Navin writes to Ranil on ‘secret deal’ with LTTE

COLOMBO: Investment Promotion Minister Navin Dissanayake, in a letter to UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, said the latter is raising an issue that has no meaning for the people, by launching a campaign to reveal an alleged secret deal with the LTTE and President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign organisers.

Dissanayake said: “It is my firm belief that you expected a major political controversy to occur when Sripathy Sooriyarachchi apparently made this comment. There has not been any controversy on this matter.

The main ingredient of your Presidential campaign in 2005 was to obtain the North and East vote.

In fact, many in the party including myself pointed out to you with statistics that the combined SLFP and JVP vote would make it difficult for our candidate to win the election in that year.

The only option for the UNP was to obtain the 600,000 votes that was obtained by the TNA in 2004. Only this vote would have ensured your victory.

As all UNP organisers and Members of Parliament would testify your Campaign Manager and de-facto leader of UNP, Malik Samarawickrema repeatedly assured us that the North and East vote would come in your favour.

In fact he has repeatedly told many people who were involved in the campaign that the LTTE vote was “in the bag”.

Based on this knowledge I can strongly speculate there was a understanding between the LTTE and your Campaign Managers in 2005. Therefore, your statement is all the more laughable because:

Firstly, if there was a great injustice done to the people of the North East by depriving them of their right to vote, the blame should be placed on the LTTE as the LTTE wanted to show the international community that the northern voters were totally controlled by them.

Therefore, in my opinion you are indirectly supporting the action of the LTTE by trying to put the blame of the LTTE action on to Mahinda Rajapaksa’s campaign managers.

Secondly, if you really felt that there was a such secret deal and you feel the Tamil people had been prevented from voting as a result of that deal you could have immediately filed an election petition in the Supreme Court to challenge the legal validity of the election of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

One wonders why you are making this kind of statement after one year and four months after President Rajapaksa’s election.

Please don’t make UNP a laughing stock of the masses by making comments such as these. You expected the North and East vote to come to you. It did not happen so please do not be sour about it and accept the political realities as they are.”