{"id":50516,"date":"2017-01-02T02:09:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-02T07:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50516"},"modified":"2017-01-02T02:09:17","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T07:09:17","slug":"mahinda-gears-up-for-comeback-as-co-habitation-acrimony-increases-within-maithri-ranil-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50516","title":{"rendered":"Mahinda Gears up for Comeback as Co-habitation Acrimony Increases Within Maithri-Ranil Govt"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By<\/p>\n

Lasanda Kurukulasuriya <\/strong> <\/p>\n

With the Maithri-Ranil \u2018unity government\u2019 approaching the end of its second year in office in an increasingly acrimonious co-habitation, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is gearing up for a come-back. <\/p>\n

He\u2019s in combative mode, claiming that the \u2018real SLFP\u2019 is with him, that he opposes the government\u2019s ongoing privatization and hopes to restore to the party the values of its founders.<\/p>\n

Engaging Colombo-based foreign correspondents in a wide-ranging discussion at his official residence on Thursday he seemed to relish the encounter, starting off by urging reporters to fire away. <\/p>\n

MR, the Kurunegala District MP set the tone of the discussion with his smiling response to the very first question, remarking that he would \u2018topple the government\u2019 in the New Year. When it was pointed out that he could not be the leader of the country (owing to term limits on the presidency introduced with the 19th amendment) he indicated that he didn\u2019t need to, when he could wield influence by other means (presumably referring to the prime ministerial post). <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly Hambantota featured prominently during the forum. The southern district is his home base and has become the locus of both domestic and international attention these days. An \u2018intermestic\u2019 issue perhaps. <\/p>\n

MR expressed strong opposition to the Hambantota Port deal under which the government is to give a 80% controlling stake to a Chinese company, and allocate 15,000 acres to the Chinese for an industrial zone. \u201cHow can you give 15,000 acres?\u201d he asked, hotly rejecting the suggestion that the present government\u2019s project is a \u2018continuation\u2019 of what he started.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to give 750 acres for an industrial park. They asked for 1000, I said no. It\u2019s the people\u2019s land!\u201d he asserted. He was not against \u2018the Chinese or Indians or Americans coming here for investment,\u2019 but against agricultural land being given and the privatization involved, he said. His priority was the country\u2019s development. <\/p>\n

He also rejected the suggestion that it was his \u2018mistake\u2019 to invite China. \u201cI invited the Indians first. I invited India to come and build a port there \u2026 But they didn\u2019t want to do that. Then I had to look for somebody else. Then the Chinese came\u201d he said. Under the previous business plan the Sri Lanka Ports Authority had control but now the Sri Lanka government has no control over the project, not even over security, said Prof. G. L. Pieris, Chairman of MR\u2019s newly formed party – Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna – who was present at the briefing. <\/p>\n

The former President who has been faulted in some quarters for his \u2018pro-China tilt\u2019 in foreign relations, described his recent trip to China as a goodwill visit. Asked about reports that he met the Chinese investor company during his trip he said \u201cI met everyone.\u201d He had told them \u2018the way they are doing it is wrong.\u2019 Prof. Peiris added that China Merchants and Port Holdings Company was sensitive to the land issues faced by people and the need for social stability.<\/p>\n

The Hambantota Port has been in the eye of the storm from its inception \u2013 firstly with concerns on the part of India. The regional power, alarmed at China\u2019s maritime expansion in general, became more so with China\u2019s growing footprint in the Indian Ocean region. <\/p>\n

The docking of a Chinese submarine in Colombo Port in September 2014 was a tipping point in the Indo-Lanka relationship during MR\u2019s second term. He could not resist taking a dig at India over its silence regarding the even greater Chinese presence envisaged under the current investment programs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose days the Indian friends were shouting at me \u2013 when submarines came to Colombo Port they were very worried \u2026 the High Commissioner and all these people. Now they are like mice he said. Asked how he knew that they were not worried now, he said they were not saying so openly as they did before. In a further broadside he added the Indians may be also \u2018getting something,\u2019 like Trincomalee harbour or Palaly (airbase) or KKS (Kankasanturai port). <\/p>\n

Regarding India\u2019s displeasure, apparently over not being informed of the submarine visit, he said Beijing always informed India when they came into the Indian Ocean. \u201cWithout that they won\u2019t come.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked how India, which had helped him defeat the LTTE, shifted to backing his political opponents MR said it was all a misunderstanding. \u201cI think the Americans influenced them\u201d he said. At another point in the discussion he said he could not understand India\u2019s role. <\/p>\n

Ever since the last election which saw his own Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena break away to contest the presidency as a \u2018joint candidate,\u2019 with opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe standing down, analysts have been speculating on the role of India and Western powers in the unprecedented turn of events during that transition. <\/p>\n

In hindsight, that election would seem to show how easily Sri Lanka\u2019s internal political tensions can be exploited by external forces bent on achieving their own strategic ends. However, \u201cthe best laid plans of mice and men often go awry\u201d as the saying goes, and with the new government having realized that the Chinese have deep pockets unlike their western friends, ironically today we see Chinese influence becoming stronger than before. <\/p>\n

MR, asked to comment on the main factors contributing to his defeat in 2015 said it was \u201ctheir campaign,\u201d suggesting that the MS campaign was influenced by the Americans, the Indians and RAW (Research and Analysis Wing, the India\u2019s spy agency). \u201cThat was too much for us. We did not know what was going on inside (the party). Our own crowd worked against me. They were inside the party and working against me.\u201d <\/p>\n

When it was put to him that although he succeeded in ending a 30-year war, he had failed to unify the country, the former strongman admitted that there was some truth in that. \u201cI thought people must first have their basic facilities. In Jaffna they didn\u2019t have anything \u2013 no electricity, no roads, no water, no hospitals, no schools. So I thought I must give them those things first.\u201d Asked if he had perhaps misjudged the need for reassurances after war\u2019s end, and that there was a feeling (in the North) of being suppressed by the military, MR said he did not accept that. \u201cAfter a war \u2013 tell me a country that has developed like that?\u201d <\/p>\n

Courtesy:Daily Mirror<\/em><\/p>\n

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

By Lasanda Kurukulasuriya With the Maithri-Ranil \u2018unity government\u2019 approaching the end of its second year in office in an increasingly acrimonious co-habitation, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa is gearing up for a come-back. He\u2019s in combative mode, claiming that the \u2018real SLFP\u2019 is with him, that he opposes the government\u2019s ongoing privatization and hopes to restore …<\/p>\n

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