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