The huge crowd at Kirulapone for the Joint Opposition May Day rally was easily the biggest gathering on the day. Even more significant was that the tremendous JointOp crowd gathered despite the Pambaya pulling out all the stops to try and derail the rally. The JointOp was victorious against various regime threats, intimidation, sackings of Mahinda loyalist party organizers, police obstructions, and a complete lack of any state resources.

The official SLFP rally, purposefully held in far away Galle to prevent SLFP members attending Kirulapone, was a disaster. The tiny crowd didn’t even fill half the ground. Anticipating such a failure, the Pambaya had moved the stage forward, to be close to the entrance. And they had provided seats for everyone, which would take up even more space. There are rumors that the regime even forced the Navy to provide food and drinks to all participants. But this was all to no avail, as even the small space they artificially created at the Samanala grounds wasn’t filled. And let’s not forget the torrential downpour that literally poured cold water on the anemic event. If this was meant to be Pambaya’s relaunch, it looked more like his retirement party.

The communist-socialist JVP rally was tiny. That is all that needs to be said about the newest – and most ironic – affiliate of the capitalist-globalist UNP: they are tiny. Speaking of the UNP, we cannot even talk about the crowd size, as for some reason, no overhead footage is available with which to estimate the success or failure of the rally. With all the resources of the state, free publicity, and what we would expect to be an excited grassroots, the UNP should have flaunted their new-found power (and popularity?) by showing everyone their “large” crowd. But it looks like the honeymoon period has already ended for Ranil and his band of clowns.

If we want a real measure of the success of the Kirulapone rally, we can do away with crowd sizes and the various claims made by a failing regime which has driven the economy off a cliff. We need only look at the aftermath of the historic day.

Less than 12 hours after the Kirulapone rally, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s professional army commando security detail was removed. This was apparently replaced by half-asleep police constables, and was allegedly just a procedural matter. But the intention was made clear in the action itself and later confirmed during a press conference given by political reject, failed MP candidate, and now unelected SLFP backdoor Irrigation Minister, Vijith “Appachchi Mala” Soysa (paraphrased):

Mahind doesn’t need army security with which to parade around the country trying to topple the government.

When questioned about this in parliament by Dinesh Gunawardane, Leader of the Joint Opposition, the prime minister instead of answering gave the floor to the disgraced former army commander Sarath Fonseka – himself imprisoned for corruption, a failed presidential candidate in 2010, and rejected parliamentary candidate in 2015, who is now an unelected UNP MP and the backdoor Minister for regional development. Fonseka rose to his feet and proceeded to read out a prepared speech from a piece of paper – indicating the removal of the former president’s security was planned well in advance.

Fonseka’s speech consisted mostly of the tired list of his personal grudges against Mahinda Rajapaksa. He then added the bombshell that Mahinda Rajapaksa had ordered the suicide bombing of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2006, in order to gain sympathy from the public. His “proof” of this was that no Tamil terrorist “suicide bomber would ever explode their suicide vest 25 metres away from the intended target.” How he knows the intricacies of suicide bombing operations — generally and also specifically regarding the Gotabaya bombing — is anyone’s guess, but since he hangs around with and has been an agent of the Tamil terrorist-affiliated TNA since his alliance with them for the 2010 presidential bid, I suppose he is well versed in terrorist tactics.

The fact that Fonseka, who has no right to even sit in the parliament, let alone give speeches regarding Rajapaksa’s security, was allowed to give an incendiary and delusional speech caused uproar in the ranks of the JointOp, with many members entering the well of the parliament. The UNP’s attitude to opposition was aptly shown by UNP minister Thewarapperuma, who decided to start punching the JointOp MPs. Ranil-Pambaya’s planned disruption using the Fonseka-grenade worked perfectly, as we are still without an explanation from the prime minister about the removal of Rajapaksa’s security.

From the utterances of the two unelected Ministers Soysa and Fonseka what we can see is that the Ranil-Pambaya regime, which no one actually voted for, is now so weak, and so scared after the Kirulapone rally turnout that they are literally putting the life of the man who saved the country at risk, in order to preserve their own power. Rajapaksa is made of sterner stuff, and will not be cowed by such intimidation. Any harm that befalls him as a result of a Tamil terrorist action or underworld attack will lie at the feet of the undemocratic Ranil-Pambaya regime.