Some yahapalanaya high-ups these days’ recount with great relish how they managed to sign the controversial Hambantota port lease agreement in a relatively calm atmosphere after outmaneuvering opposition political forces who were raring to create a hullabaloo to mar the big event.

Both JO and Red activists were fully prepared to stage a series of protests on that particular Saturday fixed for signing the agreement.   However, in the meantime, the nerve centre of yahapalanaya issued a media communique announcing that the signing of the agreement was postponed for the following Tuesday. So the opposition forces set for action on Saturday changed their plans accordingly.

However, come Friday evening, the government announced again that the agreement would be signed on Saturday as initially planned. By this time practically all opposition activists had gone out of Colombo with instructions to return on Tuesday and it was too late for the JO and red leaders to regroup their activists for protest action. 

So the event proceeded smoothly with hardly any incident to mar it.