Presidential Candidate
Posted on July 30th, 2018
H.A.Chandrapala
Lot of controversy surrounds the the selection of a presidential candidate for the forthcoming Presidential election from the Major political parties. President Maithreepala Sirisena declared that he will not contest for another term when he assumed duties as the new president. Hence, SLFP is still not sure about their candidate. Prim Minister Ranil Wickremasingha is having lot of problems from his back benchers who are not happy about his leadership which is marred by lot of defeats.
United Front Alliance is not sure about the candidacy of Mahinda Rajapaksa because of legal restrictions. Hence several names have come up as potential candidates. Among them are Chamal, Basil, and Gotabhaya Rajapaksas.
Members of the alliance are also prepared to support any candidates picked by Malinda Rajapaksa. In this article it is attempted to caution the Alliance about the selection of a Presidential candidate as any short sighted selection can spell disaster for the victory of the Alliance.
Selection of basil Rajapaksa will not be a good move under any circumstances as it was believed that his activities were partly responsible for the defeat of Mahinda Rajapksa. On the other hand it will provide a trump card to opposition parties for using it against the Alliance to their advantage. Chamal Rajapaksa is not a very popular figure and he has yet to prove his capabilities.
Even though Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is very popular, he is a novice to politics and his dual citizenship will pose problems for his candidacy. Even the opposition will try to ensure that it will act as an impediment for his candidacy. There appears to be differences of opinion among the high ranks of the Alliance about their selection. Picking up of a Rajapaksa will also provide an opportunity to the opposition parties to criticise the Alliance being a Rajapaksa family affair as they are doing now. However, three is a definite solution which has been quite often overlooked by the members of the Alliance.
I strongly believe that a solution is found in professor G.L.Pieris who is the president of the Alliance. He is a very senior politician with lot experience behind him and one of the most knowledgeable persons in the parliament. His educational background and intellectual capacity is unparalleled by any of the present day politicians. He commands international respect and as Minister of Defence of the Malinda Rajapaksa regime he did quite a lot to uphold the integrity of Sri Lanka.He also commands the respect of the Alliance. Hence, I don’t see any reason for the high ranking officers of the Alliance to oppose his candidacy.
Considering the other possible candidates of the major opposition parties he is the most suitable person to become the president. at this critical juncture it is advisable to select him as the Presidential candidate of the United front Alliance without jeopardising the golden opportunity available for it to win the election. I am sure that Malinda rajapaksa will also not hesitate to nominate him.
As a respect for the Rajapaksa family for what they have done to the country it is crucial to select a member of the Rajapaksa family as the Prime Minister of the country in the event of Mahinda Rajapaksa not being able to contest.
Regards
H.A.Chandrapala
July 30th, 2018 at 7:58 pm
Idea is good!
Putting a non-Rajapaksa horse into the race will reduce the agitation from the so called International Community which consist of Ealam Supporting countries and Endia. If a Rajapaksa wins, it will be the news in all the Western world saying that he will be a dictator who killed 350,000 innocent Tamils and who looted the country in the name of the war and many things which LieTTE and the Western camp want to tell to their supporters in order to take the revenge of not listening to them and continuing the final Ealam war. Throughout the period the West will not let them leave alone similar to the hate propaganda on President Putin.
GL would be a better option than everyone else. Worldwide he will have a respect and he is a good personality to represent SL more than Dinesh and Welgama. He will be a silent admirer of what is happening and he doesn’t have great political ambitions. Gota can continue his outcomes from Viyathmaga and Mahinda can consider it as a continuation of Mahinda Chintanaya and finally the country will benefit.
However, first of all GL has to prove that he is not for a Federal solution and also he foresee possible division of the Island due to 13A and therefore, wisely support a devolution in smaller units similar to the proposal of “Grama Rajyaya”.
We have to be careful that this is not a plan by Dayan and the Church for GL being a non-Buddhist.
This is a smaller country than Tamilnadu. If we cannot rule it as a single unit, imagine that Tamilnadu also should be divided into many states to administer 70m people living there compared to 21m people in Sri Lanka.
From GL, that is the only thing we want to hear. The rest in terms of economy, development and national security will be taken care of the likes of Gota with his great vision for the country. Mahinda will keep engaged with the people.
July 31st, 2018 at 4:28 am
No way! Sri Lanka doesn’t need a “Pothe Gura” as the next leader.
August 1st, 2018 at 5:28 am
Rajapaksa’s not only good politicians but decent, well mannered, educated most of all very popular with ordinary folks in the city and village in our country. His enemies even admit that he is the most popular politician in the country today. So no need to be hurry and spread false rumours instead just have patience and wait till Mahinda Rajapaksa our great leader inform the countrymen his choice for the presidential election. He told recently that there will be no hanky panky but will name the candidate in front of cameras for everybody to know and see. We need to believe him and wait patiently. All Rajapaksa’s are capable of running the country except Namal as he was still young and do not have much experience to run a country. Definitely basil and chamal will not come forward but Gota might if all goes well. Although welgama is an old member he is only garbage. Do not shame our country by suggesting these kind of names. It’s an insult to us. We don’t want people like Mr hopper as president again in our blessed country. We need people like admiral weerasekera and the likes of him as he was a true patriot in motherlanka. I hope and pray that Mahinda will name Gota as our presidential candidate and work hard to get to that point. He (Gota) has some decent, well educated persons behind him to strengthen his leadership so let’s wait and see how Mahinda plan his next move for the benefit of the people in this country.