Ananda De Costa

There are a lot of similarities between Mahinda and Premadasa.

1. Premadasa ended conventional UNP politics. Mahinda ended the more difficult Bandaranayake Dynasty.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 
2. Premadasa helped to chase out invading forces using extremely shrewd methods (using local murderers). This was a win so far as the sovereignty of Lanka is concerned, because the invaders surely violated Mother Lanka. Similarly Mahinda eradicated the murderers with lot more difficulty but with much superior wisdom.
3. Premadasa ended JVP terrorism. Make no mistake, it was a very dark era which was terminated with brutal force. Similarly Mahinda ended LTTE terrorism with force amid international pressure.
4. Premadasa built bridges, clock towers, roads and villages. Mahinda too is building bridges ,villages and roads.
5. Although came from UNP, PremadasaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  was common manƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s President. Mahinda too has similar reputation.
6. Premadasa was a devoted Buddhist ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” at least on TV and so is Mahinda.
7. Premadasa donated a Golden Roof to Dalada Maligawa. Mainda donated two suckling elephants to Mahanayakas.
8. Premadasa had a lot of misbehaving friends. Mahinda too has plenty.

How about dissimilarities?

1. PremadasaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s wife brought so much public attention (including the rumour of killing of a photographer who took some Grand Slam pictures); fingers crossed – MahindaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s so far so good.
2. Premadasa was not so much of a listener but Mahinda is. ( Need not listen to MahanayakaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s though !)
3. Premadasa did not have good brothers, but Mahinda has plenty.
4. Premadasa nurtured LTTE but Mahinda starved them.
5. Premadasa was killed by a single Prabhakaran. Mahinda survived two Prbahakarans.

You can add more. But Mother Lanka needs a lot more to the dissimilarity list. We do not have law and order yet. We need it desperately and it will need more leadership skills from Mahinda to establish it. That will be the day a few of his bad friends( Apaaya Sahaya)ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  get prosecuted properly for doing the low act of hicorping. It will be the day VassƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s get punished properly for beating up innocent and not innocent people (with all my respect to Chaminda).

One day, we hope, Mahinda will invent the vaccine to get rid ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  the dreaded political rabies (introduced by westerners) from Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ That will be the day of real victory.