Bitter Truth not well appreciated by most Sri Lankan is the fact that the Executive Presidency has effectively blocked democracy in the country as it is kept above Parliamentary level. Further it has given additional advantage to Sinhalese majority who are already advantaged by the prevailing ‘Buddhism foremost’ advantage and therefore it is unrealistic to expect the Tamil minorities to believe in Sri Lanka to a deeper degree than Sinhalese. As the result of complacent governance the country faced a civil-war that lasted three decades and is today heavily dented. True the Executive Presidency has brought devolution, equality to all three languages and threw caste and creed into the dustbin. Due to the conflict between the two elected representatives in the Executive President and the Parliament the ruled people have not been governed properly for decades and most affected are the economic, ethnic and religious minorities. Yet many small political parties, in particular those representing the ethnic and religious minorities have expressed their opposition to abolishing the executive presidency for various reasons and seems to go along with the those who wants to leave things as they are by retaining the present system of government.
Thus Sri Lankan are preparing for yet another Presidential Election on 16 November 2019, many candidates have come forward to contest, too many for comfort. Even though it is to elect the Head of State as the Executive President and not a political party for the parliament, all political parties are very much in forwarding their candidate for the Presidential Election.Exception to the rule are the political parties representing the Tamil speaking minorities, they are left with the option to support the candidate put forward by any party of the Sinhalese majority in the Executive Presidential Group.
Among the candidates there are many home grown candidate one could select and vote as President for the next five years. People need to study careful to select the best candidate, much will depend on which political party support the candidate for both will have to work in tandem after the new government is formed after the General Election due in 2020.
While all the candidates are Sri Lankan citizens, there is one who is a holder of duel nationality. Even though he claims to have renounced his other citizenship, it is still disputed and cases have been filed to get clearance from the courts, as a Duel Nationality holder is by Law not eligible to contest elections in Sri Lanka. The Billion Sri Lankan Rupees question is why open a can of worms in court, for there are better and capable men to pick from the pack contesting to be the next President! The need of the hour is a corruption free democrat who will address the problems of the minorities; possible only with one who believes in Buddha Dharma to provide a holistic rule to unite the country.
Northern Breeze 