An impressive gathering !

BY ROHAN Premaratne

RANIL Wickremesinghe has joined Arumugam Thondaman. But Arumugam is an honest man. What is wrong in having unionist status and at the same time enjoying ministerial comforts under every successive Government!

Everybody knew Ranil would eventually make common cause with Rauff Hakeem. But of course Hakeem is an honest man. Many political posters show him in prayer!

The leading types were making a lot of noise about deals involving ports including Galle when Muslim Congress leaders were the Ministers in charge, but then who will believe them ? But now the leading type journalists love Hakeem.

There is no doubt that Ranil if voted President, would love to meet Prabhakaran, who by the way has put on quite a bit of weight lately.

Maybe the sedentary lifestyle brought about by the cessation of action is not very agreeable to him. That must be why the Tigers have once again started picking off the occasional soldier in the North.

A little bit of exercise should do him some good. But who says the Tiger supremo is an evil fellow? Only a person without any understanding of the recent history of this country will say that this prophet who keeps leopard cubs for pets is a maniacal killer.

But in comparison there are terrible things happening in Mahinda Rajapakse's camp. Look at that agreement the Prime Minister entered in to with the JHU.

True, no one says the venerable monks have committed capital crimes or have taken commissions from contractors. But can they even speak a few sentences in English ! And who are they to talk of a unitary State when prophet Prabhakaran says this is an old fashioned idea.

Then Mahinda goes and enters in to an agreement with that terrible JVP. This party which is made up mainly of rural youth have no idea of things that really matter. Do they understand concepts like market driven economics, share market bull runs and premium brand Scotch whisky?

The Colombo based UNP supporters and their hangers - on reason in the above manner when savouring the electoral agreements Wickremesinghe has entered into with Arumugam Thondaman and Rauff Hakeem. They will forgive any agreement Ranil enters into. But no such indulgence will be shown to Mahinda.

As long as Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga was around Ranil had no hope of securing an electoral victory. But now that the charismatic President is on her way out will Ranil at least now get to play the Bride ?

The dastardly killing of our foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar displayed most graphically the morally bankrupt path along which Wickremesinghe's type of supine politics is leading this nation. Sri Lanka is a sovereign State. Lakshman Kadirgamar was its Foreign Minister.

He was a respected lawyer and followed a democratic system. Although a Tamil by birth he wanted to see a Sri Lanka in which all races lived in unity and worked hard towards achieving this goal.

He could not accept the murderous policies of the LTTE which thinks that anybody with a contrary view to their own should be shot like a stray dog on the street.

The areas under LTTE control now are under virtual Fascist rule. For following the principles he believed in Lakshman Kadirgamar had to pay with his life. This is what happens today to a patriotic Sri Lankan who wants to see a united country.

Ranil says we should ignore the terrible cancer that has taken a bloody grip of the North and parts of the East of this country and carry on regardless.

If the LTTE makes any demands just give whatever they want ! Never mind how many Sinhalese or Tamils they kill. Let us have peace so that the inner coterie around the UNP can make money without any disturbance.

What are the forces gathered around him today? Prabhakaran, Thondaman, Hakeem, leading types and the wheeler dealers of Colombo. This kind of dishonourable alliance is not acceptable to the vast majority of our people.

They may be poor and presently placed in position of disadvantage. But these humble folks love this country and want Sri Lanka to be a proud unitary country. And they are not cowards or crooks.

On November 17 our voters will show Wickremesinghe that we are an honourable and patriotic people.