26.8.2008
by Norman Palihawadana
Maj.
Gen. (retd) Janaka Perera was an eminent military officer
with a good reputation but by trying to prop up a declining
political party he had lost his good name, government
defence spokesman and Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told
a press conference in Colombo yesterday (25).
The
people of the North Central and Sabaragamuwa Provinces
had reposed trust in the United People’s Freedom
Alliance government by voting for UPFA candidates with
clear majorities giving a fresh mandate to the policies
of the government. The UNP and the JVP were holding post
mortems to justify their defeat at the polls, he said.
All
the 27 electorates in the two provinces were won by the
UPFA with a clear majority and the UNP General Secretary
Tissa Attanayake was trying to teach arithmetic on behalf
of the UNP but that would be a useless exercise as the
victory of the UPFA was clearly a result of the people
endorsing the strong and correct policies of President
Mahinda Rajapaksa, Rambukwella said.
Though
the UNP tried various tactics to rally the people round
them the people were not prepared to become prey to a
party that had lost its way in the political arena. While
Tissa Attanayake was trying to show a statistical gain
for the UNP at the polls surprisingly the UNP’s
other spokesman S. B. Dissnanayake was reported as saying
that the government sold the war to win the election.
The
JVP also suffered the most severe setback at the polls
and so-called ‘farmer king’ (Govi Raja) of
Polonnaruwa, S. K. Subasinghe also suffered a humiliating
defeat showing that the farmers of Polonnaruwa did not
support people like him and the king of trade unions Lal
Kantha too suffered the same defeat as shown by the postal
votes of the public servants and the election was conducted
very peacefully, the minister said.
It
was claimed that a single Black Tiger could kill even
500 soldiers but Prabhakaran was hiding in some underground
bunker unable to face the advance of the armed forces
and the days of the LTTE were numbered, he said.
Courtesy
- The Island