Intelligent and patriotic voters should consider the General Election as a golden opportunity to defeat traitors and elect the best brigade to govern the country, Ven. Prof. Induragare Dhammarathana Thera told the Sunday Observer.
The defeated traitors will use weapons, such as spreading fabricated `Corona fears’ among voters to save themselves.
They rally round the Compass, Telephone and the Elephant and will do anything to escape from the assured defeat, the Thera said.
He said it is the responsibility of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to defeat ‘soft separatism’ and ‘social separatism’, but he cannot do it alone and needs a strong Government.
“People should consider whether he or she stands by the President or not when voting at the election.
The majority of candidates stand by his or her political party and not by the motherland. We need those who stand by the country and not by his or her political party.
What matters is whether a person supports the President’s vision and mission and not whether he or she is old or new, young or old, educated or uneducated, rich or poor, pretty or ugly,” Dhammarathana Thera said.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a policy-oriented leader who handles issues on a priority basis. The other main contestant at the last Presidential Election had plans to only handle individual issues because he had no policies.
A President should handle policies and not individual issues, the Thera said. According to Dhammarathana Thera, the rise of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa cannot be compared with any other former President in Sri Lanka. “President Rajapaksa was the person that the people wanted. He did not come forward as a leader of a political party. The common man clamoured for his arrival. He is a people’s President,” he said.
The Thera said that the people knew his capabilities and had seen his achievements and clamoured for his leadership. They saw how he ended the humanitarian operation and beautified and cleaned the country.
He is rowing a boat without an outrigger. When he gets a two-thirds majority in the next Parliament, he will have a complete boat.
“People see that he is propelling the boat when he suddenly visits state institutions and other places to inspect them. These are the occasions on which he handles individual issues. When it comes to a boat, people see only the use of the oar, not the power which pushes the boat forward. He is gradually and methodically changing policies,” he said.
The former Government set aside issues of the people, such as fertiliser, cost of living, unemployment, or high taxes and brought forward petty issues, the Thera said.
“But the people had their problems which had been ignored by the previous government.
The solutions given by them for the issues brought forward by themselves in the name of the people had no impact on the issues of the people.
The solutions were given to problems introduced and handed over to them by force,” the Thera said.
“The former Government which practised so-called `Good Governance’ brought in a different thing which did not have any shape, name, definition, identity and origin and called it ‘establishing democracy’.
Under this nonexistent entity, they brought in some other terms, such as ‘establishing law and order and establishing freedom’,” the Thera said.
He said they brought in another term ‘Good Governance’. “The people did not know about it before its introduction and could not find out what it was.
Still people know nothing about it,” Dhammarathana Thera said.
“‘Democracy’ is something similar to the other sugar coated entities. Libya, one of the richest countries was ‘given democracy’ and now, one of the poorest countries. The Libyan people know nothing about ‘democracy’. ‘Good Governance’ was given to the Sri Lankan people.
The result is a country which does not have a rule and cannot be ruled,” the Thera said.
He said the President, IGP and other officials do not have power which has been given to so-called ‘Independent Commissions’. But the members of those commissions do not have power. Making the country powerless was called ‘Good Governance’. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa realised what has happened and is solving problems one by one. But he is still an individual and not a government,” the Thera said.
“The 19th Amendment is similar to a marriage that was not registered. The bride and the groom and the two persons who signed as witnesses were there.
The relatives and friends were there. But the registrar was not there, and it was not legally registered. The 19th Amendment was not legally approved by the people. It is something similar to wind. It cannot be seen or touched and we cannot point out the borders,” Ven. Dhammarathana Thera added.