{"id":75049,"date":"2018-02-23T21:38:04","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T03:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=75049"},"modified":"2018-02-23T10:52:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T17:52:07","slug":"letter-to-the-editor-mr-president-this-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-but-it-is-a-wake-up-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/02\/23\/letter-to-the-editor-mr-president-this-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-but-it-is-a-wake-up-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter to the editor: Mr. President, This is not the end of the world! But it is a wake up call!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Mr. President, This is not the end of the world! But it is a wake up call!<\/p>\n

I am surprised at the halla baloo created around the recent MC election results. Why is that even the President is taking the results like a General election results?<\/p>\n

Obviously everyone knows that these results do not affect the sitting government in any way at all. True, it reflects the mentality and preferences of the citizens but it is not one to change the parliament or the Yahapalanaya mandate. So the rumor that the President is going to reshuffle the ministers, if true, is silly. There is no need to get upset about the results since it is only a municipal council election.<\/p>\n

But certainly, Mr. President, it is a wake up call for you. You are \u00a0blessed to have a wake up call; everyone are not lucky like you. Obviously people have given a clear verdict they don\u2019t like how you are running the show, but that does not mean they want you to step down. They want you to run it better. This is a golden opportunity for you to rectify your ways!<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the election, you have \u00a0been reminded ad nauseum that YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE COUNTRY \u2013 LOCK, STOCK AND BARREL,\u00a0 not of the SLFP alone. In fact when you crossed over \u00a0to contest the presidential election, \u00a0you\u00a0 should have stopped being an SLFP\u2019er. You are now \u00a0the president of the UNP, SLFP, SLPP, JVP etc. etc. including all those who did not vote for you too in the Presidential election. When you are given the post of the supreme commander of the country you\u2019re trying to be the leader of a small group of people!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time you gave up the post of Chairman of SLFP. As I wrote earlier you cannot wear two hats at the same time. Your hat approved by the whole nation is to be the President. So be the President and govern the way you\u00a0 promised us to, at your Presidential election campaign. You promised to wipe out corruption, put the robbers who blatantly pilfered \u00a0the nation behind bars, get rid of the over crowding at the top, govern with an iron hand with truth, honesty and sincerity. And you can.<\/p>\n

You may worry about what the SLFP will say about you in the long run, \u00a0but you should be worried more so how the history of the country will write of you. You still have almost half of your term. It\u2019s not too \u00a0late yet. With Ranil, you can steer the country for the better if only you take the bold step of removing all the dead weights you have taken over in order to protect your SLFP identity, which you don\u2019t need \u00a0anymore. If anything, that is the message the people have given you at this MC election.<\/p>\n

Please, Mr. President, the country needs you, please wake up to the call.<\/p>\n

Sent by:<\/p>\n

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela Mr. President, This is not the end of the world! But it is a wake up call! I am surprised at the halla baloo created around the recent MC election results. Why is that even the President is taking the results like a General election results? Obviously everyone knows that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75049","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=75049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}