When WhatsApp Groups Becomes a Faculty of Political Science
There was a time when Sri Lankan political debate happened in parliament, universities, trade unions, newspaper columns, or at least over a cup of tea in a village boutique. Today, however, the loudest political commentary often comes from overseas WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages, YouTube livestreams, and self-appointed experts who have not lived in Sri Lanka for 20 or 30 years but somehow believe they possess the master blueprint for how the National People's Power government should run the country.
Every week, thousands of Sri Lankan social media activists emerge from London, Toronto, Melbourne, Oslo, or Milan to deliver lectures on how Colombo should govern itself. Some have not paid taxes in Sri Lanka for decades. Others have not voted in a local election since Chandrika Kumaratunga was president. Yet they speak with the confidence of constitutional lawyers, economists, military strategists, education reformers, and political philosophers all rolled into one.
The modern Sri Lankan diaspora political activist often has a familiar formula. First, they loudly announce that they were “always leftists.” Second, they explain that because they once attended a protest in 1987 or read Karl Marx in Sinhala translation, they have a permanent right to define what a left-wing government should do. Third, they attack the NPP government for not being radical enough, socialist enough, nationalist enough, capitalist enough, or simply not doing exactly what they personally would have done from the comfort of a living room in Croydon or Scarborough.
There is a strange arrogance in this new political culture. A person forwards three articles in a WhatsApp group and suddenly becomes an authority on public finance. Someone shares a YouTube interview and immediately begins advising the government on national security. Another spends hours shouting in voice notes about agriculture policy despite not having visited a Sri Lankan farm since the 1990s.
The problem is not criticism itself. Any democratic government should be criticised. The NPP is not above scrutiny, nor should it be. In fact, the government has already shown that it is willing to listen and reverse course when necessary. The debate over education reform is one example. Ministers appeared to recognise that some proposals could create unnecessary social tension and adjusted their position accordingly. That is not weakness. That is government behaving like government.
But governing a country is not the same as running a Facebook page.
The NPP today faces responsibilities that activists rarely have to think about. It must manage public debt, maintain foreign relations, keep inflation under control, ensure food supplies, pay public sector salaries, reassure investors, deal with trade unions, respond to public anger, and maintain national stability. It cannot afford to govern based on slogans, social media trends, or the emotional outbursts of 3,000 chat groups.
There is also a deeper contradiction in much of the online criticism. Many of the loudest voices claim to want a fairer Sri Lanka where state spending is controlled, corruption is reduced, and ordinary people benefit equally. Yet when the government attempts austerity, restructuring, or administrative discipline, those same critics accuse it of betrayal. They want revolutionary change without inconvenience. They want socialism without taxes, public services without reforms, and accountability without responsibility.
That is why much of the current social media noise resembles political theatre rather than serious political thought. The shouting, screaming, sarcasm, insults, and endless declarations of “the government should do this” or “the government should do that” often reveal less about the country and more about the ego of the commentator.
There is no shortage of opinion in Sri Lankan politics. What is lacking is depth.
A government cannot be run by the loudest voice in a WhatsApp group. Nor can a serious political movement survive if it becomes hostage to every overseas activist who mistakes volume for wisdom. The NPP was elected to govern as a responsible administration, not as a permanent protest movement. It now has to make difficult decisions, many of which will inevitably disappoint sections of its own support base.
That is politics. That is government. And that is a reality that many self-appointed social media professors of Sri Lankan affairs still struggle to understand.