London Appointments : Yahapalana Monitoring Governor marches on
Nov 08, 2015
Despite all round criticism against the appointment of his British citizen son-in-law Manoj Warnapala as a Counselor to the London High Commission, the Yahapalana Monitoring Governor Austin Fernando is going ahead with his plans to ensure his daughter’s husband is well settled down in the High Commission.
Austin’s plan was to make sure that his daughter’s husband has a good job so that his daughter’s family will be well off. Austin using his personal relationship with President Sirisena thought the best thing to do will be to get the struggling lawyer Warnapala appointed as the Head of the Consular Section so that Warnapala’s family law firm also can benefit. So he got round the President and got his son in law appointment. What he did not expect was that there will be technical issues for such an appointment and also that there will be such a lot of opposition to it. Warnapala has left Sri Lanka because he thought that there was no future for Sri Lanka and UK is better. He renounced his Sri Lankan citizenship and gave an oath to be a loyal subject of Her majesty the Queen. Instead of ‘Namo Namo Matha’ he started to sing ‘God Save the Queen’. Later he got his dual citizenship. But he is still living in UK. His wife is working there and his children are studying there. This itself shows where his loyalty will be if he has to choose between Sri Lanka and UK.
When these issues were raised as reported by Lanka News Web Austin started to make his moves. The first was to justify the appointment saying that during Rajapaksa regime lawyers were appointed as Head of the Consular Section. People did not chase the Rajapasas away and elect a Yahapalana government for the same thing to continue. Austin has done one better. None of the Rajapaksa stooges who were appointed as Head of Consular Section were British citizens.
The next was to dangle the carrot of getting an extension and then the High Commissioner post to Foreign Secretary Chitrangani Wagiswara who retired in September. He manged to push and get Wagiswara extended by another year. Now Wagiswara is a political appointee and has to dance to the tunes of Austin or she will have to go home. The deal for the High Commissioner post was also made and it came in the newspapers. But with the regular exposures by Lanka News Web Wagiswara took a back turn and even got the Ministry to issue a statement stating that there is no truth in the reports that she is going to London as the High Commissioner. If it is a lie then Wagiswara without getting the Ministry involved should have asked the newspapers to publish and apology or should have sued the newspaper. But as the truth can come out if she demands an apology she got the Ministry to issue a statement and just stop at that.
The next problem Austin and Wagiswara had was the acting High Commissioner who was not dancing to their tunes. He did not appoint Warnapala as the Head of Consular Section. So they had to get rid of him and appoint one of their people who will do as they ask. Suddenly the Acting High Commissioner was transferred out of London though he was asked to stay for few more months and a handpicked lackey was immediately sent to make sure that Warnapala is well looked after. Sugeeshwara Gunaratna who is the newly appointed ‘nanny’ to Warnapala has worked for the Canadian government while holding his Sri Lankan Diplomatic passport and on leave from the Ministry. It is also alleged that he has obtained Canadian PR/cititizenship. Gunaratna has been on leave for a few years and has to work in the Ministry for a few years before being considered for posting. The Yahapalana government should have conducted an inquiry on these matters. But the Yahapalana Monitoring Governor managed to have his way and get Sugeeshwara Gunaratna appointed to London. Gunaratna who was desperate to go on a posting wasted no time and rushed to London as he was worried that the Government might initiate inquiries on his activities. With Sugeeswara ‘Nanny’ Gunaratna appointed now Warnapala is well set to be appointed as the Head of the Consular Section.
But the community is up in arms with the developments and recently when Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayaka was in London for the Investor Forum the UK UNP Branch had an urgent meeting with him and protested against the appointment of Warnapala and the actions of Austin Fernando. According to community sources Karunanayaka has lamented that this basterd ruined them last time and is doing the same thing this time. He has assured that the Prime Minister will be briefed about this issue.
It looks like actions of Rajapaksa regime are replayed by the Yahapalana government. It is the Monitoring Governor who is running the Foreign Ministry like the time of infamous Monitoring MP Sajin Vaas while the Foreign Minister has to play a second fiddle. It would be better for the Foreign Minister to send off Austin Fernando as the High Commissioner to UK with Wagiswara as his Deputy with Gunaratna continuing as a Minister and Warnapala as a Counselor making it one big happy family. Although London will be a big mess at least it will be good riddance of bad (in this case worst) rubbish for the Ministry.
