There is a celebrity in town, people. It is non other than president-oh wait ex-president-Goto Rajapaksa. He is a man known for heavy nepotism in Sri Lanka, collapsing their economy through terrible decisions like placing a ban on chemical fertilizers and compelling the farmers to buy the local agricultural versions, leading to massive crop failure and even allegedly killing thousands of Tamils unnecessarily as the Sri Lankan war drew to a close. At this point , you can see that he is not exactly a role model when it comes to politicians. In today's edition of D&D, we will be analyzing the reactions to Gota's arrival in Singapore, the history of the Sri Lankan protests and shed some light on why Singapore took him in.
Firstly, we will discuss the attitude of the Sri Lankan people with respect to their government. As of March 2022, there were widespread protests that started with candlelight vigils that gradually drew more and more attention. However, the government refused to acknowledge the protests which I believe led them to take more drastic action like blocking the road(preventing the ceremony to open a sports ground) and demanding for fuel. This spiraled into 9 July, the storming of the president's house.Now,this is dicey territory. Who can disagree with protesting against injustice? But at the same time, there has to be a line. These protests led to deaths and severe property damage. They burned down the house of 3 of the MPs. I understand there is anger but nowadays, the prevalent rhetoric seems to be that it is too much trouble to fix a problem so the best thing to do would be to burn everything down and start over. The problem is no one understands how hard it is to start over and build back an entire society because when it comes to the crux of the matter what you have is everyday man-turned into activists which after all is not the skillset you need to build a country.The problem is everyone is so enraged and rightfully so but if you want find a sustainable solution to your problem and not get manipulated by a finger-on-the-pulse politician, you need to be able to put aside your emotions and think rationally.
Beyond that, the reaction to Gota's arrival in Singapore was unsettling. Sure, there were people who were unhappy and some(read as one) protested his entrance into Singapore. That is justifiable he has certainly committed crimes and done unspeakable acts that would have led to people hating him. However, there were people who wanted him to have been extradited back to Sri Lanka so that he could face judgement from his home people rather, they wanted him to be sent back to be tortured and most likely killed. After all given the mobs and the arson attacks, that is probably what would have happened to him if he had been returned. Why is that a good thing? Since when did we in Singapore believe in the "Blood must have blood" rhetoric? He is a bad guy and he should be tried accordingly, the people should vote for a better leader and if they want to continue protesting by all means go ahead, but there is no need for it to turn violent and barbaric. That just paints your cause in a worse light and gives the government justification to respond with force. He has done bad things and he deserves to be punished for his crimes but it should be done in a manner where our hands are still clean, we should not be tarnished because of him.
Now at this point,you might be wondering why did Singapore even choose to get involved with Gota to begin with, well the reasons are similar to how Singapore ended up being the host of the Trump-Kim summit. We never asked to be the host of the summit the same way we never offered Gota respite. They simply chose our locations because they believed in our world-renowned neutrality. On top of that, the demonstrations here are controlled confined to the location of Hong Lim Park and can only be carried out with a police permit. This would give Gota some peace from the angry mobs that had followed him all over the world. At the end of the day, it was Singapore's security and neutrality that explains why Gota is here. We have nothing to gain from antagonising Gota or Sri Lankans. That is the cold truth. Economic and security interests are what primarily dictate a country's foreign policy.
So if there is one thing that you should leave here with is this, think with your head and use your heart to guide your decisions and you will never go wrong. If you think with your heart, you are liable to be manipulated or to do moronic things that will put you in a worse situation than before. It is easy to be lulled into the fervor of destruction but all that will leave you with is rubble.No we want change, so we should recognise that the end goal is creation rather than rubble. So yeah, if there are any Sri Lankan People out there reading this article right now, realise that you are free of the leech that has caused your country, your family and you so much pain and hardship.Realise that you are free at least at this one moment to pick a better leader that will pick up the pieces of country and bring you to new heights. You are free.
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