Sickening daily protests are just unbearable - time to crack the whip ASAP!

By ‘Outsider’

Not a day passes without some protest here, there and everywhere which some private TV channel seems to revel in as it gives these unruly protests maximum exposure and time, aimed at showing the world that Sri Lanka is on the brink of implosion!

Obviously this slanted view is absolute tripe as all balanced mature people would say, yet negative public perception is something that is gaining ground and must be addressed ASAP. Seriously, is this the price of (misguided) press freedom?

We all know that these ‘protests’ are planned by disgruntled, anti-social elements under the cloak of the so-called Joint Opposition which is insanely whipping up hysteria with the diabolical Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) which is about to join forces with the accursed, murderous Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).

During the last insurrection from 1987-90, the JVP murdered our fellow citizens at will. They killed 17 of my mates, two of them were decapitated, not mentioning the billions that literally went up in flames when the JVP destroyed and set fire to state buses, trains and tea factories. They have no credentials apart from their killing sprees to ‘support’ the life supporting medical fraternity!

The South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) issue has been unbelievably blown up, exploiting it as a cunning political ploy by these political desperados. After all if the University Grants Commission has accepted SAITM, the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has to accept SAITM as a fully qualified private medical college in the backdrop of the Court of Appeal also giving a clear ruling in favour of SAITM. What more? Period!

The students who pass out from SAITM are children of Sri Lankan citizens. Why should any other citizen ‘protest’ against our fellow citizens? Besides the country is desperately in need of medical professionals who abide by revered medical oaths or ethics, not criminal louts who give the (at one time) hugely respected medical profession such a bad image through their despicable antics!  

Attempting to kill the CEO of SAITM and issuing threatening letters and phone calls are clearly the handiwork of those desperate to gain political power by any foul means. Those in charge of security must be vigilant and avoid a repetition.

When six million plus people voted for this Government, they expected the Government to govern and that includes taking legal action against those who robbed billions from the country and indulged in criminal waste and even extrajudicial killings (e.g. white vans, killing journalists, a top rugby player, etc). Their patience is now running thin.

All in the Government must read the ‘Vishwamanthra 1984’ piece in D/Mirror Page A4 of February 08. Let me quote an extract: “Mahinda Rajapaksa along with the national media, the so-called ‘free media’ which was nowhere to be seen during Rajapaksa’s regime, the media that was under siege time after time under the cruel determinations of the regime’s virtual second-in-command, Secretary of Defence, has assumed dimensions disproportionate to the actual, now seems to be controlling the national conversation. Not the government.” 

The writer has also researched and cataloged the alleged misdeeds of the MR regime (JC Weliamuna Committee Report with shocking disclosures, still ignored;  Sooriyawewa Cricket Grounds, squandered a staggering Rs. 4,500 million against an estimate of Rs. 852 million (now this cricket ground has gone to waste!) 94-year-old Daisy Forest  issue of Rs. 49.52 million; encashment of 18 cheques totaling Rs. 218 million by the then Presidential staff during MR’s rule, computers purchased for ‘Mahindodaya labs in excess of Rs 5.85 billion; purchase of Gower Ltd. by a parliamentarian; Rs. 12,500 million found dumped in Temple Trees (then)! Diplomat U. Weeratne’s Rs. 372 million fraud, etc. – yet no action still!!

We are naturally perplexed as to why this Government or the strong arm of the law has not yet got its act together despite overwhelming evidence against the perpetrators of such blatant criminal acts which were carried out with impunity during MR’s regime.

Also the majority of law-abiding, balanced and decent citizens expect the Government not to cave into those criminal elements who hide behind defeated politicians and disrupt life with these detestable daily protests obstructing traffic on roads daily.  

Enough is enough. Pussyfooting law breakers are a no-no. Please rid Sri Lankan of all such criminals pronto.

Yes, a separate place dedicated for protests is a good proposal – if so, just do it without any delay!!

I shall end this piece by reproducing four brilliant and coincidentally apt quotes (at least for Sri Lanka now) by Napoleon Bonaparte: “Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets”, “Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult”, “Who saves his country violates no war” and “The world suffers a lot. Not because the violence of bad people. But because of the silence of the good people.”