The Art of Political Double Speak – Leading to a national debacle

It is very interesting that the ploy adopted by this Administration in Sri Lanka today, is to use the action of the opposition when in Govt. to justify their move action or inaction. The latest was just yesterday, when the reason given to the Newspaper Editors at a breakfast meeting in Temple Trees, that the UNP wanted the CJ removed by impeachment, and so the Govt. was doing that job for them.

How innocuous was that statement? Putting the blame on the other party for your faults is a time and tested political game, and is the art of a skillful if not cunning politician. Further when the electorate accepts it hook line and sinker, then it looks like a huge political win in this game of double speak.

It is safe to say that excesses of a prior UNP regime, pale in comparison to the excesses being carried out today. However each time one of the numerous excesses are queried, reference is made to the same being carried out in that administration, as if to justify why it is being done again, and to put in bad light the complaints of the opposition, and the need for some transparency.

It is this strategy consistently and very calculatingly used by this administration that is the cause of the overwhelming belief of the masses that whoever was in power, the problems shall remain, and that another administration despite what it says, is unable to make a significant dent in the perceptions of the electorate.

Until this vicious canard is laid bare and accepted, it will be very difficult for the Opposition to clearly show the differences between the actual happenings in this administration and how it would differ in another one. Namely theirs. It is this message that they singularly fail to give partly due to lack of control over media.

So the art of political double speak, is one of the most cunning ploys in fooling people that black is white, and right is wrong. It is up to the recipient of the message to evaluate and come to his or her own conclusions. The question then is whether that person is sufficiently independently minded and mature to ascertain the truth, or is so biased, that no event or exercise is going to sway his opinion.

It is therefore important to obtain a psychological profile of the audience one is addressing, debating and lecturing, to make the judgment call on how to address their particular prejudice in the society. Without that one’s efforts are in vain. It is time that anti government rallies and speeches, take cognizance of these facts in order to maximize the productivity of this time that is allocated. If not the whole event is a waste of time and money with the audience misunderstood.