Open letter to the Chairman of Election commission of Srilanka.
Posted on June 17th, 2020

A.Dharmakulasingham, Retired Srilnkan Diplomat

Hon.Chairman,

Events unfolding in our beautiful island compels me to write an open letter  aimed at inviting  your  thoughtful attention to the mandate  entrusted on the election commission to conduct elections in Srilanka.I don’t need to remind the provisions of  supreme law of the country ,constitution and other binding laws and regulations guiding the conduct of elections.It is not about cancelling or postponing the elections. Of course  even an average  senior student in Srilanka knows election can’t be conducted when the whole world  including Srilanka is gripped by dangerous corona 19A. As  the chairman of the independent commission you are weighing  the pros and cons  of conducting the election amidst a pandemic.Meanwhile  it is your responsibility to look around internally and externally to accumulate statistics,knowledge and practices in order to develop an idea of the  appropriateness of conducting the parliamentary election scheduled for April,2020.I am not surprised  like millions of  Srilankans by your announcement of the date for   parliamentary election.

Politics of coronavirus locally and globally poses many  serious questions.President Trump has been very aggressive in  attacking Chinese leadership for corona 19.It is understandable Trump  continues from where he  initiated a  trade war with China. Global leader WHO has dismissed the accusation of President Trump.

Corona  virus epidemic,  it is a pandemic ,ruined the  social and economic fabrics  around the world. Regardless of  status of the countries  almost the whole world  struggle to  contain the corona 19 and face the  implications of the epidemic. Though it has been generally accepted that the first reported case was  confirmed in Wuhan city,Hubei province in China ,now  claims are being made  there were deaths in USA and UK in December 2019 caused by covid 19. Veracity of the claim is yet to be known.

Scientists across the board are engaged in inventing a vaccine to combat virus. Economic crisis has overtaken the economic crisis m great recession, of 1930s.Millions of jobs have been lost. Foreign exchange reserves are drying. Advanced economies though affected, the developing countries like Srilanka are hardest hit lot. Lockdowns compelled closing of airports factories, shopping malls ,  tourist hotels, colleges,universities,centres of entertainment. Triggering another round of verbal bashing between US and China is not a good news for combating common enemy coronavirus..

The whole world expect the UN ,WHO and other international institutions and the national governments to focus on combating the deadly virus.Countries like France,Newzealand,Germany,India have to a great extent  have been successful in combating the dangerous situation.Meanwhile USA,UK,Italy,Iran,Spain and some other countries the impact of coronavirus is heavy.Compared to many other countries Srilanka is much safer.Future of the globe in terms of economic recovery looks bleak.

Politics of corona virus is not only limited to USA also many countries including Srilanka faces political criticism emanating from handling  of  cronavirus threat to conduct of  parliamentary elections  from political opposition,media and  civil societies. While leaders of countries,scientific and medical community,WHO,UN, and other important international agencies are at the receiving end of constructive criticism  from many quarters ,interested parties  in Srilanka under the quise of protecting democracy filed several fundamental rights cases  at the apex court in Srilanka praying for  postponing parliamentary elections among  other  things. So called champions of democracy from a country  practicing  franchise from early 30s joined together and  pleaded  to postpone parliamentary elections. On top of these  developments it was an ugly scene at the supreme court hearings when  Election commission was represented by two legal teams.

 Now the supreme court decision is in the public domain and you are expected to conduct the parliamentary election  on 5th August. Srilanka’s confirmed deaths so far is only 10 whereas  number one country in the world ,US, despite having the highest deaths  have just successfully conducted the election  on 4th of June 2020 to nominate presidential candidate  from the Democratic party for 2020 November presidential election.South Korea conducted presidential and parliamentary polls on 15 April,20120. Our neighboring Indian state Tamilnadu national assembly election is due between November and December 2020.Political parties are keen to contest the election.There are suggestions by  reputed past cricketers such as Sunil Gavaskar to stage the IPL in Srilanka.West Indies  are making preparation for touring England for a Test series .

The  volatile situation  in Srilanka created by the commission  has been worsened by one of the commissioners, Professor Ratnajeevan Hoole.In a recent  interview given to Dan TV from Jaffna by Hoole, as a member of independent commission ,he exposed himself as an unfit to be a member of the independent commission.Hoole’s  response to the moderator of the Dan TV became a laughing stock among intelligent people. During the course of his interview  Hoole ;

1.Appealed to the people not to vote for SLPP  as SLPP and media supporting SLPP is hell bound to threaten him by publishing diabolical lies.

2. Accused Srilankan pariliament is replete with robbers, drug smugglers and criminals.

3. Criticised Hon.Attorney General for protecting wrong doers by not initiating legal actions against them.

Hon.Chairman,

Hoole  response  portrays himself  as a person  who fascinates  abomination. His ignorance of parliament history of Srilanka  and the  contribution of many parliamentarians  from the period of  Donoughmore constitution raises question of his suitability to the post of commissioner.Srlanka  is being hailed as a country for twin achievements ,health and education, is not a mean   accomplishment. Restoration of the rights of Sinhala and Tamil language  was a turning point of social and economic upliftment of Srilankans across ethnic  divide though communal leaders try to give another interpretation. This is not the first time one of the members of the commission,Hoole  violated  his mandate. Just before the presidential election 2019 he appealed to the people through Tamil media  to vote for least bad candidate. The conduct of one of the members of the commission raised questions about the usefulness of independent commissions and the big picture is about the 19th amendment to the constitution.

Election commission need not conduct special trial elections.  .Instead  observations from various segments of the population  , how  people  behave in cities,town and villages during curfew relaxed  periods  could give a clear idea of how  to conduct  a free and fair election.   I  appeal to you execute the mandate entrusted on the commission by conducting the election  on 5th August to enable the people to exercise their rights of electing a government rather than  wasting your valuable time  on defending a estranged  member of the commission.

A.Dharmakulasingham,

Retired Srilnkan Diplomat

3 Responses to “Open letter to the Chairman of Election commission of Srilanka.”

  1. Sarath W Says:

    What is the point in writing to this man? I remember the way he behaved during the 2015 presidential election and remember reading there was a 30 million deposit in his bank account in Singapore. He should be investigated of possible links to NGOs.

  2. Gunasinghe Says:

    Indeed Sarath W. He said in one TV interview that he agrees with Hoole. He is not fit ti lead to head of EC,. I ma sure he manipulated election results in 2015 election. To day I was listening to Ada Deran TV news and I heard that he against the having party offices in places. I do not think that he as a authority control these things. So time for BELEKAYA to resign. WE called him BELEKKAYA in campus.

  3. Ancient Sinhalaya Says:

    It’s Sri Lanka. Not Srilanka. Even a former diplomat don’t write it properly. Wonder why?

    Covid19 pandemic causing havoc on the planet and all too powerful two legged running scared of an invisible
    killer. Covid19 is the curse of the animals. All the world’s problems today are due to population explosion and
    religions of conveniences which don’t regard sins as sins we have corrupt, greedy, uncaring individuals/society/
    world. Is there any wonder then we are facing these pandemics.

    All the crimes (sins) any two legged creature can do anywhere under the sun:
    1 killing
    2 stealing
    3 sexual misconduct
    4 lying
    5 alcohol/drug abuse
    The above five is the basis for penal code in every country under the sun and refraining from them is Buddhism’s
    Five Precepts. According to these religions of conveniences it is punishable to kill a human but it’s ok to kill
    animals (human rights only, no right to life for animals). Covid19 is these animals’ curse. We know now, when people curse it sends bad energy and it can seriously damage the culprit. The two legged who used to run
    naked in the wild developed their brains to flying in jets, landing on the moon etc.etc. and to think those
    animals’ brain didn’t develop enough to curse the two legged is absurd.

    Charles Darwin showed the world how we came to be being after evolving for 3000 millions years. Then his book,
    The Tree of Life, explained all the other creatures flies, mosquitoes etc. etc. came to be being. Today, those are
    science facts and all the honest, literate people on the planet accept the Theory to be 100% true. The Buddha
    preached people who sin pay for their lsins in the animal kingdom for 100s of 1000s of life times before being
    ‘promoted’ to be two legged creatures again (Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?). If we look at our teeth, and then
    look at a cat’s, dog’s, lion’s (in a picture) teeth it tells you what sort of diet we should be eating. After all, our
    distant relative chimp isn’t a meat eater. Scientists have proven eating meat causes a lot of illnesses including
    a lot of cancers (animals’ revenge?) and livestock generate a lot of greenhouse gases and a lot of jungles are
    cleared to rear them. It’s all punishment for Mother Nature. The Buddha preached, health is wealth. How
    appropriate for a Covid19 scared world?

    The Buddha touched all the civilisations at the time and iran, afganisthan, pakisthan, banglaesh, malaysia and
    indonesia (Google those countries’ Buddhist heritage) used to be Buddhist before fastest breeding religion aka religion of violence mussies arrived there with their baby machine wives (BMWs?). Within a few hundred years,
    they multiplied, multiplied and outnumbered (murdered) all the natives and made them all mussie countries. Nowadays they use a thing called vote to turn countries to mussie countries (what they doing in Sri Lanka currently).

    Buddhism didn’t fit the society in its birth place, India, with animal sacrifices, caste systems etc. etc. and people
    quickly reverted back to religions of conveniences which didn’t regard sins as sins. Then invading mussies killed
    all the Buddhist monks and burnt down all Buddhist universities (a world first) and uprooted the only true religion
    from its birth place. Today, we face the same fate in Sri Lanka. Buddhism and the Sinhalese race and Sri Lanka
    are in grave danger thanks to GooandPee aka UNPatriotic_rats’ traitors and various sections of our society. All
    the people outside the religion don’t like it, since Buddhism isn’t a religion of convenience. What The Buddha preached over 2,500 years, science has proven to be true again and again by science. The Buddha preached
    the universe is a vast vast place and every universe life time a Buddha is born to guide the two legged to a
    better existence after life and eventually escaping being reborn. Yet in today’s greedy, selfish, uncaring society there is no place for such teachings. There can be only one truth with regard to any one thing. Religion is same.

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