KAMALIKA PIERIS
Yahapalana
tried various tactics to rouse the population. Police were encouraged to be
aggressive. Here is one instance shown on television news in April 2018. At
Eppawela, the whole village turned out to object to the return of the
Viharadhipati of Nallamudawa Sri Sailabimbarama Raja Maha vihara, because he
had misbehaved. Police arrived and started hitting villagers with poles.
Television cameras showed women battling with the police. Seven persons
including women were arrested. The OIC of Eppawela police station was shown on
camera, emerging with a pole and hitting a woman. He was later suspended.
Unfortunately for Yahapalana the public reacted with the aggressiveness of their own. In December 2018, angry residents of Gomadiya surrounded the Katuwana police station accusing the police of assaulting and killing a man. The police had gone to his house, pulled him out and assaulted him, asking for information about an illicit liquor den. A thousand or so villagers went to the police station that night, shouted at the police and threw stones. The STF rushed in and brought them under control with tear gas and baton charge. This was shown on television news.
Even the Easter Sunday bomb blast did not create the shock reaction that the USA expected. The USA forgot that this was not the first bomb blast for Sri Lanka. It was the worst certainly, but not the first. Instead of getting rattled and losing its head, as the USA expected, Sri Lanka simply became more furious and even more determined to get Yahapalana out. Parents were told to come to school to protect their children from future bombs. They were indignant.
The intelligentsia looked at the bomb blasts
from the legal angle. They wanted to know who was to blame. They were so angry
that Yahapalana had no alternative but to set up commissions of inquiry. Facts
emerged and the public pounced on them.
Attorney General told the Colombo High Court
that the State Intelligence Service had submitted 347 reports on Zahran Hashim
and National Thowheed Jama’ath to IGP
Pujitha Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando from
2016 onwards. Deputy Solicitor General told the court that
131 of the reports on Zahran Hashim and the NTJ were directed to the IGP while
97 of them were submitted to the former Defence Secretary. In September 2019,
the public demanded that the IGP and Defense Secretary be arrested.
There is great rejoicing, today, about the ‘Failed coup’ of October 2018. If Mahinda Rajapaksa had continued at Prime Minister after October 2018, the Easter Sunday Bomb explosions would not have been allowed to happen.
Three groups feature
prominently in Yahapalana rule, they are the ‘civil society’, the ‘Yahapalana killer
breed’ and the Maha Sangha.
The so-called ‘civil society’ has been given a less dignified label, by the Sangha,
who call them ‘NGO karayas’. The NGO
community/civil society played a significant role in the Yahapalana government’s overall strategy said A.J.M. Mussamil, former Mayor of Colombo.
Chandraprema observed that the blood-thirstiest and most vindictive calls to put the Rajapaksas behind bars by any means possible came from the so-called members of ‘civil society’ and so-called liberal intellectuals associated with the Yahapalana project through foreign-funded NGOs.
This so-called ‘civil society’ has now come out into the open. Civil society organizations were present at JVP 2019 Presidential nomination ceremony at Galle Face, Colombo. ‘” Those on the platform included left-wing progressive political parties and civil society organizations,’ reported the media.
In October 2019, the Civil Society and Trade Unions Collective including over fifty trade unions and civic action groups from across the country met at a convention in Colombo and pledged to support the 2019 presidential candidacy of Sajith Premadasa. A slew of pro-democracy civil society organizations declared their support for UNP Deputy Leader Sajith Premadasa at the forthcoming presidential elections reported the media.” Gamini Viyangoda said, We are civil society organizations, unconnected to the UNP, but we find freedom through the UNP camp.”
In addition to ‘civil society’ , the nation is now waking up to the fact that there is a particular segment of society that is promoting the US occupation of Sri Lanka. There was a cartoon in the newspapers, of the island of Sri Lanka carved into three pieces, each held by India, USA, and China. The cartoon showed Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Sirisena standing by and laughing.
The country has now divided into those who wish to protect the country and those who wish to cut it into bits, said, critics. The elitist Colombo still thinks that the world is dominated by the west and is happy to be servile and subservient to these powers. They do not believe in the capability for the native sons of the soil, said, critics.
This pro-Yahapalana group comes from a certain social class, critics observed. They are sleek, good looking and well-fed. They are smooth-talking. Nothing fazes them. They do not hesitate to commit white-collar crimes. These white-collar crimes were well known in mercantile circles but became known to the general public only with the Bond scam. ‘Maha bankuwe horakama kele tie dala ingirisien kathakarana aya’ said the public. The bond probe has shown us that the rich don’t steal bread. They raid the bakery, added others.
This group can be described as a killer breed. They are insensitive to suffering. They do not mind if the farmers starve or commit suicide. They were openly indifferent to the Easter Sunday Bomb blasts. People were shocked at their ‘grinning behavior‘on television.
Yahapalana government has led to the political mobilization of the Maha Sangha in a manner never seen before. The last time the Sangha tried to influence events was in 1956. The Bhikkhu Peramuna of 1956 was ridiculed, especially by the confident non–Buddhist elite of the time. In 2019, it is different.
The Maha Sangha have emerged as articulate and
fearless opponents of Yahapalana. It is difficult to push them aside. They are
citizens of Sri Lanka and are entitled to all rights of citizens. This includes
the right to vote. That is an inalienable right. The right to vote carries with
it the right to participate in politics as well.
The most recent gathering of the Maha Sangha was a special meeting of the Samastha Lanka Sasana Sangha samuluwa in Kelaniya on October 22, 2019. Television camera showed rows and rows of saffron-clad bhikkhus, looking, as usual, very grim. Kelaniya Vice-Chancellor Ven. Induragare Dhammarathana had arranged the meeting.
He said that this was a very crucial election. Think of it as a multiple-choice question, where you have to tick off the best answer. The best answer is not Ranil Wickremesinghe or Sajith Premadasa. It is Gota. Medagoda Abeyatissa said that the bhikkhus had a historical right to involve themselves in politics. I have shown that they have a modern right to do so as well.
Yahapalana’s rule was intended to crush the public. Instead, it has acted as a wakeup call. It is Sri Lanka’s first wake up call. Until now, Sri Lanka was dozing. The country needed this shakeup. The people needed this shakeup,” said Chandraprema.
The jarringly woken up public is now in a hurry. They want, among other things, national policies for everything. Foreign policy, economy, trade, trade agreements, professional services, foreign ownership, the lot. They are now objecting to political interference in state administration as well. This is most unusual. Until now, no one objected to political interference, because everybody secretly hoped to make use of this loophole to advance themselves or their family.
Sri Lanka
Administrative Service Association staged a two-day sick note campaign in
September 2019, demanding, inter alia, an end to political interference in
their official work. They want the strict implementation of established
criteria on recruitment, transfers and promotions. Recruitment, transfers and
promotions should be done based on established criteria and not because
someone is known to this or that minister, they said. This is some
‘Wake up call’, commented analysts.
Yahapalana rule has also led to strong resistance at the local level where earlier there was none. In November 2018, residents of Kaladiya staged a protest opposite a factory where discarded iron is smelted saying it caused environmental pollution. Residents of Kalumulla, Marawila staged a protest in January 2019 against an attempt by a leading poultry farm to open another farm on a 50 acre land at Mahawewa. I cannot recall ever hearing of such protests before.
The silver lining in this saga of corruption in high-level Government, especially with the Central Bank bond scam as the focus, said observers, is that there were upright officials of the Central Bank who objected. Whistleblowers within the Bank gave the stories to the media while the then Governor tried desperately to stop the leaks by checking on mobile phone calls and then effecting mass transfers of staff, reported the media. In contrast, there were also many public officers, mentioned by name, who had knowingly helped in Yahapalana ‘s corrupt activities, for example, the cows from Australia” project and the export of gold-mixed soil”.
However, the
diabolical nature of some of the
things done by Yahapalana seem to have gone unnoticed. Here are some
instances.
Derana
news of 3.10 18 reported that the
Housing authority is building a housing scheme bang in the middle of the elephant
corridor, where elephants
come for water. The location is Kurudana alimankada near Mattala, near the 10 mile post close to
Katanwewa. Cancer hospital, Maharagama
lacked a drug that was needed for cancer patients who could be cured.
Parliamentary
Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE)
found that in 2016 an imported cough syrup” which should have been
tested on animals, has instead, been tested on a group of patients who
had sought medical treatment from the Ayurvedic Teaching Hospital, Colombo.
President of
the Cosmetics Manufacturers’ Association of Sri Lanka (CMAS) said that
Yahapalana government had, soon after coming to power, replaced the Cosmetics
Drugs and Devices Authority with National Medicines Regulatory Authority.
(NMRA) This had
resulted in the market being opened for many cosmetic imports sans any
regulation. There are
loopholes in the law. Anyone could
bring in any type of cosmetics and sell they them as they wished. These
whitening creams for sale at beauty parlours and shops contained mercury
amounts very harmful to the users and the environment. “There is one cream which has 10,000 times
more mercury than the permitted amount.
Ministry of Rural
Economic Development had imported pregnant
milch cows, which were carrying
highly contagious and deadly diseases, which were new to Sri Lanka . The dairy farmers were at the same time advised to get rid of the Sri Lankan animals they already
had.
Derana news
14.7.19 showed the drought ravages areas
of Rajarata. Villagers at Moragahakanda
said on camera, to television news, that all they needed was just one
more round of water and their harvest would be ok. The Kaudulla engineer had
sent water, but an order had come from
high up, to close the sluice.
Residents of
Tissapura in Uhana, Ampara spend the
night on treetops fearing wild elephants. They have not been issued with firecrackers to drive away the
elephants.
A reader wrote to the newspapers in
August 2019 saying the Rudra playground
in Wellawatte is to be handed over to a contractor to be used for a
waste treatment project. Rudra playground, is the only playground available for
recreation of children as well as adults in densely populated Wellawatte, apart
from the Peterson playground close to
Pamankada. It is used by a large number
of area residents including children, nearby schools, youth, elderly and
military personnel for their recreational activities daily and is maintained by
the Colombo Municipal Council.
An important
result of Yahapalana rule, is the call
for a strong leader as
President of Sri Lanka . Until now no one wanted a strong leader. They wanted a
weak leader who could be pushed around.
Since Mahinda
Rajapaksa was disqualified from a third try, the popular choice was his
brother, Gotabhaya. Even the prestigious
Economist mentioned his
name. Whether or not
Gotabhaya wins the election, he has
already won the popular vote. Crackers were lit when Gota’s nomination was
announced. Crackers were also lit when Premadasa’ s assassination was announced.
The public, specially the intelligentsia
have linked Yahapalana with the USA. They spoke of the
‘USA led conspiracy that installed the present government’. They said, ‘the
government is pursuing a Western agenda and
is hell bent on destabilizing post-war Sri Lanka’.
Yahapalana government is following a course of action
that is likely to result in a foreign dominated, bankrupt dependent economy
that places enormous burdens on the people, and destroys Sri Lanka’s
independence and sovereignty, making us a semi-colony of the USA and its
allies, said Tissa Vitarana.
Yahapalana government was seen as the run up to yet another bout of foreign rule. When
Yahapalana took power in 2015, there was an immediate comparison with 1815. Sri Lanka is definite that it does not
want another bout of foreign rule. They think that three rounds of it, Portuguese,
Dutch and British is more than enough. They
do not want to be under the USA.
There is also no longer any great regard for USA
either. At a conference
in Colombo, which I attended, a
participant got up and said that he
thinks the USA is a fine country and is better than China. The audience
laughed. Now
that India has linked with USA, India is
no longer respected either. Analysts are puzzled as to why India would allow USA to station
an aircraft carrier in Trincomalee. USA could then literally, turn their guns
on India.
There was initially the possibility that Bay
of Bengal, with Sri Lanka in it, would be the centre of the next war. The media
carried a cartoon of USA, UK, India and China warships converging on Sri Lanka.
It is now unlikely that there will be a war in
the Indian Ocean between USA and China. China does not plan to come all the way to the Indian Ocean to fight America. The days when wars were fought while bobbing
up and down in boats on the sea are also
now over. China
plans to bomb America direct, flying over the Pacific Ocean to do so.
Thanks to USA,
there is now a silent tilt to China. The link with China is seen as a natural
one for Sri Lanka. There were cordial
diplomatic relations between the Sinhala king and the Chinese emperor in
ancient and medieval times.
China is offering trillions of dollars which no other country can match, but
they do not bully us. When the west
helps it leads to bankruptcy as in the case of Greece, said analysts.. Analysts
point out that a country should link, if
at all, with the rising power, China and not with the
fading power, USA. (CONCLUDED, appendix
follows.)
