Yahapalanaya kaput!
Posted on August 3rd, 2017
Editorial Courtesy The Island
August 3, 2017, 9:36 pm
Brain-dead yahapalanaya has been on life support for the last two and a half years or so and the government keeps postponing elections lest people should pull the plug thereon. That the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration has been practising anything but yahapalanaya (good governance) can be seen from, inter alia, what is being revealed before the presidential commission of inquiry probing bond scams.
Had a presidential probe been conducted into the first bond racket in 2015 following a COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) investigation into it people would have been able to make an informed decision when they voted at the last general election. Unfortunately, President Maithripala Sirisena hurriedly dissolved Parliament before the presentation of the COPE report to the House and people could not realise the sheer magnitude of the bond racket. Worse, the deplorable presidential action paved the way for another mega bond scam the following year.
On Wednesday, former Finance Minister and current Foreign Minister Ravi Karunanayake appeared before the bond probe commission at long last. It is heartening that the Attorney General’s Department counsel have proved that the country is not devoid of intrepid, intelligent public officials capable of taking on political heavyweights without fear or favour.
A badly cornered Karunanayake claimed that he had not been aware that Arjun Aloysius of Perpetual Treasuries fame made the lease payment for his family’s penthouse. He said his wife had arranged for the lease at issue without his knowledge and Aloysius had been duly reimbursed subsequently. Curiouser and curiouser! Husbands are such an inquisitive lot that they don’t even savour a pudding at home without asking their wives who has made it or brought it.
However, we don’t intend to subject anyone who appears before the bond probe commission to a media trial. The learned commissioners have already made some stinging remarks on Karunanayake’s testimony. The matter is best left to them. Suffice it to say that one can deceive anyone except the person one sees in the mirror. People, having drawn their own conclusions, are eagerly waiting to read the commission report to be prepared in a few months.
It may be recalled that Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the last presidential election mainly because of the very serious allegations his detractors including Karunanayake levelled against his family. They were accused of having amassed huge amounts of ill-gotten wealth. The yahapalana big guns also claimed Rajapaksa’s sons were riding a ‘golden horse’ in cooler climes and driving Lamborghinis and other members of his family had built ‘palaces’.
There have been serious allegations against several Joint Opposition heavyweights who are summoned by the CID and the FCID almost on a daily basis. Some of them have also been remanded. Can they also go scot free by passing the responsibility for the shady deals they are accused of on to their spouses?
The fate that befell the powerful Rajapaksa government shows that what really matters in electoral politics is not the justiciability or provability of an allegation but the public perception thereof. The bond scams and all other wrongs the present administration is alleged to have committed are now before the people’s court, where Citizen Perera, a Daniel come to judgment, wields the judicial gavel. His verdicts make or break governments!
Public opinion, we repeat, does matter more than judicial decisions anent allegations against powerful politicians. That was why Julius Caesar famously said after divorcing his wife for her failure to be above suspicion and reproach: “My wife should be as much free from suspicion of a crime as she is from a crime itself.” Politicians who don’t want their careers ruined must ensure that their better halves heed Caesar’s admonition.
It will be interesting to see whether parliamentarians, especially the yahapalana types, will act according to their conscience, if any, when a vote is taken on the no-faith motion the Joint Opposition has handed over to the Deputy Secretary General of Parliament against beleaguered Karunanayake.
August 3rd, 2017 at 4:44 pm
Yamapalanaya is kaput indeed.
President must remove Ravi K for his own survival. He should insist upon his ministers to vote in favour of the no confidence motion and not in favour of the accused. Arjun and Arjuna must be behind bars for the crimes too.
What is not stated above is the massive loss suffered by the country. It must be recovered from bond fraudsters.
All JO MPs must be present in parliament for voting and vote n favour of the no confidence motion and not in favour of the accused. If any JO MP is absent or abstain from voting in favour of the no confidence motion, he should be branded a traitor and rejected by voters.
August 3rd, 2017 at 5:29 pm
The Ravi Karunanaya, previously anointed South Asia’s “Best” Finance Minister and a whiz-bang economist, now says HE DID NOT KNOW how he came to live 9 months in a Super Luxury Penthouse, and DOES NOT REMEMBER many other relevant details of his dealings with the Bond Scamming family-friend Arjuna Aloysius.
Even if we accept such an “BOLONDA” EXPLANATION of his CROOKED DOINGS, can we CONTINUE TO ACCEPT such a IGNORANT THOTHA-BABA as a Foreign Minister, much less a Finance Minister. Either he is a WHIZ-BANG CROOK, or he is a NAIVE MUTT; he CANNOT SIMULTANEOUSLY BE BOTH!
Like his PREDECESSOR the former Foreign Minister Avamangala Samaraweera who BETRAYED our Motherland to the UNHRC in Geneva to SUCK-UP to Western Powers, with his current INABILITY to REMEMBER Ravi Karunanayake MAY ALSO FORGET which Nation he is SERVING as Foreign Minister! We SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD to have this man in the CABINET!
It is BEST if he is IMMEDIATELY REMOVED from his post in case his MENTAL DISABILITY worsens, and is taken into PERMANENT PROTECTIVE CUSTODY and placed under the care of Psychiatrists and Neurologists who can treat him for his Advanced Alzheimers malady in Angoda Mental Hospital!
It is indeed RATHER AMAZING how RAPIDLY his mental condition has DETERIORATED in theshort time since he was anointed as the Best Finance Minister in Asia and the astoundings revelations to the Presidentail Committee investigating the Bond Scam!
The PROSPECT of facing a TEAM OF INTERROGATORS from the Attorney General’s Office DOES HAVE THAT CURIOUS TENDENCY to SUDDENLY CONFUSE the MIND of ERRANT & CORRUPT POLITICIANS.
Lifetime INCARCERATION in Angoda Hospital should cure it.
Patali Champika Ranawaka who ALLEGEDLY INVOLUNTARILY WARDED his amorous assistant with a beautiful girl-friend at Angoda Mental Hospital can serve as a Managing Consultant in Ravi Karunanayake’s case too!
In Ravi Karunanayake’s DEFENCE we MUST RECALL, that this is the VERY SAME MAN who confused Pamankada with Alimankada and Medawachchiya with KIlinochchiya during the last phase of the EELAM war! Perhaps this condition IS EPISODIC and EMERGES SUDDENLY to DISABLE his mental faculties!
All us unwilling bystanders in this Yamapalana Comedy Show can do maybe is to HELPLESSLY INTONE: Nidukwethwa, Suwapathwethwa, Ninvandakithwa!
Unfortunately, Ravi Karunanayake is a die-hard Roman Catholic; He is unlikely to APPRECIATE our fervent Buddhist blessings!
August 4th, 2017 at 6:45 am
An interesting comment copied from LankaCnews:
සකල බුජං says:
විමල් මහත්මයා අහනව, ” අඩු ගණනේ මේ නෝනයි, මහත්තයයි නිදි ඇඳේදිවත් හමු වෙන්නේ නැද්ද? ” කියල.
නෑ! නෑ!! නෑ!!! මෙහෙමනෙ වුනේ! රවියට වැඩ වැඩියි, ගෙදර එන්නෙ හුඟක් රෑවෙලා, එනකොට පවුල නිදි. පවුල කවුද කියල මතකත් නෑ. ඉතින් නිදාගන තියෙන්නෙ කුස්සි අම්ම මේරිත් එක්ක.
එතකොට කොහොමද ඔය ගනුදෙනු ගැන කථා කරන්ඩ වේලාවක් හම්බ වෙන්නෙ?
The full article in the following link:
http://lankacnews.com/10749-2/