{"id":56788,"date":"2016-07-21T22:20:38","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T04:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=56788"},"modified":"2016-07-21T14:53:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T21:53:40","slug":"a-comparison-of-1815-and-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/07\/21\/a-comparison-of-1815-and-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"A Comparison of 1815 and 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

July 20, 2016, 9:10 pm<\/span><\/p>\n

\"article_image\"<\/p>\n

History repeats, they say, for those who do not learn its lessons. Sri Lankan history is full of repeated mistakes that had often resulted in perilous situations for our beloved land. If we consider the recent past, in 2003 the government of the present Prime Minister entered into an agreement with the country\u2019s enemies; the LTTE supported by the Western countries, which almost resulted in the total defeat of our armed forces and the creation of a separate state of Eelam. Fortunately, the then President dissolved the government which proved to be the wisest thing that President did for this country, because the government that took over went ahead and eliminated the terrorists disregarding the pressure tactics of the Western powers. However, in 2015 the same Western powers have succeeded in getting rid of that government and installing a regime consisting of the same leaders who colluded with them in 2003 to strengthen the LTTE by entering into the infamous Peace Agreement mentioned above. Now the LTTE is being given another opportunity to regroup and start their separatist struggle.<\/p>\n

These happenings show that we have not learned a lesson from recent history. Similarly, a comparison of 2015 with 1815 shows that we Sri Lankans may never learn from history, and may never learn who their friends are and who the enemy is. In 1815 the British who had not been able to defeat the Sinhala army had succeeded in engineering a coup against King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, capturing him and exiling him. The British got inside assistance from Sinhala chieftains Pilimathalawa, Ehelepola and Ekneligoda who had the people believe that the King\u2019s rule was corrupt and dictatorial.<\/p>\n

In 2015 the British and the Western imperialists engineered a similar coup to get rid of the then government that dared to go against their dictates and defeat the LTTE. For this they got inside help from their agents, NGOs and political opportunists who painted the picture that the government was corrupt and dictatorial. Now these enemies of the nation are trying to exile from the political field the leaders who saved this country from terrorism. One after the other is being hounded and incarcerated to render them politically ineffective. Constitutional amendments are being carried out to disable those national leaders from coming to power. In 1815 the British similarly hounded and harassed national leaders like Keppetipola. A similar campaign is in operation now after 2015.<\/p>\n

After 1815, the British had access to our country\u2019s resources and they plundered it. They brought in foreign labour and deprived our people of their land and livelihood. They considered paddy cultivation as unimportant. A similar trend is seen at present with several dubious trade agreements with foreign countries in the offing, which could open our doors to foreign exploitation and influx of foreign labour. Our traditional agricultural practices like paddy cultivation are considered out of date and not profitable and are being given step motherly treatment. Multinational companies are being given unlimited access to local land and other resources, and freedom to take out all their earnings. The proposed changes in foreign exchange regulations would pave the way for such an outflow of wealth from the country.<\/p>\n

After 1815 in 1833, the British brought in the Colebrook constitution which strengthened foreign rule in the country. The ongoing constitutional reforms appear to be very much under foreign influence and intervention, as seen by the fact that even the UNHRC resolutions and recommendations take for granted that our constitution comes under its purview. The UNHRC is nothing but a Western imperialist tool, which maintains a dead silence on gross human rights violations committed by the West, while magnifying minor offences committed by Sri Lanka in the course of self defense, and making baseless fabricated accusations against Sri Lanka. Our attention has been drawn to the fact that the new Iraq constitution has been constructed by the USA and the people involved in that project may be advising our people who are tinkering with our constitution. The unitary state in particular is in danger and so is the special status given to Buddhism and Sinhala language.<\/p>\n

The idea perhaps is to dilute the national consciousness of the Sinhalese nation, which always rises up against foreign invasion and exploitation. Separatism is strengthened and will be held over us as the Sword of Damocles to keep us under control and obey their orders. It is imperative for the people of this country to be aware of what is happening and how history repeats for those who do not learn its lessons.<\/p>\n

N.A.de S. Amaratunga<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N.A.de S. Amaratunga\u00a0Courtesy The Island July 20, 2016, 9:10 pm History repeats, they say, for those who do not learn its lessons. Sri Lankan history is full of repeated mistakes that had often resulted in perilous situations for our beloved land. If we consider the recent past, in 2003 the government of the present Prime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56788","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=56788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}