The Seven political blunders Mahinda should never have done
Posted on June 9th, 2017
Sudath Gunasekara
9.6.2017.
1 Going for Presidential elections in 2015 while he could have gone on till end of 2017
2 Not sacking My3 immediately after he left to contest as the Common Candidate
3 Handing over the SLFP chairmanship to Maitripala Sirisen who has ceased to be a member of the SLFP with his leaving to contest as the Common candidate
4 Not forming a new political party after handing over the SLFP to MS and hanging over to a nebulous group called JO trusting fellows who contested later under his leadership when Maitripala Sirisena has already declared that he will not appoint MR as the Prime Minister even if gets a majority number of seats in Parliament at the August 2015 General Election and betrayed him by joining the Yahapalanaay for avarice and power hunger.
5 Keeping silent while the President and Ranil were violating the Constitution left and right: for eg appointment of the Prime Minister, sacking the CJ, appointment of the Leader of the Opposition and the Chief Organizer Opposition, allowing the National Anthem to be sung in Tamil, appointing defeated candidate at the 2015 Elections as MPP and Ministers, appointing a Constitutional Assembly and a Committee to draft a new Constitution when they have not got a mandate from the public to do so to name only a few.
6 Keeping silent when the Government was supporting and co- sponsoring the UNCHR against the Sri Lankan Service personal and there by betraying the Sri Lankan forces and the sovereignty of the country
7 Adopting a lukewarm wait and see policy, without taking some concrete and meaningful action ,while this traitorous Government is violating the legitimate rights of the people nearly 6 million as it is, by postponing local Government elections, arresting and remanding Buddhist monks, who were the guardian deities of this nation, for flimsy issues while not taking any action against Tamil and Muslim politicians and Tamil Catholic priests like Joseph Rasappupulle, for violating the 6th Amendment and openly engaging in anti- government activities; when President Sirisena is giving the third place to Buddhism when he spoke at a meeting in Kurunegala recently where he mentioned Quran. the Bible, the Thripitaka and Bhagawat Geetha in that order, in spite of a thumping public mandate given by more than 5.8 million Sinhala Buddhist voters in this country for him to be brought back as the Prime Minister at the 2015 August elections.
Regarding the danger AND UNCERTAINTIES of going for early elections, I wrote a long letter to him on 20th of Dec 2014 and reminded him of the famous Sinhala adage’ that the bird in hand is worth more than ten in the bush. My first advice was not to go for EARLY Presidential Election until 2017
Among other main requests I made the following I could remember may be noted
Reduce the cabinet to at least to 25
Abolish the 13th Amendment and Provincial Councils along with the Rajiv/JR Accord of 1987
Ban all ethnic and religious political parties
Either sack or at least distance characters like Sarana Gunawardhana, Mervin silva, Duminda Silva. Muthhihettigama, Sarath ekanayaka and replace them with some educated decent men or women of character and dignity
Revise the cases of Sarath Fonsekaka and Shirani Bandaranayaka
Restore the Kandyan Peasantry department and the Kandyan Area Development Authority
Remove Proportional representation and go back to former electorate System
Listen to good advice by Mahanayaka Theros and depend on good counsel on matters of statecraft
I sent this letter directly to Lalith and requested him to bring this to the notice of the President
Apart from listen to my advice I did not get even an acknowledgement.
In my experience with few other leaders had I sent this kind of letter to President Premadasa, Lalith Etulathmudali or Mrs B Definitely they would have taken it seriously
But unfortunately for MR and the country at large it never happened.
Had MR at least postponed the Presidential Elections until 2017 Dec as I suggested, he would never have got humiliated like this and even today he would have been the President of this country loved by the majority and the current catastrophes may have never occurred?
June 9th, 2017 at 5:30 pm
මහින්ද වටේට ඉන්නේ ඔහුගේම හතුරෝ මිතුරෝ ලෙසින් මහින්ද වෙනස දන්නේ නැහැ මේවා ගැන නලින්ද සිල්වා කිව්වේ හුඟක් ඉස්සර එනිසාම මහින්දලා නලින් දෙස බලන්නේ වපරැසින් .මහින්ද ඔබ කියන ඒවා කිසිවක් කරන්නේ නැහැ එල්ලෙන්නේ ෆෙඩරල් වාදී ජී එල් ඩලස් ආදීන් ගේ ඇඟේ එයා දන්නේ නැහැ මේකෙන් එයෙත් රටත් ඉවර වෙන බව වෙන කෙනෙක් නැති හින්ද අපිත් ඉතින් මහින්දට සපෝට් කරනවා . හොඳ අ ය හිටියත් නම් කරන්න බහ එගොල්ලව මරල දාය් ඍජු කෙලින් මිනිස්සු ඉන්නවා …..අපේ ගොන් රළට දර්ශනයක්ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් මතවාදයක් ඕනේ නැහැනේ උන්ට ඕනේ මොකා හරි දිනන එකා .අවශ්‍ය එකා දිනවන්න වැඩ කරන්න ඕනේ නැහැ .
June 9th, 2017 at 6:20 pm
Mahinda Rajapakse screwed it up for himself and for everybody. Those days, I wrote, leave the president post to his brother and step down as the prime minister. HE thought he could LTTE tactics to defeat Sinhala voters. He simply forgot everything and thought invincible.
June 9th, 2017 at 6:34 pm
Unfortunately, since Independence in 1948, Sri Lanka has not been a truly independent and sovereign country. Sri Lanka is not free to choose partners in Economic development. Sri Lanka’s ethnic proportions have been drastically altered by Colonists importing cheap labor from Tamil Nadu. The Ports and Location of Sri Lanka are important for Trade & Security purposes in Cold War politics. INDIA has constantly interefered in Lanka’s politics to detriment of this island nation.
NO, Sri Lanka is not a truly free country for any President to move freely and Develop the country. New Cold Wars come and go – and any Lanka President is constantly cornered and pushed – what a shame !
That is what happened to President MR. He was cornered and pushed to move out and keep silent on some important issues too. Whenever he spoke up, one of MR’s family members were punished with false accusations and made to go to the FCID ! Humiliation & Harrassment by foreign governed Yahap has followed heroic President MR after he retired.
Our heartfelt thanks to President MR for putting up with global thrash for so long.
May he and his family live long and prosper !
June 9th, 2017 at 6:44 pm
Read as “….. global thrash & trash for so long”.
June 9th, 2017 at 7:11 pm
Dear Dr. Gunasekera, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had his hands tied from the beginning by the International Groups who wanted to prevent an end to the war with the LTTE terrorists. In fact at the very end when Prabhakaran had been defeated Boucher from France and David Miliband from U.K. came to Sri Lanka to order MR to let Prabahakan go free. Fortunately for the country, MR withstood all the International pressure and finished the LTTE terrorist war. None of the other countries who had been advising Sri Lanka to negotiate with the terrorists followed their own advice when it came to terrorists in their own country. Bin Ladin was shot and his body dumped without any trials etc. Sri Lanka suffered for 30 years thanks to the meddling by India and other International groups. Each time when GoSL was ready to take out the LTTE they were stopped by use of the local puppets such as Ranil and CBK. Examples are the Vadamarachi operation and the one that Dr. Dayan Jayatilleke talks about in this video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZWO5fWDikQ
MR had to allow My3 to do all that he did because of international pressure. When My3 appointed Ranil illegally he informed the country that he was doing it because the West wanted it so. Now the wheels of justice have turned and these countries who created hell on earth for Sri Lanka are suffering what we did for 30 years. Ditta dhamma vedaniya karma is at work. If MR had been not cooperating with these people he would have met the same fate that Gaddfi did in Libya.
June 9th, 2017 at 8:27 pm
The first 4 are INEVITABLE.
The last 3 are genuine FAULTS of MR. 8. Meeting MODI after WW called to put BLACK FLAGS.
1. MR held the election 2 years early because his popularity was coming DOWN. If he waited for another 2 years his MPs in parliament will be 20 not 51.
2. MR cannot remove anyone from the SLFP. Only the CENTRAL COMMITTEE can make that decision. The SLFP central committee was DIVIDED between My3 and MR. IF MR pushed it too long, MORE UPFA MPs would have joined My3. That was why he did not do it.
3. MR changed SLFP constitution in 2006 to make the national president the leader of the SLFP!! So My3 MUST get the SLFP leadership after becoming president.
As you CORRECTLY said, My3 was NOT sacked from SLFP membership. So he deserves it as per SLFP constitution MR changed.
4. MR is NOT creating a new REGISTERED PARTY because that SPLITS the SLFP and gives UNP a WALK OVER.
June 10th, 2017 at 4:31 am
Agree with most of what Dr Gunasekara says. There is no question about what MR should have done with the likes of Sarana Gunawardane, Mervin Silva, and many others of similar notoriety including those not mentioned here like Sajin de Vaas. The other weightier proposals of Dr Gunasekera, Prof Nalin de Silva, and other patriotic intellectuals are well meant, and represent what is best for the country. Whether their advice is accepted by politicians or not, they must not stop advising, for they are sure to be vindicated sooner or later. There is something called natural justice; sathyameva jayathe Truth alone wins. However, good proposals are one thing, vagaries of power politics that determine their fate are another thing. Politicians cannot ignore the latter. We can only leave politicians to handle the practicals.
June 10th, 2017 at 8:05 am
Easier said later, than done at that time !
Everything Pres MR did was to preserve the Nation and the People.
Considering the times and the foreign and local Agent odds against Lanka at that time, as President of a beleaguered Nation (the press used the same term, many times, during the CBK era !), Mahinda Rajapakse could not have done better. Even the Yakkos in the then govt (now mostly in Yahap !), were part and parcel of the ongoing Game.
June 10th, 2017 at 9:33 am
I agree with every word of Sudath and the comment by Senaviratne as well. He (Mahinda)did everything with good intentions on behalf of our country but due to unforgiven bad decisions he took at the end, he lost everything and has to leave Colombo leaving behind millions of die hard supporters crying and disappointed. Mahinda is a different politician than others. He showed his strength, stamina, courage and political experience by eliminating the most cruelest terrorist outfit in the world from our blessed soil for ever. They were not an ordinary terrorist group but a very powerful, well organised, well trained, well financed group of blood thirsty murderers who were terrorising our Motherland for thirty long years. Mahinda our great President took some bold and fearless decisions at last to finish off terrorism from our country and bring peace to our Motherland. I am indebted to him for bringing peace to our nation and for ending the cruel war which killed thousands of our countrymen. Most of the people in this country forgot what he did and went on believing miracles promised by power hungry, money hungry new political clan headed by a traitor who stabbed Mahinda behind his back and joined UNP traitors who almost gave half of the country to Prabakaran and his gang of murderers LTTE. when they were in power in 2002- 2004. This treacherous group succeeded forming a government because of the big financial help they got from the west and the Indian parasites who were against Mahinda for ending the war and killing their favourite son Prabakaran. I like Mahinda taking over our beloved Motherland again because we don’t have a better qualified leader thanks him at this moment but he should have a better approach and a new vision for our country different than before.
We are fed up of this bogus unpredictable government anymore. This globetrotting two leaders and their stupid idiotic Ministers and the current Yamapalanaya government must be defeated as soon as possible if not we will not have a country to call home. Sinhala race and our sacred religion Buddhism is in danger more than any other times because of their magical word they whisper all the time “Sanhindiyawa” This is a word to fool the public and their foreign backers. Mahinda should act now with a powerful force to oust this horrible government without wavering any more. We are looking at him as our saviour but if he just stay silent we feel not safe anymore in this country. Under this stupid government we are seen more murders, drugs, prostitution, daylight robberies, mismanagement of government funds and more or ever round the world tours by yamapalakayo etc. It’s like a police state harassing, intimidating and jailing opponents including buddhist monks who were our saviours through out our history. It’s time Mahinda Rajapaksa take the lead and do something on urgent basis, uniting the Sinhala people and bring a new set of young energetic educated politicians to solve our burning issues facing our Motherland.
a new face to the political stage. People should never ever bring a UNP government to power because they are the worst enemy of the poor people. They are famous for lies and bogus promises. They serve only rich and famous and the darlings of the west. Mahinda should plan well now itself to get rid of them in the next election or before. We are with you Sir.