{"id":105191,"date":"2020-08-03T00:40:18","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T06:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105191"},"modified":"2020-08-02T17:32:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T00:32:35","slug":"thoughts-on-the-2020-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/03\/thoughts-on-the-2020-general-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on the 2020 General Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Let us try to get away from\nthe rhetoric- the art of effective or persuasive speaking, often with an\nimplication of insincerity or exaggeration\u201d(Oxford Dictionary). Promises are\nmany but it is quite evident that most promises cannot be easily fulfilled.\nPresident Gotabhaya\u2019s promises are few but he has vowed to implement them. So\nfar since becoming the President and from 2005 to 2015 he has been able to keep\nto his word. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leaders, who stand a\nchance of getting elected  are well known\nand more, in some capacity they have ruled our country for years, and perhaps\nmore than what they speak, historical facts telling what they really did, when\nthey were ruling as President, Prime Minister or Minister will reveal what we\ncan expect of them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Foreign Meddling <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

It has become normal for foreign Superpowers  to take action against countries that were\nfollowing Socialist policies. The following excerpt from Professor Jeffery\nSachs tells it all:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notorious act of US\nunilaterlism include the CIA led overthrow of several governments-Iran, Guyana,\nGuatamala,  South Vietnam and Chile, the\nassassination of countless foreign officials and  several disastrous unilateral acts of war on\nCentral America, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Iraq. The US has thrown out\nelections through  secret CIA financing,\nput foreign leaders on CIA payroles and supported violent leaders  who then came back to haunt  the US in a notorious boomerang or blowback\neffect(including Sadaam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden), both once on CIA\npayroles\u201d(Commonwealth Economics for a Crowded Planet, Allen Lane, 2008) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka has had its share of\nforeign influence in elections. It is well known that the defeat of President\nMahinda Rajapaksa in 2015 was hatched at Harvard University in the USA.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It is up to the voter to decide which\ncandidates are acting against the sovereignty of the country.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Important infringements on Sri\nLanka\u2019s  Sovereignty.   <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The country survived  the Fidel Castro type of one day attempt by\nthe JVP to take over the country in April 1971, when it was found that the\nNorth Korean Embassy had a hand in the uprising and the Embassy was promptly\nshut down and the officials deported. Once the uprising was quelled and the JVP\ncadres decamped to the Sinharaja Hills, a European Ambassadorial jeep came\nseveral times and went into the jungles to meet them.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the two uprisings in 1971\nand 1987-89, with the functioning of kangaroo courts,  the rich \nin the rural habitat\u2013 the rice millers, estate owners etc. who   had made the rural areas their homes,\ndecamped to the cities and were so frightened that they  never returned to their rural habitat.\nIt  is they and their children when grown\nup  that had invested in their rural\nareas. They sent their children overseas for study, never to return to the\nMotherland. The rural areas became dead.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major\nhistorical happenings during Periods when the chief contenders at this election\nruled or when they were associated with the rulers <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us take the periods when\nthe chief contenders ruled, when their political parties held sway and assess\nthe major events of how the country was handled and the major changes made.\nThis will easily reflect what we can expect of the present day contenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nJayawardena 1977- <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When President Jayawardena\ntook over at the tail end of 1977, a major change was to liberalize the\neconomy. Though President Jayawardena \ndid whatever the IMF dictated, by 1986, the economy ended in shambles.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1948, when we achieved\nindependence the economy was managed \nwith the foreign exchange we earned. There were import controls to\nensure that essential consumer goods were imported and allocations of foreign\nexchange were made for the import of luxury items, according to available\nforeign exchange.  The IMF advised\nPresident Jayawardena to open up imports- not to have import controls and also\nto liberalize the use of foreign exchange- allow foreign exchange to be used\nfreely for foreign travel, for educational expenses abroad. When the country\nhad no foreign exchange to meet such increased commitments, the IMF advice was\nto privatize paying State assets and if that was insufficient, to raise loans.\nIt is this process followed from the end of 1977 that led to the ballooning of\nthe foreign debt to some $ 60 billion today. \nThough Ronnie de Mel, the Minister of Finance in his Budget Speech of\n1978 hailed this : We cannot go round the world begging for aid like\ninternational beggars forever.  We must\nget out of this vicious circle of no growth, stagnation and mounting internal\nand external debt\u201d(Budget Speech: 1978), the result was the opposite. Using\nmoney that one did not possess and raising loans only worked to make us more\nindebted. In eight years, by 1986 the economy was in shambles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In the words of the World Bank: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By 1986\u2026the deterioration of\nthe economy had become evident. The growth rate of the GDP  slowed to under 4 %, unemployment rose  to about 17% and gross official reserves  declined \nto less than 2 months’ imports\u201d(World Bank:Trends in Developing\nEconomies,1990:496) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the foreign debt of Sri\nLanka was negligible in 1977, by 1986, it had ballooned  to $ 4,063 million and it increased to $ 5100\nmillion by 1989. Comparatively when Jayawardena commenced following the IMF\nprescriptions of the SAP at the end of 1977 Sri Lanka had a negligible foreign\ndebt- only $ 750 million. The country slumped to become an indebted nation. In\nother words the IMF had through its advice made Sri Lanka a sovereign nation\nthat had a negligible foreign debt to become a heavilyindebted country with a\nforeign debt of $ 60 billion today. Currently Sri Lanka has to meet a payment\nof $ 4 billion in 2020 purely to service the loans it owes. This is the legacy\nthat President Jayawardena of the UNP has left for Sri Lanka- a situation of\nindebtedness from which Sri Lanka can never redeem itself.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even since President\nJayawardena followed the prescriptions of the IMF, though the rich in the\ncountry benefitted from relaxed foreign exchange controls- could go on foreign\nholidays, send off their offspring to study abroad and enjoy imported goods,\nthe country slumped into foreign debt and the masses- the vast majority of the\npeople could not afford even to buy consumer goods as the prices had escalated.\nThis caused poverty and inflation. The Structural Adjustment Programme(SAP) of\nthe IMF  contain an economic system that\nwould lead the countries to become indebted in the process of servicing the\nloans as the loans were non developmental.\u201d(From Karunaratne: How the IMF\nSabotaged Third World Development(Kindle\/Godages: 2017) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since gaining independence in\n1948 Sri Lanka had developed and implemented an intricate and effective development\ninfrastructure to enable development. One of the conditions laid down in\nfollowing the neoliberal policies imposed by he IMF was that the Government had\nto accept the Private Sector as the Engine of Growth and in keeping with that\nproviso, the Public Sector should not have any development incentives. This\nmeant that the  development\ninfrastructure  had to be abolished.  In order to help agricultural production, the\nGovernment implemented a Guaranteed Price Scheme for paddy and other\ncereals in short supply. The aim was to enable cultivators earn a premium price\nfor their production. This Scheme was abolished and along with it the godowns\nand Rice Mills which were  very valuable-\nwere sold for a song or left to rot as scrap. This was a great loss. The\nproducers were thereby denied  a\nreasonable  price for their produce. It\nis the authors contention that this was purposely imposed on Third World\ncountries to destroy their agriculture development  so that they would have to depend on wheat\nfrom the USA and Europe.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Scheme was the Vegetable\nand Fruit Purchasing Scheme, run by the Marketing Department, which provided a\nhigh price for local vegetables and fruits. The Marketing Department also had a\nCannery, to make Jam,  Juice and Sauces\nout of local fruit. The IMF insisted that the Cannery should be privatized\nand the Vegetable and Fruit Purchasing Scheme should be scrapped. This was\ndone  and the Marketing Department was\nabolished. While this enabled imports of jam and Juice from Developed Countries\nlike the USA it did cause poverty in that the producers could not sell their\nproduce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka had a very\nsuccessfully run Public Transport Scheme- a  fully equipped coach making unit at Werahera.\nThe country was producing its own coaches on imported chassis. This fully\nequipped unit at Werahera was closed down and the valuable state of the art\nmachinery sold for a song, Thereafter Sri Lanka had to import all its coaches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Railways had developed machinery to make all coaches at Ratmalana, This\nwas also closed down and thousands of carpenters lost their jobs. Thereafter\nrail carriages were imported.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scrapping of this\ndevelopment infrastructure was agreed and done by President Jayawardena  of the UNP.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education  Sri Lanka had concentrated on\nhaving a highly developed school system, where children were taught free. The\nUNP Government introduced Private International Paying Schools which taught the\nchildren of the rich  for foreign exams\nand this ruptured the  comprehensive\nsystem of education that had been highly developed with  Central Schools. The UNP is totally\nresponsile for ruining the education system and actually creating  a youth that shun Sri Lankan  culture and values. This was a major\nretrograde creation of the UNP.  Ranil\nWickremasinghe of the UNP happened to be the Minister for Education that ruined\neducation in Sri Lanka <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another major incident during\nPresident Jayawardena\u2019s period is how he caved in to Prime Minister Rajiv\nGandhi of India and agreed to enact the 13 th Amendment to the\nConstitution of Sri Lanka. The Constitution of a country is a sacred document\nand any change has a bearing on the sovereignty of the country  and President Jayawardena caving into the\nPrime Minister of India to change the Constitution marks a great failure of\nPresident Jayawardena. The 13 th Amendment with Provincial Councils and\ndecentralizing subjects was not suitable for a small country like Sri Lanka.\nThe Provincial Council system is very costly and it is an unnecessary\nexpenditure. Decntralization of important subjects like agriculture had a\ndetrimental effect.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The manner in which the 13 th\nAmendment was passed in Parliament  is\nalso of great importance. It indicates the extent to which President\nJayawardena and the UNP disregarded the interests of the country and compelled  the elected representatives- the Members of\nParliament to be forced, like at gun point- by incarcerating them in a hotel,\nkeeping them under lock and key and marching them to Parliament to vote as he\npleased. The President  also held letters\nof resignation signed by all MPs (except for Ronnie de Mel, the Minister of\nFinance), which he held as ransom to use in case any MP refused to carry out\nhis instructions. This undemocratic method of ruling by President Jayawardena\nremains a major scar on the UNP.. Up to date in implementing the 13 th\nAmendment Police and Land Powers have not been decentralized.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Samagi Bala Vegaya where\nSajith Premadasa  is the main candidate\nhas already declared that the  13 th\nAmendment in full- with police and land powers will be implemented. Sri Lanka\nwill be without any  doubt  balkanized into provincial regimes and\nthat  will be the end of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prresident\nPremadasa  1989-1993 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

President Premadasas when\nhe  was president helped the LTTE, the\nTamil rebels who wanted to carve out the north and east of Sri Lanka as a\nseparate state. President Premadasa even provided weapons to the LTTE, which\nthey ultimately used against the Sri Lankan Army. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Premadasa in  Peace Talks with the LTTE agreed to hand over\nthe Eastern Province to the LTTE and the police personnel in all the police\nstations in the Eastern Province were instructed to surrender to the LTTE\ncadres in the area. This was done and the LTTE instead of providing them safe\npassage to Colombo  as agreed, marched\n600 police personnel  to the jungle where\nthey were murdered.  This action of\nPresident Premadasa is a crime that can never be forgiven. ..  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during th reign of\nPresident Premadasa that there was a reign of terror and many people went\nmissing, A well known lyric writer, poet Richard de Zoysa  is supposed to have been abducted and killed\nby the armed forces. In the days of \nPresident Premadasa there was compulsory acquistion of land in Colombo,\nwithout any rhyme or reason. One land owner \ncould not even find a lawyer  to\nfile a petition in the Supreme Court to stay the acquisition of her\nland.\u201d(Karunaratne: How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka: 2006: Godages) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Sajith Premadasa who leads the Samagi\nBalaVegaya, evidently  a splinter group\nof the UNP at this  General Election,  only quotes the good deeds like rural\ndevelopment which was done by President Premadasa <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chandrika\nKumaranatunge <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Kumaranatunge during her\nperiod tried to defeat the LTTE but miserably failed. It was during her time\nthat the LTTE attacked the Colombo Airport destroying a number of aircraft.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Mahinda Rajapaksa\n2005-2015 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major achievement during\nthis period was the defeat of the LTTE.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The LTTE had a reign of terror\nfor 30 years, developed the idea of having child soldiers and suicide bombing\nand had a reign of terror in the entire island <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Rajapakda vowed to\ndefeat the LTTE and commenced military action. The LTTE ruled the North of the\nisland for close on three decades ,but was militarily defeated by President\nRajapaksa in 2009. The cat was out of the bag at the last moment when the\nSuperpowers, including France, the UK and the USA, came forward and  insisted that Prabhakaran,  the leader of the LTTE should be spared.  President Rajapaksa did not give in and\nfinally the LTTE was routed and the leader Prabhakaran killed in 2009.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the\nbrother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa who had once served in the Sri lanka\nArmy as a Lietunenant Colonel was the Defence Secretary  and played a key role in the defeat of the\nLTTE.  This defeating the LTTE shows\ntheir mettle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The major achievement of\nPresident Mahinda Rajapaksa was the defeat of the LTTE. Earlier as Minister for\nHighways under the reign of Chandrika Kumaranatunge, he saw to it that Sri\nLanka had  developed a network of well\nbuilt roads.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Gotabhaya\nRajpaksa  played a major role in the\ndevelopment of the country.  He\nsinglehandedly developed the City of Colombo, equipped it with walkways,  and various amenities.  Under him Colombo could even aspire to have\nbeen  the best city in South Asia.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Helping Hambantota\ncheque incident is  held against\nPrime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. During the Tsunami Invasion in 2004, it was\nbrought to his notice that a cheque has ben received  as a donation and he ordered that it be\nbanked. It was banked and forgotten. Later on it was raised as a charge of\nmisappropriation and the cheque was traced lying unused in a bank account. This\nincident has to be taken in context when some 30,000 citizens had perished when\nthe Tsunami struck and in the absence of the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa in\nhis capacity as the PrimeMinister,  was\nrunning everywhere in a helicopter issuing instructions. There was no time to\nrecord events and keep notes. It was a time when the earth was turning on its\nhead. Take the matter out of context and one can say that he should have\nensured that the cheque was credited properly. \nThe author too has had an inkiling of serious days when  it was a matter of life or death, when there\nwas an action sequence every minute and there was no time to write down and\ncheck whether orders had been  carries\nout. This cheque incident must be taken in the context of handling an\nunprecedented  national calamity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prime Minister Mahiunda\nRajapaksa has faced many problems. He has never run away like President\nChandrika when the Kolonnawa oil tanks were in flames- an attack by the LTTE.\nShe was emplaning at the airport when that incident happened. She continued\nleaving the island,  leaving  the Presidential Secretariat to be manned by\nhis Secretary. The one time Mahinda Rajapaksa \nran away was  in 2015, when  he realized that the voters had rejected him.\nThen  he left Temple Trees abruptly and\nstopped only at Medamulana. That indicates his adherence to the democratic process\nof governance and elevates his standing in democratic politics.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maitripala\nSirisena cum Ranil Wickremasinghe \n2015-2019 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The Yahapalane Government of\n2015 was actually a Government that was established by foreign forces.  The USA played a key role. It was the sequel\nto President Rajapaksa refusing to follow the dictate of all the\nSuperpowers  not to harm and spare\nPrabhakaran the leader of the LTTE. True to his form President Rajapaksa\nrefused to accede to their request and the LTTE was totally defeated with the\nleader too being killed in 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Maitripala Sirisena was\nimplanted as the president, the Yahapalana Government was ably run by Ranil\nWickremasinghe of the UNP who was the Prime Minister.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sacrificing the sovereigny of\nSri Lanka was clearly evident in the \nYahapalana Government co sigining and agreeing to a UK sponsored\nsubmission to the Geneva Council of Human Rights.  By this the Government of Sri Lanka agreed to\nmany provisions put forward by the Superpowers including foreign judges\nparticipating in Sri Lanka on investigations against the Sri Lankan Army\ndefeating the Liberation Tigers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Period 2015-2019 was\nmarked with an increased foreign debt. The Central Government debt, as a share\nof the GDP had increased to 102.5% when the UNP ended its term in 2005.  President Mahinda Rajapaksa handled the\neconomy prudently and reduced the debt to 72.3% by 2015.  However from 2015 to 2019, under the Yahapalana\nGovernment  the debt increased to  86.8%. \nThis speaks of mismanagement during UNP rule and prudent management\nduring President Rajapaksa\u2019s rule.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in 2001-2004 Ranil\nWickremasinghe as the Prime Minister, sided the Liberation Tigers and had to be\nremoved by the President Kumaranatunge in 2004. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MCCCompact.  The United States\npressurized the Government to sign an agreement with the MCC(Millennium\nChallenge Corporation) for allowing the USA to have a stake in Sri Lanka in\nreturn for a grant of $ 480 million. This was supposed to be spent on a\ntransportation and a land project. An agreement was to be signed  but due to protests the Prime Minister Ranil\nWickremasinghe said that the agreement will be signed after the UNP nominee\nSajit Premadasa wins at the presidential election. Under the transport project\nsome roads and traffic lights etc were to be developed , to easen traffic\ncongestion while under the land project, all crown land including  land on colonization schemes, alienated under\nrestricted conditions, were  to be given\nfull saleable rights. These lands were alienated on specific conditions meant\nto ensure that this land will remain within the peasantry. This was decided\nduring the State Council days. The intention of the MCC proposals was evidently\nto enable multinationals to get control over land in Sri Lanka.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This MCC agreement divides Sri\nLanka into three segments with a corridor from Trincomalee to Colombo,\nincluding both ports. This major corridor comprised 28% of the land mass of Sri\nLanka. This section was to be given to the USA for a period of 200 years.\nComparatively the British ruled Sri Lanka only for a period of 133  years- 1815 to 1948. This section would come\nunder US jurisdiction. In short the land would be US territory coming under US\nlaws..  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A map distributed by MCC\nteam Leader Steve Dobrilovic showed this \n200 mile corridor between Colombo and Trincomalee to be awarded to the\nUS authorities coming under US jurisdiction where an electric rail track  was to be built effectively dividing Sri\nLanka into a southern and northern region. It was a plan for Sri Lanka to be\nhanded over to the US Government and for the North to get into the hands of the\nLtte rebels who today are planning subversion in secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These negotiations took place\nin absolute secrecy between representatives of the Yahapalana Government and\nthe MCC team from the USA housed within the Temple Trees Complex used by Prime\nMinister Ranil Wickremasinghe.\u201d(Lanka Web10\/1\/2019) This was highly irregular. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant was to be given to\nbe managed by a MCC Company under US Government procurement rules and\nregulations\u201d(Lanka Web: 11\/01\/2020) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important to note that\nsimilar agreements to divide Sri Lanka were also proposed earlier by the Asian\nDevelopment Bank an  the Export Import\nBank of Korea, but these were all based on loans. In the case of the MCC it was\na grant. However the grant was to be given to a company-   which will work with theMillennium Challenge\nCorporation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is to be noted that the\nvaluable phosphate deposits of Eppawela as well as the illmenite deposits at\nPulumuddai were within this corridor to be handed over to the USA.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is correct to state that\nthis MCC Compact will impringe on the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. Once granted\nthis area will come under US, managed under their laws.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNP Yahapalana Government\nof 2015-2019 was at first to get Minister Mangala Samaraweera to sign this MCC\nCompact Agreement but this was  put off\ndue to protests.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim of the MCC as the\nalleviation of poverty is only a fa\u00e7ade to get this agreement signed. Instead\nthe MCC Compact  will enable foreign\nmultiinationals to gain control over the land.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the opinion of Neville\nLaduwahetty that  in the case of the MCC\nCompact, the issue is that an Act that affects an asset that is an integral\npart  of the sovereignty  of all the people and held in trust by\nelected representatives of governments \nshould not be passed by a simple majority  but ONLy by a special majority of two third\napproval of Parliament and approval by the people at a Referendum.(The Island:\n16\/7\/2019) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNP insisted that they\nwould sign the MCC Pact and when they found it impossible to sign,  then declared that they would sign the\nagreement on the day after their candidate Sajith Premadasa is victorious at\nthe presidential election That did not happen and now they shout out that the\nGovernment of President Gotabhaya will sign it. On the other hand President\nGotabhaya has subjected the MCC Pact to a Report by experts led by Professor\nGunaruwan and the entire Report has been released to the public. The Report\nstates in definite terms that the MCC Pact infringes on the sovereignty of Sri\nLanka and spokesmen of the Government have stated that it will not be signed.\nThe President Gotabhaya method is upright \nwith nothing to hide while when it was handled in 2015-2019, by Prime\nMinister Wickremasinghe everything was swept under the carpet. It was\ndefinitely wrong to house a US Company the Millennium Chaallenge Corporation\ndrafting and scheming to get the Pact signed housed in the hallowed sacred\npremises of Temple Trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sajith Premadasa  was a leading minister of the Yahapalana\nGovernment of 1995 to 2020 and has to take responsibility for Government\nmisdeeds as he was a senior minister in the Cabinet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is sad that the US Embassy\nresorted to many tactics to get the MCC Pact signed. Though the MCC Pact is\ncouched in terms of poverty alleviation- it amounts to a sweetened pill to drag\nSri Lanka more into the orbit of the US hedgemony in South Asia.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My frank opinion is that the\nMCC Compact is an attempt to carve out a separate State for the LTTE, this time\nin a sheep\u2019s clothing. It is a task that was earlier attempted by the ADB and\nthe Eximm Bank of Korea. Then the offer was a loan. In the MCC Compact it was a\ngrant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Sri Lanka has the\nability  to develop our own resources as\nproved just at this moment by the restoration of the Valachenai Paper factory\naccomplished in a few months during President Gotabhaya\u2019s regime. It is\nreported that Valachenai Paper will be offered for sale within the next month.\nThis is an indication of the economic development that can be expected under\nPresident Gotabhaya. The manner in which President Gotabhaya  handled the Corona virus epidemic , by\ndeploying the army to check and provide quarantine has enabled Sri Lanka to\nbecome the foremost country that handled the Coronavirus epidemic in an able\nmanner. This alone speaks volumes about President Gotabhaya\u2019s ability to tackle\na calamity. In his able hands Sri Lanka will inevitably prosper.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The historical  facts detailed above enable the voter who may\nhave forgotten our history, to act as a patriot and save Sri Lanka at the\nGeneral Election 2020.. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin Karunaratne\u00a0
Former GA, Matara,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2\/7\/2020 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author of How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alternative Programmes of Success(Godages :2006) \u00a0\u00a0
How the IMF Sabotaged Thord World Development(Kindle\/Godages: 201<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne, former G.A. Matara\u00a0 Let us try to get away from the rhetoric- the art of effective or persuasive speaking, often with an implication of insincerity or exaggeration\u201d(Oxford Dictionary). Promises are many but it is quite evident that most promises cannot be easily fulfilled. President Gotabhaya\u2019s promises are few but he has vowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105191","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=105191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}