Comments on: Reflections on the Underlying Issues that Determine the Outcome of the Election: Who has got the Edge?

By: Groundtruth

Groundtruth — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:06:34 +0000

At great stake really is the future of a destroyed democracy. It is so easy to destroy but rebuilding will prove tough and challenging. Acions, not words, are what can help build it back. Neither of the two leading candidates nor any of the other 20 candidates talk specifically of democracy because there are several accompanying features like justice, rule of law, security of persons and property, freedoms, rights etc. It is a long, long haul. From what one reads and hears it is: who won the war,the north-east merger and so on, which are contentious thet prevails. On the SF side he has placed high priority on checking corruption which is much needed. Some threads on economic development are beginning to surface which is positive. However the recent electoral violence is hardly a comforting thought in the contexct of a democratic free and fair election.

By: Shanthy

Shanthy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:20:27 +0000

The sinhalese suffered as much as the tamils but for different reason

The Sinhala speaking people have been suffering from their own stupidity of having elected the wrong leaders and wrong parties for wrong reasons. The political Anagarikas dominated the Sri lankan society for the past 100 years whose only agenda has been to make Sri lanka a narrowly defined monolithic Sinhala/Buddhist country.

The Political Anagarikas including the JVP, NFF JHU and a plethora of pressure groups lead by Safron clad anti people political elements continue to champion for a nation which has already lost its purpose for its existence. The country is not fit for purpose as its focus is and purpose is to make itself a Sinhala/Buddhist state and continue to alienate its people including Sinhala Speaking Christians.

People should be free to live wherever they choose to make their homes. The only problem is the states determination to make the whole of the country a monolithic Sinhala/Buddhist state and it continue to do so with a venom since the decimation of LTTE under the guise of development. State sponsored colonisation amounts to land grab from the very people the state is supposed to protect.

There cannot be and will not be a monolithic Sinhala/Buddhist state in Sri Lanka. Globalisation forces ensured the demise of LTTE so will be the monolithic Sinhala/Buddhist state.

Had the Sinhala/Buddhist and safron clad politicians who held sway of the state realised that the country belongs to all people and the people have a shared 2,500 years history there was no need for the Sinhalese to suffer.

It was not the Tamil people who elected the government but the Sinhalese who were enticed by the Sinhala/Buddhist politicians. Therefore it is only reasonable for you to blame the Sinhalese. When the Sinhala Speaking people express their collective will through ballot box they should think twice before they caste their votes. For they are the people who deside which way the country is going to move, forward or backwards. Since the independence from Colonialism in Sri Lanka, the majority Sinhala Speaking people have been repeatedly hood winked by the crooks by appealing to their cheap, narrow nationalistic senses. The people who voted for their leaders have never able to see beyond their noses.

Therefore they should have expected what they were going to reap.

By: jayathilaka

jayathilaka — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:34:13 +0000

Sri lanka is well behind the other nations in the worl.when ther is a presidential election in other countries the voters can listen to useful debates on crucial issues by the presidential candidates unfortunately in Sri lanka we are compelled to hear about just mud slinging and news on breaking of election laws,violence etc,etc,

By: Daya

Daya — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:52:45 +0000

For weeks now I have been telling four or five people every day that they can register their dissatisfaction with the two “War Heroes” by giving FIRST and SECOND Preferences to “minor candidates” who have exhibited principled consistency in their actions.

My assessment is that fewer than 10% of the voters are aware that it is possible for them to vote for the “Hero” they fear less AFTER demonstrating that they would prefer an honest man who steered clear of enthusiastically supporting the culture of violence that has dominated public life for years.

Last night I heard one such candidate addressing the nation around 7.0 p.m. on the “Eye Channel” of Government T.V. The 90 year old (sic) Mr Suraweera spoke well. Listen for others on the same Channel, same time. They are entitled to half an hour, but you may tune in today to a Tamil telecast which you cannot understand. Then try tomorrow.

Candidates to look out for are Dr Wickremabahu Karunaratne, Siritunga Jayasuriya, Wije Dias and U.B. Wijekoon. They have widely different political ideologies, but have one thing in common: decency