<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its\nbest that we all come to terms with some hard facts \u2013 there is no perfect\nsystem, there is no perfect constitution, there is no perfect Parliament and\nthere is certainly no perfect politician. There is no perfect human being\neither! The political system today is a modernized version drafted by colonial\nrulers who devised a system that they could continue to \u2018remote\u2019 control decolonized\ncountries to which independence was given. None of the present day \u2018international\nlaws\u2019 have an iota of the ancient indigenous laws or systems that were\npracticed by countries successfully. These countries prior to colonial invasion\nsuffered no internal animosities, loans or debt, suffered no law & disorder\nissues until they were colonized during the \u2018age of discovery\u2019 by Western\nChristian\/Islamic invaders. Every territory Western\/Islamic invaders colonized,\nare today following systems that they imparted forcefully and control\nindirectly and suffer as a result of the systems they forcefully implemented\nwhich post-independent local leaders were not allowed to change \u2013 nationalist\nleaders that did met their waterloo. Without an understanding of these ground realities\nno one can even dream of changing the systems & will only be dreaming of\nchanging the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nWestern nations have experimented with a plethora of systems \u2018liberal\u2019\n\u2018multicultural\u2019 while majority Islamic nations continue to stick to their\nstricter form of Islamic rule without compromise and Western nations do not\neven insist on a compromise. There is no single uniform system that has\nsucceeded post decolonized rule in either the former colonies or the imperial\ncountries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every\ncountry suffers some system failure coupled with social, political, economic\nfailures too. The powerful nations are powerful only because they have devised\nways to remain on top and keep others at the bottom. US claims itself to be the\nmost powerful nation in the world but it is in trillions of debt & US too\nhas its share of poor people \u2013 so what makes US different to other countries\nalso in lesser debt & also suffering poverty? US in spite of its debt gives\n\u2018grants\u2019 and continues its influence over other nations but can other countries\nin lesser debt do the same? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How\nequal are countries if even in the UN, 5 member countries have veto power while\nothers don\u2019t? How equal is the system that allows some countries to use nuclear\nweapons while others are forbidden? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
International\nlaws and systems have been such that even post-independent countries have not\nbeen able to reverse the discriminations that the natives had been subject to\nand countries were left to face the remnants of \u2018divide and rule\u2019 policies that\nfavored minorities over majority and instilled a form of division and animosity\nthat has enabled the creators of the issues to return claiming to solve them but\nin reality to fan its flames. The question we need to ask is how can the very\ncountries that created the conflict and continue to fan the conflict help solve\nthe conflict? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A\ngood look at every conflict prevalent today across every former colony what is\nevident is that the conflicts are as a result of artificial borders created by\nthe colonial rulers, inequal status given to a segment of populace, ethno-religious\nconflicts that colonials have created and disparity in livelihood and social\nstatus created by capitalistic system that has allowed white-collar crimes to\nappear socially acceptable. Sponsorships and lobbying are today a form of\nwhite-collar crime no one wishes to openly debate. However, it is nothing but\nan elite form of \u2018bribery\u2019. International trade and international relations are\nintermingled and depend largely on the diplomatic arm-twisting and geopolitical\nbargaining and advantages powerful nations exert over less powerful ones. Trade\nagreements are often not mutually beneficial as claimed. If not there would not\nbe such a disparity \u2013 statistics speak for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According\nto Credit Suisse The world\u2019s richest 1%, those with\nmore than $1 million, own 45% of the world\u2019s wealth. Adults with less than\n$10,000 in wealth make up 64% of the world\u2019s population but hold less than 2%\nof global wealth. The world\u2019s wealthiest individuals, those owning over $100,000\nin assets, total less than 10% of the global population but own 84% of global\nwealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
10\nBillionaires own $745 billion in combined wealth\nequal to the GDP of Switzerland, Argentina, Poland, Taiwan, Sweden, Belgium,\nTrinidad, Austria, Norway & Thailand. There are 2,208 billionaires\nglobally. 400 Americans own more of the country\u2019s riches than the 150 million\nadults in the bottom 60 percent of the wealth distribution. In 2018 26 people\nowned the same as 3.8b people who make up the poorest half of humanity. It\ntakes a CEO just one day to earn what a worker makes in a year. How did\ncountries become \u2018industrialized-developed\u2019 how did countries become \u2018Third\nWorld-developing\u2019, who created money and who fell into debt and how are\nquestions more important than how many countries are in debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Can\nany aspiring presidential candidate concentrate people\u2019s focus on only internal\nmatters evading and avoiding more important and dangerous geopolitical issues.\nHow many of these candidates or their policy advisors know that US has\ninterfered in 194 international conflicts from 1948 to 2017 including regime\nchange in Sri Lanka? The US Congressional Research Service reported 392 U.S.\nmilitary interventions since 1800. There are many allegations against the UN\nsystem and its bias too. How much of these ground realities are Presidential\ncandidates aware of and have devised means to deal with them to the benefit of\nthe country & its people? It is only in realizing the issues that a\nPresidential candidate and his government is up against and has formed a set of\nstrategies to deal with them that a candidate can and should feel confident\nthat he is the best suited to lead a country. Simply joining the bandwagon of\nslanders and name calling most of which are funded by the very countries and\norganizations that are out to upset and destabilize country, what clueless\ncandidates are doing is only playing to the tune of these destabilizing agents.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\nis little point vying to become President of a country if clueless about the\ndiplomatic pressures, arm-twisting and other ploys used upon developing\ncountries that is of strategic interests to the developed countries of the\nworld. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simply drawing a fancy picture of a supposed to be uncorrupt parliament with uncorrupt politicians, bureaucracy etc while all the hawks are laughing waiting to prey on Sri Lanka is most detrimental to the future of Sri Lanka. This is where we currently stand. There are a plethora of people promising a beautiful country on paper but in reality that can never be so until and unless the world also undergoes a similar program to rid the world of the corrupt. However, let us not be na\u00efve not to realize how far the corrupt are today in the saddle and ruling over us \u2013 the working class and the others who are virtually considered their slaves. Can we reverse this \u2013 we can, but each one has to be the change they want to see \u2013 a group painting a picture of an utopia is going to get us nowhere. We are at a critical juncture where we need to identify our enemies \u2013 the enemies that are out in the open & the enemies that are invisible or hiding under some form of camouflage. Until and unless we know to identify our friends from our enemies we will not see the woods for the trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Its best that we all come to terms with some hard facts \u2013 there is no perfect system, there is no perfect constitution, there is no perfect Parliament and there is certainly no perfect politician. There is no perfect human being either! The political system today is a modernized version drafted by colonial rulers who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92864","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\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92864\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}