I do not think that anybody can dispute the fact that the quality of life of people has been increased since the openning of the economy in 1977.

Even with the inflation people enjoy the latest technology, eat good food, have more leisure time, dress in better clothes, have access to better helath facilities etc. thanks to the open economy.

I you had lived under Sirimavo’s ‘socialist’ rule you would undersand what I say. The food rations, bread queues, rice barriers, kerosene smelling clothes, crude brown suger, prohibition of cooking rice in hotels on tuesday and thursday, the power of ‘cooperative manager’, black markets etc are few reminders of Sirimavo’s closed economy.

JRJ did not sart the war. It was the inevitable result of cumulative effects of the policies adopted by all the post-independent Sinhalese Buddhist regimes. JRJ happened to be the leader of the country when the war broke out.

Yes, I agree that he was primarily responsible for Black July. But, in my view, it was not the only or most imporant precursor for the out break of the ethnic war.

All of our leaders since independence were equally responsible for the use of state violence to suppress the opponents in thei own ways. The intensity of the violence may have been different but it was always propotional to the violence of the opponents. In my opinion, the leader’s personality was not reflected by the severity of violence unleashed against their opponents. Therefore, JRJ and Premadasa, under whose regimes a 30,000 (60,000?) or more people were killed during 1987/89 were not fundamentally more vicious than Sirimavo, under whose regime only 10,000 youths were killed.

According to my analysis JRJ is no the only ‘villain’ among our leaders.

I said Chandrika and Premadasa (and MR) were worse than JRJ not in terms of the number of people killed but in terms of the general deterioraton of the quality of the governance.

Sirimavo’s regime with all its problems had a vision to develop the country economically based on the accepted economic model at that time. It is my opinion that the only other leader who had a vision to develop the country was JRJ.

It is a well-known fact that political freedom is inextricably linked to economic development. Western style of democracy will never take a foot hold in 3rd world countries like ours unless the majority is economically emancipated. However, what JRJ did not understand was Sri Lankan public had enjoyed 30 years of democracy with regular elections and had been subjected to utopian socialist ideas more than a half a century by the time he came to power in 1977. He did not realize that Sri Lankan public was fundamentally different from their counterparts in Hongkong, Thaiwan, South Korea, and Singapore. Moreover, he did nto take our ethnic problem into consideration when he laid our his plans for economic progress. That was why he was unable to have become the Sri Lankan Lee Kwan Yu.

The uniqueness of Sri Lankan psyche compared to the other Asian countries, which JRJ could to understand, is amply demonstrated by the kind of opposition they have for the private medical college in Malabe (SAITM) (and had for the PMC in late 80’s). Sri Lanka is the only South Asian country, which does not have private medical colleges.

JRJ failed because he did not appreciation the fact that once it is tasted no one can take away the feeling of freedom very easily.

How MR and his brothers are going to tackle this same issue would be a interesting topic for the coming years.

Nagalingam, do you agree with Nihal Perera that JR Jayawardene was one of the best leaders that Sri Lanka had?

“Wijayapala finally admits Sinhala-Buddhist fundamentalism started the war;”

Could Nihal Perera kindly show where Wije has made that admission?

“in a different thread, Wijayapala was trying to blame the colonialists.”

Wije most certainly blames the British for the ethnic conflict that preceded the war.

“If we look at the evidence carefully, the 1983 riots did not kick the Tamils out of the civil service or prevent them from getting a place in the University.”

Nihal Perera conveniently ignores the fact (or perhaps he doesn’t know at all) that the Tamils who did not get a place in the civil service or university did not join the LTTE. Prabakaran was a school dropout.

“Total rubbish.
UNP @ DEVELOPMENT”

It is sad to see that Nihal Perera could not find any outside sources to substantiate his fantasies about Mahaweli than the UNP, hardly an objective source.

Here is what Asoka Bandarage had to say about Mahaweli and how it failed to help the Sinhalese while dispossessing the Tamils.

PP,

“Everything is connected like links in a chain.”

Apologies for injecting my religious views, but that is not how causality works. The actors in each “link” had the capacity to make decisions and not simply flow along with previous events. In those terms, the overwhelming culpability for the war points to JR and his goons.

“Sirimavo’s economic policy and ‘dictotorial’ tendancy paved the way for JRJ to come to power with thumping majority.”

So in other words, you are (correctly) pointing out that the most far-reaching negative effect of Mrs. B’s rule was bringing the real villain to power?

“The quality of life of all the people increased dramatically.”

Are you really so daft to believe that ordinary people were able to afford all the luxuries you are talking about, especially with the rampant inflation??????

“He did not amassed wealth for him and his family. He did not have a son/grand son as his successor. He did not have his relatives in top government posts.”

None of those change the fact that JR was the leader who started the war.

“Then Premadasa and Chandrika came. Were they better than JRJ? In my opinion they were worse.”

What did either of them do that compares with Black July?

“As long as the public is with them and does not give a damn about what is happening to the country they would run the country as they do now.”

There is a saying that in democracies, the people get the leaders that they deserve.

Hi pitastharaPuthraya,

Unfortunately your “could have been…”, “would have been…” outcomes of a Sarath Fonseka administration are mere imaginations without any evidence. Let’s try to worry about what really happened based on facts. President Rajapaksa passed the 18th emendment allowing him to appoint judges at his discretion. And this was hurried via the back door even without Gazzetting to do the least justice to the voters. These are facts that we should be worried about, than making imaginary accusations on opposition candidates. Maybe a lot of voters became victims of the well organized
fear mongering campaign launched through state media against opposition candidates.

If SF had won that election we whould have been enjoying his style of dictatorship and MR and his brother would have been in jail. If I am to thank MR for anything done after he became president it was his decision to remove SF from power as soon as the war was won. If he had been allowed to continue he would have shown us his true colours. (However, I do not approve his subsequent imprisonment throught seemingly illegal military and civil courts). Although MR (and his brothers) took the decision to ‘demote’ SF to safeguard their own positions the by product of that decision was the postponement of a dictatorial regime for a few more years. However, that joy will not last long as MR and his brothers is slowly changing in to a regime with dictatorial tendencies.

I do not think the Rajapakshas Regime is a dictatorship at the moment because they do not have to. Without being a true dictatorship they are able to run the country with a ‘de facto’ dictatorship. Is there anything that they can not do if they want? The judiciary, AG’s department, Police, PSC, all on their side. Is there any important institution which does not do what they say? Very soon they will change the Sri Lanka Medical Council to suit their needs.

As long as the public is with them and does not give a damn about what is happening to the country they would run the country as they do now. One day when the public is no longer buy their story the will turn their guns towards them and real dictorship would start to show their colours. With no active opposition they would treat the same people who sang hossanna to the ‘King and Princes’ Rajapakshas with same ruthlessness they treated ‘Tamils’, Media, opposition,etc years ago.

I suspect that your wanting to win the argument makes the truth lost in the wilderness.

Everything is connected like links in a chain.

Sirimavo’s economic policy and ‘dictotorial’ tendancy paved the way for JRJ to come to power with thumping majority.

His primary intention was the economic development in Singapore, Thaiwan, South Korea model which is with less decocracy, and rights. He opened the flood gates in 1977. The quality of life of all the people increased dramatically. We tasted Mysoor dhal, tinned fished, white suger, Maldive fish, apple, grapes, sausages, felt the softness of imported clothes, watched TV in the first time of our lives because of his economic policies. Only a few had even a Upali or Unic radio. Fridge was a super luxury.

It is a fact that he extended his term by hoodwink and was unable to extend for a third term because of the JVP problems, situation of the country and his unpopularity. Just before Premadasa’s name was proposed, a senior UNP politicians (Probably it was Wijepala Mendis. I am not sure) proposed JRJ’s name and got the approval of the ‘committee’.

It is my opinion that JRJ misread the general public. If he behaved as a ‘dictator’ it was because he thought that was the ‘shortest’ way to economic development. Singapore, Thaiwan, and South Korea developed under semi-dictatorships. In those countries political freedom came after the economic development. JRJ must have thought it was the correct way.

He was different from the other dictators we know and MR in many ways. He did not amassed wealth for him and his family. He did not have a son/grand son as his successor. He did not have his relatives in top government posts. He used an old Jaguar and lived in his old bunglow in Ward place.

However, his way of governance created many firsts, which his sucessors imitated with glee to date. Treatment of 1980 strikers, interfereing with judiciary, government behaviour during 1983 black july, banishing the TULF from the parliament, Sirimavo’s civil rights, are few of them.

When the flood gates were opened in 1977 people were able to be rich with many hitherto unforeseen ways. Some of them, who were uneducated, uncultured bullies with tendency for thuggery showed interested in politics. The killing of the British tourist in Tangalle was done by a politician, who should be able to trace his ancestory to that post 1977 generation.

Then Premadasa and Chandrika came. Were they better than JRJ? In my opinion they were worse.

MR came to power on a different platform. Patriotism as opposed to economic development. Logically he should be worse than his predecessors. Is he? yes definitely?

It is my assumption the way we progress on this downhill path we should end up with a dictatorship very soon. The closest we got was the last presidential election. If SF had won it probably we would be enjoying a dictatorship todsy. If I am to thank for MR for anything it was his decision to scrap all SF’s ambitions to be t

Nihal Perera

Thank you, for the witty write ups here.

It’s your thoughts that are important in a debate not a few grammatical mistakes 🙂

What not registering means to different people isn’t what we’re discussing; we’re discussing what it means in the case of SF, a presidential candidate, and it was you that brought up this point. If it has no specific meaning, why did you bring it up?

Since you say that “registering to vote is highly unlikely to be insignificant”, I assume that you mean it is highly likely to have been significant. So what is that significance? You claim it shows a lack of interest in politics; and yet the man was a presidential candidate. Are you saying that a man running for the highest office in the land is uninterested in politics??? Does this even make sense to you?

If the “mawbimey pomeranian” is not a registered voter, that’s his business; he isn’t trying to be president; just the presidential lapdog. Such individuals garner the vote for their party leaders, not for themselves; unlike SF.

For it to desert him, it would have had to be present at some point in the past 😀