One cannot fool all the people all the time.! The governments record of corruption is infinitely worse than that of any other government we have had.!

The common enemy and common candidate

In these days of lawlessness, nepotism, family bandyism, corruption, torn lives, splintered families and shattered hopes, our aim is to vote for General Sarath Fonseka for these reasons and more.
Firstly as a loyal UNPer all my life, I stand firmly by the decision of my leader and my party to support the General.

I have utmost confidence in the UNP leader and have never been in the band of detractors, who were at his feet while he was PM and are now at his throat.

The party leaders in the alliance are united in their belief that the enemy is the Rajapaksa family and the Executive Presidency.

Both have to go. To defeat the present incumbent (who has only won a war to his credit), you needed to find a candidate who could match his war victory and also one whom the entire Opposition could support.

Some of those who denigrated the UNP leader time and time again now say he should have contested. Their agenda is not unknown. To those who say General Fonseka is inexperienced, I ask what about Eisenhower and De Gaulle?

The governments record of corruption is infinitely worse than that of any other government we have had.

I quote a few recent instances as there are too many to mention. Many construction projects have been awarded to foreign agencies without proper tender procedure.

The A9 Anuradhapura—Jaffna road contract was awarded to a Chinese construction company called ‘Catic’ for US dollars 166.5 million [approximately 18.3 billion] --Rs 119 million per km.

Catic has no road experience whatsoever and has sub-contracted local contractors with road experience at Rs 60 million per km.

Where the difference of 50 million per km [over 8 billion] went is anybody’s guess.

The Jaffna - Point Pedro Road, Jaffna - KKS Road, Jaffna - Palaly Rd , Potur - Mesalai Road were all awarded to another Chinese firm named China Railway again with no road experience, for 87 million US dollars. [9.6 million per km].The construction of the Mattal airport was awarded to another Chinese Company with no proper tender procedure being followed. These are just drops in an ocean of corruption. No wonder a leading economist stated recently that there is a 2% loss in GDP because of corruption.

How can we possibly vote for a person who has not kept a single promise but still has the gall to say, “what we promise we will deliver”.

General Fonseka is unassuming and sincere. He owns only a modest home. All this points to his integrity. A quality he shares with Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mangala Samaraweera, Rauff Hakeem and the other leaders backing him.

Having risen from the ranks in the army, he is a man of discipline. He is a ‘game miniha’, like the Rajapaksa always claim to be. Therefore he is aware of the pulse of the villager. He enjoys challenges and faces them courageously; He nearly lost his life in the service of the country and has been in the frontline of the war.

Slinging mud has always been a favourite pastime of the Rajapaksas and their stooges. Together with the bunch of discredited UNP dissidents and pseudo-patriots with foreign passports they are slinging mud at the General, against the UNP leader and at Mangala Samaraweera.

Those who are now pointing fingers can hardly afford to talk of honour, integrity or moral standards. Among the detractors are those who recently hailed the General as a patriot but are now calling him a traitor.

“Thus above all to thine own-self be true. As night must follow day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

One cannot fool all the people all the time!

Irani Tillekaratne

Ragama

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