evidence: If the glittering promise of the ‘Jathika Jana Balavegaya’ (NPP) is supposed to offer a better, brighter Sri Lanka to put an end to the ’76 year old curse’ of its political rivals, it is time that NPP Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake refrains from justifying his actions during the run-up to the September 21st Presidential elections on the basis that, ‘others are doing it, why not me?’ [...] But Sri Lanka has been in election mode for months. Is it not incumbent upon political parties, not only the NPP but also the ‘Samagi Jana Balavegaya’ led by its Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa (as the two parties which hold themselves out as the ‘new guard’ as opposed to the ‘old), to show good faith in the sources of funding for numerous activities (including the much publicized programme of unveiling ‘smart’ classrooms in schools) that amount to a forerunner to the official election campaign? And then we have Mr Dissanayake’s explanation that no election laws had been violated by his attending the National Convention of Nurses in Maharagama. That was argued to be a trade union meeting organized by the ‘Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’ (JVP or the NPP’s political avatar as the case may be) which the NPP presidential candidate attended as a ‘guest’ (in actual fact, the ‘chief guest.’)