{"id":53316,"date":"2016-03-28T21:30:24","date_gmt":"2016-03-29T03:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=53316"},"modified":"2016-03-28T13:26:50","modified_gmt":"2016-03-28T20:26:50","slug":"does-she-bring-bad-luck-to-the-nation-and-those-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/03\/28\/does-she-bring-bad-luck-to-the-nation-and-those-around\/","title":{"rendered":"Does She Bring Bad Luck to the Nation and Those Around?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

This was a hot topic from 1995 to 1999 discussed mainly in pro-UNP media. UNP coined \u2018always breakdown\u2019 to refer to the unfortunate calamities during that time. However, since 2010 the UNP has come to venerate her for political gain. As the nation is once again going through bad luck, calamities and misfortune, it is an opportune time to revisit the topic. This will not discuss personal relationship calamities (which are many) and only focus on publicly available matter.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka as a nation was utterly unfortunate from 1994 to 2005 due to the things that happened during this time. The 2004 tsunami is the worst natural disaster in history and it happened under her rule. According to official estimates close to 40,000 people perished. It caused the world\u2019s worst train disaster when an estimated 800 passengers of the Samudra Devi (Ocean Goddess) died. In 2000 strategically important Elephant Pass army camp was overrun by Tamil terrorists, which remains this country\u2019s worst military disaster in terms of army casualties and the loss of a strategic camp. Tamil terrorist attack on Mulaitivu camp in 1996 come a close second. Negative economic growth (or shrinkage) in 2001 was the worst this nation has gone through. Tamil terrorist attack on the airport (2001), Central Bank (1996) and oil refineries (1995) closely compete for the top three spots for the most devastating terror strikes on economic targets in South Asia. The 1998 attack on the Temple of the Tooth is the worst terrorist attack on a religious shrine. It all happened during the rule of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.<\/p>\n

Electricity shortages of 1996 and 2001 are the worst in history and the launch of GST in 1998 was the worst introduction of a tax on commodities of the common man. Within days of assuming office in 1994, two peaceful protesters were killed at the Export Processing Zone and by another few weeks dead bodies of slain youth started to appear from drains and lakes. Although it was blamed on the continuation of UNP tactics and a paramilitary force was blamed and removed from Colombo, the events were never investigated. Within weeks of her assuming office as Prime Minister in August 1994 the largest ship of the navy (\u2018Sagarawardana\u2019) was sunk by Tamil terrorists. Within just two months, the bloodiest terrorist killing of politicians occurred in which a number of parliamentarians were killed. That incident remains the only time an Opposition Leader and a presidential hopeful was killed. From 1999 to 2000 all military gains since 1995 were lost to Tamil terrorists within months, which remains the worst ever military reversal of South Asia. Since 1995, a record number of military aircraft were lost killing scores. The most lucrative small industry at that time was making coffins.<\/p>\n

It was not her fault when her father was killed when she was just 14 and her husband was taken away from her when she was 43. The architect of her infamous \u2018political package\u2019 was killed in 1999 and the man behind the Western Provincial Council administration of 1993 that propelled her to national politics \u2013 Moris Rajapaksa \u2013 died suddenly in 1995. Most pioneering men of the SLMP (Sri Lanka Mahajana Party) were gunned down in violence and Ossie Abeygunasekara was killed by Tamils in 1994. Her close aide CV Gunarathna was killed in 2000 while scores of her close political supporters were bombed in 1999 by Tamils at a fateful election rally. One of her closest aides, Lakshaman Kadirgamar was Foreign Minister when he was gunned down by Tamils in 2005. Iconic Muslim leader MHM Ashroff was a key minister of her Cabinet when he perished in a helicopter crash in 2000. The fate of Anura since coming under her wing can only be described as tragic. Of course she never meant anything bad for any of them and did everything she could to protect them.<\/p>\n

After a decade, bad luck has a new address \u2013 Sri Lanka. Bad luck has returned to the Sri Lankan economy, politics and defence. A number of pioneering personnel of the 2015 regime change campaign with her are no more in active politics. Some dead, some on deathbed and others kicked out of parliament. The economy is in a much worse shape than in 2014 and disruptions to day-to-day affairs of the public have increased. Power cuts, water cuts, job cuts and frequent protests have returned. The stock market is on a downward slide just as it happened during her first term in office. The prime minister today is no more effective or healthy than the prime minister during her first term.<\/p>\n

Vultures once again circle the island and if the economic predictors are anything to go by, misfortune has befallen Sri Lanka again in a big way. What must be emphasised is none of this has any bearing on the weeping widow. They just come to pass whenever she is associated with governance of this nation. In a country where astral beings determine most marriages, election dates and all religious days, people do talk of the association. Whatever that can save the nation from misfortune is a good thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara This was a hot topic from 1995 to 1999 discussed mainly in pro-UNP media. UNP coined \u2018always breakdown\u2019 to refer to the unfortunate calamities during that time. However, since 2010 the UNP has come to venerate her for political gain. As the nation is once again going through bad luck, calamities and misfortune, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53316","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=53316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}