Insight By Sunil Kumar

May 15th 2023

Sri Lanka’s Political, Social and Economic issues  on a daily basis continue to a degree unabated with little emphasis on the basic rights of her citizens relative to the Constitution which is circumvented in a subtle manner despite the rhetoric from the hierarchy where state intimidation and aggression are discharged to restrain people’s uprising thus particularly through the murmurings of the whys and wherefores of the State Terrorism Prevention Bill  relative to silencing the people’s voices where The Government apparently has no real concern for people’s Sovereign Rights but says the priority is to restore the economy at any cost, neglecting social responsibilities which seems irresponsible for a leader of the Present caliber with so much experience behind him..

With these actions, the Government displays very specific characteristics of heading in an oppressive direction which some think may be intimidating and even autocratic.The burning question is, will people tolerate such a turn of events in the near future or will they react as they did before? The leaders should very well be aware of the

1971 and 1989 insurrections of the JVP and the civil war with LTTE which intensified since 1983 and ended with mass killings and the great harm it has done to the country, Lest the hierarchy forgets and continues to make negative decisions based on a cognizance which has no credibility in the eyes of many of the population!.

By carrying out screened albeit purported violence through State machinery and voicing a refurbishing or a revising of the State Terrorism Act, is the Government inviting the Dissidents aka Aragalaya to resort to similar arm struggles despite the lull within the Nation presently in the aftermath of the troubles past and the outbreak of violence which was quelled due to the timely action of a new President where the President has done extremely well to calm the Nation and people, disgruntled as they seem to be yet  resigned to accept the President for the greater good which has invariably resulted since he accepted office which has also had approval from his Western Counterparts.?

 To quote a recent News Item “Where normally State Elections are the core principles of a democracy and the sovereign rights of the citizens to choose the members to serve for the country and people for a set period, interestingly the modus operandi recently employed by the Government is to a greater degree in violation of democratic rights and against the norms of a Socialist Democratic Republic”

which has become a decorated label of the state and for marketing purposes only. The ruling of the Sri Lanka Supreme Court (SC) with three judges on the bench have unequivocally sent a clear message to the President and the respective heads of government who carry out orders scripted by the executive panel that this may not be acceptable or in keeping with the Constitution whether inadvertently or not  by a President who probably means well but does not seem to stick to the correct protocols involved.

However, in the case of the People Vs the State the People are waiting for a new date to be announced by the Election Commission (EC) where the State Minister of Finance has assured that the Government will abide and honour the SC ruling. It is the fervent belief that the Government will not resort to any further twists to delay or null the local government election although in recent times the entire issue of the LG Elections seem to have been shelved for whatever reason where noticeably there is a distinct agitation among the people which is visibly apparent and does not augur well towards the future and should not be permitted to gain momentum where lessons from the past have to be learned..