18 January 2017 09:23 am
All indications are that the Hambantota Industrial Zone (HIZ) project has run into serious trouble with the JO dead set to upset the apple cart.
However, the second in command in yahapalanaya who has set his heart on this project appears determined to go ahead with it come hell or high water. Having got around the elder sibling – the former Diyawanna chair to support the project, the other day he took the soft-spoken elderly politico along with him on a visit to all Buddhist temples in Ruhuna in a bid to win over the Maha Sangha.
The militants in the JO camp had gone into a flutter on hearing about the elder sibling’s new tie-up with the second in command and had complained about the new development to their mentor, the former strongman: “Sir, when they are battering us, he is getting pally with them…”
However, the former strongman had expressed his reluctance to intervene in the matter out of his respect of the elder sibling.
Nevertheless, the JO militants had kept mounting pressure on the former strongman who had finally pacified them by sending a message to his elder sibling, they say.