11 April 2019 01:00 am Views - 6096
According to Kodituwakku’s vision for the country future MPs will have to be either graduates or should have studied up to that level
The time is ripe for a clean break with the rotten past or rather with the rotten present. Go out on to the street and ask anybody about the government, a passerby, a three wheeler driver, a fellow passenger in a bus or the train, a sidewalk hawker, anybody, and they would say the same thing: throw out the whole lot, all 225 of them and their clueless and devious president. Sri Lanka Cricket epitomizes what has happened to the country. Do not insult dogs by saying SLC has gone to dogs. It is worse. SLC has gone to bookies. After all, four years of ‘Yahapalanaya’ has nothing to show. No thieves have been caught, none have gone to jail and not five rupees has been recovered of the billions stolen! Not a single power plant built after 2015 and we are left in the dark. But the CEB top brass and the politicians are happy buying power at exorbitant prices from the private generators; and nobody questions the blatant conflicts of interest in the deals. They say set a thief to catch a thief and that is what we did in January 2015 but, Aiyo! the thieves instead got together and robbed us again!
When 11 young men of all communities are abducted and held for ransom while millions and goods are collected from their desperate parents before they (the young men) are finally killed, where is justice? Are those naval suspects, war heroes or the muck of humanity? How is it that these politicians or the judiciary, police or the president do not see the clear difference between a dastardly crime that cries to heaven for retribution and military operations to save the integrity of the nation? Now we begin to hear three words from here, there and everywhere louder and louder: Enough is enough.
What can be done to rid the country of these robbers? They have built the prevalent ugly system, which is all to their benefit, which robs and exploits both the resources of the country and the wealth of the people, which keeps the people imprisoned in it without giving them any alternative to themselves. In fact in their system even if they are rejected by the people in the hustings they can creep back in to the legislature through their unethical national list. Today there are no political parties in the country. A genuine political party has an eminent goal or a Vision and a logical, practica plan to achieve it. What have these current political parties to show? They are only robber gangs or mafias. They are the UNP mafia, the SLFP mafia, the SLPP mafia, The TNA mafia, the JVP mafia etc. Even the constitution has been amended to suit, their need to remain in power and their thievery. To save the country for the future generations we must break out of this prison. To break out of this political prison people need a new constitution.
There is no doubt about it, Nagananda is intelligent. His ability to remember so many dates, issues and his ability to talk clearly, logically and to the point without wasting time is phenomenal
Surveying the political scene around us today I can see nobody who has a plan that could possibly lead to freedom except for the public interest litigator Nagananda Kodituwakku. First, let us talk about his plan. The plan is simple and brilliant. In the current rotten context I see no other way out. It is an autochthonous exercise by the people adopting a new constitution acceptable to them and forming a new government. It is a constitution drafted by the ordinary citizens of the country not by the politicians or by committees appointed by them or their cats’ paws in the judiciary. People will get this opportunity at the next presidential poll when the new constitution will be presented to the people for their vote. The presidential election will act as a referendum. Unlike President Sirisena, who lied to the people calling himself a party-less common candidate and after winning the elections committed the vilest betrayal in recent history turning his back on the 62 lakhs of UNP voters and floating voters and went over to the SLFP, Nagananda will truly be a party-less common candidate for he has no allegiance to any political party. He has no political manifesto. He has only a new constitution and he will be leading a movement called the National People’s Movement. It is not an organized political party with a manifesto.
Before coming to the man himself I think it would be relevant to become familiar with the newness of the constitution of Nagananda and his team. Here are some of its salient features: The country will be a unitary state. The executive presidency will be abolished. The provincial councils will be abolished. The legislature will be reduced to 125 MPs. The cabinet will be restricted to 15. MPs will not have salaries or pensions; they’ll only get an allowance. Pensions of MPs will be abolished retroactively. More money will be saved. The doubled membership in the ‘pradeshiya sabhas’ will again be halved. Half the expenses will be saved. With that amount of government funds being saved paying back the country’s debt will be made easier and giving education 6% will not be a problem. MPs will not get car permits, petrol shed permits, wine shop permits etc. to sell for millions. MPs will have to be either graduates or have studied up to that level. Nobody with a criminal past or such allegation will be allowed to tender nominations. No person will be qualified to be elected as a MP more than twice. The parliament will be back at Galle Face.
As soon as the new constitution comes into force the judiciary will be dissolved and new people will be appointed by a constitutional council. The Constitutional Council will consist of 9 eminent, learned people and chaired by the Speaker, the only politician. There will be only one law for the whole country. Muslim law, Udarata law and Thesawelami law will be abolished. The national list will be abolished. All court cases will have to be concluded within six months! What a blessing! Only serious crimes like murder, rape, child abuse etc. can go on for one year and not one day more. The punishment for corruption, swindling people’s money etc. will be the gallows. Proportional representation system will be changed to the old, first past the post system. Citizens will be empowered to recall their MPs. There will not be urgent bills. Foreign Service will be strictly restricted to career diplomats. Those who have robbed the people’s wealth will be given one month’s amnesty to return the loot, failing which they will be charged, tried, convicted and jailed. The sovereignty of the people will be inalienable and fully protected. What more can we ask for in a people friendly new constitution? When a new constitution like the above is voted for by the people and receive the 51% majority we shall truly have a democracy as defined by Abraham Lincoln “A government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Can we trust this new comer? Maybe he is a better actor than MR, wilier than RW and a worse betrayer than MS, who knows? Having made that cautionary remark let me get at the man, Nagananda Kodituwakku. All I know about him is from the You Tube clips, his interviews on TV channels and from a friend of mine who attended his gathering on the 17th Sunday, March. So far I have not heard or read any clear allegations against his character. Is he genuine and can
we trust him?
There is no doubt about it, Nagananda is intelligent. His ability to remember so many dates, issues and his ability to talk clearly, logically and to the point without wasting time is phenomenal. His voice, his body language, his conviction of what he is saying, his daring commitment to his nation-saving-project reveals authority and sincerity. He is not a politician and he doesn’t want to be one, he is aiming at what the ancient Greeks called – a philosopher-ruler or in modern terminology a statesman. He bases himself on the tenets of Buddhism. His self-confidence as a practicing Buddhist is evident. Not simply because he says so, but because his attitude and his authoritative communications reveal so. What is coming forward at the next presidential election is a constitution not a person! He also has a shadow cabinet of eminent women and men of integrity. As time goes by my doubts about him are slowly vanishing.
As a public interest litigator he has over a dozen cases in the Supreme Court. He has spent on them his personal finances. He has done the country a fantastic service. The culprits of the Wilpattu desertification, the selling of car permits, the national list etc. are worried for they are bound to lose the cases, go to jail and pay compensation. They tried to silence him with a three year suspension of his license as an attorney. But he is carrying on none the less as a private citizen. Nothing seems to stop him. The more I listen to him the more I realise that his way is the only way out of the mess we have got in to. His vitality and his optimism are contagious. He gives us hope.
How is it that these politicians or the judiciary, police or the president do not see the clear difference between a dastardly crime that cries to heaven for retribution and military operations to save the integrity of the nation
Trusting somebody is always a risk. In this world 100% certainty about anything, especially about human beings, is never found. Yet in life we need to take risks, we need to trust people, we place our future in the hands of other people. There is no other way to live. Every time we take a bus we place our lives in the hands of the driver. Every time we go to hospital we place our lives in the hands of the doctors and once I had a narrow escape; they would have called it a medical misadventure but it was culpable negligence; I am lucky to be alive. That is how life goes.
The new constitution is our only hope and maybe this is the last chance to save Sri Lanka. For the sake of our children, let us get rid of the present set of political pests. Let us not be deceived yet again by the permanently-in-power-scoundrels. And so I conclude thus; thieves, pimps, murderers or Nagananda? We have a choice. Or do we?