What to do with MR

By Fr. J. C. Pieris

(December 15, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) In this world, nobody is indispensable. Not even President Mahinda Rajapakse. It is true, we, the people of this country, voted him to power to get a certain difficult job done. It was done. Mothers do not anymore live in tension till the father and the children safely return home in the evening. Congratulations Mr President, you did it successfully and thoroughly. Thank you very much. And we respected him and loved him for standing up to all the international bullies and thugs, safeguarding the sovereignty, identity, independence and pride of this tiny island nation. Three hearty cheers to our President, Hurrah!

Anyway, from 2005 onwards, through the war years and during the last six months of peace, we have been watching the activities of the President and his immediate and extended family. He saved the country all right; but the impression is given that he saved the country not for the poor people of this country whose sons and daughters joined the fighting Forces and sacrificed their young lives and limbs to save it, but for himself and his kith and kin to exploit it to the maximum for their own profit and benefit. That seems to be the present impression of the general citizenry. He did things which, unfortunately, tarnished his lovable image. I give only two examples. On the International Women’s Day he set free some lady-prisoners with a presidential pardon. It would have been a beautiful gesture if the ladies were poor women who languished in a prison cell simply because they were too poor to pay a paltry sum of a fine. But no, he pardoned some rich and powerful drug traffickers and double murderesses who were lifers. That was not a beautiful gesture; that stank. Secondly, he bent the Law of the Land to accommodate his nephew to be the Chief Minister of Uva and at the same time hold the position of the Basnayake Nilame of the Kataragama Devale by making only that Devale exempt from the law. If that is not nepotism at its crudest, I don’t know what nepotism is. Let us not go into Mihin Air etc, these are sufficient to get the ugly picture.

We, the people of this country, must decide on the 26th of January what to do with MR who has feet of clay. To begin with there was simply no need of a presidential election. He could have gone on safely for two more years. He could have easily done whatever he wanted to; develop the country, amend/change the Constitution, abolish the satanic Executive Presidency or whatever. This election is an utter waste of public funds! In view of the election, Temple Trees, almost on a daily basis, turns into a Dansala. And who pays the bill? I am not sure it is MR. We have had a surfeit of elections, almost one in every three months. The Ministers and MPs are busy electioneering and only electioneering they do nothing else. Hospitals, schools, universities, everything in fact are in a mess. Nothing runs efficiently. Nothing gets done. It is enough to go to Colombo, and especially Pettah, to realise the deterioration we have reached. Pettah stinks to high heavens. One wonders whether the nauseating stench emanates from corruption or from uncollected garbage. MR’s government cannot keep Colombo clean. How can it self-clean all the rot and garbage in MR’s gargantuan cabinet?

After everything is said and done, finally, who is the alternative to MR? SF? I will always and anywhere gratefully raise my hat to General Sarath Fonseka, our hero, the officer and the gentleman. But the Sarath Fonseka in civvies is a mystery to me. Therefore I keep silence. But I know what those, who are behind him and support him, are up to. They are up to no good. They have lost all credibility. Sudu Nelum, Thawalam, the traitorous CFA, the Millennium City betrayal, the constant ridiculing and demoralising of the fighting forces and talking against the country and its people abroad were the low type of activities they were engaged in during the whole of the intense fighting to save the country. They could have at least kept silence; they didn’t. They do not deserve to be in politics in Sri Lanka.

Does that mean we elect MR again? Yes, but only if we are going to use our franchise very, very responsibly at the next General Election. It may look like that the people are in a catch 22 situation.

I think we have a third way out of the dilemma and solve the problem. We have to get MR on the right path to good governance. We have to do it. It is we, the people, who vote for these national leaders. Why do we vote for people who always let us down? Why don’t we choose persons who are more trustworthy? We have nobody to blame but ourselves if those we voted in to the parliament are corrupt, lazy and inefficient. There is an absolute need for good governance, without which we are like the biblical swine rushing down the Gadarene slope to their undoing. I’d like to contribute my humble opinion. I present five precepts (guidelines) that ALL the citizens of this country must observe if we want good governance. And that is how we are going to force MR to get on to the right track come Parliamentary Elections next April.

Precept I. I will not vote for a person who does not declare his assets and publish the same in the national newspapers for the perusal of the public at least one month before the elections. The honesty and the integrity of the candidate must be clearly seen. He must show that he is selflessly coming forward to serve the nation and the people. It is not enough they show it only to the Election Commissioner. Those who are reluctant to declare their assets to the public are simply not trustworthy and do not deserve our valuable vote.

Precept II. I will not vote for a person who is known to have connections to the underworld and behaves (even a member of his family) like a thug in public. Those who cannot control their anger, who when in power take revenge from the political opponents, who take the law in to their hands, who intimidate and humiliate the ordinary citizens of the country when they travel on our roads are simply not suitable to be the leaders of this country.

Precept III. I will not vote for a person who already has a relative or a family member in the Presidency, Parliament, PC or the PS. Our politicians are mere mediocre nincompoops. There are exceptions, of course. The truth of the matter is they are fattening themselves on our national wealth; they are parasites. They are shamelessly rapacious and greedy. It is enough that there is one parasite in the immediate or the extended family of the candidate. We, the voters, need not go and make them, a whole family of, a tribe of, parasites.

Precept IV. I will not vote for a candidate who after winning a seat has crossed over to the political party in power. Changing sides for ministerial posts, to avoid corruption charges or for other perks is an indecent act. It is an ignoble betrayal of those poor voters who placed their trust in him. Of course, they will justify their actions. They will have hundred and one reasons to show how selfless and nationalistic their action is. But, we know who they are, born liars who have sold their souls for a mess of pottage.

Precept V. I will not vote for a person who has either said or done anything against the Nation’s sovereignty, integrity or its good name. This precept needs no elaboration. Who can vote for a traitor to lead our country? It would be national suicide.

A friend of mine who saw the five precepts declared that if we were to follow these precepts there would be no people we can vote for. Yes, he is right. Politically speaking our country is really that badly off. Yet, if we the citizens, declare vociferously that we are going to abide by these precepts, the political parties may at least begin to think of presenting better candidates for the elections and if we do stick to these precepts when actually we vote we just might get a somewhat better set of human beings in the Parliament next April. Also if the citizens publicly declare—the national newspapers must come forward to help our people by translating this article into Sinhala and Tamil and giving it full publicity in all the national newspapers so that the voice of the people will be heard loud and clear—their determined intention to abide by these precepts; prominent citizens, selfless women and men of integrity and courage might think of taking up politics and coming forward to serve the country.

We have no choice but to elect MR again, simply because he is the only representative of the National Ideology. We cannot afford to bring back the non-National Ideology with Ranil, Mangala and Company. They will take us thirty years back to square one. MR knowing that and thus holding the people to ransom to get away with any kind of shady deals and behaviour is not fair. MR has still one month to show the people he is ready to govern honestly and courageously. Words are not enough! We want deeds! By deeds I do not mean Dansalas.

If he acknowledges and shows some repentance for the bad governance in his government and begins to clean up then we shall vote for him. Otherwise, he will not get my vote this time. Even if we see some silver lining in the dark cloud it is only if we are absolutely determined to vote in April according to the above precepts and force MR to bring about good governance that we can justify electing him President again.

May Sri Lanka be blessed with honest, hard working and patriotic legislators and a much, much smaller cabinet!

-Sri Lanka Guardian