There has been little or superficial analysis of the use of cyber space and internet as a medium and space for political action and political mobilization in the Sri Lankan context. Events leading to the recently concluded presidential election and post election scenario saw a significant political mobilization through the internet. These mobilizations included email campaigns, information and misinformation campaigns and direct action attempts using social networking sites such as facebook, myspace and twitter. This article focuses on the contribution internet based political processes can make in destabilizing state structures and pressures exerted on national security.

There is a significant literature and research surrounding the use of the internet as a political medium and cyber space as a space of and for politics. The article is not focused on an academic endeavor of presenting these cases but instead focus on an alarming development surrounding Sri Lankan politics and its relationship to cyberspace. I link this article to a previous article published on the same newspaper referring to new forms of terrorism, where I claimed terrorism has evolved into an assemblage where the mechanisms, agents and support structures of terrorism is all bundled together with forces such as agents of democracy, international organizations and rights advocacy groups.

Thus conditions created by internal and external pressure is one of the most significant international challenges that the Sri Lankan government is facing. The difference in this challenge is that the assemblage is not purely international it has assimilated local anti state elements including actors from the local civil society , media to politicians. Thus the writer urges for deeper understanding of this new phenomenon from all Sri Lankanists as it cannot be purely analysed in the traditional analytical lens. The traditional and the popular analysis of anti western ideology which emanates from fronts such as JHU, NFF mainly identifies such interventions as international conspiracies or western interventionism.

The use of cyberspace in the presidential campaign, as many have already pointed out was to carry out a misinformation campaign by the opposition camp. The misinformation campaign was backed by pro- LTTE and Tamil diaspora political activist who mastered cyber political strategies and even managed to create massive propaganda campaigns against Sri Lanka.

The strength of the Tamil diaspora cyber campaigns unlike the ‘gossip geeks’ of the Fonseka campaign is to create actual political concepts and foundations out of virtual political tools. The best examples are its ability to create and moot the notion of ‘Transnational governance structure’ just after the demise of the LTTE and to maintain the notion alive in cyberspace. Today the notion of a virtual eelam is supported by a diaspora election which again is cleverly maintained in the cyber world with the backing of many international stake holders.

The synergy created by cyber misinformation campaigns leading to the election and the pro-LTTE disapora networks aggressive marketing of the ‘transnational virtual eelam’ are the new challenges to the Sri Lankan state. In this new world order rudimentary analysis of ‘western conspiracies’ does not make it easy to decipher the new challenges to national security from these new assemblages, that are virtually positioned without any significant geographic location or position such as cyber political initiatives. The worry is the power and influences these virtual political architectures posses in claiming international and diplomatic support. These virtual creations are reinforced by global media networks which have become a key ally to the assemblage. This alliance is very evident in day to day reporting of Sri Lankan affairs and negativity that surrounds such reports. Recent classic examples are the Dublin tribunal, the dragging debate on the authenticity of the chanel 4 video and extreme news space for the diaspora vote for Tamil eelam.

Attacks on sovereign states using cyber space as both a political tool and a political space to stage attacks have increased dramatically in the last decade. Estonia suffered a full-scale cyber attack in April 2007 which virtually brought the country to a halt and needed NATO support to recover from the attack. This attack symbolizes the first full-scale virtual attack on a sovereign state and the magnitude of its impact has left many security analysts gravely concerned about the disrupting power of cyber warfare. Thus cyber politics and extreme forms of cyber attacks need to be taken seriously, the notion of bombs being deadlier than bytes is slowly transforming with bits and bytes developing the ability to change people’s lives and evolve into national security threats. These trends make the illusive but powerful terrorist networks, LTTE sympathizers, international organizations, international and transnational media and new age cyber crusaders an ominous assemblage mobilized against states such as Sri Lanka which make them formidable than former challenges of imperialism and new colonialism.

National security and national interest are seen as terms used by oppressive mechanisms to subjugate dissent and are the real threat to the fundamental existence of democracy. The key battle cry against the Sri Lankan state and its national leader by many in the opposition and some civil society activists is based on the democracy record. The problematic these critics fail to see is that they themselves have become part of this global assemblage of insidious terror, such multi dimensional interference in Sri Lankan affairs has made the state respond rigidly. In other words such influence exerted on the state has created more and more validity for securitization. The state urgently needs to comprehend the functions of this new assemblage and be pragmatic and subtle in responding without falling into traps of being labelled as a fascist or authoritarian state.

Thus blind patriotism may lead to problems of national integration and reconciliation we need critical patriotism and the sentiment of national interest has to be ideologically adhered by Sri Lankans to face these new challenges to our country while simultaneously being stakeholders of the much needed development process that needs to be put on track.

(Dr. Harinda Vidanage is the Director of Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS)