Exchanging View with a contributer to Ireport of CNN

Nuwan, (http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-177382?ref=email )

Perhaps in your dislike, which is your right, for the President Mahinda Rajapakse, you do not want to know my reasons to compare him to Obama. I am not comparing the persons but the impact each one of them had on the political scene of their respective countries. Obama has brought change to America after 200 years of its history. Rajapakse also brought change to Sri Lanka after 60 years of Independence.

I do not question you the “dirty work” Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse has done , because it is your opinion, and you have your right for your opinion. But Rajapakse is an ordinary man. He is a simple man of the country, without any pretension to be different. It is in the way one looks at him that one sees a “mask” on him. But in reality he wears no “mask”.

It is best to get your information from different Sri Lanka journals and then evaluate the news without trying to fit him into a frame of your choice. The Island News paper is a good source of information. Of course if you are prejudiced against a person no one can change your prejudices, unless you yourself decide to change them, to look at the same person differently.

I do not see any “dirty acts” in which he was engaged. He was elected as the President with a good majority. He is popular among the people Sinhala,Tamils and Muslims. It is not possible for him to get be involved in any sort of Mafia activities, when he is on the “spot light” of political observers. He has not encouraged or taken part in corrupt activities. All allegation were made by his opponents like Mangala Samaraweera and Wickramasinghe but they could not prove the allegations. He is a true patriot –because he loves his country, his people and is very religious.

Nuwan, you have the right to know the truth, and you are quite entitled to your opinion. If there is any thing worth criticising we should criticise with facts and figures to support our criticism, that is also being positive.

About respecting court orders, there was a delay, I think it is because the budget had been drawn up fixing prices for commodities on a given date. Any changes have to be done taking into account the balancing of the budget at new rates fixed by the Court. Fixing of prices is not the business of a Chief Justice. I think he was carrying his judicial powers too far.

The war was forced upon Mahinda Rajapakse . If you had followed his political past , you should be aware that when Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse became the President he invited Prabhakaran to meet him for peace negotiations. He refused and instead he got a suicide bomber to assassinate the Army Commander. He then got ,a claymore bomb exploded targeting a bus in which 87 civilian people were killed. Then Prabhakaran closed the Sluice gates at Mavil aru, depriving the farmers of water, which was the beginning of the military operations.

The President is not a saint because he is fighting a war. If you are not sympathising with the terrorists you will understand that terrorism is the most devastating issue a government has to face. It stops every other development and progressive projects. You may have read how happily the Tamil people in Sri Lanka reacted when the terrorists were chased away from Elephant Pass. Please see: http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/01/10/sec02.asp to read the reaction of Tamil people. Truth is one and it has to be searched objectively, looking at events and people without hatred, dislike, or anger, because those emotions blind us to reality.

I suggest you google “ Noel Nadesan” and “Thomas Jhonpulle” both Tamils who writes knowledgeably about the Sinhala, Tamil relationship. Please also go to the Lankaweb and read some of the articles appearing there. I will write an article enlarging what I have written to you in Lankaweb soon.

I enjoyed this exchange of views with you. I wish you everything best for the New Year 2009.



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NuwanSam // 17 hours ago
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Dear UCSP, You comparison of Mahinda Rajapaske to Obama is a true insult to a great leader. I supported Obama and his campaign and Mahinda Rajapakse does not come close to him. He is trying to put a mask and portray him as a great leader and cover up all the dirty work he does under that mask.

I do not belong to any political party in SL either but I know what is happening inside. I get information about these dealings and all these killings are done with the fullest support of Mahinda Rajapakse's regime.

If Mahinda Rajapakse is a true patriot as you claim, he would have not enagage in these dirty acts and encourage corruptions and hide them.

I am a positive person but we all have a right to know the truth. Presiden Bush also asked Americans to be positive when he waged a war agaisnt Iraq unncessarily. Being positive does not mean that we have to shut our mounth and allow these people to eat the country alive. Sri Lanka is a democratic society and not these people are destroying institution and individuals that goes against them. They do not respect the decision of the highest court in the country; the supreme court. That is not democracy of the people, for the people, by the people.

Sri Lanka is going throug a difficult period. I agree with that. But this family regime does not do any thing to make it any better. The only thing that gives it oxigen is the war. War is not the only thing matters to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka economy is in ruin. People are suffering more than ever. Living has become a struggle to more and more. For those who live outside Sri Lanka, war is the only thing that matters. But for me people does matter too. I do a lot of work in Sri Lanka in villages and I know what is going on. I do not just rely on the papers to get my information.

You can believe that Mahinda Rajapakse is a saint because he is fighting a war to get rid of terrorist. Wait and see. And you will some day see the reality. I had a lot of hope in that man too. In fact I helped him in his campaign believing he will do something good. I know the gravity of the mistake I did for my home country. So now my goal is to educate those who are willing to listen about this grave danger Sri Lanka is facing.

We have a choice to become blinded by this regime propaganda and cover ups. Or we can make an effort to find out the truth and do something about it. I choose to do latter because I still love the place where I was born and I have done a great deal of work for it and continue to do so.
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ucsp // 20 hours ago

The events taking place in Sri Lanka are certainly disturbing but for that matter our Island Home the Pearl of the Indian Ocean is not a tyranny.

It is a long series of events that have culminated to what we witness today. We have still not reached the end of it. Therefore, we have to be patient a little more to see the end result of what the country is going through today. Some speak of the present government as a state of tyranny, ...
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