{"id":95098,"date":"2019-11-11T16:54:07","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T23:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95098"},"modified":"2019-11-11T16:54:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T23:54:07","slug":"choosing-your-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/11\/11\/choosing-your-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing your candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viraj Kithsiri<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I would like to place a few pertinent questions to my fellow countrymen with regard to voting at the forthcoming presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How gullible should be us in our knowledge not to suspect the ulterior motives of America in granting the valuable US $ 480 million for our well being? Their untiring efforts to force this on us can be taken as a reflection of true altruism. However, compare this with their just recent decision to pull out the US troops from the Syrian Turkish border without batting an eyelid exposing millions of refugees to the firing of their enemies. Just to safeguard their interests, death and destruction of millions look a small matter to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was due to the countrywide strong protests to the MCC agreement and the brave fast unto death by the Most Venerable Ududumbara Kassapa Thero that saved us from inking this agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole country breathed a sigh of relief when the\ngovernment postponed the signing until after the election with the fervent hope\nit will be gone by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However it will be no surprise no sooner if this government returns to power with the election of\u00a0 Sajith Premadasa, the said agreement will be signed with aplomb. With opposition to this pact mounting what chaos the country is likely to face then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TNA has come on board to support Sajith Premadasa\nafter forwarding a list of thirteen demands earlier but no word on how many\nwere agreed upon by both parties. These demands go even beyond what the\nLTTE  were clamouring for at the height\nof the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we ready to divide our country just to support the\ncandidate of our party?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then what about seeing those who are alleged to have\naided and abetted the murderers at the Easter Sunday attacks celebrating the\nvictory along with Sajith Premadasa, if he wins?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNP admits it could not do what it wanted to do to\ndevelop the country because the President and the Prime Minister did not see\neye to eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then won’t it be a much worst-case scenario if Sajith returns to power with Ranil as the PM?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rift seems to be widening day by day now with Ranil’s\nside confirming him as the PM over and over and Sajith’s camp distancing\nfurther and further away from him. Are we ready to witness further endless\ndisasters with a win to the UNP? Can you remember countless meetings they had\nto have just to nominate Sajith Premadasa as the candidate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if Ranil is replaced who are the potential candidates to fill that role in Sajith Premadasa’s favourite group? Mangala, Kiriella, Karunanayake and Champika are the frontline candidates and I do not think any one of them will bring much enthusiasm to the public at large.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the most I fear is this. The UNP is banking on forming a phobia on Gotabaya Rajapaksha showing he has the potential to rule the country in a military-style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But none asks the question of the person on whom Sajith\nPremadasa has already placed the post of Defence Minister, Sarath Fonseka!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t you shiver to feel how he would run the defence when he has the power at his fingertips?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now itself Sarath Fonseka is going from stage to stage\nclaiming the MR clan should be hung in four corners at Medamudalana!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will a peace-loving subject be at ease with such a vindictive person at such a powerful position? We will have daily nightmares probably. Who is more likely to bring white vans in we can guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst is to come. Mr Fonseka already has had confrontations\neven with his deputy at his Wild Life Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we na\u00efve to ponder if things do not go according to his wishes even a government overthrow with his military might at hand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phobia should not be on Gotabaya but genuinely on\nSarath Fonseka, my dear countrymen!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Viraj Kithsiri I would like to place a few pertinent questions to my fellow countrymen with regard to voting at the forthcoming presidential election. How gullible should be us in our knowledge not to suspect the ulterior motives of America in granting the valuable US $ 480 million for our well being? Their untiring efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95098","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=95098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}