Business of (Tamil) Politics

 

My last 3 posts were related to the sad state of Tamil politics.  Hoping to not turn this blog into an anti-TNA rant (which is never my intent), wanted to rationalize my last post in a comparative sense.    

Social Relevancy

No one sees politics as a hotbed of innovation.   Politics is often seen as the preserve of old men clinging to power.   Popular culture is full of unflattering terms for politicians. Constituents are conditioned to expect the least from the people they elect.   Accountability means little in politics.

Unfortunately, TNA is no exception to this maxim.

Businesses exist to increase shareholder values.  And the fastest growing consumer companies create value by capitalizing on Social Relevancy.  This is best illustrated by yesterday’s departure of Microsoft CEO Ballmer.  

Granted the phase of change is not the same in politics. When there is social change, the politicians are expected to be aware of it so they can stay relevant.   It is something the current president of the US diagnosed well and capitalized on when he first ran for the office.  He ran an inspiring and motivating campaign that mobilized the voters.

Just as Microsoft was unable to correct course in time, TNA is set on a tried, tested and failed political course.  Microsoft is now fighting to stay relevant in “the post PC” era and seen as an old dinosaur by the facebook and the google generation.  TNA leadership is  mis diagnosing the Tamil attitude as defeated and cowered. And their prognosis is that once people land on their feet, they can then fight for their rights.  

Microsoft has realized that they will not win by sticking with the same leader or the  roadmap.  You don't see microsoft leadership going around trying to market the virtues and values of PC’s anymore. They have accepted that the future is mobile devices.   

But what we hear from TNA are the same old ideas repeated to the voters without any explanation of why it will be different this time. We see hesitance in releasing an inspiring and motivating manifesto.   

New ideas are only coming out of a newer generation of people who have seen the struggles from a different vantage point.  People like Guruparan and Gajendrakumar are able to diagnose the Tamil attitude differently and correctly.   The emphasis is on a longer term mass mobilization relying on a solid  ground game.   TNA shows neither  the vision nor the capability.  

This brings us back to another American comparison.  Today is the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march and the famous Martin Luther King’s dreams speech.   The true inspiration and stepping stone to President Obama.

Feet on the Ground:  Colombo is not where the ground is.

A good read on why feet on the ground matters and benefits of organizing is here.   President Obama set an inspiring vision of change and then coupled that vision with the power of technical analytics and the hard work of ground organizing.  He learnt from the Civil Rights movement and took that to another level.  

“And it was based on organizing (a tradition that ties Barack Obama to the generations before him), of working door to door and street to street, and neighborhood to neighborhood to bind and empower the cause of equality – often in the face on real violence.

Today TNA announced they will be meeting Navi Pillai in colombo.  Not in Eelam when she is visiting the Tamil people.  This is a behaviour of losing social relevancy.   TNA has failed to create a vision.  They don't seem to be setting up a ground game for success or relevancy.

“Consider the words of John Lewis, still strong after five decades and still committed to the same cause despite the beatings and intimidation of  lifetime .”

“I got arrested 40 times during the ’60s, beaten, bloodied and unconscious, I’m not tired, I’m not weary. I’m not prepared to sit down and give up. I am ready to fight and continue to fight, and you must fight.”

“You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. You have to stand up, speak up, speak out and get in the way. Make some noise. The vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It’s the most powerful non-violent tool...”

Why are the leaders of TNA who can rightfully say the same but are standing by, sitting down?

How did ,we, Tamils. ended up with Green day’s Broken dreams Instead of Martin Luther King’s dream.  

Trodden path

 

No one sees politics as a hot bed of innovation.   Politics is often seen as the preserve of old men clinging to power.   Popular culture is full of unflattering terminology for politicians and their politics.  And constituents are conditioned to expect the least from the people they elect.   Accountability means little in politics.

Is Tamil politics becoming a poster child for this maxim?

 The absence of power politics during the armed struggle is now used as justification  back filling the vacuum. 

 TNA has now resorted to justifying their relevancy only in the context of elections. 

 Few have come out in defense of the TNA politics.  It is true that there was a section that called for boycott of the provincial elections asking not to legitimize the 13th amendment and the Genocidal Sri Lankan state.  That is no longer the case.  TNA has effectively nullified that by participating in the Eastern provincial elections.  It is fair to say that many in Eelam and in diaspora hoped that TNA would bring in a new, refreshing and reformist attitude to the Tamil politics.  But what TNA is doing now is not the kind of politics they were hoping for.

 TNA won in 2010 because of what it declared in its manifesto. NPC election is close but such a manifesto is still curiously missing. 

TNA is still riding the electoral legitimacy it received in 2010.  It is that legitimacy that opened the doors in Delhi and DC to TNA.  But in the last 3 years, TNA has become pliable to those powers and forgotten the people and their mandate.   Retention of access to Delhi or to DC is what seems to drive TNA.  What was used as a stick against the LTTE is now used as a carrot against TNA. Pursuing that access is not a bad policy if that had resulted in tangible benefits to the Tamil people on the ground.  TNA would have had a leg to stand on.   TNA now says NPC election itself is the result of that engagement.  If not for the politicians and the few international players, since when has that been the pressing issue or the request of the Tamil people?  Just because the Sri Lankan state opposed the election does not make it the reason to clamor for it. The argument that NPC election is needed to de-militarize or to talk about a political solution defies logic.  Then what were the 2010 election and the EPC election for?

 Today TNA is selling a wrong political idea to the wrong people.  It is trying to pass off the impotent NPC election as important to the Tamil people.  Instead TNA should be telling the international community (India) openly that it is going to expose the impotency of the NPC election.

TNA should have had a manifesto that energized and mobilized the Tamil people.

When Justice Wigneswaran came on board as a chief minister candidate, general expectation was that TNA would use him to expose the system.  What better way to expose the system than with someone who has been part of it?  A perfect inside job.

 But he is now being used to sell the system to the Tamil people.

 If TNA is willing to provide the cover of Tamil participation to Delhi and DC, then it should have been demanding their explicit protection for Tamil rights in return.   And do so openly.  It should have been a bilateral engagement centered on a results oriented approach.

 In the context of a Tamil political awareness that is transnational, encompassing Eelam, diaspora, and Tamil Nadu, Delhi and DC cannot afford to ignore or neglect the Tamil plight. Not if they hope to achieve the stated policy of regional economic and political stabilization.  Why is TNA downplaying this reality and telling the Tamils that we will be ignored and neglected? It undermines the transnational leverage of the Tamils.

 If electoral participation and endorsement of 13th amendment are conditions for demilitarization and for end of occupation, people of Eastern province should have been enjoying a military free, civilian administrated province.  What has prevented Delhi and DC making an example out of the Eastern province? One would expect that to be the most compelling and easy way to convince the people of North to rally behind the idea of an election. 

A campaign of political obfuscation is not going to bring credibility to TNA.   

TNA cannot think to stay relevant only in times of elections. Inspiring activists like Aananthi  and academics like Guruparan  are at least getting people to see behind the garden path.  

Boulevard of broken dreams

 

My previous post about the Tamil political discourse taking the turn for the worst still remains true. TNA continues on the unimaginative, and predictable path of power politics set within a losing framework. They harp on a full implementation of a discredited and meaningless 13th amendment. Yet many Tamil people, mainly in the diaspora, seem euphoric of a solution to the Tamil national question: Knowing full well that such a solution is never going to materialize within this framework. A few people are coming out and exposing the fallacy of this false hope. More is needed to stop the shifting of the Tamil political discourse from the Tamil national question to that of a manufactured crisis of the 13th amendment. How long this false hope can hide behind this euphoric hype remains to be seen.  Without an inspiring leadership, the Tamil nation continues on the lonely road seeking justice and peace: singing this song.

"I walk the lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone"

....

"Read between the lines What's fucked up and every thing's all right  Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive  And I walk alone" 

Hopefully TNA will not close the door on the younger generation who can read the Tamil nation's vital signs better than they.

#99Eelamtamilproblem: Cognitive dissonance

 

Eelam Tamils are yet again at a critical juncture. The pending Northern Provincial Council (NPC) election has brought about a lot of noise. The Eelam Tamil political discourse has taken a turn for the worse. As mentioned in the previous post, one of the ways soft power is exercised is through agenda-setting. So when you are invited to the table, your influence over the outcome is nil.

Sri Lanka and few international players are bent on containing the Tamil national question to the incompetent 13 Amendment. It seems, so far, that TNA has been co-opted into this plan. Tamils are distracted by the noise about unity. Tamils are forced to think about the day to day problems with urgency. The important question of Tamil nation’s future is once again ignored in favor of addressing this manufactured, tactical, agenda.

A politically inspiring and spirited discourse, dissecting TNA’s reasons for contesting and what it hopes to achieve, is missing.

TNA has not clearly and unambiguously said what this election means to the Tamils. No comment on if 13A is the “final solution”. No comment on the need for an International Independent Investigation of war crimes. Tamil people are being sold on false Choices in the upcoming election.

There is a common practice in product marketing. A company bundles a product and certain services together and prices it accordingly. Then, to convince the consumer that bundle is the greatest value on offer, they create 2 other choices. One at a much higher price point making that choice unattractive. And another at a lower price but with a much lower value. So when sandwiched between those two choices, the one that company wants you to choose looks much more reasonable for its value. Many smart consumers get suckered into this false choice unwittingly.

The choice of voting for TNA is sandwiched between the low value proposition of preventing someone like Douglas Devananda winning and the high cost choice of 13 plus: with an accompanying marketing message that 13A is a must and is urgent. Once we have 13A, we can afford to ask for something more in the future goes the sales pitch. Without a spirited challenge and in conditions of political monopoly, this leads to inefficient choices.

There is another area where this is practiced: in Magic. Not the sleight of hand kind. In a straight forward card trick. A magician puts 3 cards on the table. The big reveal is in the middle card and he already knows it. He wants you to end up with that middle card. Yet he needs to make it look like you are making all the choices. He asks you to choice a card. Let's say, you chose the card on the left. He does some smalltalk and asks “you are you sure”?. You insist. He says “good” and throws away that card. He asks you to choose again between the remaining two cards. This time you chose the one on the right. He makes his usual jokes while reminding everyone that YOU are the one making the choices. And again throws away that card. He then does his abracadabra and voila, you end up with the middle card as the final choice. He does the big reveal. Had you chosen the middle card the 1st time, he still would have done his usual small talk and jokes. But this time he would have said, “You are great. We are going to keep this card and throw away the other two”. Had you chosen the middle card the second time, while still reminding you that YOU are making the choices, he would have said “ this time, we are going to throw away the other card”. Moral of the story. A magician does not reveal the rules upfront when he asks you to make the choices. He makes up the rules, which card to keep or throw away, after you make your choices.

If TNA wants to get into magic, then they should be ready to have their tricks exposed.

And TNA should not put Tamils in a situation having to rationalize their choices under cognitive dissonance.