Gaslighting

Thursday 13th January, 2022

Is the government gaslighting the public? There is reason to believe that it is psychologically manipulating the people into doubting their own reality and even sanity. When they listen to the ruling party politicians and government propagandists, they wonder whether the things that they see and hear are real or illusory.

Power cuts are on at least in some parts of the country. Everybody knows that. The electricity supply is suddenly interrupted at night, and people look for candles and lamps. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) has announced a power cut schedule. When the demand for electricity exceeds the supply thereof, load shedding is the only way to keep the grid stable. (It’s not rocket science.) But Minister of Power Gamini Lokuge insists that there are no power cuts! He said so yesterday as well. If the people go by his claim, then they will wonder whether they are hallucinating.

Farmers are protesting against a severe fertiliser shortage, which has destroyed their cultivations. But Minister of Agriculture Mahindananda Aluthgamage insists that there are enough fertiliser stocks in the country, implying that the farmers are protesting for no reason. He sounds very confident and cites statistical data in support of his claim. So does the government media. They are trying to make the public doubt reality.

There have been many gas explosions, injuring and killing several persons. Videos, pictures and eyewitness accounts of these incidents abound, but Chief Government Whip and Minister of Highways Johnston Fernando says the situation is not so bad, and there is a conspiracy against the government! If one goes by his claim, one will doubt one’s sanity and wonder whether gas explosions are illusions.

In 1964, Sri Lanka purchased from the British the Trincomalee oil tank farm, bringing under its control all 100 tanks including a damaged one. Today, India has got 14 of these tanks on lease, and 61 will be under a joint venture to be set up by India and Sri Lanka thanks to the recently-inked questionable agreement between the two countries. Only 24 tanks will be under Sri Lanka’s direct control. The current administration is full of patriots, who vowed to protect national assets and regain the Trinco tank farm.

Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila insists that the tank farm deal has been a huge victory for Sri Lanka! A previous government had entered into an MoU to lease all the tanks to India, which held on to them pending a formal lease agreement, the present-day leaders once said, calling the deal illegal. The people thought their patriotic leaders would declare the MoU null and void ab initio and ask the Indians to leave, the way the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa ordered the Indian army out. But nothing of the sort has happened. If one buys into the government version of the deal, then one will doubt not only one’s reality but also one’s basic mathematical skills.

The people are aware that the government is scared of elections as it is highly unpopular, and that is the reason why the Local Government (LG) elections have been put off by one year. But Co-Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Ramesh Pathirana insists that the polls postponement is due to the prevailing pandemic. The government has also said the current LG institutions should be given some more time because they could not function properly for nearly two years under the yahapalana government. At the same time, it says it will hold the delayed Provincial Council elections in 2022. It has left the people confused and unable to figure out what is happening around them.

Did George Orwell foresee in the 1940s what Sri Lankans would face today when he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four?