Sri Lanka grapples with China’s embrace

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has recommended the President to release this fund to the people of Myanmar in considering the longstanding ties between the two nations.

“The UNP and their coalition have momentum”, said Alan Keenan, a Sri Lanka analyst at the worldwide Crisis Group. He has also informed the government of Myanmar to inform him on behalf of the Sri Lankan government, if they need more assistance.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka-Sri Lanka’s government has been reaching out to the country’s influential Tamil diaspora with the aim of building minority support and boosting its global standing.

The action followed yesterday’s letter by Sirisena to Rajapaksa in which the SLFP chief had vowed that Rajapaksa will not be made the Prime Minister even if his party won Monday’s parliamentary election. As fate would have it, it is the very Sri Lankans that Rajapaksa alienated could cost him the role of Prime Minister. It also includes the Buddhist monks’ party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya, minority parties like the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) and the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA). The frustration boiled over last year, when Sirisena split with Rajapaksa and went on to defeat him in a presidential vote.

Ceding the party’s campaign to Rajapaksa could well be a political masterstroke by Sirisena, given the prevailing political scenarios in the country.

“It is amusing you have started to visit temples around the country along with media coverage following your election loss”, President says Rajapaka’s political behavior and statements however indicate his burning hatred and egoism.

“If the UPFA secured at least 113 seats, I believe the premiership should go to a senior leader who did not have an opportunity”. According to the Tamil Guardian, Eknaligoda’s wife said the Rajapaksa regime is connected with the disappearance of her husband, possibly in an attempt to silence his criticism.

If the SLFP were to win a majority in parliament, it is not inevitable that Mr Rajapaksa would lead the new government; that decision would be up to Mr Sirisena to make.

Rajapaksa’s campaign has been hampered in the past week by a high profile murder investigation and arrests over the disappearance of a prominent Sri Lankan journalist. Tensions between Sirisena and Rajapaksa – who despite their rivalry belong to the same political party – could block the ex-president’s path to the prime minister’s office even if he does triumph in the election.

The two men had been allies until late last year when Sirisena quit as health minister in order to stand against the veteran strongman in the January 8 presidential election.

“The tradition in the past has been that when there is a change, particularly after a long period of one party being in power defeated, there is a prospect of the victor taking a certain amount of revenge”. While China denies building a listening post, one Western diplomat said that some Chinese-built infrastructure in Sri Lanka has been designed for “dual use” – meaning it could serve both military and civilian purposes. The script for Rajapaksa’s future remains unwritten.