‘Ranil will go down in history as the best president Sri Lanka has ever had…” This was a statement made by Mangala Samaraweera. He told this story on July 24, 2020 to the “Daily Mirror’ newspaper. He thought that Ranil would never become the president of this country because all the opportunities that Ranil had to become president were lost. Mangala said not only in this ‘Daily Mirror’ interview, but also in a news conferences held at his Radical Center after that, that Ranil is a liberal, and that when Ranil was Prime Minister in 2015,
He prepared word to word the proposal submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Commission as a co-representation with the United States regarding war crimes. In March 2020, when Gota’s government decided to withdraw from the 2015 proposal submitted by Sri Lanka to the United Nations Human Rights Commission with the United States, Mangala wrote to the ‘Daily FT’ newspaper and said that it was Sri Lanka’s most unfortunate day. He also accused the opposition leader Sajith and the Samagi Jana Balavega that Sajit and the Samagi Jana Balavega have become a substitute for the Podujana Peramuna instead of an alternative, and that the opposition has been captured by racists.
He said that the only non-racist, non-war liberal party in Sri Lanka is the United National Party and its leader Ranil. Mangala’s colleagues attacked Sajith and the Samagi Jana Balawega by saying that Ranil and the United National Party are the only leader and the only party that stands up for the minorities who were subjected to human rights violation during the war.
Now the president is Ranil. Today, Ranil has not only approved the withdrawal of the proposal presented to the United Nations Human Rights Commission by him and Mangala in 2015 with the United States, but has reached the point of asking for a vote in the Commission against the proposal presented by 7 countries of the United Nations Human Rights Commission against the violation of human rights in Sri Lanka. This is an extremely regressive policy to the policy which Gota took in 2020 on the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Mahinda Rajapaksa followed this policy before 2015. He opposed the proposals presented by the Human Rights Commission and demanded a vote every year since 2012. Ranil is following the same principle today.
Where is this:
liberal Ranil whom Mangala mentioned …?’
‘Ranil who stands up for the minorities whom Mangala named as…?’
‘Ranil, the best president that Sri Lanka lost…?’
Today Mangala is not alive. But his collegues and his radiacal centre does not say anything about the United Nations Human Rights Commission. Now it is not a radical center, but the ‘bard center’ of the Ranil-Rajapaksa government,has blatently betrayed the Mangala’s proposal to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Mangala’s voice against Hijaz Hezbollah’s detention under the Terrorism Act Mangala’s voice against the suppression of militarization.
They mixed Rajapaksa’s soda with Ranil’s whiskey, grilled Mangala’s heart and took it for a bite.
‘What really happened to Ranil who gave Mangala international certificate..,?’
Before Ranil became the president, there was a PR campaign in this country. A wave of social media posts emerged across a company. The only language of that wave was that only Ranil can recover the country from the economic crisis and only Ranil will be accepted by the international community. Mahinda’s government had more international recognition when counting the votes received for the resolution submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Commission against Sri Lanka last week.
In 2012, Mahinda’s government took 15 votes against the UN Human Rights Commission’s proposal against Sri Lanka.
Mahinda’s government received 13 votes against the proposal in 2013.
In 2014, Mahinda’s government secured 12 votes against the proposal.
In 2021, the Gotabhaya government received 11 votes against the human rights resolution.
‘Then how did Ranil’s government, which was accepted by the international community, get 7 bankrupt votes…?’
It was vividly clear that Ranil could not get international recognition not only at the United Nations Human Rights Commission but also during Ranil’s visits to London and Japan.
The British government was preparing the resolution against Sri Lanka at the Geneva Human Rights Commission when Ranil went to London to attend the funeral of the Queen. Ranil went to London after Gota’s government lifted the ban on Tamil diaspora organizations. The biggest organization to lift the ban is the Global Tamil Forum. But when Ranil was in London, these organizations were pressuring the British government to bring proposals against Sri Lanka. Ranil could not meet any minister of the British government in London. When Ranil got back to Sri Lanka after completing his visit to London, the British government had presented a proposal to impose sanctions on the army chiefs who had violated human rights in Sri Lanka. This shows that Ranil has not been able to change the opinion about Sri Lanka in Britain.
What happened in Ranil’s Japan tour…?’
Before going to Japan, Ranil told Reuters that he would request Japan to convene a conference to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt when he went to the funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe. Even before Ranil left for Japan, the Japanese Foreign Minister said that the news that Japan had agreed to convene such a conference was false. Ranil went to Japan. He met the Foreign Minister. Met the Prime Minister. After the meeting, the Japanese Foreign Minister attended the meeting of the Asian Development Bank and addressed the media and said that Japan had offered conditions to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt. The condition is that before Japan can restructure Sri Lanka’s debt, Sri Lanka, China and India must agree to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt. Japan, which said it was going to hold meetings to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt for Ranil, has finally offered conditions to restructure Japan’s debt.
But Ranil hid it and said that Japan agreed to co-chair the debt conference in Parliament last week. Japan replied immediately and said that there was no such agreement. This is a shame that happened to Ranil. A few hours after a president addresses the nation, a country rejecting that president’s speech is a slap in the face of that country’s president. This shows the success of Ranil’s funeral tour to Japan.
Then how did Ranil sit in a Main chair at the Asian Development Bank…?’
The Asian Development Bank was to hold this meeting in Sri Lanka. Former Finance Minister Mahinda canceled the meeting scheduled to be held here last year saying that Sri Lanka could not provide facilities to hold that meeting in Sri Lanka. That is why the meeting venue got shifted to the Philippines. If Mahinda or Basil were in the position of finance minister today, one of these two would get the big chair. Because of this, if Sanath Nishantha had been the finance minister, he would also have that chair.
‘Then when Ranil became the president, why did Western countries remove the travel restrictions imposed on foreigners to visit Sri Lanka…?’
As soon as Ranil became the President, the media in Sri Lanka, who were shopping for the Rajapaksas, made a big fuss about the removal of the ban imposed on Sri Lanka, saying that there is no problem for foreign nationals to visit Sri Lanka. But last week, the head of the Tourism Promotion Authority told the media that the lowest number of tourists in the history of Sri Lanka has come in this September.
‘Does that mean that the number of tourists who used to come has decreased since Ranil became the president…?’ That is true.
This is the government of the best preident’s as Mangala mentioned . If Ranil had not become the president, the people of Sri Lanka would still be telling the story of Mangala.
By Upul Joseph Fernando