The government of Sri Lanka is appealing to every Sri Lankan to donate urgent needs for the families displaced by recent floods. While the government appreciates donations of dry food and clothing, it is learned that the goverment encourages monetary donations this time around.

Donations are kindly requested to be made in favor of the Helping Hambantota fund.

"Most people give up just when they're about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touch." (H. Ross Perot)

An election that has been fought for, and campaigned har for has come and gone. The death was sudden, and it was quick. Given certain interesting developments that arose in the northern parts of the country, I expected there to be lawsuits, injunctions and all that sort of stuff. But that was not to be.

Having concluded the election, now it's time for the post-mortem. Initial indications were that the future of Ranil Wickramasinghe was uncertain, and that he would step down from the leadership of the United National Party. My immediate concern was for the future of the country, and that of my own in Sri Lanka, but that's a different story.

Let's take a step back and look at the leadership of Ranil Wickramasinghe. His ascend in the party hierarchy was rather quick -- which seems a personal trait of his; ascending/descending from positions in a mighty hurry.

Ranil is quite a different political animal altogether -- a type of person that has not graced the political arena in Sri Lanka. His policies have been consistent. His statements have been truthful and forthcoming, not intended to be sugarcoated to the electorate. The couple of times he "tried" to sugarcoat things he made a complete mockery of the whole thing, making himself the butt-end of many a joke. This guy is simply not made to lie and sugarcoat things.

On the same breath, as a student of the Old Fox, Ranil can be tagged a a player. His careful calculations and political maneuvering and his patience to play the waiting game are qualities of a master campaigner, and a seasoned politician.

But what makes Ranil truly different?

This guy has a vision. He has a bunch of programs that he wants to implement. He knows exactly how to work with the LTTE, trap them (which is already done), get the north-east issue out of the equation, and step on the gas with regard to development. He's got a long-term goal, and a vision of where Sri Lanka should be within the next 5, 10, 15, and 50 years.

I'm sorry Ranil, but that's exactly what Sri Lanka DOES NOT need. Development is for losers, and empowerment is bad for you! Sri Lanka has a heritage of over 2500 which we have now deposited in the bank, and are now living off the interest of.

We need leaders who can smile, who can say one thing but actually do another, we need leaders not with definite plans, but with "vague ideas." We need leaders who would rather not make difficult & bold decisions, but play pandu instead.

That is why Ranil Wickramasinghe should not be the leader of the United National Party. The desire of Sri Lankans is to be a bunch subsidy-begging, government-dependent third-world citizens caught in an eternal time-warp. We really don't need Ranil to come and tell us that we could have better, and take this ignorant paradise away from us.

This is why I say Ranil should leave politics. He should leave because the Sri Lankan people simply does not want what he promises to deliver.

However, if there's an iota of belief in your mind that Sri Lankans deserve better for some weird reason, please stay on for a brighter day.

Don't quit on the last yard.

"You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time." (Abraham Lincoln)

I suppose it would be safe to assume President Lincoln never visited Sri Lanka.

In my posting on September 8, 2005 under the heading "Alliances... the bane of her existence" I wrote:

" Recipe for disaster? Who knows? The Sri Lankan electorate is perhaps one of the most complex electorates to comprehend. It is difficult to fathom whether they are guided by dreams, wishful thinking, vociferous rhetoric or realistic expectations.

Come November 18, the Sri Lankan populace did show what indeed drove their thinking. While the northern voters were prevented from voting by an "enforced boycott," the southern voters voted the incumbent Prime Minister, flanked by his leftist hardliner nationalists to the post of President with a majority of 0.29% of the popular vote. Great.

There is a school of thought that says it was the enforced boycott by the LTTE that prevented a Wickramasinghe win. They argue that a Wickramasinghe win would have been detrimental to the interest of the LTTE, as he has been able to trap the LTTE through the CFA and forced them to agree for a negotiated settlement within a federal structure -- a position that the international community has been constantly reminding the LTTE of. Agreed.

The strength of the CFA (in spite of its weaknesses) has been such that the LTTE has not been able to revert to war even in the face of divergent views. In spite of hiccups, it was a process that was moving forward, albeit at times three steps forward, and two back.

A Wickramasinghe win would make sure that the process would be carried forward, and that the LTTE would be trapped forever was not a fact lost on many.

A Rajapakse win on the contrary, given his association with hard-line nationalist forces and open criticism of the CFA with a pledge to unilaterally change the conditions of the agreement, and opposition to a federal solution gave the LTTE the much needed breathing space and window of opportunity. And that, the LTTE grabbed with both hands -- playing its cards perfectly, completely outdoing the naive electorate of the south.

No one can find fault with the LTTE. In spite of the political mud-slinging of a UNP-LTTE pact, reality is that the LTTE remains independent, pursuing its own agenda -- an agenda to carve out a separate state. Call it rational-actor or real-politic, every action of the LTTE is geared towards this objective and whether the rest of the country likes it or not, agrees with it or not, shall continue to manipulate circumstances for its own advantage. And thus, the enforced boycott which led to a Rajapakse victory.

In spite of the million and millions of rupees spent on free education, and in spite of having a literacy rate of over 92%, the ignorance of the southern electorate completely amuses me. In 1994, they voted for Chandrika Bandaranaike on a pro-peace platform. Her attempts for peace failed due to her own unique style of management (or mismanagement, should I say), and lack of courage to make bold decisions.

Then they continued to voter for a pro-war Chandrika and her governments, until the UNF government was elected once again on a pro-peace platform in 2002. This government which took some positive and meaningful steps towards peace and development was once again kicked out by the voters two years later, instead opting to put back into power the people they rejected two years earlier. Now, the voters have again voted for a candidate who has been a strong critic of the peace process, and under whose watch, given his promises for unilateral action with regard to the CFA, there is a high probability that hostilities might resume.

Even more alarming however, is the fact that a good eleven years of continued promises of election-goodies such as subsidies, welfare and overnight-jobs, the people still buy that junk.

That said, I must admit that Sri Lanka is a democratic system of governance. The beauty of democracy is that the people get what they deserve. The mindset of the Sri Lankan electorate is as fickle as a candle in the wind. And with their actions, they have made their futures just as fickle.

While the northern voters were prevented from voting, the south for the most part had a free hand to chose their candidate. And chose they did. It is up to those who chose to live through the consequences... As for the rest of us stakeholders, well... it's some tough soul-searching to do to...

"We have done 10 times more than the UNP,” the President said adding that she could retire with a sense of pride as a leader who practised what she preached.

"The whole (global warming) thing is created to destroy America's free enterprise system and our economic stability" Jerry Falwell (American fundamentalist Baptist Pastor and Founder of the Moral Majority)

"America has not led but fled on the issue of global warming." (Senetor John Kerry)

Isn't it interesting how everyone has an opinion on how to balance the national budget, reduce poverty, and overall, make the world a better place; and yet, many nations are fighting poverty tooth and nail, and cannot get the budget to balance?

"The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted." (original quote, in Lation -- "Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur." -- Publilius Syrus)

SB, SB... what a deal, huh?

You go out to the country side, sit down with the farmers... share a drink with them, take off your shirt and make quite an entertaining, yet, very valid speech. Next thing you know, you're cuffed and dragged away to prison for two years -- contempt of court they say... Two years of rigorous imprisonment.

The verdict itself was met with mixed reactions across the populace of Sri Lanka . Some were of the view that the sentence appropriate (for a varying array of reasons), while another section viewed it as political victimization. Yet another section did not give two hoots.

Excluding the latter, the other two sections has since been splitting hairs on this matter, with some even calling for a revision of the laws while others wanted to move to the ICJ (no, nothing to do with the CJ -- I mean the International Court of Justice). In related developments, all campaigns of the United National Party at some level made this matter a theme, while there were counter accusations also thrown saying the party was not doing enough.

Irrespective of who says what, and whether there was a conspiracy to get SB behind bars or not, what happened ultimately was pretty lame --he handed himself in, on a silver platter.

Would you, after years and years of hurling accusations at the highest judicial officer, when accused of contempt, walk into his domain and plead guilt? And then expect to walk away? Especially, if 90% of your accusations were based on a nexus between the respective heads of the executive & judicial branches of the country? Add to that, the executive has been vying for an opportunity for revenge? I really don't think so...

But SB unfortunately thought otherwise, and pleaded guilty.

Number one rule when you make a deal with the devil: You Don't.

True, politics does make strange bedfellows. But, who in their right mind would let him/herself be so vulnerable?

The battle of his life was in front of him. If battles were ever based on principles, this would have been it. This was the golden opportunity to take the battle right up to their doorstep and build momentum on all the rhetoric on impeachments and all that other hullabaloo. But then, he blinked -- he walked away. Made a deal with the devil and burnt his soul. Quite the opposite of the hard-talking attitude taken on late-night political talk-shows.

How can anyone fight the verdict, or find fault with the court, for punishing someone who was by his own admission -- guilty? Of course, punishment must be in proportion to the crime -- but that is purely at the discretion of the judge. I do not hear anyone finding fault with the judgment where a police constable was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment (rigorous) for a bribe of a mere Rs.20 (less than $0.20).

Perhaps RW and a few others understand this. Yet, given the attitude of the public they go along with the show, albeit not giving it a 100%. And that's perhaps what causes all the complaints about the party not doing enough to secure his release.

Will RW free SB if he is elected president?
Will he also free the police constable?
How about anyone else who feels unjustly jailed?
Will he take action against those who massacred his grassroot supporters, or are they forgotten?

"The judge is condemned when the guilty is acquitted."