So here we are, the most important week in Sri Lanka until the next very important one. Everyone's talking about the election, of who'll win and, maybe more importantly, who'll lose.
Yesterday I had lunch with a bunch of diasporic Lankans and the conversation, in between juicy chunks of gossip about various CMB 7 types, wandered over to thoughts on the election. One fellow said that he reckoned, if the turnout is high, then SF would win. But he said that the turnout could be low and then Mahinda will get his next term.
If I was voting I'd face a tough choice. In one corner we have the President incumbent, the one, the only President who managed to defeat the LTTE. It's a fact, one that really cannot be disputed. We can argue about the methods, the Human rights issues, the allegations, the videos and the Western conspiracy theories, but we can't argue against the fact that Mahinda Rajapkase was the President who finally ended the decades of conflict.
In the other corner we've got Sarath Fonseka, a fact you probably don't need me to tell you, the General who won the war. As a politician he has a track record that's about as long as something very, very short, like me or any other average height Sri Lankan. I don't mean we have a short political track record, I mean we're short, often so short that we don't get any taller as we walk towards you.
As I see it you're faced with a simple scenario; vote for Rajapakse if you want more of the same. The nepotism, the despotism, the corruption and the two fingers up at the international community will continue, maybe even get stronger with MR in for another term.
If you want change then the only option is a vote for the General (retired). But you don't actually know if he can give you change, or if he does, whether it will actually be change for the better.
If I had a vote I think I'd give it to SF, just to take a chance and hope for reformation.
I wouldn't hold my breath though, it just seems like the only way to find out what will happen.
AI visualised armoured trishaws (tuk tuks)
3 weeks ago
2 comments:
oh what a surprise! lol
a specific political opinion from,
a same person who was never specific about what he thought of terrorist ltte and the need to defeat such a armed criminal gang with violence, confining himself to vague platitudes ridden posts about badness of war in general.
a person who did not have any specific opinion when british foreign sec was here post haste to save the terrorists at their final gasp , through pressuring sl to declare a ceasefire ( a fact btw, not a conspiracy theory )
a person who refused to condemn the protests and attacks of racists in diaspora against sri lankans including in london .
etc etc.
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i will leave it to readers to judge whether his non specificity then and his specificity now are connected and show a certain underlying tendency.
"The nepotism, the despotism, the corruption and the two fingers up at the international community will continue, maybe even get stronger with MR in for another term"
Well, that did get the war finished :) If it was up to the international community SL would still be talking to LTTE.
Dude, give the credit where it is due.
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