Dr Sarath Obeysekera

It is like festive season during New Year and Christmas. Press ,TV and social media went  to town to attract readers and spectators to watch reality show or shows like Ridee Rayak Once the show time is over people talk about how good it was and later even forget the names of the entertainers .

Propping up of personalities was the main target of Janabalaya

Opposition has made their point during local council elections that they have a fair backing of the people, hence there may not have been any necessity to elaborate more on discontent among the people. Colossal amount of resources spent may be a waste .Loss of productive manhours is enormous.

What are lessons learnt by public ,opposition and the ruling party.

Public saw the capabilility of opposition to organize protests which JVP managed in a different ways to mobilize masses against oppression twice in the history .Only difference was that  opposition did not carry any guns .And yet opposition did not understand that legally elected government cannot be  thrown out with these type of action. Opposition  did not have to depend on business people to fund these type of action as they have resources. China .India or US with other western countries did not support them.As we all know only Distilleries made lot of money.

Opposition can only boast that they manged to mobilize many buses to haul people ..

One positive aspect is that public learnt to clean up the city like cricket fans .Opposition expected a police or army brutality but government ensured that tolerance was  maintained .

What did government learn .?

They learnt that opposition has a  young powerful base to organize events like this to create a perception that whole country is against the ruling party.TV and press was also mobilised by the opposition to give maximum publicity .What they should study is the type of slogans used during the procession. Was it against high level corruption like Bond Issue? Was it high  prices of rice ,fuel ,bread etc? Was it slow development ? Was it breach of democracy? Was it inefficiency of the state sector? Was it Unemployment? .Was it the wedding tahmasha held in Temple Trees by an offspring of the outspoken Health Guru?

What did public learn ?

After watching the Janabalaya I myself could not fathom what the demands were other than Rulers ,Go home .We can do  better Or replace indecisive leader with a more pragmatic ,ruthless leader ? May be public got the impression that government is not producing any results ?

My personal opinion is that Yahapalanaya is something public do not mind not having .

What public need may be a ruler with stick to guide the flock of inefficient public servants and representative’s and law and order to be more and more ruthless and results orientated.

In different words we need is a  ( benevolent if possible !) Dictator??

Dr Sarath Obeysekera