MINISTER FERNANDOPULLE ACCUSES
ANURA BANDARANAIKE OF
SUPPORTING OPPOSITION UNITED NATIONAL PARTY AT ELECTION
By Walter Jayawardhana
reporting from Colombo
Powerful Minister in the new government, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle
said in an interview that his cabinet colleague Anura Bandaranaike,
who was sworn in as the Minister of Tourism, was actually supporting
the opposition United National Party at the Presidential election against
President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
In an interview with the popular weekend newspaper “The
Divaina Irida Sangrahaya” Fernandopulle said that Anura Bandaranaike
was negotiating to re-join the opposition United National Party in the
house of Pradeep Amirthanayagam, before the Presidential election. Fernandopulle
charged that Bandaranaike joined for dinner with Amirthanayagam and
an editor of a weekend newspaper with whom he was expected to come to
a settlement over his old rows as a condition before re-joining the
UNP. Fernandopulle did not name the editor but said he was notorious
for mud-slinging.
Fernandopulle said Bandaranaike had come to a settlement
with this editor. He had demanded the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and
the state owned building “Visumpaya” for his dwelling from
the UNP. Fernandopulle said that Anura had such bad luck every time
Bandaranaike joined some party it got defeated at the elections.
Despite those serious allegations Anura Bandaranaike was
sworn in as the Minister of Tourism last week by President Mahinda Rajapaksa
and was also sent to Malta’s Commonwealth Heads meeting representing
the President.
Fernandopulle said Bandaranaike had opposed his own party
four out of five times in the past, when elections were fought.
Before the elections Bandaranaike wanted to be named the
Prime Ministerial nominee of President Rajapaksa and the Party Central
Committee named him so. The newspaper asked why he was not given the
mostly ceremonial position that had been earlier used as a stepping
stone to the country’s powerful executive Presidency. Fernandopulle
charged that Anura had said “For me to become Prime Minister shouldn’t
Mahinda become the President first” in ridicule, during the campaign.
Many think he was working to defeat Mahinda Rajapaksa, said Fernandopulle
and added that the controversial Bandaranaike mostly stayed out of the
country during the election campaign, to avoid helping Rajapaksa.
Citing an example Fernandopulle said when Opposition candidate
Ranil Wickremesinghe challenged Mahinda for a live television debate
Anura Bandaranaike took the side of Ranil and made public statements
supporting the opposition candidate. He said he was repeatedly making
statements to embarrass the Rajapaksa campaign.
Fernandopulle asked how such a disloyal person could be
given the country’s Premiership. “We were even against giving
him any portfolio at all,” Fernandopulle said.
While Anura Bandaranaike received a single subject portfolio
of Tourism, Fernandopulle who was one of the most hard working campaigners
and a vote getters from the Catholics received the position of the Minister
of Commerce, Trade, Consumer Affairs , Consumer Development in addition
to the Highways which had been earlier handled by Mahinda Rajapaksa
himself in the earlier cabinet.
Bandaranaike accused Fernandopulle, during the campaign,
of conspiring against him over an alleged statement by the latter in
a Tamil newspaper. During the quarrel Bandaranaike ridiculed Fernandopulle
as a person who came to public meetings using a push bicycle wearing
cheap bedroom slippers at that time. He said it was he who found Fernandopulle
a position as a public speaker on the party election platform, due to
the scarcity of such speakers at that time and accused him as a person
without gratitude.
Fernandopulle retorted back by saying that his campaign
at that election increased the party votes in thousands but did not
deny the cheap slippers or push bicycle. Bandaranaike, in fact, wanted
to show obviously, that Fernandopulle was not from the elite like him.
The son of two Prime Ministers and the brother of a President, Anura
Bandaranaike was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and his mother
said once that the country’s leading gynecologist was summoned
to his palatial mansion in the country’s bastion of the elite,
Cinnamon Gardens in Colombo , to deliver him at the birth.
|
