The Unholy Alliance – A Threat To Maithri (Good) Governance
Hilmy Ahamed
The call by the ex-socialist turned ultra capitalist, Wimal Weerawansa for an unholy alliance of the left to support the candidature of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to be the Prime Ministerial candidate at the next parliamentary elections could be the real threat to good governance and rule of law initiated by the Maithri-Ranil nexus to steer the country out of corruption, nepotism and all forms of misrule that existed during the last decade under the Rajapaksa regime. The threat could be real when one takes in to consideration the desperate predicament of some of Rajapaksa’s cronies in parliament, who may not even get nominations from the SLFP under a Maithri/Chandrika leadership. The need to safeguard their ill-gotten wealth is probably the cause for their strategic move to promote Mahinda Rajapaksa to the fore as a Sinhala Buddhist leader who would safeguard the interest of the Sinhalese. Sri Lankans are well aware of the antics of these corrupt and unethical political animals, and
Mahinda too would be reluctant to gamble, knowing the possible outcome of another failure. The new guard SLFP would never want to go back to another Rajapaksa nepotism. The current opposition leader, Nimal Siripala de Silva has reached his dream position of heading the opposition and a possible Prime Ministerial candidature. He would not entertain any proposal that would drive him back to insignificance; So, Nimal Siripala would be Maithri-Ranil’s best bet to keep Rajapaksa in retirement at Medamulana. It is yet to be seen whether extremist Buddhist forces would attempt to bring Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the fore and continue their campaign of hate. Some of them have claimed in the past that they have selected their candidate to take over from Mahinda Rajapaksa. Could Gotabaya be the genie that would pop out of Aladdin’s lamp to save the Bodu Bala Sena and other extremists?Read More