(By : A.A.M.NIZAM – MATARA)

The action taken by the Joint Opposition to handover a No Confidence Motion against the political chameleon Rajitha Senaratne was a very appropriate move as he acts like a person suffering from a chronic dementia, misusing his powers, uttering abusive and indecent fish market languages and posing as that he is the person who runs this country.

Tamil Slavishness and promotion of Federalism

Similar to old hag Chandrika, Rajitha is also utterly Tamil slavish and both of them feel very proud of this stance of theirs.  Delivering the keynote address at the S.J.V. Chelvanayagam commemoration on 26^th April, 2017 at the Kathiresan Hall, Bambalapitiya, Rajitha said that it was politically wrong to interpret Federalism” as an opening for Separation”.  Federalism is the most democratic form of power sharing within a single united country, and Federalism allows people in different regions to take care of their day to day responsibilities including their cultural life, while politically acting together as a single Nation State, he said.  Immensely praising Chelvnaagam, the father of separatism, Rajitha said that Chelvanayagam wanted a Federal State for the simple reason to take care of their day to day responsibilities including their cultural life in the North-East, while acting together as a single Nation State. He said that the South needs a Sinhala leader emulating Thanthai Chelva”.(Father Chelva).  He said that the misery of the South is that we lack political leaders who could live up to what they publicly say. But the fact remains, he said the Sinhala South will have to leave aside the model of centralised power which has been proved a failure during 70 years and move to the next option, that of power sharing.

He said that he regrets for being unable to speak in the language of Mr. Chelvanayagam and added that the Tamil National Alliance is not demanding for Eelam and demanding only for Federalism.

Rajitha held a May Day rally in Jaffna this year and addressing this rally he said that he will struggle within the Cabinet to solve the problems of the people in the North. Speaking further at this May Da rally he said that he is against ethnic, religious and caste differences.  He said that he visited the North even during the LTTE period for attempting to get the problem solved through discussions and later came there during the election period to coordinate with the Tamil leaders.

He said that during the 2015 Presidential Election he came to North and promised to give land rights to the Tamil People in the North, to free political prisoners, to find out missing persons, and to provide employment opportunities and houses to the Tamil people in the North, He said that however these promises are not yet been fully implemented and added army camps will be dismantled and the lands held by these camps will be given to the people very soon.  He said that he met the parents of missing persons at Vavuniya and got a report about missing persons from them and he is working with the government to find out these mssing persons.

Speaking further Rajitha said that he doesn’t look for political advantages and the highest number of people who became disabled by the war live in the North and he has requested the Minister of Health of the Northern Province to provide him with details of disabled people in the North.  He promised to take action to develop the Jaffna Hospital and solve land and other problems of the people in the North as early as possible.

Double tongued Rajitha on Rajapaksas

Since he defected to Mahinda Rajapaksa government as a member of the group of 17in 2007 Rajitha became the most vocal defender of the Rajapaksa family members and the government until 2014.  He praised Rajapaksa brothers as a symbol of unity, and as a family upholding traditional and cultural heritage that should exemplarily be followed by every family in this country.  The transcript of a video footage given under, which has been made in response to criticism of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa made by Mangala Samaraweera is an

example to show how deeply and strongly he was defending Rajapaksas during that period.

In this video footage he says Rajapaksas did not earn money through politics and they only earned people.  The Goebbels Mangala Samaraweera who alleged Ranil as a thief in the past has become friendly with him intimately.  When a pick pocketeer steals a pocket from someone and when the people shout Horaa, Horaa, the pick pocketeer also runs ahead of tm shouting Horaa, Horaa and Mangala is like that pick pocketeer.”

The moment he joined the Eunuch Sirisena-Foreign slavish Ranil Junta he forgot all what he said about Rajapaksas then and joined the fashion designer Mangala whom he described earlier as Goebbels.

The first salvo made by him against Mr. Mahinda was that there is no point of people voting for Mahinda as he will be taken into custody at least one day before the August 17^th election.

Then he picked up the bizarre allegations made against Mr. Mahinda and his family members by Goebbles/pick pocketeer Mangala Samaraweera and repeated them from time time in his ‘Mahinda frenzy.’

On 30^th December, 2015 Rajitha said that the top brass of the previous regime are likely to be tried in courts for their alleged involvement in corruption and misdeeds. He said that law enforcement authorities have unearthed more details of their bank accounts in Singapore too. He said that the Rajapaksa family is behind many plots against the government in fear of the investigations into their misdeeds and frauds. “Their involvement in corruption and various other misdeeds are being bared and they are on the verge of being arrested,” he said. Senaratne added the investigators have found the details of the funds allegedly amassed by the Rajapaksa family in Singapore banks

Rajitha declared that he was in possession of documentary evidence that a previous government VVIP remitted money to an account in a Dubai bank.
He said he would soon reveal details of the transaction and added they were alleged spin offs from funds meant for the Gin Ganga-Nilwala Ganga diversion projects.

On 14^th January, 2016 Rajitha said that appropriate legal measures will be taken in connection with the massive amounts of US dollars deposited in a Dubai Bank by a member of the Royal” family during the previous regime, as soon as details of the transactions of those accounts are provided by the Federal Reserve of the United States. He added that according to reliable information available so far, USD 1.086 billion was lying in one account which is owned by one member of the previous government’s VVIP family. In the account of another close associate of the same VVIP family, who was also a businessman a sum of  USD 500 million  has been deposited while a joint account of a Ministry Secretary of the previous regime and another person had USD 1.8 billion. He said. All these monies are in the accounts of Dubai Banks. Meanwhile his joker son Chathura Senarate has said that he saw the money earned illegally by the VVIPs of the previous government.

Daily News of 3^rd November 2016 quoting Rajitha reported that the money stolen by Rajapaksas is now deposited in seven banks in Dubai, and the bank account numbers and amounts of deposited funds have already been provided to the Sri Lankan Government, and investigations will be accelerated.

Following Rajitha’s statements Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa refuted allegations that he and his family were maintaining illegal or secret offshore bank accounts, adding that if he had such accounts their details would have been revealed by now.

Releasing a media statement, Mr. Rajapaksa said that prominent members of the government have been spreading rumours about billions of Dollars stashed abroad in secret offshore accounts by him, his wife and sons.” He further stated that his political opponents keep on refreshing these allegations from time to time through strategically placed media reports about American and Indian financial intelligence bodies joining in the search and special teams being sent to the Seychelles to look for the hidden money.”
He pointed out that the Cabinet Spokesman Rajitha has recently told Reuters that a member of a ‘leading family’ had $1064 million in a secret account in Dubai.” Mr. Rajapaksa added that in this era of heightened surveillance due to concerns over money laundering and terrorist funding, accounts with millions of Dollars cannot be operated without attracting the attention of international regulatory authorities. If any such accounts existed, it is certainly not going to take this long to reveal their details. He further stated that these were allegations made by the same people who said that he had brought horses from ‘Buckingham Palace in America’.

Addressing a meeting held at the Kalutara Town Hall on January 6^th 2017 Rajitha said that certain top notchers of the former Rajapaksa regime are due to be arrested soon on charges of murder and other allegations including the disappearance of journalist Ekneligoda. He said that those who are upset over this are trying to create unnecessary problems in the country,

In the weekly cabinet decision media conference which has been dubbed by media personnel as the 3 idiots’ weekly media show” held on 27^th July, 2017 Rajitha said that ‘all investigations related to Rajapaksas have been completed and all of them would be arrested soon.’ He said that Raapaksas are aware of this and that is why they are creating unrest within the country.

On 2^nd November, 2016 Rajitha said that the ‘AAVA Gangsters’ in the North were operating with the knowledge of former Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He said that an Army chieftain created the group under the instructions of the former Defense Secretary.  Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaka said that he knows Rajitha from his childhood days and he is not efficient to do any productive work and what Rajitha does is talking nonsense and requested him to do some productive work instead. Mr. Gotabhaya refuted Rajitha’s allegations that he was behind the formation of the ‘AAVA Gangsters’ in the Northern Province, and reiterated that neither he nor the Military Intelligence formed the group. He said that the allegations made by Rajitha were aimed at putting the Security Forces into disrepute, and added that the previous government de-militarized armed organizations such as the EPDP and PLOTE in the Northern Province.

The former Defence Secretary said that the incumbent President, Defence Secretary and Army Commander should respond to these allegations levelled by Minister Rajitha Senaratne.

Rajitha on Ranil and his own UNP Government

Similar to his ungrateful criticisns of Rajapaksas, the double tongued Rajitha also criticized Ranil Wickremasinghe who appointed him as a Nationalist List UNP MP when he was unseated by a Court Order.  Upon joining Mahinda Rajapaksa government as a member of the Group of 17, he said that Ranil always gets other members of the UNP to say or do whatever he wants in the Parliament and he watches the ‘fun’ from his office through the internal TV screen. But he always avoided doing what Ranil wanted done or say whatever he wanted him to say,

Rajitha said that even within the UNP, Ranil got other party stalwarts to make certain statements but he kept himself out of controversy to avoid being criticized most of the time.

More than anything else, Ranil got the UNP constitution changed to make himself the Life President of the party, thus preventing the election of the party leader by the democratic method of a vote at the party annual convention, he said. Rajitha also stated that the election of the UNP leader at the annual Convention was a tradition handed down by the founder leader D. S. Senanayake and followed by all leaders except Ranil Wickremesinghe..

Since the party kept on losing 14 elections from 1994, UNP members and a large voter base, traditionally supporting the party, became disillusioned with the party and there was a demand for reforms from a majority of members. But again Ranil Wickremesinghe, promising to accept all the proposals for reforms and democracy within the party, shelved the reforms and gave party posts to the most vociferous or active party members, every time any demand for reforms came up in the party, he said.

Since the UNP leader had worked only to save his leadership in the party without regarding the views of a majority of members and frontline members the group led by Karu Jayasuriya decided to join the Mahind Rajapaksa government and help the UNP supporters who have been left in the lurch by the leadership, he said.

Rajitha who critizes Mr. Wijedasa Rajapaksa for speaking against the Hambantota harbour sellout,  publicly campaigned against what he describes as the shady MoU between the UNP-led government and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on SriLankan Airlines. He said that the deal was worse than what Chandrika’s government signed with the UAE several years ago, he told the Sunday Islland. Rajitha slammed the politicians and officials involved in finalising the MoU. “It is an addition to the existing MoU entered at the time 40 per cent of the airline was sold to the UAE,” he said. He stressed the need to subject the MoU for Cabinet clearance before the government and the Emirates reach final agreement.

Rajitha acknowledged that the MoU was signed subsequent to approval given by the Cabinet Economic Sub-Committee chaired over by Premier Ranil Wickremesinghe and added that such an important MoU should have been approved by the cabinet.”

He enphasized that the UNP tirelessly campaigned against Kumaratunga’s shady deal with Emirates and it would be a shame to agree on an agreement worse than the original, he said.

Rajitha also stated that Ministers Ravi Karunanayake and Tyronne Fernando were among cabinet colleagues supportive of his fight against this particular deal..

It mulst be reminded that accordingly the UNP parliamentarians uncluding Ranil Wickremesinghe have no moral right to vote against the No Confidence Motion on this political chameleon Rajitha Senaratne.  (To be continued)