Tension between President Maithri and the UNP settled but not solved

 DEC 23 2018

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took oaths before President Maithripala Sirisena  last Sunday by creating history as the only person who was appointed as the Prime Minister for five times and sending former President Mahinda Rajapaksa down country’s political history by making him the shortest serving  Prime Minister.

Rajapaksa resigned from the Prime Minister’s post on 15 December 2018, after serving for 50 days by becoming shortest serving Prime Minister in the country’s history after the late Dr. W. Dahanayake.

Dahanayake was in office for a little under six months from 26 September 1959 to 20 March 1960. Wickremesinghe’s removal from office on 26 October triggered a Constitutional furore that snowballed into a major political crisis, where the country was heading for a shutdown. Speaking to supporters and the media shortly after he took his oaths, Wickremesinghe declared that the country was heading for utter turmoil following the Constitutional crisis and the job at hand for his Government was to stabilise the economy and bring in more development among other matters that will benefit the masses.

He made these remarks at the Prime Minister’s official residence, the ‘Temple Trees’, in Colombo yesterday.

Premier Wickremesinghe added that the new Government would work to save the country from further havoc and towards this end the next step would be to appoint a fresh Cabinet of Ministers at the very earliest.

 “The development we started for this country was unfortunately halted during the past 50 days. As the very first duty, we should make the country stable and start from where we left. For the past three and a half years we worked for our people, but now I pledge that I will bring good governance where the citizen’s sovereignty is protected.”

Wickremesinghe pledged to build up a society with a powerful economy and added that this is a victory for the citizens and for Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions.
“We are proud to say that the Parliament and the Judiciary worked and performed according to the laws and regulations of the country and on the other hand, the sovereignty of the Parliament was protected by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s contribution.”

Speaking further, Wickremesinghe said that by the interpretation of the Constitution, people became aware of their true independence in the country.
“We want to spend a normal life. We need our development and we worked for it. And this is the good result that we gained. I thank everyone who stood firm in defending the Constitution and ensuring the triumph of democracy,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Sirisena after reinstating Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister was engaged in a scathing attack on the Government, clearly indicating he was not willing to let go of the past.

“I clearly pointed out in the recent past in the matter regarding filing cases against Bhikkhus need to be done carefully. There were no elephants for the Perahera from temples or Dewalas and that resulted in a major socio-religious and cultural resistance over this. As such, I asked to study the legality and release the elephants. Over this issue, we lost the support of the entire Bhikkhu community.
I must also clearly mention about imprisoning the members of the tri-forces. I asked not to imprison our soldiers who have fought in battles and defeated terrorism; but nobody listened to me. As our army is a disciplined and cultured army, they act with patience.

Today, the international community ask us to punish our soldiers, from all over the world, yet they do not ask for punishments for the people of Prabhakaran who have destroyed our army and innocent people. Even today, the senior leaders of the LTTE freely roam around in many countries in the world. The same international forces point fingers at us and demand investigating into actions of the Army. The LTTEers are the ones who committed all these wrongdoings. But the international community still demands conducting inquires against our forces.
 They accuse us of violating human rights and international laws. But, they killed nearly 100,000 members of our tri-forces, police, civil defence forces as well as a President of this country. So, where is a programme to find and bring to justice those who have committed all these gross violations and now hiding in various parts of the world? The international community is silent about it. Not even anyone in the country talks about it.  If the members of our security forces are to be punished, the LTTEers should also be punished. If not, both sides should agree to remove those punishments. Here, I clearly hold a firm view that the forces should be freed after discussing with the international community.
 There is a request that Tamil prisoners with LTTE connections should be released. We held several discussions. If the Tamil prisoners are to be freed, then our soldiers should also be freed from different court cases that have been filed against them. That is justice. You cannot do this merely by investigating into one side.

During the recent incidents, your debaters said that I will be dragged and be murdered like Gaddafi. Some of your MPs said I will also be burnt in my own house with my family. The NGO operatives who were holding press conferences also said so. Why do they say that? No State leader in this country had been targeted like this. There were severe issues in the country during the tenure of President J.R. Jayewardene who was considered as a very strict ruler. I was imprisoned because I spoke against J.R. Jayewardene’s Government.

Even J.R. Jayewardene was not talked about like this; President Premadasa was not treated like this. How many misdeeds were committed against Chandrika Bandaranaike? Nobody talked about them like that. Nobody said Mahinda Rajapaksa will be dragged like Gaddafi. I was threatened like that because I am the only person who would silently watch. If the former leaders including J.R. were insulted like that, nobody would have been able to save their lives. But they know that the house of a man like me could be burnt down and person like me could be dragged liked that.

Just as there are good people, there are criminals and underworld gangs. It was those evil forces that made those barbaric pronouncements. I did not see anyone of you making a statement about the conspiracy to assassinate me. The conspiracy has not yet been proven, but it has certain particulars that should be clearly addressed. As the Police are under me these days, there is a big progress in these investigations. Yet the biggest misfortune is that when the conspiracy to assassinate the President of the country was taken up in the courts, there was not a single person of the Criminal Investigations Department to be found in the court premises.”

Appointing Cabinet

Even though Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was reinstated appointing a Cabinet of Ministers was delayed due to disagreements between the President and the Prime Minister over the allocation of ministerial portfolios. On the other hand UNP Leader Wickremesinghe was also under pressure by his own party men over ministry allocations.

President Sirisena was said to have cut down the list of Cabinet Ministers from the original 36 to 28.

He has said that the Cabinet should comprise only of 30 ministers, including President, Prime Minister and 28 Ministers.

He is said to have stressed that members of the SLFP or UPFA who join the UNF Government, would not be given ministerial portfolios and they will also not receive his blessings.

Meanwhile, at a meeting of UNF MPs held in the Parliament under the patronage of PM Wickremesinghe earlier on in the week, MPs Sajith Premadasa and Naveen Dissanayake had stressed that the MPs with corruption allegations should not be given ministerial portfolios.

After deliberating on the list for three days, the Cabinet of 29 ministers was finally sworn in by President Sirisena on Thursday.

Not even a minute attempt was made from the side of the President Sirisena to hide that he was doing everything under duress as there was no choice left. Not only was there no formal ceremony organised to swear in ministers, but they were taken into a room at the Presidential Secretariat, one by one.

Doors were closed to media and only President’s Media Division was allowed to cover the swearing-in of each minister. While, only few accepted their appointment letters with a broad smile, everyone else was unable to hide their confusion and disappointment. Almost all ministers were confused about the manner in which things had been arranged while others were extremely disappointed about the portfolios they received.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has reportedly refused to have any eye contact with President Sirisena when he took oaths as Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms, Northern Development, and Vocational Training, Skill Development and Youth Affairs.

John Amaratunga on the other hand was happy to be appointed the Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs and was one of the few who was cordial with the President.

Ravi Karunanayake, who had to previously step down as the Minister of Foreign Affairs over allegations that arose out of the probe into the Central Bank Treasury Bonds scam, was appointed Minister of Power and Energy and Enterprise Development.

The accepted tradition once a new Cabinet of Ministers is sworn in is for the President to pose for a group photograph with the newly appointed Prime Minister and the Cabinet but this was not the case after the swearing-in of the 29-Member Cabinet.

President Sirisena had reportedly left the Presidential Secretariat in less than 10 minutes after the swearing-in of the new Cabinet.

No portfolios

In the appointment of the UNF Cabinet of Ministers, three former ministers were overlooked.

Parliamentarians Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, D.M. Swaminathan and Ravindra Samaraweera had not been assigned ministries.

While it was reported President Sirisena has vehemently opposed giving a portfolio to Fonseka until he extended an apology to President publicly for his previous derogatory remarks, Swaminathan had been denied a ministerial portfolio due to immense pressure from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The TNA has threatened to withdraw its support to PM Wickremesinghe in the event of Swaminathan was appointed a minister.

Four other UNF MPs, Thilak Marapana PC, Malik Samarawickrema, Rishad Bathiudeen and Mano Ganesan, who had claimed they will not take Cabinet posts during the UNF Parliamentary group meeting, earlier in the week, were reinstated in their former posts.

Another UNP MP who was recently noted for going back and forth from the UNP to the UPFA, Parliamentarian Vasantha Senanayaka was also not given a Cabinet posting at yesterday’s swearing-in of the new Cabinet.

Furthermore, three SLFP and UPFA Parliamentarians, who crossed over at the last session of Parliament, namely Vijith Vijithamuni Zoysa, Indika Bandaranayaka and Lakshman Seneviratna were also similarly overlooked for Cabinet posts.

The President had also kept his word of not providing any Ministerial posts to the three Sri Lanka SLFP and UPFA Parliamentarians who had recently crossed over to the United National Front (UNF) Government ranks.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe condemned the conduct of some print and electronic media which he referred to as "Black Media".

Wickremesinghe said that a debate on these "Black Media" would be held in January in the House. "The names of these Black Media will be listed out from top to bottom. I hope media will give us a live coverage for this debate. Remember, two can play this game." he said.

The PM said that legal action could be taken against some of the press and media stations that have carried wrong particulars on the names proposed by the Prime Minister for the Cabinet. "Some press reports said that I had proposed MP Vijith Wijayamuni Zoysa’s name for the Cabinet. But I did not. These media stations better get their cheque books ready to pay penalties for such irresponsible reporting. Are you going to correct this story? Are you going to broadcast my speech today?" he said in Parliament on Friday.

SF on assassination plot

UNP Parliamentarian Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka on Friday said in Parliament that IGP Pujith Jayasundara had informed Speaker Karu Jayasuriya that there was no evidence linking him to the alleged plot to assassinate President Maithripala Sirisena.

Fonseka said on 9 November he had made a request to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to inquire from Jayasundara whether he had any involvement in the assassination attempt as the matter concerned his parliamentary privilege and his position as an MP.

“Following my request, the Speaker took swift action and had asked for a clarification from Jayasundara on the matter. The latter has now sent a letter to the Speaker in this regard. He had attached a report obtained from the Head of the CID, Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne,” he added.

Fonseka then read out the IGP’s letter along with the report from the CID to the House and tabled them.

“Seneviratne has informed the IGP that there were no complaints against me and they haven’t found any evidence that I have any involvement in the case.  Now it is clear that I had nothing to do with this alleged assassination attempt. However, there is this madman, Operations Director of the Anti-Corruption Force Namal Kumara and he is continuously issuing statements dragging my name. Certain media stations give publicity to such statements. I request the Speaker to advise such media stations not to give publicity to such fake news as it is a violation of our privileges,” Fonseka concluded.

Who blocked investigations?

The Presidential Secretariat yesterday alleged that a parliamentary Sectoral Committee had deliberately undermined the process to amend laws required to handle Treasury bond scams in 2015 and 2016. The alleged scams involved the Central Bank and the Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL).

The Presidential Secretariat also alleged though the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) that probed Treasury bond scams had recommended a forensic audit on 18 January, 2018, it had not been launched.

The media was briefed on the ongoing probe following a meeting chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday 21 December. Among those present were Attorney General Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, Director General, CIABOC, Sarath Jayamanne, PC, Senior DIG of the CID, Ravi Seneviratne and Senior Deputy Governor of the CBSL Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe.

They also discussed the urgent need to expedite investigations into the Treasury bond scams. They pointed out the inordinate delay in moving court against those who lied before the PCoI and destroyed evidence pertaining to the case.

It was also revealed that foreign expertise hadn't been sought to recover deleted telephone conversations. They alleged that the phones used by suspects hadn't been subjected to overseas scrutiny and relevant agencies had been pressured to delay investigations.

It was also revealed that Singapore hadn't taken action yet to extradite Singaporean Arjuna Mahendran wanted in connection with the investigation.

President Sirisena has directed relevant authorities to expedite the investigation.