“…why did media organisations support such ultra nationalists?..”

Probably, you need to “Zoom out” on the time scale in order to find the answer to this question.

In other wards, you must be able to see the bigger picture.

I agree with you completely when you say that “The latest wave of awakening of the Sinhala Buddhist nationalism began in the wake of Gangodawila Soma Thero’s sudden demise. It was fascinatingly manipulated by such groups as ‘Sihala Urumaya’ (which is the proxy of ‘NMAT’ and ‘Sinhala Weera Vidana’) to grab political power. I strongly believe that it was the LTTE’s violent means that gave meaning, value and rise to the Sinhala ultra nationalist groups that were not in the mainstream political sphere before 2004.”
It would be an interesting study to see how the Sinhala ultra nationalist groups(small in terms of number) became somebody’s from nobody’s over a very short period of time. The media played a prominent role in the emergence of these groups. I think the Sinhala media was their main target. These groups cleverly planted their people in media organisations. But the bigger question is why did media organisations support such ultra nationalists?

To give you an example of the Presidents appeal to Sinhala nationalism read todays Daily News(5 December) front page story “President warns of impact of western culture”- and says the “younger generation should understand the ill effecets of western culture and the open economic system.”
Therefore , I would say that Sinhala nationalism is the deciding factor in this election.

Your post dated December 3, 2009 @ 4:00 pm refers

Quote
“I think as ‘just someone‘ said the sentence should be corrected as “On one hand, General Fonseka, who claimed that this country belongs to the Sinhalese””
Unquote

It is unfortunate that your belated correction may not be read by all those who read your main article. Unless you can prevail on GV to make the correction on the main article, your perverted message will be conveyed to everyone who read it.

It looks like either you deliberately introduced the word “Buddhist” or your mindset is conditioned for an Anti Buddhist stance.

I hope you will exercise due care in the future, to avoid such untruthful inflammatory remarks

I do agree with niranjan’s point that Sinhala nationalism is still around, but my point in the article was Sinhala nationalism will not be the deciding factor in the upcoming election as both candidates can equally draw the Sinhala nationalist vote. The reason why I believe that Sinhala Nationalism has lost its currency is that nationalism usually flourishes in the context where particular group feel ( or made to feel) that their interests are threatened. The latest wave of awakening of the Sinhala Buddhist nationalism began in the wake of Gangodawila Soma Thero’s sudden demise. It was fascinatingly manipulated by such groups as ‘Sihala Urumaya’ (which is the proxy of ‘NMAT’ and ‘Sinhala Weera Vidana’) to grab political power. I strongly believe that it was the LTTE’s violent means that gave meaning, value and rise to the Sinhala ultra nationalist groups that were not in the mainstream political sphere before 2004.

Thank you ‘Anupama’ for your comments. I think what matters to the voters in Sri Lanka is not the past but the present and the future. Given the fact that both candidates offer the same basket of ‘goodies’ (e.g. the war victory, Sinhala Buddhist, from south and more importantly ‘masculinity’), each of them will have to find a differentiating strategy to attract more voters towards them. My point was that the war victory, ethnicity and the religion would not be as powerful as it was in 2005. This leads me to believe that successful engineering of political alliances is the key to victory in the forthcoming election.
Perhaps, most of the ultra-nationalists who thrived during the war playing the anti-LTTE & anti-West slogans must now be thinking that the termination of the military campaign is the biggest catastrophe in recent times!

Damodaran, I appreciate your comment and see its relevance to our discussion. It is highly possible that the decision to go for this election at this point in time could be more to do with astrological nuances –rather than based on any political rationale.

“First of all a remarkable difference in the political context then and now are well recognized by the author.”

I think Niranjan pointed to this also, but your explanation to this statement is that Sinhala nationalism does not continue to be a factor in these elections. If anything at all, the spike of Sinhala nationalism is stronger than ever. Do you not feel that it is actually the most decisive unit of analysis for us now? If not, why would Sarath Fonseka have been chosen by the Opposition as a common candidate? As you so rightly point out, his popularity with the masses will be an important tactical device. More so than MR, he can be seen as a symbol ( for lack of better phrasing) of the military defeat of the LTTE. Secondly it seems to be that for you to point to the fact that individual popularity will be used by the candidates in this election is indicative of a move to tap into the mass sentiment associated to that person. also, as you say, party machineries ( which I argue are always used) will also use the simple device of finding voters with kindred sentiment and for MR and co, is not all they have to ride on at this point, the only anchor of their existence, the fact that they defeated the “big bad beastie”?

It is i think completely reducible to this fundamental nationalist feeling. but you are the pollster.

Cheers- A

“The war and the LTTE, that bred the Sinhala nationalism in south is no longer present ……”
The war maybe over but the sinhala nationalism in the south is alive and kicking.
Both candidates will appeal to that sinhala nationalism to win votes. The minority vote maybe important but the sinhala nationalist vote is even more important.
The only person who will not get the sinhala nationalist vote is Ranil wickremasinghe. That is why he is supporting SF.

“However, although, there are attempts to revive the Sinhala Buddhist ultra nationalism (with anti conversion bills etc) that is fast losing its currency, I do not believe that Sinhala nationalism would be a decisive factor at this election.”-
I disagree with you. Sinhala nationalism has not lost its currency. It will be the decisive factor in this election. The end of the war has given sinhala nationalism a boost.

Number 9 stands in symbolism to planet Mars-representing war!
That Rajapaksacould win war against LTTE at the age of 63(6+3=9)
is note-worthy.

Sorry, just a correction – General Fonseka didn’t claim that the country belongs to the Sinhala Buddhists, he claimed it belonged to the Sinhalese. He didn’t mention any religion there. Adding the “Buddhists” bit to his quote is patently false. If you don’t believe me, please check out the original interview. Spreading misinformation is dangerous, although I think some people do it deliberately.