Sri Lanka, April 9 -- Excessive hype would result in excessive hope. Excessive and idealistic hopes would end up in disappointment. This is not something new to Sri Lankans. They experience it in two or three years after every regime change in the country.

Chandrika Kumaratunga assumed office as President with great hopes among the masses following a 17 year long United National Party (UNP) rule.

She obtained a hitherto unbroken record 62 per cent of votes at the 1994 Presidential Election. Yet, she would sometimes have lost the subsequent election in 1999 hadn't the LTTE blown up a suicide bomber targeting her at the final election meeting at the Colombo Town Hall grounds.

Mahinda Rajapaksa's charisma was at such a peak in 2010 with t...