And there you have it

So the result - what a result. I had a fair idea that was going to be the case, at the end of the day Rajapakse is a preferable option to a more unstable Army General. There is a lot of unhappiness in Colombo but that is amongst the more middle upper class, businessmen and women - the most vociferous of the lot.

At the same time, many Tamils in the North (Vanni) voted for Fonseka but equally many Tamils further north (Jaffna) and in the East (Trinco, Pudu, Ampara) voted for Rajapakse. Ironically the usually angry Tamil diaspora sided with the Fonseka crew not realising that they were aligning themselves with what they call the 'Colombo elite' who they hate and continually condemn as being manipulative and ignorant of the needs of the people on grassroot level.

At the end of the day, if there is anything I have learnt from this election is that anyone will side with anybody as long as they are set to benefit as individuals - not as a community or race. So we're a selfish race but what a place to start - at least its only up from here. And this election has been the most comedic mish mash of people coming together taking sides with others I never would have imagined - its like Cilla Black's Blind Date on crack cocaine.

The point is, we just need to commit ourselves as individuals and as a nation to putting pressure on people we know who have influence in high places to start the reconciliation process. And more importantly to start making sure that we address the needs of the Tamil people because they have been silenced and ignored for too long.