Under the acid rain of the Devil’s hypocrisy
Posted on August 23rd, 2015
Courtesy The Nation
Yet, this perfidy is called good governance and democracy in this topsy-turvy land of moral Lilliputians who see, speak or hear no evil.
It is all done and dusted. That is the cliche at least. It is convenient. People want to move on, the victors, vanquished, and passers-by.
To destroy an entire party, their own party, with serial perfidy needs special types of dagger wielders — persons who have no morals, absolutely no sense of shame, nor loyalty
Even so, it is dangerous to transition to the future sans a processing of all the information, without a proper stock taking, and devoid of a serious, truth-telling account of what really happened at this very important 2015 August elections just past us.
The numbers indicate that the United National Party finally managed to win a major election, in its own right under the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe. It’s a feat by itself that is in the order of the sun rising from the West.
It was a victory, but to put it in the simplest of terms, how it was achieved does punch a Parakrama Samudra sized hole in this previously improbable narrative.
When President Maithripala Sirisena repeated his earlier speech in a six-page letter and added venom to the message that he would not ask Mahinda Rajapaksa to form a government as Premier under any circumstances, in many people’s opinion, he as the leader of Rajapaksa’s UPFA, had delivered the kiss of death to the UPFA’s chances.
If they only knew what was coming …!
The two General Secretaries of the party were sacked by Court enjoining order three days before the election and the entire Central Committee of the UPFA was similarly dispatched the day before people were scheduled to cast their ballots.
This pulling the rug from under the feet of Rajapaksa and his promising outfit of troopers by the ‘party leader’ was enough to cause the ten seat difference that stood between a UPFA Government, and a UNP one.
It was considered so repugnant that even bleeding heart ‘liberal’, but in reality dyed in wool UNP-biased columnists such as Namini Wijedasa of the Sunday Times tweeted, ‘I wonder what the reaction would have been if @PresRajapaksa had sacked his central committee on the eve of election results.’
Such ridiculous and totally beyond the pale actions as those of Maithripala’s, would not have been acceptable for instance in a mature democracy such as Britain, or Australia for instance, where a stab in the back so flagrant, audacious and utterly morally degenerate, no matter from which side of the party divide, would have effectively caused political paralysis due to the public reaction.
In Sri Lanka, such perfidy was not seen as morally repugnant. Civil society kept quiet. In circles that are peopled with those who scream themselves insane about democracy, there wasn’t a meow, let alone one measly tweet, as that from Namini Wijedasa.
This won’t do. This columnist makes bold to say, that this obnoxious crucifixion of democracy and crude, calculated act of treachery by Maithripala Sirisena makes this election result effectively null and void in the court of public opinion.
That is how it should be, and that is how it is, no matter which potentate or preening pundit says what. (Incidentally, for the UPFA, it was a very respectable ‘defeat.’)
What is worse than a President who controls both opposition and Government as if lording over his private fiefdom? It’s the same President, in the cheapest political act of treachery of all time, in any country, ensuring that a quarter of his party’s supporters stay home because they are led to believe that voting for their party’s campaign leader, is futile.
Anyone in his right mind would agree that those in his own party, that suffered the damage, did not have time to respond.
Neither were they legally allowed to do so, which means in essence, that the laws were abused for this treachery, by the person who holds the highest position in this land.
Worse of course, is what he has done to his party! It’s was a work of black magic and witchcraft crossed with cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. He back stabbed his way to ensuring not just one but two defeats for his SLFP and the large coalition, and this is an act of perfidy not paralleled anywhere, in any country, in any political narrative remembered in the civilized world.
His party members, from the lowliest party workers at ground level, to the highest ranking Minister in the pre 2015 Government, now wallow in defeat, due to serial acts of abominable subterfuge by their ‘leader.’
Those who had it written in stone that they would be Ministers, would not be, due to him. Those from potentate to peon, who desperately wanted to see their progressive policies come to fruition, are suffering the indignity of rule by a previously moribund and wretched opposition, because of this one person and his henchmen and women, one of them that answers to the name of ‘Chandrika.’
To destroy an entire party, their own party, with serial perfidy needs special types of dagger wielders — persons who have no morals, absolutely no sense of shame, nor loyalty.
Yet, this perfidy is called good governance and democracy in this topsy-turvy land of moral Lilliputians who see, speak or hear no evil.
This will not do. A government formed through serial perfidy, has no moral legitimacy, leave alone the right to occupy the moral high ground.
A victory blatantly stolen — two victories serially stolen — the last one in infinitely more morally repugnant fashion than the first, would be monumentally pyrrhic.
The mealy mouthed moral bankruptcy and hypocrisy of those who applaud this gruesome farce, this crazed daylight stab at the heart of our democracy is so absurd, one wonders whether it’s best to laugh or to cry under the surreal circumstances?
Despite the song and the dance, the empty congratulations for the victor, the mealy mouthed celebrations of ‘democracy’ in the international media, and the rest of the overkill and hoopla, the remaining narrative in the face of this perfidy, is insignificant, and very much in the nature of detail.
In a country in which there is nary a person to call this bluff, nary an individual who is not cowed by the tyranny of the herd, the perpetrators of this state of affairs await their karma.
The natural retribution, the ricochet effect of karma for this cowardly murder of democracy would come surely, and would be devastating when it does. It has to be an act of God!
The mills of Justice grind slowly, but they surely do. The two unclothed emperors at the top of our country’s living walking farce of a good-government, would be unmasked over time.
Their political detractors are two cowed and too tired to do it.
They are also too benumbed by the surreal nature of the ‘astute public opinion’, both national and international, calling this appalling nadir the high point in democracy!
But when comeuppance comes, when it surely will, and morning inevitably follows the long dark night, the good people of this country would be left wondering what happened to their voices, their conscience, their God-given obligation to speak the truth under the most surreal, absurd and repugnant of circumstances.
It could be later rather than sooner, but the unmasking is certain, and it would leave the cheer leaders of the two naked Emperors as buck naked as their more degenerate ‘leaders’ themselves who are in a masquerade worthy of just two celebrated agents and entities in the narrative of our human family — the devil himself, and Salvador Dali.
August 23rd, 2015 at 4:04 pm
“When President Maithripala Sirisena repeated his earlier speech in a six-page letter and added venom to the message that he would not ask Mahinda Rajapaksa to form a government as Premier under any circumstances, ………..The two General Secretaries of the party were sacked by Court enjoining order three days before the election and the entire Central Committee of the UPFA was similarly dispatched the day before people were scheduled to cast their ballots…..”
Then People realised that by voting SLFP will create an unstable and unfriendly government with Sirisena’s goons in the driving seat, they swiftly switched the side and supported Ranil en masse, more or less. for a lesser evil.
Now there will be no future for SLFP and Ranil will capitalise this situation and even go for a general election after two years to get an absolute majority in the parliament.
All my relatives and friends who have been SLFP supporters for generations will never ever support a leader who has destroyed an entire party so shamelessly.
August 23rd, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Dear Writer and dear NMY: If there is a country left I like to believe that the voice of the masses will be heard. As Mahinda said in his inaugural speech after defeating terrorism that there are only two types of people in the country. ‘THOSE WHO LOVE THE COUNTRY AND THOSE WHO DON’T”. Now that the current ruling group has proved beyond doubt that they are THOSE WHO DON’T LOVE THE COUNTRY, the rest of the country should get together as SRI LANKA LOVING GROUP.
August 24th, 2015 at 2:33 am
Sure enough democracy was murdered in Sri Lanka on the eve and after the 17 August general election. Yes the Lilliputians are teaching the world how to manipulate democracy. The irony is that the so-called guardians of democracy in the West are mute and appear to be happy with the unorthodox changes that had taken place as long as they are not undertaken by the Rajapaksas.
There are millions of Sri Lankans who voted for Mr. Sirisena’s party left stranded because of his self-centered decision to join the govt. and are repelled by the strategies used to curb the rights of the dissenters. The West’s silence indicates support for the perpetrators. This goes to show that the West has no regard to any other country except to those of their own.
The minions that have gone after them from other countries like that of the Middle East are left to collect the pieces after the annihilation engineered by the West. I hope Sri Lanka is not heading in the same direction with the current president at the helm.
August 24th, 2015 at 8:36 am
It apears that there is no real Democracy anywhere with computerised Democracy. Computerised Democratic elections lays itself bare to cheating.
In ancient Greece, where Democracy orignated, the voters would use black and white pebbles. White pebbles for an ‘yes’ and black ones for a ‘no’ on the issue debated.
Can anyone today device a method to stop cheating at Elections ?
August 24th, 2015 at 9:01 am
FRAN !!! PLACE YOUR VOTE STRAIGHT ON TO THE COMPUTER. IT IS FULLY PROGRAMMED TO COUNT AS VOTING GOES ON. ALL ONE NEEDS IS A PHOTO IDENTITY. YOU PRESENT IT AT THE DESK, THEY WILL STRIKE OFF YOUR NAME FROM THE VOTERS LIST AND THEN ACTIVATE THE COMPUTER FOR YOU TO VOTE. AS YOU FINISH AND “”ENTER”” YOUR VOTE IS CAST, AND THE COMPUTER DE-ACTIVATES ITSELF. THE DESK WILL ACTIVATE IT FOR THE NEXT PERSON. SIMPLE AS THAT.
NO JILMART. THE SOFTWARE HAS TO BE PROGRAMMED.
August 24th, 2015 at 11:37 am
Susantha,
I am told by knowledgeable people that software program cheating is easy to do. Someone who really knows the terrain said that even an extra addition per every thousand can shift the balance.
August 24th, 2015 at 11:50 am
Thank you. This is a great article and it resonates so well with what I feel in my heart. When the results were out I felt heart sick. I was wondering how can this happen? I remember looking at the animated, loving and hopeful faces of the lakhs of people at the rallies of MR compared to the people wearing green caps and mechanically waving green caps at UNP meetings. The following facts confirmed that there was cheating.
1. The police in Kantalai found 14,989 fake ballot papers in a store belonging to a UNP supporter. http://www.dailymirror.lk/82533/fake-ballots-papers-seized-in-kantale
2. I understand that the Election commissioner had obtained a new computer for the election work. I am not sure exactly how the computer is used. I am fairly sure that somehow it
had something to do with the sudden drop in votes for UPFA.
3. When one looks at the manifesto of UNP drawn up by Ranil W, it is a list of all the things our people do not want.
Privatization of most of the state run organizations through creation of Authorities instead of direct government control. This was done earlier by Ranil W when he privatized 1666 state corporations and people who took over ran them down. MR took back about 924 of them during his time and made them viable.
Privatization of water. This means that the farmers and everyone who uses water will have to pay tax on water they use. Even private wells may be taxed.
Privatization of health care by use of Insurance. In the USA it is done and the Insurance Companies make the most amount of money. Until President Obama passed the Affordable care Act the CEOs of Insurance companies were making over $10 million/year in take home pay.
Cluster villages which will relocate Sinhala villagers from their ancestral land thereby releasing the best land for possibly Corporations from abroad.
Privatize education by bringing in Universities from abroad. S. B. Dissanayake who was a big proponent of this idea lost his seat. Just shows how popular this idea is.
The worst idea was to merge the north and east provinces and give the Tamils a Federal state. Everyone knows that no Sinhalese will agree to it.
Ranil W had agreed with India in 2002 I believe to have a bridge between our two countries. Is he insane?
Yet in spite of all these unpopular ideas Ranil W won the most number of preferential votes. I believe it was somehow rigged so that the preferential votes and the rejected votes were used to gain the results they needed for UNP.
I think the end game is one where the Tamils will be given the North and East and allowed set up a separate Federal state. Then they will be encouraged to allow Dalit migration from Tamil Nadu who will be trained by the West to serve as foot soldiers or cannon fodder in the desperate fight they have now with ISIS. ISIS seem to be winning at every turn and they need foot soldiers for the battle who are too expensive in the West. The 15 million Tamil Dalits would be a god send for them if they could be trained and let loose on ISIS.
I think at this juncture UPFA must as a party go to the Supreme court and request the annulment of the election due to the interference by President Sirisena where he first sent a letter to MR telling him not to contest and then also prevented the UPFA CC from meeting with a court injunction on a Friday at 3 pm which was two days before elections, and sacking 13 people from the CC a day before the election contributed to massive confusion in the minds of the voters. Many of them may have thought why bother to vote if President will not allow MR to be Prime Minister. It was a dastardly act of a traitorous person to sabotage his own party under his leadership to help the UNP. As the writer of the article says:
“To destroy an entire party, their own party, with serial perfidy needs special types of dagger wielders — persons who have no morals, absolutely no sense of shame, nor loyalty. Yet, this perfidy is called good governance and democracy in this topsy-turvy land of moral Lilliputians who see, speak or hear no evil. This will not do. A government formed through serial perfidy, has no moral legitimacy, leave alone the right to occupy the moral high ground. A victory blatantly stolen — two victories serially stolen — the last one in infinitely more morally repugnant fashion than the first, would be monumentally pyrrhic.”
I totally agree.
August 24th, 2015 at 12:58 pm
Susantha,
Let me tell you that in the West many countries in Europe still depend on paper votes or a paper trail. At one time during the Bush’s time computer voting was introduced and it was a disaster. Since then what they have introduced is paper sheets where you mark you choice and then it is introduced into an optical scanner which scans and adds the numbers. Even these machines are not fool proof and it is a simple matter to introduce virus or a worm that can change the program. However there is a paper trail.
Please see the Youtube video below to understand the dangers of computer voting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3_0x6oaDmI
August 24th, 2015 at 7:05 pm
It is naive to believe that computer programs are above fraud. Any program can have embed code to cheat the outcome. A control is to have a manual system as a backup. This is the case of any significant computer generated system. Take the banking system for an example. There is an opportunity to query the transactions as the manual transaction cards are retained. Mr. Sirisena admits that he had survey results that indicated a UPFA win and that was the reason for his letter to Mahinda and the warrants against the co-secretaries.
The whole counting process needs to re-examined against the manual voting slips.
August 25th, 2015 at 4:58 am
Great article. These are the sentiments of many who are now forced to watch helplessly this despicable man carry on his trechery and to rub salt in the wound tells us that this is their ‘good governance’
What to do, it is mainly the Sinhala Buddhists themselves that got this misfortune on themselves and since the Tamils and muslims are party to it too all can suffer the consequances together.
I am at a loss for words to describe the behaviour of our ‘Maha nayakas’ and other monks like Sobitha. They behave as if they were never here when Ranil wickremasinghe did what he did whenever he had power.
Even the his behaviour during the last six months was more than sufficient to banish him to political widerness had our voters used common sense instead of falling head over heel for the lies false accusation and false promises dished out like a printing machine.
It looks as if most of our peopkle are suffering from a ‘death wish’ that they blindly chose not to listen to common sense.