|
||||||||||||
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
TREASURER LOST AND PARTY DISMEMBERED IN THE BID TO TOPPLE THE GOVERNMENT.A.A.M.NIZAM MATARA.For the last six months Sri Lankans are being told of imminent change of government by the leader of the opposition and his cohorts. The Tuppahi and reactionary elements that detest this government for the mere fact of concentrating on upliftment of the hoi polloi that would eventually threaten their lifestyle get highly amused by these periodical predictions and provide their wholehearted support for activities related to these pronouncements. These selfish urbanites who wish to prolong the misery of the commoners never hesitate to embrace anyone who enters their fold. Mangala Samaraweera was the most detested political villain in their past for this political class. The moment he was kicked out by the President he became the most endearing darling of this clan over and above others. They enthusiastically looked forward to see a parade of SLFP Parliamentarians joining him on the stage at the much hyped propaganda rally on July 26th with the attendance of a promised crowd of 500,000 supporters.
The media poodles of the reactionary propaganda machinery consisting of family concerns and vested interests gave much advance publicity to this purported doomsday of the government. These media poodles gave the impression that the President was much worried about this day and without even attending to his official duties he had personally contacted, without any success, many in the Junk-UNP to dissuade them from attending the glorious event.
The Leader of the Opposition who previously got frustrated over the much publicized Rajayoga fiasco, pioneered a new astrological theory saying that every 30 years the stars help the UNP to attain political pinnacle, which elevated them to power in 1947 and 1977 and in 2007 it has a double fortune since with the additional event coinciding with his completion of 30 years in politics. They claimed that no one could prevent the fall of government with the July 26th meeting, and a UNP government coming into power.
It is strange and could be unique to Sri Lanka alone, that a sizeable number of ordinary masses tend to believe the false propaganda being spread by the reactionary urbanites from time to time. This section of the masses blindly support them despite apparent anti social, anti-poor, anti-national and pro-alien activities of this political class. This political grouping has grossly deviated from the policies of its founders of the UNP who were non-selfish great champions of nationalism and dedicated patriots who overwhelmingly valued national interests.
Unfortunately this grand old political party has fallen into the hands of a selfish clique, and the Ravis, Johns, Michaels, and Fernandos who are the leading icons of this party today with the leader (a politically bankrupt individual – as per S.B.Dissanayake) are only interested in subjugating the party to the dictates of the International Democratic Union, which is a conglomerate of western political parties dedicated for spreading policies based on Christian Democratic ideals.
Now let us examine the political tamasha of the purported doomsday and activities related to it. All reactionary media claimed that the organizers would assemble a crowd of 500,000, and a grand procession would be held from Campbel Park to Hyde Park which would be followed by a meeting addressed by the so-called leaders of the National Congress and many prominent politicians would join the so-called Congress at this meeting heralding fall of the government. It was also rumoured that 18 Parliamentarians from the government side would join the Ranil-Mangala honeymoon at this meeting.
The number of votes received by Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe in the Colombo District in the last Presidential Election was 569,627 including the 6,143 postal votes. It is absolutely impossible to believe that all these 569,000 would assemble at the meeting venue or procession venue. Normally one person from a household attends political meetings depending on their commitment to the political party. Based on this hypothetical estimate at least 100,000 persons could have attended from the whole of Colombo District.
In such an event the other 400,000 should have to be brought in from districts outside Colombo. Just imagine how many thousand buses it requires to bring in even if they bring in pol-patawapu buses (fully packed bauses) at the rate of one hundred persons per bus which is highly unlikely. Normally a long chasis bus has seating capacity for about sixty persons and the so-called mini buses for 29 persons. Further out of the 15 electorates which we estimated as having the capacity to bring in 100,000 persons from the Colombo District, except people in Borella, Colombo West, Colombo East, Colombo North and Colombo Central people in other 10 electorates of the Colombo district too would have needed buses to attend the rally. In such a situation how many thousand buses they would need for 500,000 persons to assemble in Colombo.
How many persons Mr. Mangala Samaraweera brought for this meeting from Matara? In 1989 we managed to take only about 38 people in one TATA bus for the SLFP Annual Convention and in 1994 three TATA buses for the Moraweka rally in which Mrs. Chandrika was supposed to address. These were die-hard SLFPers and they did not participate for reasons of relationships or cultural ties. While he functioned as a powerful Minister there were people to give buses and other vehicles. As most of the private bus owners have allegiance to the UNP it would not have been difficult to get buses to transport people from Matara to Colombo but unfortunately it was not successful.
Mr. Samaraweera addressing the Hyde Park rally has said that only 12 persons participated in the pro-Government rally held in Matara on the same day. People are now quite familiar with the blatant fictions of Mr. Samaraweera and his protege, and those who viewed the news telecast on these meetings would have seen by themselves the size of the crowd participated in the Matara meeting.
The other factor of fooling the masses by the organizers of this rally was selection of the venue for the meeting. Anyone in Sri Lanka is aware of the limited number of the crowd that can be accommodated at Hyde Park and its surrounding roads. The selection of this venue, a well known location for Trade Union gatherings was itself a sign that the organizers despite announcing about bloated figures very well knew the possible number of people who would assemble, and that was the reason they opted for Hyde Park instead of selecting spacious locations. .
The meeting based on the publicity given by the organizers, the hopes created in the minds of the people, the promises made about a serious threat to the government, and the claim of crossovers by many SLFP parliamentarians was a total failure. Instead of crossover by SLFP Parliamentarians, the outcome of the meeting has resulted in the Treasurer of the UNP Mr. Tilak Karunatilleke resigning from the Party. He has said that “he was shocked by the statements made by the party leader devaluing the military victories of the Sri Lankan armed forces and his recent statements insulting the Buddhist monks”. Rumours are around that this resignation would open up floodgates for further dissension of members who value the heroism of our security forces and oppose veiled criticism of Buddhist principles.
Although the terrorist website TamilNet tried to give undue publicity for the meeting by stating that 100,000 persons attended, many international news services, including Reuters have mentioned that the crowd amounted to 15,000 still a figure in excess of the capacity that can be accommodated at Hyde Park and its surrounding areas.
The meeting which was a total failure laid naked the false propaganda and the mischievous agenda of the reactionary gang and confirmed that masses stand firmly and solidly with the government totally accepting and supporting the government’s determination for freeing the nation from the decades of terrorist menace.
|
||||||||||||
|
|
Disclaimer: The comments contained
within this website are personal reflection only and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the LankaWeb. LankaWeb.com offers the contents
of this website without charge, but does not necessarily endorse the
views and opinions expressed within. Neither the LankaWeb nor the individual
authors of any material on this Web site accept responsibility for any
loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), which
you may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of your use of or
reliance on information contained on or accessed through this Web site.
Copyright
© 1997-2004 www.lankaweb.Com
Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved. |
|||||||||||
