{"id":105773,"date":"2020-08-22T14:14:04","date_gmt":"2020-08-22T21:14:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=105773"},"modified":"2020-08-22T14:14:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-22T21:14:34","slug":"2020-year-of-great-expectations-of-a-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/08\/22\/2020-year-of-great-expectations-of-a-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"2020, Year of Great Expectations of a nation?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara.<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

2020, Year\nof Great Expectations of a nation after 72 years of pompous celebrations of\nso-called Independence since 1948.<\/strong> Will they be fulfilled at least now, under the\nGovernment of Gothabahaya Rajapaksa<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I start writing this note on the assumption\nthat we have not received any independence, other than the room to elect local\nrepresentatives to Parliament under a system orchestrated by the British with\nserious limitations on us as an Independent nation. (This subject has to be\ntreated separately as it is outside the scope of this essay. (Please see Did\nthis country get any Independence in 1948, Lankaweb 31.1. 2019.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of this essay is to\nhighlight the long overdue grievances of a nation neglected, not addressed and\ntherefore betrayed by its own elected rulers for the past 72 years after\ncelebrating a fake Independence we are supposed   to         have    got\nin 1948 and bring them to the immediate attention                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           of\nthe new President and the people\u2019s Government elected by them with\nunprecedented faith and hopes in one person called Gothabahaya from Magama in\nRuhuna, the birth place of legendary King Dutugemunu the Great, to get those\nhistorical injustices inflicted upon a nation, both by invaders and by their\nown leaders rectified at least now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at\nthe way how President Rajapaksa has spoken and acted since his historic\nswearing it at the Ruwanweli Mahaseya up to the latest at the inauguration of\nthe 9th<\/sup> Parliament on the 20th<\/sup> of August one can have the\nhighest confidence in him as a true patriotic Sinhala Buddhist leader that he\nwill <\/strong>definitely fulfill the\nburning unfulfilled aspirations of this nation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we all\nknow historically Ruhuna had been the cradle of national heroes throughout\nhistory and the birth place of the nation\u2019s greatest war hero King Dutugamunu,\nfrom where Gotabhaya also hails. \nIncidentally among the King Dutugemeun\u2019s Dasamaha yodayas<\/em> there was also a warrior by the name Gothayimbara,\nthe patriotic people of this country believe is reborn as Gothabhaya, the\nlegendary Diyasena mentioned in Perakumbasirita to save this nation and its\nmotherland.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Long list<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously\nthe list of grievances given here is too long. But readers have to bear with me\nas this constitutes a dream of an 82 year old patriot of this soil who has been\nfighting and yearning for this change for the last 50 years and who does not\nwish to die without getting them fulfilled by someone before the writer closes\nhis eyes in this life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer believes the expectation\nof the majority people in this country to be the same as those of the writer as\nhe too comes from the same class. The expectations of the people at this\nelection were greater than at any of the previous elections since so-called\nIndependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 First and foremost they expect this Government\nto be the best since the so-called 1948 Independence, that will usher in a\nperiod of sanity, peace and prosperity preceded by restoring law and order and\nfull freedom from all internal and external threats like narcotics, underworld,\nfrauds and bribes, corruption and wastage of public funds and abuse of\nauthority on the part of both politicians and public officials and unnecessary\ninterference by foreign countries in the domestic matters of the country. They\nalso expect a patriotic and people friendly government under the present\nleadership. In short they expect a government by the people, for the people and\nof the people\u2019 in place of the corrupt and oligarchic \u2018government of the\npoliticians, for the politicians and of the politicians\u2019 as we have had up to\ndate in this country from the time we know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A legacy of\ndeception and betrayals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Sri Lanka is a nation that had been\ndeceived and betrayed by their own politicians who were only implementing the\nBritish system of government with its political, legal and administrative\nsystems as laid down by the British under the Soulbury Constitution for the\npast 72 years of so–called self-government that benefitted only the\npoliticians and their kith and kin ever since 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 As a result the country and once a\nGreat Nation in the world had been dumped in to an Augean mess almost beyond\nrecovery by all successive governments by blindly following the British system\nof governance completely alien to us, that was designed to divide and destroy\nthe 2500 year old Sinhala Buddhist civilization in this country, without going\nback to our roots we had inherited for millennia, to make this country a free,\nindependent, vibrant and prosperous country, in spite of its unique location on\nthe globe and enormously rich natural and human resources. The British not only\ndivided and destroyed the Sinhala nation that existed up to 1815 including\nTamil and moor elements, on ethnic, linguistic and religious grounds and\nlabeled it as a multi-ethnic, multi religious and multi- racial nation but also\nthey divided the country in to Provinces based on  language, religion and ethnicity on grounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What was worse is they even conferred special\nprivileges on Tamil and Muslim minorities who were outsiders and forming an\ninsignificant fraction of the total population of the country by allowing them\nto have their own civil courts, marriage and divorce and inheritance laws while\ndepriving the native Sinhalese of their entire legal traditions and forcibly\nimposing the Roman Dutch and English Laws on them. Unfortunately no politician\nat that time raised these issues. Even today the same discrimination remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 3 We are a nation that claims a long legacy of\nan Independent and sovereign government of our own with a glorious heritage\nthat flourished on this land for nearly 2600 years or even more, as recent\narchaeological evidence have found.  It\nwas annexed to the British Empire by convention between two sovereign nations in\n1815 (the only country in the world so annexed without defeating by war) , 1815\nConvention was completely replaced by Royal proclamation of Nov 21 1818 by\nBrown Wrigg (the brutal colonial murderer) that made the 1815 Kandyan\nConvention of March 2nd completely a dead letter But in practice although it\nstill stands valid as a legal document drawn between two sovereign nations\nunder International law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 69.5\nmillion people in this country who elected President Gotahabhaya Rajapaksa as\ntheir President on 16th<\/sup> of November 2019 and elected this government\nin to power on 5th August 2020 with a 2\/3 majority winning almost all Districts\nare aspiring for a complete change in the existing political, legal,\nadministrative systems and socio-cultural outlook under a new Constitution that\nis based on our own civilization, that is the Sinhala Buddhist culture that has\nnurtured this nation for more than two and half millennia and taken to great heights,\nat least now, as Martin Jacques has pronounced in his famous treaty When China\nRules the World\u201d 2009.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Therefore the  need to replace the Alien British system of\ngovernance with the native system of State craft that flourished over time and\ntime tested for 2 \u00bd  millennia on this\nland as a Sinhala Buddhist model introduced to this Island by Arahat Mahinda\nThera in 307 BC.  At least now we have to\ntell the world that we were not barbarians when British annexed this country by\ndeceit and we  were a nation with a with\na great civilization with our own statecraft and legal system long before the\nBritish were known as a civilized nation in this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under this backdrop the gap between\nthe achievable and expected goals of the nation is extremely wide. I call this\nelection a historic event and a mass uprising calling for a turning point in\nthe history of the Island Nation. This is why I name the coming years as an age\nof Great Expectations of the Sinhala nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preliminaries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Immediately after completing the\nParliamentary formalities like appointing the new Prime Minister, Speaker, the\nDeputy Chairman, Leader of the Opposition etc, \npeople of this country want the President to appoint a small Cabinet\n(say 20 the most) out of the best with clean track records, eminent in\ndifferent fields and acceptable to the people from among the elected. No\nNational list MP should be appointed as a Cabinet or State Minister as they are\nnot elected by the people and not responsible for the people. (In fact this\nso-called national list that has already become a big joke, eroded democracy\nand become  a mere tool of the Party\nleaders and come to remain as a dead weight around the nation\u2019s neck should be\nabolished at the first opportunity the government can do it legally.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Then, beside the usual swearing in\nmade under the Fourth Schedule to the Constitution to defend and uphold the\nConstitution etc get them also to swear that hence forth they will devote\ntheir full time for the good of the people and the motherland discarding all\npersonal agendas\u201d as it had been the practice up to date in this country. Also\nmake it mandatory for all MPP to attend all session and remain their the full\ntime until the proceedings of the day are over, violation of which should be\nmade punishable  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Prioritized list of people\u2019s expectations<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the\npeople who voted this Government expect from it now<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I list below some of the main burning\nissues and grievances what the patriotic people of this country who have voted  the President in last November and the SLPP in\nto power on August 5th<\/sup> 2020 election expect the new Government under\nGothabhaya to resolve with the least delay, as they have been already delayed\nat least by 72 years<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A list of\nHigh priorities are given below <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 A Cabinet of 20 from among the\nelected Members of Parliament only<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 Bring down cost of living\nimmediately as it is priority No 1 of the masses and restore the stability of\nthe Rupee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Politicians elected by the people\nshould work for the good of the people and the country and not for their own\nenrichment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Remove the 19th Amendment, without\nrestoring the 18th<\/sup> retaining its good provisions in the 20th A and\nrestoring full Executive powers of the President sans    Presidential immunity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Restore law and order and good\ngovernance in the country by reorganizing, restructuring, streamlining and\npruning the political, legal and administrative institutions as most of them\nhave become big burdens to the economy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Formulate a strict code of conduct\nfor all politicians and public servants and set targets for both groups\n(monthly\/six monthly)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 Scrap the Ministry for Hill country\nNew Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development Ministry created by the\nprevious Govt immediately, that was meant exclusively for Estate Tamils and\nIndianization of  this country\nimmediately that discriminates against the Bhoomiputras , the Sinhala nation\nand Instead<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 Set up a\nseparate Ministry immediately for the rehabilitation of native Kandyan peasants\nunder the President as the Head of the State to restore and rehabilitate the\nKandyan Peasants as proposed in the KPC Report of 1951. (That would be the\ngreatest tribute the President could pay to the hundreds of thousands of those\nvaliant Sinhala patriots who sacrificed their lives and everything they had,\nfrom 1505 to 1848 to protect this country for the Sinhala nation. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 Close down the Indian Consulate\noffices in Hambantota, Jaffna and Kandy ASAP as they pose a big threat to our\nIndependence and sovereignty. There is absolutely no need to have four\nconsulate offices in all strategic corners in a small country of 25 000 sq\nmiles when they have a fully equipped A class Embassy in Colombo, unless the\nIndia has a secret plan up in its sleeves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 Revoke the JR\/Rajiv Accord of 1987\nand the 13th Amendment, the two Indian made Kautilyan Atomic bombs to bring\nthis country under its full control and finally annex this Island to the Subcontinent\nand destroy the Sinhala Buddhist civilization on this planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 This should be followed up by\nabolishing the Provincial Councils (created by India) together with the\nProvinces created by the British to destroy the Sinhala Buddhist nation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 Also abolish the Pradesiya Sabha\nSystem and go back to the native Village Council that administered this\ncountryside of this nation from 427 BC also save trillions on their future\nmaintenance as it had been done for 35 years since 1987 which has brought\nabsolutely no benefit to the country or the people but had been disastrous only\nall round (Politically, administratively, economically and socially) while\nproviding a heaven for politicians at lower level and vote netting for\nParliamentarians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 Declare this country again as \u2018The Sinhala Buddhist Kingdom\u201d as it had\nbeen before 1815 for 2500 years<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

14 1nvoke the 6th Amendment of the 1978 Constitution immediately and ban\nall political parties named after ethnicity, religion or race, leaving only\nNational Parties<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 Restore the historical name of\nthis country SIHALE that was there in 1815 when it was ceded to British by\nConvention and rename all villages named by Sajit Premadasa as  Gramams (18), \n(Indian), and Akbar Nagar (Arabian) etc with tax payers money with the\nulterior motive of  collecting Tamil and\nMuslim votes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16 Grant citizen ship to Indians only\nunder the Nehru\/Kotalawala Agreement 1954 and revoke all citizenships given\nunder all other criteria just to collect their votes since 1956<\/p>\n\n\n\n

17 Enact a New Constitution ASAP\nbased on our culture limiting Parliament to 160 seats, Scrap the National list\nand Limit the Cabinet to 15 Cabinet Ministers and deputies to about 20<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18 Ban establishment of all mono\nTamil or Muslim Settlements in any place in the country as it is done today\nspecially in the Central hill country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

19 Remove all special privileges\ngiven to MPP like pension after five years (a gross violation of the Pension\nAct and a criminal discrimination against nearly 600,00 Government pensioners\nwho get a pittance after 35 years of hard labour), duty free vehicle permits\nevery 3 years and many more , too long to be listed here, to discourage selfish\npeople getting in to politics to make money at public expense <\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 Save Sri Lanka from the tyranny of\nminority politics by banning all political parties set up on racial, religious\nor regional basis Like Tami, Hindu Muslim or even Sinhala.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

21 Remove the obnoxious so-called\nNational list of 29 to reduce the burden on the people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

22 Stop appointing any Tamil or\nMuslim as Ministers of Justice, Education., Trade, Land, Cultural Affairs,\nForeign Affairs, Ports And Shipping and Plantation, unless and until they\naccept that this is the Land of the Sinhala Buddhist Nation  and they are only minority communities living\nin that country and they never claim separate Kingdoms with self-rule\u201d and\nalso unless you find a person of Luxman Kadiragama\u2019s caliber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 23 No Cabinet Minister should be allowed to\ntake any decision or make any appointment anywhere without being finally\napproved by the Cabinet presided over by the President<\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 Introduce electoral reforms to\nhave one MP for each electorate and do away with the District MPP and\nproportional representation system and preferential voting <\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 Declare one country, one law, one\nnation, one official language (SINHALA), one National Flag (sans the strips)\nand one National Anthem like in any other country  in the new Constitution<\/p>\n\n\n\n

25 Scrap the British found Provinces\nand go back to the District system of administration and reduce the number of\nDistricts in present Northern Province to 3 by scraping Mullative and\nKilinochchi Districts as only that Province has 5 Districts<\/p>\n\n\n\n

26 Allocate public Sector jobs\naccording to the prevailing ethnic ratios to stop discrimination against the\nSinhala majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

27 Stop appointing defeated candidate\nto any post in government or semi-government jobs including diplomatic posts as\nit is often done today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

28 Make Buddhism the State religion\nand bring the Ministry of Buddhism under the President as it had been the\ntradition throughout history in this country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 29 Appoint a permanent commission to inquire\nin to malpractices of all politicians and high officials from 1987 including\nmisuse of tax free vehicle permits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 Eradicate the drug menace\ncorruption and waste in public expenditure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

31 Declare all lands >5000 feet MSL\nas strictly reserved Forest and ban all human settlements above 3500 ft. as it\nhad been declared by royal decree before 1815 and establish mixed settlement\nfor landless Kndyan Peasants and displaced Estate Tamil due to implementation\nof this settlement rule and  who are\nqualified as Citizens as under N\/K agreement 1954.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

32 Re-name all villages and place\nnames given since 1815 including those made by Sajit Premadasa more recently\nsuch as Akbar Purams and various Gramams and those given by minority\npoliticians like in Batticalloa and also restore ancient  place names, village names and various others\nlike mountains, rivers and towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

33 Reduce public national holidays to\n12 as that is the number most countries have and limit religious holidays only\nto those of that particular religion except Vesak and Poson that have been the\nNational Holidays of the Sinhala nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

34 Stop appointing persons outside\nthe Sri Lsnka Administrative Service to scheduled post of SLAS and persons\noutside the Overseas Service to diplomatic posts unless some special reasons\ndemand such persons being appointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

35 Reduce the number of Ministries\nand government and semi-government institutions by amalgamating or scraping to\nreduce public expenditure, waste and corruption and also make them efficient\nand cost effective<\/p>\n\n\n\n

36 Allocate all public expenditure\nthrough Ministries and Departments and institutions under Votes, Heads, Sub\nHeads, and Items as we had them before holing official accountable and\nresponsible  for every cent to stop waste\nand corruption and stop allocating money to MPP, a system that has been\ndisastrous   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

37 Ban Buddhist monks contesting\nelection for any political institution starting from Parliament to the Village\ncouncils<\/p>\n\n\n\n

38 Ban women workers going out as\nhousemaids and instead reorganize the country\u2019s education system to produce\ntechnical and professional men and women needed by the world market<\/p>\n\n\n\n

39 Completely restructure and\nreorganize the Gramasevaka system as the Gramaseva Division forms the\ncornerstone of effective, efficient and good governance in this country. Why\nnot call them again as Gampathi. (Details of this scheme could be made\navailable if someone is interested). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

40 An independent efficient,\nproductive and people centric Public service and Judiciary free from Politics\nand Recruitments to Public Service and Judiciary only on competitive exams and\nmeritocracy to be the only criterion in selection and appointment.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

41 A programme to make Sri Lanka\nnumber 1 in the world in Fishing Industry by making use of the Indian Ocean\nthat stretches from Africa in the West to Australia in the East and South Pole\nin the South and making this country a major naval power in the world by using\nour strategic location on the globe in relation to the Great East and West\ntrade routes and its enormous economic potentials of fabulous ports around the\nIsland. (The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world’s oceanic\ndivisions, covering 70,560,000 km\u00b2 or 19.8% of the water on the Earth’s\nsurface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west, and Australia\nto the east)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

42.To convert this country to an\nInternational hub in Aviation, Shipping, trade, Banking and all kind of\nServices to make this Island a world Giant making use of its strategic location\nand god given resources both natural and Human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

43 The need to take immediate action\nagainst Hindu and Muslim vandalism against Buddhist religious places in the\nNorth and East and to take steps to protect those places and the Monks living\nthere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

44 To reduce excessive public\nholidays (some years running in to 132) to world average of 12 per year and to\nlimit religious holidays only to those who profess those religions to save\nhundreds of millions of man days to boost development to catch up with the\ncompetitive world<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 45 A national Planning Council and a Supreme\nnational Advisory Council consisting of non-political personalities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realization of these objective\nentails far and wide structural changes in systems and institutions which call\nfor many a hardship and sacrifices in the short term that brings long term\nbenefits for the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara Mahanuwara. 2020, Year of Great Expectations of a nation after 72 years of pompous celebrations of so-called Independence since 1948. Will they be fulfilled at least now, under the Government of Gothabahaya Rajapaksa? Introduction  I start writing this note on the assumption that we have not received any independence, other than the room […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sudath-gunasekara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105773","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=105773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105773\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}