The Constitution is the Governing Contract between the State and the People

The main grievances of the Sri Lankan people in 2016 are:

1                   Abuse of power by Politicians

2                   The disgust of the Political Culture

3                   Failure to protect the people from the abuse of power

4                   The failure of the Administrative Machinery to reach the people

5                   The Destruction of the Environment

In order to simplify this process and make it clear to those who we MUST reach, but hitherto left out, I am attempting to reach those who have the least input into both Constitution Making, and having a voice in the decision making process that is currently taking place, that will affect their lives, but whose decisions affecting them directly are NOT made by them.

In my opinion, the immediate FULL STOP to the destruction of the Environment and concrete steps to reverse this process, SHOULD be the paramount goal of the New Constitution, as that is the ONLY certainty for the survival of Sri Lanka as we know it now.

Therefore the one paragraph that defines our Constitution to ensure the protection of the Environment and the reversal of destruction is the Constitutional guarantee, for the right of each citizen to drink clean water, breathe pure air, and eat food safe from that which can cause illness.

While the normal constitutional safeguards of Independence of the Executive, Judiciary and Legislature along with Right to Information, and the requisite checks and balances to ensure the above are practiced, the principle rights as defined above for water, air and food will give it priority in all decision making/legislating from all three Arms!

Further the Rule of Law and its enforcement along with the reliance of the Fourth Estate to be truly independent, clears the decks for a perfect balance, without the need for legislating for ANY MINORITY, as ALL RIGHTS ARE the same, with NO ONE treated as a special case, desirous of specific mention!

My personal opinion on how one solves the problems of 1through to 4 above, is simply by the irrelevance of Political Groupings, which when matched with ONLY one term political office at ANY stage, will only produce, true patriots who are committed to and willing to give 5 years of their lives for public service in elected office, coming from all walks of life, and hopefully a track record in some field, even a street cleaner who will be more able to opine on how to manage a successful recycling operation, than any politician we currently have in Parliament today.

Those elected to Parliament will be citizens who have a valid brand in their respective constituencies and would NOT be elected from a Party but purely on their own merits as people, who are able to garner the largest vote base in that election, and who will NOT be able to seek re-election in future.

Then there will be NO ABUSE of power, which means that there will be NO political culture to be disgusted about, and with no abuse of power, as the people will not be victims of abuse,

One term politicians will automatically ensure, that the Administrative Arms of government will operate on a professional platform, of performance, productivity, and accountability as there will be NO political appointees to positions within the public service.

It is ONLY a complete overhaul of the system, that older generations cannot comprehend, and the younger generation wants, but are unable to succinctly publicize with the force of numbers, at present, is the only way forward.

In order to implement this, as opposed to an old fashioned and out of date constitution, that people drafting would be dead within 5 years, and cannot actually relate to, that we have a duty to use social media, to arouse the youth and engage them in their duty, to be part of the political process, that WILL affect their future, and build a juggernaut of public pressure, that the present Government HAS TO listen to, include in the constitution making process, and include their important and game changing ideas onto this Constitution, that must stand the strength of time of a minimum of 50 years.

It is therefore those born after January 1^st 1990 are the ones who will be turning 75 in 50 years, who must form part of this movement, a hitherto completely ignored segment.

The challenge will be to engage a group that has NOT been empowered in anything to date, due to the fault of an archaic education system, and begin a process of empowerment prior to any understanding of needed processes!  

The President met Senior Media Heads last morning – Papers only report half the story!

Think about it. You the public are NOT told the whole story, because we the media, use self censorship, especially when we are challenged on our own reporting, and own faults, and WE SWEEP IT UNDER THE CARPET!

http://www.dailymirror.lk/108728/Govt-cannot-be-toppled-President

What the President effectively told the gathering of all Media, summoned at 8am to be briefed by him, was:

 “Hey guys, I risked my life to overthrow one of the world’s most distasteful dictators, if I failed my family would have been tortured and killed in front of my own eyes, before I received the same fate. His family rule, has plundered his country, killed its people, led them a dance, fooled them with lies, allowed cronies to rob every imaginable institution blind, and you guys are giving this joker of an ex-president TOO MUCH PUBLICITY, and allowing him to get off scott free from his heinous crimes against the state that deserve the DEATH PENALTY for TREACHERY. Further he has left the Country having to shoulder the MASSIVE debt left behind from this bad Governance and Daylight Robbery, which we as a RESPONSIBLE Government are trying desperately to solve, with minimum hardship being put on the people.”

The implication being that the Media believe he will return to haunt us, and that they are trying to save their own skin, by pandering to his vainglory for fear or retribution, and are NOT informing the public adequately of the mess he has left us to clean up, simply because of his profligacy, and the Govt. has to resort to ads to inform the people as the Media is not doing this effectively!

There was a full page ad in today’s papers that headlined “The landmines that have wrecked the economy” and ended with “We cannot and will not pass on this burden to our children, and future generations. Instead of seeking short-term political benefits, we will take prudent and decisive steps to resolve this unprecedented debt crisis.”

I leave my readers to make up their own minds by your analysis of the situation, as to whether the Media collectively are culpable in this alleged crime of misinformation and disinformation and deliberate suppression of information, and instead give unwarranted publicity to a defeated President, who has been treated by the Govt. far better than any such person in the History of the World!

Sampanthan – Kilinochchi Camp saga – all about Political Posturing!

In order to close the chapter in the Army camp invasion saga, both sides are bent on Media posturing to such an extent that it is a purposely manufactured news item for personal glory, but NOT newsworthy enough to warrant a mention!

The TNA which is losing credibility amongst the Tamil population, it pretends to represent, wanted to gain some publicity, that they were doing something on behalf of the people, and what better event than to go to a small army camp with a bunch of people who have been trying to get their land back (those overseas MUST understand that LAND is a very emotive subject in SL, especially where unauthorized people have purloined other people’s land)

This camp has been constructed during the period of strife on private land owned by individuals who want their land GIVEN BACK TO THEM. I know many people who have land that is being currently occupied by the forces in all sorts of places and are negotiating with the government on the QT to get it back. If it is your land would you not try to recover it from whoever is currently occupying it. When it is the Govt. who is occupying, it is more difficult to go to Court to seek legal redress, and what you do is to use your influence, pay off politicians and such means to reclaim you land. That is WRONG.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/108739/TNA-Sampanthan-went-to-a-private-land-Not-a-camp

There must be a commission that is appointed to look into all these cases, and arbitrate on each case on its merits, which result in a promise of eventual return, and until such time it is safe to return the land, the owners, be paid a reasonable rental during the period of occupation! THAT IS WHAT SHOULD BE DONE!

Sampanthan on the other hand casually walked in with Sumanthiran, and were let in and wanted to score political points, to get the land back. This created a fury, as he is the Leader of the Opposition, who is entitled to visit army camps with due notice, and had not made that notice, as this was a spur of the moment thing to score brownie points with Tamil civilians!

http://www.dailymirror.lk/108750/Opp-Leader-should-give-prior-notice-when-visiting-Army-camp-Ruwan

The JO is crying foul, that our security is compromised, and the Govt. is pulling rank and protocol to say he violated rules of etiquette in NOT requesting permission! All this is a hill of beans, meant to confuse the people, as it is NOT even newsworthy, and a waste of time, and NO ONE in the press has commented on the real issue at hand, on the process by which private lands anywhere in Sri Lanka, commandeered by the State be returned, purchased, or rented until the need ceases.

What kind of idiots to we have in SL Media/ Journalists who don’t get it!!!

Another story to distract the people from their TAX BURDEN! Sampanthan

The rumpus of the Leader of the Opposition, Sampanthan, and 50 of his cohorts entering an Army Camp in Kilinochchi area, has been blown up and made to sound so hush hush that it is creating a buzz that it DOES NOT deserve, but is being done INTENTIONALLY to take the public notice out of the more important matters of State, namely the huge increase in VAT, (now for every rupee you spend on your phone, 54 goes to the Govt. in Vat and other taxes.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=144182

http://www.dailymirror.lk/108639/NSC-to-take-up-Sampanthan-incident

Granted I don’t know the circumstances of what happened and why, but I do know that this group entered the camp without prior permission or authorization as would be the case if he wanted to enter the camp. So when basic protocol which any child can understand, was NOT followed, it creates an incident, that is now splashed around the press, as they have nothing better to report on. This is causing an unnecessary huff in the press, which the Govt. is RELEIVED as their more immediate problems of taxing the poor gets to the second page, when this takes center stage.

This Sampanthan bashing exercise hot on the heals of the Northern Federalism Resolution is just fuel to ignite the racist card, on BOTH sides, when in fact this is merely the bankrupt politicians in the TNA shouting their final battle cries, that are completely being ignored, by the Northern Tamil population, who instead of rhetoric want action on the part of the Provincial Govt. to improve the quality of their lives, to match the promises made.

THE NPC seem oblivious to the local needs, or worse a contempt to them, as their agenda is different to what the people of the North really want. It is NOT federalism, or even the amalgamation of the two provinces, it is simply the chance to live in dignity in their own areas, without harassment from either the army or even public officials, and their basic needs be met, and giving the NGOs the basic courtesies to carry out their tasks in an increasing environment of lack of resources.

Now all this has been swept under the carpet and the racist forces will be hollering on much ado about nothing. No politician is capable of calling what is, and instead is looking to a following to back him up, when no following is needed when one speaks the truth, even if it hurts those who are bent on an ideological game of deception, that both the TNA and the likes of NFF are in! 

A mischievous President desperate for public adulation – resorts to Sirisenomics!

Enough of trying to sound gracious, first admit your failings and then there is a chance you will be believed

It was appalling that at a recent event the President took upon himself to say he will NOT burden the people with Taxes, and hinted that the UNP side of the National Govt. was trying to do this, whilst he will stop it!

He is nothing more than a political animal, a hostage to circumstance, with nothing else to say, so he makes a complete mockery of a statement whilst doing the opposite, putting a unacceptable burden on the public by taxing everything they consume, and pretending that it does not affect the majority.

In the last entry I explained the need for tightening our belts, as the Rajapakses have over borrowed, and now we have pay for their sins.

However this debt burden (AS ALWAYS) has fallen disproportionately on the poorer sections of the community and the wealthy have got off scot free!

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160424/columns/so-vats-the-trouble-with-ypalana-economics-190795.html

The link above clearly explains the dilemma but does not allude to the real issue of the Govt. unwillingness to tax the Haves over the Have nots and with consumption taxes, it is always the have nots who are the WORST affected.

IT IS NO USE PUTTING FULL PAGE ADS saying that the debt burden is oppressive. We must find FIND those who lucked out on the Rajapakse Regime, as part of this Rs8trillion debt, as some of it is in the pockets of people who have NOT paid taxes on their part of this largesse.

IT IS THE DUTY OF THE GOVT OF THE DAY to carefully search out who benefitted, by how much, and then tax those earnings of those people, if the President is to be believed on his promise. Its all political HOT AIR if the President does not have a plan to collect at least 3trillion of this money from those who have pocketed it, and explain to the people that it is ONLY the balance that he has NO CHOICE but to seek from the general public by the increase in VAT burden to pay for the Rajapakse excess!

As I pointed out I the previous blog post, this Govt. is also complicit in increasing the deficit, due to their unaffordable promises knowingly made! 

The only answer is to clearly explain both the complicity, and the extent of each Govt. share of this burden, so people will be more likely to believe when MEA CULPAS are included in the real intention of the Govt. to do finally do something about our intolerable debt burden. Otherwise this will sound a LIE 

All the Problems are of the Government’s own making, so what if we did not have a Government will be have NO PROBLEMS?

I am now subscribing to the school of thought that no one can run the Country as badly as our Governments have in the past 70 years, that if we had NO Government at all, we would be in a much better position, economically and financially, and it is simply our elected representatives who have indulged in POPULIST gimmicks at the expense of the PUBLIC!

The link below is well worth reading as it explains why this statement above makes sense and the context in which all decisions made by Governments have been for short term electoral opportunism and NOT long term, survival and growth of our Economy.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=144159

Put simply this is the tragedy of Sri Lanka, and now the Govt. has finally put full page ads in ALL the papers today, saying that our Debt Burden is 75% of Gross National Income at present, and that amounts to 8,475 Billion Rupees, and this is due to the senseless borrowing of the previous regime!

The biggest joke is that right at the bottom of the AD it says and I quote verbatim “ INSTEAD OF SEEKING SHORT-TERM POLITICAL BENEFITS WE WILL TAKE PRUDENT AND DECISIVE STEPS TO RESOLVE THIS UNPRECENDENTED DEBT CRISIS!”  

Have they got such short memories? It is this Govt. that has given a Rs10,000 wage raise to ALL Govt. Servants, all 1.6M of them, that has resulted in such a massive cost, that we are getting further into to debt to make this payment. Worse, due to this wage increase, people DON’T want to work in the private sector, nor do they want to work at all period until they get a Govt. job, which has put undue pressure on the Govt. members to provide their supporters most of whom are ill qualified for the job into positions that are costing us even MORE!

Until the Govt. is HONEST and does a complete evaluation of all workers, review their jobs, and work specifications, and completely overhaul the state apparatus, to turn an unworkable bureaucracy into an efficient and tight ship, they are continuing to lie BIG TIME. It is NOT politically acceptable, but it has to be done, to make people mindful of the fact that they are NOT cutting the muster, and either must pull up their socks or be let go! It is only then will we be able to make some semblance of the statement and accept their GOAL. 

The May Day mentality – It’s all about Leadership

In my previous blog entry, I have alluded to the farce that is May Day and extent to which the Political Parties have hijacked a day reserved for workers who primarily exert themselves with sweat and toil, to express their feelings in placards and comradeship. In truth these workers are NOT valued nor even recognized on May 1^st.

In this entry I wish to use this example of one-upmanship for bragging rights, that in reality amount to a hill of beans, being used by politicians or shall I say the leaders of the respective parties to enslave their followers instead of free them, reminding the enslaved who their masters are rather than to remind the leaders that they are mere servants of the people, to whom they owe their living!

This enslavement takes the form of the need for electoral organizers to compete with each other, to show (all show no substance) who can bring the numbers (as in who can spend the most to fool the most to turn up!) So these electoral organizers some are Cabinet Ministers in the Govt. today, but are reminded of their mere lowly status in this pecking order to show their leader (as in pay homage to) that they indeed have a following and are hence worthy of their exalted position in the party, and deserve their position!

Then those who aspire to high office are further tested by their leader, using this threat of numbers, and the most showy parade of characters to make a play for the high stakes positions by being able to amass a crowd so large, that their stake in the party is justified! This again is paying homage of sorts to their leader.

Think about it! All of the above pressures on political hacks to show numbers bring buses, spend money they don’t have so making promises to Donors in lieu of favors, is all part of what is wrong in politics in Sri Lanka, as it perpetuates a culture of quid pro quo, where bribes in whatever name it is called is paid to enrich the donors who bankroll these politicians due to the desire of the leaders to fool the people.

While it is clearly a circuitous argument, in the AGE OF YAHAPALANAYA, it is a definite abandonment of the spirit of this theme of the Leaders of Government, both the President and the Prime Minister to arrange these BOGUS shows to further rattle an already embattled Public with smoke and mirrors to detract from the act of “Governing the Country in the Public Interest.” 

It is this theme that is paramount, and it is the May Day show that is treachery of that intention no matter what guise this is coated in. When a clear analysis of both my blog entries is done, any sane person would conclude that an act of treachery has been committed against the nation, which must be prosecuted!

Otherwise they would continue with this for years to come, not realizing the gravity of the offence and the cost to the Nation, due to their lust for power, and blinded by their own self preservation!

Every bit of news you read about MAY Day in SL are lies, but we believe!

The May Day rally season is on, and for two weeks prior and one week post, the Media, will be reporting news about it for public consumption, but none of it has a grain of truth attached to it. They parrot what the liars spout!

This year with the JO rally in Kirulapone, the political parties have an added reason to lie! The UNP in their enthusiasm, to fool the public the most, that their rally is the best attended, will multiply the numbers by 10 times, and the Media, will report it, as they are frightened of telling the truth, as the PM will blast them for lying! That is the state of the STATE!

I read yesterday that the NYF the youth wing of the UNP will be bringing at least 25,000 and in today’s papers it was 10,000, the reality being about 1,000! So who is trying to kid whom? Take youth for instance, they are the last people who will come to a May Day rally unless they are forced, or ideologically misled such as the well organized and regimented JVP rally at the BRC grounds every year. At least the cost is borne by them, not for patronage of benefit!

FOR YOUTH rallies are so last century, they are in the FB and Social Media age, they have NOTHING to gain from walking in the heat of the day and standing like ‘morons’ for hours in the hot sun. as they have much better things to do with their time. The oldies and party faithful on the other hand will join as if it is a right of initiation to the hall of fame, but their presence will NOT be noted in any document, and in their respective Electorate Hall of Fame for the number of times the person has participated in May Day rallies, there is NONE!~

So would you if you were intelligent, go to a May Day rally where your Electoral Organizer does not have the decency at least to have your name on a list of participants of the May Day 2016 rally? If truth be told then, less than a handful of Organizers actually have an accurate list of participants, and those who attend don’t have even a modicum of common sense, to be led like lambs to slaughter for their demi-god politicians, who arrive in their Rs50M vehicles and, who will ignore their existence the following day!

Now the talk is will he or wont he, about MR attending the JO one, as you know he will NOT attend the UPFA/SLFP on in Galle. I found it interesting that all the females associated with MR were put on a pic saying they are all going to the JO one, if only to persuade people to come to see them, as most of them are air heads as in actresses! These are the levels to which the desperate are making statements in the press, with latest threat being that those NOT attending the rally in Galle will NOT get any position in the party in future!

NOW LET US LOOK AT THE WASTE IN COST

All told, about Rs100M will be wasted by all the demonstrators/participants for no real gain, except bragging rights by each. Every outfit will exaggerate their numbers, and the JVP are past masters at making 100 look like a thousand, because they march in formation leaving a long space in between each.

Thankfully NO direct public money will be spent, but in this game of smoke and mirrors it is ALL indirect public money, as the public pays in the end when it comes to WASTE. NO ONE will waste his hard earned money on a May Day rally! Meant just for BORU SHOW

Of course this is a fashion parade, with politicians of the same side, competing with Caps, T shirts, Saris, Banners, Placards and NOISE! They will try to fill as many buses, and all of them will come with plenty of space, as they want to say they brought so many buses (not with 55 as capacity, but with 25 in each!)

They will fundraise from party supporters, who seek POLITICAL favors, and remember these political favors come at a price to the PUBLIC, so the public pays in the end. None spends 200,000 for nothing in return. Some are donating 1,000 saris but in reality only 100 women will come and you may ask what happened to the other 900 saris, that is called guess who is the crookedest!

People who have NOT had anything so far for being supporters cannot be persuaded to come unless it is worth their while to waste their day or two days in some cases! So it is all meals provided, a payment of Rs1,000 and half a bottle of arrack to boot to make this trip. What do these people get for all that? not even a mention or thanks for their participation!  

In the end those who in fact turn up are treated worse than cattle. They are told to stand for hours until it is their turn to march for the next 3 km! they walk and they walk, stop and start, with most of the time stopped! By the time they get to the location, it is full, and they cannot go in or sit down, as the smartest set would have already taken their seats long before, these are not party supporters, but Columbians from theColombo Watte’s wanting a freebie, and NO ONE dare throw them out.

2,000 buses commandeered for what? To run on imported diesel, none of them workers, as it is the “KAMKARU DINAYA” The workers are far too tired from a week of work to demonstrate on their day off, so it is the political hacks who don’t want to work who have HIJACKED MAY DAY from the workers whose toil should be appreciated, and remembered on this special day that has been basterdized by the Sri Lankan Political Mafia for their own ends. 

SAD ISN’T IT?

Lebanon with 4.4M nationals has over 2M refugees – and over 5,000 Sri Lankan Maids too! So why can’t we take in Syrian Refugees!

We MUST think out of the box. How would Sri Lanka be perceived in the world if we could truthfully house 1,000 families, say about 4,000 people in our Island to take them out of the misery of camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. I suggest we at least offer to take this number. You would be surprised how it will be beneficial to Sri Lanka.

Most successful people in the world have left their Countries of origin, left suppression, and made it good in their adopted homelands. Even Sri Lankans, Tamils who left the Country, seeking greener pastures have made it good.

How many of the readers know that MAXXIS owns half of Sri Lanka Telecom, the SL Govt. owns the other half? Their owner Anandakrishnan’s father caught the train from Jaffna and came to Colombo, eventually settling in Malaysia, I find it funny therefore when the SLT markets itself as a local telecom company! Frankly, we have a telecom revolution in Sri Lanka, where the whole population owns and uses phones, and all of them have foreign ownership. Why? Because we were never able to develop it on our own, due to shortsighted and bureaucratic policies, which foreign owners were able to overcome.

It is this new thinking that immigrants into Sri Lanka can bring. After all at present over 4Million people have emigrated out of Sri Lanka, either as permanent émigrés, or temporary émigrés working for a short time to build up a nest egg before returning here. SO what is the problem of taking in 4,000 people, 0.1% of the people who have left. It is a no brainer for people who think we have too many people. We don’t have too many. We have too little, and worse we have so many jobs, that people don’t want to do.

The headlines recently said how the Construction Industry has to hire foreign labor as we don’t have enough people with the skills necessary to do the job. As a Country we are simply rotted away, and we need new blood to awaken our inner senses, and show us the way to do things and get us out of our laziness, slumber, and defeatist mentality. We as a Country have NO REAL PROBLEMS, but we behave as if we have. Just the other day there was an earthquake that killed and destroyed a lot just in Japan, and we are itching to go there too.

We have to be constantly reminded by foreigners that we have what most people want but we don’t realize it, and we are constantly complaining and doing all the wrong things to make our lives miserable. It is time we encouraged some infusion of people to shake rattle and roll our sleeping procrastinators!    

Time for Sri Lanka to offer to take 1,000 refugee families from Syria!

Humanitarian Sri Lanka! Think again! We don’t have a humanistic bone in our body. As a Country we SHOULD have offered on humanitarian grounds to take 1,000 Syrian refugee families.

The detractors will say, that with so many displaced people in Sri Lanka, how can we take any more people? Well I say, most countries who are taking in refugees have problems of their own, and in some cases serious problems. I say resettling refugees, will be a wake up call for Sri Lankans in how desirable their Country is vis a vis other Countries, and will teach us to take care of our Country better and appreciate what we have, and try our best to preserve it rather than destroy it as is the case at present.

With the Govt. and Opposition doing their best to ruin this Country, as if it is a competition to determine who is better at ruining, a thousand Syrian Refugees, will show the Sri Lankan living here, that others can make a go of Sri Lanka, where people here have NOT EVEN MADE AN EFFORT.

This is a Country where at least 10,000 more millionaires can be created in the next three years, but without a thinking cap on our citizens do not know where to begin, to take advantage of the massive opportunities available, and instead expect the Government to provide an non-existent job, in a non- existent institution, with a non-existent objective, in a non-existent place!  

As an exercise of global inclusiveness, I sincerely believe we must do this. I for one will take one family, as I am sure I will be able to benefit such that the income that this family can generate for me, will exceed the cost I have to bear, and this family therefore WILL be a net benefit to Sri Lanka. Frankly the people who live here, wasting their lives, as alcoholics and no hopers are the ones who need to know that they are the surplus to requirements and foreigners are the ones who contribute to the improvement of our economy.

Most progressive Countries in the world have recognized that, and the 50,000 the US takes every year on their diversity lottery, attests to that thinking. Our thinking is we cant even get our act to together to take the 350,000 jobs going a begging, but we will not even give an educated refugee a chance to take those jobs to improve Sri Lanka either! It is that kind of archaic third calls thinking that is predominant in this Country, and that cuts across all classes, and levels of education, with sometimes the most educated, like doctors, and University professors, the most reluctant to open doors out of sheer greed for preserving their state of being able to maximize their greed at the expense of our society, as any competition, more superior than them will NOT be tolerated.

Syria has only 14M people left and is three times the size of Sri Lanka

It is time for Sri Lanka to takeover Syria, as otherwise the USA will take it over! Listen guys I am serious. The war will end soon. None of the refugees who have fled outside of Lebanon will want to return, so for such a beautiful and fertile Country with highly intelligent and industrious people, who better to lead them to their destiny, but tiny Sri Lanka.

Have any of you really understood what is at play here? Europe, especially Germany have taken the best and brightest of Syria, and are teaching them, German. They are as white as the snow, and within 40 years they will have assimilated to help the German State to be the largest and most powerful in Europe, unless of course the UK take as many of their talented people and do the same.

The problem is Germany has done a great job of assimilating minorities unlike the UK that does its best to create diversity and then buggers it up right royally by Ghettoising the place full of immigrants, and preventing assimilation by decree!

It is the Muslim faith that is a potential threat, but if the Turks are any thing to go by who have migrated to Germany in their zillions, I am sure the Syrians are MORE pragmatic, and will eventually embrace Christianity, as the example of the sheer carnage of the Shia Sunni split in the Middle East is enough for the Muslim faith in non- Muslim countries to disappear.

I know there are many naysayers to my theory that the faith is a way of life, but when that way of life and Sharia Law in particular confronts the first world, you have a natural abrasion that requires smoothening and that will only happen if the Germans embrace the new immigrants.

See how the Pope brought just three Syrian families and showed how gracious the Christian faith is to non-Christians, something Muslims will hardly ever do in a Muslim Country. Every Muslim Country on earth has made the lives of non-Muslims more difficult, and I don’t have to keep giving excuses for them anymore except to say, that there is right and wrong, and when in the end right triumphs over wrong, you can decide who the real winners and losers are.

When I see the self destruction in the name of the Muslim faith by Muslims, I shudder to think that the poor Palestinians will suffer their faith, and no one will come to rescue them from  the Jewish onslaught not because they are Muslim, as there are many Christian Palestinians too! But because of the lack of compassion of other Muslims in Arab lands who don’t really care a damn.   

GMOA – Anti India stance is part of a greater problem with our Doctors

It is interesting to note that Sri Lankan doctors just don’t like the possibility of Indian doctors and the medical industry of India taking any more inroads into the Sri Lankan Health Sector.

As if Apollo story was not enough, when later it was named Lanka Hospitals ALL the cardiac surgeons in Sri Lankan private hospitals are Indian! Why our Sri Lankan doctors are very happy earning their dollars in the US or elsewhere having had a free education here!

Competition is greater in India, and so there are openings for qualified Indian doctors in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan doctors don’t like that as they see a flood of doctors from India will reduce their ability to fleece patients, and now there is a plan to freeze channeling costs to see specialists as it is becoming too expensive for the average person to channel a doc, and soon with the imposition of 15% vat it will become even more expensive.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/108319/GMOA-s-anti-India-Malaria-xenophobia-Disgusting-

I am sorry whatever guise our doctors try to put on this and the latest being the Malaria scare blamed on Indians, the doctors collectively are even against ETCA because there is a greater likelihood of Indian doctors coming here than reverse, but that will reduce the cost of physician fees, and that is a good thing, though SL doctors will try to say that they are more qualified or better! That is just subjective, and a wholly unproven assumption, in fact that Indians with more competitive situations, and better training and more experience may in fact be better!

Just like the opposition to the Malabe Private Medical College, because it is likely that the facilities will become better than State Hospitals, they students are trying to pretend that their clinical experience is better. Frankly, the future of medicine is in technology, Which Malabe will prove to be far better at due to the mess the state sector is in, in not getting the latest technology.

GMOA and SL doctors! In the end the patient needs better choice, better prices, more reliable service and quality, and an ambulance service! You provide NONE of this, so don’t try and prevent someone who can. You guys are greedy, incompetent, and patient unfriendly, so competition from India will force you to improve your product, and service, and that can only be good for the patients, who come first, not doctors as you think. You get a free education, and you are playing the system, without giving anything back, its time you learn.

Its Carrying Capacity Stupid! Not a Tourism numbers game – A rethink needed!

Why is almost every policy of the Govt. stupid? Be it energy, water conservation, wildlife conservation, tourism, agriculture, education, healthcare, housing, everything is being done the WRONG way!

Simple, we have people who will not even get a job as a security guard in a bank branch, filling MPs chairs in Parliament! Why don’t the people or why have they not realized this by now, after 70 years of making the same mistakes, and lying to the public.

Is it because the public after all this time, cannot recognize a lie? Is it because we are a nation of liars, we all lie, but believe everything we say is true?

http://www.dailymirror.lk/108429/Sri-Lanka-currently-not-a-destination-for-sustainable-tourists-despite-industry-efforts-expert

The link is just to show one example of how far out we are on the Tourism product, from what we are trying to do and what is really happening.

So if we take Tourism for discussion in this entry, our targets of 4 Million tourists in this Country by 2020, where currently a tourist spends 40% of his daytime hours in a bus or car travelling, he is NOT enjoying his visit! This will only get worse with the traffic, and so we are killing tourism before it even started. Yala already is over used and a nightmare to visit, and we want to encourage more people to go there! Are we mad?

So let me explain a completely new concept for tourist to Sri Lanka. Its called single experience tourism. This is where a tourist on a 7 day vacation stays ONLY in one place, and on a 14 day vacation stays only in two places.

They are on holiday, to relax, read, eat, enjoy one or two pleasures they came here to soak in. It may be sun and beach, it maybe birding, it may be to see ruins, it maybe to take in an up country experience of tea and hikes, it maybe a religious experience, it may be ayurvedic or spa treatment. I suggest just marking ONE of these and giving them the worlds best experience of JUST that one ONLY.

They can then spend their whole holiday being pampered in that particular place, taking in the experience they want only, rather than mix and match everything under the sun, and then enjoy NOTHING as is usually the case. We don’t want coach tourists, just being bundled in and out of a coach. They can go to another Country for that.

In this way we will have satisfied tourists, but there is one caveat, that our service standards which are still not even one star at 5 star hotels comes up to 5!

To say nothing of minimizing the carbon footprint by minimal waste of fossil fuels and traffic jams fouling the environment!

Just 20 companies collect 50% of the Govt. revenue excluding import taxes!

It is time the Govt. published the list of 20 companies that collect most of the taxes for the Govt. and at least recognize they are the greatest of service to the Govt. as without their private business making money, the Govt. would be not just broke, every MP will have to be thrown into the Diyawanna!

In this list are all the Telcos, Ceylon Tobacco, the main Liquor Companies, one or two of the main Supermarket Chains and the Banks. A staggering Rs500B of the 1 Trillion of Govt. revenue, excluding the Customs Duties which are also easy to administer as it is on import, and therefore easy to ensure full compliance, if the products are properly classified and Customs corruption minimized. We expect these duties including Car Duties to be 1 Trillion.

The PEOPLE MUST KNOW who they are, so that even if you object to drinking or smoking, you must at least give them thanks for being the defacto tax collectors of the State!

Inland Revenue commissioner, just 100 people work in the department to collect this 500Billion, and you have another 25,000 people collecting the other Rs500Billion.

As I have mentioned in the previous blog entry, your system of collection is very regressive, with the poor paying most of the Taxes in this Country, especially food as well, as liquor, tobacco and telecom.

Now you are about to squeeze them further on VAT, so to be fair, teach your staff to find out ways of taxing those who are NOT with tax files but who are earning more than Rs2m a year, who I estimate at about 250,000 people from whom you can collect Rs50Billion.

Try to get your staff to work smart, and start at the top. I have already noted this in the blog, as to who to start with. Any person will be able to give you the list of the 5,000 people you can send 5,000 staff to check on, as they are the big fry from whom you can collect about 20B within days.

I am NOT advocating CGT, Wealth Tax or Inheritance Tax, as sometimes people are taxed twice, once while it is earned, and then just for having it! Start with taxing the Rs40M earned by the MPs when they sell their US$75,000 car permit, that will bring you a lot of goodwill, as people will finally realize that all are treated equal in a Yahapalanaya Country.

We must educate our people on the facts, don’t leave them in the dark anymore! 

In the Govt.’s desperation, ethics have been set aside in favor of ease of collection!

The easiest tax to collect is the 15% on Telcos, and on top of the already 25% tax, now with the VAT on top, for every Rupee we spend on a call, 40 cents go to the Govt. a HUGE regressive tax on the poor, who are most addicted to phones, and have no clue how much they spend on their phones, as they just keep topping up when they run out, and 99% when asked how much they spend on their phones have NO CLUE, with the Govt. the sure winner in this game!

Is our President a ROYAL IDIOT for making classic statements, the last one when he said he WILL NOT BURDEN THE POOR WITH TAXES! What was the first paragraph? Burdening the poor, more, after all they are already burdened with Telecom Tax, Alcohol Tax and Cigarette Tax, and however much you try to justify, it is the poor who drink, smoke, use the phone and therefore for a person who is on Rs20,000 a month, he pays about Rs7,000 a month on taxes for the above alone. DO you know that is the same as some one who pays Income Tax on a monthly income of Rs120,000? So you the reader decide if we have a mental retard leading us!

Of course he does not understand taxes, NOT ONE BIT, so it is laughable when we hear that he along with the PM and the Finance Minister, the latter also a right royal idiot, are the ones tasked with deciding how we tax our people so it does NOT burden the poor! Man who are we kidding?

We must have an absolute first grade pass not even ata pass in the media, who are unable to explain this simple fact in the media, so that hopefully the President will read it and realize that is just not suited for the job, along with almost all in parliament. It is only once the uneducated people who realize this will something happen for the better in this island of morons.

Now Education, and Health will also have VAT. Just think how much the poor are dependent on Private Education and Health! Again our Royal Dumbo does not understand that yet! Tuition is NOT just for the rich, it is for ALL. It is a necessity if one expects to pass, as the State School System is full of dumbo teachers, who are NOT up to it!

http://www.economynext.com/Sri_Lanka_rulers_in_exclusive_club_slapping_VAT_on_education_and_health-3-4786-1.html

When you go to a hospital the doctor tells you to come to his private clinic in the evening for a consultation, tests that will cost another 15% more, again it is the poor who will have to pay, as they are also the more sickly, maybe due to lack of education, and lack of knowledge on nutrition, but nevertheless they are the poor!

When will the tax take really hit the rich? Will they ever Mr Dumb President? 

We had 10 years of Rajapakse lying to us, please don't continue on this same wicket. THE least is you owe it to the people who appointed you to make some intelligent comments, if you can't appoint those with brains who can.

Is this an admission that we waited 17 months for Yahapalanaya to begin?

The ratification of the new the appointment of the new IGP was done by the President, on the recommendation of the Constitutional Council. The CC’s

Civil Society members Radhika Coomaraswamy and AT Ariyaratne were not present at the meeting and therefore with the PM and Wijedasa recusing themselves, and the Speaker NOT voting, the rest recommended Pujitha Jayasundera! Of those who voted, one deliberately spoiled his vote. So technically 6 people of the Constitutional Council did not vote for the newly appointed IGP! So you can see the step motherly treatment this appointment was given by the CC~

I personally believe ALL members of the Constitutional Council must cast their vote for this most important post along with that of the Attorney General, if they deserve to serve in this most august of bodies.

Further, as I have written before, though the appointment was NOT my preferred choice, I believe due process was followed, and I will not attack this appointment, and hope he fulfills the expectations of the nation. I would say however that this process should have been done in January, so that arrangements for a smooth transition could have been made.

http://economynext.com/Sri_Lanka_s_new_IGP_to_speed_up_cases_against_Rajapaksa_regime_members-3-4780-10.html

If there is any truth in the link above, it is very troubling to read the behavior of the previous IGP, who has deliberately delayed along the AG’s department, the prosecution of crimes against the state, or in short, treasonable offences, for which the death penalty would be the natural punishment if found guilty!

We just cannot expect the stodgy police force, and the even ludicrous AG’s department with very poor quality individuals to come up with the goods the nation as a whole expects, and for which the whole Government has now come to disrepute due to their inability to pursue real crimes to the fullest.

The answer is to beef up both these prosecutory, and evidence finding institutions with highly paid consultants or temporary secondments in order that they speed up their long list of pending cases, for which the current carder is simply technically incompetent to prosecute!

The public is losing their patience for which the Govt. is responsible, even though the Police Force have the task with the AGs dept of bringing the cases to court. SO let us hope this man is up to the task! Otherwise the Govt. is doomed!

Electricity – the debate continues to come to the root of the blame – no one will own up to their complicity!

Taking words from the link below as being the most important passage, the whole article should be read to understand some of the historical background.

Is it because our professionals and decision makers do not have the competence to evaluate the suitability of these power plants and make a selection meeting their specifications, or are they under pressure to accept whatever a third party offers for other reasons? Norochcholai was the first. The second is Sampur, where the Indians twisted our arms to accept a coal plant of their choice which is even inferior to the Norochcholai plant, according to its EIA report. A third is on the way from Japan, again a plant of their choice and not ours. In all these cases, Sri Lanka has been taken for a ride, sadly with the connivance of our decision makers.

Before anyone in the electricity sector tries to blame the environmentalists for delaying power projects, they should look inwards and see for themselves whether they have done their part right. From the foregoing it becomes obvious that the environmentalists had no say in cancelling calls for EOIs not once, but three times, or withdrawing the non-coal options which were the main reasons for the current situation in the electricity sector.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=143277

In a country where we have yet NOT been able to put National Interest above personal, most decisions that are made are actually made against the interests of the citizens of Sri Lanka. When we have to import coal to run a coal fired power station, and when Countries that have their own UNLIMITED coal supplies are shutting down their Coal Power Stations, why are we still allowing ourselves to be taken for a ride, by others?

The answer is easy, it is greed that allows our decision makers to be simply bought for cash, pure and simple. We have people in high places due to their ability to put professionalism aside, and pander to the whims of a politician which a true professional will NOT allow himself to be so taken!

We have NO other option, that replace the caliber of person, in high office in these institutions, and also the people who currently enter politics, with a system that is completely different, that nurtures, values, patriotism, and concern for the future sustainability first of the Island, and secondly of the Globe.

Only then will decisions be made in the interests of a sustainable environment, and only then will future generations, appreciate the immense sacrifice, sometimes at considerable risk, to press action in the public good, that will not give a personal return to the soldier on the front line for his Country and its Environment.                                     

CEB Engineers are old school Neanderthals – we need a change of thinking

Unless we have the courage of our convictions to take a completely new approach to electricity, usage, generation, need and supply we cannot answer the intractable problems that the CEB engineers with their tunnel vision, and lack of knowledge about new energy sources, trying to dictate terms. It is this use of mindless, brainless, overpaid, goofballs who dictate terms to hapless ministers presented with a fait accompli that the engineers themselves have hatched, is nothing more than a dance of traitors, that MUST be stopped if we are to progress on a new strategy.

Coal has failed already with the Norochchalai fiasco, and we cannot tolerate any more Coal Fired Power Stations, in a world where people are desperately shutting them down, as hazards to the Environment and Health.

We must be mad as a nation to even contemplate a Coal Powered future for the next 50 years leaving a desolate desert of a Country with dead people and dead vegetation, with full knowledge of the consequences for all to see all over the world. Further the transmission lines also seem to be laid in a way that is NOT conducive to renewable energy, another  ADDED item to treachery.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160403/news/sun-and-wind-carry-long-term-hopes-but-ceb-pessimistic-188526.html

For a Country with Sea all around, in the Equator with all the sun at our command, and the current state of technology of Solar and Wind Power, it does seem that our decision makers as well as our scientists and engineers are still living in the period of the Industrial Revolution of England and not the technological revolution of today.

The sheer immovability of our taciturn public adds to this crisis as they just don’t seem to realize what is at stake, or even don’t care, fully submerged in a greedy lifestyle where the concern is only on their well being and NOT even about their pre-adult children for whom they are currently making the decisions.

Social Media is abuzz with this looming disaster, but the mainstream press is only taking this only to a special feature section, rather than have screaming headlines, announcing the end of the world as we know it, Courtesy of the CEB!

We don’t have a moment to lose, as the agreements are about to be signed, firstly with the Indians for Sampur and then with the Japanese for the one in Trincomalee, and there doesn’t appear to be anyone in Govt. with the courage to be the standard bearer of enough fossil fuel burning, lets go renewable NOW!

When the same rogues are in favor whichever Govt. is in power – corruption continues

The unsuspecting public are being taken for a ride by ALL those who we have elected.

Make no bones about it. Those who have made billions from Govt. contracts don’t shy away from having politicians on both sides as their strange bedfellows. That is why the purloining of approximately US$300M only on the Norochcholai disaster has not come to the surface, or investigative activity of the FCID. The figures are so huge, everyone who is anyone can be paid off, so they look the other side and NOT upset the applecart.

The people of Sri Lanka know it, but believe they individually cannot do anything about it as all Politicians can be bought for money, and there is NOTHING they can do about it. They hoped, believed and had faith, that the Sirisena bandwagon would expose and prosecute, but so far it is extremely little and on spurious areas.

It is quite possible that the skill of the FCID team is limited, as they are not being paid sufficient salaries to attract the real stars, who can extract all the data of the deals, but have to be paid about Rs500K a month, and no public servant or Govt. wishes to authorize these paltry sums, so that at least US$5B of big time crime can be solved, whether we receive any of the loot is another matter.

http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/04/02/features/78090

This type state looting that took place brazenly during the Rajapakse Administration, is responsible for much of our woes today, and we knew that when the shit hits the fan it will certainly be uncomfortable, however the behavior of the present Govt. which still only talks about new cars for MPs in the front page of the best selling weekly paper the Sunday Lankadeepa, means that nothing has changed, and the current crop of crooks though not as massive rogues as the earlier lot are nevertheless rogues.

Further the allegations in the same paper of the number of MPs of parliament who have been given liquor licenses (100+) and in total peoples representatives numbering over 1,200 who have been given such licenses goes to prove why politics is such a rewarding career when they take the people to the cleaners.

It is estimated that the average license holder earns around Rs10M a year (some more some less) by having a license which they either use for their own shop, or obtain a rent if someone else is actually running the show. What is worse is that this income is not even shown in their tax returns and therefore taxed, which means it is an amount approximating to over Rs15M net income a year that a business would earn on which it has to pay taxes.

How do you break this cycle? Get rid of all MPs and only permit a completely new set, not related to the previous set into seeking election in future.