People should beware of imposters

Tuesday, 11 June 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Tassie Seneviratne

I read the article captioned‘A democratic people’s revolution’ in an English daily of 28 May , with dismay, for several reasons.

The article, purportedly dealing with the prevailing security situation and corrupt governance, is incoherentto the topic, and only appeals to the gallery.

Example: “There will be only one law for the whole country. Muslim law, Udarata law, and Thesavelami law. There is no such law as Udarata law. But there is Kandyan law. These laws however are only relevant to marriages, and have had no impact on security or corruption. It also states, “The punishment for corruption, swindling people’s money, will be gallows.”

In the modern civilised world, death sentence is abhorred, but appeals to the gallery.

The crafty purpose of this article is exposed in the last paragraph of the article that calls on the public for suggestions, opinions, comments, fears and misgivings to be shared with the initiator of this revolutionary project,Nagananda Kodituwakku and his team in the Vinivida Foundation and the National People’s Movement.

The National People’s Movement (NPM), which was launched on 18 December 2018, was in fact founded by a Collective of the Deshodaya Movement, United Professionals Movement (UPM) and 17 other organizations. Among its pledges is:

* “As NPM is not a political party, it cannot field candidates in an election.”

NK was in the Collective of the NPM till he started evincing an interest to contest for the country’s Presidency. At that stage the NPM sidelined NK and he decided to go ahead on his own. It is most disconcerting to find him now trying to hijack the NPM.

There is even more to it in what this article under review,lacks.It makes no reference at all to the pertinent issues such as national unity, ethnic and religious harmony and reconciliation. Obviously his sinister interest is elsewhere.The public should beware of crafty imposters.

(The writer is a member of the Collective for National People’s Movement.)