Dr. Dayan Jayathilaka's latest article is a must read for the 5.8 million who voted for the former president at the last presidential election. At lease the last couple of paragraphs of it should be translated to Sinhalese and make them read.
It eloquently analysis what would be in store for those 5.8 million of whom sons and daughters laid their lives for an undivided and united Sri Lanka. How Sri Lanka under the present regime would squarely and fairly be back to the time when it was under the British colonists is strongly pointed out by his analysis.
The conclusion of Dr. Jayathilaka's article which draws his point home very strongly is quoted below.
"The Draft Proposals for Constitutional reform are vampiric in character. By draining the life-blood of and disempowering the elected executive President, the proposed Constitutional changes terminally weaken that which the external hegemonic powers and the pro-Western and ethnic sectarian elites find most dangerous, namely popular sovereignty. Instead of an empowered executive President elected from among the whole people, the most powerful post will be that of the Prime Minister elected almost certainly, from cosmopolitan Colombo.
In the end, the rural heartland of Sri Lanka would have provided the soldiers and the dead in the protracted struggle to liberate the country from Tiger fascism and reunify it, while Colombo would have provided the appeasers and vacillators–and regained real power. A recent photograph of the Prime Minister showed his ponytailed erstwhile Media secretary in the background. It was the same gentleman I recall from another photograph years ago as seated as then Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's representative in the front row of a Pongu Tamil demonstration during the CFA, at which the demonstrators scaled and destroyed the mock-up of the Jaffna High Security Zone. Ranil Wickremesinghe for one has certainly succeeded in 'Regaining Sri Lanka'.
The way the Constitutional changes work is to set up a new loop and circuit of power: the President cannot act except on the advice of the Prime Minister, and must always act on the latter's advice. Ranil Wickremesinghe will emerge as Prime Minister after the election. The SLFP will be in Opposition and will be controlled by President Sirisena who is in turn controlled by the constitutionally reinforced Prime Minister and his ally, ex-President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (who sees herself as Buffy the Vampire Slayer). That will be the new power bloc. Any reader of Leonard Woolf's classic, 'Village in the Jungle' known how British colonialism worked through the system of the Ratey Mahattaya and the Village Headman and what kind of characters they usually were. If the Constitutional changes proposed in the draft document go through, Sri Lanka shall return to an approximation of those dark days. The West will control Sri Lanka through the empowered Ranil Wickremesinghe, who will effectively control the disempowered PresidentSirisena, who will control the SLFP in opposition and will act as a native mask"
It eloquently analysis what would be in store for those 5.8 million of whom sons and daughters laid their lives for an undivided and united Sri Lanka. How Sri Lanka under the present regime would squarely and fairly be back to the time when it was under the British colonists is strongly pointed out by his analysis.
The conclusion of Dr. Jayathilaka's article which draws his point home very strongly is quoted below.
"The Draft Proposals for Constitutional reform are vampiric in character. By draining the life-blood of and disempowering the elected executive President, the proposed Constitutional changes terminally weaken that which the external hegemonic powers and the pro-Western and ethnic sectarian elites find most dangerous, namely popular sovereignty. Instead of an empowered executive President elected from among the whole people, the most powerful post will be that of the Prime Minister elected almost certainly, from cosmopolitan Colombo.
In the end, the rural heartland of Sri Lanka would have provided the soldiers and the dead in the protracted struggle to liberate the country from Tiger fascism and reunify it, while Colombo would have provided the appeasers and vacillators–and regained real power. A recent photograph of the Prime Minister showed his ponytailed erstwhile Media secretary in the background. It was the same gentleman I recall from another photograph years ago as seated as then Prime Minister Wickremesinghe's representative in the front row of a Pongu Tamil demonstration during the CFA, at which the demonstrators scaled and destroyed the mock-up of the Jaffna High Security Zone. Ranil Wickremesinghe for one has certainly succeeded in 'Regaining Sri Lanka'.
The way the Constitutional changes work is to set up a new loop and circuit of power: the President cannot act except on the advice of the Prime Minister, and must always act on the latter's advice. Ranil Wickremesinghe will emerge as Prime Minister after the election. The SLFP will be in Opposition and will be controlled by President Sirisena who is in turn controlled by the constitutionally reinforced Prime Minister and his ally, ex-President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (who sees herself as Buffy the Vampire Slayer). That will be the new power bloc. Any reader of Leonard Woolf's classic, 'Village in the Jungle' known how British colonialism worked through the system of the Ratey Mahattaya and the Village Headman and what kind of characters they usually were. If the Constitutional changes proposed in the draft document go through, Sri Lanka shall return to an approximation of those dark days. The West will control Sri Lanka through the empowered Ranil Wickremesinghe, who will effectively control the disempowered PresidentSirisena, who will control the SLFP in opposition and will act as a native mask"
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