State Terror In Sri Lanka: Why Did The Future President Go To A Coconut Estate?

By Darshanie Ratnawalli –July 14, 2015

Darshanie Ratnawalli

A recent article by Dharisha Bastians in Daily FT titled ‘Revolution Betrayed’ begins with an evocative paragraph.

“On 8 January 2015, once he had cast his vote in Polonnaruwa, Maithripala Sirisena and his family made their way to remote coconut estate in Kurunegala. The movement occurred at dusk, when the waning light helped to hide the small convoy of vehicles carrying the future first family to their refuge for election night. When he made the decision to contest Mahinda Rajapaksa for the presidency, Sirisena knew he had placed his life and the lives of his family in the gravest danger.”

Not only the first paragraph but the entire article aims at poignancy. My article intends to explore whether it achieves that or merely ends up generating hypocritical schmaltz. One thing has to be made clear. If Sirisena thought at that time that he and his family were in danger, no one, not even his worst critic would have been justified in dismissing his fears as unfounded and ridiculous. Politically motivated killings had started in post independent Sri Lanka way before the LTTE or the JVP. Even in the relatively halcyon and innocent days of 1959, stalwarts of his own party and government were charged with and convicted of conspiring and bringing about the assassination of Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike. Even now that the LTTE and the JVP had been eliminated from the equation as armed bodies, Sri Lankans continue to be plagued by fears of political assassinations.

I heard one such ‘fear’ anecdote from Malinda Seneviratne, the Editor of The Nation. It is associated with the 2010 Presidential Elections and the ‘fear’ in it emanates from Sarath Fonseka, the common candidate of the UNP led coalition against the incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In Malinda’s own words, this is the story;

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UNP creates broad front while UPFA leads a retreat to the past

• by Harim Peiris 
• - on 07/14/2015 

As nominations closed earlier this week, the contours of the battle lines for the general election to Parliament became clear. The two major political formations in the country, the UNP and the UPFA are vying for a parliamentary majority and with it effective control of the next government.

The UNP spent an useful weekend, creating a broad political front, styled the United National Front for Good Governance, (UNFGG) which will contest the elections under the UNP’s elephant symbol and be registered as a party after the elections. The UNFGG is a broad rainbow alliance, much like the NDF of January this year, having in its spectrum, the Sinhala nationalist JHU to the ethnic minority parties, including the SLMC, the breakaway Maithri faction of the SLFP and the up country political parties with the dominant UNP in the center. The UNFGG, as successor to the NDF, are clear favorites to win the elections, not least because of the myriad of problems that beset the UPFA.

A declining trend for the UPFA 

A quick analysis of elections results from early 2014, shows the UPFA in a steady decline from the Western and Southern Provincial Council elections of early 2014, to a more comprehensive near loss at the Uva provincial elections in October last year and of course its historic and monumental loss by over half a million votes in the presidential elections of 2015. There is little reasons for the trend to not continue (with Arjuna Mahendran’s alleged foibles hardly a game changer) and the UPFA is headed for a more ignominious defeat.

While the UNP has reinvented itself by having the JHU to guard its Sinhala nationalist flank, the UPFA has lost its sole Tamil alley of the EPDP, now going solo in Jaffna and as well as having lost all its Muslim allies in January itself. The presence of both AHM Fowzi and Faizer Mustapha on the national list and not contesting, is a clear indication, that the UPFA let alone elect a Muslim is unlikely to get a single Muslim vote, almost.

The UPFA nostalgia for Rajapakse

The presence of the discredited and defeated former President Rajapakse, in practice leading the UPFA’s electoral effort to a mono ethno religious, rural Sinhala Buddhist voter base needs to be understood in the context of two factors. Firstly, President Maithripala Sirisena was seen as unwilling to be a partisan leader of his own political party, the SLFP. Especially in an electoral contest in which his political allies were vying for parliamentary seats as well as in governance since January, President Sirisena has played the role of umpire, rather than that of captain of the SLFP. This left the SLFP in a dilemma since they obviously did not want to face the hustling led by Opposition Leader Nimal Siripala De Silva, who failed to secure the Badulla District for the UPFA in the last provincial poll, let alone lead in the country. Since Rajapakse had been nursing a dynastic project, his sudden defeat left a leadership vacuum, which President Sirisena as the opponent who defeated him could not really fill, as was demonstrated by his party continuing to be in opposition, while he headed the government.

UPFA out of ideas in the midst of declining support

This writer way back in 2010, had both in private and in the press, advised the then Rajapakse Administration, that it had maxed out on Sinhala nationalist support. In other words, it had moved so far to a Sinhala nationalist political hue, that it could not hope to ever increase its support by being more nationalist than it already was. There are no additional votes to be got by being more Sinhala nationalist than it already was. The only socio political space more extreme than Mahinda Rajapakse, was overt communal violence and at the tail end of the Rajapakse regime, even that was unleashed with impunity from Dambulla to Dharga Town. So increasing voter support for the UPFA meant a shift to the center. That is a shift it has failed to do. Out of ideas, stuck in the past and morally and intellectually bankrupt, the UPFA will be ratcheting up the rhetoric and engaging in the same racist hate mongering and fear peddling which is its only stock in trade and the only language that its gang of four, the main non SLFP leaders of the “Bring back Mahinda Campaign” understand.

Protecting the January 8th People’s Revolution

On January 8th this year, the non populist, lesser known, non iconic and soft spoken presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena, defeated the larger than life, populist and war win glory hugging, two term incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse. Mahinda Rajapakse won every aspect of the January election campaign, he won the poster war, we were smiled down at every street corner by North Korean dictator style giant cutouts, the state media, especially electronic gave a totally monopoly to Mahinda Rajapakse and slandered Maithripala Sirisena. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission released Rupees six hundred million for giveaways to voters and despite all this Mahinda lost. Even the pre dawn attempt to stop the vote count, complete with advice by the interloper who impersonated as the Chief Justice for two years, was unsuccessful as the public, the officials, observers, security forces and international community saw the writing on the wall. Mahinda Rajapakse’s astrologers, magicians and soothsayers had been wrong about his reelection prospects and they and his political allies are similarly wrong about his rather misguided attempt at a political come back. The country needs a better opposition leader than Mahinda Rajapakse.

(The writer is the Chairman of the Resettlement Authority, the views expressed are personal)

The Man Who's Disrupting Politics As Usual in Sri Lanka - Sean Braswell

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

For much of the past decade, the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka was more or less a family business — one that happened to be run on an island just 22 miles off the coast of the second-largest country in the world and astride a key shipping lane to the largest. By one estimate, former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his two high-ranking brothers controlled up to 70 percent of the nation’s budget, while 29 members of their extended family held senior positions in the government, civil service or industry.

Desperate to end Rajapaksa’s clan rule and break from Sri Lanka’s troubled past, including a devastating civil war, opposition forces in the island nation of over 20 million united behind an unlikely challenger in this year’s presidential election. Maithripala Sirisena, a former farmer, career bureaucrat and health minister under Rajapaksa, announced he would challenge his boss last November. Days before, Sirisena shared a dinner of rice pancakes with Rajapaksa, who happily informed him that he expected no serious opponents in the upcoming election. “When he said that nobody was going to challenge him,” the bespectacled Sirisena, dressed in his usual white sarong and tunic, later told his campaign, “I was next to him and felt sorry for him,” according to a report in The Independent.

Six weeks and a slew of reform promises later, the victorious Sirisena, whose office did not respond to interview requests, found himself atop a hopeful nation in profound upheaval. Now, with the honeymoon over, millions of Sri Lankans wait eagerly to see if their unexpected president can deliver.

Rajapaksa assumed power in 2005, when the former British colony remained embroiled in a decadeslong civil war between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the mainly Hindu Tamil minority in the north. That bloody struggle came to an end in 2009, but the growth of Sinhala nationalism allowed the Rajapaksa family and their left-leaning Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to consolidate power — specifically, to “create a dynasty and entrench his family’s rule,” says Alan Keenan, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. So Sri Lankans probably weren’t surprised when the nation’s constitution was changed to allow their president to run for a third term, which he attempted to do in a hastily called January election. Obviously, the move backfired, as a broad spectrum of political interests from different ethnic communities and parties mobilized quickly, handing Sirisena a narrow victory. The identity of the victor, a low-profile minister who’d never been seen as particularly ambitious, seemed almost secondary.

Raised in a conservative Sinhalese Buddhist family, Sirisena, the son of a World War II veteran and teacher, grew up in the rural North Central Province. After a rebellious youth, in which he was jailed for over a year for participating in a Marxist insurrection against the country’s government in 1971, he settled down to farm and earn degrees in agriculture and political science before entering the Sri Lankan Parliament in 1989 for the SLFP. There, he earned the reputation as a mild-mannered, competent government official; a teetotaler who, as health minister, introduced stronger warnings on cigarette packages. But Sirisena’s campaign was hardly mild. “The entire economy and every aspect of society is controlled by one family,” he said, according to Al Jazeera, when he announced his candidacy, promising to enact a bold slate of reforms in the first 100 days to root out corruption and strengthen the rule of law.

So far, Sirisena has managed to pass a constitutional amendment limiting the powers of his own office, ended the de facto press censorship that had silenced Rajapaksa’s critics while initiating (popular, you can imagine) investigations into Rajapaksa family members and cronies. This is rare, says Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political economist and researcher based in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. But, he adds, there’s much still to be done to prosecute the last regime. Sirisena also promised to dissolve the nation’s Parliament and hold new elections, which were recently scheduled for Aug. 17. His delay, though, has led many to decry his indecisiveness, and further reforms and foreign investment have been largely paralyzed as the country waits to vote — and while Sirisena’s own coalition erodes.

At the same time, the right-leaning United National Party, looks to gain further seats in the upcoming election. Which puts Sirisena in a tight spot: balancing his pro-democracy reputation against trying to help his own party win power. “Sirisena doesn’t want to be the man,” says Keenan, “who ran against the party’s head, beat him … and then locked his party out of power for many years.”  

Still more choppy waters lie ahead: Some are agitating for the return of Rajapaksa, who recently announced he’d lead forces opposed to Sirisena in the elections. And a forthcoming report from the U.N. on human rights abuses during the country’s civil war is expected to implicate many in government. In most of what he does, Sirisena will have to weigh his nation’s relationship with India, and consider how his response will play in Beijing and Washington, D.C., especially as several China-backed projects, beneficial to the island’s fragile economy, remain in limbo.

The clock is ticking. And the cost of Sri Lanka’s prolonged wait “is not just lost time, but growing popular disenchantment,” says Keenan. “And the longer the current political disarray remains, the deeper that disenchantment will grow.”

A previous version of this article incorrectly described the UNP’s parliamentary power. It is part of a ruling coalition of parties.

Courtesy - http://news.yahoo.com

Brutus, Marc Antony, And Maithri

By Upul Kumarapperuma-Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Maithripala Sirisena, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Champika Ranawaka

The Roman Empire was plagued by coups, conspiracies and wars nevertheless it was the most formidable Empire in Europe.

Julius Caesar became one of the most decorated war heroes after defeating the slave leader Spartacus and his slave army that had caused much humiliation to the Roman Empire, and was later on crowned as the Empire of Rome.

Caesar formed a political alliance with Crassus and Pompey which dominated Roman politics for several years. However, there was opposition to their political alliance by the conservative ruling class within the Roman Senate. During this period the Roman Empire was extended up to the English Channel and the lands beyond the river Rhine, which caused Caesar to gain enormous military might.

The Roman Senate was perturbed by the political authority acquired by Caesar, which authority was capable enough to veto the Senate.

The resentment between Caesar and the Senate developed like a cancer day by day and it went beyond the point of no return. There was a conspiracy hatched to assassinate Caesar. His best buddy Mark Antony felt the danger and came to know the modus operandi of the enemy, but it was too late; the conspirators led by Brutus who was a politician of the Roman republic won the battle by killing Caesar.

This is not a comparison of Caesar and Maithripala Sirisena, but even in the present context, characters identical to those in the Roman Empire are engaged in similar roles in Sri Lanka’s current political circle. These characters have been instrument in causing great debacles in the country as well as ruin the political careers of certain individuals.

After the historical victory at the Presidential Election, the first move of President Sirisena was to capture the power of his own political party – the SLFP, which stood against him at the election. He relied on a technical interpretation of the party Constitution and became the party leader. This was the starting point of the present debacle of his political career, where the masses have lost the confidence placed in him as an apolitical President.

After Sirisena’s victory, the victorious Sirisena has heavily depended on the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) where two parliamentarians of the JHU have been with him on a fulltime basis. Sirisena has even gone to the extent of appointing JHU General Secretary, Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka as his representative to the Constitutional Council that has been established under the 19th Amendment, instead of appointing a member from his own party, the SLFP.

The JHU has systematically invaded the crucial points of the administration of the country and positioned their own people in key positions. Even though the UNP is the largest single political party that fought for Sirisena’s victory, its voice and the influence has been suppressed and diluted with the nationalist influence of the JHU.

Some of Sirisena’s personal staff consists of anti UNP or pro JHU elements, and the JHU has launched a series of attacks against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe while holding ministerial portfolios in his Cabinet. Some of the members of Sirisena’s personal staff openly vouched that they would not let Ranil Wickremesinghe to be appointed as the next Prime Minister. There was no reconciliation process initiated either by Sirisena or any other interested party to maintain the moral of the political alliance led by the Sirisena group.

As a result, there has been a gradual deterioration in the trust and confidence between Sirisena and the UNP.  After the completion of the 100 days, the UNP and the JVP both knew it was impossible to maintain the status quo since a resentment had developed among members of the alliance. Even the civil movements like “Purawesi Balaya” demanded the dissolution of parliament, the JHU and its bureaucrats however wanted to continue with the parliament and pressurised to submit the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.

Irrespective of the pleas of other members in his alliance, Sirisena was mum on the dissolution of parliament until last month.

In the meantime there was huge pressure building up against him by a faction of his political alliance UPFA holding island wide campaigns with huge participation of fans of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa demanding his appointment  as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the UPFA at the forthcoming election. With pressure mounting up against him from his own political party and the big guns who have led the battle against him, the advisers and other loyalists who have flocked around Sirisena have also become nonentities.

It is evident that Sirisena has mishandled the situation with a serious mismanagement on his part. Firstly Sirisena could not have accepted the party leadership, which led to a serious loss of confidence placed on him by his political alliance including 6.2 million voters.

Secondly, Sirisena should have intervened and stopped the hatred campaign launched against Ranil Wickremesinghe by the members of his own alliance and own staff.

Thirdly, after the completion of the 100 days or after achieving the main goals of the 100 day programme he should have dissolved parliament as promised and called for general elections.

Today, Sirisena has become a prisoner of his own party and the very person who stood against the corruption and other crimes of the former Rajapaksa regime and who raised his voice against kingpins of that regime has revoked his deed and will to fight, and has become the saviour of a group which had attacked him negating all norms of political ethics of a civilised society.

The very reason for Sirisena’s U turn within 200 days of his election to office indicates the lack of confidence and determination. The negative attitude cultivated on the culture provided by the JHU led to a disastrous end with his alliance mainly with the UNP.

Sirisena has blindly believed that he could take the controlling power of his political party once he became the party leader, with the help of several outsiders who have been converted as his party members.

He has forgotten the driving force of his government is the UNP and other credible supporters like the JVP, TNA and SLMC and several other individuals where ground level power and the strength has been concentrated. Unfortunately with his ties with the JHU, the other parties have quietly kept a distance with him, which leads to his unavoidable isolation among his crowd.

Rajapaksa loyalists have studied all the moves taken up by the rival camp and when Sirisena has lost his back up force, they launched the final assault on him with their demands.

Unfortunately Sirisena has not considered the necessity of maintaining the power of his alliance around him. He became a victim of another group who have deployed a political conspiracy to sweep away Ranil Wickremesinghe from the political platform and as a result Sirisena lost the much needed political support of his alliance at the most critical moment of his political life to manage the situation.  During the time that Caesar was in power, he had a close confidant; Marc Antony; who tried to save Caesar but failed. But in our case there is no Marc Antony to come forward to save Maithripala Sirisena at the much needed moment. Why, what happened to Marc Antony? The simple answer is Brutus has killed Marc Antony and afterwards assumed the role of Marc Antony before Caesar. Unfortunately Caesar turned a Nelsonian eye.

(The writer is a senior Attorney-at-Law)

Removing Sheep Skins From “Political Wolves”

By Gamini Jayaweera –July 14, 2015

Gamini Jayaweera

Following the defeat of the UNP by Mr. SWRD Bandaranaike’s Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, my late brother Wimaladharma Jayaweera (former Co-ordinating Secretary to the late SLFP Minister Mr. C.V.Gunaratne) wrote an article titled “Battalu Hum Galaweema” (Removing the Sheep Skins) which was published in the Lankadeepa Newspaper in 1956, explaining how SWRD was managed to unite the forces of “Pancha Maha Balawegaya” – the five great forces of the Buddhist Clergy, the Ayurvedic Physicians, the Teachers, the Farmers, and the Workers to remove the sheep skins from the elite class of the rich (“People of Bamunu Kulaya”) who governed the country since independence pretending that they would work towards the upward social mobility of the common person in the society. Though the elite class of the rich who governed the country did not provide sufficient facilities to the common person to get into top level administrative and other high level professional jobs, to their credit, they did not get involved in practising unprecedented level of bribery and corruption, violation of the independence of the Judiciary, providing protection for murderers and drug dealers, violating the rule of law, using foul language in parliament to address their opponents, unlawfully taking public money & engaging in drug dealings to become “super-rich”, and taking away the democratic values of the nation.

President’s Support

After 59 years of SWRD’s social revolution, today we are facing another battle to remove sheep skins from most of our “super-rich” corrupt politicians and so called educated “socialists” who are trying to deceive the nation to get into the parliament at any cost. In this critical battle it is very important that our President Mr.Maithripala Sirisena who has worked with some of these politicians for 47 years should publically appeal to the nation to reject these candidates irrespective of their allegiance to SLFP or UPFA. Majority of the Srilankans feel that it is a personal obligation of the President to the vast number of people who supported him publically risking their lives during the last presidential election. I can understand that the President may be under pressure to give nominations to most of these politicians of the UPFA and SLFP but is he under any pressure to speak out the truth for the sake of saving the nation from thieves, murderers, drug dealers, and violators of our democratic values entering the parliament? Hope that our President will demonstrate the qualities of a Statesman as defined by James Freeman Clarke: “The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation.”

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I will Remain Impartial in the Coming Election – President ( Full Speech)

President Sirisena appealed to the media not to misuse the media freedom and enjoy the blooming of democratic rights and media freedom in the country objective.

by Maithripla Sirisena
President of Sri Lanka

( July 14, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I will continue to give leadership to the change the ushered in on January 8 with the newly elected members after the nest General election, President Maithripala Sirisena said.

He said he will form a government with the victorious political parties after August 17 election and he has no intention of appointing Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister.

Speaking to media on the current political developments at the Presidential Secretariat today (July 14) the President said that if the SLFP win the election there are several senior politicians in the party to be the Prime Minister. Former President Rajapaksa who did not allow the deserving seniority get their due post is now trying again to deny party seniors premiership by attempting to be PM even after completing two terms of presidency.

President Sirisena said that his first intention was to dissolve the parliament on January 10 immediately after resuming as President on January 9. However he could not do so as he had to fulfill the task given under the 100 day programme. As promised I made Ranil Wickremesinghe as PM though the UNP had only 47 members in Parliament and succeeded in implementing the 100day program that included the 19th amendment to curtain excessive powers of Executive Presidency, he said.

The President said at when the vast majority of UPFA members demanded that Mahinda Rajapaksa should be given nomination and make him the Prime Ministerial candidature he pointedly refused these demands. However, when he had to dissolve the parliament to prevent Mahinda Rajapaksa from becoming Prime Minister by defeating Ranil W in a no confident commission and enter parliament in National list member he prevented these designs by dissolving the parliament. Once the nomination and election days announced UPFA members demanded that Mahinda Rajapaksa should be given nominations. Then I was left with two options. One is to resign from the party leadership. But if I had done that Mahinda Rajapaksa would have become the party President and appointed only his people as candidates for the election leaving out all those who supported the common candidate at the presidential election. To prevent that I decided to remain the party leadership but allow them to nominate him as the candidate, though I am still opposed to this. This led to political analyze and media vehemently attacking me as a villent and betrayer. What I take all these criticisms in my style as this reflects the blooming of democracy and media freedom which was lacking prior to January 8. But you will realize in the near future that my actions due to my belief that there should be a bicameral party system for the survival of democracy in a country and I always wanted to prevent annihilation of a political party after an electoral debacle, as happen in 1970, 1977 and again in 2010, the President said.

President Sirisena said despite many obstacles the government formed on January 8 would provide benefits to people, salary increase to public servants, reduce fuel and gas prices and take effective steps to reduce powers of the president and transfer them to parliament constitution council and other institutions.

The President said that his role in the general election is to ensure free democratic impartial election is held and to extend fullest support to the election commissioner, police and the officials for that purpose.

“I will remain impartial in the coming election and urge the people to select those who are suitable to march forward with the January 08 mandate” said the President.

After the election results are declared for the next five years I will take forward the transformation that began on January 8 and continue in the same past for the next five years, and I am certain that the people will judge me by the end of that period.

President Sirisena appealed to the media not to misuse the media freedom and enjoy the blooming of democratic rights and media freedom in the country objective.

‘I won’t appoint Mahinda PM’ - President

.. will remain impartial at forthcoming election

July 14, 2015, 10:07 pm 

President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday declared that he would not appoint former President Mahinda Rajapaksa Prime Minister even in the event of the SLFP-led UPFA winning the August 17 general election.

There were several senior politicians in the SLFP, who were better suited to hold the post of Prime Minister than Rajapaksa, President Sirisena said addressing the media at the Presidential Secretariat.

President Sirisena said Rajapaksa had denied deserving party seniors their due place.

He faulted Rajapaksa for trying to deprive those senior party members premiership again, after serving two terms as President.

Declaraing that he would remain impartial at the next month’s election, President Sirisena called upon the people to elect those best suited to ‘march forward with the Jan. 8 mandate.’

The following is the text of the statement issued by the President’s media unit: "I will continue to give leadership to the change ushered in on January 8 with the newly elected members after the next General election, President Maithripala Sirisena said.

He said he will form a government with the victorious political parties after August 17 election and he has no intention of appointing Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister.

Speaking to media on the current political developments at the Presidential Secretariat today (July 14) the President said that if the SLFP win the election there are several senior politicians in the party to be the Prime Minister. Former President Rajapaksa who did not allow the deserving seniors get their due post is now trying again to deny party seniors premiership by attempting to be PM even after completing two terms of presidency.

President Sirisena said that his first intention was to dissolve the parliament on January 10 immediately after resuming as President on January 9. However he could not do so as he had to fulfill the task given under the 100 day programme. As promised I made Ranil Wickremesinghe as PM though the UNP had only 47 members in Parliament and succeeded in implementing the 100day program that included the 19th amendment to curtain excessive powers of Executive Presidency, he said.

The President said at when the vast majority of UPFA members demanded that Mahinda Rajapaksa be given nomination and make him the Prime Ministerial candidature he pointedly refused these demands. However, when he had to dissolve the parliament to prevent Mahinda Rajapaksa from becoming Prime Minister by defeating Ranil W in a no confidence motion and enter parliament as a National list member he prevented these designs by dissolving the parliament. Once the nomination and election days announced UPFA members demanded that Mahinda Rajapaksa be given nominations. "Then I was left with two options. One is to resign from the party leadership. But if I had done that Mahinda Rajapaksa would have become the party President and appointed only his people as candidates for the election leaving out all those who supported the common candidate at the presidential election. To prevent that I decided to remain the party leader but allow them to nominate him as the candidate, though I am still opposed to this. This led to political analyze and media vehemently attacking me as a villain and betrayer. I took all these criticisms in as this reflects the blooming of democracy and media freedom which was lacking prior to January 8. But you will realize in the near future that my actions due to my belief that there should be a two-party system for the survival of democracy in a country and I always wanted to prevent annihilation of a political party after an electoral debacle, as happen in 1970, 1977 and again in 2010, the President said.

President Sirisena said despite many obstacles the government formed on January 8 would provide benefits to people, salary increase to public servants, reduce fuel and gas prices and take effective steps to reduce powers of the president and transfer them to parliament constitution council and other institutions.

The President said that his role in the general election was to ensure free democratic impartial election was held and to extend fullest support to the Election Commissioner, police and the officials for that purpose. "I will remain impartial in the coming election and urge the people to select those who are suitable to march forward with the January 08 mandate" said the President. After the election results are declared for the next five years I will take forward the transformation that began on January 8 and continue in the same path for the next five years, and I am certain that the people will judge me by the end of that period. President Sirisena appealed to the media not to misuse the media freedom and enjoy the blooming of democratic rights and media freedom in the country objective.

Monks and murder suspect in Sri Lanka election

Jul 13, 2015

ECONOMYNEXT - A host of Buddhist monks and murder suspects are among over 6,000 candidates seeking election to the 225-seat parliament where members enjoy perquisits, power and pensions.

Among the venerable priests seeking an "honourable" title before their names is Galagodaaththe Gnanasara of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) which former president Mahinda Rajapaksa blames for his January 8 defeat.

Former deputy minister Premalal Jayaratne who is in remand custody in connection with the killing of a supporter of President Maithripala Sirisena in the run up to the January election was given nominations, by err...Sirisena.

Jayaratne had the green light from President Sirisena to sign his nomination papers while in remand custody.

Another deputy minister of the former government, Sarana Gunawardena,  who is out on bail did not get nominations, but his wife was considered instead. He is accused of embezzlement of LKR 36 million rupees from the state lotteries board.

Notably, Duminda Silva, who denies allegations that he is the biggest drug importer into the country, was also denied nominations along with Sajin Vaas Gunawardena and Mervin Silva who has complained to police that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa got editor Lasantha Wickrematunga assassinated in 2009.

Both Gotabhaya and his brother basil were not in the race, most probably because dual citizens are no longer eligible to run for public office in line with the 19th amendment to the constitution.

However, at least one dual citizen is said to be in the fray from a southern electorate and elections officials said they were unable to reject his candidacy because enabling legislation was yet to be enacted to give effect to the 19th amendment.

In the event there is a court challenge to the candidate even after the election, the entire list of candidates from his party could be disqualified.
 

Thondaman sold national list slot for thumping 50 million rupees!

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

A prestigious national list slot of Ceylon Worker's Congress headed by Arumugam Thondaman a self styled king-maker of plantation community has been sold to a thumping 50 million rupees to Karupiah Ganeshamoorty a well known fraudster in Colombo.

After denying U.N.P ticket for CWC Arumugam Thondaman had no option except joining UPFA to contest forthcoming general elections in Nuwara Eliya district.

The UPFA has agreed to give one nationalist to CWC where else Thondaman agreed to fulfill with Karupiah Ganeshamoorty obtaining rupees 50 million.

This Ganeshamoorty is the  brother of one-time confident and former media secretory Mrs.Rohini Devi who left the country in year 2012 after falling off with Thondaman's business partner  and Thondaman foundation consultant Roopa Maganthi Ramohan.

Also a well known fact is this Ganeshamoorty who is engaged in gold's smuggling and other elicit business and also cheated a muslim businessman named Khan for Whooping 120 million and this case was reported to Yoshita Rajapakshe by him and it was reported to Gamini Senerath former Chief Of Staff of president Rajapakse in year 2014, Gamini Senerath strongly informed to Sunderalingam a money collector from tamil businessman to president Rajapakse to recover this money and to be paid to Khan, However Ganeshmoorty settled only 2.5 million rupees and  cleverly filed a case against Khan that he threatened his life in Modera Police, Finally this Ganeshamoorty has escaped from all sorts of disasters after the defeat of the Rajapakse regime in the last presidential elections.

This opportunity is well used by Arumugam Thondaman and offered this deal wherelse Ganeshamoorty will be given the national list.

This time Thondaman is facing a uphill task to secure atleast 2 seats in Nuwara Eliya after failing to settle the plantation workers' wages issue and corruption of Thondaman foundation including Prajashakthi Navashakthi related issues.

Await more

Upcountry Tamils In Plantations: Politics A Void Situation?

By Vijayanathan Loganathan –July 14, 2015

Vijayanathan Loganathan

With the nomination saga ending mid-day 13 July both UPFA and UNP are widely covered by the media and political discourses drawing from the drama that unfolded during last few weeks. These ascendancies however have diminished the visibility of minor parties elsewhere in the country. There is attention paid to JVP as a third force covering much of its positions and speeches but seemingly less focus on plantations where there is sizable voters and once termed as a turning point in electoral politics. LateThondaman was often referred to as a ‘king maker’ in the national political front. All such importance diminished with electoral politics being somewhat polarized after 2005 with entry in to active politics by forces playing Sinhala Buddhist pronouncements. 

 During the times of late S Thondaman the politics of plantation people took a significant place if not a central role to support the ruling coalitions be it blue or green. As a leader of a population of 1.5 million (within and outside plantations), Late Soumiyamoorthy Thondaman positioned himself and acted with resilience and great responsibility. Through his political foresightedness and with a defined process taking in to confidence of many intellectuals he was able to reap the benefits for his people.Read More