{"id":46464,"date":"2015-08-03T01:13:28","date_gmt":"2015-08-03T07:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46464"},"modified":"2015-08-02T07:58:22","modified_gmt":"2015-08-02T14:58:22","slug":"future-of-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/03\/future-of-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"FUTURE OF SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

JANAKI CHANDRARATNA \u2013 PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sri Lanka is once again at \u2018crossroads\u2019 that can have an impact on its future. Unlike in previous instances, the path that can be taken is seriously muddied by the political and social dynamics of the present environment. Although the stage is set for another election, the electorate is confused with the plethora of information and misinformation generated by competing political parties and contestants. The media is equally guilty of questionable ethical conduct having to withdraw published news items due to lack of due diligence. Social media has gone wild with slanders and insults in unspeakable language, which indeed is not a good example for the younger generation. \u2018Freedom of speech\u2019 is liberally used for slandering political opponents and it was heartening to note that some legal action is being taken, although a bit too late in the scheme of things, by some victims against unsubstantiated claims and assertions.<\/p>\n

In addition to the above it is disappointing to note that the Buddhist monks had entered the fray in the most un-Buddhist manner. One monk had even denigrated the Sri Lankan flag and appears to have escaped punitive measures that are appropriate to such criminal violations. In historical times Buddhist monks were venerated as custodians of the Dhamma and often ruling kings sought their advice on political and administrative matters. Today many monks in the Sasana are too politicized and do not exactly promote the safety of the nation. The mixed messages of the politicized monks have added an extra dimension to the perplexed nation.<\/p>\n

Although Sri Lankans boast of being a literate nation the confronting issues at hand are too complex and beyond comprehension of many. The Sri Lankan education structure is too focused and streamlined, when compared to the West, that the graduates of specialist courses have some difficulty in understanding the intricacies of issues at hand such as the Treasury Bonds, international relations, terrorism, Sovereignty, etc. These issues in most cases are dismissed as hearsay, propaganda and not likely to happen to Sri Lanka.\u00a0 In addition, our younger generation lacks knowledge on Sri Lankan identity and heritage as they had grown up in an era where history was not a subject taught in schools. They are disinclined to be involved in the issues at hand and yet happy to fill in Facebook pages for any political party that rewards them for the services.<\/p>\n

Also, unlike in developed democracies, there is an expectation among Sri Lankans, that party supporters will be rewarded in terms of employment and other monetary favors. In fact, for some, it is the only way to find employment in particular, in the public sector. As a result the society is deeply divided on party lines and party policies are not a concern for their allegiance.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the current set up is very conducive to unscrupulous politicians. \u00a0The ruling party boasts that 75 political parties and civil societies have signed up as supporters of the UNP for the forthcoming election.\u00a0 The UNP is contesting as a single party within a United National Front of diverse parties with opposing political views. It is unfortunate that people are not privy to the respective alliance conditions.<\/p>\n

The Ex-President has fronted up from UPFA on popular request. The UPFA meetings are well attended and show dissatisfaction, with the 100-day rule of good governance.\u00a0 The 100-day rule in fact fell well short of expectations. The most important questions, however, at hand, are the security and sovereignty of the nation. Sri Lanka was able to engage in an era of peace and unprecedented development since 2010 after the defeat of the 30-year terrorist war under the leadership of the Ex-President, Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa. The UNP manifesto is mysteriously silent on the question of sovereignty except to note that the ethnic question will be resolved in discussion with Tamil parties. \u00a0The stance of UPFA is very clear in that the resolution of the ethnic issue will be within a unified State.<\/p>\n

The majority of the Sinhalese fear a division of the country on ethnic lines. TNA, a UNP support party, is not agreeable to any compromise less than a separate State and the alleged war crimes are tried in the international court. This fear is endorsed by the TNA manifesto, display of LTTE flags, Elam maps and the assurances given by the TNA candidates at election meetings. Also the PM who is strictly a WOG (Western Oriented Gentleman) in Australian parlance is bound to abide by the plans set out by the West for the division of the country. There is the perception that the PM would only ask how soon, rather than any \u2018ifs\u2019 and \u2018buts\u2019.<\/p>\n

Currently, the election campaign is in full swing. The UNP, as the caretaker government has govt. resources at hand to be used for the election. The media is totally controlled in favor of the UNP under the guise of \u2018self censorship\u2019. The mega fraud of the century in Treasury Bonds in banking circles in the world, is covered up by court injunctions, Sri Lankan drug dealers resident overseas are alleged to have been invited to engage in election campaigns. There is also a move to release and compensate all LTTE prisoners awaiting charges. Already there has been a murder of an innocent bystander by one of the invited drug dealers at an election meeting and there is an expectation that there can be many more deaths by accident or design before and after the election.<\/p>\n

In this scenario, the August election is critical for the future of the country. It is time for all Sri Lankans to assess the big picture, irrespective of personal gains and make the right decision at the election, in the interest of the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JANAKI CHANDRARATNA \u2013 PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA Sri Lanka is once again at \u2018crossroads\u2019 that can have an impact on its future. Unlike in previous instances, the path that can be taken is seriously muddied by the political and social dynamics of the present environment. Although the stage is set for another election, the electorate is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46464","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=46464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}