By Granville Perera –

The once good governance champion and current President Maithripala Sirisena is becoming the reincarnation of despot Mahinda Rajapaksa. His 90 Million expenses bill for his New York visit and the entourage of 60 to Thailand are just the beginning of a planeload that would accompany the President in his next sojourn, fully paid by the taxpayers of Sri Lanka. Sirisena’s infidelity of his pledges in the run up to the January 15 Presidential election is a reminder of the first days of the Mahinda Rajapaksa presidency.

The disgusting mug shots are back, and now it’s that of President Maithripala Sirisena who is beginning to blush from every lamppost and television screen. The 80ft cutouts are the only missing paraphernalia. Will they appear soon?

Sirisena, it is believed to have demanded from his men in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that posters and banners were put up to welcome him from his triumphant visit to New York where the international community elevated the President Sirisena of Sri Lanka to the top of the Moringa oleifera tree, known popularly as drumstick or Murunga tree to achieve their goals of ensuring the demands of the global Tamil Diaspora. This call by the Tamil Diaspora and the International community was totally rejected by the previous Rajapaksa administration, hence their incarceration to the dark hole of the United Nations. If it is a diplomatic coup that Sri Lanka achieved in New York, was it the work of Maithripala Sirisena and the SLFP or was it the sweat of the United National Party government? The only thing he did not do was to get off the aircraft and kiss the tarmac as was done by Mahinda Rajapaksa, when he returned to the country after our gallant forces finished off the world’s ruthless menace, the Liberation Tigers of Thamil Eelam.

The country kicked out Mahinda Rajapaksa, probably because he overexposed himself. Now, Maithripala is on TV every hour, especially with the bootlicking Sirasa network that propelled Mahinda Rajapaksa to believe that he was king indeed. Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rejection by the public should be a reminder to the leaders who forget their solemn promises in their election pledges. It is reported that President Sirisena’s daily helicopter rides (averaged at 3 per day) is second only to that of Mahinda Rajapaksa at the peak of his presidency. He has become a one-man government who is interfering in to every activity. The Prime Minister who sacrificed much to seat Maithripala Sirisena in the Presidential chair and is tasked to administer the country is made a glorified clerk. The appointment of former policeman Sirisena Herath to the high office of the Narcotics control board, while Dr. Nilanga Samarasinghe, the drug buster who exposed political support for the drug trade was still in office, is evidence of Sirisena’s lack of respect for good governance.

Yahapalanaya has gone to dogs, or has dogs to come Yahapalanaya. Yes, you guessed right, the bootlicking canine kinds have destroyed any semblance of Good Governance that the most venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero along with the majority of Sri Lankans dreamt of. Maithripala Sirisena is a prisoner of his own making. His promise of a Yahapalanaya was first shot in to orbit with the propelling of his mediocre brother P. G. Kumarasinghe, as the Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). As a presidential sibling, the chairman of the Sri Lanka Telecom and its subsidiaries, he is following in the footsteps of the Rajapaksa siblings and has become a law unto himself. Alternate media reports indicate that he has demanded a Ten million (hundred lakhs) salary from the four SLT companies he chairs. He probably would be the highest paid state executive in the country. The antics of Chaturika and Daham Sirisena are no better.

The good governance crusader, the most venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero who died in Singapore last Sunday probably breathed his last in total disgust at the behaviour of Maithripala Sirisena and his national government rogues. In the last days of his life, he was depressed and a mental wreck because of the betrayal of Yahapalanaya. No other religious leader has contributed to political reform as the peoples Monk, the most venerable Maduluwawe Sobith Thero. His humble beginnings and his love for the down trodden was the driving force in his reformist and non-racial approach to governance. He loved the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim citizens alike. Let us resolve to follow in the footsteps of this beloved monk and ensure that the commitments of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinge, prior to January 2015 are honoured as a tribute to our most venerable Maduluwawe Sobitha Thero.