Character Assasination

In 2005 when the then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse was elected the President, the  Reuter  and the Western Media wrote,  the “hawkish” Prime Minister of Sri Lanka has been elected as the President.

From the beginning the West went all out to discredit the President Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka.  The West even supported the terrorists and did every thing they can to stop the Sri Lanka Armed Forces eliminate the ruthless terrorism from Sri Lanka.  The President Mahinda Rajapakse  who was determined to end terrorism, stood unmoved like a rock in the face of the  manoeuvrings by the International Community, until the last of the terrorists was eliminated.

The failure of the International Community to save the terrorists is the present incessant activities by Western Governments to discredit the government of Sri Lanka and putting the Tamils against the government, accusing it  for violation of human rights.  Some of the Ambassadors of the Western Countries such as USA and UK have become spies looking for evidence to accuse the Government and its Armed Forces for violation of the human rights of the Tamil people.

It is sad in the light of the foreign enemies of  the President and his Government, there are also the Sinhala politicians( leaving aside the Tamil politicians) carrying on a campaign of character assassination against the President and his government.

In Sri Lanka character assassination is more a Sinhala Buddhist trend.  The Tamils do not indulge in it, nor do the Muslims. At the present moment there are all types of accusations of corruption. 

Of course corruption should be condemned but it is a virus that cannot be removed  overnight. In Buddhism it is said that root course  of human suffering lies in desire , craving and attachment (lobha), aversion, hatred, anger and jealousy(dosa), and delusion of a self(moha). Hence there is corruption not only in politics, but also in other human  activities.

Now it is more of the Sinhala diaspora that is resorting to character assassination of the President.  Some of  them like the Colombo elitists are more for the UNP representing the capitalist class.  They even make  out that the President is an undemocratic person out to take revenge from his opponents.

But the President has not resorted to mudslinging at his opponents as they do against him.

But  despite corruption the President and his government  is accused of , the President and his government has carried out a considerable amount of  work to develop the country in all its aspects.  This President did not only bring peace to the country after 30 years of suffering, but developed its infrastructure to an unprecedented level.  Those projects  he has accomplished will remain to benefit  generations of Sri Lankans.  Governing is not an easy task, when one section of the population is satisfied there is the other that is not.

Some projects such as the Mattala International Airport, and Hambantota Harbour may not show immediate profit but they are for gains in the future.  The future generations will be thankful that there was a man with a great foresight to have accomplished such great tasks.

In India there is a city called Fatehpur Sikri a great city construct by the Mughal Emperor Akhbar.  But later he had to abandon it for lack of water. To day it stands a well preserved city visited by thousands of tourists.

But Mattala Airport and the Hambantota Harbour  will not have the same fate as they are commercial constructions and will not remain empty but would one day be jewels of commercial construction in the Sothern city of Hambantota.

The last Government of which Ranil Wickramasinghe was the Prime Minister was also accused for corruption. He was the one who signed the CAF causing immense problems to the people of Sri Lanka.  He satisfied the whims and fancies of the terrorists at the command of  Eric Solheim.  R.Premadasa armed the terrorists.  But Mahinda Rajapakse cannot be put amoung them.

Can the people expect a corrupt free regime under Ranil Wickramasinghe ?

Mahinda Rajapakse is a man of determination. He would not hesitate to fight against the enemies of the country from within or from outside. He was accused of bribing the terrorist, misappropriation of tsunami funds.  He was accused of nepotism and promoting his cronies. 

Yet the President  went forward with his determination to end the suffering of the people under terrorism. 

Often we  tend to believe that the persons we like and take into our confidence  are honest. We trust them and give them responsibilities, but when they turn out to be unworthy hypocrits we are blamed for trusting them and giving them responsibilities.  That is what has happened to the President. He cannot therefore be blamed for the errors committed by others. 

The President has given responsibilities to persons he trusted would carry out the functions allotted them correctly.  He has done that in the military operations against the terrorists.  He handed over the responsibility of the elimination of terrorists to  the Defence Secretary and the Armed Forces and occupied only the political aspect of  the military operations.  It was a success because he could trust the Defence Secretary to be honest and carry out the responsibilities given to him.  That is where nepotism paid to get results from the military operations against the terrorists.

Even then the Defence Secretary was accused of various malpractices which were not proved against him.  Hence the people will accuse the President whether there is reason or not.

There are accusations of tender procedures where the Ministers interfere to accept bids preferred by them. These are matters that should be brought to the knowledge of the President instead of spreading them as rumours to tarnish the good name of the President.   The President cannot be every where surveying the actions of every Ministry and Department .  It is the duty of those to whom responsibilities have been given to carry them out.

If the President were to remove every one against whom accusations are made all the development projects may come to a stand still.  In the circumstances he has to follow a more diplomatic attitude to see that the Government activities continue providing benefits to the people.

Recently a young man who had won the trust and confidence of the President misbehaved in a foreign country assaulting a Sri Lankan diplomat. May be the President had made a mistake in the choice of the monitoring MP for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but the incident should not be made another issue to tarnish the name of the President.  Human behaviour is incomprehensible.

No where in the world the University students manifests as they do in Sri Lankan Universities.  It will not be surprising if that too may be put against the President .

The Tamil people of the North has been endowed for the first time with the chance to elect their representatives into a  Provincial Council.  But  those who had the chance to get elected and serve the people as Councillors are instead going all out to get separated from the Government and work for the setting up of a separate Tamil Provincial Council, ignoring to perform their duties  for the welfare of the people who elected them.

The President Mahinda Rajapakse from the time he was elected was determined to unite the different Communities in Sri Lanka to make a nation of them. Despite the constant obstacles that have been put in front of him  the President has nevertheless  not deviated from his resolve to unite the people and take the country towards progress and property.

Sri Lanka has had the good fortune to have elected Mahinda Rajapakse as the President, without which Sri Lanka would have never seen the unimaginable development that is taking place in Sri Lanka today.

His opponents make him out to be the reason for all the corruption they claim there is in Sri Lanka, but nevertheless no other President would have had the determination to go forward to develop Sri Lanka which a few years ago was unimaginably poor and destitute and dependent on small handouts from the West.

Sri Lanka has reached a very high level of democracy, and freedom such that any body is able to make any type of accusations against the President , his government and the Armed Forces  with impunity.

The President and his government are accused for White Van kidnappings, disappearance of journalists, communal confrontation in Aluthgama, shooting in Weliweriya.  Any thing is good if there is an element to destroy the credibility and  tarnishing the reputation of the President.

This character assassination  continues in such large measures that one would think, what Sri Lanka needs today is not an executive President but a Dictator.