A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, July 29, 2017
Writers For Rajapaksa
This
is most interesting! Whenever a hole seems to appear in the armour of
this government that replaced Rajapaksa, writers sympathetic to the
Mahinda Rajapaksa camp jump up like jack in the box! Out of their
hibernating slumber, they prowl again. Mr Sarath De Alwis’s latest in Colombo Telegraph, under the rubric, “Preaching Good Governance From A Penthouse,” is just such a comical drama piece. The fantasising is reminiscent of Disney Land. We used to have Dr Dayan Jayatilleka, our political analyst, before but for some reason that writer is hushed. Who can conjecture on that?
Highly enthused over the Ravi Karunanayake wreck, Sarath De Alwis starts off with little pretence when he says, “we made a terrible mistake on 8th January
2015.” The writer hasn’t a mask this time. But he went too far and
received a wonderful comment from respected commentator, Emil van der Poorten. Here’s what Emil has to say:
“You
have not answered my basic question: what did you write in criticism of
Mahinda Rajapaksa WHEN HE WAS IN POWER, proving that neither he nor his
acolytes resorted to violence, inclusive of white vans, in rebuttal. As
someone who wrote a regular column in the Sunday Leader from the time
that Frederica Jansz took over as editor and till very shortly after she
had to run for her life, I would be most obliged if you could give me
the links to the pieces you wrote for the Sunday Leader or any other
publication (now that you do have a computer) in criticism of Mahinda
Rajapaksa while he was in power.
You
say, ‘My statement that the Idea of MR as PM under a Sirisena
Presidency was only a desperate howl to stress my despondency over the
betrayal by this lot.’ Talk about armchair rubbishy pontification, if
not downright hypocrisy!
As
for being ‘disappointed’ in you, I am always disappointed in any human
being that displays self-interest at the expense of a semblance of
ethics, morality and principle. Why? Because, as perhaps the eternal
optimist, I will always believe people to be honest, ethical moral etc.,
until and unless they prove me wrong.“
I think Emil lost patience when Sarath De Alwis poured forth out of his exultant heart the preposterous suggestion that a return of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister to work with Maitripala Sirisena as President would be the best option. I thought to myself this is going too far along the logic line from Ravi Karunanayake’s isolated moral howler. The line of reasoning did not lead to such a conclusion. Rather, the gap was filled by the writer.
Besides,
we have the commonsense to imagine what Mahinda would do if ensconced
as PM in the manner Sarath suggests. He would gather his cronies and
crooks in Parliament, like the man called Prasanna Ranatunga who
the other day sat in the President’s chair in Parliament during yet
another unruly JO fracas. Mahinda has enough money to tempt the
doubters and fence-sitters. They will all come together and oust poor
old Maitri by a 20th Amendment to our already hacked constitution.
Maitri always had fears that he would be sent six feet under the ground
if Mahinda wears his power boot again. This time, it won’t be just
Maitri but Ranil and the whole lot. Mohan Pieriswould be back in the CJ seat to render unto the King what the latter wants!
Sarath De Alwis, like all Rajapaksa band wagoners, assume that his audience are fools who cannot conceive this realisation.
Caught
in his own flawed zeal, Sarath now says he uttered that judgment only
in desperation! He has dug a bigger hole and fallen into that! I have
witnessed better honesty in Dayan Jayatilleka who simply sticks to his gun and never prevaricates and swallows his own judgments.
This
isn’t the first time. The last occasion I remember was when Sarath De
Alwis had attended the Joint Opposition Galle Face May Day rally that
filled the breezy green. “Mahinda’s return cannot be averted,” Sarath
stated then. Like Dayan Jayatilleka at Nugegoda, Sarath was so impressed
by the crowd that also kept chanting to Gammanpila’s oratorical lie:
“Our true patriot, Wimal Weerawansa is in jail! Why? Because he fights
for his country!” That
was a patriotism that gave away houses built of poor peoples’ taxes to
his kith and kin. It was a patriotism that allocated to his cronies
government vehicles for their pleasure pursuits and
spent millions in fuel out of Treasury money. Sarath seems to aver that
shame is a defining quality of the current government and not with the
Rajapaksa regime.
Well,
that was the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa under whose watch high
profile murders took place and state terror had been unleashed. Lasantha Wickrematunge,
fearless Sunday Leader editor, had been brutally murdered after that
newspaper came out with alleged fraudulent deals over the MiG purchase
of Gotabaya. Prageeth Ekneligoda was sent missing. Keith Noyahr was assaulted. Many other journalists, went missing. Some like our man Uvindu Kurukulasuriya had to leave the island! The man who commandeered our war to victory on the real battlefield-General Sarath Fonseka,
was dragged away like a dog and thrown to prison where he had to put on
jumpers and eat out of a tinplate. The list of Rajapaksa misdeeds will
need a whole book to describe. The yahapalanaya government has not yet
come anywhere an inch to such a list of crimes. Can you not see that
Sarath de Alwis? Things like what Ravi has done were done by every
Minister under the Rajapaksa government. Ravi, really belongs to the
Rajapaksa mind set.