Peace for the World World ! Your War Our Lives
The Dalai Lama
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
(Full Story)
Back to 500BC.
Friday, October 30, 2020
Sri Lankan Brigadier threatens medical staff in Sampathnuwara, Mullaitivu : “Bloody Tamil, I will kill you all”
28/10/2020Brigadier K. K. S. Parakum of Mechanized Infantry Regiment has entered the Sampathnuwara District Hospital a few days ago and threatened the medical staff in abusive words in Sinhala like පර දෙමළා, ප්රභාකරන්, ත්රස්තවාදීන්, තොපි මරණවා. මේක මගේ ඒ්රියා එක [ Bloody Tamil, Prabhakaran, Terrorists, I will kill you all, This is my area].
Sampathnuwara is located in Welioya, Mullaitivu district.
Although the Government Medical Officers’ Association has reported the incident to the Army Commander Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva on 26. 10. 2020 for necessary action so far no action has been taken’
Now GMOA, [a pro-government] largest Doctors Union has decided to withdraw formwork and has written to the Minister of Health requesting necessary action.
The letter in full:
Government Medical Officers Association
28.10.2020
Hom. Pavithra Wanniarchchi,
Minister of Health,
Ministry of Health,
Colombo.
Dear Madam
Unacceptable behaviour of Brigadier K. K. S. Parakum
It is sad to inform you that Brigadier K. K. S. Parakum had visited district hospital Sampathnuwara and abused head of the institution and other medical officers පර දෙමළා, ප්රභාකරන්, ත්රස්තවාදීන්, තොපි මරණවා. මේක මගේ ඒ්රියා එක [ Bloody Tamil, Prabhakaran, Terrorists, I will kill you all, This is my area – SLB]
We remind that the era during the war all our doctors treated the military with dignity to ensure the moral and medical backup to armed forces and police to combat terrorism in our motherland.
However the behaviour of brigadier K. K. S. Parakum has failed to the expected standards of disciplinary of our armed forces and fail to ensure the dignity of doctors and fellow citizens.
Here we attached our communication to Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva on 26. 10. 2020 for necessary action.
Since the situation at DH Sampathnuwara is not rectified we are compelled to withdraw the services at DH Sampathnuwara as trade union measures considering the safety of our members.
We request your good offices’ to take necessary measures to ensure safe working conditions of this institution for the best interest of the patients.
Thank you,
Yours faithfully
Dr Senal Fernando
Secretary
Sinhalisation of the North-East: Kankesanthurai (KKS)
Reporting on the continued militarization of the North-East, PEARL (People for Equality and Relief in Lanka) highlights that in Kankesanthurai (KKS) region there is “least 40 military bases, 4 police institutions, 4 army canteens and resorts, and 3 Buddhist temples” within just 90 square kilometres of land.
The Sri Lankan military’s declaration of KKS as a “High-Security Zone”, has rendered the former thriving fishing and manufacturing site, inaccessible to former Tamil-speaking residents. The area, which was once considered the “lifeline of the Jaffna peninsula”, has seen Tamils lose their “homes, lands, and livelihoods”.
KKS fell under Sri Lanka’s Naval control between 1983 and 1993 and was consequently closed off to the Tamil public. However, as PEARL notes, it follows a longer history of economic discrimination. In the early 70s, KKS harbour was rejected as a suitable port following pressure from Buddhist monks and Sinhala extremists. This was detrimental for the Tamil economy as the harbour would have been crucial in “promoting free trade globally to and from the Tamil homeland but was left undeveloped by the state” and went against World Bank recommendations. Sri Lanka’s regulations prevented the establishment of Free Trade Zones outside of Colombo, ensuring that the economic benefits accrued to Sinhala-dominate regions.
PEARL further notes that during its period as an electoral district there were further issues resolving problems “relating to colonization of Tamil districts, educational and employment opportunities, funds for the development of irrigation, agriculture, and industries”.
Since the end of the armed conflict, PEARL notes that the region has “evolved towards maintaining the normalization of surveillance and intrusion into Tamil civilians’ lives, while serving as a gateway to engage in Sinhalization of the region”.
Since 2011, the Sri Lankan government has rolled back regulations governing High-Security Zones, but many regions including KKS remain inaccessible to former residents. Some reported barriers including: “army camps remained and were even reinforced with barbed wire fencing”; “village roads remained unreleased”; “old homes and infrastructure were completely destroyed”.
PEARL further reports that Sri Lanka’s former army commander and colonel of Sri Lanka’s Special Forces Regiment, Mahesh Senanayake threatened residents during a land release event, saying “Tamils’ lands could be just as easily taken back by the armed forces that returned them”.
The militarisation of KKS and its surrounding areas has rendered fishing ports inaccessible to Tamil residents and increased surveillance on the Tamil public. This has led to increases in harassment of Tamil residents as well as increased attempts at suppressing memorials, such as the annual Thileepan Remembrance.
PEARL further notes, that recently a Sri Lankan navy sailor from the KKS base was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department for his involvement in the abduction and disappearance of 11 Tamil youths between 2008 and 2009.
Read the full report by PEARL here.
A new Constitution cannot be made by partisan lawyers
Rohan Samarajiva
A legitimate Constitution cannot be drafted under opaque conditions in a backroom and approved with the votes of the party in power (and those of a few crossovers). All but the 17th and 19th Amendments to the 1978 Constitution lacked legitimacy for this reason.
How Constitutions are Made
There are those who point to the way the US Constitution (the shortest, oldest, and possibly least amended) and the Indian Constitution (the longest and possibly the most amended) were drafted and adopted. The drafting and the adoption of the US Constitution took over a year of dedicated work. The Indian Constitution took almost three years. Persons not members of the then existing legislatures were among those responsible for the drafting. Both were adopted in the aftermath of a successful struggle for independence. Those modes have limited relevance for Sri Lanka in 2020.
Chile may have some lessons. Chile and Sri Lanka (and China a little later) were the first to dismantle state controls hobbling their economies. Chile’s Constitution was adopted in 1980 under Augusto Pinochet, ours in 1978 under J.R. Jayewardene. Chile became the richest country in Latin America under the 1980 Constitution, which later governments amended dozens of times.
Since 1990 the economy has grown rapidly, poverty has fallen sharply, and politics have been stable with several peaceful changes of power. Despite significant recent decline from one of the world’s highest levels of inequality as measured by a GINI (where high is bad) of 56 in 1995, Chile is still more unequal than Sri Lanka, which has the highest inequality in South Asia, excluding the Maldives.
There is great unhappiness about the Constitution in Chile, expressed in the streets last year. For example, when efforts were made to strengthen the consumer-protection agency, by allowing it to impose fines on companies, the Constitutional Tribunal overruled it. Changes to laws on education, policing, mining, and elections require four-sevenths majorities in both houses of Congress. It is a “hyperpresidential” Constitution, which gives the president the power to dictate which bills get priority in Congress. Members may not propose tax or spending bills. Regions cannot raise their own revenues, which concentrates power in the center.
Sri Lankan Practice
In 2015, the Sri Lankan Parliament formed itself into a Constitutional Assembly. The channel for ideas from those outside the legislature was a Committee on Public Representations headed by Lal Wijenayake, a respected lawyer independent of the two main parties then in power.
What was promised in the 2019 Saubhagyaye Dakma was: “A Parliamentary Select Committee will be appointed to engage with the people, political leaders, and civil society groups and prepare a new constitution for Sri Lanka.” This is yet to be done. What has been appointed is a committee of nine lawyers, mostly supporters of the President. Another member is to be appointed to represent the Tamils of Indian Origin.
A bunch of appointed lawyers headed by the man who headed the President’s stonewalling of the legal process prior to his election is completely unacceptable. A select committee will at least allow the participation of parties outside the government who will get to decide who their representatives are.
Principal-Agent Theory
It is said that war is too important to be left to the Generals. In the same way, Constitutions are too important to be left to the lawyers (as proposed), or to the politicians (as has been mostly the case in Sri Lanka).
A Constitution sets out “the rules of the game,” by which the people’s agents must act. The people are the Principal. The individuals who won the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections are their Agents. They are supposed to act on behalf of the People, but they have their own agendas and priorities. And they have an informational advantage over the people. They engage in politics full time, while the people have to work to keep themselves and their agents clothed and fed.
It would be illogical for the Agents to unilaterally define the “rules of the game.” The Principal, the people who are not professional politicians, must play a determining role. In an ideal world, a Constitution would be made from the bottom up, extracting the rules of governance from the lived experience of the people. But this is unrealistic.
As established in 1965 by Mancur Olson in his seminal book, The logic of collective action, in public affairs small groups with concentrated interests tend to overwhelm large groups with diffuse interests. Politicians, moneyed interests, and even some intellectuals with independent livelihoods can focus their time and resources on specific issues, such as Constitution making. Members of the public must earn a living, care for their children and parents, and do myriad other things. They lack the ability to match the focus of those with concentrated interests. They also think that someone will look after their interests, leading to the “free-rider problem.”
Pragmatic Solutions
The 2015 solution of a dedicated committee mandated to seek and organize public representations could be taken as a starting point. The documentation that was compiled is available for examination by all. Additional material can be solicited using the affordances of the Internet, and not just through newspaper advertisements seeking written submissions addressing pre-defined subject areas. Debates can be organized on late-night TV to seed the process. But most importantly, the key decisions must be based on consensus and compromise. In Chile, all decisions of the Constitutional Assembly require a two thirds majority. Because Constitutions are not made to steamroller minorities into submission, it is necessary to ensure that all kinds of constituencies are represented in the Assembly and that those controlling the government do not dominate proceedings.
Because all our elections descend into partisan contests, it may not be advisable to hold elections as the Chileans plan to do. Perhaps some kinds of quotas can be agreed upon for political parties, civil society, professional associations and so on with special cross-cutting quotas being enforced to ensure representation of women and persons with disabilities.
The whole process should be overseen by a respected individual or individuals who forswear political activity for the next five years. As in Chile, half the seats in the assembly should be reserved for persons not engaged in active electoral politics. The government can assure itself of final control because the half appointed from among legislators will be mostly their representatives. These rules should, as in Chile, be approved by a referendum. As with all referenda, the most difficult challenge is the framing of the questions.
Claiming Land, Claiming Home, Claiming Justice
One day, on a day after tomorrow,
I too will return to my land
with mine and my own, and all around me,
to give life to a lovely spreading tree,
touching the skies,
growing from the root, still breathing.
On that day, your
brothers, and sisters, little then,
now grown, will have made
a new place in a new time.
Will they embrace us in a warm welcome
or turn away? Or, will they merely turn around,
without welcome, without word.
~ Mullai Mustheefa in Iruthalin Azhaippu
OCTOBER 30, 2020
30 years ago. In October 1990, 75000 -80000 Muslims were evicted from their northern homeland in the wake of increasing hostilities and armed conflict in the north and east. The LTTE which was dominant militarily in the north at that time and controlled large swathes of territory ordered an entire community to leave the province in 2 days with only a shopping bag and 500 rupees. In Jaffna peninsula they were given a mere two hours’ notice. Today, 30 years later, as we remember the eviction and memorialise it, and as we remember the pain of its brutal injustice, we also remember that all of us, Tamils and Muslims, lost a part of ourselves that day. The war had been cruel, and both our communities had been torn apart. Both the communities had been uprooted from their domiciles repeatedly, in the bombing and shelling, in the brutality of state militarisation and in the brutality of militancy. 30 years later, we are still looking for answers to all our concerns and feel the need for solidarity.
While it is 11 years since the war drew to a close, the ethnic conflict and the issues it spawned are far from resolved. The quest for a viable political solution from a majoritarian state is a primary concern for many of us. Continued insecurity in the face of militarization is an urgent matter. Armed militancy and a political culture of violence that characterised the past, have further eroded into the democratic fabric of society. Resettlement and rehabilitation remain unresolved problems. Distribution of land, access to state and social networks, language parity, devolution of power, inter-ethnic reconciliation and the continued presence of gender, class and caste stratifications are a part of the political landscape. Also, the ongoing crisis triggered by the pandemic will lead us into an economic depression and greater authoritarianism, creating a sense of overwhelming fear and polarisation of perceptions, locally and nationally.
Today, as we are compelled to forge new paths of activism for our own survival, we need to formulate responses that are born out of dialogue between and among communities. This is essential if we are seeking a just and democratic political solution. As a step toward this, there has to be a public disavowal of the eviction from all parties concerned, political and civil. We shall wholeheartedly say that never again will such a heinous act like the eviction take place amidst us. Never again shall we condone such acts of ethnic cleansing amidst us.
Our survival in the north as human subjects rests on the social, political and economic inter dependence of Tamils, Muslims and other communities in the region.
Return and resettlement in war torn north and east of the country had been a thorny issue from the very beginning. Return has not been easy for any community. It has not been easy for the Tamil community. In this fraught reconstruction process, the return and resettlement of Muslims has received scant attention. Return is costly as it involves building a home and society from scratch. It entails finding a viable path to a livelihood in a new and often hostile environment. The natural increase of the community during the 30 years of displacement implies that in resettlement one needs to acquire more land to meet the needs of a community. Land and dwellings had been lost of jungle in many places. Often returnees found in their lands and homes that they left long ago displaced Tamils, who themselves had lost their own land over time in the war. Two displaced and marginalized communities often find themselves locked in a contest for land, and other resources Competition over allocations, jobs, schools and other distributory mechanisms are mired in battles that bring up old wounds. The younger generations have no context for this return and resettlement, which exacerbates the situation. The establishment of military bases in some areas, the appropriation of land for roads and development projects have further complicated the problem, complicating the politics of reclaiming land. These have exacerbated relations between the Tamil and Muslim communities. But these are not intractable problems. We can resolve them if there is political will.
In that spirit we appeal to:
the political leaderships of Tamils and Muslims to constantly engage in dialogue across ethnicities, and be inclusive in their actions, in a recognition that neither community can survive without collaboration. Our political leadership should constantly act against militarisation and authoritarianism in an inclusive manner.
the northern bureaucracies to address the needs of the displaced, the returnees, to address the problems that make return difficult, and thereby facilitate an easy process of return.
educational institutes and other civil organizations to make a concerted attempt to make dialogue, discussion and dissent central features of its democratic practice.
To leaders of religious organizations to make an effort to build bridges among communities.
In remembering the eviction and its continuing legacy, we the northern people make a commitment to forge lines of solidarity across cultural, ethnic and religious differences; and to attend to concerns of class, gender, caste and other forms of marginality among our communities and across communities. Thus, we in the north can shape a common vision for its future founded on social cohesion, democratic practice and political justice.
Signatories:
- Naina Mohamed Abdullah, Jaffna Kilinochchi Muslim Council
- A. Ajitha, Vallamai – Movement for Social Change
- Ragavan Alphonsus
- Mohamed Ameen – Rosa Textile
- Abdul Gaffoor Anees –Research and Action Forum (RAFF)
South Asian Great Game a challenge to Lanka’s neutrality
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa attend a meeting in Colombo
30 October 2020
These are times when Lanka’s moment of glory in the international scene has much to do with her geostrategic beauty than her achievements, if there are any recently in terms of democracy or discoveries. Even the achievements we bragged about in pandemic control measures have now come to naught, yet little Lanka sits like a shining star in the international forum with big powers making overtures for marriage.
She is like princess Jasmine in the Arabian Nights tale of Aladdin. Her hand in marriage was sought by many a powerful prince who tried to lure her with gifts of gold and precious stones. In Lanka’s case, China, the United States and India are the big-time competitors.
But real politics is different from fairy tales. It is made of strategies, shrewdness and all kinds of survival tricks in addition to coercion and intimidation. There are predators and preys. Identifying the predator and staying out of its reach is the foreign policy challenge small nations such as Sri Lanka face. The phrase ‘Beware of Greeks bearing gifts’ is a timely advice to strategically placed small nations.
Needless to stress there’s no free lunch in the kind of politics linked to the official visit of the United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Sri Lanka on Tuesday and week’s earlier the visit of a high-level Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi, a high ranking politburo member of the Communist Party.
The visits came against the backdrop of growing hostilities between the US and China and well-calculated moves towards a military alliance formation in the Indian Ocean region. Informally known as the Quadrilateral or the Quad, the military alliance — the US, India, Japan and Australia— is touted as the Indo-Pacific version of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
Last month, the Maldives also signed a security pact with the US in what was seen an endorsement of not only the US-India joint policing of the Indian Ocean but also India’s Neighbourhood First doctrine and SAGAR — Security and Growth for All in the Region — policy.
The hostile vibes between China and the US-India alliance swelled by serval notches this week when the US and India signed in New Delhi yet another strategic pact known as Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) which will enable India to access US military satellite information on troop, ship, submarine, missile and drone movements of rival nations such as China. The agreement was signed during Pompeo’s and Defence Secretary Mark Esper’s visit to India for the 2+2 dialogue at foreign and defence ministry levels.
A US-China war of words also preceded Pompeo’s visit to Sri Lanka, following the US’ public advice to Sri Lanka that it should make difficult but necessary decisions to secure its economic independence for long-term prosperity and economic partnership with the US. An angry China hit back telling the US that it’s none of its business to tell Sri Lanka what to do and whom to associate with.
The animus continued with anti-China rhetoric forming a key part of the speeches and interviews given by Pompeo in India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and probably also Indonesia, his final destination in the five-day tour of Asia. He was the second Secretary of State to visit Sri Lanka in five years after John Kerry during the Barack Obama presidency which devised the Pivot to Asia policy aimed at containing China.
“The Chinese Communist Party is a predator, and the United States comes in a different way. We come as a friend and as a partner,” Pompeo said during a news conference in Colombo on Wednesday, promising Sr Lanka yet to be revealed investments. In an immediate retort, China’s Communist Party mouthpiece Global Times dismissed Pompeo’s remark as nonsensical stigmatization of China and said it should be rejected by not only Sri Lanka but most countries along the routes of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Reflecting the official China line, the Global Times article’s author, the Shanghai Social Sciences Academy International Relations expert Hu Zhiyong said Sri Lanka is at a significant location of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, and the economic interests that the country gets from cooperating with China are something that it has never gained from either the US or India. “By using Cold War-style ideological tricks, Pompeo will fail to instigate those countries against China,”he said.
In Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China and Sri Lanka as traditional friendly neighbors “have been developing bilateral relations based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and conducting friendly cooperation based on equal consultation and mutual benefits, which has substantively improved the well-being of people in Sri Lanka.”
Pompeo’s rhetoric and China’s retorts are part of the new Great Game in South Asia, just as the 19th century Great Game politics of colonial powers Britain and Russia over their effort to bring strategically important Afghanistan, which was for the former the gateway to Central Asia and for the latter to the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
The South Asian Great Game is not only aimed at compelling Sri Lanka to abandon its neutrality and align with one power bloc or the other, but also aimed at controlling the Indo-Pacific region with its two huge oceans. Sri Lanka’s southern Hambantota port, seen as a vantage point to monitor the Indian Ocean, assumes added significance given the likelihood of the simmering tensions in the South China Sea spilling over to this part of the Indian Ocean.
The Pompeo visit is part of this Great Game and it is probably designed to find out Sri Lanka’s position whether it will stand with the democratic powers led by the US and India or with a tyrannical or anti-democratic force like China. For years, the US has been using conventional and non-conventional coercion on Sri Lanka to force it to sign the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) or an updated Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA). But Sri Lankan government’s reliance on China to obtain easy finance at whatever interest rate and the ruling party’s campaigns against these agreements, probably with or without a Chinese input, to win elections have put the government in a Catch-22 situation. This is because China may be an all weather financier to invest billions of dollars in Sri Lanka but the US has been Sri Lanka’s biggest export market and could impose sanctions on Sri Lanka for non-compliance with United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions or on allegations of human rights violations.
Sri Lanka probably finds itself in a position it no longer can cite its policy of neutrality, as emphasized by Foreign Affairs Minister Dinesh Gunawardene at the joint media conference with Pompeo, to appease the US. However, Sri Lanka has managed to buy time till the next dialogue in Washington some time next year, while winking at China. This is no neutrality.
The revolution betrayed and the fate of Sri Lanka
Friday, 30 October 2020
Pushing Sri Lanka into a dictatorial path can be seen as a distorted and ridiculous result of the stupid revolution of 2015. It is not the people who voted for the transformation in 2015, who should be considered idiots or fools, but the leaders and theorists themselves who steered it following the People’s Revolution. It was they who paved the way for a dictator of the calibre of Gotabaya to emerge
Sri Lanka is in a miserable state, after having had its journey to the abyss being completed; it has now fallen into the abyss and got stuck at the bottom of it. This can be considered as an inevitable end of a gradual historical journey that commenced since independence.
It is important to note that the society that we inherited with independence had not reached the appropriate level of maturity required for self-government. Unlike in India, we did not have mature political leaders. We, as a country, have been moving towards destruction, not progress, since independence. Of course, the absence of mature leaders would not have become an issue that matters much, provided we had an advanced society. But unfortunately, the society we live in, is essentially not one that is developed internally, though it appeared so outwardly.
The reality of ourselves
It can be said that there was not a single leader who could claim to be an exemplary leader among politicians who emerged since independence. The leaders who ruled the country before 1977 did not plunder the country’s wealth though they cannot be considered to have played a pivotal role in steering the country forward. But almost all the Heads of State who assumed power subsequently can be considered as leaders who have emptied the state coffer, and become rich by abusing public property which were under their temporary custody.
The habit of letting things fossilise when a serious fault occurred without correcting them can be considered as the prime factor that has led to the inexcusable decline of Sri Lanka. Complete disregard of essential reforms that ought to have been made at different times constituted a typical characteristic of the State governance since independence. In this context, Sri Lanka can be considered as a stupid country which, time and again has stood aloof, tolerating this lethargic approach until it has led to a complete collapse of the entire institutional system of the State.
After independence
Consequent to independence, there were essential constitutional reforms needed to be introduced if the country was to move forward. A political system designed for the benefit of a colonial system cannot be used any longer for achieving the needs of an independent country without making appropriate reforms to suit the new conditions.
After independence, first of all, the nation should have been built by uniting different ethnic groups, the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim and religious groups, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu and Muslim thereby promoting the integration among different ethnic groups and communities. Also, reforms should have been made to disregard the recognition of caste system and abolition of feudal links in the land tenure system. Moreover, a situation should have been created in which not only Sinhala but Tamil is also made an official language while English is made the language of higher education.
Violent uprisings
The violent uprisings and struggles which began in the 70s and continued for nearly three decades were also important factors that led to distortion and degeneration of the entire socio-political system. Although the Government was able to bulldoze and suppress the riots and uprisings much later, it has miserably failed to identify and address the legitimate grievances underlying the violence.
The number of people killed in riots in the Sinhala South and the Tamil North is more than one lakh. The number died of other forms of violence could be as much as four to five lakhs. The scale of cruelty unleashed by security forces as well as the rebels during these riots was enormous. They had caused a great distortion in societal psychology. Although the State was able to defeat the two rebellions, the victorious State too suffered serious damage. In view of all this, the structural reforms of the socio-political system had become an indispensable condition for a better forward march.
Playing with reforms
By the end of 2009 when the internal civil war was over, the socio-political system of Sri Lanka, had reached such a state of degeneration that the country was in a situation of being unable to move forward without comprehensive structural reforms. However, after the victory of the Civil War, the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime failed to realise the need for reforms and act accordingly. This situation not only pushed the country into a major crisis but also led to overthrowing the Rajapaksa regime as well. It was as a by-product of this crisis that the Yahapalana Government came to power.
But the surgery done on the subject of reconstruction by the Yahapalana Government was not a genuine operation, but a fake one carried out in haphazard and slipshod manner. It evaded the responsibility of resolving the national crisis based on religion and caste, which had become an intense issue. Consequently, the crisis had become a rotting issue.
Although introducing checks and balances on unlimited powers of President has been made to appear as the main item of the reforms program of the Yahapalana Government, it did not make provisions to control the space available for the President to misuse public property in his charge. Nor did it interfere with the ugly system that has allowed parliamentarians to transact business with the Government which is unlawful and contrary to the accepted democratic norms and traditions. All these can be considered as the main factors that have led to corrupt the political system of Sri Lanka. Apart from that, the country’s judiciary was in a state of complete collapse. Regrettably, nothing was done to rectify the situation.
Paving the way for a counter-revolution
The public had opened up a vast space for revolutionary reforms. But the reforms program of the Yahapalana regime was not a genuine initiative intended to meet the needs of constitutional reforms of Sri Lanka. Knowingly or unknowingly, what they launched was not a genuine reforms program, but one that has led to deceiving not only the people of the country but also the world community. Both the political theorists and academic scholars have desperately failed to anticipate the serious limitations of it and the devastation that would befall in the future as a result thereof. This situation can best be understood to some extent by the intellectual poverty extant in Sri Lankan society.
The most serious and adverse consequence of the deceptive reforms program orchestrated by the Yahapalana Government has been the creation of a fusty image of the revolutionary space made open to it, and ultimately turning it into a state of rottenness. Further, it nullified the capacity to sustain the momentum generated and carry forward the transformation space it was offered, and eventually turning the whole process into a hilarious farce.
Pushing Sri Lanka into a dictatorial path can be seen as a distorted and ridiculous result of the stupid revolution of 2015. It is not the people who voted for the transformation in 2015, who should be considered idiots or fools, but the leaders and theorists themselves who steered it following the People’s Revolution. It was they who paved the way for a dictator of the calibre of Gotabaya to emerge.
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