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Wednesday 31 December 2014

Let us be more independent


The Presidential elections scheduled for 8th January 2015 is on nidahasa of the country more than anything else. I prefer the word nidahasa to other concepts such as sovereignty, independence etc., and I associate  the nidahasa with eksesath rajya a form of unitary state. Thus it is nidahasa and eksesath rajya that will be decided on the eighth and the battle lines have been drawn with people who prefer nidhasa on one side and the people who are prepared to be instructed either directly or indirectly on the other side.

The opposition cry, initiated by Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera on so called good governance, is only a camouflage to hide the real problem from the people. There has been no government in Sri Lanka that can be said to be proud of good governance. All governments have had skeletons in their cupboards (cabinets in whatever sense one can think of) since independence in a limited sense in 1948, and even in the whole world only one or two governments that could have been proud of good governance in the history. There would have been few kings who followed “dasha   raja dharma” but hardly any so called elected ruler under western democracy who presided over “good governance”.

The way that Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera has been marginalized bringing forth Ven. Athureliye Ratana Thera speaks volumes for “good governance”. The vested interests through their organizations, which are called NGOs , research institutes,  fora of retired and working academics in the universities and other “intellectuals”, etc., promoted “good governance” speaking of corruption, terror, commissions of the “Rajapakse regime” as if nothing of that sort had happened previously. All these have increased over the years from government to government commencing with the 1947 government of Unge Nedeyange Pakshaya (the UNP or the party of their relatives) and there is no guarantee that the Rice, Sand Tree Quarry  Mafias will not extend beyond Polonnanuruwa.

I remember very well how Vice Chancellors were appointed during the time of JR Jayawardhne whose government that practiced ‘good governance” was responsible for the Universities Act No 16 of 1978. There was a time when the same person held the positions of Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education and Chairman of University Grants Commission in the name of “good governance”.  This person refused to talk with the FUTA and those of us who held posts in that Federation had a difficult time in getting an interview with him. I know these facts as I was the secretary of FUTA at that time. Finally only after quoting the Trade Union Act and taking steps to file a court case FUTA was granted a meeting with this servant of the government that practiced good governance.

I do not want to go into the history of the early days of FUTA under the UNP governments and the way the governments treated the agitations of students against the White Paper on education introduced by Ranil Wickremesinghe, the so called Junior Universities of Premadasa, the North Colombo Medical School. I was either the Secretary or President of FUTA during these troubled periods and I remember once FUTA executive committee had to have a meeting on the Kumaratunga Munidasa Mawatha when FUTA was not allowed to have its meetings in the premises of the University of Colombo. Perhaps the JVP and some leaders of JHU  that has now joined hands with the  UNP, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and others in the name of good governance will remember Thirimawithana and others who died in the name of free education against malpractices (sorry good governance policies) of the University of Colombo that wanted to award its degree to the students of NCMC who did not satisfy the admission requirements as laid down by the UGC. 

The parties that want to follow instructions by the west led by England have now ganged up against the nidahasa and eksesath rajya. Though the TNA has not issued a statement on whom they support at the elections it is clear that the Sumanthiran faction has taken a decision to support the main candidate who opposes Mahinda Rajapakse at the Presidential Elections. The other faction that takes its line from the dispersed Tamils in the west has still not taken a decision but it is likely that they would boycott the elections following the JVP that dreams of an Arab Spring claiming that the elections were illegal. In any event the name of the game is removal of Mahinda Rajapaksa who has shown that he can stand up to pressure from England led west and removed an obstacle on our way to nidahasa, by hook or crook. When Mahinda Rajapaksa gave political leadership and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa guided the armed forces to defeat the LTTE an agent of west against Sinhala people and the  country, we gained some nidahasa. The next step in the process of achieving Nidahasa is the defeat of Tamil racism that is operated from London.

The opposition parties have ganged up to prevent that happening and to set the clock back. The SLMC would not have supported the opposition block if the latter did not agree to their demand of a Muslim administrative district from Kalmunai to Akkarapattu. The parties in the opposition are for the thirteenth amendment plus, giving police and land powers to the provincial councils, combining the Northern and Eastern  Provinces to form one administrative unit and in general for giving more powers to the provincial councils so that the combined Northern and Eastern Provinces could finally work towards a federation and finally for separation.

Some nationalists with good intentions believe that the leaders of the JHU would prevent such things happening. Now anybody such as me who knows the history of these leaders would have any such dreams. I know the history of them who they changed from being JVP activists to nationalists who worked with Chinthana Parshadaya and then formed Janatha Mithuro and a plethora of organisations later. When they formed Janatha Mithuro they claimed that the nation cannot be marketed and joined hands with Mangala Samarweera to form Ratavesi Peramuna that stood for federalism. They worked for Mangala Samarawera at the 1994 elections and then switched over to nationalism after bombs were blasted by killing school children. They formed the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) and they were supported by some bell bottomed Viharamaha Devis. Then  they formed Sihala Urumaya, Jathika Hela Urumaya around the Bana of Ven. Soma Thera and how they ditched SL Gunasekera and others is now part of history. The Bhikkus were made to contest elections but finally Champika Ranawaka ended up as a minister. I do not want to go into further details but today one finds these leaders with Chandrka Kumaratunga and Mangala Samaraweera as in 1994.

These leaders have vacillated between pseudo nationalism and federalism in their history and to add they have a Gota bhaya (Gota phobia) as well. They claim that they could not get things done for the Sinhala nation from Mahinda Rajapaksa implying that they do not have the strength to do so. If they do not have a mass base to get Mahinda Rajapaksa to agree to their policies how could one expect them to get things done from a defacto Chandrika  Ranil government backed by the west led by England. All these are day dreams and those who want a so called change have to be warned that they would not be able to change the so called change for fifty years as it is the western countries led by England that would be in the driving seat.


I am not talking of so called conspiracy but of colonialism that has been practiced by England over two hundred years (it is two hundred years after 1815 the year of Sinhala English pact) and how they have used Tamil racism for more than 180 years of the two hundred years to weaken if not destroy the Sinhala culture and the people. We gained some nidahasa by standing up to the west in 2009 defeating the LTTE and 2015 should be the year in which we take steps to gain more nidahasa by defeating the opposition candidate who is backed by the agents of England led west.  


Nalin De Silva

31-12-2014