Comments on: What are we waiting for?

By: Observer

Observer — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:57:15 +0000

The eventual 2/3rd power grab is purely Ranil’s fault. His fault for weakening the opposition to a comedy scene. While the Colombo elite with their facebook, twitter, grass roots blogs that reach just them selves deluded them selves, the achchi amma at the street side kadala stands sent MR to victory showing it’s the non twitter crowd that calls the shots in a 3rd world country! If you understand this country, you don’t need a high IQ to figure out why Western idealist candidates like Ranil fail miserably. Especially with no pulse on the average folk.

This call for protests now is a hollow one wayyy too late. Cry me a river but the tears will only add more water for this boat to sail.

The protests should have started against Ranil when he was saying things like “Alimankada kiyala pamankada yanawalu…” or when he jet set to Norway to cut deals for the enemy at the verge of LTTE defeat. At least when he put together that set of strange mismatched clown outfit. You should have THEN said, OMG, this guy is destroying the alternative option I want to support and protested for new leadership!

Late to the party, so take the back seat! Save your time picketing, and rather form a new opposition if you care that deeply, if you want an alternative view heard! I believe this is the fruitful thing you can do. Despite the term extensions, there will always be elections. If you don’t groom the next, then you won’t even catch Namal’s tail when those elections come. Yeah that means forget about the next 10/20 years. SLFP will be reigning for the near future… This is welcome news for me, but since it is not for you, my advice is.. Start from a BIG FAT ZERO, suck it up and work hard to regain what you lost! Or just waste every body’s time protesting something that the majority now endorses, including my self! Swear, if you block the road I’m on, I’m gonna honk till you go deaf…. I can understand how this can be so depressing to ardent UNPers, but that’s why there are shrinks. Most likely you can afford one, if you’re that cut 😉 haha

By: ModVoice

ModVoice — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:39:10 +0000

Will this be another demonstration like the “Free Fonseka” campaign?

The irony is that the same elements that brought MR to power, with their Sinhala nationalism, are now protesting against him.

A case of backfiring!

By: mohamed jemaldeen

mohamed jemaldeen — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:10:32 +0000

Dear writer, JVP who brought MR in to power with help of VP in 2005. Now 18th amendment and who is supporting MR…..the list Malwathu+Asgiriya+Vasu+Div+Tissa.Vitharana+145 UPFA MPs (even RW). what is the point of opposing it by SLMC. We are a small community scattered all over the Island. We fully aware 1918, 1956,1959,1977,1979, and 1983. Are you mad? If we do not support the repercussion?. RH-best decision. MR gets maximum power and has it for centuries and on and on. We don’t care. Mohamed Jemaldeen

By: Sonal

Sonal — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:27:00 +0000

Heshan, Sri Lanka’s economy is actually doing quite well:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=2220

By: Ranarala

Ranarala — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:24:35 +0000

What are we waiting for ?
We are waiting until the 18th amendment passed in the parliament on the 8th with more than 162 votes. We will have a patriotic leader who will rule the country for another 12 years. Keep your cool. Lots of UNP parliametarians are waiting to cast their vote with the Govt on the 8th. Dont burn your fuel in vain

By: counterpoint

counterpoint — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:03:52 +0000

@ PresiDunce Bean

Gentlemanly qualities aren’t a yardstick to measure the effectiveness of a person’s political acumen. Being a gentleman doesn’t really matter if you can’t put two and two together. Ranil’s eggs are being stolen by a fox, and him being the gentleman, is simply keeping the door of his coop open to it. He’s watched as Mahinda has robbed him blind in pure daylight. Mind you, Mahinda didn’t just run off with his ministers, he ran off with Ranil’s credibility, dignity, and whatever little iota of respect that he had left.

Ranil Wickremasinghe may be a gentleman, but he is one heckuva mindless drone of a gentleman who is completely oblivious to the outside world. He is still holding onto that pulpit that has completely lost its value due to his own actions, and he’s simply handed over all authority of this country to that man in the ‘saatakaya’.

I mean no offence, but It also says a lot about how gullible and vain you are when you defend Wickremasinghe, even after he has lost 14 times, proven himself to be an ineffectual in many aspects of leadership, and pretty much desecrated the oldest political party in Sri Lanka single handedly. You grant him a vote for being a gentleman. If stupidity, shortsightedness and false virtue were positive criteria for a candidate, then the floodgates will open and Ranil would take victory fairly simply.

The clothes don’t make a man. Wickremasinghe is now a has-been. He is redundant and should realize it. If 14 losses, a bulk of stolen seats, and a dilapidated political party doesn’t show you how incapable he is in his position, you probably are in as much need of professional help as he is.

By: wijayapala

wijayapala — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:28:39 +0000

“You have to hand it to Mahinda. At the present juncture, only some kind of massive civil disobedience/social unrest could unseat him.”

Actually the credit goes to Ranil Wickremasinghe, who has defied all democratic norms by insisting on remaining Leader of the Opposition despite leading the Opposition to failure after failure over more than a decade.

Nobody will vote UNP simply because they know Ranil will run the country the same way he is running the UNP.

By: PresiDunce Bean

PresiDunce Bean — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:48:01 +0000

@ Counterpoint. Back to the chicken and egg debate? The majority got infected with swine flu in 1956…and they still haven’t recovered from it. Ranil is a gentleman. Unfortunately “Idiot Island” has no place for gentleman politicians. As long as the majority are infected with swine flu..they will continue to vote for “Ali Baba and his 150 plus thieves!

By: Suresh

Suresh — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:46:14 +0000

@ Counterpoint – Well Said! While some may blame the voters who elected MR for his second term, it is the lack of a strong opposition that has led to the situation today.

On another point, does anyone know of the legal possibilities of a voter filing a case against crossover MP’s on breach of trust and maybe false promises?

By: Heshan

Heshan — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:22:52 +0000

You have to hand it to Mahinda. At the present juncture, only some kind of massive civil disobedience/social unrest could unseat him. But that would take an economic catastrophe of gigantic proportions. As bad as the economy is, it is nowhere near collapse. Chinese, Libyan, and IMF money have poured plenty into the begging bowl. Now, MR is going after the last obstacle standing in the way of a dynasty – the Constitution. The timing is actually perfect. First a successful end to a 30-yr war, and then a landslide election victory, in which the paralyzed Opposition saw its defeated candidate locked up indefinitely. The constitutional reforms? Well, he is just consolidating his power.