Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

26 November 2018

What About Tamils Mr Rajapaksa – Do we not count?

[In my speech in Parliament on the 15th of November, I proposed to all political parties that we agree among ourselves to hold a general election to enable the people to exercise their sovereign right to elect a government of their choice. The JVP agreed but the UNP has been evasively saying that we should hold a presidential election instead of a general election. The problem is in the Parliament. Hence there is no need to hold a presidential election at this stage. No party obtained a clear majority at the general election held in August 2015. The UNP obtained 106 seats, the UPFA obtained 96. The difference was just 10 seats] Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa

What about the TNA? It is obvious that Tamils do not count as a Diverse group to Mr Rajapaksa.  There was a time when Mr Rajapaksa was known to have consulted his astrologer about election timing. If that was belief based – he would reveal that as the base now also. Otherwise one is entitled to conclude that it was superstitious. This is further confirmed by Mr Rajapaksa as follows:

[A UNP led government was formed only on the basis of an agreement entered into with a group of UPFA Parliamentarians. The UPFA group left the government on the 26th October. Thereafter several UNP Parliamentarians joined our ranks. Today, I am the leader of the largest group of MPs in Parliament.]

Mr P.K. Balachandran states as follows in his Daily Mirror article ‘Pros and cons of Crossovers’:

[In the 2010 elections to Parliament, the UPFA under President Mahinda Rajapaksa won 144 seats. Even though the Rajapaksa Government was blessed with an overwhelming majority, it encouraged crossovers from the Opposition with the distribution of Ministerial posts to give Rajapaksa an aura of great power and invincibility.]

Changing Political affiliation is like changing one’s religion. Most of us accept the ‘One god, many religions’ theory. In governance, the parallel is ‘one governance, many political parties’. The above pattern of changing religions/political crossovers – confirms superstition. Elected Members of Parliament who crossover, confirm superstition and therefore lack of governance power shared with their voters. Leaders who encourage crossovers also confirm superstition and/or that they are driven more by showing that they are smart than that they are good governors.

Mr Rajapaksa himself has crossed over to Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna recently. By doing so confirmed that he ‘uses’ and then throws away political structures. By appointing such a person as Prime Minister, Mr Sirisena also confirms superstition rather than belief.  One who believes would take the ancestral values with her/him. They say in Tamil that one is affectionate of his parents who provide him with pleasures. Once he gets married – the wife becomes the source of those pleasures and more. Then the parents become the source of Respect. Likewise, within marriage the spouse becomes respectable when s/he helps elevate pleasures to happiness  level by development of commonness.

The leaders of a political party who forego towards commonness – become respectable. Those who crossover confirm that they are driven by pleasures and not Respectability.

The February 2018 Local Government Elections went against Mr Sirisena’s part of SLFP. He seems to be panicking and hence the blame game and dismissal. Mr Rajapaksa failed to successfully move Parliament to confirm No Confidence Motion in Mr Wickremesinghe. By rejecting early Presidential elections – he confirms also that his eye is on the position of President. That alone morally disqualifies him and Mr Sirisena for that position. Governance outcomes need to ‘happen’ for them to successfully lead the nation. This is outright manipulation – to enjoy pleasures. Little wonder they massacred Tamils to ‘show’ victory in return for votes. That was immoral. One does not need a war-crimes inquiry now that one has been shown immorality by the very leaders (including Mr Sirisena) who claimed victory by killing their own citizens.

The killing of Tamils outside the war area and the resulting suffering – will keep dragging these leaders to lower and lower levels. It’s a heavy sin carried by such leaders. Mr Sirisena sought the support of Tamils but refused to hold a war-crimes inquiry. The sin grows exponentially causing decay within. That is the power of  the true Sri Lankan who is ignored and/or treated as demoted junior rather than Equal minority.