Family bandyism by S.L.Gunasekara – Great Factual Read!-Posted on January 18th, 2012
Posted on January 19th, 2012

Prof. Hudson McLean

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I enjoy reading articles by S.L. Gunasekara. They are well written, factual, good Thomian English of a successful PC.
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As one reader pointed out, SL, you forgot Premadasa period and his budding dynasty, in the form of Sajith.
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I have known Premadasa during his terms as a MMC at Colombo Municipal Council, and met him several times both as President and prior to that as Prime Minister. In fact I made several donations in cash to support his housing programme.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Also remember Sajith wagging his tongue out-of-place in the UK and getting chucked-out.
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Talking of Dynasties, most counties with Monarchies have had only one Family Dynasty ruling and creaming offƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  the top-of-the pie, since time immemorial. European Royalty is connected between Russian-German-Scandinavian-Greek Dynasties inter-married but now the Blue-blood is diluted by common-o-garden body builders, stewards, footballers, film stars etc.
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India, North Korea, have also kept within one Family Ruling Class. However in Sri Lanka, it has been a more “clubby” atmosphere within the Jayawardane-Bandaranaike Clan.
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Now the President Mahinda Rajapaksa heavy-metal-band has brought the entire horizontal-vertical Family Clan into play, like in Jordan-SaudiArabia-UAE-Bahrain Monarchy style.
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Said that, as one LankaWeb contributor who added his comments into one of my articles, pointed out that the Ruling Clans demise in Iraq, Egypt, Libya, possibly Syria, and may even whiff-into North Korea in due course.
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Both in Iraq and in Libya, as we witnessed Live-on-Media, the potential-heirs-to-the-Throne were annihilalated along with the Rulers, with an agonizing end to Colonel Ghaddafi. Sons of Sadaam Hussein were blown-up in one fire-fight. What end-is-nigh for Mubarak and Sons is yet to be seen. Syria is getting closer to same dose of medicine.
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As one reader commented to article in LankaWeb,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 
Expansion of Presidential Duties – Posted on January 18th, 2012
stanley perera Says: January 18th, 2012 at 9:15 pmƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 
In addition to that NR air lifted a Maserati and was cleared in 30 minutes.”
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This is very negative news for President Rajapaksa Dynasty!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  History seems to repeat itself!ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 
Bad example of Namal “rubbing” a Maserati on the noses of the Youth he is claiming to represent!
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Remember the fleets of expensive cars owned by the sons of Sadaam Hussein and Moamar Ghadaffi?
And we all know what comes after “Pride”!
Today with the “mili-second” Internet, FaceBook, Twitter and other sites, a glorious reputation can be dissipated also in “mili-seconds”.
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If the new Attorney-at-Law, taking Oath a few weeks ago, zooms-off in a Maserati out-of-Temple Trees, what next if and when he climbs-up the ladder?
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As the world witnessed the Arab Spring, the begining-to-end of a regime did not take very long!
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From the “LankaWeb Thermometer” one gathers that the current Public Opinion on the current Regime is withering down the slope. As any cyclist might confirm, “Riding a bicycle uphill is tough enough, but when it begins to slide, gathering the momentum to get to where one was before, gets even tougher”!
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And one slip, the entire Rajapaksa Dynasty will flounder! And where can they seek refuge?
USA? India? UK? AUS-NZ? Arab countries? South Africa? Possibly China!
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Thats one issue, ” A Place to Run & Seek Refuge”ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  to which all players ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Family Bandyism must give serious consideration to, and maintain a Plan B.
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Said that, I am still a supporter of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, admirer of Colonel Gothabhaya Rajapaksa and a well-wisher to Namal!
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ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Express Your Opinion – Read What Others Say!
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11 Responses to “Family bandyism by S.L.Gunasekara – Great Factual Read!-Posted on January 18th, 2012”

  1. Marco Says:

    Memories can be selective.
    Rather surprising that you cannot remember HLD Mahindapala during the Premadasa era

  2. nandimitra Says:

    Democracy in all political parties have been highjacked to achieve their kith and kin to succeed them. This does not allowe leaders with honesty, integrity and intellect with a vission for the betterment of the country to reach the top. This has been the curse of Sri Lanka from independence.

  3. Dham Says:

    Prof,
    You forgot LKY Dynasty which you have metioned before. What is the difference ?
    LKY maintaing law and oreder and officialy earning highest salary in the world, so that bribes are minimal.
    MR has rubbish salary but earning more than LKY unofficially not to mention NR.
    But we have no choice, there is no opposition and must keep on supporting.

  4. AsokaK Says:

    MR should avoid a Thatha Doc-Baappa Doc- Putha Doc tag developing.

  5. Marco Says:

    Family Dictatorships are easy to recognise and deal with. But unfortunately ‘democratic dictatorships’ are passively handled by the international community so far for the mere reason of them camouflaging their status with the ballot boxes. Good governance, accountability, justice, fairness, separation of powers, recognition and honouring diversity, freedom of speech etc. are fundamental ingredients for a just democratic society to thrive and Sri Lanka is one of the worst of such democratic dictatorships undermining these values in the world, needing greater scrutiny of the debilitating unaccountable democratic systems in the world.

  6. Naram Says:

    All those who aim for political office would do well to bear in mind the rapidly changing nature of the game. Do not gamble on the short term memory of the people; throwing money at billboards alone is not a licence; even Duminda will soon find that he isnot immune.

    Take a lesson from the current head, KAMATHA is not quite the Maserati test track orthe Rugby ground – it takes different skill set.

    Beware – one runs the risk of slowly acepting the values of the petrol heads who sit in racing cars.

    Belonging to the current dynasty may not guarantee success as the previous holder of President’s chair found too late before leaving in inglorious fashion.

  7. aloy Says:

    Dham,
    Singapore was a fishing village before LKY took over. After that he maintained law and order allowed private sector to thrive and got the maximum out of the technocrats. Few of our own engineers were recruited to build that country. He wanted to make his country like Sri Lanka with dedication and hard work. When his son who is the current prime minister was being operated for cancer he was attending a meeting on a scheduled visit to Mauritius. When asked why is not with his son he said that his son is under the care of good doctors and that he need not be there. That was the attitude of a good leader. He did not pilfer from the national kitty and also did not allow others to do so. Today he and his son’s cabinet are reaping the benefits as they are the highest paid in the world. They have taken the advantage of the geographical location. If I am not mistaken their biggest income come from the Airport and the seaport. We have a bigger advantage. Our leaders should take a leaf from this great man.
    We need not be like Singapore. At least our leaders should stop our women doing slavery in the middle east.

  8. Kit Athul Says:

    Professor Hudson McLean few things that trouble me in youir article
    1. If you met Pramadase and contributed to some housing fund, then let us know what fund this was! Pramadase built houses from a Low interest loan from World bank and Asia development bank. How could this be his personal fund? Pramadase built these housing in areas where Asia deverlopment bank wanted them to be. But he went and had ceremonies to open these housing schemes to confuse the public so that it looked like his personal fund? Did you meet Pramadase when he was deputy mayor of CMC? Sugathadase was the mayor at that time.

    “I have known Premadasa during his terms as a MMC at Colombo Municipal Council, and met him several times both as President and prior to that as Prime Minister. In fact I made several donations in cash to support his housing programme. Also remember Sajith wagging his tongue out-of-place in the UK and getting chucked-out”.

    2. I do not know why you want to confuse the following story?
    These cars were imported for a spcific event namly night racing. And has to be there at a specific date and a specific time. As soon as the race was over these cars were exported by their owners.To my knowledge there are no reports of Namal owns a Maserati, have you any proof? Namal is a very rich man there is no two words about it. So what?

    “This is very negative news for President Rajapaksa Dynasty! History seems to repeat itself!
    Bad example of Namal “rubbing” a Maserati on the noses of the Youth he is claiming to represent!
    If the new Attorney-at-Law, taking Oath a few weeks ago, zooms-off in a Maserati out-of-Temple Trees, what next if and when he climbs-up the ladder?”
    3. I find it difficult to find out which university you teach? It is because if one Googales a name one can get the persons where abouts, but for you it is blank.

  9. Christie Says:

    Nepotism is nothing new among humans and their organisational structuresince humans started to settel.

    If youncompare the so called bandysm around the world the island is not in the top.

  10. radha Says:

    Kit Athul, the housing fund that Hudson McLean was referring to could be the one called “Gam Udaawa”, aka the Village Re-awakening Movement that Prime Minister Premadas launched in the early 1980. I believe, letters were sent off with the Prime Minister’s (RP) personal signature to many Sri Lankans living overseas at the time asking them to contribute as much as they like or could to this project. It was quite a moving and inspiring letter and I too contributed. I still have this letter that I kept for its sentimental value.

    The day that I made the contribution, was a very memorable occasion for me because I was invited to meet the Prime Minister at his official residence on the 11th January 1983. He gave us a very informal audience; just the PM, me, my brother and my young son, who tagged along with me for the experience. In fact I had a previous appointment, which the PM’s project officer had fixed for the 19th January, but I informed him that as I could not make it on that day, could the meeting be rescheduled for the 11th; it was granted. On reflection, now, I think that I must have been quite cheeky to get the PM (or his project offcier) to change his schedule, but at the time I did n’t think twice about the protocol.

    The meeting itself and the rescheduling of appointment on my request speak oodles about the humility of this remarkable man who reached the very top rung attainable in a somewhat conservative society of Sri Lanka. Throughout most of his life, he was in tocuh with the common man. It was such a pity that in the late 80’s he turned nasty, no doubt because of the dissenting violent forces of the JVP that existed in the country at the time, which threatened his power base.

    I know that I have diverged from the main issue about the Fund, but I thought I would narrate the story for the benefit of readers, to demonstrate that this man was genuinely humane in his touch with average people like me, even though we held no political affiliations with any party what so ever.

    About his Gam Udaawa projects, certainly the money collected seemed to have gone into the establishment of numerous new villages throughout the country or to renovate and reinvigorate many existing ones. Many many new villages with new names have been added to our map. I have seen some of these villages myself, first hand, in rural areas that I have travelled as well as in Gampaha district that I come from.

  11. Christie Says:

    “Namal is very rich”:

    He may be rich compared to me or you but not compared to thosands of colonial parasite who run most of the economy of the country.

    Can anyone tell me of a Sinhalese rich man or woman who has a reasonable amount of wealth compared to Pettah and Fort merchants who falls within the Indian definitions of Person of Indian Origin and/or Non Resident Indian.
    ?
    Items for international events (cars, planes, yachts, armaments, sporting items etc are moved around the world generally dutty free under international agreements with very low trnasport costs

    The most important thing is any wealth of Sinhalese, Moors.Malays and Burghers stays in the island.

    Wealth of Indian colonial parasites end up in India and the West.

    .

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