Moving to Monkocracy in Lanka

Many supporters of Rajapaksa governance have begun to turn away from this family leadership in national governance.

Amidst the hugely rising cost of living – or will it soon be the cost of dying – there is also the issue of One Country, One Law that is pushing the political swing.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned home from Glasgow, Scotland, where he told the world about his great new thinking on governance in Sri Lanka.

He told world leaders at COP26 that Sri Lanka recently “restricted the imports of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and weedicides due to public health concerns, water contamination, soil degradation, and biodiversity impacts; and that although opposed by entrenched lobbies, this has created opportunities for innovation and investment into organic agriculture that will be healthier and more sustainable in future.”

He certainly did not tell the world about the crisis that farmers, consumers, householders, small traders and businessmen, and workers face in the country. There was a total presidential silence on what exactly the country is facing due to his restriction of imports of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and weedicides, and other non-democratic moves of his Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour or Saubhagye Dekma.

One Country, One Law thinking, which was certainly the traditional political thinking in Sri Lanka, has now moved to a totally new concept – having nothing to do with one country or one law. President’s strongest supporters – among those writing to the media too, are displaying major confusion, as well as an unlikely confrontation with the Rajapaksa politics of today.

The showcase of this Gotabaya thinking is the appointment of Galabodaaththe Gnanasara Thera to work out the legal thinking and structure of One Country, One Law. The questions that arise in the minds of most people, including many Gotabaya backers at whatever cost, is how this person, although draped in a yellow robe of sanctity, honour and respect, could be even considered suitable for such a position, and where such leadership will take the country and people.

What even Gnanasara Thera’s strong supporters, in his calls for Sinhala – Buddhist unity, have been forced to admit what they call his berserk behaviour that landed him in prison for contempt of court, the threat in court premises to the wife of ‘missing’ journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, and also his association with the clashes between Buddhists and Muslms in Beruwala and Aluthgama in the South. His recent verbal attacks on Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and Catholics on calls for more serious probes, and punishing those who planned and directed the Easter Sunday carnage, also brought him to the spotlight in recent months.

None of this was seen by President Gotabaya or any of his politically leading brothers, Mahinda, Basil, Chamal, in appointing him to this immensely powerful leadership, in framing the base of what would be the New Rajapaksa Constitution for the Motherland of Sri Lanka.

The rise of Sinhala – Buddhism and its merging dominance in Rajapaksa governance is shown again in the appointment of the new Chancellor of the University of Colombo. This is certainly a masterstroke of the current Rajapaksa Governance. This Chief Incumbent of the Abhayarama Temple at Narahenpita, Muruththettuwe Ananda Thera, who worked very strongly to have Gotabaya elected as president, and certainly helped him obtain 6 lakhs of votes, has been very critical of the government in recent months.

This leader of a large trade union of nurses in the country, and strongly supported their trade unions actions, that brought pain to hospital patients, in the current Covid pandemic, too, (little to do with “karunava’), has said he wants the current president to stop being a ‘Nandasena Rajapaksa’ and be the Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whom the people voted for.

With the continuing stretch of the Teachers-Principals trade union action, Murutthettuwe Ananda Thera has certainly seen the true emergence of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. A record of the history of the Chancellor of the University of Colombo, will certainly show his suitability or qualification for this much respected position. Under colonial rule and as a Dominion after independence, the Chancellors were the Governors of Sri Lanka. Once it became a Republic the Chancellors were President William Gopallawa, great surgeon Dr. P. R. Anthonis and Msgr. Oswald Gomis, former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Colombo.

The fact that the students of the University of Colombo have objected to this appointment certainly does not matter. Who are students, who also march in protests against elected governments, including Rajapaksa governance, to make such objections? What matters is the presence of a yellow robed person, receiving the traditional respect to the robe. Who will stop the university awarding him a degree on Knowledge and Understanding or even the Dhamma, in the months to come.

We are certainly moving in a new trend in governance. It is time we thought of forgetting the One Country, one Law concept. Let’s move on to My Country, My Law. That is where every monkey business will be played with Rajavasala Victory.

We are certainly moving away from concepts and principles of Democracy, and moving to the Monkocracy of Sinhala – Buddhist power. It is time to chant Saadhu, Saadhu and break more coconuts at the nearest devale of a Hindu deity.