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Brutus, Marc Antony, And Maithri

Mait

hripala Sirisena, Ranil Wickremesinghe and Champika Ranawaka

By Upul Kumarapperuma-Saturday, July 11, 2015

The Roman Empire was plagued by coups, conspiracies and wars nevertheless it was the most ormidable Empire in Europe!

"ulius #aesar became one o the most decorated war heroes ater deeating the slaveleader $partacus and his slave army that had caused much humiliation to the RomanEmpire, and was later on crowned as the Empire o Rome!

#aesar ormed a political alliance with #rassus and %ompey which dominated Romanpolitics or several years! &owever, there was opposition to their political alliance bythe conservative ruling class within the Roman $enate! 'uring this period the Roman

Empire was e(tended up to the English #hannel and the lands beyond the river Rhine, which caused #aesar to gain enormous military might!

The Roman $enate was perturbed by the political authority ac)uired by #aesar, whichauthority was capable enough to veto the $enate!

The resentment between #aesar and the $enate developed li*e a cancer day by day andit went beyond the point o no return! There was a conspiracy hatched to assassinate#aesar! &is best buddy Mar* Antony elt the danger and came to *now the modus

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operandi o the enemy, but it was too late+ the conspirators led by Brutus who was apolitician o the Roman republic won the battle by *illing #aesar!

This is not a comparison o #aesar and Maithripala $irisena, but even in the presentconte(t, characters identical to those in the Roman Empire are engaged in similar rolesin $ri an*as current political circle! These characters have been instrument in

causing great debacles in the country as well as ruin the political careers o certainindividuals!

 Ater the historical victory at the %residential Election, the irst move o %resident$irisena was to capture the power o his own political party . the $/%, which stoodagainst him at the election! &e relied on a technical interpretation o the party#onstitution and became the party leader! This was the starting point o the presentdebacle o his political career, where the masses have lost the conidence placed in himas an apolitical %resident!

 Ater $irisenas victory, the victorious $irisena has heavily depended on the "athi*a&ela Urumaya 0"&U1 where two parliamentarians o the "&U have been with him on aulltime basis! $irisena has even gone to the e(tent o appointing "&U 2eneral$ecretary, Minister %atali #hampi*a Ranawa*a as his representative to the#onstitutional #ouncil that has been established under the 34th Amendment, insteado appointing a member rom his own party, the $/%!

The "&U has systematically invaded the crucial points o the administration o thecountry and positioned their own people in *ey positions! Even though the U5% is thelargest single political party that ought or $irisenas victory, its voice and the

inluence has been suppressed and diluted with the nationalist inluence o the "&U!

$ome o $irisenas personal sta consists o anti U5% or pro "&U elements, and the"&U has launched a series o attac*s against %rime Minister Ranil 6ic*remesinghe while holding ministerial portolios in his #abinet! $ome o the members o $irisenaspersonal sta openly vouched that they would not let Ranil 6ic*remesinghe to beappointed as the ne(t %rime Minister! There was no reconciliation process initiatedeither by $irisena or any other interested party to maintain the moral o the politicalalliance led by the $irisena group!

 As a result, there has been a gradual deterioration in the trust and conidence between$irisena and the U5%! Ater the completion o the 377 days, the U5% and the "8% both *new it was impossible to maintain the status )uo since a resentment haddeveloped among members o the alliance! Even the civil movements li*e 9%urawesiBalaya: demanded the dissolution o parliament, the "&U and its bureaucrats however wanted to continue with the parliament and pressurised to submit the ;7th Amendment to the #onstitution!

<rrespective o the pleas o other members in his alliance, $irisena was mum on the

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dissolution o parliament until last month!

<n the meantime there was huge pressure building up against him by a action o hispolitical alliance U%/A holding island wide campaigns with huge participation o anso ormer %resident Mahinda Ra=apa*sa demanding his appointment as the %rimeMinisterial candidate o the U%/A at the orthcoming election! 6ith pressure

mounting up against him rom his own political party and the big guns who have ledthe battle against him, the advisers and other loyalists who have loc*ed around$irisena have also become nonentities!

<t is evident that $irisena has mishandled the situation with a serious mismanagementon his part! /irstly $irisena could not have accepted the party leadership, which led toa serious loss o conidence placed on him by his political alliance including >!; million voters!

$econdly, $irisena should have intervened and stopped the hatred campaign launched

against Ranil 6ic*remesinghe by the members o his own alliance and own sta!

Thirdly, ater the completion o the 377 days or ater achieving the main goals o the377 day programme he should have dissolved parliament as promised and called orgeneral elections!

Today, $irisena has become a prisoner o his own party and the very person who stoodagainst the corruption and other crimes o the ormer Ra=apa*sa regime and whoraised his voice against *ingpins o that regime has revo*ed his deed and will to ight,and has become the saviour o a group which had attac*ed him negating all norms o

political ethics o a civilised society!

The very reason or $irisenas U turn within ;77 days o his election to oice indicatesthe lac* o conidence and determination! The negative attitude cultivated on theculture provided by the "&U led to a disastrous end with his alliance mainly with theU5%!

$irisena has blindly believed that he could ta*e the controlling power o his politicalparty once he became the party leader, with the help o several outsiders who have been converted as his party members!

&e has orgotten the driving orce o his government is the U5% and other crediblesupporters li*e the "8%, T5A and $M# and several other individuals where groundlevel power and the strength has been concentrated! Unortunately with his ties withthe "&U, the other parties have )uietly *ept a distance with him, which leads to hisunavoidable isolation among his crowd!

Ra=apa*sa loyalists have studied all the moves ta*en up by the rival camp and when$irisena has lost his bac* up orce, they launched the inal assault on him with theirdemands!

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Unortunately $irisena has not considered the necessity o maintaining the power ohis alliance around him! &e became a victim o another group who have deployed apolitical conspiracy to sweep away Ranil 6ic*remesinghe rom the political platormand as a result $irisena lost the much needed political support o his alliance at themost critical moment o his political lie to manage the situation! 'uring the time that

#aesar was in power, he had a close conidant+ Marc Antony+ who tried to save #aesar but ailed! But in our case there is no Marc Antony to come orward to saveMaithripala $irisena at the much needed moment! 6hy, what happened to Marc Antony? The simple answer is Brutus has *illed Marc Antony and aterwards assumedthe role o Marc Antony beore #aesar! Unortunately #aesar turned a 5elsonian eye!0The writer is a senior Attorney-at-aw1

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