{"id":106822,"date":"2020-09-20T15:03:03","date_gmt":"2020-09-20T22:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106822"},"modified":"2020-09-20T15:03:03","modified_gmt":"2020-09-20T22:03:03","slug":"lucian-rajakarunanayakes-lament-on-the-fall-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/20\/lucian-rajakarunanayakes-lament-on-the-fall-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucian Rajakarunanayake’s Lament on the fall of democracy."},"content":{"rendered":"

Bodhi Dhanapala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

For there to be a down fall of\ndemocracy<\/strong>, there should have been democracy in the first place. Do you\nthink we had “democracy” when the UNP+TNA+SLFP rules the country?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you are at the very bottom of\nthe well, perhaps you can only look up to see light. If what we see is not\ndemocracy, how did we get there?
\nWhat the last government created was anarchy and lawlessness, with the country\nin the hands of a cabal of people who worked closely with some foreign\nembassies. Didn’t Samantha Powers of the US Pentagon come to this country even\nto celebrate the political  anniversary of one of those puppets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The country was almost made into a\ncovert company run from WASHINGTON, THROUGH A FEW LOCAL PUPPETS who did their\nbidding. This is not a fall of democracy. It may be the fall of the facade\nof democracy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a fact check that every one\ncan work through<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.Did the people give a mandate for\nthese three parties to form a national government?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Si<\/strong>risena became president in January 2014  promising to\nquit in 100 days. Did he quit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The central bank and the finance\nministry were moved under the prime minsiter, and one of his hand picked\nSingaporen nominees was made the governor of the ban. When a hugh bond scam came\nto light, a parliamentary commission (COPE) reported on it. Just when the\nreport was to be tabled, the parliament was dissolved so that the people named\nin the investigation does not get revealed. Does this seem to a very\ndemocratic act?
\nNO <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Elections were held in August.\nWas the party getting the largest number of votes called to form the\ngovernment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.  Was the party no forming\nthe government, and having the largest number called to from the opposition?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. A party with only 19 elected\nmembers, namely the TNA was made the opposition, and its leader was appointed\nthe opposition  leader. A constitutional amendment called 19A was passed,\nlimiting the number of cabinet ministers, but it also allowed the new\ngovernment to appoint any number of minsters to the cabinet of the\n“national” government.
\nIs such manipulation a democratic practice? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.  Under the new government, a\nsecond BOND scam was allowed to be carried out, suggesting that a bunch of\ncrooks had captured power.  Did you feel that democracy was reigning\nsupreme and crooks were being punished?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.  NGO officials  paid by\nforeign powers and not answerable to the public were appointed to powerful\ncommissions and even decided on important public service appointments, foreign\npolicy etc., and a representative of the American Embassy was allowed to sit in\non security deliberations at the highest level and at various levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is that a democratic practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong>  \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9. The decision to accept\n“guilt” for war crimes, and co-sponsor a resolution brought in by\nWestern Powers at the behest of vote controlling western Diaspora groups was\nexecuted at the UNHCR in Geneva by the Minster Mangala M who was responsible\nfor foreign policy. This was done WITHOUT approval by the cabinet, or by the\nparliament, and apparently WITHOUT the approval of the President. Is this\ndemocratic practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

10. Free trade agreements with\nSingapore that even allowed the dumping of garbage from Singapore, MCC and\nother agreements that gave free access of landing in the country and using it\nto the US military were to be signed without discussion in the HOUSE. Is\nthat democratic practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

11., 12, etc are left as an exercise\nto the reader, for him or her to add on, as there are a lot of stuff on FCID\ninvestigations, imported Lamborghinis, Easter bombings, people being dumped to\nbe eaten by crocodiles, Who killed Lasantha and what did Ranil say about it in\nParliament at the time? Swiss embassy white vans etc etc !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember that when some people loose\nthe privileges that they have been enjoying, they think democracy is falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bodhi Dhanapala<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bodhi Dhanapala For there to be a down fall of democracy, there should have been democracy in the first place. Do you think we had “democracy” when the UNP+TNA+SLFP rules the country? When you are at the very bottom of the well, perhaps you can only look up to see light. If what we see […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bodhi-dhanapala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106822","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=106822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}