A heart to heart talk with President Maitripala Sirisena,

You have said you do not like honorific  references and would  like to be called the President.

Well I being much older to you, and taking advantage of your preference for non honorific address I have taken the privilege to  address you as Maitripala  without any disrespect to you.

You may be a good man but I personally do not like the way you jumped the queue to obey the call of a set of failed politicians  to sacrifice forty seven years of  your dedicated attachment to Sri Lanka Freedom Party, to become their common Presidential candidate.  Of course it would have been a very tempting proposition, but  good people make greater sacrifices  to  keep their principles. 

Even from a Buddhist point of view what you did is not acceptable.  However, now you are the President I congratulate you, even though your victory is a victory gained by the votes of Tamils and Muslims. I have nothing against it, but unfortunately their votes come with conditions like those of American and IMF Aid.  That means Maitripala  with the trio Ranil, Chandrika, Champika  and the NAC you are not a free man-a  President free to do what you think is best for the country.  You are a prisoner of the agreements you have signed and what those Tamils and Muslims who with their conditional votes expect of you.

You know Maithripala, Mahinda was a visionary leader.  He is a born patriot.  He was not ambitious for himself but he was ambitious for the country.  He knew which way to lead the country.  The USA and the West Maitripala  are not our friends.  They are our friends to the extent to which we are ready to extend  them the  rights  over our strategic position in the Indian Ocean.

But the West will never be friend to the extent  to come to our help when we are in need of them if that would compromise their  relationship with other countries. It happened in 1978 when India trespassed into our airspace to drop dry rations to terrorists under siege by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.  America did not intervene and  the result was the 13 the Amendment to our constitution and the occupation of the north by the Indian Peace Keeping Forces. 

Therefore do not have illusions about the USA and the West.  Ranil will mislead you to believe that we should depend on the USA and the West rather than China and Russia. Ranil is looking at the problem from the UNP s’capitalist point of view, which you have been opposed to for the last 47 years as a member of the SLFP.

Maitripala you said when taking over the leadership of the SLFP, that you also owe a gratitude for the UNP for having made you win at the Presidential election.  You are  now the  President and as such you haven’t got to show gratitude to UNP .  It is the UNP that will have to show their gratitude to you.

Because UNP was a party in disarray without any hope of an election victory, rejected 29 times by the people, and today due to your  foolishness they have formed a government with the only objective of bringing allegations of corruption against Mahinda , his family and  persons closely or distantly connected to him, so that the most popular political leader who was a stumbling block  against their wining at an election  one day to form a government of their own.  

Foolishness I said because Ranil, Chandrika  and Champika  made of you a pawn to have their own way praising you and paying you excessive respect trying to make of you a gullible fool. 

Champika wrote your election manifesto, in that manifesto how much of  it is your own political philosophy.  Why did you allow Ranil to take Mangala Samaraweera in to his cabinet ?   He is a man with so much of hatred towards  Mahinda.  He will do everything opposed to what Mahinda the great visionary leader did to bring Sri Lanka forward in a formidable path of progress. You who had  through out your political life opposed the UNP, are today  doing only what they want you to do.

Maitripala, you know you did wrong  entering into a secret pact with Chandrika, Ranil , Rajitha and Champika  behind the back of the SLFP and its leader Mahinda.  But you are making that worse by conniving with the UNP to force allegations against Mahainda , his brother and family.   You should at least now try to be a good president not vindictive but honest , compassionate and righteous.  But your recent  pronouncements make you a distasteful person, and the people who voted for you- that is those Sinhala Buddhists are already getting disillusioned.

If you allow Ranil and his UNP Ministers have their way , Sri Lanka will plunge into unretrievable chaos.  Already you see signs of it.  Please open your eyes Maitripala and see for your self what the TNA is doing in the North. See the Muslim Ministers who are already starting Muslim settlements.  Have a good look at  the budget presented by Ravi Karunanayake .  It is a farce  to make people lull into a sense of satisfaction while Sri Lanka is slowly turning  away from its real friends, from progress to regression falling into the hands of  reactionary forces.

From the beginning you made mistakes blindly following  the plan presented to you by Chandrika, Ranil, and Champika.  The first error was your  announcement that you were going to make Ranil the Prime Minister.  That was against the Constitution.  Further more when you were elected on the 9th January, there was already  a Prime Minister, Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne and his Cabinet of Ministers.

If you did not want to work with the Prime Minister D.M.jayaratne and his Cabinet the best thing you could have done respecting the Constitution  was to dissolve the Parliament and call for general elections.  Instead the trio from the hades_ Ranil, Chandrika and Champika presented you with a 100 day programme.  You blindly accepted without asking a question and did every thing against the Constitution, and against democracy.

Have you reflected  on what you had been doing since 9^th January,2015 ? 

You are not with friends Maitripala .  They will be friends to day; but  you will not know what they will be tomorrow.  Mangala Samaraweera was a one time friend of Mahinda  and so was Champika but they are his sworn enemies today.  Maitripala to what extent can you count on them.

Nimal Siripala de Silava believes that he will be the Prime Minister after the April elections, but I am sure there is already a plan to make Ranil the Prime Minister even if the UNP is defeated at the election.  Ranil is already saying that he wants the whole Parliament to be his government. 

You too speak of a national government after the election.  All that is according to a plan and if  the SLFP were to win with a majority, in the National Government you propose you will appoint Ranil as the Prime Minister.  You have already breached the Constitution twice and taken undemocratic decision. First to appoint Ranil as the Prime Mi,nister when there is already Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne in place, and secondly when you re-instated the impeached Chief Justice, and sacked the Chief Justice Mohan Pieris. 

In reality Maitripala we have  two Prime Ministers –Ranil who does not exist as a Prime Minister in terms of the Constitution and appointed undemocratically as such by you, and  the other  who exists under the Constitution and appointed democratically. It is the same with the Chief Justice one who has not been impeached and still remains the Chief Justice, and the  other appointed by you.

What a mess Maitripala ?  When are you going to take stock of the situation and speak up and say no to Ranil, Chandrika and Champika and disband the unconstitutional NAC ?

You have to do that before things get worse..  Now that you have been accepted back into the fold of the SLFP you should form a SLFP Government, and follow Mahinda Chintanaya. It is the best way out for Sri Lanka. You should appoint Mahinda as your Prime Minister.  I am sure Mahinda  did not humiliate you in the Presence of the representatives of the CTC.  Mahinda always had a plan behind what ever he did and I am sure he was not  humiliating you as you pretended he did.

Mahinda saw through the hypocrisy of USA and the West and was able to stand up to them and say no when necessary.  Mitripala we had been subjugated by the Westas an ancient colony.  We had to struggle to free ourselves from the subjugation of the West.   They were never our friends.   Our friends are the Nations of Asia, Middle East and Africa.  China is one of our great friends , so are Japan,  Russia, Vietnam, and Burma etc., Therefore Maitripala we have to remain in our Asian  orbit. USA thinks it can always dictate terms to us despite the fact that USA remains the country responsible for more war crimes and violation of human rights of other nations.  Therefore, we have to keep our distance from them without breaking away completely from them.

India cannot be counted as our best friend despite her being our next door neighbour.  India has her own agenda .  We should not let India  interfere into our internal affairs.  Implementing or discarding the 13 Amendment is our business and we should not allow India to have a say in it.

Maitripala, please ask yourself why all these people Chandeika, Ranil and Champika want you to give up  executive powers you have.  You should make a reappraisal of the situation and judge for yourself whether its advisable that you give up your executive powers as long as the problems with the Tamils have not been solved.

Once you have given up your executive powers, they- Ranil, Chandrika, Champika and the NAC will be the masters.  On top of that if they pass the 19 Amendment, they can even bring a motion of no confidence against you and remove you with a two third majority vote.  What a pathetic situation that would be ?  They are quite capable of doing that as they are taking orders from USA and the West.

Maitripala, have you asked yourself why Mangala went to USA and met  the Secretary of State and other Officials and then met Ban ki Moon of the UN to request that the Special report on War crimes in Sri Lanka should not be presented on the 25^th March this year as scheduled but later in August ?  Do they tell you every thing or do they do things behind your back keeping you ignorant of what is going on behind the scene. ?  Do not forget that it is UNP against the SLFP in the new set up.

             

Maitripala,  some thing that is evident under yahapalanaya you have  initiated  has benefited the Tamils; even the Budget of the UNP Minister  is a budget to make life easier for the Tamils.  The Tamils in the North have been given mores facilities and every body can now go to the North.  Even Mcrae of the UKChannel 4is in North of Sri Lanka.  Former terrorists who escaped to Europe can now come  and even organise  former terrorist groups.  Omanthai check point has been removed. Chief  Minister has moved a resolution calling for investigation of genocide against Tamils since independence.  Muslims are also organising themselves  soon they may claim the East of Sri Lanka for themselves.

Christian Ministers of  Ranil are raiding even Buddhist Meditation Centres. Sinhala Buddhists are being discriminated   and their concerns come after those of Tamils and Muslims.  Maitripala you are a Sinhala Buddhist, don’t you think that you should pay more attention to them-the Sinhala Buddhists ? 

Your friend Champika is trying to split Buddhists vote they say by JHU contesting at the coming elections on its own.

Sajith Premadasa was speaking about a marriage between you and Ranil, he said,  Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP and President Maithripala Sirisena’s SLFP had entered into an unbreakable marriage. "We have no intention of divorcing." Of course Maitripala the UNP would not like a divorce , because this is the only chance  they have to be in a government as Ministers.

They do not see or pretend to see that the Ranil Wickramasinghe’s government is illegal  not being Constitutional.  Ranil does not command the confidence of the majority in  the Parliament.  The legal,  therefore the Constitutional Government is that of the SLFP  Prime Minister D.M.Jayaratne.  If they decide to go to courts and if the judges are not influenced by you and Ranil, the Courts may declare Ranil’s premiership and his cabinet of Ministers are null and void.

You see Maitripala the situation is precarious, with your talk about a unitary government and Ranil’s declared wish that he wants the whole Parliament to be a one whole government.  There is the intention for him to continue to be the Prime Minister of this united government without an opposition. And Nimal Siripala de Silva too  hopes to be the Prime Minister  after the April elections. It will be a great disappointment for him if Ranil continues to be the Prime Minister.  

Nimal Siripala has so much of hope of being elected by you as the Prime Minister  after the April elections if the SLFP wins,  to the extent that  he seems to oppose the idea of some political parties of the UPFA proposing to bring in Mahinda as the next Prime Minister.

I wander what you really think of that latter situation.

Maitripala I did not like what you said in Polonnaruw about what would have happened to you if you had lost at the election.  You said you would have ended up in a grave somewhere, and they had plans for your children as well. That was really mean of you to have said that.  Because you know having been with Mahinda for such a long time that he is not a vindictive person,  as much as he is not corrupt.  Ravi Karunanayake and Mangala Samaraweera are making it their lives ambition to prove that Mahinda is corrupt , but they have failed to do so so far, and they will not succeed because Mahinda is not corrupt, as much as Gotabhaya.

I think I will end this conversation for now.  I have told you some home truths and it is for you to think over all that and change your attitude towards Mahinda. It is a quality of a good leader to know his friends.  You may think that you owe them  gratitude , but for them you were the means to have got what they would have never got in  an election.

Maitripala you may have heard about that story about the snake which wanted to meditate.  He went to a meditation teacher and asked him how to meditate.  The teacher said go to a quiet place where you will not be disturbed and lie quietly.  The snake did like wise.  In the meantime there was a woman collecting  firewood  around  the place where the snake had decided to stretch himself and meditate. 

The woman after having collected firewood was looking for some thing with which to tie the bundle of firewood.  Looking around she saw what she thought was a long bark, and picking it up she tied the bundle of firewood and took it home .Having arrived at home she untied the bark and threw it away and took the firewood inside.  The bark with which the woman had tied the bundle of firewood was unfortunately the meditating snake. The poor snake was bruised and twisted and in great pain.  He dragged himself painfully to see the  meditation teacher.  When the teacher heard the story he was very sorry and told the Snake that he should have raised his head and shooed to show that he was a snake.

Therefore Maitripala with all this talk about removing the executive powers of the President and proposals by the JVP; JHU , UNP to curtail  your executive powers, it is time you raise your head and show of what metal you are made, and keep your executive powers by all means and take the reins of governance into your own hands. 

It is enough with the witch hunt?  Get your Ministers to stop talking  and stop the ignoble hunt for instances of corruption  and start to do some beneficial work and stop terrorism from raising its head again, and above all stop the TNA and the Tamil Politicians of the north  begin their dastardly work  of separatism.

Good luck Maitripala,

theruwan saranai as Mahinda would have said.