By Charles.S.Perera

I think I started writing to Lankaweb somewhere in 1997. Lankaweb perhaps did not make me a writer, but helped me to express my battered thoughts about my country.  It was an outlet to my pent up feelings.  A space where I could cry out as loud as I can  against those who were perpetrating injustice, treason,  and wrongs  against my country.

For once I feel that we have been let down by my own people who have handed over Sri Lanka to merchants of driftwood and scrap, to be sold to our enemies. We have been made helpless on lookers  while the enemies of the nation are bargaining to sell the country that nurtured me into being a patriot, gave me a culture –a Sinhala Buddhist Culture that I am proud of, my Island home Sri Lanka is today an object on sale in the hands of ambitious politicians full of hatred, anger and jealousy, trying to sell it off for their political gain.

My feelings for my country are greater than those of the vicious parasites that come to my country, enjoy freely  the hospitality of the people and condemned  the governments,  the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International , UN Human rights Commissioners, and the UN itself. and the rest of those human rights activists, who have failed to bring about a just society in their own countries, but   seeking to put things  right in Sri Lanka as if it belongs to them.

UN has become a non  entity with the USA State Department taking over  duties entrusted to the UNO by Charter. Recently Sri Lanka was visited by an Assistant Secretary of State  for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.  There are country reports on human rights to the US Congress. So where does UNO stand ?

UN is either an appendage to USA Sate Department or a powerless entity dictated to by the USA. Normally Member States of the UN are equals.  But USA is acting as a superpower not caring for the Sovereignty of the member states of UN.

What is this rotten world where USA the worst violator of human life by the use of Drones, declare wars on countries producing false documents as evidence, and reduce them to rubble by unconcerned bombing  with the use of their NATO Forces ?

What moral right has USA to accuse Sri  Lanka and move resolutions in  the UNHRC in Geneva against  Sri Lanka’s  just cause of elimination of terrorists that had caused immense damage to the country and human life ?

And no one dares stop USA ,which is like a vulgar thug employing killers to eliminate objectors , immoral in every sense of the word, uncontrollable USA that change regimes , set up new regimes and dictate the way they should rule their people. We write but it is  just barking at a speeding caravan.

When Barack Obama was elected President, we were waving the American flag and  lighting crackers, as if an Angel had descended on earth to eliminate a cruel war mongering USA Government and bring peace and justice to the world. We thought we were right in that  gleeful demonstration after all America which had been imposing its law on every one else in the world was finally going to meet with its destiny before the new messenger of the God-Barack Obama.

At last an uncontrollable USA is to be reigned in by a black American who knows, we thought, the suffering of the  poor , the unprivileged people and States, and stop distasteful scandalous  American bossing” of the world.  But what happened was the opposite.  Barack Obama became another  war mongering , regime changing American pushing for the leadership of America , carrying on American wars in the world as usual, stopping any undeveloped country raising its head over economic hardship.

Barack Obama became an unjust, biased, pompous Black American and the office that was cast upon him making him the 64^th President of America, did nothing for the betterment of the unprivileged Americans in USA or the people elsewhere in the world who were looking for justice from USA’s mean dictatorship” in the world.

Barack Obama is privileged to be there in the White House, but the ordinary black Americans have still not found their just place in the American Society.  And that is the America of which Barack Obama is the President that continues its history of regime change, setting up trade and economic embargos on nation, indiscriminate use of Drones killing civilians in its search for terrorists.

It is that America of Barack Obama which is dividing nations like Sri Lanka accusing the country that had been  menaced with territorial division and made to suffer for thirty years  by a group of terrorists going on rampage. This America of Obama is now accusing Sri Lanka for war crimes, and passes resolution at the UNHRC in Geneva trying to take the Armed Forces  before a tribunal for war crimes.

USA is like the Goliath, but who is  David that will stop its wild rampage. We thought it would be Barack Obama, but now  he has  become a part of it?

Where is this blessed democracy, justice  and fair play, or  peaceful coexistence ?  Who can we appeal to against injustice that is being committed by the  West seeking means to maintain its leadership in the world ? USA and the West still continue the same tactics they carried out during the past in colonising countries. It is a game they play, as they have no interest in the developing countries or their people other than the extent to which they could use the countries as pawns in their checker board of world political strategies.

There were the times after Independence,  that I detested those who ruled my country. But yet with all their wrongs they were after all  my people and I could understand them better than those from the West that knows nothing about my people or the culture  of my country which they always tried to treat as insignificant. They chose from the countries only those that did not represent the real people or  those that represent the  real culture of the country, to give them the reins of the destinies of the people fooled by their invented methods to make unpopular the popular local regimes , and make popular the unpopular local politicians.

The UNP  could never think without taking examples from the West.  UNP was so entrenched in the British culture and their way of thinking it had no vision of development of Sri Lanka that had been nicknamed  Ceylon  for colonial convenience, beaten, trodden, its pride and values squeezed out, wronged and changed in every way possible during 500 or more years of colonization.

The Sinhala people I am ashamed to say  had learnt from the west to treat my country  as  a country without a proper religion, a  culture, a language or a dress. They have no gratitude, they easily forget the past  for a carrot of  development and prosperity that  any one would dangle before them. They have become so pathetically non-Sinhala they do not think twice before they would cut the throat of one of their own for a political, financial or any lesser benefit.

The Independence itself began with denying the deserved his place.  Sir Baron Jayatilleke was tricked to accept a diplomatic post in India, for D.S.Senanayake to become the Prime Minister.  That was the beginning of the UNP reign, backstabbing cut throat tactics. What did UNP give to Sri Lanka other than a set of boot lickers wearing the Englishman’s coat and trousers, speaking their language, worshipping their gods, and trying pathetically to behave like them.

It was UNP now acclaimed by the Tamils that passed the Citizenship act in 1948 to disenfranchise the Tamil plantation workers of Indian descent.

When D.S.Senanayake died, his son Dudley became the Prime Minister, he was a political misfit in the UNP Clan. Having had to reduce the rice ration  to the dictates of the aid providers of the West  UNP had to face a people’s uprising- Hartal,  organised by the LSSP and the Left wing political parties, in 1953, and good man Dudley resigned, allowing his uncle Kotalawala to become the Prime Minister.

The UNP did nothing  significant either under Dudley nor under John Kotalawela. Under John Kotalawala the Catholics became  an important political support for  UNP.

The people had enough of capitalist UNP and were awaiting for a different political movements to displace UNP; allowing them to breath the air of real Independence. The man the people sought  to replace the UNP with a different and a more acceptable  political movement was SWRD Bandaranaike with his SLFP.

Bandaranaike changed the path Sri Lanka was taking under the leadership of a non visionary hackneyed upper class black sahibs of the UNP following a foreign policy dictated by the British.  SWRD changed drastically the existing  UNP’s withered government policies. He made Sri Lanka an Independent nation making ordinary people of Sri Lanka a part of the political system, allowing them to breath the air of freedom in a new independence away from the  Black Sahib culture of the UNP.

It is towards this self same British, American and Western influence of the fifties that Ranil Wickramasinghe is even today trying to drag back our Sri Lanka under the guise of a new political culture.

During the short time that he lived after 1956 SWRD brought the left together and brought back the battered, shunned , neglected  and decadent Sinhala Buddhist Culture to the fore.  The Sinhala language that was the language the UNP hierarchy used to converse with the kitchen staff and other manual workers; was made the  National language, and the old Sinhala  flag brought  down by the British to hoist their own Union Jack , was recognised as the National flag of Independent Sri Lanka.  SWRD said addressing the UN General Assembly in November,1956:

This is an age when we have to live and let live, when we cannot afford to hate each other so much that we are prepared to sacrifice all mankind in the name of peace or for some other reason. We cannot afford to do that today. Within the limits of honour, of course, and those principles which we hold dear, we have to live and let live. That is the philosophy behind the doctrine of co-existence. We in Asia do not hate anybody. We want to be friends with all. We have to build up a new society for ourselves; one, as I have said, which best suits the genius of our country. …………That is why we do not range ourselves on the side of this power-bloc or that power bloc. This is the philosophy of neutralism. ……”

He set up an independent foreign policy pulling Sri Lanka away from the, British ruler –colony” complex. His vision of an Independent Nation like any other in the world was thwarted first by the racist Tamil Nationalists, and then by the local  pro British politicians-the UNP.

After the  assassination of SWRD,   Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the Prime Minister making history as the first woman Prime Minister of the World.  She turned out to be a remarkable  politician despite having been in the shadow of her brilliant husband. She was able to introduce a new facet to Sri Lanka foreign policy as changed by her husband.

Her nationalization of Petroleum companies earned her the disapproval of the USA and UK which resorted to their  pseudo democratic brilliance of  imposing trade and economic embargo by cutting aid to Sri Lanka.  It made her get politically closer to China and Soviet Union out of which came the non-align movement of which she became the Chairman. She had her share of problems from the Tamils.

She is  remembered for getting back the real identity of the country as Sri Lanka casting away the nickname Ceylo”  given to it by the colonialists.

These are things that never come into the cramped minds of the UNP leaders who cannot think beyond certain limits.  The UNP as USA,  has a one track mind and as usual accused  Ms. Sirimavo Bandaranayaike for corruption. Nevertheless Sirimavo Bandaranayake  took forward the  country from where her husband was stopped by an  assassin. After her defeat in the elections,  UNP came back to power with Dudley Senanayake as the Prime Minister.   When ever the UNP relying on the USA and the West came to power  manifestly Sri Lanka takes a few steps back from progressive political advancement.

 In 1978 J.R.Jayawardhana of the UNP became the President of Sri Lanka.  His government was far from being democratic. Today,  his nephew Ranil Wickramasinghe  brings back memories of the  UNP’s repressive government under JR.

JR took deliberate actions against his opponents .  He saw to it that Sirimavo Bandaranaike would not come back into politics by taking away her civic rights. You see the repetition of this in Ranil Wickramasinghe doing all that he can to keep Mahinda Rajapakse away from politics.

Even Buddhist Priests and Buddhist Temples did not escape JR’s wrath.  JR Jayawardhane’s  rival Presidential candidate  Hector Kobbakaduwa  went through almost the  same  political difficulties Mahinda Rajapakse is made to suffer by Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Perhaps Madoluwawe Sobhitha thero has not forgotton  what happened to Professor Sarathchandra  at Peradeniy, when he was beaten and pushed to a drain by the thugs sent by JR’s supporters, and   barb- wired  the Getambe Rajopavanaramaya, to teach a lesson to the High Priest who supported Kobbekaduwa.

Hector Kobbekaduwa, had to face a very difficult period after the Presidential elections. …………….Hector Kobbekaduwa was taken to the 4th Floor on 64 occasions for questioning by the CID. But, the J. R. Jayawardene Government was unable to prove any of the allegations.

Even at the last stages of his political career, Hector Kobbekaduwa was deprived of his right to use his ballot by the United National Party Government at the 1982 Referendum as his vote was used by another.” 

http://archives.dailynews.lk/2006/09/16/fea02.asp

Like Uncle JR like nephew Ranil.  Fortunately for Sri Lanka Ranil Wickramasinghe is not the President .

JR Jayawardhane was an unconditional admirer and a loyal friend of America.  He thought he was politically strong with the backing of the powerful USA.  But in 1978 when the Indian Air Force trespassed into Sri Lanka air space to drop dry ration to the  terrorist  held in siege in Jaffna by the Sri Lanka  Armed Forces, and forced  JR  to enter in to the Indo Sri Lanka pact demanding him to introduce the 13A prepared by India in to the Constitution, JR had none to appeal for help as USA would not interfere and burn its fingers antagonising India.

So Ranil Wickramasinghe is better advised to be aware of his  American and Western friends , re-dressed and introduced anew by Mangala Samaraweera.

It is better  he thinks twice be fore he considers himself a skilful politicians with the backing of the USA and the West. USA and the West as they did to JR,  will drop him as well like a hot brick if he finds himself in a political fix with India, which is not unlikely, unless he becomes a blind stooge of India.

Maithripala Sirisena’s loud boast that his government will go the full term and no one will be able to topple will be an empty boast when things begin to change. JR also thought as much,  but he too learnt his lesson the hard way.

JR Jayawardhane, who took over the reigns of government from Mrs.Bandaranaike a very capable politician who made Sri Lanka proud, came beating drums and blowing trumpets  like his nephew is doing at present, promising to rid Sri Lanka of all its ills brought about by SWRD and then his wife Sirimavo.

But he lost to Rajive Gandhi, a young politician who did not have the experience of JR who some called the old fox” JR gave into Rajive without a whimper signed the Indo Sri Lanka Pact, accommodated the Indian PKFforces,  accepted a politically crippling 13A to the Sri Lanka Constitution and made worse the situation Sri Lanka was in added to an unabated terrorism.

His successor the other UNP President R.Premadasa was no better.  Premadasa even armed the terrorists against the Indian PKF. Killed innumerable numbers of Sinhala youth who foolishly took up arms to seize political power. The UNP after Mrs. Bandranayake proved they were unable to solve the problems of Sri Lanka and take the country forward leave alone develop it.  Mahaweli Project and Gamudawa did very little or nothing at all to Sri Lanka by way of development.

The UNP experience   showed  the people that Sri Lanka is in need of a leader  who could really solve the problems of the people, eliminate terrorism, develop the country from the intolerable condition to which it had been put by the previous incapable UNP Presidents, who had neither the ideas nor the vision to think  saving Sri Lanka from terrorism , ameliorate the  living conditions of the people and change  the situation in Sri Lanka.

It was then that the people sinking in the deluge of  unsoluble problems with the terrorists in the north, insurgents in the south, strangled by a mismanaged  economy,  ready to hang onto any straw to save themselves voted to put  Chandrika Kumaratunga into  power at the elections of 1994 .  Chandrika had the sympathy votes of the  people as she was widowed by the assassination of her husband,  and was a  mother of two young children, and above all she was the daughter of SWRD and Sirimavo the dearly loved leaders of the people.

Though she could have done much as  she was young and active, but  the accumulated problems  in Sri lanka was too much to handle.  She was ambitious, pretentious, and thought she had the backing of the people, but that was not sufficient to put Sri Lanka back on an even keel to make it safe to sail on the troubled waters of politics.

She thought of pacifying the terrorists she knew nothing about, and having failed thought of a military solution. She selected the wrong people to handle the terrorist problem. She brought in Eric Solheim to mediate between the government and the terrorists. Solheim became an agent of the terrorists, and handled the terrorist problem in the interest of the terrorist helping the  terrorists to become militarily more powerful than the Armed Forces of the government .  The Embassy of Norway imported sophisticate telecommunication material  for the terrorists using its diplomatic priviledges.  Bradman Weerakone allowed the material to be transported to terrorist Controlled area.

Then came the tsunami adding more to the already existing problem. The terrorists wanted no baby sitter and wanted to assassinate Chandrika but succeeded only blinding her in one eye.  Her mother Sirimavo then old and sickly would still have been a better President than her daughter Chandrika.  Chandrika messed up the situation further with enormous sums of money that came as aid to reconstruct areas damaged by the tsunami and the  large numbers of NGOs that descended who became a law unto themselves. Chandrika handled terrorism badly and so with the distribution of  tsunami Funds.

To make matters worse, she was forced to dissolve the Parliament due to the unreliable back stabbing Rauff Hakeem leaving  her government with his seven followers. The general elections that followed  put into power the UNP with Ranil Wickramasinghe, adding more to the miseries of Chandrika-the President.  Ranil Wickramasinghe was now her Prime Minister.  This ambitious man who always puts himself before even the country was in no mood to take orders from Chandrika the woman President.

Ranil Wickramasinghe  completely ignored Chandrika as President, and wanted to take credit for settling the problem of terrorism. He got Eric Solheim  to mediate to start peace negotiations with the terrorist. Eric Solheim the traitor who was waiting for his chance prepared the CFA  along with Prabhakaran without consulting the President Or the Prime Minister and got Ranil Wickramasinghe to  sign the agreement.

Ranil Wickramasinghe who thinks that he knows every thing signed the CFA perhaps even without reading, because on signing it he gave the control of parts of the North to the terrorists forfeiting the right of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces or the Police to enter into the areas controlled by the terrorists. Finally when Ranil was enjoying himself dining and wining  in style with George Bush  in USA Chandrika sacked three Ministers of  Ranil’s Cabinet and took over the Ministries herself, thus ending the unholy alliance with the UNP.

 Hence what we see today with Ranil Wickramasinghe  forming a coalition  government  with Maithripala Sirisena as President is a repetition of what had already happened before, when ever UNP was ruling the country.

There is nothing for the President Sirisena  or Prime Minister Ranil to be exceptionally happy about. The unholy alliance will topple over by itself without any body having to take a hand to topple it.  Nothing is permanent , every thing is impermanent and so is Ranil Wickramasinghe-Sirisena combination.

It has not been said enough that  it was the great fortune of Sri Lanka to have elected Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapakse, not only eliminated terrorism, (which the UNP Presidents beginning from JR Jayawardhana  miserably faile to do , and Chandrika got one eye blinded  without getting anywhere near even trying to end terrorism),  but also shortly after the defeat of terrorism Mahinda Rajapakse developed the country raising it from a developing country to a middle income  State.

That was the great achievement of Mahind Rajapakse  what ever his antagonists make him out to be , and none of them including Maithripala Sirisena, Ranil Wickrmasinghe, Chandrika Kumaratunga or Mangala Samaraweera will ever be able to do. None of  them also will ever be even equal to him let along being greater than him.

The mess that we see today will continue, and it could be re-established  and put things back in right order  only when  this unholy honeymoon of UNP, JVP,TNA,JHU is over,   by the return of Mahinda Rajapakse or some one equal to him from perhaps the UPFA, but never from the UNP. 

 The UNP spells disaster both then and now. Sri Lanka has no place for USA or Western shaped capitalism of the UNP. SWRD Bandaranaike once said that the river of socialism cannot be made to flow backwards as  it will always flow downwards.

 And that is the only hope we have while the UNP and its crowded alliance are building dams to make the river of socialism  flow backwards.

 To-days political situation in Sri Lanka is utterly debased, brutal beyond comprehension, with so much of hatred , jealousy and revenge in minds of those in power . There are two Buddhist monks in the  ruling clan of good governance, they are also a part of this malicious destructive political leadership. They could perhaps tell the trio  Sirisena-Ranil-Chandrika how to run the  country like human beings, without giving into animal instincts.

Sirisena wants to see the end of Rajapakses and so are Chandrika and Ranil.  They have no time to rule the country. Never in the world’s political history could be found a politically degenerated  trio trying to rule with so much of hatred towards one man who saved Sri Lanka and developed it without thinking of taking revenge from his political foe.  The vicious trio could be compared to Caligula. in the absence of any one else.

This is the first time we have the likes of them in Sri Lanka politics.  They are actually running a police state and not doing politics to develop the country and help the people  live peacefully  in an environment of  universal love, without hatred, fear and uncertainty.