By Grusha Andrews –
“We’re all mad here- I’m mad, you’re mad” ~ The Cheshire Cat to Alice (Alice In Wonderland)
There is a difference between Grusha Andrews being insane as opposed to President Sirisena. Insanity of the executive spells disaster for the republic. Mental infirmity is an accepted reason for impeaching the president of Sri Lanka. Article 38 (2) (a) of the constitution states that “any Parliamentarian may give a notice of resolution to the Speaker on the grounds that the President is unable to execute his functions due to mental or physical infirmity, or if the President is found guilty of certain acts. These actions include intentional violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, misconduct or corruption involving abuse of power of the President, or any offence involving moral turpitude”.
Sauce For Trump Is Sauce For Sirisena?
A 2017 book titled “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump’ was published. Edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist from the prestigious University of Yale in USA, it contained essays from 27 psychologists, psychiatrists, and mental health professionals on the “clear and present danger” that US President Donald Trump’s mental health poses to the “nation and individual wellbeing”. They argued that the president’s mental health was affecting the mental health of the people of the United States posing a grave risk to the USA and the world by undermining democracy due to Trump’s pathological narcissism and sociopathy. Trump’s presidency precipitated an emergency which refashioned American psychiatry, pushing professionals to deviate from the American Psychiatric Association’s Goldwater rule, which holds that it is unethical for psychiatrists to give professional opinions about public figures without examining them in person.
Is It Ethical To Comment On the Mental Health Of Public Personalities?
Dr Lee argues that a diagnosis is not needed to detect imminent danger. No one had to carry out a clinical examination on Hitler, Pol Pot or Idi Amin to objectively opine on their danger and the destruction impending under their rule. The comments made about Trump were based on objectively observed behaviors which led to warnings issued by 27 esteemed professionals in psychiatry. They were: impulsivity, recklessness, paranoid reaction, having a loose grip on reality, rage reaction and renouncing responsibility. These same traits are increasingly manifesting in President Sirisena’s behavior, accentuated more since the unethical and illegal constitutional coup he initiated exactly a month ago.
Does Sirisena’s Behavior Fall Within The Classification Of Mental Disorders?
The World Health Organization classifies diseases in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 1. The ICD classification of mental disorders identify 10 main groups of mental disorders. In the days that followed the infamous coup on 26th October, the general public, social media, political speeches were inundated with sentiments on the ‘insanity of the President’, ‘Friday folly of Sirisena’ etc. Some hilarious social media memes suggested that’ only the timely intake of medication for mental disease can save the nation’, ‘Chathurika, you lot didn’t give him the pill on time and put the nation on peril’ etc. By social observation, the general public was making the same erudite, logic based judgement of Lee et al at Yale on Trump. They were making a collective community diagnosis of Sirisena’s ‘insanity’ the same way the American public did with the most powerful man on earth. Sirisena’s unstable, irresponsible and erratic behavior, speech, conduct, temperament provide objective, video-verified evidence that suggest his mental infirmity, even without a clinical examination. Let’s consider them one by one, in relation to Sirisena2.
Impulsivity: The Fly By Night Swearing Ins
The President of our republic actually staged a fly by night swearing in of a fake Prime Minister without extending the incumbent PM the courtesy of sacking. The sacking letter came hours later, minuted in beautiful Sinhala hand writing of his alleged mistress. He went on a series of piece meal cabinet appointments, like an errant child, keeping portfolios vacant for expected crossers over, mocking the seriousness of his office. He expected, childishly, that the “Mahinda Magic” will suppress opposition and the resistance will settle fast. Sirisena went on an impulsive rampage of appointments including Nalaka Godahewa, a suspected criminal of financial fraud and transferred the reputed inspector of police Nishantha Silva crucial to several top Rajapaksa related criminal investigations. Both decisions, he was forced to reverse.
Recklessness: The Meme Joker
The strongest evidence of reckless behavior on the part of Sirisena is that he appointed his purported murderer Rajapaksa as his quasi PM on a 2020 Presidential whim. When a man puts his potential murderer to a position of great power it looks like he is a little reckless with his life! Sirisena has not shown restrain in his words either. In the immediate aftermath of the coup he made the infamous homophobic statement referring to Ranil Wickremesinghe and his cohorts as butterflies, igniting the pro-democracy fire, giving it a new life. His reckless words were condemned by all strata in society and debased the dignity of his office. He kept issuing “Friday Gazettes” with the senselessness of a child making him the butt end of merciless jokes. Essentially he trivialized the Presidency to a Facebook joke where he reigns as the meme- producing joker king to-date.
Paranoid Reaction: The Curious Case Of Namal Kumara
Sirisena’s Presidential narrative has been tainted by unfounded paranoid claims, a trait he appears to share with his equally, if not more, paranoid daughter who wrote the much ridiculed Janapadhipathi Thaththa– a book glorifying Sirisena’s ascent to presidency. From proclaiming the RAW Agency was plotting to assassinate him causing near shatter in diplomacy with India, to the curious case of Namal Kumara an ex-volunteer at the Presidential Secretariat who testified that there was an assassination plot on Sirisena and the allegation that takes the cake: Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka’s purported involvement in ‘assassinating Sirisena’, Sirisena is full of unsubstantiated claims.
Similar paranoia runs deep in numerous pages of Janadhipathi Thaththa where Chathurika Sirisena, a wobbly ‘writer’ at best, fills pages upon pages in romanticized, sugary language of a cheap pot boiler, how she switched vehicles in thick jungles during the presidential election campaign fearing murder by the Rajapaksas. Sirisena famously proclaimed that had Rajapaksa won he and his family would be six feet under, post-election.
We know that is paranoia, because now Sirisena is the bedfellow of Rajapaksa. No rational man with mental faculties intact will appoint his purported murderer as PM. You see, it was all in his mind. He was just being paranoid and delusional. He was either delusional of Rajapaksa’s intent to murder him then. Or he is delusional of lack of intent by Rajapaksa to murder him now. Either way, his reasoning is a deviation from sanity.
Loose Grip On Reality: Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush!
The unkind term ‘losing it’ with reference to those with mental disease, denotes a person losing his grip on reality. Losing grip on reality is a characteristic of an array of mental infirmities. Sirisena cannot come to term with the fact that his quasi PM Rajapaksa has no majority in parliament. When presented with damning evidence the first time, he requested an amendment to the motion. When that was done and the amended motion was passed constitutionally, he claimed that he didn’t feel that the voice vote quite cut it! Then when the parliamentary select group vote was passed electronically, he claimed that it was an electronically manifest majority shown just for select committee vote and not the motion against the quasi PM! So now the President of our republic is going around his own mulberry bush of denial not facing the constitutional reality staring at his face. In addition, he seems quite unaware that he is probably the most despised and disrespected living politician. That he will be immortalized for his uneducated, uncouth rape of our democracy.
Rage Reaction: Rabid Eruptions
Sirisena has a track record of rabid rage and vocal flare ups that are inconsistent with reality. He famously threatened the media in street thug like language “Kole iragena ange halaa ganne epa” (don’t tear the packing and spill the gravy on your body) – threatening the lives of journalists. On TV!
The most recent and stark example is the Foreign Correspondents’ Media briefing yesterday, where questioned on his failure to bring the Rajapaksas to rule, Sirisena was spewing disjointed rage infused sentiments such as “the PM didn’t utter a word about my murder attempt and then got his social media cronies to call it the so-called- presidential –murder-fiasco undermining its seriousness! So should I not usurp his government, then!?” No Mr. President, you shouldn’t. Because it’s a rage driven response. People who are mentally sound don’t do things like that. You are not the First Toddler of our Republic. You are the Frist Citizen of the Republic.
Renouncing Responsibility: “Ranil- Sagala- Ranil- Sagala!”
In the aftermath of the coup on 26th October, Sirisena in his signature temperamental instability blamed all and sundry but himself for the failure of the Yahapalana Governemnt to take action against the corruption and murder charges connected to the Rajapaksa regime. A common feature of psychopathy, sociopathy and several established mental disorders is the emphatic failure of the affected patient to take responsibility for his actions. Throughout the Foreign Correspondents’ briefing yesterday, Sirisena hilariously invoked the names of Ranil and Sagala for not bringing the Rajapaksas to rule, self-absolving of any responsibility. It was almost as if he was the proverbial Polonnaruwa ‘scarecrow’ on a paddy field that his critiques paint him to be. Examining the video footage of Sirisena’s speeches pre and post-coup there is ample evidence of him distancing from responsibility of not delivering his chief election mandate.
The most powerful man on earth was challenged on the basis of observed mental infirmity. It’s time for those who are fighting this battle for democracy in Sri Lanka to realize that there is irrefutable evidence of the mental infirmity of the President of our Republic. This First Toddler of our republic should be dealt with accordingly. Like Trump, he should be forced to have his mental status reviewed. In the digital age, the evidence is at the fingertips.
President Sirisena should be impeached under article 38 (2) (a) for mental infirmity.
References:
1https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/revision/en/
2https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20369/
Lankan No 03 / November 26, 2018
He is trapped between hope and fear ;.
His fear is that he will be impeached any time now ..
His hope is that is support Mahinda he could stay at leave 5 year term.
What a joke ..
He wanted to demolish executive system now be is protecting it for his personal fear.
Now it clear that M&S did not punish any criminals for his own benefits.
Let him do what he wants ..
Let him desotry the economy
Let public pay for him mistake .
How long ?
May be for 1 year .
Let us wait for that time
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Dodo / November 26, 2018
Sorry to say Grusha, this is nothing but a rant of someone who seems slightly unbalanced.
Bondscam Ranil who was looting Lanka and selling it off to his foreign backers was far more dangerous than clown Sira to the health of Sri Lanka at this time. Sira should have sacked and impeached Bond Ranil when the PCOI into Bondscam report came out.
Better late than never! Mahinda Jarapassa has not long to go.
Just hope for elections and that the younger generation would take over and pl. keep a cool head Grusha..
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Sinhala_Man / November 27, 2018
Yes, Dodo. It would be nice if at the end of this episode we’ve been relieved of the leadership of Ranil Wickremasinghe.
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But unless it’s done the proper way, what follows will be worse. Have we not ruined this country enough since 1948? Most of that could have been avoided.
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Prosperity for the next generation of Sri Lankans is out of the question now. But we may be able to save something, blessed as we have been with one of the bits of land on planet Earth most favourable for human habitation.
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rbh / November 26, 2018
Dalai Lama saying
“Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
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Moshe Arens / November 28, 2018
Love it.
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Samitha / November 26, 2018
Yes! Yes! This is what I have been waiting for…It’s about time someone saw through this maniac…This is definitely the path we should be taking to impeach this pile of scum from the offices of presidential secretariat..It is clear as day that we have elected the best lunatic for president in 2015..It’s time to send him back to the asylum
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K.Pillai / November 26, 2018
A toddler is a toddler Grusha Andrews. Pre or Post-Republic.
In our case, “..The First Toddler Of Our Republic” is refusing to grow up!
The toddler attends a newly established Nursery SLPP.
The Principal of the SLPP Nursery is a toddler past eighty, Emeritus Professor in Law and was Colombo University VC!
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Sinhala_Man / November 26, 2018
Dear K. Pillai,
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We’re sorely disappointed with a number of guys from whom more would have been expected. In G.L. Peiris’s case, we certainly expected so much when he first took to politics.
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However, it doesn’t help for us to get our facts mixed up. Gamini Lakshman isn’t all that old:
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._L._Peiris
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He’s still going on 73; turned 72 only in August this year.
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I’ve come to respect your comments; a bit surprised at this. The imagery we use can be comic, but it is very important that we get facts right.
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gerad jabin / November 26, 2018
I am not for ranil nor any other leader.All are crooks. But there was peace in Sri Lanka more independent commissions during this period( 2015 onwards) But during tthese months (nov dec 2018) Sri Lanka was supposed gain financially due to christmas and winter in the west(also more tourists due to lonely planet – best place to travel). Also next year is the election year. Why did this dumb suk mthr fkr gamarala sirisena created this mess to the majority of the sri lankans who were having hope that the hotels will be filled, get the rest of the loans etc.
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Maharage, / November 26, 2018
Grusha Andrews,
Remember, MaRa, GoTa, Basil, Namal, Yoshitha and their henchmen are milking the benefits of Sirisena’a insanity.
Sirisena’s insanity is a blessing for these Madamulana criminals and uneducated morons.
They find Sirisena’s insanity a god given path to return power and embezzle every penny from government coffers as they did for 10 years.
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Concerned citizen / November 26, 2018
This is what happens when you get an Ass to do the Dog’s job.
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Sri-Krish / November 26, 2018
Food for Thought
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Sinhala_Man / November 26, 2018
PART ONE
Thanks, Grusha, for both the diagnosis and the prescription. Sirisena’s actions during the last month certainly indicate that he’s not fit to govern this country – and he’s doing it as the dictator that he promised us he will not be.
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I think that you go too far in saying that the “spilling gravy” imagery that he uses amounts to “threatening the lives of journalists.” His words flow as they always did; I don’t think that they have reached gutter level, but I certainly agree that the man is not in control of himself. Thanks to Colombo Telegraph for letting us see that excerpt. It is the content and the context that are damning. Chathurika’s account of changing vehicles may be melodramatic, but I’m sure that what was said by Sirisena about the threat to his life at the time of the elections reflected the fears that he (and we) had at that time.
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I don’t think that we should exaggerate. For the man who had such rational fears of the monstrous dictator whom we challenged in late 2014 and early 2015, to now appoint him Prime Minister is certainly signs of madness, which were not there three years ago. His actions after Rajapaksa failed to muster a majority are also amazing.
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The best explanation that I’ve had for his conduct is that the man holds sacred certain traditional village values, but has so convinced himself that he has been entrusted by some Divinity to save our Sinhalese ethos that he is justified in dictating to 22 million Sri Lankans. That 6.2 million of us voted mainly against Rajapaksa seems lost on him. He ignores all Principles. That is a form of madness.
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Sinhala_Man / November 26, 2018
PART TWO
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As amazing is it to find S.B. Dissanayake, a man who lost at parliamentary elections in August 2015 strutting around talking about “persuading” UNP MPs crossing over. I’ve tried to substantiate, but found only this statement of results:
http://www.asianmirror.lk/top-news/itemlist/tag/General%20Election%202015?start=10
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Looking now at those results, it may be that Dissanayake will claim that he was contesting in a Tamil majority area which returned 5 Tamil M.P.s and 3 Sinhalese. “K.K. Piyadara”? Worked that out to be “Piyadasa”. the “gutter stuff” that I have myself put on here is what passes for political discussion among us.
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However, looking for stuff on Dissanayake I found this document which has lots of observations on the UNP in 2010, which I’m sure all readers will find interesting. From Wikileaks.
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https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09COLOMBO744_a.html
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I know I’ve wandered far, but my point is that it is the gestalt picture that we’ve got to see; political parties that tolerate the likes of S.B. Dissanayake just aren’t normal. And both political parties have had him. Wikileaks is enlightening because we have there candid opinions which were not meant to be seen by us. Would I be insulting readers by informing them that Julian Assange is a vagabond because he revealed all this to us?
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And as for Sirisena, the company that he now is in, and the moves he’s making prove that he’s not in a fit state of mind to govern. Yes, impeachment under article 38 (2) (a) for mental infirmity is indeed called for.
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Else, we’ll all go mad. I can’t help feeling that the disjointed stuff that I’m putting on proves it!
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Grusha Andrews / November 27, 2018
Dear Sir,
No you make perfect sense to me. What you are trying to articulate is called Malignant Normalcy in politics, a concept that the Trump book has introduced. This means that politicians like Trump ,SB, Mervyn, Weerswansa etc make absolutely horrifying behaviour so frequent that people think ” oh it’s just Trump being Trump” and actually believe they dont deserve repercussion. It’s like the President and Friday. By Friday we now expect ” crazy Gazette “. Thank you. Sincerely. Grusha Andrews
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Sinhala_Man / December 1, 2018
Sorry, S.B. Disanayake’s performance cannot possibly be put down to Nuwara-Eliya being a Tamil area.
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He was organiser for the old Hanguranketha electorate, which is quite close to Kandy and is a predominantly Sinhalese area. He couldn’t win even that!
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I can still understand mad My3 getting votes, the way he speaks. But this fellow? Well, when he doesn’t get votes, he’s still put in to parliament.
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wannihami / November 27, 2018
Grusha, here is the thing, when you misrepresent and mislead people your “oh I am so holier thou image” vanishes like soap bubbles in air.
““Kole iragena ange halaa ganne epa” (you translate it as “don’t tear the packing and spill the gravy on your body”), either you are really Grusha Andrews and does not know Sinhala or you are using a pen name and pretending not to now Sinhala, not the colloquial slang anyways, if so you should not be writing articles about press briefings in Sinhala.
“Kole” here means one’s reputation, “ange halla gannawa” means like spitting on yourself
Interestingly you don’t mention what My3 said about Ranil selling the Edirisinghe Financial company to a Singapore company for US 35 million when there was a local bid for 65 million or more, My3 asked where did the difference end up?
You also don’t mention the Yalhapals amendments to the land act, first gazetting that foreigners can buy land, then trying to sell the LRC lands through another act on Land Banks. If you are holier than me please do write about everything My3 said not just a select few that suites your argument
Didn’t My3 also say that Ranil didn’t ask My3 even once about the assassination threat. Isn’t that crass?
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Muslim / November 27, 2018
Sirisena should be impeached as he has broken the trust of all the voters who voted for him ,by appointing
the very man who contested him in the Presidential election as the prime minister whom the the masses did not want.The patholaya Sirisena has put himself and his family before the country. He is taking revenge
because Ranil opposed the tender of Sirisenas daughter and son-in-law and pointed out his wrongs so the country has to suffer for Sirisena to take his revenge.
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hancho pancha / November 27, 2018
Dear Ms. Grusha Andrews. You have created an enigma of your own. We cannot be sure whether you are for sure real or virtual. Need to wonder you are genuinely committed to your thoughts expressed in your writings or whether you are motivated by cash or some other personal gratification. You are like the ladle that stirs the pot but insensitive to the flavours.
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Real Revolutionist / November 27, 2018
Grusha Andrews
“President Sirisena should be impeached under article 38(2) ….”
Before all let readers know whether you’re a psychiatrist or not.
Though it’s an option for the UNP & their supporting prop makers to contain MS & MR, it won’t be an easy task. It won’t go beyond the speaker KJ accepting impeachment motion; again to display his Achille’s heel; partiality.
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Grusha Andrews / November 27, 2018
Dear Sir, I’m presenting the argument based on the case of challenging Donald Trump’s sanity which led to his agreeing to evaluate himself medically in January 2018. Please read this article. It is presenting the evidence of how it was done without a clinical examination of the American president. The evidence, precedence and the rationale is presented in my article. Thank you. Sincerely
Grusha Andrews
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Lansi Chancy / November 27, 2018
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2
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chiv / November 28, 2018
Grusha , it seems to me you are familiar with Mental health, US politics and questionable mental stability of Trump (antics). I totally agree with your opinion. But I too have the suspicion whether the person is malingering, factitious or even worse anti social who is pretending to have mental health issues. People who are not familiar with mental health issues may remember the block buster movie “sixth sense”. What if this was planned in advance (there are signs of meetings taken place between MS, MR, SB the crook and others) and the poor Psychiatry patient was used as a dummy with help of Wimal , financed by media baron/china , using the ploy as an excuse to deceive RW and convince public. A late onset psychosis is treatable but a well masked anti social personality or deviant personalities ????? Trump has cluster of perverted personality traits which are obvious to people who have known him for years.(narcissistic,hysterical, borderline,ANTI SOCIAL,paranoid and others).Readers please note the writing is about a perverted mind and not about Sinhala language and slang.
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dayal / November 30, 2018
GLP is an insult to professorial positions.
dayal
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Mrs Mahathanthila / November 30, 2018
Please remove this video clip from Andrews article. I feel vomitish when I listen to Maru Sira
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Simon De Silva / November 30, 2018
Mrs Mahathanathila,
almost not many would love to listen to Maru Sira, but in lanken current day context, which has created by MEDIA mafia, you dont have any other options at all.
See, the clashes between – the civlized and the uncivilized, was displayed to the world by its parliament. They had no whatsoever respect to norms, but threw water and chilli-mixed waters on to the speakers chair and to him respectively. Who on the earth would ever resepct the kind of cultures ?
Lanken situations has arisen through the false and blatant lies being spread by MEDIA mafia in the coutnry. Media is again being controlled by Rajakshe rascals for their political survivial.
Rajaakshe TERROR is governing in every corner of the country, that is the next challenge to us the srilankens. Besides, lankens senior men have not DONE enough to stand against the kind of terror.
Eenia and Hernia Prime Minister Rajakshe not being able to walk down the street, but to abuse HELICOPTER even for his short distance travels are going to be a burden to lanken state, while the state is going to face all the hardships in January not being able to pay off the over a total of 5000 US dollar.
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Koshila Nilmini Gamaethige / November 30, 2018
My dear Grusha
I want to tell you a secret than most of you does not know. The real reason why Appa Sira sacked Ranil is because when Appa Sira’s two high officials were caught taking bribes at Taj Hotel Daham Sirisena and Appa Sira’s son in law were also waiting in the hotel lobby to take the money to Appa Sira. Ranil ordered bribery commission to arrest all. But the son and son in law escaped in a whisker. This is why Appa Sira is mad about Ranil who was doing the right thing by the country.
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Mordachai / December 5, 2018
And what happened to the person who gave him shelter during election day in case he lost.
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