(Excerpts from the “Sunday Times”Political Column of June 6th 2021)

This week, the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who appeared to lean in favour of Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the presidential election, came out fiercely at a news conference. He criticised bitterly the ruling alliance and charged that there was a conspiracy to save those responsible for the Easter Sunday massacres in 2019.

Here are edited excerpts of what he said:

“We are deeply sorry about the current situation. There are several factors that contribute. In general, we are unsure whether there is any rule of law in the country, The trajectory the country is headed is also questionable. Sri Lanka is a country which is situated in an incredibly special geographic location in the world, Those who pledged to protect the country and came to power are dragging the country towards a path of destruction. It is very saddening to talk about this.

“Expectations in our hearts and minds are shattered. Who is ruling the country? Who takes decisions? Our country has become a place where we are uncertain about these matters. We as people of this country, and not only as Catholics, what we can say is ‘please stop moving forward like this’. Development is not selling the country’s resources. It must be easy to sell all the resources. Yet we have something called self-esteem and confidence. The politicians are responsible for protecting the country. Please do not offer our land to different countries.

“Government politicians, who supported us earlier when we were protesting against the MCC agreement with the US, are now doing the same thing in a worse manner. We are terribly sad about it. The former Attorney General has said that a huge conspiracy is taking place in this country. That means there is huge conspiracy behind the Easter Sunday attacks. We should know what that conspiracy is? If the former Attorney General said it, he should have investigated it.

“The Government have created a situation where action is not taken against some people over the Easter Sunday attacks. The Government did that by appointing a special six-member committee by the President few days after the (presidential commission) report was handed over. The committee was put in place to say that there are separate laws for us and them. The committee was given the task to verify what should be and should not be implemented.

It did not create one country one law, but said you have one law, and we have another. That is why in this report it is clearly said that legal action should be taken against some officials. However, action is not taken, and those officials are protected. The report stated that the former President and former intelligence officials should be punished by law. However, they have not done anything regarding it. The law is implemented for one group in one way and for others in another way. Apart from that, the Government is having media shows. It takes someone in and afterwards lets him go free. We saw the gimmick that they did to get Muslim MPs’ votes for the 20th Amendment in Parliament. This was a deal they engaged. Is this the way that they should rule the country?

“Have they introduced an administrative system which is somewhat religious, transparent or policy orientated or non-corrupt? This corrupt system would slowly engulf Sri Lanka and now it is doing so in the worst possible manner. We think why we should go to vote at an election. We ask why we appoint 225 members to Parliament. We are asking those questions from ourselves.

“Have we elected them to do such things by giving our votes? Do we need an election system if it is so? If they try to rule this country like this, the country would be destroyed. As Rev Father Gamini said the problem regarding the ship is another huge issue. Now our fishermen have faced a great deal of loss because of this ship. The minister in charge of ports and his board have not yet given a proper answer to this.

“Religious people live in this country; this is a country strengthened by the Buddhist civilisation. Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Catholics live in this country. Therefore, in this country we do not allow dictatorial rule with false games. We need a transparent, people-friendly government which takes decisions by thinking from the people’s point of view. We do not need leaders, who take decisions from thinking from the viewpoint of the rich and powerful or other countries,

“We do not need heavenly places. But people do not have fertiliser. They do not have enough to eat. Many have lost their monthly income. We do not even have money to buy COVID vaccines. We have fallen to the status of beggars. I wonder whether this is a curse when we see the actions of the leaders.
“Sometimes I think whether the environment is also angry with us. Please change your mind, change your trajectory.

We did not hand over Sri Lanka to the Urban Development Authority to sell lands and resources. We did not appoint an Urban Development Authority via elections. We elected a leader who we thought was capable to govern the country through politics. If he is not, we won’t place our confidence in him. On behalf of the people, I ask please change the course of country’s trajectory.

We want a person who loves our country, religions, culture and protects the environment. Even if we do not achieve technological development, we want to create a country where everyone can live happily within their homes. People want to have a family life with their livelihood.

“All the governments which came to power with different slogans such as Yahapalanaya and Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour only indulged betrayal.

Therefore, I ask the people not to agree to this trend and do not support them. I ask the Government to take the correct path and work towards saving the country. The country is going off course and there are major economic, religious and culture effects due to this. We need to correct our course together.”

Courtesy:Sunday Times