MR accuses anybody questioning his administration’s human rights record as a ‘traitor’ ...!!!

Extraordinary similarities between Presidents MR and Premadasa



2009-10-03 | 3.25 PM


As President Mahinda Rajapaksa is rewriting the history books in Sri Lanka by trying to recreate a constitutional monarchy, there seem to be many extraordinary parallels between him and a previous UNP president, who also wished to be the constitutional monarch in Sri Lanka.

President Ranasinghe Premadasa suffered from inferiority complex and regularly felt threatened by senior leaders of his own party. President MR for his part has offered all senior posts and spokesmen posts to UNP defectors (Bogols, Amunugama, Keheliya & Yapa for eg.) and other party leaders (Dinesh Gunawardene for eg.) leaving senior SLFP leaders aide.

Until President MR took over, President RP was the most popular executive president in Sri

Lanka. MR, it seems, is currently extremely popular mainly among the majority Sinhala population.

President Premadasa expelled the then British High Commissioner, David Gladstone, accusing him of intervening in internal affairs. President MR followed his footsteps by expelling Unicef spokesman, James Elder.

Both leaders were not seemed to be worried about international implications of their actions. Both had no clue over the country’s foreign policy and behaved like village chandiyas than statesmen: RP anatagonised India while MR antagonised many powerful countries including the West.

RP was believed to be a very superstitious person; He was reported to have requested astrologers to clean the parliament from bad …? MR, for his part, even visited Tirupathi temple in India to get special blessings.

RP was elected with the support of the JVP which was staging a rebellion against the then govt. RP was elected with a very low voter turnout as the JVP threatened the voters who cast their votes with death. MR was elected with the help of the LTTE. While RP later destroyed the JVP, MR destroyed the LTTE that helped him to come into power.

RP is accused of offering material support to the LTTE. MR is accused of offering huge sum of money to the LTTE.

Both leaders of the JVP and the LTTE were reportedly captured alive and later killed by the security forces during these two presidents tenures.

RP was reportedly planning to crown himself in the parliament. MR, it seems, is very happy to be addressed, maharajanani.

(RP, according to reports, ordered he be bathed in Kataragama river by hundreds of virgins to wash all his sins. MR also seems to be following similar steps.)


President Premadasa wished to hide his caste background and went into extent to create fresh stories about his family background. President MR, though from the priviledged caste, feels he is discriminated against his class background.

Gross human rights violations including extra judiciary killings, torture and abductions were the order of the day of Premadasa administration. No culprits were ever brought to book. Premadasa administration even created special death squads against the JVP.

Rajapaksa administration, that used Tamil paramilitary groups and military deserters for similar purposes, has followed all these footsteps of Premadasa administration.

Premadasa administration is accused of oppressing media and killing senior media personnel including Richard de Soyza. Only few media outlets, including Ravaya and Yukthiya, had courage to voice against that oppression during ‘era of terror’.

Rajapaksa administration is accused of killings, abductions and torture of media personnel. Sunday Leader editor, Lasantha Wickramathunga, is among the victims. Unfortunately, Ravaya editor Victor Ivan who courageously fought against rights violations of Premadasa administration, supported similar violations by Rajapaksa administration.

Interestingly, it is the same Mahinda Rajapaksa who strongly protested human rights violations by Premadasa administrationin late 80’s. Mr. Rajapaksa who currently accuses anybody questioning his administration’s human rights record as a ‘traitor’ even travelled to Geneva to urge the UN and world leaders to impose sanctions against Sri Lanka.

Lanka News Web.com