Government Show Clear Signs of Leaning Toward China
Prominent Political Figures Opt Out of Election Contests
India and USA Monitor Chinese Warship’s Arrival Closely
IMF’s Next Tranche May Be Delayed Until the New Year
JVP Focuses on Securing ‘Preferential’ Votes
Ranjan and Kamal Excluded from ‘Compass’ List
Anura permitted China
In his third week as the Executive President of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s tenure is already drawing significant international attention. As highlighted in the ‘Inside Politics’ column last week, India and several Western nations have been closely observing his actions since he took office. This scrutiny intensified after his administration, within two weeks of assuming power, granted permission for a Chinese defence vessel to enter Sri Lankan waters. The decision was confirmed by Minister Vijitha Hearath in a media statement on Monday, where he noted that the Chinese government had requested and been granted approval.
The issue of Chinese military vessels in Sri Lankan waters is not new. Previous incidents involving Chinese ships have played a significant role in shaping Sri Lanka’s political landscape, even leading to the downfall of two presidents. During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency, a major controversy erupted when a Chinese submarine was allowed to dock in Sri Lanka, sparking strong objections from India. This event contributed to the eventual collapse of Rajapaksa’s government. Similarly, during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure, Chinese warships were once again permitted into Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, despite India’s protests. This incident further destabilized Gota’s administration, eventually leading to his ousting and flight from the country.
In response, the subsequent government under Ranil Wickremesinghe imposed a ban on Chinese defence vessels entering Sri Lankan waters, which was to remain in effect until December of this year. However, President Anura’s administration has now reversed that policy, allowing a Chinese defence ship to enter, lifting the ban put in place by his predecessor.
Responses from America
We previously highlighted that the issue with China would come to the forefront with the appointment of the new government. Last week, we made a special disclosure about a secret visit to China made by Anura in December of last year, and within a week of reporting this information, the Chinese ship issue has escalated. The situation has gained international attention, particularly with the United States’ swift response. Less than 24 hours after the Sri Lankan government made the announcement, it was revealed that Admiral Steve Keller, a four-star admiral of the U.S. Navy and commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka. Admiral Keller will be the highest-ranking U.S. military officer to visit Sri Lanka since 2021.
According to a statement from the U.S. Embassy, Admiral Keller’s visit will involve discussions with Sri Lankan officials about growing security challenges in the Indian Ocean region, maritime domain awareness, enhancing cooperation in disaster response, and supporting Sri Lanka against international threats. The visit will also focus on deepening cooperation between the U.S. and Sri Lankan military forces, reaffirming the U.S.’s commitment to Sri Lanka. The announcement emphasized the United States’ dedication to strengthening security relations with Sri Lanka, a key partner in promoting peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.
Invitation from India
When the government allowed a Chinese defence ship to come to Sri Lanka, the foreign minister of India was also on a one-day visit to Sri Lanka. During that visit, when Indian Foreign Minister S. Jayashankar met the President, he had also taken steps to invite him to officially visit India. Accordingly, the President is scheduled to visit India within the next few weeks as his first visit. The President will also undoubtedly have to face the Chinese warships issue.
IMF installment
The next problem that the new government has to face is continuing the deal with the International Monetary Fund. Regardless of what was said during the presidential election, the ‘Malima’ government led by the president is currently in the position that the agreement with the financial fund should be carried forward in the same way. But the Financial Fund issued a statement saying that the next review of Sri Lanka will be conducted after the new government comes to power. Otherwise, it was supposed to be done last month. Accordingly, with the postponement of this review, the third instalment to be received by Sri Lanka will also be delayed until the first quarter of next year. However, the government is currently planning to get this loan instalment within this year before next year.
For that purpose, the government is preparing to use the annual conference of the International Monetary Fund to be held in Washington from the 25th to the 27th of this month. A top delegation of the government has already been named to participate in it, including Central Bank Governor Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe and Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena. In these negotiations, the government is ready to start negotiations to get the third instalment of the financial fund within this year, but the information we have says that it is more likely to be delayed until January-February next year. However, the news is that the government has already started online discussions for this purpose with the representatives of the financial fund.
End of JVP policy
Last week, in a special note on the ‘Inside Politics’ column, we said that with the victory of the presidential election, a great silence has suddenly emerged within the ‘Janata Vimukthi Peramuna’. We revealed there that instead of being happy that a JVP member has become the president of the country for the first time in history, JVP is discussing some plan. We pointed out that there is some discussion regarding the quota given to both JVP and ‘Malima’ in the general election due to JVP contesting in a different face as ‘Malima’ this time. Also, as usual, we have mentioned that it has been decided to nominate the MPs according to the victories of the respective districts as per the decision of the party without going to a battle of preferences in the general elections.
JVP is generally a party that has refused to fight for preferences in the past. Although all the other parties are engaged in a political campaign kill each other in the general election, the JVP, setting an example to all, has done an election campaign that has rejected preferences since then. They had made it a policy that was never changed.
Compassionate battle
However, a strong change has taken place in the policy that JVP maintained during this year’s general election. Especially after allowing JVP and ‘Malima’ representatives to compete in their respective districts, JVP has now decided to enter the preference battle and send the representatives who got the highest preferences to the Parliament. Although no leader of JVP has spoken about this openly, only one member of JVP made this public statement to the country last week by K.D. Lalkanta, who is considered the leader of the Kandy Compass team.. Last week, Lalkantha told a story like this regarding the JVP’s changed policy.
People who are elected by preferences are sent to parliament. That is the method. The election law is the same. Otherwise, nothing is done. In the past, when we were voting as Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, we did not do a preference campaign. The group was selected from the party and sent. This is not like that. Lalkantha had stated there that the number of MPs would be adjusted according to the order in which the people voted for them.
Went home
There is no doubt that this year’s general election is the most unusual election held in history. This year’s general election is being held after a huge protest that spontaneously arose from within the country that thieves, corrupt people and old should be removed from politics. In the background, there is a public opinion that the members of the government that bankrupted the country should be sent home. People took to the streets and started a struggle after sending a president home. Accordingly, the people had long predicted that the majority of the 225 MPs in the current parliament would be sent home in this year’s general election.
Due to the confirmation of that fact, many powerful figures of the ruling party and the opposition had issued public statements that they would not stand for the general election in this election. The most special event that was seen there was that three former presidents who had represented the parliament opted to be at home without running for the general election this year. They are Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe.
A special point should be mentioned regarding Mahinda. However, the other two, Mahinda, were preparing to contest this year’s election as well. But none other than former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa exerted the greatest influence on Mahinda not to contest. Gota had sent a message to Mahinda and informed him not to stand for this election and that if he stood for the election and lost, he would have to face a serious crisis. There, Mahinda had informed Gota that he would contest the general election to strengthen Namal. However, in the end, due to the pressure on Mahinda from within the Rajapaksa family, Mahinda decided to withdraw from the general election battle.
Besides this, apart from Shashindra Rajapaksa and Nipuna Ranawaka of the Rajapaksa family, no other Rajapaksa was seen in this general election. Not only Chamal Rajapaksa, and Basil Rajapaksa but also Namal Rajapaksa will not contest this year’s general election, and Namal is ready to come to parliament from the national list.
Here is the list
In addition to this, it is a special event that many of the main parties, including Pohottuwa, could not be seen in this year’s general election. Bandula Gunawardena, Prasanna Ranatunga, S.B. Dissanayake, Gamini Lokage, Wimalaweera Dissanayake, Janaka Bandara Tennakone, John Seneviratne, Shehan Semasinghe, Tissa Kuttiarachi, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, Gevindu Kumaratunga, Shan Vijayalal de Silva, Dallas Alahapperuma, Laxman Kiriella, C.V. Wigneswaran, Kanaka Herath, Mayantha Dissanayake, Geetha Kumarasinghe, Vajira Abeywardena, Sampath Athukorala, Vijayadasa Rajapaksa are the main among them. Also, Wimal Weerawansa and Patali Champika Ranawaka, who were strong characters in the past, had decided to withdraw from the parliamentary battle this time.
Apart from this, Karu Jayasuriya, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Navin Dissanayake, and Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, who worked in the Parliament before the last Parliament, have also decided not to contest this election. Making a special note in that regard, Navin Dissanayake said that he will not contest the general election as he cannot compete with the corrupt. Naveen had accidentally attacked the former MPs who had joined the cylinder from Pohottuwa.
What happened to Ranjan
In the midst of all this, Ranjan Ramanayake, who was a former member of parliament and a former minister, suddenly appeared in the political arena last week. Ranjan was imprisoned due to a charge of contempt of court, and then Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe took steps to grant him a conditional presidential pardon. Under that amnesty, he had the chance to run for re-election.
Despite this, in the last presidential election, Ranjan had taken steps to issue statements indirectly supporting Anura. Also, after Anura was elected as the President, Ranjan went to the President’s Secretariat to meet him. But the President did not meet Ranjan saying that it was a busy day. Ranjan had thus gone to meet the President to get an opportunity to contest from Malimawa and to discuss about removing the obstacles to contesting the elections. But Ranjan didn’t get that opportunity, and the later statements made by Malima said that Ranjan had no chance to contest from Malima. Accordingly, many people thought that Ranjan would not contest this election from any party.
But Ranjan, who suddenly called a press conference, last Tuesday, revealed that he is ready to contest the election from the ‘Voice of the Democratic People’ party this time. On both sides of Ranjan was Thilakaratne Dilshan who said that he would run for Kalutara from the party, and Vadivel Suresh who came to parliament from another party and joined Ranil’s government and accepted a ministerial position.
However, when Ranjan mentions the party that is preparing to contest the election, no one knew about it before that. That’s why everyone immediately started to find out about the new party of Ranjan. It was revealed that the party called ‘United Democratic Voice’ was not created by Ranjan and Dilshan, but the ‘United Congress Party’ of Subhaskaran Aliraja. It was also revealed that instead of the ‘Camel’ sign, it has got the ‘Microphone’ sign. Accordingly, Ranjan prepared to contest this year’s general election from the party of Aliraja Subhaskaran, a strong figure in the Tamil diaspora.
‘NO’ to Kamal
Talking about Ranjan, there is another special artist who cannot be forgotten in this general election. It is none other than Kamal Addaraarachchi, an award-winning actor. Kamal was ready to compete with Malimawa this time. Preparing the background for that, Kamal also did special work for Anura during the presidential election. But at the last moment, the door of the compass was closed for Kamal. Accordingly, in the end Kamal decided that if he could not run for the election from Malima, he would run from the second-generation organization represented by the son of JVP founder Rohana Wijeweera for the general election. Accordingly, Kamal Addararachchi, who played the role of Rohana Wijeweera in the movie ‘Ginnen Oonan Charda’, had to run for the general election from Rohana Wijeweera’s own son’s party.
UNP perished
In this year’s general election, the United National Party has also faced a very serious and tragic fate. In the last general election, the UNP did not win any seats, and Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe was able to attend Parliament thanks to the barely received national list. Ranil announced that he will not run for the election this time. He also mentioned that Vajirad, who came to parliament instead of Ranil, will not contest the parliamentary elections.
However, it was none other than UNP Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardana who mentioned that Ranil will not contest the parliamentary elections. When Ruwan said that, we told them that Ranil was preparing to play a game again. Ranil wanted to announce through Ruwan that he would not run for the election, merge the UNP and SJB and infiltrate a UNP group into the parliament with the help of SJB. Because of this, Ruwan and Sajaba leaders made phone calls to Harsha and Eran and said that Ranil would not contest the elections, and Ranil’s wife, Maithri Wickramasinghe, had also informed Ranil to withdraw. But at the same time, we had revealed through this column that Ruwan was acting falsely. Because Ruwan is the person who launched the ‘Hydepark Corner’ conspiracy to hack MPs from SJB. All those conspiracies took place in that house at Hyde Park Corner of Ruwan.
An attack on Harsha
Lankadeepa newspaper belonging to the family of Ruwan Wijayawardene, who was in the conspiracy to break SJB, had taken steps to publish a piece of news about Harsha last week. They had quoted that news from a statement given by Harsha to ‘Neth FM’ radio. But Lankadeepa had taken steps to publish Harsha’s statement in Lankadeepa without mentioning it. Accordingly, when journalists questioned Harsha in a recent press conference, he criticized Lankadeepa and Lankadeepa’s use of media with great anger. Harsha said that some people have launched a big conspiracy to defeat him in Colombo this time. Harsha also said that although he will not take legal action in this regard, he will challenge Ruwan’s brother Sujan Wijewardene, who was the chairman of Lankadeepa newspaper, to discuss this matter with him. What is special about this is that Lankadeepa, which was holding Harshala back in the past, is now attacking Harshala.
Another lie
Lankadeepa newspaper had taken steps to plant another false news about Ranil last week. There, they said that the current government has taken steps to remove the security provided to Ranil. It was revealed in the news that 307 police officers and 24 police officers who were temporarily attached along with the chief security officer of the former president have been removed.
But the police media spokesperson Mr. Nihal Talduwa had emphasized to the media on the same day that this news is completely false. The media spokesman had mentioned that security personnel including 50 police officers will continue to protect Ranil. Thus, another stone-breaking lie published by Lankadeepa was exposed to the country last week.
Another bomb from Chamal
In this year’s general election, everyone’s attention is focused on the candidate lists of the Colombo district. In the past, the ministers who came to parliament from Colombo for 30-40 years have been included in the list of candidates, but this time we have not seen such a situation. Instead, this time, new faces from almost every party have appeared in Colombo.
It was seen that many people have drawn attention to the list of SJB candidates. Two special people have appeared in the SJB candidate list, competing under the leadership of Sajith. Those two are Dr. Chamal Sanjeeva and Apsari Singhabahu Thilakaratne.
Dr. Chamal Sanjeeva is the person who first revealed to the country the terrible drug fraud that was happening in this country. Chamal Sanjeeva also lost his job in the government due to the exposure of the huge pharmaceutical frauds that took place during Keheliya’s time. Chamal Sanjeeva did not give up the fight saying that it was so—Chamal Sanjeeva, who did not shy away from the no-confidence motion presented in the Parliament. The result was that the people of this country were not only able to know the roots of drug fraud but also saw for the first time how they had to stay in jail for months. Dr. Chamal Sanjeeva is contesting this time from the SJB list of the Colombo district. Chamal is representing the Ratmalana constituency which was represented by Lalith Athulathmudali, who was a flag bearer of the UNP at that time.
In this way, less than 24 hours after announcing that he would be running from Colombo, Chamal Sanjeeva took steps to drop another huge political bombshell. It is said that once again the drug smugglers have started working under the new government, and the cabinet papers presented by Ramesh Pathirana regarding the import of drugs for the next year have been submitted to the cabinet with some amendments. Due to this, Dr. Chamal Sanjeeva emphasized that the two cabinet papers presented by the current health minister Mrs. Harini Amarasuriya have been rejected.
The media had reported it as follows.
The Doctors’ Union Alliance for Medical and Civil Rights says that there is a suspicion that the controversial cabinet papers submitted by the former health minister Ramesh Pathirana will be subjected to some revisions and presented to the president through the current health minister.
In a press conference held in Colombo, the president of the alliance, Dr Chamal Sanjeeva, stated that it is clear that the second time the Minister of Health Harini Amarasuriya’s proposal to the Cabinet to procure 305 types of drugs from local drug manufacturers for the year 2025 has been rejected.
The doctor also mentioned that the current Ministry of Health, the Minister and the President have an irrevocable responsibility to change such measures in the Ministry of Health, which was controlled by the same network of officials for 15 to 20 years.
