By S. L. Gunasekara –

S.L.Gunasekara

Both Indira Gandhi and her son, Rajiv, were murdered.  The former by her Sikh bodyguards and the latter by the LTTE whom he had nurtured, protected and nourished.  While many decry these murders as indeed any murder must be, I for one was an exception and was overjoyed by, and  rejoiced at, the deaths of this mother and son who to my mind, were two of the biggest enemies Sri Lanka has had in recent times.

My one regret was that their deaths came too late, because they came only after they had caused colossal damage to our Country.  At first, the mother armed, trained and equipped various gangs of Tamil terrorists including the LTTE to commit murder and mayhem on our soil.  This could hardly be termed an act of friendship.  Then came the son who first prevented the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka from destroying the LTTE root at branch. Had he not so protected the LTTE, the tens of thousands of deaths of civilians, soldiers and terrorists which happened in the years that followed would not have occurred: nor would about three hundred thousand Tamil civilians have been herded into Mullaitivu and kept as human shields by that gang of bestial terrorists called the LTTE.  Had the Gandhis not acted as they did, the LTTE would never ever have been able to explode bombs and other explosive devices at crowded city centres, murdering indiscriminately Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Malays, Burghers and others regardless of age, gender, ethnicity and political persuasion: they would not have been able to kidnap Tamil children for slave labour in their terrorist cadres; they would not have been able to extort the hard earned money of Tamil civilians in the guise of collecting alleged ‘taxes’; and they would not have been able to commit even a minute fraction of the multitude of bestial atrocities that were committed by them. Could this treacherous conduct of this malevolent pair or any part of it be considered an act of friendship to Sri Lanka ???

This rotten mother and son were not, however, content with  the damage caused to Sri Lanka by these acts of consummate hostility towards us. Rajiv Gandhi ensured that Sri Lanka could never rise again but should continue throughout history to be embroiled in civil strife by foisting on us a patently ridiculous system of Provincial Councils, the result of which has been the creation of eight white elephants of no use to man or beast in Sri Lanka except for members of such Councils and their hangers on. How proud the malevolent mother would have been of her crafty son.

The 9th white elephant is now on its way thanks to the craftiness and malevolence of the Gandhis and the pusillanimity of the senile JRJ.

While there are some gullible people who allege that this mother and son acted as they did bearing in mind the welfare of the Tamils, I for one cannot see how the arming of a bunch of thugs to terrorise the people can be deemed to be an act which would benefit the people of any single race and/or races.  How for example did the Tamils of this country benefit by Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others being murdered indiscriminately by bombs and explosive devices in crowded city centres?   How did the Tamils benefit by their little children being kidnapped for slave labour in the terrorist cadres of the LTTE?  How did the Tamils benefit by the entire Politbureau of the EPRLF except for Suresh Premachandran who happened not to be there at the time,  being murdered by the LTTE in Chennai?   How did the Tamil people benefit by being held forcibly in Mullaitivu as human shields by this gang of bestial terrorists ???

If this malevolent pair of mother and son had acted for anybody’s benefit they did so only for the benefit of themselves, their parties and their hangers on – that is to deceive the gullible voters of Tamil Nadu into the stupid belief that they were doing something for the Tamils of Sri Lanka and to thereby inveigle them into voting for the Congress Party.

Today as a result of these hostile acts of the Indians we are saddled with 8 white elephants called for Provincial Councils with the 9th on the way.  It is evident that no government from 1987 – that is neither the UNP led governments nor the SLFP led governments has seen it fit to entrust those Provincial Councils with powers over the Police or Land, although by depriving them of such powers they were acting in flagrant breach of the Constitution.

However, neither of those governments led by those parties had the courage or the patriotism to repeal the 13th Amendment or to amend it so as to deprive Provincial Councils of powers over Land and the Police.

One of the many unfortunate and indeed tragic features of this Provincial Council system is that while it is in theory, and only in theory, a system by which legislative and executive powers are devolved on the people, the people have not benefited one bit from them.  Those who clamour for more and more powers (and this includes those from the North and from the South) are persons who clamour for power for themselves.

It would be observed that the Provincial Councillor’s of the 8 Provincial Councils now in existence have clamoured for greater benefits for themselves (obviously at the expense of the tax payer) but hardly any have shown any concern for the people.  With the system of proportional representation, power is vested not in the people [who in this instance do not have the power even to nominate a person of their choosing to contest any election of members of any Provincial Council] but in the parties whose patronage, and/or support is essential for any person to even gain nomination.

Thus, the Provincial Council system has only resulted in the decrepit leadership of our more than decrepit political parties being vested with more and more powers at the expense and to the detriment of the People.  Today, even  candidates for an election of  Provincial Council members for the District of Mullaitivu are selected, not by the people of Mullaitivu but by the leadership of our several parties, be they ‘name-board’ parties or otherwise.

This apart, it is patently evident that where members of Provincial Councils agitate for more powers they do so only to increase their personal powers over a particular area and for their personal benefit.

We have seen more than ample evidence of the disastrous effect of politicians having powers (whether legal or otherwise) over the administration.  This is particularly so with the police.  We saw how without police powers being even devolved, Minister Sumedha Jayasena was able to intervene in an incident where some of her alleged supporters had been arrested for sand mining?   DIG Lafir who was steadfast and refused to bow down to pressure had to pay a heavy price for doing his duty as an officer and a gentleman.  He is now nowhere in the Uva Province and has been deprived of command in crime prevention in that area.

The criminal wastage of public funds expended by and on account of these Provincial Councils, to pay some worthless Provincial Councillors [and their kith and kin] salaries and allowances and provide them with munificent perquisites of ‘employment’ which include duty free vehicles and holidays in foreign countries paid for out of public funds is unbelievable. Such wastage will surely bankrupt the Country so that the destruction of Sri Lanka which the Tigers could not achieve by the force of arms can and will be achieved by means of the ‘Curse’ of Provincial Councils bestowed on us by the Gandhis.

How mother, son, and protégé (Prabhakaran), wherever they may be, must be chortling with laughter while gleefully watching us, in our stupidity, simply throwing away the gains of our magnificent victory over evil in May 2009 and destroying our Country in the process.