Remember they are your servants, not masters

Politics of Sri Lanka (Volume 111) by T.D.S.A. Dissanayaka. A reprint of the prologue Publisher: Swastika (pvt. Ltd.)

It is sad but true that to- day millions of Sri Lankans are wondering whether the UNP or the SLFP is more skilled in the sordid art of rigging elections.

It is only a fool or a liar from the UNP who will not acknowledge that the UNP rigged several elections during the period 1977-94, when the UNP both ruled and misruled Sri Lanka.

For example, at the infamous District Council Election of 1981, for the first time since 1931, when adult franchise was introduced, sealed ballot boxes disappeared in Jaffna.

Besides for the first time since 1931, a public building went up in smoke during an election. The tragic victim was the splendid Public Library of Jaffna which had so many priceless manuscripts.

At the nonsensical Referendum which President J.R. Jayewardene held in 1982 in lieu of a General Election, the Attanagalle and Dompe electoral areas, pocket boroughs of the Bandaranaike family, mysteriously voted UNP. Another mystery was how when Hector Kobbekaduwa, the presidential candidate from the SLFP, and Pieter Keuneman, the much respected leader of the Communist Party, went to their polling booths to exercise their franchise they had already been impersonated.

At another polling booth a UNP Member of Parliament brandished a revolver and threatened everybody around him. In the spate of bye-elections which followed in 1983, the UNP unleashed unprecedented thuggery and intimidation in the Mahara electorate which resulted in Vijaya Kumaratunge (SLEP) losing that seat by a mere 44 votes. At the Presidential Election of 1988 common criminals like Soththi Upali and Mora Sunil played a role that was not insignificant.

During that infamous election, held at the height of a JVP insurrection, hooligans and thugs from the UNP came in state-owned vehicles sans number plates and committed all manner of election offenses. Besides in predominantly SLFP areas, trees and live electric wires were cut and placed across the roads and violence unleashed to prevent voters from exercising their franchise. President R. Premadasa claimed the JVP was responsible for it. That was a supreme example of sophistry.

Now the UNP is reaping what they have sown. At the recent Provincial Council election in Wayamba, the SLFP even surpassed the UNP in the art of rigging elections. That unbelievable story is narrated in graphic detail in the next fifty pages, Chapter 1,of the book "January 25, 1999". That day of infamy culminated in the most disgraceful election campaign in Sri Lanka, ever since the two party system came into being in 1956.

As history unfolds before our very eyes, we have a contemporary society that looks upon our politicians, irrespective of their predilections as compulsive liars. Indeed our politicians are truly able at masquerading as paragons of virtue while in the Opposition. In government they are just as despicable as those whom they supplanted.

Yet the very society that looks upon our politicians with the contempt which they richly deserve, venerate them while in office. Unfortunately our people are more than willing to sell their souls for a mess of pottage. Our people refuse to realize that we can only be freed from our present misery when we rise up and uphold the truth. Indeed it is only the search for the truth not subservience to those in high office, that will free us from our present bondage.

My fellow citizens, put not your trust in politicians. It is they who have ruined our nation since Independence. It is they, who by placing their personal ambitions above our national interests, have foisted upon our nation a civil war of frightful proportions. My fellow citizens, please do not demean yourself by venerating Presidents, Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament.

They are your servants, not your masters. They must be beholden to you, not you to them. Politicians of Sri Lanka, condemn me if you must. However, please remember, history will absolve me, not you!

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