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Death of democracy and road to dictatorship - Part
II:
President’s charisma envy of Opposition
A.A.M. Nizam
Immediately after the end of the war the popularity and the respect
shown to President Mahinda Rajapaksa reached its zenith and he became an
idol loved by Sri Lankans of all walks of life and of all ages. He was
also praised and admired by foreign Heads of State and Leaders for his
great achievement in showing the world that terrorism can be defeated.
The aura made people all over the country to affectionately call the
President as Maharajano (The Great King), Dutugemunu the 2nd, and even
as Prince Diyasena (A belief prevalent in Sri Lanka on the advent of
Prince Diyasena to save the nation and usher in wealth and prosperity
after a lapse of 2500 years from the birth of the Buddha, and he is said
to be the reincarnation of King Parakumba. It is believed that this is a
foretelling made by God Sumana).
War victory
Some people even regarded the President as a living god - joining him
with Saman, Upul, Vibishna deviyo in the island’s pantheon of protector
deities. When he travelled to deliver the post war victory speech crowds
prostrated themselves before the motorcade proclaiming Ape Deviya.
This natural ascent of the President’s popularity made Ranil
Wickremesinghe fearful of facing the President directly in a
Presidential Election which he was Constitutionally permitted to call
for after completion of four years of his first term. At the same time
he also wanted to protect and safeguard his leadership in the party
without letting anyone else to contest as the new contestant may
outshine him despite such a person’s imminent defeat.
In order to overcome this dilemma he sent messages to the President
informing that he will not contest the Presidential Election to let Mr.
Rajapaksa win it without a contest but in return asked for the post of
Prime Minister. As per pro-UNP website lanka-e-news report dated May 28,
2009. “Ranil Wickremesinghe sent three such messages to the President
and in one instance Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara had acted as the broker
and in another Ranil Wickremesinghe’s close associate Lalith Fernando
had mooted the idea”.
On the other hand, the political bandits the JVP who had been
relegated to the role of slogan shouters due to substantial erosion of
their vote base lacking slogans and being resentful and envious of
President’s growing popularity found after perhaps lying in a stupor for
four years that President had reneged on his promise to abolish the
Executive Presidency and took it up as the latest slogan just to deceive
their blind fanatics.
These fanatics have already deface our beautifully maintained roads
with the slogan ‘Let’s make the common candidate victorious to abolish
the Executive Presidency’.
This is indeed a stupid slogan similar to the one they had in the
years of yore saving “It is greater to die by struggling rather than
living by kneeling down”, which brought untimely death to around 60,000
innocent and hoodwinked youth at the hands of State Terror groups
unleashed by their new found buddy the notorious Batalanda fame and one
of the two individuals who knew about JVP leader Wijeweera’s capture and
who didn’t allow it to be informed to President Premadasa and got
Wijeweera cremated even before he breathed his last breath.
Ranil Wickremesinghe has gone on record saying that if he ever came
to power he would issue a warrant for the arrest of JVP leader Somawansa
Amarasinghe? What is the secret game plan with the UNP and the JVP?
Executive Presidency
Legal luminaries and Constitutional experts such as K.N. Choksy,
Gomin Dayasiri, S.L. Gunasekera, Neville Ladduwahetty, Sumanasiri
Liyanage and several others have clearly pointed out that the power to
abolish the Executive Presidency rests only with a 2/3 majority vote in
the Parliament followed by acceptance in a referendum. Therefore JVP
bandits have picked up a baseless slogan merely to deceive its ignoramus
blind followers.
The elevation of the President’s popularity and the end of war was
extremely unpalatable to the political loafers sunk in the political
dustbin, NGO vultures, Western imperialists and other foreign elements.
All these elements together with the treacherous UNP leadership and
the JVP political bandits up to the end of war made every attempt to
topple the Government through Parliamentary crossovers, defeat the
Government on budget vote, create unrest and disorder through strikes,
work stoppages and turmoil in Universities, prevent economical aid and
assistance to the country, alleged about State-sponsored abductions,
gross violation of human rights, suppression of media freedom, assaults
and threats to journalists, ridiculed the war and the gallant Security
Forces, made every attempt to force a cessation of the war and rescue
the terrorist leadership. No President or Prime Minister of our country
faced such a multitude of problems simultaneously and continuously.
We must remember that the present government is a government which
could not get its own nominee appointed as the Speaker of the Parliament
and the government’s candidate for the Speaker’s post was defeated by
one vote in the election.
The President in order to fulfill his main pledge to the electorate
that terrorism will be eliminated and the country will be freed from
terrorists and unified, rightly realized that his goal could be achieved
only by having a stable government.
Therefore, while strengthening the Armed Forces by providing the men
and material they required, he made a tremendous effort to persuade the
Parliamentarians of other parties to join the Government and strengthen
it so that the anti-national rogues will not be able to topple the
Government and hinder the main objective and people’s aspiration of
pursuing with the war to an end.
The support extended by Parliamentarians of all shades heeding the
President’s national call is praiseworthy. They not only joined the
Government but many of them were valiant soldiers defending the right
policy of prosecuting the war and standing against all evil endeavours
hostile to the nation.
In order to prevent these patriotic Parliamentarians being dismissed
and made unseated by their respective political parties, the President
had no other alternative but to appoint them as Ministers and provide
them the Constitutional safeguard.
Treacherous elements
Similarly the President also made enormous efforts to overcome
attempts made by the JVP bandits to create unrest in the country through
strikes, work stoppages, student agitations, turmoil in Universities,
disruption to examinations and help the treacherous elements bent on
stopping the war and providing a respite to the terrorists.
The sacrifices made by the working class despite threats to their own
life and backing the President’s war agenda unreservedly and even
agreeing to forego salary increases for the year 2008 is indeed
significant and thus they became a gallant force in the ‘elimination of
terrorism’ struggle.
While the political desperados sunk in the political dustbin and the
unpatriotic treacherous elements in the UNP were vehemently and
continuously criticizing the President claiming that he was waging an
unwinnable war draining all resources of the country, and were making
every effort to mislead the masses against the war, the President and
the Ministers of the Government had to make huge efforts to convince and
muster the patriotic masses to stand firm and solidly against vicious
anti-national campaigns and support the war effort.
They not only heeded this call but also acted as a vigilant force,
made whatever sacrifices they could make and helped the Security Forces
in many ways, including in the detection of bombs and ammunition. On
many instances the assistance provided by them helped detect powerful
bombs and avert colossal disasters.
Sacrifices made by the ordinary people undergoing many hardships
despite price increases for the sake of hope they envisaged in seeing an
end to the terrorist menace reflected the true spirit of patriotism they
had. From the day of Mawil Aru up to the day of Nandikadal they stood
solidly behind the Government and all attempts made by the opposition to
make them revolt or protest against the Government on the issue of price
increases and the day-to-day hardship met with utter failure.
To be continued
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