{"id":94671,"date":"2019-11-01T16:42:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94671"},"modified":"2019-11-01T16:42:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-01T23:42:47","slug":"the-candidate-who-can-assure-sri-lankas-unitary-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/01\/the-candidate-who-can-assure-sri-lankas-unitary-status\/","title":{"rendered":"The candidate who can assure Sri Lanka\u2019s unitary status"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy\u00a0 Asian Tribune<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both presidential candidates Gotabaya\nRajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa had pledged to protect the unitary status of the\ncountry. With both making the same promise, the challenge is before the voter\nas to which candidate to vote for, when both are pledging the same.Gotabaya\nRajapaksa – had actually taken the initiative, worked hard, even at personal\nrisk, to ensure that the country remains as a whole than a fragmented uni<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it is easy to make any promise, the voter\nmust turn his attention to the course of action and stance the candidate has\ntaken to fulfill his pledge. The voter must also take a closer look at the\ncandidate\u2019s team to understand whether the candidate may rely on his team to\nsupport him to fulfill his pledge.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the first to\nunderstand the implications of the Geneva Resolution 30\/1, which was\nco-sponsored by the Yahapalana<\/em> Government. He was able to do\nso because by that time he had already formed Sri Lanka\u2019s very first think\ntank, Viyathmaga. As an organization Viyathmaga in 2015 was in its infancy.\nYet, because of the caliber of professionals that gathered at this forum from\nthe beginning, the contents of the Geneva Resolution 30\/1 was well analyzed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very next year, Rear Admiral Sarath\nWeerasekera was appointed as an envoy of the Sri Lankan people. He went to\nGeneva armed with facts and figures that easily refutes the absurd allegations\nmade in the Resolution. It was a very odd experience indeed for a single\ncitizen was doing the work that ought to have been done by the Sri Lankan\nGovernment. This lone individual\u2019s only support was GR.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is evident from the documented\ninterpretations of Sri Lanka\u2019s events from persons such as former American\nambassador Teresita C Schaffer and Ryan Goodman, GR had been identified as a\npolitical threat even before the ahapalana <\/em>Government was\nformed. Even as early as January 2015, GR was considered a serious obstacle in\nreaping the return of America\u2019s investment from toppling a strong nationalistic\nGovernment to installing a weak government.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution envisaged was to remove GR from\nthe political arena by implicating him of various crimes. Right on cue,\nthe Yahapalana<\/em> Government tried their level best to implicate\nhim into various crimes. Even after four years however, the Yahapalana <\/em>Government\nhas not been able to achieve their objective.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the more the Yahapalana <\/em>Government\ntried to persecute GR, he more strengthened he became politically. However, the\nfact that theYahapalana<\/em> Government\u2019s plan to neutralize GR\nbackfired on the Yahapalana<\/em> Government is visible now, it is\nvery much news on hindsight. At the time, the pressure exerted especially via\nthe newly and illegally formed FCID was immense. Entire military units were\ntaken in for questioning. Even their families were pressurized to name GR as\nthe point of command over various allegations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lessor man would have tried to stay\ninvisible from the Government\u2019s radar. He certainly would not have challenged\nthe Government\u2019s decisions. GR however grabbed the Geneva Resolution by the\nhorns and spearheaded the challenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yahapalana<\/em> Government\nscurried to establish the Office of Missing Persons when the then UNHRC High Commissioner\nZeid Hussein threw a tantrum. Yet, the OMP still could not unleash its maximum\npower because GR\u2019s team worked tirelessly to educate the clergy and the masses.\nBy this time, GR had also founded Eliya <\/em>– an awareness\ncreating body that addresses these issues, simplifying technical details so\nthat it is comprehensible to the ordinary man.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the ordinary man became familiarized with\nthe facts, its implications and the interest of those who are pushing to enact\nthese highly detrimental agreements, the Yahapalana<\/em>Government stood\nexposed. A favorite trick of the Yahapalana <\/em>Government is to\ncreate a distraction and to use that moment of confusion to push through\nunpopular or unacceptable bills.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, as Eliya<\/em> locked its\nfocus on the issue, the Yahapalana<\/em> Government was unable to\nutilize their trick to the fullest extent. As a result, this Government\u2019s\nefforts to create nine semi-autonomous governments with a very weak central\ngovernment was negated. Therefore, no one can dispute that GR played a pivotal\nrole to safeguard the unitary status of our country. He did so while being out\nof power and while being persecuted by the Government that was intent on\nneutralizing him by putting him behind bars.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During this entire episode, Premadasa was\n(and still is) a powerful cabinet minister. He is also the deputy leader of the\nruling political party UNP. Yet, he silently allowed legitimacy to the Geneva\nResolution 30\/1 despite,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Resolution was brought against Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– it was co sponsored without the knowledge\nor sanction of the cabinet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– if the conditions of the Resolution is\ncompletely fulfilled, it will push Sri Lanka to having a weak government and a\nweak security force<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– the Resolution cannot be co-sponsored as it\nis unconstitutional<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Mangala Samaraweera who signed the\nco-sponsorship in effect gives a commitment to the UN on behalf of the\nParliament. However, Samaraweera placed his signature to the co-sponsorship as\nthe minister for foreign affairs. He was thus acting in the capacity of the executive.\nYet, he gave a commitment on behalf of the Parliament, which is the\nlegislature. This is not possible because the Executive and the Legislature are\nindependent bodies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– as a member of the cabinet, Premadasa\ncannot escape from the sins of the Resolution and is also liable for collective\nresponsibility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gotabaya Rajapaksa comes forward as the\npresidential candidate backed by an entire team that had stood and worked\nagainst the Geneva Resolution 30\/1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sajith Premadasa on the other hand is backed\nby the very team that allowed and justified the Resolution. Both candidates may\npledge to safeguard the unitary status of our country.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, only one – Gotabaya Rajapaksa – had\nactually taken the initiative, worked hard, even at personal risk, to ensure\nthat the country remains as a whole than a fragmented unit.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe Courtesy\u00a0 Asian Tribune Both presidential candidates Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa had pledged to protect the unitary status of the country. With both making the same promise, the challenge is before the voter as to which candidate to vote for, when both are pledging the same.Gotabaya Rajapaksa – had actually taken the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94671","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=94671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}