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Pradeshiya Sabha game of thrones heats up after President’s warning
View(s):The ongoing struggle to wrest control of the disputed Pradeshiya Sabha game of thrones took a dramatic turn on Wednesday after President Anura Kumara delivered a stunning warning to the Opposition not to steal the mandate given by the people to the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna at this month’s local elections.
But if the President was not too happy with the final results of the Pradeshiya Sabha elections, which showed that, though the game and set had come to the JVP camp, the match had gone to the collective opposition fold, his frustration was understandable.
With the final scorecard reading only 115 outright wins for the JVP out of 339 in the land, in exasperation at the JVP’s 60th anniversary commemorations held at Viharamaha Devi Park on Tuesday, the President had flared:
“Let them go and form their sabhas for four months. Remember we have a two-thirds majority in Parliament. We can bring in laws to ensure that the mandate we received is not distorted nor disrupted.”
Not for nothing had he left the burdens of high presidential office to personally trudge the dreary Pradeshiya Sabha beat, only to end up denied power in the grassroots. Worse. Despite the presidential touch he had lent to what would otherwise have been a lackadaisical Pradeshiya Sabha hustings, the JVP had suffered the ignominy of failing to hold on to the record-breaking 6.8 million votes it had garnered at last November’s general elections.
PRESIDENT ANURA KUMARA: Challenges to distort mandate
It was more than enough to raise a wave of goosebumps at the JVP’s Pelawatte headquarters to discover 2.3 million voters had ebbed away from the tidal wave that had brought the JVP to land on the shores of power last November. To make the loss more bitter to swallow, the desertion had come when the six months’ honeymoon period, traditionally granted to ruling parties, was not even over.
But the JVP General Secretary, Tilvin Silva, had sensed the approaching torrent of dismal news. Holding a press briefing on the morning of May 7, he said, “The JVP has single-handedly won these councils. If the opposition parties that contested alone intend to combine and collectively control these councils, then I think it will distort democracy.”
Though that may be the Marxist take on democracy’s precepts, the opposition held to the universally accepted view that democracy primarily means ‘rule by majority’.
For instance, two weeks ago, on May 6, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz failed to secure an absolute majority by six votes. As the BBC reported, “As it was a secret ballot in the 630-seat Bundestag, there was no indication who had refused to back him—whether MPs from his centre-left coalition or from his own conservatives.”
After a second secret vote was taken, Merz won with 325 votes, a majority of nine votes. His coalition with the Social Democrats should have had enough seats in parliament from the start, with 328 MPs in total, but—says the BBC—”it is thought 18 of them dissented during the first vote.”
It didn’t amount to a distortion of democracy at all but only ensured that no chancellor candidate has lost a Bundestag vote in the 76 years since democracy was restored in Germany in 1949 and reiterated democracy’s tenet of ‘rule by majority, ok’.
OPPOSITION LEADER SAJITH: Bid to control vulnerable councils
In fact, it was the way in which the present Election Commission Chairman M.A.L. Ratnayake stated in his guideline to all parties. He said, as reported in the Daily Mirror on May 14, the names of elected members must be officially gazetted at the divisional level before councils hold their inaugural sessions. In councils where no single party or group holds a majority, the selection of key officials will be determined by a vote during the first meeting on June 2.
No sooner were the results announced, the Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa launched his battle to win the capital city’s mayorship for an SJB candidate.
As a single party, the JVP won the most seats in Colombo, namely 48 seats, out of a total of 117. The opposition holds the rest, namely 69 seats. The SJB has 29. The UNP, which had won 13 seats, extended its backing to the SJB to form the next Council administration. UNP Deputy Leader Ruwan Wijewardena said, “We are ready to support SJB,” adding that discussions, in this regard, will be held soon.
But the JVP leadership remained adamant to the last, insisting that “Colombo will be ours”. Senior JVP Minister Bimal Ratnayake told the media on Friday that the JVP’ s candidate Vraie Cally Balthazaar is certain to become the Mayor of Colombo Municipal Council.
That, of course, remains to be seen and will depend on how successful opposition talks will be to present a united front at the inaugural council session on June 2, when a secret vote will be held amongst the elected members to choose office bearers, as per the Election Commission’s guidelines.
After mulling for days on strategies, some opposition parties on Tuesday, including the SJB and SLPP, met at Ranil’s Flower Road office to discuss ways of forming a joint opposition at local councils.
They were to meet again on the following day, but a ‘no show’ by two major parties, SJB and SLPP, effectively stymied the talks. Both parties later clarified their absence at the talks, explaining more or less that while they did not wish to form alliances, they will support endeavours to establish joint administration of local councils.
SJB MP Mujibur Rahman declared at a media briefing on Thursday, “We will not care who will lead us, as the prime focus is to form administrations in which the opposition has a majority.”
On Friday, it was reported that secretaries of opposition parties had agreed to meet for talks at the opposition leader’s office on Saturday. What will come out of it is uncertain. Will the majority view prevail in the end at local councils, where no party or group can command a stable majority, is anyone’s guess.
Some are now of the view to give the JVP free rein to run all the councils, even those where they have abjectly failed to garner a majority of seats; and for opposition parties to sit back and relax, enjoying the spectacle of the JVP stew in their own juices, as they themselves masochistically demanded they be stewed.
But whether one likes it or not, let’s not forget, Democracy has always meant, from ancient Greece to modern day America, rule by majority consent. That’s the name of the game of thrones.
| US-China tariff deal makes the world heave a sigh of great relief
China, after weeks of saying she will never cave in to Trump’s higher tariffs and even engaging in a tit-for-tat tariff increase with the US, finally caved in to the world’s relief. China called it ‘consensual’ to salvage face. But China, despite her gung-ho, has always been realistic and had taken the long-term view, that had enabled her to survive for over 5000 years. When Trump, playing a high-stakes international poker game, had called double or quits, China had wisely quit. Before April 2nd, China had levied a 67 percent tariff on imports from US. In return the US levied 21 percent tariffs on goods imported from China. In his ‘Liberation Day’ speech, Trump had declared April 2nd as the day he would ‘liberate America’ from the clutches of a scrounging world that had fattened on American largess. Hailing it as ‘a declaration of economic independence’, Trump shook the world’s economic plum tree upside down, inside out, even risking American consumers having to end up paying higher prices for imported items from the rest of the world.  US PRESIDENT WITH SAUDI CROWN PRINCE: Saudi Arabia rolls out the red-purple carpet welcome for Trump “April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” Trump declared from the White House Rose Garden. “We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us,” adding, “because we are being very kind.” The high tariff announcement wasn’t something that Trump had sprung out of the blue but had been one of his election promises. It had taken many months in the making for it to come to fruition. In his vision to put his country first and make it great again, Trump’s aim was to deliver a crippling blow to China’s rising economy, earned at America’s expense. Holding up a whiteboard, which has a ‘hit’ list of sixty nations, Trump explained ominously how the new tariffs will affect their economies. As a forerunner, a base 10 percent tariff rate was imposed on all goods coming to the US. At the top was China, which Trump said was set to be hit with a 34 percent tariff increase, as he claimed it charged the US 67 percent. While the world gasped for breath, reeling from utter shock, China alone retaliated by raising tariffs on US goods even higher and vowed she would “fight to the end”. But Trump called China’s bluff and reciprocated in kind. The game of tit for tat proceeded to bring international tariffs to the level of farce. Trump extended the April 9 deadline by 90 days for adversely affected states to submit their terms of surrender to gain tariff relief. Three weeks ago, China sternly warned its trading partners, urging them not to bow to US pressure in the escalating tariff war led by President Trump. In a vivid statement, China likened seeking exemptions from US tariffs to ‘asking a tiger for its skin’. The first to strike a deal with Trump was old ally Britain, a country often viewed by cynics as America’s faithful lapdog. Last Thursday, the deal was announced by Trump in Washington. Four days later, following fast on its heels came Trump’s blockbuster tariff deal with China. China, instead of ‘fighting to the end’, had capitulated to Trump’s lower tariff demand. Though some important terms in the tariff deal had still to be sorted out within a period of 90 days, it was a huge breakthrough in secret talks that had been held in Switzerland. It made the rest of the world heave an audible sigh of relief. All, it seemed, was well with the world again, with sanity regained. The side bets Trump had waged with small nations now paled into relative insignificance, giving hope to states, including Lanka, that their proposals to reduce tariffs would meet a more sympathetic response, with Trump’s obsession with breaking China’s economic power, at least, partially pacified. The news heralded a sensational week of triumphs for Trump. It continued throughout his Middle Eastern tour that began with Air Force One touching down on Riyad’s tarmac on Tuesday. Personally welcomed on the airport’s runway by Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, 40-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, Trump was given the right royal treatment, normally reserved for British monarchs. Known for his flattery, Trump piled it thick with a shovel that nearly buried the Crown Prince with praise. Here are some gems of praise that Trump showered on Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman. In Trump’s speech at the US-Saudi investment forum, he referred to the Crown Prince as: “He’s your greatest representative, greatest representative. And if I didn’t like him, I’d get out of here so fast. You know that, don’t you? He knows me well. I do—I like him a lot. I like him too much. That’s why we give so much, you know? Too much. I like you too much”, and, after ordering the end of sanctions against Syria, President Trump exclaimed, “Oh, what I do for the crown prince.” And towards the end of his speech, Trump, referring to the Crown Prince, declared, “The United States is the hottest country, with the exception of your country. I have to say right, I won’t. I’m not going to take that on. No, Mohammed, I’m not going to take that on. Wouldn’t that be a terrible thing if I made that full statement? But I will get to it. You’re hotter, at least as long as I’m up here. You’re hotter.” No wonder the Crown Prince led the standing ovation Trump received when he ended his speech. But besides the praising, Trump struck huge deals, worth nearly a trillion dollars, including a massive arms package of 142 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia, to put his country economically first on the map. Furthermore, in Qatar, he signed a deal worth 200 billion dollars to supply Boeing aircraft. And what’s more, he received from Qatar’s Emir, an expensive gift. A new 400 million dollar jet to replace the ageing Air Force One. Asked by reporters of the propriety of retaining it, he replied, ‘I’ll be foolish not to accept it’. Not bad for three days of work in the Middle East. And as for queries on why he had lifted all Syrian sanctions, Trump tersely outlined his philosophical creed as Trump, the peacemaker. He said, “I believe it is God’s job to sit in judgement. My job is to defend America and to promote the fundamental interests of stability, prosperity, and peace.” Now that should be worth a couple of billion thoughts to ponder.
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