What more do we want- after all President Maithripala Sirisena and first Lady of Sri Lanka have met even Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko ?

It is good that a leader of a country meets with the leaders  of foreign countries and exchange pleasantries, if he has done his duty by his own people,  and the country is in good health politically ,economically, and  socially and there is security and peace provided for the people. 

But President Maithripala Sirisena  has in reality gone with a begging ball to Japan having politically caused destruction to a country which was peaceful and secure and the people enjoyed a reasonable  living standard.

That was  thanks to a government that had been led by a leader with a vision-Mahinda Rajapakse  despite  being  unreasonably accused of corruption and that he had left the country in debt. Even if it was so the corruption of the previous regime did not stop  the people live in  peace and in security,  enjoying  the fruits of a fast developing country.

But unfortunately when Maithripala Sirisena made his family visit to meet Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko,  Sri Lanka is poor , indebted  on the verge of bankruptcy. The people are without any hope of development of the country, they in poverty  reduced to living on  one meal a day, and the country is virtually burning in fires of Communal  dissension  caused by  Maithripala Sirisena’s own government’s mismanagement. It reminds one of an old adage of Nero  playing the violin when Rome was burning.

It is alright  visiting Emperor Hirohito, if it could be of some use to Sri Lanka. But from his past experience of shaking the un-gloved hand of Queen Elizabeth he should know by now that it  had not make any beneficial changes between the governments of UK and Sri Lanka .

It is far better to win the hearts of the people of Sri Lanka than those of Emperor Hirhito, Prime Minister Modi  or Queen Elizabeth. In fact President Maithripala Sirisena along with his Prime Minister is the most unpopular President in Sri Lanka. The people of Sri Lanka  did not pay heed to all the  poison gas he spitted out against President Mahinda Rajapakse,  without even  pronouncing  the word  “ pohottuva”, from all  the political platforms of the SLFP Meetings during the Local Government election campaign.

The people listened to him but paid no attention to his speeches reeked with poison, because the peoples of Sri Lanka know that though  President Sirisena, UNP and its ally the  JVP do not stop making allegation of corruption against Mahinda Rajapakse, his family and all who were connected to him , it was only President Mahinda Rajapakse who was able to give the much needed peace and security to the people of Sri Lanka.

That was very much more than Sirisena Ranil duo, who gave  nothing other than dragging Sri Lanka deeper into the darkest period of its history.

Still the Media and and some journalists do not hesitate to condemn President Mahinda Rajapakse without giving him due credit for what he made of Sri Lanka,  until the taking over of its government by the disastrous Yahapalanaya. There may have of course been corruption under  that government too, but that government cannot be equalled to any previous governments or the  present Ranil-Sirisena government,  as despite allegations of Corruption  President Mahinda Rajapakse was able to provide to the people a development of the country as they had never seen under any of the previous Government. On the contrary the Ranil-Sirisena Yahapalanya is the worst  and most corrupt government Sri Lanka ever had since Independence.

News First- News line of the 15 March , 2018 turned out to be the worst fiasco of a TV talk-show, which may perhaps be appreciated only by the Colombian anti Rajapakse ilk. It was not a debate but more a monologue  where the invitee was  made the unfortunate audience on to whom the TV Programme presenter vomited out his  pent up anti Rajapakse feelings. The unfortunate “audience” of the journalist diatribe was the gentle Dinesh Gunawardhana.

The interviewer began by asking what his thoughts were coming over the Rajagiriya flyover, and whether there was a parking lot under it. He addressed him Mr. Dinesh. He could have called him simply Dinesh which would have been more polite,  or if he wanted to address him as an elder politician as Mr. Gunawardhana. But such niceties were left out, perhaps  because he  knew Mr. Dinesh was soon to get dirtied with the dish wash he had collected to shower on him.

After the first few warming up questions, the News Line journalist asked his Mr.Dinesh, why he keeps supporting the clay footed Mahinda Rajapakse, and asked whether he does not at moments, when he is alone, or when going to sleep think that Mahinda Rajapakse is a racist. Thereafter it was a case of his putting the question to Mr. Gunawardhan , and before he answers  barges in with his vituperations against  all the ill of Mahinda Rajapakse and his Government.

When Mr.Gunawardhana began by saying that   Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse was the President who eliminated terrorism and brought peace to the country, the exasperated journalist vehemently retorted that he is very much indebted to Rajapakse for ending the war of terror and bringing peace but he said that he and his family cannot keep on referring to that all the time to cover up his wrong doings. He said that now  Sri Lanka is independent and absolutely free and safe. One was not safe those days where the government had created a fear psychosis. One hesitated  even to have a cup of coffee with a friend in a restaurant.

The journalists are free, we are independent and can live our lives to the fullest he said. We can  writeand say  any thing against the Government and  Editorials could be written against the Government without fear of being taken away in white vans or killed. The half an hour of the program  passed with Mr. Dinesh having nothing much to say being reprimanded by the journalist.  That was the freedom he had gained under Yahapalanaya and  how he treated with scant respect an MP of the opposition- which the journalist referred to as “you and your band”.

Mahinda Rajapakse did not come into power in a period where there was peace and security as it is now. He had to work with all types of people with different characters and a wrong step  taken  with a raging terrorism in the north, would have resulted in misery to the country and the people. Though these journalists can now speak of “ hard times” then under Mahinda Rajapakse , they cannot imagine what it was to have taken  the reins of the government under the then prevailing time.

Bu the value of Mahinda Rajapakse as a great political leader, his great contribution to Sri Lanka and its people can only be gauged and understood by the Sinhala Buddhists. That is not being racist, but stating the stark fact.

The Tamil and Muslim Communities have nothing to loose under Yahapalanaya, it is the Sinhala Buddhists who stand to loose everything including their 2600 years old Buddhist Culture, the rightful place of their language, their religious philosophy to which generations  have for 2600 years dedicated themselves. And now they have to adopt them-selves to a new constitution, new laws, and a new political culture.

They are also proposing that a statue of Mandela be erected in the North.  That is when the Tamils in the North have started breaking Buddhist statues and demand that neither Buddhist statues be built in Nagadipa, nor Cremation Rights of dead Venerated Monks be carried out in Jaffna. 

We have nothing in common with South Afrika, which had an apartheid Regime. In Sri Lanka the Sinhala, Tamil and Sinhala have lived as equals sharing in everything, socially, and economically, until the Tamil politicians began interpreting communal relations differently.