“The Great November Revolution” debuts

Author Dinesh Weerakkody presents his book “The Great November Revolution” to President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday at its launch held at the BMICH. Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne and Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva look on - Pic by Krishan Ranasinghe

Dinesh Weerakkody last night launched his fifth book titled “The Great November Revolution” with President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe in attendance among senior Ministers, politicians, clergy, diplomats and business leaders.

The story of this book is about how civic-minded citizens, regardless of their party colour, got together with that singleness of purpose, to bring back good governance and fair play into the administration. 

Weerakkody says in his Preface that The November Revolution is a very inspiring account of what he saw what happened between 7August2014 and 9January2015, never told beforehand inscrutably unimaginable.

He says it highlights the courage of a handful of people. The political change that took place in January 2015 electrified the country. Three months before when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa (MR) announced early presidential elections, hardly anyone would have believed that he would be unseated so soon.

He had seemingly utilised a winning formula of engineering Sinhala Buddhist nationalism on a mass scale by referring to threats to the nation from as assortment of enemies that included the country’s own ethnic and religious minorities, the Tamil diaspora and the Western-led international community. He coupled this with giving unsustainable handouts to the people, especially at election time, or even prior to that in September 2014, the month in which the Uva Provincial Council elections were held. 

The book is priced at Rs. 1,000 and will be available in the bookstores from the first week of December. All proceeds will be donated to the National Kidney Foundation.