I have read and heard of W. Dahanayake travelling to Colombo from Galle in the morning “Ruhunu Kumari” train with all those other ordinary passengers, getting off at the Kollupitiya station to go to his ministry in Union Place, when he was Co-operative Minister in the J.R. Jayawardne government. That was in early 1980’s.

There were other MPs and Ministers too in the past, who used to travel by train to Colombo, to attend parliamentary sessions. Some even booked sleeping berths, for they travelled through night from Jaffna or Badulla, to be in parliament for the morning sessions. None of them then would have ever thought of themselves being elected representatives of the people, going about with armed security escorting them. Elected representatives then were escorted by their political supporters, their voters in the village.

The whole concept of an elected representative, despite its legal or constitutional definition, was quite different to that of today. Then a MP was a very publicly accessible icon of political “facilitation” and not one of political power. They were there to facilitate what their voters wanted and decided, as a constituency. Any breach of trust, or change of perceptions, would leave them out of parliament for a different elected representative at elections. But – this is important – she or he could not leave that constituency, because it was her or his constituency on public obligations and therefore, she or he was expected to be there for consideration at the next election. They were thus as ordinary as any ordinary citizen in their political life, going about in society as free citizens.

All of it changed, not because of the LTTE first, but because of the JVP. In 1987 July, when the Indo – Lanka Accord was signed, the JVP let loose their opposition to the Accord, by killing those who supported Provincial Councils and came forward to contest PC’s. They vandalised public property, threatened and killed ordinary people in ordinary places and the government was compelled to tighten security in very many ways. Security was made extensive and security intelligence a sophisticated appendage of national security.

This killing spree by the JVP, thus changed the landscape of Sri Lankan politics since then, with PC Members, political leaders and Members of Parliament (MP) which included Ministers, given armed security. It wasn’t thus easy for people to visit their elected representative, for they were also “suspect” for the armed security on guard and had to be searched, before allowing entry. Yet, given the brute terror in society, such enhanced security in the country and for politicians became an accepted factor.

Initially, the JRJ government provided 02 armed policemen for all MP’s. The first MP to get special military security then was Mahinda Rajapaksa, although in the parliamentary opposition. Then State Minister of Defence, Late Ranjan Wijeratne the gentleman he was, firmly believed, his uncompromising opposition critic Mahinda Rajapaksa was under threat, though campaigning for human rights in the South. Yet the political culture that Mahinda Rajapaksa was groomed in was so people oriented, he did not want to go about with those uniformed armed security. The two soldiers provided for his security were therefore asked to be in civvies.

All that was in the past, over 20 years ago. The JVP leadership was brutally annihilated in late 1991 under the Premadasa regime and the JVP – DJV (Deshapremi Jantha Viyaparaya – the other name used by the JVP) insurgency, wiped out. The few who survived this massacre came out gradually and slowly without arms, to give life to the JVP that we talk of today. Yet the armed security provided for elected representatives, MP’s and PC Members continued turning into and accepted as part of normal life.

There were 02 other reasons that by then had become important for the MP’s to continue with armed security. Especially for government MP’s to begin with. One, the LTTE became a potent force looking for a kill from around mid 1991, after the break down of dialogue with the Premadasa regime. Then again, not all MPs were targeted by the LTTE. Yet all MP’s were provided with armed security and there was no public grudge.  Two, the MP’s became more comfortable with security around them as it kept un-served people meeting them, and reminding them of election promises made. They also felt they were powerful personalities, going about with armed security.

All of it helped create a new political culture around individual power. It led to unchallenged corruption too with no questions asked, as to how these politicians become rich half way through their parliamentary life. This armed security and political power have thus become inseparable partners in our political culture. So much so, it is always candidates with such power, with backup vehicles and guards running round, who often get the most preferential votes.

The situation has once again changed for the better. At least, if this society wants to. These poor political guys now have no reason to run with security. The JVP is now in mainstream politics for almost 15 years for now and the LTTE including its leadership, was officially declared as eliminated almost 09 months ago, by the President himself.

Now, who would make the lives of these politicians, insecure and threatened ? If there is any that threatens their lives, that has to be obviously personal and not political as before. What they therefore need is not security as such, but an official complaint with the police if they are aware of any threats and perhaps a public statement being politicians, to expose the threat and from where it comes. Once again, they’ve become, or should become as ordinary as me and ordinary others.

Today, except for the President, PC Members and the Local Government Councillors, there are no other category of elected representatives of the people, holding office. Of them, except the President, none requires armed security any more. No PC Member has reason to claim for armed security today and none should be allowed to have any. That certainly includes private security as well.

Today the parliament stands dissolved and technically there are no elected Members of Parliament. Yet there is a category called Cabinet Ministers, who form the caretaker government between dissolution of parliament and the next sitting of the new parliament. The ten crore quiz is to count the number of Cabinet Ministers who may say they need continued security, being the caretaker cabinet. According to the official government website, there are 51 Cabinet Ministers. That number includes the President and also the Late Chandrasekeran as a Minister. Former MP Mahinda Wijesekara’s status as a Minister too needs clarification though still in the list for now.

Taking that number as the total for easy reference, there are only 50 Cabinet Ministers along with whom the Leader of the Opposition could be provided armed security, if one wish to justify provision of security in the absence of political threats to life after the elimination of the LTTE. This leaves almost 175 previous MP’s as ordinary citizens once again, unqualified and probably illegal too, to run about with armed security. They have become ordinary citizens with no extra reason than me, to ask for armed security any more.

The law does not in any way require “candidates” at elections to have armed security. Allowing candidates to run about with armed security, purely because they were former MP’s, leads to unnecessary and preventable breaches of law and order. Also that makes candidates with armed security more powerful than other ordinary candidates in their own district party lists, in canvassing preference votes. They thereafter lead to power politics that make free and fair elections very questionable, but, questioned only after the election is over.

All of it simply raises the question, why aren’t the Election Monitors even noting this very important factor that definitely has an impact on how free and fair an election is, in their reports that run into dozens of neatly formatted pages ? Why aren’t Election Monitors who only provide statistics on election law violations, at least take this issue up with the Election Commissioner and the judiciary ? This is one among the few other factors that directly impact on the conduct of elections, but whose impact would never be quantified to prove the final results were effected due to the unnecessary security provided to candidates, who were former Members of Parliament. A fierce disparity in every way, even within their own party lists.

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Mahinda Rajapaksa seems to be turning into his one-time enemies. During the reign of terror (bheeshanaya) in the late 1980s, which was started by J.R.Jayawardene and continued by R.Premadasa, around 60,000 Sinhalese were tortured, disappeared and killed by the state. At that time, Rajapaksa collected evidence of these crimes and took them to the international community, the UN. For doing this, he was called a ‘traitor’.

Now it is Rajapaksa’s own regime that is guilty of torture, disappearances and killings, of Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. And he is the one who calls anyone offering to give evidence of these crimes to the international community ‘traitors’!

A more recent enemy of Rajapaksa was Prabakaran. He claimed to be the sole representative of Tamils in Sri Lanka. Freedom of expression was non-existent in the areas under his control. Tamil civilians who disagreed with him were called ‘traitors’ and arrested, tortured, or simply killed. He even killed his close associate Mahatthaya because he posed a challenge to Prabakaran’s absolute power.

Now Rajapaksa is acting as if he is the sole representative of Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. Journalists are being abducted, arrested, assaulted and killed in order to clamp down on freedom of expression. Anyone who disagrees with Rajapaksa or poses a challenge to his absolute power is called a ‘traitor’, and is victimised or killed. This includes Sarath Fonseka, without whom the LTTE would not have been defeated. His supporters are being victimised, and the millions of people who voted for him are being called ‘traitors’.

Even Mahanayakes who call for a convention to discuss democracy and good governance are threatened with being bombed in the Dalada Maligawa! Rajapaksa seems to have learned how to deal with pro-democracy monks from his friend Than Shwe, the brutal Burmese dictator. And let us not forget: it was Prabakaran who bombed the Dalada Maligawa.

If Rajapaksa manages to get a two-thirds majority in parliament by using intimidation and fraud, he will eliminate the last remnants of democracy in Sri Lanka. Prabakaran’s fascist politics would have triumphed not just in the North and East, but in the whole country. That, of course, would be a disaster for all Sri Lankans including Tamils, but when did Prabakaran ever care about the welfare of Tamils? He must be laughing!

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A solitary lamp perched on a desk top lights a room. A man scribbles feverishly on paper, hunched over the light as if he’s jealously guarding what little he has. His desk is cluttered with cartoons and drawings – some of a President, others of two small children. He holds down his paper with one hand and writes with the other, so violently that other loose papers and articles shuffle with his movements.

He is breathing hard, as if he’s run to his desk from sleep, taken by wild inspiration. He has forgotten to switch on the fan, and the heat of that December night hangs in the air, thickening like spoiling milk. Small explosions of sweat begin to burst from the pores of his forehead, drip darkly onto his fast-moving hand, and trickle onto the paper, blotting the ink. This frustrates him but he doesn’t stop to soak up the liquid, just writes on, faster.

His wife lies in bed in the next room. She is awake, some inexplicable worry vaulting the sleep away from her eyes whenever it threatens to close them. She watches the empty space next to her, willing her husband to come back to bed but knows he won’t. She wonders what he felt the need to write about in the middle of the night, leaping out of bed as if possessed. She was afraid he’d knock something over in the dark and wake the children, but that walk from bedroom to desk is so familiar that he doesn’t.

It is only when he feels that familiar cramping in his fingers that he pauses. He looks around the room, fighting to make out familiar shapes in the blackness outside his little circle of light. His house is modest and unadorned for the most part – the only exceptions are the sketches of his children that he has been drawing since they were born. Some have been framed; others lie strewn around the house – on bits of furniture, stuffed carelessly into vases by the children, folded within the pockets of well-worn wallets, dog-eared between the pages of story books.

He wiggles his fingers to give them a stretch and picks up one of the drawings on his desk. His little boy is growing up quickly and sometimes he feels like he’s missing it, so caught up is he in his work. Sometimes he sees print in his sleep. Sometimes he finds himself talking to his little ones about his work and has to stop mid-sentence, realizing they don’t understand most of what he’s saying. He shoots a guilty glance in the direction of his bedroom, knowing he woke his wife in his mad midnight rush to get to his desk. She worries for him, he knows. He doesn’t take enough time to relieve her of those worries, to comfort her. He resolves to, as soon as he finishes this article.

After this brief pause, he goes back to his article, crossing and re-crossing the lines, scribbling out careless mistakes, cursing his own pen which writes far slower than the thoughts run in his head. He longs for the computer at his office but knows it is too late to go there now and besides, to leave now would be to disrupt the flow of his writing. The flow in tonight’s case is a torrential storm of words, figures and damning evidence.

His wife gives up a losing battle and comes to the doorway of the bedroom, which is always open – just in case. She leans against the frame, appreciating the cool wood against her hot skin, and watches her husband as he works. She knows every telltale movement of his obsessive inspiration so well. Watching him from behind, he looks the same as he did when they first married. He would stop every now and then to shuffle through printed sheets of information and look up to stare unseeingly at some point on the wall, piecing parts of it together in his head. His back would periodically straighten and then fall into that characteristic hunch every time he was struck by something new that he simply had to write down. Even through the dull ache of worry in her stomach, she can’t help but smile.

She knows the value of what he does, but it isn’t the easiest thing to live with. The warnings, the childrens’ questions, her own engulfing fear. When they came with ropes and iron rods to take him away she expected that fear to kill her on the spot. It stuck in her throat and seemed to expand outwards, threatening to burst vocal chords already strained with soundless screams. There was an awful moment before he was dragged away, when she looked from her husband’s eyes, smoldering with helpless anger, to the terrified ones of her children. Seconds later, she caught sight of her own in a mirror and saw only naked panic. 4 pairs of eyes, a thousand different emotions. Darting urgently from one to the other, trying to comprehend, trying to rebel, trying to say goodbye. Moments later, he was gone and they were alone.

When he came back, she couldn’t believe it. She wildly kissed each purpling eye, each ugly bruise and held him tightly against her, not caring even as he cried out in pain when her arms circled sensitive, injured skin. She tried to make him swear never to put himself in danger again. For her. For their children. He refused. The truth is more important, he kept insisting, and his eyes suddenly became distant and withdrawn and she knew he was already thinking of something to write. At that moment she felt a mixture of searing frustration and aching love so strong, she almost choked.

Today, as she watches him write, she feels a similar emotion. She looks down the hall to her children’s shared room, listening in the stillness for any indication that they’re awake. Her little girl has been having nightmares of late. She never says what they’re about, but insists on crawling into bed with them for the rest of the night. She only falls asleep when her head is nestled safely against her father’s chest.

He’s been writing so hard and so long, he doesn’t notice she is standing behind him. Suddenly though, in a rare lapse of concentration, he feels the pressure of her stare on his back and the weight of her worry cloaking his skin – another layer of heat on an already hot night. He turns around and looks for her in the darkness, finding her barely visible in the shadows of their bedroom doorway.

“Come to bed” she says quietly and her eyes linger on him for a moment or two before she turns to go back inside.

He looks at his unfinished article for a moment, hesitating. Then he wonders how many times he will get to hold her after this article comes out. He lives under no illusions – they came before. They will come again.

He puts down his pen as if putting down a heavy weight. The truth can wait for a few hours, he thinks. The truth can wait until morning.

He gets up, switches off the lamp, and as the room dissolves into darkness around him, walks that familiar path back to bed.

Authors note: Journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda went missing on the 24th of December, days after writing several critical articles regarding election malpractices by the Government. He remains missing to this day. Like him, hordes of journalists have been arrested, abducted, jailed, tortured and murdered for reporting the truth and expressing dissenting views. Some have been returned to their families. Others, like Ekaneligoda, have simply vanished without a trace, leaving their families with the horror of not knowing whether to hope or grieve.

These attacks are not simply hits against the media. They are a direct violation of our rights: the right to know the truth of what is out there, the right to ask questions of those who should answer to us, and the right to simply have a different point of view.

For every voice that is silenced, more must shoulder their burden, wear their courage and take their place to end this cycle of insidious violence. This is my tribute, for The Missing.

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Are we honestly serious in wanting democracy, our rights and human development, to live in Sri Lanka ? If we are, how are we seeing to it, that we do really enjoy such a luxury in this beleaguered nation ?

All what had been happening and allowed to happen, don’t in any way even hint that this country is at least serious about living by the day, leave alone democracy, rights and development for the future.

If the people were serious, this society would not be entertaining any of the rubbish that is doled out as politics and promises by political leaderships, blue, green or red, at every election for 62 years. If the people are serious, this country would not have had all this riff raff in society coming forward to contest elections and also get elected to be part of government and often be called “Ministers”. If there was any semblance of seriousness, the type of humbugs that have been voted for at all elections in all these years, would not have been misusing State power and public money, the way they have been.

IF this country had been any serious, a racist kleptocracy would not be asking for a popular vote with confidence, while the Opposition is happy left playing the fiddle on the side walks of the same Sinhala politics of a government, they only accuse as obsessively corrupt and undemocratic, but nothing else.

Yes. Corruption in governance, not only by politicians but with top Administrators involved too and often and almost always in partnership with business leaders, had been an issue that had never been taken seriously by the people. Policies and development plans are other factors the society and social leaders have not been interested in, to question, demand and develop a social discussion.

They have not been issues the constituency gets divided on policy terms and decides at elections. Therefore, elections how ever free and fair, have not been utilised to demand and discuss future policy and plans. Again, and because of that disregard, this society does not discuss rampant poverty that never gets alleviated. Elections, even if peaceful all through their campaign period, don’t discuss why almost the same percentage of the population still live under poverty since independence, that was 62 years ago.

The first major focus on poverty alleviation was in 1990 under President Premadasa, with the launch of the Janavasiya programme and its Trust Fund. Then it was highlighted, poverty was a rural phenomenon with about 80% of total poverty being rural and the percentage under poverty calculated at 26.1%. The poverty line then in 1990 was drawn at a monthly family earning of Rs. 1,100 in all.

Janasaviya was given a total facelift in 1995 and was established under a separate Ministry as “Samurdhi”. A massive poverty alleviation empire was created with public funds, employing around 26,000 “Samurdhi” officers. The poverty line was raised to Rs. 1,400 in year 2002 and the percentage living in poverty had increased to 28.8%. The poverty line was again raised to Rs. 1,650 by the year 2005 and those living under poverty was said to be 26%.

Obviously the “Rupee” in 2005 could not buy what it could buy in 1990 and there were no reduction in poverty in Sri Lanka. Nothing different and better had happened ever since “Mahinda Chintanaya” was peddled as a “pep up” syrup for all ailments.

From 1990 since Janasaviya was first launched, now in 2010 and twenty years after, with “Samurdhi” claimed as a better programme for poverty alleviation, we still have almost the same population under poverty all through the past years, with an increased “Samurdhi” employee network touching or more than 30,000 that did not adequately cover North and East. North and East comes as “projections” or as special basic information with a foot note to say “not enumerated as …….” even in census and statistics tables, in the department.

That being so on poverty that is never questioned even during the elections, this society exists with the bottom 20% of the population restricted to a per capita income of 8.0 and the next 20% just above them with 11.8, while the highest or the top 10% of the population enjoys a per capita income of 42.8 and thus have access to all social facilities including political power.

It is within such massive and undisputed disparity that this society is ignorant and apathetic about their health and their children’s education.

Health in the government sector is one area that is under heavy fire, mainly for corruption as being reason for its serious slump in quality, efficiency and availability as a service. People have been told and is made to believe that its the politician head as minister who is always at fault, while it is not the “only” and the major issue.

Will a red shirted, supposedly honest comrade substituted as minister within this set up, solve the health issue in this country ? Its far from a “single person” issue. Its a systemic chaos, where professionals and technicians in the sector are also corrupt and don’t stick to their basic responsibilities. Most who should be in their hospital ‘wards’, are busy “channelling” patients for big money at private clinics. Most who have to be in their labs and machines, are handling private work in business medical centres. Most don’t even declare their incomes proper, while the GMOA accuses politicians and monopolises its magnified power for the sake of its membership only.

There is no health planning even at provincial level where health is a devolved subject under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. The health sector unions including the GMOA are never in favour of such ‘provincialisation’ of the health sector and therefore don’t contribute for provincial development, in their own health sector that would benefit them as well.

Corruption is rampant in this health sector in very many forms and at all levels with top administrators also involved. Top administrators and the many health sector unions don’t therefore ask for a “national health plan” that would base the hospital and the medical practitioner on a “Referral” system. One that would allow general practitioners and the out-patient departments to play a vital role in hospitals, that would then make “specialists” less important and this obese “private channelling” allowed for government employed specialists to lose weight.

Who would discuss these issues publicly ? Who would propose their plan of recovery for the health sector ? Who would, for that matter ask for such planning ? Not this society, for sure.

So is it with education in this country. Any person with some money and a bank guarantee to raise loans for investment, could open up a business for “child education” and label it an “international school”. Have they got any regulatory mechanism that lays down standards on teaching, facilities necessary, management, fees and recruitment ? None for sure. That is another business at large in a society that is unable to cope with the education mess, with urban middle class parents wanting to have their own private salvation.

Public education is definitely in a mess. The central ministry nor the provincial ministries have answers for even Grade I (one) admissions. Nor can they even organise a mid term schools’ exam, efficiently and without corruption.

Its the system again that needs complete overhaul and not, any more change of faces. In general, the present population of pupils sitting the G.C.E. O/L exam totals over 500,000, including private admissions. According to the Examination Department, at national level, over 51% of them don’t qualify for A/L studies.

To talk about schools’ candidates, in educational zones like Bibile, the percentage qualifying for A/L studies and almost all in the Arts stream is just 34.08%, in Passara its 34.76%, in Dimbulagala its 31.73%, in Galenbindunuweva its 33.73% and it goes on that way in practically all rural areas.

After the G.C.E A/L examination in an education system that does not talk of a strong tertiary level, again only about 20,000 students are admitted for universities that don’t in effect provide degrees which make graduates competent for employment. That again leaves the question, what is the fate of the 500,000 children who sat the O/L exam, minus the 20,000 admitted to universities, who are never taken care of within this “Free” education ?

From that huge number, well over 64% are from the rural society and that numbers over 320,000 children each year. Where do they go in an economy that can not absorb them into economically viable livelihood projects ? Its obvious therefore, we don’t have any poverty alleviation in reducing the numbers living on Samurdhi support.

None of it is discussed in this society and certainly not on election platforms that only tell people the “opposites” are weak, are corrupt and are worse. No explanations given nor asked for. Election platforms, TV talk shows and media interventions with political “stars and celebrities” are entertainment at a cost, most voters habitually enjoy. That for sure leaves the people without alternatives they are not provided with and they never ask for.

With all that social ignorance, impotence and disregard, the next most important question this society would have to answer is, what relevance have “free and fair” elections in deciding winners without programmes ? Without alternatives ? This society is ready to live with any kleptocracy, never mind its colour.

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There is a joke that has been floating for a while with regard to the value added by lawyers to our daily existence.

It asks the question whether you know the difference between a lawyer and a catfish.

If you are interested, the answer is; one is a fish and the other is a bottom dwelling scum sucker.

In fairness to the lawyer fraternity, it should be noted that the above only applies to a miniscule number among them. Most are honorable men and women who ply their trade according to the laws of the land and obviously the implied negativity does not apply to them.

Unfortunately, the few bad apples among the law fraternity have a tendency to ascend to positions of power and influence precisely because they are willing to step into morally confusing and value compromising situations where others fear to tread.

In the case of the current state of Sri Lanka’s disunion and the exclusive rights held for that state of affairs by our political elite; the same could be used to describe the world of difference that exists between our politicians and catfish. Especially since some of the greatest contributors to the present state of our country are lawyer turned politicians.

It never ceases to amaze me at the ease the present regime/The Family keeps turning moments of glory and success into prolonged periods of national agony. Let’s take a look at how the First Family has handled its 2 biggest successes.

The first obviously was bringing to an end to Prabakaran’s reign of terror and the second was the “resounding” victory of Mahinda Rajapakse at the recently concluded presidential election. The regime has, with barely a break in its goose step, has turned these successes into a quagmire of broken promises, abuse of power and total disdain for the law of the land and welfare of the people.

In the case of the first, the regime wasted no time in antagonizing most of the western world by shutting itself off to any criticism of its actions during the last stages of the war. When faced with questions about the use of heavy artillery in an area that held thousands of non-combatants, the GOSL insisted on sticking to its position that NO civilian lives were lost during the what it euphemistically called the “rescue” operation and that the GOSL did not shell the sliver of land that held Prabakaran and his minions along with thousands of civilians.

Then, after “rescuing” the Tamil civilians held against their will by the LTTE, the GOSL promptly interned close to 300,000 of the “rescued” in camps because they were Tamils. When the UN, the USA, UK, Canada and the EU started asking some unpleasant, but reasonable, questions about what really went on in those last few days in the battle front and the internment of people in their own country; the GOSL went on a rampage attacking the messengers. Anyone or any country that didn’t swallow the GOSL’s position hook, line and sinker was termed LTTE sympathizers. The GOSL completely forgot the small detail that some of the countries that were accused of being soft of terrorism/LTTE had actually proscribed it as a terrorist organization. Who’s keeping track of minor details, eh?

The Prime Minister, various ministers and various secretaries of ministries were ever ready to defend the honor of the country. The High Commissioner of UNHCR; the FM of Sweden; UK’s Foreign Secretary ; American Secretary of State; the whole country of Norway were vilified in public. Our beloved public servants were shrieking at the high and mighty westerners like Banshees on steroids.

As a result of these hair brained actions, Sri Lanka, like an abandoned orphan, has been susceptible to the charms and enticements of many international pariah states. We have been left to wonder this desolate and morally vacuous space looking for salvation.

Once that little detail was taken care of; the regime looked inwards to weed out the local Doubting Thomases and make lifelong enemies out of bosom buddies. First in line was General Sarath Fonseka; commander of Sri Lanka Army. The man touted the best army commander in the world by the GOSL became public enemy number 1 when he and the President couldn’t come to an agreement on the General’s role in post-war Sri Lanka. While General Fonseka was not the most gracious or the most diplomatic when it came to handling his differences with the President, the government’s virulent and petty minded reaction to the General was both reactionary and an overkill. Eventually, this would lead to the General contesting against his former Commander of Chief at the 2010 Presidential elections.

What a peace dividend.

An election campaign highlighted by the lack of substance; abuse of state resources by the President’s campaign team and political gaffes of Sarath Fonseka came to an end with the incumbent romping to a comfortable and resounding victory. Mahinda Rajapakse, according to the final tally, received 57% of the vote against 40% for General Sarath Fonseka. Apparently close to 2 million more people preferred the incumbent over the retired General. One would think that such a margin would be a satisfactory outcome for the incumbent; especially considering his margin of victory over Ranil Wickramasinghe in the 2005 presidential election.

End of story, eh? Not quite.

The re-elected Mahinda Rajapakse took no time to start the witch hunt. It seems like he was slighted by the margin of victory. In his convoluted mind, Mahinda Rajapakse was seeing foreign conspiracies to topple him and assassinate him and his family members in every street corner and behind one or two luxury dwellings; or so it seems. No opposition figure or supporter of Sarath Fonseka was to be spared in the search for the smoking gun. Persons were harassed, at least one journalist has disappeared; heads of government corporations asked to hand in their resignations; and to make sure the genie was not out of the bottle Sarath Fonseka was dragged kicking and screaming and given free accommodation in a chalet of the Sri Lanka Navy. Tamils have been vilified because the majority either supported Fonseka or abstained from voting at the presidential election. Instead of building bridges across the ethnic divide, the Rajapakse regime has been burning the few remaining ones.

Apparently, the retired General was planning a coup. We are waiting to find out whether the retired General had any knowledge of this coup and also waiting for the evidence to support the allegation.

This from the candidate who won the election by the incredible margin of 17%. What would he have done if the margin of victory was a mere 5%; I wonder. Actions of the Rajapakse regime after the election suggest 3 scenarios (maybe the more creative amongst us could conjure more);

1. Support for General Fonseka was grossly over-estimated
2. The election was rigged
3. Mahinda Rajapakse thought he was going to loose the election

Looking back, I remember listening to a news conference involving Wimal Weerawanse and some others on the day of the election. In that conference, it was stated that they (I imagine the President) was going to challenge the legitimacy of Fonseka’s candidacy in courts. This was after the polls had closed. Did this mean the President thought he was going to loose the election?

We probably will never know the answer to that question. However, it does raise some interesting scenarios in the minds of folks who are not totally convinced by the “victory”.

To be frank, I didn’t think General Fonseka could win this election. Seriously, the General’s campaign was pretty much the amateur hour. However, I did not think it would be this lopsided. I didn’t think it would be as close as 2005, but I find it hard to believe that Mahinda Rajapakse would have beaten Sarath Fonseka by 17 percentahe points.

I think this was a case of political bottom dwelling scum suckers loosing all sense of proportion.

The way I see it, all this post-war and post-election shenanigans is the work of political bottom dwelling scum suckers. I imagine every politician worth his/her salt has these scum suckers in their payroll or amongst their supporters. They serve the purpose of clearing unpleasant political detritus. The scum suckers also insulate the politician from what’s real and actual by making certain only information that helps to propagate their cause is filtered to the candidate.  In most cases, these scum suckers are the hangers on who are waiting in the periphery to grab the left overs. But, in some cases the scum suckers are closer to home. They may even be part of the inner circle; or worse, they maybe part of the politician’s family.

Political scum suckers are a useful and a necessary tool for folks in high office because they are normally totally subservient to the wishes of his/her political handler and will take care of matters that cannot be attended to through official/legal means.

However, if there are no handlers or if the scum suckers are part of the inner circle and are left to operate on their own volition, the political usefulness of scum suckers will be short lived. They could, in the worse case scenario, take down the head honcho along with them to political oblivion.

I believe that the presidency of Mahinda Rajapakse has reached this stage because of the political scum suckers who have been feeding and living off his success.

Does Mahinda Rajapakse have the political will/smarts to weed out the bad apples and reach out to the opposition to make sure that there is indeed a peace dividend? I am not holding my breath, but he has proved his detractors and doubters wrong in the past. I hope he will do so in the near future as well.

It is sad to witness Mahinda Rajapakse, the man responsible for bringing to an end the reign of the giver of death; the taker of hope; the denier of forgiveness that was Prabakaran resorting to pettiness, intimidation and political thuggery to silence the voices that do not see eye to eye with him.

Mahinda Rajapakse, by all means should be in a position to heal many of the old wounds caused by years of ethnic polarization. He truly is in a position to turn swords into ploughshares.

Instead, Mahinda Rajapakse has, in a manner of speaking, turned the few remaining ploughshares into swords.

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