Comments on: UNP victory in Colombo Municipal Council: A Political Economy of the Numerics https://groundviews.org/2011/10/16/unp-victory-in-colombo-municipal-council-a-political-economy-of-the-numerics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=unp-victory-in-colombo-municipal-council-a-political-economy-of-the-numerics Journalism for Citizens Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:49:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: dinuk https://groundviews.org/2011/10/16/unp-victory-in-colombo-municipal-council-a-political-economy-of-the-numerics/#comment-37936 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 01:49:01 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=7792#comment-37936 Please, please keep things simple and avoid the jargon. IN many ways this article goes nowhere and is a waste of time when there is need for serious analysis of a non-vacuous and verbose kind since
something is deeply rotten in Lanka and it is the Rajapakse regime, whose stink is now unbearable. Last week the Urban Development Authority was brought under the Defense Ministry as a means of justifying the increase of the Defense Ministry budget in 2012 – more than two years after the end of the war in May 2009, and in the context of mounting civil society opposition to the overt militarization of every aspect of governance, education and civic life in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan government has allocated the highest amount, nearly 230 billion rupees, of expenditure to the newly organized Ministry of Defence and Urban Development in the 2012 Appropriation Bill that was presented to the parliament by the Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne for its first reading.

It is now incumbent on civil society and opposition parties in Sri Lanka in order to save democracy in the country from the Rajapakse regime, that there be a broad Rainbow Coalition formed to oppose the take over of the UDA by the Defense Ministry, which has no concept of urban development and planning and is in fact systematically de-developing local govt bodies and institutions which are the real measure of sustainable development. The UNP and Muzzamil who is the Mayor of Colombo the country’s biggest city must NOT support the Defense Ministry in its so-called development plan in Colombo. The current Mayor MUST start a aatyagraha against Gotabaya and the take over of the Urban Development Authority.
The renaming and coupling of the Defense Ministry with Urban Development must be opposed. Sadly, however Muzzamil is Ranil’s pet and Ranil needs Rajapakse’s support to remain as leader of the opposition so they have agreed to work with the Defense Ministry. This is ABSURD and the UNP members must start the revolution against Ranil to get rid of him. We need a two ponged strategy at this time The time to rescue DEMOCRACY in Lanka from the powers that be.
According to the government, the total expenditure for 2012 is estimated at Rs. 2.22 trillion (US$ 20 billion) necessitating an increase in Recurrent Expenditure from Rs.1. 029 trillion in 2011 to Rs.1.109 trillion in 2012, and the Capital Expenditure from Rs.938 billion to Rs.1.111 trillion.
The murder of Bhratha Luxman by the monitoring Minister of the Defense Duminda Silva has shown the extent of the dis-functionality of the Defense Ministry and the fact that the only terrorism in town is State Terrorism and the need to reduce rather than extend the influence of the Defense establishment increasingly under a pall due to the Rajapakse regime’s refusal to even consider investigating credible allegations of war crimes during the conflthe Rajapakses and Wickramasinghe. The Rajapakses are thugs as CBK put it but Gotabaya once had a banner “Gotabaya the great” on Dharmapala Mawatha in Colombo 7 and he fancies himself king of Colombo – what a joker. He is Gotabaya the Goon whose ministry is monitored by brain dead Kudu Duminda Silva chef suspect in the Murder of Baratha Luxman.
Sri Lankans must now speak up in one voice – Gotabaya Rajapake who is out of control and cutting down Colombo’s tree canopy among other crimes needs to be sent back to the US to face a war crimes trial! Let us rescue the UDA from him at least and oppose the attempt to rename the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development.

]]>