BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA
Posted on June 13th, 2017
Upali Cooray
The expectations of the voters of Sri Lanka haven been dashed by the yahapalana government. The voters did expect a turnaround for better but it was not to be. The recent cabinet reshuffle is only a reshuffle of the same pack of cards. The politicians have taken the masses as fools. There is a limit to the toleration. There will be a devastating calamity once the flood gates are opened. It’s going to sweep all and sundry.
Mahinda Rajapakse should be honored for getting rid of the Tigers but his subsequent foray in to mismanagement cannot be pardoned. There were jokers such as Mervyn Silva who once tied agoverment employee to a tree for not attending for duties.
Killing of journalists such as Lasantha Wickramatunga, Eknaligoda, Ruggerite Thajudeen murder, are glaring atrocities Mahinda Rajapakse’s rule was absolute. The Rajapaksas controlled the treasury and Sri Lanka became the most expensive place to build a road. He and his family ran it as if they owned it.
Yahapalanaya goons accused Mahinda Rajapaksa for running a family affair, but Ranil Wickramasingha made the government an affair of buddies, with the connivance of the President.
The people of Sri Lanka never wanted RW as the Prime minister. If there is a referendum today the majority of the people will say no to RW. He was rejected by the people of this country 29 times consecutively but Maithripala Sirisena unconstitutionally appointed him Prime Minister for personal reasons.
Therefore for the sake of democracy for which this government often makes a great fanfare, Wickramasinghe should step down from the office of Prime Minister without delay, as he is guilty of his direct responsibility for the Bond scam. In this matter, the President should demand his resignation. Maithripala Sirisena should also take part of the blame for allowing the Prime Minister to continue to employ Arjuna Mahendran when his services have been terminated by the refusal to extend his service contract. Therefore it becomes imperative that the President demands the submission of his resignation. UNP’s Hobson’s choice for the leadership is Karu Jayasuriya who has shown that he is not independent even as the speaker.
Neither the norJVP the Front line socialist party can establish socialism as they perceive it, If they are elected to govern the country. The reason is that they are yet to understand that the modern economy is a larger physical system which depends on highly complex hypothetical system which is known as monitory system. Running it efficiently is not common sense any more.It is not simply a matter of good governance.
So where do we go from here? The French Revolution, The Russian revolution, The Chinese revolution, all have one common phenomenon. Desperate situations need desperate answers. A revolution against the Sri Lankan state is inevitable in the circumstances. Who will take the leadership ?. Can a local Lenin or a local Mao Tse Dong, Ho chi Ming will come a reality? These leaders are far too extremists.
Time is ripe for a Lee Kwan Yu or Mahathir Mohammad to take over. There is no other alternative.
June 13th, 2017 at 5:54 pm
We need a national leader with expertise in economics.
Dictatorship is not associated with development. LKY and Mahathir were dictators who came to power using democratic means. However, their success is not mainly due to their strict rule. Their success is due to their expertise in economics. This is the success of Japan and South Korea as well.
We never had a leader with expertise in economics. That is what we need. There is no point having economics advisors because the president makes the decisions.
Mahinda’s development totally disregarded economic realities. It resulted in a poor and indebted nation very unlike a nation that has won a war! Since 2012, Sri Lanka resembles a country that lost a war.
Though revolutionary, economics expert Dr Nalaka Godahewa must be promoted to the top post by the Joint Opposition.
June 13th, 2017 at 6:22 pm
Sri Lanka has her fair share of “Deshadrohi” (UNPATRIOTIC) people.
Pres MR is NOT one of them !
Singapore cannot be compared with Sri Lanka.
– Singapore is NOT next door to Tamil Nadu with some 15 Million Tamil Dalit folk, and next door to INDIA with 1.3 Billion people, with CASTE stated in their birth certificates, and the INDIAN Census done on a CASTE base.
– Singapore was NOT Colonised for nearly 500 yrs as Sri Lanka was.
– S’pore is a relatively young & small country when compared with Sri Lanka.
Many more reasons ……
We wonder just HOW someone like Lee Kwan Yew would have cleaned up Sri Lanka of ‘Deshadrohis’ !
June 13th, 2017 at 6:28 pm
Lanka has been stifled in every way possible after the War Win against the LTTE.
It is a wonder that the MR Govt achieved so much in such a short time.
June 13th, 2017 at 8:31 pm
I completely agree with Fran Diaz.
Author Upali Cooray DAMNS the MR/UPFA GOSL with faint praise, in the same breath that he criticize the Yamapalanaya.
There is NO COMPARISON between the ACHIEVEMENTS of the MR/UPFA govt and the present DESHADROHI Yamapalana Govt FULL OF OUTRIGHT CROOKS and TRAITORS to Sri Lanka HELL BENT on destroying our Motherland and ENSLAVING it to Sri Lanka’s FOREIGN ENEMIES and UPATRIOTIC minorities.
SL VLOG on Youtube reported today that Ravi Karunanayake is complicit in illegally importing without INSPECTION and or Paying Customs duty 19 containers full of unknown goods. He is reported to be the owner of several warehouses, both customs money and unbonded, for the receipt of imported goods. The registrains show that two British Tamils and his own family members including himself are directors. It is alleged that the director of Customs is working in cahoots with him!
My poor Motherland is being LOOTED by the very officials charged with protecting her. The FOXES are minding the HEN HOUSES and LUNATICS have taken over the ASYLUM!
If this continues for another 4 years, there won’t be much wealth left in Sri Lanka for its citizens; ALL OF IT will be stolen or owned by the CROOKS LOOTING THE NATIONAL BANKS right now!
June 13th, 2017 at 9:04 pm
Dilrook,
You said “since 2012, SL resembles a country that has lost a war”.
I don’t know FROM WHERE you get these OUTRAGEOUS, QUITE UNTRUE, notions!
That statement applies only after the Yamapalanaya took over in Jan, 2015 and NOT BEFORE THAT!
It seems to me that you are quite CONSISTENTLY trying to undermine MR and his patritic team’s return to power.
I distinctly remember that leading upto the TEGIME CHANGE on Jan 8, 2015 election you did the SAME, supporting that EELAMIST agitator Lorenzo and his pro-Yamapalnaya backstabbing that is now bedevilling Sri Lanka!
Some people NEVER LEARN!
June 13th, 2017 at 11:28 pm
@Ananda
We had a surge in economic activity since 2009. However, by 2012 all good indices started to stall while debt (particularly foreign debt) started to climb. They then started to worsen. I quite agree things went disastrous since 2015. However, it started from around 2012.
Concurrently, UNHRC started pressing Lanka since 2012 resolution. Reluctantly, Sri Lanka complied until 2014. Since then, willingly complied!
It is not a problem of Mahinda alone. It is a structural problem of Sri Lankan leadership. Mahinda’s second term was no exception. I must add Mahinda’s first term was exemplary.
I did predict the defeat of Mahinda since 2013 but did not support any camp at the presidential election. My biggest fear was a UNP gimmick to become executive president using a scapegoat. My election predictions since 2004 have been correct to the percentage in presidential elections and +/- 4 seats in parliamentary elections. In order not to influence the voting, I share those information within a closed group. Many writers here are in that group.
In my view, Sri Lanka needs a leader with strong expertise in economics to save it from the economic mess. Mahinda has complete confidence in the person I suggested to manage the economy.
June 14th, 2017 at 3:19 am
Agree with Ananda ! Thank you, Ananda.
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Sri Lanka needs a PATRIOTIC & EDUCATED Parliament, well educated as well as savvy in the way the world works, in the Economy and other ways. In fact, a Senate type Parliament, less in number, more in positive, life supportive action and high & able thinking.
Look at the way the Yahap is dealing with the Garbage problem – garbage govt is joining the garbage in the Galle Face green sea side (see Dr Sarath Obeysekera’s recent article in the L’web).
Look at the Yahap Cabinet Reshuffle – like reshuffling a pack of (inept) cards, as one Commentator said.
Look what Yahap has done with the over $100 Million Disaster Fund from UN etc. given to Lanka in 2016 !! Nothing.
Lanka needs PATRIOTIC LEADERS, not Puppets who down the Country.
June 14th, 2017 at 3:20 am
Singapore and Malaysia have Chinese and Indians. Chinese hate Indians.
As Fran says it is India and Indians our problem Under MR Sinhalese started to stand up.
India and Indian colonial parasites get us to fight among ourselves.
June 14th, 2017 at 12:40 pm
If you look at the Central Bank reports you can see that the economy was in good shape in 2014 when the Yamapalanaya took over by cheating, as Dilrook himself pointed out earlier. MR did not contest the cheating since he knew there were big powers behind the Wikunanasinghe and the My3 Niwataya. The rupee was 130 vs Dollar. Now it is near 160. The rate of economic growth was almost 8% now I suspect it is less than 3%.
MR did so much to build up the ravaged infrastructure especially in the North and the East. Colombo looked so pretty, no garbage anywhere. So many expressways were built, hospitals were built, school laboratories built, the Hambantota harbor which now everyone is saying is strategically important, the Port City was started, the Lotus Tower, etc. MR showed that he was a true Buddhist and instead of killing the 12,000 hardcore LTTE terrorists who were captured he rehabilitated them and then released them into society. You can imagine what the Batalanda Wadakaya would have done in his place. They would have been tortured and killed like the 15,000 Sinhala youth who were killed in the 80’s.
As soon as Wikunanasinghe came in he stopped all MR’s projects, got the bond scam done which almost doubled the debt overnight. What did the Yamapalanaya do during the last two years other than globe-trotting and bending over backward to agree with everything the International powers wanted.
කාලකන්නි මූසල යමපාලනය has destroyed the country while they are importing luxury vehicles duty-free and selling them to make money. They cannot even solve a simple issue like garbage in the city. Look at the beach along Galle Face now it is full of Garbage. When the Salawa explosion took place they promised compensation to the people. Still not paid. When the Meetotamulla garbage collapsed they promised the same. Still not paid. For everything that happens they bring experts from abroad at great cost and collect commissions.
Earlier Gota had got the World Bank experts to come and study the problem and make recommendations. They suggested a disused quarry in Puttalam as a garbage dump. Wikunanasinghe did not want to pursue this plan since it had been suggested by Gota. Instead, they brought experts from Japan. Now they have forgotten the garbage problem until such time it surfaces again. When the floods happened what did the Govt Ministers do? Did any of these overfed rascals give any of their ill-gotten monies for those who had been affected? No, it was ordinary people who were helping each other. Manusath Derana was so well organized compared to the Minister for Diaster Management. He was attending meetings on Diaster Management to advise others on how to manage disasters while so many disasters were happening in Sri Lanka. When the floods happened Wikunanasinghe went to the USA for a so call Medical Check up where they are supposed to have found nothing wrong.
I understand the previous year when the floods happened Sri Lanka got almost $100 million as the aid to put plans in place to ensure it would not happen again. What happened to the money? Why was nothing done? The Yamapalanaya appears to only react to crises without any proper plans to solve problems so that they will not happen again in the future. They only want to sell state property to foreigners and collect commissions. What a bunch of losers.
June 14th, 2017 at 1:10 pm
Meanwhile, the UNDISPOSED GARBAGE PROBLEM continues to GROW in Colombo!
Piles of Rotting Smelly Garbage is being dumped on the streets by businesses and residents and the munipality is happily IGNORING the problem without developing and implementing a strategy to REMOVE and DISPOSE of the waste safely.
Today, the PANA-NATHI JANA-PATHI announced allocation of Rs 2,000 million to implement Gota’s plan to take dispose of the garbage in Puttalam quarries.
But, the NEED to take the garbage away to TEMPORARY dumps is now URGENT. It has become an UNBEARABLE BLIGHT even in upscale areas frequented by tourists, and the tourists have largely abandoned those areas.
At great cost and with great effort, Sri Lanka had gained an ENVIABLE REPUTATION as a CLEAN and SAFE COUNTRY that stood out from the rest of South Asia! This garbage problem is DESTROYING that IMAGE of a clean resplendent well-managed tourist destination inhabited by an exceptionally civilization and hospitable people.
This could permanently MAR the image we have struggled to develop for Sri Lanka.
This WADA-BARI Yamapalanaya of NINCOMPOOPS is BUNGLING EVERYTHING so much, that I am beginning to wonder whether this is a DELIBERATE POLICY to SABOTAGE Sri Lanka!
June 14th, 2017 at 1:12 pm
Oops! Meant to say “inhabited by an exceptionally civilized and hospitable people”!
June 14th, 2017 at 1:19 pm
Dear All
A President or Prime Minister need not be an academically qualified Economist. They need to be good listeners, listening to those who have achieved recognized credentials in key areas, including Economics. Some of them may be elected MPs, others Professionals without allegiance to Party politics.
Starting from base line, what qualifies a person to become a members of a political party and obtain nomination to contest an election in Sri Lanka. Is it Brain Power? Is it academic and/or professional qualifications?
In Sri Lanka basic qualification to get the nomination from a major political party or alliance, would nothing but MONEY. Most of uneducated MPs in current parliament are filthy RICH. They spend large sums to win the elections, supported by drug dealers, contractors. Once they win, they provide the SUPPLY line to the drug lords, contractors etc.
In Singapore, to obtain a general Membership of the Peoples Action Party (PAP), the person must be an Extremist, totally committed to PAP agenda, regardless of consequence. To receive a Nomination to contest
June 15th, 2017 at 3:49 am
Cerberus has covered the important points very well here, clearly and briefly showing how inept the Yahap govt has been in crises faced by the country.
How did this happen to Sri Lanka ! ?
Who should take the blame that able PATRIOTIC politicians have been displaced and humiliated ?