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Opposition parties rallied together on Monday to announce the launch of Maha Jana Handha at a rally to be held at Nugegoda on the 21st of this month against the common foe: the JVP Government which has now descended to the level of farce.

All the big shots in the opposition fold had agreed to keep aside their political differences and unite to meet the common threat inside the gates, inside the citadel of the Sri Lankan state.

Surprisingly, the main opposition party, the SJB, though invited to Monday’s maiden gathering of joint opposition forces, preferred to stay away for reasons best known to itself and be conspicuous by its absence. Furthermore, they announced two days later, they will not be attending the 21st launch of the Maha Jana Handha.

But is this a wise move? An insane act bereft of all reason? Letting a motley group of opposition members, weakened by a powerful government, stage Hamlet without the Prince?

Instead of seizing the moment and being the driving force behind the move to make other opposition parties rally round the Opposition Leader, Sajith’s roar should have should have been the loudest roar heard in the throng of opposition roars.

Alas, he missed the bus, forfeited his right to grasp the trending moment and appear on the Nugegoda stage as the leader of the entire opposition to galvanise The People’s Voice Against the Deceptive Rule of the Government’ rally.

SAJITH PREMADASA: Why did he refuse to give echo to the people’s voice?

Not the stuff that inspires confidence in the steel and mettle of an opposition leader who absents himself from lending his indispensable presence at an all important anti-government protest rally, is it?

Instead, Sajith voluntarily leaves the floor vacant for SLPP’s rising son of Mahinda Rajajapaksa, Namal to immediately announce, he will be attending the Nugegoda rally on the 21st. No doubt, he will lay unofficial claim to the unoccupied chair of the opposition leader and ultimately usurp the position as well.

Many cited the valid example of America, Britain and Russia whose political ideologies were diametrically opposed, shedding, in the          Second World War, their vast differences when the Nazi shadow had fallen on Europe and lay poised to fall on the British Isles and on Russia on its northern unstoppable advance.

The fear of the Nazi shadow falling on the entire European continent, including Russia, made America, Britain and Russia keep their ideologies subordinate and form a Grand Alliance to destroy the common greater threat posed by Hitler’s Germany.

No sooner had the Allied Forces won the war than the old political ideologies they had once held began to be resurrected with greater force. It made Churchill say, ‘An iron curtain has fallen on Europe.’

These are lessons of history that Sajith would have, undoubtedly, learnt at the history class in his public school in England. Or was he simply happy being on the playing fields of Mill    Hill rather than reading up on chaps in the school library?

As political common-sense dictates, strike whilst the iron’s hot before the fleeting moment’s fled or before the gathering momentum is permanently lost and place political expediency over political principles to stay ahead of political rivals.

Above all, at least, for the sake of one’s own political survival, place a greater threat to the interests of all, including the nation, by a common foe, over one’s own principled stance.

So the all important question; Why did Sajith refuse to attend the joint opposition at Nugegoda? Was he scared stiff of being accused of corruption merely by associating with those facing allegations of corruption? Hasn’t his mind got the strength of ten to withstand the allegations that may be hurled against him because his conscience is clear?

Does he believe that ignoring the rest of the diverse opposition parties and treading alone, the long road to the presidency with only his pristinely virtuous SJB followers will bring him any nearer to his stated goal?

Does he still suffer the naive belief that by solving the people’s problems and by hailing himself as the only opposition leader to do so will earn him enough votes to become the next President?

The first duty of the Opposition is to oppose. Sajith has failed to grasp the pragmatic value contained in this statement whereas JR understood it perfectly.

During the last crumbling days of Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s leftist government, when long queues for rationed food stretched from coast to coast, did the then Opposition Leader J R Jayewardene lift a finger to appease the hunger of the people?

When he could have called on his vast circle of capitalist supporters to  pool their financial resources and ease the government’s burden of  providing food for the hungry masses, did JR call?

Instead, he strongly criticised the government’s bankrupt economic policies and blamed the government for its gross dereliction of dereliction of duty to see that the people have food on the table.

Though he did not lift even his little finger to allay the people’s hunger, he offered them hope, the hope of a new dawn if he were elected to power. The people answered his call enthusiastically.

Not only did he win the election but was entrusted with an excess of power, with a whopping five sixths majority in Parliament, an unbridled power except the power to make a man a woman and a woman a man.

Sajith Premadasa should not get his political cues from social media advisers. His recent donation of vital medical equipment to a rural hospital was, indeed, a worthy, Good Samaritan act for which he won the deserved applause of the public and a brusque condescending thank you from the Health Minister. But these deficiencies in the Health sector are matters for the Government to see rectified as a duty, not for an opposition leader to see corrected.

The public does not expect opposition leaders to render yeoman service. But they demand as a matter of right, a government to do its duty and fulfill the promises they made before the elections.

Sajith should take, not shun, advise given in utmost good faith and reject those coming from sycophants.

In the aftermath of the French revolution, a French political leader – supposed to be Alexandre Auguste Ledru – saw a crowd of people go past his office. He quickly rushed outside and asked an aide: ‘They are my people. Where are they going? I must follow them’.

A leader must know to follow the trend of his people’s thinking, to know their wants, to know their needs, and promise – wherever possible – to make their dreams come true.

Sajith will certainly benefit by a re-reading of ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu’s The Art of War where it’s written’, Do not go to correct your enemy’s mistakes.’

Take a bow Shafia, you have made the nation truly proudAfter participating in the fourth South Asian Games held in India, Sri Lanka’s Senior Athletic team returned home on Monday with a bagful of medals in their hand luggage, sixteen amongst them gold. The triumphant Lankan athletes were given hero’s welcome when they landed at Katunayake airport. About 300 athletes from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal had competed in this regional version of the Olympics. SHAFIA YAMIK: Lanka’s wonder woman athlete This year, though India bagged the Champion’s Trophy, the ascendent star in the southern galaxy was, undoubtedly, Shafia Yamik from Lanka who was adjudged the best female sprinter at this year’s South Asian Games. It was truly a remarkable comeback for 26 year- old Shafia, an old girl of Vihara Maha Devi Girls’ school in Kandy. Shafia, coached by Sumith Vithana, suffered a severe mental blow after she was dropped from the 2019 South Asian Games. Only by following a strict training routine and spurred by an indomitable will to win was she able to stand on the pedestal of success at South Asian Games this year. On arrival at Katunayake Airport, Shafia told the media how she braved the challenges and overcame her fears to win three golds at this year’s Games. She said: ‘I won the 200 meter gold medal, which was a tournament record. Then I  finished my event in 23.58 seconds, breaking the record set 27 years ago by India’s P.T. Usha in 1998.’ Wonder girl Shafia was crowned the fastest athlete in South Asia after she won the women’s 100m gold medal. Her time was 11.53 seconds. It is a tournament record. She also represented the team that won the gold medal in the 4×100m relay event. The Sri Lankan women finished the race in just 44.7 seconds. But Shafia had transcended the taboos her community had placed on her. She had defied them all to emerge as not only Lanka’s but also South Asia’s wonder woman athlete at this years’ South Asian Games. Earlier in a TV channel interview, she had spoken her heart out and said, how those taboos had nearly wrecked her hopes of even training for these events. She had revealed: ‘The mosque brought problems… not for me… for my father. They had suggested to my father… I see myself running on TV wearing shorts. That is not good for our culture… take care of that”… My father had said that his daughter’s dream was to become a good athlete. He would allow that.’ Safia said, ‘My father and mother stood by me. They were a wall of protection for me. If  not for them, if not for their support and protection, it would have put paid to my dreams of ever pursuing a sporting career. I owe it all to my parents.’ Take a bow, Shafia,’ we say in one united voice, ‘You’ve truly made the nation proud.’

Sewandhi, TB Sarath’s ideal Girl Friday SEWANDHI: Even behind remand, she is admired by JVP T B Sarath Even as Deputy Minister of Water Supplies T. B. Sarath proudly boasts of his grand project to build a network of pubic lavatories sited at strategic spots throughout the country, he is besotted with Ishara Sewandhi, who is alleged to have aided and abetted in the killing of a drug lord inside a Hulftsdorph court by posing as a female lawyer and passing the murder weapon to the assassin. TB SARATH: We could have used her in the task of nation building T.B. Sarath does not drool over her physical appearance but rather hurls lavish praise on Sewandhi for maintaining a cool composure throughput the daring feat and giving the police the slip and vanishing into thin air soon thereafter. If not for Kehel Baddara Padme betraying his colleagues soon after he was captured in Indonesia, and spilling the beans on Sewandhi’s exotic mountain top refuge in Nepal, she may have remained, for all  sense and purposes, ‘vanished into thin air.’ And her immense talents and admirable characteristics  of  keeping a cool head in the midst of alarms, would have remained unknown to T. B. Sarath. But no sooner had he seen on TV news channels, pictures of her or met her in real life, he immediately discerned in her all the fine qualities he had searched for in a person to help him build latrines countrywide’. But, alas, ‘Sewandhi had gone on the wrong track,’ T.B. Sarath bemoans. ‘If only I had found her earlier, I could have led her on the correct path’. He swoons over her intelligence and drooled over her mental agility. ‘I knew by the way she executed this criminal act in a tense atmosphere; she would have been the ideal one to help the JVP and country in the task of nation ‘building.’ Fear not, T. B. Sarath. Do not despair. All is not lost. There’s a list of unemployed graduates whom the government promised jobs before the elections last year. You can pick any one of them to do a professional job not only in nation building but also in the task of building your toilets as well.