BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

Before Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was selected as the nominee of Pohottuwa for the presidential election in 2019, there were many misconceptions, manipulations, and vicious engineering against him, and the malice engineering was focused on personal attacks against Mr. Rajapaksa as he had gained strong confidence of people than the performance of the Yahapalana regime. Critically considering the comparative quality of Mr. Gotabaya with previous presidents who held the office, Mr. Gotabaya was attracted by people with a hope that he will do or give leadership to do what people expect.   The animosity of analysts on the points raised disclosed that they were organized attempts of dirty politics in Sri Lanka, which were motivated by financial incentives of political groups or international human rights activists with the funds of foreign governments. The best example was the court case filed by Gamini Viyangoda and Chandragupta Thenuwara.

The major focus of criticism against Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was that he had been served in the Army and the critics did not concern about the work performed by Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the Defence Secretary and Urban Development Activities as the secretary of the ministry. The knowledge and skills gained from the Army supported him to dispose of the best performance during the regime of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa and the opposition was scared of the practical achievement of Mr. Gotabaya as people were fully aware of the performance. If criticism attempted to deny good work, it would have equivalent to a statement that there is no country called the USA”. Therefore, they manipulated the point, he served in Army and his characteristics are like army personnel or a dictator.  

The opposition critique before the presidential election in 2019 directly focused that Mr. Rajapaksa will act like a dictator because of his military background, but the opposition consigned to oblivion that the best presidents in many countries in the world had served in arm forces. In the USA and many other countries, presidents were served in arm forces before the election to the president position and it was a special qualification to lead countries, and why such a respectable experience used as a point to criticize Mr. Rajapaksa before an election to the position, might have a question to the general public. The advisors of the opposition did not catch the point, but they stuck with the point and ultimately failed.

The main reflection of opposition critiques against Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was that they were not consistent with the expectation of the public, and in fact, the public of Sri Lanka was expecting a partial dictatorship from the president to clean the country where the underworld, corruption, and illicit liquor and drugs entirely devoured the country and the young generation is being attracted to evil things. The secret of the success of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa was that the opposition had been in a wrong putting, and the mythical trend of cheap international politics that was based on human rights than any other significant points that are allured by people in Sri Lanka.  This trend has not been changed after the election and the human rights report of Ms.Michel Bachelor shows misconceptions are alive.

The public in Sri Lanka did not expect the quick economic revolution from Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa when they were voting for him in 2019 as it was not realistic in a situation where the country has been suffered from tremendous economic problems since the colonial administration.  The major expectation of the public was to give leadership to fight against corruption, drugs, the underworld, and the black economy. The greatest enemy of poor people in Sri Lanka was the black economy. If Mr. Rajapaksa has given leadership to control the underworld and related activities it would be the symbol of the success of Mr. Rajapaksa. When it analyses from the point of views of the working-class against the underworld there is no question that Mr. Gotabaya’s regime has taken satisfactory action consistent with the expectation of the public, and if Mr. Rajapaksa continuously associates with anti-underworld policy, he will be in a comfortable position to re-elect at the next presidential election in 2024.

In addition to the above point, the success of Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s performance will be depending on taking policy actions to make a production economy in the country. The truth in this globe that no country can be a developed nation without adopting the policy of production economy. The reign of Kings and queens in ancient Sri Lanka was considered the concept of production economy and became a developed country and the production economy as a major role need to consider broader area such as agriculture, industry, construction, and services.  The concept of production economy is broadly related to an inter-industrial economic plan with nationalism encompassing all ethnic groups with an attractive reconciliation process.

The attempt of the Gotabaya regime to draft a new constitution will be successful in the reconciliation process if it makes a good cultural design to the country.  The story of Mahavamsa in connection with the visit of Lord Buddha to settle the conflict between Chulodara and Mahodara shows an example to make a cultural design without harming any ethnic group in the country. The philosophical idea of B.F. Skinner, which is associated with human nature (this behavior reflects in Sri Lanka by Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim communities) and the good society through a cultural design.  Human nature cannot change by force, and a cultural design strongly supports to control of human nature and unite the country to achieve the economic desires of people.

For a successful plan to achieve a production economy, the country needs a 98% accurate input-output analysis, and has the government bureaucracy did it, is not certain to people and the ministries of planning and finance seem to be less talking because the public will monitor the planning and implementation process of the government. According to newspaper reports, government officers are looking for when the government is going to relax import regulation to vehicles and other luxury items than promoting domestic production.  

However, the government attempts to create an economic zone in the area of Port City. It is good action subject to conditions.  Will a cultural design in the country be grappled with the legal structure of Port City? and will support to go from social dualism to technical dualism is a question of people.  The appreciation of people regarding the port city is creating a new piece of land for the country, nevertheless, people don’t expect legal dualism like in China and Hong Kong. This is a vital factor that should be considered by the regime of Mr. Gotabaya.

The concept of production economy might clash with the legal system that will be introduced in Port City, and it may be a point for the opposition to taking arms to fight against the government. Economic liberalization is an essential condition and ignoring macroeconomic variables, liberalization is not appropriate. On the other hand, the prime objective of the port city is to bring a massive volume of foreign investments and a considerable volume of such investment may be related to black money deals. King-ping of the underworld of Sri Lanka may associate with black money deals based on investments and the country needs a successful monitoring system to avoid such possibilities because it will be a major point to work against Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

It can be observed that China is closely monitoring the black economic activities of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao, and the port city of Sri Lanka needs to be monitored with a team of highly skillful intelligence service.  The most dangerous matter would be Sri Lankan drug dealers might use Port City to make an international narcotic conglomerate and it will be a serious problem to Sri Lanka.  If it creates problems for India Sri Lanka must ready to defend the country as India will take various actions to disturb the operation of Port City.