Dayasiri before PSC
Posted on July 10th, 2019

Editorial Courtesy The Island

UPFA MP and SLFP General Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera finally chose to bite the bullet, yesterday; he appeared before the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) probing the Easter Sunday attacks. He had previously ignored summons, claiming that the PSC proceedings undermined the judicial process and, therefore, he did not want to participate therein. Is he now convinced that he thought wrong?

President Maithripala Sirisena vehemently opposed the appointment of the Easter Sunday PSC and went so far as to threaten to suspend Cabinet meetings unless it was terminated. He viewed the parliamentary probe as a move to pin the blame for the Easter attacks on him. But he gave some other reasons for his objections. The identities of senior intelligence officers would be exposed if they were made to testify before the PSC with the media being given access to its proceedings, he said. Speaking at the monthly meeting with senior police officers, on 08 June, he also sought to justify his opposition to the PSC probe on the grounds that the Attorney General had sent him a letter, informing him that there were five cases pertaining to the Easter Sunday attacks, before the Supreme Court, and the PSC proceedings would affect the judicial process. Insisting that he had sent the AG’s letter to the Speaker, he said that Parliament had not been informed of it.

MP Jayasekera, earlier, cited the AG’s opinion, as the reason for his decision to skip the PSC proceedings. He demanded that the letter that the President had sent the Speaker be presented to the House. But having made such a hue and cry, he changed his mind suddenly after meeting the Speaker, on Tuesday. Is it that not even the SLFP General Secretary takes President Sirisena’s pronouncements seriously? It could also be that he appeared before the PSC to drop a bombshell.

The public has a right to know what is in the AG’s letter the President has forwarded to the Speaker, who was instrumental in bringing in right to information laws. Will that document be presented to Parliament so that it will be in the public domain? The government has released to the media two important letters during the last few days. One was from Chief Executive Director of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Sean Cairncross to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe; it says the former looks forward to the latter’s continued leadership to advance their shared goals. The other one is from the PM’s Office, faulting the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for the latter’s ignorance of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) expected to be signed between the US and Sri Lanka. So, why can’t the President’s letter to the Speaker be released to the public through Parliament?

Meanwhile, Jayasekera, yesterday, testifying before the PSC, reiterated that the suicide bomber sent to Hotel Taj Samudra had not blown himself up due to the presence of some powerful foreigners and local politicians there. He said the bomber had gone to Dehiwala, where he triggered a blast though the government says the terrorist failed to explode the bomb at Taj. When he first made that allegation at a media briefing, we argued, in this space, that the PSC should question him on his claim. Now that the PSC has done so, the question is what the government is going to do about it. A suicide bomber obeys only his handler. Who prevented the suicide attack at Taj if Jayasekera is telling us the truth?

MP Jayasekera also told the PSC that he suspected that a foreign power was behind the Easter Sunday attacks. He refused to name names, but the people have a right to know what that country is. Declining to name the foreign dignitaries and the Sri Lankan politicians who, he says, were at Taj, on 21 April, he asked the PSC to find out who they were. Jayasekera’s boss, President Sirisena, who is the Minister of Defence is obviously aware of the identities of those persons.

Let the government and the President be urged to reveal what Jayasekera has stopped short of saying.

One Response to “Dayasiri before PSC”

  1. aloy Says:

    This is all the work of so called ‘Deep State’. They want the arms industry to flourish as the Cardinal said. They would create conflicts in places that they want to destroy. However president Trump wouldn’t have any of it where their troops will get bogged down. That is the reason there is no problem so far in our country. Now that the cash rich man is on his side he can do whatever he likes (and also get elected for the second time as CNN etc that create opinion have become poodles).

    As for the bomb that did not explode I am sure there is enough technology for the handler to stop it from exploding. Or even that can be pre-arranged to give an impression that there was something wrong.

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