{"id":47541,"date":"2015-09-02T22:37:44","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T04:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=47541"},"modified":"2015-09-02T13:43:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-02T20:43:05","slug":"the-cerberus-dictatorship-deflowers-democracy-are-shedding-tears-the-only-answer-for-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/09\/02\/the-cerberus-dictatorship-deflowers-democracy-are-shedding-tears-the-only-answer-for-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cerberus Dictatorship Deflowers Democracy \u2013 Are Shedding Tears the Only Answer for Sri Lanka?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Gandara John<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

On 18 Aug 15 democracy in Sri Lanka was snuffed out when with the stroke of a pen five million voters were robbed of their Basic Human Rights to influence governmental decision making.<\/p>\n

As observed by UMHRC, \u2018One of the most critical ways that individuals can influence governmental decision making is through voting.\u2019 Voting as was observed is a formal expression of preference for a candidate for office.<\/p>\n

The stomping by the triumvirate dictatorship has begun; we, the disenfranchised five million, are in a state of despair. Are shedding tears the only option available to us? Are we to resign ourselves to being robbed of our unalienable Human Right? If not what can we do to regain our lawful Right and rectify the consequences of this gross violation of our Right?<\/p>\n

These are the questions on the lips of the millions disenfranchised who keep asking, Who will take up our fight in the Local and International arenas or do we have to fend for ourselves?\u201d<\/p>\n

My name is John. I am a citizen of Sri Lanka. I do not possess the power that flows from property and wealth because I do not possess any property or wealth.<\/p>\n

I am grateful to the revolutionary events in France in 1792 because it gave me the power to influence governmental decision making by voting; the requirement to have property, wealth and social status to qualify to register and vote at an election was done away with.<\/p>\n

In isolation my vote does not carry much weight to influence governmental decision making; my strength however lies in the collective power of millions of people like me who do not have property or wealth but have the divine instrument of the \u2018vote\u2019.<\/p>\n

Being members of the human family this sacred gift of the \u2018vote\u2019 has by International Covenant been bestowed on us, the millions, who voted for the UPFA.<\/p>\n

This sacred gift, the \u2018vote\u2019, cannot be transferred in any way and neither can this \u2018vote\u2019, our unalienable Right, be wrenched away or robbed from us by anyone whatever his status may be; to do so would be to violate our basic Human Rights; it is a Right that must be jealously guarded if we are to live in dignity and honour.<\/p>\n

And if the argument put forward to justify such a course of action is that there is provision in the National law for someone or some organisation to reverse or alter our vote that election then ceases to be a genuine<\/em> election.<\/p>\n

The election is, in those circumstances, reduced to a fraudulent election and the government flowing out of this fraudulent election becomes an illegitimate government.<\/p>\n

In such a situation what is the course and breadth of action the millions of victims, whose fundamental Human Rights were violated on 18 Aug 15 can legitimately take, to remove the illegitimate government, to nullify the fraudulent election, to take action against all those who violated their Human Rights and regain their unalienable Right?<\/p>\n

And when we, those millions of people who were robbed of their Fundamental Human Rights, have exhausted all legitimate courses of action open to us and are unable to rectify the violation, what is our plight? Are we helpless?<\/p>\n

On 17 Aug 15, Sri Lankans went to the polls to elect candidates to Parliament. It was only the following afternoon at approximately 2 PM when the results of the Colombo district were finally announced that anxious UNP supporters breathed a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n

The Election had gone down to the wire with the UNP embarrassingly reduced to not winning even a simple majority in Parliament in a contest dubbed as \u2018The Election to bury Rajapakse\u2019.<\/p>\n

The UNP had scraped through with a distressing 106 seats, a frugal 11 seats more than the United Alliance of the people and were reduced to a state where they were unable to form a government on its own.<\/p>\n

The voting map of Sri Lanka that appeared in the Daily News of 19 Aug 15, depicting in party\/alliance colours the areas of the country won by the respective parties, was predominantly Blue<\/em> underscoring the fact that the majority of the Sinhalese perceive the threat the country faces from the US and their fifth columnists, notably Ranil, Chandrika, Maithripala and the TNA.<\/p>\n

Five million of us voters reposed our faith in the UPFA in the hope that the Alliance would form a government that would safeguard the sovereignty of the country or, if not the government, would form a strong opposition that would thwart the conspiracy which we strongly believe has been hatched by our Benedict Arnolds to barter away our sovereignty.<\/p>\n

We voted judiciously. We made all effort to keep out scoundrels from the UPFA, representing us in Parliament; to this end we were somewhat successful.<\/p>\n

Some of those UPFA candidates whom we considered downright reprobates, we deliberately kept out Parliament by not voting for them and included S B Dissanayake, Mahinda Samarasinghe, Piyasena Gamage, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, Vijith Vijayamuni Soysa, Nadimithra Ekanayake and Sumathipala.<\/p>\n

And when we, the five million voters, voted for the UPFA, we were attracted by the showcase team on the UPFA National list that boasted a team of mostly solid citizens, in whom we had the utmost confidence and who, we strongly believe, would never be traitors to our country.<\/p>\n

Came the 18th <\/sup>of August and the five million of us who voted for the UPFA were disenfranchised. The result of our vote was altered and reversed.<\/p>\n

Furthermore the showcase National list that encouraged and reinforced our decision to vote for the UPFA on 17 August was replaced by a new National list that was submitted on 18 August.<\/p>\n

Seven of the scoundrels that we, the five million voters, thought were unfit for Parliament and had intentionally kept out of the august assembly, had squirmed and slithered in through the new National list that was submitted after the elections. And no longer was the UPFA National list attractive to us; it was an ignoble list.<\/p>\n

Some asserted that Maithripala did it to help Ranil get the numbers to form a government. Some others asserted that Ranil, Maithripala and Chandrika wanted it done to ensure a government that would synchronize its work to fit the agenda of the US. While yet some others asserted that Maithripala and Chandrika wanted it done to consolidate their grip on the SLFP and to dismantle the UPFA for whom we voted.<\/p>\n

Whatever the reason may be I ask in heaven\u2019s name who on earth is Ranil, Maithripala or Chandrika? I care not a whit what they wish for or want; our vote is supreme.<\/p>\n

No mortal on earth or any organisation or party can alter or undo the votes of 5 Million people by bringing in to Parliament, for any reason whatsoever, seven persons who were rejected outright by us as blackguards.<\/p>\n

In a dictatorship of the triumvirate this is possible. With apologies to George Orwell who said \u2018one makes the (Rainbow) Revolution in order to establish the dictatorship\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>To show us a National list, that is material to the result of the Election, simply to attract 5 Million votes and having thus obtained our votes thumb their noses at us by substituting another list, is an act of deception and is by any standard fraudulent.<\/p>\n

If the argument is adduced that the Election law provides for such conduct, then the election by that argument alone is reduced to a farcical exercise and is not genuine<\/em>, resulting in the country being in breach of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Sri Lanka is a signatory. Consequently the government in the saddle becomes an illegitimate government and is exercising power illegally.<\/p>\n

The election on 17 Aug 15 has been the most controversial in independent Sri Lanka. Ranil is accused of doing a Jed Bush with over half a million people disenfranchised by their votes being rejected and mounting anger that a million votes for the UPFA have disappeared into a computer black hole while numbers voting for the UNP do not add up.<\/p>\n

In the week before the General Election Maithripala unilaterally sacked the secretaries of the SLFP and the UPFA, suspended 25 members of the SLFP Central committee, sent a \u2018public\u2019 letter to Mahinda all contrived to reduce the UPFA votes, conduct that would have earned an ordinary citizen imprisonment and fine for the violation of election laws.<\/p>\n

It was James Boward who said, Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner\u201d. What must we legally do to nullify a fraudulent election and what must we legally do to dislodge an illegal government. Let us exhaust all options available to us.<\/p>\n

And then?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Gandara John On 18 Aug 15 democracy in Sri Lanka was snuffed out when with the stroke of a pen five million voters were robbed of their Basic Human Rights to influence governmental decision making. As observed by UMHRC, \u2018One of the most critical ways that individuals can influence governmental decision making is through voting.\u2019 […]<\/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-47541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47541","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=47541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}