{"id":131161,"date":"2023-01-05T17:43:13","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T00:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=131161"},"modified":"2023-01-05T17:43:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T00:43:13","slug":"who-should-lead-our-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/01\/05\/who-should-lead-our-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Who should lead our country?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><em>An Indepenedent Observer<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The country is at a critical juncture not because of economic woes but because of the lack of a suitable leader for the majority, the Sinhala Buddhists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elections did come and go in the past but there was then always&nbsp;the case of choosing a SLFP or an UNP government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SLPP has been sort of an extension of SLFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though no party had a\u00a0long-term vision people were able to choose a leader of their preference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it is not the case at this juncture.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who can we choose, come the election in a month or in a year?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sajith stands as the prime person to take control of the country as he is the main opposition leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However is he suitable for the post of our supreme leader?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The notoriety he has gained as a thick-headed person or his alleged frauds ransacking the cultural fund could be discounted\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>as most of our politicians are in the same breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, in a country with a Sinhala Buddhist majority should a person masquerading as a Buddhist be accepted as its leader?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are multiple reports that he has become a born again which he has never denied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The country knows that his sister &amp; mother belong to born again group and Sajith were alleged to have crept into a church in Kirillapone during election time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And his conversion to the born-again cult is not the issue if it is so but what angers the majority is his futile attempts to conceal it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact that President Wickremasinghe chose to respond to Sajith&#8217;s quotation from the Prabhava Sutta by quoting a line from the same sutra itself looks like the coup de grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Wickremasinghe&nbsp;did retort pointing at Sajith what Buddha said in that Sutra was that anyone seeking refuge in the creed of the wicked would have his downfall!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why did he choose to tell it to Sajith that line is crystal clear to all?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>JVP with an alliance with or without FSP surfaced as a force to lead the country during the Aragalaya period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, Anura Dissanayake clearly did miss a golden opportunity to be our PM or even climb to the post of President but his fate was cruelly against him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The subsequent arson, looting &amp; murder that gripped the country frightened the mass so much JVP may not do much better than their 3% , come to an election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anura&#8217;s &amp; JVP&#8217;s rising star Harshini Amarasuriya&#8217;s anti-Buddhist stance is a pointer to their collaboration\u00a0with NGOs to attack the Buddhist foundation of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His party supporter Sepala Amerasinghe&#8217;s latest insulting attacks on Dalada Maligawa cannot be taken lightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a recent Salakuna program, Duminda Nagamuwa admitted that he is non Buddhist &amp; a Marxist\u00a0only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with his FSP leader, Gunaratna M Buddhists can anticipate what is to come if those are elected to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fate of UNP is not rosy at all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is nobody beyond aging Ranil to be accepted as having any substance to lead our country.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unless a forged partnership with the SLPP, an immediate comeback is impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Surprisingly SLFP seems to have a clear advantage here keeping its Sinhala Buddhist stance with MS as its leader as long as<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ex-President Chandrika can be kept outside its framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the other hand, SLFP\u00a0 has lost a golden chance to be the leading party to claim the reins because of its lack of competent &amp; efficient leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MS or Dayasiri do not fit into that category clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SLPP &amp; Rajapakshas would be right on the card\u00a0surely\u00a0whatever mishaps have happened to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would also have thought so having been a Rajapaksha follower ever since winning the war whatever the alleged corruption &amp; economic downfalls happened<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>under them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I will not support any Rajapakshas anymore in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not because they caused the economic collapse but because of the incidents that happened during the Aragalaya time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It clearly showed Gota was hands bound &amp; acting under orders, no doubt from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He could not deploy the army because Aragalaya was a US system change scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was shocking for the country to see horrible events unfolding at GalleFace day by day with utter silence from sleeping Gota&#8217;s regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We may have had pseudo-satisfaction that an Arab Spring did not happen in our country with the usual bloodshed but this foreign-led movement brought the desired system change in our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US &amp; India were right behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was not a struggle by the so-called innocent masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most noteworthy master stroke taken by these foreign perpetrators stare at your face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What was that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Involve a prominent Buddhist monk in this protest or the system change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They got hold of Ven Madoluwawe Sobitha Thero for the yahapalanaya struggle to topple MR regime then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;And this time it was the other Ven Sobhitha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Omalpe Sobhitha Thero who led the Aragalaya showed it was a Buddhist-led movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tamil diaspora &amp; the cardinal played their major roles upfront to draw the masses with the cardinal going all the way to the Vatican to set the ball rolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was mostly Christian &amp; Tamil &amp; Muslim masses in the downtrodden areas in Colombo that filled the ground with the selected NGO-funded leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tamil diaspora &amp; Muslim elements gave the financial backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many popular Christian personalities,Yeheli Sangakkara,,Mahela&#8217;s first wife,Christina,Appuhamy ,Damitha Abeyratna &amp; Christian cricketers were there to give their full backing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Born again duo Sangakkara &amp; Mahela gave theirs on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No wonder RAW &amp; US created incidents in the country funding those protests &amp; rallies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most important lesson to the country from this system change is Never ever again elect a President having any connection to the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever antagonism they may show against the US during their political campaign won&#8217;t hold any water if those with dual citizenship or close relatives in the US have been elected as the President of the country.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>US know then how to apply pressure on them with their families &amp; children&#8217;s future in the US clearly in the US hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No parent would jeopardize their children&#8217;s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US\u00a0 is the master of maneuvering.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does this say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Never again a Rajapaksha, Be Gota, Basil or Namal be our leader in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Namal though not a US citizen can be easily maneuvered by the US through his connections to the US with Basil &amp; Gota &amp; their families in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Namal&#8217;s fate is doomed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If Namal becomes our President the country no doubt will face again the calamity through the interference of the US as happened to Gota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>None of MR&#8217;s sons have a particular appeal to the Buddhist majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They all look like a spoilt westernized bunch and all of them marrying into powerful Christian families too may be a factor here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This should be the end of the Rajapaksha dynasty as much as happened to Bandranayaka&#8217;s though they may have pseudo hopes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rajapakshas should be a history in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do not forget there are other current prominent political leaders who fall Into this group with connections to the US such as Dallas Allapperuma &amp; Sarath Fonseka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both are known to have their families &amp; children living in the US.and no parent would like to jeopardize their children&#8217;s future by going against the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here one striking fact that stands out is a number of our prominent political figures surprisingly hold US citizenship or green cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If not at least their children are having some sort of education or training in the US and with potential citizenship in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This should alarm bells in our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What comes to light now is whether the US has a secret scheme to offer to our prospective political leaders or their families green cards or citizenship purposely to get them under their grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a very important issue the country and our aspiring leaders should take note of. How come several prominent political figures have been lucky to obtain it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore we only have a few now to choose to cast our votes to come to the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need new heads &amp; new leaders with some experience in politics and you cannot look beyond them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The best hope is a unity of a few scattered good individuals in the current parliament who have a clean record though may not be absolute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My best bet for the Sinhala Buddhist interests is a coalition party of individuals consisting of Prof Channa Jayasumana, Prof Charith Herath, Prof Gunapala Ratnasekera,\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gevindu Kumaranatunga,Wimal Weerawansa,Udaya Gammanpila , Wasantha Yapa &amp; Champika Ranawaka etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They can come together with shared leadership like what happened in Ireland where coalition leaders changed hands in the mid-term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They should stay clear of SLPP ( Namal &amp; Basil), SJB, JVP, or UNP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, an alliance with the SLFP looks possible that will give such a coalition a country-wide platform through the SLFP &#8216;s established groundwork, however, MS should not be the leader of the\u00a0 Alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Indepenedent Observer The country is at a critical juncture not because of economic woes but because of the lack of a suitable leader for the majority, the Sinhala Buddhists. Elections did come and go in the past but there was then always&nbsp;the case of choosing a SLFP or an UNP government. SLPP has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}