Prabhakaran decided for an election boycott in the 2005 presidential election to defeat Ranil because he knew that Ranil was responsible for breaking Karuna Amman, who was a strength for Prabhakaran. The biggest mistake Prabhakaran made was sending Karuna Amman to the negotiation table in 2002. When Karuna went to Thailand for peace talks, Ranil used two people to trap him. One was Gamini Abeyratne, the then-director of Katunayake Airport, and the other was Ali Zahir Moulana, a state minister in Ranil’s government. Ali Zahir Moulana was Karuna’s neighbour, and recently he stated that at Karuna’s request during the peace talks, he arranged for Karuna’s children to be enrolled in schools in Colombo. He also said that during the peace talks, he informed Ranil, who was Prime Minister at the time, about the growing problems and conflicts between Prabhakaran and Karuna Amman. Gamini Abeyratne took Karuna Amman to nightclubs in Thailand and became friends when Karuna left the country for peace talks and returned to Sri Lanka through the airport. Later, he went to Thailand and got into the habit of taking Karuna to nightclubs and partying late into the night. When the conflict between Karuna and Prabhakaran became public, Karuna fled from the east to Colombo in Ali Zahir Moulana’s vehicle. Prabhakaran knew all of this. Disregarding international pressure, he decided to defeat Ranil out of revenge for the breaking of his closest ally.
The Rajapaksas know that Ranil was the one who split Karuna and Prabhakaran and destroyed the LTTE. One reason they wanted to make Ranil president was that they believed he would split and destroy the ‘aragalaya’. Ranil accomplished this. Additionally, out of fear that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) would turn against him in the next presidential election, he created problems within the TNA using liquor licenses. It has been revealed that several TNA leaders, including ITAK leader Sritharan, were granted bar licenses. These TNA and ITAK leaders, who received liquor licenses, are now supporting the independent candidate to prevent TNA votes from going to Ranil’s rival, Sajith.
Ranil’s breaking of Karuna Amman caused significant damage. Otherwise, Ranil would have become president in 2005. Ranil’s recent actions to fix this mistake are also faulty. Whether liquor licenses can win Tamil votes will be seen in the upcoming presidential election.
