Amid Government’s Failures, Ranil-Led Administration Resorts to False Propaganda
Consistent Opinion Polls Echo Familiar Results
Massive Opposition Alliance Emerges onto Political Stage
Sajith Exposes Government Frauds in Scathing Revelation
Basil’s Strategic Maneuver Sidelines Namal in ‘Pot’ Leadership
New ‘Pohottuwa’ Presidential Candidate Unveiled in Startling Revelation
President Contemplates Three Options: To Contest or Not to Contest”
Maithreepala’s Controversial Comment Lands Him in CID Crosshairs
Ranil’s Alleged Chinese Connection: Final Straw for Beleaguered Leader
Presidential election in October
Last week, the Election Commission issued a special statement for the first time regarding the presidential election, stating that the commission is prepared to hold the election between September 17th and October 17th and that it will take steps to call for nominations in the last week of July or the beginning of August. The Election Commission, which stated that it is prepared if the general election must be held before then, stated that even if the general election is held earlier, the presidential election will be held as scheduled in October.
As a result, regardless of what anyone says, the presidential election must take place by next October, and this country will have a president with a mandate after that date.
Three-cornered battle again
There are approximately 6 months until a decisive election, and signs that Sri Lanka is once again embroiled in an international crisis have emerged in recent weeks. We say this because there are signs of a cold three-way battle between Sri Lanka, India, and China, as evidenced by several unrelated incidents over the last two or three weeks.
This three-way battle does have a very noteworthy history. A history of sending powerful presidents home. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was forced to return home in 2015 after being defeated by his party’s secretary general as part of this three-way battle. Because, at the time, Mahinda Rajapakse’s government was very friendly towards China, Whatever investment came in, it all passed through China. China was given permission to build the Hambantota port despite India’s strong opposition. However, the Rajapaksa family later publicly claimed that India was also responsible for Mahinda’s defeat.
Get away from China
However, during Gota’s time and after, Sri Lanka was able to get away from Chinese domination and work closely with India. India also helped Sri Lanka more than usual. Especially after the corona virus, when Sri Lanka’s economy collapsed and went bankrupt and people were sleeping in oil queues and gas queues for days, none other than India came to Sri Lanka’s aid. At that time, India took steps to provide a huge loan amount of 4.5 billion dollars to Sri Lanka without any hesitation while other countries looked away. The people got medicine, oil, gas and food thanks to that money.
In this way, the background for the deterioration of goodwill between India and Sri Lanka was created by the current government by allowed Chinese research ships to enter Sri Lanka. Especially, despite India’s strong opposition, India issued notices not once or twice in public protest by permitting Chinese ships to enter Sri Lankan waters and anchor at Hambantota. Not only India, countries like America, Australia and Japan, which are paying more attention to the security of the Indian Ocean region, stood together with India and protested against Sri Lanka’s action at that time. India publicly said that Sri Lanka should not carry out any activities that threaten the security of its country.
Dinesh’s trip to China
However, despite this kind of teasing, India did not stop standing up for Sri Lanka. Although no one knows, when Sri Lanka requested the International Monetary Fund for assistance to recover Sri Lanka’s economy, India played a big role sitting behind the scenes to get that opportunity. That’s why the government recently took a decision not to allow Chinese research ships to enter Sri Lanka, accepting the objection from India based on security-related work.
However, although it was not visible, it was seen that this cold three-way battle had started once again with the sudden visit of the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena to China. Although Dinesh left for China on the 24th to attend the ‘Boao’ conference held in China as the chief guest, many people say that there is more to Dinesh’s visit to China than that. Initially, media reports had appeared that Dinesh was going to sign 13 bilateral agreements during this visit. When the information surfaced that Dinesh would be asked to sign an agreement that would allow Chinese ships to enter Sri Lankan waters. The sleeping tiger of India woke up after this information was reported.
Rise of Anti – Indian movement
Meanwhile, a massive anti-Indian protest erupted across the country. It was observed that various organisations with different names suddenly emerged and spoke out strongly against Indian investments and expansionism. Massive protests were organised in the city centres, with anti-India posters and conferences.
Wimal meets Chinese Consul
A significant meeting between Mr Chen Xianguan, the consul of the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka, and Mr Wimal Weerawansa, the leader of the National Freedom Front took place. Notably the Chinese Consul came to the main office of Wimal’s National Freedom Front office on kotte Road. Generally, Wimal is considered to be someone who was in the fight against Indian expansionism, which was a JVP theory since the beginning of his politics. The other day, JVP left aside the Indian expansionism and visited India, but it was seen that Wimal continued to hold that view. Accordingly, Wimal had recently taken steps to hold a huge conference against Indian expansionism in Maharagama.
Calls to Dinesh
Through all these events, it was noted that China is laying a Chinese net across the country when the presidential election is about to begin. Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena is suddenly leaving for China as an extension of this. According to the information we have, a few days before Dinesh’s trip to China, Dinesh received several phone calls from the officials of a certain special embassy in this country.
In these phone calls that were received continuously, it was said that the officials of the embassy should be given time to meet and discuss with Dinesh. But Dinesh was more careful and did not give time for holding such a discussion. The reason for this is that Dinesh realized that if the ambassadors were given time for the relevant discussion, they would protest against his visit to China. Accordingly, Dinesh could have seen a way of avoiding those demands. Through this, it can be understood that Dinesh’s visit to China was very crucial.
China is also in trouble
However, with Sri Lanka’s decision to close Sri Lanka’s oceans to Chinese ships, China was not in a good mood towards Sri Lanka. It was noted that they directly protested against the decision of Sri Lanka. Also, the entry of Indian submarines into Sri Lankan waters amid the ban on Chinese ships was a major reason for the escalation of this Chinese opposition. They questioned the authorities of the government whether the ban on shipping in Sri Lankan waters affects only China.
While such a situation has arisen, suddenly many doubts have arisen in the political field about Dinesh’s trip to China. During that trip, Dinesh scheduled to meet the Chinese Prime Minister as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping. He also took steps to sign nine agreements. Although it was initially stated that 13 agreements would be signed, the reason why only 9 agreements were signed has not been revealed so far. Also, after the meeting with the Chinese Prime Minister, an announcement issued from the Chinese side said that China is ready to contribute to Sri Lanka’s economic growth and is working to develop Sri Lanka’s port and airport. But the most special thing mentioned in this announcement is that China is to make a special decision regarding debt restructuring. Accordingly, what is the special decision to be taken by China regarding Sri Lanka’s debt?
Decides on loans
According to the information we have, China has previously informed Sri Lanka to start paying the debt again from April 12th. In 2022, due to the Corona epidemic and the economic recession, China decided to postpone the payment of loan installments and interest for one year as a relief given to President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Also, when Ranil sat in the presidential chair after Gota, China postponed the payment of the debt by another year and extended the relief until 2024. The period of the credit concession will end on the 12th. Accordingly, China has now informed the government to start paying instalments of the outstanding loan amount of 26.4 billion dollars to China after the 12th.
Request from Government
However, in this regard, the government has requested to extend the debt relief period, and there has been no positive response from China. China has informed that if such debt relief is given only to Sri Lanka, other countries with debts of about 600 billion dollars will also request the same debt relief from China. Accordingly, it is also reported that China has informed the government to start paying the debt first, and after that, they can consider giving some relief.
Many believe that this is also behind Dinesh’s sudden visit to China. The President is planning to somehow get a grace period of 6 more years of not paying the debt from China. It is said that Ranil plans to show it as a big victory in Sri Lanka and gain some publicity advantage during the presidential election campaign.
It seems that the President’s side is planning to launch a massive propaganda project targeting the presidential election by saying that ‘the country was rescued from economic bankruptcy’, ‘the only person who can fix the country’s economy’, ‘Ranil is the economic maestro’, ‘Ranil is the only man who can fix the country’. News If Ranil suddenly turns to China and goes on a pro-China path to take advantage of this, many people have a lot of doubts about how the anti-Chinese countries will react. Because the Chinese counterparty is currently in a strong position in the Indian Ocean region and South Asian region, many people believe that the results could be very severe.
Maithripala’s bomb
It is in the midst of this background that former President Maithripala Sirisena made a very controversial statement that he knew about the Easter attackers. And that statement has now set the political field on fire once again. Due to the complaints received from various parties, the Criminal Investigation Department summoned Maithri. Responding to the summons Maithri recently went there and stayed for five and a half hours.
But no information was released by any party about the contents of the statement. Nevertheless, on the same evening, the leader of Pivithuru Hela Urumya Mr. Udaya Gammanpila joined a political program on ‘Hiru’ channel and commented in this regard. In response to Chamuditha Samarawickrama’s questioning, Gammanpila said that Maithripala thinks that some state or some organization is behind the Easter attack. When Chamuditha was questioned about it Gammanpila’s words indicate that he knew something about Maithri’s statement beforehand.
Disclosure of the paper
Also, the very next day, a Tamil newspaper published Maithri’s statement to the CID under the ‘Extraordinary’ banner headline. We believe that Maitri’s statement is likely to cause a lot of controversy in the coming days. However, the court has ordered Maithri to appear before the court on the 4th and give a statement in this regard.
Chinese Ambassador in Polonnaruwa
In this way, before Maithri made a special statement regarding the Easter attack, it was reported that another special person had visited Maithri’s house in Polonnaruwa about two weeks ago. It is none other than Mr. Kee Senhong, the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka. Here, as per the request of Maithrie, the Chinese ambassador presented educational equipment to the children of many schools in Polonnaruwa. According to the information received by the ‘ inside politics’ column, the Chinese ambassador has spent three days in Polonnaruwa and Maithri has agreed to support many other projects in Polonnaruwa. Maithrie’s controversial Easter attack story came out about two weeks after this meeting.
Accordingly, when we look at all these events at once, we note that the next few months will be a very crucial period for Sri Lanka. Even though the government managed to calm the cold war that was emerging between China and India in the recent past, based on the events that happened in the last two or three weeks, it has been seen that the conflict has started to flare up again like wildfire emerging under the ashes. Many people believe that there are some indications that Sri Lanka will be pushed into a serious diplomatic crisis.
Govt. candidate
Aiming at the presidential election, Samagi Jana Balawegaya and Jathika Jana Balawega have already announced the leaders of their parties as candidates, but it has been seen that the government and Pohottuwa have not yet decided on their candidate. We have pointed out in the ‘Inside Politics’ on column several occasions that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has not decided to run for the presidency, and that there is a tendency to withdraw from the fight at the last moment after showing that he is running.
Also, we revealed through the ‘Inside Politics’ column that the President has decided to run for the presidential election only if he gets the support of SJB or Pohottuwa officially. Apart from this, we also said that the President is looking forward to making a final decision on whether or not to contest the presidential election after examining the current situation day by day.
Options to contest
Accordingly, what are Ranil’s chances if he runs for the presidential election? At the forefront of it is somehow to add SJB to the UNP. For this purpose, as we revealed last week, Ruwan Wijayawardena, a vice leader of the UNP, has taken steps to hold a special discussion with SJB seniors. By reporting all the details of this discussion last week through the ‘Inside politics’ column, we said that the SJB seniors have rejected the request, on the basis if that happens, the JVP will take advantage of it and increase the vote percentage. We further pointed out that the SJB senior reported the information of the discussion to Sajith. Accordingly, the President has decided to continue the operation to break up a part of SJB until next May, and if that is not possible, to withdraw from the presidential race.
These are the people in the game
From the beginning, according to the President’s needs, a well-known millionaire businessman from the city took over the work of dividing SJB. For this purpose, this millionaire businessman contacted two senior MPs and a woman MP and carried out several conspiracies to break some MPs. As a result of these discussions, he had once informed the President that he had succeeded in canvasing a set of SJB defectors to vote with the government during the budget voting. But the operation was failed as no SJB MP joined the government in the budget.
Accordingly, recently too, this millionaire businessman had held discussions with the two SJB MPs and a female MP on several occasions regarding the inclusion of SJB in the government. The news we have says that the President has given a deadline for those discussions. It is reported that it has been emphasized that SJB should be in the government by next May; otherwise, the opportunity to run as a candidate for the president will be cancelled.
Although we know the names of the three SJB MPs who have been entrusted with that mission, we are not going to disclose it at this time due to ethical reasons. However, it should only be mentioned here that the actions of these three MPs at a critical moment will be revealed at that moment as the SJB Party as well as the country should know.
A fake media operation
In addition to these three people, it is also known that a large media operation has been launched by the government. For that purpose, a fake media committee has been formed with the editors of several newspapers. The media committee’s mission has been to spread fake news almost daily, saying how the opposition is divided into three. Also publishing news to the point where SJB new alliance is not born. It has been learned that the media committee has been instructed to use several SJB seniors, get them to make various statements, and publish news that will upset the other leaders of the alliance.
It is also known that although the fake media committees that publish this news used to meet and discuss once a month, now it has grown to the point where they meet two or three times a week.
Second opportunity
What is the second chance for the president to run for the presidential election?
The second chance is to break the bud and contest the presidential election with a new alliance without SJB. A special discussion in this regard was held under the chairmanship of the President last week. Kanchana Wijesekera, Prasanna Ranatunga, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Shehan Semasinghe, Sagala Ratnayake, Vajira Abeywardena, Nimal Lansa and another powerful secretary also participated.
The main topic of discussion was how the president should run for the presidential election. There, many people said that an independent platform should be created for this purpose so that everyone can get on board. Many people pointed out that this new independent platform should be created without the name of Pohottuwa, and that it should be possible to get Mahinda’s support for it. In that way, it was said that a full-time person should be appointed to get the support of Pohottuwa for this new alliance, and that person should have the ability to break up Pohottuwa’s personnel and get the support of Mahinda.
A powerful name surfaced
Here the name of one powerful person also came to the discussion table. This strong man worked under Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and is considered a strong secretary with a very close relationship with Rajapaksa. Also, this person is known to have done many political deals by working very closely with Ranil. But according to the news we have, it is said that when the name of this strong man was mentioned, the President remained silent, but Lansa, who was in the discussion, strongly objected to the name.
Lanza plays the devil
‘No, this secretary is completely with the Rajapaksas. He has a bigger connection with the Rajapaksas than we think. By putting him in this position, we can’t break into pohottuwa. Saying that it is not even possible to get Mahinda’s support…’, Lansa gave a long description of the political history of this strongman in the discussion. Everyone listened to this revelation of Lansa with astonishment without uttering a word as if they accepted it all. With Lanza’s objection, the name got eliminated from the discussion.
Third option
What is the third chance of the president?
As we said before, the President’s third option has been tied to the Chinese debt restructuring. If he gets the opportunity to restructure the debt, the president plans to put on a big show and gain a foothold in the presidential election. But all these three cases are the improbable acts of achievement, or ‘if it rains, the river will be full’ kind of events. Or the event that is more likely not to happen than to happen. Therefore, we are still saying that the President has not yet made a definite decision to contest the presidential election.
Postponement
In general, the president is known as a champion of delay in any work. The President first told the government ministers that the election battle should begin in January. Although January came, the president did not get to see how the election campaign started. When the Prime Minister asked about that, then the President said that we will start work in the Sinhala New Year. But the way things are going now, there is no way to see a presidential election campaign starting before the Sinhala New Year or from the side of the government. Accordingly, the latest speech that the President is now telling the ministers of the government is that after Vesak this year, let’s start the presidential election campaign. Through that, it can be seen that the president is working from a place of not coming to the election battle.
The ‘pod’ starts the game
On the other hand, in the past week, several events have developed inside the bud. All these events took place inside the bud directly with Basil’s knowledge. On several previous occasions, we have made it very clear that Basil came from America with a clear road map of the path to follow. We had previously reported that Basil used the results of an opinion poll conducted for that purpose. Basil declared that SJB is in the lead without any hesitation in the discussions within the party, and it is said that if he works harder, Pohottuwa can go to second place. It has been learned that Basil has mentioned in those discussions that there is an opportunity for Pohottuwa and that after getting to second place, what should be done next should be discussed.
A fresh candidate is coming
According to Basil’s plan, as we revealed earlier, the top priority is to present a candidate for the presidential election. In the meeting held last week, Basil clearly stated that Ranil is a loser. Accordingly, Basil said that while saying that he supports Ranil, Pohottu will also have to start the election campaign with a defeat. Basil for the first time said, that by presenting a new candidate to the presidential election, Pohottuwa not only has the opportunity to win second place but also has the opportunity to move forward. Accordingly, the question now is whether Dhammika Perera or Namal Rajapaksa is the presidential candidate in Pohottuwa.
Namal out
However, after a certain incident that happened last week, everyone got a clue as to which of these two is the candidate in Pohottuwe. There, Basil called a person very close to Namal and arranged to give special advice regarding Namal. There, Basil said to completely stop saying that Namal is the presidential candidate in Pohottuwa. Basil has told this person that the candidate in Pohottuwa will be presented at the right time, Namal still has time to get the presidential candidacy, and until then, Namal will be given a big position in Pohottuwa and allowed to prepare his route. Accordingly, it is quite clear that Namal is not the presidential candidate this time.
New position to Namal
Last week, on Wednesday, the executive council of Pohottuwa met to give Namal a high position in the party, just as Basil hinted. It was seen how the officers who were called from all over the country participated in this executive council meeting which was chaired by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The main event that happened in the Executive Council was Namal Rajapaksa being given the post of National Organizer of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. Here Jayantha Katagoda MP had suggested Namal’s name. Jayantha Katagoda is a close relative of Basil Rajapaksa. Accordingly, with the unanimous adoption of this resolution, Namal became the national organizer of Pohottuwa.
Basil Rajapaksa, founder of Pohottuwa, was nominally working as the national organizer earlier. Although Namal came to talk about May Day, Namal did not expect that he would get the position of national organizer on the same day. In short, Namal had no idea that he would get this position. Everyone congratulated Namal and Basil, Kanchana Wijesekara, Johnston, W.D. Weerasinghe, Janaka Tissakuttiarachchi and other ministers were among them. The former members of local councils and provincial councils who were present here were happy about Namal’s appointment.
A fight outside
However, the best incident happened when the Pohottu Executive Council met and the MPs came out. There, it was seen that Eranda Ginige’s joke on Kanchana Wijesekera, who is considered to be a campaigner in Pohottuwa, went so far that he stretched his limbs. The conflict started when Eranda Ginige’ said, to Kanchana ‘These are Ranil’s sons’. Earlier, Eranda had mentioned on his Facebook account that people like Kanchana, Pramita and Shehan, who are with Ranil, are not ‘father’s sons’, but ‘Ranil’s sons’. It was also noted that Namal Rajapaksa, who is with the party, is his father’s son. Following this, Eranda said to Kanchana, ‘These are Ranil’s sons’, and Kanchana, who was possessed by a demon, grabbed Eranda’s shirt and shook him, saying, ‘What did you say?’ But the surrounding people intervened and separated the two, and a big conflict was stopped.
Launch of an Alliance on the 5th
In the midst of all this, Mr. Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, decided last week the signing date of the grand alliance of the opposition which will be built in such a way as to be able to win any election. That is on 05th. On that day, Sajith made all the plans to create the largest alliance created by an opposition party with all the parties, organizations and members of parliament who joined the opposition from the government on that day.
A special message
It has also been learned that Sajith has decided to convey another special message to his MPs after forming this alliance. That is so that MPs who do some political dealings with the President and the Rajapaksa government should no longer be in the party and do politics together with the President. Earlier also, Sajith had taken steps to convey this message to his MPs at a meeting of the SJB MP group.
There, Sajith had said that the door is open for anyone to leave the party and join politics with the president and that he would never do politics with Ranil, who came to power with the help of the Rajapaksas, or with Ranil, who protects the Rajapaksas. Sajith had said to the group of MPs that even if there are ten people left with him and that he is ready to do politics with those ten people from the opposition. Accordingly, after the formation of the alliance, Sajith is ready to make this statement once again targeting the few people who secretly make deals with the government and the President.
Another operation
Apart from this, after the formation of the alliance, Sajith has now decided to do another massive work against the government. It is not for anything else, but to prepare a mechanism to reveal to the country the alleged large-scale corruption frauds that have taken place within the government under the current president. In the past, on several occasions, Sajith had taken steps to reveal the information of several large-scale frauds alleged to have taken place within the government in the Parliament. One of them is the alleged large-scale corruption fraud in alcohol production.
There, Sajith said that although the government has taxed the professionals, it has not taxed the cronies of the liquor companies, and because of this, the country has lost 50 billion in excise revenue. Also, Sajith said in Parliament that the government will not enforce the law against the owners of liquor companies who have not paid crores of tax.
All exposed
After Sajith’s revelation, many other special information related to it started coming to Sajith from various parties. There, Sajith got information about a certain member of parliament who was behind this transaction, about a person who demanded ransom, and about several other people including two powerful officials. Accordingly, Sajith is now ready to reveal the information of all these corrupt people behind the liquor deal to the Parliament with names.
In addition to this, Sajith had also received information that a large-scale fraud had taken place in the transactions that allegedly took place in several government institutions including the oil corporation. Although Sajith was far away from Colombo last week due to the Sakwala program, with this information, Sajith immediately contacted several SJB MPs and non-SJB MPs over the phone at the same time and discussed this with all of them. There, the MPs also pointed out to Sajith that several other large-scale transactions have taken place within the government in the past, and that there have also been many serious frauds and corruptions. Sajith also informed the MPs about a large-scale land-grabbing operation currently taking place based on the Eastern Province.
The next alliance
Accordingly, at the end of the discussions, it was decided that after the formation of the alliance, SJB MPs, non-SJB MPs, lawyers, and civil society activists would gather together to build a centre to disseminate information to the country about the alleged large-scale frauds that have taken place in the government under the current president. Several names of MPs and lawyers who should be included were also seen there. It was further mentioned in the discussion that another place other than the SJB headquarters should be prepared for that. It is in such a way that anyone can come to the place and provide information about the fraud and corruption of the government.
Latest poll
A fortnight ago, for the first time, we revealed to the country the results of an opinion poll conducted by an internationally recognized agency aimed at the upcoming presidential election. There we revealed that according to the results of this poll, Sajith-led SJB is in the lead with 39%, Anura-led J.J.B is in second place with 20%, and Pohottuwa is in third place with 9%. We mentioned that it has been revealed that the UNP led by the President will get 5% of the votes, and we mentioned that we have not yet decided which party will be voted by the 24%. We also pointed out that this opinion poll has revealed that the government has collapsed among the people and the opposition led by SJB is ahead. Also, for ethical reasons, we have decided not to mention the name of the organization that conducted this poll.
More falls
However, after disclosing this opinion poll to the country, last week the information of another special opinion poll was also disclosed to the country by a renowned organization. That is from Verity Research Institute.
According to the latest survey report ‘How the Country Thinks’ published by the Verity Research Institute, 85% of the people of Sri Lanka do not approve of the current government’s way of working. The Verity Research Institute revealed that the latest survey report ‘What the country thinks’ revealed that people’s approval of the government has decreased in February compared to October. The latest report of the survey revealed that people’s approval of the government, which was 9% in October, has dropped to 7% in February, Verite Research said.
The latest survey report revealed that 91% of the people think that the country’s economy is in a weak state, according to the latest survey report. Verity Research said that 90% of respondents said that the country’s economy is deteriorating. The Verity Research Institute stated that only 9% of respondents said that the country’s economy is good or excellent.