
By Colombo Telegraph –
“Moreover, one of their biggest roles is to provide political cover to the President. The President often has Gothabaya and Basil take credit for decisions so he can appear less involved in actions that earn the GSL criticism at home and abroad.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

Sometimes he avoids decisionmaking altogether by delegating many responsibilities to Gothabaya or Basil, allowing him to avoid blame for unpopular decisions.
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeak database. The cable is classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” details the Presidend Rajapaksa’s decision making process. The cable was written on May 15, 2007 by the US Ambassador to Colombo Robert O. Blake.
Ambassador Blake wrote “The President is often reluctant to make decisions and will stall for time, particularly on important issues. Sometimes he avoids decisionmaking altogether by delegating many responsibilities to Gothabaya or Basil, allowing him to avoid blame for unpopular decisions. The most notable example of the President’s stalling tactics is the slow progress of the All Parties Representative Committee (APRC) process and the delay in the submission of the SLFP devolution proposals to the APRC.”
“The relationship between the President and his brothers, obviously, is a family one as well as a political one. There is much that we don’t know about how they interact. Nonetheless, it is clear that the President’s brothers play an important and influential role in shaping GSL security and political policy. Moreover, one of their biggest roles is to provide political cover to the President. The President often has Gothabaya and Basil take credit for decisions so he can appear less involved in actions that earn the GSL criticism at home and abroad. The concentration of power in the Presidency means that Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the help of his brothers, has a unique opportunity to advance key national interests. Thus far, he has failed to use that power to develop a national consensus on a devolution proposal that could form the basis for renewed peace negotiations.” ambassador Blake further wrote.
We give below the relevant part of the cable;
VZCZCXRO5144 OO RUEHBI RUEHLMC DE RUEHLM #0698/01 1350532 ZNY CCCCC ZZH O 150532Z MAY 07 FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6029 INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 0380 RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 0087 RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 7068 RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 5157 RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3729 RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0943 RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 3800 RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2880 RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 7654 RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 5335 RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 2019 RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION PRIORITY C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 000698 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS MCC FOR D NASSIRY AND E BURKE E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM MOPS CE SUBJECT: PRESIDENT RELIES ON BROTHERS FOR POLICY ADVICE AND POLITICAL COVER Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b,d). ¶3. (C) The President is often reluctant to make decisions and will stall for time, particularly on important issues. Sometimes he avoids decisionmaking altogether by delegating many responsibilities to Gothabaya or Basil, allowing him to avoid blame for unpopular decisions. The most notable example of the President's stalling tactics is the slow progress of the All Parties Representative Committee (APRC) process and the delay in the submission of the SLFP devolution proposals to the APRC. ¶16. (C) COMMENT: The relationship between the President and his brothers, obviously, is a family one as well as a political one. There is much that we don't know about how they interact. Nonetheless, it is clear that the President's brothers play an important and influential role in shaping GSL security and political policy. Moreover, one of their biggest roles is to provide political cover to the President. The President often has Gothabaya and Basil take credit for decisions so he can appear less involved in actions that earn the GSL criticism at home and abroad. The concentration of power in the Presidency means that Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the help of his brothers, has a unique opportunity to advance key national interests. Thus far, he has failed to use that power to develop a national consensus on a devolution proposal that could form the basis for renewed peace negotiations. BLAKE
lamo / January 16, 2012
Game game. we all know this. That means Americans too knows it. Brothers thinks they can fool everyone. Only he can fool poor Sinhala-Buddhist poor voters.
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Ram / January 16, 2012
You can fool us , we Tamils know what this man doing. he will come and kiss our kids, but never going to solve the issues re democracy . Rascals.
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Demala / January 17, 2012
what…! what are u talking about Lamo? Check your horns pls. before writing stupid things.
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Kamalika Rathnayaka / January 16, 2012
of course , days are numbered .
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Demala / January 17, 2012
may be yours
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Lucky / January 16, 2012
This country is finished.
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Banda / January 16, 2012
Is this American deplomacy ? They spy on all our politicians !
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B.Fernando / January 16, 2012
The family of “Jokers” has brought disgraced to the Country, robbed it to bankruptcy, turned democratic Sri Lanka to a lawless, corrupt “Banana Republic”.
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Demala / January 17, 2012
They are our great leaders if they are the people who finish praba’s monky games
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Shamila / January 16, 2012
This family is the one who brought permanent peace and new hope to the country. As Prabakaran once said, Sinhalaya will remember anything for only few weeks…
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sakunthala / January 16, 2012
what kind of peace are you talking about? Y those whitevanning still happening? is it peace? what happened to Lalith and Koogan? Lasantha Wickrematunge? Eknaligoda? even to Kalaniya Pradeshiya Sbaha MPs?
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Sena / January 16, 2012
Yes, it a peace of course. I don’t have any concern about myself or my friends, families going anywhere in SL now. Isn’t that the peace? I had my friends blown up by LTTE terrorists those days. If you are a undercover terrorist acting against the peace of the country, yes you have to definitely be concerned of the white-van.
And go find how Americans run undercover prisons all over the world; how they bring people their. They don’t use white-van but by different means they are doing the same thing. Most who bark here are fooled by Americans.
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Mahinda / January 16, 2012
well said shamila
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junta / January 16, 2012
What a way to kill diplomatic time in a multi billion dollar compound sourounded by “local assets” keeping an eye on a strange institution to today’s American life called….”Family”, while writing BullSht about an institution that is very alien to today’s America called…”Family”
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junta / January 16, 2012
“The family of “Jokers” has brought disgraced to the Country, robbed it to bankruptcy, turned democratic Sri Lanka to a lawless, corrupt “Banana Republic”.”
sounds refugeeeeeeeeeeee to me…
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Tamali kariyawasm. / January 16, 2012
We could understand that MR regime must retire as soon as possible.Unfortunately he can’t rule our country professionaly. We asked several times to allocate at least 6% budget allocation to the Higher education and increse the salary of a senior professor to a minimum 2 lacs rupees.This Government considers students as terrorists who are majority the sons and daugters of teachers, government servants, workers ete. How many children of the parliamentarion s are studing in the Universities of SriLanka?
Only we could say is Hon.MR please retire. You can’t rule our MATHRUBUUMI>.
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Vasu / January 16, 2012
Missing comments from or beloved Casie Chetty and Bothi Bunga Bunga, don´t remember his correct name
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Gowrie / April 29, 2012
I think they are busy protesting in Dambulla. Doesn’t matter how good you prepare your questions there is always just one answer to all your questions-That is ” Tamil tiger terrorists”. Now I wonder what they going to call the muslims?
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Bodinayaka / January 16, 2012
I’m thinking about comments like ” this country is finish, Days are numbered. blah blah. Either they are women pretending to be men here or “Ugra UNP karayo” wtf.
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Sinhaya / January 17, 2012
Well said Shamila. The biggest problem is our people’s missing memory. What right the US has to eavesdrop on a sovereign nation and interfere with its internal affairs when the US themselves carry out all the undemocratic activities around the globe? aren’t our memory-less people knowingly or unknowingly serving their (US) purpose? If so, aren’t these memory-less people committing treason and deserved to be taken to task by the Sri Lankan government?
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Nihal P / January 17, 2012
Prabhakaran was a terrorist, but even he was a far more capable leader than Mahinda. If Prabhakaran had mismanaged the finances of the LTTE, such as “Finance Minister” MR is doing, or let key sectors of the LTTE disintegrate, such as we see with the CPC and now universities, or appointed incapable people to lead important battles, how long would the LTTE have lasted? Furthermore, Prabhakaran had an extroardinary talent for organization; only the defection of Karuna and the loss of the East was able to break the cohesion of the LTTE. It seems MR does not have a long-term plan to take the country forward; what we have seen since May 2009 is the militirization of the entire country, particularly the North. The “development” you see is a sham; each “project” is nothing more than a Rajapakse or a Rajapakse cronie recieving large kickbacks and commissions.
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Jim Hardy / January 17, 2012
Majority comments are anti Mahinda, The regime disgraces the Students & Lecturers as Terrorists, & when they actually resort to Terrorism when there is no option there wont be a piece of M.R brothers & their henchmen s.
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