The Forced March on May Day – Courtesy of the UPFA

Reading Newspaper reports of the UPFA rally, it was a sorry excuse for a May Day rally. There were 5 bus loads of mainly old people on SLTB buses (adding to their losses) with mainly old people and kids being forced to go to Colombo from Jaffna at around 4pm on Monday, April 30^th, who returned to base between 10am and 2pm on Wednesday May 2^nd dead tired after more than 42 hours on the road with little to eat or drink! And who had to walk and then attend a rally, they did not understand a word of. The Buses had photographs of Namal Rajapakse so I do not know if the young people were supposedly his version of the emaciated 'Tharunaya' who does not have a 'Hetak'. Now I call that a violation of Human Rights!!! What do you say – a small price to pay for the possibility of receiving some future goodies, like a stolen house courtesy of the govt.

That is just one example, but there are many dotted from all parts of the country where buses were provided and people asked to fill them up with bodies and bring them to Colombo. This time the usual Rs1000 and a bottle of arrack was not even offered, so it was nothing short of being compelled.

As for govt. servants, in various departments, despite different political affiliations, they were compelled to attend using the threat of disciplinary action or the lack of a future promotion as the stick for non attendance.

All this amounts to a gross travesty of justice, where the mighty use the power of the state and the resources to waste colossal amounts of money on cutouts and notices to get a tiny crowd to attend a very dubious rally.

To cap it the main theme of the President at the rally was that he will not permit foreign forces to take over the country a very populist theme constantly used to distract the populace from the real issues at hand. This fear of foreign invasion is very strong amongst a large part of the electorate due to the shortfall in the education system that prevents them from logically realizing what a bunch of baloney this is that is being rammed down their throats.

In reality this so called threat is preventing the much needed foreign investment in to the country that with the other end of their mouths the Govt. is supposedly encouraging and there are too few takers. In reality it is akin to working against the interests of the citizens in this country making this sort of erroneous statements that is nothing more than treachery.

In summary the whole May Day rally of the UPFA achieved nothing, other than a hugely expensive event at the expense of the people, to attempt to heap glory on a few leaders, by warning he people of a massive foreign conspiracy. God Help us!