Ceylon Today Editorial

Emerging Controversy

20 November 2016

Government and intelligence authorities are learnt to be on high alert with every passing week crystallizing speculation about what we editorially addressed last week as a 'culture of political conspiracy' that's inexorably gaining weight, with incidents pointing to evidence of such a conspiracy.

This editorial exclusively warned the government to be mindful of subtle and not-so-subtle moves by supremacist/extremist nationalist elements emerging in tangible form.

It is learnt that Army and Police intelligence authorities have briefed the government, specifically the President and Prime Minister, about these vexing moves to destabilize its very foundation and create socio-religious and political chaos across the country.

Leaders of a few big time corporate entities with anti-government sentiments are also learnt to be on the intelligence radar because of a suspicion that these extremist forces are being financed by them...as are a few indications of some foreign involvement. The overall strategy is to destabilize governance by stoking widespread racial-religious conflagrations, using both Muslim as well as Sinhala stool pigeons to create public disturbances with extremists' religious rhetoric.

This was borne out by the fact that just last week an anti-Muslim Sinhala trouble-maker was arrested in Polonnaruwa and a so-called Islamist extremist of the Thowfeek Jama'ath was arrested in Colombo, for prolonged hate speech in public aimed at stoking anti-religious backlashes. Almost inadvertently in his address in Parliament on the Budget's Second Reading, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe made a statement to the effect that the intelligence services had authentic proof of 32 Muslims who had left the country to fight alongside ISIS terrorists... in itself an unwitting statement that will add fuels to the fires of racism and religious extremism being stoked by members of this conspiracy to topple the government.

Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe might well have made this statement in connection with Votes on the Ministry of Justice because according to a government source, his ministry will very shortly, perhaps this week, be told to draft amendments to the constitutional provisions for the exercise of civil and political rights with the objective of introducing powerful new deterrents to hate speech and ulterior motives masquerading behind the lawful exercise of these rights which in effect are naked transgressions of the spirit of the law.

Intelligence operatives will naturally be also having more than a couple of opposition politicians on their radar because it's logical to presume a possible hand in this conspiracy by opposition political elements. It is felt that such a conspiracy will – by 2020 when Presidential and general elections are held – have created a deep rift depriving the government, the Ranil-Sirisena combine, of the Muslim vote which played a significant role in the general election and last Presidential election.

Intelligence sources believe the modus operandi is to create such a far, reaching and widespread socio-religious and political animus against the government that its twin partners will also lose the Tamil vote that played the greater pivotal role in voting it into power and making Sirisena the effective Executive President, a fact that is exploited by the Joint Opposition that takes pains to cast Sirisena in the mould of a non-Sinhala-Buddhist elected leader who's intent on giving the Tamils more than 13A-Plus in the long run, in a bid to deceive the less intelligent voter in believing a lie by its Goebellian repetition.

Government also believes this conspiracy has harnessed the fullest support of a few sections of the media to ensure that deceptively minor and 'spontaneous' incidents of hate speech are blown up and sustained in the public eye to ensure maximum mileage by way of setting ablaze a racial backlash that will help the conspiracy establish a case that the President and Premier are failures and the Yahapalanaya is a failed government.

This is in a very subtle, slow measure attracting heavier media exposure and fits into the plans of the conspiracy to grab power in 2020.

Information has trickled down that plans are also afoot to deploy more co-conspirators from among extremist nationalist groups such as the Sinha-Le and BBS on many more public protest demonstrations to add fuel to the ambiance in which the conspiracy seeks fruition.

To hit back at the government's push to expose bribery and mass scale corruption by members of the previous regime, the Joint Opposition has meanwhile in separate moves begun lambasting the government by pointing fingers of allegations of bribery and corruption at its ministers and MPs.

In its latest move, the 'conspiracy' is believed to have used its henchmen to seek a Supreme Court declaration against the enshrined constitutional right to sing the National Anthem in Sinhala...seen as one of the many moves aimed at portraying the President and Premier as 'doubtful' Sinhala-Buddhist leaders not qualified to govern.