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What’s the buzz, weird things are a happening on the election front

Once upon a time not so long ago, Mahinda Rajapaksa was the soul and shepherd of the SLPP flock that would blindly trot over the brink at his command. But now, the mesmeric magic that breathed in Mahinda seems to have taken flight and fled to unknown climes.

With stinging wasps leaving his hornet’s nest in droves and making a beeline to greener thriving honeycombs, will he be left to rule the roost alone in bleak adversity? Are we seeing the beginning of the inevitable end of the unquestioned oak of the Rajapaksa triumvirate and ambitious scion? But be warned not to second guess his future plans, for he’s still not without tricks up his sleeve to spring on the unsuspecting public, as yet.

For starters, the grand announcement, expected to be made on Monday of their chosen horse, assiduously built up to a crescendo throughout last week to make voters await with bated breath, fizzled out as the dull dénouement of a six act play, when it turned out that the party’s politburo had ruled that it’ll be one of their own kith and kin, and no other; thus faithfully abiding by the Rajapaksa style of ‘keep it in the family’.

That decision effectively ruled out Ranil’s undisguised hopes of being crowned as the SLPP’s nominee, and the coronet seamlessly passed onto casino tycoon, billionaire Dhammika Perera’s head as the only one left, vying for the SLPP’s tinsel bauble.

RANIL: Seems eager

As things stood on Monday evening, the field had narrowed to a single individual, and Dhammika was soon touted by the party faithful, as the crowned Prince to lead the people to the promised land where the wheel of fortune ever turns to make millionaires of us all.

Another round of internal voting will be held to decide the final choice. Should Namal Rajapaksa, the dynastic son and heir, also decide to throw his crown into the ring, the choice will be between lucre and blood. An election will be held between the two—and no prizes for correctly guessing who the winner will be in that loaded scenario—and the winning candidate will be proclaimed at a grand coronation next week.

This appeared to be that fateful Monday evening, the ordained script and action of a carefully choreographed drama, written and directed by a seven-headed Dondra down south. Alas, fate disposes of the best-laid plans of mice and men.

But within hours of the SLPP’s controversial decision, the tide had begun to turn toward Ranil Wickremesinghe, the independent candidate whom the Rajapaksas had outlandishly rejected in favour of one of their own. After weeks of secret talks between Basil and Ranil, they had even made him write an official letter seeking to be named as their candidate for the election, before publicly snubbing him at the eleventh hour.

In an act of loathsome ingratitude, the Rajapaksas had pilloried him in public eyes and bluntly refused his request on the spurious grounds that he was not a member of the party and therefore ineligible to be named as their candidate. They had pilloried and snubbed him without an iota of gratefulness to the man who, as Prime Minister and then as the acting President, had discreetly arranged their brother Gota’s fugitive flight to safety abroad; and had secretly kept Mahinda and his family holed up in a Trinco naval bunker for weeks on end at the height of Galle Face Greens’ Aragalaya, when frenzied mobs were screaming for their blood.

MAHINDA AND NAMAL: Father seems flexible while son seems totally opposed

But to the man, to whom they owed their very lives, they showed nothing but crass ingratitude when he sought their dubious help. They could have initially said a polite ‘no’ to his request but instead, after leading him up the garden path, rubbed his nose in the mud for all to see. Is this the way the Rajapaksas get their ego kicks, by showing to all the people that they are still the masters of the nation’s fate, including the fate of present wannabe presidents?

But Monday night’s dramatic turn of events may well lead to their eventual downfall.

What had started as a trickle, had soon swelled to almost a flood. TV cameras transmitted live, showed SLPP’s senior cabinet ministers, state ministers and MPs streaming into UNP Chairman Vajira Gunawardene’s home to pledge—still claiming that they are SLPP members who have not left the fold nor disobeyed His Master’s Voice—their unstinted support to their new-found saviour Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The next day promised more drama as 92 SLPP members who had crossed the river of no return, the Rubicon, to get on the burning rope bridge, turned up at the Presidential Secretariat in full force to personally pledge their unstinted support to the President’s re-election bid, having first made the disclaimer, that by so doing they were not violating any SLPP disciplinary rules nor forsaking their leader Mahinda Rajapaksa for whom their respect and affection continued unabated.

But they kept their options open. They had not burnt their boats but had kept them bopping, and ever ready to return to their own bank, in case things went awry.

Later this week, just to be on the safe side, Minister Prasanna Ranatunga went even further when he officially wrote on his ministerial letterhead, a tear-jerking letter to Mahinda Rajapaksa where he swooningly said, ‘I loved you then, I love you now, and I will always love you tomorrow. I only leave to save my country’. How sentimentally sweet, how romantically beautiful, how heart-warmingly touching, the sort of lovey-dovey love letter, a man would write to his wife before leaving for war to save his country.

‘Save my country’ became the thematic excuse and all-ennobling reason and justification for this great betrayal of Mahinda Rajapaksa. To make replete the betrayal, even Ranil’s old school friend and classmate at Royal,  Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, joined the wildebeest stampede.

By the end of the week, it was clear that Ranil had outsmarted the master of crossovers, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and by ‘hoisting the engineer with his own petard’ had emerged the unchallenged winner. He had the whole motley of SLPP members in the bag.

In the netted haul were some who had blotched their copybooks, some who faced corruption charges, and even one who had been convicted of extortion. These were the seedy mixture that made up the prized catch of the week. He had the whole Pohottuwa gang, missing out on merely Pohottuwa’s unfolding bud, which the deserted Rajapaksas could keep for themselves as a souvenir for old times’ sake.

The internal revolt that led to the exodus has left the dwindling Rajapaksa camp in despair. A forlorn and dejected Namal Rajapaksa put on a brave face and said, ‘Even if we are down to the last man, we shall field a candidate and win the election.’ Good for him to possess such bravado when all is lost, and the final bugle is about to be blown. The Rajapaksas have been left with an empty shell of the SLPP while Ranil has scooped its band of merry men. That’s the truth both father and son, will soon be awakening to.

In the midst of the disaster, Mahinda Rajapaksa attended a party conference on Thursday eve to discuss how best to salvage the party’s future. Emerging from the meeting he told reporters, ‘We will definitely be fielding a candidate from the party ranks.’ When asked if it will be Ranil,’ he passed the buck to the party—to make it clear it’s not his own—and said, ‘The party has decided against him. But should they decide otherwise, we will consider it.’

After facing an internal revolt of such magnitude as to instantly reduce the SLPP to dust, with mind-blowing mass desertions they never believed could happen, the Rajapaksas have been forced to come down from their high horse and compelled to eat humble pie.

But their pride had been dealt a mortal blow and, even after a late-night meeting with Ranil, Mahinda refused to budge from his intransigence. August 7 has been named as the date on which they will announce their candidate. The countdown has begun for nominations on August 15, and there will be no time left for more procrastination. A day is a long time in politics; and Ranil will hope that within the next three days, Mahinda will mellow.

But Ranil’s supporters will be wise not to uncork the bubbly, and start celebrating Ranil’s triumph, yet.

True, Ranil had won the nomination battle but was it a pyrrhic victory? Will its costs be so enormous—in terms of this questionable brigade stanchly promoting him with such fervour, for much-suspected ulterior sinister motives—that it will make him lose the forthcoming election war?

Until the final end of this fluctuating drama makes starkly clear, whether Ranil will be, officially or not, the Pohottuwa candidate, with or without its bud, one final question remains to be asked: With Ranil captaining a team of vagabond SLPP rebels to lead him on to victory, what is to become of the UNP? Glorified cheerleaders singing halleluiahs on the outskirts?

Legendary Podi Hamuduruvo passes away at the age of 80 The Sunday Punch records with great sadness the passing away of the Gangaramaya Temple’s Chief monk, Venerable Galboda Gnanissara Thera on Friday at the age of 80. He was a legendary figure who dominated the capital’s landscape on every front, whose benign influence reached far and wide, and touched every facet of life. With one phone call, he could cut through layers of bureaucratic red tape to expedite matters for the benefit of all. He transcended the barriers of race, creed and cast to serve all equally without discrimination or bias in any form. Members of every religious community came to seek his advice on varied issues and some even became Gangaramaya Temple’s biggest philanthropists. GANGARAMAYA’S PODI HAMUDURUVO: May he attain the supreme bliss of Nirvana He was a visionary monk, whose endless energy and dynamism was the marvel of all who witnessed him in action. Never one to procrastinate, his word was his bond and immediate action stands as the testament of his manifest deeds. Until he became indisposed, he was the life and soul, the singular live-wire of Gangaramaya Temple, the powerful magnet around which all activity revolved. Without his inspiring presence, life must stand still today at Gangaramaya Temple, hushed in solemn sadness. Born on December 14, 1943, he was ordained in 1954. He became the chief incumbent of Gangaramaya Temple upon the demise of his teacher, the learned Venerable Devundara Vaccissara Thera. Podi Hamuduruvo, who had already won Vaccissara Thera’s trust and confidence to run the temple’s day-to-day affairs at the early age of 16, officially assumed responsibility thereon. He transformed Gangaramaya to what it is today, not merely another Buddhist temple but an international centre of Buddhist learning, an invaluable treasure trove of Buddhist art and culture, and a dynamic hub of Buddhist dissemination, possessing its own television channel, Haritha TV. Among the many laudable projects, he commenced and continued are the Sri Jayaratne Vocational Training School and a free guest house at Kataragama for pilgrims. He also pioneered the temple’s annual Navam Perahera. As he said in an interview, ‘I’m a humble person who practises equanimity. Everyone who knows me well will know it.’ His passing away after years of relentless service will be an irreplaceable loss to Lanka’s Buddhist Order of Monks, to the nation and to the Buddhist world. May he attain the supreme bliss of Nibbana. A state funeral will be held on Monday the 5th at the grounds opposite Gangaramaya Temple at 4pm, his successor the Venerable Dr. Assaji Thera said on Friday.

Sajith promises Easter blast probe under Cardinal and Catholic Sabha SAJITH: New probe Last Tuesday, SJB’s Sajith Premadasa, opening the 359th digital classroom under his Sakwala programme at Katuwapitiya’s St. Sebastian school in close proximity to the St. Sebastian Church, promised to develop the school to the highest standards in the island, in memory of those who fell victim to Easter Sunday’s bomb attack. He said he would, when in power, order a thorough investigation into every aspect of the Easter bomb blast, including not only who the mastermind behind the blasts was but also probe who the accomplices were that provided safe houses to hide in. He said: ‘I wish to tell the people of Katuwapitiya who suffered the most in Easter Sunday’s bomb blast, I promise to set up a truth-seeking probe comprising both local and international investigators with the active and prominent participation of the Cardinal and the Catholic Sabha, before the end of this year’. Then, in a voice tinged with emotion, Sajith said: ‘I lost my father due to a terrorist bomb attack. Hence, I feel the same pain and can feel and understand under what emotional trauma the families who lost their loved ones must be living through each night and day. Even children who studied at this school died in the Easter Sunday carnage. It’s the responsibility of us all to see they, and all who died, receive justice. And see that the terrorists who committed this bloody outrage are brought before the bar of court and given the maximum sentence. Sajith has raised the downfallen hopes of the Cardinal, the Catholic Sabha, the Catholic community and the rest of the people of all religions of this nation that, at long last, a local and foreign hybrid team of independent investigators will be commissioned under the direction of the Catholic Church, to persevere unto the end the hidden mystery of the Easter Sunday bomb blast before Christmas this year.