UNP has given guarantees to corrupt SLFP ministers --
Prof. Sarath Wijesuriya
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June 9, 2016, 9:23 pm
Professor Sarath Wijesuriya took over the mantle of Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera as the head of the Movement for a Just Society after the latter’s demise. In this interview, he speaks to C. A. Chandraprema about their campaign to have the corruption allegations against members of the previous government investigated.
Q. You had asked for the expediting of corruption probes against members of the previous government. Why do you think the probes are not being carried out expeditiously?
A. We have doubts about certain matters. The first is that due to this scramble to build up the SLFP, certain people are being protected. One example of this is getting Sajin Vaas Gunawardene involved in the SLFP again. We are not happy about that. Furthermore we got to know that no action is being taken on allegations against those members of the previous government who are now serving in the cabinet. We have got to know from a reliable source that Minister Malik Samarawickrema has given them guarantees in this regard. We are dead against that as well. If someone is corrupt and state property has been misused you can’t let someone off on the grounds that he belongs to a certain political party. If political deals are being made for the sake of political power, there is no good governance there. We have doubts about certain things that are happening within the judiciary as well. We can see that the judiciary is being interfered with to get certain things done. One example is the case of the Magistrate who was accused of owning an elephant without legal sanction. It appears that sections of the judiciary are trying to protect him. Then there was the example of Ven. Uduwe Dhammaloka coming out of remand prison and claiming that he got bail without even applying for it, through a special team who had been tasked with obtaining bail for him. The reason why we asked for the expediting of corruption probes is because there is no justification for the delays.
Q. When I spoke to the spokesman of the Movement for a Just Society Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri before the last presidential election, what he said was that Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha thera should be the common candidate because a politician cannot be relied on. Ultimately however the common candidate was an individual who had been in the political system. What guarantee do the people have about how clean the people in the yahapalana government are?
A. The Movement for a Just Society began with a statement made by Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha thera at a gathering at the BMICH that he will dedicate the rest of his life to abolishing the executive presidency. As our movement gradually took shape, the general opinion among us was that we cannot place our trust in people in the main political parties. We were thinking mainly on the lines of an apolitical candidate. We never thought the presidential election would come so soon. We were expecting to carry our campaign countrywide over four or five years. But when a snap election was called, we needed a common candidate. However it was not possible to build up an apolitical candidate in the short time available. We had to settle for someone who could face the election. It was in this background that Maithripala Sirisena’s name was suggested. But all of us had doubts whether we can achieve our aims with a politician who had been in the system for a long time. In the end we had to make do with what we had.
