[The Admiral]
Deaths are happening. Not ordinary deaths. Very convenient deaths. Very timely deaths. Treasury Director Ranga Nishantha gone. Former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chandrasena, booked for corruption, also gone. Very unfortunate. Very mysterious. Very convenient for people who do not want questions answered.
These are not merely incidents. These are not coincidences. These are signs. Signs of a country slipping through the grip. Signs of a system collapsing. Signs of accountability dying faster than the people who could provide it.
Treasury fraud discovered. Duplicate payments in Aswesuma welfare program exposed. Wrong payments from postal department revealed. Every tender looking corrupted. Every deal smelling rotten. Every transaction hiding something.
The government cannot defend any allegation. Not one. They try. They hold press conferences. They issue statements. They blame officials. They point fingers. But they cannot actually defend anything. Because defense requires truth and truth is the one thing they do not have.
Even people on poverty lines understand. The poorest people in the country, the ones struggling for daily survival, they know. They see it. They feel it. The government is hiding. Running. Covering. Shielding their own sins while pretending to chase others’ sins.
Other people’s sins they will prosecute. Lawfully. With due process. Very proper. Very legal. Very selective. Rajapaksas must face justice. Wickremesinghe must answer. Everyone from the past must be held accountable. Very righteous. Very revolutionary. Very convenient.
Their own sins. Different story. Different rules. Different process. Their own sins are not sins. They are misunderstandings. Administrative errors. Unfortunate coincidences. Nothing to see here. Move along. Stop asking questions. Trust the revolution.
You cannot lie to people when they feel the truth in their wallets. When electricity bills jump another 18%. When oil prices are about to spike again. When taxation becomes unbearable. When survival becomes expensive. When living becomes punishment.
You cannot tell people the economy is improving when they are getting poorer every month. You cannot claim success when families are failing. You cannot declare victory when the nation is losing. You cannot pretend everything is fine when everything is falling apart.
The worst part is not the corruption. Corruption is expected. Corruption is traditional. Corruption is Sri Lankan heritage passed down through generations of leaders like family jewelry.
The worst part is the pretending. The performance. The acting. The President pretending to be clean. The Prime Minister pretending to be competent. Everyone in government pretending to be saints. Uncorrupted. Lawful. Democratic. Wise. Efficient.
This is why Sri Lankans should worry. Not because the government is corrupt. But because the government does not know it is corrupt. Or worse, knows it is corrupt and believes the lie anyway. They have convinced themselves they are different. They are special. They are revolutionary. They are clean.
They are not. They are the same. Exactly the same. Same corruption. Same lies. Same incompetence. Just different slogans. Just different coloured flags. Just different faces performing the same theft.
When leaders lose touch with who they really are, when they start believing their own propaganda, when they cannot see their own reflection anymore, that is when countries slip away. That is when systems collapse. That is when everything falls apart.
The country is slipping. Not slowly. Quickly. Through fingers that think they are holding tight but are actually letting go. Through a grip that feels strong but is actually weak. Through hands that believe they are saving but are actually drowning everything they touch.
Treasury directors dying. Allegedly corrupt Airline CEOs dying before the verdict. Multiple frauds are exposed. Duplicate payments discovered. Wrong payments revealed. Every tender corrupted. Every defense failing. Every explanation a lie.
Electricity up 18%. Oil prices rising. Taxation crushing. People suffering. Government pretending. Leaders performing. Saints acting. Clean ones hiding. Democratic ones lying. Competent ones failing. Wise ones lost. Efficient ones drowning.
This is not governance. This is theater. Bad theater. Terrible acting. Obvious lies. Unconvincing performance. But the actors believe they are brilliant. The performers think they are succeeding. The liars believe they are truthful.
Wake up. The country is not in trouble because the government is corrupt. The country is in trouble because the government thinks it is not corrupt.
Because leaders believe they are different. Because revolutionaries cannot see they became exactly what they claimed to fight.
When you cannot see who you are, you cannot fix what you have broken. When you believe your own lies, you cannot face your own truth. When you think you are saving the country while actually destroying it, there is no hope. No solution. No rescue.
The country is slipping away. Not because of enemies. Not because of external forces. Not because of bad luck. Because the people in charge have lost touch with reality. Lost connection with truth. Lost understanding of who they really are.
They think they are saviours. They are destroyers. They think they are revolutionaries. They are the same old thieves. They think they are different. They are identical.
And a country led by people who do not know themselves is a country that will not know where it is going until it arrives at complete collapse.
Wake up. Before the country finishes slipping. Before the grip releases completely. Before everything falls too far to catch.
The signs are everywhere. The deaths. The fraud. The lies. The pretending. The country slipping through fingers that refuse to admit they are letting go.
Wake up. While there is still something left to hold on to.