The Rajpal Abeynayake column:

Spin lives, but barely

Of some of the most glaring false narratives that have been broached in recent times, the one about the possible impeachment of the Chief Justice by the government is probably the most hilarious! Preposterous, to think that a political party that did not impeach the Chief Justice that should have been impeached (ah that one!), is now going to even in the wildest of dreams, impeach one who shouldn't be?

But this false narrative achieved the kind of momentum that required government spokespersons to deny it at a specially held press conference. After all, the government did have its own way, didn't it - with regard to the Divi Neguma legislation? And that was accomplished legitimately, wasn't it? The law was passed with the concurrence of all provincial councils as the law demanded - right?

Those who cavil about the Northern Provincial Council and its nonexistence know that this cannot be a valid reason to say that the legislation is flawed - it is one provincial council, and elections for that are due there, and the President has said so in no uncertain terms.

But yet, the false narrative was floated that the government was roiling under the weight of a 'slur' by the Supreme Court, and that therefore the Chief Justice may be impeached!

The mere fact that the legislature asserted its own control, does not mean that there is a rift between the legislature and the apex court. The two institutions can coexist side by side, and sort out perceived or real incompatibilities, by asserting their own control.

As for the false narratives, in this context it is not rocket science to comprehend that these don't come about due to partisan political motivations.

The creation of false narratives is made easier particularly in the modern media space which involves web portals - the explosive grapevine that dangles in cyberspace.

It is easier now than it was decades ago to plant a false narrative and make it sound convincing. One all too real example from the international media is the recently floated story that there's no way Hugo Chavez is going to win the presidential election in Venezuela.

Well, this column predicted that Chavez will win -- as he always does! And he did win last week, and the muted reaction from those who predicted his defeat in the most reputable of 'news portals' was priceless to witness.

Almost always, the motive behind planting a deliberate canard is ulterior. Of course it does not need rocket science - to say it again - to discern that the 'impeach Chief Justice' canard was planted by interested parties to create a rift between the legislation and the judiciary that does not exist. The wild speculation about the imminent defeat of Chavez was to let the spin create a media momentum that the interested parties hoped would be self-fulfilling. i.e. to say that Chavez is definitely going to lose, would see to it that it really happens or so it was hoped.

The planting of the false narrative has become something of an art form in the new media - but where some kind of spin is destined to fail, there is a different kind of spin that acquires a life of its own.

For example, there was the spin which was expressly doctored, to hold that there was some kind of irreconcilable rift between this current administration and the US government. It is true that this government opposed the US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka at the Geneva Human Rights Council sessions earlier this year.

But what the doomsayers failed to understand was the fact that there can be disagreements between governments, without there having to be the ultimate 'divorce'.

The same observers that said that there were irreconcilable differences between Colombo and Washington now secretly marvel at how quickly relations between the two countries have 'mended', if they needed mending at all.

Things have now begun to seem quite obvious - long-standing historical good relations between two countries are not going to be hurt by momentary petty disagreements. That does not mean that those who live by planting false narratives will give up the effort.

But the fact is that so many canards such as the recent ' impeachment' canard have been so preposterous that they really didn't have to be caught-out because the discerning public saw through the tall stories before there was any formal denial on the part of the government. But the real false narratives that are difficult to dispel are not the ones that dwell on the specifics.

They are the macro level narratives - for example, the one that there will be irreconcilable rifts between the US government and the current administration in Colombo. This narrative did not rely on specifics.

Just one disagreement - in Geneva earlier this year - was blown up to produce a mega-narrative that the Sri Lankans and the Americans have quit trying to get on.

For a while, the most discerning readers were had by this big fib. When it became apparent that both parties were willing to adjust - to compromise if you will - on the issues concerned, those who believed that there was a ' divorce' were simply stunned, as well as stumped.

Their fondest plan of making that narrative a self-fulfilling one was derailed. Now, these people pretend that there was no such thing in the news, this story of an imminent fault-line in US-Sri Lanka relations. But if you would take out some of the spun news stories from the archives, and the comments that fed on them, you would understand that there was a determined narrative that was designed - in hindsight - to create the rift that was not there in reality. It is heartening that false narratives have the insects lifespan, by and large, in this country. It is not so in other countries unfortunately, or in the rest of the world.