There is another important reminder for the President :
”
There are many things I am very proud about in this wonderful country in which I was fortunate to have been born, live and die. I would not choose to do so anywhere else in the world. But I would be less than honest if I did not express my grave disappointment and dismay at the way things have developed over the years in two of the important areas I have alluded to in this letter. That of elections as a fundamental part of an authentic democracy and the other the question of resolving for all time our minorities rights for equality and dignity. Many of our countrymen and women will hold with me that in these two areas many of our administrations over the past three or four decades have been sadly deficient. The United States too from which experience I garnered my Fullbright heritage is no doubt deficient in many respects too. But its political culture and society constitutes a self – correcting mechanism. We don’t seem to have that here and this devolves on our political leadership a greater and more profound responsibility” – Bradman Weerakoon’s letter as part of a project initiated by the Fullbright Commission of Sri Lanka to commemorate the 6oth Anniversary of the Fullbright programme in Sri Lanka,
http://groundviews.org/2014/01/22/letter-to-the-president-from-bradman-weerakoon/

The counterexample provided – of Winston Churchill’s second re-election – is something I have admired too. The truth, however, is a little more complicated. It would be erroneous to argue that people voted against him simply because his mandate had expired. Lots of wartime leaders – their mandates gone – have been allowed to stay on as civilian leaders. Trueman, is American counterpart is a good enough example. Some scholars argue the vote against Churchill was not personal, it was against the record of the Conservative party.

More important, Churchill did run on his record and even started his election campaign by spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories peddled around in Sri Lanka today. One of his opening broadcasts accused the opposition of planning to introduce “some form of Gestapo, no doubt humanely administered in the first instance.” The fact that the opposition also had various reforms – including those that would create the NHS – further helped their cause.

Sri Lanka is not as unique as we’d like to think and that’s not a bad thing. We could use the similarities of our political system to learn and understand valuable lessons from other countries with similar political experiences.