Sajith Premadasa is seen by many as the next leader of the UNP. In the first part of this wide ranging, two part interview, he speaks to  C.A.Chandraprema about the various accusations that have been levelled against him and his father with regard to the present sorry state of the party.

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, widely acknowledged as the architect of Malaysia’s modernization, who was in Sri Lana to deliver the keynote address at the International Business Forum, granted the Daily Mirror an exclusive print media interview yesterday.

A significant event in Tamil transnational politics occurred a fortnight ago in historic Philadelphia city in the US state of Pennsylvania. About 70 -75 persons gathered on Monday May 17th for a three-day conclave. The venue was the National Convention Center situated on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall at 525 Arch Street.

Both the dates and location were symbolically significant. It was in Mid-May last year that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) militarily at the Karaithuraipatru AGA division in the North – Eastern district of Mullaitheevu.

The LTTE chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was thought to be a military genius and invincible by most Sri Lankan and international analysts. Admittedly, he did hold the Sri Lankan state to ransom for three decades, and performed many military feats. But ultimately, he completely failed.

Asked to explain the dramatic turn of events in the course of 2008-2009, Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, Head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological Universityin Singaporesaid that Prabhakaran made two strategic mistakes: One was to transform his guerilla and terrorist outfit into a conventional armed force. The other was to believe that the Sri Lankan state could be militarily defeated.

“Turning the LTTE into a conventional army was the single biggest mistake Prabhakaran had made,” Gunaratna told Express over the phone on Tuesday.