The broadest opposition alliance will be formed against the government on Monday.

What happened during R.W and M.R’s one-on-one conversation?

The reason for the president’s delayed visit to India.

Local elections to be held on a staggered schedule…

Since the day Ranil Wickramasinghe took office as president, a consistent special news has been published on Sri Lankan websites and social media networks. According to these media reports, a group of SJB MPs is planning to defect from the party and join the government in order to strengthen the President’s hand. When problems arose within the government, the government made it a point to organise the publication of this news in the media in order to divert public opinion in the country.

40 SJB defectors?

In some cases, the number and even the names of the SJB MPs who were to arrive in this manner were mentioned in the news. Starting with ten MPs, the number of defectors had grown to forty. Its culmination was seen when some media reported that 40 SJB MPs were ready to sit in the ruling party seats during the April 04 parliamentary meeting. It was also seen how it became the main headline of Sri Lanka’s main newspapers that day. Since this was such an organized news, the people of the country fully believed it and were seen waiting with open eyes and ears in front of the television to see how 40 SJB MPs will join the government on the 4th.

However, no SJB MP joined the government on the 4th. As a result, the government’s massive media operation came crashing down to earth. In short, this incident demonstrated that people have reached a point where they no longer believe not only social media network and website news, but also national news in newspapers and on television.

Rajitha at a Press briefing

In this way, the news of SJB MPs joining the government died a natural death but another special incident took place in the opposition leader’s office a few days later. That was the participation of Mr. Rajitha Senaratne who was rumoured to be joining the government attending in a press conference at the office of the opposition leader.

At a time when the SJB MPs joining the government rumour is being proven otherwise this press briefing gave a new life to the rumour as Rajitha stating that SJB should back a national government and take up ministerial positions.  

Many people believed that Rajitha’s visit to the opposition leader’s office, leaving the party’s position, and expressing such an opinion did not occur unexpectedly. Many believe it occurred in a well-planned manner, with the knowledge of two or three officials from the opposition leader’s office. When the leader of the opposition and opposition members were issuing announcements after announcements saying that the story carried by the media related to the government saying that 40 members of the SJB will join the government on the 04th, with this statement of Rajitha, the entire situation became disturbed and SJB MPs became agitated as a hornet net was stoned by someone.

SJB MPs react

SJB MPs issued statements attacking Rajitha, and they directly said that either Rajitha should withdraw this statement immediately, or else Rajitha should take a ministerial position in the government and mind his own work.

Also, the councillors took steps to inform Sajith that disciplinary action should be taken against Rajitha regarding his statement. Apart from this, the phone calls Sajith received from the seat organizers from all over the country said that Rajitha should be removed from the party immediately; otherwise Rajitha will cause great destruction to the party.

Disciplinary action against Rajitha

In the face of this continuous pressure, Sajith finally decided to take disciplinary action against Rajitha. Accordingly, Sajith spoke to party general secretary Ranjith Maddumabandara, Kabir Hashim, Lakshman Kiriella, Tissa Attanayake, etc. representing the party’s disciplinary committee and asked them to discuss this with Rajitha and come to a solution. According to Sajith’s notification, Ranjith called Rajitha and informed him that a meeting had been arranged at his home and that he should participate in it and explain his statement. According to the notice, Rajitha came to Ranjith’s house on the appointed day to explain his statement to the members of the disciplinary committee.

Although this meeting was held with the participation of the seniors of the disciplinary committee, it was more of a friendly discussion than a disciplinary investigation. According to the information available to us, Rajitha has continued to blame the ‘Mawrata’ newspaper and the ‘Mawrata’ website, which disclosed the facts about Rajitha to the country, rather than explaining his statement. Rajitha has mentioned that this problem has arisen due to the ‘Mawrata’ trying to drag this incident.

Blame ‘Mawrata’!

However, Ranjith informed Rajitha that the previous day about 75 union representatives of the party had come and met him, where they strongly informed him that disciplinary action should be taken against Rajitha. Accordingly, Ranjith had informed Rajitha that some action should be taken in this regard. But the ‘inside politics’ column learn that Rajitha has dodged the question by passing it to the ‘Mawbima’.

We also hear that some of the participants there have given slippery answers to some of Rajitha’s stories, and some of them commented on Rajitha’s speech. Also, we have received information about Rajitha’s conspiracy to go to the government and the way a few participants in the discussion behaved in an attempt to agree with the conspiracy by betraying the party members by putting the blame on ‘Mawrata’.

We are ready to reveal all that to the country when the right time comes. We have received a lot of information about the duplicitous practices of some people. Accordingly, we have to say to all those people that it is not easy to hood wink us. All these people should keep in mind that a moment will come when they will have to move forward. It should be mentioned here that at that moment we are ready to reveal any information about them to the public.

In addition, when Rajitha came to this discussion, information has been reported to us about a journalist who sent messages to both sides to settle the matter. The news is that this journalist has prepared the necessary background for both sides to carry out the work by carrying messages to both sides.

Rajitha’s correction

However, information has been reported to us that Ranjith Maddumabandara had taken a very strict stand during this discussion. While Rajitha continued to mention that his story had been distorted by the media, Ranjith had said that if this is the case then he should correct this story and issue an announcement. As Kiriella and Tissa were also in the same position, Rajitha finally said that he was ready to issue the announcement within 24 hours. Accordingly, Rajitha informed the members of the disciplinary committee that he would correct the statement and issue an announcement in a manner that would not harm the party.

Accordingly, at that moment, we took steps to reveal this news to the country through our website. As opposition leader Sajith was out of Colombo at that time, everyone including Ranjith took steps to inform Sajith about this through a phone call.

Rajitha’s broken promise

Despite many thought the issue was settle but it was not so. Rajitha broke his promise to the disciplinary committee and did not issue the relevant announcement within 24 hours. Accordingly, when everyone asked Rajitha about it, Rajitha informed them that he was not ready to issue the announcement as the related news had been published on the ‘Mawrata’ website. Instead, he repeatedly took the same stand as before and took steps to announce to ‘The Morning’ newspaper that he should join the government as a minister. Apart from this, Rajitha had also taken steps to post a special note on his Facebook page saying ‘Shame on the Mawrata’.

Because of  Rajitha breaking his earlier promise, once again a serious attack was launched against him from within the party. The worst attack was made by none other than Rajitha’s Kalutara district’s Agalawatta SJB seat organizer Mr. Jagath Withana. Jagath Withana directly said that Rajitha should be kicked out of SJB. Moreover, another special secret was revealed to the world. That is that Rajitha, who had come to a meeting held in Kalutara the previous day under his chairmanship, had left without even getting out of the vehicle due to the lack of people. Jagath said that a large number of people were invited to the meeting, but only four attended. Jagath mentioned that because of this, Rajitha is unable to even hold a meeting in Kalutara.

Lack of reader interest

Apart from this, something special needs to be mentioned regarding the responses to the news published in the social media networks and national level media about Rajitha. In the past, Rajitha’s stories received a lot of positive responses from the readers, but now the responses to Rajitha’s statements have become similar to the responses to the statements related to the Rajapaksa. It should be mentioned that we have collected a large number of these readers’ responses and are planning to publish them in the future for the people to see.

Also, because of Rajitha’s work, the SJB senior MPs and young MPs who went to the villages for the Sinhala New Year had to face a big problem. That is because the party members who come to the homes of SJB MPs with betel and nuts for the New Year and wish them a happy New Year and inform these MPs that strict action should be taken against Rajitha. Due to the fact that this has become the only demand of all the party members who came, all those who came back to Colombo after the end of the New Year informed the opposition leader Sajith that because of Rajitha, they could not even walk down the village road in the New Year.

Another Media mud slinging

In the midst of all this, it was seen last week that some party has launched another very serious media operation targeting Sajith. It is with the fact that a statement made in the year 2018 suddenly appeared as if it was made yesterday and was given wide publicity through social media networks. The most special event seen there was because we got to see some comments close to Rajitha’s statements these days through these videos of Sajith. It included a statement that Sajith had made in 2018 that he should work closely with the UNP, and it also included a statement that a national government should be formed as Rajitha says.

Sajith clears SJB stand

However, with the release of this video to the media, the Samagi Jana Balavega and Sajith made a special statement saying that the Samagi Jana Balavega will never form a national government together with the current president. Also, Sajith said that no Member of Parliament will join the government after being enslaved to money and taking boon privileges. Accordingly, the video released based on Sajith also became a false one.

National government Proposal

Before the heat of the media frenzy was over, another big lie was published in a media that claims to be national in this country based on the national government. It was stated that the government will present the national government proposal to the parliament on the 25th, and after that Mano Ganesan and Rauf Hakeem, who are members of the Samagi Jana Sandhaan, are ready to submit a proposal to the parliament that they should support the national government. It was mentioned in the news that Mano Ganesan had stated this to this media.

Fake news on Mano – Hakeem

Along with the publication of this news in a national media, several other websites published this news in the same manner and reported that a group including Mano-Hakim of Samagi Jana Sanandha is ready to join a national government. Mano said that he did not make such a statement anywhere. Accordingly, he decided to immediately call Sajith, who was away from Colombo, to inform him about it.

Mano informed Sajith that the news that he is ready to bring a proposal regarding a national government is completely false. Mano informed Sajith that he would issue a statement against it. Accordingly, Mano decided to post two special messages on his Twitter account. He stated that this news is completely false. The other message said that they are not ready to join the current government or ministers, not a national government.

Apart from Mano and Hakeem, three other names that were regularly reported to be joining the government in recent days were the names of Harsha, Kabir and Iran. Although they had initially taken steps to respond to it, Harsha, Kabir and Iran did not respond to them due to lack of response. However, when they came to the press conference held at the opposition leader’s office last week, the journalists took steps to ask them this question again. All these three who gave a direct answer there said that they will not join the government at all and will not work to take positions in the current government.

Broad alliance

However, while various groups are using the media to create differences between the opposition, it has been seen that a broad alliance is being formed within the opposition. This is based on the Anti-Terrorism Bill that the government is going to submit to the Parliament. This alliance is going to be unveiled within a few hours and all the parties representing the opposition and civil organizations and mass organizations are going to join it. Last week, it was also seen how Sajith spent a lot of time talking to various parties through Zoom technology.

Intermittent Elections

A few weeks ago, in a special disclosure through the ‘Inside politics’  column, we said that the President has given a special notice to the International Monetary Fund that he will conduct the local government elections by next August. We mentioned there that the President’s aim is to hold the local government elections before the International Monetary Fund is scheduled to conduct its first review in September. However, the ‘inside politics ‘column has heard that the President has decided to hold the elections to in August based on the ‘Rajapaksa Theory’. We say according to the Rajapaksa theory because the President has planned to hold intermittent elections.

Accordingly, the President has planned to hold provincial council elections intermittently as per a promise given to India earlier. That is to hold intermittent elections, firstly in the North-East and secondly in the provincial councils outside of it. There, too, the President’s plan is to hold the provincial council elections which can be considered advantageous for the government.

It has also been learned that the president, who has planned to hold the local government elections intermittently, has decided to hold the elections first in the local government bodies that can be considered advantageous to the government in the south in addition to the northern and eastern areas. Accordingly, the President called Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena last week and informed him to discuss this matter with the Election Commission.

LG election first in N & E?

According to this notification, the Prime Minister called the Election Commission to discuss the matter, but there was strong opposition from them. That is absolutely impossible. In addition to the Election Commission, with the report of this situation, India has also sent a serious message to the government In that message, it has been informed that there is a strong demand from the people of the country to hold the election, and under such a situation, if the government takes steps to hold the election only in the North-East, a serious division between the North and the South may arise once again.

The news is that India has informed that there may be a danger of seriously breaking the harmony that has been built up to some extent in the country. However, it is said that if it is necessary to hold the North-Eastern provincial council elections, then India has given a notice to hold one or more provincial councils in the south at the same time, not only in those provinces.

According to the sources that we have come to know, the government is currently conducting the North-Eastern Provincial Council elections while it is considering holding the elections of one or two more Provincial Councils in the South which are considered advantageous to them. However, under any circumstances, it must be mentioned that the government will have to go to any kind of election before next September.

President yet to visit India!

Meanwhile, a matter that has been forgotten by everyone is why the President has not visited India so far according to the proposal presented by the Prime Minister of India to the Chief Minister to visit his country. As soon as the President came to power, he tried to get the opportunity to go to India through various channels, but the door of India did not open for the President.

But for the last time When Indian Foreign Minister  Mr. S. Jeyshankar came to the island, he took steps to invite the President to visit India. Due to the strong desire of the President to visit India, everyone thought that the President would leave for India as soon as he received this invitation. But till today, the President not only did not leave for India, but at least he did not take steps to officially announce that he received an invitation from India. Accordingly, in the last few days we also made a special inquiry as to why the President did not leave for India.

N & E election before Indian visit?

It was revealed to us that while inviting him to come to India, the Indian Foreign Minister has also presented some strict conditions to the President. The first of which is that India has informed the President to hold the North-Eastern Provincial Council elections before setting the date of his visit to India. The second condition is to visit India only after completing the paperwork of all the projects promised to be given to India in the previous negotiations and reaching the stage of signing them.

This is due to the fact that the Government of Sri Lanka has taken steps to suspend a large number of projects that were announced to be given to India previously even after signing the agreements. Some things had been stopped in the middle after going before the court. Many other things had been suspended with the change of government. Accordingly, this time India has informed the President to visit to India only after all matters have reached an acceptable level. The President’s visit to India has been postponed indefinitely due to this reason.

In the past, some media in Sri Lanka have been seen to be successfully spreading fake news for the purpose of making the people forget the problems of the country or for gaining some other political benefits. At the same time, we took steps to reveal the false news planted by the media to the country through our website, and to reveal the true story to the country because the people of this country should know the true story of everything.

This time, we’ll tell you about another such sleight of hand played by the media in the past via the ‘inside politics’ column.

Presidential election!

A few weeks ago, there was a story carried by the media as well as some politicians friendly to the government that the president is planning to call a presidential election at the end of this year. It had been promoted by these politicians and the media that no election would be held until then.

Accordingly, the members of the opposition had taken steps to conduct a special study in this regard. However, under Article 40 of the constitution, it is their position that only a president elected by the people’s vote can call a presidential election after 4 years. They are of the opinion that after the vacancy of the presidency, the responsibility of a successor president who is elected through the parliament is to maintain the remaining term of office.

However, they point out that it also includes provisions for going to a presidential election after 4 years. The two methods are to submit a constitutional amendment to the parliament and obtain a two-thirds special majority and hold a referendum and obtain its approval. But under the current situation, both of those tasks are very difficult. Accordingly, it should be noted that the talk of holding an emergency presidential election at the end of the year is nothing but a little media show carried by the media.

Deal politics

Deal politics is not so new to the people of our country because there have been many examples from the past of opposition politicians making deals with the heads of the government on certain personal issues and acting loyally to the government. There are many examples of such deal experts not only in the ruling party but also in the opposition. This time we are going to reveal for the first time through the ‘inside politics’ column  about a deal that a young member of the opposition had made with a top leader of the government these days.

For a long time, a wine shop owner in the district representing this opposition youth MP had informed this youth MP to help him get a license to produce alcohol. Accordingly, the young MP had taken steps to start a round of discussions in this regard with a top person in the government a few months ago. At the same time, it should be mentioned here that we were also on the lookout for information about this young Member of Parliament as it was reported to the ‘inside politics’ column.

This young politician had suddenly gone to Nuwara Eliya last week to meet the so-called strongman of the government as; this strong man of the government was spending his time relaxing in Nuwara Eliya during the time. As soon as the information about this was reported, the ‘ inside politics’ column also made a special inquiry about this to find out why this young politician suddenly arranged to meet the so-called strongman of the government. It was then revealed to us that the operation to grant the aforementioned liquor license to the concerned businessman had been successful, and that the opposition youth member had gone to Nuwara Eliya to thank him.

Liquor license

However, another special point should be mentioned here. It is about the dealings of these MPs with the government whether they are young or old in the opposition. Generally, the people represent themselves and send a certain politician to the parliament to do work for the country in their province, not to make a deal with the government.

During the recent people’s struggle, one of the main issues that drew attention was the fact that this deal politics should be ended. In spite of this, we believe that if these young MPs who come to the parliament do not learn the lessons of the struggle and are indulge in the old-fashioned politics, it is the responsibility of the media to expose them. Accordingly, we are ready to reveal to the country who is the businessman who applied for this liquor license and who is the young opposition politician involved.

Even though some people have slandered and accused us, it is the responsibility of the media to reveal to the country that these politicians who give ‘encouraging  speeches’ about good governance, transparency and freedom from corruption on platforms and in press conferences, and their true form is this. That is because the people need to recognize the true nature of the people they appoint to the parliament.

Mahinda’s PM dream

In the week before the New Year, we revealed that the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has started a new political operation. There we said that he had received lot of astrological advice that Mahinda will have astrologically a good time after the 7th of May, and accordingly, Mahinda is making various plans for several months to get the position of Prime Minister again. In this regard, we also revealed that on several occasions, although the strongmen of the government send messages to Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, and also to Mahinda sending messages unofficially. In addition to astrological advice, another special factor too was also involved in this regards.

It was the requests that Mahinda received from the seniors of Pohottuwa members that he should get the power of government once again since Pohottuwa had been given the mandate to govern. In fact, in 2019, 69 lakh people handed over the presidency of this country for 5 years to former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Mahinda Rajapaksa was given the government and the post of Prime Minister by giving two-thirds majority of 68 lakh people.

seniors in Pohottuwa wants Mahinda

 But with Gota fleeing the country due to the people’s struggle, Parliament chose Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe as a successor president. After Mahinda also stepped down from the post of Prime Minister, Dinesh got that position. Later, a large number of people from the ruling party joined the opposition. The opposition MPs went to the ruling party. Looking at it from that point of view, the mandate given to the people in 2019 has become a big distortion today.

But now that the situation has returned to normal, the seniors of Pohottuwa had informed Mahinda that according to the mandate, he should regain the post of Prime Minister and form a government in Pohottuwa, otherwise the party members of Pohottuwa will have to face a big problem in the future. Accordingly, Mahinda also decided to take the prime minister ship again a few months ago, but due to some obstacle from within the family, it had to be postponed. That obstacle was because Namal Rajapaksa, the crown prince of the Rajapaksa family, had planned to pursue a separate political agenda. Namal’s plan was not to take the prime minister ship in the bud, but by taking the opposition leadership in the bud, a more favorable situation could be created.

Namal opposition leader?

Namal had prepared this plan with some people close to him and according to Namalla’s plan was to give the prime minister ship to Sajith and push Samagi Jana Balavega into the government. The next step in the plan was for Pohottuwa to sit in the opposition and gain the position of opposition leader for Namal. Their calculation was that when the next election comes, the existing economic problems will grow greatly and both Ranil and Sajith will be deeply disliked in the country and among the people, and through this, a favorable situation will be created for Pohottuwa and they can regain the power of government.

After preparing a political plan in this way, Namal has met the President and discussed this several times Namal has informed the President that Pohottuwa is ready to join the opposition and that he will take over the position of opposition leader and work to support the government to move forward without falling.

Failed Namal’s theory

Due to Namal’s political theory, Mahinda postponed the mission of regaining the prime minister ship by a few months, but Namal’s theory did not work in practice.  No SJB MP joining the government. Therefore, in the end, Mahinda decided to ‘turn off’ Namal’s operation to take the position of the opposition leader and turn on the operation to take the prime minister ship of the government.

Mahinda took this decision before the Sinhala New Year not just because he went that position , but with a plan to take over the government and continue it without hindrance.

Chinese fund

One of the plans was to find the money needed to run the government after taking over the government. Accordingly, Mahinda’s plan was to renew the old relations with China and find the necessary money to make the country. Currently, there is a big division in international politics based on China, and powerful countries including America and India are in a position to stop China’s encroachments on Sri Lanka.

These countries also prepared the necessary background to provide money from the International Monetary Fund to Sri Lanka because this Chinese intervention had to be ended. But now a certain problematic situation has arisen in relation to taking loans from the financial fund.

Negotiations on the restructuring of foreign debt, which is the main condition of the financial fund, have started now, but China, Sri Lanka’s main creditor, has not yet participated in those discussions. Only the United States, India, Japan and the member countries of the Paris Club participated in the first discussion held in America recently. Accordingly, the debt restructuring negotiations are now being pushed to a very difficult place.

In this background, we mentioned a few weeks ago that the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Mr. Ki Shen Hon, often visits Mahinda’s official residence at Wijerama Road. Accordingly, Mahinda has planned to use China to manage the global problem that has arisen. According to that, their plan is that if a strong man like Mahinda is appointed as the prime minister, China can manage the international issue advantageously. Because of this, China has expressed its willingness to provide six billion dollars if Mahinda gets the position of Prime Minister under any circumstances.

Ranil – Mahinda negotiation

Mahinda decided to negotiate with Ranil regarding getting the post of Prime Minister with this Chinese certificate in hand. Accordingly, Mahinda, who spoke to Ranil before the New Year, took steps to inform Ranil to give him a time to meet. Since Ranil was in Nuwara Eliya at that time, he informed that he would be able to meet as soon after he arrived in Colombo. Accordingly, this discussion was held last week, and there is news that Mahinda has informed the president of the official request regarding getting the position of prime minister. In the next presidential election, Mahinda has been informed that Ranil can be given the candidacy of Pohottuwa.

Meanwhile, before the discussion between the President and Mahinda, a discussion was also held between the seniors of Pohottuwa, who are very dear to Mahinda, at a five-star hotel in Colombo. In this discussion, which was held with a dinner, there was a special discussion regarding the launch of future political plans. The ‘Inside politics column’  has also heard that there has been a long discussion on how to create a populist government by next May-June, and how politics should be conducted within the country after that. But all this depends on the response from the President regarding giving Mahinda the post of Prime Minister

By Special Correspondent

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