Reply To Thisuri In “Response To Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Grievance On Government Media Repression”
By Thivanka Amarakoon –December 9, 2016
Thivanka Amarakoon
It seems like you do not have a clear idea about what democracy is, let me explain what it is, it is “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives” that is the meaning of so called Democracy. Please tell me, does this present parliament reflect the democratic requirements of all Sri Lankans? Any country with democracy has to fulfill the aspirations of whole population and in doing so has the right to talk, hear & know about what is happening. It doesn’t matter whether he or she is or was a current leader or a past leader. When considering your statements none of them prove that you believe that the Ex- President promoted free and fair elections and the establishing of democracy in a country that couldn’t dream of such a democratic transformation prior to 19th May 2009.
Thisuri Wanniarachchi in your state of dementia you have naively focused on the past 4 years, whereby as you highlight the Sri Lankan society was deprived of any kind of freedom, be it thought, movement or gathering. During the period of your adulthood you have conveniently forgotten that there was also a period of dark, despicable and undemocratic behavior by the very same UNP Yahaplanaya regime members that you now support and raise your vocal cords for. A refreshing is in order as like you there are those who have forgotten the period of July 1983 or ‘Black July’ which brought about the scourges of racism and terrorism to the entire country. Along with the rise of LTTE terrorism and racism post Black July, the suppression of democratic gathering in 1989 of the Southerners saw one of the bloodiest reprisal by the then UNP Yahapalanya regime members against the bright youth of this country. The mournful reference that you make in terms of the response to protest to water is only but a drop of water considering the rivers of blood that washed across this country which was caused by the UNP Yahapalanya regime members during these periods (i.e.1983 and 1989). Thisuri your rebuttal toward the Ex-President on the topic of democratic lack of freedom of assembly and the present government’s approach is matter of hysteria, “You see, this government happens to encourage the democratic freedom of assembly, an act that was met with real bullets during your tenure, killing innocent civilians whose demands were as simple as access to clean water”. Little do you know that the then government which the current President was also a Cabinet Minister was part of the team that made tangible progress in providing access to pipe borne water supply to households increasing it from 35 percent in 2010 to 60 percent by 2017. This was to be done by increasing the consumer base by 175,000 connections annually. Therefore, similar to the Ex-President the current President too takes unequivocally responsible for the good, bad and ugly actions and thus cannot be absolved from all forms of just and unjust behavior because now he has changed his color from a once Blue to now a Green member of government.
Furthermore, its astonishing to note that you also do not seem to know that the Ex-President had received 5.7Mn votes from the Sri Lankan voters, while the incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena had received 6.2Mn, therefore, I personally fail to understand how you calculated the whole 22.0 Mn population as against the Ex-President. This would mean that you are ignorant or unaware of the age limit of universal suffrage in order to participate in the democratic election process, which you seem to take pride in given the US allegiance (which incidentally was not made available to the USA even after the Emancipation Act of 1863, taking it nearly 100 years to recognize the rights of the ‘Black Americans’) or you may be having your own American version of democracy which you hope to infect Sri Lanka with, given that it was disclosed recently by RT News that the US government had approved a funding line of USD 585 million for such propaganda activity during 2015 (RT News, 18th November 2016).
It is also astonishing to find that Thisuri may have been in hibernation when this very nice, democratic, assembly loving Yahapalanya regime was out beating university students, Buddhist priest’s, and Disabled Army soldiers. I know you are not up to date with these incidents, as you seem to be preoccupied displacing historic facts and the bloodshed caused by the UNP Yahapalanya regime. Did you know that it was these very same army personnel that were humiliated by the adopting of the Co-sponsored UN resolution and subsequently assaulted were those who in pure abnegation sacrificed their bodies and souls to bring an end to the racism and ethnic conflict which were caused by the incumbent members of the UNP Yahapalanya regime? Where were you after having witnessed these incidents which occurred in Sri Lanka? Yet you seem to be extremely displeased at Ex President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, for having saved this country from the scourges of terrorism and racism but take pride in highlighting the lack of media freedom during his tenure. If there was a lack of press freedom it was only claimed by the US/Western funded ‘good governance’s activist, individuals and institutions.
