by Upul Joseph Fernando

Former Minister Basil Rajapaksa suddenly broke silence last week and emerged into the scene through the media. Giving interviews to the media, Basil stressed the need to establish a new political party. As a prelude to his future dream or plan, both Basil and his brother Mahinda participated at a meet last week of Kurunegala District UPFA Local Government members. It was the first time that the two brothers were seen together at a political meet following the last general election. Earlier, Basil surfaced to the political scene in a discussion to unite Mahinda and Maithri.

Basil who deserted politics after Mahinda’s defeat at the presidential election travelled to the United States. On his return he was arrested and remanded. After being released on bail, Basil decided to be silent for some time. He re-emerged onto the political scene when talks began to unite Maithri and Mahinda prior to the last general election.

People who are aware of those talks know that S.B. Dissanayake was in the forefront to unite Maithri and Mahinda assisted by a few others. SB was among those who pressurized Maithri to unite with Mahinda. It was SB who wanted to use Mahinda to win the general election for the UPFA and urge Maithri not to give the Premiership to Mahinda. SB used that agenda with the view to feed Maithri with the need to offer the Premiership to another instead of Mahinda. In the end SB’s strategy boomeranged on him. What actually happened was that the UPFA lost the election with SB himself unseated and many Maithri confidantes losing their electorates.

Following the general election defeat of the UPFA, Mahinda gained strength within the SLFP. Though Maithri believed that SLFP and UPFA General Secretaries, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Susil Premajayantha and S.B. Dissanayake worked according to his agenda, it was later revealed that Basil was guiding this trio. Maithri removed them from their positions after the revelation that the trio cheated him. Though Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila mooted the idea for Mahinda to contest the last general election separately, it was Basil who brought Mahinda into the fold threatening Maithri.

Mahinda’s regime

It appears that Basil is now trying to play the same game play at the upcoming Local Government elections. The majority of local councillors are Basil loyalists. During Mahinda’s regime, Basil offered government contracts, motorcycles and other privileges to those councillors and took them under his wings. It was these councillors who worked hard to bring Mahinda back to the scene after Mahinda lost the presidential election. These councillors brought huge crowds for Mahinda’s meetings. Now Basil has started to spread the story of forming a new party countrywide to instill fear in Maithri’s mind. Thereby Basil is trying to get nominations for these loyalists to strengthen the hands of Mahinda in SLFP politics.

SB has now started to educate Maithri on the need to go with Mahinda at the next Local Government elections to achieve victory. This is viewed as a move by SB to support the behind the curtain strategy of Basil. The understanding between SB and Basil is crystal clear as SB who took over Basil’s Divineguma Ministry chose to announce that there were no fraudulent acts in that ministry in the past. It was Basil who contacted the media requesting the latter to give wide publicity to that statement of SB. All frauds in that ministry came to light when Sajith Premadasa headed that ministry immediately after Maithri was elected as President. Basil gave interviews to the weekly media thanking SB for his statement that cleared Basil of all allegations of fraud in that ministry.

What SB plans is to topple Ranil’s Government and establish a SLFP Government at the earliest. He is having talks with disgruntled UNPers to achieve that goal. SB wants to create a public opinion to topple Ranil’s Government and bring a SLFP regime using Mahinda. SB emphasizes the importance of Mahinda to achieve a SLFP victory. Earlier, he created a path for Mahinda-Maithri unity using Basil. It is clear that SB had initiated talks with Basil to unite Mahinda and Maithri to win the next Local Government elections. It’s too early to predict whether SB’s attempt would be a success.

The truth of that exercise is clear. Basil always plans new political agendas to set up new political parties not to play political games but for ‘political deals’.

Courtesy:Ceylon Today