"Oye Chinthakakarayante Balayate Enne Hakiwune Chandrika Chinthanaya Nisayi"
Says Former President in Attanagalle-[Lankadeepa-6th March 2007]

By Darmitha-Kotte

Extremely "interesting utterances" have been made by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga to the innocent villagers on 4th March 2007 at Bogoda Alawela and Haggalle in the Attanagalle area where meetings were organized at which she participated to attend to a number of activities: laying the foundation stone for a two storied community center building at Bogoda in Nittambuwa; presented sports goods to the Alawela Sports Society and chairs to the "Avamangalyadhara Samithiya" in Attanagalle; Prize-giving ceremony of Sucharithodaya Daham Pasala affiliated to the Nagavanaramaya Temple, Haggalle.

Fortunately for us, unlike Chandrika Kumaratunga who has a very short memory and a memory of what she wants to believe at that, we do not have so called "memory blocks" and therefore we are able to remember incidents which took place a mere two decades ago without distortions. Where was she in the mid-1980s? Was she a SLFP party member then? Why did she go against her late mother and form a separate party together with the late Vijaya Kumaranatunge? What was the reason for her and her late husband to have visited the Vanni and conduct discussions with Prabhakaran and other terrorist cadres, during which time photos were seen in the news media of Vijaya Kumaratunga taking aim at cut-outs of our Officers at shooting practise? Why did she connive and conspire with terrorist leader Prabhakaran to smuggle his wife and children overseas? 10th July 2001 Why did she as President permit the then UNP government together with the then Minister of Constitutional Affairs (whom she used to call "that man who calls himself 'professor') sign an MoU with Bergoff Foundation of Germany to psychologically weaken our Armed Forces?

During 1995-2000 period why did she as President organize the "Sudu Nelum Movement" with the recently sacked Minister Mangala Samaraweera to demoralize the Sinhalese in the south because apparently only the Sinhalese are "nationalist" and "extremist" (God forbid if we can find another word for what LTTE terrorists are doing-except extremism); What was "the package" she formulated together with "that professor" except to hand over the North and East to terrorists; what about the conspiracy she tried to cook up against Mr. Rauff Hakeem and keep hounding him even at the doors of the Sri Lankan Parliament together with the now sacked Minister?; Why did she connive and conspire in her attempt during her tenure of Presidency with a Minister who claims lineage to King Dutugemunu to insult, physically beat up Buddhist monks and break up the JHU? Why did she manipulate and misuse her powers to get Ministers to agree "to donate the famous Madiwela land" for her personal use? Why did she manipulate third parties to negotiate commissions with the famous 'Water's Edge' golf links project?

Waste State funds on the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway Project against saner judgements of experienced Engineers in the RDA? Systematically allow our national education system to collapse(over 450 government schools in the country closed down) and then with her "doctor" friend Tara de Mel as Secretary Ministry of Education sign MoUs with World Vision to hand over management of schools? The bunglings and misappropriation of relief funds which occurred and deprived Tsunami victims of obtaining alternate housing for what they lost on 26th December 2004? -the list can be extremely long of her bunglings and unpatriotic dealings if we need to list each and every one of them. Obviously, these are the "Chandrika Chinthanaye" that she talks about so proudly.

Shamelessly she stated at that meeting that if people continued what she had been doing on the economic front as well as the situation related to the war and peace, then there should be no problem! On the war and peace policy, secret agreements with Prabhakaran to do personal favours for him, is what she thinks will save this country from war. Without batting an eye lid, this former President shamelessly says to the uneducated innocent villagers of the above mentioned villages, that during the past 13-14 years she has worked for 15-16 hours a day and that ¾ (75%) of the Ministries during her tenure as Executive President were under her direct control but that Ministers took the credit for whatever good she did. An Executive President who takes control over 75% of the Ministries if this was so, did not need a Cabinet of Ministers to govern this country! Little wonder that the country was in such a mess because if what she stated at these meetings is true, then it was more than just a "one man show!"

True to the extremely decent manner in which she is known to make speeches, she has used utterly low vocabulary in her speeches that day which truly exhibit her education and decency and should have been an eye opener to even the most uneducated listener in that crowd. We are truly ashamed that we ever had an Executive President of this calibre governing us from 1994-2005. Please access the internet and access the Lankadeepa of 6th March 2007 and read for yourselves the actual words that have been spoken- it is truly shameful, to say the least.

Like Mark Antony's funeral oration at Julias Ceasars' funeral, so does Chandrika Kumaratunga attempt over and over again, to impress upon the listeners that she has no more political aspirations and that she would not return to politics BUT knowing her only too well, not too many would believe a word of what she says because "Musawade" is her forte'

Her prodigies who are now sacked and running around like mad dogs making statement after statement to all channels of the media attempting to insult our Armed Forces, create dissention within the government, create rifts with the JVP and JHU and also confuse the general public, it will not be too long before they realize that their efforts are futile. Both these politicians have exhibited the same qualities as those of their mentor- hurl insults and distortions at the incumbent President and government.

No matter what "Chinthanaya" they talk, what we have witnessed in this country during one and a half years of President Rajapakse, is the fact that he has been able to restore the dignity of our Armed Forces, convince the international community of the horrors of terrorism practiced by LTTE, above all he has been able to achieve for this country in terms of dignity and self-pride what JR Chinthanaya, Premadasa Chinthanaya, Chandrika Chinthanaya and Ranil Chinthanaya have been "parroting" for 26 years that our Armed Forces cannot fight the LTTE terrorists and that Sri Lanka needs to be fragmented and given on a platter to blood-thirsty terrorists if we want peace! President Rajapakse has been strong enough to tell foreign audiences that peace for all is most welcome but within a sovereign and united Sri Lanka once terrorism is wiped out!

For the welfare of Sri Lanka it is best that "Chandrika Chinthanaye" together with the person itself, leaves this country alone and leaves our shores for good without ever having hopes of returning to her dirty politics in this country where the majority Sinhalese will be insulted at every turn. We have had an overdose of her "Chinthanaya" and her arrogance, we can live in harmony without her. If her brother wishes to remain in politics, let him first prove his worth by doing something constructive in the ministry that has been given to him instead of even secretly aspiring to become Prime Minister of this country. His late mother and father deserved it but certainly not him! He was certainly lucky that President Rajapakse pardoned him and took him back-that is clemency enough.

The SLFP is the party of all citizens of this country if they wish to, but it is certainly not the sole inheritance of the Bandaranaike siblings- it would be wise to understand realities and fall in line.