Ranil's flimsy allegations

Pot calls kettle black!

by Lionel Yodhasinghe

Even an ordinary man in the street of this country knows well the cost of an election. Apart from millions of rupees of public money spent on it, right thinking people know it would cost several lives and extensive damage to property and environment too, and therefore except for those power-greedy politicians, who rode on the shoulders of the unsuspecting voters to power and wealth, neither a sane nor a conscious rate payer would hurry to ask the Government to hold an early election at this juncture. They know it is not the correct time, as there is no such political corrosion that had affected the civil liberties in this country today similar to that of a political tumult prevailed in the UNP regime of late 80s and early 90s.

After all, the armed forces, having received the necessary political endorsement, have just completed the human operation in the East and liberated the people who were persecuted by the LTTE for decades.

Therefore it is obvious that besides the LTTE Tigers, no other peaceful person wants to pressure this Government to resign at this moment or make allegations against it that it had paid money to the LTTE or had had secret agreements.

Let's assume that the Government gave money and entered into an agreement, so what? Governments fighting against rude terrorism are compelled to exercise such tricks to combat the enemy, and no person who hails democratic values would find fault with such a gimmick, because such schemes could be made with the sole and humble intention of bringing liberation to the masses.

The founders of such agreement would have thought that they should prevent a weak and Tiger sympathiser coming to power. However, the Tigers walked to the trap, and that could be the whole strategy of those founders of the agreement there were if any. The consequences are before the people today and the biggest accomplishment of the nation more than the capture of the East is the Government's ability to burst the Tiger myth, which the LTTE had convinced the local and international community that they are undefeated in the East.

Then what was the hurry for the UNP and SLFP (M) to change the Government.

As they agitated at the Janarala on Thursday, people who follow them should think twice, why the duo want to find a short-cut to power during a time the Government is concentrated on a national task of defeating the so-called undefeated terrorist group.

The followers who march blindly on Janarala should ask their leaders whether their aim is to form a pro LTTE Government and let the terrorists to heal their wounds, let them regroup, procure arms and attack the people and the forces again.

They should also be aware that such short-cuts by the Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2001 too lasted only two years as people sent him home again after realising his agenda was to mollycoddle the Tigers who unleashed violence against the ordinary people and eliminated the officers of the military intelligence.

Under such situation, Tiger Forces, in the cover of the Ceasefire fully utilised their guerilla tactics to regroup, collect arms and train cadres while dissipating the Government security forces to clear their road towards Eelam.

Another serious allegation made by the group against the Government is the corruption charges, and every politician in this country should remember that majority of them have skeletons in their cupboards, and, if not, why the UNP Government did not take actions against those corrupted MPs in the Opposition, during their tenure of office in 2001.

Therefore, it is high time that they stopped taking people for a ride as the down-to-earth voter well knows the intention of the bull when it turns towards the coconut sapling (Gona herenne polpale kanta). Facts are stubborn, so the best thing for the Ranil-Mangala group is to prove their allegations rather than polluting the city streets and howling on political platforms.

After all, the UNP seniors were conspicuous in their absence at the Thursday rally, and all those front-liners were only immature politicians and others who just displayed their anger.

Some of them were recalcitrant and others were those questioned by the STD for their alleged connections with the LTTE. The intention of all of them is therefore obvious-to take revenge from the Government for not allowing to continue their anti-national agendas, Mangala, Sripathi, SB, and after all Tiran.

The country know well their political and other reputation, and the youth of this country today would scale them up and down before they decide to stretch hands towards them in their political unscrupulousness.

The burning problems of the youth in the country today is not to ride with greedy politicians to power through short-cuts but to find employment, assist the forces to defeat terrorism and build up the nation. If Ranil wants a Government change through democratic means, it is crime if he plans to walk to power on young dead bodies such as he did in 2001.

People still remember how his party provocated the youth to attack the police.

An aspiring youth from Warakapola died in police shooting during this attack, and UNP took that issue to win elections in 2001.

Meanwhile, the Government announced that it has no intention to dissolve parliament and hold early elections.

Mangala has now stimulated Ranil to start agitations on issues not worthy to people, and now Ranil has to surf on the Janarala for another few years. By that time, the waves would break and disappear on the shores of the UNP politics.