Chandrika’s attempt to split SLFP and Install President Sirisena as SLFP president results in delay President’s 100 day programme
Posted on January 11th, 2015
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Instigated by former President Chandrika Bandaranayake, a break away group of 21 member of SLFP central committee met today at Wijerama Road Colombo and appointed President Maitripala Sirisena as the party president and pledged support to President Maithripala Sirisena a short while ago. Among the MPs who pledged support the President are Dr. Sarath Amunugama, S.B. Nawinne, Vijith Vijithamuni Soysa, Piyasena Gamage, Reginold Cooray, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon, Athauda Seneviratne and North Western Province Chief Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara. They have appointed Chadrika Bandaranayake as their adiviser to the party.
Meanwhile SLFP Secretary Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said that the official meeting of the central committee of SLFP met today at SLFP head office at Darley Road and appointed Mahinda Rajapakse as the party president with the approval of 42 member of the SLFP central committee.
The appointment of Ranil’s cabinet has been delayed allegedly due to infighting among common opposition member parties and first item in the 100 day programme has already been delayed.
January 11th, 2015 at 10:18 am
She is acting out of personal animosity and narrow mindedness. Mithree will do well to keep her at arms length. Specially do not alienate China and the East
January 11th, 2015 at 11:05 am
Thanks to late Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone’s plot with Ranil Wickremesinghe – now MY3 is our new President. Late Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone old school mate of Ranil Wickremesinghe, had manipulated the opposition to destabilize the Mahinda Rajapakse government. Mega bucks have been thrown in to buy MPs over at the correct time. A part of the plot was also to bring in Chandrika Bandaranaike to do the dirty work.
Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone was arrested in a house rented by two Australian citizens after the army received a tip-off that he was there with a group of suspected members of the LTTE involved in the murder of Lakshman Kadirgamar. At the time of his arrest, Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone, was running a non-government organisation called Humanitarian Rehabilitation Services, which falsely used the Red Cross logo to give it credibility.
Qualified in Britain, holding a Master Mariner’s certificate, Late Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone was was appointed the first Operations Manager of the then newly formed Ceylon Shipping Corporation in 1969. Later in 1982 with his brother Jayantha Donald Gnanakone, he introduced containerized shipping to Sri Lanka, installing the first container crane in the Colombo port.
It was their father the late V P Gnanakone who first started the shipping business in 1960 as a freight broker and shipping agent. Late Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone’s first shot in to the limelight when the “Weekend Liberal” newspaper in Australia exposed his 60-million deal to develop Dubbo – a rural town between Sydney and Melbourne.
Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone with his Singaporean partner Jimmy Foo, lodged a 60-million dollar property development plan which included residential houses, golf course and other facilities. It was the biggest ever development plan ever lodged with the Dubbo City Council. At the end of five months of investigations, Kathy Stone – the investigative reporter of “Weekend Liberal” in Dubbo, revealed “the bizarre double life” of the “Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone” in its issue of December 21, 2002.
After this expose the deal never took off. In fact, his Singaporean partner Jimmy Foo was chased by the Australian Immigration authorities for carrying a forged passport. Jimmy Foo fled Australia never to return. Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone too was questioned by the authorities for his role in the shady dealings of the Singaporean partner.
But the story of Gnanakone brothers – Late Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone in Mt. Eliza and Jayantha Donald Gnanakone in California – had twists other than “the bizarre double life” in Dubbo as Director of Pioneer Spirit Developers. The investigations by Kathy Stone revealed his connections to Ranil Wickremesinghe and the LTTE. She wrote: “Evidence of Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone’s other role as a go-between for LTTE and Ranil Wickremesinghe emerged during the 5-month investigations by the “Daily Liberal”. Charles Selvakumar Gnanakone has also left a string of debts in Australia after a cash-for-visas scheme he was involved in embarrassed then Australian immigration minister Philip Ruddock before it foundered.
January 11th, 2015 at 11:50 am
How opposition’s secret move led to Rajapaksa’s exit
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Sun, Jan 11, 2015
Mahinda Rajapaksa’s electoral debacle may well be one of the biggest intelligence failures of Sri Lankan security agencies as it has been learned that the idea of fielding a common opposition candidate for the presidential election was shaping up since June 2014.
Rajapaksa’s nearly decade-long reign came to an end when he was defeated by his one-time confidante Maithripala Sirisena in a closely fought election. Rajapaksa and his trusted lieutenants had no whiff of the democratic coup scripted and executed with precision by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, right under their nose.
“The key players in the script remained in touch with each other either over satellite phones or through internet protocol mode like Skype, Viber and Tango,” said a senior leader of the main opposition, United National Party (UNP).
Sri Lankan army defied order to keep Rajapaksa in power, claims Sirisena’s aide
UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe and former army chief Sarath Fonseka, who now heads New Democratic Party , joined the group subsequently . They neither discussed their plan over phone nor did they send text messages to each other as they knew everybody in the group was under surveillance. They shortlisted two candidates, Sirisena and Rajitha Senaratne, to take on Rajapaksa, but at that time both were members of his ministry . Only after the official declaration of the election on November 20 did the outside world come to know about Sirisena’s defection and his candidature.
A week before that, on suspicion that Sirisena was up to some mischief, Rajapaksa sent his younger brother Basil, a close friend of Sirisena, to figure out what was happening. But Sirisena managed to convince him that he was very much with Rajapaksa.
The opposition leaders were also in touch with a few foreign missions in Colombo, it has been learnt. On record, no leader confirms the help they received from any foreign country , but a former minister, on condition of anonymity , said some foreign missions certainly helped them.
Closer to the polls, Tamil National Alliance and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress also extended their support to Sirisena, thereby making it the biggest ever political coalition, cutting across ethnic and religious boundaries, in Sri Lanka’s electoral history .
Rajitha Senarathne’s son Chathura Senaratne told TOI, “A group within the government was worried about collapse of democracy in Sri Lanka. Many in the government, including some senior leaders, came together in 2011 with the sole objective of defeating Rajapaksa after he amended the constitution to contest for the third term.They were concerned about concentration of power in the hands of a single person.But, our game plan took a proper shape only three years later.”
Chathura said the opposition leaders knew the key to success lay in keeping their candidate’s identity secret till the dates for the polls were announced.
Read More:: TOI (Source)
January 11th, 2015 at 1:12 pm
This comment is from Lankacnews
මුන් කරන අමන සියලු ජඩ වැඩ වලට Facebook වල නයට කහිනුන් සුදුහුණු ගනු ඇත. චන්ද්රික සොරකම් නොකළ සුදු චටිතයකි. චම්පික රණවක මිනීමරා නැත. ලසන්ත සියදිවිනසගෙනය. හෙට මර්වින් සිල්වා උපාසක වනු ඇත. කුඩු දුමිය සෝවාන් වනුඇත. චම්පික රණවක මිනීමරා නැත. එක්නැලිගොඩ සියදිවි නසාගෙනය. මෛත්රී සමාජයක් ඇරඹේ. සදු සදු සාදු.
January 11th, 2015 at 1:20 pm
SLFP MPs should help My3 become the party leader. Leave out BOTH PAST presidents. Otherwise CBK will split it and take the leadership which is HORRIBLE!
Anyway 20 more SLFPers have joined My3 and UNLESS MR agrees to meaningfully work with My3, he is going to lose his parliamentary SIMPLE majority too.
So it is NOT A CHOICE. We all MUST join hands with PRESIDENT MY3 for a better SL so that UPFA can RETAIN its parliamentary majority.
PLEASE keep the party in tact. NO EXCUSE for splitting it.
January 11th, 2015 at 1:26 pm
So, what is the solution to all these accusations ?
Ask the new govt to write legislation, implement legislation or just keep accusing.
January 11th, 2015 at 2:23 pm
Ananda USA: thank you for the information. Will follow through in TOI
Whenever people push “Democracy’ as their concern in an environment where the economy is doing better than most economies in the world and the best in the subcontinent, where national security has been maintained and the Tamil terrorism kept at bay, when alliances with the world’s largest economy and Sri Lanka’s regional neighbor China is at its height then the issue is NOT “democracy” but to oust the established power for those seeking it.
After reading Ananda’s comment those seeking leadership in Colombo include the Tamil National Alliance and the Muslim league. they have NEVER stood for Democracy but for ethnic rivalry. Sirisena is going to be the worst nightmare for Sri Lanka since the end of the war. he may just pave the way for the second one.
Remember the words uttered at the end of world war 1 “the war to end all wars” stated by people who should have known better. When the war ended in 2009 I quoted Chou En Lai (the Premier of China in the 1950’s) when a journalist asked him what he thought of the French revolution (of the 18th century). he replied in the 1950’s “it is too early to say”. I say the same about Asia’s longest war.
January 11th, 2015 at 2:51 pm
Lorenzo
Can you see the problem here?
UPFA MPs have already given the assurance that President Maithripala Sirisena will get their unconditional support to implement 100 day programme.
But Chandrika is still not happy at all, because those MPs who crossed over to Sirisena will not be able to contest in May general elections neither as UNP candidate nor as SLFP candidate and will be left in the cold as Sirisena does not have a political party.
Now Chandrika’s strategy is to takeover SLFP, by hook or crook, to secure a future for those MPs who crossed over from UPFA to Sirisena and at the same time to try her luck to become the new executive Prime Minister in May.
11 MPs have already fallen into this trap yesterday, in addition, to those who have crossed over before the presidential election.
But Mahinda Rajapakse is firmly in control of SLFP party and their headquarters. All these back stabbing will inevitably delay the 100 day programme.
Looks like UNP is also now reluctant to take the responsibility of implementing 100 point immediate relief package and UNP MPs are requesting for an immediate general elections.
We all agree that It is a great risk for UNP to come out with a budget with massive deficit to support these welfare hand-outs promised during the Presidential Election.
January 11th, 2015 at 3:21 pm
Neela,
We knew this day would come.
I prefer MR to REMAIN the SLFP and UPFA LEADER.
However, if CBK is going to take it over, MR should support My3 to become the SLFP leader. A contest between CBK and MR will only RUIN the party for all.
AVOID at all cost giving back the SLFP to CBK. I mean AT ALL COST.
January 11th, 2015 at 4:03 pm
CBK’s intentions are irritatingly obvious. I believe My3 is smart enough to how to handle it. we are not specialist on these matters, he is.
January 11th, 2015 at 6:12 pm
If the Rajapaksas want to remain in politics, it is imperative that Mahinda keeps the SLFP top job.
Come to think of it Mahinda was president for a shorter term than both JR and Chandrika.
January 11th, 2015 at 7:40 pm
>>>Lorenzo Says:
January 11th, 2015 at 1:20 pm<<<
We will know on January 19th whether CBK does in fact have 21 votes. Given her "Don't call me a daughter of Bandaranaike promise" to defeat the budget which failed miserably, I don't think many people place a lot of confidence in CBK's influence in Parliament. Most people in Parliament know MS only won by 400,000 votes, and these votes were mainly new voters from Tamils in the North who sat out in 2010. It therefore does not make a lot of political sense to switch to Maithripala and Ranil at this point, as this would cause them to lose their seat in April.
I think dissolving Parliament is Maithripala's only option, and fresh elections with more hindsight into the Tamil/Muslim plan to unite their vote and split the Buddhist vote to get minority power over the Sri Lanka government will produce a sound defeat for the UNP in new Parliament elections and a mandate to NOT vote for Ranil as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
January 11th, 2015 at 9:38 pm
Into the future, I believing, cheating of people cannot go on, as people become informed through media and internet. Political life time of those big Maha Raja’s will become shorter and shorter. Even Maithree should adopt “Yaha Palanaya” than “Maithree Palanaya” which has no meaning.
In that case Mahinda has released most number of convicted murderers than any other rule and should be the real Maithree Palakaya.
January 11th, 2015 at 10:34 pm
Stupid Sinhalese for God’s sake forget and reject the Chora Regina for the good of the country if not we will see another battle in the future for sure. She brought unhappiness to all Sri Lankans when she was in power.She did so many mistakes and she is very very corrupt and a traitor to our Motherland so why we want to bring her back. “I am ashamed to be a Sri Lankan”once she told to Channel 4 in England so why we need a woman like that to steal the happiness and freedom we are enjoying now. All Sri LANKANS WERE VERY HAPPY THE WAY THEY WERE LIVING EXCEPT FEW WHO THOUGHT ONLY OF THEIR STOMACH AND PERSONAL BENEFITS. Defeat this lot somehow if you need to live happily ever after.
January 11th, 2015 at 11:36 pm
Stupid Sinhalese , those who got benefits and those who truly kind hearted to forgive voted for Mahinda. Siri Hewawitharana , a true patriot , has said elsewhere “If people know what MR has done, no one will ever vote for him”.
So, for God’s sake people should reject both Chora Raja and Regina.
But these two still carry a voter base. Even those jokers who contested won 500-100 votes. We can’t stop Mahajanaya. But we can educated them. Only way to do that is to prove it, not just parrot what Chora Raja or Chora Regina said in meeting. That is sheer stupidness.
January 12th, 2015 at 4:03 am
if CBK is going to take it over- Main reason for this 2014 election is CBK take back hers Father party ( SLFP ).
We have new NP (Saiva TE) civil Bhuddist Sinhala Governor (as required by our CM Hon CV) , thanks to Hon MS you begin to fulfil your promise for our 450,000 votes.
January 12th, 2015 at 6:32 am
Ananda USA and others; election results based on electorates are available to browse. Look at them and see how they voted and who they are. There are large number of Indians living in Sinhala majority electorates. All Indians in the North, East and Malaya Nadu lead the Indian votes followed by other electorates. Jai Hind
January 13th, 2015 at 6:14 am
Election results of 2015 cleaely show the Indian hand at work.
The initial plan which was to take the west for ride to get some dough and carry on as usual would have resulted in the same result as 2010.T
That may be the reason why MR too was not concerened about the election and took it lightly.
TNA delayed their decision untill the last moment to aviod the tiger card being posted on My3 but did campaign for him covertly.
The most unsettling result came from Nuwara eliya/Maskeliya electorates where many people didn’t even know who my3 was and found it difficult to even pronounce it.
Finally it bacame a ‘RAW’ deal for Sri lanka