A few weeks ago, Ranil Wickramasinghe’s uncle’s newspaper had accused an ambassador to Sri Lanka. The allegation was that the ambassador was influencing the judges sitting in the court case on the local government election. Although the newspaper did not name the ambassador, it got interested in the Colombo embassy circles that Ranil’s uncle’s newspaper targeted the American ambassador, Julie Chung. Others said the British High Commissioner was targeted. A few weeks later, Julie was a guest at the law conference held. She said in front of judges and lawyers including the Chief Justice that Sri Lanka should hold local government elections. Her statement in front of judges and lawyers including the Chief Justice is like a slap in the face to Ranil’s Plant News.
Julie has been a person who has spoken for democracy in Sri Lanka since the day she assumed the position of US Ambassador to Sri Lanka. During the aragalaya, her tweets played a major role in challenging the crackdown on the struggle. Even then President Gotabaya was afraid of her tweets. Her tweets shed fear away in activists. But after Ranil became the president, Ranil’s media attacked her saying that she was meddling in Sri Lanka’s internal politics.
Government supporters tried to mock her by creating a fake Twitter account in her name. It was also reported at that time that Ranil was going to inform the American government about her involvement. Subsequently, she avoided talking about Sri Lankan politics. She brought Ranil as the chief guest at the event hosted by the American Embassy. Many thought that Ranil used his American connections to shut her up. Ranil’s supporters were of the opinion that America had advised her to work with Ranil. Her silence in the anti-democratic process launched by Ranil to prevent the LG elections was a problem for many. But she has been waiting for the right time to raise her voice for democracy in Sri Lanka.
Ranil is trying to show that America is in his pocket. Therefore, he is making great efforts to show that the United States does not speak against his anti-democratic actions. His media had made efforts to show the trip of the American defence delegations who came to Sri Lanka as a trip to strengthen him. Julie said the opinion of the United States regarding the election in such a background. She has shown America’s true colors to Ranil that it does not matter to America whether the anti-American Rajapaksa or the pro-American Ranil in the presidency, and no matter who is in power, America will stand up for democracy in Sri Lanka.
