{"id":184784,"date":"2017-11-25T14:55:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T09:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=184784"},"modified":"2017-11-28T00:37:27","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T19:07:27","slug":"preaching-progress-pickpocketing-the-public-purse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/preaching-progress-pickpocketing-the-public-purse\/","title":{"rendered":"Preaching Progress &#038; Pickpocketing The Public Purse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Sarath+De+Alwis\">Sarath De Alwis<\/a> &#8211;<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_152611\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Sarath-de-Alwis.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-152611\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-152611\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Sarath-de-Alwis-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Sarath-de-Alwis-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Sarath-de-Alwis-50x50.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/Sarath-de-Alwis.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-152611\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sarath de Alwis<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The title captures the essence of three wasted years since 8<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> January 2015. The kickoff point of the Maithripala Sirisena Presidency and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>administration of Prime minister<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Ranil Wickremesinghe. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">On his assumption, the new President publicly declared that his was a one term presidency. Reform was its singular purpose. Having said that, he made his brother the boss of Telecom and assured us that he would end nepotism. He promised to end cronyism. He made A.S.P Liyanage the ambassador to Qatar. He also steered through the 19<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> Amendment. He set up independent commissions. He made Gotabaya Rajapaksa to move the Supreme court to ensure his fundamental rights. Now that is a feat that defies repeat. The nearest equivalent would be to persuade Mahanayake theras that unitary is coerced and united is agreed and hence unitary is less Buddhist and United is more Buddhist.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>So, his positives outweigh his negatives. We thank gods for mercies, little or substantial. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Our quadruple quandary <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">This essay is not about President Sirisena. It is about Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his oligarchic cohorts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The observations made above were only to accentuate our present and imminent quadruple quandary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"> We need to keep, sustain and defend this President occasionally faulty and frequently guided by commonsense.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>We must however with determination oust this appallingly unprincipled Prime minster.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Ranil-maithri.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-144212\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Ranil-maithri.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"837\" height=\"477\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Ranil-maithri.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Ranil-maithri-300x171.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px\" \/><\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">We need also to prevent other unmistakably tyrannical contenders from swindling our sovereignty with help from our patently corrupt Saffron sorority.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">This compounded pickle and chaos should not divert us from our obligation to correct past mistakes, recognize present<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>imperatives and realistically frame our future.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>A Liability to Stability, In the name of God, Go. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe must be told in plainest and precise language that we have had enough of him and his experts.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Go in the name of God, Go. Ranil Wickremsignhe is a liability for the nations stability, economic, social and political.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">President Sirisena cannot tell him to go. With the 19<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> Amendment he has painted himself to a corner. He cannot dissolve parliament. He does not have the numbers. He has a few genuinely loyal SLFP troopers excluding the appointed clowns. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Making peace with the JO will not help. The Minority Parties who in effect brought him to power will not go anywhere near an equation in which Gotabaya is a factor. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">He must use the minority parties to intervene to resolve the impasse. The UNP parliamentary group must be made to realize the folly of propping up a leader who has been successful beyond his worth, promoted beyond his intellectual capacity and arrogant to a degree far more than his rotten achievements deserve.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s3\">Emerging from his clarifications before the Bond commission, Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told the <\/span><span class=\"s4\">press \u201cI<\/span><span class=\"s1\"> had an opportunity to explain our government policy on public debt. The president and secretary of our party, our ministers have come forward to fearlessly give evidence.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The &#8216;yahapalanaya&#8217; (good governance) will move forward. There is nothing to hide. There may have been mistakes, shortcomings, but the &#8216;yahapalanaya&#8217; will move forward&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The commission was not about Government policy on public debt. It was about Arjuna Mahendran\u2019s role as Governor of the Central Bank. It was about his son in law Arjun Aloysius making <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>windfall profits by trading sovereign bonds and profiteering. It was about manipulating the Central Bank supervised pension fund \u2013 the EPF. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Lying and Truth Stretching <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s5\">Ranil is not a liar. He is a consummate truth stretcher. Unravelling the mind of <\/span><span class=\"s1\">Ranil Wickremesinghe has become a national emergency. He was born in to privilege with a gold spoon in the mouth. The world was his oyster.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Uncle JR made him a Cabinet Minister in his first term. When it was his turn to choose ministers, he opted for old fossils like John Amaratunga, oligarchic octopuses like Sagala Rathnayaka, Malik Samarawickrama and slimy scamps like Vajira Abeywardena. They were the anointed. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">He determinedly excluded superior intellects and incisive minds. Ranil inhabits a world where the in crowd, the anointed,<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>shape policy. Events last week showed Sujeewa Senasinghe\u2019s ill-concealed ambition to secure his slot round Ranil\u2019s roundtable.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>He has come far on foot notes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">What is wrong with these people? They are immune to criticism. They are indifferent to contrary opinion. More than exercising power, they enjoy retaining and concentrating power in their hands. Ranil in addition to his Prime Ministerial role wants to be the economic czar. He makes ambitious plans both political and economic. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Narcissistic Personality Disorder\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">His condition has a name &#8211; Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Despite the social preeminence he is born to, he is overcome by a compulsive power grabbing urge.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p6\"><span class=\"s1\">Although born to wealth and social preeminence, such people are compulsively driven to amass power for the sake of power. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p7\"><span class=\"s1\">The day, Ranil Wickremesinghe appeared before the commission was the day that our people discovered the real<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>pickpockets of the public purse. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">A phalanx of front line misters of the UNP including peripheral associates, Rajitha Senanratne and Arjuna Ranatunga were on hand to express solidarity with the beleaguered leader of the UNP. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">These Senior Ministers were there not to give evidence. They were there, to inform the people and President Sirisena that they stood by Ranil Wickremesinghe who made Arjuna Mahendran Governor of the Central Bank. They were there to substantiate Ranil\u2019s claim that Arjuna Mahendran\u2019s appointment was not an arbitrary whim of his but the consensus of his ministers. This is not the first time that the dental surgeon has extracted rotten teeth, or the cricketer challenged the umpire. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">They were shutting out their minds from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Bond+Scam\">the issue of bonds<\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>At a critical point in the trajectory of their celebrated coalition they were suspending their conscience. They were not blind to the folly of Ranil Wickremesinghe. They refused to know. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Of Rational Egoists\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">Philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand describes these warped human minds as rational egoists.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Rational Egoists will not deal with others on any terms other than theirs. They are convinced that their purpose is an end and not the means of any end of others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\"> Does this not describe the current UNP leadership?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The writer directs this question to the cultivates minds of Mangala, Eran, Harsha and such others in the party. This writer will not exclude even a hectoring Appuhamy from the ranks of rational UNP minds, not egoistic as their manor born leader and his ilk. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p8\"><span class=\"s1\">This was convincingly demonstrated by the Dental Surgeon who excels in political surgery on behalf of the highest bidder.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>With the characteristic grin exposing his lilywhite teeth three days later declared that only foreign experts could explain what bonds are. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">It is our misfortune that Governor A.S. Jayawardene now<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>in his frail eighties is not physically competent to explain the system he put in place during his term as governor of the Central Bank under President Chandrika Kumaratunga.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Let us hope that nobody got their dentures done by this dental surgeon now tuned bond expert. If anyone did, it is almost certain that he or she is sporting something discarded from the government\u2019s central dental clinic! <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Maithri in a cul-de-sac. <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">In a follow, up essay this writer will explore how President Maithripala drove himself in to a political cul-de-sac. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">For the present this short missive is food for thought for those well-meaning endearingly guileless followers of Sobhitha thero who persist in their belief that they could still salvage their dreams.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>This writer weeps for Sarath and Gamini. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">As the President has correctly pointed out, the few achievements of the 8<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> January 2015 triumph were achieved when the UNP had only 44 seats in Parliament. What the President did not say but should have said is that Ranil Wickremesinghe is a fascinating fabricator of cock and bull stories. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">If the UNP leader has decided to brazen it out, the President should offer to dissolve parliament with the consent of two thirds of the house now eager to amend laws to hold local government elections. A Parliamentary General Election under a reformed electoral system will enable the Kaduwela electorate in which this writer is a registered voter to reject the obscenity of Sujeewa Senasinghe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>A derailed train <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s4\">The Maithri Ranil duumvirate is a derailed train.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>It will not take us anywhere. Reforms are <\/span><span class=\"s1\">inherently revolutionary. It is also inevitable that democratic reform movements are susceptible to hijack by persons with different agendas. It has happened to us. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\">There is no shame in admitting error and resuming the march. What we stood up for on 8<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> January 2015 was to dismantle political, social and economic hierarchies that were offensive to human decency. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>What must be done <\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Bond+Scam\">Bond fiasco<\/a> is a reminder that dismantling those oligarchic hierarchies is not a done deal.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>We don\u2019t yet have a structure to build a fair society. The Surveillance state was dismantled. Yet, our day to day governance passed to a new set of villains with Orwellian notions and inclinations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\">Ranil Wickremesinghe must go. He and his Brahmin cronies see others who differ as disposable and unwelcome. Such people can turn out to be worse than the earlier menace.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>Why take the risk? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\">Dinesh Weerakkody biographer of Ranil, son-in-law of John Amaratunga and director of the Access Group after 8<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> January 2015 called ours a revolution just as transformative as the Russian October revolution.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>That is hogwash. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p9\"><span class=\"s1\">Revolutions have a purpose but not direction. The French killed the King and deprived the nobility of their land. A century later they colonized Indo China and Africa.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>The Russians killed the Tsar and eliminated the entire Tsarist system only to install a new Tsar in the Kremlin 100 years later.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>So, let us not call ours a revolution. Ours is an experiment. We shall continue with it. We shall overcome. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":152611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preaching Progress &amp; Pickpocketing The Public Purse - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/preaching-progress-pickpocketing-the-public-purse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preaching Progress &amp; 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