By Fr J.C. Pieris –

Fr Chryso Pieris SJ

A Cherokee elder teaches his grandson about the internal struggle every man goes through. It is like an internal battle between two wolves. The first wolf represents greed, evil, envy, violence and hate, The second wolf stands for sharing, goodness, joy, peace, and love. When the grandson inquires, which wolf will prevail, the elder responds, “The one you feed the most.”

We are blessed to be alive in this country at this moment in its long history. We have been struggling for, writing for, hoping for and praying for what is currently happening. Law and Order was dead and buried for the last two decades. Law and Order is truly and steadily coming back to life, like a dead tree sprouting a sprig … of life and hope.

Every news item of another scoundrel being investigated, summoned to give an explanation and arrested confirms again and again that we were right. The decision we took to bring the NPP to power is bearing fruit. For the first time we are proud of the vote we used in 2024. Before that we voted many times but we never felt like this. It was out of civic duty that we voted then, never expecting much, hoping against hope things will become better for the people, all in vain.

Let us ever keep the Aragalaya in memory. Let us not forget the young people and their supporters who relentlessly and non-violently shouted, day and night in sun and rain in the Galle Face Green “Gota-Go-Home” from the 9^th of April 2022 to the famous and victorious 9^th of July. We must specially remember the young people who got battered by the goons of Mahinda Rajapaksa in the morning of 9^th of May. They paid the heaviest price for the present historic system change now happening in Sri Lanka. They and the vast majority of the citizens of the country made the system change happen by making Anura Kumara Dissanayake the president and bringing the NPP to power.

The NPP is in the process of re-imagining and restructuring the whole country. Beginning with the education reforms which is top priority. The new modern system of education that is put forward will be implemented slowly and steadily. The debates on it in the parliament show how negative and destructive the opposition is. They are like the dog in the manger that neither eats the straw nor allows the cow to eat it. It is very clear they have nothing to say. Every criticism they make boomerangs on them. They have realized they are bound to extinction. They try their best to reignite some of their old tricks like the Easter Sunday massacre, Kotthu roti, under garments and squeezing fallopian tubes of women. Nothing works and they are desperate. Poor fellows, they are allergic to post Aragalaya new politics. They are clueless as to what to do and where to go. They are redundant and useless and they know it.

Therefore, their atrocious behavior in the parliament is understandable. They are wasting the parliament valuable time (and our money) demanding unnecessary points of order, nitpicking the standing orders and trying to justify their inane questions. They patronize the NPP new comers giving them advice; only to hear “Why didn’t you follow those advices when you were in power? While they shout and scream the NPP ‘greenhorns’ talk sensibly, calmly to the point. They are worried too about the re-emergence of old charges against them that their godfather Gota got “Nidoskota-nidahas”. Those cases hidden under the carpet are coming out and hang over their heads like the sword of Damocles. Poor fellows, they are truly and thoroughly checkmated.

The grand plan of AKD/NPP government encompasses a complete social, moral, economic and political overhaul of the people. The hashtag for it is “Clean Sri Lanka”. And it is a gargantuan task. For it touches not only the scoundrels of the past regimes and their hangers on, who are destined to be in queue to Welikada, Bogambara, Mahara etc.; it touches each and every citizen in the country. Only children are exempted. The external thieves are easy to identify but the thief within is the biggest problem of “Clean Sri Lanka”.

The culture of corruption that the Rajapaksa-Wickremesinghe-Sirisena regimes have evolved has seeped into every nook and corner of the citizenry. It has become so much a part of the way of life in Sri Lanka that some people simply do not realize that their actions are wrong and evil. Just watching the procedures in the COPE investigations, so effectively handled by Dr Nishantha Samarasinghe, reveals that sad truth clearly. The administrative officers seem to be bewildered why they are targeted and are speechless. I suppose they never expected such investigations ever to happen.

None of us are angels; we are humans with two wolves inside us fighting to gain control of us. The thief within, the evil wolf must be identified and defeated by us. As the opening parable illustrated, we must starve the bad wolf and feed the good one or starve the thief within and feed the angel within. It is Mahatma Gandhi who said; before every decision you make ask yourself if it will benefit the poorest man in the country. In other words, think of others more than thinking of yourself. Be selfless and enjoy it. A good man is a happy man. Never think being virtuous is a sad affair. Not at all. The more you feed the good wolf the happier you are. This ought to be the basic attitude of our citizenry to implement the “Clean Sri Lanka” policy.

It is a fallacy that the Ten Commandments and Pansil restrict our freedom to enjoy life. Now we are seeing how people who dismissed the Ten Commandments and Pansil as boring obstacles are lining up in front of the CID and Courts. How they hide from the law trembling in fear. How they lead sad fearful lives wondering when the sword of Damocles will fall on their stupid heads.

They say it is the tree bearing sweetest fruits that get stoned most. The present government is getting stoned mercilessly. The AKD/NPP government is transforming this country pulling it inside out and turning it upside down. That is not an easy task. They know it. They have taken a completely different path from those of the previous regimes. It is a new path, a new system. Therefore, as humans, they certainly will make some mistakes. They are not god Sakra. They will correct course humbly when necessary but they will not be swayed by greed or fear. We trust them; on the other hand, to be frank, who else is there? The NPP has embarked on a new path. The new path is in the making. The new path has to be made by walking it, there is no other way. As Franz Kafka has said “Paths are made by walking”.