I wrote this on Twitter last week after the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa put to rest the rumours about his brother competing for the country’s highest office.
It was partly a message to the new candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and partly an appeal to the general populace. I am very much aware neither of these parties would take note, but the internet is for nobodies like me to air our self-important rants, and I intend to make full use of it.
Even if we set aside the possibility of a police state, have fun effecting “change” on a morally corrupt and slothful populace who’ve always cheered on Heroes Who Promise To Save Them From Themselves, Gota, mate.
We don’t live in a democracy. We live in the shadows of our feudal lords. They cut the ribbons, they occupy the lecterns, their diatribe makes the news and their obscene faces grace the garish billboards on every corner. Because we put them there. Happily.
They’re not drunk with power. We shove the power down their throats. All because they promised our nephew a job before the last election. There will always be another family member, always another job, always another election.
But everything that is wrong is never our fault, is it? It’s the system, it’s the politicians, it’s the unproductive institutions. Always someone else, never us. And so we go about yearning not for statesmen but for lords, kings, royalty, saviours.
There’s no hope for those who have willfully surrendered their volition. No Diyasena or his brother can change that.
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