{"id":36186,"date":"2014-12-14T20:21:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T01:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=36186"},"modified":"2014-12-14T20:40:06","modified_gmt":"2014-12-15T01:40:06","slug":"maithripala-is-a-good-man-but-is-now-a-prisoner-of-bandit-queenchandrika-and-anti-democratic-ranil-udaya-gammanpila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=36186","title":{"rendered":"“Maithripala is a Good man but is now a Prisoner of ‘Bandit Queen’ Chandrika and Anti-Democratic Ranil” -Udaya Gammanpila"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY <\/p>\n

CASSENDRA DOOLE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Udaya<\/a>

Udaya Gammanpila<\/p><\/div>\n

Former Deputy Secretary of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Udaya Gammanpila<\/strong>, says that the JHU<\/strong> decided to join hands with anti-nationalist forces such as Chandrika, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wickramabahu Karunaratne and Mano Ganeshan. As a result he left the Common Opposition since he could not work with such elements according to his conscience.<\/em><\/p>\n

Excerpts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:
\nWhy did you leave your party and join the government?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A: Well. The JHU stood for National Security as the paramount policy and we fought inside the government to establish good governance within the government and after failing, we decided to leave the government. Up to that point, I was fully in agreement with my party. But thereafter, our party decided to join hands with anti-national forces such as Chandrika, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wickramabahu Karunaratne and Mano Ganeshan. As you know, President Kumaratunga had a very bad reputation for good governance. She has been known as the ‘Bandit queen’ or Chaura Rajina. How can we establish good governance with such a person? Similarly, Ranil Wickremesinghe is notorious for anti-democratic conduct. <\/p>\n

As you know he has been holding the leadership of the UNP for the last 20 years and not only that being in the Opposition, he has attacked supporters of Maithri Guneratne and Shiral Lakthilake just because they portrayed a different view. So how can we restore democracy with a person like Ranil Wickremesinghe? All these people who team up with Maithripala Sirisena, are well known for their federal anti- Sinhala stand. So how can a nationalist join such culprits? I had these concerns.<\/p>\n

Moreover, when we were to sign a MoU with Maithripala Sirisena I found that our agreement had a serious mismatch with the agreement he signed two and a half years ago. So I raised this to my party and my party ignored it. But Maithripala’s pledge to the UNP is to abolish the Executive Presidency within 100 days, and he has pledged to the JHU to protect the Executive Presidency after several reforms. So if he’s with the UNP he has been pretending to the JHU. If he has given the true pledge to the JHU, he has lied to the UNP. On the other hand he promised to abolish the Executive Presidency within a hundred days in the presence of the Temple of Tooth Relic so then how can we expect a genuine President from a person who shows duplicity. So I raised these issues with my party and unfortunately, my party failed to give an acceptable explanation to this question. Last Thursday I raised the same issue with the public neither JHU nor Maithripala Sirisena has answered these questions and cleared the doubts in the people’s minds.<\/p>\n

Q:
\nYou said some members in the Opposition do not have good governance records but do you think the government has a good governance record?
\n<\/strong>
\nA: Not at all. But that is why we decided to leave the government. If we were to establish good governance and restore the democracy, we should tell that to the people who have experience in such things in the past. If the present President is bad, of course we should replace him. But we should replace him with a better person and not with a worse person.<\/p>\n


\nQ:
\nSo do you think that Maithripala Sirisena also has a bad record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Maithripala’s record is not bad. I must be genuine and admit this. He’s not a bad person. Unfortunately, he is a prisoner of Chandrika and Ranil with bad records in terms of good governance, in terms of democracy, and in terms of national security. So as we know what we’re having is semi presidential system. In a semi presidential system, the people who command the majority of the Parliament are the real leaders of the nation. If you can remember, in 2001 the JVP had only 10 seats in the Parliament, but they were able to control the Executive President because the 10 parliamentarians of the JVP bridged the gap of the other simple majority of the Parliament. Such a scenario will come up after the Presidential Election, if Maithripala Sirisena comes into power. Because there is no Parliament majority commanded by him. Instead there will be a team of parliamentarians led by Chandrika who has come out of the SLFP and then another 41 parliamentarians from the UNP and 16 from the TNA so these different groups will give the majority for Maithripala Sirisena to run the country. As a result, he has no choice but to include Ranil and Chandrika and to please and appease them. That is the danger faced and I’m scared. If I assist them, Maithripala would do as they do. Then I would have no say at all and I would have to be silent but I’m scared in the case Maithripala wins, the country will be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Q:
\nWhy do you say so?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Because he will be controlled and directed by Ranil, Chandrika and the other anti-nationalist forces, since he doesn’t have his own parliamentary majority, he has no choice but to listen to them. In the very same manner that Chandrika was forced to listen to the 10 JVP parliamentarians in 2001.<\/p>\n

Q:
\nYou were blaming the government for corruption earlier and now you rejoined the government. So people are questioning your stand. What do you say?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: As I clearly mentioned at the media conference when I pledged my support to President Rajapaksa, my stand has not changed. This government is corrupt. Similarly, our Opposition political forces are also corrupt. This is a patriotic corrupt government, while the Opposition is unpatriotic but still corrupt. So, why should we replace a patriotic and corrupt government with a government unpatriotic and corrupt?<\/p>\n

Q:
\nHow are you going to work with a corrupt government?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Well, actually no. Lotus comes up in the muddy water, but the lotus is not smelly. The lotus has no mud at all. So this lotus can survive in such an environment by contact.<\/p>\n

Q:
\nYou were against the 18th Amendment earlier. Now what is your stand on it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: We were never against the 18th Amendment, we supported the 18th Amendment but unfortunately the 18th Amendment became a nightmare because President Rajapaksa failed to implement the constitutional reforms he promised to implement after the 18th Amendment. In his third term, we will push him for those constitutional reforms.<\/p>\n

Q:
\nMany politicians joined the government in the last ten years, to support President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Some were defeated in the elections and some have ruined their political future. How would you predict your future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I did what my heart said. I am worried about my party. I’m worried about my future, I’m more worried about my country, so I risked my political career, my future, to save my country.<\/p>\n

Q:
\nSome say that you have ruined your political career by joining the government. What is your answer to that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I will decide my conduct in the future, I have been surviving in politics for the last 15 years and there is no single allegation against me about robbery, thuggery or any other misconduct. So if I stick to my policies and conduct, I don’t think there is any risk of jeopardizing my political career.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY CASSENDRA DOOLE Former Deputy Secretary of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Udaya Gammanpila, says that the JHU decided to join hands with anti-nationalist forces such as Chandrika, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Wickramabahu Karunaratne and Mano Ganeshan. As a result he left the Common Opposition since he could not work with such elements according to his conscience. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘“Maithripala is a Good man but is now a Prisoner of ‘Bandit Queen’ Chandrika and Anti-Democratic Ranil” -Udaya Gammanpila’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36186"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36191,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36186\/revisions\/36191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}