Should the new Leader of the UNP continue on his own trodden path, or be a Sri Lankan democrat, leaving stooging to West. ?

 Ranil Wickramasinghe is the unchallenged leader of the UNP and by virtue  the unchallenged leader of the Opposition in the Parliament .

After  the victory over his opponent, Karu Jayasuria -a politician of unreliable political honesty, Sajith Premadasa, who talks but has not enough guts to take the leadership of the party, and the rest of the ambitious elements  who have no definite  idea  as to  the direction in which the UNP should move, except  Rosy Senanayke   who has more leader ship qualities  than the other rebel Party members put together, the President Mahinda  Rajapakse quite correctly reminded Ranil Wikraminghe, that “….  special responsibility, of uniting everyone and building a strong opposition, has been bestowed upon Ranil Wickramasinghe with winning the election for leadership.”

The President added, “ … Mr. Wickramasinghe, who was re-elected as UNP leader after beating Karu Jayasuriya in yesterday’s election, should now proceed to build a strong opposition and give the government a ‘neck-to-neck’ battle…”

Those are the words of a democratic leader.

So far Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe  has not shown himself to be a democratic leader of the Opposition despite his being the Vice Chairman of the International Democratic Union.  A democratic opposition to a Government of the ruling party should  oppose the Government politically  without attacking the President or the members of his Government at a  personal level.

Ranil Wickramasinghe since the election of Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse as the President of Sri Lanka, carried out a series of manifestations,  making many a funerals and weddings whenever possible an occasion for a manifestation  to attack the President and his family. His sworn efforts were for the fall of the government and dissolution of the Parliament, other matters  of development, defeat of terrorism, and financial stability were not of  interest to him.

At least now, with his newly won confidence of the Working Committee of the UNP,  he should change tactics to be a  respectable political  Leader of the Opposition  criticizing the government’s failures or wrong decisions, and at the same time  rallying round the government to defend “ the Government and the country” on national issues.  That type of an opposition can keep away the anti Sri Lanka forces to allow the country to progress without any foreign  Government interfering into its affairs.

Ranil Wickramasinghe had  openly sought the European Governments to interfere into the internal affairs of our country.  This is not a good political stand, and shows his lack of political foresight. A strong country independent of foreign interference is important for its development by the UPFA government today,  or a UNP Government tomorrow. 

What we want from the Western Governments is their assistance for our development,  and transfer of technology, but not to be critical of the projects of the Government or the use of its  Armed Forces for the protection of the country and its people the way it wants as an Independent Sovereign State.

If the Political  Parties of Sri Lanka are patriotic oriented, they should unite with the government if there is a threat to the Country’s Sovereignty, no matter  what their political differences.  The political differences should be debated within the country, without taking them  to different foreign governments to find solutions. 

Through out the military operations  against the terrorists by the Armed Forces of the Government, UNP had been very critical  of the Armed Forces.  The UNP’s short sighted  efforts then to oppose military operations against the Terrorists, have resulted in the Western Governments’ criticism of the President and the Government of Sri Lanka, and its Armed Forces for violation of human rights, and war crimes.

No Opposition Political Party in Sri Lanka could  feel happy about the  threats of these Western governments, Humanitarian activists, and trouble makers in various International Agencies  to take the President and the Armed Forces to a tribunal accused for war crimes. 

The Government and the Opposition should  stand together to oppose any  threat by Foreign Governments to intervene into the internal affairs of  Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has fought a war against a ruthless terrorism, and that war was not the war of the President Mahinda Rajapakse or the Sri Lanka Armed Forces, but it was  a war of the people, by the people , for  peace , end of suffering, and to eliminate terrorism and to unite the people.

The UNP and the other political parties  taking the internal problems of our country abroad show their disloyalty to the people.   The people are sovereign , and if UNP is hoping to form an alternative government in Sri Lanka it has to appeal to the people of Sri Lanka and not to the Western countries.

The Darusman Report of Ban Ki Moon, interference and ridiculous accusations of violation of human rights by the Human Rights Watch , Amnesty International , complaints of the International Crisis Group, Canadian Prime Minister’s demand for an International Investigation, Hillary Clinton’s accusation of  violation of human rights and her collaboration with Jayalalitha to accuse Sri Lanka for ethnic violence, Navi Pillai’s disgusting link with the UK Channel 4, are all the result of the disunity of the Political Parties in Sri Lanka, and UNP’s failure to stand by the government in a National Crisis, notwithstanding its political opposition to the Government, or  signing the traitorous CFA behind the back of the people of the Country, without even informing the then President of the People of Sri Lanka.

Ranil Wickramasinghe who speaks of respect for democracy,  ridicules it by himself being undemocratic.  Where according to the Constitution accepted by the people, a government has been formed by the representatives of the people  elected at a duly carried out elections or a President has been elected by the vote of the people, that decision of the people has to be respected in a democracy, by every one including those candidates who had lost because they had failed to obtain  a majority of the  votes.

It is then the bounden duty of the opposition parties to stand by the decision of the people and allow the country to be governed by those who have been elected during the constitutionally specified period of time .  The opposition has the right to oppose the government, not systematical  at every turn of the government with the intention of making it unpopular so that it will be forced to resign, but to oppose any project of the government the opposition rightfully considers is not in the  interest of the people.

To make the government unpopular with the people, and force it to resign before the end of its term of office  is not democratic.  This is what UNP had been doing , and which JVP does as its “duty”. 

Now that Ranil Wickramasinghe has been given a new lease of life as the leader of UNP, he should change his political tactics to become the Leader of a Democratic Parliamentary Opposition.  So that he could confidently present himself as an alternative Presidential candidate to the present President Mahinda Rajapaksa,  or any one else when the times comes for the next Presidential elections.

He must also be able to  control  his party members to be responsible and honourable in their pronouncements, and statements to the press.  Jayalath Jayawardhana who seems to have a separate agenda of his own, which he promotes exploiting his membership in the UNP  is oozing with Catholic  hypocrisy, Mangala Samaraweere   has joined the UNP not through political conviction but to take revenge from the President Mahinda Rajapakse for having been sacked by the President from his cabinet, Tissa Attanayake, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Lakshman Kiriella , Gayantha Karunatilleke and other  hollow wind bags trying to fool the gallery pretending to be taking their role of Parliamentarians seriously, should be asked to follow a correct democratic conduct avoiding political rhetoric  without each one of them having their own definition of Democracy-which they think is  freedom to talk.

We have to show the West and all International reactionary forces, and individuals working against Sri Lanka that,  we the  people from all Communities in Sri Lanka, whether we be politically with the UNP,TULF, JVP, TNA, LSSP, CP or SLFP are  collectively with the Government and the President of Sri Lanka  in matters concerning the Nation, and that we will not want any one to interfere into the affairs of Sri Lanka, dictating terms to us as to how we should carryout the affairs of our country. Will UNP, TNA and JVP be able to promote that type of patriotism ?

We should show these interfering Governments, Agencies and individuals  that we have trust and confidence  in our intellectuals and elders when appointed to committees such as the  LLRC to do a good job of work unbiased, and with objectivity.  It is we, as the people of Sri Lanka to accept what ever conclusions they come to and what ever proposals they  make, or reject them. It is not any one from outside  who have to decide for us the people of Sri Lanka.

The people of Sri Lanka has a good memory, they know what UNP had been when they were in power.  They remember how Ravi Karunanayaka sold the CWE or others privatized Profit Making Government Establishments.  They have not forgotten who signed the  CFA and who opposed the Military Operations against the terrorists.  Therefore UNP should think twice before it runs down the Government.

UNP, JVP or the TNA cannot fool the people criticizing the government  like Imitiaz Bakeer Markar  a former UNP Minister  when he said:

« …..There is no proper administration. Waste and corruption is the order of the day. When students raise an issue on their education, the government responds undemocratically. The same response is given when people raise issues on their day to day life. When trade unions make demands, the government responds with fire power. The whole world knows about the government’s attitude. To change this state of affairs, it is important to have a strong opposition. The opposition was non functional during last two decades and the UNP has studied this situation. »

Those are perhaps words for the UNP vote base  which is down to 28 percent today according to Imitiaz Bakeer Markar himself.  But the majority of the people can see for themselves the tremendous development projects taking shape before their eyes, the express roadways, bridges and flyovers, buildings and cleaning up of cities  and towns, bumper harvests of paddy and vegetables, fish markets, power plants, etc.

Is this the sign of a Government making profit for themselves and letting the country and people suffer, is this the sign of waste and corruption ?  There should be a certain amount of sacrifice that has to be made somewhere by someone to make the future of the country brighter, like a mother risking her life making untold sacrifices to give birth to a child that would assure the future happiness of a family.

Of course corruption cannot be ruled out, and it has to be attended to, but can the government do all that all at once ? Haven’t those in places where corruption is reported  a duty to reform themselves for the sake of the people of the country?

When I was young I heard it being said that we always put the blame on our parents when some thing goes wrong, but do we question ourselves how much the parents sacrificed for our well being, and what we have given  them, and what sacrifices we have made for them in return?  Those who criticise the President of Sri Lanka and his Government should  know  what  sacrifices they had made and what risks they have taken, and   ask them selves what sacrifices they have made to the country and the people .

Mr. Imtiaz Bakeer Markar says , « But if the frustration of the masses against the government could be manifested through effecting the necessary changes in the UNP, they would gather to oppose the government »

Mr. Markar, who are dissatisfied with the Government ? 

Those who are dissatisfied with the Government are the so called intelligentsia, the University Professors, Teachers,  the University Students,  Doctors, Magistrates, Trade Unions, and the Politicians.  Because they want more, their wants are unsatiable.

Shouldn’t they too make some sacrifice for the betterment of the country  and its people?

But, Mr. Markar,  the poor people,  the  ordinary villagers that make up the majority of the population of Sri Lanka are with the President Mahinda Rajapakse and his Government.

This Government of the President Mr.Mahinda Rajapakse has done so much within the past five years  for this country, both the President  Mahinda Rajapakse and  the Secretary of Defence have made sacrifices risking their own lives. Can the UNP  give the name of one  from their Party who have made that much of sacrifice and taken risks for the love of the country ?

They  President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Defence Secretary were determined to rid terrorism from the country and give the people a respite of peace and happiness. They are undoubtedly sincere and honest in their political undertakings, if not they could not have despite a terrible “war” against the terrorists carried out all those magnificent development projects to change the face of Sri Lanka from an under developed poor country to one which is forging ahead in a considerable speed towards development and progress in all fields.

They seem to be indefatigable in their effort to take Sri Lanka forward. They have gone beyond our expectations , in economic, social and infrastructure developments.

That gives confidence , and courage for us to go through even a rising cost of living as both the Defence Secretary and the President are way ahead in their political thinking and undoubtedly doing the right thing.
Cannot  Mr.Ranil Wickramasinghe understand this and rethink his political strategy if he has the ambition to become the President of Sri Lanka at the next Presidential election ? 

He can change his political strategy, first by learning  to  felicitate the government  for whatever commendable actions it has taken   which are evident to the ordinary people, so that he would be in agreement with this vast majority of the ordinary people, and win them over to his side as an honest political leader who know when to criticise the government and when to appreciate the government. At the same time he should point out waste and wrong political decisions and economic undertakings  of the government, informing the people of his own remedies as a  true democratic Leader of the Opposition.

Appealing to Foreign Countries to intervene in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka

Having failed to win the hearts of their kinsmen in the South the JVP is now trying to win the hearts of the Tamils in the North. We would wish  them better luck there . But success of a political come back with the aid of the Tamils voters in the North is a lost cause from the beginning.

Firstly the Tamils in the North having already gone through difficult times under a more ruthless terrorists will not want to fall into the hands of  another group of small time terrorists, who are known to have killed  with utter  brutality their own people in a failed bid for  a rebellion of an imagined « proletariat »

Somawansa Amarasinghe, strutting like a cock in a hen house, hasn’t  even the personality for  political leadership  of any sorts though groomed to be one by  the JVP, which is already a party without a direction despite Amarasinghe.  Like Sarath Fonseka’s  request for release from prison from Barrack Obama, JVP seems to  plead for political recognition from Jaffna Tamils.  Both Sarath Fonseka and JVP don’t seem to understand  that their redemption one from imprisonment and the other for a respectable political come back, lies not with Barrack Obama for the former or  Jaffna Tamils or the EU  for the latter , but from the President of Sri Lanka.

To day it is necessary that any  Political Party, Civil  Society Groups, Trade Unions or Individuals  with any self respect  should go  even a very little distance towards  reconciliation of Communities without allowing them to distance from one another. In that effort there should be serious consideration of the lager interest of the country to the complete absence of any personal interests.

The Tamil people of Sri Lanka are difficult to please, and are suspicious of the  Sinhala  people with however much  sincerity they offer their hands of friendship to them. That is an ethnic characteristic the foreign ”know- alls” will never be able to understand. 

(  There are however  Tamils who had lived in the West observing the foreigners with whom they lived with intelligence , and who have understood that Sinhala are not the monsters they had been made to believe, but Sri Lankans like themselves, and their development , peace and happiness in Sri Lanka is  in working along side the Sinhala. I salute Thurai and Manohar)

The Tamils  however understand that the JVP who have betrayed their own people cannot be trusted to have  any genuine interest in the welfare of he Tamil people.  They know that their sudden interest in the Tamils of the north is for their own  benefit , having lost their political bases in the south.

JVP is now a  group of disoriented politicians, who seem to have lost their intelligent appreciation of situations into which they step.  In a country just out of a thirty years of an     unimaginable suffering, all Political Parties, groups  or individuals should act cautiously without putting into danger the on going reconciliation moves of the government. Handunetti and Ramalingam of JVP had no right to give  statements to the press in Jaffna condemning the Government of Sri Lanka which has made considerable effort to give a tremendous face lift to the towns and the  country side of north and east while ameliorating the standard of living of the people.  

It is just over two year since terrorism has  been eliminated and the government is beginning to  get the Tamil people to understand its intention to unite the communities and bring the Tamil people into Sri Lanka’s  main stream politics.  As we are dealing with a people who were psychologically disturbed by a long unending fear of terrorism of thirty years, they have to be handled with care.

JVP completely indifferent to such sentiments  goes to Jaffna and acts like bulls in a glass shop , completely destabilizing the people and putting them into a quandary developing a greater distrust of the government,forcing them to  rally round not JVP,  but round  the TNA as what ever they had stood for during terrorism, they  are after all their own people.  This is what the JVP  consciously or unconsciously doing to the Tamil people in the north,  forcing them away from the Government and the other communities in  Sri Lanka to be with the TNA as a last resort.

If any Political Party does not support the political leadership of the President Mahinda Rajapaka and his Government they may oppose him politically within the country without attacking the President  personally.  
A Sovereign State  should not subordinate itself  to foreign interference into its internal affairs. If any political Party, group or individual  despite this golden rule invites the foreign intervention in support of their narrow political interests the Government of Sri Lanka should warn them that such action besides being detrimental to the Sovereign State of Sri Lank, is treason.

The government should take  preventive measures  under the Terrorism Act to stop these manoeuvres .  If there is no appropriate  laws to Arrest them for Treason under the Constitution or the Terrorism Act , new laws should be passed to stop these miscreants from damaging the interest of the Country.

Pubudu Jayakody of the  breakaway faction of the  JVP has recently declared his  party’s intention to appeal to the UE  for the release of abducted members of his party.  Sarath Foneka  is  appealing to President Barrack Obama, to intervene on his behalf to demand the Government of Sri lank to set aside the decision of a Sri Lanka tribunal and  get  him released from prison.  Sampanthnan and his TNA Cronies are going all over the world, to USA, Canada, Netherland  and India requesting them to settle the ethnic problem by devolving political, land and police powers to the North an East.  UNP wants to appeal to the International Democratic Union  requiring its intervention for good governance in Sri Lanka.

All these people of different political parties  are selling the Sovereignty of Sri Lanka, inviting the Foreign Countries to intervene in the internal affairs  of the country.  In the mean time 75 NGOs have signed an appeal  demanding Independent Rule in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is divided and the Political Parties like the JVP, TNA, UNP, and others  instead of Joining hands with the government on National issues are appealing  to the Foreign Governments to intervene in the internal matters of the  Country. 

The worst is the JVPers in this respect who may not have  even read the 800 odd pages of the  report of the LLRC, say  that the report of the LLRC is a wastage of time.  In the light of the demands of the Western Countries to set up an Independent  Committee of Investigation , this is the worst betrayal. 

These politicians display their complete  disinterest in  Sri Lanka.  They  are after their own  personal benefits,  and dreaming to capture political power by hook or by crook. Whether they may later  invite  the NATO intervention is yet to be seen.   

JVP had recently spoken of  the Egyptian  people demonstrating in Thahir Sqaure against their Government, with out understanding that their mass demonstrations  and those of Tunisia  against their governments have turned  out to be changing pillows to cure  a headache.   

Have they got back democracy  ?

We should not give in to TNA - the Slaves of Terrorism.

Every means for a reconciliations of the Communities in Sri Lanka with a view to build a true Sri Lankan Nation should be investigate, leaving no stones unturned.  But  discussions for reconciliation should be with parties, groups or individuals who love Sri Lanka, patriots of it and would like to see it not broken up into different areas and territories to please Parties, groups or individuals  who have no such love to Sri Lanka.

The persons who go to make up TNA are not Sri Lankans who accept Sri Lanka as their motherland, but they are promoting the  dream of a maniac  who died swearing to divide Sri Lanka and create a homeland for the Tamils. The TNA  hold allegiance more to Tamil Nadu  than to Sri Lanka. TNA does not accept  Sri Lanka as their motherland.  Because, any one who claims that honour will not even dream of a separate homeland for  one particular Community in Sri Lanka.

TNA as a group of separatist Tamils claims impossible rights, such as devolution of police and land power and the merger of East and North of Sri Lanka into one Province. None of the Citizens of Sri Lanka from any Community  will agree to such a proposal.  When the maniac Prabhakaran was  fighting to divide Sri Lanka  the TNA was party to Prabhakaran, having been formed and brainwashed by him. 

Then too, TNA claimed on the bidding of Prabhakaran a separate Homeland for the Tamils in the North and East, while the Sinhala youth were giving their lives to stop the Maniac Prabhakaran from dividing Sri Lanka.

Now that the Government of Sri Lanka with the sacrifice of large numbers of  patriotic Sinhala Buddhist youth  has eliminated terrorists and with them their idea of  a Homeland for Tamils, and what makes TNA think that  they would be given North and East for them on a platter to eventually make a Tamil Homeland of it to please  only the TNA Goons and the TamilNadu Tamils. 

Tamil Nadu has an expansionist agenda and they will secretly work for it forcing the hand of the Indian Central Government to assist them. TamilNadu is making  TNA  their “cat’s paw”.  We see this already  happening with Jayalalitha-Hillary Clinton get together, and the constant complains about the Sri Lanka Navy shooting  at the Tamil Fishermen and  reclaiming  Katchativu  as belonging to India.

It is time to put TNA in their place, but the TNA appears to have collected  enough “gas”  with their constant consultation with India,  visit to Canada, Australia and America to pop them selves as a powerful force, to destabilize Sri Lanka if  the Government does not give into them.

It is a pity that President Barrack Obama’s America is trying to interfere into small Sri Lanka which is not in any way a threat to America’s political stability or its leadership in world politics.  This undue interference of America into Sri Lanka is what may give new hope to “sleeping terrorists”  who America and its European allies are prepared to accept as “rebels” not being a threat them.

We have to step down on TNA which is a small time “terrorist group ” with their unacceptable demands, which could anchor   foreign vultures to  vindicate their rights to divide Sri Lanka.  UK is not a big  force unable to do any thing on their own. They would not have even won the Second world war without America stepping to help them. UK has small ”bugs” like the Channel 4 to  do the dirty work to draw attention  of the “big fish” to take over the dastardly attempts to  destabilize and destroy developing nations.  

That was what  Blair did by preparing false documents  to get America to go to war with Iraq.  Yet again that is what UK did along with France getting a vote passed in the UN Security council to  protect air space, and  got NATO to bomb, murder, and assassinate Colonel Gaddafi and destroy Libya. 

But America with its privilege of being the richest nation being compromised, attempts nevertheless, to maintain its power with  their highly developed technology, fleet of  frigates and destroyers, and the  armed forces (America’s solution for unemployment), when they can still help the struggle of  developing Nations to come out of poverty and build  independent respectable Nations.

It is a pity that we have an American Ambassador Patricia Butenis who could not have  taken a decision on her own,  without being subservient  to Robert Orris Blake , to have requested Barrack Obama to visit Sri Lanka to have a first hand opinion of this country, or demand Hillary  Clinton who broke accepted diplomatic priviledges to meet Jayalalitha in TamilNadu,  to visit to Sri Lanka as well to make  American  Foreign Policy  seem more world friendly.

It is the lack of this democratic outlook of  Western Nations that  make it difficult for the developing Nations to reconcile  communities and  build peace and security.  They have become  war mongering Nations intervening to settle disputes making rebels out of disidents, instead of creating stability through dialogue and encouraging the UN to be independent to take its own decisions to settle dispute in other countries. 

Today the  setting up of UNO has become meaningless as the Western Nations use the UN to promote their own agendas, interposing the NATO or the American Naval force to subjugate Nations.  They did that in Libya, they are threatening to do so in Syria and in Iran.

TNA MPs  think that their being elected by the votes of the Tamils in the North and East  have given them respectability to reclaim “the rights” that sank into Nadikadal along with the maniac terrorist Prabhakaran.  But the Tamil votes at the local government elections  have not washed them of the blood stains of  terrorism.  Therefore they have no right to make any claim on behalf of the Tamil people, specially because  the “claims” of the terrorist Prabhakaran  are not the “ rights”  of the Tamil people.

What the Tamil people want today is to live in peace, with respect and dignity, which they lost to   terrorism.  Therefore the claims of the TNA has no popular support in Sri Lanka.  This fact has to be taken into consideration by  the Ambassador Patricia Butenis  to write cables, different from those  cables detrimental to the Government of Sri Lanka she had been sending to the State department ( as they came out in Wikileaks ) , to describe to  the President of America through the USA State Department the true face of TNA, and  request the State Department not to intervene on behalf of them as Sri Lanka is  not treating any Community differently from others.

The Ambassador  Patricia Butenis, owes it to Sri Lanka to emphasise to the American State Department that American intervention in any way by statements or through the interference by Senators or House Representatives will only be detrimental to the tremendous efforts the Government of Sri Lanka is making to reconcile the Communities for every one to live normal lives in peace.