"May I please ask you if you have an honorary doctorate conferred on you by some university or you really wrote a thesis to earn it?"
by Avinash Pandey Samar
(September 18, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) You wrote, rightfully, in your last article that you prefer ‘the rational to the raving, the literate to the illiterate, and the lucid to the lunatic’. But then you forgot to add something sir, that you also prefer dictators to democrats.
What other reason do you have for your continuous attempts of shirking away the main question? The question, by the way, you had asked. Do you even remember that, sir? You had asked that who would the Sri lankan citizens follow as the “ultimate arbiter” if not the “decisions of the courts”. You had, for good measures, added those thrown up by “repeated elections (which Mahinda Rajapakse wins handsomely)”.
This author, one of the lunatic critics has answered that not from the whims emanating out of the fear or favour-seeking but from pure political science. I had employed the basic texts, and the basic understanding of liberal democracy which you are trying to demolish rather illiberally. And what was your response to that? Hurling abuses at the critics? Calling them Looney, lunatic and illiterate?
Meanwhile, you also ran away from answering them. Apart from quoting something from Turkey and then quoting a much respected academician, unlike you I will say, what answers have you offered? You are exposing yourself as a ‘runaway’ professor who hurls questions, does not respond to the answers coming his way, and then runs away hurling abuses at the critics. The critics, who are, unlike you, yet to have sold themselves out to the powers that be.
Have you read the article of Prof Nira Wickramasinghe, even the part you highlighted, sir? This is what you have quoted of sir-
“...The fact that academics, lawyers, students and pressure groups took to the streets to protest against the 18th amendment indicates that there is still room for the opposition to maneuver in the interstices of power. The question remains whether, as defenders of the 18th amendment argue, voters will be given a true choice in 2016. This ultimately depends less on Mr. Rajapaksa than on the will of opposition political parties to forge an alternative democratic vision and give leadership to those who believe in it.”(emphasis mine)
As against her take on the issue, what you had offered in one of your earlier articles titled Hardly the Death of Democracy or the Nation: Ten Points From a Political Scientist was this sir,
“Tenthly, most of the civil society critics of and signatories against the 18th amendment are those who either support or sympathize with Ranil Wickremesinghe in the inner-party struggle. Many of these also refused to criticize Ranil during the CFA and refrained from criticizing the Tigers themselves. Of those few who did criticize the Tigers, the majority criticized Mahinda Rajapakse even more, during the decisive last war. There are of course, honourable exceptions, but the considerable degree of overlap between those civil society covens that denounce the death of democracy and those who didn’t denounce the Tigers for their deadly assaults on the democratic state, helps explain the lack of mass resonance of their appeal. Their support of Ranil Wickremesinghe also makes them culpable of the crime they accuse the administration of, namely the passage of the 18th amendment. Their continued campaign for Western pressure on Sri Lanka has also contributed to the reinforcement and raising of the regime’s ramparts.”
Do you notice the disdain you have shown for the opposition, the most important part of a liberal democracy to remind you, as against Prof Nira Wickramasinghe, who places all her hopes of return of democracy on the same protestors? Changing positions and stealing arguments, even when they do not back your ones, comes easy to you sir, as is evident from this. And just by the way, did you notice how easily you used the word ‘COVENS’? Do you know the meaning of this term to those readers who might not aware of this word? You know, I am sure. Let me tell the same to those who might not, after all we are not native speakers of English. Covens means’ a gathering of witches’.
Such an intellectual repertoire of words you have for a political scientist, sir. Covens, looney, lunatics and all that. I do not know how would members of Sri Lankan civil society feel on that though I am filled with indignity. Though it does have an upside that it tells the world about your intellectual capacities as well, dear Mr. Dayan. Accept my sympathies for the students who have good fortune to be trained by you. Whether or not they learn political science, they would learn the use of abusive words pretty well.
Meanwhile, may I please ask you if you have an honorary doctorate conferred on you by some university or you really wrote a thesis to earn it?
Avinash Pandey Samar is a Research Scholar at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He can be contacted at samaranarya@gmail.com.
Please refer to previous articles:
PhDs, pork scratchings and Dayan’s itch
What will be Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka’s next stupid question?
Lucid Critics and Loony Critics
Sri Lanka: Is it some new political science you are referring to Dr Dayan!
The banality of evil, a rejoinder to Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
Freedoms and their demise: Rejoinder to a critic
Nations may not die but freedoms do - a reply to Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
The mindset of denial is the "It is not that bad"
Nations don't die, they are murdered!
Hardly the death democracy or the Nation
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