CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

April and May Have Passed By-What Happened to The UNP "Dream?"

By Darmitha-Kotte

At the end of March we heard a lot of noise from UNP Opposition Leader and his equally dreamy aides who all professed to overthrow the Rajapakse Government and take the crown- supposedly, it was an astrological prediction which was misunderstood and misinterpreted by those eager to come into power! During April-May, we also saw Ranil Wickramasinghe doing a lot of foreign travel probably to brief foreign governments what his plans were " when he comes into power" and his hopes of gaining their support. We also had another "dreamer" (CBK) who was hoping to ride on the UNP Leader to attempt to enter parliament on a National List Nomination of the UNP which also does not seem to have materialized.

A desperate man often shows his anxiety by his words and deeds and that is exactly what we see of Ranil Wickramasinghe these days. Unable to manage the overhauling and re-organization of the UNP of which he is leader, how on earth does he think he can organize a country? His aversion towards Gotabhaya Rajapakse seems to be even stronger than the aversion that CBK has towards President Rajapakse! For whatever reason, his aversion towards the Rajapakse brothers was manifested when he made a speech at a rally to hand over the appointment letter to the new UNP organizer of Kalutara- Mr. Lakshman Ananda Wijemanne where according to a Daily Mirror report, (quote): " Opposition leader Ranil Wickramasinghe said on Monday at Kalutara that the four members of the Rajapakse family who rule the country today in spite of having a Jumbo cabinet are similar to the four guardian deities who protect the country although there are three hundred and thirty million deities"(end quote). Where he got the figures is anyone's guess given the fact that he has made similar remarkable comment sometime ago during the Presidential Elections of 2005 about "Pasdun Korale" (according to him earth was taken from this area). Again he made a comment about building the biggest Stupa in the world if he became President when he didn't know that Sri Lanka already possessed it!

Let us say this Government is absolutely full of corruption and all other short comings that go with it. If that be the case, all citizens of this country will be more than happy if even one could be proven and legal action taken against the guilty party or parties. As the accepted and speculated opinion among the NGO, INGO allies he has, the war against terrorism cannot be won militarily but through peaceful negotiations- why did Ranil Wickramasinghe's CFA through which he traitorously(together with Norway) conceded everything that LTTE wanted on a platter, fail to reach a negotiated settlement and why did the Tokyo Talks fail in 2003? Why was he unable to get the terrorists to the negotiating table since then-can he kindly answer us? Is he angry with Gotabhaya Rajapakse for having pushed the terrorists to a corner and cleared many areas which were until recently under the grip of LTTE terrorists? If that were the case, does he consider himself to be a true patriotic son of this country when he connived to sell out the country?

Ranil Wickramasinghe seems to be such a wonderful champion against corruption, human rights violations and press freedom-God forbid that he has such a short memory! Under which government during 1980s-1994 did we create a world record on bribery and corruption? During 2001-2004 when he was Prime Minister under Chandrika Kumaratunga's Presidency, has he forgotten the amount of bribery and corruption that took place- at the time, did he lift one finger to punish the perpetrators? Unfortunately, to use the words of Anura Bandaranaike "Old Royalists are not indecent" and therefore we suppose, Ranil Wickramasinghe was unable to punish those who sold out CWE, in the name of a " Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Centre" mauled down an entire Sports Stadium (using bulldozers) which was serving all schools in the Kotte, Rajagiriya and Nugegoda as well as others in Colombo and Battaramulla to erect the HSBC complex behind blocked billboards advertising the memorial centre, which we now see in Etul Kotte! The list of other instances could be done but they will be far too many to list in one article. Human Rights and Media Freedom that he is also fond of parroting these days, were all violated with a vengeance both during the regime of his late uncle and also during his Premiership of 2001-2004. His own cousin Dr. Rajiva Wijesinghe says a mouthful in his centre page article "Dealing with Disinformation" which appeared in the Daily News of 30th May 2007 about the doings of Ranil Wickramasinghe and his credibility. The article is well worth reading.

Amongst politicians in this country, we cannot say that there are too many so called "honest politicians" and that is not referring to the present day but ever since 1977 when the entire political culture of this country took a downward trend!

Irrespective of which political party comes into power, the citizens of this country expect them to serve the nation with dignity, patriotism and with the best interests of the entire nation- not for them to be feeding foreign governments with vested interests in Sri Lanka or for them to be carrying tales to foreigners and governments about internal problems of this country. According to the article of Dr.Rajiva Wijesinghe which appeared in the Daily News today (quote):"…….For there appeared, on that same Wednesday ,also in the print meda, what was introduced as being a "country report on the situation in Sri Lanka" which the United National Party(UNP) submitted on April 26th. What was not mentioned was to whom or what that report had been submitted. This however, was made clear in the body of the report. The report ends "It is here that we appeal to all of you abroad to support us by launching campaigns in your respective parliaments and outside, to pressurize the Government of Mahinda Rajapakse and the LTTE to safeguard human rights, to restore democratic freedoms(including the media) and to resolve the humanitarian crisis facing our people."(end quote) In another section of the article Dr. Wijesinghe states in his article(quote):" Who are these supporters? Here I must confess to sense of irony, because I believe, from the date on which the report was issued, that these are members of the International Democratic Union, into which Wickremasinghe took the UNP a few years back. I say ironically, because a couple of decades ago, when the Liberal Party joined Liberal International, Wickremasinghe was one of those who, along with his erstwhile mentor, President Jayawardane, scoffed at such links."(end quote) In yet another section of the same article Dr. Wijesinghe states(quote):" But there are certain norms in appealing to such bodies, which include scrupulous adherence to the truth. This is not a Ranil strong suit, though he works through insinuation, and usually manages to get others to do his dirty work for him."(end quote).

Ranil Wickremasinghe must not think others are fools and only he is wise- people do know his dubious ways of doing things even though "Old Royalists" are not known for doing indecent things! The UNP Leader has shown himself in a very bad light and let us hope that he will accept the fact that the astrological prediction on which he was working has "mis-fired" but that we the citizens of this country expect him to work with honesty and integrity- most of all that he should stop complaining to foreign governments and foreigners so that they may help him back into power to destroy this country lock, stock and barrel! The slogan he used during elections "Regaining Sri Lanka" is without doubt, to help foreign powers regain their foothold and re-commence their control of our internal affairs!

Mr. Wickramesinghe- you may still consider it an honour to be servile to foreign powers but the citizens of Sri Lanka have better feelings of patriotism and we need a leader with a backbone not a spineless servant of the west.

Note: International Democratic Union (IDU) is a far right Christian Organisation of foreign countries.

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