Five Star General, Cinnamon Coup?
The Cinnamon Lakeside. I don’t know
I don’t know why I’m even posting this, but apparently it’s on state TV as well. Someone from the Sarath Fonseka campaign called and said the General was at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel with 50 men, planning to take over media stations. I don’t think one announces a coup in this way. The story from Derana is that the General himself is surrounded by Army, presumably controlled by Mahinda.
I called the Lakeside Lobby and they were like ‘none of these people are here’. Well, he said people under that name. The guy from SF’s office said there were 200 soldiers outside that weren’t theirs. I have no idea.
When the guy from SF called I didn’t believe, but I saw the same story on Twitter, citing Rupavahini TV. I think it’s some sort of disinformation. The government spin seems to be that they’re surrounding SF and his spin seems to be that he’s surrounding himself. I don’t get it. Either Fonseka is crazy like a fox or just crazy. I think everyone should just go to sleep and wait for the results. Or have one of the middling mojitos at 7 Degrees downstairs.
Curiouser and curiouser. I vouch for none of this as fact, please treat as entertainment.
oh jeeez watz happng in this country o_O
I saw a similar tweet saying that SF was holed up in Room 901 of the Transasia hotel with his wife and son, ready to flee the country in the morning. Those rumors…oh boy!
LOL, I heard same news, but it was room 900. Hee hee…
Oh the humanity!
This coup business better be gossip. Most likely it is. No one in their right mind would even contemplate such an eventuality given how fractious the country is even under the best of conditions.
But Indi’s confusion is understandable. And here’s the sad part about listening to gossip in Colombo.
No one bothers to tell non-natives the golden rule of gossip in Sri Lanka: Don’t take at face value any of the nasty stuff people say.
Very serious knowledgeable people say the darnest things quite casually and assume everyone else knows that it is harmless word play.
No wonder Sri Lankan speak is impenetrable to outsiders.
Get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a better day.
These people are opening doors to future disasters. What happened to good old days you wash your finger with kerosene oil and vote again the second time and brag with your neighbor over a plain tea. Word such as coup we heard once ten years. Now I hear that more than the word Papadam.
I hope SF does not attempt anything foolish, because a coup will destroy his “democratic” image and and even the international community will be afraid to support him then. MR would have already planned for this sort of thing, so the likely outcome is SF will fail miserably. And that will give an excuse for the arrest of SF and many UNP/JVP members.
By the way, CNN has predicted that SF will vote, albeit without proof. I wonder assured them of that…
SF ain’t going to take over by military coup. He has not got enough support in the Army and do you honestly think 50 men is what it takes? Are you kidding me? 50 men to take over a country? Enlighten me if I’m wrong.
Heard of the Trojan war? :) Toothpicks in the hotel.. 50 men. a big bird. hello!
a big horse?
Sri Lankan democratic institutes are stronger than west think. All those coup talks are just gimmicks and people do not have to worry.
All this coup talk has done irrepairable damage to the country. All this smoke without any basis in reality.
This is what CNN says in its front page:
Sri Lanka politicians vow to block vote favorite
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/01/26/srilanka.election/index.html
How wrong can anyone get this?
Who is feeding these news items to foreign reporters?
Makes you wonder what SF camp is upto.
I suspect the following chain of command (may be reverse order this time :)
“I think they basically contacted Paikiasothy, who referred Sanjana, who referred me. Which is fine, but it’s not really an accurate picture of what’s going on here.”
Yeah that sort of damage, we’re so used to it. Kinda our fault, but given the climate, I don’t think people care what they hear. But this all ends up as arsenal for the pro-seperatist “ex”-ltte mugs.
What a historical blunder UNP made, Ranil would have got same or probably more vote than SF. But for sure Ranil survived for another day. God bless UNP(iers)!
SF can’t take over the country through military control, simply for the reason he is not the CDS anymore. and the president is the Commander of the army.
anyway i wish some thing good hapence to the country
I passed Cinnamon Lakeside at around 3.30 am (going home after trying to watch the election results at a friend’s place) and I saw heavy military presence outside. Basically they had blocked the side of the road adjoining the hotel and made the other side (adjoining the Regal Cinema) a two-way.
I agree that the threat of coup is unlikely. Just another overreaction by the powers that be.