{"id":109036,"date":"2020-11-25T16:44:21","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T23:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109036"},"modified":"2020-11-25T16:44:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T23:44:21","slug":"presidents-address-to-nation-taking-the-bull-by-the-horns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/11\/25\/presidents-address-to-nation-taking-the-bull-by-the-horns\/","title":{"rendered":"President\u2019s Address to Nation: Taking the Bull by the Horns"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

I\ndo not normally speak as a Sinhalese, and I do not think that the leader of\nthis council ought to think of himself as a Sinhalese representative, but for\nonce I should like to speak as a Sinhalese and assert with all the force at my\ncommand that the interests of one community are the interests of all. We are of\none another, whatever race or creed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • D.S.\n Senanayake, 1945 (\u2018Don Stephen Senanayake\u2019 by H.A.J. Hulugalle, 1970)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    President\nGotabaya Rajapaksa, in his address to the nation, on completion of his first\nterm in office, on November 18, 2020, touched on a number of crucial points.\nAny less committed executive president would normally choose to fight shy of\nthe foremost of these: the ever growing threat to the survival of the Sinhalese\nas a race, their country, their Buddhist religious culture, and their ancient\narchaeological heritage; he also made mention of the challenges of extremism\nand foreign interference in the country\u2019s internal affairs. These are directly\nconnected with national security. He called for investments rather than loans\nfrom friendly nations; the president also briefly outlined how the government\nis managing poverty alleviation, Covid-19 containment, and improvement of\npublic administration. Excerpts from the president\u2019s speech as gleaned from the\nmedia (some parts of the following two paragraphs are my own renderings –\nunmarked – from the Sinhala spoken text as I heard it, with my own comments in\nparentheses):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2018A\nyear ago, more than 6.9 million voters in this country elected me as your new\nPresident. It is no secret that the majority who voted for me then were\nSinhalese. They rallied (round me) because they had legitimate fears that the\nSinhala race, our religion, national resources and the heritage would be\nthreatened with destruction in the face of various local and foreign forces and\nideologies that support separatism, extremism and terrorism. The main appeal\nmade by the people to me was to, Protect the Country\u2019. (There is overwhelming\nevidence to show that, throughout their very long history, the Sinhalese fought\nto protect the country from invaders for all those who lived there; they have\nalways been real patriots, not racists. The minorities didn\u2019t trust him under\nthe influence of the few racists among minority politicians.This was in spite\nof both Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa bending over backwards to please the\nminorities and plead with them for their support during both elections. – RRW)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u2018During\nthis short period of time we have taken steps to ensure the security of the\ncountry as requested by the people. The public should not have any\napprehensions in this regard any longer. \u2026..We have contained the danger of any\nkind of extremism raising its ugly head. There will be no room for indulging in\ndrug trafficking or directing the underworld from within the walls of prisons\nas happened in the past.  The era of betraying our war heroes, of\naccepting any agreement for short-term gain, of allowing foreign forces to\ninterfere in the internal affairs of the country, has come to an end\u2026\u2026 I act on\nthe principle that the post of president is not a position of privilege, but\nthat it is an onerous responsibility\u2026.. An administration that protects the\nrights of all citizens regardless of racial or religious differences will be\nestablished during my tenure. I have always acted in accordance with the pledge\nI made in the sacred precincts of the Ruwalweli Maha Seya to protect the\nunitary status of the country and to safeguard and nurture the Buddha Sasana as\nper the Constitution, the supreme law of this country. I meet with an advisory\ncouncil comprising leading Buddhist monks of the Three Chapters every month to\nseek their advice on matters pertaining to governance\u2026.It was because the\npeople highly rated the manner in which I performed my duties within this\nperiod that they gave a two thirds majority in parliament. Public opinion is\nthe perfect measure of my success, not the organized false propaganda spread by\npolitical opponents through the social media\u2026\u2026…I am a person who has\nconstantly faced challenges and successfully dealt with them. I am not afraid\nof empty threats. I am not used to running away from problems instead of\nsolving them. I don\u2019t want to please anyone in expectation of votes. What I\nwant is to usher in an era of prosperity  for the people as promised. I\nwill not hesitate to take any step in accordance with my conscience in pursuit\nof that goal. I love my country. I am proud of my country. Teruvan Saranai!\u2019\n(End of direct reference to the President\u2019s speech. The following comprises this\nwriter\u2019s reflections.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Post-independence\npolitics in Sri Lanka has been characterised by a continuous struggle between\nexclusive minority communalism and inclusive majority nationalism, in the form\nof roughly thirty years of cold war between the two and another thirty years of\nopen conflict, which ended with the defeat of armed separatism in 2009. (In the\nsame breath I would like to emphasize this fact: In each of the minority\ncommunities – mainly Tamils and Muslims – only a handful of politicians act as\ncommunalists, but they contrive to electorally dominate the community while\ntheir really progressive, often younger, rivals get sidelined. The vast\nmajority of ordinary Tamils and Muslims, like ordinary Sinhalese, are not\nracial extremists or religious fanatics.) Minority communalism (found only\namong opportunistic politicians) has gradually acquired a religious dimension\nwith intensifying fundamentalist Christian and Islamic subversive activities\ntargeting Buddhists and Hindus; Islamists have been active particularly since\nthe early 1970s. On top of this, Sri Lanka\u2019s strategic geographic location has\nled global and regional superpowers to be actively engaged in exploiting these\nanti-majority movements to their advantage, thereby condemning Sri Lanka to constant\npolitical destabilization, economic stagnation, and deterioration of national\nsecurity, sovereignty and independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sinhalese\npoliticians (like most ordinary Sri Lankans) have always been true to the idea\nof continuing as the united nation and the unitary state that the British left\nthem. This was the vision articulated by D.S. Senanayake, who came to be\nrevered as the Father of the Nation as he had provided the final victorious\nleadership to the independence struggle. Senanayake didn\u2019t believe in claiming\nany special status for the Sinhalese although he was not unaware of the\nhorrendous discrimination that the Sinhalese were subjected to by the Euroean\ncolonialists as the conquered in need of being kept under control; 1915, for\nexample, was not such a distant memory to him. Every prime minister from 1948\nto 1978, and every executive president since then have been extra-careful not\nto violate that ideal. President Gotabaya is reasserting the same principle of\nnational unity, without which there will be no national security nor economic\ndevelopment nor political independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\nis a fact that in Sri Lanka there is a simmering problem of religious\nfundamentalism, which is an incubus that takes away the peace of mind of the\nmajority of the people and disengages their attention from the more vitally\nimportant problems that the country is facing as a nation. It is being used as\na weapon of destabilization by the powers that be that want to exploit Sri\nLanka\u2019s strategic location in the Indian, lately Indo-Pacific, Ocean. \nThere are numerous fundamentalist Christian and Islamic sects that have been\nactive in the country for several decades. For a long time we thought that they\nare not of the type that is likely to set the traditionally peaceful mainstream\nChristians and Muslims against Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils. But we were\nwrong. It is now clear that religious fundamentalists are a problem to the\nrespective mainstream Abrahamic religions as well, giving rise to internecine\ndoctrinal disputes within those communities. This particularly applies to the\nMuslim community, sections of which seem to have been radicalised under the\ninfluence of foreign sponsored Jihadist groups. It was reported that some young\nMuslims travelled to Syria to join the IS, and even got killed there. The monks\nsaid that they were approached for help by some persecuted Muslims who told\nthem that  there were clashes between Jihadist and traditional Muslims,\ninvolving attacks on the mosques of the latter and even murders in the eastern\nprovince, where all three communities live together peacefully, though Muslims\ndominate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Unlike\nin the case of traditional Christians and Muslims, the fundamentalist attitude\nto Buddhists and Hindus is not one of peaceful coexistence. They treat the\nlatter as spiritually misguided subjects  ripe for conversion. The twofold\nfundamentalist  menace shows no sign of abating in the near future. The\nmost virulent form of religious fundamentalism that is posing a formidable\nchallenge to Sri Lanka\u2019s intercommunal unity and peace right now is Islamist\nextremism. Activist Buddhist monks and their lay followers allege, based on evidence\nas they claim, that Jihadist agents have already infiltrated practically every\ndepartment of life in the Sri Lankan state. (It is upto the authorities\nconcerned to check the veracity of these claims.) The problem could worsen if\npoliticians of both the main parties choose to follow the Three Wise Monkeys\u2019\nexample: See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil where evil is seen and\nheard, but nothing is said against it. Unfortunately, successive governments\nhave failed to grab the bull by the horns for reasons that are not far to seek.\nThe expedient political correctness policy of the UNP\/SJB and the SLFP\/SLPP is\na boon to racists and religious zealots, while it betrays the monk and other\nactivists who expose them and oppose them, and the up and coming progressive\nyoung Tamil and Muslim politicians who make common cause with those patriotic\nelements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    An\nonline Sinhala news website, Lankacnews, reported October 24, 2020 that,\naccording to government sources, there was a possibility that state minister portfolios\nwill be given to two of the nine MPs of the Opposition who voted for 20A. I,\nfor one, originally believed that this was not true; the website could have\nbeen reporting an unfounded rumour or somebody\u2019s fabrication. But, another\nonline publication, Colombo Telegraph, which is usually critical of the present\ngovernment, lamented in a headline: \u201820A Once Again Proved: Muslim Political\nOpportunists Are Up for Sale\u2019. Meanwhile, the more authoritative and reliable\nwebsite referred to at the beginning, Lankacnews, again reported (26) that\nDayana Gamage, one of the nine SJB MPs who voted for 20A with the government,\nas saying that she would like to accept, if offered, the post of minister for\nchild and women\u2019s affairs though she did not support 20A in expectation of a\nministerial portfolio or any other reward. This faintly hints at such offers\nhaving probably been made, after all. If that is true, isn\u2019t it possible that\nthe Muslim MPs were enticed with even bigger quid pro quos? The marked\ncordiality that minister Chamal and MP Rishad greeted each other with in that\npicture that shocked us all would not help neutralize such speculation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But\nthere was absolutely no need for horse trading with questionable characters in\nthe circumstances. What is the use of legislation passed with assistance from\nwheeler-dealer politicians whom the majority consider duplicitous? (In the case\nof 20A, however, their help was not critical; their votes were actually\nredundant.) Besides, these MPs were (and still are) in a politically vulnerable\nsituation of their own making in which they didn\u2019t know (and still don\u2019t know)\nwhich way to look. The latest news I read about Hakeem was that he wanted to\nlaunch an internal inquiry into why his four MPs violated his party\u2019s policy of\nopposing 20A! This is in spite of the fact that he had given his four MPs tacit\npermission to vote for the amendment. National list MP Dayana Gamage of the SJB\ntold a You Tube journalist that her leader Sajith Premadasa knew beforehand\nthat she was going to vote for the amendment, for her husband had phoned him\nand told him the night before about her decision, though, later, like Hakeem in\nthe case of his MPs, Premadasa threatened to take disciplinary action against\nher. There is no doubt that both Premadasa and Hakeem are partly trying to\nsalvage the little prestige that they ever had and that they have now\nirretrievably lost. Be that as it may, until the government establishes clarity\nin this respect, negative speculations will not stop. More important, what about\nthe just anger and frustration that the ambitious MPs of the SLPP and allied\nparties must feel at the danger of some crooks of the Opposition who worked for\nthe downfall of Gotabaya and Mahinda getting ministerial positions that even\nthey were denied?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Doesn\u2019t\nthis mean that a government which has got an overwhelming popular mandate to\nrule by restoring law and order, national security, and political and economic\nstability (all of which had appallingly deteriorated under the previous\nadministration) could not have taken even the first step towards that goal by\nabolishing the controversial 19A and bringing in the stopgap 20A, without\nhaving to buy over MPs or to engineer desertions from the Opposition benches?\nIt is no ordinary mandate: it is a doubly confirmed mandate in the form of a\npresident elected by 69.9  million voters and a prime minister leading an\nalliance that won 144 seats in parliament, the kind of huge mandate that is not\nlikely to be repeated unless those who have been given that mandate act\nsensibly.  Whenever is Sri Lanka going to make headway as an independent\nsovereign nation?  Seventy-five percent of the voters are Sinhalese, who\ndon\u2019t cast their vote on a communal basis. They overwhelmingly account for the\nabove people\u2019s mandate. The passage of 20A with due amendments was what they\nwanted. If a few anti-majority extremists were allowed to be in a position to\ndecide on its fate, who was to blame for that grievous anomaly? Wasn\u2019t it the\nfault of the Sinhalese MPs elected by their own people to serve the nation\nwhether they happen to sit in the Government or in the Opposition? (By\n\u2018nation\u2019, Sinhalese Buddhists and the sensible majority of the minorities mean\nall those who make Sri Lanka their home; that is what \u2018people of Sinhale\u2019 had implied\nbefore Western imperial powers destroyed the healthy social cohesion in the\ncountry through their \u2018divide and rule\u2019 stratagem; it is difficult if not\nimpossible for religious and racial extremists among the minorities to\nunderstand, let alone appreciate, this fact. On the other hand, the\nunsophisticated Sinhalese cannot understand, nay, don\u2019t know, that they are\nbeing misunderstood as racists and religious extremists in the outside world\nbecause of diabolical misinformation about them propagated through the English\nmedium by the minuscule minority of  real racists and religious bigots\namong those opposed to them.)    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nappointment of two more ministers is constitutionally defensible thanks to a\nclause that is being retained in 20A as a salutary feature from the now\nabolished 19A, which nevertheless set limits on the numbers of cabinet and\nstate minister portfolios respectively at 30 and 40. Currently, there are only\n38 state ministers; so, there are two vacancies. The Yahapalana coalition rechristened\nitself as a national government in order to increase the number of ministers\nbeyond these limits until practically every government MP was some sort of\nminister.  Awarding ministerial positions to corruptible MPs as mere\npolitical sinecures just to ensure their mechanical Ayes and Noes on\nappropriate occasions in the legislature is a despicable ruse that must be put\nan immediate end to. If it had to be resorted to particularly at this juncture\n(when the undeniable fact of the majority community being victimized by a few\ncommunalist opportunists is so evident), it was all due to there being not\nenough patriotic Sinhala MPs in the Opposition. Not that all Sinhala MPs in the\nGovernment are patriotic either. What I found as an independent observer trying\nto penetrate the real motives and concerns that drove them as revealed in their\nspeeches and occasional acts during electioneering prior to the August 5\ngeneral election was that nearly all of them, with a very few exceptions, were\nunashamedly narrowly focused self-seekers worried only about their personal\n\u2018political careers\u2019, not about their mandatory obligations to the\ncountry\/nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But\nstill there is time for them to think, and support, from wherever they are, the\nonly technocrat that we have got since independence in the non-partisan\nGotabaya Rajapaksa. I believe GR is free from political ambitions that might\ndistort his vision and that might cause him to baulk at taking action when it\nis necessary but difficult to do so.  The detractors of the few innocent\nBuddhist monks who had been warning persons in authority in vain about what the\nJihadists were up to for years  do not denounce those Muslim extremists\nwhen they bombed some Catholic churches and hotels, and killed and maimed\nhundreds, but instead only insult these monks as Buddhist zealots and\nterrorists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But\nthe truth cannot be denied that both Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa who were\nsupported by the monks and other patriotic citizens are real national heroes\nwho have served the country in ways that no other leader has ever done since\nindependence. Had it not been for them the separatists would have survived to\nthis day. The country achieved a lot of economic development (highways and\nvastly improved infrastructure, particularly in the war-damaged north and east\nprovinces, to mention just one example among many) for the country between 2009\nto 2015 in the wake of the civil war and despite its disastrous legacy.\nPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s quick response to the first signs of the\nCovid-19 affliction in March 2020 wiped it out completely before,\nunfortunately, it made a mysterious re-entry courtesy some unseen or unrevealed\nagency.  He has just completed one year in office amidst untold obstacles\nmounted by oppositional elements with communalistic and extremist affiliations\nsponsored by meddlesome foreign powers as well as the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Communalistic\nbehaviour is out of character for Sinhalese MPs, whatever their other\ndefects.  However, for the time being, there is no alternative for them\nbut to give priority to the problem that the president prefaced his speech\nwith: dealing with the legitimate fears of the majority community that he spelt\nout. Yet, on the contrary, right now, it looks as though most Sinhalese MPs in\nparliament are behaving like willing dupes of some Islamist extremists or their\nsympathisers; they seem to voluntarily assist the miscreants in their\nstratagems. Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kirielle has asked the Speaker in\nwriting (as reported in the media October 31) that a special seating plan on\nthe government side be made for the nine SJB members that he claims have been\nexpelled from the party. Seven of these are Muslims, one Tamil, and one\nSinhalese. In effect, the SJB is palming off the extremists that it fostered\nand used to prolong the Yahapalana misgovernance onto the government, in the\napparent vicious hope that they initiate a cankerous relationship with it.\nKirielle and the rest of the SJB hierarchy cannot be expected to take kindly to\nthis criticism, but this is my gut feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    State\nminister Dayasiri Jayasekera has long been complaining that the SLFP MPs are\nnot receiving the recognition they deserve within the government. Its leader,\nformer president Sirisena, who was expecting an agrapalaya or an ultimate\nreward got nothing, but the PM was reported to be \u2018creating\u2019 a suitable post\nfor him. Anyway, do these people worry as much about vital national issues\nincluding the Grim Reaper abroad in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic? Are the\ndisgruntled SLFP\u2019ers within government ranks trying to rock the boat? The\nPresident twittered November 1st that he was presented with a locally produced\nLion Flag by state minister Dayasiri Jayasekera. A former provincial Governor\nRajith Tennekoon complained that the Lion in this flag was holding the sword by\nits blade, not by its hilt! and that this was a grave violation of the\nConstitution, because disfigurement\/distortion of the Flag is a criminal\noffence. Probably, Tennekoon, who is another political activist, was exaggerating\nan apparent shortcoming in the drawing of the flag. A careful look at the image\nof the locally produced flag will reveal what I mean: the cross guard that\nseparates the blade from the grip part of the handle of the sword is not\nproperly drawn; it is as if it is not there. Having said this, it is a big\ndefect that must be corrected. Is it a result of a genuine oversight or of an\nact of deliberate sabotage? Tennekoon\u2019s demand that the circulation of this new\nlocal flag be immediately halted must receive the attention of the authorities.\n(It was later reported that Dayasiri Jayasekera acknowledged this error and\ntook immediate action to rectify it.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nfew communalists and religious extremists that there are will try to cripple\nthe government whether they are in it or in the Opposition. However, it is\nclear that they get little support from the general public. Foreign\ninterventionist powers are laying siege to the country, but they can\u2019t do much\ndamage if Sri Lankans manage to put their own house in order and stick\ntogether. In this all Sri Lankans have a collective responsibility. Each\ncommunity must be united within it and act in solidarity with other communities\nas equal Sri Lankan citizens, and this must be reflected among the MPs in\nparliament. Partisan politics must be shelved while bracing to deal with the\nmanifold crises before the nation. People of each faith must take\nresponsibility for and deal with the extremists among them, without giving in\nto their extremist ideologies. If there is any terrorism, let the government\nsecurity apparatus deal with that, as they did with the separatists. People of\nall faiths must be united as a single nation. It will be of the strongest\nsupport for overcoming religious fundamentalism in general and the Islamist terrorism\nin particular if Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus, who share similar\npeaceful nonviolent religious and cultural values, overcome artificial\ndivisions and enmities of the past and decide to find refuge in each other as\nchildren of Mother Lanka against both overt and covert aggression and\noppression. That will be the end of meaningless fratricidal separatism as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (Ps:\nLankaweb readers, please bear with me for having cannibalized parts of one of\nmy own articles that appeared here a few weeks back. This is an appropriately\nupdated,enlarged and enhanced version of the same.) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Rohana R. Wasala I do not normally speak as a Sinhalese, and I do not think that the leader of this council ought to think of himself as a Sinhalese representative, but for once I should like to speak as a Sinhalese and assert with all the force at my command that the interests […]<\/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-109036","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\/109036","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=109036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}