Sri Lanka Heading Towards A 4th Dictatorship; Will It Be Good?

By M.M. Janapriya –APRIL 26, 2021

Dr. M.M. Janapriya

This is an article I wrote on the 25th July 2020 regarding the twentieth amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka which happened on the 22nd October 2020. Languishing in the depths of my computer I accidentally stumbled upon it a couple of days ago and thought of sharing it with the public.   

I was at the small Bank of Ceylon branch at Sri Jayewardenepura General Hospital a few days before the Kandakadu debacle. There was a little 2 x 3 feet like surface to be used as a table top and a guy was already filling a form at one end. I occupied the other end observing the one metre distance and all the other prescribed preventive measures as hand sanitizing, and wearing a face mask etc. There came a chap who whisked his way between the two of us and wanted to fill a form. I backed out instantaneously and asked him “are you not supposed to maintain the one metre distance?” He greeted my exclamation with a sardonic smile and carried on with his business. He turned back to me and asked “mahattaya where is the 1 metre distance when you travel in a bus”. I said “I don’t travel by bus, but that’s not the point. What we need to do is to minimize the chances of losing social distancing opportunities and that is your responsibility as well as mine. I am glad the military is leading the way because gentlemen like you would be Nero playing the viola while the whole country is on fire with Corona”. The man got his job done and disappeared in to the streaming crowd of hospital visitors.

This man’s behavior depicts the attitude and the behavior of a typical Sri Lankan. The question we have to answer is, is it possible to develop a country full of idiots and imbeciles such as these? The clear answer is yes but not through democracy. The country needs a good dictator who would put all these donkeys in their proper place. You may have seen on movies and documentaries how trained hounds shepherd sheep and cattle from the meadows in to their sheds. A good dictator would do the same to our `human sheep and cattle’.

Who is a Good Dictator?

Of course the phrase ‘good dictator’ needs a stringent definition. He or she should have country’s welfare deep most in his heart and topmost on his agenda. While being hard on the unruly he or she should be soft on the educated and the law abiding and let them express their fears and dissatisfactions on mass media as long as they stick to decent journalistic ethics. While he bans processions obstructing main roads he should allow meetings and protests on open spaces like esplanades, parks and playgrounds. Murder, rape and drug offences should carry a death sentence. Manslaughter by mowing down a pedestrian or another on or in a smaller vehicle should be punishable with a long custodial sentence. Judiciary should be independent ably supported by an independent educated jury when required. Country at large will be watching how the long arm of the law operates and will cooperate with the government if they wished to make changes to how justice is meted out.   

JR was a decent dictator but he got all his basics in a muddle and made a mockery of 17 years of his rule. The following is an instance in which his decency is exemplified. Throughout my entire working life I have been a bit of a loose cannon. My wife used to say “under a dictatorship you would be one of the first to get eliminated because of your eagerness to criticize wrong doing”. I was on a ward round on my surgical ward at Base Hospital Matara in 1985 and something was amiss. Through sheer frustration of not being able to do my best for my patients I uttered these words for all to hear. “Bloody nonsense this is. Is this the way to treat the people of this country? Even a government of Wijeweera or Prabhakaran would be a lot better”. As you know even walls have ears they say. Much more than that there were the hospital employees who carried tales to the minion and lackeys of powers that be. However no harm came by me for the dictator was a statesman. Another instance was as follows. It was my off duty week end. A UNP annual convention was held at Mirissa in 1986 I think it was. (JR had a holiday retreat there) My colleague Dr. G.S. De Silva was on call for the weekend. DMO sent an internal circular asking all specialists to be available in station (meaning the hospital premises or within quick reach of the hospital) because of the President’s visit. As I had a weekend full of activity planned, I wrote in that notice book “This is my off weekend and I have a packed programme. President is visiting as the head of the UNP and not as the head of the state. Hence I will be going away as planned and will be back to work sharp at 8.00 a.m. Monday”. Die is cast and the Rubicon is crossed folks, so I returned to work on Monday with a degree of apprehension. Lo and behold nothing untoward happened.

Sirimavo Government & its Downfall

I am now going to talk about the early seventies. I metamorphosed from being a medical student to a young intern house officer at the General Hospital Colombo in October 1972. Mrs.Bandaranaike was running the country beautifully with of course a fair deal of austerity. Restaurants did not offer rice on two days of the week. We used to have dinner at the Park View Hotel opposite the Vihara Maha Devi Park for a change and have experienced this somberness of the venue firsthand.

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