7 December, 2024

Blog

The Work Begins

By Tisaranee Gunasekara

“If we lift the hideous rags of History, we find this: hierarchy versus equality and order versus liberty.” ~ Éric Vuillard (The Order Of The Day)The indications are clear, as are the implications. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, elected on a Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist platform intends to rule as a Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist president. 

For the first time in Independent Ceylon/Sri Lanka, we have a cabinet of ministers without a single Muslim member. Nor is there a Muslim amongst the 38 state/deputy ministers. Of the 54 cabinet and non-cabinet ministers, there are just two Tamils and one woman. Even the state minister for Women’s Affairs is a man.

Sinhalese, who constitute around 75% of the populace, make up more than 92% of the current stable of ministers. 

That non-representative nature would have bothered every single previous Lankan leader, not excluding Mahinda Rajapaksa, perhaps. Not Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Since his election as the seventh executive president of Sri Lanka, he has given two major policy speeches. A key commonality in both is what is said about the minorities; and that is nothing. 

The new status quo is unashamedly, openly, nakedly, majoritarian supremacist. The minorities (including non-Buddhist Sinhalese) have the freedom to accept this reality and live accordingly. Any other response, however peaceful, democratic, legal or constitutional, would be suspect as a grievous lack of patriotism. 

Open adherence to Sinhala-Buddhist supremacism is not only the path Gotabaya Rajapaksa has chosen for himself and his government. It is also his biggest offering to his political and electoral base. The Rajapaksa base isn’t representative of Sri Lanka as it is in reality, a pluralist land with a mix of ethnicities, religions, languages and cultures. It is representative of an imaginary Sri Lanka, a Sinhala-Buddhist country, where the minorities exist only in a demographic sense, and in a shadowy form. 

“The history and the future of Sri Lanka do not belong to any group alone,” President Ranasinghe Premadasa once said (Address at the Annual Prize Giving of St. Thomas’ College, Mt Lavinia – 1990). Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his base believe the opposite; they think that the history of Sri Lanka was a Sinhala-Buddhist one, and the future of Sri Lanka should also be a Sinhala-Buddhist one. Creating that majoritarian paradise is what Gotabaya Rajapaksa promised to do. It is a promise he seems intent on keeping, at whatever cost to really existing Sri Lanka.

On the road to Paradise

The pledge to turn Sri Lanka into a Sinhala-Buddhist paradise has a political and an economic component. The political component consists of abandoning ethno-religious pluralism both in deed and word. No more bahu katha (talk about pluralism). No more promises of equality. The first task of the state is to look after Sinhala-Buddhists and Sinhala-Buddhism. Everything else follows from that.

So taking Sri Lanka back from the minorities, and giving it to its rightful owners, is the first step in the journey to Paradise. Gotabaya Rajapaksa is fulfilling this part of the paradisiacal promise openly and speedily. 

The government might flip-flop when it comes to other matters. For instance, it issued a circular on December 7th 2019, granting a monthly allowance of Rs. 15,000 to executive grade officers in the public sector. It issued another circular exactly a month later, on January 7th 2020, suspending that allowance. The Treasury Secretary said that the government will continue to follow Mangala Samaraweera’s fuel price formula. Less than 48 hours later, a state minister tweeted saying the government will not follow that or any other formula. In the matter of economic policies, the Rajapaksa and Rajapaksa regime seems even more inconsistent than the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration. 

But there is no such flip-flopping when it comes to putting the minorities in their place. In that regard, the government is moving in a straight line, with no stumbles or U turns. The announcement was made, months in advance, that the national anthem will be sung only in Sinhalese at the Independence Day. No more Tamil national anthem. No more ethnic problem either, so no need for any solution. The matter was resolved at Nandikadal, and that was that. If the minorities feel insecure, it is their own fault. No arguments, no negotiations.

So the prices of consumer essentials can be high and getting higher. There might be a severe shortage of fertiliser. School uniform vouchers are yet to be distributed in most places. The bag of nutrition given to pregnant mothers from low-income families is no more. But for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Sinhala-Buddhist base, for his core voters, none of these would be a deal breaker. The political project is going great. The economics will follow. 

First we take the country back from the aliens and give it to the true owners. Then we develop it. 

The old lie helps, the recasting of class relations in ethno-religious terms, the bourgeois minorities (who are also pro-imperialist) vs. Sinhala-Buddhist workers and peasants (in the SLFP rendering, monks, Ayurvedic physicians and teachers are added). That pernicious lie has remained deeply engrained, in part because no political party has challenged it. On the contrary, almost all political parties have tried to use it to their electoral advantage time and again. The JVP even tried to make the revolution, twice, on that basis. 

Thanks to that deeply held belief, that etched-in-stone worldview, there is no visible, audible discontent amongst the core Rajapaksa voters about rising prices and other socio-economic ills. In order to redistribute to, you must first take from those who have stolen our patrimony. Before the game begins, the playing field must be made uneven. The government is doing it. That gives it credibility in the collective gaze of its base. That buys it time.

The best way to murder a pluralist democracy is to depict it as beneficial to the minorities. What is good for them is naturally bad for us. Political freedoms are good for them; an independent judiciary is good for them; a weakened executive is good for them. To get to the promised land, the land promised to us by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, all that must be trashed.

Like the 19th Amendment.

Parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe has proposed two constitutional amendments as private members’ motions. One aims to make the president supreme, to give him all the powers to appoint superior court judges, the Attorney General and the Auditor General. 

The other would increase the cut off point for parliamentary representation from the current 5% to 12%. The aim is to reduce minority representation in parliament. But it will have a deadly effect on the JVP as well, and even the SLFP. For instance, if that rule is applied to the 2018 local government election, the SLFP will have representation only from 13 districts while the JVP will have representation from only one district.   . 

Unenlightened self-interest is suicidal in the long term because it is blinding from word go. Closing the doors of the parliament to the minorities and the JVP would be an act of unparallel idiocy. It will pave the way not to moderation but to extremism, not to reconciliation but to new strife.

The Rajapaksas probably know it, but it is unlikely to bother them. Because that will give them an enemy to showcase, vilify, and use as a scapegoat for militarisation and repression. 

One of the programmes the government is planning to implement as a matter of priority is to provide jobs to 100,000 young people from low-income families who have not got through their O Levels. On the surface, this seems a measure aimed at combating poverty. But there is more. The Defence Ministry will oversee the programme. The candidates will be chosen and trained by the military. They will then be deployed in government institutions, mostly schools and hospitals. Militarisation of the economy and society will taken one more great leap, under the guise of poverty alleviation. And the Rajapaksas will have a version of Brown Shirts, young, uneducated, malleable, trained to obey, whatever the orders are. They will be a Rajapaksa force in the truest sense in the word. 

The fate of the 47%

Almost 48% of the electorate voted against Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the return of the Rajapaksa raj. This includes almost the totality of the minorities and more than one third of the majority. 

In the upcoming parliamentary election they can play a critical role in denying the Rajapaksas the two-thirds majority they so desperately desire. 

Unfortunately this 47.6% of the electorate has vanished from public sight and from political considerations, as if they never existed.

The minority parties are struggling to form a response to a regime which is committed to a new order where the dominant ethno-religious group reigns while everyone else has to exist on terms of explicit and structural inequality. In this Sri Lanka, a monk slapping a pastor is pro forma. Or a monk decreeing how much sex-education should be given to school children. 

The JVP misread the conjuncture in which the presidential election was held. The moment Gotabaya Rajapaksa became the SLPP’s presidential candidate, any realistic space for a third force dwindled. The JVP should have done better had it committed itself to the task of stopping Gotabaya. That was what the moment demanded. Instead the JVP decided to turn sectarian in the worst sense. Instead of adopting popular front tactics, as the occasion demanded, it tried to create a false equivalency between Gotabaya and the UNP. 

The JVP didn’t expect to win. But the extent of its defeat seemed to have stunned it into a near-paralysis state. Its continuing failure to place itself at the forefront of the anti-Rajapaksa component of the electorate cannot but impact negatively on its prospects at the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The UNP’s plight is equally self-made. Instead of becoming a voice for the 47% that voted against the Rajapaksas, the UNP is busying itself with internal battles. Instead of burnishing its image as a Lankan party, it is trying to regress into majoritarianism. 

Sajith Premadasa thought he could beat Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist game. He failed then. He will fail again. The Sinhala-Buddhist supremacist component of the electorate can never be weaned away from the SLPP so long as the four Rajapaksa siblings are in the game. They belong to the Rajapaksas, body, soul, and vote. No amount of pandering to Sinhala-Buddhist supremacism can change that situation.

The UNP’s best chance is to understand its strengths and build on those. Its base is not in the hinterland, but in the urban centres. Its winning formula is not racism but ethno-religious pluralism and progressive economics.

The Sinhala-Buddhist core of the Rajapaksa base might be content with how things are going. But the same may not be true of the floating voters. Those floating voters cannot be won over by mimicking the Rajapaksas. To win them over, the UNP must hone in on every broken promise, every flip-flopping by the government. It must talk about prices of consumer essentials and the open nepotism and cronyism in key appointments. It must explain why the government is trying to kill the forensic audit report into bond issues by the Central Bank. It must talk about the social and environmental consequences of the government’s decision to scrap the permit-requirement for the transportation of sand, gravel and soil. It must expose and oppose every misdeed of the government. Instead the new opposition leader is busy organising monthly bana preachings in his new office premises. Not quite a winning formula.

But then Sajith Premadasa is not good at winning elections, as his performance in his chosen base of Hambantota demonstrates. At the presidential election, the UNP scored the lowest in the district its candidate has represented for more than two decades – 25.9% in Hambantota compared to 42% nationally. That abysmal performance belongs to Sajith Premadasa alone. It is not something he can blame of Ranil Wickremesinghe or anyone else.

How can a man who has consistently failed to win his own electoral district or electorate lead the party to victory nationally? On what rational, factual grounds does he demand the UNP leadership? If Sajith Premadasa becomes the leader of the UNP, he will be a second Ranil Wickremesinghe, someone who will cling to that position irrespective until death or a younger contender do us part. 

To impede Sri Lanka’s march into an unfree, divisive and destructive future, the Rajapaksas must be prevented from winning a two-thirds majority. It can be done. But will it be done? 

Latest comments

  • 9
    3

    Tomuch of a speculation and also based on paranoid.
    Onething the present government is only a care taker government which basically has not many Muslims , Tamils or other members on board and I do not know why Mps like Faizer Mustafa was not offered at least a state minister post or he was not keen in any position in the care taker government, which will end with the next general elections.
    How can we accuse The President of moving towards a racial and Buddhism only based government, based on guess work?
    He did keep on inviting the Muslims and Tamils to support him and most of them did not , but what matters is , You somehow feel some security , law and order which was completely in a mess for past 4.5 years , There are no hate spreading , people are freely trading with each other and the streets are super clean over night and nobody dare to write or call out racial slurs , this is the foundation for a prosperous nation, all these were only in mere words of all past politicians written on water, you hardly hear the words of any race or religion. ( including Sinhalese, Buddhist supremacy) in his speeches, and I see nothing wrong in his extra love for his fraternity, it is only natural to feel so by anyone
    We need to stop spreading fear and getting people all paranoid.
    I agree some are dissapointed as their agenda did not go through as expected and that alone should give us some hope in the President.
    So if Muslims and Tamils want their members to be part of the future government let them choose wisely and get promises in writting that they will look in to their grievances in a fair manner not expecting to bend the law for them.

    • 2
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      Thisaranee please clam down!
      The fact is that the minorities when appointed as cabinet members have been largely useless and CORRUPT to the core political appointments.
      Also, since the US Special Forces staged the IS Easter attacks in Sri Lanka in order to set up military bases (aka. lily pads) in the Eastern Province were the US-IS Caliphate was to flourish to wage war on the Indian Ocean against Iran and China, we know that the SL Muslims and the Tamils leaders have been and are being used as the Cat’s Paw in the US project to Divide, Rule and set up military bases once SOFA, MCC are firmed up in Lanka.
      USAID funding to NGOS is the vehicle of identity politics games – gender, ethnic religious, LGBTQ networks are used to further the US project and weaponize cultural diferences. Kind of Like Trump threatening to bomb Cultural sites in Iran.
      So, please understand that your endless wailing about minorities and digging up identity politics is playing into the US agenda with funded NGOs that also endlessly talk about minority human rights quite forgetting ECONOMIC RIGHTS and propaganda to use IDENTITY POLITICS to DIvide, Rule and Loot as US has already done in the Middle East – massaging the Shia-Sunni conflict.

    • 2
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      Tissaranee Gunesekera,

      Para-Sinhala Para-“Buddhist” Ideology, Buddagama- Ideology, Wahhabi-Salafi-Juhadist Ideologyare all part of the same continuum, the belief, based on brainwashings, to get to the elusive Nibbana, Nirvana, Heaven and Hell etc.

      Chinese will allow for Monk hegemony in Sri Lanka. However, they did not allow Monk Hegemony in Tibet.

      Colombo: China would always respect Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and not allow any “outside interference” in its internal affairs, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday as he met President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.
      Wang Yi met the two leaders separately with both sides pledging to further promote relations between the two countries.

      “As Sri Lanka’s strategic partner, China will continue to stand by Sri Lanka’s interests,” the visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister was quoted as saying by Gotabaya’s office.

      • 4
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        Mr. Amarasiri

        Your obscession with ‘para’ this and ‘para’ that and IQ 79 is all wearying down the reader somewhat, and may detract him from the core message you wish to convey.

        I have met some wonderful sinhalese buddhists in my time who certainly do not conform to your descriptions of them.

        • 2
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          Justice and FairPlay,

          The wonderful Sinhalese Buddhists are mostly silent , while the non-wonderful Sinhalese Buddhists are running amok with the monks, distorting Buddhism, distorting Dhamma and insulting the Buddha.

          The Paras must de-brainwashed. The best is to get the Chinese to do it, the way they did in Tibet, to contain the Monk Hegemony.

          Of course there are wonderful Sinhalese Buddhists , based on the IQ distribution, among the Paras, mean Measured IQ 79, and their mean IQ is about 94, one standard deviation above the mean and above. However, they are not in , the majority. They are about 30 percent. The majority, 70 percent elects the Rajapaksa Mafia and the politicians, based on the instructions from the monks, who hijacked Buddhism.

          The majority, of Para-Sinhala falls under the definition of imbeciles, and they prostrate to the monks, expecting the elusive Nibbana, promised by the monks. What a racket. Has any Para- achieved that. Most of them got oxidized.

          The word Para- is shortened form for Paradeshis, foreigner, stranger, supported by historical and molecular genetics data, derived from Sanskrit and Pali.

          The IQ of 79 , is the mean measured IQ of the Para populace, and compared to over 100 countries.

          There is support for the adobe statements.

          There is support for the Earth spinning on its axis and orbiting the Sun.

  • 10
    3

    Tyranny of the majority is the theme in most non-western nations.
    The west is unique in that it gives minorities equal rights and sometimes appears to pander to minorities more than the majority.
    Migrants from places like africa and asia dont give a hoot about minority rights. But they fully exploit it while they live in the west for their benefit. Then support racist dictatorships back in their lands of origin.
    Gota is a classic example of this.

    • 0
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      Not sure which La-La Land you live in but Black Lives Matter is a movement in the US. Oh, and by the way Steve King is still representing the state of Iowa FYI. The list goes on…

  • 11
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    if tie coat ranil is ditched by the unp the rajapaksas will appoint him as ambassador to a western country

  • 8
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    The well sequenced and flawless article {“The Work Begins”} by Tisaranee Gunasekara will be used by the MR-Family owned SLPP to distract the International Community “There is Media-Freedom”
    and the locals “This is unpatriotic” and distract attention away from appointment of Yes- persons to high positions.

  • 8
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    This President could be our last opportunity to put the nation right . while wishing him good health and long life, he should continue his Excutive post for a full two terms ( 10 years minimum) which is required to correct all the wrongs , the nation is in total chaos , so much of work needs to be done and The public Train Service should be no 2 on agenda after Garbage issue.
    However The President must seriously consider to change the constitution before end of his term permantly from office, in a manner every single politician will be accountable and a constitution that guarantees protection to all Citizens and total transparency.
    But I do agree this is not the time .
    It is a time to consider amensty and let go the past. , pay compensation to victims and families without dragging past cases and digging up graves like what the past government did,
    to degrade the remains of Thajudeen by distributing them in pieces islandwide, ( another cheap political game) and adding more misery to the family,instead get the fullest support of all sincerely willing politicians to march forward for the best change and to do all we can to rid of our debts and make Sri Lanka peaceful and prosperous

    • 1
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      Fahim, Wait Mate , Wait …Uncle Karu is coming….

      • 2
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        @K.S.S.
        I really do not bother much about who comes hence, as long as long as The President remains in control atleast for these five years , I assure he will do alot of good to the country.
        He has won the trust of almost all , if he runs 2nd term he will surely get most of the minority, UNP and JVP votes too.
        So if Pohottuwe wins the General Elections,they should not be after 2/3rd to change constitution. In no way they shpuld cmpremise of they do not get 2/3 ,instead work with The President and prove their sincerity.
        This is a good opportunity for Pohottuwe’s future young politicians .Trust is something that needs to be earned

  • 1
    7

    Lanka is a small country and an island that I would love to see remain a part of the Buddhist/Hindu realm and grow its economy to become something akin to Taiwan or Singapore. It can do it and to do that it needs a strong leader who is ready to take collateral damages, when necessary. Gotaby is that leader and in fighting Tamil Tigers he was ready for the task, the fallout and the international collateral damage management. So he is all the more the right person to fight the hideous monster of Moslem terrorism, as well as the Taqqia deception and population explosion by Moslems to turn Lanka into a barbaric, Islamic hellhole like Pakistan. The writer of this article is a well-known pathological hater of the ethos of Sinhalese Buddhism and part of the Fifth Column against Lanka. I wish Gotaby the very best in his pursuits. Sinhalese should tighten their belts when necessary and support him unconditionally to fight the Moslems and also to fight hidden dark forces that want to enslaves the Sinhalese.

  • 7
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    Sinhala Buddhist politicians are destroying Buddhism – one brick at a time.

    Sri Lankans do not need outside forces to do it.

  • 5
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    Gota has come to power with Sinhalese bhudhist majoritarian vote is not a choice to him but it is the only way he can come to power; he can not sell bahu (pluralism) as he can not answer to Tamils who asked their disappearing relatives who surrendered after war.

    So he was having one and the only option to promote zahran style bhudhism.

    Those who like to have a plural SriLanka have only one option. That is to pray your respective god or gods to make smooth, natural death sooner than later to the one who is attempting to kill pluralistic nature of the country.

  • 1
    5

    Yaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwn…. tisaranee gunasekara hallucinating again :) You better go and listen to the leaked videos that will tell you about the unp how to bend the law and their hatred towards the Rajapakses. Anyone still supporting these fake unp politicians needs to get his head tested.

  • 7
    1

    Sinhala Buddhist politicians are dismantling Buddhism one brick at a time. And the funny thing is that they don’t even know it!

    If what Gota is practicing is his brand of Buddhism, let us all get away from him before our children get corrupted.

  • 2
    6

    The absence of Tamil and Muslim Ministers has more to do with ethnicity based political parties in the country rather than communalism on the part of Rajapaksas.

    • 6
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      The Rajapaksas are the biggest opportunists and racists and the so called major national parties are the biggest ethnically based racist parties, as they only advocate and act for the Sinhalese and not for any one else. From the time of independence , they have fostered majoritarianism and advocated only Sinhalese Buddhist Fascism/racism and only enacted laws only favouring the Sinhalese only . Everything they have done from this date has been against the Tamils . Laws enacted to systematically to marginalise them , discriminate them and change their status from a once thriving community , who were equal and in par with the Sinhalese ,now to a poor largely impoverished people now not even second class but even worse than third class with no rights but at the mercy of the Sinhalese state and the Sinhalese people who are their oppressors. This is what his war criminal President is now openly stating no Tamil rights or devolution as their Sinhalese rulers and oppressors do not want it . This means the Tamils are now slaves in their own land with now legal rights . All the laws these so called national parties have enacted smacks of their Sinhalese Buddhist racism Citizenship law , to make the Indian origin Tamils who had lived in the island for 200 years stateless. Language law making Sinhalese the only official language, denying Tamils higher education by introducing standardisation, employment and lastly colonising large tracts of historical Tamil lands with hundreds of thousands of Sinhalese to deliberately change the demography . These are not actions of genuine national parties . These parties call themselves national to hoodwink everyone but Sinhalese racist to the core. If they were national this president will not be openly advocating Sinhalese Buddhist Fascism and denial of Tamil rights/devolution. Everyone knows what his development of Tamil areas mean. It means under the guise of development settling thousands of Sinhalese in the remaining Tamil majority areas and once and for all complete the structural genocide of island’s Tamil people and erase their ancient history .

  • 4
    3

    How can this man say that he has a mandate to marginalise the Tamils or Tamil speakers , not grant devolution to the Tamil north and east , ban the use of Tamil and the singing of the national anthem in Tamil , as the majority of the Sinhalese voted for him , and he came to power only on the votes of the Sinhalese. Just because the majority of the Sinhalese voted for him , does not mean that they are endorsing , all these discriminatory policies and the alienation of the island’s Tamils/Tamil speakers . Granted the vast majority of the Sinhalese who voted for him are racist to the core, just like him and his Sinhalese only government ( with just two token junior Tamil minister not even in cabinet) . However many of the Sinhalese who voted for him , voted for other reasons, disgusted with the behaviour and infighting of the previous government and for security reasons , especially after the Easter bombings( ironically the main targets of these bombings were Tamil Christians and not Sinhalese Christians ). Many of these Sinhalese say around 20% who voted for him , would not have voted form him , if they were aware that he was going to further marginalise the island’s Tamils/Tamil speakers and destroy the fragile peace , especially in the north and east. If he had put forward all these policies before the election Eg. Banning of singing the national anthem in Tamil , no Tamil rights or devolution for the Tamils and if he had received all these votes from the largely racist Sinhalese and won , he has some sort of mandate , however unlawful ( you do not get mandates to discriminate or marginalise another indigenous nationality or language which is also the official and national language in par with Sinhalese) . He did not put forward these proposals and kept them secret until the election and now he and the rest of the Sinhalese Buddhist Fascists , are now going around lying and stating this is what the Sinhalese voted him for.

    • 5
      3

      The banning or not singing the national anthem in Tamil is just the beginning , very soon he and his Sinhalese government with the help of the Sinhalese Buddhist Fascists will bring all sorts of other measures to ban the use of Tamil , officially or unofficially , grab the lands of the Tamils , convert Hindu temples to Buddhist and justify this by stating that he received a mandate from the Sinhalese , who are in the majority to this.( Bullshit , just like the Nazi stating they had a mandate from the Germans to kill murder , start a war and commit genocide ) . Look how the Iranian public reacted against their government , when they became aware that their government was responsible for the Ukrainian plane crash . In contrast the majority of the Sinhalese are fully aware that this government and armed forces are responsible for deliberately killing over 145000 innocent Tamils in May 2009 , committing war crimes and genocide, their own fellow countrymen. Yet applaud them . call these people war heroes, vote for them , felicitate them . Shows the difference between the so called Buddhist Sinhalese and the Shia Muslim Iranians and their mindset.

  • 5
    2

    It is already starting . Grease men have started to torment , steal and break in into homes in Tamil areas in the Amparai district. This stooped when the Sirisena government was elected and how has reappeared again.

    • 1
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      Gotha Apayam has silently pardoned and released an army officer on death row , who deliberately killed nine innocent Tamil civilians in Dec 2019 . This incident happened in Mirusuvil Jaffna . The court sentenced this army officer to death and now war criminal Chingkalla Poutha Fascist racist Gotha Apayam , who has the blood of more than 145000 innocent Thamizh civilians on his hands and is being investigated by the UN but considered to be some sort of Messiah/Saviour by most Chingkallams , has now released another fellow Chingkalla Thamizh killing army officer , as he feel very sympathetic and has lots of empathy for fellow Thamizh killers. Kill the Thamizh national anthem, kill Thamizh,, kill Thamizh language culture and history in the island , kill any form of justice for Thamizh as he states he cannot go against the wishes of the Chingkallams , most of whom are vicious , vindictive , nasty racists , suffering from some sort of inferiority complex. Kill everything that is not Chingkallam and Gota Apayam will pardon you and Chingkallams will rejoice

      • 0
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        Sorry Dec 2009 and not Dec 2019

  • 2
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    You can’t complain the non representation of minorities in the cabinet because all the minorities voted against his presidency

    • 2
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      This does not justify this sort of behaviour and the minorities voted against him , as they knew he is a Sinhalese Buddhist Fascist , a racist and a war criminal whose hands are full of Tamil and now Muslim blood. The way he has behaved now and what he states , has now amply justified their distrust in him.

  • 1
    2

    Tisaranee’s analysis of putting the blame on one community is too simple. Muslims (whether wittingly or unwittingly) brought Gota to power. Gota did not announce his candidacy until Easter Sunday. After Easter Sunday, the biggest issue was security. Gota campaigned on keeping people safe, that is what the majority of people voted on. This was a big, big terror attack, right in the capital of the country. It showed the utter failure of the UNP on the security front. The other issue was the economy. Here again, the UNP failed, with high inflation, high unemployment, and very poor GDP growth. The main thing is, people want change. Whether Gota can achieve significant change remains to be seen.

  • 1
    1

    COMMUNAL ELEMENTS ONLY WANT THEIR RULE TO PREVAIL. DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT PARTICIPATION OF ALL GROUPS IS ONLY A DREAM. THAT IS -DEVELOPMENT-NOW TOTALLY GIVEN UP.
    DAYAL

  • 1
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    The work begins. This morning the Secretary to the President issued a circular restricting the salaries of Chairmen of State Institutions and Boards to Rs 100,000 a month. Also they will only have the use of a single official vehicle.
    .
    The circular also restricts the monthly salary of Board members to Rs 25,000 a month with no vehicle provided.
    .
    A simple way to help reduce Government expenditure. Yahapalana could have done it but couldn’t be bothered.

  • 2
    1

    Please give the President chance to do his job. Constructive criticism is valid but to become paranoid and claim things that has not happened is absurd. Why should a muslim be in the cabinet. Is it because you have to have some form of representation, We have gone that path before.All the incompetents got posts and did nothing for the country.
    please folks give the man a fair chance to do his job. So long as those appointees do their job ,let’s be gratefull.

    • 1
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      What an idiot you should be to see it that way ?-

      Compared to 100 day program that previous govt amidst all the debt related problems, this govt has done nothing sofar – is clear to 10 year olds but obviously you the like ilk have to realize it bit later.

      Prior to 2015, very same DUO in vis versa combination did whole lot of high crimes and deliberately claimed losses as no other leaders in entire SOUTH asia may have made.
      High crimes went up as no times in the history- with the dawn of new govt, they introduced better systems until Bond Scam, which was believed to be well established by MR term from 2005 – 2015, was not inevitable – but Rajakshe goons scattered also in MEDIA mafia painted it in favour of Rajapskhes. And being together with Sorrysena, they covered it, the report of recommendations made by Presidential committee is still kept away from the people why ?

      I wish our people be blessed with wisdom, in order to block any kind of ill fated buggers being reelected for the next parliament. Gota may have good throughts, but with a bunch of thugs incl. that Prasanna Ranathunga or the like… he will fall even deeper.
      I am very pessimistic about the future of our motherland.

      I would never expect anything after the grass eaters voted for them being misled by media mafia. more or less like, letting apprentice nurse a SEVERE heart surgery, hoping results would be fantastic. – never – pigs might fly.

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    The present President may not be an Anti-minority Sinhala-Buddhist Ultra-nationalist Racist. However, for a long time, there is a belief among the minorities (Tamils, Muslims & Christians) that the Rajapakshes and the SLPP are Anti-Minority racists. This is one reason why the minorities did not vote for the Rajapakshes. I hope that the present President Gotabaya Rajapakshe will change that belief among the minorities. For example, the Sinhala majority is not going to lose anything by allowing the Tamil speaking people of the country to sing the National anthem in Tamil. Why change the status quo that started/existed from 1949.

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    Those Sinhalese zealots who hail Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the new Messiah who has come as a saviour or liberator for the redemption of the people must think again. Gotabaya is a war criminal who aided and abetted the summary execution of hundreds of LTTE cadres who surrendered, some with white flags, to the army at Vadduvakal and Omanthai on May 18, 2009. During the war he sent away UN Staff, Human Rights monitors and others out of Vanni to facilitate a war without a witness.
    He boldly claimed without shame that Hospitals and Schools are legitimate military targets. Those who carried out the orders of Gotabaya have been rewarded with promotions in the army. Sarvendira Silva, the most wanted man, was promoted as Commander of Sri Lanka Army by President Maithripala Sirisena a move that has sparked widespread condemnation.

    Staff Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake was sentenced to death in 2015 for the murder of the 8 Tamils, including 2 children, in the town of Mirusuvil. The Tamils had been arrested by Sri Lankan security forces on the10th of December 2000. The following day their bodies were found in a mass grave with their throats slashed, according to the District Medical Officer’s post-mortem report. All but two of the bodies had been stripped naked. The youngest to have been murdered was a 5-year-old child.

    The killings have since been dubbed the Mirusuvil massacre.

    Ponnudurai Maheswaran, who managed to survive and escape from the army, testified in court and identified at least five of the soldiers responsible. After a lengthy court process only Rathnayake, a member of the military’s elite Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP), had been sentenced. The other men were cleared of all charges. 1/2

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    The release of the condemned prisoner is not surprising since president Gotabaya Rajapaksa made repeated pledges to release soldiers who have been convicted of rights abuses. His regime has also vowed not to abide by UN Human Rights Council resolutions, especially 30/1 that mandates a hybrid accountability mechanism to prosecute those responsible for human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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    May be; b u t …
    “THOUGHTS HAVE ENERGY. (so let’s…)
    MAKE SURE OUR THOUGHTS ARE
    P O W E R F U L and, above all,
    P O S I T I V E.
    (Courtesy: Melinda Kindred).

    Also, let’s NOT:
    LIMIT OUR CHALLENGES
    but
    CHALLENGE OUR LIMITS.

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