Sajith Premadasa contested the Presidential election from the UNP led coalition of political parties. The Yahapalanaya Government was then in place with a majority. When Sajith Premadasa was defeated at the polls and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa won the Presidential election with 69 lakh of popular votes, Sajith Premadasa if he was a wise man, should have suggested dissolving the Yahapalanaya government inorder to allow the new President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to form a caretaker government.
But Sajith Premadasa was undemocratic, full of anger and jealousy that he lost. Therefore he took the opportunity to make it difficult for the newly elected President to implement his manifesto which had been accepted by a majority of the people of Sri Lanka.
By allowing the newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to form a caretaker government and implement his political manifesto “Saubhaagye Dakma”-Vision of Prosperity, Sajith Premadasa would have respected both the people of the country who had accepted the “Saubhaagye Dakma”, and the democratic tradition of accepting Gotabhaya Rajapaksha as his President, as much of the people of Sri Lanka.
When Ranil Wickramasinghe after his Yahapalanaya political debacle, was kicked out by his UNP voters from his political home ground , the UNP block voters had nowhere to turn to, therefore held onto the only straw thrown at them for bad or for worse. That straw was Sajith Premadasa who was parading with his Samagi Jana Balavegaya having also been kicked out by the UNP and its HeadQuarters the Sirikotha.
Sajith Premadasa and his SamagiJana Balavegaya keep boasting as a great accomplishment that Samagi Jana balavegaya despite being a new Political party secured 54 parliamentary seats at the General Election. There was nothing to blow trumpets as it was only the UNP block vote that came to Samagi Jana Balavegaya.
The UNP block vote may not have come to Samagi Jana Balavegaya of Sajith Premadasa with any ease of mind, as the previous Presidential election campaign of Sajith Premadasa was the most ridiculous and sickening election campaign ever. Sajith kept ranting about his dynamos, his father’s DNA running in his blood, his holy mouth, his wish to visit homes incognito at night to see through windows how the people live.
Whatever political party Sajith leads, he and his companions cannot be separated from the UNP which raised them to become politicians.
Now as the Leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa’s sickening style of addressing the Parliament flaunting his English manners dropping English words into his Sinhala phrases, trying to look down upon the Speaker of the Parliament quoting Churchill , Gandhi and others, always criticising the government for everything, showing himself as a know all pandit even recommending medicine for Covid 19, and even leading manifestations against the government, makes him certainly the most undemocratic opposition leader of any parliament in the world.
Sajith Premadasa the opposition leader has no control of himself most of the time showing his ignorance of parliamentary procedure ignoring the subject under discussion to make a statement which has no relevance to the subject, and continues to speak when the Speaker asks him to sit down.
The principle characteristic of a democratic Opposition Leader of a Parliament is to respect the rulings of the Speaker of the House. Sajith Premadasa is no respecter of parliamentary traditions and behaves unfittingly in the Parliament. He is a poor example for his indisciplined members of the opposition, to make them behave and speak as respectable Parliamentarians.
Sajith’s followers such as Sarath Fonseka, Harin Fernando, Hesha Vithanage, Nalin Bandara, Hector Appuhamy, Chaminda Wijesiri, Asoka Abeysinghe, Alawathuvala, Mujubi Rahman, Manusha Nanayakkara , Kavinda Nanayakkara, Ranjan Ramanayake, are not different from Sajith Premadasa. They are empty minded and hollow. They cover up their incompetence by blaring out threats, shouting insults and making personal attacks at the members of the Government and speak disrespectfully of the President and the Prime Minister.
The recent unpleasant spectacle presented by Sarath Fonseka showed clearly what happens when persons unsuitable to be politicians are elected to Parliament. Sarath Fonseka may have been a good military strategist, but he is certainly a bad politician. He cannot claim to have won the war against the terrorists because he was only a part of the winning team. The winning of the war was a coordinated effort of all Armed Forces-Army, Navy, Air Force, Police; Intelligence Units, and above all a determined Government standing firmly behind the Armed Forces in their fight to eliminate terrorism.
Sajith Premadasa and his Opposition Parliamentarians are a poor spectacle wherever they are seen. When you see them in TV debates you know what they are going to say, because they tell the same thing all the time. A serious debate for them is a comic relief. They laugh and make irrelevant remarks, ask stupid questions to destabilise the speakers from the government. They demonstrate their political incompetence as members of the Yahaplanaya government which ruined Sri Lanka for four and a half years , and will even continue the same destructive yahapalanaya saga all over again if they were ever to come to power.
Harin Fernando, is responsible to a great extent for the Easter April massacres in Churches, as he was warned by his father that a bomb was going to blast in a Church on that Easter Sunday, and asked him not to attend the Church that day.. He listened to his father and kept away from the Church, but did not inform even the Pastor of that Church about the warning that his father gave him.
It is strange that Harin Fernando’s father died later but no one bothered to inquire how he had come to know of the scheduled bomb blast. Was his death somehow connected to the Easter Bomb blast ? These questions have not been asked though hue and a cry is being made to arrest the man behind the massacre.
As Venerable Galaboda Atte Gnaanasaara thero said, the brain behind Saharan was the Muslim Extremist teachings and as long as this extremist Muslim teachings are allowed to flourish, there will be no end of Muslim extremeists willing to sactrifice themselves to destroy Churches, Buddhist shrines, and statues or even Hotels to kill non believers.
It was wrong to have banned Budu Bala Sena because it only pointed at the Muslim extremism from where the danger comes from, but never acted irresponsibly to condemn the Muslims as a whole.
Sajith Premadasa should discipline his parliamentarians as the President of Sri Lanka has been elected by a majority of the people of the country and once elected he becomes everyone's President that includes Sajith Premadasa the Leader of the Opposition. They should therefore have the decency to address the President of Sri Lanka respectfully. In parliamentary debates with the members of the Government , the Ministers may be criticised for political actions they have taken with which the opposition does not agree. But that should not be made an occasion to make personal attacks and speak demeaningly of the President and the Prime Minister.
Sajith Premadasa is an unwise politician. Though he tries to take credit from the fact that he is the son of Ranasinghe Premadasa, the difference between the father and son is evident. Ranasinghe Premadasa had a modest beginning and had an understanding of the poor people. Sajith did not have that experience and in trying to be like his father he becomes pretentious and pompous. Ranasinghe Premadasa is also not a President about whom the people of Sri Lanka have good memories. Sajith Premadasa cannot therefore be that proud of being the son of his father.
Sajith has no ideas of his own and tries to copy the President Gotabhy Rajapakse. During the Presidential elections he was delaying the presentation of his election manifesto awaiting the Presidential Candidate Gotabhaya Rajapakse to present his Election manifesto. When President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa started his visit to villages-”Gamanga samaga sangvaadaya” to meet and speak to the people and personally implement the demands of the people, Sajith Premadas also started visiting villages. He has made that an occasion to carry on an election campaign and criticise the government.
He forgets that he is only the Leader of the Opposition and wants to do the work of the President. He wants to bring down stranded Sri Lankans from abroad and house them in his own confinement Centres. He will set up hospitals !
From the beginning Sajith Premadazsa had been acting not as a leader of the Opposition but like a man having a vendetta against the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
It is time that Sajith Premadasa stops his comic political drama and become a serious politician who respects the majority of the people who voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his Political Manifesto “Saubhagye Dakma’ which the President is implementing despite all the difficulties he has to face. In democracy the Opposition in parliament is of the political party which would form the next Government.
Therefore It should act respectfully and await their time to speak to the people in a political campaign, and point out the faults of the government and present their own political Manifesto for the people to accept or reject it.
