Who Will win? Or Mahinda?
Bertie Ranaweerage
The political landscape in Sri Lanka has turned upside down during the last seven days with the announcement made by Mr.Maithripala Sirisena, the former Minister of Health that he would challenge the incumbent President at the next Presidential Election as the common candidate. The President and his government never expected that he would be challenged by the General Secretary of his own political party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Panic stricken President’s family members ran helter- skelter fearing that they would lose power at the forth coming Presidential Election. They pressed some Ministers and MPs to call press conferences and deny that they would desert the government. State owned SLBC, Rupavahini and ITN, and the Lake House editors have been instructed to attack Maithri, Chandrikaand the UNP from morning to late into the night. Racists such as Nalinda Siva, Gunadasa Amarasekara, Bengamuwe Nalaka have begun to mislead the public. We can expect all the Sinhala racist organizations such as BBS , Ravana Balaya, Sinhala Rawaya to join forces to launch a vituperative attack against the common candidate as they are aware that the victory of Maithri will be a grave threat to their very existence.
In the meantime the Minister of Disaster Management Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera has made an revealing statement at a press conference held at the SLFP head office on November 25. According to a news story published in the Daily Mirror he admitted that the UPFA members had amassed dirty lucre as much as they needed and as such there is no need for them to continue the plundering. Therefore, he requested not to defeat the government by voting the opposition candidate. That statement alone shows their fear and confusion. My view is all the government henchmen and most of the government Ministers and deputy Ministers are in mortal fear that Mahinda’s days are numbered.Read More