FASCISM, from a class angle
Wednesday, April 19, 2017This gentleman does not know that Hitler also, selected people to his operations efficiently. The massacre of Jews was also done systematically and efficiently with some brilliant innovations. This man is talking about his achievements in serving the hideous regime aptly condemned by all people in the world. Present government has to carry out a Himalayan task to rewind the crimes committed to humanity and make our country acceptable to the UN norms
If I am asked to comment on the current economic situation in the country I would say it is a difficult task as it depends on the socio-economic theory one is based on. As a Marxist I will look at the economy as a whole and indicate what is happening and what we could do to make it better for the working masses. Of course I am looking from a class angle.
In my opinion all are looking from class angles though they would not agree. If one says ‘I do not consider myself qualified enough to lecture you about the economy. After all, the audience here comprise many senior corporate executives and businessmen. You know as much as I do about the current status of the economy’; yes it is very clear that speaker is a leader for business interest. He will say that the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime was powerful and stable, and was capable of selecting men with business interest and skills for managing exploitation. Hence Lanka had a good growth rate and was moving towards prosperity.
Mahinda regime
I am not surprised when Dr Nalaka Godahewa says “I am sure you already know that the GDP growth rate of the country has come down by about 14% over the last two years. You already know that rupee has got devalued by about 15% compared to the value two years ago. You already know that foreign direct investments have declined from USD 1.6 bn in 2014 to about USD 450 Million in 2016. Bloomberg has recently rated us as a high risk country to invest. You already know that Colombo Stock Exchange is currently the worst performing stock exchange in Asia. You already know that Debt to GDP ratio has increased from 70.7% in 2014 to about 81% by end of 2016.
You already know that despite the promise of the new government to create 1 mn jobs, unemployment has risen from 4.3% to about 4.6% by end of 2016.
You already know that foreign reserves are down from USD 8.3 Bn to perhaps less than USD 5 Bn within the last two years. Everybody knows that interest rates are going up, savings are down, consumer spendings are less and the whole economy is in bad shape.”
 Dr Nalaka Godahewa |
“One day, I got a call from Sumith Abeysinghe then Treasury Secretary asking whether I could come and meet the President. I was asked by President Mahinda Rajapaksa whether I could act as the Competent Authority of Sri Lanka Insurance for one month until a formal board is appointed. That was the first time in my life I spoke to President Mahinda Rajapaksa. I had no connection to any of the Rajapaksas until then. I accepted the responsibility. I had enough free time at that time since I was on my own. Perhaps because I did a good job during that one month period as the Competent Authority, I was appointed as the Managing Director of the company when the new board was appointed. I had no special connection to the top nor did I canvass for the job. They just decided on their own.
Stock market
As Managing Director of SLIC I performed once again. We made substantial gains in the market share and also made some wise investments in the stock market which resulted in huge capital gains. I met Gotabhaya Rajapaksa through SLIC. I wanted to turn around our loss making subsidiary Apollo. I invited Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who was riding high on a wave of popularity at that time as the defence secretary to be the new chairman of the hospital. He agreed and we served on the same board for several years. We rebranded the hospital as Lanka hospitals and turned around a loss making hospital to a profitable one, a virtually empty hospital to one which is packed to capacity. Obviously Gotabhaya Rajapaksa identified me as someone with skills. So he appointed me to several other boards under his ministry. That’s how I became a director of the Urban Development Authority.
After the 2010 general election, I was appointed as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism probably because I had performed well at SLIC as the Managing Director. That is where I met Basil Rajapaksa who was the subject minister. He too recognized my abilities and appointed me to a few other boards such as Sri Lanka Catering and Sri Lanka Handicrafts Board. Then in 2012, I was once again given a special assignment by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. I was moved from Tourism to SEC to handle another crisis. By then the Colombo stock market was crashing for 18 continuous months and two regulators had been removed. I assumed responsibilities as SEC chairman in July 2012 and you know the rest. We not only turned around the market but also won recognition as the most sustainable stock market in Asia. So contrary to what some people think, I am neither related to Rajapaksas nor am I a family friend. I didn’t know anyone of them personally till 2009. Any mutual respect we have today is totally due to working relationships and not due to any political connections. They were simply good at identifying the skills of people and using them to get results.”
Himalayan task
This gentleman does not know that Hitler also, selected people to his operations efficiently. The massacre of Jews was also done systematically and efficiently with some brilliant innovations. This man is talking about his achievements in serving the hideous regime aptly condemned by all people in the world. The present government has to carry out a Himalayan task to rewind the crimes committed to humanity and make our country acceptable to the UN norms. While some people are trying to glorify Lankan fascistic regime that was overthrown; the fascistic policies of American President combined with Russian President have created desperate situation among the proletarian youth in Europe and North America. In the Western capitals, based on logical positivism to which they are used to, in the past we were promised the fascinating culmination of capitalism as liberal democratic paradise, where happiness will be universal. Fukuyama said this beauty will be the end of history.
On the other hand the Russians promised us the splendid communism through the one party dictatorship. Now we see in Russia something almost identical to the American Trump government: regime of Putin. Yes, it is ‘the end of philosophy’, or as they say, ‘the end of history’. I fully agree: it is the end of their philosophy and of their history.
What post modernist or one party communist predicted has come, not in the positive way but in the opposite. ‘New tricks’ of these leaders are actually very old. Some were practiced by Hitler and Mussolini. Youth say their entire system is outdated. It should have been retired at least one hundred years ago. It survived only because of the MNC system managed by the trio IMF, WB and WTO.
These days, intelligent people inhabiting the West and Russia behave like the educated people who were living in Nazi Germany during the World War 2. After the war was over, they were street walking for years, at least many of them, repeating the same refrains: “We didn’t know!” “We never realized”. The Nazi propaganda is similar to the propaganda used in the West about neo colonial development. Noam Chomsky says in his book “On Western Terrorism”, these are based on precisely the same roots, foundations and methods. Both are extremely effective, when it comes to the total brainwashing of the population.
Cultural affiliation
There is nothing more to understand. Hundreds of millions of victims in all parts of the world are speaking for themselves. The only rational issue here is this: how to stop this horror, as soon as possible? How to allow humanity to return to its natural development and evolution patterns? UNHR will not look into this problem.
The West and Russia will not ‘pay’ for all that they have done to the world. We only want it to be stopped, once and for all. We must work very hard for it to be stopped. Suddenly the world is watching, and all of a sudden enjoying what it sees; suddenly more and more people are daring to laugh at the global regime of West and Russia. Of course it had spread to in Paris, London or New York and also to Moscow. People on all continents want to see and hear about what ‘others do’, what ‘we do’, not what the global power unit and its mental conditions are producing.
It is in this context we have to look at our neighbourhood. Lanka features centrally in Aryan sacred epic the Ramayana. It is about Aryan Bharatha invasion of Yakka Lanka. For that reason, India is probably the one foreign country that has always had a place in our popular imagination.
Then there are the old Sinhala legends of Sri Lanka’s links to Orissa in India, which are of course manifest in the striking similarities of the Kandyan and Odissi dance forms. Add to this, the fact that the significant Eelam Tamil nationality on the island enjoys ties of kinship and cultural affiliation with India’s southern State of Tamil Nadu. Hence our revolution is closely tied to what happens in India.
