TNA and SLMC become king makers !
Posted on January 9th, 2015
P.Ariyasinghe, Melbourne
Maithripala Sirisena has taken oaths as President. He made pacts with everyone opposed to Mahinda. Mahinda failed to recognise that those who were around him were corrupt . Most Ministers were arrogant and corrupt to the core and were basking in the glory of former President’s victory over the terrorists. Some alleged that Mahinda was authoritarian. Corruption and the cost of living were two major factors which went against him. During the elections the new President made never ending promises. For eg a salary increase of Rs.15,000, cancellation of motor cycle loans for public servants, cost of living etc were major attractions. Further, Mahinda became overconfident. His promise to abolish Executive Presidency did not materialize. Arrogant Ministers were misusing state wealth. So the traditional Sinhala voters who were with Mahinda turned their back on him.
President Sirisena won because of the backing of the TNA and SLMC and they have become king makers. This had been the pattern of Sri Lankan politics. In 2005 Ranil lost because of Tamil votes. The common opposition consists of a number of political parties having different ideologies. The question is once the honeymoon is over how long will they survive. For eg the SLFP is fragmented. Then we have the UNP, TNA, SLMC, JVP, JHU and so on. With time each one will be asking for their pound of flesh. Especially the so called aspirations of the TNA will anger certain sections of the Sinhala community. TNA will be the first to leave.
Mahinda’s defeat is welcome news for the west and ofcourse the Tamil diaspora. Vaiko , Gen. Secy of MDMK has said ‘It’s the happiest day of my life’. NGO’s and the anti war groups will be smiling. At the moment it looks as if the new President has Blessings of everyone. After all a new broom sweeps well !
January 9th, 2015 at 1:33 pm
I am sure new president Maithripala Sirisena is smart enough to get help from his former SLFP colleagues rather than giving into TNA and SLMC demands. See the Video report on
President Rajapaksa leaves Temple Trees and aftermath… -Full Story- (https:/youtube.com/ – 10/01/15)
SLFP has already agreed to support Sirisena’s government on case by case basis on important issues beneficial to the country. They have still got the majority in the parliament.
January 9th, 2015 at 1:43 pm
Prime Minister should be the one who commands the trust of the majority and acceptance of the parliament. How did Don Juan get that post? Is it Constitutional? Looks as if ” Yaha Palanaya” has already begun.
January 9th, 2015 at 2:47 pm
AGREE with NeelaMahaYoda.
CWC, TNA and SLMC junk cannot dictate terms to My3.
Glad NeelaMahaYoda finally accepted my position which was proven CORRECT at the election. Thank you.
President My3 quoted a stanza from the ‘Dhammapada’ “hatred ceases not by hatred, but by love” (Nahi Verena Verani).
January 9th, 2015 at 3:27 pm
Ratanapala, I too believe what you say. But let’s ignore that just for the time being. We all must give them time, to first settle down, and then start delivering on their promises. I read their programme of work for the first 100 days and beyond, and feel that if just one fourth of that can be effectively accomplished (without corresponding damage elsewhere), that will be a bonus. And if a half of those good things are delivered as promised, we may not need an opposition in parliament any more. The opposition can act as facilitators!
January 9th, 2015 at 3:29 pm
Lorenzo, permit me to say, it will be good if Rathana thero is also reminded of this stanza.
January 9th, 2015 at 5:29 pm
Can Maithri claim to represent the majority race as his win is getting most of the minority & minority of the majority votes?
If his preaching against the ‘no hatred’ is true why not got the Head of the judiciary for his oath & went against the constitution to do it in front of a senior judge? Clearly is vindictive whether the present one is a political stooge or not would not matter, he is the running constitutional appointee.Already the ‘net’ is spreading with a ‘welcome’ trip to india & bowing down to GSP & NGO s etc to work together .If I take some ‘pleasure’ from MR’s defeat,will he note not to foolishly & openly depend hereafter on astrology , making openly such stupid trips to ‘holy’ kovils in india & giving precedence to the un buddhist practice of openly letting him ‘drape’ all over the kovils, too much veneration to devas. Is it the ‘curse’ that befell on him as he went all the way to invite the head whose missions in the past made havoc in this country being responsible for rape , murder & destruction & allowing to make a ‘saint’ out of someone who was a pillar in carrying out such doctrine.
January 9th, 2015 at 5:55 pm
I completely disagree.
It was the Sinhalese who voted out Mahinda than the racist minorities.
Maithripala campaign focused very heavily on “harawum lakshaya” specifically for this reason and what a good strategy it was. If you compare the lead Mahinda lost (lead over SF in 2010 and lead over MS in 2015), you can see what districts had the most reduction in the lead. Here is their rank and the rank of Sinhala population. Top 5.
Gampaha – lost 288,870 votes – Sinhala population rank of all districts – 1
Colombo – lost 244,177 votes – Sinhala population rank of all districts – 2
Kurunegala – lost 174,924 votes – Sinhala population rank of all districts – 3
Kandy – lost 165,553 votes – Sinhala population rank of all districts – 6
Kalutara – lost 134,269 votes – Sinhala population rank of all districts – 4
Only exception is Galle where the Sinhala population rank of all districts is 5. Lead reduction is 92,206.
Total reduction of votes from the top 6 Sinhala majority districts is 1.1 million exactly. Even if half this reduction was saved, Mahinda is the president today.
History shows Sinhalese are ruthlessly unforgiving towards a leader who appeases minorities even in good faith.
January 9th, 2015 at 7:03 pm
We must be united and rise up again quickly to organize and fight back and come to power to complete the good work we started.We should not support this Govt at all because they never supported us in any situation before. We saw how they govern before how can we trust them again? 49 parties cannot come together to solve our problems because they have different views. Sinhalese should think of those heroes who sacrificed their lives to save the country. Dont think of your stomach only you greedy Sinhalese. Think of the welfare of your child.These pigs will not give anything except they will bow down to everyone including America and sell our country same as before. May God helps our Motherland.
January 9th, 2015 at 8:13 pm
Completely disagree with the writer.
It is foolish to keep on thinking this way , extremely negatively, extremely biased based on past characters and behaviours rather than the Buddha taught doing the right thing at right time.
TNA support was declared at the last moment and Tamil people should be deaf and dumb to wait until few stupid politicians order them to vote for who. Moreover their Ananthi woman supported MR by asking people not to vote. So what bargaining point TNA has ? What do you expect MY3 to say if they make unfair demands ?
It the time that intelligent people think and act intelligently rather than blindly worship Rajapakas like Gods.
Muslims on the other hand also cam eat last moment knowing very well the JHU are the people behind the whole thing, (NOT USA as some kept on parroting ).
They all came with the agreement to a common set of actions proposed by the candidate.
That is all and don’t try to be outsmart the whole world , rather think rationally.
Get out of the Adhamma of Rajapaksas and look forward to prosper in a more moral and honest way
If new rulers try to cheat people again, start revealing those dealings and educate the public in a fair way.
STOP this Madaaweb now and come back to Lankaweb existed for so long.
January 9th, 2015 at 8:25 pm
Dilrook,
My3 has promised to bring back the Parliamentary Seats system together with “some” proportionality, whatever that means.
If this election was on the basis of Parliamentary Seats , MR would get 90 seats and My3 69 seats !! To overcome that majority in a forthcoming Parliamentary election My3 will have to depend upon a heavily weighted proportional system ! Otherwise MR will win, even if all UNP,TNA,SLMC,DF,JVP…etc contest as a sinle party.
My3 was stupid enough to promise that he will abolish the Executive Presidency. He will be 10 times stupid if he actually keeps it !!
Patriots must convince My3 NOT to abolish the EP system.
January 9th, 2015 at 8:26 pm
Mr. Ariyasinghe, thank you for publishing Hindu writ-up. I have a problem with the swearing-in ceremony. Can some one ask “HINDU” to name the military offices behind the new president! (they all looks like TAMILS. Tall one to the right of the new president is certainly a Tamil.) E-mails floating on January 3ed or the 4th reported that a charter plane carrying election monitors arrived at BIA and was ordered by the election commissioner, to allow them to come via the VIP gate. no customs check or passport check. Is this true? If so then Obama been up beat about SL elections is true. He has clearly established a command and control center in-side the US state Department. What the Obama administration promised the Tamils hired by Hilary Clinton, who are in the state Department is as follows: 1. No resettlement of SINHALA in Tamil areas. 2. Agencies that resettled Sinhala will be banned. Like Anil Amaraseka and Mrs. Hearath. 3. KP will be flown to TAMIL NADU Prison by a US military helicopter. He will be asked where the Gold that belong to Tamil terrorist fighters went? etc. In one way it is good that MR lost, because the corrupt politicians inside the MR administration was so big he could not handle them. It was too big for him. One example is Vass Gunawardena. Remember Vass worked for Ranil during his campaign for the presidency. What about Pramadasa’s wife, son, daughter, and the son-in-law? they will demand Ministerial positions!
January 9th, 2015 at 8:34 pm
Lorenzo,
CWC, TNA and SLMC junk NEED NOT dictate terms to My3.
My3, if he keeps his promise, will be just a scarecrow after 100 days.
CWC, TNA and SLMC junk can then dictate terms to Ranil, well, really not necessary, since Ranil will more or less agreee with them.
January 9th, 2015 at 9:40 pm
Wickrama said …
“CWC, TNA and SLMC junk can then dictate terms to Ranil, well, really not necessary, since Ranil will more or less agreee with them.”
ABSOLUTELY, Spot On!
January 9th, 2015 at 9:44 pm
Lorenzo is at it again ….
“CWC, TNA and SLMC junk cannot dictate terms to My3.”
BS! Of course they can; with the SINHALA VOTE SPLI, they are now the KINGMAKERS as in the bad old days.
January 9th, 2015 at 9:46 pm
Wickrema said …
“Patriots must convince My3 NOT to abolish the EP system.”
ABSOLUTELY! That would be an UNMITIGATED DISASTERfor Sri Lanka.
January 9th, 2015 at 11:59 pm
Take a look at provincial GDP growth for 2011, 2012, 2013 – 2012 given here.
“http://www.cbsl.gov.lk/pics_n_docs/10_pub/_docs/statistics/other/Socio_Econ_Data_2014_e.pdf” (page 49)
Only 3 provinces’ GDP growth rate exceeded the inflation rate by a meaningful percentage – southern, northern and eastern. Voters in the north and the east are driven by racism than economy, etc. and as expected chose to vote according to it. Sinhalese except in the south had no real economic benefit since 2010 which was much expected after the war. Mahinda was lucky to get away with 47% or may be due to the very expensive campaign.
Sirisena must take a leaf from Mahinda’s disaster. Dudley, CBK, Ranil and Sirima also fell in this same pit in their second term trying to appease minorities. If he doesn’t, UPFA has a very strong chance to ride back to power at the 2016 General Election (the longer it takes the better for it).
CWC, SLMC and TNA may be assets at presidential polls but liabilities at the general election. To win back, UPFA must unreservedly take up Sinhala concerns as it has nothing to lose from minorities.
At least now UPFA must clamour for the abrogation of 13A which will elevate its electoral standing among the only voters it has – Sinhalese. No point trying to win back the minorities. It cannot be done without losing further Sinhala votes. If it stubbornly refuses to do it at least now, UPFA and the Rajapaksa clan have no future.
January 10th, 2015 at 12:54 am
Dilrook,
In addition to what you said, “yahapalanaya” was a substantial factor in the provinces without much growth. People undergo difficulties and at the same time hear about “HORAKAMA”, “KUDU”, thuggery, police corruption on daily basis.
More than anything else, new administration should look into improvement of transport sector very carefully. This is no joke. 1 hour travel during rush hours just 20 km is simply unacceptable by any standard. This is where everything start. ladies cannot travel keeping modesty. This is simply 3rd world standard to hell with superhighways.
January 10th, 2015 at 1:07 am
Nanda:
That is exactly right. It is not corruption per se but the perception of corruption (emphasized) that matters. Mahaweli was proportionately more corrupt but it never became an election game changer in 1988 or 1989 because millions of Sinhala people benefitted from it.
January 10th, 2015 at 7:28 am
India imperialists are the King makers when it comes to its colonies. 2005 Indian colonial parasites did not voted. 2015 they voted more than what they have ever done.