Prof. Asoka N.I. Ekanayaka Colombo Telegraph 21 March 2022

See the similarities between Malaysia and Sri Lanka as expounded by the writer. Voting BN the ordinary Malays are on a suicide mission or shall we call it Jihad which brings harm and destruction to themselves and others around them. Ours is a time bomb waiting to go off.This article is not primarily about the woeful record of the present government.

Nor is it about the abomination of governance by family oligarchy in whose stranglehold a nation groans in every part as if being slowly crushed by the constricting coils of some giant Anaconda. Rather it is about the attitude character and mindset of 6.9 million people who with their eyes open provoked this catastrophe.

The final disgrace was the UNHRC Commissioner’s damning indictment in her 2022 report about the erosion of the independence of the judiciary and other key institutions, and the constriction of the democratic space for human rights advocacy, amidst a further drift towards militarisation and an emphasis of Sinhala nationalism and Buddhism in State institutions, thereby increasing the marginalisation of minority communities”.

However, the purpose here is to focus on the mindset of 69 lahks of people who deliberately conscientiously and enthusiastically of their own free will opted through the ballot to bring about such a predicament to their own detriment . That millions would of their own volition invite a cataclysm that might spell ruination for themselves and their families for generations to come is amazing.

It is tantamount to an act of collective national suicide bordering on madness rarely seen in the history of nations. In retrospect the foolishness irrationality and sheer immorality of such an infernal choice should have been plain to even a little child. And yet incredibly those who made the fatal choice came from every strata of society. They included the well educated and the semi literate, the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor, learned professionals and the posh business classes rolling in money. They included pampered government officials wallowing in the perks and privileges of high office and thriving medical consultants. Nor must we forget the scholarly Ph.Ds and university professors now looking foolish with their lofty pretentions to high intelligence and critical thinking in tatters.

From the sophisticated English speaking middle classes to the unlearned monolingual masses and riff raff of society , from sanctimonious buddhist monks pastors and priests who habitually pay lip service to truth and justice, to the many millions of their simple minded adherents whom they regularly regale with exhortations to live righteous lives – all of them would seem to have blindly voted to their own destruction in the 2019/20 elections.