By H. L. D. Mahindapala –

H. L. D. Mahindapala

When Bishop Rayappu Joseph, one of the most rabid and committed promoters and protectors of Tamil fascist tyranny, raised his hands that blessed Velupillai Prabhakaran in the past and placed them on the head of Maithripala Sirisena the other day, he was signaling, in an unambiguous political act, that he was blessing what he considers to be the second coming of Prabhakaran.

This symbolizes the peak point of the anti-national forces ganging up to embrace Maithripala Sirisena as their new Messiah, in the absence of Prabhakaran. This also means that Bishop Rayappu representing the Tamil-wing of the Catholic Church and Tamil extremism, the TNA and the other leading anti-national forces of the north and south have got behind Sirisena to reverse the gains of the post-Nandikadal victory. They are acting jointly in the belief that Sirisena will deliver, through the presidential-parliamentary process that is yet to be defined, at least a part of what was lost at Nandikadal. TNA is also hoping to collect a couple of ministerial portfolios in “My-3s” Cabinet, if he can form one.

R. Sampanthan, the leader of the TNA, too hinted at the possibility of accepting portfolios at the press conference that announced TNA’s support for ”My-3”. When Sampanthan was questioned about accepting ministerial portfolios he replied that it is “not contemplated now” but anything can change. Everything changes, he added, leaving the possibility of accepting portfolios wide open.

The fact that Sampanthan did not deny it outright confirms that a secret deal has been cut – the details of which are likely to come out once they start implementing, after January 8, 2015, the promises made in their secret deal. TNA, like any other political party, has thrown its weight behind “My-3” only on terms and conditions favourable to its political agenda. TNA is not jumping with both feet into “My-3’s” camp just to chew a stick or two of kotta-kelangu with Maithripala Sirisena.

Obviously, they would have asked, before joining, what’s in it for us. TNA’s bargaining would have aimed at proving to the Tamil voters that their investment in “My-3-pala-naya” has produced dividends. In the past the Tamil leadership has paid a heavy price for backing the wrong horse at the wrong time. But they are not that stupid to give away their votes for nothing. They will ask for their pound of flesh and this will be revealed after January 8, 2015.

When at last the TNA declared that it is for Maithripala Sirisena it cleared the unresolved questions and fuzziness of the political landscape and revealed fully the alignment of forces in the coming presidential election. The final endorsement of TNA and SLMC confirmed that it is the defeated anti-national forces that have gathered to back Sirisena.

The list of those who has joined Sirisena speaks for itself. They are : 1. the TNA, proxies of Prabhakaran, 2. SLMC which signed a deal with Prabhakaran, 3. NGOs the partisan and active agents of Prabhakaran who defended him in international and local fora in the name of promoting peace, 4. Bishop Rayappu and the Tamil-wing of the Catholic Church that never failed to bless Prabhakaran, 5. Mangala Samaraweera of the failed Sudu Nelum movement initiated as a confidence-building act to appease Prabhakaran, 6. Ravi Karunayake linked to Raja Rajaratnam, the American-based financier of the LTTE, 7. Rajitha Senaratne, a puppet of the NGOs, 8. Mano Ganeshan, the loudspeaker of Prabhakaran, 9.Vickrama Bahu, the rotten corpse trying to rise from the Marxist morgue located somewhere in a corner of his feudal Moladanda Walauwwa and 10) his straw scare-crow, Siritunga Jayatunga, the presidential candidate, who will get less votes than President Mahinda Rajapaksa from the Tamils. Last but not the least, there is Champika Ranawaka, the born-again, pavement hawker of yellow robes, (or is it the “yellow peril”?), carrying the pin-pet-tiya and the mull-watt-tiya as offerings to his newly ordained TNA hamu-duru-woes.

Of course, Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe, who are leading this anti-national movement, have been the pioneers who originally engineered their disastrous formulas – disastrous to them and to the nation — to appease Prabhakaran. Since the failure of Ceasefire Agreement of 2002 and the subsequent P-TOMS of Chandrika Kumaratunga they have been rejected by the people as monumental failures that dragged the nation into depths of despair. They know that they have lost the confidence of people. That is why they cannot appear on their own to lead the election campaign. They are taking cover behind Sirisena while they retain the strings to make him dance to their tunes.

This is what makes Sirisena an explosive time-bomb waiting to go off after January 8. The old failures have returned to lead the defeated forces and restore status quo ante Nandikadal. This is the biggest threat to the nation. Besides, the Kumaratunga-Wickremesinghe combination has cobbled up the “My-3” Coalition, consisting of diametrically opposed political opponents, who have no alternative constructive policy or programme to compete politically on the national platform with the constructive advances made by the Rajapaksas. Their tactic has been to join hands with the forces that were defeated and make it look like a new move for change. But anyone can see that it is nothing but old tala thel (gingely oil) in old Horagolla bottles.

Despite the many denials, it is now generally accepted in political circles that the secret deal was brokered by Chandrika Kumaratunga-Ranil Wickremesinghe combination. They were not alone. Behind them were the Western and Indian interventionists who were pressuring the TNA to go along with the “My-3 pala-naya”. And they did. In keeping with the secret deal the TNA kept their decision to back Sirisena under wraps for three weeks since the date of the elections was announced and declared their hands only at the eleventh hour. Bishop Rayappu stepped in only to seal the pre-arranged deal with his blessings.

This deal was predictable and made possible because of two main reasons: 1. the identical political forces of the south that produced the Norwegian-brokered CFA of 2002 (Ranil Wickremesinghe) and subsequent P-TOMS (Chandrika Kumaratunga) that handed over North and the East to Prabhakaran are now back in the driving seat of Sirisena’s political wagon and 2. a TNA–“My-3” deal provides the best opportunity for the TNA to reverse the historical gains of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and restore to the TNA, the proxies of Prabhakaran, the “little-now-more-later” demands of their political agenda. Examples: handing over Police powers, land, and withdrawal of the Security Forces from the North and the South and other powers linked to 13+ which they have failed to get through Mahinda Rajapakse.

All other issues can be dismissed as smoke-screen to hide the TNA–”My-3” deal for the anti-national forces to win the presidential election. In the final lap, this election has boiled down to a contest between national and anti-national forces. It was always that from the words go though it was disguised in irrelevant constitutional and political issues, most of which have been discarded even before the election could begin.

Earlier, the picture was somewhat muddled with endless speculation on who will be with whom on polling day. This guessing game ended once the SLMC and TNA revealed officially their hidden agenda. After that the final battle lineup has demonstrated unequivocally that it is a straightforward contest between the forces that saved the nation (first, from the Tamil Tiger terrorists and, second, from the international interventionists) and the forces that abused the powers of the state to sell the nation to its enemies without informing the President, Parliament and the people.

This election, fought on trumped up issues of changing the constitution, or restoring democracy, justice and clean administration, is, in reality, a battle to reverse the gains won at the end of the 33-year-old Vadukoddai War. What the Rajapaksas rescued at Nandikadal was the cherished history of the nation. With the anti-national forces surrounding Sirisena he has no option but to surrender to their demands of reversing the future history created by the Rajapakses.

Chandrika Kumaratunga, let the cat out of the bag when she opened her loose mouth and referred to the internationally banned terrorist, who had no compunction in slaughtering his own people, as “Mister Prabhakaran”. She is now seen as having sold the nation for a few cheers and votes from Jaffna. Besides, she is hailing Prabhakaran at a time when even Sampanthan is distancing himself from the Tamil Pol Pot of Jaffna. TNA is washing its hand off LTTE because it can’t be seen as a part of the internationally banned terrorist outfit. TNA is now seeking to present a clean image. In an interview with the Daily Mirror (3/1/2015) he declared (lying through his teeth) that he was never for the LTTE and he wants to find a solution within united and undivided Sri Lanka. But Kumaratunga goes to Jaffna and hails Prabhakaran as if he was her best machang.

How far can this cheap sell-out go to add credibility to her already ruined image? Doesn’t this reveal the real CBK and her brand of Dona Catherina politics? If she continues to hero-worship Prabhakaran as her “Mister” can she be trusted to protect or serve the national interests? Doesn’t it reveal on whose side she is on the issues facing the nation? Isn’t CBK already signaling that she is preparing to reverse history and hand over all the gains backs the proxies of her “Mister”? How is Sirisena going to balance “Mister” Prabhakaran’s dear mistress and the JHU which is crying for the reduction of powers of the Provincial Councils? Is Sirisena depending on this loose cannon to deliver good governance? As the power behind Sirisena what does this portend for the future of the (1) Coalition and (2) the nation? Only a half-wit like CBK would think of winning votes in Jaffna by throwing sops to a Tamil Cerberus without realizing that it is going to lose vote outside Jaffna.

At the same meeting in Jaffna Gen. Sarath Fonseka got booed when he tried make out that he fought a war causing the least amount of hurt to the Tamils. That is true. But that is not a vote-winning line in Jaffna. The gaffes of Kumaratunga and Gen. Fonseka have backfired just when they thought that everything was going fine for them. More of these are yet to come either before or after January 8. This is inevitable because the inherent contradictions in the “My-3-pala-naya” are irreconcilable. These contradictions will either implode or explode sooner or later. Can the inevitable clash of ideologies and personalities – most of whom can never agree on fundamental issues — produce a stable government or work together for long to achieve their promised goals?

As if there aren’t enough of anti-national forces in Sirisena’s unworkable Coalition they have – believe it or not! – thrown in representatives of NGOs to be a part of running the administration. Addressing the businessmen gathered at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, Sirisena announced that in keeping with his promise to restore democracy his very next act which would take place on the following day of assuming office “will be to establish a National Advisory Council that includes representatives of all parties represented in Parliament as well as Civil Society organizations.” (The Island – December 28, 2014)

The inclusion of NGOs into the National Advisory Council (NAC) is hilarious, to say the least. Let us, however, assume that the NAC has some potential to serve as a useful body, though I believe it is bound to wind up as another expensive body full of windbags.

Let us also assume that representatives of political parties can also give some advice though it is a redundant body in view of the fact the Coalition government and the parliament as a whole consist of all the multiple parties in the field. Why duplicate parliament in an advisory body? Who is going to pay for this extravaganza?

But what is ridiculous and unacceptable is the inclusion of “Civil Society organizations” in the NAC. Though the NGOs talk glibly of good governance they can’t run their own foreign-funded institutions efficiently or free from corruption and abuses of their staff. For instance, investigations have revealed that NGOs like ICES and CPA are running mega-million organizations without properly accounting for the money they receive from their Western donors.

When the diddled accounts of ICES were investigated Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy washed her hands off saying that she merely signed what was put before her. Is that a qualification of “good governance”?   It was her counterpart in the Centre for Policy Alternative (CPA), “Paki” (Mister Corrupt) Saravanamuttu, who led the campaign against ICES exposing its shady deals. Of course, Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu is no better. He is yet to account for the double-billing presented to his European donors to cover-up for the drinking bajau of CPA held at Galle Face Hotel. When charges were raised about CPA’s crooked deals he said he will reply in two weeks and fled to UK.

Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu can’t even govern his CPA let alone advice the nation on good governance. When Sanjana (Foul Mouthed) Hattotuwa, his senior advisor in the CPA, abused a junior female staffer Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu hushed up the affair by saying that it is an internal matter. Sirisena obviously will, no doubt, be influenced by Kumaratunga to appoint Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu’s, her dancing partner, to the National Advisory Council. This inclusion may give Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu a great opportunity to get closer to his dancing partner. But how can the nation benefit when his sole mission has been to go on foreign-funded trips abroad and run down Sri Lanka as a place worse than hell at every stop on the way? It is also possible that Jehan (Pacha) Perera too will be appointed to the NAC. He is another anti-national prevaricator who glorified the LTTE as state on par with the Sri Lankan state, particularly by conferring on O-Level Anton Balasingham with a doctorate which he never earned.

Does any government need these corrupt, lying, abusive, money-making mudalalis in any advisory capacity? But the pre-election decision to take them in guarantees that the “My-3-pala-naya” is going to be an alliance of all the anti-national forces. Remember, Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu is the “moralist” who objected to Sri Lankans enjoying a piece of kiributh when the enemies were defeated at Nandikadal. Sirisena also enjoyed the triumph of Sri Lankan forces. Is he now going to vomit his kiributh because Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu has branded it as “triumphalism”? Is Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu fit to advice the nation on any subject, other than how to abuse women and make money by cooking the books? In any case, shouldn’t he first answer the charges of corruption facing him and his institution before advising the “My-3-pala-naya” to create “the ideal country”, as promised in the Manifesto?

What is crystal clear in all this is that Sirisena’s coalition is like Noah’s ark: a weird menagerie of political animals, ranging from Bishop Rayappu who can’t even protect one of the sacred images of Catholicism in his Church at Madhu, to Mister Corrupt Saravanamuttu who can’t protect the women working under him or the foreign donors money. The only qualification common to all of them is their political skullduggery to undermine and reverse the gains of nation’s history in the post-Nandikadal era.

So who can trust Sirisena to deliver good governance, democracy, justice and national security, territorial integrity when his administration is in the hands of the leading anti-national forces who had undermined the will of the people by selling it to the enemies of the nation, or foreigners, or their hired agents in the NGOs?