Sri Lanka It's Happening

November 10, 2005

In sports, in business and in politics, Sri Lankans are very good at grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory. You needed look any further than the Sri Lankan cricket team or the United national party for proof.

Two years ago, Ranil was the prime minister, around Nov 2003 was probably when his popularity was at it's peak. It was around the time that the president grabbed thre ministries from the UNP siting national security concerns. The president then made things worse, and two years on it's worse still.

All this while Ranil stood by, had he choosen to stand up and fight in Nov 2003 he could have easily become president. Just weeks ago when the presidential election was called and the present prime minister joined alliances with every extremist party in Sri Lanka it looked like Ranil was going to have a walk over. Now his defeat seems certain.

So how did he squander this opportunity? one might say by misreading public opinion but it's more accurate to say by sitting still and doing nothing.

The UNP seems to concentrate all it's campaigning to the cities such as Colombo and Kandy. In these cities the UNP is assured of victory come what may. But in rural areas the UNP doesn't stand a chance of a snowball in hell, perhaps that's why these areas are being ignored. But with the majority of Sri Lankans living in rural areas, defeat in the villages means defeat.

Posted by raditha at November 10, 2005 10:52 PM