By R.A.Ratwatte –
R.A.Ratwatte
The most hackneyed stanza of the Dhammapada…”nahi verena verani etc” is being bandied about once again with gay abandon. If you stop and check the number of times this verse (with so much meaning and relevance) has been used in speeches by people who have not the slightest intention of ever putting it into practice…the mind boggles.
The New President of the Country also used it and in this case we hope that proper interpretation of the verse will prevail. We the people don’t want revenge or anger but we do want JUSTICE !
If all the petty catchers’, drug smugglers, rapist and vermin who robbed our Country blind and drove self respecting honourable people who were trying to make an honest living, to despair are allowed walk away , If all those relatives of the Rajapaksas who held down highly paid state jobs and denied qualified people, If those who blatantly abused their positions are not named and shamed and punished, it will constitute blasphemy and a total misinterpretation of the doctrine that governs the life of the majority of this Country.
I have seen articles calling for this and even outlining how it should be done. I am not expert enough to participate in this discussion but I KNOW that this is the single most important thing this Government has to do. It has to be done to educate our society that the way of life that they have seen over decades is WRONG. That abuse of power and appointment of catchers’, cannot be and will not be condoned and that just punishment will ALWAYS follow. It is the one chance we have to put our beloved motherland on the right track. To ensure that we take our rightful place in the first world and get shot of our current firm entrenchment in the ranks of Banana Republics.
I am also not reluctant to express my delight that the brain of Ranil Wickremesinghe will be utilised by this Government. I hope he has it in him to forgive all the morons in the press and even so called business leaders who used their networks to heap abuse on him and lead the buffalo populace to believe that he was useless! Ranil Wickremesinghe is the best man to take our Country into the first world and I am confident that he will prevail. I also hope that the only two people who have world class achievements to their credit, Arjuna Ranatunga and The General are utilized to their full extent.
I do appreciate that use has to be made of more than a few of the existing bunch of slimy politicians to try and achieve the 100 day program. However I do not accept and a single one of the Chairmen of corporations and others heading institutions who do not deserve be there are needed. Consign them to the rubbish bins of history and use qualified people with unsullied reputations and the ability to reason and confidence to take decisions that are for the greater good of the Country.
The new president I know nothing about, However I do know of the fearsome reputation of a few of his brothers and the damage they have done to the paddy trade and the social fabric of the Raja Rata. Let’s hope he can control his siblings and maybe there is even a faint hope that any complaints against the siblings can be addressed and the air cleared once and for all? However he is a man to lead the Sinhala Masses. They can relate to him and hopefully he will set an example that allows them to rally around him and support him in his endeavours.
The steady erosion (piriheema) of the Buddha sasanaya is another aspect that should not be ignored. Our priest are no longer adherents of the Vinaya. They are more like businessmen who spend their days consolidating their empires while indulging in the most vile practices. Who is going to bell this cat? We have to address this aspect of our religion lest we anger the great God Vishnu..who as legend has it, is charged with the task of protecting Buddhism in our resplendent Isle.
I belong to the ranks of those who left my Country due to disgust and also the inability to survive and nurture a family due to the prohibitive cost of living. I also left as I realised that the society I was living in was being transformed into a parody of what I had grown up in. Bribe taking and commissions were the order of the day; in fact it was almost impossible to live unless a person trying to make a “honest” living didn’t take a bribe! I firmly believe that our society is now spoilt almost beyond redemption. It will take another generation or two before we even have a chance of living in a society with true values and a respect for the law. Therefore my self imposed exile will continue, as even though I crave for the hills and valleys, the beautiful beaches and the pristine wilderness of my motherland, I have no wish to live among the corrupt, ill disciplined society that we have created.
I also realise, due to the impermanence of life, that I will never see the generation that I hope and pray that this new beginning, begets. I don’t think I have the fight in me or a penchant for bullshitting others that will be required to fight these almost insurmountable odds that the Rajapaksa regime has left behind and continues even now to promote.
I wish the New President and his team the full blessings of all the Devas and protection and Guidance from the Buddha Dhamma !
ramona therese fernando / January 14, 2015
Still digging the wedge between the Sinhala masses and the elite, are they! Typical!….. Typical! of the Lankan elite who haven’t a clue of how other more normal and prosperous countries operate, survive and thrive. For other countries, the masses (buffalo or otherwise) are the pillar of country identity; the bumiputhra of the land, with much honor given to them; which all system revolve around.
But for Sri Lanka, our Sinhala elite would rather migrate. They cannot bear the cost of living the non-goday lifestyles. So they sell house and home and take their “brains” to the Western land.
“With bread costing a 100RS more, there goes our cheese and chocolates and wine. With Rajapaksa relative overseeing our business venture, for god’s sake how can we send our kids to America to study when the taxes are too high and the Raajapaksa overseer took the bulk of our profits for himself.” (truth is the potholes in the road from Nuwara Eliya to Baddulla have been filled).
And they need a president to support just that kind of system. For Shame!
Worse than any racial divide is the class divide. In fact, it was the class divide that led to the racial divide. Go ahead, prosecute all the “miscreants” and see how the country will explode. Encourage Ranil too much, and you’d get the 87-89 insurrections. A bit of Ranil is ok, necessary even, because such elite yet need to be democratically dealt with. But with not too much (of Ranil).
/
Palayang Yako / January 14, 2015
“Ramona Therese Fernando”
If you aren’t, in fact, “Sumanasekera” of the thousand aliases you certainly are a rival for his title as THE Moronic Sycophant of the Rajapaksas. Heaping abuse on those speaking to your handlers’ crimes doesn’t cut it any longer in Sri Lanka where, I understand, the white vans have stopped running after the removal of Mahindaraja and his Traffic-Director brother!
/
ramona therese fernando / January 14, 2015
Moi?…..never…….mama nevey….so, palayang yako, you must palayang yako…..I’m telling the truth……remove notions of persons being paid by rajapaksas, remove notions of Stockholm syndrome……do some Buddhist meditation…the overheated mind will gradually cool down to the *TRUTH* You will see Sri Lanka in New Light!
/
Palayang Yako / January 15, 2015
R.T. Fernando:
You ARE Sumane of a thousand aliases! That explains the inability to write in any civilised language!!
/
Native Vedda / January 15, 2015
Palayang Yako
sach, wathie, ramona therese, sarojini, nuisance, …. and others employ the same script writer.
/
ramona therese fernando / January 15, 2015
One must never resort to ad hominem tactics in the absence of good argument.
/
Native Vedda / January 15, 2015
ramona therese fernando
“One must never resort to ad hominem tactics in the absence of good argument.”
Argumentum ad hominem is not your forte therefore just forget it.
/
ramona therese fernando / January 16, 2015
N.V., It must be, otherwise you wouldn’t get so rattled up.
/
Upul / January 14, 2015
I think this Ratwatte only shares a last name with the ‘other’ Ratwatte’s who were providing gangster skill-set for MR and Chandrika.
Nothing wrong with me thinking – I hope.
/
K. C. John / January 14, 2015
Upul,
Did you even read the last 3 paragraphs of the article before rushing to respond?
I think not.
/
Jagath Fernndo / January 14, 2015
Rajitha
Well said.
The need of the hour is law and order, rule of law and elimination of corruption and nepotism.
Ranil is the man for the job and no doubt about it.
Hopefully the bleeding and bloated state sector will be reformed as well. We don’t want the graduate intake to be increased four fold as said by Rajapakse and all of them to be given unproductive state jobs.
/
FAMOUS449 / January 14, 2015
One thing that I have begun to liken and admire is the fact that those religious minded political leaders in the so called developed and technically advanced nations never begin their political speeches with the chanting of one or stanzas of their religious beliefs.
This is hum buck, nothing but deceiving the unsuspecting poor illiterate masses.
What did Mahinda do in all his political schedules as a President? No one will deny the fact that he portrayed a bogus religious figure of a man as he was used to be, just to deceive the masses and the end result is that he had displeased the multiple Gods whom he religiously believed would help him win this election this time too.
His Gods decided otherwise… Mahinda is just a commoner as we are; not even worthy of calling himself and/or carrying along with his name the title of and/or as the “Ex President OR the former President of the Resplendent Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka”.
/
Sam.Samare / January 14, 2015
R.A.RATTS,
Hope the racketeers you mention include Lohan.Ratwatte and Chanuka.Ratwatte and Mahen .Ratwatte?
Sam.
/
Nishan / January 14, 2015
Rajitha,
Agree with the sentiments expressed.The masses have been taken for asses during the reign of the Maha Raja. Cost of living has reached unimaginable proportions due to direct and indirect taxes heaped on the people whilst a handful of stooges of Mara were raping the country.
Wrong doers should be punished and a humane and just society should be built. This would take time but I am confident the coalition has good men and women to do the job for Sri Lanka.
It’s time for the country to shine n be truly the miracle of Asia.
Nishan
/
Anpu / January 14, 2015
Is this Mr Ratwatte related to Anuruddha Ratwatte’s referred in below?
“An official report from the Director of the CDB to the President of Sri Lanka dated September 7, 2000 informs Her Excellency succinctly that Anuruddha Ratwatte’s son Mahen commissioned two underworld thugs, a reserve Police constable Sudath Ranasinghe and Moratu Saman, to murder Kumar Ponnambalam. A third assassin, one Sujeewa, also joined in the killing. It went on to say that Mahen Ratwatte was harbouring Ranasinghe until he surrendered, in connection with another offence; that when questioned, Mahen Ratwatte had the audacity to tell the Director of the CDB, ‘Why are you worried? All the top people know about the assassination’; and that in addition to everything else, the Ratwatte family is harbouring and consorting with yet another criminal, Dhammika Perera, who is wanted in connection with no less than 17 other murders!”
http://www.thesundayleader.lk/archive/20020113/spotlight.htm
/
Don Quixote / January 15, 2015
Is every Silva related to Duminda.Is everybody who bears the name Mervin, a idiot ?
One would expect the readership of CT to have a little more intelligence !
/
R.A. RAtwatte / January 15, 2015
Yes, I am related to all those Ratwatte’s referred to in derogatory ways by contributors to this thread.
If they are guilty of the alleged crimes , evidence will no doubt be presented and convictions obtained.
However guilty or not they are my relations and I will never deny it, or disown them !
Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones !
/