Citizens must oppose Political solutions: They do not solve People’s Problems – They solve Politicians Problems
Posted on January 9th, 2018
Shenali D Waduge
We can all agree that democracy has become a farce in practice. Political parties will go down on their knees and beg for people’s vote promising to deliver the sun & the moon but after elections voters will see only a convoy of cars, bodyguards, advisors & be greeted with ‘Minister is too busy, come later’. The same can be said of the UN that was formed to stop another world war but only 10 countries in the world don’t suffer a conflict. However, every official is globetrotting, holding peace talks, ceasefires but conflicts continue, arms manufacture and sales continue & citizens end up having to foot every bill. Political solutions in reality are designed to share and distribute powers among politicians & other stake holders so that they can remain in power with a subtle understanding that they do not mind taking turns to be in power!
When the first JVP insurrection started in the 1970s the ‘solution’ was to kill and many thousands of Sinhala Buddhist youth perished. The same insurrection was planned to kill another set of Sinhala Buddhist youth plus people who were earmarked as future leaders. The ‘solution’ was to put to eternal rest these talented people and curb nationalist tendencies against the warped system of governance. Do you see the larger picture?
When with foreign assisted training and funding armed Tamil militancy was hijacked and turned into a mega global project with multiple agendas which began another wave of murders again wiped out not only promising Sinhalese leaders, armed forces personnel, civilians but also Tamil moderate leaders leaving only the remaining racist lot. The choice of targets, provide clues to the one’s kept alive to carry out the next phase of a larger plan in a scheme of logic that equates ‘you can remain in power so long as you politically agree to our conditions’. Do you now see the larger picture of things?
What good was the Indo-Lanka Accord when India did not fulfill the obligations of the clauses that held the mutual contract together? LTTE was never disarmed & India never closed its territory to LTTE cadres. So this agreement served no purpose to the citizens who were subject to LTTE terror.
However, the Indo-Lanka Accord did pave way to legitimize falsehoods & myths of a ‘traditional homeland’ combining both North & East, it even gave official language status to Tamil without the consent of the people. Clearly it was inserted for India’s advantage as Trincomalee Harbour was located in the East however other vultures were using India to advance their own designs. Why did the then UNP Government agree to sign and accept falsehoods? Who was the supposed Tamil king that ruled an ‘independent’ East Sri Lanka if such an independent state existed? The then Government & officials did not think of the damage caused by agreeing to sign against lies simply because they wanted to remain in power.
Every political solution has been arrived to address not the citizens wants or needs but to satisfy the political goals & objectives of politicians & their henchmen. None of these political proposals are what citizens have demanded. All of the political proposals are demands that cater to what politicians want and not what ordinary citizens want or need.
Therefore, the international community & the UN the supposed guardians of world peace are making a major error in thinking that political proposals are designed for the benefit of the People and are clauses demanded by the People.
These political proposals are most certainly not what the ordinary Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims want & these people comprise over 95% of the total population of a country.
By agreeing to sign the Indo-Lanka Accord, the then government made another faux pas by introducing the 13th amendment and with it the provincial council system dividing Sri Lanka into 9 provinces. The tax payer ends up footing Rs.600billion to run these 9 provinces – how have they benefitted except helping create political clans with PCs functioning as grooming schools to recruit favorites and families of politicians.
There were other agreements that brewed more trouble. Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact, Dudley-Chelvanayagam pact were to address the whims and fancies of the politicians making & advancing the deals to advance their racism and agendas. Devolution and similar proposals have no value to the citizens in practice. They are just fancy words thrown into proposals and quoted by political pundits and promoted by entities who need proposals for their job survival.
Thimpu demands by LTTE, Oslo Declaration, Regional Council proposals, Draft 2000 constitution were all framed not to fulfill what the people wanted but what a handful wanted falsely claiming it was what the people wanted.
No citizen would ever ask to cut a country to pieces when it would mean they would have to take permission to enter each newly created state. No citizen would want to divide an island. Clearly all these divisions and devolutions and decentralizing proposals were not what people wanted or asked for but what a handful of people devised so that they could redistribute power among themselves and turn citizens into modern day slaves.
Notice how these politicians are tweaking laws & regulations to curtail our freedoms but give themselves immunity & impunity.
The people didn’t ask for a ceasefire fire agreement in 2002 and the people certainly did not ask to include detrimental clauses that included placing a terrorist organization on par with the national army and giving legitimacy to a terrorist movement. No citizen asked that the army be kept in barracks but allow LTTE to roam all over the country armed! Ranil’s Govt gave LTTE 95% of their Eelaam and the rest the LTTE planned to secure through the ISGA/PTOMS with the former President playing Santa with Sri Lanka.
The ISGA proposals forwarded by LTTE in 2003 came with a USD5billion aid package. Elements of these ISGA proposals are now inserted into the new constitution. This is what R. Sampanthan, leader of the TNA and present Opposition Leader, said then “The ISGA proposal bears historical importance in the political history of Tamils in the island. The ISGA provides a base to find a permanent political solution to the Tamil national question”. This is what NGO maestro Jehan Perera commented “With its proposals for an Interim Self Governing Authority, the LTTE has given concrete form to its expectations in a manner that is essentially compatible with peaceful coexistence in a united Sri Lanka.” (2003)
Main elements of the present constitution were initially drafted by British solicitors in 1994 tasked Sri Lanka Peace Support Group formed within the Centre for Policy Alternatives. The names of those who sought the proposal and their current positions in the present government should shock all.
The PTOMs was promoted by the Sri Lankan leaders at the time because it came with a USD3billion carrot. Both agreements were advanced when Chandrika Bandaranaike & Ranil Wickremasinghe held powers in the period 2002-2004. Nationalist organizations protested vehemently against the signing of the PTOMS “”…all warnings were ignored.
Leaving aside the political solutions/agreements the trade agreements have been no better. The officials and advisors seem to be as clueless as the subject Minister and prepared to sign against any dotted line if commissions and personal perks are promised.
Some of the trade agreements have reaped no advantage to Sri Lanka and have left Sri Lanka giving tax holidays, concessions, opening the country to foreign labor without restrictions & regulations etc simply for a one-time investment cheque and monthly profits going to the foreigners with nothing much remaining for the country-Indo-Lanka FTA (ILFTA), CEPA, ETCA to name a few.
Leaders and officials have no qualms about compromising national assets, environmental impact, issues resulting from approving ventures in close proximity to sacred and heritage sites so long as some figures with lots of zeroes are shown to them!
How many of our national assets have we privatized and given to foreign or private hands with no checks and balances or controls by the government! A small island such as ours we are now even allowing foreigners to purchase land and even own condominiums from ground level & above.
As a result the ordinary people are facing adverse effects from being pushed into rural undeveloped areas, increase in taxes and hike in essential commodities, spirally gas and other essential items which should have been kept in government hands and turned into profitable ventures. Had transport not been privatized all benefits would have come to the government. The Colombo Municipality has given parking fees to an Indian company which charges Rs.50 even for 2minute parking – why couldn’t the municipality have done this and taken the profits directly without opting for a commission and giving all profits to the private company? Many more ventures wherein the state should have turned into profitable ventures the easy option of getting a lump sum and passing the entity to foreign hands was opted. These are detrimental and leading the country to rely on an import-economy with zero manufacturing income.
How many pacts have politicians signed over the years? How many of these have proved beneficial to the general public & the nation? We have nothing much to quote. It’s a tragedy that people who come as our representatives, enjoying luxurious living from our money end up wasting the country’s revenue, destroying the little island that has an over 2600year history & heritage and ruining the lives of the people as well while inviting all the enemies to set up shop and hasten and worsen the chaos brewing in Sri Lanka.
When will sanity prevail?
Shenali D Waduge
January 9th, 2018 at 1:14 pm
SHENALI !!! I remember girls from lower income group families were given Jobs as parking attendants by the municipality, and that gave them a livelihood.
THE NEW CONCEPT IS TO GIVE ALL JOBS TO INDIANS ON A CONTRACT BASIS, AND POCKET A COMMISSION BY THE INDIVIDUAL WHO AWARDS THE CONTRACT. THIS DAMNING CONCEPT IS SPREADING LIKE SMALL POX IN THE COUNTRY. NOW MUNICIPALITIES HAVE STARTED IT. THE MINISTRIES WILL TURN A BLIND EYE TO THIS **CONTRACT GIVING** BECAUSE THEY ARE ALSO DOING THE SAME THING. NOBODY CAN STOP IT, NOT EVEN HITAN AND HUTAN.
January 9th, 2018 at 4:37 pm
Lanka Web
The Political Problem
Posted on August 1st, 2009
Ananda De Costa
A political solution is not required for the hypothetical “ethnic conflict” created by western invaders.
Sri Lanka has shown that the simple universally accepted rule of “catch the criminals and punish” worked for thousands of years still works.
But we have not yet punished those who masterminded and fuelled this cruel, barbaric criminal and racial war. We are still shaking hands with them; this is called “diplomacy” and we shall go on like this for some time. This is the reality, because we do not have military power and super power ally to confront neighbours like Israel does or Singapore manipulates.
What we can do is do our best to get rid of poison injected to our society by the invaders.
What we need is a solution to “Political Problem” created by the Westerners, or more precisely, eradication of party politics.
This does not mean all the UNPers, SLFPers, TNPers, ex-LTTEers and JVPers get together and form one big party. There should always be a strong opposition.
We must invent our own system to rule the country based on nothing but Buddhist values.
This is the political solution we need.
The Myth of Discrimination
President Rajapakse had made clear that there will be no devolution of power based on races and there will be no regions based on races. I suppose Sri Lankans should take his word for it; he has proven that he is a listener and a team player- not a king as portrayed by some.
It is utter stupidity to indulge in the inferiority complex of feeling proud of the victory alone and it is a great injustice to our heroic sons and daughters sacrificed their lives to bring us peace.
They did not dream about a king or maharaj. They fought for a better country with the word “Eelaam” erased forever.
Some constitutional reforms ensuring equal and fair treatment to all citizens will solve the unfair claim by certain races that they have grievances. What this means is to insert some statements in the constitution making it illegal discriminate someone based on any inferior or superior race or cast system. The best answer is found in Buddhism. We must simply insert the statement by the Buddha
“Na jajja vasalo hothi najaja hothi brahmano.
Kammana vaslo hothi, kammana hothi brahmano. ”
“Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a brahman.
By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes an brahman.”
Once this is done, necessary legislations are passed and ways to complain have been set up, no one can say minorities are discriminated.
Tough laws should also be passed to punish those give extra marks in school and general examinations to candidates of their own race.
Thesavalame should be abandoned together with any other racist laws imposed our ex-colonial aggressors who killed millions of people and now pretending to be world authority of humanity.
Regional Decentralization
We all know that the Provincial Councils are a complete waste of money and ended up a way to breed another level of politicians. Even the humble local government councils have become engines of widespread malpractice because of the adoption of the western “democratic” election system to politicize everything.
The best way correct this is to make these councils effective by removing rouge politicians.
How many governors, how many chief ministers do we have in the small country of 22 million people at the moment? Is this sustainable and are these chiefs doing any good to the country? There should a stop to this crazy politics and find an effective and transparent governing system. The only solution should be larger regional councils.
Not more than three regional councils should be setup. It is preferable for each region to have its own port and airport. Regions should be designed with proper balance of population, economic activity generators and resources. For example making Anuradhapura the capital of the region which includes Jaffna, Trincomalee and Vavunia will eliminate most of the racial problems (created by British aggressors), as each region can be designed to be populated with all races.
As the economic activities grow, it will be impossible to stop transmigration of inhabitants in districts. The regions should be asked to manage their own budgets and compete with the other two regions without minimal interference from the central government. There is no need to worry about another Eeelaam, having passed all the laws to hang those who mention Eelaam under a new national security act. All political parties with racial or religious names should be forced to change names. Are we not ashamed to have a minister from party called “Eelaam Revolutionary Organisation of (ex) Students” ?.
Therefore, these councils should be appointed by a special election for which the candidates are prequalified professionals willing to rebuild their own regions. Let them be Muslim, Tamil , Burghers or Sinhalese- they must be properly qualified professionals. Not the shameless individuals who hold honorary doctorates; we need doctors, engineers, accountants, successful business people, good journalists with university education and similar leaders to this list. People in each region can vote to appoint ministers for each discipline such as finance, infra-structure development, education, irrigation, industry etc. Those who loose in elections can be appointed to shadow ministries to run their offices to monitor the ministries in a transparent way.
These individuals should be ready to really live in the respective regions and serve the councils similar to running a company, being directors. They should be highly paid to avoid corruption but at the same time corrupted should be punished severely under new laws.
It is a fundamental right of the people to elect capable and qualified people to run the country, not the hooligans appointed by a political party for them to choose. Anyone with capability and desire to enter the regional government should obtain good qualifications first. If you cannot pass O-levels can you successfully run a country? Even if you pass exams, if you have no brain to manage a business or provide leadership, can you run a country? Therefore it is imperative to prequalify the candidates.
A similar system can be used in local government elections- why should we follow the western aggressor’s failed political system designed for ruining their cities? They did not have a problem of funds as they looted other countries, killed the aboriginals and dug up their land and enjoyed the treasures and danced the night away.
Central Government
Central government may be set up in a conventional way, members of parliament representing electorates, as a interim solution, but this should also be changed in the future to a system of our own. Same rules with no racial politics tolerated, corruption severely punished, will bring about proper governance and de-politicisation.
Those who hold ministerial positions should have the same prerequisites as the regional counterparts.
Handling of tax system and national finance, emigration and immigration, main roads, national security, law and order and other essential services shall be handled by the central government. There is no question of world record breaking numbers of MPs’, appointed MP’s, ministers without portfolios etc., because most of the economic activities are now handled by the regional governments.
The central government should build a six-lane highway from Colombo-Anuradhapuara to Jaffna, giving it the top priority.
Solution to political problem
This is the time for some form of ingenious and revolutionary political system to be introduced. What I have proposed is only a simple basic example of some framework to initiate lateral thinking form our own learned professors.
Those capable people should propose good ideas to develop the country rather than criticising a hypothetical 13A plus to come.
Let the president study these proposals together with his capable friends to innovate a radical solution rather than the old parliamentary democracy system we inherited by the colonial looters of the west. We can draw all the advice for good governance from Buddhism.
One can automatically be a Tamil or a Sinhalese by birth, but one can only be a real Sri Lankan by deed. There are living examples, some among the dead.
January 9th, 2018 at 9:24 pm
Shenali you are absolutely correct when you said” They do not solve people’s problems they solve only politicians problems”. Shenali your articles are very useful and have lots of information for a person to know about the current political situation in the country.
I do not understand how our people became so bad in such a short time. See the country today no vision,no plan how to go forward, see the people they are wild, evil, jealous, greedy. We have never seen our country like this before. Nobody cares about anything. Politicians divided and fighting for power and money. Youths are becoming drug addicts. Underworld mafia roaming the streets day and night and killing innocent people. Politicians involved in major rackets and robbing millions with no ending. Both leaders safeguarding the criminals without any shame. Police department full of corruption. Different laws for different people and different areas. North has become a crime paradise with drugs and alcohol and violence. East has become a Muslim paradise with criminals destroying forests, jungles, buddhist monuments, killing wild life etc. All these happenings we saw after Jan 8th when these two evil jokers took over the country. They should leave immediately for the sake of our Motherland. They govern by force giving so much hardships to the poor people in this country. We the people who loves this nation very much should get united and chase this evil lot as soon as possible if not we have to die of starvation and feminine like in Ethiopia or Sudan. These ruling elite damn care about the people or the country we cherish too much. Get them out folks before they loot another bank.