-By -Eng.Sooriasegaram
(Lanka-e-News -27.Aug.2025, 7.30 PM) The commitment of the NPP Government to ensure independence of the judiciary from political interference and to ensure every citizen in Sri Lanka, irrespective of his or her status and position, receives impartial treatment under the law, is a new phenomenon in Sri Lanka’s post independent history. Its policy of zero tolerance to anyone advocating racist propaganda and anyone resorting to human rights violation is well appreciated today by Sinhala, Tamils and Muslim people. People are now realizing that politics of divide and rule has been used by Sri Lanka’s ruling classes to plunder and enrich themselves at the expense of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim peoples. They have brought a one-time rich country a bankrupt and begging country. Unfortunately, leaders of all Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim opposition parties have not yet grasped these realities and the transformative changes brought about by the NPP government. It appears they are living in a different planet. I think due to their vested interests and their criminal, illegal and corrupt activities, their existence itself is being questioned under NPP rule now. They are dreaming to come together to recapture power. Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people need to be very vigilant about this.
Justice Minister Harsha Nanayakara’s and Prime Minister Harini Amarasekara’s speech on the adjournment motion tabled by Sritharan MP yesterday, have superbly brought out today’s realities and the fundamental difference between past governments and the current NPP government. Harsha pointed out that Sritharan MP, who has been so used to a narrative which was applicable to all the previous governments, is applying that same narrative to the current situation, which is vastly different under NPP rule. This is absolutely true. New realities require new narratives and new responses. Tamil leaders, if they want to genuinely serve the Tamil people, must take advantage of the golden opportunities created by the inclusive governance provided by the NPP government. Sritharan claimed that the very existence or survival (Iruppu, a very emotive Tamil word used to rouse nationalistic sentiments) of Tamils as a distinct nation is questioned by all Sri Lankan governments. His worries are really the following:
a) the survival (Iruppu) of Tamil political leaders is ensured by all the past governments through the denial of the rights of the Tamils
b) the Iruppu of Tamil political leaders is seriously undermined by NPP government’s policy of guaranteeing the rights of Tamils.
c) Opposition parties will become redundant if the issues of Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and the Hill Country People are resolved and their aspirations are fulfilled.
Likewise Prime Minister Harini, while thanking Sritharan for bringing up his concerns, went into great depths to explain the qualitative difference between the policies and practices of NPP government and those of all previous governments. She guaranteed the following:
a) Equal rights to all – political, economic and social. Every citizen is equally valued irrespective of race, ethnicity, caste, gender, region, position, power etc.
b) Unity in diversity, recognize and celebrate diversity
c) Land rights, language rights, cultural rights, employment rights
d) Meaningful devolution, temporarily through the implementation of the 13th Amendment, and subsequently through a well consulted and agreed new constitution, acceptable to all communities
e) End to all racist policies
f) All are equal under the law, no special privileges to anyone
g) Accept plurality of views, freedom of speech, media freedom, democracy
She concluded that all these are achievable, not immediately, but gradually within their full term in power. She highlighted a number of achievements already made within the first year of coming to power.
The arrest and imprisonment of Ranil Wickramasinhe, who was Sri Lanka’s prime minister for 5 terms and Executive President for 2 years, following extensive evidence gathering and investigations by the Criminal Investigation Department, has been found guilty of extensive misuse of public funds on his personal and family visits abroad. This is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a long list of even more serious criminal charges against him awaiting judgements. Under his uncle J.R. Jayawardena’s presidency, Ranil began his criminal activities – 1981 racially motivated riots against the Tamils, burning Jaffna including the Asia famous Jaffna Public Library, setting up and managing Batalanda torture camps, massacring and murdering tens of thousands of Sinhala youths who rebelled against the despotic rule of the UNP, executing an ethnic war against the Tamils and committing serious war crimes while frustrating political proposals to solve the Tamil’s grievances, involvement in fraudulent activities in the Central Bank of Sri Lanka leading to losses amounting to several billions of rupees etc. The list is a long one.
Ranil’s arrest has caused panic among all other past presidents, prime ministers, ministers and their families and friends, whose criminal activities were even more serious and more extensive. Already many of them have been investigated and some are found guilty by courts and now serving prison sentences.
In my view, what is at stake today, is the danger of counter revolution by the dark forces defeated by the people in 2024. All the culprits who plundered our country are trying to come together to send Anura home and bring back the Rajapacksas to power. They think they can do what people did to Gotha. I think it is a pipe dream! This is why all of them are queueing up to see the foxy Ranil in his jail to get his advice! Yes, stay in the queue and take your turn to go behind bars! This is where your home is going to be for your criminal past. It is good to be there to realize how the political prisoners you kept in prison after torturing them without trials under appalling conditions!
It is my view that all prisoners including Ranil and all the others queueing up for their turn to go behind bars, must be shown compassion and human dignity. In spite of their appalling crimes against humanity committed by them, our aim must be to rehabilitate them. Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in a prison in Robin Island in South Africa for the crime of fighting against Apartheid treatment of his people, says in his book ‘Long Walk to freedom’ that how civilized a country is, can be judged easily by the way it treats its prisoners. I have personally visited his jail in Robin Island and the cell he lived for 27 years and the hard labour he was forced to do for 27 years. That was an eye opener. This will be a consolation for Ranil and others to follow him in Sri Lankan prisons. I think Ranil is well looked after in Welikada Prison with access to good medical care, food from home and streams of visitors, who will soon cohabit with him.
23. 08.2025
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by (2025-08-27 14:00:08)
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