Mahinda: Bandaranaike For A New Generation

Do you remember a certain chap called Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike? Nice old fella, so intent on servicing, I'm sorry I mean serving his country that he converted to Buddhism so he could win votes. He then broke away from the UNP and went on to become Prime Minister with his newly formed Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Oh, and before I forget, he did it on the platform of the Sinhala Only in 24 Hours promise. A minor thing of course, but worth mentioning I think.

And now we have Mahinda, (aka The Beast) who is the SWRD for the new generation.

When SWRD came into power he came in saying that the Sri Lanka was a Sinhalese nation and that he would make Sinhala the official language in 24 hours. It took a bit longer than that, but the Sinhalese majority, stupid fucks that they are, voted them in, resulting in the The Ceylon (Constitution) Order in Council. we should hope they were happy. And I also hope that those who voted for this act can now see what pain the country is going through because of them.

In 2005, The Beast went vote hunting. His primary platform was that he would win the war. The civil war that we have been facing for the last 30-something years. The one that we have been dealing with since SWRD decided that he could waltz into power by catering to the brain-dead masses. In fact, he did the same thing that The Beast did 50 years later.

Of course he couldn't do it alone this time. He managed to use some of his ill-gotten gains from the Helping Hambantota fund and paid off the LTTE in order to ensure that Tamil voting would be suppressed. There was another benefit to the LTTE too. A government which is willing to go to war would mean a renewal of the conflict. And when you have a conflict going, you can get more support. More aid. And not to mention more offers of help if the two of you would just stop fighting. War and conflict is big business.

So the Tamil people, many of whom would have voted against The Beast and his pro-war stance were not allowed to vote. And he managed to barely squeak in by just over 180,000 votes. Which wasn't what SWRD did, but he got in didn't he?

And so, like SWRD initiated Sinhala Only, Mahinda starts the war. He blames it on the LTTE and their closing of the Mavil Aru canal. The LTTE blames it on the LKGOV not giving them the aid that was supposed to go to the people of the area. The point is, that both sides were spoiling for a war, and a war was what we got.

This war was brought on to us by a politician willing to sacrifice the people and prosperity of the country for his own political gain. SWRD sacrificed the stability of the country by creating Sinhala Only, and The Beast did so by restarting a war and sacrificing the lives of millions.

Now its time to cue the people screaming but we're going to win the war!!

I know. We are. But the Sinhala Only Act didn't create the LTTE until close onto 20 years later. And it will take less time than that for the actions of The Beast to bear fruit.

Already the people are screaming for Sinhala majority privilege. The JVP is already screaming that since the war has been won by the Sinhalese, there is no necessity to give anything to the Tamils.

The problem with the JVP is that they are a good barometer of how the common man thinks. I don't think they are the voice of the common man, but they are very good at saying things that will be palatable and even attractive to the unwashed masses. If the JVP is saying this, its a good bet that there are many people who are thinking this.

So The Beast started a war. He wants to go down in history as the person who ended the LTTE. But will this be the end?

SWRD wanted to be known as the person who made the Sinhalese the top of the Sri Lankan food chain. It was due to his actions that we are where we are right now.

Unfortunately my crystal ball is broken. So we'll have to wait for history to happen before we can say what the consequences of The Beast's actions are.

And the problem with history is that we all have to suffer through it until it gets done.