| by Vijitha Herath MP
( January 6, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The judiciary has given a very bold decision that the Parliamentary Select Committee has no judicial power. The attempt by the government to take measures for the Rajapaksa family to plunder more than Rs.55,000 million in Samurdhi Banks has boomeranged against it. The boomerang aimed at the Chief Justice by the government in a rage for hindering the ‘Divi Neguma’ bill has boomeranged on it. The judgment is a reflection of it.
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The government, using its executive and legislative powers, confronted the judiciary thinking it could intimidate the judiciary. However, the judiciary, ignoring Rajapaksas’ arrogance decided that the kangaroo court set up by the government to investigate the Chief Justice was not legal. There is no doubt that this judgment would enter the history of this country as a verdict that sharpens and strengthens the struggle of the masses for justice and fair play.
Another political development has taken place within this crisis. The UNP that pretended to be the main opposition has become a lap dog of the Rajapaksas. It has become a bankrupt party that repeats what the government says or says what the government intends saying. The UNP that has been unable to comprehend the sinister political aim of the government would have to share the political dustbin with the government in the very near future.
It is no secret that the whole of Sri Lanka and its people consisting of Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, Malay and other communities are confronted with the worst consequences of a very serious social, economic and political crisis.
The cost of living is becoming unbearable due to the increase in prices of essential consumer items. The salaries of more than 6 million state and private employees have not increased relative to the inflation while income of those in business sector has come down. Further the general public is economically stressed due to the increase in fares of electricity, water and transport. Also, allowing multi-national companies to gobble down the economy has resulted in the breaking down of local industries and businesses.
The crime rate that is going up daily indicates that the society is moving towards a massive era of intolerance. It is under such circumstances that mothers jump to rivers stating they are unable to bring up their children and whole families commit suicide unable to pay up their debts. Anyone would know through his or her daily experiences that there is a breakdown in values that should exist in a society.
In the political sector there is an attempt by the executive and the legislature to subjugate the judiciary, the last hope of the masses for justice and one of the pillars of democracy. Anyone would pose the question whether the Rajapaksa regime that has been forced into a probationary period by the adoption of a resolution at the UNHRC is carrying out such activities in a mentally deranged state. For, anyone could see government’s idiotic behavior as a continuation of its senseless acts of the past. This is none other than an invitation for imperialist forces that are active against our country on the pretext of the past history of this idiotic regime to interfere.
Despite so much risk and perilous environment at present, the government doesn’t seem to learn any lessons from what has been happening. Instead, the government is in a deep coma regarding the calamity that jeopardizes the whole country and the future generations. It is said that bears in cold countries go through a period of hibernation during winter. They do not take any food during this period and are not aware of anything that occurs around them.
The doubt exists that the government has moved into hibernation regarding the tendency to raise its ugly head of inciting communalist and religious clashes. For, there is no move by the government to indicate it is aware of or intends taking action regarding this tendency that is unrolling through various incidents that are manipulated by interested parties daily.
The government may be silent as various groups affiliated to the government are behind such communalist and religious provocations. The government also may be calculating that other issues created by it or ones that it is responsible for could be swept under the carpet under the veil of these tendencies. However, the ‘deadly solutions’ sought by the government would have dragged the society towards a massive calamity when the government comes out of its pseudo hibernation. It is unclear why the government has not been able to recognize this ‘fatality’ even after the bitter experiences of a 30-year separatist war.
No one should forget how the path for a separatist war was paved by the instigation of Sinhalese – Tamil communalism in the past and the creation of ethnic conflicts and clashes periodically. It is the innocent Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim public that had to suffer due to the separatist war and not those who sowed the communalist seeds to gain power. A large number of human lives were lost due to the war and assets that were destroyed are colossal. It is no secret how India and imperialist foreign forces and countries made use of the separatist war to interfere in internal affairs of our country. It was responsible for the invasion by Indian forces in 1980 and at present imperialist forces are making the same separatist war a reason to interfere in the affairs of the country.
As the burden of such a calamity will have to be borne by the whole society, people of all religions should take measures not to allow any religious extremism to raise its ugly head and also defeat the knavish behavior of the government that holds ‘night races’ and plunges in casino games. Any act in a manner that would create clashes and conflicts among communities instead of recognizing the real issues that are before us would only be advantageous to the rulers and reactionary forces but not to the masses. The intention of such petty maneuvers is to blot out the real issues and also protect the real offenders.
What is needed today is to write a new political chapter. It is necessary to defeat the government that has taken an undemocratic path, the groups and parties that conceal its despotic rule by drawing the attention of the masses elsewhere and the UNP that is ‘living together’ with the Rajapaksas, and pave the way for politics that would build a lucid land, a just society and an independent man.
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