The Doctoral Thesis

The doctor's porsche cayenne. My car, my petrol, my president, country, etc., etc, 'Ouch!'

Yesterday was the day the woodpecker decided to have a go at the banana bush. Got entangled, beaten up and dyed as well. At last the people have got hold of one of the biggest thugs in history. One of the dirty thugs of the ruling party got it and nicely.

If this was a honorable country, as it is much falsely reputed to be, the first time the guy did anything like this he'd have gotten in jail and treated like the common thug and tried properly. But being Sri Lanka, there's a thousand and one ways for people like this to elude the rule of law and get the slip, and boast about it as well later. But this time it all got foiled. Where the judiciary and the executive were failing to take action, the commoner took. It was a big mistake to go into Rupavahini Corporation and beat up a director, and a big bravo, hurrah and hallelujah goes for everyone at SLRC that took part in it: but I daresay that big trouble will follow regarding this is SRI Lanka.
There's a second part to it. We all know the attributes of governments of Paradise Island, just to consist of people ike this. The president has one final, absolutely last and THE last chance to show the people what stuff he and his government are made of. If it was proper, the firing letter would've left the presidential secretariat well within yesterday. So far doesn't look like it, and I don't expect, too. This is the government of the thugs’ n thieves, elected by them in corruption and governed by them, so Sri Lanka doesn't have any hope left for justice, unless the people catch them like this and become the judiciary even to get fired later. Just think of the Peter Hill drama.

Mervyn will go home spitting filth, wash, shower up, perhaps watch his toes with his hands behind his back at Temple Trees, file a rights petition for getting beaten, make batches get fired at SLRC, while his friends at SLFP delay and make forgotten the party inquiry against him. Another bomb, another match, a coupla price and tax hikes to fund Mahinda, and everything will be forgotten.

And the good Doctor will continue to thug around happily.

"I Can't Filter Out the Terrorist!"

Yesterday I was watching evening news and was greeted by Parliamentary chaos over the Tamil arrest scene last Sunday. The Tamil representatives were outraged stating that a large number of Tamil citizens were being held in custody, sometimes with children, while they had full papers of identification and reasons of stay. But the most interesting one statement was made by a governing parliamentarian defending the issue: "If you can explain out who is LTTE and who isn't, we'll release them in 24 hours".

Now this asks for thinking. Does this mean that the government and the forces are still operating on the assumption that 'Tamil = LTTEer'? Well that was the situation in the mass deportation which happened last June. The people were simply deported without concrete evidence, which was echoed by the successful and unchallenged Supreme Court order reversing the deportation. Of course, if the police forces had concrete evidence that they were LTTE operatives, then arrest and press charges. Then they'd have been able to challenge the court decision even Just deportation of Sri Lanka's own citizens is simply outrageous.

It has been crystal clear whatever the GOSL is saying about its military operation in the NorthEast, it has been very lapse on the southern security. Almost all major targets in Colombo were unashamedly been attacked since the start of insurgencies, and the best the government can do is simply choke the south with massive and useless road checks once something happens, and let everything be forgotten in a matter of weeks before start trumpeting about NorthEasteren military operations [and blaming everything from cost of living to the size of the Cabinet over it]. The GOSL forces are simply at a loss of finding out and thwarting LTTE undercover operations in south. By current developments what we can see is either they can put a majority of the southern Tamil population behind bars, or let the bombs go on. To echo the government's own words, the southern security situation is utterly lapse. I seriously doubt if the LTTE aircraft were to infiltrate into Colombo skies once more, there's anything much more the air force can do than the two previous times. We need a better structured defense plan down here, not just stupid policemen who cannot even properly thwart a bomb threat or evacuate the scene properly after an incident as demonstrated about a week back, not to mention identifying the terrorist from the Tamil.

The government is very vocal about the country having a terrorist problem which is solvable via a military approach. If anybody in the government had even a little bit of brains, they should've noticed that almost 100% of the terrorists are Tamil. In fact, they 'cannot even distinguish who's the terrorist and who isn't', as was admitted in Parliament yesterday. There definitely is a problem about it. If almost all the LTTE are Tamil [well any stupid idiot knows], then surely there's something deeper than "a simple terrorist problem", isn't it?

The LTTE are terrorists and shit, there's no doubt about it. They should be destroyed as much as that was their choice; they thwarted peace efforts every time. But there should be a distinction between the Tamil citizen and the terrorist, an absence of which the current GOSL actions seem to show. Unless more care is practiced, there'll be a time when there indeed IS NO such distinction. Such times may be the ones the real LTTE is eagerly looking forward to.

In short, the GOSL need a broader perspective on the problem definitely. As well as a true pointed military approach to destroy terrorism [not one which is just there to justify every shit going on in the country, the president personally did it in Parliament], an elite and intelligence-based long sighted southern defense plan, we need a solution to the fact that 'every LTTEr is a Tamil'. That's what would complete a true mission to end this chaos.

On a happier term, I also heard last evening that the Supreme Court has outlawed permanent search barriers [i hope it includes utterly useless, traffic-choking road checks] and VIP road-choking at ruch hour. Thank goodness, there are some people in the country with sense.

Reaping the Choice

So here we are, going about our usual business along a sunny, seemingly usual morning, just cause we didn't get shaven by yesterday's department-store bomb. We’ve been lucky, and heaven knows, as things are, for how long. Life has hit record time uncertainty on the paradise island.

This, of course, is our own choice. Ours means the majority (something like of 51-2%). We've chosen this path of violence, this path of all-out war, this path of 'crushing-it-out' in 2005. We had a clear choice between a better option [of course, relatively], and this. Simply, Sri Lankans have sowed the wind, and are now reaping the whirlwind, so is to say.

I’m not saying that a UNP executive government would have been a godsend. Of course, you and I have lived in paradise for long enough to understand that the thief is the thief regardless whether he's blue or green in color. But honestly, we had a selection between a country torn apart and broke by war, and a better choice, where the government would seek a solution by staying on a higher plane than terrorism, an economy where it would make sense to bank my money for future security, and a place where we could work towards a hopeful future. But now it's too late, we've made the selection, and we're doomed.

This will not be the first. We are returning to the era of rush hour bombs, targeting civilians. And we seem to think that the solution is also a rush hour bomb, a bit higher up the country. This way, no almighty would be able to stop the country from tearing apart. This ain't a problem to be solved by street thugs and Dons: time had long come for solving this problem via intelligence.

As a Sri Lankan who hopes for a future in this country, not an unthinkable expatriate one, i need a country to be in. A home to come back. A place to return and stay. Until now we had it, albeit sometimes 'almost'. SL, what ever troubles she had, was one pf the best places, perhaps the best, home, for people like us in the whole world. But now it seems like her end is nigh. She’s been torn apart by the pack of wolves she has been entrusted into by her own children. I only hope that this is hallucination, a bad dream, from which I’d be able to wake up ASAP and sigh a breather.

But it won't come by just sitting along.

freedom of choice

how many more?

I can't believe that Sri Lankans are this mad. We had a peace process. We had it under control. People died less. At least we had a sane man's way outta this melee where everyone had to have a real big reason not to participate. We had a way to save the country.

But the public, maybe apparently, opted out. They voted for a goverment and a president whom they, with certainity, knew would abandon the peace process. Perhaps the option wasn't apparent. Or they got away with the 'Peace with Honor' badge, where the real analogy should've been a parent trying to take the knife away from her 5-year old who's having a tantrum. An un-ignorable majority of Sri Lankans seem to believe that 'crush'em out' would bring a viable solution to this problem. In that they've earned themselves an utterly unstable and insecure present, and for their children, a total loss of hope. Not to mention the millions the warmongers earn though the exchange..

Clearly, this has to stop. We can't wait foir another 6 or 12 years or sometimes, 'forever' as they predict. Do we wait for saner decisions til we have to wheelbarrow rupees to buy bread? We have been doing this for years and surely the government can not hope for 'total annihilation'. If they truly believe it, then they're a bunch of fools themselves (yes they are), which I believe not. I believe they know this sure wouldn't end this way, but know it'd provide an eternal excuse to keep doing whatever they're doing as of presence. Easy, isn't it? We're at war. This is Emergency. Simple as that.

Sri Lanka has made some darn mistakes but none like the ones made in the last public elections. They've literally selected between war and peace, and now it is destroying the country. Yeah, there are factors like the 'liberated East' cause. But I'd like to see how many of our MPs would like to take a vacation in the Liberated East, let alone the public.

In short, Sri Lanka need drastic action. The sane public should urge the government for alternate solutions, but I don't think these fools can be convinced. Like they want to. It just sucks that Sri Lanka had done so much so for a proper solution, only to see it all go down in vain. If we go on like this.