by Chrishmal Warnasuriya I’ve been moved to put pen to paper for public consumption. Those who have followed my previous contributions may recall that I was a regular guest columnist and frequently appeared on your screens in the late evenings but all of that came to almost a complete halt with the defeat of the UNP at the last General Election; I had literally given up, previously having worked with various civil society and pressure groups for almost three decades, trying to change the course of our Nation, I felt it was time to let-go and keep quiet. It was not only the massive loss the UNP suffered in 2020, when for the first time in my life I joined a political party to contest an election, under the incumbent President Wickremesinghe but also the disappointment of two previous attempts; in 2015 as a nominee professional on the JVP National List (which two seats we secured they decided to fill with defeated comrades) and then in 2019, when many of us civil activists got behind a common candidate, Gen.
(Retd) Mahesh Senanayake encouraging the voters to shed party allegiances and support the professionals to build a new nation. We all know what happened, 6.9 million voters elected the “ weda karana ape wiruwa ” with an astounding majority (and the Wiruwa then abandoned ship and fled) whilst the people didn’t even let our man muster 50K in total.
Thus, it was that in complete disgust and utter frustration I resigned to my practice, recommenced my international work .