{"id":224987,"date":"2022-01-16T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-15T18:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=224987"},"modified":"2022-01-22T23:16:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T17:46:08","slug":"your-slip-is-showing-mr-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/your-slip-is-showing-mr-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Slip Is Showing Mr. President"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kumar David<\/a> –<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Prof. Kumar David<\/p><\/div>\n

An apocryphal youth inquired from the President \u201cwhy a referendum couldn\u2019t be conducted to ascertain whether the electorate (would approve) extending his term by two years\u201d, says the front page of the Island<\/em> of Monday 10 January. Presidents don\u2019t float kites like this unless they have intrigue up their sleeve. Soon you will hear a chorus of Ministers and government MPs cheering \u201cHallelujah! Gotabaya for ever, two years, five years whatever!\u201d Those who decried JR\u2019s referendum to postpone elections in 1982 loudest, will be the cheerleaders this time; I am itching to hear the phonies of the Dead-Left. The point is that this is no casual remark. Gotabaya and his cronies are testing the waters and unless society drowns it pronto, cronies will push the plans forward. A Presidential Media Division does not issue statements confirming the story and patting the mythical brat on the back with the remark that the President quipped \u201che should be appointed an advisor to the President\u201d unless desperation is driving him to the brink.<\/p>\n

Deceptions<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Former president Sirisena has declared his support for SLFP ex General Secretary Susil Premjayanth who was unceremoniously fired from his State Ministership for calling a spade a spade (Ministers Bandula Gunawardane and Mahindananda Aluthgamage he said were incompetent nincompoops; this is not news). Ministers Vasudeva, Wimal Weerawansa and Gamanpila have gone to court against Cabinet decisions but shamelessly remain glued to their perks. State Minister Vidura Wickremanayake and MP Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe have castigated Cabinet and regime leaders as a bunch of crooks. A flustered GL Peiris in the meantime is trying his darndest to keep the sinking ship afloat. It is in these stormy seas that the Gotabaya presidency is fighting to stay afloat. I find it difficult to understand how the government keeps afloat, how it gets anything done and whether the \u201cnew constitution\u201d is going to be dead before birth.<\/p>\n

In the meantime there has been other comments about regime\u2019s existential crisis. Why for example would a pro-Gota website distort an Anura Kumara (AKD) interview, or why is falsified economic data splashed by the Central Bank? APF Fact-Check reported<\/a><\/span> a falsified posting on YouTube in a Sinhala pro-Gota channel with a large following which declared that JVP leader AKD had recommended that Sri Lanka produce Spiderman movies as a foreign exchange earner to overcome its disastrous foreign exchange crunch. \u201cHow the dollar problem is solved under Anura Kumara’s government\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report, a fabrication, is one of many such canards in circulation. A learned professor remarked in an email to me \u201cPerhaps it is a sign that the NPP is such a danger to the regime that it has no option but to falsify\u201d. The statement attributed to AKD is of course untrue. AKD\u2019s interview in Sinhala is below:<\/p>\n