Western forces are trying to destabilise the country using the upcoming presidential election charged Minister Weerawansa, accusing the West of imposing the name "Sri Lanka" on what he described as the "lion blood" nation.

"We have to be very careful. The Western countries need only a weak President for Sri Lanka. I don’t think that even the government has realized this danger," he told The Nation in an interview published Sunday.

See here for full interview. Extracts of his responses reproduced below:

"At the last presidential election, Western countries had a plan and they worked and funded it. It was finding a person who could give a good fight to President Mahinda Rajapaksa there by diverting the support of the parties like the TNA and JVP to that candidate. They found former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka and went according to the plan, but failed as the people had confidence in the President," he added.

"This time, the same forces have another plan. Ranil Wickremasinghe will be contesting representing the UNP and Anura Kumara Dissanayake will be contesting from the JVP. And at the same time, Ven. Sobhitha Thera will also be contesting while the TNA is also sending its own candidate.  The TNA tells their voters to mark the second preference in favor of Ranil Wickremasinghe while voting first for their own man. With two many candidates from the South, there is a probability of any candidate failing to get over 50 percent of the votes."

"Just imagine! President Rajapaksa takes over 51 percent and wins, and then those Western forces would say, “We do not accept such a president as he hadn’t the option to contest for a third time. In any case, if no one gets over 50 percent, then we have to go for a second counting. That time period will be used to put the country in trouble. The anti-Sri Lankan forces on social media networks and other flat-forms will begin their activities."

"we don’t need foreigners or intellectuals from overseas as we have possessed fine talent. There is another matter to highlight. That is our nation was known as Sinha Le (Lion’s blood). It was the Sudda fellow (Westerner) who invaded our country and changed the name to Sri Lanka. From that day onwards, we are suffering with a bad disease. That is looking for or inviting the foreigners to do or advise on us how to do our things. I would say that is a birth defect (Uthpaththi doshayak). It is high time to realize this."