By Nagananda Kodituwakku –

Nagananda Kodituwakku

In his campaign aimed at returning to power, day before yesterday Pepilyana Sunethadevi pirivena became Mahinda Rajapaksa’s latest victim. It is sad to see that, claiming to be the followers of Lord Buddha, these people occupying temples wearing yellow robes practice completely the opposite of what Buddha taught. They simply permit Rajapaksa, who was shown the door by unequivocal terms by the people, to erect mega screens at sacred premises and to make absolutely resist, utterances, spreading ill-will, hatred and enmity against the minority communities the Tamil and Muslims. This despicable act is seen purely immoral, rousing the sentiments of the innocent naive poor Sinhalese, always prone to be deceived.

The million-dollar question is who to be blamed for all this nonsense. Surely it is none other than spineless Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe for their total failure to restore and enforce the Rule of Law to the letter, against those criminal elements who plundered the wealth of the nation ruthlessly. These elements who ruthlessly engaged in all sorts of anti-social behavior are now demanding returning to power, thanks to Sirisena administration hitherto failed to realize the burning desire of the people for corrupt free rule with due respect and regard to the trust and confidence placed in it by the people.

People expected President Sirisena to be firm and concerned with rebuilding the Nation and committed to do the best in the national interests than entangled with a petty party political agenda. People know that nothing definite and substantial can be expected from impotent Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is appointed to the office of the Prime Minister not by a popular mandate but thanks to a political agreement entered with President Sirisena. Now it appears Ranil daydreaming about return to power in a big scale, having done nothing tangible to take the country in the right direction.

In 2010, when Rajapaksa was elected to office for the second term, the first thing he did was the imprisoning of General Sarath Fonseka, the opposition presidential candidate for no valid reason whatsoever. Whereas, under Sirisena administration what people are witnessing is completely the opposite. It is disheartening to see that those elements directly responsible for committing serious crimes have not been dealt appropriately and allowed to strengthen their positions and regroup to capture power by whatever means, cheating the majority of susceptible people once again.

It is sad that majority people of this country comprehend nothing about the enormous power they enjoy over all organs of the government (Legislature, Executive and Judiciary) that use these powers on a social contract, as set out in the supreme law of the land, the Constitution.

Ranil Wickremesinge & Co appear to believe that people would vote them to power, for the ‘great enormous job well done’ within a short period in office. Obviously these are living in a fantasy world.

The truth is that Ranil, is absolutely impotent and condemned person, dumped by the people in umpteen numbers of times. He should have left politics more than a decade ago, permitting the general membership of the party to elect a young dynamic leader with a vision to be the leader of the country and navigate it in the right direction. Had he had done that probably Rajapaksa would not have been able to buy the MPs elected to office with UNP vote and shifted their allegiance later on. The great Machiavellian, Rajapaksa, used the opportunity for his private benefit, to destroy all democratic institutions including the Judiciary, whilst keeping absolute power in him with total impunity permitted under the Supreme Law, the Constitution, which he changed to serve desires even before taking oath for the second term.

In this backdrop, the people of this country are surely yearning for a good dynamic leader with integrity and vision to be the Prime Minister. During the short period in office, the UNP has demonstrated to the people what an impotent group of people they are and would probably go to the history as the party held power for the shortest period in office. At least Rajapaksa, despite abusing office for private benefits whilst condoning criminal gangs under his shelter, continued with the development of infrastructure projects and did a marvelous job (Gotabaya) to keep the city pleasant and its pavements clean.

However, what the people witness today under Ranil & Co is terrible. They are impotent to such an extent that even the ongoing infrastructure development projects have been made redundant, earning the wrath of the people, who are waiting to demonstrate their verdict at the next general election.