රාජිත ඇමති  තුමනි!

ලුණු ,තෙල්,පොල් තෙල්, වැඩි කිරීමට පෙර

                                                                 

මහජනයාට විස බීජ කවන හෝටල් සුද්ද  කරොත්  නරකද?

අපිට 

බලු රාලලාගේ  කතා.

බලු  රාළලාට බල්ලන් කියා  කියන්නට මට හිතෙන්නේ  නැත. මන්ද ඔවුන් බොහෝ මිනිසුන්ට වඩා  හොඳ  නිසාය.මිනිසුන්ට හෝ  ගෑනුන්ට  දිගින් දිගට උදව්  කර එක වරක් හෝ උදව්  කිරීමට  නොහැකි වුවහොත්  අමනාප වනවා පමණක් නොව නැති තැන අවලාද නැගීමට පවා  පසුබට වන්නේ  නැත.1971 දී විනාශවූ   ජනතා  විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ,  හිර ගෙදරින්  නැවත නැවත පැන අවුත් රහසිගතව   ගොඩ  නැගු  , එමෙන්ම ජවිපෙ විමුක්ති ගී ප්‍රසංගයේ නිර්මාතෘ  අනුරාධපුරයේ  මාරසිංහ සහෝදරයා  1988 දී  ජවිපෙ  විසින්ම මහමගදී වෙඩි  තබා ඝාතනය කිරීම මිනිස්සුන්ගේ  හැටි  කියා පාන  උදාහරණයකි. එහෙත් බලු රාල කෙනෙකුට  විස්කෝතුවක් එක දිනක් පමණක් දුන්නත් ඔහු  මිය යන දිනය දක්වාම අර තැනැත්තාට කෘතඥ  තාවය  පළකරයි.
අද දින එක්  බලු  රාල කෙනෙකුගේ කතාවක්  මට අසන්නට ලැබිණ.අනුරාධපුරයේ සාලිය පුර ප්‍රදේශයේ  ඇතිදැඩි කළ මේ  බලු  රාල වතුරට ඉතා අකමැතිය. දිනක් බලු  රාලගේ  අයිතිකරු මට මේ  කතාව  කි අය  සමග ඇලකට  නාන්නට  ගියේ  බලු  සුරතලාවත් රැගෙනය. පළමුව  ඔහුව  නාවා  ඉවුර  මත  තබා අයිතිකරු  නාන්නට  පටන්  ගත්   අතර විහිලුවට  දියේ  ගිලෙන  අයුරු  රඟ   පෑවේය.මේ දුටු බලු  රාල  කලබලවී  කැ ගසන්නට වූ  අතර ඉන්පසු අසල සිටි එළදෙනක් වෙත  දිව  ගොස් සිදුවන්නට  යන විපත්තියෙන්  තම ස්වාමියා බෙර  ගන්නා  ලෙස බලු භාෂාවෙන්  ආයාචනා  කර සිටියේය.එහෙත් එළදෙන එය  ගනන්  ගත්තේ  නැත. ඉන්පසු කර කියා ගන්නට දෙයක් නැති වුයෙන් ජලයට ඉතා අකමැති මේ  බලු  රාළ වතුරට පැන ස්වාමියා  ලඟට පීනා  ගියේය. ඔහුගේ  අයිති  කරුද තව දුරටත්  රඟපෑම  කරමින්   බලු රාලගේ කරමත  යන්තමින්  අත තබා ගත්තේය. එවිට  මේ බලුරාළ ඔහු  සමග පිහිනා ගෙන ඇලේ  ඉවුරට  ආවේය.
එහෙත් එයට මාස දෙක  තුනකට පසු මේ  බලු  රාළ කිසියම් කණ්ඩායමක් විසින්  මරා දමා තිබිණ. එයට හේතුව  වුයේ  රාත්‍රී  කාලයේ එහෙ මෙහෙ  යන පිරිසකට මොහුගේ  බිරීම කරදරයක්  වී තිබීම නිසාය.

Let Us Defeat Mahinda Again

January 15, 2015 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,MORE OPINION,Opinion | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH

By P.Bertie Ranaweerage -

Bertie Ranaweerage

I am proud to have penned a few articles to Colombo Telegraph since January last year on the need of fielding a common candidate that has the ability to make inroads into the SLFP vote base in order to defeat Mr.Mahinda Rajapksa at the Presidential Election. Through some of my articles I promoted Chandrika as the best choice as nobody from the SLFP was likely to challenge Mahinda at that time. The title of one of my articles was ‘ Is Chandrika the best option?’ Then again I wrote another article ‘titled ‘Common candidate competition” because Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and Dr.Kumar David were promoting Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Rev. SobhithaThera, respectively as the most suitable common candidate. I can remember that Dr.Dayan jayatilleka proposed Mr.Karu Jayasuriya and Mr. Sajith Premadasa also as suitable common candidates that can challenge Mahinda successfully. In my article I argued that Chandrika was the best option as the common candidate as she would be able to win a sizable number of SLFP votes which was indispensable to defeat Mahinda. After Mr. Maithripala Sirisena launched his campaign as the Common Candidate I wrote two articles predicting that he would win. The title of the two articles were ‘ Who will win? Maithri or Mahinda (Nov. 29 2014) and “Is Maithri the next President? (Dec 19 2014). I am happy and proud not only I was able to prove that the dons were but also I could participate in my small way in overthrowing Mahinda’s regime through my writing .

President Mahinda Rajapaksa listens to Army Commander Lt. Gen. Daya Ratnayake ( Photo Courtesy AP /Eranga Jayawardena)

At an interview with the BBC (Sinhala service) just before the last Presidential Election former President Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga said that Mahinda would try to remain in power even after the defeat as she knew who Mahinda was. The Foreign Minister yesterday made a complaint with the CID that Mahinda together with his brother Gotabya, CJ Mr.Mohan Pieris, former foreign minister G.L .Peris and Udaya Gammanpila plotted to cling onto power unconstitutionally when he was convinced Maithri was going to win the election. It is important to note neither the Attorney General nor the IGP nor the Army commander has denied so far the allegation made by Mr. Mangala Samaraweera, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that Mahinda made an attempt to annul the election results. When we examine Mahinda’s past it is clear that Mahinda wanted to come to power and then remain in power as long as possible by hook or by crook. His name has already gone to the history as the person who violated almost all the election laws that should be followed by the candidates from the nomination day to the election day .

In every democracy the first 100 days of a new administration is considered as the honeymoon period and the Opposition let the new rulers to govern the country during that period refraining from making unnecessary troubles. It is apparent now that Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa is not ready to give Maithri even a breathing space. There is no doubt that he is getting ready to defeat Maithri’s government at the first available opportunity.

All good hearted people of this country worked hard for the victory of Maithri because of his pledges to restore democracy , press freedom, independence of judiciary ,rule of law and introduce constitutional reforms for good governance. What Rajapaksha , his faction and racists want now is not to let Maithri to implement any of those measures.

Maithri’s victory has been a severe blow to the chauvinistic gangs such as Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya gammanpila, BBS, Rawna Balaya etc. Their sole dream is to bring Mahinda back to power. Soon after Mahinda left Temple Trees Wimal Weerawansa said that he would not let Mahinda stay at his home at Madamulana. To achieve their dark schemes they started   spreading canards round the country that the LTTE and the TNA were busy with the objective of forming an Elam administration in the North.

In the meantime It seems that Maithri has been able to secure a simple majority in the Parliament as around 25 UPFA MPs visited the new President at his home and expressed their allegiance to him. There is no doubt that they are leaving Mahinda not because they want to serve the country but because they fear that they will lose many things including their freedom as some of them have plundered the country .

Now it increasingly looks like that more and more Mahinda loyalists will desert Mahinda to save their necks. The Chief Minister of North West provincial Council together with all the UPFA Provincial Council Members there have expressed their support to Maithri. Though Mahinda’s initial plan was to defeat Maithri-Ranilgovernment through his loyalists headed by Nimal Siripala de Silva it seems now that he has been forced to abandon his conspiracy as more and more his loyalists are deserting him. According to latest reports Maithri and Mahinda have agreed to meet and discuss the unity of the SLFP. It is said that Mahinda is prepared to hand over the Chair of the SLFP to Maithri. I do not think that Mahinda will let Maithri to be the president of the SLFP sans conditions. There is no doubt that he wants very badly to stop the government from making investigations how the Rajapaksa family became one of the richest families in the country during the period he was in power.

Will Maithri agree to Mahinda’s conditions for the sake of the unity of the SLFP? If he agrees that will be the end of his 100 day programme as well as the Maithri-Ranil government. The forces that brought this government into power must not let Mahinda and chauvinistic gangs to sabotage the unity of Maithri and Ranil. A national government sans Mahinda loyalists for another few years is indispensable until the a permanent solution is found to the National Question that unite the Sinhalese, the Tamils and the Muslims

*P.Bertie Ranaweerage -Former president of Ceylon Teachers’ Union

 

Is Maithri The Next President?

December 19, 2014 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,Opinion | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH

By P. Bertie Ranaweerage -

Bertie Ranaweerage

It is evident that the Maithri’s camp is fully confident that Mr. Maithripala Sirisena will emerge the winner at the Presidential Election scheduled to be held on January 08, 2015. According to a statement made by Mr. Rajitha Senaratne, former Minister , recently, Maithri will win the Presidency with a majority over 55 per cent. There is no reason for me not to believe in his statement because the majority of the people from different walks of life I talked to during the last two weeks said they would vote for Maithri for different reasons. I would like to list the responses of the people I talked to in connection with the Presidential candidates. The readers are free to draw their own conclusions.

A friend of my son who comes from a SLFP family. He is from the Kalutara district.

“ My wife and I will vote for Maithri because one family robs the country. My father is for Mahinda and he told us not to return home after voting for Maithri. One of my aunts who has never voted for any party in the past said she would vote for Maithri.”

A software engineer in Matara who spoke to me on phone said,

“I will vote for Maithri because of the rampant corruption in the government.” He further said that according to her sister who works in Colombo in an office where around 50 employees work ,there are less than 10 who are ready to vote for Mahinda.

An English In Service advisor who lives some 40 kilometres away from my village said,

“ We are from a SLFP family. We voted for Mahinda in 2005 and 2010 but at the next election we will vote Maithri because one family is running the whole country.”

A motor mechanic who lives a few mile away from my home said,“ I will vote for Mahinda. It is because of him we live without fear”.

An owner of several businesses who benefited from this government said,“ I will vote Mahinda. This freedom and expressways are enough for us to vote for him. I am not concerned about the other allegations against the President.”

Another motor mechanic who lives around 25 kilometers away from my home said the following when I asked him who he was going to vote at the Presidential election.

“ We have never voted for the UNP. We have never got any benefit from the government and we don’t expect anything in future too. I hate the cutouts and posters of the President. I don’t know why. My mother also is going to vote for Maithri. My wife and I will vote for Maithri. My father is for Mahinda. Therefore I will not take him to the polling station.”

The following is what a family that runs a wayside eating house in a nearby town said to me when I went there for lunch recently. First they wanted to know who I was going to vote for. Without responding to their question I asked them who they were going to vote for. They promptly said “To Maithri” and asked “ Sir ! What about you ? I said “To Maithri”. Their immediate response to my answer was “ kiyana kiyana dena kiyanne maithrita denawa kiyalane. Den beluwama janadhipathi thumata dena kenek nehene.” ( A rough translation of what they said in Sinhala is “ Everybody says they will vote Maithri. It seems that there is nobody who is going to vote for the incumbent President.”)

Next I met a person who had visited Hambantota a few days ago to attend a funeral. I quote what he told me regarding the Presidential election.

“ There is less support for Mahinda in Hambantota because people’s lives have not improved under Mahinda’s government there. Instead of giving lands to the poor, lands have been given to the rich and family friends of those who are in power. The carpeted roads have not benefited the poor there”.

Then next person I talked to was a 25 year old youth from Bulathsinghala in the Kalutara district. He said,“ I have talked to around 15 persons. All of them are for Maithri except my father. People are angry because the cost of living is unbearable”.

A three wheeler driver I interviewed said ,“ They say Ranil will be appointed as the Prime Minister by Maithri. Therefore I will not vote Maithri”.

An agriculture instructress who went to Kalpitiya, Trincomalee, and Seruwavila on a field trip a few days ago with her colleagues had met some farmers and officers in those areas. She said that the majority of the farmers and a lot of agriculture officers preferred Maithri to Mahinda. The farmers at Seruwavila had told her it was thanks to Mahinda that they live without the war but as the cost of living is unbearable they would vote for Maithri.

A Samurdhi officer of the Divi Neguma Department expressed her view said,“I work in an office situated in the premises of to a Divisional Secretariat. 90% of the employees there say they will vote for Maithri because they have not been given motorbikes by Mahinda”. Some of the Samurdhi officers are campaigning for Mahinda but some are silent. I will vote Maithri because I want see a change. We are with Chandrika. It is she who appointed us as Samurdhi officers”.

The last interviewer before I started to pen this article was a bus driver attached to the Aluthgama SLTB depot. He said,“ The President will lose this time. People were transported to the President’s rally at Panadura from Aluthgama by our buses. People had to sign in attendance sheets at the meeting”. That is how they show they have a big crowd for their rallies”.

The above discussions I had with people prove that there is an overwhelming support for Maithri at least in some parts of the country. According to many online opinion polls Maithri is most likely to win the election with a comfortable majority. The decision taken by the Opposition not to display Maithri’s cutouts and deface walls, parapets, trees and lamp posts with propaganda posters seems to have won the hearts of the public. Is this not a new situation in the country? Has Sri Lanka’s population come of age? Have the voters given a new message to the politicians? Have they said that they could no longer be duped by giving concessions and reduction of prices on the eve of the elections? Do people hate those who harm the beauty of the environment by sticking posters in every nook and corner? If it is so, Mahinda’s excessive cutout and poster campaign has boomeranged against him. It is not wrong to conclude that many thousands of cutouts and millions of posters of Mahinda have done an irrecoverable harm to Mahinda’s re-lection bid.

Though all the signs show that Maithri will win, Mahinda, his family and his government will fight until the last minute to defeat the common candidate. His lackeys are doing everything in their power to obstruct Maithri’s march to victory. A number of venues reserved for Maithri’s meetings have been cancelled by pro Mahinda chairmen of local government councils. There is no doubt that more violence will be unleashed until the evening of January 8th. They may do whatever possible to scare away the anti Mahinda voters on the polling day. On several occasions in the past anti UNP thugs went to estates that are surrounded by Sinhala villages at night and grabbed poll cards from Up-country Tamils and threatened them not to come out on the election day to vote. We can expect the repetition of the past again on the eve of the Presidential election to prevent Up-country Tamils from voting Maithri.

Another challenge for the Maithri’s camp is how to garner the votes of the Tamils and the Muslims in the Northern and the Eastern Provinces. The government is well aware that the majority of the Tamils and the Muslims will not vote for Mahinda. If Maithri expects an overwhelming support from them he has to tell the people in the North and the East of his solutions to their urgent problems. It is true that he said that he would implement all the recommendations in the LLRC report. Yet I doubt that the Tamils are aware of it as he has mentioned it only once. However there is a possibility that transport services would be disrupted on the election day by organized groups in the North and East in order to prevent the voters from coming to polling stations as every vote that is not cast would be advantageous to the incumbent.

Therefore while taking steps to prevent sabotage in the North and East, Maithri’s camp must have a mechanism to garner every anti -government vote in the other seven Provinces. So far Maithri’s camp has failed to launch house to house campaign probably due to the delay in releasing his election manifesto. The house to house campaign has to be particularly carried out in the remotest parts of the country. For example there are very remote villages in the Monaragala district where there is no electricity . They are unaware what is going on in the rest of the country as most of them do not possess radios and TV sets. At the last Uva provincial Council elections they were threatened not to vote for the Opposition . Unless the Opposition takes remedial actions government thugs may threaten the innocent rural voters to vote for Mahinda.

There is little doubt that January 8 2015 will be the day that decides the fate of Sri Lanka. IF the incumbent wins, he will be in power at least for another 8 years. The UNP most probably will split into several factions and some will join Mahinda’ government. A referendum to lengthen the life of present Parliament can be expected. Neither Ranil nor Sajith will be able to resurrect the UNP for decades. The Tamils will be subjugated further and the organizations such as the BBS will declare war against the Muslims and non Buddhists. Sri Lanka will be a fertile land for insurrections and Al Khaida type terrorism.

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