Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations

Is it necessary to nurse, nurture and feed a ‘Maithri dragon’ to escape from MR ? President bringing Police and AG under him is a horrendous joke.!

(Lanka-e-News - 08.July.2017, 2.25AM) The president said on the 4 th at the Cabinet meeting that if the law and order ministry and the Attorney General’s department are entrusted to him, he would show how to seize the rogues before three months elapse , cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne at the media briefing recounted at the meeting to reveal the cabinet decisions. Rajitha went on to say he expressed his consent at that very moment. Irrespective of what revelations the rumors and idle gossips made , Lanka e news reported that the president is moving heaven and earth during the past several months to bring the law and order ministry, and the Attorney General’s (AG) department under him .The police and a number of related departments come under the purview of the law and order ministry , whose minister is Sagala Ratnayake . Indeed the methods and modes followed by Sagala to bring the crooks and the corrupt before the law had been most controversial and dubious from our point of view.

May we recall Lanka e news earlier on reported with great concern that about 100 files forwarded to the AG’s department after conclusion of investigations by the CID and FCID are languishing there without cases being filed. Although the statement made by the president seems well intentioned, it is not. Hence it is our duty in the best interests of the masses to delve deeper into it .

Though we have no personal issues in relation to Maithripala Sirisena , as a pro good governance group we are against the theory of the president to bring the law and order ministry, and the AG’s department under him. This is because when the urgent need is to abolish the Executive powers of the president, this change on the contrary will only further augment those powers .

It is well to recall late president J. R. Jayawardena the founder of the executive presidency did not have the defense ministry under him. His defense minister was Late Lalith Athulathmudali. Late Premadasa who was J.R.’s successor broke with the tradition and took over the defense minister post . Yet after introducing a state defense minister post appointed Ranjan Wijeratne as the minister . Thereafter he carried on the functions smoothly after delegating all those duties to Ranjan Wijeratne.

Former president Chandrika Bandaranaike too followed the same route . Though she had the defense ministry under her name it was her uncle Anurudha Ratwatte who carried out all the duties at defense ministry as deputy defense minister. It is also significant to note, not a single ex president mentioned abovementioned brought the AG’s department under him/her

It was Machiavellian despotic ex president Mahinda Rajapakse the evil personified who brought all those under his control thereby changing the entire political and Democratic landscape to the detriment of the country . He grabbed everything and became a despot. It is a well and widely known fact he even totally overturned the legal traditions and brazenly disregarded the rule of law. That is something that everybody knows , and will endorse.

Theory behind the opposition …

The Rainbow revolution emerged victorious on 2015-01-08 after saying the executive presidency will be abolished within 100 days of capturing power . If that promise was fulfilled duly there cannot be an executive president today. Hence based on our theory , Maithripala Sirisena who became president in order to abolish the executive presidency , continuing as executive president now is unethical , unacceptable and against the wishes of the people.

The executive presidency while having all the three forces under it is divested of the police force not without reason or for nothing . A civil ministry being allocated in the name of law and order , and bringing the police force under the independent commissions is a great Democratic move. It is with the view that the police force shall have a civil character and not military this measure was taken .

In that backdrop, the police force being brought under the executive president who is also the commander in chief of the forces is a regressive step , and an usurpation of the democracy won on 2015-01-08. In the same way , bringing the AG’s department under the Executive president too is to tread the same despotic path. That is , to follow the same odious and rejected route of deposed ,discarded ,despotic Rajapakse. The pro good governance masses personally may not be with president Maithripala , yet at the cabinet meeting on the 4 th , the theory proposed before the cabinet should have been rejected in toto.

Opposing sans personal reasons

Let us analyze whether president Maithripala Sirisena would personally initiate measures against the corrupt in keeping with his brags , his proposed theory notwithstanding .

1. It is Malith Jayatileke the national list M.P. and not us who disclosed that Maithripala Sirisena within a few hours of his becoming the president negotiated a deal with Gotabaya Rajapakse after meeting him at the residence of Mahinda Amaraweera. This is mentioned in the essays of the book ‘ January 8 th that I witnessed’ of Malith Jayatileke. Curiously this revelation has not been contradicted by Maithripala until today.

2. It was only ex Bribery commissioner Dilrukshi Dias Wickremesinghe who hauled up Gotabaya Rajapakse before the Commission . Interestingly and intriguingly it was the same president Maithripala who is trying to bring the AG’s department and the law and order ministry under him now who got cold feet no sooner than he heard Gota had been hauled up before court. He panicked so much so that he blurted out ‘ war heroes are being taken without my knowledge’ , while relating his infamous ‘cyanide theory’ story.

Some days later it was Maithripala himself who retracted his statement shamelessly , by saying , ‘ It was not Gotabaya I was referring to.’ This deplorable denial was given credence to only by Maithripala and his former media secretary Nimal Bopage. If Maithripala truly was antagonistic to the corrupt culprits , when Dilrukshi tendered her resignation folowing Maithripala’s abhorrent utterance , the president could have refused to accept her resignation. Strangely , the president did not do that , thereby confirming that he is not against the corrupt but with them.

3. Unbelievably , the army officers who were responsible for the abduction and murder of Prageeth Ekneliyagoda, (one of our staff members) were granted bail after the abominable ‘cyanide theory’ story of president .It was president Maithripala who made a huge din that criminals are ‘war heroes’, and said therefore they should be considered as such and granted bail. What’s more ! these criminals were reinstated in their posts by the president as defense minister flagrantly violating all the army regulations as well as government administrative and financial regulations.

Thereafter these suspects using their official powers intimidated the witnesses , and crippled all the investigations. It is Maithripala who should hold himself responsible for all those criminalities therefore.

The one who suffered most in this ghastly ruthless murder was the victim Prageeth’s wife, Sandya. When the latter requested the president to give her an opportunity to meet him, she was never given an appointment even until today despite her repeated requests. Even UN general secretary realizing her plight gave Sandya an opportunity to meet her , but our own president of good governance had still not found the time . This again bears testimony that our president is with the criminals and not with the victims.

There is a long list of instances which clearly proves that president Maithripala has extended protection to the corrupt and criminals most outrageously.

The dangerous ‘joke’ that ought to be opposed

No matter who says what , it is president Maithripala Sirisena who has been giving calls to the FCID and CID , and exerting pressures. We have still not received a single report that the prime minister gave calls .The JVP will corroborate this . Since those departments have kept a record of the calls received , this is no secret.( We exposed these details earlier on , and recently a group of pro Mathri gossip mongers revealed this)

We are having in our possession evidence to prove that Maithripala gave calls recently to the FCID to suppress the corruption crimes of Dilan Perera. In addition we have evidence which confirms that Western province chief minister Isuru Devapriya went along with culprit Mahindananda Aluthgamage recently, and met the president to rescue the latter from the grave criminal charges against him . We have also all the evidence to attest that the president gave a guarantee he will help Aluthgamage out. If he denies this accusation we can reveal the relevant audio tape to substantiate our allegation.

It is in this factual and lurid background we have revealed the afore-noted three main grounds . The latest shocking rudely example which everyone is aware of is the appointment Maithripala Sirisena made recently ….

The president recently appointed Rohitha Bogollagama a most notorious corrupt scoundrel of the Rajapakse era as the Eastern province Governor. Much worse than that was the ludicrous and ridiculous announcement made by president Maithripala , a few hours after that appointment . He said , punishment will be meted out to the corrupt and the criminals within three months after appointing that notorious crook just a few hours prior to that announcement. In the circumstances , are we to laugh at Maithripala Sirisena or mock at his antics and acrobatics ? Thankfully we haven’t the mouth of Maithripala to glibly lie . We can therefore only laugh at him rather than laugh with him.

UNP is not free from blame

In any event we are not gainsaying the fact that the ministry of law and order , as well as the ministry of justice (which includes the AG’s department) of the UNP faction of the consensual government are not discharging the duties duly and efficiently or without any illicit deals.

It is we who reported how P.M. Ranil Wickremesinghe met with corrupt discarded ex president Mahinda Rajapakse in Singapore , and about Sagala Ratnayake meeting with Gotabaya at the residence of a lawyer. In addition we exposed how minister of justice Wijedasa Rajapakse spoke to Kaduwela magistrate and requested not to remand Yoshitha Rajapakse (another crooked sibling of ex president MR) , and that if the corrupt and crooks are to be punished this rascally minister should be changed .

At the same time if anybody says if this incompetent ministry is to be made efficient it should be brought under the purview of the president nothing can be more nonsensical . The president is there to see to it , if a ministry is not functioning efficiently or duly to make it efficient and effective- not to bring everything under his purview.Maithripala who has not still abolished the executive presidency has those powers even now .

The president who is already having a number of ministries under his control , and is in a muddle and muddy puddle ,clearly unable to discharge those duties duly , seeking to take over some more responsibilities is not because he is capable of efficiently discharging them or in the best interests of the people. Rather it is only another facet of his political struggle and power greed which has surfaced. It is unfortunate we cannot elaborate those details in this article , however it is our conviction we will be failing in our duties towards the people if we do not reveal the Democratic remedial measures that ought to be taken pertaining to the inefficient ministries of Sagala and Wijedasa .

….Those can be made efficient without taking over

1. The ministers in charge of the two ministries - ministry of law and order , and ministry of justice should be compulsorily changed . The president has every right to take appropriate action in that direction.

2. As any change of ministries should be effected along with the UNP leader after discussions , the president in the interim can change the two secretaries of the ministries, because the president has legal powers to do that.

3. The IGP dubbed Imbecile General of Police who has by now been confirmed as a koloma (eccentric) can be ordered to resign . Though president cannot dismiss the IGP, the former can explain the true situation to Poojitha in the best interests of the country , and appoint a new IGP .

4. The delays at the AG’s department can be averted mainly by eliminating the human resource shortfalls . We understand there are only six members of the staff to finalize files . Some files contain as many as 3000 pages. To read and complete one file may take several days. In any case , so far we have not received any report that the AG is a political pimp or a wheeler dealer. Hence , more staff shall be recruited to clear the backlog and rid delays , as well as install latest technologies for which funds shall be allocated.

5. One more important thing can be done to improve the services in order that those can efficiently and effectively mete out punishment to the culprits: The civil organization leaders have met with the president and the P.M. on 21 occasions to tell about this, and both of them have accepted their views though nothing was implemented. The civil organization leaders had advised to commence an additional court to hear these cases and to continue the hearings without interruption. This can be done without bringing new enactments, merely by introducing another court , and allocating the necessary grants towards that.

In the circumstances , the announcements made by the president to bring the ministries under him are something the pro good governance masses must frown upon and think carefully not once or twice but many times.

In the Russian drama “The Dragon’ , of Evgeny Schwartz, there is a piece of dialogue in which a crafty ruler advises the people , ‘in order to escape from a dragon, have your own dragon close to you. ’ However in order to escape from a dragon like Mahinda Rajapakse , it is not necessary at all for the pro good governance masses to nurse and nurture a ‘Maithri dragon ‘

We shall via another article dissect the hidden political motives of president Maithripala and Ranil Wickremesinghe behind the attempts made by the president to take over the ministries .