Ranil?s Birthday Present and his Paraja Yoga

Dilrook Kannangara

In innumerable occasions astrologers have come across ordinary citizens with raja yogas, dhana yogas, gajakesari yoga, etc. You only need to talk to one of them to know the frequency of such occurrences. There are hundreds of raja yogas according to astrology and chances are that a few million Sri Lankans carry such yogas in their horoscopes. The writer has a few raja yogas and additionally a few more powerful yogas! However, any astrologer will tell you that just because you have any of these yogas you cannot be king! In order for you to enthrone, other aspects of your horoscope should support it. Therefore a born loser like our Opposition Leader cannot suddenly get into the driving seat just because a paraja yoga has appeared in his horoscope! On top of that yogas doesn’t appear suddenly in one’s horoscope; they are there in the birth chart although their effect may come to pass at a certain time.

Had Ranil actually got such a yoga which was supposed to peak in April-2007, he would never have gone to courts to force a presidential election in November 2005!! Rather he would have let CBK stay until late 2006 and then would contest an election in 2007, close to April.

Another astrological point is that if one cannot ascend to throne in times of increased raja yoga effects, he will never be able to make it until another period of such yoga comes. If Ranil’s raja yoga comes more than a half century after he was born, chances are that the next is due after his death! But the striking point is this: if Ranil remains the Opposition Leader after May 2007, he will be utterly ridiculed and will lose the little trust that remains. It’s a matter of just two months to decide whether what Ranil has is a raja yoga or a paraja yoga. I bet on the latter.

This reminds me of how Rowan Atkinson was enthroned briefly in the film Johnny English. If Ranil wishes to follow Rowan in real life, he is in for a lot of nasty surprises.

However, this fool play is an attention diverter. There are two possible major political events; firstly there is the presentation of devolution proposals and then there is the possibility of an attack on the president. Both have the potential to destabilise the country. True to its 20 year old record, UNP has again failed to come up with at least proposals for the resolution of the ‘ethnic conflict’; they accept that there is an ethnic conflict and that it can only be solved by a political solution, but they are incapable of coming up with even a framework for such proposals. Paraja yoga joke is aimed at diverting attention from this deficiency.

The SLFP/UPFA should consider the cause of action in case the president is attacked by the LTTE; they should have a plan (by now) to defeat terrorist attempts to grab power. Ranil already seems to have a plan as he cries foul to replace Gotabhaya with Perera. No doubt Perera is a nationalist but Ranil’s attempt to exploit him like General Algama should fail. General Perera will never be a mole of the mule.

Then there is the birthday present, attack on the air base on the 26th March, the first working day after the actual birthday. Whose birthday was it? LTTE’s innovations are displayed around birthdays/anniversaries of its leaders/their family members/’martyrs’. Therefore it should be either Parabakaran’s, Mathivathani’s, Duwaraka’s, Charles Anthony’s or Balachandran’s; but it is actually Ranil’s!!. Ho, ho what a bad omen for the Tiger Air Force; they are bound to lose and lose in grand style.

No wonder Ranil tries his best to get the most out of these tiger droppings; as he knows they are difficult to come by. But all such attempts have, as usual, failed.

I haven’t forgotten statistics. Out of 18 elections that Ranil lead, 14 were losses. Even the 4 winnings (2 couple of back-to-back winnings) have proven even more disastrous; just one and a half years after he became PM, the UNP suffered a fatal defeat in 1994 and again two and a half years after the 2001 debacle, he was back in the lost fold with a smaller Opposition. Probability of Ranil losing is a staggering 77%; even a coin has only a 50% chance of getting a ‘head’ (or a ‘tail’)!.


But not all is lost; there is a huge vote base for a Ranil-led UNP; the winning strategy would be to follow the aspirations of the masses. Fooling them is not an option as it has already landed Ranil in deeper trouble. He should feel the people’s desire to be free from terrorism, poverty, lawlessness and hypocrisy. He should shed any sympathy towards the LTTE and start thinking like a patriot; submissive attitude towards the LTTE, self-contradictions and hypocrisy so embedded into him should go. When this happens, it is the dawn of the real raja yoga for him.

It is delightful to read the large number of responses in defence of the Defence Secretary; it proves that Sri Lankans around the world are backing him up, and their zero tolerance of nonsense. No doubt he is on course, though too slow against my (layman) expectations as I eagerly await Parabakaran’s obituary sometime soon. If this doesn’t happen within a reasonable time, then it is time for a replacement. We have been let down by so many politicos and defence secretaries and I do not discount the possibility of another.