employed an age-old tactic to face the inevitable large scale corruption and criminal charges brought up against them. This is the strategy of throwing dust in the eyes of the potential enemy-in this case the people who have to make their judgment. Confuse the people and give a try at making the latter believe that it is the yahapalanaya government who are really corrupt-not their good selves. Brazen liars these corruption masters have been.
This well-known tactic of dust-throwing is said to be an old Mohameddian trick to ward off an oncoming enemy. I quote from a story that I had read somewhere and saved: “One day the Koreishites surrounded the house of Mahomet, resolved to murder him. They peeped through the crevice of his chamber-door, and saw him lying asleep. Just at this moment his son-in-law Ali opened the door silently and threw into the air a handful of dust. Immediately the conspirators were confounded. They mistook Ali for Mahomet, and Mahomet for Ali; allowed the prophet to walk through their midst uninjured, and laid hands on Ali. No sooner was Mahomet safe, than their eyes were opened, and they saw their mistake.”
The Joint Opposition are doing this pretty well, one must admit. They also keep repeating the dust-throwing at every little opportunity they can muster. In this way, the dust-throwing is coupled with the Goebellian theory of repeating a false position to such an extent that that position will be accepted by the people. The Sri Lankan media, in general, has lost its critical sense and are as prone to be beguiled by deception as the ordinary masses are.
I am not saying that the people and the media do accept that the ten year regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa was a model of moral perfection. They may, mercifully, never accept that stance- given the extent of moral turpitude of the previous regime. However, people can get to the point where they believe that corruption is the norm or way of life of all Sri Lankan politicians-whichever side. “So then, what’s all this fuss?”- the people would think.
