[...] Morquendi also asks some other uncomfortable questions about the implications of Ranil winning on votes that were largely Sinhala, and asserts that the victor for Ranil means a defeat for Sri Lanka – the Sri Lanka that has both Sinhala and Tamil people. Indi on why he thinks Ranil lost. He has more on the LTTE disenfranchising the people they claim to represent. [...]

I totally agree with you on this one Indica. It’s not very easy to understand how the LTTE and their intimidation works in Jaffna. Especially if you don’t live there. They can be quite “pushy” when they want to and that’s what they’ve done this time round. However not all Jaffna tamils would have voted in favour of Ranil if they got an opportunity to but clearly the majority would have (giving room for extremists, as in any society).

Well said indi…If they (LTTE) get their separate state, may be this is how their planning to govern.

err … you got the figures wrong in the first place.
4,269/701,938 is 0.006 but 0.6%. and
8,524 voted in jaffna district ( 1.21%) see the election dept. website.( click on jaffna below ).

that is still pathetic

To go and vote you would have to take your life in your hands and walk past armed guards at checkpoints.- not so in government controlled areas like the jaffna town. and it is in government areas that most ppl live.

It was an internal party decision taken that very day. -not so again, it was becoming evident from about 7th and 8th.i myself blogged about it on 8th and 13th, and , so did tamiliana . tna mps tried to change it i think, but failed. one tna mp then predicted 5% turnout in a tv talk show on itn on last sunday, 13th.

ltte do have some control over government controlled areas but only by stealth and yes a climate of terror may have prevailed but ltte is not able to physically prevent ppl from voting in those areas.
in 1988 election in the south there was similar terror climate ( thanks to jvp) but lots of ppl voted and some got killed for not following jvp’s orders.
and in january iraqis voted in sufficient nos inspite of a boycott backed by real threats.

fact is ne tamils acted like cowards and slaves of the ltte. a braver response would have meant a higher percentage voting.
democracy works only when ppl have the courage to vote. imo cowards do not deserve democracy.

mahinda buffalo and herd fails to notice, because to do so would be to admit that he is president courtesy of the ltte.

btw,
‘united sri lanka’(a federal state) was used by unp, ‘unitary sri lanka ‘ was buffalo’s slogan. you are confused? :-)

A bad move that will cost them dearly in the international arena. I am told there were attempts by the co-chairs to persuade them otherwise and they are very disappointed by the blockade-a further tightening of rules can be expected.

In 2001, inflation was around 15% and increasing rapidly, economic growth had turned negative, foreign reserves were drying up rapidly while government debt was increasing rapidly. Ordinary people felt the effects of that bleak economy when construction workers were out of work and taxi drivers couldn’t find hires.
Just imagine what would have happened if those trends continued.
This is what Ranil had to deal with then he took power in 2001. He had to reverse the rapid decline of the economy and to do that he took steps to ensure that government spending was placed under tight discipline.
If he hadn’t done that, the economy would have gone down hill further.
Ranil’s policies didn’t faile. In 2001 the economy was a sinking ship. Ranil succeeded in rescuing that ship.
Unfortunately the voters of this country failed. They failed to comprehend reality and see through the lies of Wimal Weerawansa and his comrades. The electorate has proven that it has a very short memory and isn’t capable of thinking.
The only gratitude Ranil got was being booted out of government in 2004 and out of politics in 2005.
The electorate said –
“Thanks a lot Ranil. You worked hard and saved this ship from sinking. But that’s all we expect from you and from now on we’ll pretend not to know what you did for us. What we want is people like Wimal Weerawansa who entertain us. We enjoy he SCREAMS and his fancy stories and his conspiracy theories. You are boring! We’d prefer somebody with a red shawl around his neck!!! ”
Unfortunately the voting public have proven yet again that they will always go with fancy nationalist/socialist rhetoric so long as the economy hasn’t deteriorated to the point where taxi drivers don’t get hires and construction workers can’t find work. They’ll wait till the economy is crawling on it’s knees (like in 2001) to elect a politician who has a sound comprehension of reality rather than those with fancy nationalist/socialist slogans.
As in all things in life, people will have to face the consequence of their foolish decisions. It will not take long for inflation to reach 25% for the exchange rate to spiral downward and for the economy to stagnate (or worse). That’s because the policies that led to the bleak economic situation that existed in 2001 are contained in an amplified form in “Mahinda Chinthena”. On top of that Prabhakaran will probably want to resume the war (why else would he ensure the UPFA candidate’s victory by calling for a boycott) and the people will discover that the war mongers they elected aren’t even competent enough to fight a war!
When the ship starts sinking again, the people should be told not to grumble and not to cry. They should be told bluntly that the ship is sinking again because of the ingratitude they showed to the leader who saved the sri lankan economy from collapsing – Ranil Wickramasingha. They should be told it is because they are foolish enough and corrupt enough to prefer the “Sobaneya” of a red shawl, fancy nationalist/socialist rhetoric and the lies, conspiracy theories and SCREAMS of people like Wimal Weerawansa Sahodereya. They should be told that the ship is sinking because they are not capable of instinctively identifying the real leadership that Ranil offered when the ship was no yet sinking!

Anyway Indi, Do you admit that the GOSL\SLA failed to enforce free and fair elections in jaffna which is under their control.
>> The LTTE motor cycle squad patrolled roads. People on the roads were threatened.
There are more than 50,000 soldiers in jaffna! Were your soldiers sleeping in their barracks when this happend, come on give me a break..

How much percentage of the Tamils were intimidated into not voting and how many voluntarily abstained from voting is always a matter of dispute. Just the fact that were incidents of intimidation in jaffna doesn’t mean that all the tamils would have voted otherwise…….
There is a possibility that the LTTE asked the people just to boycott the elections and the bombings\incidents of violence were carried out by othere self intersted parties who didn’t want the Tamils to tilt the balance in the elections. No prizes for guessing which southern party had to benefit most….

“Thanks a lot Ranil. You worked hard and saved this ship from sinking. But that’s all we expect from you and from now on we’ll pretend not to know what you did for us. What we want is people like Wimal Weerawansa who entertain us. We enjoy he SCREAMS and his fancy stories and his conspiracy theories. You are boring! We’d prefer somebody with a red shawl around his neck

Yes Ranil thanks a lot for been a joker all these times, and we did enjoy your US Presidential style campaigning, even though we felt it was rather funny to see you clapping like a clown to the Parakum song, with those dancing girls strutting their stuff in front of the villagers and it was one heck of a party!…With you promising to give them bracelets,and CD players (You didn’t honour that one Didn’t you?)..By the way what happened to your bus which you used last time? ….Was it ” Kota Uda”?.or perhaps sold by your comrades like they did with the CWE!..Anyway your comrades wanted the farmers to wear denims and Gucci T-Shirts with either Nike or Addidas sneakers, and perhaps Laptops to monitor the world market prices for agricultural produce!

Hey not only that you were pretty good with ideas wherever you happen to be……When you are in area like Agalawatta, you talk of moving mountains upside down and using the earth to create “Pasdun Korales” and We thought you were serious about building the biggest Chaittya in the whole of Asia! Wow , and we were quite impressed by your knowledge and interpretation of the Buddhist texts!….But we had serious doubts after your grand stint at the Batalanda!!

You were a wizard when talking about development and creating jobs by millio9ns!….You were at ease to look around and say I am going to make the tourists stay in Negombo and do their shopping there and they need not come to Colombo or elsewhere!! You were also good at marketing ….isn’t it? We farmers were very impressed about your skills in promoting “ANCHOR and Nestpray”. Even the leaders from African countries were feeling good after you showed the whole world that We Sri Lankans are so poor and dying of starvation! courtesy of your media darlings the Sirasa, Swarnawahini and TNL and the host of FM Chaps , who had no music but your commercials about Milk and Halmasso, and We have to use ear plugs coz it was such a nuisance and comical.

Anyway we watched in silent agony all your feeble attempts to stay afloat (After you were been rejected by us for 13 times
But yet we admire your courage to cling on to a losing battle. Yes We
also made to believe, you were the only man with visions left and right and beyond the Moon……and your plans were the
best for the country! No other person could match your economic wisdom for our country. Yours were right and theirs were wrong as you put it…..after all you were suppose to be a savior of our economy from destruction…….but yet we rejected you! How un grateful of us!………We thought you supported uncle Sam to defeat terrorists in Iraq and when oil prices soared afterwards (with the wrath of hurricane Kartrina lashing at Sam’s territory)….but luckily for you, You were thrown out of power, despite your so called efforts to steady the sinking ship!…So you need not have to face that difficult period of world oil price hikes…..and it gave you some ammunition to criticize others in governance about inflation!

Yes Sir, you wanted to make that chap in Wanni happy and in the process lost our support as well as theirs!!! Ohh no what a double blow indeed!…….Do not accuse us of been un grateful, be courageous to accuse them as well……….Well we know you would not do it after all you never accused them when they killed Honorable Kadiragamar!!…So we know your ways very well…..

We should be failling in our duties if we don’t tell you to the face” We Sri Lankans are intelligent than you to select a leader of our choice, and that chap will have to be strong to stand by our love for this country. We want someone who appreciate our simple way of life and who will uphold our values. We will certainly want development, no doubt about it…but it has to be in line with our aspirations and the majority of Sri Lankans. Yes we cannot be tolerant to your support to a few select croonies, who supported your campaigns!!! We were mindful about the Tax concessions to those select buddies last time around> You got to learn a lot if you are to win us!…..Come down from your air conditioned comforts in Colombo and mingle with us….try to listen to our pulses….after all your type of campaign issues doesn’t appeal to us, and infact it angered us! Don’t resort to the failed tactics of mud slinging to and patriotic true sons of Sri Lanka, just because your hands are tainted! And don’t think we are foolish to take your promises seriously, after all you had been playing the same game plan through out your 13 defeats!!!……You should have saved those billions of black campaign money by practically helping the people. At least to help tsunami victims as you use to always say that they didn’t get anything from the government! But yet they rejected you in total……judging by the voting in the coastal belt!

Anyway its entirely not your fault isn’t it?….After all you need to get a overhaul of your party machinery, and try to get people with realistic visions or folks who feels the pulse of the ordinary Sri Lankans…..You need to do a major change to chase away those corrupt partymen and Royal College advisors, who were responsible for giving you dead ropes or failed strategies!!! Yes your last minute die hard struggle with the National flag of Sri Lanka will not help you. You need to be patriotic by heart and not by mere words or clumsy acts!….We Sri Lankiness are not amused at all!….Yes a long wait awaits you or who ever who gonna rebel against you!……remember your party had the Presidency for 16 yeas or so…not so long ago and what your grandmasters did at that time to ruin the opposition!…..Well , the wheels of fortune infact change and now the people’s government will rule and exceed that 16 year record.

Hey we still wants your humorous and joking styles, so try and stay for your 3rd attempt (provided you manage to cling
on to your leadership )… We certainly gonna miss you and the Madam who likes you, seems to be determined to cling on!!…May be a refreshing holiday and a long break at Uncles Sam’s and Blair’s will help you both, at least you will come up with new visions over and beyond the earth……..Ohh don’t worry about the Wanni chap , he isn’t gonna harm you anyway, coz he lost interest in you since 2003, but what happened to your grand vision?…you didn’t foresee that may we wish you good luck!!!………..Yes the man from the South.with a glowing red shawl and who was the choice of the five forces of Farmers, Teachers, Physicians, Working class, and the Maha Sanga and who ever others whom you prefer to add on to his list has soundly and squarely beaten you.., without any form of black mafia style media support!………….It’s the simple and stark reality.

amhinda buffalo from the South.with a glowing red shawl and who was the choice of the five forces of Farmers, Teachers, Physicians, Working class, and the Maha Sangaand tigers, won bc ltte wanted it that way. It’s the simple and stark reality.

no amount of words and insults against ranil will make that historical fact disappear.
learn to live with it, buffalo is already doing so by trying to appease the tigers and ditching the five perennial losers, Farmers, Teachers, Physicians, Working class, and the Maha Sanga so soon after the election.

Aaah…..Gamaya…….(I so wanted say that!!) Farmers and Maha Sanga are forces? eeer…….I assume you mean freeloader force…..

Ok guys, the numbers 17 since last Friday. That’s the number of soldiers killed fyi. I sure hope the Glowing Red Shawl is keeping track of how the same people who put him in power is now slowly but surely pulling the plug on him.

[...] Just to note, Prabhakaran voted for Rajapakse as well. On election day, despite prior promises, the LTTE banned all citizens in occupied areas from voting. The people in the North and East were polling overwhelmingly towards Ranil, and could have swung the election. However, as DBS Jeyaraj reported, “While posters and leaflets calling for a boycott were widely circulated a systematic campaign of violence and terror also commenced prior to the poll. A series of explosions took place. In Jaffna grenades were thrown at five EPDP party offices on the eve of polls. Grenades and bombs were also thrown at Police patrols, army sentry posts, vehicles etc. A youth was tortured and beaten to death publicly at the Hindu College grounds. In Batticaloa a sub – post mistress who allegedly refused to hand over polling cards was brutally hacked to death.. A climate of terror prevailed. [...]