President Mahinda Calls His Ex-Ambassador NGO Man; Dayan Challenges President To Name NGO
September 28, 2013
President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday for the first time openly criticised his former Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Dayan Jayatillake, saying he was making political statements and claiming he was now working for a non-Governmental organisation.
Responding to a question by the Al Jazeera Interviewer about the fact that his former Ambassador had strongly criticised the Government’s actions in Weliweriya where the armed forces are accused of shooting unarmed civilians, the President accused Jayatillaka of making statements for political reasons.
Dr. Dayan
“But he was your Ambassador, Mr. President,” the Al Jazeera reporter said.
“Yes he was my ambassador, but now he is a member of a very powerful NGO so they have their own views,” the President retorted, adding that this was a “democracy and anyone could say anything.”
The Al Jazeera reporter was quoting from Jayatilleka’s comment on the shootings at Weliweriya in which he noted: “The obvious observations will be, if this is how the State authorities treat unarmed Sinhalese, largely Buddhist civilian men, women and children who are protesting against polluted water, how must that state have treated the Tamils in the closing stages of the war?” Dr. Jayatilleka told Colombo Telegraph that the President’s assertion or allegation was completely and utterly without foundation in fact.
“Doubtless the President has been grossly misinformed,” he said.
The former Ambassador said the last time he was a member of a NGO was three decades ago, when he was a member of the now defunct Movement for Inter-Racial Justice and Equality in Sri Lanka.
“I can state unambiguously and categorically that I am not a member of any NGO, large or small, international or local,” Jayatilleka told Colombo Telegraph, adding, “I would also like to know which NGO I am supposed to belong to”.
A Terminal Crisis Of Electoral Existence
Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka
The steep decline of the United National Party (UNP), which failed to score even an average of 30% of the votes in the two provinces outside the North shows that the main democratic alternative is in the grip of a potentially terminal crisis. This has a very severe consequence for the equilibrium of the polity and the future of democracy.
In the North-Western and the Central Provinces, the incumbent administration has been able to secure an average of over 60% votes, which is a considerable achievement for any government, especially at a time of economic hardship. Since the campaign was led by President Rajapaksa, it is a personal victory and evidence of his continuing appeal among the Sinhala voters.
An impressive individual victory has also been scored by Dayasiri Jayasekara, who has seized the imagination of the public as a rising star in national politics.
The election has been a relative victory for General Sarath Fonseka, who even without his full civic rights and well-known names on his ticket has been able to emerge the third force, knocking the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) into the fourth place.
The biggest losers are the UNP and its leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe, as well as the JVP. In both cases, the issue is the leadership. Neither party has a personality as a national leader, who is capable of retaining, let alone attracting, votes.Read More
