‘Watta Baddata dee Essata data niyaviima’
Posted on September 11th, 2015
Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara
The above Sinhala Adage came to my mind as I was watching what is going on in the political field around us. What this famous saying connotes is once you have given your coconut estate on an outright lease there is no point in looking for a coconut from that place because you have disowned all your rights to have any claims on any fruits there. This is exactly what has already happened to Mahinda Rajapaksa and what will happen to President Sirisena as well very soon, though he boasts just now that he will not allow anyone to topple ‘His Government” till 2020.
Episode 1
Main Actor Mahinda Rajapaksa
Now let us first see as to who paved the way for the present political instability and confusion that prevails in this country at the moment. It was none other than Mahinda Rajapaksa (probably who was in the same frame of mind as MS is just now) who started it, knowingly or unknowingly, I do not know, when he first decided to have early Presidential Elections. I wrote to the Secretary to the President on 1.12.2014 and my first advice was not to have early Presidential elections. I strongly argued against it firstly as there were two more years in hand and as the ‘bird in hand is worth more than ten in the bush.’ Secondly there is no guarantee that it could be easily won as MR and his advisors think, as there is growing displeasure and opposition right round the country. I said the Government is heading for serious trouble unless it takes immediate remedial measures to arrest this situation. I also sent him a memorandum consisting 100 suggestions called Siya Panatha prepared by ‘Mahanuwara Jesta Puravesi Sanvidhanaya’ for him to implement, at least what was highlighted, before the next election. I suggested a series of corrective measures among which I list few important ones below.
Reduce the mega Cabinet to at least 25
If he cannot remove, at least distance all the bad eggs
Abolish the 13th A and the Provincial Councils system and re-establish the Ruhunu, Pihiti and Maya Tun Rata so that not only the government can cut public expenditure and the number of politicians by 2/3 (from nearly 873 to 320 approx)
Abolish the Proportional Representation system and ensure a Mp for Every electorate System
Restore an independent Judiciary and Public service and meritocracy to be the hallmark of public service
Restore Law and order and Rule of Law
Abolish duty free Vehicle system for politician. Public servant and a selected few
Ban all ethnic & religious political parties
Ban religious dignitaries entering politics
Removal of Pensions for politicians and enormous privileges given to them and convert it to a service to people
Restore death penalty
Enactment of a strict code of ethics and discipline for politicians and state officers Going back to Traditional Village council system
Setting up a Senate of about 35Abolition of International Schools
Banning establishment of mono-ethnic settlement a n destabilizing mixed settlements under new schemes
Resettlement of all Sinahla and Muslim s displace by the LTTE banning sending women slaves to Middle east and other countries and generating jobs within the country to save our women and the civilization
Implement the Recommendations of the Kandyan Peasantry Commission of 1951 by setting up the Special Development Authority recommended therein to ameliorate the problems of Kandyan Peasants. No one should forget that Kandyan areas have 1/3 the total voter strength of the country
Tax concession to development sector such as Agriculture, Industry, fisheries and tourism etc
Take corrective measures to build up a new image and people’s confidence before you go for the next election.
Take measures to reduce cost of living and measures for the people to feel this is a peoples Government and not a government of politicians and high officials.
But unfortunately I did not get even a reply
What you think would have happened if at least few of these major issues had been attended to?
This letter was re-published in the Lankaweb of 1st Sept 2015. Anyone interested in details could read it there please.
I really do not know whether this was brought to the notice of MR in time. Anyway nothing happened as requested.THE Government decided to go ahead with the Election
Mahinda went ahead with his own plan
MR living in his own dream land did not care a cent. Unfortunately he miserably failed to make a proper assessment of the Sirisena factor. He ignored it as a subject not worth discussing at all Perhaps thanks to his intelligence network he didn’t know that a master conspiracy lead by Chandrika was going on in the background at least from 2012 to depose him and oust his government. Perhaps he may not have heard the saying Achintitampi Bhavati-Chintitampi vinassati”, which I included in my E mail of 1st Dec 2014 to Lalith as well.
So in this backdrop he allowed My3 to contest Presidential elections as the common candidate while remaining as the General Secretary of the SLFP? MR being a Sinhala village based politician devoted to the SLFP may have had confidence in the majority rural electorate and may have thought like in 2010, MS also want be a threat. But if I were MR I would have never taken a chance and sacked MS immediately from the post of General Secretary and appointed someone else faithful to me and the Party to that post, not heeding to Sumanadasa or any other sycophant Andare or Advisor around me, firstly for leaving and betraying the Party to contest under another Party and thus violating the Party Constitution and secondly as I know it for certain that he cannot be trusted for a Dime after that. Thirdly for he will be a bigger threat in future if he wins the elections and join with those who are against the SLFP and the UPFA. MR should also have been mindful of the Chandrika factor backed by her Western friends and India. But he did not do that either probably he thought he is invincible or trusted Ms as he sat with him at a now ‘famous and historic Hopper dinner’ at the Temple Trees the previous night as well. What I can’t understand is as to what the hell Rajapaksa’s private intelligence unit had been doing as now it been revealed that this coup had being going on for two long years.
Let bygones be bygones. Having failed to nip it in the bud he should have done it at least after elections to prevent the new President trying to take over the SLFP and the UPFA leadership as its leader and the SLFP Secretary. Then again when those acholites visited him at Medamulana after the elections and proposed that the leadership of the Party be given to Ms, he should have taken the stand that that can never be done and should not be done either as he has already ceased to be a SLFP or UPFA member the moment he left to be the common candidate. Further, he knows MS stands as the leader of a separate group. As such he has no claim at all under the SLFP Constitution to ask for it. Instead of that what did MR do? He went and handed over all that on a platter to the new President conferring him legitimacy to exercise full control over all matters under the Party Constitution. (This is like handing over the sword to the adversary in a battle whiles you hold on to the sheath).Had he not handed over the leadership of the Party President Sirisena would never have been able to touch anything within the SLFP or the UPFA. Therefore things like appointing the two secretaries of UPFA and SLFP and taking control of their Central committees would have never happened. I am lost to understand as to in what part of their anatomy they have their brains, if they have one.
This in brief is how Mahinda Rajapaksa dug his own grave and paved the highway for the present disaster.
They who persuaded MR to hand over the Leadership after the Election.
They were the next culprits who brought about this disaster.
Now not only MR but also all others who failed to see this danger in advance and advice MR in time or those who connived with that blunder, should take the whole responsibility for all what has happened to the Party since then and the damages and disasters that will befall this Nation in the near future. None will be excused and none will be spared. If they had an atom of brain they should have, using the majority in the CC, changed the Party Constitution and got MR appointed as the Leader of the Party and contested the elections under his Leadership. Had that been done they would have definitely got more than 115 or even more seats.
Looking at the whole episode enacted by this group of politicians and advisers from the beginning up to now it remind me of the role of Karataka and Damanaka who advised Pingalaka the Lion and Sanjeevala the righteous Bull, the two crafty foxes, in Mitrabhedaya coming in Pachatantaraya.
Then came the General election. Most SLFP and UPFA members again persuaded MR to contest for the Premiership, may be with good intensions, but for obvious reasons as well on their part. Personally I do not see anything wrong in his decision to have agreed to their request particularly going by the massive crowds gathered at some of those meetings. But again he made a mistake by agreeing to contest under his arch rival and adversary. His love and devotion to the Party a may have convinced him to do so. But it was definitely the biggest blunder he made. As I remember there was only one solitary man. That is my good friend Prof Nalin Silva who said don’t do that. He also said never trust MS. Perhaps he knew better than the whole gang of SLFP and UPFA politicians some of whom included Professors as well. Nalin has proved that he is a better intellectual and a genius when he refused to accept the slot offered to him in the UPFA National list. Had MR contested from another Party the story of Government today would have been entirely different.
Having watched the Speakers pronouncement last week on the Appointment of Sambandan that he is appointing Sambandan as the Leader of the Opposition as there is no request from the UPFA and Wimal Weerawansas grievance that 65 of them have requested the President in writing that they wanted Welgama to be appointed as Opposition leader one gets utterly confused. It also shows that there was a preplanned arrangement on the part of the anti-MR group, if you don’t call it a coup, firstly to settle a deal with the TNA for helping the President at the Presidential election by casting the entire North and East Tamil vote to him and secondly to stop any other person’s name been put forward as a division would have definitely prevented Sambandan getting elected. It looks a treacherous conspiracy than democracy to anyone having an atom of brain. I do not know as to why Weeravansa and group did not simultaneously hand over two more copies of the same letter given to the President to the Speaker and the Party secretary as well.’ Going even a little further they should have had a spare name in Anura Disanayaka or anyone else in their camp ready by mutual agreement submitted to all three persons. It is common sense that they should have known before hand what President is having in his mind and taken sufficient precautions to counter that mischief if they were smart. In this context the President had out done all of them. What a shame?
To be continued: Episode 11; Why should we have a Constitution at all if that could be breached at will by one man with impunity, that is the head of the State?
September 11th, 2015 at 5:01 am
2 More killed by new LTTE ( Bajaaj)
ත්රිරෝද රථ අනතුරකින් සැමියෙකු සහ බිරිඳ ජීවිතක්ෂයට 2015 සැප්තැම්බර් 11 10.38a.m
නිට්ටඹුව මල්වත්ත පාර අසලදි අද උදෑසන ත්රිරෝද රථයක් හා කාර්යාල සේවක ප්රවාහන බස් රථයක් ගැටීමෙන් ආනමඩුව ප්රදේශයේ සැමියෙකු සහ බිරිඳ ජීවිතක්ෂයට විය.
September 11th, 2015 at 5:35 am
I do not know as to why Weeravansa and group did not simultaneously hand over two more copies of the same letter given to the President to the Speaker and the Party secretary as well.’- If one want a opposition party he has to give application to Speacker & Party secretary . this simple procedure Weeravansa and group do not know ????
or Group know already these two won’t take their application – Kaput My Sinhala sakodaraya!!!
We need to live with Indian invader now until Velu come back .
Velu where are you ??? pulamba vaichchida ign kada ( made me to talk like a mad man)
September 11th, 2015 at 6:14 am
Dr. Sudath Gunasekera: You did your duty by transmitting that advice to MR through the “Siya Panatha”. So many others too did the same thing. In fact his rivals like the JVP said same thing. They said: “You have two more years to go. Why this hurry. Do some changes to the whole system during this two years”. Even his partners like “Hela Urumaya” said the same thing. I was also very critical of him through this page; but requested to remain and utilize the balance period of two years to “change” the whole system of Governance; because he had the mandate to do it with a 2/3 majority. Yet he failed. WHY? In my opinion, MR was overtaken with a very forceful of one of the ten “Fetters” in Buddha’s teachings viz “UDDHACCA”. It is one of those 4 mental factors inseparably associated with all unwholesome consciousness. Unfortunately he could not come out of it, mainly because of the INFLUENCE of the “VULTURES” hanging around him. In his own admission, he said this, but then it was very much late. This same “CAUSE AND EFFECT” will fall on others too if they do not “Understand the Law of Nature” – The DHAMMA.
September 11th, 2015 at 2:49 pm
Hi Dr. Gunasekera. You have to realize that President Mahinda Rajapakse had his hands tied at every turn by the West and India. Please see article: http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/09/08/a-tale-of-deception-to-upend-democracy-in-sri-lanka/
September 11th, 2015 at 2:53 pm
Douglas,
“MR was overtaken with a very forceful of one of the ten “Fetters” in Buddha’s teachings viz “UDDHACCA”. ”
I don’t think “UDDAccha” has been used correctly here.
“Uddaccha” is a higher fetter eliminated at Arahat stage. Asmi Mana is also in the same category even near Arahats cannot control.
When a person does not listen to the obvious advices, ignoring the “Vinnu” or the wise, he is “grossly” ignorant , that means not even keeping 5 precepts, much below a level to call a person Buddhist.
September 11th, 2015 at 2:57 pm
We are glad that former President Mahinda Rajapakse held elections 2 yrs earlier than due. He tried to run for a 3rd term but this was considered undemocratic by the Opposition in Parliament. Now, all the cats are out of their bags and truth of matters are pouring out on a daily basis.
The odds against him after the war with the LTTE were heavy –
* a restive crowd in Colombo – Business people who had lost money due to west throwing in new barriers against
a) GSP for the garment industry b) fishing industry c) War Crimes charge
* a build of up public opinion against the the UPFA by those wanting a share of the Development Spoils,
* invited MR to Oxford, UK, and then told him to go back to Colombo without giving the Speech at Oxford.
* Anti-Chinese stand by the entire west.
There were more signs of disapproval for going to war with the killer LTTE and exposing what was going on with Peacekeeper Norway in the Vanni.
We can see that these were ominous signs of disapproval from the Almighty west.
What could he do but call for elections. Lankans must get real about people and world situations.
Let us get to the heart of the problem that besets Sri Lanka, without blaming our leaders. The red carpet ‘invitation’ to Tamil Dalits of Tamil Nadu by having the Tamil Language in place in Lanka plus free education & health care is at the centre of the problem. Few people are aware of the fact that there are some 15 Million Tamil folk of Dalit origin in TN, and they prefer to get out of the Caste sitution in Tamil Nadu. Vested interests attempt to use this situation.
September 11th, 2015 at 2:58 pm
IN normal Sinhala conversation UDDACCHA is being used for people with a “swollen head ” , or very proud , who thinks I am the greatest in the world, which is wrong in Pali. Uddachch is “restlessness” as defined by many English translators. UDDACCH-KUKUCCA is “restlessness and worry. This means “fast moving mind with many thoughts coming , not having any control of one’s mind”. We all, unenlightened have this condition, when we cannot control the mind fully and 100%. Aranahts can.
September 11th, 2015 at 3:42 pm
Great proposals but NO ONE from UNP, SLFP, UPFA, JVP, etc. will EVER do that.
COLONIAL BRITAIN IMPOSED Democrazy has failed SL.
We need a leader who is willing to FACE ANYTHING – death, HAGUE, rejection, etc. to take BOLD decisions.
Don’t be surprised if a BUDDHIST MONK contests the next presidential election. He will win a substantial number of votes.
September 12th, 2015 at 7:34 am
Independent: Thank you and I agree. Yet, isn’t it a good thing to develop by “practicing” and be “conscious” of it. It is for every human being to “arrive” at it by constant practice in day to day life. It is all the more reason for county’s leader to be CONSCIOUS of and PRACTICE it, so that he could be very successful and avoid pit falls. That is what I meant in mentioning that word “Uddhacca”.
September 12th, 2015 at 8:23 am
The whole country will have to participate to get free of Tamil Nadu political/economic/cultural clutches.
September 12th, 2015 at 8:56 am
Fran,
NO WAY! The whole country NEVER participated in ANYTHING.
SOMEONE has to take the leadership and do it.
If we wait for the whole country to participate it will be like the school story of 7 beggars and their kanji (porridge) pot.
NO ONE will do it!!
Anyway glad to hear you ACCEPT the parliament, president, elections, etc. cannot do it.
They all play it safe!! Useless.
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0upC52EwQc&spfreload=1”
Enjoy! Some foreigners are more SL than us while we wait for aliens to come and save us!!
September 12th, 2015 at 11:12 am
Lorenzo,
Only time will show how things will pan out eventually …..
God/Truth/Allah works in mysterious ways.
September 12th, 2015 at 11:50 am
The sidelining of Mahinda is the misfortune of the nation
– Muruththetuwe Ananada Thera
September 10, 2015, 7:27 pm – The Island
Muruththetuwe Ananda Thera the chief incumbent of the Abayaramaya in Narahenpita counts several decades as an activist monk. He has fearlessly stood up against repressive governments of the past. It would be no exaggeration to say that democracy has survived in this country despite the upheavals that we have gone through, because of the activism of individuals like Ananda Thera. His most recent act of defiance against the powers that be, is making his temple available to function as the headquarters of the pro-Mahinda campaign. In this interview, Ananda Thera speaks to C.A.Chandraprema about the situation in the country following last month’s parliamentary election.
Q. You played a central role in the campaign to bring former president Mahinda Rajapaksa back into politics. Your temple was the virtual headquarters of the Mahinda faction of the UPFA. But the people obviously wanted a change. What made you feel obliged to support the campaign to bring Mahinda back into politics?
A. I don’t think anyone can forget the services rendered to this country by Mahinda Rajapaksa. If anybody is prepared to forget his services to the country then they are the type of people who will forget their own parents. He won the war that no leader in this was able to win in three decades. He put his own life on the line to see that the people of this country were freed from the scourge of terrorism. We are talking of a man who saved the nation and developed the country. That is why we support him. When we formed the Maubima Surekeeme Sanvidhanaya in the J.R.Jayewardene era, pro-government thugs threw bombs at us. Mahinda Rajapaksa was one of the few who rushed to our aid and looked into our welfare at that time. So that is another reason why we stood by him. The sidelining of a leader like that is the misfortune of the nation. Throughout our history, rulers have been protected and looked after at times of need by the bhikku community. That is what I am doing.
Q. The transformation in this country brought about by the Rajapaksas is visible. In that context as some people have said, do you think it is the ‘ingratitude’ of the Sinhala people that led to Mahinda Rajapaksa being rejected by the voters?
A. You can’t take this as a defeat given the pressures that were brought to bear on the opposition in the past several months. Even bodhi poojas were prevented from being held. An individual who invited Mahinda for an alms giving was arrested and imprisoned. To have won 95 seats in such circumstances is not a defeat. Some people have undoubtedly been remiss in expressing gratitude, but here there were other factors involved. For the first time in history, a political leader worked to defeat his own party. The people expected Mahinda Rajapaksa to lead the country. But when the leader of his party made the statements that he did, many people wondered whether there would be any point in voting for the UPFA. When the former leader of the SLFP (Chandrika Kumaratunga) and the present leader of the SLFP (Maithripala Sirisena) both say that Mahinda will not be made prime minister, that had a negative influence on the voting public.
Q. The difference between the winner and the loser at this parliamentary election is rather narrow – 5.0 million against 4.7 million. One sees that the 4.7 million that voted for the UPFA have acted almost in unison to defeat all the candidates identified as loyalists of president Maithripala Sirsena with only three individuals managing to escape the backlash. This is the first time we have seen such large numbers of people acting in unison to eliminate some and to retain others. It is difficult to achieve a result like that even if a deliberate effort is made through an expensive propaganda campaign. What do you make of the remarkable single-mindedness of the UPFA voter?
A. Had a separate party been formed, Mahinda would have won. That is what I think.
Q. Writer Gunadasa Amarasekera was to ruefully remark in the 1980s that it was only at the 1977 general elections that he realised that the Sinhalese were people who wanted food and drink above all else. A similar comment ascribed to Dudley Senanayake is that half a pound of ‘kunu karawala’ could tip the balance at an election. That was the political culture in this country till the late 1970s. When you look at the way the government servants have voted, one feels that the salary increases and the reduction in the prices of fuel and certain food items appear to have worked their old magic.
A. The point to note is that even after giving the absolute maximum in terms of concessions and salary increases, they got only 106 seats. But the other side got 95 seats without being able to give any concessions at all. Even the election material published by Mahinda’s people could not be distributed and in the middle of all the shortcomings and restrictions they had to work under, they got only 11 seats less than the winner. It is certainly true that a large number of people also seem to have thought only of their stomachs but the point should not be missed that many people voted for the opposition without any thought for the privileges and concessions on offer by the government.
Q. Isn’t it the case that the incumbency factor also weighed against the UPFA? They have been in power almost continuously for nearly two decades and when one party governs for such a long time people tend to ask for a change even against their own better judgement.
A. That is a factor that also needs to be taken into account. It is said that even a bana sermon should not last too long. But there were also some very real achievements during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rule. In the 1990s, I remember people saying that had president Premadasa ruled the country for a little longer the country would have seen more development. The same can be said about Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Q. The conspiracy to defeat the Rajapaksa government began in 2012 with the formation of various bhikku organisations. Buddhist monks were at the forefront of the campaign. In a situation where the Rajapaksas had brought peace and stability to the country, suddenly the streets were full of marauding Buddhist monks attacking shops and business houses of Muslims. Now after the change of government all these organisations of Buddhist monks have disappeared without trace. One would think this is the time they would be on the streets with the controversies over the clearing of virgin forests in Wilpattu, the dismantling of the security zones in the North, the handing over of land in the high security zone to civilians in Sampur, and the handing over of the opposition leadership to the TNA, etc. But these bhikku organisations have evaporated into thin air and it seems obvious that they were not genuine organisations, but just fronts in the anti-Rajapaksa conspiracy.
A. Mahinda Rajapaksa established peace in this country and enabled people of all communities to go about their business without any fear. The Rajapaksa government had respect for the bhikku community and that was abused to the maximum. We are now living under a government that has no regard for the bhikku community. We chanted pirith outside the Bribery Commission when Mr Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was brought there for the first time and for that we were produced in courts. We still have to make regular appearances in courts over that incident. So in answer to your question yes, it was a foreign conspiracy that destabilised the Rajapaksa government. People say that this country is being ruled now by India and America. Imperialist conspiracies are nothing new in this country. We have had the same thing in the past as well. But the difference is that our ability to resist these conspiracies is at a low ebb today.
Q. We have a new government that has come in promising good governance. But under this government we have seen arbitrary actions of the kind that we have never seen before under even the worst of the bad governments of the past. A chief justice has been sacked with just a letter from the presidential secretariat. General secretaries of political parties facing an election have been summarily sacked 48 hours before the election, members of decision making bodies of political parties have been purged by the dozen. All this is done by the executive president.
A. This is a yahapalana government only in name. The only theory that is being applied is to acquire and hold power regardless of who or what you have to destroy in the process. People who spoke about abuses committed by the previous government are now silent. But we have seen more powerful regimes than this such as that of Marcos in the Philippines which ultimately had to give way to people’s power.
Q. You have been politically active for several decades. My generation remembers you for the very public confrontations that you had with the UNP leaders of the 1980s. You probably regarded J.R.Jayewardene and R.Premadasa to be dictators?
A. Yes, Mr Premadasa to a lesser extent but they were both dictators undoubtedly. J.R.Jayawardene was a ‘thanikara ekadipathiya’.
Q. But J.R.Jayawardene never did any of the things that we have seen happening under this yahapalana government – such as sacking chief justices with a chit from his office, and purging political parties etc.
A. Each person acts according to his level of intelligence. J.R.Jayewardene was at a different level altogether. A monkey does not know what to do with a razor blade. The people will not like the direction in which the country is now being taken.
September 12th, 2015 at 4:07 pm
Douglas,
I hope someone like that would emerge one day, when thrashing of opponents and abusing worse than any other animals in existence stops.