A Sad Citizen

Some of our people need to have their heads examined! They were demonstrating in front of the Presidential Secretarial without thinking about what will happen if they remove President Gota. Who is the person who can replace him? Last year when the Covid 19 broke in Sri Lanka, thanks to the quick action of President Gota, we had only very few deaths. In the early days, we only had 22 die initially since the country was put into lockdown quickly. Later the numbers increased since the Opposition fought the lockdown. By comparison in the USA, Europe, India, etc,  hundreds of thousands died. Imagine if the Opposition were in power! Do you think there is any other leader other than President Gota who could have taken quick, strong decisions ?. Only a battle-wise veteran like Colonel Gotabaya Rajapaksa assisted by General Shavendra Silva could have saved the country from the LTTE and Covid. 

Only a few years ago when the LTTE were killing our soldiers and the people with suicide bombers and explosions in trains and buses, who came to the rescue of the country to save it? The Opposition only wanted to appease their colonial masters and they followed the advice of the Norwegian peace negotiators who were appointed by CBK and told the Govt that the LTTE was too strong to defeat militarily. It was the Rajapaksa family with Mahinda as the President and Gota as the Secretary who saved the country. President Gota knew how to battle since he had been a soldier who was decorated for bravery. He had got injured in the field and nearly lost his life when the LTTE threw a bomb at him. Even though the military under President Mahinda did everything to save the 300,000 Tamil civilians who were kidnapped by the LTTE resulting in the death of more soldiers, were the LTTE accused by the UNHRC as war criminals ?. No, the UNHRC brought a Resolution against the brave soldiers who saved the country which was co-sponsored by the Yahapalanaya Govt who were trying to appease the ex-colonials.

In spite of the unprecedented problems faced by the Govt due to situations in the world, the Rajapaksa Govt has faced every issue and is also doing a lot of development work that will bear good results in the future. They just opened one of the biggest Cement factories in Hambantota, a 1000MW solar power plant agreement was signed with India, and Gota has given instructions for 5000MW of renewable power just in the last two months to address climate change and increase electricity supply. There is also a big effort to clean up the food supply of Sri Lanka which was causing CKDU in massive numbers.  It is unfortunate that the Govt is short of foreign exchange due to the Covid and the world situation. Sri Lanka lost simultaneously tourism and migrant workers remittances in 2020, 2021. Instead of standing together with the Govt that has looked after the people so well, the Opposition is trying to take advantage of the present difficult times to bring down the Govt. 

Some of the Colombians who were living on commissions from imports are not happy with the current Govt. There are many so-called economic experts writing in the newspapers about what should have been done. They are very clever since hindsight is very easy. No one could have predicted what happened in the last two years. No one could have foreseen that Sri Lanka will be hit by two variations of Covid and then the high oil prices due to the war in Ukraine, and Climate Change requirements.  

During the Yahapalanaya no development work was done and the chief architect of the two bond scams (Rs. 80 billion) now wants to advise the present govt who has done so much !. During the time of the Yahapalanaya, they could have paid down the debt since oil prices fell to a record low. Instead, they chose to import all the luxury cars and let the ministers sell them at a profit. Yahapalanaya allowed free imports of anything which let the commission agents flourish. 

Our people do not seem to think at all; they just react to situations. In 2015 when MR handed over the Govt the exchange rate was Rs. 130 to a dollar. In 2019 it was Rs. 199 per dollar and the debt was 75%. Yet now the Opposition is telling us that they know best how to run the economy. Did you know that 40 people from the Opposition went to Davos for their Billionaires meeting paying $2000/day for a hotel room – for what?

My advice to the people of Sri Lanka is at this dark hour stand strong with proven loyal leaders who have shown ability and are moving the country forward in spite of all the world issues. I agree that there are some difficulties and instead of trying to use it as an opportunity to topple the Govt and take over as was done in 2015, please be patient and let them carry for their term. If we keep changing Govts each time there is a global situation, the country will only go more and more backward. We have to realize that we are a very small country and need to balance ourselves against some of the major powers who dominate the world. It takes great diplomacy to balance on the knife-edge to keep the major powers from taking over or re-colonizing our country.