{"id":97525,"date":"2013-07-28T03:24:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-27T21:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=97525"},"modified":"2013-08-01T00:14:50","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T18:44:50","slug":"was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Malinda+Seneviratne&amp;x=12&amp;y=7\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0&#8211;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_93503\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/if-thuggery-is-to-be-arrested\/malinda-seneviratne-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-93503\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-93503\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-93503\" title=\"Malinda Seneviratne\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-93503\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">A conversation took place between a singer, a lyricist and a journalist, in Kaduwela. This was 3-4 years ago.\u00a0 The topic was the charisma and charm of President <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=2&amp;y=6\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 The singer, Kithsiri Jayasekera, brother of the in-the-news <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Dayasiri+Jayasekara&amp;x=10&amp;y=8\">Dayasiri Jayasekera<\/a><\/span> told a story.\u00a0 He had no reason to lie.\u00a0 Chaaminda Ratnasuriya was witness.\u00a0 This writer remembers.\u00a0 Kithsiri spoke in Sinhala.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a translation. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Lokka (that\u2019s the President), called Malli (younger brother).\u00a0 He told Malli that he knows that Malli wanted to work. He pointed out that he could not do anything for the people while in the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=UNP&amp;x=11&amp;y=4\">UNP<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 He asked Malli to join him and do some real work.\u00a0 He told Malli to think about it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018A few weeks later he had called again. This time he had told him that he (the President) had thought about it again and decided it was not a good idea.\u00a0 This is what he said: \u201cI thought about it.\u00a0 You should remain in the party.\u00a0 You have a future in the UNP.\u00a0 The opposition needs people like you.\u00a0 And anyway, despite all the insults I\u2019ve had to suffer, I didn\u2019t leave my party. I think you should remain in the UNP\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Malli was astounded.\u00a0 Now he doesn\u2019t know what to make of it.\u00a0 He was totally confused.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The confusion probably was temporary. After all we have heard Dayasiri deliver scathing attacks on the Government from time to time since then.\u00a0\u00a0 The two telephone calls, looking back, might have achieved something which helped Dayasiri ditch the UNP.\u00a0 It opened a door.\u00a0 The President may have had a \u2018long term plan\u2019, but even if he didn\u2019t, anyone with even an iota of understanding about party politics in Sri Lanka would realize that Dayasiri was bound to fall out of favor with Ranil, sooner or later.\u00a0 He might suffer insult after insult, but there would come a breaking point.\u00a0 In the event, it may have been precipitated the dismissive and ungracious treatment meted out to Dayasiri by Sajith Premadasa.\u00a0 Bottom line: it was bound to happen.<\/p>\n<p>And when breaking point arrives, relative merits are weighed. There is \u2018This leader\u2019 and \u2018That leader\u2019; the one who treated Dayasiri like trash and the one that opened a door.\u00a0 Justifying defection to self, from that point on, is easy.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the hard part!\u00a0 But once a decision is justified to self, it\u2019s child\u2019s play to justify it to the voter.<\/p>\n<p>The focus is on Dayasiri and his defection, but if the theatrics are to be understood maybe there\u2019s a significant clue to be found in those two telephone conversations.\u00a0 It may all seem a lottery. Some might call it luck.\u00a0 It may not be wise to be hasty in conclusion!<\/p>\n<p><em>*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":93503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago? - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-27T21:54:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-31T18:44:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"329\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"367\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/\",\"name\":\"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago? - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-27T21:54:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-31T18:44:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg\",\"width\":\"329\",\"height\":\"367\",\"caption\":\"Malinda Seneviratne\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\",\"name\":\"Colombo Telegraph\",\"description\":\"In journalism truth is a process\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3\",\"name\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago? - Colombo Telegraph","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago? - Colombo Telegraph","og_description":"[&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/","og_site_name":"Colombo Telegraph","article_published_time":"2013-07-27T21:54:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-31T18:44:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":329,"height":367,"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/","name":"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago? - Colombo Telegraph","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-27T21:54:11+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-31T18:44:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","width":"329","height":"367","caption":"Malinda Seneviratne"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/was-dayasiris-crossover-planned-3-4-years-ago\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Was Dayasiri\u2019s Crossover Planned 3-4 Years Ago?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/","name":"Colombo Telegraph","description":"In journalism truth is a process","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/9db3d0cfcfa59e1997e3c3524d454cb3","name":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/920b3181b0bf86b5c339ad9f0963a89f6a8b19c4b971e629987a021ba7a663df?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH"},"url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/author\/colombo_telegraph\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Malinda-Seneviratne.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97525"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97528,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97525\/revisions\/97528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}