Making 21/4 as turning point
This is an addition to S.k.muthukumara’s above captioned letter of Oct. 30, where he correctly stated “With the April 21 carnage some parties used the opportunity to canvass against the government and specially to promote their presidential aspirant as the would-be saviour of the country. The aspirant himself did not let the opportunity slip away and announced his intentions”. Let us look at this incident with an open and unbiased mind. Did the Islamic extremists target only the Church? Definitely not. There were explosions at tourist hotels, two explosions at Dematagoda and Dehiwala. Obviously, the only place where a congregation gathered on this day was the Church. Hence to get maximum results they targeted the Churches. The next is, why did they select Sri Lanka for this carnage. It was certainly the political instability after the abortive political coup in Oct where an illegal government was formed, and the security council was virtually defunct. The evidence of the then IGP, now handcuffed and shamefully displayed, that he was offered an ambassador’s assignment to shift the blame cannot be cast away as fake or a false statement.
Voters should carefully judge who the best is who could take this country to a stable position in economy and social growth
The other person who took advantage of this catastrophe other than the political parties is the Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, who took it, as would appear, as an attack on the Catholic Church and ‘went to town’ saying all the 225 members in parliament should be kicked out and elect someone else. Now analyses this forceful statement carefully. I leave the answer to the intelligent voter. It is therefore obvious His Eminence is canvassing indirectly for Catholics votes in favour of that candidate. Soon after, when country came to normalcy, His Eminence goes, and appraises the Vatican, which I believe is his duty.
Voters should carefully judge who the best is who could take this country to a stable position in economic and social growth, together with security for peace and harmony. We have witnessed the gimmicks of politicians from the time we gained independence and today we have reached the lowest position. A drastic change is necessary, but who is there? There is none! Hence we must select the best out of the bad lot. Who is that ‘best’?
G.A.D.SIRIMAL