May As Well Call It For Mahinda
Mahinda’s going to win, it looks like comfortably. It wasn’t really a fair fight, but it was a good one. I think Fonseka is having a press con in an hour. So it’s another six years. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not the start of anything new. We’ve got a strong king and a weak constitution. What I fear is that this challenge will make him more paranoid and mean, but we’ll see.
How Mahinda Won
Mahinda is a great politician and he did everything possible to win. This included violating many election laws and any sense of decency, but such be politics. He’s also a naturally good politician and this time he had the full force of the state behind him.
More importantly, he also ended an intractable civil war decisively, which even I commend him for. He’s a strong leader, stable, and not prone to crazy flame-outs. That said, he’s also very good at being bad and abusing power and his same knack for holding power weakens our institutions and, I think, our country. I don’t think he has any intention of following the Constitution, so we become a strong man democracy.
How Fonseka Lost
Starting in November Fonny didn’t have much chance to win, let alone register to vote. He had a new candidate burst in the polling, but people really didn’t know him that well. He’s not a natural campaigner and he had no particular party behind him. He had the support of the UNP and JVP, but those are both hobbled parties and without trust action is difficult.
He’s also a flawed human being of compromised character. He was basically placeholder for what people wanted, for me a basically UNP drafted manifesto. I still think it was a better choice because Mahinda was guaranteed dictatorial, but it was a risky one.
I think most people just chose the known devil.
I really don’t think that people chose known devil. However, I doubt if it is eight years. In any case, nothing, but nepotism.
It is not high time, but already too late for Ranil to step down. Best available successor is Sajith. Don’t you guys think so ?
Hello KF,
I agree with you on first point – nepotism.
May I also add one more thing – more cabinet ministers.
As for the 2nd point I have to disagree Sajith as successor. I think he lacks charisma.
I guess SF has no point staying in country and might as well pack the bags go to a safe place. Indi, do you also plan to leave with him? :-)
What a load of bollocks. People did not look for place holder which can be filled with any rubbish at anyone’s will. People looked for a strong leader. The choice was crystal clear. It seems that you are bit delusioned. It happens when you spend lot of time talking about “feudalism”, “nepotism” , “corruption” , etc, etc. with your inner circle of friends. However if you want to be a serious political analyst, catalyst advisor of whatever, you will have to understand the reality of Sri Lanka. Commoner (not like so called Colombo elite) vote according to how they feel about what they really value. Your political slogans “feudalism”, “nepotism” and “corruption” do not connect with ordinary voter. If you are thinking about UNP government, get rid of Ranil, appoint a leader who is appealing to the masses. (Read UNP history of JR and Premadasa era.) Otherwise we can see pathetic analysis like this every 5-6 years. The other option is you lot relocate to a country where these things are really important (with the Internet penetration is about 90%).
PS. This is not a personal attack on Indi rather displeasure on what he represents.
Your about 6 hours too late mate … of course Mahinda has won. Tamils hate Fonseka so they didn’t really vote for him and in the end they weren’t as stupid as you to think that Fonseka who like you doesn’t even know how to exercise his constitutional right to vote in a country which is an utterly fake democracy would do anything for them.
Hopefully in 6-7 years time both you, Fonseka and Mahinda will have fucked off.
Then Sri Lanka might have a future. In the meantime you backed the wrong horse, so why don’t you bugger off to Canada and curl up in some hole over there.
I’m so glad for Sri Lanka that Mahinda won! The last thing the country needed was a selfish, egotistical military dictator of the likes of Sarath Fonseka. It is awesome to see Sri Lankans deliver an excellent verdict. All the communal parties like the TNA, SLMC, JVP were read the riot act, and it’s great! Another wonderful day for Sri Lanka!