Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Thursday Sep 19, 2024
Saturday, 10 January 2015 03:40 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Much is expected from new president Maithripala Sirisena. Maintaining law and order, appointing a new Cabinet and strengthening democracy are his top priorities. The process of abolishing the authoritarian executive presidential system and replacing it with an executive Cabinet of Ministers responsible to Parliament should be done as a matter of urgency.
Repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution with legislation to establish strengthened and independent institutions, including a Judicial Services Commission, a Police Commission, a Public Service Commission, an Elections Commission, a Commission against Bribery and Corruption and a Human Rights Commission is sine qua non.
It is also time to give back the lost dignity of the minorities. It is up to the new administration to regain the waning confidence of minorities and make them excited participants in the system working hard for their beloved nation and people. The key requirement here is dignity and no one should be deprived of it.
In the past I have written a few pieces in which I ventured to challenge Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rather ill-advised strategy to postulate an uncompromising anti-minority policy tainted with majoritarian-infused adrenalin and undiluted xenophobic rigour, 
a toxic combination never witnessed before in the political history of our beloved nation.
I cannot recall any previous President subjecting minorities to such pain and pressure. This unabating trend over time got worse. The administration too got incomprehensibly insensitive. What made Mahinda Rajapaksa do this? Who were the protagonists and other coalescing forces to this kind of misguided, injudicious stratagem? Did Mahinda Rajapaksa ever give thought to its flip side?
Many were the victims in the past and contemporary history who either perished or drifted into oblivion for not acceding to common sense and sound reason? Marginalising minorities was such a bad policy. In business just like in politics one has got to be ever vigilant of competitors and their activity. You should not only be able to see the apparent but penetrate further to see the not-so-apparent. Always say what if?
Surprisingly the campaign was lacking sound insight from its inception. A malaise that afflicts the under- prepared. A campaign which is devoid of versatility and is not politically savvy is vulnerable. The cardinal rule in life is to read and understand the writing on the wall.
Affirmative minority action
You don’t become a loser because of Uva, the issues were too corrosive and ingrained and denial did not do much. Mahinda Rajapaksa had the capacity and charisma to reach out to the minorities had he only shown sincere and genuine concern for minority issues. Had he taken affirmative action, a different outcome could have been possible.
It may not come as a surprise that even Velupillai Prabhakaran was one such intransigent specimen. Had he acquiesced to strong, intelligent counsel, the nation would not have lost so many lives fighting a futile war.
In Mahinda Rajapaksa’s case it was all the more baffling because he entertained such overt dynastic ambitions and finally gave everything on a platter. It sounds like such an anti-climax. The discerning witnessed no wisdom or any semblance of pragmatism for his persistent anti-minority conspiracies.
Ably choreographed and bedecked by the family, the BBS carried out their act with immaculate precision. Obsequious to the palace yet spewing ear-shattering vitriol, the BBS were an accompanying liability never, ever confronted. Their degrading theatrics hopefully will be captured on celluloid screen sometime in the future by an insightful film director much to the mirth, hilarity and amusement of the nation.
As we deliver a huge kick to a ravenous and acquisitive legacy let us sincerely hope we have learnt huge lessons from this calamity. Let this be a lesson to all future leaders who salivate to tread the racial path for petty political gain.
The war is over and Mahinda Rajapaksa was the indisputable hero, none dare to question this achievement. None will be able to take this unique position from him. The people were saved from the shackles of misery and penury. Many Sri Lankans consider 18 May 2009 as the new date of independence. The nation was liberated and relieved.
Common sense should dictate the best course of action from that point would have been to win the confidence of all people including all minorities in the arduous journey towards nation-building and national reconciliation. The war had dismembered our collective psyche and the nation was restless for amelioration and deliverance. In this moment of sombre expectation came further pummelling not just to the minorities but to all including the majority.
Under the guise of a very strange genre of sanctimony-laced patriotism emerged the grand project to rake in all and sundry. People started to reel under unbearable taxes and duties. The cost of living was northward bound and was unstoppable.
About nation-building Maithripala Sirisena had this to say to Padma Rao Sundarji of Hindustan Times on the eve of the election: “We needed a nation-building project which can’t happen unless all factions come together and now - this is precisely that dream coming true. It is this diversity that will ensure success. We consider ourselves blessed to have this disparity.
“If Sri Lankan voters were uncomfortable about it, they would have expressed resentment weeks ago. But no such thing has happened. On the contrary, there is a big surge to vote for me.”
About militarising the north he said: “I will ensure that the army will exit civil administration altogether and give local police and civil servants that task. I only said that existing army cantonments like those in Palali in Jaffna will not be shut down. And of course I will act totally in consonance with the security apparatus and our generals. The point is, all democratic Tamil parties of the TNA are backing me right now.”
Mr. President I wish you all the best and let’s get to work.
