How Ranil handled the finance committee issue with Harsha and Kabir…
Will the Rajapakse family re-unite?
How the government will handle Ali Sabri Rahim
The government has postponed indefinitely the local government elections that were scheduled to take place last February. When questioned in this regard by the international community and the opposition, the government’s excuse was that there was a case before the court and that the election would be held in accordance with the court’s decision. Mr. Nimal Punchihewa, the Chairman of the Election Commission, who continued to advocate for the election’s holding, also told the media last week that the responsibility for holding the local government election is now with the government, not the Election Commission.
Election Commission, which was the body responsible for conducting the local government elections, now has almost seems like lost confidence in the elections. However, many people claim that if the local government elections are held at this moment, the government sure experience a definite defeat and therefore has postponed the elections.
Effort of intimidation
The strongmen of the government, who are afraid to hold the local government election in this way, are now preparing to hold an emergency presidential election. On several occasions, this was also announced in the press conference by various people connected to high places in the government. Even though it is constitutionally not possible to hold a presidential election this year, the topic of the presidential election was the trump card used by the government for the past few weeks to intimidate the opposition.
Astrological predictions
It is not that there was no main reason that affected it. It is an astrological advice. The Rajapaksa family was at the forefront among the families that generally prioritized astrology over the years. Whatever the Rajapaksa family did, they had taken care to do everything according to the astrological advice before that. The Rajapaksa family also had a royal diviner appointed for that purpose.
Although there was no such publicity, relatives related to the family of a powerful person in the government had called various astrologers for the past few weeks to get astrological advice about the upcoming period. The most special event witnessed here was that not only famous astrologers of this country, but also astrologers from India were brought and the relatives of this family looked at the chart of this high power of the government in various ways.
The relatives of this family had taken steps to ask the astrologers for the planetary placement of this strong man, to find out what the next period of the planets is like, whether the planet locations and the country’s planetary positions will coincide in the next period, etc.
From the information we got to know there, it is said that all these astrologers have looked at the horoscope of the respective strongman and have pointed out some common matter in particular. This means that this strongman is currently undergoing a change of ‘Guru Graha’ and is going through a difficult period due to that. After that, the astrologers have informed the family members of this strong man that the transit of Venus will take place in September, and the period after that will be difficult. However, the astrologers who have pointed out that it is difficult to win in any election held after March next year, have indicated that in order to erase the evils and achieve any success, it is definitely advisable to hold a main election before next March ‘ inside Politics’ column understand.
Amend the constitution
According to these astrological instructions, the government has now decided to hold the presidential election in the first quarter of next year. It has been learned that the work to bring the necessary amendments to the Parliament is also going on behind the scenes these days.
Presidential Election
Last week, Ruwan Wijewardene, a relative connected to the highest places in the government, leaked some hint of this process going on behind the scenes. It was during a committee meeting held on the occasion of party reorganization. There, Ruwan said that there are preparations to hold a presidential election before next March. Although we don’t know if there is a direct connection between the astrological facts we mentioned above and Ruwan’s statement, it is very clear how the government is currently preparing for an emergency presidential election.
SJB’s readiness
It is not that the Samagi Jana Balavega, the main opposition party, and its leader, Mr. Sajith Premadasa, did not receive the information in this regard in advance. Accordingly, the SJB led by Sajith is also preparing to face an emergency presidential election if it is held. The working committee of the Samagi Jana Balawega has already passed a resolution to nominate a candidate from SJB in the upcoming presidential election, and their candidate will be Mr. Sajith Premadasa. Also, Sajith has already entrusted the party’s national organizer Mr. Tissa Attanayake with managing the party’s voting mechanism. Accordingly, Tissa’s plan is to create a battalion of 200 members at each polling station.
It has been learned that this work has already been successfully completed in 90 polling stations by Tissa. Apart from this, SJB has already prepared a detailed plan regarding how to launch the election campaign at the constituency level, village level, city level, district level and provincial level. Also, if the presidential election is to be held before next March, it is necessary to bring a constitutional amendment for that, so the party has already made a statement that it is ready to provide the required two-thirds majority.
When the government and the people are preparing for an emergency presidential election in this way, they should also look into the preparations for that from the side of the pot. As we revealed earlier on the ‘ Inside Politics ‘ column, last April 22, there was a very secret discussion between Basil and the President, and we revealed on this column that there was some agreement between the two regarding the presidential election and the presidential candidacy. The president appointed three governors friendly to Basil according to this agreement between the two. According to this agreement, we mentioned that Pohottuwa will stand for the victory of the President in the next presidential election.
Namal’s difference
However, the ‘ Inside Politics’ column has heard that there has been some disagreement within the Rajapaksa camp and Pohottuwa regarding this agreement. That is when Namal Rajapaksa, the crown prince of the Rajapaksa family, took steps to bring an opinion against Basil’s opinion within the party. Namal’s position has now gone so far inside the party that it is rumoured that Mahinda has also changed his earlier position and has come to Namal’s position.
Namal has pointed out that further dealing in this manner with the president continues, Rajapaksa’s voter base may suffer a severe setback, and accordingly, the party should take certain decisions to immediately to change the situation. Especially if Basil is of a different opinion and tries to pull Pohottuwa in a certain direction, it is known that an opinion is emerging within Pohottuwa that the Mahinda should take a different decision against it. Their position is that a Rajapaksa should definitely come forward in the next presidential election; otherwise there will be no Mahinda votes in Pohottuwa.
Emerging difference
This emerging division between the President and the Rajapaksas was also clearly seen in the recent election against Janaka Ratnayake in Parliament. At the last minute, the Rajapaksa people followed the government’s opinion and voted to oust Janaka Ratnayake, but a situation has now arisen where this situation is likely to change completely in a crucial election to be held in the future. Although we are not in a hurry to reveal what that opportunity is, it is quite clear that the next few months will be a very crucial time for the government, given the facts that are coming together.
Vote on Janaka Ratnayake
In the parliamentary poll held last Wednesday to remove the chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, Mr. Janaka Ratnayake, 123 votes were in favour and 77 votes against, so many thought that the government was strengthened by this poll. But from the beginning, the government was in dire straits of showing the majority of 113 in this poll. Last week, we brought a special report on this election heat on the ‘ Inside Politics ‘ column, where we said that since 10 MPs of the government were already abroad, a group of 11 MPs from Pohottuwa who came to meet Namal and Mahinda could not support this proposal.
It has been declared that a very heated situation may arise in the Parliament on the 24th. With the disclosure we made last week, the ruling party was engaged in a tough battle to find the 113 needed to pass its resolution. It was entrusted to Nimal Lanza to get the Tamil Muslim MPs of the opposition to support the resolution, and it was entrusted to Minister Nimal Siripala to unite the Sri Lanka Freedom party MPs. Due to this, it was seen that many rounds of secret discussions were held behind the scenes until Wednesday, when the voting took place.
TNA abstain
Here, Nimal Lanza had spoken to several members of the Tamil National Alliance, and two or three of them were seen to be on the fence. Because of this, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa went to meet and Tamil National Alliance leader Mr. R. Sambandan at his home in Colombo. That is to ensure the vote of the Tamil National Alliance as anti-government. During the discussion between Sambandan and Sajith, who explained the situation to Sajith at length, Sambandan mentioned that the party has taken a decision to refrain from voting in this election.
Basil’s vote collection effort
In addition, the government had decided to get the support of Basil to get the full support of Pohottuwa for the vote. Accordingly, Basil, who was staying in Dubai at that time, was informed about the situation and the government immediately took steps to bring him to Sri Lanka. Accordingly, Basil also came to Sri Lanka last Friday and started the operation of collecting 113 to the government. There, Basil first spoke to the members of Pohottuwa who are abroad. One of them was Suren Raghavan. Suren is currently in Canada for studies on a one-month scholarship. Accordingly, Basil, who spoke to Suren, said that he should come to Sri Lanka on Wednesday to cast his vote, and that the party would pay for the air tickets required for that. But Suren told Basil that it would be very difficult to come to Sri Lanka under the current situation. Accordingly, Suren was not present for the polling.
Three independent MPs
Also, three MPs who are currently independent from Pohottuwa also received a special message from the government. One of them was Anura Priyadarshana Yapaya. The message received by the government said that the government is unable to find a majority of 113, they should vote together with the government. The message also said that if there is no problem of finding 113, the vote could not be used in favour of the government. However, the other two MPs had taken steps to vote otherwise but Anura Yapa voted with the government.
Janaka’s request turned down
In the meantime, Janaka also wanted to see the parliamentary debate and the polls about him. Accordingly, Janaka sent a letter to the Secretary General of the Parliament and requested that he and his two children be allowed to watch the debate about him. But it was not allowed by the Secretary General of the Parliament. The Parliamentary authorities had refused Janaka’s request informing that the public gallery has not yet been opened to outsiders. But it was noted on Wednesday the Parliament authorities had given the opportunity to the students and other groups to watch the debate from the public gallery that day, even though the doors of the parliament were closed to the public saying that the public gallery was closed.
Matter of Shame
Opposition leader Sajith also took steps to highlight this in his speech. There, Sajith said that even though the government did not allow people to watch the debate, the government gave the opportunity to Ali Sabri Rahim, who was working with the government and was nabbed the day before for smuggling gold and mobile phones, had come to the parliament and voted that day. Sajith said that it is a matter of shame.
However, there is an interesting story behind the presence of Ali Sabri Rahim in the Parliament at the time of polling. Although Ali Sabri Rahim is an MP who came to parliament in 2019 after winning as an independent contestant from Puttalam, he has been with the ruling party since the day he came to parliament. Despite sitting in the opposition, Ali Sabri Rahim joined the government by raising his hand to the 20th amendment brought by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to increase the powers of the presidency. Ali Sabri Rahim voted together with the government in every critical situation since then. Since Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe came to power after Gota’s escape, there was no change in Ali Sabri Rahim’s position. But he was with the government.
Ali Sabri Rahim
However, in the search for 113, the government had also put the name of Ali Sabri Rahim in the pile of the ruling party. But as of Wednesday evening, Ali Sabri received a special message from the government after it was confirmed that more than 113 MPs were with the government. That is to immediately come to parliament and vote together with the opposition in Janaka’s election. Also, when the media inquired about this, they were instructed to declare that he voted in favour of the people and against the government because the government did not help them in the gold incident. Ali Sabri Rahim had initially decided not to come to the Parliament due to the incident that happened on Tuesday, but with this message from the government, Ali Sabri Rahim came to the Parliament on Wednesday and took steps to vote together with the opposition for the country and to the world to see.
Group of 11
The other special happening was the position of Mahinda-Namal during Janaka’s election. When the date for the debate was fixed, a group of about 11 MPs from Pohottuwa met with Mahinda and Namal and informed them that they could not vote against Janaka because he was a chairman appointed from Pohottuwa and because he sat on the side of the people of Janaka in the electricity bill issue. We also took steps to make a special disclosure in this regard last week through the ‘ Inside Politics ‘ column. Accordingly, we mentioned that a group of around 15 including Mahinda-Namal have decided not to come to Parliament on the day of the election.
Attempt to boycott
That’s why Namal was abroad when the debate started. But as the government had issued a special notice and taken measures to summon the MPs to the Parliament by imposing three-line orders, Namal took steps to come to Sri Lanka. Namal, who had arrived, had discuss about the parliamentary boycott with Mahinda at length. Namal had pointed out to Mahinda that if this government continues to act like this, it will be impossible to avoid being hated by the people again in the future.
This ship will sink soon. People have a difficult situation to live. No matter what the government says, it will be difficult for people to live in the future. That’s why we can’t drown with this ship. Namal said that Namal should go on a vote abstaining , but Mahinda and others pointed out that even if Namal’s story is true, they should vote together with the government at this time. Accordingly, Namal decided to suspend the vote boycott move after taking several other special decisions. That is based on the agreement to teach the government a lesson at a critical time in the future.
Intelligence report
Special information received by Mahinda on Wednesday said that the President had received a secret intelligence notification, which contained a list of names of MPs who would not vote, and Mahinda’s name was included at the top of the list. After getting to know this information, Mahinda could see how he was possessed by the devil. Accordingly, Mahinda told his friends that people who give such reports to the President should be taught a good lesson on Wednesday morning. When some people asked about this, Mahinda could be seen expressing his anger.
To vote in an ambulance
However, some other special events were also seen during the polling. A special event was Anuradhapura Pohottu councilor Mr. H.K. Nandasena has been taken to Parliament in an ambulance. As of Wednesday, Nandasena was undergoing treatment at the Anuradhapura hospital due to an emergency. But as the operation to find 113 had been launched by the government by Wednesday, Nandasena’s presence was also necessary for the government. Accordingly, arrangements were made to bring Nandasena to the Parliament in a special ambulance with the notification on Wednesday morning. At the time of polling, Nandasena came to the Parliament in that manner.
Lohan absent
Apart from this, it was also a special that Mr. Lohan Ratwatte, who was a minister of state in the government, did not participate in the polling on that day. While looking into it, we came to know that Lohan had to attend a wedding ceremony that day. But although Lohan had planned to participate in the voting in the evening, Lohan could not participate in the voting at the last minute due to spending time with his friends at the wedding ceremony.
Vadivel suresh
In this way, some crises arose not only in the ruling party due to Janaka’s election. In Samagi Jana Balawegaya too, several crises had arisen based on Janaka’s election. One of the most important of them was the decision to vote in favour of the governmet, despite the decision of the SJB MP group, they vote together but Vadivel Suresh voted with the government. For the past few weeks, Vadivel has been working closer to the government than to the party. Vadivel, who once met and discussed with the President, said in a meeting with Minister Harin Fernando last week that he is with Harin and that he will also do politics with Harin’s decision.
Accordingly, with Vadivel working together with the government to vote, Sajith took steps to call a special discussion of the party on Wednesday afternoon. There was a special discussion not only about Vadivel who voted in favour of the government but also about Rajitha Senaratne and Hesha Withanage who did not come to the polling. Accordingly, it was finally decided to expel Vadivel from the party. Also to send warning letters to Rajitha and Hesha. The most special event witnessed here was that Sajith also made a special statement that he would take a strict stand regarding the MPs working with the government.
Unity of the opposition
In this way, Janaka’s polling was able to create some conflicts of opinion within the parties, but overall, Janaka’s incident was able to bring the opposition on one platform. Accordingly, Janaka’s election paved the way for all the parties, including SJB, Sri Lankan Freedom Party, DUllas’ Freedom Janata Sabha, Wimal-Udayala’s Uttara Sabha, Anura’s Janata Vimukthi Peramuna, Tamil and Muslim leaders to come together. Last week, it was also seen how Sajith made a special effort to talk about this to all the opposition party leaders from time to time.
Finance committee and Dr Harsha
A serious problem for the Samagi Jana Balawega throughout the last period was that Dr. Harsha de Silva did not get the position of Chairman of the Finance Committee. Although SJB brought this to the attention of the government on many occasions, the government tried to avoid the issue by telling different stories. Although Mr. Harsha de Silva also discussed this matter with the President on several occasions, it was not possible to reach a final decision.
The leader of the opposition and the opposition had strongly pointed out that the government is running the country by violating the standing orders of the parliament in an undemocratic manner and departing from the principles of good governance. As the embassies were also informed about this, it was seen that this was a serious problem for the government.
Due to the fact that the President’s visit to Japan was in the meantime, there was a need for the President to resolve this issue temporarily before leaving for Japan. Accordingly, the President played a little political game before leaving for Japan. Accordingly, the President informed Kabir Hashim and Harsha de Silva to meet him to discuss this matter. With this notification, Kabir immediately met Sajith and took steps to inquire that such a request had been received and what should be done about it. Sajith said that if the issue of the Chairmanship of the Finance Committee can be resolved through this meeting then it will not be a problem.
Harsha disappointed
According to the notice, when Kabir and Harsha went to meet the President, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and the chief organizer of the ruling party Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga were also present. In the discussion that started accordingly, the President discussed this problem and informed that the problem should be solved in the Selection Committee in such a way that it would not be a problem for the government.
Through that, the President had arranged to give a green light to Harsha’s appointment. Accordingly, Kabir and Harsha immediately informed Sajith that they were able to solve the problem. Accordingly, Kabir and Harsha attended the selection committee meeting with the aim of resolving the issue which had been dragging on for many months. But Kabir and Harsha faced an unexpected problem. That is because Prasanna and Dinesh objected to Harsha’s nomination saying that despite the agreement reached during the discussion with the President, the President is an individual from another party and the government is run by the pohottuwa.
Prasanna’s upper hand
When the opposition leader also questioned Prasanna in the parliament, Prasanna again said that the president belongs to another party and that the government is run by Pohottuwa. Through that, Prasanna worked to make Harsha and Kabir blunt in Parliament. Accordingly, what actually happened there was that Kabir and Harsha were sent to the shop based on the opportunity that the President had to show that he was implementing good governance policies during his visit to Japan. Accordingly, the President had indicated to the world that he agreed to give the chairmanship of the finance committee to Harsha, but the Pohottuwa government did not agree to it.
Did Ranil Cheat?
In this regard, there was a lot of discussion within the SJB MP group last week. After this incident took place last Thursday, many members of SJB met in the opposition lobby and took steps to protest against this incident.
’this is nonsense. This time too Ranil gave a good rope to Kabir and Harsha. In the end, the party got disgraced. There are so many problems in the country. We also hug a position in the Finance Committee and shout in Parliament every day. The people of the country have no food. The people of the country have no votes. IMF The whole country is stuck because of its conditions. If there is a problem in the finance committee, we will solve it in another way. We should write to the International Parliament and the Parliamentary Committee of the Commonwealth and resolve those issues. Otherwise, talking about this in the parliament is useless for us, and the people of the country it is useless….’