President Maitripala Sirisena to work with Mahinda
President Maitripala Sirisena, addressing the Nuwara Eliya district committee of the SLFP yesterday, said that he would strive to form a government led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and include former presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in it.
How come Maithri Nominate Mahinda as the prime ministerial candidate when the vast majority of people have voted against him for not adhering to good governance, rule of law and the unprecedented corruption that prevailed under his rule
He said he would team up with all possible forces to form such a government. He said his team would never leave room for the party to split, and, if any other group tried to split it, the people would take note of it.
He said aggressive behaviour and short political talks with various parties would not help to form a government. The president said certain elements, who threatened to break ranks with the SLFP-led the UPFA and form different political fronts, were doing a great injustice to the party.
Maithiri to ask Tamils and Muslims to vote Mahinda?
He said votes from the Sinhala Buddhists alone would not suffice for an electoral victory and, therefore, there would be an action plan to win over the Tamil and Muslim voters. Besides, he said, a programme for containing corruption and fraud was also needed to win the people over to the party at the elections.
President Maithripala Sirisena described Sri Lanka as a multi racial, multi religious, multi cultural and multi lingual society where all should live in peace and harmony with dignity. For the first time in the independent history of Sri Lanka a national leader boldly said in this highly corrupt, criminalised and commercialised political environment that this country belongs to all communities. This is the reality which the Racist Sinhala leader Mahinda and his associates refused to recognise, and they want to promote and exploit Sinhala chauvinism for their own selfish political ends-to either remain in power or to gain power.
Sinhala Racist politics was accelerated since independence on 4 February, 1948 dismissing the rights of minorities.
For example;
*The Citizenship Act No 18 of 1948; Indian and Pakistani Residents (Citizenship) Act No 03 of 1949 followed by the Parliamentary Elections (Amendments) Act, deprived a large number of Indian Tamil residents in Sri Lanka of their citizenship rights and franchise.
* JR Jayewardene moved in the United National Party annual convention the Sinhala only resolution which was seconded by Mr Ananda Tissa De Alwis.
* SWRD.Bandaranaike called for “Sinhala Only within 24 Hours” and faced elections on communal slogans. Adding fuel to fire the politicians encouraged Sinhala chauvinism with frequent violent attacks on Tamils, killing and causing damage to their property.
*In 1970 Prime Minister Mrs Srimavo Bandaranaike removed Section No 29A of the soulbury constitution in her Republican Constitution and made Buddhism the state religion. This gave birth to Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), an umbrella organisation of Tamil political parties, which demanded equal rights.
*President Jayewardene’s draconian 1978 constitution paved the way for a democratically elected all powerful dictator, not accountable to parliament or anyone, virtually turned the country into a “ One Man Show” and made minorities voiceless and helpless.
*In July 1983 his party thugs attacked and killed Tamils besides burning their properties under a very well organised anti Tamil pogrom. The result was the emergence of the Tamil militancy which called for the creation of a separate Tamil state in the north and east of the island. This plunged the country into a three decade long war causing immeasurable sufferings, mayhem and murder besides blocking economic growth.
*There was death and destruction all over. The situation was such that womenfolk at home were not sure whether their husbands who went to work or the children who went to school would return alive. Those were the days when people went about only for essential work as they did not know when and where a bomb would explode.
Then came the military defeat of the LTTE in May 2009 changing the situation overnight.
There was hope all over and all thought, quite rightly, that they could look forward to a future where minority grievances would be redressed.
However, it didn’t take long for Tamils and Muslims to realise the shocking reality when, instead of addressing minority grievances, defeated President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime turned out as the worst ever racist regime in the known history .