What will the stars foretell for tomorrow? 

The stars are not shining brightly on Mahinda Percy Rajapakse in recent times.

Not even Mahela Jayawardena playing Down Under has helped the country to come out from the depressed mood like how Arjuna and his boys did to Chandrika Bandaranaike when she was in the doldrums, as she usually was. The only hope appears to be a miracle performed by Murali at Hobart but my bookmaker is not giving favourable odds.

I don't know how astrologers will put it, but Saturn seems to be playing pucks on Mahinda Percy even snatching defeat for Mahinda Percy from the jaws of victory. Take the case of Tamilselvan.

Tamilselvan

There was joy for our leader and even a few crackers were heard in the neighbourhood on the news being received about Tamilselvan and this was particularly welcome news after A'pura. There was jollification in the Rajapakse camp but this was joy among the cheer squads who will cheer come sunshine or rain. Right now what he needs is some kind of pat on the back from those liberal, human right watchers or even the local national or anti- national peace mongers. But they do not like Mahinda Percy and instead have bowled a doosra.

Tamilselvan, they say was no military man but a man of peace - a latter day Gandhi. Whether he suffered that limp of his doing the hop - step and a jump at his school sports meet or in the battle field is immaterial. Didn't he negotiate for the LTTE at international fora? Didn't he charm those western diplomats with his perpetual Teflon smile? And Mahinda Percy had bombed and killed him, they say.

So right now a peace offensive is on in the local and international fields. At home Tamilselvan will be accorded the status of Divangatha Tamilselvan - Divangatha is an honorific for people who go to heavenly abodes on departure from mother earth. Abroad he may even be accorded the status of a Lankan Gandhi with the 80-year-old patriarch Karunanidhi penning paeans about the man.

Now this is certainly not a good situation for our leader who is being battered all round for human rights and attempts are being made to bring down UN human rights monitors to breathe down his neck. He would have expected praise to be forthcoming from those international warriors in the Global War against terrorism but that appears not to be.

Cheers in the south may be at the time of the budget blues but what is needed now is some appreciation from our great white brothers.

Karuna

Karuna who appeared to manna from heaven now appears to have boomeranged on Mahinda Percy. Karuna no doubt was a deadly terrorist and the right arm of Velupillai Pirpaharan.  He recruited children by the thousands for the baby brigades and led the most successful attacks on army camps. With Karuna, Velu seemed invincible.

But Karuna was one who dared to breakaway from Velu and lives to tell the tale. Whether the RAW convinced Karuna, Ranil Wickremesinghe's strategy of putting Karuna and his comrades into lounge suits and sending them west to study federalism that did the trick or he was caught putting his hand into the over sized LTTE tillÿ no one can tell other than Velu and Karuna. But when Karuna broke away it was natural that the enemy's enemy becomes your best friend and so Mahinda Percy and Karuna went into an embrace although this was strongly denied as it should have been.

Under normal circumstances when a leader of a deadly international terrorist movement breaks away the internal community hails him, offers amnesty and absorbs him into an anti terrorist front. But that was not the case with Karuna. He was hounded from the world's leading anti- terrorist nations. Ostensibly this was because he was abducting children to build up his own brigades. But that couldn't have been the only reason because Pirpaharan too continued to do so and received only mild rebukes.

My heretical thesis for this is that Karuna upset the peace applecart. The Donors had nicely formulated the peace process with the LTTE on one side and the government on the other side. Now Karuna creates another LTTE and upsets the entire process for the LTTE's claim as the sole representative of the Tamils is blown sky high and Velu won't negotiate if any other representatives are brought in. Besides Mahinda Percy and Karuna has gone into a clinch. Mahinda who has been stalling on this peace process as much as Velu with Karuna's invaluable assistance drives the LTTE out of the east.

ÿInternational peacemakers such as High Commissioner Dominic Chilcott are furious. The peace process seems irretrievable. Pirpaharan gets tougher and Mahinda Percy and brother Gotabaya are getting cockier. Much of this because of Karuna.

Meanwhile old habits die hard. Karuna can't give up his kidnapping, demanding ransom and even killings, and the world reads the riot act to Mahinda Percy. Karuna the one time messiah becomes and embarrassment.

Bentara Ganga

Now, Mahinda Percy and Rajapakse brothers are all born south of the Bentara Ganga. The Sinhala saying is -  "don't even trust a kitten that has not opened its eyes, if born south of that river." My feeling is that military and political strategists of yore from Sun Tzu of China, Kautilya of Bharat and Machiavelli of Italy may have taken postal tuition courses from these people south of the Bentara Ganga. It appears that Southern kris knives were drawn and now Karuna the embarrassment is in Merry England.

Not so Merry, British High Commissioner Dominic Chilcott who will be red in the face will say pointing out that he is in a prison for illegal immigrants. Why Chilcott will be hot under the collar or red in the face is that his nation, the oldest and best reputed nation for spying and intelligence operations had been tricked by the sons South of Bentara to issue a visa on a fake passport on the request of the Sri Lankan government!  Simply not done, not cricket old boy, he will say but not forget.

Mahinda Percy will have to face the music for misleading Her Majesty's Government, we are told. So once again the stars have done the dirty on Mahinda Percy.

Tomorrow's stars

And tomorrow as the Second Reading of the budget is taken up what will the stars hold for Mahinda Percy. Will his old red cronies in the south do the dirty? The betting is heavy says my bookmaker but won't give the odds.