{"id":75117,"date":"2018-02-25T17:08:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T00:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=75117"},"modified":"2018-02-25T17:09:11","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T00:09:11","slug":"western-interests-keeping-maithri-ranil-alliance-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/02\/25\/western-interests-keeping-maithri-ranil-alliance-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"Western interests Keeping Maithri -Ranil alliance alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe\u00a0Courtesy Ceylon Today<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

If after 70 years of democracy, installed by the British, we are at the brink of having our country broken into pieces, we should realize the way we handle issues is wrong. Even before the British departed, certain Tamil politicians had already taken cudgels against what they termed as the “Sinhala government”.<\/p>\n

It was their deliberate mismanagement of affairs that led to the creation of terrorism in the North and the East, which was exploited by India for their own political survival and geopolitical reasons. However, we too have played our part in letting ourselves be manipulated.<\/p>\n

LG results shock<\/strong><\/p>\n

The drama that unfolded after the Local Government election shock amply demonstrates this fact. The cracks within the Unity Government widened and deepened rapidly from the minute the Local Government elections were called. It was bigwigs of the two main parties in the Unity Government, United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, that fired cannonballs of slander at each other. As war winning former President Mahinda Rajapaksa quipped, he really did not have anything to do, to pave the way for his massive victory for the UNP and SLFP and worked overtime to discredit themselves.<\/p>\n

The two parties’ second ranks were also acutely aware of the Pohottuwa gains at their expense and tried their best to downplay the fights. UNP stalwarts Lakshman Kiriella likened Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe to old lovers, who will patch up after the elections.<\/p>\n

Even the Joint Opposition and national movements like Eliya, repeatedly maintained that these “fights” are not serious. Venerable Madagoda Abayatissa Thera on the Eliya platform explained, that the two politicians, Sirisena and Wickremesinghe, to avoid facing key issues that are fast crippling the country, are behaving like a husband and wife duo brawling loudly, when the landlord comes to collect the rent.<\/p>\n

However, many never anticipated this landslide victory for the Pohottuwa. Many JO supporters were disheartened with Basil Rajapaksa for not forming a link with the Sirisena-SLFP faction. His failure to do so would divide the votes and none would emerge with a clear victory was predicted by all political pundits. In fact, there were even whisperings that BR was betraying his own brother, MR, to pave the way for a UNP victory.<\/p>\n

Efficient unpopular Basil<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basil Rajapakasa is not a popular politician because he is an efficient politician. The biggest grouse against him is his poker face. During the previous administration, he gained many enemies within the SLFP itself for not ‘sharing’ the projects and allowing others to earn their commissions. It was within this disgruntled SLFP ranks that the nickname, “Mr Ten Percent” emerged and capitalized by their political rivals to topple the then Government.<\/p>\n

During the previous administration, he was the driving force behind the country’s massive and rapid infrastructure development. Though he is accused of hogging all the projects, the young SLFP MPs are extremely grateful to him. They claim that when the other seniors do not even share a logical point with them for fear that they will gain political mileage; Basil had helped them to win their electorates by giving all the support to develop their areas. It is in this context that it is a pity that Basil is still so quickly misjudged and his loyalty questioned.<\/p>\n

It is perhaps for this reason that the war winning, former defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa emphasized their family unity in a recent interview. It remains to be seen whether that will assure BR’s bona fides, especially in the coming months with crucial elections to nine Provincial Councils, followed by the Presidential Elections and finally the General Elections – all coming up within these two years.<\/p>\n

When the results came, it was akin to old lovers who had aged clumsily. The lost last love did not rekindle easily. Instead of the victory been dividing between the three parties with no clear winner, the UNP got a terrible drubbing and the SLFP a worse drubbing.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Sirisena who fared the worst interpreted the results as a rejection of Wickremesinghe by the people. For almost a week and a half we were entertained with Sirisena’s efforts to oust Wickremesinghe from the Premiership and Wickremesinghe coolly refusing to go. Even more interestingly, the UNP camp never asked Sirisena to vacate his position for clearly people have rejected him more than they had rejected Wickremesinghe. Instead that camp broke in two with one group pledging their support to Wickremesinghe and the other who clearly wanted him gone.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, in the camp that wanted Wickremesinghe out were UNP blue-eyed boys like Dr. Harsha de Silva. He is one who worked overtime to discredit the previous government’s economic policies and went as far as to call China, who was funding most of our infrastructural development projects, as an economic hit man. Though a politician, his warnings were seriously heeded as he is an economist by profession. Shortly after assuming power, he changed his professional opinion by 180 degrees, though he never explained why he got it wrong when he was in the Opposition.<\/p>\n

Throughout the tenure of this Government, he enacted its policies with blind faith. He even went to Geneva on 15 November 2017 and at the Third Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Sri Lanka re-pledged the Government’s commitment to enact the conditions of the U.S.-led Resolution that this Government treacherously co-sponsored in 2015. This despite the revelations made by Lord Naseby a month before in the British Parliament that according to the dispatches sent by Lt Col Anton Gash, who was their defence attach\u00e9 during the last phase of the war against terrorism, we never committed war crimes.<\/p>\n

All this camp that wanted Wickremesinghe out was another to take the leadership. The two candidates approached were Karu Jayasuriya and Sajith Premadasa. Jayasuriya, now known as the most partisan speaker in Sri Lankan Parliamentary history, was a bold and patriotic man during the height of the war. He did yeoman service by crossing over to the then Government that was in the hands of his arch political rival. By doing so, he gave the necessary numbers for the then administration to continue with its war efforts. He only returned to his Party after terrorism was eradicated from our country. Though he challenged Wickremesinghe, then, for the latter’s refusal to support the eradication of terrorism, today he rather not.<\/p>\n

Premadasa too had challenged Wickremesinghe in the past; today, he too rather not. Premadasa who created a promising political career for himself by keeping his nose to the grindstone and working for his electorate has truly lost his way. Instead of letting his work pave the ambitious path to presidency, he has taken to insulting MR for political mileage.<\/p>\n

His father, who tried so hard to work with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was killed by them. MR was the President that finally annihilated his father’s killers. the killers of his father annihilated.<\/p>\n

Yet, Premadasa whilst vilifying MR without restraint stands with Mawai Senathirajah and Vijeyakala Maheswaran. Veteran Tamil politician Anandasangaree had repeatedly exposed Senathirajah as a politician installed by the LTTE. Maheswaran, whilst openly admiring Prabhakaran is on record that life was better under the LTTE.<\/p>\n

Unseen by the public, but exposed by mainstream media, U.S. Ambassador Atul Keshap and Indian High Commissioner worked overtime to bring Sirisena and Wickremesinghe together. In a country where students commit suicide, unable to suffer the humiliation of failing the Ordinary Level exams, Wickremesinghe remains positive and never for a moment entertained the possibility of retiring despite 25 years of continuous failure. He knows it is not the voters’ voice that counts, but that of his international backers.<\/p>\n

We watched Sirisena’s convincing act of trying to rid Wickremesinghe, never factoring that the West would never allow it. It is in their geopolitical interest that our country is broken to pieces, bankrupted and destabilized. Just as the UNP and the SLFP lost in the south, the Tamil National Alliance in the north lost heavily for not concentrating on the people’s real needs such as creating employment opportunities and tackling the increase in the narcotic menace, instead, focusing wholly on a constitutional change; that really does not interest the people.<\/p>\n

The West may have saved the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe political marriage, but we must stand together and save our country.
\nranasingheshivanthi@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shivanthi Ranasinghe\u00a0Courtesy Ceylon Today If after 70 years of democracy, installed by the British, we are at the brink of having our country broken into pieces, we should realize the way we handle issues is wrong. Even before the British departed, certain Tamil politicians had already taken cudgels against what they termed as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75117","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=75117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}