RESEARCH THIS!

" This ‘research scholar’ then attempts to set up as antinomies, a paragraph I quoted with approval from Prof Nira Wickramasaingha’s article on the 18th amendment, and my own views as contained in another paragraph that he excerpts from one of my articles."

BY DR DAYAN JAYATILLEKA

(September 18, Singapore, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is a sad day when the JNU supposedly has a ‘research scholar’ who cannot understand English. It’s even sadder that he is featured on a website that borrowed and adapted the name of the journal my father founded.

He writes: “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 is really loony. It was I who posed the question, albeit rhetorically, but he accuses me of shirking the main question, which by his own admission, I myself had asked! He hasn’t answered the question I posed, except to mention some names of Social Contract theorists. So what? What’s the answer to my query?

This ‘research scholar’ then attempts to set up as antinomies, a paragraph I quoted with approval from Prof Nira Wickramasaingha’s article on the 18th amendment, and my own views as contained in another paragraph that he excerpts from one of my articles.

He further writes: “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)

...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?”

This is truly pathetic. What does the passage actually say? “...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.”

This was quoted by me to show that democracy and freedoms were not dead and had hardly been murdered, still less parallels permissible with Nazi fascism!If that were the case there could not be “still room for the opposition to maneuver in the interstices of power.”

Secondly, according to the passage quoted, on whom does Prof Wickremesingha “place all her hopes”? Certainly NOT on the “same protestors” but precisely “on the will of opposition political parties to forge an alternative democratic vision and give leadership to those who believe in it.” So, it is not on the “same protestors”, but on the opposition political parties! And that too, if they have the “will... alternative democratic vision... (and) leadership”! This is exactly what I’ve been saying, here and from 1997 onwards!

This alleged ‘research scholar’ then wishes to know whether I have “an honorary doctorate conferred on you by some university or you really wrote a thesis to earn it?” Well, as a research scholar, that should be easy enough for him to research, and the fact that he hasn’t done so, tells me the kind of ‘ research scholar’ he is! I suggest Google Scholar as a start, or maybe the website of the Institute of South Asian Studies of the National University of Singapore. Or he can write to Emeritus Professor of International Relations at the JNU, SD Muni (one of my colleagues down the corridor).

Please refer to previous article: Advice to Dr Dayan Jayatilleke from an illiterate hack