Dear Mr. President, I Will Not Vote For You In The Next Election, I Am Sorry!

By Hema Senanayake - September 24, 2014 

Hema Senanayake

“The military is being used to spy, tap phone lines and even hack email accounts…My friends are questioned by the CID the very next day, if they happen to visit me. This is not a harassment that I alone go through, but by anyone who bears views opposing to that of the present governing parties.” If this was told before the UNHRC by the person who told this recently, the UNHRC would admit it as a truthful testimony. This has been said by former president Chandrika Kumaratunge in a recent interview with the weekend edition of the Aththa newspaper.

Not only the UNHRC, the people in the Uva province is increasingly believing it. Repression is what Sri Lankan people hate the most. The Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara truly knows it. Recently he said that, “The only way to ensure unity and national reconciliation is to strengthen democracy. Only through democracy can we get equality for all citizens and build ethnic coexistence.” He said this in his speech at the National Convention on Inter Religious Integration organised by the National Peace Council. At the event US Ambassador Michele J. Sison too, was a speaker.

When the law is broken by the Urban Development Authority at Wanathamulle, people in the Uva province feel it. When the law is broken in the Northern Province to appropriate lands belonging to the innocent Tamil speaking people, the people in the Uva feel the pain. Do you need any evidence for my observations? If so, for this matter listen to what Vasudeva has to tell after the election. He points out that, “the opposition has been able to reap the advantage of the frustration of the downtrodden whose abodes have been destroyed and their self-employment avenues abolished due to the move by Urban Development Authority to remove them from urban areas and grab their lands.” This is not the only reason.

When the Chief Justice was sacked hastily, even though the poor villagers in the Uva province no nothing about constitutional law they intuitively know that the power was abused by the top elected officials in the government. When the political players who sent thugs with full helmets to hang around the office of the President of the Bar Association, Upul Jayasuriya in a threatening manner, they might have thought that the people in the far reaching villages in Uva province are not interested in such events, but they are wrong.Read More