Come clean and say how you raised this money
Are we seeing only the tip of the iceberg? It is not just Yoshitha, but the entire ruling clan of the Rajapaksas are currently under investigation for various alleged financial misdemeanours. There is also a revelation of overseas secret accounts running into hundreds of millions of dollars.
by Lalith Allahakkoon
( February 12, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) So the cat is out of the bag. Details have surfaced to indicate that Yoshitha Rajapaksa, second son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, could not have established the Carlton Sports Network (CSN) based, not just on his own official income, but the official income of his father, elder brother Namal and his put together. Speaking at a news briefing on Wednesday UNP National List MP Ashu Marasinghe demanded to know how the Rajapaksa trio (assuming that MR and Namal too contributed) set up the CSN, investing a capital of Rs. 340 million when their combined accumulated income since 1970, (when Rajapaksa senior first entered Parliament) was only a little under Rs. 21 million. From where did the rest of the millions come?
Are we seeing only the tip of the iceberg? It is not just Yoshitha, but the entire ruling clan of the Rajapaksas are currently under investigation for various alleged financial misdemeanours. There is also a revelation of overseas secret accounts running into hundreds of millions of dollars. Hence Yoshitha’s case cannot be taken in isolation. One of the chief campaign planks of the Yahapalanaya government was to expose the persons who plundered the country’s wealth and what is more to bring that wealth where it really belongs to.
It is hoped that at least Udaya Gammanpila who defended Yoshitha to the hilt saying that the Rajapaksa sibling had no connection to the CSN network could provide an answer. Gammanpila, to begin with is yet to reply to the valid point raised by Anura Kumara Dissanayake when he made this claim. Dissanayake asked how come when everything connected to Carlton – The Carlton Sports Club, Carlton Rugby, Carlton Basketball, Carlton pre school etc. is owned by the Rajapaksa’s the Carlton Sports Network can be an exception? What is more, Nishantha Ranatunga who was a close associate of the Rajapaksas and who was the Chairman of Mihin Lanka was made Chairman of CSN. And here is the clincher. The Chairman of CSN prior to that was non other than the fiancee of Yoshitha, the link severed only after the break up of the affair. Whom is Gammanpila trying to fool?
True, the Rajapaksas must have had their own private incomes and personal wealth, being heirs to a well known political family in the South. But even with the accumulation of all this wealth it is hard to believe that a single member of the Rajapaksa family and a youth in his mid twenties at that could afford to splurge some Rs. 320 million on a single project. (Yoshitha’s known income as Lieutenant in the Navy was Rs. 3. 1 million). This is not just against one member of the Rajapaksa family but the tentacles have spread far and wide as is emerging from the spate of investigations that the Rajapaksa has been subjected to. Nay, it is not just them, but one has to combine the investigations involving all those who were closely linked to the former first family to come to a reasonable conclusion that Yothitha’s was not just a one off affair but only a part of the canker that spread far and wide under the Rajapaksas. Yoshitha was only emblematic of the enormity of the profligacy that went unchecked. The Chief of Staff of the former President had 66 Bank accounts in his name while newspapers reported yesterday that the Colombo Chief Magistrate had ordered the CID to furnish a report pertaining to 79 bank accounts in the name of three members of the former President’s security detail.
Yoshitha Rajapaksa can come out clean and say how he raised this money. Now that all the details are known it would not be possible for the Rajapaksas to dodge the issue and claim that they are victims of a political witch hunt. Besides, Rajapaksa is already on record claiming that his son had done no wrong. All he has to do is assist the ongoing investigations to justify his contention. If not the finger will be pointed in his direction. In the same way he should forthwith clear all allegations pertaining to the Rajapaksas without waiting for the investigators, if indeed they are clean.
( The writer is the Editor of Daily News, a daily newspaper based in Colombo)
