There is an example in history of the Autocrat who prepared the future of his country – Francisco Franco of Spain. So Rajapakse can still do it!!!

I am one of those people, who values democracy, and am aghast at the way it is being manipulated and suppressed with lies and innuendo such as that practiced in Sri Lanka. The ending of a brutal Civil War has enabled the present administration to tighten its autocratic grip on power, by effectively using the win even 5 years ago to constantly remind the people when it comes nearer to an election, that they are safe from violence and so go on to score political victories at the polls, based on a clever psychological game of frightening the people!

I don’t know if the current President still understands the word legacy, and therefore does not appear to realize that if he carries on in this fashion, within a year of his demise everything that is named after him will be renamed, and his position in the history of this country will be drastically altered from the creation he has ordered. He has still the chance of regaining credibility and a better legacy, if he like Franco is able to establish the institutions of good governance and the rule of law as soon as possible, so that when he exits this stage, those after him will be bequeathed a system that is applicable to the stage that Sri Lanka is in today.     

My personal preference would be for him to abolish the 13^th and its place set up at least a truly multi cultural state reinstating the 17^th and also removing the 18^th, so we can get back to a semblance of sanity. Whatever he does there is work needed to set the stage for a less corrupt method of government, and a two thirds majority affords a once in a life time opportunity to put the record straight.

After all it is the future of Sri Lanka that we all want to assure as one where all citizens have inalienable rights, that cannot be compromised.

Everything we have mentioned here, can easily be done and at a stroke the ethnic conflict can also be tackled as part of this exercise. He can then kill two brids with the same stone and go down in history for this magnanimous gesture devoid of petty local politics. It is a unique opportunity, that only MR has, and that no other leader elected in the future will have due to the inability of a people to give such an overwhelming power to one individual.

I therefore fervently hope that the current leader has the sense to study what Franco did and why, and follow in its footsteps. For such a ruthless dictator to have his legacy as the man who bequeathed democracy to Spain, is unbelievable, and so the problem lies with the lack of vision of the people in his party to show him the way.!!!