I lived in Sri Lanka for thirty long years and grew up with chaotic politics in Sri Lanka under the leaders like JR, Premadasa, DB, and Chandrika. But I never saw a bright future for me or my family under these rulers in Sri Lanka and finally decided to leave the country to get away from chaos. Thanks to the current president things have now changed for better and I am thinking of even going back to my country to give back something to the country that gave me everything.
My initial reaction after the war was over that this President will get a huge mandate at the next presidential election and at subsequent parliamentary elections he will win 2/3 majority, and will use that political capital to change the constitution to provide a just and equitable solution to the ethnic problem and also launch a massive development revolution. And once the proportional representation system is out Sri Lanka will always have majority governments from either political party for decades to come.
However, I can never come to terms with the thinking of Sri Lankans about their own country. Why on earth when they see a clear path to stability they want go back to chaos. I can understand the position of JVP as they need chaos to thrive. What about the others? Are we a nation driven by emotions than facts and reality. Following are few things that I can not get a grip of:
1) How is SF going to abolish the presidency in 180 days when there are so many constitutional hurdles to do that?
2) Why would SF even give up the presidency after 180 days ,especially after all these trouble he is going to go through the campaign -Is he an absolute idiot to do that??
3) How can SF get rid of corruption if he is not going to be the powerful president after 180 days?
4) How can SF get rid of corruption as a single person in a third world country like Sri Lanka that has a massive government bureaucracy and many layers of political structures?
5) How does he plan to govern with a coalition (even for a short time) that has JVP,UNP,TNA,MC as partners. What would be the public perception of such a coalition.
6) How can we believe that SF is not a racist after what he said about Sri Lanka belongs to Sinhalese only . Many people believe when someone spontaneously utter something under no pressure that person is telling the truth rather than subsequent justifications and corrections.
7) How can one believe SF when he himself contradicts so many times (I lost count)
8) And finally, why would people of Sri Lanka punish MR after everything he has done to his country in context of past leaders like JR, Chandrika and Ranil.

@ Chandana – You ask why people should ‘punish’ MR after ‘everything’ he has done for the country. The reasons probably lie in,

the mass scale corruption among his close associates,
the numerous examples of nepotism in granting of positions and privileges,
the high level of thuggery among his cabinet ministers,
the botched up exams that is screwing up the future of many kids,
the utter mess in the health sector that is responsible for sub-standard drugs being administered to patients

just to mention a few.

//why would people of Sri Lanka punish MR//

Democracy needed to work. I think Generals candidacy is a good thing because without a good opposition, there won’t be a good government. You can call it political chaos, but in the absent of a dictatorship, political chaos is absolute. Then again, I credit MR for general’s candidacy too. All we had for quite sometimes is bullshit governments and bullshit oppositions, mainly because all our leaders were killed leaving Mervin Silva and few others like him alive. Situation changed now, (thanks to MR). Now we see signs of new leadership popping up. They may not perfect. They still have no other choice than play with the old pigs. But if things headed this direction, we may lucky enough to have few more good leaders (in the opposition too) eventually to replace pigs.

Hi wondering if the vote in the south is split and no one gets the 50% majority does it mean that the highest number of votes win and not aggregate?

Indi, there’s an idiot exposing bloggers at http://www.viceunversa.blogspot.com. The said blog is named 3rd world and is listed on Kottu. Chances are it is jarabaras’s new avatar. Please do the needful to kick him out. Thought i’d tell you this.

He exposes the kill romeo and missing sandwich by revealing names plus relationships. Sure that Jarabaras’ work only. Kick him off.

Thank you.

It’s surprising, then again, not so surprising, how people come up with different assertions on one issue. This is one reason why I’m so, so interested in information. Information is the key, how it is transmitted, avenues of transmission, interpretation, etc.

This is politics, exaggerations are the norm. Get used to it.

It’s not a question of SF giving up the exe.presidency. It’s a question of 2/3 of MPs voting to change the constitution.

If SF becomes president, then UNP and UPFA can get together to abolish presidency. Or whoever, as long as they have 2/3 votes in parliament.

SF cannot get rid of corruption, that is an exaggeration. Various systems have to be changed to start the process, then the law has to be applied equally on a daily basis for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever…………….

To start with GoSL can use the COPE report to look into corruption in state enterprises.

SF is somewhat of a racist, whatever he says now will be for elections purposes and not because he genuinely believes in it. The same goes for MR.

Well, we can’t believe SF. Yes we know he has contradicted himself, but he seems the only best counterweight to MR at this time.

“Why would people punish MR”. It’s not about punishing but about reality. Apart from the war, what has MR done?? What are MR’s other achievements? Not much. He hasn’t shown any long term sustainable development initiatives. When people’s jobs and livelihoods are at stake they are going to vote for someone who can deliver them well being and job security.

Defeating the LTTE was a big achievement, but one that was attainable through various methods. MR took the war path because most causalties would be Tamil. That’ s why the war is a racist war and a lot to gain for the sinhala community (Mahinda’s main voters).

Corruption is endemic in SL. No one president or government can change it in one 5 year period. But what a government can do is to setup the structures and laws to enable the country to wean itself away from corruption over a period of time. For this to happen, we need checks and balances in our governmental structures to work. We need total independence and competance of the judiciary, the police force, the administrative service, the foreign service, etc, etc. We need to ensure that the rule of law is supreme. This will take time but let’s not delay in starting the process.

Myil selvan- You start your rant saying that you are interested in information and information is the key to everything ,then quickly goes to your little “Alice in Wonderland “and describe a dream that you probably must be seeing night after night these days.

Let me help you describe your dream with some additional information….

On Jan 27th morning General SF becomes the president of Sri Lanka with a clear majority.

On the next day he dissolves the parliament and form an interim government with JVP, TNA and UNP ,and at the cabinet level they formulate a short term plan for the country.

Then SLFP MPs desert their ranks and 77 of them join SF/UNP to give part of the required 2/3 to SF.

TNA and other minorities set aside their long term demand for a political solution (at the request of JVP)and join the band wagon to abolish the presidency, So SF gets his required 2/3.

Executive Presidency gets abolished and country goes back to parliamentary system and SF become a ceremonial President.

SF calls for a general election and UNP become the ruling party with a clear majority and RW become the Executive Prime Minister.

RW implement the COPE report and start looking into corruption in state enterprises.

A commission get sets up and finds Rajapakse brothers guilty of stealing billions of rupees from people and lose their civil rights.

Ranil and SF start setting up the structures and laws to enable the country to wean itself away from corruption over a period of time.

Gradually corruption disappears from Grama Niladri to MC to PC to MP to EP.

Then in year 2010 corruption disappear from every aspect of government bureaucracy and all MPs become true servants of public and give up all their perks and privileges.

In 20 years time Sri Lanka become the No # 1 least-corrupt nation in the world.

We all live happily ever after…

My friend Selvan- all these will happen on the day pigs start flying. You need to wake up and give your head a shake to see what we called “REALITY”.

By very nature we are very emotional group of people and “we like to hear and read what we want to read and hear’” but not ready to accept this thing called ‘REALITY”.

Having said all that I agree with your following two statements.
“SF is somewhat of a racist, whatever he says now will be for elections purposes and not because he genuinely believes in it. The same goes for MR”.
“Well, we can’t believe SF. Yes we know he has contradicted himself, but he seems the only best counterweight to MR at this time”.

As someone said before, SF joining the opposition is a very good thing for this country as it clearly sends a strong message to MR and his cronies that they cannot do things as they please. And to have a healthy democracy there always should be a strong and vibrant opposition which should be able to form an alternative government at anytime.

The other noticeable thing in your rant is, you ask whether MR has done any long term sustainable development project. Information that I have gathered with my little research indicates that MR in fact has done a lot more than 12 years of Chandrika and Ranil cobination with projects like Hambanthota Harbour, Kothmale and Northchiweli power plants, second air port in Hambanthota, paving most of the highways outside Colombo, building flyovers at Nugegoda and Deheiwala, building first Sri Lankan motorway from Gall to Colombo,etc are some hard evidence but not just gossips.

Mahinda practices Karapincha politics (getting rid of people once they have completed their tasks). Maybe the people are just following his example. Can the country develop with all this corruption? Maybe Ranil can do a better job. I can’t imagine anybody giving up the presidency. Having a General as a (virtual) dictator gives me nightmares.

Ranil is a cunning politician. He know that right after the var victory there was no way in hell he was gonna get elected had he run for the presidency. He also knew the things between MR and SF were not that good, and exploited it brilliantly. Now, MAJORITY of the people who vote for SF will not have voted for Ranil if he contested. But people don’t see it as that the whole show is run by RW, and he’ll do his best to get into power. On the other hand, it is quite laughable to think SF will give up all he achieve after 6 month if he wins. He will defend his presidency, even violently if it comes to that, which is a fearful thought. If it comes to that, I’m sure lot of people will see the corrupted MR was far better.

Indi you two-faced wanker – you so represent what a pathetic race lives in Sri Lanka. You’re going to go and actively choose a murdering bastard who will wipe you out. And even if HE doesn’t those equally murdering egomaniacs, the Rajapakses will murder you fools for even contemplating Sarath.

Still – you reap what you sew.

Here you are singing the praises of a mass murder. God only knows how base Sri Lankan society has become. Here on in you won’t be able to crap on and on and on and on and on (which you somehow manage to do in every single one of your articles) about the “LTTE” … what the FUCK are you gonna say in 5 years time when more and more and more and more blood is shed.

Sri Lanka is all about dog eat dog, kill or be killed, oh and now at the end of it the stupid, dumb, egocentric, facist, racist population will bow down kiss your arse and vote you back in.