{"id":40682,"date":"2015-01-07T20:50:47","date_gmt":"2015-01-08T02:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=40682"},"modified":"2015-01-07T13:09:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T20:09:38","slug":"a-vote-for-president-mahinda-rajapakse-is-a-vote-for-progress-and-a-united-unitary-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/01\/07\/a-vote-for-president-mahinda-rajapakse-is-a-vote-for-progress-and-a-united-unitary-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"A Vote for President Mahinda Rajapakse is a\u00a0vote\u00a0\u00a0for\u00a0 progress\u00a0 and a united unitary Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Charles.S.Perera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I was seated outside the house surfing the internet for latest information enjoying the welcome \u00a0warmth of the sun after months of rain, when my neighbour\u00a0 the teacher \u00a0walked in complaining of a headache .\u00a0 She was looking sad and depressive I proposed\u00a0 a panadol.<\/p>\n

She refused and said it is all because she is\u00a0 discouraged and \u00a0disappointed. Many of her\u00a0 colleagues she says are stupid and do not understand what really is at stake in this Presidential election.\u00a0\u00a0 She says that they\u00a0 form into groups and discuss\u00a0 the coming elections.\u00a0 She had asked what they propose to do, and they had said in one voice they were voting for Sirisena.<\/p>\n

She was surprised and asked them why\u00a0 what is the reason.\u00a0 The had said because they did not get the Rs.3000,00 increase they were promised, therefore they do \u00a0not trust the President Rajapakse.\u00a0 My neighbour was flabbergasted, and had said that\u00a0 it is an egoist\u00a0 and not so important a reason to\u00a0 vote against the President who removed terrorism and developing the country.\u00a0 They had said, terrorism is over, now it is time to look after our personal interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

I consoled her saying that\u00a0 there are those who put self before the country.\u00a0 They little realise that voting for the President \u00a0is to\u00a0 vote for Sri Lanka,\u00a0 to allow it to remain a unitary state\u00a0 and\u00a0 not to break it up to satisfy the Tamils\u00a0 who wants the North and the Mulims who want the east.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, I said she should not worry as I just read in the internet\u00a0 about a poll\u00a0 carried out by the University of Jayawardhanapura according to which\u00a0 the President\u00a0 will receive 54.5 per cent of the votes and that with a margin of error between 3 and 5. That cheered her up a little but she asked to what extent can\u00a0 one depend on polls ?<\/p>\n

Just then I had a call from my niece a teacher at a Montessori\u00a0 School in Colombo.\u00a0 She related a\u00a0 story similar to that of my neighbour the teacher with a slight difference. The teachers in the school she said want to vote for Sirisena, asked why they had said can\u2019t you see how these Ministers live ? They live comfortably well, and have every thing while some \u00a0others have nothing, nothing even to eat .<\/p>\n

It is really disheartening.\u00a0 I told her to say that under the President Rajapakse we had not heard of any one who had died of starvation. Despite all the talk about corruption, nepotism and lack of good governance the ordinary people\u00a0 live better than they were before even if their living conditions may have not improved as they should be.<\/p>\n

But it is pathetic that it is only these so called educated middle class \u00a0that cannot think beyond their\u00a0 stomach\u00a0 and a few more rupees in their pay packet, who are disgruntled as nothing can satisfy them. They do not know that they should be ever grateful to the President Mahinda Rajapakse who has given them peace and security with which they live happily without fear of bombs, massacres and assassinations.<\/p>\n

There are on the contrary the very poor who offer merit to President Mahinda Rajapakse who they say has given them peace and security above all their personal deprivations.<\/p>\n

While I was still with my neighbour \u2013the teacher, a man came looking for some work .\u00a0\u00a0 Having told him that I have nothing to give him immediately promised him some work after the election. I casually asked him to whom he may cast his vote.\u00a0 He told me that he had not decided; and just then the domestic help of my brother came with my lunch.\u00a0 She heard the man say that he is still not decided, and said in her own way that \u00a0she will definitely not give her vote to that chap (aththatama\u00a0 mama okata mage chande denne ne).<\/p>\n

The man asked who ? Sirisena\u201d she said \u00a0and added, \u201d that ungrateful chap had even eaten hoppers with the President until late in the night and gone away to join the President\u2019s enemies the following day, how can we trust such a man to be our President ? <\/p>\n

These are simple people but their sincere feelings come from down their heart. She told me later that her whole family and her neighbours will vote for the President. But she told me also that she did not like the speaker at\u00a0 President Mahinda Rajapakse\u2019s\u00a0 meeting who said that Chandrika will have to go naked after the election.<\/p>\n

These are excesses that speakers at the President\u00a0 Mahinda Rajapskse\u2019s meetings make carried over by their own rhetoric. I have noticed many speakers even Wimal Weerawansa attacking the common Presidential candidate of the opposition, Ranil, Chandrika and Champika Ranawaka.\u00a0 Though they are\u00a0 in fact worthy\u201d of such bitter criticism, one should know where to draw the line and tell the people of more important issues that theymay not know.<\/p>\n

They speak less of the intervention of Western political forces against\u00a0 President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government, and that these western forces are using the opposition to the President for a regime change\u201d in Sri Lanka.\u00a0 In reality they (the West and EU lead by USA)\u00a0 are the invisible hand behind Ranil and Chandrika to promote\u00a0 Maitripala Sirisena as the\u00a0 common Presidential Candidate to form a West friendly puppet regime in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

If that had been well explained in simple language for the ordinary people to understand it would have changed many dillydallying persons to turn away from Maitripala Sirisena to vote for the President Mahinda Rajapakse.<\/p>\n

I wanted to meet either the President or some one in-charge of the organisation of the meeting in support of the President Manhinda Rajapakse held in Kandy on the 1st<\/sup> January.\u00a0 But I failed in my endeavour.\u00a0 I finally contacted \u00a0a man close to Lohan Ratwatte the MP for Kandy, and got the opportunity to meet him at a lunch that had been arranged for him in Madawala.<\/p>\n

I think he came very\u00a0 hungry as he sat for lunch immediately on his arrival and made a sign for me to come and sit by his side.\u00a0 I was not going to have lunch, so I told him while he was eating the importance of telling the large crowds of people coming for the meetings in support of the President, more about foreign forces\u201d at work against the President and his government, as very little is said about it though much is said about corruption, good governance etc.<\/p>\n

He admitted that it is so and asked me to write down what has to be said and give it to him or send it to him.\u00a0 It was a Sunday and I could not get a printout, therefore I promised to send \u00a0it to him through his friend I know and left.<\/p>\n

But it was too late then and the Presidents last meeting\u00a0 also went off\u00a0 with the usual speeches \u00a0by the speakers.<\/p>\n

Pakiasothy Sarawanamuttu says that the army in the north will deter the people from coming to vote\u00a0 in he mean time\u00a0 Amnesty International and EU have issued instruction to Sri Lanka requesting that the government should allow free elections.\u00a0 The NGOs and the International gangs are watchful.<\/p>\n

Latest I heard is that some people say that we should re-elect\u00a0 the President Rajapakse, as\u00a0 a new government coming will only increase corruption as those who had failed to earn money from commissions and bribes\u00a0 will out do what the President Rajapakse\u2019s government is accused of having done.<\/p>\n

Let us wish good luck and\u00a0 pray for the blessings of the Triple Gem for the re-election of\u00a0 our President Mahinda Rajapakse, because Sri Lanka needs\u00a0 him as the President for another term, more than ever before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Charles.S.Perera I was seated outside the house surfing the internet for latest information enjoying the welcome \u00a0warmth of the sun after months of rain, when my neighbour\u00a0 the teacher \u00a0walked in complaining of a headache .\u00a0 She was looking sad and depressive I proposed\u00a0 a panadol. She refused and said it is all because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40682","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=40682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}