Dr.P.A.Samaraweera

In January 2015, President Sirisena appointed Ranil as the PM when he had only 42 seats in Parliament. Mr. D.M. Jayaratne who was PM at the time backed away, for what ever reason. Now Ranil had been paid back in the same coin. After he was sacked, he had summoned the Ambassadors and High Commissioners, and like a child in tears had pleaded to them that it is foul. Obviously, he is trying to get their sympathy.

Looking at his track record, his best friend Mahendra is responsible for robbing the Central Bank. Not once but twice. If not for President Sirisena, he would have swept it under the carpet. Now Ranil should be taken to task for this.

During the last three and a half years, the LTTE supporters in the North backed by the Tamil diaspora had their own way. They carried Prabhakaran’s cut outs at festivals and parades, harassed Sinhala students at the University when they tried to bring in a Buddha statute during the last Wesak, celebrated Prabhakaran’s birthday and  so on. And  Ranil’s govt was silent about these on the pretext of reconciliation. During Ranil’s regime, the Police doing various investigations arrested the “Rana viruvos” and they had been remanded indefinitely. There was a time when the UNP leaders ridiculed the war and the last few years followed it by harassing the war veterans. 

However, Ranil’s name should go to the Guiness Book of Records for (a) Losing more than 20 elections at a stretch (b) Getting sacked twice while being Prime Minister. Once when Chandrika Bandaranaike was President and then sacked for the second time by President Sirisena. This time hopefully, he and his torch bearer’s go for ever.