Daily Mirror E-Paper

Lee Kuan Yew of SL…..

D.SAMARANAYAKE BATTARAMULLA

Having read the thought-provoking editorial page article, SRI LANKA – IN LEE QUAN YEW’S WORDS of Daily Mirror of May 14 instant, stimulated me to write the following lines to show my fellow citizens how a leading and somewhat controversial local politician had been dreaming to emulate the political vision of the main character in the said article – Lee Kuan

Yew of Singapore.this politician is none other than Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took his oaths recently for the sixth time as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.the incident which I am going to pen below happened during the hustings of 2001 when he along with his grand old party electorally competed for the premiership under the whip of the then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. It was Mr. Wickremesinghe’s final election progamme on TV and had to end before the stipulated 48 – hour cut-off time for election propaganda activities. I can vividly remember it, as if I had watched it last night.the programme ran for about two hours close to midnight.

It was his brother’s TV channel and the programme was conducted in Sinhala.the anchor was Chamuditha Samarawickrema who recently had to face a life-threatening experience when goons, most probably hired by certain political authorities and their lackeys who could not stomach the exposures made by Chamuditha of their corrupt deals and illegal activities, pelted rocks and human scat at his residence. Just before midnight, the stipulated time to end all political propaganda activities,

Chamuditha posed the final question to Mr. Wic re mas ing he .“sir, after the next 48 hours you will be going before the people to seek a mandate to form a government of your political party.

Do you have a message to be conveyed to the people of Sr iL anka?“MarkRW’ Sr esp on se .“ch a mud it ha, during JR Jayawardene’s presidency, Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew visited Sri Lanka on a two-day state visit.

On the second day of the visit, he was entertained to lunch at a sea side house at Weligama that was owned by JR. A few years later the JVP set fire to that building and destroyed it.

A good number of MPS including myself had the great opportunity to attend that luncheon. Mr. Lee very freely mingled amongst us. We posed many questions to him and he answered them in a very free and a cordial manner.

One important question most of the MPS present there, posed to Mr. Lee was how he had managed to be the Prime Minister of Singapore for an uninterruptedly long period by then .“mr. wick re me sing he continued .“In his reply to that question, Mr. Lee said that he was very well aware of the fact that he was the most unpopular and the most disliked person in the whole of Singapore, yet, when it comes to an election the very same people who disliked him voted for him and elected him as their Prime Minister because they knew that he was honest with clean hands and that he ensures that the law of Singapore applies to the letter to all the citizens alike and that he did not hesitate a bit to take correct decisions that should be taken for the betterment of the country and its people at the correct time they should have to be taken.” In conclusion RW said –“When I end my political journey, I want the people of this country to remember me as the Lee Kuan Yew of Sri Lanka. My wish is to leave that legacy behind me. This is my message to the people of this country.“Will the History Book of

Sri Lanka warrant a page to record for posterity the legacy of RW taking into consideration of his political journey?

EDITORIAL

en-lk

2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://dailymirrorepaper.pressreader.com/article/281629603886408

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