disaster ahead! pederast ranil's unp fails to get majority, will ruin country, & fall

in spite of trying through his puppet sirisena to destabilize opposing major party, slfp led upfa, by removing general secretaries and central committee members in the final days of election. ranil's unp utterly failed to secure a simple majority.

it got only 105 seats, and a majority needs 113.  

even in that 105, its not all unp. it includes hela urumaya, slfp breakaways loyal to chandrika, slmc and breakaways members, various cwc elements, and few other parties. they may get 1 slmc mp elected independently, and perhaps devananda from epdp. but all these small groups will demand their share of loot. since their primary motive for getting together was to oppose mahinda, some of what they what contradict each other.

he would be tempted by tamil racists of tna, but will explode himself if he gives into any of their demands. 

no doubt ranil is counting on puppet and chandrika to get slfp members to defect. and indeed some will. but they will be digging their own political graves, because government wont be able to function or last long even with them. 

for in addition to above political reality, there is the economic reality; we are heading for fiscal and balance of payment crises. this stems from 3 main sources,

• irresponsible budget of the so called yahapalana government, 
• attempt by unp to extort kick backs from from investors through arbitrary illegal stoppage of projects and contracts, 
• incompetent and corrupt government financing resulting in  government borrowing more in 1 six months than whole of last year, (and unlike last year has nothing to show for it).

imf will be called in. but will demand austerity, with welfare and public service cuts. can such a punny government push that through? will ranil go beg chinese to help out, after slandering all the chinese dealing with sri lanka of corruption (and will his western masters allow him)? he is certainly not going to get economic aid or investment from west however slavishly he acts towards them. and india simply can't help. 

as an opponent of this piece of human garbage, i would have enjoyed ranil's desperate flailings in next few months, but unfortunately his incompetence will bring disaster on countless innocent sri lankans. that is what some of his foreign backers (especially tamil diaspora) wants, but we don't. but such suffering is inevitable consequence of electing puppet and then letting ranil through backdoor. 

hopefully (in fact almost certainly) within a year all this will be played out and we will finally get rid of filthy idiot ranil and his toyboys for good. 

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corrupt ngo hypocrites of ranil praise sirisena's dictatorial actions

puppet sirisena is trying his best to suppress free expression of sri lankan political opinion through a free and fair election. in order to do that he is tyrannically removing general secretaries of upfa & slfp, and sacking members of slfp central committee wholesale. remember this is done to cripple one of the two major parties during final stages of an election, and to effect the outcome of election by changing national list appointees.

he is of course driven to this by corrupt pederast ranil. who never won, and knows that he will never  win, a free and fair election.

but note how foreign paid ngo scum are praising these blatantly undemocratic actions. these same people opposed defeating of child killing terrorist pussies. for an example, read indi samarajiva,  member of an utterly corrupt political appointee family. typical of the type, he is totally incapable of working for a living, has no qualifications to speak of, has inexplicably lost money on various web projects which he gets others to create at slave wages, and has hung around one ngo after another. (btw in a blatant act of nepotism, after his corrupt political appointee father got him a job at a mobile company, he manged to extort substantial exit money from it after working just 1 year). such people are so rotten in their heads and so short sighted, they cannot even see the obvious facts.

we, sri lankans defeated such scum when they supported tigers, and we will do so again in spite of all their schemes.

as i said day before election, ranil wont be able to form a stable government even with such corruption and illegal dictatorial violence. political and economic realities will catch up with him, and his toyboys, within a year at most. and true opinion of sri lankans will prevail soon enough.    

when that happens, let us remember filth like indi, scum who are willing to praise any anti democratic tyrannical corrupt action harmful sri lankans, just as long as they get dollars pushed into their holes. their incompetent lazy ass noses should be rubbed on their own words till they vomit all their ill gotten dollars out.

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contrast the choices on offer before voting

here i will give a brief contrast between choices available in tomorrow's voting. decide if i am right or wrong (or omitted anything). then clarify and express your thoughts rationally here(or just in your own mind). then go vote.

practically choice is between a country led by mahinda or by ranil. (sirisena is clearly incapable of leading on his own, has no substantive independent political support, and is only capable of arbitrary actions that can be circumvented). 

minor parties 

while minor parties a technically choices, voting for them is a vote wasted if our aim is to choose next government. one can vote for such parties for other reasons. for instance, tamil racists can vote for despicable tna, impractical idiots living in past blind to present day realities can vote for jvp, etc. 

btw there are no libertarian choices at all, even if i wanted to waste my vote intentionally.  

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main criteria for contrasting mahinda and ranil are,

• their past records. 
• likely future government they will form

past records

mahinda has an impressive record of delivering what he promised. with few blemishes.

• terrorists were defeated, peace achieved.
• economic growth rate reached new sustained highs, debt to gdp percentage was reduced to 70% from close to 100%, foreign reserves reached $9b+, inflation was reduced to low single digits, unprecedented infrastructure development, expansion of tourism, etc.,etc..
• independent non aligned foreign policy, using china to balance india's intrusions and west's waning hegemony.    
• far from being a dictator as alleged, democracy prevailed to the extant that he allowed conditions for elections that can defeat him, and when defeated, promptly left office. constitutional impeachment of a chief justice. misuse of state media and resources for propaganda. 
• alleged corruption (though not one charge has been proven by new government in-spite of having ample opportunity and usage of extra legal methods of investigation, such as fcid), nepotism.

in contrast ranil's record is one of dismal incompetence. plus all the blemishes that mahinda has.

• he failed in his dealing with terrorists and some of those dealings were downright traitorous and cost blood of innocents. he still panders to remaining followers of terrorists' racist ideology. 
• wasn't able to make much change in economic growth or debt in previous periods of governing. this year,through an irresponsible budget, he managed to bring down growth and reserves, and increase debt, with nothing whatever to show for any of that. stopping variety of infrastructure developments on flimsy grounds(in order to extort kick backs) with disastrous consequences for economy.
• slavishly panders to west, and obeys india. with sri lanka getting nothing, absolute zero, in return. 
• has a record of acting dictatorially and illegally, using fine print and loopholes, instead of openly, to retain power in country or in his own party. violation of constitution to remove a chief justice. was implicated in torture camps during 1980s, using dictatorial methods through puppet sirisena to prevent mahinda and party from contesting fairly and freely. use of illegal methods and false investigations to harass political opponents. misuse of state media and resources for propaganda. 
• clearly the mover behind central bank bond scum this year, and related attempted cover ups to protect governor in order stop evidence implicating himself. widespread attempt to extort foreign investors through stoppage of infrastructure developments by his government. nepotism.  

likely future governments

now let us contrast the conditions and methods that each will face and use after election if they form a government.

mahinda led upfa has a chance to obtain a clear majority, if free and fair elections were held. in that case sisrisena will be forced to make him prime minister. even if upfa fails to get a clear majority due to dictatorial actions of the ranil's puppet, upfa may get more seats than any other party. in which case even if puppet allows ranil to form a government, and he accepts, it will be extremely unstable(see below) and will fall within a year at most. and mahinda will be made prime minster eventually.

mahinda has shown he can get variety of non upfa mps to support his government and more importantly his polices. though puppet may try to destablize it few years down, it will be stable in mid term. such a stable government will be similar in its polices to mahinda government before january 8, offering economic growth security, and independence (with crony capitalism). terrorists and their racist ideology will be repressed. there would of course be retaliatory prosecution of ranil and supporters. imo such a government was and is a good thing. you are free to differ.

ranil will not get a clear majority. most probably unp led alliance will get 2nd most number of seats (with extremely slight chance of getting more than upfa). in either case, puppet may ask him to form government. which will depend on upfa defections, tamil and muslim racists and extremists, hela urumaya sinhala extremists, jvp marxist extremists, etc., etc..  ranil, in contrast to mahinda, has no record of getting others to follow his polices. government will be unstable and will struggle to pass any legislation. if same irresponsible polices, as present, are continued, economy will be facing great disaster by end of this year. but reversal of such policies (during next budget) will be politically impossible.  government will fall. imo such a government would be bad for country.

contrast between choices available are clear. clarify your thoughts, refute me if possible. then vote rationally.

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resistance to ranil/john amaratunga thuggery should be the first shot

all who desire democracy, good governance, rule of law, and stable prosperity, to prevail in sri lanka, needs to support all forms of resistance to lawless, irresponsible, thuggery, that is being imposed on sri lanka, by filthy pederast ranil's backdoor government. 

of the many many acts they have perpetrated against "yaha palanaya", they hypocritically proclaimed, and their paid propagandists, online and off,  spread,  some of which i have commented on in this blog, i will mention a few thematic ones,

• gross violation of constitution in removing chief justice mohan peiris, accompanied with physical threats against him and family, made by ranil himself and his fellow thug asad sally.
• totally irresponsible and ignorant budget. which has resulted in a continuing stock market crash, and would have resulted in a rupee crash, if not for furious selling of dollar reserves built up by mahinda, and threats to currency brokers, by central bank. how long the rupee can be protected by such means is a question.
• the widespread daily acts of physical violence, and absurd slanders, against opposition and members of previous government. with threats to media & officials that cover the violence and question the slanders.  
• the irresponsible surrender of our foreign policy, and sri lankan interests, to india and west, purely because these supported private interests of the ranil gang in the regime change, and now say nice things about the new regime, while deliberately preferring to cover their eyes to its violent illegal undemocratic actions. in the process, they are alienating china, whose interests and ours coincide to a large degree, and unlike india and west, is willing to go beyond mere words, and pay for our support. 

due to all these, and more. sri lankans should start active resistance to the ranil's backdoor regime.

the incident of thuggery directly involving john amaratunga, minister of public peace, disaster management and christian religious affairs, is a good example of multiple failings of this new regime. as such it should be used as a good starting point for active resistance.

last friday(30th), he was present, and is on record encouraging his henchmen, to invade a sitting session of the wattala pradeshiya sabha (a local council controlled by upfa in his electorate), and then physically assault chairman thyagaratna alwis, and members with iron rods.  

no arrests were made in spite of video evidence. if puppet sirisena continues to be a toyboy in the hands of pedrast ranil, and fails to remove amaratunga from his cabinet post, that involves oversight of police, a no confidence motion should be presented in parliament, and a non stop protest campaign should be undertaken until he is removed.

we must keep in mind that backdoor government, though its trying to project an image of strength through media, is in fact weak, especially among public in south, and even votes maithree (not ranil) got in north, were merely votes against mahinda, rather than for anything positive. a resistance campaign, will have more than enough public support once it gets going, led by resolute leaders, whose aim is removal of backdoor regime.  

so the question is whether official opposition leadership, made up of people like nimal siripala de silva, has the brains and guts to mount such a campaign, or at least let others in opposition, people who have demonstrated courage in face of relentless attacks from backdoor gov, have a free hand to lead one. we will soon know. if they, nimal & co, fail, they should be replaced with people who do have what it takes to face down the backdoor government. and chase away ranil's thugs to face retribution, unprotected by laws they have intentionally desecrated.

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian


 

yaha palanaya = irresponsible budget

it seems ranil's backdoor government thinks yaha palanaya means irresponsibility. 

its so called mini budget is proof of this. basically it is 

• lots of reduced(controlled) prices and giveaways,
• lots of taxes on profit making businesses, especially in growth sectors like telecoms, media, and banks, & alleged wealthy. in other words taxing those who make an economy a sustainable success.
• lots of one-off taxes (this is very definition of irresponsible budgeting).
• and lots of absurd slanders against former government (as in saying 7b usd was lost from losing gsp+ ?!).

some of this is illusion. for instance 25% tax on mobile reloads is removed, but with one time tax of rs 250m  imposed on mobile operators, result eventually will be nil, and paid by consumers. and 5b to be gained by container scanning from september? lol. if there are importers who getaway without paying duties by non declaring actual goods in containers, they will be smart enough to change their tactics by september.   

ranil's unp, contrary to delusions held by some of its supporters, is not for free market capitalism or liberal democracy. in fact if you look at its propaganda, while it still hypocritically spouts about democracy and good governance, it has long given up free market capitalism, even as propaganda.

in opposition to all slanders,vomited during this budget presentation, and during last election and since, here are some undeniable facts about mahinda's economic management, 

• reduced national debt as percentage of gdp from over 100% in 2004 to around 70%. this in spite of massive infrastructure development(through loans) and war.
• reduced inflation to lower single digits, mainly by steadily reducing budget deficits.
• steady increase in inward remittances and investments, to the point of running a current account surplus. steady reduction in trade deficit. resulting in sri lankan foreign reserves increasing close to 10b usd.
• doing away with lots of controls and regulations.  
• main irresponsible thing he did was the expansion of government workforce and its pay. this fault continued in this budget by his slanderers.  

this sort of irresponsible budget by ranil, will ruin all the good mahinda did. following can be safely predicted.

• inflation will rise during latter part of year.
• either shortages(+black markets) of those reduced price items, or more likely non enforcement of those reduced prices outside of sathosa after election.
• drop in investment, probably a halt to increase in inward remittances.
• depreciation of rupee, or if central bank fruitlessly resists that, a drop in foreign reserves. thus throwing away the opportunity given by low oil prices, to increase current account surplus, reduce trade deficit, and increase reserves.
• a very different budget for next year, if a prudent government is in power, or totally unnecessary economic ruin in 2016, if government (whoever gets elected) remain irresponsible like this.

all this was unnecessary. these giveaways are not going to have much effect on beneficiary voters in post april election. while those who suffer directly from it will be too few to change the result. unless ill consequences of budget are felt earlier than i anticipate, this budget will have not much effect on election. it will be decided on other matters.  

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian
     

"tight election" and other myths and rumors

it seems maithree supporters are reduced to floating rumors in social media, and to repeating words "tight election" in every other tweet and blog post they make, as if such repetition will make it "tight".  it is also a symptom of their state of denial as their fantasy breaks.  lol

in fact election is peaceful and there is a high voter turnout. so they know they have to find excuses for maithree's defeat by a significant margin.

that explains the silly rumors about grenades, variety of unattributed allegations from unnamed monitors, people fleeing country, etc. etc. 

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3 basic questions to answer before voting

whoever we vote for today, mahinda or maithree, answering these 3 questions will help clarify our thoughts, thus giving meaning to mark we make.

1/ with terrorists defeated, economy growing, and prevailing democracy even enabling us to kick mahinda out, should we kick him out and why? give reasons.

2/ if mahinda and his administration have faults (nepotism? corruption? ... ) would they really be cured by maithree and his backers? are they without those same faults?  

3/ can maithree, dependent on failed politicians from unp and slfp, and fringe parties and racists of all kinds, be a resolute leader, able to keep as prospering and safe, especially with institution of executive presidency abolished?

if we are responsible sri lankan citizens we must be able to answer these 3 before voting.

here are my anwsers.

1/ we mustn't kick mahinda out because he has been a successful president.

2/ maithree backers are perhaps worse.

3/ maithree will be a weak president and a disaster.

you are free to answer differently. but do answer them. and if you do disagree with me, let me know in comments section, with reasons for all 3 questions. .

btw i have given reasons elsewhere why we should vote for mahinda in more detail.

i have also made a prediction, based on facts and rational calculations, that mahinda will win with a significant margin. track record of previous such predictions here, such as 2010 one, are excellent.  

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

reasons why mahinda should win

yesterday i wrote a post predicting that based on facts and rational calculations, mahinda will win by a significant margin. a prediction i am sure will be fulfilled,as my past ones here have been. this post in contrast is an opinion piece giving my reasons as to why, we, sri lankans, should elect mahinda instead of maithree, those 2 being the only credible choices available.  

i will follow a post i wrote during 2010 election.

i started then by saying,

"the main failing of a representative democracy like sri lanka is that voter cannot decide on each policy individually, one by one. we have to decide between individuals who make promises to act according to a package of policies."

(while the outcome of this election, will certainly be the same as last time, a victory for mahinda rajapaksa, as i said last time, "certainty of outcome should not be a sufficient reason to favor it").

question, then and now, is how to evaluate the package of polices and the trustworthiness of the individual to carry it out.

evaluating polices 

like last time, the packages offered are not ideologically consistent. only the leftist fringe candidates are offering anything like coherent policy packages. not even a fringe candidate is offering what can be termed libertarian policies that this blog adhere to. as such selection based on ideology is out of the question, unless you are a leftist who wants to post an ineffective protest vote.  

of policies offered by 2 main candidates, mahinda's is more coherent and pragmatic than one offered by maithripala sirisena.  

but let us examine each of the main policy issues.

economy 

mahinda is basically offering continuation of same polices that were in operation last 5 years. these policies involved,

• unprecedented infrastructure development,
• creating conditions for expansion of service economy, and service exports, along with continuation of export of goods.
• reduction of growth in import expenditure; through reduction of imports of oil for electricity generation, sugar, milk powder, etc.   
• creating conditions for unprecedented expansion of tourism.
• consistently lower inflation than in past. consistent reduction in budget deficit, and national debt as a percentage of gdp. increase in foreign reserves to stabilize the currency. 
• expansion of government service and apparent subsidies(though in fact. subsides as a whole have been reduced).

all these in combination has delivered around 7% real gdp growth on average. well in excess of world and regional average.  

except for the expansion of government service (and claims of increase in subsides), i have no great objections to any of this. and since sri lanka as a whole is far from being libertarian, most sri lankans would approve, rather than object to even that. though government's visible hand in reduction of certain imports, and its direct hand in infrastructure development, are violations of free market principles, these are in fact not free markets to begin with. in any case mahinda has never been a free market capitalist.

mahinda has delivered what he promised in past. and there is no reason to believe he will fail in future.

his success in economy is such that maithree has lost all coherence in his, and his handlers, attempts to advance an alternative economic policy. they have been more or less reduced to acknowledge mahinda's success with economy. instead of criticizing mahinda's policy, they are criticizing implementation methods and details. and doing so using blatant falsehoods.

sirisena supporters say country is burdened with debt. in fact national debt as a percentage of gdp has been in steady decline. in 2004 it was 105% of gdp. now it is about 70%. absolute nominal debt figure has gone up, but because economy is growing fast (both in real terms and nominal terms, second being the relevant one here) debt as a percentage of gdp comes down.    

they also say that some of the infrastructure projects are useless. however their main targets mathala airport and hambantota port are in fact operating successfully. their half hearted attempts to depict newly developed and improved roads as useless to common man, shows an unbelievable lack of connection with common people. they are silent or contradictory when pressed to declare whether they are going to stop these projects.

maithree also promises to increase on mahinda's promises on government subsidies and service. i think sri lankans can recognize fake empty promises.

maithree also resurrects a promise to increase government spending on education to 6% of gdp. this is the sort of ignorant impractical idiocy that confirm maithree camp has lost all hope of winning the election.  sri lankan government barely collects 10% of gdp in revenue and spends less than15% of gdp in total. as such without drastic tax increases, and/or massive cuts in every other sort of public spending from health, defense, agriculture, debt service, pensions, salaries of public servants, etc, this is impossible.

in sum, maithree has been content to hurl variety of criticisms (more than tinged with absurd falsifications of facts)  at mahinda's implementations, instead of offering a pragmatic coherent policy on economy. he himself has no track record on economy and politicians that surround and control him, both from unp and slfp, have track records of failure.

corruption & good governance 

an issue related to economy is corruption, which the maithree camp has tried to turn into a major issue. it isn't. of course economy has grown, so no doubt corruption has kept pace with growth. but present government is no more corrupt than previous ones, and any future ones. changing one set of governing politicians with another set (esp a set that were corrupt last time they were in power) wont change a thing. as i have maintained from start of this blog, only way to reduce corruption is to reduce the size of government, thus power of politicians and bureaucrats to control public funds and regulations. but maithree is not advocating that, as such his promise to fight corruption are false. 

nepotism is another charge against mahinda. he certainly has used and given power to his brothers. but whether that is bad or not, depends on their competence. a competent bother is preferable to an incompetent outsider. his brothers that matter, gotabaya and basil, are competent at their jobs, with solid achievements. in contrast, politicians in maithree camp, chandrika and ranil, among others, also rose through nepotism, and more importantly, were and are incompetent. maithree's own brothers are far from admirable. 

executive presidency

this is another non issue that opposition has tried to raise to a major issue. no sri lankan with any sense will want to do away with  executive presidency. it was that institution that allowed the steady leadership needed to defeat tamil terrorist pussies. similar stability is needed between elections to create a stable environment for development. under this constitution, if electorate wants, it can provide a needed check to presidency through parliament. as happened in early last decade. 

given the political make up of country with lot of small parties, and proportional electoral system, doing away with executive presidency will create an unstable wavering extremely weak governments dependent on whims of those fringe parties. 

fact that maithree, dependent on those fringe parties, promises this, is a solid reason for defeating him.

national security

sri lankans who wish to live in a free democratic country must keep their eyes open for any revival of tamil racist terrorism. while they are defeated in sri lanka , they are visibly active (and in some cases openly pandered to) in west. and their racist ideology and goals are is still the ideology and goals of racist party, tna, their one time faithful political arm. 

until tna unconditionally condemns ltte and its big pussy mass murderer prabhakaran, and participate in democratic processes, like the parliamentary select committee, to find solutions to grievances of all communities in north and east provinces, they should be treated with suspicion. that is why their extension of support to maithree should make voters for maithree hesitate a lot before marking their vote. 

maithree supporters counter this by saying many former tamil terrorists, like karuna, are supporting mahinda. difference is that these individuals contributed to condemnation and defeat of tigers, while tna and ilks, did not. nor is mahinda dependent on them, while maithree is lost without tna support. 

a weak president or prime minister, dependent on fringe parties, including racist parties like tna and slmc, is bad for national security and stability and must not be elected. 

those are the main policy issues, and with regard to all of them, mahinda is the better choice.

judging individual trustworthiness 

we also have to judge whether these candidates can be trusted enough to carry out their duties and promises.

last time i said, based on his track record, "we can generally expect rajapaksa to govern from a pragmatic center left position." he has done exactly that. he has displayed strong stable leadership needed to develop sri lanka and keep it strong. in fact there is no need to change him even if alternative was a similar individual.

maithree on the other hand, is a colorless mediocre cipher. he has no notable achievements. he is harmless enough as a bureaucrat and lower functionary. but not a person from whom resolute leadership can be expected. his political position as a dependent of others in past and now, makes it worse. he wont be able to stand up to corrupt opportunists, racists, foreign interferers, or terrorists.   

conclusion 

by all criteria for evaluating candidates, mahinda is far superior to other possible alternative, sirisena. so let us contribute to inevitable mahinda victory by voting for him.  

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this blog's twitter - http://twitter.com/llibertarian

hear the firecrackers of prosperity?

i was awakened at midnight last night by the loud and continuous explosions of firecrackers heralding the Christmas month.  noise continued in the morning and even now there there are few occasional bursts.

fact that during last few years, this noise, indicator of people's happy expectations for Christmas, has grown louder and louder, in line with the actual increased spending during year end holiday season, is yet another unofficial testament to sri lanka's continued healthy economic growth rate; 6%+ this year in spite of global slowdown, currency depreciation, and contractions in some of sl's western export markets.

i would be very worried if i was in the opposition. thankfully i am not!

happy spending season for all! 

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p.s.

don't forget to spread the spirit to those who fail to take the opportunities opened up by peace and get left behind. hopefully spreading the cheer will get them motivated to take responsibility for their own well being in future.

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who to vote for? a guide

the main failing of a representative democracy like sri lanka is that voter cannot decide on each policy individually, one by one. we have to decide between individuals who make promises to act according to a package of policies.

(btw while the outcome of this election, a big victory for mahinda rajapaksa, was clear from the start, imo mere certainty's of outcome should not be a sufficient reason to favor it.)

i will come to individuals later, now we will look at,
how to evaluate a package of policies.

first we will have to ask, are the policies consistent with each other? in other words do they adhere to any ideology.

in sri lanka as in other democracies the electable candidates are not likely to be creatures of any ideology. there are few minor candidates who may have policies that are ideologically consistent. any vote for them will be wasted, except as an almost invisible protest. (btw bc in sl minor candidate ideologues are either marxists or racists, and there are no libertarians, i cannot make such an empty protest even if i wanted)

2 major candidates are ideologically inconsistent. however vaguely left of center mahinda rajapaksa is more coherent than all over the place sarath fonseka.

since a choice based on ideology is out of question, how are we to continue, esp given their preference for empty platitudes and slogans rather than policy specifics or implementation details.

to judge between such undefined policy collections, we have to focus; we have to concentrate on what we consider major policy decisions facing the country and drop all minor ones. then we have to make out from available material whether there are any material differences between the candidates about those.

what are the major policy issues?
national security and economy will be my answer. some would also add good governance/corruption. (so i will comment on that as well)

national security
we defeated murderous tamil tiger terrorists. that is a glorious national achievement (to which both candidates contributed significantly; one of course had greater responsibility by definition). that achievement should be defended in every way possible.

nobody should be allowed to roll it back. esp not by giving power to unrepentants who were willingly either racist pro terrorists and/or pro appeasement peaceniks (i.e. those who believed peace is worth any cost, even the cost of human rights, freedom, justice and democracy; they opposed defeating the tamil tiger terrorist pussies with violence if needs be, preferring instead to handover fellow sri lankans to terrorist oppression in appeasement). ppl with such attitudes at such a time proved that they are both morally pervert and unrealistic. by refusing to repent and renounce their former attitudes, and continuing to denigrate the national victory, they now prove they are incapable of learning and/or corrupt to the core .

now such ppl (unp leadership, tna, likes of mano ganeshan, peacenik ngos) are supporting sarath fonseka. why? bc he has agreed to their conditions, which while not explicit in rolling back the defeat of terrorists, will give means to these ppl to do exactly that. his willingness to accept of such conditional support coupled with his own irresponsible statements to media, only indicate his less than willing commitment to defend the great national achievement.

some might object, that mahinda rajapaksa too has a few such supporters. he has some such ppl, but in contrast to fonseka's, they after renouncing the attitudes referred to above, in most cases even helped in defeating the terrorists. nor will they be in a position to roll back the terrorist defeat in case of a mahinda victory since he is not working under conditions imposed by them.

i think on this issue, the voting decision is very clear for anyone who values freedom, human rights, democracy, and justice. sarath fonseka and his current supporters should not be allowed to achieve power.

economy
no recognizable policy by either candidate, beyond irresponsible spending sprees of gigantic proportions. needless to say, if carried out, such actions will lead to total collapse. thankfully they are impossible to carry out, so will not be implemented.

in any case, government's ability to influence economy is pretty limited, bc sri lankan are very good at ignoring government (from taxes to regulations) and getting away with it.

if there is a difference, it is one of degree. mahinda camp (confident of victory, in contrast to desperation in foseka camp) seems to be more restrained, knowing they will be held to account for not keeping to promises, come next election. one election promise will illustrate this. fonseka promises rs.10,000/= monthly salary increase to all public servants. mahinda so far has made a point of not following this with a counter bid, pointing out its unrealistic nature. of course he has upped or initiated other such 'promise bids'.

it goes without saying that as a libertarian, i am completely frustrated at this state of affairs; there is no candidate to stand for a pro market, less government, position. this is partly the fault of unp as i have explained before.

in all this, it must be remembered that sri lankan economy is doing well in spite politicians; growth is likely to be in 6%+ levels in next few years, inflation is at 25 year low, and stock market is at a record high.

anyway, there is not much of a difference when it comes to economy. mahinda has already shown that he hasn't/can't ruin it in spite his promises, while fonseka's similar promises probably won't be carried out either if he gets elected.

iow, fonseka has not shown why he should get the vote based on economic issues.

good governance and corruption
i don't think this is a major issue. but some ppl do try to make it an issue and it is the one that is most talked about by politicians and commentators, while imo most voters will decide based on above two issues.

anyway, i don't see a difference between the candidates on this issue. both are corrupt, both have corrupt supporters, both sides used/use government property and benefits for campaigning.

what could be more absurd than ppl like ravi karunanayake denouncing corruption (as he did in unp ass licker harsha de silva' program yesterday). lol.

while corrupt should be punished lawfully if possible, i seriously doubt individuals promising to eradicate corruption of others. at most there will be political show trials of opponents that go nowhere due to technicalities if the accused is no fool (such outcomes are a part of democracies, for show trials with convictions (and executions) go to china).

some supporter of fonseka talk of 'good governance' through implementation of 17th amendment. most voters would not know the difference between it and 13th. imo 17th is an undemocratic, unworkable, loophole ridden, bureaucratic, money wasting monstrosity, and cannot and should not be implemented. (i really should write a post about it, but 17th is so cloud cookooish i can't motivate myself). in any case i doubt unp, jvp, tna, and others, who were each in part responsible for failure to implement it at various times, will agree to it when in power and handover power to unelected commissions of fractious nominees.

only way to achieve good governance and less corruption is to reduce the size of government, limiting its ability to spend our money and its ability to interfere in our lives and activities. handing power for both to a new set of government commissions will not do that.

iow there is no difference between the main candidates or their supporters on this issue.

individuals
how confident are we that these ppl will keep to their promises.

we know a lot about rajapaksa. we know he has not kept most of his economic promises (thank god) and has kept his promises regarding the terrorists (thank god again). we can generally expect rajapaksa to govern from a pragmatic center left position as he has done so far.

about fonseka we don't know much beyond his constant whining (bc he thinks he is not being appreciated enough), and his willingness, through resulting bitterness, to enter unprincipled incoherent alliances and endanger his fellow officers/subordinates/superiors by uttering irresponsible and false statements, in revenge. not very good signs for a man who wants to be a political leader.

conclusion
on the main issues other than national security there is not much difference.

on national security it is clear fonseka and his supporters must be defeated to ensure we continue to enjoy the benefits of liberty from terrorists in the future.

i will vote accordingly. you should too.

results
i think by giving a big margin of victory for mahinda rajapaksa, sri lankans will send a clear message of unacceptability of anyone who welcomes and works to further, the agendas of unrepentant peaceniks and terrorists supporters.

opposition after ridding itself of peacenik leaders, could have made this a more competitive election (and gained my vote) by fielding someone who does not accept such support and who has clear contrasting pro market economic policies. they may still have lost this election, but they would have remained with a firm principled platform to build on and absorb any dissatisfaction with the next rajapaksa administration. they blew it.

now they will have nothing to build on after fonseka's inevitable defeat. most we can hope for is that they will get the message as to what kind of opposition is needed.

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my twitter - http://twitter.com/sittingnut
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will government use strike to rationalize public service?

if government has any sense it should use tomorrow's jvp and unp organized labor strike to get rid of lot of free loaders in the sri lankan public service.

sri lankan public service, overstaffed, corrupt, and wasteful, is a strain on the budget and thus on the economy. due to various legal and political reasons, governments have failed to retrench and rationalize it.

this strike offers a golden opportunity to do so, both politically and legally. government should make full use of it.

however given present government's leftist views that is unlikely, imo. pity.

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