I agree though that there is a lot to be said for getting rid of a grasping family that drain the country’s financial resources without contributing much in the way of good governance.

But if you replaced them with someone who was as used to absolute obedience as a military General, there is no guarantee that the rule of law would be enshrined, the executive presidence would be abolished, extra-judicial killings would end, or human rights would be respected. And you could just have a new family or bunch of friends grabbing the best cabinet posts.

Pakistan and China are two countries where the military seem to have fingers in many pies, and close links to government. I’m not sure they are the sort of state many democrats would like to see here in Sri Lanka.

The tragedy of this election is that one of the two leading candidates had to win… It’s hard to say whether the devil we know very well will be any worse or better than the one we don’t know quite so well.

The nation cannot forget both the positive and negative contributions of the UNP and SLFP over the years – if you look at political violence and how it started we must go back to SWRD who unleashed Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism only to fall a victim to it 3 years later … Then the 1971 insurgency made our State accustomed to the idea of killing our own citizens and to becoming more and more authoritarian. JR gave this structural stability. Prabhakaran pushed us to the very bottom. Today the state has learnt a few things off Prabha’s book in punishing dissent and making police violence a norm.

My point is that we cannot allow any one party or individual to dominate us – the more we are forced to choose A or B the more we continue to maintain this trend. So my point – and this is very important – is not to oppose your point but to affirm it and also add the point that every bullet you strike the UNF with can also be shot at the UPFA also. There are 2 ways of conversing. One is to oppose. The other is to affirm and add something more. The more we can do this in this forum the better – because the truth is a paradox and it includes both the UNP and the SLFP and of course all the other view points as well.

Where does this leave us? I think we must continue to criticize ourselves and others and continue to struggle in a spirit of cooperation and total respect to all parties and view points. There will always be oppositional and confrontational viewpoints. But the time has come to move beyond these. Your pointing to past violence and a failure to atone for this is a general issue. Both sides are culpable for both violence and deceit and neither side has really come clean with either. This is all part of our make believe republic and party politics which makes us choose between the father and mother.

Ultimately we need them both and we must keep trying to knock sense and honesty into both. We can only do this if we stop playing their dualistc game and speak out with balance, restraint and love. If the strongest thing in the country is either MR or SF we are all very weak. But if there is a moral jurisdiction that can become equally strong then we can challenge this monopoly.

wish you all a peaceful holiday

WHY ?

> They have committed acts of terror for political power.
>They have tried to or killed political leaders
>They support violence as an option to democratic politics
>They do not tolerate opposing views
>They harbour evil, jealous thoughts to those who are economically better whlist the LTTE- Tamils harbour evil thoughts towards whole Sinhala Nation of people.
>Rohana Wijeweera supported the Tamils Rights for a special territory in the North and the East and then changed his mind when he could not convince them.
>Both hate those who have what they really want…..But mislead the masses saying they do want something different…BOTH WANT ABSOLUTE POWER.

>UNP committed acts of violence against Tamils, Sinhalese from the the period 1983-1990. For what >>>To be in power…..

>>>What about J.R.Jayawardena’s referendum to extend the parliament and the presidency>>>>IS THIS BLOODY DEMOCRACY….WHERE WAS RANIL WICKRAMASINGHE during this time……..

THIS ALLIANCE OF UNP, JVP,TNA,SLMC: Is the representation of the POLITICAL CANCER IS SRI LANKA that has stopped our nation from going forward.

THE BIRDS’ OF FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER…YOU ARE 100% correct, well done congratulations to you the author, bravo

You know that Rajini Thiranagama later turned against the LTTE and became its greatest critic, only to be brutally gunned down in 1988?

How have you risked your life to oppose the LTTE?

I did not make public criticism when Chandrika worked with the JVP in her government.
I do not have to aplogise for my wife’s politics.It does not work in that way. We are adults we take our own political decisions.
You say my analysis on the JVP is biased.The only thing the JVP has to do is to accept the political responsibility for their violent past that they killed so many left activists , other innocent people and political leaders including Vijaya Kumartunga and and promise that they will not do these kind of assassinatons again.This is not much to expect from a democratic party .

I have no partisan loyalities .I am not not under any political pressure to support the UNF or the UPFA. I am not in the SLFP (M). Chandrika is the National Organiser of the SLFP(M) . Secondly I do not belong to any political dynasty in Sri Lanka.I am an ordinary guy.I .Because of this I have had a very different political history. I take political desicions on the basis of my experience.Therefore ,I am wise enough to understand that our political leadrs since independence have given us a failed democracy where the exclusion of national minorites from the political process has become the norm. The basic democratic freedoms of the people are suppressed.This will continue under the UNF. That is why I consider that the UNF will be a greater danger to our democracy on the basis of the historical repressive nature of the party histories in the UNF . Some of our people want to trust political leaders and consider that they are wiser than poor us but they never deliver. They deliver more and more repression and the culture of impunity. If you think you can break the UNF rule I wish you good luck.Unless we make our people aware that they are wiser than our political leadrs we will never win democracy.

Dayapala
Are you wiser than Chandrika?

We have to move from known dander to (? ) unknown danger.
You can break the UNF rule, but not the extended family rule of Mahinda.