Real Face of Mahinda Chanthanaya : 3758 liquor permits issued in 2006

(October, 08 , Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Fifth Executive President in Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse may have marketed to an unsuspecting populace his Buddhist identity inclusive of abstinence from liquor to clinch victory at the presidential election, but it is under his regime that Sri Lanka's liquor sales, the hard kind at that, reached an all time high.

Not forgetting that "Mathata Thitha" or "An End to Intoxication" was not just an election slogan but also a policy pledge contained in page one of his presidential manifesto Mahinda Chinthana, it is interesting to note that the saffron clad government acolytes of the JHU too prefer to maintain stony silence about increased liquor consumption in a country they love to label as Buddhist.

It might not come as a surprise to many that Rajapakse has pledged morality and Buddhist living to the southern populace from election platforms while his actions have contradicted the rhetoric, as demonstrated in the 2006 Report by the Commissioner General of Excise who records a 28% increase in revenue - thanks to increased sales and consumption!

We are indeed not sitting in moral judgment here, but simply seeking to prove that a Head of State who makes pledges must keep them; for it is based on those very pledges that unsuspecting voters would vote in favour of a candidate. His mandate certainly included public support for a policy to reduce liquor sales and consumption.