“Please don't be misled by the acclamatory din raised by the coterie cronies and their dupes in your pot-smashing and bullock-cart displays in the streets of Colombo, which are a world away from where we experience in the flesh the misery that you romanticise for your own pleasure and profit.”[Image: Sri Lankan police cordon off the site of a bomb blast in Katubdda, a suburb of Colombo. At least 23 people were killed and 67 wounded in Sri Lanka in two Tamil Tiger bomb attacks on public buses packed with civilians. (AFP)]
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by Rohana R. Wasala
(June 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)The two bomb attacks by the LTTE on the 06th June 2008, on innocent unarmed civilians travelling in buses at Katubedda near Colombo, and at Polgolla near Kandy, which killed and injured scores of people, we fervently hope, will not be soon forgotten as yet another statistic in the crowded catalogue of atrocities committed by the terror organisation to date. The purpose of writing this is to make an appeal to the leaders of the opposition parties to forget about politics at least now and support the government in its anti-terror campaign before many more of us are massacred.
Any hint of presumption on my part that this might give the reader is regretted, for such is not my intention. I am an ordinary citizen of this country, without any political affiliation, speaking for millions of my like-minded compatriots.
We, the ordinary people, have been exercising our right to influence the election of our own rulers for the past three quarters of a century since the grant of universal franchise in 1931. The advent of political parties just before Independence (1948) necessitated by the introduction of the parliamentary system of government brought in its wake a new breed of voters, the dyed-in-the-wool partisan supporters of various political parties, whose allegiance is apparently due to their love of labels such as UNP, SLFP, LSSP, CP, and so on, and not because of an understanding of or a commitment to the specific policies that those parties espouse.
Fortunately for the country, however, such bigots are a small minority, who have willingly relinquished their power to meaningfully influence any change of regime. The majority of the ordinary, non-partisan voters like us have been enjoying that power for the last so many decades; and there is no reason to fear that this will change in the future. And we are the ones you politicians of whatever party, who feel that you have a viable programme to implement in order to lead our country to a better future, must listen to.
Please don't be misled by the acclamatory din raised by the coterie cronies and their dupes in your pot-smashing and bullock-cart displays in the streets of Colombo, which are a world away from where we experience in the flesh the misery that you romanticise for your own pleasure and profit.
You are harping on the theme of the economic hardships and privations caused to us by the recent steep rise in the price of fuel oil, and the corresponding escalation of prices of goods and services. But you need not tell us about these things. We understand them better than you can even imagine in your weirdest nightmares, because it is we who actually suffer from those hardships, unlike you who live in clover. However, we are ready to bear these up patiently still further, for the sake of our children, if you politicians convince us that you sincerely want to help us through your sound leadership.
If you want to win our favour (vote) at the next election please don't turn a blind eye to the TERRORISM that is engulfing the whole country at the present time. The terrorists are massacring and maiming innocent men, women, and children in the south whose welfare is your responsibility. Cowering in their bunkers in the Vanni in the face of the government's military onslaught the terrorists now manoeuvre to hold the civilians in the south to ransom as a desperate measure by intensifying their acts of terror in order pressure the government to loosen its grip on what little is left of the terrorist enclave in the north. They and their sympathizers will try to justify their terror attacks as they always do. Please don't appear to help them by making these other problems (real or imaginary) loom larger than the terrorist problem.
If the present government fails to eliminate the scourge of terrorism at this juncture, some future regime will have to face it. And when you come to power you will be in the same position as the current president, or probably in a worse position vis-à-vis the terrorists.
Our innocent children, young men and women who have all their life before them are being slaughtered at the behest of a frustrated maniac. Can you look aside when he is doing that, because your firm resolve is to topple the government ? Isn't the life of the humblest innocent who dies in these terror attacks more valuable than the grandest of your dreams of power?
If you sincerely believe that the best you can do for the country is to bring about a regime change democratically you can do so with our help provided you succeed in winning us over to your point of view. But first you must convince us that you are real leaders, good patriots, and astute statesmen. To do that please forget about these ephemeral issues such as hunger, cost of living, etc for the time being, though they are important problems, too. But the terrorism that is holding the whole country in its relentless grip is certainly the worst problem because it is confronting us with a stark choice between survival and annihilation.
We, the ordinary Sri Lankans, have the power to return people to Parliament, or to send MPs home at an election but we will do whatever we think fit when we want, not when you want.
For us to look favourably on you when the time comes, you must establish your credentials with us now. The surest and the most cogent way you can do so is for you to make common cause with the parties in power at the present time and defeat the terrorists before they cause further death and destruction.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
_______________________
by Rohana R. Wasala
(June 09, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian)The two bomb attacks by the LTTE on the 06th June 2008, on innocent unarmed civilians travelling in buses at Katubedda near Colombo, and at Polgolla near Kandy, which killed and injured scores of people, we fervently hope, will not be soon forgotten as yet another statistic in the crowded catalogue of atrocities committed by the terror organisation to date. The purpose of writing this is to make an appeal to the leaders of the opposition parties to forget about politics at least now and support the government in its anti-terror campaign before many more of us are massacred.
Any hint of presumption on my part that this might give the reader is regretted, for such is not my intention. I am an ordinary citizen of this country, without any political affiliation, speaking for millions of my like-minded compatriots.
We, the ordinary people, have been exercising our right to influence the election of our own rulers for the past three quarters of a century since the grant of universal franchise in 1931. The advent of political parties just before Independence (1948) necessitated by the introduction of the parliamentary system of government brought in its wake a new breed of voters, the dyed-in-the-wool partisan supporters of various political parties, whose allegiance is apparently due to their love of labels such as UNP, SLFP, LSSP, CP, and so on, and not because of an understanding of or a commitment to the specific policies that those parties espouse.
Fortunately for the country, however, such bigots are a small minority, who have willingly relinquished their power to meaningfully influence any change of regime. The majority of the ordinary, non-partisan voters like us have been enjoying that power for the last so many decades; and there is no reason to fear that this will change in the future. And we are the ones you politicians of whatever party, who feel that you have a viable programme to implement in order to lead our country to a better future, must listen to.
Please don't be misled by the acclamatory din raised by the coterie cronies and their dupes in your pot-smashing and bullock-cart displays in the streets of Colombo, which are a world away from where we experience in the flesh the misery that you romanticise for your own pleasure and profit.
You are harping on the theme of the economic hardships and privations caused to us by the recent steep rise in the price of fuel oil, and the corresponding escalation of prices of goods and services. But you need not tell us about these things. We understand them better than you can even imagine in your weirdest nightmares, because it is we who actually suffer from those hardships, unlike you who live in clover. However, we are ready to bear these up patiently still further, for the sake of our children, if you politicians convince us that you sincerely want to help us through your sound leadership.
If you want to win our favour (vote) at the next election please don't turn a blind eye to the TERRORISM that is engulfing the whole country at the present time. The terrorists are massacring and maiming innocent men, women, and children in the south whose welfare is your responsibility. Cowering in their bunkers in the Vanni in the face of the government's military onslaught the terrorists now manoeuvre to hold the civilians in the south to ransom as a desperate measure by intensifying their acts of terror in order pressure the government to loosen its grip on what little is left of the terrorist enclave in the north. They and their sympathizers will try to justify their terror attacks as they always do. Please don't appear to help them by making these other problems (real or imaginary) loom larger than the terrorist problem.
If the present government fails to eliminate the scourge of terrorism at this juncture, some future regime will have to face it. And when you come to power you will be in the same position as the current president, or probably in a worse position vis-à-vis the terrorists.
Our innocent children, young men and women who have all their life before them are being slaughtered at the behest of a frustrated maniac. Can you look aside when he is doing that, because your firm resolve is to topple the government ? Isn't the life of the humblest innocent who dies in these terror attacks more valuable than the grandest of your dreams of power?
If you sincerely believe that the best you can do for the country is to bring about a regime change democratically you can do so with our help provided you succeed in winning us over to your point of view. But first you must convince us that you are real leaders, good patriots, and astute statesmen. To do that please forget about these ephemeral issues such as hunger, cost of living, etc for the time being, though they are important problems, too. But the terrorism that is holding the whole country in its relentless grip is certainly the worst problem because it is confronting us with a stark choice between survival and annihilation.
We, the ordinary Sri Lankans, have the power to return people to Parliament, or to send MPs home at an election but we will do whatever we think fit when we want, not when you want.
For us to look favourably on you when the time comes, you must establish your credentials with us now. The surest and the most cogent way you can do so is for you to make common cause with the parties in power at the present time and defeat the terrorists before they cause further death and destruction.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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