That Man Ranil

By Rajitha Bandara Gunawardena -July 25, 2013 |

It is now the fashion and trend when one finishes cursing the Rajapaksas’ to turn on the leader of the opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe. He is useless they say, ineffectual, has overstayed his welcome, has doubtful sexual preferences, has no children, takes advice only from his friends, you name it Ranil is it.

Has anyone stopped to think of the alternative? Let’s assume the mantle was given to Karu Jayasuriya. He has gone over to the opposition held office as a minister proved more that ineffectual in the role and hasn’t had even the self-respect to go into oblivion when virtually chased out by the President. He has crawled back to his beginnings and resumed innocuous office as something or the other in the opposition. He was also taken back by this much maligned leader of the opposition.

So look closely at yourselves people of Sri Lanka. Blame yourselves just as much as you blame the leader of the opposition!

Sajith Premadasa has the following of the masses they say. He is relatively young and has his father’s charisma say others, with a faint air of desperation. The reality is that he has too many skeletons in his cupboard for his escapades in Yala during the regime of his father and his penchants for thuggery are still not forgotten by those who know.

Sajith Premadasa to gether with the Dayasiri Jayasekeras’ and all others of his ilk would have if given the mantle turned the UNP into a bunch of thugs. Trying to beat the masters of thuggery at their own game would have been just what the Rajapaksas’ wanted!

Don’t you critics’ understand? The single reason why the UNP hasn’t deteriorated further (I do admit to deterioration) and gone down to a level that would have been unrecognizable to those firmly committed to, it is Ranil Wickremesinghe.

All allegations of homosexuality and the daily insults heaped on him by the TV station run by the Maharaja organization have had no effect. The man doesn’t have to do this! He is wealthy in his own right and to insinuate that he is holding this post just to travel “first class around the world” is nothing but balderdash concocted by those who have desires and standards of this nature. Ranil Wickremesinghe has enough private wealth to travel many times around the world in style without having to undergo all these daily insults and allegations.

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The Dayasiri Detonation

By Dayan Jayatilleka -July 25, 2013 

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

While I wish that Dayasiri Jayasekara had broken away from the UNP to form a new party rather than join the government, he has, I must admit, made a smart move, as has his new leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. The smart move was not to cross the floor and accept a cabinet portfolio but to move out to the provincial level. If Dayasiri is half the success that Gamini Jayawickrema Perera was as Chief Minister of the North Western Province (‘Wayamba’), the sky is the limit as far national political possibilities go, because he is young enough to outlast the shelf life of the ruling elite.

It is also a cannily played hand on the part of President Rajapaksa, who is more than aware of twin dangers within his coalition—from those who resent the glass ceiling imposed by family rule and are speculating about a comeback by their deposed queen, and the racist hardliners who are dismayed by the entirely pragmatic Presidential decision to proceed with the Northern Provincial election. Mahinda Rajapaksa seems to be inducting and building up a core of SLFP ‘young Turks’, some of whom are ex-UNPers.

By sandwiching the Northern election between two others, and by making it an interesting race with Dayasiri’s induction, the President has just diverted attention from the Northern controversy and more crucially, given the provincial council system a renewed local legitimacy.

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