19 March, 2024

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Go Not Meekly Into The Rajapaksa Night

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“The world will not get better on its own.” ~ Eric Hobsbawm (Interesting Times – A Twentieth Century Life)

The 93 year old woman had died of Covid-19. Her body was brought to the Mathugama cemetery in a hospital ambulance, placed inside the crematorium, then hastily removed and returned to the ambulance. For a VIP hearse has arrived bearing another Covid-19 body and armed with an ‘order from above’. Against that dictat the PHIs were powerless. The ambulance, a life-saving vehicle, especially in pandemic times, was forced to waste two precious hours while the last rites of the connected dead were completed.

It was not of that land President Gotabaya Rajapaksa spoke on Friday. He made his #Me Best one-hour-nine-minute address to the nation from a sunny place, adorned with green trees and ancient history. But the night had fallen on the nation as it listened to his words.

Even while the president’s verbal marathon droning, a group of men barged into civil society activist Asela Sampath’s house and bundled him away. According to media reports, they claimed to be from the CID but offered no identification and produced neither warrant nor explanation. Mr. Sampath’s family took to the social media. The story of the ‘abduction’ gained traction quickly. Soon the police issued a statement claiming it was no abduction; Mr. Sampath was arrested by the CID.

Turning up in a suspect’s home on a Friday night, sans identification or explanation, taking him away in the clothes he was wearing – that is a strange way to make an arrest. Asela Sampath has no history of evading the police. Nor is he an underworld leader or a terrorist suspect. Why not ask him to come to the CID? Was this an abduction gone awry due to his family’s and the media’s quick reaction? Are we returning to the first Rajapaksa era, when white vans plied their grisly profession with total impunity?

Lankans became accustomed to criticising power-wielders during the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. So far, the Rajapaksas have failed to break that democratic habit. The fear is there. A citizen could still be arrested and remanded for little reason or none. The danger is especially potent for members of minority communities. Still, many Lankans are refusing to be silenced. Instead of looking the other way, they criticise and deride. By choosing to react as audiences, with anger and mockery, they refuse to be bystanders. The ubiquity of social media provides these citizen-dissenters with a platform and amplifies their voice.

This month, the police were dispatched to liberate the president’s effigy from an IUSF protest. But instead of striking terror into every heart, this intervention produced a stream of irreverent memes. The internet memes are the modern day equivalents of the anonymous pamphlets which taught Parisian sans-coulettes the art and the craft of resisting another ancien regime. Laughter has been a weapon in the hands of the powerless throughout history. There is probably no better antidote to the lessons in fear and obedience the Rajapaksas are trying to teach us, again.

Tyrants, to be tyrants, need a kind of consent.

A Measure of Justice

June was the unfairest month, and the fairest.

On Poson full moon day, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa conferred a full pardon on a convicted murderer, his second in rather less than two years. Like Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake, Duminda Silva had been convicted of murder in a court of law and his conviction affirmed by the highest court of land. While men and women too poor to pay a fine languish in jail, another convicted killer is roaming free – and might even become the SLPP’s chief ministerial candidate for the western province, according to media reports.

The Bar Association, in its letter to the president, pointed out that previously too “selected pardons have been granted without any material to justify the basis on which the respective pardoners were selected.” This was the case with Sunil Ratnayake; and with the Royal Park killer, Jude Anthony Jayamaha. President Sirisena pardoned the latter, even as he was rearing to bring back the hangman and hang a few convicts.

The manner in which Duminda Silva’s pardon was handled is instructive of the Rajapaksa modus operandi. First came Minister Namal Rajapaksa’s plea on behalf of LTTE suspects held under the PTA for a long time sans charges. That created an effective diversion. The president then pardoned 16 LTTE suspects, 77 prisoners convicted of minor charges, and one convicted killer blessed with the right patrons. 

If that pardon was emblematic of injustice, the Appeal Court order granting bail to former CID director Shani Abeysekera indicated that despite the worst efforts of the Rajapaksas, neither judicial independence nor justice is dead. The 14 page judgement is an indictment of the how the case against Mr. Abeysekera was conducted. “The allegations against the suspect Shani Abeysekera,” the order, for instance, states, “are a result of falsification and embellishment and a creature of afterthought.” This dovetails with a previous statement by sub-Inspector Sugath Mohan Mendis that he was arrested because he refused to give false evidence against Mr. Abeysekera. It also fits in with the revelation made by the then magistrate Ranga Dissanayake of how the CID tried to influence witnesses in the magistrate’s chamber and in his presence.

The opposition ignored the previous revelations. Will they at least now ask police and justice ministers a few pertinent questions. Who falsified and embellished the allegations against Shani Abeysekera? Why? Who gave the orders? Would disciplinary action be taken against those responsible? When? After all, this subversion of justice is not a concern limited to Shani Abeysekera or Hejaaz Hizbullah. A prosecuting authority that persecutes via falsification and embellishment is a danger to every Lankan including parliamentarians.

(Incidentally, if this is how prosecuting authorities treat a suspect under the normal law, imagine the fate of those who would be incarcerated under the De-radicalisation from holding violent extremist religious ideology Regulations.)

The Appeal Court order also drew attention to a problem increasingly affecting the poor and the powerless. “…At present, the power to grant bail is exercised sparingly. Sometimes courts even routinely reject bail for minor offenses. It is pertinent to note that a majority of those belong to marginalised communities.” A possible example is the case of 10 Tamils arrested in Batticaloa for peacefully commemorating war-dead in May. They have been in custody for more than a month and were denied bail at the last hearing due to police objections. The police had wanted 2 more weeks to finish investigations, just as the CID had wanted another month to complete the case against Shani Abeysekera.

The manner in which the guardians of law object – or not – to bail is revealing. Take the case of X-Press Pearl. The local agent was arrested by the CID and bailed out within a day. This was despite information that the agent company might have tampered with e mails by the ship’s captain revealing the acid leak.

But the CID was not so magnanimous towards the 28 year old man from Akmeemana, arrested for posting ‘fake news’ about X-Press Pearl on social media. The CID wanted the suspect to be remanded until the completion of inquiry. The Galle chief magistrate asked if the statement made by the suspect was a threat to national security and ordered bail when the CID was forced to admit it posed no such threat.

The agent of X-Press Pearl is a suspect in the worst marine environment disaster in the history of Sri Lanka. The man from Akmeemana was only commenting on that disaster. Yet in Rajapaksa eyes, the second act was the greater crime. Naturally. The first suspect only caused uncountable damage to our country. The second suspect poses a threat to Rajapaksa dynasty.

Replacing the rule of law with the law of the rulers was a key characteristic of the first Rajapaksa era. When the chief justice baulked at violating the constitution she was subjected to an illegal impeachment, hounded out of office and replaced by a yes man. The courts were cowed into compliance with a cudgel.

Restoring judicial independence was a promise the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration honoured in large measure.

While the rulers are trying to abuse the law to protect friends and punish opponents, the courts have provided a modicum of relief to the persecuted again and again. ITSSL chairman, Rajeev Mathews was given bail, though the police wanted him to be remanded. The judiciary also ordered that the detained poet Ahnaf Jazeem be provided with all facilities accorded to remand prisoners. This week the courts ordered the exhumation of the body of Chandran Vidushan of Batticaloa who had died in police custody. A new PM is to be conducted in the presence of a leading authority, a professor in Peradeniya University. This is a particularly welcome development given the hike in such deaths.

Minister Namal Rajapaksa heaped praise on his family’s government for complying with the Supreme Court judgement on the Port City Bill. The young lawyer seems to think such compliance is optional and thus a virtue, rather than a legal necessity. “Though we have two-thirds, we didn’t go against the judiciary. That means even having two-thirds we acted according to the recommendations of the judiciary. Therefore that is democracy” (Lanka News Web – 23.5.2021). If this is a hint of what a Rajapaksa future holds for Sri Lanka, the sooner all brothers, sons, uncles and nephews are consigned to the dust heap of history, electorally, the better, not just for democracy and rule of law, but for our collective sanity. 

Taking back Sri Lanka

On June 18th, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the Myanmar coup and demanding an arms embargo against the country. 119 voted yes, one voted no, and 36 countries abstained.

Sri Lanka was one of the 36. Why did the Rajapaksas opt not to condemn a military coup against an elected government? Was it because Beijing also opted to abstain?

Aung San Suu Kyi sided with hardline Buddhist monks and the military during her years in power, and justified the brutal repression of the Rohingya minority.

The coup has caused a rethink. The parallel National Unity Government has asked the Rohingya people to join in the struggle for democracy promising to abolish the 1982 citizenship law that rendered Rohingya stateless. “The entire people of Burma is sympathetic to the plight of the Rohingya as all now experience atrocities and violence perpetrated by the military,” the NUG statement said. Therein lies an undeniable truth. Repression may begin with a persecuted minority. But sooner or later it will come for the majority as well. Majoritarian supremacism is not just wrong morally. It is bad politics.

“We who wanted to prepare the ground for kindness, Could not be kind ourselves,” wrote Brecht. History has taught us that ground for kindness cannot be prepared through unkindness. The absence of the Rajapaksas in government should not be the only difference in a post-Rajapaksa Sri Lanka.

This is also why the charges of newsroom sexual harassment by some former and current women journalists need to be taken seriously. The anti-Rajapaksa credentials of several of the alleged perpetrators are no reason to brush these charges aside, not if we oppose injustice per se, and not merely Rajapaksa injustice. There is no difference between this reasoning and the Sinhala justification of military atrocities/the Tamil justification of Tiger atrocities. (During the apogee of the Arab Spring, an American journalist was sexually brutalised by some anti-Mubarak protestors in the Tahrir Square. In the euphoria of the moment, the incident was allowed to be forgotten. Perhaps it was an omen of the toxicities within the broad opposition which would eventually destroy the dream of democracy.)

Lankan opposition shouldn’t opt for a softer version of racism under cover of patriotism. Nor should it try to retool the religion-politics nexus for its own advantage. The religious leaders, especially Buddhist monks and the Catholic Cardinal, led Sri Lanka into this false dawn. They worked tirelessly not only to ensure a Gotabaya Rajapaksa presidency but also to obtain for the Rajapaksas a near two-third majority. Now they stand discredited in the eyes of many of their own followers. The opposition’s attempts to woo the worst of them indicate an absence of not just principles but also intelligence. These politicised religious figures have no authority left in society.

Now is an excellent time to secularise Lankan politics. Give monks, priests and mullahs all the honour they want in their temples, churches, kovils and mosques. But don’t allow them in the political arena. Just let them focus on the politics of afterlife, and leave the politics of this one to the rest of us.

A committed effort by Sirasa, some websites and You Tubers succeeded in exposing the questionable Chinese involvement in the dredging of the ancient Tissamaharama tank. Now the project has been suspended because it was undertaken without permission from the Archaeology Department. A partial victory, but an important one, won without the involvement of religion or race, and by secular forces alone, a combo of media and citizenry. That should be a good enough blueprint for the opposition, when it decides to take on the Rajapaksas. 

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Latest comments

  • 40
    3

    Struck by the esteemed author’s on-point nuanced sum-up, shedding light on the deception of the Rajapaksa clan.

    The dreaded question regarding Mr. Asela Sampath’s abduction?/arrest?:
    “Was this an abduction gone awry due to his family’s and the media’s quick reaction? Are we returning to the first Rajapaksa era, when white vans piled their grisly profession with total impunity?”

    All of this darkness in which SL is blanketed is just incredibly stomach-churning.

    • 30
      1

      Part 1
      Dear Ms Gunasekara,
      thanks very much for your valuable analysis.
      .
      This country, people would definitely take another few decades to grasp the little about real faces of the mlechcha Rajapakshes and their politics. We warned the viewers all along, that Rajapkshes would never make wonders. Instead, they would make „the roast the rotiya – roast the local bread“ so that nobody could eat it, if I may remind what our LATE REV. Sobitha thero last expressed before he close his eyes.
      After the collective forces eleminated the terror in 2009, Rajapkshes cheated the nation and painted it as the saviors of this nation – permamently abusing the mind set of the gullible/vulnerable mind set. While the sun is shining to make hay – well worked for Mahinda Rajapkshe. As of today, they are the the wealthiest people in this country. The volumes of sucked blood oft he innocient people is beyond estimation.
      People’s destiny is more of less like the people fed with cancerous hazards chemicals long ago. Consequences are becoming clear tot he nation slowly though. As a brawal owner would do it, LOCAL mlechcha media men took the lead in making the public perception on Rajapkshe-capablities. Here we should not forget the complicity/mitschuld of cheevaradhariya led sinhala buddhism (fake buddhism).
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsrgL5sABbA


      tbc

      • 21
        1

        Part 2
        Not even 20% of the island nation would question twice before going to do anything in their daily life. Main stream media, above all TV channels, focus on the nature oft he people, perhaps going beyond to the level of cunningness of MAHINDA RAJAPAKSHE. If these mlechcha politicians would become genuine about their promises, PIGS MIGHT FLY. Fake buddhgama monks that gave the lead to RAJAPKSHE-political parades are today paralized as no times in the past. That male nurse from Abhayarama is making his consecutive public statements, as if a defeated man would do. His is no repsected by any one today. The very same ist he case with some YOUTUBE channel holders such as Sepal Amarasinghe and SUDDA creation which were highly instrumental bringing the CRIMINALs back to power.
        What have they achieved for the benefit of the masses in this stagnated country ?

        1) They got all the men and women, whose were highly investigated against their alleged high crimes, were all exonerated, by the direct mediation of SRILANKEN judges.::: these judges are not FOREIGN judges but got their degrees completed thanks to free education – in other words, on the cost of tax payers
        2) Not a single pledge out of their promises are fullfilled so far.
        3) Today, those 6.9 millions are speechless – as if they never voted for the cirminals in incumbent leadershp:

        • 4
          0

          Dear LLM: Re. Youtube Channel presenters: Sepal, Sudda, Chapa, NK. Please be cautious and listen to their presentations with a pinch of salt. Also be very, very cautious with “Abayarama Maha Unnanse” and many other “Saffron Clothed Brigade” who spread the “Red Carpet” for the “Rajapakse & Co. Inc” to do the “Cat Walk” to power. I am observing all these “Saviours” of the “Masses” with great suspicion because this could be another “Trojan Horse”. Did you listen to another “Saffron Clothed” from Anuradhapura, who came on “Youtube” and addressed the Rajapakses in “RAW FITH” (Sinhala)? My Friend: This is a time to be very “Cautious” and “Careful” because so many “Wolves” could appear in “Sheep Clothes”. Do you know that famous “Magodi Sellama” performed in our village temple processions (Perahera)? If you have forgotten, let me know I will come back.

          • 3
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            I only add them to my comments so that many could be alert. I dont support any of them. Actually, we cant trust anyone in today s context in SL. Media men spread blatant lies which are really far from the truths/facts. President of the country does not seem to know how many schools this country has.

            My permanent anger is that many living in t he country dont seem to know the gravity of the problems being created by current GOSL today. They stay as if they are fed with clay (kirimati gilapu kimbullu wage). Just imagine if the Chinese were found working in CHINESE SOLDIER uniform prior to their govt, media institutions would have toppled the govt as of today. However, those chinese that work for soruther lake reconstruction project, seem to enjoy more rights than the average SRILANKEN today. Why should SO CALLED powerful patriotic men to bend their head before the Chinese ?
            :
            Current govt and its reactions are no different to MAGODI SELLAMA. I wonder why that alfpha animal BBS head does not seem to attack anyone today… not only BBS head, all other so called powerful RAVANA men are still in their hibernation mode… what happened to PINGUTHTHARA community today ?

          • 2
            1

            Simon,
            .
            I’ve been listening very carefully and appreciatively to what you’ve been saying. You’re quite right.
            .
            And LLM from far away Germany who gives us links to all those YouTubes is also performing a vital service to us all. However, I do think that his heart of gold sometimes rules his head.
            .
            The ironies are not lost on me; LLM in Germany doing all the Sinhala work, but me only checking his comments (and Champa’s!) in the Sinhala section, & GambadaIskoleMahaththaya saying he has no stomach himself for all that very necessary work in Sinhala.
            .
            I’ve alerted Jeevan, but he’s much too busy on a book that is far more important than this:
            .
            https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/closing-the-gaps-in-our-cultures-heritage-histories-a-reassessment-of-arumuga-navalar/
            .
            No comment by you there; I hope you at least looked. I wish that hadn’t been written. I still consider NK to be honest, but both he and the admirable Jeevan could be betrayed by the “Trojan Horses”.
            .
            Like it or not, Buddhism matters; I’m liable to make mistakes myself:
            .
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVDVWAdDJ4A
            .

          • 3
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            Dear Simon,
            .
            There was a video clip, in which cultivation of SEE CUCUMBERs by a chinese man in srilanka was telecasted… did you watch that ? Can a foreigner without any kind of licence being offered to him, how can that be possible ? If the kind of acts were seen during MS-RW rule, Pohottuwa men would have run amok.. … but even so called powerful monks stay mum today … as if they are made permanent deaf …. ?

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEKHVIHrH4

            Sea Cucumber cultivation is seen a lucrative business to the Chinese (Medicine and culnary delicacies).

            See, they talk high about national security, but they are made helpless before the CHINESE today…. comparably a situation of a PROSTITUTE before her/his pimp……. is not that so ?

      • 6
        0

        Dr Amarasooriya is the best among the few good politicians of the day. She covers a lot within few minutes.

        • 5
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          LLM: Dr. Harini Amarasooriya is very promising and any Leader must make the best use and GROOM her to be a “Presidential Candidate”.

          • 2
            1

            I agree with LM, but say, hear, hear to Simon.

            • 2
              0

              SM,
              .
              but the question would be, if JVPrs failed to convince the grass root level ofa people, ….. how would Dr Amarasooriya or the like academic would do the job ?
              .
              I think srilanken problems remain as it is forever… it is a dream to even think anything would tangibly change towards the betterment of the youth.

              Even if some make every effort to paint it as ” we are short of good leaders”… this is no right… there are enough … however, people are far from understanding the facts… but facts…. they become easy prey of traditional politicians. Stupid leaders like Rajapakshes harvest on them … back and forth… See today, with sky rocketing price hikes in daily essentials…. very same MAHINDADA RAJAPAKSHE stays as if he switched on to ” his deaf mode”: … how come ? All these continue with MAHANSANGARATHNAYA continue their silence.

            • 3
              0

              And I must remind you guys again, our gamabada ISKOLE MAHATHTHAYA has been doing a great job, mostly breaking nights. From dawn to dusk he has been working diehard to improve the awareness of the people.
              :
              If we had the kind of human souls, in few dozens, things would have worked for the betterment of the nation for sure. I wonder if people would ever improve their thinking patterns so that we can dream a world without RAJAPAKSHES or the like brutal men in srilanken politics.

              God bless srilanka !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! which is now in a highly critical situation. Some experts say, the country s fall becoming a GREECE is invitable. No countries would give credits to sl…looking at the manner, MEDAMULANA men are on a mission of violating the basic human rights of the public. IMF would never consider it again to help out, so long human rights violations would not decrease… with some being gunned down while keeping in police remand and…. some being tortured and killed on extra judicial manner on the street… are all today going beyond WHITE van abductions.

    • 16
      1

      It was a kidnapping or a police arrest ?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpWOfjiY_80
      It is becoming real dangerous. The kind of state persecution on dissidents were daily routine of JUNTA regime from 2005-2015.
      I ll bet you nothing like this was the case under MS-RW. If you and I would have been attacked to this manner, only we would realize, how mlechcha the police or RAJAPAKSHE undeground white van mechanisms revitalized in today’s context.

      Why does the same law and order stay mum regarding Kurunagala Mayor or other men of SLPP… ?
      :
      Now GR-MR govt has proved to all, that their CURRENT REGIME is beyond their previous JUNTA regime whose politics were then defeated by the people /entire world.

    • 11
      0

      Dear Native Vedda where you ? Hope all is well with you.
      .
      With almost many becoming clear that the lastest public speech of SRILANKA’s defacto President “NANDASINI” aka prince Diyasena of the day was full of BLATANT lies, so called INVESTIGATIVE journalists dont seem to have guts to react against.
      :
      Is that because them being scared of NEW WAVE of WHITE VAN ABDUCTIONS similar to that of Asela Sampath’s yesterday ?

      Not just one single person, but there are many, that highly criticised the 69-minute long public speech delivered by Nandsini who became the president thanks to 69 lacks of voters in this country.
      .
      I have added some below for your recheck :
      .
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3MijYt6hYU

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsrgL5sABbA

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3NhGURQzPc

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skfihycqAT4

      • 10
        0

        leelagemalli

        Thanks
        I am fine.
        I have seen first and the last clips and will watch the rest later.

        Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa is brilliant.

        • 11
          0

          NV,
          Danke Gott u are back. Please reveal more as to why current press men seem to have no guts to question as to why and what made sangili buruwanse to hide under the bed while all is today upside down breaking and ruining all what the bugger screamed on SLPP election stage……….aiyoooooo😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

        • 2
          0

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers_by_number_of_victims

          The most prolific modern serial killer is arguably Dr. Harold Shipman, with 218 probable murders and possibly as many as 250

          His Excellency Gota, who is a doctor of sorts ……… would’ve come pretty close …… but don’t tell the Mahanayakes, the Cardinals, SJ, ……. who else?

          see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil …….

    • 7
      0

      Sugandh
      They have now gone beyond the levels during their first Junta Regime.
      .
      Here I have the feeling that it is big lack that ours is not empowered by sharia law, if that was existent, none of the Rajapakshe clan would have the chance to hurt the wounds this way, now it is exceeded all our limits, I really dont know why Tattamamala remain in their hibernation mode??????☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹

    • 3
      0

      President of a state should have guts to see in the eyes of people whatever the obstacle his or her govt faces. But this man, former refugee in the US, at the time, the brutal war was at its heights, has no the least knowledge to grasp the little about what people feel today. He lives in his own asylum not facing the reality, being far away from the problems. What has he done sofar ? If SIRISENA had been the president, UNPers would have imported the vaccines for the entire nation. People are not grateful to that SURASAVIYA which has now become the life line of the people across the country. At the time, former govt introduced it from indians, there had been a heavy resistence by POHOTUTUWA men, calling it as another fradulent act of the former govt. Shameless men hidden behind medamulan alpha animals say nothing but rely on the good service.
      I have also no doubt, if RAJITHA SENARATNE continued as a the minister of health, current pandemic situation would have managed properly. He is one of the few minusters who achieved lot more for the benefit of the masses in the health sector of this country. Entire world commended his radical stands against tobacco ban and several other issues that fought the nation for such a long time.

  • 14
    0

    June was the unfairness month, and the fairest.

    High oil price

    The world will not get better on its own. Honesty is something you can’t wear on
    UK Health Secretary quits after breaking social distance guidance.
    People who have sacrificed so much in this pandemic to be honest when we have let them down”.
    Those of us who make these rules have got to stick by them and that’s why I have got to resign.”

  • 28
    1

    Yes, it was an attempt to abduct the fearless warrior Asela. They bungled it so spectacularly, the news went viral in no time. Gota’s enforcers had to change the tune and announce it was an arrest by the CID. This is a harbinger of Gota’s white vans returning to discipline those who “cross the line.”

  • 37
    2

    This was a dull insipid colourless presidential address to the nation ; a total anti climax sounding ‘off pitch’ discordant and irrelevant in the face of high expectations by a distraught public desperate for reassurance. Very likely rather than stick it out to the bitter end, many TV viewers might have soon drifted to another channel or switched off altogether if none was available. On the one hand the monologue sounded like the long boring pedantic drawl that constitutes the first half of a Finance Minister’s budget speech in parliament ! On the othe hand it had elements of the typical rantings of an election propaganda speech, unfairly disparaging the previous government and with unconvincing promises of a better future. Given his US antecedents one wonders whether the President intended to model this address on the traditional ‘State of the Nation’ address by US presidents. If so sad to say it fell badly short of the American standard and was more in lne with the mediocrity that one associates with most things Sri Lankan nowadays. Regrettably from the President’s perspective this address would have done nothing to booste his flagging public image or repair the shattered public confidence in his government. Perhaps he should consider taking to task those who badly adviced him over this useless initiative.

    • 27
      2

      Dear ANI E,
      Thank you.
      Your description of the ‘speech’ fully mirrored my thoughts immediately after it, and have expressed them well. Nothing of substance.
      It was like a defence lawyer pleading before a judge (the public in this case) trying to defend a lost cause.
      Very little done in 2 years but sticking out a carrot promising everything tomorrow and day after.

      • 3
        0

        Professor ANI has summed it up brilliantly. Now I’m going to do something clumsily, because nobody has tied up the title with these 100 seconds that Tisaranee had in mind:
        .
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mRec3VbH3w
        .
        Yes, the time taken by this Dylan Thomas recording can be measured in seconds. You will find scores of recordings of these words, but none can match this reading by the poet himself.
        .
        I’m acutely conscious of not being able to say anything clever; instead, let me call upon you all to marvel at that magical voice and contrast it with the drone with which the idiot dictator succeeded in putting so many of us to sleep.
        .
        Apart from the many readings that get listed for this poem, there are many Youtube discussions. Let readers explore for themselves – we’re spending far too much time in reading.
        .
        However, it must be a voice that is worth listening to. Gota’s wasn’t!

        • 2
          0

          Listened to all few seconds, of Dylan Thomas reads “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”.
          .
          Thank u Sm !!!
          .
          With almost everyone with some sanity become against Rajapakshes today, what remains to Nandasena aka current day Andare is get ready to commit suicide to the manner Hitler did it not being face anyone.☹☹☹☹☹☹

  • 31
    2

    I understand that President in his speech told Sri Lankans not to fear about the national security under his rule. It is true that only threat to national security since 2009 was Rajapaksa family, particularly Gotabaya. October 2018 plot was by Rajapaksa family, April 2019 attack on Christian churches and western hotels was master mind by close allies of Rajapaksa family. As long as they are in power and everything is under their command, there is no threat to national security. Now they have handed over their security in Sri Lanka to China from Sinhalese or neighbours or western countries.

    • 17
      2

      …..told Sri Lankans not to fear about the national security under his rule…….
      But the reality is the loss of personal security and safety of those who disagree or have the spine to protest against the inequities of the regime.

      • 4
        1

        My view,
        It is now gone beyond all margins, in fact I was compelled to watch a chinese business man without any legality cultivating- sea cucumbers – in our waters somewhere in puththalam or do. Was that or any thing near to that seen happening in good governance days, MR et al wo6 have gone amok across the country, and media dont seem to expose more about the illegal acts either. Not just Rajapakshes but also srilanken media should be bombed down for their total ignorance today or not? Gree6 from Central Europe 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

  • 21
    0

    Tell the whole truth or remain silent. ‘ UK Health Secretary quits after breaking social distance guidance.’……after doing his utmost to cling on, under immense pressure from the Press, fury from his constituents, silence from his Party MPs, support from his idiot PM and ridicule from the media.
    .
    Like all politicians, if he could have got away with it, he would have. It was not a matter of principle for him. That is why a free Press and cynical voters are so important.
    .
    PS I hope he washed his hands with soap for the regulation two minutes after that clench. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15388014/matt-hancock-secret-affair-with-aide/

  • 22
    1

    Well written Tisaranee.

    Many predicted the white vans will be back, and here is one version of it. Nepotism, corruption, and worse, killers are pardoned, and war criminals given important positions, including one put in charge of our lives and health with absolutely NO clue about matters pertaining to a pandemic, or even experienced in running a clinic. We are back to terror reign no. 2 of the Rajapaksas. The signs were all there, the crimes of corruption, white vans, and killing of journalists common knowledge, yet our naive voters decided to ignore it all, and voted back into power these scoundrels, who are now arresting and throwing in jail citizens who stand up to them, political activists, and members of the minority.
    The master plan worked when those bombs went off on that terrible Easter day.

  • 7
    1

    Even R night darkness can be expelled by switching on a light. Black holes are there because the true light of the world has been switched off in them. When truth comes into them, they will be full of light. In any address, when the speaker is vibrating with truth and goodness and purpose, it flows down and holds the audience spell bound. Speech needs to be a summary. Then full vision is focused on the inspiring message. Golden rule is not to decry opposition or anybody as that is a sign of insecurity and negativity. It was a good opportunity missed to inform the world that Sri Lanka is non aligned and has a just mind of her own to rule the nation into true prosperity without robbery. Then one day when China shows her true colours of BRI and world conquest as she has done in several nations, there will be other international help ready to save from the deceived yuan grip. No earlier grip has enticed such a debt trap as this one. Going in the direction of a one world currency, all the robbed money could be a burden overnight for greed to cease.

  • 16
    2

    As I had warned , Rajapaksas are a family of Mafia. They are one step ahead to those well known mafioso, in that Mafia usually have politician, judiciary or law officers in their payroll. Where as our racist bigoted SB decided to hand over the whole country, government as well their fate to this family. Throughout they enabled and pretendef to act innocent and naive. A monk openly called for a Hitler. He sure didn’t mean security but wished for one who could continue to cleanse minorities. Now that the country is being auctioned to China they seem to have woken up to reality. But their stupidity and immorality will settle for yet another Rajapaksa. If Mahinda or Basil stand tomorrow they will still get elected with 2/ 3.

  • 9
    5

    The post-Rajapakse era may promise a false dawn. There could be a repetition of the previous post- Rajakse dawn. The same rascals inhabit the politics of Sri Lanka. The same rhetoric of racial and religious hatred will be played out. Witness the leadership in the politics of the Buddhist monks in the emerging opposition to Rajapakse. Ethnic politics is the bane of Sri Lanka. Unless it is rooted out, there can be no dawn. This time around, the emergence of the dawn may be protracted and even bloody, as the army is in the equation. True it is that white vans have not begun to ply. This may be because the world is watching. But, pushed into a corner, the reaction of the Rajapakses may be different. It is best that they are eased out through democratic means. The institutional structure of Sri Lanka, like the courts, still can work. The PHIs and the medical services still are there. Let us hope for a peaceful transition to a new dawn from this darkness.

    • 4
      21

      Cicero,
      Ethnic politics was introduced to Sinhale/Ceylon by Brits. They took measures to divide the communities and keep Sinhala and Tamil communities apart. Racist separatist Tamil politicians emerged in 1930s mastered that and used it for their political survival.
      G.G. Ponnambalam is the father of ethnic politics in this country. He started the anti-Sinhala Buddhist campaign in 1939 by delivering a racially charged speech at Nawalapitiya ridiculing Mahawamsa and denigrating the Sinhala-Buddhist culture, its history and the people igniting the first Tamil-Sinhala conflict. He told Tamils in the Public Service not to learn Sinhala.
      SJV Chelvanayakam who came to Sinhale from Malaya during British rule took it further by establishing the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (toned down as Federal Party in English) in 1949 which had as its hidden agenda the establishment of a separate state.
      Ethnic politics of Tamil politicians culminated when Tamil politicians passed the Vaddukkodei Resolution to create a separate State for the Tamils in the North by grabbing a part of the country of Sinhalayo based on a bogus claim ‘Traditional Homeland’ and declared war on Sinhala Nation which led to the terrorist campaign by Tamils that lasted for three decades ruining the country.

  • 6
    14

    The 93 year old woman had died of Covid-19
    ————–
    This article lost its credibility with that opening line.
    There is no covid! It is a hoax!

    • 0
      1

      H
      Let us correct it to
      “The 93 year old woman had died of HOAX-19”
      *
      But the point is that there is an infection that is spreading– not deadly as some imagine. But it causes big trouble for at least a few. At times, it has contributed to death to some degree.
      Can you just dismiss it lightly?

  • 12
    3

    The ruling classes in sri lanka are all in bed together.
    Sirisena government deliberately mismanaged the country during their ruler to help the rajapaksas get back in power.
    Politicians, big business owners, religious leaders etc are freemasons and they work together behind the scenes while playing the public for fools.

    • 1
      0

      Dear Humble,
      .
      Could you please explain to us what “freemasons” are?
      .
      Panini Edirisinhe

      • 1
        0

        Humble, who waxes so eloquent, says nothing when asked.
        .
        Other readers can see what I mean, I hope.

  • 3
    17

    Cicero,
    Vigneshwaran who keeps on ridiculing Mahawamsa is following the foot-steps of G.G. Ponnambalam.

    • 2
      0

      “Vigneshwaran … is following the foot-steps of G.G. Ponnambalam.”
      If so, when is he due to join the SLPP and made minister?

  • 12
    0

    The oposition is too stupid to lead. Rather than secularizing Sri Lanka and moving away from narrow nationalism the leader of the opsition hired Dyan Jayathilake to be its spokesman. It is time to stop age old talk of our proud 2000 year old heritage and focus on the future of a multicultural society. The oposition must be led by a smart man or women capable of bringing people together not some Sinhalese Buddhist racist promising to be SLPP lite. On the economic front it must be clearly articulated how we got into the mess we are in and who got us there. Reducing tariffs, VAT and other taxes effectively cutting government revenue by half is how the economic spiral into oblivion began. Bacause of the drop in tax revenue and our inability to even pay recurrent expenditure without massive money printing, our credit ratings were down graded to junk status making it impossible to borrow a cent on the commercial markets. By subjugating the judiciary thru the 20th and imprisoning honest officers like Shani we also earned the wrath of the EU and the UNHCR. All these are self inflicted wounds. Refusing to admit mistakes is the other act of arrogance the has caused this calamity.

  • 21
    2

    Eagle Blind Eye alias HLD, why do you waste your time here. No one cared for you and you have nothing to say except BS. Your farting from Aussie is just an outburst of excessive good food while your natives are starving showing their empty pots. Your God family betrayed every one even the sinhala buddhist so what more. Soon your family left in SL will be washing and sweeping and cooking for the Chinese master while your young women will be at their disposal. What a pathetic loser. Just get lost since all is over and lost.

    • 0
      3

      Black Lankan,
      Who the fk are you to tell me to get lost.
      Instead of writing rubbish, learn to write sensible things.

  • 13
    0

    If dictator ships are on the rise then we should not be cheering dictators while wringing our hands. If China a communist dictatorship brutally putts down the Uygurs we should not just go along and do the same to our and minorities. These are black and white issues not shades of Grey as the spokesmen for the leader of the oposition has tried to justify as the next trend that we should all go along with. The need of the hour is to undo the economic damage the current lot refuse to do out of sheer arrogance. The next item is to restore the independence of the judiciary by dismissing the 20th amendment or if that cannot be done then reintroducing the 19th in a manner that voids the 20th. the cleansing of the government services of all Rajapkshe cronies and viyath maga proffessionals who have proved their stupidity and ineffectiveness is the next step to repaire the damage. This restoration is the only way forward. The alternative is to go off the cliff of insolvency and a debt default. Lies to the contrary wont save the day.

    • 0
      0

      Viyathmaga is the 2019/20 reincarnation of the Pancha Maha Balavegaya of 1956. The resulting chaos will be similar and cannot be dispersed or dissolved away easily, without going through the agony SL went through 1956 to 1964 and 1970 t0 1977.
      Majority of Citizens overwhelmingly chose the leadership they truly deserve.

  • 2
    0

    GOTA cunningly avoided talking about very important issues, He knew he has NO answers for those problems, He made a mess of the country by appointing Army personnel, Sri Lanka is undergoing a series of heart attacks, Soon it will collapse. The three musketeers and Buddhist monks cant save the country unless they resolve the root ethnic problem, the Chinese invasion of the island is taking place gradually. Soon the dragon will swallow the island

  • 4
    0

    Who wrote this kathawa for Gota? What a tragedy, poor man was uttering nothing but BS. No one with any commonsense would have come out with a script like this. Let alone the guys who wrote this but how about gota, doesnt he have any commonsense to understand whether it is worth while reading such a thing while the people are starving and dying. Not a word of what is unfolding, deaths, destruction, failure of SL’s entire system be it law and order, judiciary, health, povery, starvation? This man is talking of what he is going to do tomorrow, to build universities, highways, harbours, airports, convention halls while the ones already built are rotting and what people want right now is food and shelter. Murders are just released, begging money from beggars, luxury cars for politcal goons while people are dying of hunger, honest people are incarcerated, oh no Mr. President why such a pathetic artifical shaw. What a pathetic background with greenery and dagoba while reading the script at a studio what was projected in front of him. Just no brain or common sense or strategy. No capability of even cheating people. Tragedy in all its bloom. Let Blind Eagle Modaya and HLD dance in oragasm.

  • 1
    1

    The Flag of Lion must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of Patriotic way Gotabaya liberated Pearl Of The Indian Ocean Island Sri Lanka (Heladiva). Gotabaya, your dream is of a place and the time where Sri Lanka(Heladiva) will once again be seen as the last best place of the Indian Ocean. It is lamentable that to be a good patriotic one must become the enemy of the rest of the Sri Lankans. Long live Gotabaya Rajapaksa

    g

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