{"id":104218,"date":"2020-07-03T14:58:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T21:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=104218"},"modified":"2020-07-03T14:58:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T21:58:28","slug":"august-5-d-day-for-saving-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/07\/03\/august-5-d-day-for-saving-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"AUGUST 5: D-DAY FOR SAVING SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Today, at the end of seventy two years of  so-called\nindependence, Sri Lanka finds itself pushed to the edge of a precipice, despite\nthe many sacrifices made by patriots in blood, sweat and tears for its unity\nand stability as a flourishing sovereign state during that period (and before,\nfor that matter, over two millennia). Sri Lankans are teetering on the brink of\nthe dark abyss of an uncertain, unsettled and chaotic future through no fault\nof theirs (or rather, paradoxically, through their very innocence and decency).\nThey have been entrapped in this position by cold calculating inimical\npolitical forces, internal and external, treacherously assisted by the\ncustomary opportunism of a couple of minority politicians who inflame communal\nsentiments within their respective communities, while striking a feigned\nnationalist pose among the majority community voters during elections; this\nentrapment is equally strongly supported by the hypocritical, shortsighted,\n\u2018political correctness\u2019 postures that mainstream politicians assume in order to\nplacate the handful of minority communalists while ignoring the progressive up\nand coming non-communalist young generation of politicians  in those\ncommunities. The appeasement of racist minority politicians by the big national\npoliticians hampers the successful emergence of their progressive rivals.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mainstream polity (composed of the usually Sinhala speaking\n75% and the usually Tamil speaking -Tamil and Muslim – 25%) is divided between\nthe two traditional main camps generally identified with the right of centre,\ndecidedly West-dependent, UNP which looks upon its cynical nonchalance towards\nthe majority Sinhala Buddhist community as a main plank of its politics\n(designed to attract minority votes and the approval of the interventionist\nforeign powers who hardly care about the humanity of Sri Lankans) and the left\nof centre SLFP with traditional nationalist leanings, which also feels induced\nto conceal its sensitivity to the just demands of the majority community lest\nit be misconstrued as something prejudicial to the minorities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internal and external enemies of the state are exploiting this\nsituation, among other things, for their own advantage. In the engineered\nregime change in January 2015, the UNP and a section of the SLFP that\nopportunistically joined its general secretary who had betrayed his boss to win\nthe presidency (as part of a conspiracy), formed a coalition government called\nYahapalanaya. The Yahapalanaya appointed its own subservient opposition\nconsisting of communalist and sectarian minority parties and the JVP. That\nofficial opposition actually provided the previous regime with a bulwark\nagainst the real, but legally unrecognised, opposition that came to be called\nthe Joint Opposition. The latter comprised the majority of the UPFA that fought\nthe Yahapalana misgovernance tooth and nail; but its success rate was less than\nwhat it should have been, principally because foreign intervention queered its\npitch (with, for example, diplomats of meddling foreign powers cheering from\nthe lobby of Parliament during the forced passage of hotly debated pieces of\nnationally harmful legislation). With the release, on June 23, 2020, of the\nreport of the expert committee on the Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact\n(which had been introduced secretly under the previous regime in violation of a\nsupposedly sovereign people\u2019s democratic rights), ordinary Sri Lankans have\nstarted getting an idea of where they have been deceitfully led to by the\npowers that be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 People don\u2019t know whether the MCC Compact is already a fait\naccompli. Hopefully, it is not, though two preliminary agreements have already\nbeen signed under Yahapalanaya. But there is hardly any doubt about the stand\ntaken in this regard by the current president and the SLPP government: they are\nagainst signing it. However, a final disposition of the MCC agreement issue\nwill very much depend on the quality of the next parliament.  MPs of the\ncommon mould who have taken to politics out of selfish motives far outnumber\nthe patriotic few. They have earned a bad name for all politicians. They engage\nin their petty schemes to grab power oblivious of  the behemoth of\nsuperpower domination camouflaged with the clothes of \u2018human rights\u2019 and\n\u2018Western democracy\u2019, breathing down the neck of Sri Lanka. Ordinary citizens\nare becoming more and more aware of this existential threat to the nation,\namong other similar crises.  Hence, MPs, be they members of the government\nor of the opposition, particularly after the disastrous Yahapalana experience,\nhave come to be indiscriminately censured by the public as the (despicable)\n\u2018225\u2019. Apparently, even the MPs of the past are not exempted from this\nuniversal condemnation. Of course, not all MPs of the past or of the present\ndeserve such universal denunciation. Yet it cannot be denied that they are\ncollectively responsible for betraying the country to Western imperialist\naggression through their failure to manage internal majority vs minority\npolitics so as to create national unity. While establishing such unity is the\nshared responsibility of leaders of all communities, the onus is especially on\nthe leaders of the majority Sinhalese, who should be able to persuade the few\nracist minority politicians to accept what is good for the whole nation before\nacceding to their self-centred parochial demands for the sake their support in\nparliament. Until November 2019, mere political expediency seemed to have\ndetermined the conduct of the average MP, who is content being a shrewd\nsurvivalist. Only the few notable exceptions that there are understand, or\npossess enough brains to understand, what the country needs to ensure its long\nterm survival as an independent sovereign nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bright hopes of national resurgence which were kindled during\nthe May 2009 – December 2014 period were totally doused by the Yahapalanaya\nthat lasted from January 2015 to November 2019. The latter\u2019s campaign slogan\nhad been \u2018Change We Need\u2019, a borrowing from former US president Barack Obama\u2019s\n2008 general election campaign; but Sri Lanka by January 2015 was already\nestablished in the process of achieving the change it had been yearning for for\nthree decades, namely, a peaceful secure independent country free from\nseparatist terrorist violence and foreign interference, a country that was all\nset to make rapid progress in its economy.  Significantly, the changes the\npost-civil conflict Sri Lanka was successfully making related to the three\nareas of development, defence and diplomacy, the three D\u2019s that figure in the MCC\nCompact. It is no exaggeration to say that the Yahapalanaya left the country in\na shambles in all these respects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the unholy Yahapalana alliance broke up before its\ncommitments to its interventionist foreign sponsors could be fully honoured,\nleaving the UNP and the SLFP disintegrated beyond any hope of reintegration.\nThe nationalist forces from all communities have joined a common front under\nthe leadership of the SLPP that is already poised to overwhelm the next\nparliament (unless something untoward happens as in August 2015), while the\nUNP, fragmented into four or five directionless small factions, is barely\nhovering between life and death, its feuding leaders having become popular\nlaughing stocks among the impatiently waiting electorate through their funny\nelectioneering shenanigans and inane utterances on the campaign trail. The\ngenuinely patriotic elements among the rank and file of the grand old party\nfind themselves left in the lurch by their self-absorbed leaders. But when the\ntime comes, they will join the nationalists, for they are sure to realise, if\nthey have average intelligence, that only a nationalist victory will save the\ncountry for all its citizens, irrespective of race, religion, and politics, as\nan independent sovereign state where they can hope to eventually resuscitate\ntheir historic party, that will eventually emerge as a worthy rival to the\nSLPP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka will not survive as an independent sovereign nation\nunless it manages to break loose of the stranglehold of the hegemonic West\nwhich operates through the UNP and its opportunistic allies. Antinationalist\nforces enjoy an advantage in the existing electoral system that does not allow\na clear winner to emerge at parliamentary elections, which results in minority\nparties becoming kingmakers. This allows communalist minority politicians to\nplay politics at the expense of the broad national interest, whichever of the\ntwo main parties or respective alliances led by them comes to power with their\nassistance. Until Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s resounding victory in November 2019 it\nwas accepted wisdom that a presidential candidate cannot win on the strength of\nSinhalese votes alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Gotabaya\u2019s election was an unplanned\/unintended\/unexpected\nexposure of that long existing fallacy. Does this mean that the Sri Lankan\nelectorate is permanently divided into two blocs: majority vs minorities? No.\nDuring campaigning for the presidential election, nationalists led by Gotabaya\nand Mahinda made all possible overtures to the minorities to become partners of\nthe historic victory that was by then assured, though they already knew they\ncould win even without their participation. The final result showed that the\nminority contribution to Gotabaya\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n

election was less than what was expected. This was because of the\ninfluence of the few powerful communalist minority politicos over their polity.\nAfter the election, Gotabaya said that, though he won because the majority of\nthe majority voted for him (notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the minorities\nvoted for his rivals despite his pre-poll appeal to them to support him), he\nwas elected president for all Sri Lankans and invited them to participate in\nnation building with him. His conduct during the election and after has shown\nthat he is eminently suitable for the job he has been elected for. But he is\nbeing hampered by the absence of a parliament that can work with him. The\nnon-racist ordinary Tamils and Muslims are getting a chance to help the\nmajority Sinhalese elect that parliament on August 5.  This is no easy\ntask, though. Many odds are stacked against them. What these are everybody\nknows. At the moment <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Today, at the end of seventy two years of  so-called independence, Sri Lanka finds itself pushed to the edge of a precipice, despite the many sacrifices made by patriots in blood, sweat and tears for its unity and stability as a flourishing sovereign state during that period (and before, for that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}