By Engr. Kanthar Balanathan DipEE (UK), GradCert (RelEng-Monash), DipBus&Adm (Finance-Massey), C.Eng., MIEE, Former Director of Power Engineering Solutions Pty Ltd, Consulting Electrical Engineers

1. Political Illiteracy

Right from the inception of gaining independence, Sri Lanka behaved like a third world underdeveloped country full of racial-minded illiterates. On receiving independence, DS Senanayake’s regime disfranchised one million Indian estate workers, which we cannot blame DSS as he felt opponents were trying to undercut him and the UNP.

SJV Chelvanayagam started his turbulence of the Federal Party which he could have demanded when the British were ruling. SJVC started this racial slogan to be in power.

Quote:

Race refers to a person’s physical characteristics, such as bone structure and skin, hair, or eye colour. Ethnicity, however, refers to cultural factors, including nationality, regional culture, ancestry, and language.

Quote: Race refers to the concept of dividing people into groups based on various sets of physical characteristics and the process of ascribing social meaning to those groups. Ethnicity describes the culture of people in each geographic region, including their language, heritage, religion, and customs.

How and where can someone differentiate between the Sinhalese and the Tamils? The only difference is the language. The ancestry of the Sinhalese and Tamils origins in the same centre. Political activism by the Sinhalese: Among the Sinhalese, regional hatred progressed between the Upcountry Sinhalese (UC) and the Low Country (LC) Sinhalese. History will prove that the Low country Sinhalese assimilated with the Burmese, and Indonesians over the years as the Indian Kings brought people from an island called Kadara Theevu” which is the Indonesian islands. The physical appearance will prove the difference between the Upcountry and the low-country Sinhalese. The upcountry Sinhalese is mixed with mostly Malabar and Tamils. The two Sinhalese groups inherently generated the differences.

However, since the British captured SL, people have lived in one nation called Ceylon”. The two groups spoke the same language and practised the same religion. Politically the Sinhalese had their difference and avidity for power. No wonder Mahinda Rajapaksa wasted billions of dollars in developing the South which yielded no return on investment. Tamils are no different people; the only difference is the language. Basically, the people in Sri Lanka had no vision or mission to achieve peace and reputed economic status in the world.

One section supported the west and the other the east blended with Communism. There was and is no Unity and patriotism among the people.

Tamils are entrepreneurs and always supported the west. The Sinhalese are hardworking people in the South and the then governments neglected them.

The political competition made the sections always direct the other that the Tamils are trying to take over the country, to collect the VOTES. This cumulative effect mothballed and introduced racial conflicts between the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Even now most Sinhala politicians are focused on blaming the Tamils to collect votes. This leads intellectuals to judge the Sinhalese as FOOLS. Terrorism crept into the country via JVP and LTTE which led the country to lose hundreds of thousands of people die and loss of billions of dollars in assets.

Tamils did not govern the country and they had no power. 100% of decisions on 100% of activities were decided by the Sinhalese. Tamils were like slaves under the Sinhalese. This led the country to love and practice bribery and corruption. The Rajapaksas were the champions of bribery and corruption. Today the country went bankrupt.

• The Current President (RW) when he was the PM under Sirisena: (i) RW wanted to construct a bridge between Mannar and India. The cost was estimated to be five billion dollars. People objected to this and was given up.
• The Central Bank affair of Bond sale by Arjuna Mahendran who was not a citizen of SL.
• RW commenced the corridor plan between Trincomalee and Colombo for the USA.

Currently, the shameful act by the GOSL is as follows:  https://www.themorning.lk/articles/106131.

Quote: Excerpt from the Morning paper;  In addition, a special investigation has also been launched by Sri Lanka Customs and investigations are underway into the customs officials who assisted in the deportation of the areca nut containers.  According to sources attached to the Department of Police, an investigation into a tip-off received by a senior customs official has revealed that 21 containers of areca nut, imported from Indonesia, were fraudulently re-exported to India.   While four containers are being shipped from Sri Lanka, it has been revealed that the containers of areca nuts imported from Indonesia were illegally sent by a local exporter to India.  It has also been revealed that a stock of areca nuts, imported from Indonesia, worth over Rs. 350 million has been fraudulently re-exported to India. The stock of areca nuts was re-exported in 24 containers in August, September, and October, The Sunday Morning learnt.  It is also said that these areca nuts were imported using the active free trade agreement between Sri Lanka and India.  According to Customs, only three containers of areca nuts were procured from Sri Lanka and the remaining 21 containers were imported from Indonesia.  The bulk of the imported areca nuts have been exported to an Indian company, indicating that they are made in Sri Lanka, it is learnt.  Attempts to contact Sri Lanka Customs Director General Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Vijitha Ravi Priya and Sri Lanka Customs Additional Director General Sunil Jayaratne were futile.

This is the worst act any country’s administration can do to its people. This is how Sri Lankan authorities collect their cuts and kickbacks. This is just one example. SL has no FOREX. However, GOSL still imports cars and motorbikes.

• Shortfall in the Perception of Patriotism

The author is eighty years old and had worked in various countries and SL. The author judges the best PM and TEAM had been Srimavo Bandaranaike, Dr NM Perera, Felix Dias Bandaranaike, and Peter Keneman. Bribery and Corruption had been quite minimal and no corruption at all. The author was able to get things done in any department with no bribe within a short time. Those days are gone.

SL has ambassadors and Secretaries in their foreign offices. Are they not supposed to practice marketing techniques for Sri Lankan products?

It surfaces that the current regime is helping another country to make sure people leave Sri Lanka and leave illiterates and poor in SL so that the country can be converted as another Diego Garcia for a country to establish its base to strengthen its military power in the East.