‘Ammi Met The President And Told Him’ – Hirunika
By Namini Wijedasa -
Hirunika: did she ‘sell-out’ on the statue?
Won’t cave in even if mother does
Hirunika Premachandra, the daughter of assassinated SLFP politician Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, is unhappy that her mother recently accepted a coordinating secretary position from President Mahinda Rajapaksa but said she understands her reasons for it.The young law student and aspiring politician also said she would not join the government and has not accepted any money from the SLFP for the erection of her late father’s statue. And she will continue to fight for justice in the killing of Bharatha Lakshman and three others in October 2011.
“Our official residence in Summit Flats and the vehicle we use was under my father’s name, allocated to the position he held as presidential advisor,” Hirunika said, in an interview last week. “Under normal procedure, we would have had to vacate the house and to return the vehicle three months after he died. But our own house in Kolonnawa is not suitable for us to move into.”Hirunika said she advised her mother, Sumana Premachandra, to borrow money from her Canada-based cousins to rent out another space. This would have enabled them to move out of Summit Flats but Sumana was worried about security, particularly for her daughter. She felt the official residence was in a good, safe environment.
“So ammi met the president and told him,” Hirunika recounted. “The president said we would have to move out of the house because he couldn’t extend the facilities after three months. She said, ‘What should I do’. And he said, ‘Ok, I can give you a coordinating secretary position so that you keep the house and vehicle. This is what ammi did.”
There have been rumours of disagreements between Hirunika and her mother. “Whenever there is an argument in this house, it’s on this,” she admitted. “I don’t approve of it at all. I said that the only reason I can’t speak out is that we are living in a government flat. If there are rumours of conflict, this is the conflict.”
But, she said, she loved her mother. “As a mother, what she did is right,” she reflected. “She wanted to save the house and vehicle. Thaththi had wanted to demolish the Kolonnawa house after the local government election saying when I get married I can’t go out of a house like that. He had applied for loans but suddenly this thing happened and we couldn’t do anything. That’s the only reason we are here (official residence).”
