(May 22, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Whilst condemning the Ampara bomb explosion, the President exhorted that the people of this country should be brave and not be afraid of bombs. This is not a statement one would expect from the President of this country. What does he mean by this? Does he think that bombs are things people can bravely stand up against or put up a fight with?
He is of course making this statement from the safety of his heavily guarded military camp like residence — Temple Trees. He wants the people not to be afraid of bombs. Then why is it that he makes his speeches at public rallies and meetings from behind bulletproof enclosures and why is the public kept 100 metres way from the stage he occupies?
What about the other extreme precautions taken by the President and the members of his government when they are on the roads? It is because they fear bombs more than anybody that the President and his brothers, the Prime Minister and all those 100-odd ministers travel about in bulletproof vehicles.
Not only that, when they travel all traffic on the roads they are traveling on is made to stop and wait for long periods until these ‘VIPs’ pass through. So how can the President ask the ordinary people not to be scared of bombs?
His exhortations to the people on the other hand should be for them to bear in mind the dangers of bombs and for them to be vigilant and careful whilst going about their day to day work.
Of course the people have made up their minds long before the President’s exhortation come what may. They have no choice but to take the risk between life and death whether travelling in a bus or any other conveyance or walking on the road going about their day to day work.
This certainly does not mean that they are not afraid of bombs. Their fear bombs and the anxiety is amply written on their faces especially when they pass places where bomb blasts have taken place.
The ordinary people have no security whatsoever and ultimately it is they who have paid with their lives as victims of bomb blasts and what their families are paid as compensation is a paltry sum of Rs.100, 000 whereas when a minister is the victim of a bomb blast the compensation is as much as Rs.5 million.
It is a pity that the President has poked fun at the people by making such a hilarious statement.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Sri lanka is at critical state. The risk to the President is 1000 times more than a civillian. The psycopathic prabakaran killed one of our president and a presidential candicdate. attemmpted killin a president. and many important gentleman in the political feild.
do not write foolish things.
write some thing to expose who prabakaran is. he is a drug smuggler, gun runner, maniac who ruined the lives of Singhalese tamils and muslims over the last three decades.
We lost most of our tamil brothers because of this mad person
Prasanna
Senaratne has misread President's comment. He did not mean people should not be afraid of bombs literally, what he meant was not to be paranoid about bombs and stop normal activities. He was only trying to calm the fears of people.
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