Government Losing Control
Nominations for the forthcoming local government elections have shown that the governing UPFA was fast losing control, especially among its minority community members.
There were several shockers for senior SLFP members as well as President Mahinda Rajapaksa when nominations closed on Thursday (27) for the local government elections.
One of his key concerns was the violation of an agreement reached between the government and the Citizen’s Front headed by Parliamentarian Jaya Sri Ranga.
Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Ranga AND Douglas Devananda
In the absence of the President, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa held several rounds of discussions with Sri Ranga earlier in the week on contesting the Mullaitivu District.
It was finally decided at the meeting that Sri Ranga would field candidates through the Citizen’s Front in the Mullaitivu District while the UPFA would withdraw from contesting in the district. The battle therefore was going to be between the TNA and the Citizen’s Front.
The government made a tactical withdrawal from contesting the Mullaitivu District fearing defeat. However, EPDP Leader, Minister Douglas Devananda and ACMC Leader Rishard Bathiudeen objected to Basil’s decision saying the governing party needed to field candidates under the betel leaf symbol in the Mullaitivu District.
Devananda and Bathiudeen had not been pleased with the government deciding to back Sri Ranga. Basil had firmly said that the UPFA would not field candidates in the Mullaitivu District. He had even asked Bathiudeen if he was willing to contest in the District under his own party, the ACMC.
However, on Thursday (27), when nominations were handed in for the Mullaitivu District, Bathiudeen had handed in a list of nominations for Mullaitivu under the UPFA.
An angry Sri Ranga had then informed Basil about the turn of events and had also informed the President that he did not like being betrayed.
When asked for an explanation, Bathiudeen had said that he had no choice but to hand the already prepared list as he was given only short notice by Basil to withdraw.
The truth behind Bathiudeen’s lame excuse is yet to be determined by the President. President Rajapaksa is trying to determine whether Bathiudeen had in fact overruled Basil’s decision or if there is a concerted effort by certain government members to sabotage Sri Ranga’s agreement with the government.
Meanwhile, EPDP Leader Devananda is under fire by the governing party for the mess up with regard to the nomination lists for the local bodies in Jaffna. The UPFA lists for 16 local bodies in Jaffna were rejected after the UPFA (Alliance) was named as UPFF (Front).
Government leaders have asked Devananda how he had allowed a mistake like writing a wrong name for the governing party, when he had contested under it for several years. “This is not the first time the UPFA is contesting in the North. How could there have been a mistake in the party name?” the government seniors had asked.
Devananda had said that he would resort to legal action over the issue.
Some government seniors have also cast doubts on whether such a mistake was purposely allowed by Devananda.
Nevertheless, the UPFA would not be able to contest in any local body in the Jaffna District.
-
Up Country Tamils To Contest Under Muslim Party
P. Digambaram and Rishard Bathiudeen
The UPF and P. Digambaram, who were promised slots in the UPFA’s nomination lists to accommodate their candidates, are now contesting under the All Ceylon Muslim Congress (Akilai Ilangai Muslim Congress).
Until a week before nominations concluded, the government informed the UPF and Digambaram that they would be given the chance to put forward their candidates through the UPFA list in the Nuwara Eliya District. However, Digambaram, who crossed over to the government from the opposition last year, decided to travel overseas until the government prepared the nomination lists including his candidates as well.
As soon as Digambaram and the UPF were informed that the UPFA could not accommodate them, they started to look for options to contest the local government elections. The UPF even held discussions with the DPF led by Mano Ganesan.
Finally, the UPF and Digambaram were left with no option but to contest under a Muslim political party in the hill country.
They had to turn to the All Ceylon Muslim Congress (ACMC) headed by Industries and Commerce Minister Rishard Bathiudeen. The UPF and Digambaram will now contest the Kotmale and Ambagamuwa Pradeshiya Sabhas under the ACMC’s peacock symbol.
ACMC Secretary Y.L.S. Hameed had signed the papers and they were handed over by Digambaram’s supporter Thilakaraja.
Fearing that the decision to contest under a Muslim political party might have an impact on the estate Tamil voter, Digambaram has decided to keep quiet about the move for the time being.
He had visited the people in the estates and asked for their support saying that his party was contesting the elections under the peacock symbol without mentioning the name of the party.
Digambaram believes that hiding the truth from the estate workers would help him muster a few extra votes.
-
List Prepared Amidst Fisticuffs Rejected
Navin Dissanayake
The governing UPFA’s nomination papers for the Nuwara Eliya District were prepared amidst fisticuffs at Temple Trees. However, once the lists were handed over, the government’s lists for Lindula-Thalawakele and Nuwara Eliya were rejected.
During the preparation process of the nomination papers for the Nuwara Eliya District an angry Public Management and Reforms Minister Navin Dissanayake ended up assaulting the UPFA’s Maskeliya organiser, Ranasinghe.
The fracas had taken place following a verbal clash between Dissanayake and Ranasinghe at the nominations board last week. The argument that had commenced over a private road had later continued to the UPFA nomination lists as well.
Dissanayake had lost his cool after Ranasinghe had tried to sideline the persons nominated by him to be included in the Nuwara Eliya list.
Unable to contain his anger, Dissanayake had finally assaulted Ranasinghe and walked out of the nominations board.
However, the Nuwara Eliya District returning officer rejected the UPFA’s list for Nuwara Eliya and Lindula-Thalawakele last Thursday (27).
A majority of the names in the two lists were members of Minister Arumugam Thondaman’s CWC.
Hearing that two of the key nomination lists for his party in the District had been rejected, CWC members had even chased away SLFP lawyers who had traveled to Nuwara Eliya to hand over the nominations list.
While Dissanayake has the last laugh, the rejection of the lists is a loss for Thondaman and his party.
-
Sujeewa And Ravi Clash Over Nominations
Sujeewa Senasinghe and Ravi Karunanayake
The final days of nominations saw many clashes within the main opposition UNP with heated exchange of words between members of parliament.
The first verbal clash was between UNP Hambantota District Parliamentarian Sajith Premadasa and UNP Colombo District MP Ravi Karunanayake.
Soon after the clash between Premadasa and Karunanayake, the senior UNP members in the nominations board witnessed yet another clash.
This time it was between UNP Colombo District Parliamentarian Sujeewa Senasinghe and Karunanayake.
When looking at the UNP nomination lists of the Colombo District for the local government elections, Party Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Secretary Tissa Attanayake have questioned Senasinghe about the candidates included in the Kaduwela electorate list. Wickremesinghe had specifically asked if any Christian candidates were included in the list.
Senasinghe had then explained how the selection was done with the approval of the Kaduwela Bala Mandala and that the list was a balanced one where chances have been given to the youth as well as senior party members.
Karunanayake had then proposed two names to be included in the list after finding fault with a few names that were included in the list.
He had said that some of the names included in the list had contacts with the government.
An angry Senasinghe and then responded by saying that Karunanayake had no right to make such comments as he had contacts with Minister Basil Rajapaksa.
Senasinghe was also angry with Karunanayake, for allegedly making remarks to party members in Kaduwela that he played a key role in preparing the nomination list for Kaduwela.
An angry Senasinghe had then told Karunanayake to keep quiet, as he did not have any power over the Kaduwela list.
“I’m the organiser of the electorate and I will decide,” he had said.
Wickremesinghe had then intervened and asked Senasinghe to ignore any comments made about the list.
Attanayake had then told Senasinghe that there was no problem with the Kaduwela list.
With all obstacles put in our path of development, we have not doubt that Citizens’s Front will win the election in Mullaitivuu!! TNA & others will learn, they can no longer cheat local people!
it was a dram played by the government to avoid embarrasment of defeat in those areas. To avoid that embrassment, made mistakes in their applicaitons.
All these guys are fighting for WHAT???? To make a luxurious living. What else.
Individual like Sri Ranka MP not after money, where r u Mr S.A (probably South Africa)??, but to help his brothers & sisters in Mullatheivu who are being betrayed by spineless Tamil politicians who come (with nothing) & go (with millions) in politics.. Eg Janarthamoorthy… Our people r living with nothing in Mullaithievu & kilinochi districts.. don’t u people have mercy? who goes to see them, except this MP?? just they (TNA & others) come 2 steal our votes.. so we asked Ranga brother to come here to serve us.. he refused & then accepted after we all begged.. because v are sick of these selfish, talentless, powerless, thugs, etc Tamil politicians..
Mr. Jesuthas, we don’t blame your loyalty to Mr. Sri Ranga. But, what my point is placing your trust on any politician, no matter how respectable he is, is very tricky. We don’t know what these individuals’ real motives are. They may look OK and they may speak nice words of “Political Wisdom” to pull the crowd, we cannot be certain what they will do to solve our problems the way we wish it to be. IN MOST CASES THEY TEND TO DISAPPOINT US WHOLE SALE. We are seeing this from the recent history of our country. If not for the lure of money in the politics no one would ever be investing his time, money & efforts to this HUGELY PROFITABLE PROFESSION. You don’t need the DEGREE, you don’t need any Qualification to come to this feel. BUT, the only required QUALIFICATION is their “DREAM” to make a good earning and a nice living with FAME. Better than SHOWBIZ!!!! huh, huh, haa…….
We r saddened & all Thamil publics live in mullathivuu not like Jeya Sri Ranka been betrayed on anything by anybody in the world. so Hon. President MR sort this mesh with those two people or sack them immediately.. who are these two people, do we know them? total strangers 2 us. we only know MP Ranga. what do these two guys, Doug & Rish think about us? No point in coming to election here u two, no chance for u 2 get a single vote even. Looking for good move by the President!
We always loves our ‘Minnal’ Ranga MP so his ‘Vetri Nitchayam’ (definite winning), he is only hope we have to raise our heads again and have a normal respectful happy life, which we lost years back in 80s. Thambi (my little brother) is not afraid to talk against anybody who has done wrong things. He is bringing us our lives back, what else we need – so please leave him alone.
Some members of our Batticaloa -Mattakalapu- Teacher’s Association suspected, MP Sri Ranga is going to contest in the local election here this time – but he is not – DAMN. He is a different breed man! We are disappointed by his action of not representing us and the war widows groups here. School kids are telling, they want to become like MP Sri Ranga. Yeah, we wish them to become social workers also. Despite all fuss, he’ll win easily in the Mullaitivu area.
We all withnessed thru ‘sakthi’ as a lone leader what he did in batti & ampara during recent floods problems. Children tried to kiss his hands and all people close to crying and emotional – please continue and extend ur services to Batti, Ampara, Trinco, Mutur and all Tamil district. All affected were around him to tell how thankful they are to him, which he accepted with a smile & said it was his 1st duty to help all he can as a human being and as a Tamil MP & quickly moved to other areas to help also. wish him god’s blessings!
Rishard gone – we r not coming to ref camps again (becos we led by Ranga now),so ‘Ora’ MP is not going again to parliment (u can’t buy votes for extra rations/extra facilities). Now Presi knows this subject, how many lorries escaped with UNICEF stuff & we wrote 2 him once we departed camps. so forget abt cheating again. U learnt the lesson now, big lesson waiting in the form of election result – ’0′ vote.
i’m sure U will sell us all for somebody (from Saudis/Qatar) for money if v let u in our areas. please don’t come.
Why MP Ranga did not contest batti election & could have easy win here? No answer?? We has this question from 2005 (flood), the 2006 (sunammi) to Jan 2011 (floods) – All anong he was there with us, looking like going to come into Batti politics. He let us fall this time also.not happier..
kalai I really feel sorry for you. It is true that you all are undergoing a lot of hardships in Mullaitheevu. But for that don’t blame TNA. What can they do other than pressing the government to help you all. On the other hand they are also trying to do a better service as far as they can from whatever the fund that is available. It is the government who imposes those hardships on you all and it the same government that is helping through Sri Ranga. He is not spending the money from his pocket. It is true that Sri Ranga is doing a good service but it is goes by the strategy of the government. Government wants to prove the outside world that they are the saviors of the people of north and East and they are using Sri Ranga. If you are not convinced think about the Minnal programmes at the beginning and how it later changed singing the praise of the government and Sri Ranga’s decision to contest election. All ways think about a permanet solution and for that you have to strengthen the hands of TNA. Don’t sell your valuable votes for some immediate benefits. You defeat Sri Ranga in this election and see if you still get all the benefits.
Dear Sha,
It’s good see you recognize Sri Ranga’ s exceptional work. However, it’s important to base your conclusions on facts rather than emotion. Please consider the following facts about your comment about the government working with Sri Ranga:
1. A list of nominations for Mullaitivu under the UPFA were handed in on Thursday which betrayed the understanding with Sri Ranga.
2. The Batticaloa floods relief was carried out by Sekhi and the media organisation NOT by the government.
About the TNA consider the following:
1. You only have to watch the evening news to see how effective and efficient Sri Ranga is with helping both the Sinhalese and Tamil people compared to the ineffective and inefficient TNA.
2. Are not the TNA linked with the PLOT who have are responsible for killing thousands of Tamil people?
Government is losing control mainly because of the people in government. They are contradicting themselves and are fighting among themselves instead of cooperating for the good of the country. The leaders in government are the ones tearing the government apart and the people can see that the government can no longer be trusted.
Serasighe & Sajith must respect the seniors. Leadership never come to Knee. This is the election will give lot of changes.
Sha, believe ur not familier with ground facts, going by some biased media infor. TO CORRECT YOUR BASICALLY WRONG ASSUMPTIONS THAT HE IS WITH GOV ETC, CONSIDER THESE:
- MP Ranga did’t join the Gov despite lots of carrots put towards him
- He has proven one after one the biased media reports r false (stil sits with opposition, did’t become gov minister, still living in old house – saw him on public day last wk, etc etc)
- He is doing hard job in delivering services which you also accept rather than just ‘pressing the gov’ remotely with no or nagative results. Because Gov doesn’t believe TNA (not sure they believe Ranga though?) and locals don’t believe anybody except this MP
- In the past, the TNA took all of poor Mullai people for a hose ride for vote buying and like ‘rats escaping the sinking ships’ they left us all during the war, now coming back to suck left-over blood? no way Sha.
- by the way, TNA also abstained from voting against gov budget ‘ON A GOOD WILL GESTURE’ ha ha… if it was Ranga ‘DIFFERNT WORD’ ha ha..
- When locals could see ‘tangibles’ from Ranga MP vs imaginative talks from people like you & TNA – what do u think we’ll select Sha?
- how long u & TNA are going to talk abt this permonant solutions? Until my sons & daughters all die due to poverty & loose even what is left? We are ‘ginny pigs’ here used by some people remotely (think.. Sha)
- Whatever gov’s intentions are, MP Sri Ranga is smart enough to milk the cow, than TNA who are trying to kill the cow
- Shakthi is an organisation with a long-term mission, they always embrase the needed critical changes for wider benefit of Tamils.. may be seen wrongly by selfish people with agendas, you know.
- MP was pushed in the political directions by Tamil public (from Nuwara eliya to mullai) than himself, requests coming from public to wider his political base (last wk from Batti)
- You are not sure about our future, is not? That’s why u ask us to ‘see if we get benefits’. We don’t want hyphothetic situations ‘mahan – son’/'ayya – brother’, we need to be 100% sure with what will happen to us now. so our current choice is only MP Ranga, sorry. GIVE US OTHER GOOD ALTERNATIVES, WE’LL THINK NEXT TIME.
IT IS HARD WHEN WE SEE TAMILS SUFFERING – DON’T ROCK THE BOAT BECAUSE LOTS OF OUR TAMIL CHILDREN ARE IN THE BOAT!
*There is no tomorrow, if we don’t survive today
*There is no future if we elect people nominated by Selvan Adaikalanathan MP ( u know what he did b4 in Mannar / Vavuniya?)
*There is no future for tamils if we become hardliners
*There is no future for us, if our MPs don’t have a plan of our future & don’t know how 2 get there
No web politics. Let the ground people to decide on their fate. SRI RANGA m.p is only appropriate option given the situations in Wanni. Let TNA to field good challenge in the years to come. we’ll think.
TNA appealed to Gov helps for flood victim today. Good, but if MP SRi get the helps from public via shakthi and distribute to effected people you say ‘govenment helping thru Sri’ – same as what Sha said & so he is a gov guy! Not fair at all! So if TNA succeeds in gov helps – TNA gov guys (square)!
My dear Sha,
For ur infor there are 20 TNA MPs x income Rs 15m each (i.e., from selling MP car permit in local market, my singala friend told me this) = Rs 300m earnings! It is only from their car permit, what about others?. If they would have spent this money already in Wanni, we r sure we’ll becom developed districts in 2-3 years! Rubbish..Trace the money… It goes as ‘dowry, investments, foreigh education for children, trips to UK’ etc.
By the way, TNA is also in the Tamil Katchikalin Arangam, with all buddies so Sha advise mullai public to vote for all of them – you will have good breeds like robbers thru abductors to drug leaders – all governing them – imagine! Come-on. mullai people’ll show how careful they are in their selections.
S.A, I truely agree with ur point of not needing any qualifications to become a politician to earn good money and some people are like that. We can’t trust politicians who do ‘u’ turns all the times. Eg Take TNA, how many have qualifications and how many already wealthy thru their in-heritance before becoming politicians or their parents/great parents becoming politicians? only few.
We know MP Sri Ranka before becoming politician. There was no need for him to earn money. not at all. he was in public domain b4. Don’t tell me pls ‘i’m also loyal to him’. Easy to cast doubts sir. I’m sure You have seen ‘U’ turns by TNA being ‘LTTE is our reps to we didn’t endose LTTE policies, and we don’t trust singalese govs to we have a talk with gov on 3rd Feb 11/talk is positive’ Then whom to trust & rely on whose words as true? difficult.
Mr. Karuppaiah, I agree with your concern about the projected honesty of Mr. Sri Ranga. I too believe that he’s one of the few respected individuals who is serious about helping the common people, especially the Tamil people whose suffering is enormous. But, what I am saying is that collectively they can be untrustworthy. For Example: No matter how much he attempts to do a honest service to the public, if the ruling party were to make a decision, and if it was seem to be a wrong decision, obviously Mr. Sri Ranga will have to abide by the rules of the party (ruling party’s) and will have to support it. He can’t go against it. Like the Media repression which going on at present, he has a part to play for he is in the present govt. CAN HE EVER MAKE A PROCLAMATION OR AN OPINION AGAINST THE REPRESSION????? HE CAN’T & HE WON’T. That’s the politics or the politicians I am talking about.
Dear dear Sha, TNA – ‘Totally Nuts Alliance’, as the name implies proving their true status again and again. There are some ‘takers’ still listening to their rubbish talk. Caring about our community is an important thing, but madly supporting these alliance which takes us nowhere other than to the dark future which is upsetting. New educated young leaders shall be the only way to move forward. If you ask Mr Sambanthan what is ‘ICT’ stands for – he will say ‘its wrong it should be ‘ICJ – International Court of Justice – ICJ’.. you know what I mean.. we need developments, but they need something else to get popular…
Was on a medi camp in wanni. 1) People here in the Mullaitivu and kilinochhi, we do not plan further than a maximum 1 wk. 2) they even don’t know anything about the so called ‘permanent solutions’ becos they donot care or don’t understand howz that is going 2 change their lives. they need solutions than creating more problems. the permanant solution will be imposed on sri lanka by india, if we survive next 2-3 hard years, we can see it through.
Mr S.A, we all talk the same languege except you have a distorted opinion about Mr Ranga’s neutrality. see Lingashan’s comments above for correcting your view friend.
however, we all want freedom of expression and free media for a healthy society. there are other burning issues to focus on after the end of war as well. it is a fact that MP Ranga fearlessly talks about anything if he believes in it based on facts. you & me know it well (unless ur in SA? kidding).
i’m sure he will continue this for the benefit of our lovely country. S.A it seems we need more Rangas now!
FOR DEVELOPMENTS OF TAMILS – DONOT TRUST EXISTING OLD TAMIL POLITICIANS EVEN 10%, BUT THIS SOCIAL WORKER / GOOD MEDIA VOICE TURNED POLITICIAN JEYA RANGA CAN BE TRUSTED AT LEAST 90% – BY TAMILS, SINGALESE, MUSLIMS.. HIS REST 10% CAN BE RE-EVALUATED BASED ON NUWARAI ELIYAA AND MULLAITIVUU DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS IN THE NEXT 3-4 YEARS WHILE TNA’S 10% COULD BE DEGRADED TO -10% FOR NOT UNDERTAKING DEVELOPMENTS THOUGH WENT TO PARLIAMENT FOR THE LAST 50 YRS FROM N-E.
looks like tamils and interlectuals desperately want to push for developments in the north also east. may be whole country needs a new set of young politicians. they are not yet corrupted by the existing system, have energy, competitiveness & willingness to change. young blood, not poisioned by the feelings, so better will be their ‘unbiased’ thinking & approaches..but still old ones should be there to shed some ‘lights’ on their experience for the betterment of the country, but not ‘UV-RAYS’C PLS..
look at the flood disaster, secutiry forces are helping to evacuate tamils / no doubt tamils also will do the same at present. this creates a win-win situation for the ALL ETHNIC GROUPS in the country. country should develop NOW or all will go to HELL.
Lankapuvath: Sri Ranga decided to forward candidates under the symbol of a ‘Bus” in Mullaitivu.That annoyed Baithudeen an ardent supporter of the UPFA “Beetle Leaf”.He cancelled Ranga’s move. When asked by MR Baithudeen said “Sir, if we put our candidates in his bus, we don’t know where that bus will go.One day they will be in the Opposition, the next day in Government and the following day back in the Opposition”.
Amongst Tamils, if you say your news is like ‘Lankapuvath’ news, means utterly ‘lying’.. so ur cheallenge is to prove to people that UR not so ‘Lankapuvath’.
Having said that, the ‘Bus’ that arrived in Mullaitivu after getting route clearance from respective people from Gov & Oppo, dropping a lots of relief items over there since May 2010. Also the good people who get down from the bus doing remarkable services to Wanni people, they are not ‘blood suckers’ like Ma Baithudeen. It might look like ‘Bus’ going here & there for your ‘eagle’, ‘jealous’ & ‘worried’ eyes of some, and it was done purposely to mislead you Mr Baithudeen, otherwise your ‘ration thieves’ (the gang u had at the Vavuniya Camps, remember) would have ambushed the bus on the way to Wanni..Thanks God, the relief items reaching the people safely now! Keys things are: the BUS only takes candidates who’ll serve their people better and does not carry anybody from the other parties eventhough it stops at various places to keep everybody cool & refuel! Its achives its final destination effectively & it does not hit & kill anybody on the way to achieve its destination! What else we need! ITS AN INDEPENDANT BUS WITH CLEAR VISIONS FOR OUR TAMIL PEOPLE.
Mr Rishard OR NONE OF HIS friends/candidates should be in the BUS – its a well respected BUS by the general public and thus, why ur trying to tarnish its image by interfearing in its jurney? YOU CAN’T GET IN Sir. Don’t come in-between ours and Tamil community and do a business out of it like YOU DID in the past.