DG of Bribery Commission quits after President Sirisena’s charge of politicization
Posted on October 17th, 2016
By P K Balachandran Courtesy The New Indain Express
COLOMBO: The Director General of the Sri Lankan Commission on Bribery and Corruption, Dilrukshi Dias Wickramasinghe, sent in her resignation on Monday, following President Maithripala Sirisena’s public outburst last Wednesday against the politicization” of the commission’s working.
Dilrukshi Wickramasinghe, appointed in February 2015, is generally believed to be the choice of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. But the Prime Minister and the President belong to two different political parties, the former to the United National Party (UNP), and the latter to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SFLP). The UNP-SLFP coalition, which was formed to defeat former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2015 and to run the government jointly thereafter, is now showing cracks thanks to clashing political interests and agendas.
President Sirisena was incensed when the Bribery Commission hauled up three former Navy chiefs and a former Defense Secretary, who happens to be the war-winning Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Sirisena felt that this would do his government great political harm as the personalities hauled up are heroes of Eelam War IV. Sirisena felt that at a time when the Sri Lankan armed forces are facing flak from the UN and international human rights lobby, it would be adding insult to injury if their top officers are humiliated at home too. The least he expected from the commission was to be informed about the action to be taken against former defense officials, as he is the Commander in Chief of the forces and Defense Minster to boot.
Sirisena also felt that the Bribery Commission, the Financial Crimes CID and the CID ,are working to UNP’s political agenda. While it is in the UNP’s interest to completely demolish the image of the Rajapaksa regime, it is not so in the case of the SLFP which Sirisena heads. Sirisena is still to win over the entire SLFP from Rajapaksa. To win over the alienated party men, he would have to serve their interests and respect their sensitivities. To achieve this, he should not harm the holy cows of the SLFP, namely, the armed forces and their former de facto head, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a sibling of the former President. Sirisena would like corruption cases against these to be pursued with some sensitivity.
Taken aback by the President’s outburst at a military function here, where he made it a point to declare that he would never let down the armed forces, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe agreed to the formation of a joint SLFP-UNP committee to oversee policy matters in regard to all important national issues. Both the President and the Prime Minister will be part of this committee.
October 18th, 2016 at 2:44 am
Is this Dilrukshi Wickremasinghe a relative of Ranil? Obviously she feels humiliated when Sira said she is working according to Ranils political agenda. This is a well known fact as she failed to take any action against Mahendren and his son-in-law Aloysious for their day light robbery of the Central Bank. Also Ravi’s 300 million dollar donation was conveniently ignored.
October 18th, 2016 at 7:46 am
Is this is a case of GROBR (Good Riddance of Bad Rubbish), who should never have been appointed to this position. This person may or may not be a relative of Ranil, but could be considered even worse than a relative as it has been reported that she is a very very close family friend of Ranil, just like the former Central Bank Governor, who was involved in the two mega losses to the Central Bank and the country (some say a World Record for these types of transactions, in such a short period after his appointment?) and many other similar bad appointments to highly sensitive positions.