What did the five fingers say to the face? SLAP.
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President Maithripala Sirisena hasn’t spoken much this election, but he’s made it count. It doesn’t get any clearer than this:
“From the private conversations that you [Mahinda Rajapaksa] have been having with our party members, it is clear that you are still spewing hatred and anger and you are full of yourself,” Sirisena said. “I am sorry that you have not spiritually gained from the time you spent in temples.” (EconomyNext)
For a longer but still incomplete translation, check out NewsFirst.
In the letter, President Sirisena clearly says that he won’t appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister, that if the UPFA wins he will select someone more senior in the party. Since Mahinda treated the Prime Minister’s post as a retirement home, it’s hard for him to complain.
Now Mahinda can’t just win, he has to win by a landslide to claim a mandate and prevent defections from within his own party. Indeed, the message he got was delivered on party letterhead.
You’d almost feel bad, if he wasn’t running such an ugly campaign. Mahinda began by blaming minorities for his loss (as if their votes didn’t count) and – not content to alienate Tamils and Muslims – his supporters have been attacking Christians and calling UNPers Christian as if that were an insult. In Sri Lanka you can piss off one minority at a time, but not all of them. The amount of people that are that bigoted is, thankfully, a minority in itself. In his letter Maithripala warned Mahinda against inciting communalism like this, for the betterment of the country.
A Fallen Man
Mahinda rose through the party and the ballot, from MP to Minister to Leader of the Opposition to President. He rose as far as a public servant can go and he could have retired with dignity and respect. Instead, he now appears to us as a man laid low by greed. It’s almost a caricature of spiritual downfall, someone consumed by ignorance, attachment and anger. He was servant but he forgot that he was just a temporary steward of our trust. He changed our laws to enlarge his power, he ignored institutions (including his own party) and he surrounded himself with bad people and sycophants. He got drunk on power and he fell.
It would be a cause for pity if he wasn’t trying to bring these poisons into the government of our country. I’ve been following his campaign and it’s incoherent. There’s nothing there besides his face and ‘remember the war’. It’s the same people around him, the same greed, the same fear-mongering, the same pride.
Maithripala is in the right (both ethically and legally) to deny him the Prime Ministerial post, whatever the outcome of the election. Personally, however, I hope that the President doesn’t have to make that choice. I hope that the Sri Lankan voter can see and choose for themselves.
RIP Mahinda!
//Maithripala is in the right (both ethically and legally) to deny him the Prime Ministerial post, whatever the outcome of the election.
see how undemocratic these fake champions of democracy, good governance are? Why are you even having an election if the president can appoint whoever he likes? They got away with illegally appointing Ranil once but this cannot be continued.
Yeah the second slap from Mayithree. Then again how pathetic is that UNP is now dependent on UPFA chairman to sabotage the campaign of his own party to win? Even if Ranil is made PM illegally Anura will steal his premiership under his belt in no time.
@Liberal One,
I’ve seen you blare your dud guns on the Daily Mirror website. Why weren’t people like you this vociferous when MaRa committed acts far more unconstitutional during his term in office? This idea that the person with the “most respect” should be given premiership is pretty subjective. Get over yourself O “Liberal” One.
Ps. Is the name to give yourself the impression that you’re a liberal thinker? Lel.
@Deus Ex Machina
What does Liberal mean? Believing that only elites should run the country? or that the country should partitioned along ethnic lines?
Bring in some examples where MaRa (nice name, shows how partisan you are lol) acted unconstitutionally so I can blast him too.
Hmm so president Sirisena who not only stood away from UPFA campaign but indirectly supported UNP can just disregard the mandate given by the people and appoint someone he likes? Is this the much hyped 19th amendment that was supposed to have strengthened the parliament?
I have never seen such a blind and misguided opinion column, ever.
What could be more unethical than publicly sabotaging your own party’s election campaign with dirty tricks like this?
It’s sad to see even the “seemingly” educated people in this country can justify this as “ethical and legal”.
This doesn’t sound right in terms of democracy and its obvious who’s pocket the president is in here. We know my3 is not a real leader and just takes orders from Ranil and Chandrika and he has bad dreams when those two have fights…poor chap ‘cant govern a plot of paddy’ acd to a taxi driver I spoke to recently.
That is not to say MR will be better!
The question at hand, and sadly this biased blogger is not able to catch it, is this just/correct or are they doing it as they are truly worried and need to secure that last hurdle legally or seemingly otherwise!
Considering what a threat MR is to yahapalanaya, Maithree did well to drop this bombshell. He says his motive is to prevent a small band of politically bankrupt individuals from holding the party to ransom through MR.
MR loses face but perhaps not many votes because it’s doubtful whether the masses fooled by MR’s race card will be swayed. Only those in the SLFP higher echelons who supported him will be feeling a bit worried.
How much is Ranil paying you for writing this stuff? Your blog is starting to sound more and more like a tabloid column.
I think that Ranil has promised to triple the Matthews stock at Dunamis Capital PLC. Thereby making his mother-in-law (essentially him) hundreds of millions ;).
Indi, i thought you were an independent hipster who wanted to get into business and make a name for yourself. I even encouraged Yamu etc. Turns out you are a hipster who can be bought. I am disgusted at the level you have sunk to. YOU of all people. I respected you man.
lol Sirisena has slapped Susil and Anura now. Against the constitution of the party too. I sincerely hope it’s not us the general public that is in line to experience his hand next.
@Patriot – I’ve always been quite critical of Mahinda (and, when he I thought he needed it, Ranil). This isn’t really a change for me.
Not everyone who disagrees with you is paid for it. Nor is the going rate for buying bloggers hundreds of millions of rupees. Nobody’s even offered to put advertising here, I’m literally just writing what I think for funs.
Didn’t My3 also say that if UPFA less than required number of seats, he can get some more over to his side and create UPFA govt. Didn’t he say that even if MR has majority support, he’ll try and block his PM bid. This is undemocratic. MS is strongly associated with UNP and current regime. Yahapalana was the one area they were meant to be better than the rest in. These actions plus previous ones have weakened the Yahapalana coalition in the one are they were meant to be good in as ppl thought in January.
My opinion is that party is just a container and the people inside is the real value. Party based thinking should be stepped aside and seen what is good for the country. Maithri has definitely led by example and the next best thing would be to get true Sri Lankan politicians to work towards a better Srilanka IRRESPECTIVE of the party.
Both parties might have black sheep as the saying goes ‘every family has a black sheep’. People are the real boss and the politicians their representatives…just like a director board represents the shareholders of a business.
Let us all start think Srilankan… containers ( political parties) can always be replaced, but not the valuable politicians who would really create value to Srilanka.
I agree with nish on this. Sirisena is a double-faced buffoon trying to abuse and manipulate people to please Ranil. Shame on him for asking people in Polonnaruwa to vote for the UNP after being the leader of the UPFA.. what a joker! He has betrayed many loyal UPFA members after sacking the central committee, which is not surprising actually. Can’t expect any better from a third class person like him.
Indie.. I had a read of all your articles. You don’t seem like an independent blogger. More like an extremely biased Ranil ass-giver! All the best! You can sign an agreement with Ranil as well when he hands our country over to the LTTE. He has done it before.. He ll undoubtedly do it again directly or indirectly. Disgraceful. It’s only a matter of time.