4 February: Celebrating 71 years of what?

Minister Mangala Samaraweera

An open letter to Minister Mangala Samaraweera by Sharmini Serasinghe on behalf of the voiceless and faceless citizens of Sri Lanka

 

Dear Minister Mangala Samaraweera,

I hope you don’t mind me not referring to you as Hon. Mangala Samaraweera because those of us who know you are honourable don’t need a reminder. Also, many of your colleagues – MPs – also referred to as Hon. Blah blah blah are extremely dishonourable dolts, hence it is more of an insult to you than an honour.

The reason I decided to appeal to you on behalf of the voiceless and faceless citizens of Sri Lanka is because you have a conscience. Hence my utmost faith in you to do what is right by the people of our country.

So, here goes!

Next week, Sri Lanka will be “celebrating” 71 years since the British fled our shores for their dear lives. And, for 71 years since then we the people of this country have been led down the garden path by our noses, by successive governments of the two dominant political parties who used us, fooled us, abused us and now, driven our country down into the debt-ridden dark hole it is in today. You, as the Minister of Finance know exactly how deep and dark that hole is.

As a sensible and wise man I’m sure you would agree, Mangala, 4 February should actually be a day of mourning for us Sri Lankans. 71 years since the British fled our shores which we call “Independence” and where are we today? We the people of Sri Lanka have achieved nothing, really. We have lost far more than we ever gained, really!

The only ones who benefited are the politicians who we, our parents and grandparents voted for over the past 71 years, who in turn made an utter mess of our lives by polarising all of us based on language, ethnicity, religion, etc., which ultimately led to a war amongst our own people. Well, that’s hopefully history now. 

Further, we have had and still have those we voted into power to serve us – our servants – who in turn served and keep serving themselves, their families and sycophants at OUR expense, used and abused the Buddha Sasana in this county – the cradle of Theravada Buddhism – made racist idiots of many gullible Sinhalese – an obvious joke in the eyes of the Other – destroyed our ancient and sacred values, polluted the Buddhist clergy, created divisiveness, communal and religious disharmony, brainwashed our youth with a racist Sinhala-Buddhist ideology – the future generations of our country – by introducing and encouraging a culture of vile and disgraceful behaviour.

Is this what we will be “celebrating” on 4 February?

On this day – 4 February – we will witness yet another annually-repeated spectacle – ‘Independence Day celebrations’ – for which WE the people of Sri Lanka must eventually foot the bill. Do we want OUR money spent on this senseless performance to boost the egos of our ‘servants’ WE voted into power? NO, we DO NOT!

The star performer of this show will be our ‘Chief Servant’ Maithripala Sirisena – who ought to have been shoved into the dustbin of history and the lid tightly shut after he repeatedly violated our Constitution with obvious impunity. 

The 6.25 million of us who voted for this onetime political nonentity and who betrayed us on 26 October 2018, do we want OUR money spent to boost the ego of this servant of ours? NO, we DO NOT!

As the Minister of Finance you are well aware that Sirisena’s act of treason which unconstitutionally brought the Rajapaksa oligarchy back into power through the backdoor cost our debt-ridden country – us, its citizens – billions of rupees, directly and indirectly, during the 51 days of illegal Rajapaksa misrule. 

Also, as the Minister of Finance you know only too well that the financial losses of Sirisena’s treachery will ultimately have to be borne by US – the people of Sri Lanka. Hence our cost of living will undoubtedly rise in leaps and bounds in the near future under all kinds of guises.

Very soon, we will be asked to tighten our belts further, which incidentally is so tight now it’s about to disjoint us at the waist. So, how about setting the example at the top – Sevaka Sirisena downwards – and start tightening all your belts for a change?

A great place to start would be to cancel all plans to “celebrate” the nonsensical 71st anniversary of Independence. After all, it is OUR money that will be squandered on this senseless event, rehearsals et al, isn’t it? I don’t recall any of our servants in Government requesting our permission to spend OUR money on this spectacle.

WE the people of Sri Lanka, much rather have that money of OURS spent on something far more worthwhile viz. build and equip schools for the children of our less fortunate.

Now getting back to “celebrating” 4 February, again I ask for the final time on behalf of the voiceless and faceless citizens of Sri Lanka, what in heaven’s name are we celebrating?

On this day – 4 February – we will witness yet another annually-repeated spectacle – ‘Independence Day celebrations’ – for which WE the people of Sri Lanka must eventually foot the bill. Do we want OUR money spent on this senseless performance to boost the egos of our ‘servants’ WE voted into power? NO, we DO NOT! – Pic by Shehan Gunasekara