# The Covid Effect #05 | People politics
## People centric politics
**8th May 2020 | 8–10 pm IST**
**Youtube**: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxaA0IGAgR4&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR3Go-CiljkY5knEorbI_zjC4zyxsY9W0qKds1OYz011pSN9hra9R02qd1k
### Collaborative notes
*This is a collaborative notepad for all participants to take notes and post links. You can also post in the text chat on Jitsi. Feel free to add notes in any langauge.*
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### Further reading and references
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### Transcripts
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### Chatlog
> **Kaushalya**
Comment by Pradeep Dissanayake about today\'s topic: I think they
(alternative/progressive political groups) have reached the people.
People know these movements exist. For example, many people expect that
at least a few members of JVP should be in parliament. Yet, people are
not ready to \'invest\' their vote for electing members from JVP. The
real problem is all these progressive political movements filled to
\'convince\' people to organize around them.
There is a gap between people and these movements which prevent people
from trusting them and supporting them. How can the leaders of these
movements overcome this gap? And convince people to be a part of their
journey?
Either people should be a part of these movements or let movements to be
part of their lives.
If not both people and movements should find a space where and what they
can
compromise Ignoring people on the basis of the assumption that they are
less political won\'t make any change
Just feed the ego of the failed progressive activists
How did Basil Rajapaksa convince people to vote for his political party?
What is the gap that he filled? What is the nerve he touched?
You can find many ways to address it, but never be able to convince or
influence people
I think that is the problem
Like that book titled \'How to win friends and influence people\'
How is the biggest issue
Political movements use many strategies like provide people with
material aid, convince tgem with promises, manipulate some social and
cultural issues like religion, cultivate fear of others, use violence or
terror
Can we think something beyond these?
That\'s what we need to address
Ask, why do progressive social movements fail to convince people?
They have not literally failed. If they are failed, they won\'t exist
They are failed in terms of organizing people around them
Because their intention is to feed their ego, not convince people
> 19:50
>
> **Ruchira**
A large section of the population is on survival mode. They can\'t
grasp higher concepts. They are given instant gratification solutions
and they take them and vote accordingly. Some who have figured out a
basis of thought - a philosophy - in learning to live with the
suffering are sensitive to the common need.
>
> 20:06
>
> **Maheshika**
i think one problem that occurs when merging the progressive minority
is that, the minorities within the minority gets shut down and
over-spoken by the powerful voices within the minority. the
\"progressive\" become dominating and even overwhelmingly dismissive
when they get a voice within the minority who are willing to listen to
them.
>
> 20:37
>
> **Vinura**
I was told by a lecturer once that the way President Obama won the
elections in the States was by immersing himself in the grassroot
levels of society in the States. Is this something that progressive
political movements are lacking? I\'m not too sure about how far deep
such movements have integrated themselves and their vision in relation
to how society functions and operates on a day to day basis
>
> 20:52
>
> **samitha**
hi Vinura I totally agree with you.
>
> 20:55
>
> **Vinura**
what are some of the methods in which such progressive political
movements could connect better with the masses? Would partaking in
their daily lives in some way or form allow such movements to further
their vision and goals in assisting the masses of the island have
better standards of living?
>
> 20:59
>
> **Ruchira**
සාමාන්ය ජනයා කියන වර්ගයෙන් අපි වෙනස් ලෙස ගෙන ඔවුන් දිනාගැනීමට ඇත්තෙන්
බැහැ කියා සීනි බෝල සෙවීමම නේද ප්රශ්ණය?
>
> 21:08
>
> **Maheshika**
The issues highlighted by Samitha about the psychological barriers to
connecting with public were so much on point. Would really appreciate
if you can also comment on what we can do to brake those barriers
individually and collectively.
>
> 21:09
>
> **Vinura**
In terms of what Uncle Firdows said at how an academic involvement
within the political sphere can better help the minority parties at
being understood and recognised I feel that academics from certain
disciplinary fields such as sociology, anthropology and even cultural
studies could be involved in allowing the masses to understand the
vitality of such minority political groups.
I personally feel that the designation of any political party or
movement as a minority group (even though this is realistically the
case in terms of societal representation) could harm the chances these
parties and movements have in doing good for the people. I don\'t mean
to go against anything Uncle Firdows said when he talked about
minority parties and movements I just feel that removing the usage of
the term \'minority\' would do a lot of good
>
> 21:09
>
> **සංජීව**
නිර්මාල් - සංයුක්ත මිනිසා වෙත කතා කිරීම ප්රගතිශීලී (යැයි කියන)
කණ්ඩායම් වලට කල නොහැකි වන්නේ ඇයි?
සාමූහික විඥාණය කියන එකේ මූලික අදහස මොකක්ද? උදාහරණ එක්ක කියන්න පුලුවන් ද? (සමාජවිද්යාව, දේශපාලන වි, හෝ මනෝ විද්යාව තුළ)
(සමිතා, නිර්මාල් දෙදෙනාට)
සාමාන්ය මිනිසා තේරුම් ගැනීම (මේක පරණ කතාවක් නේද)
>
> 21:20
>
> **Nirmal**
Sanjeewa. issue of addressing the concrete (wo)man. I don\'t think i
have a formula to propose. Try to understand the sanyuktha manushyaya.
>
> 21:23
>
> **සංජීව**
ඥාණසාර හෝ මුස්ලිම් අන්තවාදය කතා කරන්නේ සාමූහික විඥානයට ද? නැත්නම් එය
ගොඩනැංවීමක් නම් සාමූහික විඥානයට උදාහරණ මොනවාද?
ස්තුතියි නිර්මාල්
>
> 21:24
>
> **Maheshika**
referring back to my point, by breaking the psychological barriers i
refer to \"our own\" psychological barriers, and in a way our own
delusions about the barrier. at a practical level, what are the
steps/practises to break our own delusions? or at least to remind
ourselves and wake up from the delusion from time to time?
>
> 21:26
>
> **සංජීව**
පවතින්නේ මාධ්යමය සාමූහික විඥාණ ගොඩනැංවීමක් නම් (මා සිතන ආකාරට)
සාමූහික විඥාණය කියා දෙයක් වර්තමානයේ නැද්ද? තියෙනව නම් ඒ ගොඩනැංවීම්
වලින් වෙනස් (පවතී නම්) උදාහරණය කුමක්ද?
>
> 21:26
>
> **Nirmal**
awashya wanne apage kathikawa saha samanaya manushayage lokaya athara
palamak godanageemayi
>
> 21:27
>
> **සංජීව**
නිර්මාල්, මාධ්ය යනු එම පාලම ගෙඩනැගීමේ උපක්රමයක් නම්, එයට බාහිර
උපක්රම තියෙනවද? (පාලම යන්නෙන් අදහස් වන සඟරා, පෝස්ටර්, කටවුට්,
සාකච්ඡා, විරෝධතා නම් \... ඒව සිදු වෙනවා නේද) සිදු වීමෙනුත් එය ඉටු
නොවන්නේ ඇයි? හේතුව කුමක්ද?
>
> 21:30
>
> 21:30
>
> **Vinura**
In relation to what Aunty Samitha is talking about how do we break the
silos in which different classes exist individually? I experienced an
event while in university where the youth were able to enter the halls
of the Christchurch City Council and adopt the same positions as City
Councillors. Thus, the youth were able to understand what it was like to
be in the position of City Councillors and operate within a field of
policy making.
What if we were to do the same with the homeless and the poverty
stricken? If this sector of our society entered the halls of decision
and policy making what could we learn and understand more about their
lives on a deeper basis? If a lady who is forced to sell her body for
a livelihood is allowed to enter any hall of decision making and
policy making what could we learn from their lives and allow all of
society to better understand one another?
>
> 21:33
>
> **Ruchira**
අපිත් යම් අවධියක සාමන්ය මිනිසුන් වී සිට ප්රගතිශීලී වූවානම්, අපිට කල
හැක්කේ ඔවුන්ට ඇත්ත දැකීම දක්වා ගෙන ඒමයි. අපේ සත්යය හුදෙක් දෘෂ්ටි
කෝණයක් පමණක් නොව ඇත්තම ඇත්තනම් වැඩේ ගොඩ නේද? අපි තවම සත්යය සොයනවානම්,
අපි අනෙක් අය සමඟ අදහස් බෙදාගනිමින් යා යුතුයි. මක්නිසාද ටයරය පොලවේ වදින
තැන, සත්යය ජය ගන්නවා!
>
> 21:34
>
> **samitha**
>
> Ruchira , Oba samaga ekagai
>
> 21:35
>
> **Samadhi**
නිර්මාල්, අපි ප්රගතිශීලී දේශපාලනය ප්රායෝගික යතාර්ථයක් බවට පත් කරන්නේ
කොහොමද? මොනවද කළ යුතු ක්රියාකාරකම් තනි තනි වශයෙන් හා පොදුවේ කළ හැකි
දේ මොනවාද?
>
> 21:39
>
> **සංජීව**
>
> ස්තුතියි\... නිර්මාල්.
>
> 21:54
>
> **Samadhi**
>
> නිර්මාල් , ස්තූතියි
>
> 21:55
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