Ranil and GL in London
The Sri Lankan foreign minister and the leader of the opposition will both be in London next week to meet British political leaders.
Prof GL Peiris visits London to deliver the keynote address at a conference by International Institute on Strategic Studies (IISS) on “Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry Dialogue”.
He and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe are both scheduled to meet British Foreign Secretary William Hague and ruling Conservative party leaders.
The Sri Lankan foreign minister will also meet British Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma during his stay in London.
The opposition leader is to update British leaders on the situation of imprisoned former military leader Sarath Fonseka, a UNP London branch spokesman said.
Following his visit to London the opposition leader is expected to brief EU leaders in Brussels and former peace talks facilitator Erik Solheim in Oslo.
Courtesy: BBC
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The traitor RW is at it again, hob-nobbing in the imperial West as usual when domestic crisis within his own party and dissent against him is mounting. It may be a diversionary tactic on his part to look important in the eyes of his party faithful by meeting Western leaders and decrying the MR government and playing the drum for SF, the criminal and traitor. He is like an immature child running to its mother crying against his brother for not giving him a turn to ride the bike. In his case he has missed his turns quite a few times, and will keep missing it many more times, unless mother comes to his aid by punishing brother with sanctions.
His behaviour is really shameful! Does British or US opposition parties run round the world to decry the ruling party? RW behaviour is shamelessly subservient with colonial mentality. When he is not running round to the imperial West he will be knocking doors in India either in Tamil Nadu or in New Delhi. What a clown! How long is he going to be tolerated by the rank and file as their UNP leader? The cunning fellow is hanging on tooth and nail.
I am confused? So a patriotic opposition leader should stay in his own country? You seem to have the idea that the opposition has no business to complain about the government when they have their own problems. Should let the government do as they please. What exactly do you think are the duties of an opposition? And of course U.S and British opposition parties spend a lot of time outside their countries! What made you think otherwise? You also seem to have a weird image of him crying and nagging the west. What gave you that image? Have you ever witnessed any of these meetings or session? Also I’m confused why GL peries is not labelled as a traitor because of his foreign visits. Is it because he belongs to a patriotic government and has honest motives? How much dignity does he have to go around pleading and begging in behalf of our country? How colonial is that mentality. It’s pathetic how you always brand the opposition as shameless when they use diplomatic channels; it’s something you obviously don’t understand. How pathetic is it when your government moves heaven and earth to beg forgiveness and try impress their western masters. Even more pathetic how they come back home and give big loud patriotic speeches telling how we will never be influenced by the west! Who is the real traitor.
In this rare occasion, I agree with Mr Dias.
SL’s External Affirs Minister is in the UK for a specific purpose and then he is meeting with the UK’s Foreign Minister. As a Minister of External Affairs, I anticipate the Minister briefing and exchanging views on the international political and economic climates where the rising influence of China and the fading influences of the US and UK are causing irreversible political and economic changes.
The SL External Affairs Minister will brief his UK counterpart of the strategies being adopted by GOSL to cash in on China’s emerging influence whilst maintaining relationships with those who cared for SL in the past.
I believe it will be a exchange of views which will benefit the evolution of new long and short term strategies for a developing country that requires re-concilliation and development of a culture of togetherness.
Mr RW’s opposition does not have a visible Shadow Minister for Externa Affairs and we do not know what alternative strategies and policies they have in place. Mr RW and his crop of leaders have taken to the streets recently to “protect democracy”. Cannot understand how they intend to protect and nurture democracy if they thrown into power as an alternative government?
The UNP appears to be in two minds about the alleged war criminal who is currently behind bars. The other party which supports the alleged war criminal has made much headway in recent days.
The immature behaviour of the opposition is not helping the common man to have any confidence in the “democracy” which the opposition have sworn to protect.
Yes, the UNP has obviously lost all footing with the ‘common man’. They have been quite terrible at handling the current crisis and RW has to take most of the blame. Right now UNP is at an all time low…
That being said, I still think it’s a drastic narrow minded call to label the opposition leader as a traitor whenever he plans a foreign visit. Either Dias is a part of government propaganda or has a very clouded view of the world. The GoSL spend millions every year bribing and entertaining western diplomats. There are hundreds of expensive delegations sent to every corner of the earth trying to buy influence and clean up the country’s tarnished image. This is very much in contrast to all the anti-western patriotic speeches given by the dear leader at public rallies. Cheap hypocritical politics but hey it works in SL, I only wish the opposition was just as smart. I don’t have much against this tactic since it’s ultimately for the benefit of SL…
But Dias seems to have the view that anyone outside the GoSL who speaks to a foreign country is a scheming traitorous fox. He seems to think that an opposition who has internal issues has no right to be proactive externally. It boils his blood whenever the opposition seem to be doing something that interferes with the government plans. It’s the same mentality they had against SF for running against MR. It’s unpatriotic to be anything but supportive to the Mahinda Chinthanaya. Anyone who is shouting and dissenting is being a hindrance to the progress of the great nation. They are all big time party spoilers! GoSL can control the national media and events and make sure people see and hear only what they want. When they can’t control things outside SL it just irritates them to no end.
We had diplomatic, cultural and trade relations with Chinese Empire long before our colonial links with Britian, Europe and USA, when they exploited us wholesale. At no time had China exploited us in the ancient past. At that time European tribes were mere hunter-gatherers. They could hardly be called civilised nations in comparison with China. Hence, it is fit and proper to restore to its former glory our excellent relations with China for mutual benefit and move away from the control of the imperial West who still eye us with neo-imperial motives, looking to exploit us for their selfish gain and to our loss.
China worshipping will not get us anywhere. China is indeed a growing economic power in the World. Lets make use of China’s new stature to our benefit.
Let us locate development efforts that will bring long term socio-economic benefits to the common massess and let us get China to support those development efforts. Pursuing white elephants for development for personal glorification via China’s abundance will not get us anywhere.
In parallel, let us not forget our strong cultural and educational links with the west. Our education system and behavioral standards are based on the west. We are prud of our strong english langauage literacy. The degrees awarded by our national universities were recognised internationally in the US and Europe as equivalents not many years ago. There are extraordinary benefits that accrue to our people on the basis of linkages to the west and we should put this to maximum use.
Mr RW is in fact a very shallow leader. He portrays himself as one in whom the west have confidence. This actually is an outdated concept. Mr RW has never demonstrated a strong intellectual capacity in his quest for leadership in Sri Lanka. For that matter, nor has any other leader in Sri Lanka done so in recent years.
In fact, there is a leadership vacuum in Sri Lanka. The only intellectual providing leadership in Sri Lanka is Hon GL Peiris but his behaviour in changing allegiance from one party to the other and his failure to stand up to manipulation of his talents by dumb leaders, has irreparably damaged his capacity and stature.
Pardon me. The only intellectual leader we have had in recent times is VP though the direction of his intellectualism I believe, was in the wrong way.
So, my dear Sri Lankans, let us search for a leader who has the intellectual capacity to be able to visualise what’s in for us in the decades to come and provide strong leadership to achieve the best for us.
Assuming that Lia is a woman, I would say she has got her knickers in a twist. If Lia is a man then he has got his vetti in a twist.
I have in my previous comments explained why RW is a traitor. So for the exclusive benefit of Lia I will explain it again in a nut shell.
R, when PM in 2003, signed a so-called ‘Peace Treaty’ with the LTTE. It was facilitated by Solheim of Norway, our subversive enemy. The treaty was drawn up by LTTE. It gave vast privileges to LTTE. They were allowed autonomy over the area occupied by them. More areas were in the pipeline, including more than 100 miles of the sea, for their so-called navy. SL Defence Forces were made to withdraw to their barracks and not permitted to grow in strength in numbers and in arms. RW allowed ship loads of heavy and light weapons to be imported through Colombo, duty free, by the LTTE. A massive electronic surveillance and jamming system was allowed to be imported by Norway, our enemy, and delivered to LTTE by the army on the orders of RW. The Deep Penetration Commando Unit of SL army was compromised in the Millenium City betrayal by RW through his goon, Udugampola. The LTTE were free to hunt down most of this Commando unit soldiers within Colombo and other areas and eliminate them. The details of so-called treaty were never released to the nation by the media. It was not debated in the Parliament for sanctioning nor ratified by President CBK. Even the ministers in RW’s cabinet were kept in the dark about the details of the treaty. RW made decisions unilaterally, and gave away 1/3rd of the country, as if it was his patrimony.
It is for this reason I called him a traitor. He has committed High Treason. He should be arrested and arraigned before a special criminal court on a charge of treason, and if found guilty, be sentenced to the gallows. I think, President MR is letting him be for the moment, till his fall from grace from UNP leadership. As a clown in the international stage he is serving well, in the court of MR. So we shall suffer him for the moment.
This comment is in response to the comment No:7 by DC.
SL has a special relationship with China. We value it. It is by no means, ‘China worshipping’ as DC made out, to ridicule. Just as Britain has a special relationship with USA, SL has a special relationship with China, which is to mutual advantage and benefit in many aspects.
Imperial West, tries to maintain its colonial strangle- hold on us still. For 500 years it exploited us whole- sale. It stripped us of our wealth and dignity and gave us little in return. When the British built roads and rail in SL it was largely to serve their commercial interests, and by no means out of charity or love for us. The British despised us. They destroyed our agricultural system by firing their cannons. They were more than 2000 years old and highly developed. They made us dependent on them thereafter. We tend to be still dependent on the imperial West. It serves their purpose, to exploit us.
The imperial West gave a subtle nod to the LTTE while pretending to ban the LTTE as a terrorist force, after the 9/11 bombing of New York. They were hypocrites. The LTTE served the interest of USA to be masters of SE Asia by causing the break-up of India to autonomous states through LTTE-initiated insurrections within India, having overrun SL first. These conspiracies failed due to the timely inervention of President MR, through the grace of God, and the complete debacle of LTTE.
Britain was renowned in the distant past for its education. Obtaining degrees from Oxford and Cambridge were feathers in one’s cap. But today, the standard of education in UK has been watered-down incredibly, by granting mickey-mouse degrees from a gamut of universities in Britain, which have mushroomed everywhere, following authority to raise former Technical Colleges to university status. Education in UK has been watered-down from primary school onwards.
In SL however, our standard of education is rising, through our own planning and development. Our degrees are recognised throughout the world. Our graduates are offered work all over the world through recognition of the high standard of their education and skills. We can lead the world one day in education also. great scholars are yet to be born amidst us and great inventors. Even recently, a young inventor from a high school in SL had won an award from USA for his invention of a water boiling method costing less than SLR 200 for the appliance. It uses green technology. It is unique in that it can be used in underdeveloped countries to boil water easily for drinking purpose as well as for cooking.