Mendis Arrack sponsors Namal baby’s car race

Thursday, 19 December 2013

It is Mendis Arrack Company, of which a majority of shares is owned by minister Johnston Fernando that had sponsored the Colombo night races carnival by MP Namal Rajapaksa, eldest son of the president. 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa mutters 24 hours a day about ‘Mathata Thitha’ (full stop to alcohol), but the tickets for the race had overleaf ‘sponsored by Mendis.’

It is not yet clear which ministry supervises this car race, although it is Jayaratne Herath’s public recreation ministry or the sports ministry that should have to bear that responsibility. However, the cars that are on this race are being given import duty relief, the Colombo Municipal Council exempts the race from entertainment tax and the army prepares the Colombo roads for the races.

The ‘Rajapaksa princes’ use public money at will and are not accountable to anyone over their spending. It is ironical that not even the public recreation minister had been given an invitation to witness the ‘Carlton car races’ being held at a loss of millions of rupees for the country.

The patriotic Jathika Hela Urumaya, Bodu Bala Sena etc. may be crying out day and night for a country free of alcohol and gambling, but they keep unawares over such extravaganzas being held with sponsorship by alcohol companies. There is a justifiable question as to whether the involvement of the president’s eldest son nullifies everything else.