Mahinda Rajapaksa, leading a corrupt and short-sighted clan, squandered the best opportunity to develop the country, allowing crooks to embezzle state wealth while securing luxuries for his family for generations.
by Helasingha Bandara
The infamous question of Sajith Premadasa that he asked of a small group of Tamil people on a recent visit to the North can now be considered archaic, hackneyed and irrelevant news. Why am I keen to dust off a piece of news and focus my energy on it? The intension is to remind people of Sri Lanka who usually forget what they ate for dinner last night, that complacency in dismissing the seemingly unimportant question might spell disaster not only for them but their future generations in light that Sajith is a candidate for the forthcoming presidential elections in Sri Lanka.
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Being a parliamentarian for more than two decades holding important portfolios particularly being one of the three pillars of the Yahapalanaya government, being a cricket fan and cricket being the favorite sport in Sri Lanka, if his ignorance of the fact that Sri Lanka has a limited number of Test cricket grounds and Jaffna has none, was genuine, that itself is enough reason for the masses to reject him to be the ruler of the country as such an ignorant person should not qualify for the post.
Is his question genuine? Even a small child in Sri Lanka knows how many Test cricket grounds there are on the small island and would conclude the question he raised was part of conventional deceptive politics that he inherited from his father. He has neither instinct nor the ability to invent new methods to win votes but is sunk in the old political deception without realising that the times and the people have moved on.
The purpose of this article is to draw people’s attention to the unsuitability of certain candidates, rather than to analyse their suitability.
Sajith Premadasa
Sirisena, the President, Ranil the Prime Minister and Sajith the deputy leader of the UNP cum a powerful minister in the Yahapalanaya government were the most notorious betrayers of people who trusted them to rescue the country from the clutches of the Rajapaksas when people defeated supposedly unconquerable Mahinda in 2015. During the four and a half years they did not achieve any tangible outcome for the country or to raise the living standards of people but trapped them in the ever-tightening debt trap burrowing more than 17 billion Dollars, nearly six times more than the amount that the previous government burrowed.
Sajith believes in the conventional political bribes to win the forthcoming election without understanding that people know that he spends part of the wealth his father accumulated while in power by foul means. Ranasinghe Premadasa did not come from an affluent family. His politician salary was not sufficient to make him wealthy. Besides, Sajith is obliged to pay back three times more to those who contribute money to his political campaign which in turn takes the country into further debt and cannot free himself from cronyism and their clutches.
Sajith promises that he will turn the country into paradise without an innovative action plan, a proven track record or intention, but with mere words. When people open eyes, they see that he is surrounded by the same politicians who brought Sri Lanka down to a failed state either with Ranil and Sirisena or with Mahinda and Gota. If they did not deliver in decades of ruling, will they deliver this time?
Ranasinghe Premadasa was the most cruel and murderous leader that Sri Lanka had ever seen. Massacres of thousands of young people of whom the majority was not JVP activists, but political opponents who belonged to the then SLFP, were alleged to have been planned in his house in collaboration with Ranjan Wijerathna and Ranil Wickramasinghe. High-profile murders like Richard Soysa and Wijedasa Liyanaarachchi were among them. Sajith grew up in that murder house in the shadow of his father to whom survival in the political field depended on murdering opponents. In young Sajith’s psyche, murder of dissidents must have been rooted as the norm for political survival. Sajith’s political strategies, his autocratic nature and cunning are traits that he inherited from his inhuman father. Making him the President of Sri Lanka can be the recreation of a potential Sri Lankan Pol Pot in future.
Ranil Wickremesinghe
Ranil is the most undignified, shameless and self-centered politician after his relative JR. The facade that he has created for himself as a sophisticated and refined person falls flat on its face, when his activities are scrutinised.
Ranil has been in power being a minister, prime minister and the president for more than four decades. He has always been rejected by people for behaving out of the ordinary, assuming an alien status that does not resonate with the general public. During his tenure as a minister, prime mister or the president over 40 years he has not been able to develop the country and can we expect him to do so now at his dotage.
He is known as the game master, a title that does not suit a leader of a country. People who support him expect him to plan some game or other to remain in power for them to continue with their nefarious activities. Most of those games are based on deception and lies. Master deceiver is not someone that people should make their leader.
In addition to Batalanda torture scheme, his name is associated with all high-profile murders that the UNP has committed. A murderer fosters murderers, not saints. His association with the underworld assassins like Gonawala Sunil is a prime example for the people to think twice.
His claim that he has rescued the country from the economic crisis easily ignores the fact that he was the main contributor to the crisis taking over 17 billion Dolars debt and involving in high profile frauds like the Central bank scam during Yahapalanaya.
Namal Rajapaksa
If he does not withdraw his candidacy at the last minute as part of a coup, he will be the worst prospect. Pohottuwa was uncertain about nominating a candidate for the elections because Mahinda would not allow an outsider like Dammika Perera being aware that the emergence of any outsider may block the path for his clownish son. The whole Rajapaksa clan headed by Mahinda, the most imbecilic leader who missed the greatest opportunity to develop the country, its people and rule forever was short sighted and too greedy that he allowed all types of crooks to embezzle state wealth while making money for his clan for centuries to bask in luxuries. For his betrayal people defeated him in 2015 once and now they are determined to erase the Rajapakshas from Sri Lanka’s political landscape eternally.
Anura Kumara
In contrast Anura maintains his dignified involvement in politics, ethos and refined manner in which he conducts political activities. He is intelligent, methodical, knowledgeable and conscientious. His memory and the logical manner of making his political discourse are incomparable with the ludicrous speeches of the ignominious opponents.
In the past, people of Sri Lanka have dragged themselves into an abyss by voting for the deceivers time and again. If they repeat and let the greatest opportunity to rescue the country slip away, they will write their own death certificates never to resurrect.
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