Erm, what the h*** is wrong with Sajith Premadasa ? Or Naween Dissanayake
for that matter ? Are they too young ? Is that it ? It is really stupid of the party not to recognise how much these two guys are doing in the ocuntry. They have been completely ignored as potential leaders.

I wanted to write a post on Ranil, but I think I’ll just comment here instead.

What’s sad about him is that he was never able to market his ideas too well, by nature he’s an introvert, you can tell from the way he acts and speaks, and naturally he wouldn’t communicate all too well to the majority. He had some great ideas, and he stood for things I would stand for too, but he always slouched, refused to tuck his shirt out, and now he refuses to step down. I wonder if he still stands for the same things, or if right now he just wants his dignity, personally I’d like to tell him that I respect him for what he did with the little power he had back in ’04, and for never giving up, BUT now it’s time to let go, and let someone else carry the batton. He’s already outrun his share of the track, carrying the batton past like 3 or 4 other UNP members who could’ve run better, and it’s a shame they didn’t get a chance. It would be more dignified for him to step back on his own and pass on the batton, rather than being tripped and have the batton taken from him.

Personally, I’d like to see a strong opposition. I wouldn’t mind if Mahinda won this election, as long as the opposition wins the Parliamentary Election. I’d like to see something similar to the Chandrika/Ranil period, possibly Mahinda/Sarath or whoever manages to rally together a strong enough opposition to keep the other in check. What if Mahinda & co are too entrenched in the system and the economy that taking away their power brings all of it crumbling down? How much do we know of the damage they’ve been doing? Would Sarath or ANYONE else coming in to fill his shoes be able to hold it all up? Or do we need it to all fall down so we can rebuild it again?

Someone told me this country isn’t ready for proportional representation, that right now we need a benevolent dictator. That corruption, dishonesty, ignorance, selfishness and greed have been the bane of this country. And no, it wasn’t my mom :P

One reason for this much corruption is the lack of an opposition that fights enough. Ranil does have good economic knowledge, but like St. Fallen has said he never had good marketing. Sajith is the one and only person that could bring UNP back to the top, especially given excellent vote base he’s got and the way he delivers speeches .

Dude, a little too much innuendo here: “He was in a swimming pool full of boys.” I think you could have got your point across, that he is insular and disconnected with reality, without this sentence. His alleged homosexuality should not be an issue.

Ranil, despite his weakling image is a despot. Like Sarath Fonseka he wants ALL the credit and cannot share power.

Bravo for saying “I think Ranil is hurting this country as much or more than Mahinda”. I cannot agree more. As I have said, publicly, the biggest tragedy of our times is not that we have an unsatisfactory and disappointing government but an impotent, uncaring and utterly selfish political opposition led by the Serial Loser called Ranil Wickramasinghe.

In any case, Ranil has only been a pretender to the office he holds. As I wrote on the day Lasantha Wickrematunge was brutally gunned down, nearly one year ago: “Today, we lost the real Leader of the Opposition. ”

Can somebody tell this wimp called Ranil what Rabindranath Tagore wrote decades ago: If you can lead, lead. If you cannot, then follow. If you can do neither, then get out of the way!

One thing I find really funny is that, well, nobody likes Ranil. Nobody ever liked Ranil. Even in 2004, not many people liked Ranil. Still he’s always the guy with highest preferrential votes from colombo district. I wonder whether that would happen in 2010 though.

1. It is rather sad to see and hear all the comments against Ranil. While, I agree he has his weaknesses, still I believe, out of the realistic candidates, he is the better principled one, not perfect, no one is.
2. Ranil’s defeat at the last presidential election was not his fault, and possibly the one before that. Chandrika and Mahinda owe their presidency to the LTTE.
3. Ranil’s faults are: disconnect with the general public, image of weakness, lack of charisma and inability to get the party fully behind him are all accentuated by the circumstances of the nature of Lankan politics.
4. Ranil’s faults are emphasized due to the nature and terrain of Lankan politics: tough guy with dictatorial attitude, to whom his/her minions pander to
5. Ranil in terms of policy and the future direction for this country is the better candidate, but the nature and terrain of the Lankan electorate is such that forward thinking candidates are obscured by the populist warmongers.
6. Ranil’s CFA led to the GoSL’s victory over the LTTE. Ranil’s envisaged path, through the CFA, would have been best for this country, but revenge and triuphalism of the sinhala electorate meant people like Ranil would be vilified, with the LTTE doing their part in it. But if war was not successful then people would have warmed up to Ranil’s path through the CFA, but only grudgingly, they would have been happy to win the war rather than take the path of peace, for such is the mentality of the sinhala polity(no stereotype intended).
7. People need to give Ranil a break. He has been dealt with the bad side of fortunes, thanks to groups like the LTTE. In a free and fair election, in 2005, Ranil would have become president. The systemic failures should not be entirely borne by one person.
8. As for the upcoming election, putting forth SF to split the sinhala nationlist vote is the correct political move in order to capture power. Hopefully Ranil and Mangala’s gamble would pay off, by being able to control and manage SF, while the main reason is to remove MR and bros. With MR, Ranil and Mangala in parliament, they could probably make it easier to get a two-third majority to abolish the presidency. But if people will only understand the “nature of things” this would all be simple to explain.
9. Here’s to Ranil!!!!!

Yeah, you are stinked… we want a new leader for UNP. @least Ranil cant speak to the peoples heart. If he tell something, it’l become a joke. i have to say this also. Nowadays Ranil is like a commody character. that’s cause of his untalented addressing style…

hey guys… what do you think about Sajith Premadasa???? I think he’s the BEST person to the leadership…..

cheerzz for SAJITH…

Hey guys join Sajith Premadasa’s Youth Movement @ http://www.facebook.com/TharunaSaviya2010