Government Miscounts: 40 Recorded as 75
MR’s Evasive Tactics with Ranil
Namal’s Brawl with Lohan Extends Beyond Politics
Government’s Majority at Stake
Prasanna’s Letter from Thirupathy to MR
Broke the bud
Mr Namal Rajapaksa, the national organiser of Pohottuwa, stated last week that Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe, who was elected to the presidency through parliament with the votes of 134 Pohottuwa members, broke Pohottuwa in two. The President confirmed it by drawing a clear line between the government and the people last week. The President accomplished it gradually, rather than all at once. We also occasionally published information about that operation in the ‘inside politics’ column. Some of the highlights of this were shown last week. The first of these was the public meeting held last weekend at the Galle ‘Samanala’ stadium,
Attended by the President.
Usually, when a meeting is held in which the President participates, all the Ministers representing Pohottuwa district are invited, but this time Galle meeting was somewhat special. The office of the chief organizer of the government sent a message to all the MPs representing the government saying that a group meeting of the government MPs has been called with a luncheon at the Super Lighthouse Hotel before the Galle meeting.
Going further than that, it was seen that an operation to break into the government by MPs from other parties had also been launched. Three MPs of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress were also invited to the meeting at the Light House Hotel. The three MPs are Ali Zaheer Maulana, Faisal Qasim and H.M.M. Haris. These three MPs had maintained a very close friendship with the government and the President throughout the past, and the party leader Mr. Rauf Hakeem had taken steps to warn the three MPs against this. But despite the warnings of the party leader, these three MPs were seen frequently going to the President’s Secretariat and receiving help from the government.
Also, these three MPs had continuously informed Hakeem that the support of the Muslim Congress should be given to the President in the upcoming presidential election, but Hakeem had always told them that the party’s Supreme Council would take the decision related to the presidential election at the appropriate time. Therefore, Hakeem had informed the three MPs not to make hasty decisions. But despite those instructions, these three members of the Muslim Congress came to the Galle Light House Hotel last Saturday as per the notification of the President.
Three leave halfway
However, according to this notice, the government thought that around 75 MPs from Pohottuwa would attend the luncheon held at the Light House Hotel. But only nearly 40 of the ruling party MPs had come to the Light House Hotel along with the three MPs from the Muslim Congress.
Before this meeting was held on Saturday, several different strategies had been implemented behind the scenes to somehow get the support of the President. The first of which was last Friday (26) when the President sent an official letter to Mahinda, the leader of Pohottuwa, requesting him to support Pohottuwa. But he did not receive a proper answer, on Saturday morning, two more special people came to Mahinda’s official residence in Wijerama. Those two special people are none other than Sagala Ratnayake, one of the President’s chief advisors, and Education Minister Susil Premajayant.
Here, a special note should be made not about Sagala, but about Susil. This was due to Susil’s strong opinion regarding the Rajapaksas in the past. That opinion was so strong that Susil had announced on several occasions that he would not have any close relationship with the Rajapaksas anymore. A viewer of such statements on YouTube channels or flipping through pages of old newspapers can easily find these statements made by Susil. Despite that, Susil came to Mahinda’s house once again that day with Sagal to request him to support President.
Here too, Mahinda gave the same answer to both of them. That is, on Monday, the Political Committee of Pohottuwa will meet and take a final decision in this regard, and until then, please be patient. However, Sagala and Susil could see how Mahinda’s facial expressions were written about the decision to be taken on Monday. There is no doubt that Susil and Sagala informed the President before the start of the Galle meeting that evening. There is no doubt that the President’s side was able to understand that with the number of Pohottuwa MPs who came to the meeting of the government MPs held at the Light House Hotel. However, as the expected number of MPs did not attend the meeting, the three MPs from the Muslim Congress were seen leaving the hotel without participating in the meeting.
Who is SJB’s Rahman?
Also, after the Galle meeting, there was a big publicity through the media of the government that Mr. Ishaq Rahman, a member of the SJB, was on the stage to support the President in the Galle meeting. However, the SJB leaders later replied that Ishaq Rahman joined the government when Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa brought the 20th Amendment to the Parliament in 2020. Since then, Ishaq Rahman has been with the government, and after Ranil became President, he continued to be with him, and when the President went to America to address the United Nations General Assembly, Ishaq Rahman also went to America with the President. Accordingly, the government is trying to make Ishaq Rahman as a new cross over but he is joined the government ranks way back in 2020.
Can’t do without the bud
However, Pohottuva’s senior ministers Ramesh Pathirana, Kanchana Wijesekera, Prasanna Ranatunga, and Mahindananda Aluthgamage, who are close to the President, had pointed out to the President more than once that they would not get the support of Pohottuvu in this way, and that they should somehow seek the support of Pohottuvva from the President. Because of that, they said that Pohottuwa still has the strongest party mechanism that can launch an election under any circumstances. The ministers had pointed out to the President that the strength of the party mechanism spread across villages should somehow be added to the President’s election campaign; otherwise, the government would have to face serious problems in launching the election campaign.
A certain incident that confirms this happened a few days ago during a discussion between the campaign groups of the President. There, a certain UNP strongman played a song he composed for the President aiming at the presidential election, and Duminda Dissanayake representing the Sri Lankan Freedom Party strongly objected to it.
‘You guys make songs… before making campaigns, aimed at the village level. There is no UNP left in the village now. There is also news that a heated conversation took place between him and the UNP strongman, with Duminda saying, “If only Pohottuwa is spared, we will finish voting…”.
Thus, there is no doubt that the president also had some understanding that if he did not get the support of Pohottuwa, the election campaign would fall into a serious situation. That’s why the President immediately after coming to Colombo after the Galle meeting took steps to meet Mahinda again last Sunday morning to discuss this matter. Accordingly, even though Mahinda met and discussed with Sagala other day, there was no definite answer from Mahinda. Mahinda also said that he is with the party’s decision.
Namal chases Lohan out
During these events, many other operations were carried out to nominate Mahinda as the President. One of the missions was handed over to State Minister Lohan Ratwatte. Lohan has been very close to Mahinda in politics in the past. Since the President had planned to get Mahinda’s support through Lohan, Lohan too had come to Mahinda’s Wijerama house night after night to brainwash Mahinda’s by praising Ranil. Namal had also come to know about this. Because of this, Namal had been working from morning to night to gather information about people coming to meet Mahinda. He was curious what the people who came were talking to Mahinda about and what proposals they were bringing to Mahinda.
There, Namal realised that Lohan often came to meet Mahinda at night to brainwash Mahinda. Because of this, Namal had informed two or three people in Mahinda’s house to inform them about Lohan’s arrival time. Accordingly, an emergency call from Mahinda’s house last week said that Lohan had come and was discussing with Mahinda. Accordingly, Namal immediately broke into Mahinda’s house. When he arrived, Lohan was washing Mahinda’s head by saying good things about Ranil. Seeing this, Namal got angry.
Accordingly, Namal said directly to Lohan’s face, ‘Lohan, don’t come to create problems in our family on other’s contracts…’ While Lohan continued to comment favourably about Ranil’s, Namal once again said that there is no problem in politics, but he should not accept other’s contracts and act accordingly. While the two were having a rather heated conversation, it became even hotter because of a certain statement that came out of Lohan’s mouth. Responding to Namal’s comments such as, “Don’t come to break our family,” Lohan said, ‘They are the ones who broke the Bandaranaike family in the first place’. Lohan’s comments made Namal furious.
‘They sold our father and came to parliament in the name of our father and are now coming here to create problems in our family. Don’t come to it. Please get out. Namal then took steps to throw Lohan out of Mahinda’s Wijerama house saying, ‘Don’t come here again.’ This incident came out as news through various media shortly after this incident happened.
Attacks on Prasanna
Next peak of the emerging conflict between the government and Pohottuwa was marked by the extremely crucial Pohottuwa political board meeting held on Monday. Nearly 80 people including senior councilors, trade union leaders, and party officials were present.
At the beginning, the meeting got heated with the suggestion that a candidate should be presented by the party for the presidential election. Prasanna Ranatunga was the first to comment against it. Prasanna said that if Pohottuwa does not support Ranil, Pohottuwa will have to get beaten on the road once again. Houses will be set on fire again. At the same time, Prasanna was attacked from all sides in manner no one expected, and the union leaders of the party took the initiative.
Don’t come to threaten us. We will never betray the party by burning houses. In 77, our houses were burnt down. But we did politics with the party. They are trying to do the same thing that Ranil’ UNP did to the SLFP to Pohottuwa. Try to do the same to the bud. When the trade union leaders said, ‘We are not afraid of this’, it was seen how the group divided into two sides and went into a big argument. Here, Mahindananda, who was at the front, looked back and said ‘who is talking’ and tried to create an opportunity to get involved with the trade union leaders, but it, was not successful.
Kanchana apologizes
Speaking at the same time Kanchana Wijesekara said that this was a long-standing conspiracy.
‘It seems to me that this is a conspiracy that has been going on for a long time. At one point, Minister Basil asked us to leave the ministry. Saying that this is the revenge for not doing it’, Kanchana mentioned Basil’s name and Basil, who was very angry, asked in a loud voice, ‘Kanchana, don’t just come here to lie. When did I tell to leave the ministries…?’ Kanchana realized that he had made a mistake by asking Basil. Accordingly, Kanchana, who apologized to Basil twice, said that it was a mistake.
After this conversation, Party General Secretary Sagara Kariyawasam brought a proposal to the party and suggested that a candidate should be presented by the party for the upcoming presidential election. 79 votes were received in favor of the proposal and only 11 votes were against.
A meeting at Vajira’s house
However, while the Pohottuva Political Committee was meeting in this manner at the Pohottu party office, another special discussion was held at Vajira Abeywardane’s house on Flower Road, Colombo. As it was announced that it was a meeting called by the President, it was seen how a significant group of MPs who had attended the Pohottu meeting also attended it. In this meeting, when Prasanna – Mahindananda etc. attacked Pohottuwa, several people went against it and said that if they go to create trouble with Pohottuwa at this moment, it will be difficult in the elections, and because the party mechanism of Pohottuwa is needed to carry the campaign to the village, somehow Pohottuwa should be added to it. Since there was some truth in it, the group decided to entrust Kanchana to talk to Mahinda once again. Although the discussion ended accordingly, it was noted a group of people in the discussion went to Wijerama house to meet Mahinda and to Battaramulla house to meet Basil.
92 for the President
After that, another special meeting was held last Wednesday. It was the meeting of the ruling party MPs held at the Presidential Secretariat. Since it was a meeting of the ruling party MPs group, a large number of MPs from the government attended it without any distinction. But many people realized that this was more of a political meeting than a meeting of the ruling party MPs and that it was introduced as a MPs group meeting as a ploy to bring in the MPs only a few moments after the meeting started. There, Ramesh Pathirana stood up and brought a proposal to the group of MPs and said that everyone should work to support the President in the upcoming presidential election. The proposal was approved by S.B.
When various people gave their opinions in the discussion as planned in advance, some ministers realized that something different was going on here than a meeting of the government’s MPs. Several ministers were seen leaving the meeting at the beginning of the discussion. One of those who left was Minister Pavitra Vanniarachchi. Pavitra informed the President about that and proceeded to leave the meeting.
Government lose the majority
The next fire of the meeting was ignited due to a special announcement issued by the Presidential Media Unit immediately after the discussion. The announcement stated that 92 Pohottu MPs who participated in the ruling party group meeting held that day decided to support the President. Basically, the announcement was planned and released to the media as a ‘psychological operation against Pohottuwa. But the question was based on whether there were 92 Pohottu MPs as the Presidential Media Unit said, and if there were, who were they? Although it was said that there were 92 MPs from Pohottuwa, there were MPs representing several parties outside Pohottuwa such as Nimal Siripala party, Douglas Devananda party, Jeevan Thondaman party, Nimal Lanza party, Pilleyan party etc.
During the meeting, a separate sheet was prepared to be signed only by the members of Pohottuwa. Although several people signed it, there were also some Pohottuva MPs who did not sign it. Although it was said that 92 Pohottuva MPs attended the meeting, it was confirmed that there were 58 Pohottu MPs after taking their signatures. But that amount was not revealed by the media because the number of Pohottu MPs who participated was minimal.
Basil begins work
After this meeting was over, when an announcement was made by the Presidential Media Unit that 92 MPs from Pohottuwa had the support of the President, Pohottuwa was also alarmed and immediately took steps to find out whether the news was true or not. Accordingly, they gathered at the election operation center that has been set up at the Pohottu office. It was none other than the as this column highlighted election operation center to the country for the first time. Two weeks ago, we made an extraordinary revelation on this column and we said that Basil has installed the latest computers and office equipment in the Nelum Mawatha office premises and started a huge modern election operation office. We took steps to reveal the related photos to the country for the first time. Accordingly, Basil came to the new election operation office after the meeting of the ruling party MPs held at the Presidential Secretariat and engaged in some review with some of the Pohottu MPs who were present at the meeting.
The photographs released by the President’s Media Unit were closely observed, and they could clearly see that although 92 MPs had come, the number of MPs who had attended the meeting was about 80. Basil found that about 58 of them were Pohottu MPs, and all the rest were MPs representing other parties. Also, the MPs who participated in the discussion took steps to inform Basil about what the people were talking about.
However, when the President’s Media Unit published a press release stating that there is a team of 92 in Potottuwa to support the President, another special issue that they forgot was also brought to the attention of the meeting. Knowingly or unknowingly, the announcement confirmed that the government does not have the majority. The government has so far preserved the majority of 113 with the support of the MPs from Pohottuwa. But after this announcement, the government will undoubtedly have to face a serious crisis in passing the decrees. Because even though the presidential election is to be held on September 21, it will take another 3 months to hold the general election and elect a new parliament. Accordingly, many people think that the government will not be able to pass any decree in the next 3 months.
Also, a serious crisis has emerged regarding this group of 92. That is because after the end of that meeting, a majority of members of Pohottuwa came to Mahinda’s house to meet Mahinda and to Basil’s house to meet Basil. These MPs came and informed Mahinda and Basil about all the events that happened in the meeting. Accordingly, there are already signs of a further reduction in the size of the Pohottu group that is said to be with the President in the future. Many of the Pohottuwa MPs had informed Mahinda that they had attended it because they had been informed that it was a group meeting of the ruling party MPs, and that they would never abandon Mahinda and Pohottuwa to do politics.
Prasanna in Tirupati
However, Prasanna Ranatunga, who has become one of the closest people to the President, did not participate in this ruling party meeting. While investigating the matter, the members of Pohottuwa came to know that Prasanna had already gone to India to worship Lord ‘Tirupati’. However, after this meeting, Prasanna sent a letter to Mahinda from India, saying that he would give his support to the President Ranil.
Mahinda’s response
Looking at all these events, the relationship between Ranil and Mahinda has officially ended. A dinner party was held at the Japanese ambassador’s house last Monday night when that was announced. Mahinda and Shiranti were also present, and none other than Mahinda surrounded everyone at the dinner. A week ago, we published an analysis in a special article in ‘Mawrata’ newspaper confirming that the real gamer in politics is not Ranil but Mahinda. There we pointed out that many people thought that Ranil played the best games in politics, but all those games played by Ranil turned around and how Mahinda’s games worked to the point. Even at this moment when Ranil’s mouth was split in two, Mahinda attended the dinner with a smiling face as if nothing had happened. Mahinda, who laughed and joked loudly with everyone who talked to him, gave a very wonderful answer when everyone was asked about the ongoing crossovers.
‘Oh… there is no problem. Ranil can take our people one by one. But the votes are with us…’ was Mahinda’s smiling reply.
Game on
Mahinda has now started playing games again with many people who came to Wijerama at night in the last few days, reflecting the character of playing games. According to the news we have, it is said that most of the people who said they went to Ranil have been coming back to Mahinda for the past few days and saying that Mahinda has heard everything that is happening on that side. In addition to this, last week, the former chairmen of all the local government bodies continued to come and meet with Mahinda and Basil and informed them that they will be given the seat organizers of the MPs who joined with Ranil and that they are ready to organize those seats better than earlier. Accordingly, Mahinda is currently preparing to retaliate against the attack on Pohottuwa by Ranil. According to the information in this column, this counterattack has been planned in segments. , After Ranil is nominated for the presidential election, after that some serious counterattacks have been prepared from the bud.
Ranil is back
Meanwhile, due to the strong request of the Ministers who came from Pohottuwa, the President had taken steps to meet Mahinda again last Thursday in order to somehow bring Pohottuwa back to a position of supporting the President. It was none other than a powerful secretary who was close to Mahinda when Mahinda was the president who prepared the necessary preparation and background for this meeting. After Gota gave up the presidency and fled from Sri Lanka, it was the same secretary who did a lot of behind-the-scenes work to give Ranil the presidency. Accordingly, the meeting between Mahinda and Ranil was held in the grand mansion built by the said secretary on Gregory Road.
At the beginning of the discussion, the President asked Mahinda if he would present a candidate for the presidential election. Mahinda answered directly and said that he would present a candidate, Dhammika Perera. Then the president replied with a smile and said that Dhammika Perera would get only 5% of the votes and that he would win the presidential election. Mahinda also laughed and said that when the election results come, the country will be able to see who the winner is.
Mahinda’s answer
In this way, the President gave a somewhat bullying talk at first, but in the end, he proceeded to make two special requests from Mahinda. That is to give him the support of Pohottuwa in any way and to provide the opportunity for the Pohottu MPs who come to support him to contest the general election from Pohottuwa again.
Mahinda had given a wonderful answer to that too.
‘There is no point in you coming to see me like this. Because pot is a party. This is not one person. Now you are breaking our party. Therefore, discuss with the party and come to a decision. If someone advises you that you can talk to me and solve this problem, that is not going to happen. It doesn’t matter how many people you break. But talk to the party and solve them. On the other hand, the party will decide whether or not to nominate the MPs from Pohottuwa who come with you.
A new number operation
In this way, while Pohottuwa has come to a state of rejecting the President, the President’s side had started a new operation by last week. That is to once again take a group of SJB MPs to the side of the President. The SJB MPs rejected or ignored the phone calls coming from those phone numbers in the past because the continuous phone calls received with requests for this had caused trouble for the SJB MPs. But now it is known that the President is making repeated calls to the SJB MPs through new phone numbers and requesting them to somehow join the government.
Two in the bud
However, Pohottuwa is currently planning to officially announce the party’s presidential candidate next Wednesday. Although many thought that Mr. Dhammika Perera would be the candidate, due to some political upheavals that happened last week, Pohottuwa may have seen new proposals from several candidates. Two main candidates who are currently preparing to run for the presidential election from two other parties had come to meet Mahinda and Basil last week to ask for their support. It is reported that these two main candidates have informed Mahinda and Basil that they are ready to receive this support subject to any conditions presented by Pohottuwa. However, by the end of last week, Pohottuwa had not accepted or rejected the proposal.
Recognision to Sajith
Last week, in a special disclosure through the ‘inside politics’ column, we said that the International Monetary Fund had requested a special meeting from the opposition leader Mr. Sajith Premadasa. We also mentioned that the IMF requested this meeting after it was reported that opposition leader Mr Sajith Premadasa is ahead in all opinion polls conducted by even internationally recognized institutions regarding the presidential election.
Accordingly, Sajith gave the date of last Wednesday for the relevant discussion. Later, the International Monetary Fund informed Sajith once again that they will hold this discussion. Also, before the meeting, there was a request from that party to give the economic policies of SJB in writing to the financial fund during this meeting. That is to make future transactions easier by having those amendments prepared in advance under a SJB government. During election seasons, the IMF deals with other countries in the same way.
As in previous occasions, Sajith did not go alone to this discussion on Wednesday. He went along with the party’s economic experts Harsha de Silva, Kabir Hashim, Eran Wickramaratne. Sajith had also invited two other special people for the discussion. They are two economic experts who are well known even to the officials of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, who are still young. Through this, Sajith was able to show the financial fund that the strongest economic expert team that can build the country is with him. Also, Sajith took steps to give them in writing the clauses that should be amended in the agreement signed with the financial fund under a future SJB government.
