Leader of the Opposition in the Matara Municipal Council
It has been a year since the President became President. He will come to power with a large number of votes, that is, with a large number of Sinhala votes. His main theme was Creating a Disciplined Country and Efficient Governance. What is your opinion about the current situation as a regional leader
I think the people of our country did not have a clear understanding of democracy and discipline. They called discipline as holding a stick in one’s hand but discipline is managing one’s own life and guiding oneself. The previous government of good governance could not tell this to the society.
This gave President Gotabhaya an opportunity to build a disciplined society. It is a very good process. But looking at the past year, the villagers have realized that this is nonsense. A disciplined Sri Lanka has not been able to maintain the rule of law. When it comes to enforcing the law fairly for all, we now see that they are just deceptive stories. At present it seems that the law is being implemented fairly for only one party. With these slogans he made many promises to the people. But now the people have chosen that they are just a promise.
In passing the 20th Amendment, this government said that power should be given to a single man to build the country. Accordingly, by now they have gained power ..
Accumulation of power by a single man is not something that happened yesterday, the Rajapaksas used politics to concentrate power around themselves every day. They told various stories such as Maharaja Gemunu, because of this people believed that an individual should have power. Also, people thought that we needed a ruler to make progress. Lee Kwan often talked about Singapore. People were easily caught in this development illusion. Pohottu politics did this in a subtle way. Eventually this idea sank into the public mind. It can be seen from the election results.
Not only did the people form a President with a majority Sinhala power, they also created a Parliament with a mandate of nearly two thirds. The people gave this power to work. Have a good life. In the end, they got a president who could not control the price of rice. By now everyone has realized that nothing has been hoped for. Also, the suppression of covid can be done easily by giving power to the municipal councils and pradeshiya sabhas but this process has been further complicated by the process of concentrating power by the government.
Today it is being talked about internationally that Sri Lanka is in a debt trap with China. In this situation, your opinion about Sri Lanka becoming a Chinese colony.
Talking about this, it is to be said that the present government has entangled the country in a endless trouble. It seems that we are floating here and there blindly behind the Sino-Indian-American power struggle. If we do not manage this situation properly we will not only fall into a huge debt trap but we will have to divide the country into pieces and give it to China and India in exchange for not being able to repay them.