Battleground changed?

It is a well-known fact that the attention of the entire society is focused on the next election. Some feel that there is a possibility of holding the provincial elections before the presidential election.

The notion that provincial council elections will precede the presidential election has arisen due to some statements made by the Election Commission Chairman recently. He declared that he will resign if provincial council elections are not held before December. Due to his statement, some think that there is a possibility of provincial council elections being held first. However, my understanding is that all the chances of such a possibility are over. Since holding presidential elections in November is mandatory under the Constitution, there is nothing wrong in thinking that the first national election we will face this year will be the presidential election.

In this week’s column, I am not focusing on what kind of person should be the candidate for the next presidential election. My focus is to highlight some issues that are relevant to the current situation in the country which need to be addressed in the next presidential election.

In other words, I am trying to raise some points which people think should be debated in the discourse space of the next presidential election campaign.

In my point of view, it does not matter who is nominated by each political party as their candidate because economy and international relations-related subject matter has surfaced in the political landscape as matters of much greater importance due to the nature of the country’s current political situation.

Although it is clear that the topic of national security is of great concern in addition to the two aforementioned topics, in my personal point of view – although the need for strengthening national security is relatively high with the emergence of Islamist extremism – the issues of national security are not as complex as the ones of the economy and international relations. It is clear that economic issues have been a major topic of discussion in almost every national election in this country, but this time, the gravity of that factor has increased.

Social Media Politics

The issue of banning a social media page has once again become the talk of the town in Sri Lanka. It seems that the government has banned the social media page of a young popular musician. It appears that a large number of people are coming forward against this baseless ban, regardless of their political opinions. Since this social media page is one of the most popular pages which has over 100,0000 followers with a significant social power, there could have been some hidden agenda behind this sudden ban. It is true that it’s only one individual who is subjected for this incident, but the blocking of social media in that way has an indirect link with the rights of every citizen in the country.

In this week’s column I wish to discuss the relationship between social media and democracy on one hand, and on the other hand, one of the significant developments in the political arena of our country today. A very significant interconnection has been developed in the recent times between social media and day to day activities common people. It is a noteworthy factor that this has spread not only in to the political arena but also in to the other zones of social life such as economy and trade.

The fact that whether a country is thriving was measured in the past based on the criteria how well the country's physical infrastructure has developed. In other words, development ratio was set against the improvement of things in the material realm such as roads, airports, ports, electric power, etc., But now that the situation has changed, and there is a direct relationship between the fact whether a country has achieved better social status and how the digital infrastructure of that country has changed. In this context it is not wrong to state that foreigners decide to visit a country as tourists, taking into consideration both the security and the status of digital infrastructure facilities.

ජූලි ජූලි ජූලි 7යි

මේ සතියෙන් පටන් ගත්තේ ජූලි මාසයයි ‘ජූලි හතයි’ කියා සාමාන්‍යයෙන් අපේ ව්‍යවහාරයේ කියවෙන්නේ තේරුම් කීපයක් ලබා දෙන කියමනකි. එක පැත්තකින් මෙයින් කියැවෙන්නේ ‘යම් ආකාරයක බරපතළ ක්‍රියාවක් සංකීර්ණ ආකාරයෙන් හා අර්බුදජනක ආකාරයෙන් සිදුවීම’ යැයි නිර්වචනය කළ හැකිය.

තවත් පැත්තකින් සමහරුන් ජූලි හතයි යැයි කියන්නේ අප බලාපොරොත්තු නොවූ ආකාරයේ විසඳිය නොහැකි ආකාරයේ අර්බුදජනක තත්ත්වයක් උද්ගතව ඇති නිසාද තේරුම් ගත හැකි බව අපේ ප්‍රායෝගික දැනීමෙන් අප දන්නා කාරණයකි. මා මේ ලිපියෙන් සාකච්ජා කරන්නේ මේ රටේ දේශපාලනයේ මේ ජූලි මාසය වන විට මෝදු වෙමින් තිබෙන අර්බුදජනක තත්ත්ව කීපයක් (හතක්) පිළිබඳවය. වෙනත් ලෙසකින් කීවොතින් මා උත්සාහ ගන්නේ ජූලි මාසයට සම්බන්ධ දේශපාලන කාරණා කීපයක් පිළිබඳව සාකච්ජා කරන ගමන් මේ වසරේ ජූලිවලට අප පා තබද්දී මතුවෙමින් පවතින අර්බුද කීපයක් පිළිබඳව සාකච්ජා කිරීමය. මා ජූලි හත යැයි කියන්නේ මේ අර්බුදජනක කාරණා හතක් පිළිබඳව සිතාගෙනය.

පළමුවෙන්ම කිව යුතු කාරණය වන්නේ මේ රජය මේ දවස්වල කරගෙන යන ‘සුදු ජූලිය’ ප්‍රචාරක වැඩසටහනට පින් සිදුවෙන්නට එජාප රජයේ කාලයකම සිදුවූ බරපතළ කළු ජූලිය පිළිබඳව අපේ මතකය යළිත් උඩට පැමිණ ඇති බවයි. මේ රටේ ඉතිහාසයේ ‘කළු ජූලිය’ කියා කියවෙන 1983 ජූලි මාසයේ සිදූවූ වාර්ගික සංහාරය හරහා සිදුවූ ක්‍රියාදාමයයි.