Young Sajith Premadasa Should Learn To Talk Sense.

by Our Political Editor

(July 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Young Sajith Premadasa has become vocal these days. His utterances so far do not show much political wisdom. In a recent statement telecast by some channels he complains that some people are talking about civil rights. He asks whether people rights to food and to have such basic things are not more important.

This may fool some but more serious watches may ask whether the young man knows what he is talking about. It does not need much political education to see that all attacks on civil rights are attacks on rights relating to livelihood. When trade union rights are attacked, people are deprived of an effective means to fight against low wages and inflation. When wages are low people have less to eat. Similarly attacks on press freedoms are in fact, attacks on peoples right to talk loud about various types of deprivations, such as deprivation of health, education and other necessities.

Young Premadasa talks too much about his father’s legacy. He perhaps is not aware that this revives rather traumatic memories for many. Breaking of the strikes, attacks on meetings, the memory of forced disappearances are things that people have not forgotten. Collaboration with J.R.Jayawardene to create the monstrous system of executive presidency can bring no credit to anyone, who is today fighting against the users of the same system to deprive the people of everything.

If he is to continue fathers attacks on civil rights with the promises of building more houses, he brings no new message to Sri Lankan politics.

As a young politician he should learn to talk sense. He should try to understand where his father also went wrong. Being humble enough to apologize for the past is a far better political strategy than promising to follow father foot steps. There are hard facts. It is no good to ignore such facts.