{"id":94498,"date":"2019-10-29T17:35:59","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T00:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94498"},"modified":"2019-10-29T17:35:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-30T00:35:59","slug":"from-the-eve-of-disintegration-to-the-dawn-of-a-new-era-of-democracy-and-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/29\/from-the-eve-of-disintegration-to-the-dawn-of-a-new-era-of-democracy-and-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Eve of Disintegration to the Dawn of a New Era of Democracy and Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Two of the three important presidential candidates have, by the\ntime of writing, October 28, unveiled their election manifestos. SLPP\u2019s\nGotabhaya Rajapaksa and National People\u2019s Power candidate JVP\u2019s Anura Kumara\nDisanayake (AK) did so on October 25 and 26 respectively. Be that as it may,\nthe contest is actually between two of the three, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (GR) and\nSajith Premadasa (SP),  the UNP-led New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate;\nbut the latter hasn\u2019t yet made known the agenda he expects to implement in case\nhe is elected as president. AK, obviously the lowest seeded contestant, seems\nto be playing for ensuring a return of the justly rejected. Funnily enough, the\ninane statements and gestures that SP has been making on the campaign trail so\nfar do not suggest that he has any coherent vision or plan of action. He seems\nto be trying to compensate for this glaring lack by beginning to parrot some\nideas (merely as meaningless slogans) stealthily adapted from GR\u2019s meticulously\ndrafted text. GR marks a clear path out of the present unholy mess to the\nprosperous future that the much harassed, but highly disciplined and patient,\npeople of the natural-resources-rich Sri Lanka deserve.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GR vision for dealing with the short term and long term crises\nthe country is facing can be outlined in terms of ten points: strengthening\nnational security, adopting a foreign policy that does not compromise Sri\nLanka\u2019s sovereignty and independence, eliminating corruption, developing an\nemployment oriented education system geared towards training productive\ncitizens, creating a people centred economy, building a society that is based\non knowledge and technology, development and enhancement of physical resources,\nmaintaining a stable environment management system, introducing constitutional\nreforms that are accountable to the people, and establishing a just society\nthat is law abiding, disciplined and decent. While explaining his broad vision\nand mission, he stressed two key principles, one in positive terms, and the\nother in negative terms. He assured the patriotic people of Sri Lanka that none\nof the pledges he makes in the manifesto are empty political promises. What he\nput in positive terms was this: he pledges himself to a righteous mode of\ngovernance that will be compatible with the ethical principles advocated by the\ndominant Buddhist religious culture and other mainstream religions followed in\nthe country. GR also emphasized that no extremism of any kind will be\ntolerated, and that there will be only one legal system for the whole country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upcoming presidential election on November 16 may be described\nas the most unusual and at the same time, the most decisive, presidential\nelection ever held under the 1978 Constitution, that is, ever since the\nintroduction of the the executive presidential system. It is going to be the\nmost decisive presidential poll because on its result will depend the very\nsurvival of the country as an independent sovereign state  of which the\ninstitution of the executive presidency is the lynchpin: If the UNP candidate\nwins, the incumbent dysfunctional parliament itself will be able to push\nthrough the legislation that is necessary to remove that vital constitutional\nsafeguard; a change that involves the removal of the executive presidency will\nbe irreversible. This presidential election is also unlike any other ever held\nduring the past forty years because of a number of factors like the following:\nThe ridiculous multiplicity of candidates – 35 – is one. This, however, is sure\nto be seen by the seasoned voting public as an ingenuous strategy designed to\neat into the well known front runner GR\u2019s vote bank, though obviously, the\ndummy tactic won\u2019t work; it will probably be counterproductive instead. The\noutgoing president\u2019s decision to keep out of the fray remains an unexplained\nmatter; no one knows what\u2019s up his sleeve; Sirisena is notorious for nasty\nsurprises. The prospect of the incoming president  having to work with a\nprime minister who is determined to challenge him as a supposedly emasculated\nexecutive (weakened as a result of the controversially passed 19A) is also an\nunusual situation; however, such a challenge is not likely to materialize if GR\nis elected in view of the precedent that the Yahapalana president Sirisena\nhimself created when he unconstitutionally swore in, soon after his own taking\nof oaths, the then Opposition leader Wickremasinghe with only 44 seats in the\n225 member parliament as prime minister, ignoring the incumbent pm Jayaratne\nsupported by some 140 members. The apparently deliberate undermining of\nnational security and the decline of economic development to beyond the\npre-2005 levels reflects the unenviable legacy of the anarchic Yahapalanaya.\nThese are some of the unique circumstances that make this presidential election\none of its kind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just over nine years of Rajapaksa presidency (November 9, 2005 –\nJanuary 9, 2015) left Sri Lanka a secure, peaceful country that was\neconomically looking up with a healthy growth rate of over 6.5, having overcome\nthree decades of terrorist violence. The end of the civil war in May 2009\nbrought the different racial and religious communities together. The majority\nSinhalese and the minority Tamil and Muslim communities resumed their normal\nlives as citizens of one country as before, free from fear and mutual\nsuspicion. Unprecedented vistas of progress opened before the nation. However,\nthe euphoria lasted for a short five years. Perennial problems like corruption\nwhich need to be tackled through collaboration rather than conflict between the\ngovernment and the opposition, false allegations levelled against the leaders\nby political rivals, and the anti-Sri Lanka actions taken by vested interests\nabroad exploiting these concocted issues led to an externally engineered regime\nchange in January 2015. This was followed by the the installation of\nYahapalanaya now on its last legs. Its abject submission to virtually\nunconcealed intimidatory  foreign interference directed at subverting the\npublic will characterized the Yahapalanaya. The leaders were beholden to those\nexternal forces for their hold on the levers of domestic power. The brand of\ndemocracy they boast of having protected is such that they felt obliged to\nplease the agents of interventionist powers, while completely ignoring the interests\nof the ordinary Sri Lankans who were made to vote them into power.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island of October 9,\n2019 carried, on its front page, a picture of Speaker of Sri Lanka Parliament\nKaru Jayasuriya at a discussion he had with Canadian High Commissioner in Sri\nLanka  David McKinnon at the Parliament Complex on Monday (07) in the\ncompany of Secretary General of Parliament Dammika Dasanayake and \u2018Foreign\nSecretary and advisor\u2019 to Speaker (Jayasuriya) Prasad Kariyawasam. The\n\u2018advisor\u2019 part of his designation offers no ambiguity. But the other part is\nnot clear. Is Kariyawasam the current secretary to the ministry of foreign\naffairs doubling as advisor to the Speaker simultaneously, or does he serve as\nthe latter\u2019s foreign affairs consultant as well? What had a civil servant of\none country to do with the the head of the august house of representatives of\nanother sovereign country? These questions occurred to me on seeing that\npicture.  Be that as it may, the caption to the picture notes that \u2018The\nJoint Opposition protested both inside and outside (the Parliament) against\nKariyawasam\u2019s appointment as he was paid by the USAID\u2019. Most Sri Lankans will\ntend to view what appears to be brazen interference in the country\u2019s internal\naffairs (of which the picture is graphic proof) with a sense of outrage. The\npicture might remind them of how a number of foreign diplomats clapped from the\nparliamentary gallery when the Speaker, Karu Jayasuriya, announced the\ncontroversial passage of a no confidence motion by voice vote in 2018. Jayasuriya,\na so-called champion of democracy, to his eternal shame, allowed the\nsovereignty of the Sri Lankan people to be thus slighted by some salaried civil\nservants from the West.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SLPP\u2019s assured anti-Yahapalanaya result is expected to lead to\nan inevitable change of the composition of the next parliament. The election of\nits candidate as president is already treated as a foregone conclusion. The\nsweeping victory of the SLPP at the Elpitiya Pradeshiya Sabha election held on\nOctober 11 reflects the public mood throughout the country.The Elpitiya verdict\n(all 17 wards won by the Joint Opposition led by the SLPP) is a harbinger of\nits eventual emergence  as the ruling party at the parliamentary election\nthat will follow around March in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the longer term indication of the October 11 Elpitiya PS\nelection result. But its immediate effect was that it gave the lie to the\ncostly pro-government Galle Face rally held the previous afternoon. The\napparently large Elpitiya election eve gathering at Galle Face reminded me of\nthe  UNP demonstration held in the centre of Colombo on October 30, 2018\nin which an effigy of the unexpectedly appointed Prime Minister Mahinda\nRajapaksa was burnt, and that of President Maithripala Sirisena was torn up, by\nparty loyalists against the dismissal, four days before, of the then sitting\npremier UNP\u2019s Ranil Wickremasinghe; Sirisena had appointed Rajapaksa prime\nminister after suddenly dissolving parliament in what came to be dubbed a\n\u2018constitutional coup\u2019 on October 26 last year. Like that seemingly impromptu\nprotest event in 2018,  the Galle Face gathering on October 10 a couple of\ndays ago was not a spontaneous or convincing enough show of public support for\nthe incumbent regime. From the public\u2019s point of view there was absolutely\nnothing the government did to inspire such confidence in it in either case. The\nvast majority of common Sri Lankans breathed a sigh of relief when they heard\nabout the sudden change of government and the appointment of Rajapaksa replacing\nWickremasinghe. Although it was later successfully challenged in court by\nWickremasinghe for him and his cabinet to be reinstated, Rajapaksa\u2019s interim\ngovernment of 51 days subsequently led to the achievement of some positive\nresults including the long delayed recognition of Rajapaksa as the leader of\nthe Opposition by the Speaker, and the suffocation of indecently hurried\nparliamentary legislations meant to placate global powers that are inimical to\nthe country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is not a politician by his nature. He was\ndrawn into the vortex of presidential politics due to popular demand in place\nof Mahinda Rajapaksa because the 19A deprived the latter of contesting for a\nthird term. The people became suddenly aware of the deception played on them in\nJanuary 2015 within a month of the event. Since the massive pro-Mahinda rally\nheld at Nugegoda in February the same year, people have been demanding his\nreturn. But Yahapalanaya democrats have blundered on, while relentlessly\ncarrying on their immoral unjustified campaign of demonising the Rajapaksas in\norder to keep them away from power in contradiction of the popular will.\nSeveral senior government officers revealed recently how they were pressured to\nincriminate them somehow and incarcerate them though there was no evidence at\nall to do so. One cabinet minister even asked the people to elect his party to\npower again so they would be able to complete avenging themselves on the\nRajapaksas! This was probably a slip of the tongue, but it hints at what was\nreally passing through his mind. The  Yahapalana government did little\nmore than Rajapaksa bashing, in addition to doing everything to undo what the\ncountry achieved under them in the ten years before the January 2015 regime\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fair minded Sri Lankans instinctively know that the\nRajapaksas, with their traditional Buddhist upbringing will never  think\nof paying their rivals in the same coin when they are elected to power again on\nNovember 16. They will exclusively expend their energies on the implementation\nof the GR Vision, while giving the highest priority to restoring national\nsecurity in all its aspects, managing foreign relations without surrendering\nthe country\u2019s sovereignty, independence and national dignity, eliminating\ncorruption and crime, and building a prosperous society through knowledge and\ntechnology. Education is going to receive unprecedented attention. No other\npresidential hopeful in history past or present has evinced so much interest in\nthe welfare of the young as GR. He is the best by a mile compared to his\nclosest rival in this contest to be president.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the October 2018 \u2018protest rally\u2019 in Colombo was a fake event.\nThe UNP traditionally has ways and means of attracting crowds in spite of\nthemselves. On that occasion it inflated the numbers who attended nearly\nfourfold . The Australian<\/em> of October 31, 2018 reporting on this\ndemonstration, suggested a much lower figure: The\nparty (i.e., the UNP) said about 100,000 people took part in the protests while\npolice sources gave a figure of 25,000 before more arrived\u201d. Information\nexchanged in the social media makes it clear that crowds for the rally in the\nGalle Face Green were bussed in from the provinces by the organizers. The\nestablished tradition is to transport its supporters to the venue of the rally\nand back, with their day\u2019s upkeep looked after (Today\u2019s young may not know that\nthe nickname \u2018bath gottas\u2019 – rice-packet recipients – was used exclusively for\nUNP supporters in the past because of this demeaning practice). Provincial\nleaders of the party felt compelled to make this an opportunity to demonstrate\ntheir power and popularity among the people to the party hierarchy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is usually the Opposition that takes to the streets against an\nmalfunctioning government in power. The absurdity of the government having\nbegun to abuse that oppositional strategy in order to distract public attention\nfrom its own failures is part of the general topsy-turvydom that characterizes\nthe state of anarchy that has come to stay under the Yahapalanaya. The speeches\nthat the UNP presidential candidate makes and the election promises he dangles\nbefore audiences suggest that he has strategically forgotten that he is a\npowerful minister of the government with the ability to demonstrate his\ncredibility by actually doing something about at least some of the problems\nthat he pledges himself to solving (like looking into what is happening at\nMuhudu Maha Viharaya and Kuragala, or ensuring that workers on the Upcountry\ntea estates get the Rs 1000 daily payment they have been demanding for so long\n).   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today Sri Lanka is facing, arguably, its worst survival crisis\nsince independence, following the two armed JVP insurrections (1971 and\n1986-90) and the long drawn armed LTTE separatism (1976-2009), both terrorist\nmovements. A considerable number of good but ill-informed or misinformed young\nSri Lankans believe that the past seven decades of independence have seen\nnothing but a steady degradation of the country as a nation (in terms of\ngovernance, economy, and social standards, etc.) due to something intrinsically\nwrong with the established (political) system and the alleged depravity of all\nthe politicians of the country having been given to corruption and abuse of\npower without any exception. But the truth is that there have been and there\nstill are good honest politicians, though they are surrounded by a host of very\nbad ones. Sri Lanka has achieved a number of positive changes through\nparliamentary democracy under both the original UNP- and SLFP-led governments,\nthe most conspicuous of these being those made in 1956, 1970, 1978, 1994 and\n2009. (The regime change engineered with foreign involvement in 2015 that\nreplaced the best performing post-independence government Sri Lanka had had\nuntil then cannot be included in this list.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above negative assumption, therefore, is not totally valid,\nthough superficially it may appeal to the young sections of the electorate who\ntend to generalize on the basis of what they have been experiencing in the name\nof \u2018good governance\u2019 during the past four and a half years. That is, this most\npessimistic verdict on post-independence politics to date is largely a reaction\nto the Yahapalanaya, which may be described as an absolute kakistocracy (rule\nby the worst people) unmatched by any government that ruled before.\nParadoxically, the indiscriminate judgement might make the democratic\ndislodgement of the most undemocratic and corrupt administration ever in\npost-independence Sri Lanka more difficult than it should be in the prevailing\ncircumstances and it is being slyly promoted by the Yahapalanaya\u2019s erstwhile\nsupporters who are hellbent on preventing the patriotic forces now poised to\nreplace it from doing so.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the departure in 1948 of the British who had \u2018possessed\u2019 Sri\nLanka as an imperial territory and exploited its resources, the country was\ndeemed to have been returned to the people of Ceylon (as the country was then known\ninternationally), the Ceylonese, comprising the majority Sinhalese and the\nTamil, Muslim, Burgher and other minorities. The famous \u2018Divide and Rule\u2019\npolicy had created an English speaking, Westernized, almost totally Christian,\n\u2018elite\u2019 – a miniscule minority of colonial parasites – that was beholden to the\ncolonizers for favours granted as a reward for their servile allegiance to the\ninvader. With the grant of universal franchise in 1931 the numerical strength\nof the communities began to have an impact on deciding which community was to\nhave the greatest share of ruling power. The minorities, particularly the\nracist Tamil leaders from the elite class, feared that the political ascendancy\nthe Sinhalese majority acquired through the grant of universal franchise meant\nan inevitable loss of the special privileges that they had been enjoying under\nthe British. Their attitude was reflected in the notorious 50-50 demand of G.G.\nPonnambalam in the allocation of seats in the first legislature to be\nestablished under the Soulbury Constitution of 1948. That is, Ponnambalam\nwanted the seats in the new parliament to be equally divided between the\nSinhalese and the Tamils ignoring the discrepancy between their percentages in\nthe population (75% and 15% respectively), a ridiculously unconscionable demand\nthat the Soulbury commissioners rejected with contempt. The Sinhalese leaders,\nlike today, were never racist. D.S. Senanayake, the first prime minister, asked\nby them how many Tamils he wanted to have in his cabinet of ministers, replied\nthat he didn\u2019t mind if all of them were Tamils, provided they served as\nCeylonese (as Sri Lankans in modern parlance). But Tamil leaders were\ndifferent. SJV Chelvanagam founded the separatist Ilankei Tamil Arasu Kachchi –\nLanka Tamil State Party – misleadingly called the Federal Party (to camouflage\nits unrealistic separatist agenda) in 1949. Ratnajeevan Hoole, a member of the\nthree member Elections Commission, in a recent Colombo Telegraph article,\ndescribed Chelvanayagam as the greatest statesman that Sri Lanka ever had!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps there is no other nation in the world that is more\nnaturally inclined to protect and cherish secular democracy, the best (i.e. the\nmost civilized and humane) form of government so far evolved, than the Sri Lankan\npeople. This is because of its dominant Sinhalese Buddhist cultural tradition\nthat has survived unbroken for over 2300 years. There is no other historic\nmoral-spiritual tradition than the Buddhist establishment in Sri Lanka that is\nmore compatible with secularism in governance that is so admired in the West.\nIf \u2018Christian nations\u2019 like America and Britain can boast of being secular\ndemocracies, why can\u2019t Sri Lanka with its long prevailing Buddhist culture be\naccepted as a secular democracy. (It is unfortunate that politicians who\nprofess various religions equate secularism with rejection of religious values\nwithout bothering to find out what the \u2018Western\u2019 concept of secular governance\nreally means.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsimple truth about inter-communal relations in majority Buddhist Sri Lanka is\nthat there is no better guarantor of the safety, the wellbeing and the peaceful\ncoexistence of all communities, large or small, male or female, heterosexual or\nhomosexual than this most humane unobtrusive Sinhalese Buddhist cultural\nbackground. Buddhist monks have been the traditional nonviolent protectors of\nthe country, the nation, and the Buddhist establishment that has defined its\nbinding, inclusive culture ever since Buddhism was introduced or established in\nSri Lanka under royal patronage over 2300 years ago. It is natural that\nwhenever these three \u2018treasures\u2019 are in danger as now the monks take it upon\nthemselves as their historic responsibility to offer moral guidance to protect\nthem in peaceful nonviolent ways. In the past, when peaceful approaches failed,\nthey did not disapprove of responding to armed aggression in the appropriate\nmanner. Sometimes monks temporarily or permanently disrobed to fight as\nwarriors, and this happened during the recent civil war. It has always been the\ncase that the majority Sinhalese fight for the country and its people without\nracial or religious discrimination.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the politicians who want a separate state, not the ordinary\nTamils, who live scattered in all provinces of the country, with only less than\nhalf of their number concentrated in the north and east, where they wanted to\nestablish their separate state. The majority of Tamils are Hindus, like the\nmajority of Sinhalese are Buddhists. Both are peaceful, non-violent,\nnon-proselytising religions. The recent advent of Islamic extremist violence\nwill inevitably drive the Hindus and Buddhists into each other\u2019s embrace for\nprotection. The peaceful coexistence between the Buddhist and Hindu religious\ncommunities is the greatest force for national unity. Islamic fundamentalist\nviolence targets people of all religions including Muslims who do not accept\ntheir version of Islam. The defeat of Tamil separatist terrorism brought all\nthe communities together, and ushered in the dawn of a new era of peace and\nprosperity.  But this was not to last. Strategic positioning of the\ngeopolitical space where Sri Lanka is located by the global powers means\ntrouble for Sri Lanka. The principal global power involved here, America is\nexploiting the so-called Tamil national problem and the surreptitiously\nintroduced fundamentalist religious activity over the recent decades to\ndestabilize the country in pursuit of its strategic ends in the\nregion.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success achieved by the previous government between 2005 – 2014\nbecame a casualty of this trend. Sri Lanka\u2019s survival as a sovereign nation\nwith a written history of over 2500 years, indisputably a unique achievement in\nhuman civilization, which the whole of humanity can hardly write off overnight\nand consign to oblivion, is hanging in the balance. This is the biggest problem\nthe country is facing at the moment, though it receives scant attention from\nthe currently embattled politicians. Only two or three politicians (they are\nfrom the Joint Opposition) are articulating the problem. A former army\ncommander with an excellent service record, the one before the previous one,\nwell known for his uprightness as a military officer,  his patriotism, and\nhis non-partisan approach in discussing national problems made a special appeal\nthrough the social media to all adult Sri Lankans to understand this problem\nclearly and use their vote intelligently at the coming presidential election\n(so the correct person will be elected for dealing with it as a priority). It\nis the responsibility of ordinary voters to judge which of the two main\ncontenders is capable of facing the challenge successfully. The present\ngovernment seems to be inviting foreign meddling as a means of guaranteeing\ntheir own survival in power at any cost.     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Two of the three important presidential candidates have, by the time of writing, October 28, unveiled their election manifestos. SLPP\u2019s Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and National People\u2019s Power candidate JVP\u2019s Anura Kumara Disanayake (AK) did so on October 25 and 26 respectively. Be that as it may, the contest is actually between two […]<\/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-94498","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\/94498","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=94498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}