Karuna, the “Prodigal Son” returns. Time to kill the “Fatted Calf” Pillayan?

Founder leader of the TMVP, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman (aka Kokila Dushmantha Gunawardena) returned to the island today (July 03rd), said the party’s spokesman Asath Moulana.

Karuna, who had arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake on board a flight from the UK, has spoken to Moulana over the phone.

After breaking away from the LTTE as its eastern military leader, Karuna allied with the government and formed the TMVP.

However, he fled the country following a dispute with close associate Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, and arrived in the UK on a forged passport.

He was arrested and sentenced to a prison term for the offence, after his request for political asylum there was rejected.

The Sri Lankan government had been implicated in the forged passport matter, which it had rejected.

Owing to good conduct, Karuna had been freed before having completed his sentence.

In the meantime, Pillayan took control of the TMVP, and reportedly murdered a number of his predecessor’s supporters.

He also contested polls for the Eastern Provincial Council in alliance with the government and presently serves as chief minister.

http://www.lankadissent.com

TMVP wins biggest outsourcing deal in Sri Lanka (and in Eelam too)

Colombo, May 9, TMVP PLC won the largest ever outsourcing deal ever done in Sri Lanka this week, to scare pooling agents of the rivals, intimidate voters and carry out mass scale rigging at the Eastern province elections, industry sources reveal. The exact size of the deal is not known but the speculation is that could be several millions of USD and certainly bigger than the similar deal won by LTTE to intimidate voters to boycott the Presidential Elections in 2005, which was estimated to be in the range of USD 5 million by late MP Sripathy Suriyarachchi.

Acting Chairman of TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal) PLC Mr. Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan expressed his delight over the confidence shown on him by all on his company especially by the President of Sri Lanka himself. He said many other contenders including EDPD headed by legendary Douglas Devananda tried to win this deal, but none of them could beat TMVP PLC, on its strengths. TMVP PLC employs thousands of trained professionals at its camps in the districts of Batticaloa, Ampara and Trincomalee in Eastern province which gives them the ability to carry out this assignment better than anybody else.

Chairman of TMVP PLC (currently residing in London enjoying the hospitality of HM Queen)  Mr. Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Mr. Kokila Dushmantha Gunawardena alias Karuna has send a congratulatory message for his company TMVP PLC for winning this deal. “We are well equipped and geared to win this assignment and I am sure our boys will carry out it to the utmost satisfaction of our clients” Mr. Kokila Ginawardene said.

TMVP PLC will carry out this in a public-private partnership model. The public sector will assist Mr Pillayan carrying out this deal by stopping the international journalists and election observers from east, as happened yesterday. Journalists of Associated Press (AP) were yesterday prevented from entering Batticaloa at the Karavankarni junction at a check point on the claim that they have received orders from the Ministry of Defence to do so.

Nimalka Fernando of Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CAFÉ) too had been prevented from moving ahead of the Manampitiya check point yesterday.

Before Pillayan kills me…

Arugam Bay, May 03

As I wrote earlier, election campaigning is fun, but nothing can be compared to what we are doing in the Eastern province now.  This is far too dangerous than anybody in Colombo can ever think of. Though not so obvious in first looks the ominous smell of Pillayan is everywhere. It is a reality that anybody who dares to campaign in the East should live with.

I keep asking questions from myself what Pillayan could do. How strong is Pillayan’s terrorist network? How many armed cadre he has? (I saw it in papers he has about 700 gunmen but it can be more) Where are they positioned? Finally how far they would go to stop a rival winning the elections? (which is obvious by now) Will they just stop at rigging the polls with the kind assistance of the current government leaders (who will be happy to provide that support) or perhaps failing that go further and try a mass genocide?

These are some simple questions to which we have no answers.

The fact that disturbed us most is that Pillayan is no ordinary terrorist. HE IS A LICENSED TERRORIST, if I were to coin a term. In any society, no citizen is allowed to bear guns without the approval of the state. But Pillayan and his terrorist goondas bear guns, though they are not part of the security forces. The government not just shows a blind eye, but happily endorses this terrorist bearing guns and using them in the territory the government claims to be ‘LIBERATED’ as well.

The weak excuses provided by senior government ministers justifying Pillayan’s terrorist group bearing and perhaps using arms is amusing. According to them, it is for their safety from LTTE. My foot! If LTTE is still so strong in Eastern province why call it ‘LIBERATED’? No, the only reason why government happily keeps Pillayan armed is for rigging. They know they have no chances of winning without mass scale rigging.

The possibility of butchery by Pillayan cannot be ignored. He has guns and he has men trained to use them. Nobody would give evidence against him. Government’s least resistance path too will be covering up such a killing (easy to blame LTTE) than finding the real culprits. So why he should not?

The only consolation is I work in a Sinhala dominated area where Pillayan does not work directly but comes only through other political parties. JHU Akmeemana Dayaratne thero used few Pillayan’s terrorists in their campaign, but it did not look too dangerous. They just sat in the front seat of government vehicles.  Anyway JHU has stopped campaigning now. They might have given up after seeing it a dead end for them.

My only hope is the polls will be peaceful and there would be no election violence. Still it is difficult to think Kurrakan boy will let us win so easily. He knows what defeat means. That is why we should be ready for any obstacle.

Still I am optimistic that DEMOCRAY will win over Pillayan’s (government sponsored) terrorism on May 10.

Election campaigning…….…in the land of rising sun

I am at Lahugala, in the Ampara district. Write this just after finishing another round of campaigning and conducting pocket meetings.

Entire Eastern province has caught the election fever.

Election campaigning is fun. What adds to our enthusiasm is the awareness of the impending danger.

Pillayan’s henchmen are waiting to kill us. He is a terrorist and should not be trusted. The only shield we have against his arms is the support of the people. Whatever the powers this terrorist has we do not think he can just shoot anyone and flee. But the danger is there, everywhere. We have got over with is now. Pillayan’s terrorism should not stop us in our fight for democracy.

Just a brief background of the work I do.

I am in charge of six villages in Lahugala. They are Panama North, Shastrawela, Panama West, Lahugala, Pansalgoda and Hulanuge. My job is to campaign but I take pleasure in educating them on the danger of electing an armed terrorist – or more precisely letting his get elected through inaction. (That is what Pillayan tries to do. Massive pool riggings are expected on May 10th. That is why I said this is a fight for democracy. If Pillayan wins the losers will only be the people of this country.)

The areas I cover are predominantly Sinhala. Lets say 80%. But there are Tamils and Muslims as well. Travel few kms away the composition changes. For example the nearby Pottuvil area is predominantly Muslim (more than 90%)

JHU tries to do some campaigning here, with the backing of Pillayan’s gunmen, but without much success.  JHU MP Akmeemana Dayaratne thero is using 16 government vehicles. (This is illegal but there is little we can do. Baduth hamuduruvange, naduth hamuduruvange!) We see these government vehicles run everywhere with Pillayan’s henchmen in black sit in the front seats. They do not show arms openly but surely they are under the clothes.

People themselves have started responding to JHU campaign negatively. Villagers ask where were all JHU supported when they were in trouble. JHU had to give up their initial idea of having a political meeting at the Lahugala temple, because villagers vehemently opposed it.

There is no sign of JVP – either faction.

I am still not sure exactly what sort of tricks Pillayan will pay in pool rigging, but even with that I am sure we would win Ampara with a significant margin. That is the level of support we receive at ground level from poor people who no more want to live under the twin tragedies of war and rising cost of living. People are determined to end the suffering and I do not think even the guns of Pillayan can stop that kind of determination.

Finally, this is a beautiful area. I wish I am on vacation. (More about the area on my next posts)

නැණස පෑදේවා! පිල්ලිය දුරින් දුරු වේවා!

The choice in Eastern province is not between a Muslim Chief Minister and a Tamil one. It is also not between Rauf Hakeem and Pillayan. It is between DEMOCRACY and TERRORISM.

Violence has been common in ever election in Sri Lanka, but the level of violence used in Eastern province provincial council is unprecedented.

This is the first time in Sri Lanka history an armed group fights and election battle.

This is the first time one party visits house to house with guns in their hands and threaten voters. Even in 1989 Provincial council elections, which JVP (then and armed group) boycotted this level of violence was not seen.

Poll rigging will be unprecedented. What happened in North Central (Wayamba) provincial council elections in 1998 will be nothing compared what will happen in East in the next week.

The good news however is, even with that Pillayan the shortie terrorist will not be able to prevent the victory of DEMOCRACY in East.

 

Pillayan - the ‘white’ terrorist

There can never be anything called ‘white terrorism’ or ‘good terrorism’. No matter how noble the cause is and irrespective of the colour of the man who bears the gun, terrorism is evil, ruthless and merciless. Nowhere in the civilized world people justify terrorism - whatever the reason.

Image: Does this look like an election campaign?

Now tell that to PA, JHU and the Weerawansa faction of JVP that not only embrace the terrorism, but fight till their last drop of blood for the ‘right’ of a terrorist to bear arms completely illegally.

PILLAYAN IS A TERRORIST. No doubt about it. He has no legal provisions to bear guns. He has no legal provisions to kill or threaten innocent people. He is a criminal. In a more civilized country such a criminal would be behind the bars. In our country that type of criminals contest elections, ironically with the blessings of political parties that publicly claim their sole intention is a build a ‘Dharma Rajya’.

If there are free and fair elections in the East there is no doubt that UNP and SLMC alliance would win with a massive margin. This is not something tolerated by the fragile minds of the current government. They know what a blow it can be to already weak regime. So they have no option that hanging to the lion cloth of Pillayan to win the election, by the means of gun.

Image: No matter how hard PA and JHU leaders try to convince themselves, Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman alias Kokila Dushmantha Gunawardene, the leader of Pillayan group is a terrorist and not a director of wildlife departments as was claimed by him.

What is more pathetic is hardly anybody seems to understand the danger of bringing a terrorist leader like Pillayan into power. It would be the loss for the nation. Are we this stupid to offer the entire Eastern province to this atrocious terrorist in a plate?

The election on May 10th will not be a fight between UNP and PA. It is neither a fight between Tamils and Muslims or Hakeem and Pillayan. It is more a fight between Democracy and terrorism.

And it would be the duty of all right minded people to ensure the victory of democracy. What we need least is another terrorist grabbing the Eastern province of the country.

නැගෙනහිරදී හමුදාව ලැබූ ජයග්‍රහණය ආපස්සට

මාර්තු 12 - නැගෙනහිරදී හමුදාව ලැබූ ජයග්‍රහණය රජය ආපස්සට දමා ඇතැයි විපක්ෂ නායක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා පවසයි.

ඔහු මේ බව ප්‍රකාශ කළේ, එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය අද පෙරවරුවේ රාජගිරිය මැතිවරණ මහ ලේකම් කාර්යාලය ඉදිරිපිට පැවැත්වූ උද්ඝෝෂණයේදීය.

මඩකලපුව පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයට විරෝධය දක්වමින් මෙම උද්ඝෝෂණය පැවැත්වුණේ, විපක්ෂ නායක රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතාගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙනි.

උද්ඝෝෂකයින් පැවසුවේ, ප්‍රජාතන්ත්‍ර විරෝධී මෙම මැතිවරණය තමන් පිළි නොගන්නා බවය.

www.ethalaya.com