Aragalaya -Ranil & what next for Sri Lanka
When we thought we had seen it all in 75 years of independence, in 2022 came a covid followed by the aragalaya. It took the 2nd President to order troops to deal with the JVP, though allegations of clandestine links between the two prevails while the 5th President ordered the end of the LTTE. The 6th President became the tool for Indo-US regime change & it is an open question if the end of the LTTE was indirectly mooted by these same external forces having prepared the ground work for a pivot to Asia & an Indo-Pacific strategy that did not need a loose cannon like Prabakaran. The 7th President though mustering an unprecedented vote together with 2/3 Parliamentary seats was not so lucky. Within a month of taking office, the covid pandemic struck and by March 2020 the nation was put on lockdown. No one, in particular, the educated bourgeoisie of Colombo thought to wonder how a man could bankrupt a nation within 2 years when the country was under virtual lockdown & globally too everything was at a standstill. None of these pundits care to address this question still. Equally puzzling is how, those that chased an elected leader out of office, did not do the same when an unelected took over. This together with comparisons of similar colored revolutions & unprecedented destabalizing decisions taking place, requires us to raise some serious questions as to where Sri Lanka is headed.
Not surprisingly, it was the same coterie that ousted the elected President in 2022, that helped form a “national government” in 2015 & silently applauded their “hero” President appoint the then Opposition Leader with only 40 MPs as PM without removing the sitting PM.
It was the same pundits who evade responding to the issuing of $12.5b ISBs, majority of which are held by US firms & contributing to the large chunk of Sri Lanka’s debt. The pundits have also conveniently forgotten how the yahapalana government relaxed laws that enabled corporates to keep profits overseas. Some of these corporates sponsored the aragalaya, while we cannot omit to mention the campaign headed by JVP-NPP asking people not to send remittances home to further cripple any inflow of foreign exchange to the country. Connect the dots of events & the players to understand the nature of the conspiracy that took place in 2022 & the players involved. Now the guilty are calling each other “horas”.
Corruption allegations aside, the 6 years from 2009 to 2015 was the only period Sri Lanka had no wars, no terrorism, significant island wide development, Sri Lankans could travel freely from North to South & South to North & a positive GDP growth.
The gullible citizens were fooled into believing China had put Sri Lanka in debt. Those that accuse of bankrupting the nation are careful not to point fingers at the 2015 yahapalana government & question what they did with all the loans taken.
The present President as then PM even took the Central Bank under his portfolio after which that infamous CB scam took place. We all know how the 19a was drafted to craftily transfer powers of the executive President creating an ‘executive PM”. When that was foiled and an unceremonious removal of the then PM took place, it was the diplomatic entourage that sat at Temple Trees beckoning the then PM not to budge. These diplomats even went so far as to intimidate the Courts by sitting inside & gave early xmas to those that succumbed. Nevertheless, inspite of the diplomatic favoritisms yahapalana was on its way out as seen by the 2018 local government results.
We must work back to how the US-West-UN & India handled Sri Lanka post-LTTE (2009-2015) the infiltrations, interventions & interferences, then the same from 2015-2019, thereafter from 2020 to present. This will give an excellent understanding of the meddling that has taken place & the treacheries committed by our own from politicians, to public sector, to top corporates, media, academics, unions & includes professionals.
This is why, we need to take a step back & wonder whether the splitting of SLFP to create SLPP, splitting of UNP to create SJB and splitting of JVP to create NPP had long term plans.
We must understand that our enemies do not have any permanent friends – they use them & dump them & use the supra traitors repeatedly.
In all probability, the Easter Sunday attacks was a message of what could happen. It exposed the weaknesses in the security apparatus, primarily as a result of anti-national decisions taken by the yahapalana govenrment which included closure of intel units shadowing Islamic extremists, arresting key intel officers & jailing them for no reason, co-sponsoring UNHRC resolution, opening an office of missing persons, giving compensation to LTTE terrorists and agreeing to start a Truth tribunal which meant other than US-Allies & India interfering in Sri Lanka, the UN apparatus would be on ground rolling out their One World agenda via the millennium goals.
Much of this did not make sense back in 2019, but during a recent popular talk show the guestspeaker openly lay blame on India for the Easter Sunday attacks. The Church that has been a historical partner in West’s geopolitical agenda remains silent which is understood as India is a QUAD partner.
Looking back, the 2019 November & 2020 August election victory had more to do with the anti-national elements by the yahapalana government which was reason why the then PM even lost his Colombo seat & his deposit & had to wriggle back to Parliament via the single national list seat given to the UNP almost a year after elections (23 June 2021)
He was appointed PM on 12 May 2022 and then acting President on 14 July 2022 & President on 20 July 2022. A remarkable set of events that couldn’t have happened by coincidence!
There are some puzzling aspects to the 2 year rule of a man Sri Lanka presumed would take Sri Lanka to prosperity. He did start off well and even his opponents began giving their thumbs up in particular for the manner covid was handled. However, things began to slide with a series of appointments ignoring wiser appeals.
The open question unanswered to this day is whether the 7th President was compromised even before his appointment as President or somewhere after being appointed. If it is before, it would explain the coterie of characters that were appointed all of whom were those steering Sri Lanka to the QUAD agenda & explains the fear to forge closer ties with China & allies. Why would he also choose to appoint the very former CB Governor as his advisor especially one who was openly promoting MCC though we were given the impression the former President was against MCC – in fact all 3 advisors the former President appointed were promoters of IMF & former IMF employees. Nonetheless without signing MCC, all other aspects to that exercise was taking place unbeknown to the general public. His next choice of Governor CB eventually ended up declaring bankruptcy together with his former lawyer who he also appointed as Justice Minister, Finance Minister & later Foreign Minister also against appeals of many. His association with key corporates that were sponsors of the aragalaya as well as those who not only kept their profits offshore (majority belonging to apparel sector with close ties to US) even played a key role in destroying Sri Lanka’s excellent covid record.
Some other aspects are equally puzzling – why the former President decided to create a protest site virtually outside the Presidents Office, which became the official protest site to send him home, why pocket protests that started off about economic difficulties and complaints of shortage of food, medicines, fuel/gas became a stage for black vesak, LTTE commemorations, a showdown for the Catholic Church with sisters deployed even at night, how drugs & all sorts of vices were made freely available to lure the youth to create the necessary numbers. More importantly, while those on the ground gave lavish holier than thou speeches, none of them wished to stop the black vesak, commemoration of LTTE or wanted to protect the youth from drugs & encouraging free sex. It was a real mardi gras protest site & resulted in increase in AIDS/HIV and pregnancies eventually.
Though his book did not explain anything, the former President as executive should have known & his military experience should have prompted him to sack anyone including the army commander if they did not obey orders, therefore complaining about not taking his orders is not an excuse for an executive president. When pocket protests began building to larger numbers, it doesn’t take rocket science or require intel info to take action. US-UK-France even changed their protest laws to address protests in their nations. Eight murders, destruction to public property, arson would not have taken place if the correct decisions were taken at the correct time, even against supermarkets that were not replenishing stocks & scared consumers that food was running out.
Therefore, it is for the former President to exonerate himself as many question if he too was part of the conspiracy to destabalize Sri Lanka. The flipside of the conspiracy was to blame the voters & use that as a key silencer at future elections & hand Sri Lanka to the QUAD after making Sri Lanka too vulnerable economically & politically to withstand the external onslaughts.
So the question remains if he was brought in to eventually pass baton to the present leader to continue the agenda that has been scripted to complete. Was his desire to return to his family that prompted the change. Now having betrayed all the trust & faith people had in him, he cannot even return to his family.
The role of India throughout remains suspicious having played a role as good neighbor with the credit lines but ensuring Sri Lanka bought only Indian goods & denied Sri Lanka turning to any of its historical friends for help & support. Fast forward to 2024, Indian Govt, Indian business tycoons are virtually in every nook & corner of Sri Lanka – Indian ferry service, Indian road/rail links, Indians handling our visas, India in control of Colombo & Trinco ports, Indians taking over plantations, gas, electricity, wind power links, Indian forcing mythical religious trails on façade of tourism, Indians taking over Northern/Eastern Buddhist archaeological sites …. People need to connect the dots as to the areas India has penetrated during the past few years.
Declared bankrupt, bowing to IMF structural adjustments that target only the poor & vulnerable as seen by the taxes, the guilty including the politicians, top corporates most of whom are hand in glove with the enemy & together are destroying the small time businessmen & farmers, the politicized institutions and local entities that are all playing role of vultures trying to take whatever part of Sri Lanka that is being steadily balkanized for geopolitics.
Within this set up, we must wonder what the President & his “tikiri mole” plans, knowing his hesitation to hold elections. Will he flip through his uncles dossier & pluck some of his manipulations? Would he decide on a referendum, or would he dissolve parliament, create another “national government” forming a cocktail of gullible Ministers from all the parties & scrap elections? Would he decide to jail a few “corrupt” like the trumped up charges filed by JR against Mrs. B removing even her civic rights? He would definitely come up with a plan that does not nudge the geopolitical agendas of the QUAD/IMF & UN, which means whatever path he plots to take, it will have dangerous implications for the future generations & Sri Lanka as a whole, simply to satisfy the pleasures of those who want to remain & enjoy powers. Our enemies will happily provide those luxuries in turn for more treacheries, some of which we can see happening before our eyes.
It is unlikely that any of these current traitors have a conscience to feel guilty about what they are doing to our Nation, which means only an informed and patriotic public with the intent to reverse all of the damage done can & should come forward. There is still hope. The sacrifices of those who died defending this nation cannot go in vain.
The living must now defend their nation.
Shenali D Waduge
