Maithri to meet Mahinda tomorrow!
- Wednesday, 14 January 2015
A group of SLFP seniors has arranged a meeting between new president Maithripala Sirisena and his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa tomorrow (15), reports say.
The aim of the meeting will be to prevent a breaking up of the party, said a senior SLFPer who gave us details of this arrangement.
At the meeting, while discussing measures to prevent a division of the party, the incumbent president is to be accepted as the leader of the SLFP while his predecessor is to be appointed its patron. The importance of maintaining the status quo at all SLFP-led provincial councils will also come under discussion.
If the president is agreeable to these conditions, the Mahinda faction of the SLFP will extend support to his 100 day programme. The meeting will also aim to prevent either the JVP or the TNA from gaining the opposition leader position. If this succeeds, there will be a SLFP government and a SLFP opposition.
Commenting on this, political analysts say this is a political game planned by Rajapaksa, who aims to render prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe helpless and to politically sideline ex-president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who led the change that has taken place.
One of the key conditions in the MoU signed by Mr. Sirisena with Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera’s Pivuthuru Hetak is that the elected president should be apolitical. However, president Sirisena’s becoming the SLFP president would violate that condition. Political analysts are unanimous in describing this as a conspiracy to sabotage the 100 day programme.
SLFP seniors, including Nimal Siripala de Silva, Susil Premajayantha, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and John Seneviratne too, are due to attend tomorrow’s meeting.
Chris Nonis to be reappointed as the high commissioner!
- Wednesday, 14 January 2015
President Maithripala Sirisena has recommended to external affairs minister Mangala Samaraweera that Dr. Chris Nonis, who resigned after being assaulted by Sajin Vaas Gunawardena, the most powerful person in the ex-Rajapaksa regime, be reappointed Sri Lanka’s high commissioner in Britain.
Dr. Nonis, who is presently in Sri Lanka, is due to meet with the president and the external affairs minister after the pope leaves at the end of his current visit to the island. Sources at the external affairs ministry say it would be important to reappoint Dr. Nonis to the position, in order for him to assist the president, who is the chair of the commonwealth, as he has a vast knowledge and ties regarding affairs of the commonwealth.
