Close to Rs 10 million are reported to have been set aside for a special celebration welcoming President Maithripala Sirisena’s return to the island after attending the sessions of the UN General Assembly.
It is reported that SLFP stalwarts S.B. Dissanayake, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Nimal Lansa had pressurized the Chairman, Airport and Aviation Services Authority Ananda Wimalasena to foot this enormous bill. The Chairperson is reported to have said that the Authority is not in a position to do so and furthermore insisted that President Maithripala Sirisena was against lavish spending on these kinds of celebrations. He had said that a modest welcome is planned and that he was not certain who would pick up the bill. He furthermore refuted the report, saying that he was not under any kind of political pressure.
However, contrary to the claim of modesty, cut-outs and posters of the President have appeared all over Colombo in a throwback to the Mahinda Rajapaksa era of mindless sycophancy.
Dissanayake, Siripala and Lansa were at the forefront of party that welcomed the President when he arrived. It is unclear which of their ministries would pick up the massive bill.
Amarasiri / October 5, 2015
RE: Close To Rs 10 M Spent To Welcome President
Who got that money? Was the money well spent or well wasted?
What did he achieve?
Was it worth it?
How much did Sri Lanka spend in screwing around with the UN over the past 5 years? Mattala Airport Hambantota? Colombo Harbor City? The Floating shops now abandoned on the lake?
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maali karunaratne / October 5, 2015
Mr Amarasiri
Two wrongs do not make a right. We voted yahapalanaya for the change and Yahapalanayaites boasted about how the oath taking ceremony was done with around 65000 etc and he signed with a ball point pen.
Spending 10 million is far too much by any standards. In addition he took Daham with him so we are having a repeat performance of MR. Whither Sri Lanka
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Amarasiri / October 6, 2015
maali karunaratne
“Who got that money? Was the money well spent or well wasted?”
That was the question, but the money was peoples money.
Even when money is spent, it circulates in the economy, and one cannot claim that it was wasted.
It is like a wedding.It is money well spent, but your own money.
Here it is peoples money. The question is is this in excess of a norm?
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Amarasiri / October 6, 2015
maali karunaratne
“Dissanayake, Siripala and Lansa were at the forefront of party that welcomed the President when he arrived. It is unclear which of their ministries would pick up the massive bill.”
“It is reported that SLFP stalwarts S.B. Dissanayake, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Nimal Lansa had pressurized the Chairman, Airport and Aviation Services Authority Ananda Wimalasena to foot this enormous bill.”
Looks like Mara MaRa Chatu MaRa has trained the SLFP stalwarts well.
In the end the poor people will pay.
Why not get Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s opinion?
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Leelawathie / October 6, 2015
If that is true, then, the parties that MR gave almost every week to please his men – should have costed the state several hundreds of millions almost each time. Poor people had to bear high cost of living due to all the wastages.
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words / October 6, 2015
Leelawathie, your slip is showing ma’am!! :))))
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Samuel Dodankotuwa / October 6, 2015
Anyways, what leelawathie says is right. See how the bugger gave dansal to anyone those days ? I wonder how could one waste that manner, if brains were filled not with cowdung ?
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Uthungan / October 5, 2015
Who else is there but The tax payer to bear the burden. ultimately with a sheepish grin..
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Patriot / October 5, 2015
Look at these sycophants worshiping the master, the Executive president of Sri Lanka. The master is surrounded by the Rogues of the previous government who were rejected by the people. They are ecstatic because they were given the opportunity to ruin the country again by this lord Sirisena by forming a national government. Sirisena has also changed. He too enjoys the extravagant pageantry. He does not care about what the people think.
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Rosi / October 6, 2015
This is the other part of My3 & his henchman. Well, next time I will vote for someone who never comes to power.
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EDWIN RODRIGO / October 5, 2015
The only difference between the Past President and the Present President is that the Past President has a past, and the Present President has a future. Hopefully, the two will not become identical.
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K.A Sumanasekera / October 5, 2015
Get real guys..
Do you want Sira and Daham to take a Tuk Tuk home, after sitting with the Yahapalana sponsors and wining and dining with the best of the best Human Rights protectors in the West.
In fact you lot should have been been their too waving Federal Flags for Sira’s kindness to please you at all cost , including his ready agreement to hand over our brave Soldiers to Kerry’s Hybrids….
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Native Vedda / October 5, 2015
KASmaalam K.A Sumanasekera
I suspect that the Diaspora, LTTE rump, TNA, Vellalas, Abrahams, …….. are behind this plot to discredit Sirisena and his brat.
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Jega / October 5, 2015
F…ing disgraceful/despicable bunch rats!
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Neesha / October 5, 2015
You got that right…whats up with the yellow bird “Shobitha”…pretty sure he is enjoying the oil massages and the bling he received for promoting this bunch of rotter’s!!!
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Daham / October 6, 2015
Sobhitha Thera never promoted Sirisena as the common candidate. He wanted a civilian a non-politician as the common candidate. However, in late October last year Mahinda Rajapaksa took Sobhitha Thera away from the movement promoting the common candidate and kept him at the Hospital of Dr Neville Fernando. It was Chandrika who promoted Sirisena during the absence of Sobhitha Thera and made him the most unsuitable common candidate. So Blame Chandrika and Ranil for keeping quiet encouraging Sirisena together with his SLFP rogue ministers to ruin the country in the next 5 years.
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Ansar / October 5, 2015
High time MY3 mends his ways. He is maintaining a deafening silence on Dahams matter and also now on this posters issue.
He better rein in on these useless cronies who spend from their illicit money with the objective of making more illicit deals.
This is where MARA failed due to his closeness to these rogues because he himself was of TSUNAMI FUND FAME.
We do not know MY3 of any past shady deals, therefore he could stay away from all these crooks.
A person is judged by the company he keeps and there is a sea of difference between the company MARA kept and MY3 keeps. That augurs well for the country.
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srilal / October 5, 2015
Ansar ,
What do you think of Fowzi and Fiza Mustafa characters ? are they good leaders ?
as far as we concern both are corrupt , didn’t they blindly nod their heads over MR’s endless blunders ? especially this Faiza Mustufa character ,hadn’t he gone overboard justifying Shirani B’s impeachment and General SF’s imprisonment ? even though he crossed to MY3’s side at the eleventh hour , he was very much reluctant to take a firm decision , if my memory serves me right ,only after R.Hakeem and R Badurdeen switched sides, he had opened his eyes . i don’t know why MY3 got this opportunistic character as his legal adviser , any idea ?
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Rumy Ali / October 6, 2015
Paisa Must Appah is a greedy, money grabbing crook. All he wants is an opportunity for him to benefit out of any opportunity coming his way. Initially he was an unknown lowyer with no brief of his own.Daddy Must Appah took him in and gave him a chance to cut his teeth in low. Soon after that he joined the money-making profession of politics by contesting as Thondamans candidate. After he won, he cut Thondas throat and has been jumping from party to party ever since. I dont think even the muslim community has much respect for this self-serving clown. He will justify anything as long as he could benefit by doing so. He was a diehard supporter of MahaJaraa and justified every uncouth action of his. He even volunteered to ‘train’ Namal the synthetic lawyer for nothing, as soon as he came out of the airconditioned exam set-up.This was just to be in the good books of MahaJaraa. Now just look at that poster extolling the virtues of Sira on his return from the UN. At the bottom is the cunning fox, smiling contentedly and smacking his lips at the chances now open to him to make more ill gotten money as cabinet minister. he is sure biding his time for the next ‘jump. Vaasi Patthat Hoyya. Hoyya. Hoyya.
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Raj / October 5, 2015
What a bunch of a***e lickers. These yobs have thick skins & no self respect. I wonder if their genes are spreading among all Sri Lankans, particularly, the Sinhala Buddhist hypocrites. Judging by the voters who got them into parliament, despite their sleazy past, half the country appears to be so or else, pretty dumb. As for MS, the humble reformist, seems to be enjoying the taste of the good life. He is just a gutless ‘leader’ with absolutely no sense of the direction he should take to reform the country and seems to be making a pickle of the political system. In my opinion, unless RW gets a free hand & take responsibility for the development, there is no way the country can go forward. The executive Presidency, despite the so-called neutrality, will only muddy the waters if the PM is from a different party. There is no way these clowns will ever work together. MS has no backbone to keep his party members under control & I won’t be surprised if the country slips back to the ‘good old days’ when it was free for all to make easy money at the expense of the average citizens of SL.
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Ajantha / October 5, 2015
It is sad and also ashamed of telling that we live in such a country full of idiots.
This is a country full of lunatics and idiots. These are the same rogues who brought disaster to MR who did the greatest service to the country in the history of SL and they are doing the same thing to this stupid My3 too. After al they will be the first to jump to the other side in an election defeat.
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T Wickramaratna / October 5, 2015
The way things are happening now,I feel My3 will go beyond MR very soon.
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rohan Polwatte / October 5, 2015
We need an explanation from President Maithripala about the cut outs and even the cutout which were done in dehiwala. We need to see the action he has taken to stop this in the future. Also we need an explanination why he and his people are going back ot FAMILY NEPOTISM. WE NEED ANSWERS!
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Saras / October 5, 2015
Dear President,
Please confess that “I erred” and start everything all over before it’s too late. Please tell all your bootlickers to get lost and task them to go house by house to explain the reason for co-sponsoring the UNHRC resolution. A lot of work needs to be done to prepare the people to face the outcomes of the investigations and the trails. If you blink MR and gang will fill the space.
Also please do not give any more opportunity to anyone to say that you are no different from MR in practicing nepotism when it comes to your children.
And bring down all the cut-outs before dawn.
Cheers
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Upul / October 5, 2015
This looks like the beginning of the downfall of the new President. He saw and witnessed what happened to the previous President because of his association with these scoundrels who are there just to safeguard their interests. If you are not smart enough these rejects from the previous govt. will screw you too as they did to MR.
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A disappointed citizen / October 6, 2015
People are already fed up this Gov and there is no way people will vote for these thugs. We thought we would see a change when the new Gov came to power but it is the same as the previous Gov.
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sensible Citizen / October 5, 2015
Its all relative. A poor family would be happy to spare some money if a kid accomplish a great thing. Rajapakse era spent hundreds of Million dollars on lobby firms to get United states on their side. It is a great accomplishment to meet with Obama and have them listen to you and work with you spending 0 dollars. Isn’t it worth spending about 750 thousand US dollars (Rs. 10 Million) one time to over power a non sense propaganda machine of Mara group. i feel its worth it. However we should not get accustomed to opening the coffers to a routine exercise.
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Ansar / October 5, 2015
Srilal,
In my opinion, those two you mentioned were still carrying on with MARA besides all the atrocities carried out by MARA/GORA duo. They too are also as bad as any other cronies of MARA. They do not have any principles, just looking after their survival.
I do not know whether they are involved in any corrupt deals and made money out of public coffers, which was the hallmark of MARA Regime.
With regard to your query whether they are good leaders, I guess people without policies and principles can never be good leaders to any community and appointment of Legal Advisor, my guess is as good as yours.
Having said that, where do we go for real men of character in this wicked world full of commercial minded people. We need to be contended with the better of evils.
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Gp / October 5, 2015
I cannot believe this … SB and the rest are rotten apples; this is what will happen to the good apples that we had voted for – they get rotten too.
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Leon / October 5, 2015
Is this really necessary? Mr President you are doing exactly what the former scoundrel did. If you the humble man that you profess to be, you put an end this type of tamasas. You are only wasting tax payers hard earned money. This money could have been used for some productive purposeless. Remember that power corrupts.
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rohan polwatte / October 5, 2015
I am sure cut out manufacturer must be related to one of the idiots.
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BBS Rep / October 6, 2015
This is ‘wakutuweyang’ society at its best. In this country where real heroes are never to be found a politician returning from overseas is such a big deal.
For heaven’s sake you miserable people of Sri Lanka of which I am one, this man My3 has not climbed mount Everest or won gold at the Olympics. He has taken his son and a retinue of rogue politicians at taxpayers’ expense, for the express purpose of shaking hands and wining and dining with prominent politicians of the world. He did not deserve a hero’s welcome back. No other democracy in the world indulge in such miserable ‘wakutuweyang’ acts.
Ah, Sri Lanka has such a long way to go. My3 is nothing like we were told he is. He is relishing all this adulation and shamelessly accepts all these acts of ‘wakutuweyang’. After all he is a Sri Lankan politician – totally corruptible.
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Corsair / October 6, 2015
Do the bum suckers in UK, USA, Russia and China also come to receive their head of state after a mere 5 day overseas visit.
We have a long long way to go…
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Psycho / October 6, 2015
It’s all the work of Former Bathist or MR catchers
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Ken Dharmapala / October 6, 2015
Why did these three, Nimal Siripala de Silva, S B Dissanayake and Nimal Lanza and others engaged in the obnoxious cutout trade? It certainly wasn’t at Sirisena’s request. After all it was Sirisena who took umbrage at Rajapakse’s cutouts at elections. But if it wasn’t at his request, why didn’t Sirisena have the cutouts and billboards removed and publicly denounced their erection?
He couldn’t. It would have made him the enemy of these guys and he couldn’t afford to be so. Sirisena is a captive of his own party who are trying to bring the government down. Sirisena has the unenviable task of humouring the party members while they are knavishly doing things to tarnish his image. It is the same with the public service and to some extent the judiciary and the police. The higher echelons of the public service, police and the judiciary are full of supporters of the previous regime who were appointed to those positions not on merit or seniority but on the loyalty to Rajapakse.
These unscrupulous parliamentarians, be it SLFP or UNP, are dangling like the sword of Damocles, above Sirisena’s head. Rajapakse is biding his time to see at what point he would be able to buy these rascals (and at what price) to defeat the government in parliament and force Sirisena’s hand to allow Rajapakse to form a government.
The time is not right just now for Rajapakse. The toxicity of his rule has still not worn off in the public who voted against him. Rajapakse has to wait.
The government cannot pursue the corruption of the previous regime because the public service and the courts and law enforcement agencies are still heavily manned by Rajapakse loyalists. Any major move to correct this could trigger an upset in parliament. On the other hand the fact that no one was, or likely to be, prosecuted is seen by the public as either (a) there wasn’t a substantial degree of corruption as portrayed in the run up to the election and (b) the government is impotent to act even if there was any. The first is the view of the Rajapakse supporters and the latter those of the UNP supporter. Either way Sirisena is stuffed.
In the mean time, those in government, like Ravi Karunanayake, are attempting to harvest to the maximum whatever benefits they could get while the going is good.
As the economy falters (due to heavy debt servicing) and people get disenchanted, “Bring Back Rajapakse” will rise to a crescendo. It is quite possible this would happen within one to two years. And this fact is not lost on those who matter. They wouldn’t do anything to be in the bad books of Rajapakse should he sail back to power. Sirisena is just one move before he is checkmated.
In my gloomiest moments I see this happening in the near future. The sad part is that everyone, those in government included, know this and there is precious little they can do to prevent it.
Sirisena is nothing but a lame duck!!!
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Renu / October 6, 2015
Ayio Sirisena this is becoming a joke. What are you trying to do build your image for another term. Do you remember what you said . People have not forgotten it. Get rid of cut out and poster displays, as I said before an irritable syndrome will set in like what happened to great Maharaja. People hated the site of him. This could happened to you if you do’t nip this in the bud
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Upul / October 7, 2015
Maithri cannot do anything to change the ways of an entire social class that is so accustomed to kissing butts for their survival. He can certainly set the record straight by insisting they pay for these cutouts.
Anyone wants to bet he will not do that?
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lal / October 7, 2015
True that butt kissing is an established custom in Sri Lanka’s political culture. It has also infiltrated the national instituitions. Maitri can take diciplinary action against those who initiated the cut outs and the grand welcome party. I will BET that he won’t take such action as he depends on those very cronies for his survival. His position as prez is precarious, so is the position of the Foreign Sec. and the PM is waiting for an opportunity to grab power, total power. Very sad that the nation cannot find men/women with intergrity to serve the people. The nation is fast becoming un-governable!
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Srinath gunaratne / October 7, 2015
[Edited out] We are sorry, the comment language is English – CT
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Bandu de Silva / October 7, 2015
The photo of the ‘reception committee’ looks like, Chatukarayo’ in King Rajasinghe II’s Court we read about in our Grade 2 school text in the Sinhala medium school in 1930s. When in order to test the loyalty of his Ministers (Chiefs),the King said ‘Bahirawa-kanda’ was moving,those courtiers looked hard at the mountain and at the each-others faces,and the eldest one proclaimed the consensus ‘Eseya, dewayan wahansa! Bahirwa-Kanda selawenawa pamanak nowey.Un wahanse gaman karana seka’. The king broke into a laughter, pleased about the loyalty of his Ministers. If this analogy is right,it looks as if each of those in the picture, was asking to see a piece of America the President might have brought in his pocket, some even jumbo peanuts..
Another analogy that comes to my mind is that the scenario looks like a row of beggars outside Gangaramaya Temple on Poya days. The palms should have not been raised upwards, folded awkwardly, half-heartedly,as it looks,but stretched in opened begging posture as the Gangaramaya beggars do. Does one recognise in the foreground, one who did not receive a portfolio? If so, the ‘begging scenario’ is very appropriate. The older men including the one with the beard seem to ask for ‘Vygra’ tablets.
A third analogy I could offer was the scenario when Chairman Mao Dze-dong came to Beijing from the country each time when other train services were stopped or when the Diplomatic Corp was requested to be present at the Airport.
Ten million Rupees allegedly spent on reception -cut out, decorations etc.Even Sapumal Kumaraya did not receive such a reception when returning after the conquest of Jaffna patam. People, including Ven Totagamuwe Sri Rahula rose in rebellion against him later (Sinhala Sange).
What a country we are? Making heroes out of none-events.Incidentally, it would be of interest to know if representative of the UN in Sri Lanka (UNDP) and the US Ambassador was present at the Airport. That would be the real test of achievement that was hailed.
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Native Vedda / October 7, 2015
Bandu de Silva
“The older men including the one with the beard seem to ask for ‘Vygra’ tablets.”
Here is a list of locally produced natural Viagra:
Durian (When Durian falls down the sarong goes up, a Malaysian proverb)
Onion
Ginger
Garlic
Murunka
Guava
You should write a book about Aphrodisiac for the old codgers. On the other hand execercising corrupt power is their preferred testosterone booster.
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Fowzie / October 8, 2015
Bandula de Silva
[edited out]
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Spring Koha / October 7, 2015
Good people,
This whole show was masterminded by a local nabob of Fishtown who when things got hot a couple of years ago had an urgent personal visit from the Liberator himself, and they greeted each with hugs so that the cameras would capture the scene and boost the image of the Kudu King himself.
Today that Kudu King is climbing, and fast. Even the new King wants to keep him onside. Kudu King personally bullied anyone who opposed him in his determination to put on a show in his own backyard. Once again, the cameras were on hand to show Kudu King playing mine host in his backyard.
10 mill is petty cash for Kudu King, but, hey, in true Sri Lankan style, why open your wallet, when someone else can be bullied to cough up the mooolah.
Mervyn, DumbInda, eat your hearts out, the Kudu King from Fishtown is the new boy on the block, and he will show you’ll up as amateurs.
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Navin / October 8, 2015
Spring, excuse my ignorance, is it possible you will kindly drop a hint as to who Kudu King is. FishTown didn’t ring a bell.
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ignoramus / October 8, 2015
“is it possible you will kindly drop a hint as to who Kudu King is”
Lanza lanza lanza. Who else? And the fishtown is Negombo, you dumbo.
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Navin / October 8, 2015
Thanks, thanks. I deserved to be called dumbo. No problem with that. But also, can you please let me know what the lansia wants from Sirisena…..and what Sira has done for him already.
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Spring Koha / October 8, 2015
Thank You ‘ignoramus’ for smartly enlightening Navin on the Kudu King of Fishtown. Your nom-de-plume suggests you are clearly unassuming and modest.
Now, as for Navin’s follow up question, the Kudu King (who you all might remember got a quick personal visit with hugs and kisses from MR the Liberator, when the gendarmes overdid their duties, and raided the Kudu King’ headquarters) has already done well securing Deputy Minister of Home Affairs. (He calls Harsha mate…would you believe it.) Anyway, the Kudu King is determined to emulate Dr Mervyn, and do better. Those who have eavesdropped on the Kudu King of Fishtown will tell you that he has already proclaimed himself (uncrowned) King of the all areas north of the Kelani River and west of Wayamba. Kudu King is nobodies ‘deputy’, he is the dogs bollocks (to coin a popular phrase), so watch and wait for his next move. Like MR, Sirisena knows that Kudu King can throw a spanner in the works whenever he likes. So it would be wise to keep him close, and happy. As the Kudu Kings testicle scratcher himself would say ‘vena swargayak kumatada?
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confu tao / October 7, 2015
This cost should be borne personally by the organizers, the puppets and sycophants who want to be on the good side of MS. There has not been a budget allocation in any of the ministries for this expenditure and FCID must arrest these guys unless they pay up pronto.
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confu tao / October 7, 2015
This cost should be borne personally by the organizers, the puppets and sycophants who want to be on the good side of MS. There has not been a budget allocation in any of the ministries for this expenditure and FCID must arrest these guys if they try to use public funds. Civil society and Anura K must watch this closely. All this mummery and flummery is not required and these slimeballs must be arrested if they do not pay up.
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Shan / October 7, 2015
So what? After all this is the uy who saved the country! Isnt it? We are going about our daily lives safely all becasuse of Sirisena.
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maalumiris / October 7, 2015
ha! ha!! riiiight ! :)
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vis8 / October 7, 2015
LOL…. “Maru”Sira is going bonkers…. he wants Rs 180 million to “renovate” the presidential house….. :) That’s the top priority for this moron.
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