Will we end up in a pit of snakes?

Outgoing President, Maithripala Sirisena will be known in the history of this nation as a failed president who betrayed the people’s mandate in broad daylight. On 26 October 2018 he opened flood gates once again to the wishes of uneducated thugs in politics to shine as saviours of this country.

Ironically, democracy, rule of law and accountability has been established during the last five years not due to actions of Sirisena but the collective act of the Government and civil society. Now that very same freedom, liberty and democracy is at a serious threat where the very same autocratic leaders and a family is trying to grab power in Sri Lanka.

The man who has been accused for murder, disappearance and deception has come to the forefront showing himself as a strong leader who could take Sri Lanka into the next level of prosperity. A large section of the population has been deceived by the Rajapaksa propaganda that during the last few years the coalition government and subsequently the minority government have failed to deliver a better Sri Lanka. 

The public and the leaders must understand that this is a false propaganda. The important fact is that people should recall the country’s status prior to 2015. Freedom of speech, freedom of expression was curtailed through murder and intimidation. People with different views were not tolerated. They disappeared or left the country. Journalists were controlled with an iron fist. A total family control of all government ministries were spread over, either through immediate family or through relatives and friends. 

On the international arena many people are unaware that Sri Lanka was about to face crippling sanctions, such as obstacles on travel and international payment gateways. This was on top of the original signals of GSP+ and fisheries exports to Europe being banned and institutions such as USAID minimising its presence in Sri Lanka. The Rajapaksa government was so bankrupt, that they could not borrow anymore through international funding agencies and were trying to merge Sri Lankan banks such as NDB and DFCC to borrow money for the Government and indeed borrowed from National Savings Bank for Government purposes. 

The debt that was created through short-term high interest loans mainly through China, was put into projects that looked lucrative in the eyes of the ordinary public, but what they really did was give massive underhand commissions to the corrupt Rajapaksa family and its close-knit cronies. The return on investment (ROI) on these inflated investment infrastructure projects, was not bringing in any benefits to the country in many cases, and negative returns in others. This is where the Rajapaksas themselves realised that the economy was going to collapse and that they were not able to service the international debt. This was the result of having an early presidential election in 2015, two years ahead of schedule. 

The readers must understand that in 2014 a president with absolute executive powers, two-thirds majority in parliament, all provincial council and local government bodies under him, must be mad to have an election if the country was on the right path of development and prosperity. The truth is, it was the other way around; the country was heading towards anarchy and darkness. 

By 2018 October, Rajapaksa knew that if things are not disrupted, they would get into hot water both legally and politically. They used their old friend to manipulate and trick him to create a presidential coup to de-stabilise the country, slow down economic growth, slow down tourism, keep investors away and distract the governance and security arrangements. Indeed the 52-day saga took Sri Lanka five years back and made people confused and angry towards the ‘Yahapalana’ government.

It is to be reminded that since the new government came in 2015, the disruptive elements of Rajapaksas continued to stop progressive reforms inside the parliament as well as outside of it. University students, trade unions and religious bodies were constantly used to halt development and reforms. 

For example, the ambulance service 1990 was even targeted as a weapon to poison the people, Indo Lanka trade reform, Singapore-Sri Lanka FTA, Regaining GSP+, SAITM, SriLankan airlines reforms, Hambantota port agreement, and Colombo port ECT expansion all were targeted to disrupt to gain petty political gain by confusing the public. Constant road blockades, medical and railway strikes were all part of the plan to regain power by 2018 after the present regime once again opened the doors for international agencies to restructure the loans and to stabilise the economy.

Of course, the coalition Yahapalana was weak as insiders such as Rathana Thero, and Wijedasa Rajapaksa were constantly helping the Rajapaksas by providing the needed space to manipulate the government in its day-to-day work. Insiders stopped the progress of the investigations on corruptions and Sirisena himself taking the leadership of the SLFP helped Rajapaksa to gain confidence of him to manipulate the political structure to take overpower once again. On the other side Ranil Wickremesinghe himself played into the hands of the opponents through the bond scam and his traditional way of trying to manage the economy and law and order through a small circle of friends.

The Rajapaksa group lifted its ugly head due to the inability of the Yahapalana government to talk to the people direct and explain themselves and their actions.

The candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has clearly indicated that he is not willing to face justice. Over the last five years he has clearly evaded courts by citing technical reasons and probably influencing certain people. It is obvious that if one is not guilty his first objective would be to clear himself through legal means. That seems to be never the case. On the other hand, over the last five years, no murders, no disappearance, no harassments and non-whatsoever intimidation of media institutions or the opposition members have been reported.

 

(The writer is an activist of the 2015 social media group.)

Contd. on Page 25

Will we...

Putting two and two together, clearly gives one an answer that courts really don’t have to prove whether one is guilty or not. 

The presidential coup to forcefully change the legislature was certainly not an individual effort by Sirisena, but a masterminded plot to take over government in preparation to an election. Although the efforts failed, the country was certainly de-stabilised and given a shock treatment, where investment, tourism, confidence and security all fell apart as the legislature and the executive was put on war path by the Rajapaksa strategists. 

Recent revelations by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke on his facebook account, gives an idea that the 21 April terror strikes seems to be the second episode of a failed coup, but a successful execution of one its plans, which is the confrontation between the executive and the legislature leaving the country’s security at risk and paving the way for the Easter attack.

The team that is trying to come forward to take over the country, is extremely racist beyond comprehension of anyone. They will use religion, cast, region, and profession, in addition to the race to divide people from north, south, and east to the west. They have brought into the campaign close to 10 retired generals openly talking of military style rule for Sri Lanka. On top of this, the candidate himself is not being honest on his connections with the United States and has failed to come to the media or the people to answer issues on a one to one basis other than organised, deceiving media appearances either helped by a third party or pre-recorded.

It is no doubt that the country is going to fall into a pit of snakes, who are nothing but a bunch of racist criminals, who will no doubt once again suppress the Sri Lankan masses and will try to eliminate democratic governance of Sri Lanka for a foreseeable future. There will be certainly a family rule along with a circle of loyalists who have been promoting a dictator type rule through ‘viyathmaga’ that will take control of freedom and liberty. 

The voters of this country, especially the middle class and the business community might dig its own grave but not understanding a 10-year saga post-war, what the Rajapaksas did and what are the tools they are using to undermine democracy and freedom for the next 10 years. As this article is read, the country is at the cliff of this darkness and the future remains uncertain for generations to come if he will take over the reins of running the country. Wish the voters will have proper enlightenment at the last moment.