Time to identify enemies within
Posted on November 6th, 2021
Sangadasa Akurugoda
According to media reports, while addressing at the SLPPs 5th National Convention, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said the SLPP was duty bound to preserve the unity among its coalition allies who had fought for the same cause. Recalling the sacrifices made by those who contributed towards the SLPP’s historic victory, the PM said, ‘’the size of a political party did not matter, and what really mattered was the goal. These parties have been with us through thick and thin. They are neither crutches nor a cat’s paw of the SLPP. Therefore, all parties must unite, and making that happen is our responsibility.” While admitting the apparent frustration among the youth and those who voted for the SLPP during the last Presidential and Parliamentary elections, PM has stressed the need to be involved in politics among the people similar to how they manage government institutions after securing power after the elections.
During the last Presidential election, Presidential candidate Gitabhaya Rajapaksa received a 6.9 million mandate and, no doubt, majority of those who voted for him must have thought that Gotabhaya is the only answer to their majority of the problems. When we think about how Gotabhaya performed as the Secretary of the Ministry of and Urban Development, their expectations are reasonable to some extent. Although Gotabhaya’s performance in managing government institutions is well aware, his state administration is yet to be seen since no state administration is detached from politics.
The ruling coalition, similar to all other coalition government we had since independence, consists of parliamentarians with different interests. Although Mahinda Rajapaksa has done a wonderful thing during his tenure of office as the President of the country up to 2015, by keeping all these elements together, probably with the intention of achieving political stability as a short term measure, while defeating terrorism, upgrading economy and country’s infra structure, we have witnessed some of its negative effects at the end. Corruptions charges were leveled against some of his close associates and similar to what we hear even today. We remember how one of them departed to USA soon after the 2015 election results were announced, accepting the responsibility for the defeat. There may be leading elements in the government who are working with similar sinister agendas even today.
SLPP rebels vow to scuttle New Fortress deal were talking about an American Agent and elements abusing the mandate people had given to Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. When talking about how the project has been awarded to a non-tendered company while the tenders submitted for a project are being evaluated, Leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumaya, Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila stated that the present government is engaged in more serious corruption far worse than those of JR, Premadsa , Chandrika and Ranil which were branded as extremely corrupt eras.
Although the above speech of the PM is commendable, it would have been much better, as the leader of the SLPP, if he has taken action to find out who are the main culprits, within the party, responsible for making the public unhappy and for treating minor allies of the coalition as crutches or cat’s paws.
We were under foreign powers for centuries due to the acts of saboteurs and traitors. We have witnessed, during our life time, how powerful are enemies within, when destabilising regimes. If the incumbent government is not taking any action, the public must be aware of these enemies, as a priority, should rally against such elements in order to protect our nation.
Sangadasa Akurugoda