On the shoot-out

So here’s what I think (knowing that nobody cares what I think).

In 2009 Mahinda really wanted to win the western provincial council election big, specifically he wanted to win Colombo district big. This was at the very late stages of the war, a strong election win was needed for him to show the world that people approve the war. A big win in UNP stronghold Colombo would have created good news, and also made good grounds for the upcoming parliamentary elections (Presidential elections were probably not planned then). 

The previous election results for Colombo wasn’t that good. The win was marginal; and that too at a weak period of UNP with people starting to reject the cease fire agreement. worst of all, there weren’t any strong candidates for UPFA in Colombo.

2004 Provincial Council Elections, Colombo District | Votes

POLITICAL PARTY	VOTES	%	SEATS
UNITED PEOPLE'S FREEDOM ALLIANCE	322,653	49.11	25
UNITED NATIONAL PARTY	276,759	42.12	15

2004 Provincial Council Elections, Colombo District | Top candidates of UPFA

Candidate	Preferential votes
Aruna Hemapala	36,029
Andarage Don Gamini Thilakasiri	34,992
H. Kanchana Peiris	34,658

So, Mahinda did what he does the best, bought a couple of candidates from the UNP, not with money, but with power! Duminda Silva and Thilanga Sumathipala. These two had enough money of their own for them to be bought with money, what they lacked while in opposition is power, and that’s what Mahinda had to offer them. The deal probably was win me Colombo and I’ll give you parliamentary tickets and organizer posts.

Results were quite clear, win they did. They literally bought votes for themselves spending insane amounts of money.

2009 Provincial Council Elections, Colombo District | Votes

POLITICAL PARTY	VOTES	%	SEATS
UNITED PEOPLE'S FREEDOM ALLIANCE	530,370	57.78	25
UNITED NATIONAL PARTY	327,571	35.69	15

2009 Provincial Council Elections, Colombo District | Top candidates of UPFA

Candidate	Preferential votes
Arumadura Lorence Romelo Duminda Silva	165,128
Uduwatuwage Janathpriya Thilanga Sumathipala	159,603
Udaya Prabhath Gammanpila	116,144

So, Duminda and Thilanga got their parliamentary election tickets and organizer posts as promised. But, unfortunately, that meant someone else lost their organizer post and possibly election tickets. To compensate for this, Mahinda offered Bharatha some other posts including the presidential advisor post.

For Duminda, the electoral seat doesn’t matter. He buys votes – literally. So he could go in to any area, throw some cash around, muscle out any resistance and get voted. But for someone like Bharatha, getting voted depends a lot on relationship building and small scale spending's over a lifetime. And giving his electoral seat to Duminda meant the end of his active political career; presidential advisor post didn’t really compensated for that. Thus started the battle between Duminda and Bharatha.

Where did Duminda get his money from? I don’t know. His brother owns few radio stations and they probably have other businesses. Some say it’s drugs. Can’t rule that out, but it’s highly unlikely that Rajapaksha’s would get a drug dealer in to the defense secretariat. Most claim drugs because they don’t know people could actually make an insane amount of money with legit businesses. And all they could think of is drugs.

There are no black or white characters, they are all shades of grey. Duminda had lot of thugs surrounding him, and I wouldn’t believe if someone said Bharatha didn’t. And most of all, I don’t think either of these two had got into a fight of this nature where the other party responded in the same way. They are probably so used to going in with brute force and shooting away the opponents.

So, when the first to get out of the vehicles – be it Duminda or Bharatha – started waving the guns around, probably didn’t expect the other party to do the same. And they didn’t know what to do next. They either had to pack-up and leave, or shoot. Alcohol probably stopped them from making the wise move and shoot they did. The ones with most guns, made the most kills. But I don’t think Bharatha’s group didn’t shoot back, or Duminda didn’t get shot, as some bloggers claim. With three bullets in the head, I’d be really surprised if he’s not vegetable now.

So, is this Mahinda’s fault for bringing in a thug from UNP to muscle out – and kill  in this instance - the old SLFPers who helped him vin the elections? It’s obviously a consequence of a series of incidents, but I don’t think it could be directly attributed to bringing Duminda and Thilanga in to SLFP. Mahinda is just another grey character, with good and bad, making decisions which he thinks is right for him, his family, his friends and after some more items in that list, the country (hopefully).

Related: http://indi.ca/2011/10/hearsay-about-duminda-silva/

So why did they arrest Fonseka now? Really?

I’m not going to discuss whether it’s politically correct; because I don’t know; but why? Regardless of the facts on paper, I think we all know why..

Government took him into custody at great risk of international influence and potential blow to the vote base in the General Elections due in April. It has already provoke questioning from world powers and some significant protests from the masses; in contrast, knowing Sri Lankans - and the international community, had they done this in another couple of years, the effects would have been almost negligible. So why now? Why risk all this?

Fonseka was threatening to go to international courts with cases against Sri Lankan army (i.e Gotabaya Rajapaksha and the Army Generals who were not in his side at the elections?) on human rights violations. He had already made serious allegations and brought too much attention and unease to the government. The opposition leaders and the LTTE sympathizers had already been doing that, but that wasn’t received as seriously as Fonseka’s allegations by the world powers.

There’s nothing pretty about any war. And the war against terrorism in Sri Lanka probably had its ugly turns here and there which Fonseka knows, and the government knows too. So the government didn’t probably want Fonseka to keep talking, however untamed his speeches are, he still has some credibility as the ex-army chief. Especially, since he was seeking asylum in countries like Australia, where he would have the opportunity to rehabilitate himself to be more politically attractive the government must have thought that the damage he could cause while being out is much greater than what it would be if they arrest him.

Secondly, if he is to be brought in-front of the law, the government probably has much more control over the military law than the civil. And in order to charge him under military acts, it had to be done within 6 months of his retirement.

I think the charges that the government has against Fonseka are serious enough if they prove them; I don’t know whether he really did them, but the idea of overthrowing the government probably went through his mind while he was in uniform - but again, you can’t charge him for having the motive alone...

All that said; I think trying to compare Karuna and Fonseka is immature and lame. Wars are won because of tactical decisions than moral decisions. Karuna was (and still is) irreplaceable for his political as well as military value. Fonseka as the army commander, always was replaceable.

අපේ රට යන අත හොඳද නරක ද?

මල ඉලව් දේශපාලනය ගැන ආයේ ලියන්නෙම නෑ කියලා හිතන් හිටියේ. ෆොටෝ එකක් දාලා වීඩියෝ එකක් දාලා පහුගිය ටිකේ මම සාමයෙන් සමාදානයෙන් හිටියා නේ. මේ කාලේ අහන්න ලැබෙන දේවල් නිසා ලියන්නම හිතුණා.

අපිට සීයට සීයක් එකඟ වෙන්න පුලුවන් පාලනයක් හදන්න නම් අපිම ගිහින් රජ වෙන්න ඕනේ. ඉතින් මම රජ උනොත් මොකද වෙන්නේ? ඡන්දෙ හම්බෙනවද නැත්ද කියන එක අමතක කරලා මම රජ උණා කියලා හිතමුකෝ...

කීදෙනෙකුට මාව එපා වෙයිද? මොන උප්පරවැට්ටියක් කරලා හරි කිරිපිටි නොමිලේ දීලා, මුලු රටේම පඩි වැඩි කරොත් කරේ තියන් නටයි. මම මස් කන එකත් තහනම් කරලා, අරක්කු බොන එකත් තහනම් කරලා දැම්මොත් ලංකාවෙ මිනිස්සු ප්‍රභාකරන් පැත්තකින් තියලා මාව මරණවා.

මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ ගැනත් එච්චරම තමයි මිනිස්සුන්ගේ මතේ. රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ හිටිය කාලෙත් එච්චරයි.

කව්රුවත් කැමති නෑ ජනාධිපති කරණ හැම දේකටම. කරණ හරියෙන් වැඩි හරියක් අපි කැමති දේවල් නම් තමයි ඉතින් පැවැත්මක් තියෙන්නේ. අපිට හරි කියලා හිතෙන හෑම දේම අනික් මිනිස්සුන්ට හරි යන්නේ නෑ. අනික් මිනිස්සුන්ව අපිට ඕනේ විදිහට තියන්න අපිට අයිතියකුත් නෑ.

වැඩි දෙනෙකුට ඕනේ ලාබෙට කාලා, ගෙවල් දොරවල් හදාගෙන, යාන වාහන අරගෙන අඩුවෙන් වැඩ කරලා, මැරෙන්නේ නැතුව, ගුටි කන්නේ නැතුව ජීවත් වෙන්ට. රටේ ඒකීය භාවයයි, මාධ්‍ය නිදහසයි, මානව අයිතිවාසිකමුයි ඔක්කොම ඊට පස්සේ.

දැන් රටේ යුද්දයක්. කොටින්ට රටෙන් කැල්ලක් ගියා කියලා අපිට පාන් ද? රට කැඩුණා කියලා? එකට තිබ්බ නම් අපි යනවද මුලතිව් ඉඩම් ගන්ට? නෑ නේ.

අපි මේ සල්ලි නැතුව, කන්ට නැතුව අමාරුවෙන් ගැට ගහගෙන ඉද්දී උන් ආවා මිනී මරන්ටයි රටේ කෑලි ඉල්ලන්ටයි. හරියට උන්ට විතරයි වගේ කන්ට නැත්තේ. උන්ට විතරද ආණ්ඩුවෙන් කෙනෙහෙලි කම් කරේ? ඉතින් අපිට තද වෙන්නේ නැද්ද? ඉතින් අපිත් පටන් ගත්තා යුද්දේ... ඊට පස්සෙ නිජබිම් ද නැත්ද, ආදි වාසීන් කව්ද, උපන් බිමේ නියම උරුමක්කාරයින් කව්ද, ප්‍රශ්ණ ගොඩයි.

ඒ මදිවට උන් හින්දා ඉස්සර තරම් වත් අපිට මෙහෙ කාලා ඇඳලා ඉන්ටත් නෑ. රටේ සල්ලි වැඩි හරියක් යන්නේ උන්ට ගහන්ට. නවත්තලා හිටියත් උන් ඇවිත් ගහලා යනවා. රටේ දේපොල විනාස කරණවා; ඒකෙන් අපේ ජීවණ වියදම වැඩි වෙනවා. ඉතින් උන්ට නොගහා පුලුවන් ද? මොන කෙන්ගෙඩියක් කරලා හරි ඕක ඉවර කරලා දාන්ට ඕනේ.

අපේ හිටිය එක නායකයෙක් වත් යුද්දේ ඉවරයක් කරන්ට වැඩක් කරේ නෑ. රාජපක්ෂට කලින් හිටිය හැම කෙනාම කරේ තව කාලයක් යුද්දේ ඇදගෙන යන්ට පුලුවන් විදිහට කටයුතු කරපු එක. මේ මනුස්සයා අඩුම තරමින් මේක ඉවරයක් කරයි කියලා බලාපොරොත්තුවක් වත් තියන්ට පුලුවන්. ඒක ඉවර වෙද්දි තව මොනවා ඉවර වෙයි ද කියලා නම් සැකයි තමයි. ඒත් සැකයේ වාසිය මනුස්සයට දෙන්ට මම කැමතී.

පහුගිය අවුරුද්දේම මම ලංකාවෙ හිටියේ නෑ. හබැයි ආරන්චිය ලංකාවෙ අලුතෙන් පාරවල් හදනවා ලු. සංවර්ධන වියාපෘති යනවා ලු. ඉතින් මට ඒකත් හොඳයි.

හැබැයි ඉතින් ඇමති මණ්ඩලේ මැරයෝ පිරිලා. ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉන්න තරමක් ඉන්නේ හොර තක්කඩි. රාජපක්ෂලාට විරුද්දව කාටවත් කතා කරන්ට බැරිලු (මම විරුද්ධව කතා කරලා, ඇත්ත ද බොරුද බලන්ට අදහසක් නෑ. නිකම් මොකට ද...). මාධ්‍ය මර්ධණය කරලා ලු (ඒකට නම් මට ගාණක් වත් නෑ...). මානව හිමිකම් කැඩෙනවා ලු. බඩු හැම දෙයක්ම ගණන් ගිහින් ලු.

මම ඉතින් ඕක සාධාරණීකරනය කරනවා නෙවෙයි; ඒ උනත්, යූ ඇන් පිය ආණ්ඩුව පෙරලන්නේ කොයි වෙලේද කියලා බලන් ඉන්නේ. ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉන්න මන්ත්‍රීලා කොයි වෙලේද කීයක් හරි අරන් අනික් පැත්තට පනින්නේ කියලා බලාගෙන ඉන්නේ. ඉතින් ඉන්න හාල්පාරුවෝ ටික කොහොම හරි ගාල් කරගෙන යුද්දේ ඉවර වෙනකම් ආණ්ඩුව අල්ලගෙන ඉන්නවා නම් හොඳයි කියලයි මට හිතෙන්නේ.

යුද්දේ ඉවර වෙනකම් පොඩ්ඩක් ඉවසගෙන හිටපල්ලා කිව්වොත් අපේ මිනිස්සු අර සුපුරුදු කවිය කියනවා,

"they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;

And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;

And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew; And then . . .

they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

අනේ මන්දා... මට නම් හිතෙන්නේ ඔය කවි කිය කියා ආණ්ඩුව පෙරලන්න හදන්නේ යුද්දේ නවත්තන්න කියලා. මේ පාරත් බැරි උනොත් යුද්දේ ඉවර කරන්න ආයෙ නම් වාරයක් හම්බෙයි ද කියලා සැකයි. ඒක නිසා මේ වෙලාවේ ආණ්ඩුව පෙරලෙනවට මම කැමති නෑ.

මගේ මුළු ජීවිත කාලේම ඔය යුද්දේ තිබ්බා. යුද්දේ යද්දිත් රට පොඩ්ඩ පොඩ්ඩ දියුණු උනා. යුද්දේ නැති උනොත් මීට වඩා රට දියුණු වෙයි කියලා බලාපොරොත්තු වෙන්ට පුලුවන්. රටේ වියදමත් අඩු වෙයි, ආදායමත් වැඩි වෙයි.

මොන හාල්පාරුවා ජනාධිපති වෙලා (දේශපාලනය කරන හැම එකාම හාල්පාරුවෝය) රට කරන්ට ආවත් හොඳ වගේම නරකත් තියෙනවා. අනික තනි මිනිහෙකුට රටක් පාලනය කරන්ට බෑ. ඒකට එකතු වෙන උන් ඔක්කොම හීලෑ වෙලා ඉන්නෙත් නෑ. උන්ව ආංබාං කරන්ට හැදුවොත් උන් පිටට පිහියෙන් ඇනලා විපක්ෂෙට යනවා...

එහෙම බලපුහාම ඔය යන හැටි හොඳයි. යුද්දේ ඉවර උනාම තව හොඳ වෙයි. ඊට පස්සේ එක්කො මහින්ද හැදේයි නැත්තම් වෙන නායකයෙක් හැදෙයි. දෙකෙන් කොයික උනත් මට කමක් නෑ යුද්දේ ඉවර උනාට පස්සේ.

If I blog about this...

I was accused of blogging about politics and terrorism just to attract traffic. No hard feelings - I'm excited to see more traffic, but I write what ever that comes to my mind when ever I feel like writing it down. When people read them and comment, there's a little excitement in it. But I don't think what I write about politics or the terrorists would have any impact on the system or the situation in the country. Nor do I expect to change the way people think. It would be bonus if they ever do.
There had been many a discussions in this blog on the terrorist issue (No it's not ethnic and that's my stance) and how it should be handled. Every one had their say and then that's that.
The current news highlights are on eviction of Tamils who are from NE and could not provide a viable reason for staying in Colombo from the lodges. I'm tempted to write my view on it, even when it serves no purpose.

• Why were they here in the first place? Why did they left their homes to come live in lodges in Colombo?
• How on earth do they afford paying for lodging, food and all other expenses? They do not work here. Can't presume they earned that much money while in NE.
• What do they do here? If they aren't working or learning, why are they in Colombo for months? How and on what do they spend their time?

Anyways, that's that and I'm having a issue with how Microsoft Resource Schema 1.3 and 2.0 stores OcxState. There's a difference but I can't find it documented any where...

The rights of terrorist suspects in Britain

Gordon Brown, who is to succeed Tony Blair as the next British prime minister, is proposing to triple the length of pre-charge detention period for terror suspects. So that's going to be 90 days. And he also plans to make amendments to the laws so phone tap evidence can be used in court.

search google for more

Human rights organizations again seems to have found a bone to byte on. I won't blame them, they need funds to keep the organization and they wouldn't receive funds unless they oppose a government.

But what we must understand is that every country who are facing terrorist threats are forced to make such compromises which indeed would violate human rights to ensure national security. It's about safeguarding the lives of the people in a country.

One too less white van

The claymore mine in Rathmalana yesterday killed at least six (6) civilians including two females and injured more than 16 including children. Amnesty International or any other human rights activists doesn't seem to bother much about that. Perhaps it's not to the best interest of their funders.

Our country is at war. Enemy has it's roots in our society. Security forces along can not be held responsible for protecting civilian lives. It's the responsibility of every peace loving person in this country to be on alert and act upon anything suspicious. Perhaps more information from the public and/or another white van could have prevented yesterday's bloodshed.