Sri Lanka It's Happening

January 9, 2006

During the presidential election, the winner President Mahinda constantly mouthed the words 'peace with honour'. To be precise he said the equivalent of that in Sinhala, I have yet to hear the man speak in English.

Lest I be accused of being a snob; not being able to speak English or any other foreign Language is not a disqualification to being a politicatian, but it certainly is a hinderence when speaking to heads of state in other countries so the head of state of a south asian country should be conversant in English.

Anyway during the election rallies and press conferences the President made the same speech over and over again. He changed the order of the paragraphs here and there but the contents were the same. Other than giving out a list of religous and ethnic groups the president also mumbled often about peace with honour. As one newspaper columnnist put it, those who attended meetings frequently could quote the entire speech from memory.

He also went to great pains to explain that 'we do not have a war but that does not mean we have peace'. Apperently 50.2 percent of the Sri Lankan have a low IQ and fell for it. The president used to say we do not have peace because each month one or two army informants were being killed off by the the LTTE and there were many ceasefire violations.

Now during December we have had 81 people die in increased violence in the north and east. The words peace with honour are no longer being heard. The Extremist buddhists monks; the JHU and the former terrorist organization; the JVP, who did the donkey work at the presidential election are now conspicous by their silence.

Posted by raditha at January 9, 2006 9:00 AM