Sri Lanka: Karu Jayasuriya Is Not The Panacea
By Nilantha Ilangamuwa
19 November, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Does Karu Jayasuriya, a former security officer turned politician, have the vote base that will enable him to defeat Rajapaksa? Can he be a charismatic leader or candidate and live up to the public demand? Is he the one the majority of people are looking for? Can he change the pusillanimous attitudes of the people in the country? Does he have a well-designed plan for it? Can he remove the masks of phoney patriotism which the Rajapaksas are using to entertain the public and pillage the basic rights of human beings? More importantly, does he have a long term plan for the people and the country?
Of course, the most important question which is does Karu have the ambition, quality and intelligence to be the common candidate in this crucial hours of the politics in Sri Lanka? My simple answer is, no.
Jayasuriya is always prevailing on the secondary level, and neither his politics nor his strategies show that he can be the real person who can overcome difficulties and utilise those who were scattered due to the internal disputes of the party politics. He alone may lose even what General Sarath Fonseka achieved under the rigorous conditions and circumstances in the last presidential election.
However, Jayasuriya, who was a onetime political giant won the battle against the political homeland of the Bandaranayaka. But later he was symbolised as a man of defeat who baulks and capitulates when things get rough. It was the time when the party required the man who could protect his hens from the fox. But what Jayasuriya did was hide his head like an ostrich.
Though some of his statements were well drafted it led people to believe that they couldn’t possibly have come from Jayasuriya. Having said that, most probably many other politicians in the country empty people to write their speeches for them. However, having Jayasuriya in the common alliance as a one of core runners is an important factor because he can play a regional role against the distorted power structure which literally raped the respect, dignity and freedom of this nation. But he is not the panacea in defeating Rajapaksa.
The opposition alliance must examine each political character in great detail and find the best solution. The solution must be laid down on the basic notion of defeating the Rajapaksas, which is the most difficult task the country is facing. And even if Rajapaksa is defeated it will take years to understand the real destruction he perpetuated on the country and undo it.
The pulse of the people is speeding up. Most of the people were fallen into thinking about the illegality of politics, and arbitrary motivation of the regime which is eliminating last milestone of the liberty and humanity in this very nation. There is not a single institution this nation which Rajapaksa has not overrun and cynically manipulated. He can be likened to a cancer that has spread through the entire body of the country. Therefore it is up to the opposition alliance to diagnose the illness with a greater degree of passionate tolerance and intelligence with a long term plan. And then it has to design the suitable treatment. This can be done only through a team work, not by the party based politics.
A one-man show like what we saw in the last presidential election when General Sarath Fonseka stood for election will lead to despair while further deteriorating the whole system at large.
If the opposition alliance is looking for the common candidate, they must learn from the mistakes made since late 70s where we create the most horrendous and shameful political systems to govern this country which has brought nothing but ruin to the nation.
The most difficult task for this country is to survive the politics when there is an election that is nothing but a farce. The opposition alliance which is seeking for the common candidate has to face the real challenges when it come out from the fantasy. There is no point of having the common candidate without a common dream and common sense. All who are fighting against the unjust must realise, there is no hope of changing the society, when the degree of hypocrisy of those who are forerunners of the drama is expanding.
Nilantha Ilangamuwa edits the Sri Lanka Guardian, an online daily newspaper, and he also an editor of the Torture: Asian and Global Perspectives, bi-monthly print magazine. He is the author of the just released non-fictions, “Nagna Balaya” (The Naked Power), in Sinhalese and “The Conflation”, in English. He can be reached at [email protected]
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