The Battle Lines

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“Maithripala’s impure alliance must be defeated.”

Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara Thera

( December 31, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It may not measure up to any ideal. But given the Lankan condition, it may be the only possible alliance of moderates.

A key problem with the Common Opposition was that, for a while, it looked too much like the common Southern opposition. True, most of the minorities, alienated by Rajapaksa extremism, were likely to vote for Maithripala Sirisena. But at the party-level, there were no minority stakeholders with sufficient gravitas in the opposition camp.

The Battle Lines by Thavam Ratna