Sirisena stuck with his political partners, pals and progeny
Posted on January 19th, 2015
H. L. D. Mahindapala
Offering changes to the status quo always has a charm that appeals to people at all levels. Changes are also inevitable. That is the eternal law. But change for what? And how far can changes go to make a real difference? These are nagging questions that make people believe that the more you change the more it remains the same. The perennial hope is change for the better. But does change always change for the better? The vaunted “Arab Spring” is one recent example where change did not change for the good of the people.
There is, no doubt, that the overwhelming mood was for change on January 8 – no matter what the change would bring. So when Maithripala Sirisena sailed home on the winds of change there was a sense of great relief. He even set a time table. According to his Manifesto Sri Lanka was going to be transformed into an “ideal country” in six years.
Too idealistic? Too far-fetched? Yep. It was easy to draw up plans in a manifesto. But events do not run according to plans of men and mice. The most unexpected forces of man and nature can throw the best laid plans off course. Vellupillai Prabhakaran learnt this the hard way when the tsunami whacked him flat at a time when he was all set to launch his final offensive on the Sri Lanka forces. He admitted this in his annual November speech.
In the very first days President Sirisena is beginning to feel the heat of events exploding around him. After quitting the Mahinda Rajapakse saying that it is full of corrupt men and practices he is now forced to accept the very same men and women to maintain his power in Parliament. The 50-year-old man who climbed a roof to protest against the inclusion of Sajin Vass Gunawardena in the government benches seems to know the contents of the Manifesto more than President Sirisena.
Closer to home things got worse. President Sirisena’s son, Dham, marched into a night club near Race Course, surrounded and protected by 40 personnel from Presidential Security Division (PSD) giving the lie to the “yaha-palanaya” promised by the father. This happened at a time when even the security of ministers has been withdrawn. But the son, exercising his father’s power, has decided to run around town with 40 PSD men. His son, it seems, is determined to ruin his father’s “yaha-pala-naya” by turning it into a “yaka-gay-pala-naya”!
Equally worse, is the inexplicable act of the new Finance Minister, Ravi Karunanayake, fixing of the date of the mini-budget to be delivered on January 29 – the same date that had been fixed in last November by the Supreme Court for the hearing of his case of Rs.390 million received from billionaire Raja Rajaratnam, the LTTE financier who is in jail in New York for insider trading. Is this going to be the sign of law order that is due to come under President Sirisena’s “yaha-pala-naya”?
Then comes the latest news which states that Chandrika Kumaratunga is to be appointed as the head of the SLFP. This is a powerful post at the peak of the ruling party. She is going to be the highest symbol of the new regime that has pledged solemnly before the people not to minimize but to eliminate bribery, corruption and thuggery. But with her record of being convicted by the courts and condemned by serious accusations known to all who had read Victor Ivan’s book on her, how can President Sirisena let her take over the reins of the SLFP? What is the message sent to the people by her appointment? President Sirisena won on the promise of bringing in a “when-a-sak” (difference). What difference does it make when Kumaratunga is re-installed as the head of the SLFP? Whose brilliant brainchild was it to bring cow dung from Horagolla and place it as an adornment on the presidential chair of the SLFP?
President Sirisena has., however, gained some brownie points in appointing Dr. Jayantha Dhanapala as a presidential advisor. The plus side of this appointment is that it could please the Indians and the West. He is the blue-eyed boy of both. Also coming from the NGO lobby it can gain some applause from this claque hired by the West. There is also the flip side of this appointment which is rather ominous. The nation remember him as the father of the failed P-TOMS which was drafted with the help of two leading pro-Tiger Tamils in the Tamil Diaspora – namely, Ram Manickalingam and his brother-in-law, Dr. M. Sornarajah, a law lecturer in the Singapore University. The overall plan in Chandrika Kumaratunga’s P-TOMS was to hand over the north and the east to Prabhakaran with powers to run the administration with a Tiger majority for “ten years without an election”. The fingerprints of Manickalingam and Sornarajah were all over the P-TOMS proposals, though Dhanapala denied it.
It is this background that makes Dhanapala’s appointment as a Presidential advisor ominously significant. Practically, all the appointments so far brings together all the P-TOMS-ians, CFA-ists– i.e., Chandrika Kumaratunga, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and Jayantha Dhanapala et al — under one roof, working together to revive a revised version of both P-TOMS and CFA. If Chandrika Kumaratunga has brought back Dhanapala into the new administration Ranil Wickremesinghe has re-introduced Austin (My Belly is White) Fernando, his former Defence Secretary who was instrumental, along with his master, Wickremesinghe, in handing over the north and the east to the LTTE in the hurriedly drafted CFA with the assistance of the Indians but without consulting the Commanders of the Security Forces, Parliament, UNP, the people or the President, the Commander-in-Chief.. These are also darlings of the West and India. It’s a case of birds of a feather flocking together. Once these heavy-weights gang up they can easily ride over President Sirisena and make him negate the post-Nandikadal gains achieved by president Mahinda Rajapakse.
President Sirisena has so far not shown any strength, power or initiative to hold his own against the Wickremesinghe and Kumaratunga combination ruling the Coalition so far. The majority of UNP Ministers in his Cabinet indicates that the UNP has had its way. It has all the hall marks of a Cabinet nominated by Wickremesinghe than by President Sirisena. The appointment of Ravi Karunanayake to the key post of Finance Minister proves that Wickremesinghe has given a plum job to his loyal, West-leaning, IDU partner, despite his questionable financial dealings with the pro-LTTE billionaire, Raja Rajaratnam. These two English-speaking power-brokers (CBK and RW) who are behind the victory of Sinhala-speaking Sirisena will have the upper hand in determining policy.
The future does not shine like the sun at dawn of January 9th , 2015. It is already looking more like 5 past 12 noon. Promises have stalled. The new ministers are same old hacks who failed earlier. Chandrika Kumaratunga, the most disastrous failure in the post-independent era, has been brought back through the back-door to a seat of power in the SLFP. Wickremesinghe is whipping the back of Sirisena, metaphorically speaking. Worst is, at a time when Mahinda Rajapakse has withdrawn from office, giving up power, Sirisena has not gained from it because he is handing state powers to an unelected prime minister and political power to rejected “Chouri Rajiini” noted for her corruption and abuses of power.
Expectations of a pure regime was raised sky-high during the election. But those expectations are sliding down the slippery slope daily. The abuse of power has begun in the highest of places – the President’s home. If, for instance, Dham Sirisena has the uncontrolled and unauthorized power to wade into night clubs with 40 PSDs who wields power in the Sirisena’s regime? The father or the son? It can be assumed that the father would have put the son in his place after the “Malu – Malu” incident in Pasikudah beach where Dham Sirisena assaulted a DIG’s son peacefully enjoying his holiday with family and friends. That incident was swept under the carpet.
The “Malu-Malu” incident happened when his father was only the Minister of Health. The son’s power seems to have grown in proportion to his father’s power. The Race Course incident, which happened after the father became President, makes it clear that son has more power than the father for him to run around town with 40 PSDs running behind him. Who is paying overtime and other expenses (like petrol for the many vehicles carrying PSDs) involved in massaging the arrogant ego of a notorious thug like Dham? Or is Adaham? The people in the café, sensing trouble, walked out. So what has Mr. “Clean” President done about it other than turning a blind eye? If the son can usurp the powers of his father why can’t the thugs and “kudu kara-yas” also take the law into their hands?
Of course, it can be argued that these are teething troubles of early days. President Sirisena can get away with it because the feel-good factor of the honeymoon period is still there. But how long will that last?
In the meantime, can the President clarify as to who is running the country? Is it the father? Or the son with 40 PSDs?
January 18th, 2015 at 10:27 pm
I was telling from the beginning of this Yahapalanaya that these Yahapalana Gestapos were all crooks and thugs nothing else. They came to power thru a coup orchestrated by their western God Fathers. Millions were distributed and the polls were rigged in some places which we cannot verify 100% as no one is able to speak out anything against this Yahapalanaya. News papers & TV’s all theirs now. Everybody has started praising MY3 the backstabber.
Tell me who was not engaged in corruption during UNP era? All of them were involved in one way or the other with some kind of deals locally or Internationally. Some were involved with Diaspora,Some with western Embassies,some with NGO’s, Some with drug lords and Mafia. This is the truth. If you want to investigate corruption do it but not for one section only but should be all Govt and the Opposition both. Let the corrupted go to jail and clean guys run the country. We all wish to have a clean,uncorrupted Govt for our country then only we can prosper and live in Peace.
Sinhala people should stop killing each other or hate each other and be vigilant to safeguard our land of birth. We should not allow Tamils and Muslims to build castles in our land and regret later. They pretend that they love us but it’s a lie.They are the most ungrateful people I have seen in my whole life. The reason was Mahinda gave life to the dead Tamil and they forgot so soon. Now they were living like human beings but before Prabakaran make them to live like scavengers. Muslims also same.They forgot Naththankudi Massacre and all the atrocities committed by LTTE terrorists during the war. If every single Sri Lankan wants to live in Peace and Harmony they should live as per the rules and regulations of the Sri Lankan Govt and must call Sri Lanka their only home without trying to live separately.
January 19th, 2015 at 6:10 am
Count Royalists in the powerful positions in the new mob. I don’t mean the Polonnaruwa Royal college or the one in Mauritius, I mean the one the Hon PM went to. I will also tell you something one of the highest ranking terrorist of the Indian terrorist arm is also a Royalist.
January 19th, 2015 at 6:15 am
” feel-good factor of the honeymoon period is still there. But how long will that last?” with an old hack. Sorry I forgot two old pair’s marriage blessed by pope on the podium. Sorry if I have hurt anyone’s feelings.
January 19th, 2015 at 9:12 am
To all…. see what is happening in Sri Lanka now…this is in Agalawatta
www[dot]youtube[dot]com/watch?v=GTvX7GAILho#t=18
The attack took place yesterday. The characters behind it are obvious.
Good Governance(TM) aka Yahapalanaya(TM)
All residents and expatriates better see this. It is not an amateur video, it is from a broadcaster.
Sorry for the repeated posts. The world must know about this.
January 19th, 2015 at 10:55 am
Mjaya,
I think following is the link for the video you have referred.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usWkU3OX184
And following is the Daily Mirror article about it including Mahinda Samarasinghe’s speech..
http://www.dailymirror.lk/61567/unp-mob-attacks-ps-member-ex-minister
January 19th, 2015 at 11:26 am
Tamil Nadu wants to “REPATRIATE Sri Lankan Tamils” with an AID PACKAGE from Sri Lanka, including “1/2 Acre of Land” in the Wanni!!!
And so, Tamil “RESETTLEMENT” is to proceed, presumably including Indian Tamils Kallathonis among them, at Sri Lanka’s expense, while Sinhala settlers are BARRED from setlling there!
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaa …… What have you done to our Motherland!
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Aid Package Needed for Refugees to Return to Lanka
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Jan 19 (NIE) COLOMBO- S.C.Chandrahasan, head of the Organization for Eelam Refugees� Rehabilitation (OfERR), has been trying to impress upon the Governments of India and Tamil Nadu the need to work out an aid package to motivate Sri Lankan Tamil refugees to return to the island nation.
On Sunday, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera, had agreed to start, by the end of January, discussions on the repatriation of Lankan Tamil refugees living in camps in Tamil Nadu.
Welcoming the decision, Chandrahasan said that OfERR had worked out a time-bound aid package and submitted it to the Governments of India, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. “It could be the basis of an India-Sri Lanka Agreement on Repatriation and Resettlement,” he told Express.
It would be easier to work with the new Lankan regime, given the fact that it will not make a fetish of security concerns unlike the Rajapaksa government, Chandrahasan felt. But New Delhi should see to it that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) does not put a spoke in the wheel by propagating the idea that the refugees should be given permanent resident status or citizenship in India, he added.
“It is important for Lankan Tamils to return to their homeland and reclaim their lost lands and rights there,” Chandrahasan said.
Aid Package
To motivate the refugees to return, the Lankan government should give them land and the means to start a livelihood, and India could look after other needs.
“It should be possible for the Lankan government to give about 20,000 returnee families half an acre each in the Wanni area. India could help them build houses and offer a financial grant to each family for three to six months. The financial part of the aid package will tally with the amount the governments of India and Tamil Nadu are now spending on the refugees,” Chandrahasan said.
Asked if refugees would opt to go back, he said: ” The 26,000 who came in 2006 will go back because they have not struck roots in Tamil Nadu. Among the rest, the women and youth want to go, but older men find shifting difficult.”
January 19th, 2015 at 2:27 pm
This is mourning the loss.
Cannot see what was happening at the beginning.
January 19th, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Ranjit: you write “We should not allow Tamils and Muslims to build castles in our land and regret later. They pretend that they love us but it’s a lie.They are the most ungrateful people I have seen in my whole life.”
They are more than “ungrateful”, they are angry that they lost a 30 year attempt to form Elam. Even now on Indian websites Tamils call Sri Lankan Tamils “Elam” Tamils. it is similar to me calling Sikhs in India “Khalistan” Sikhs. We never used that word. We called Tamils as “Jaffna” Tamils. The Tamils WILL NEVER BE HAPPY TILL ELAM IS FORMED. THEY JUST GOT A CHANCE WITH SIRISENA’S COALITION WHICH IS ENDORSED BY CHENNAI AND THE BJP IN NEW DELHI. IT IS ALSO FULLY SUPPORTED BY OBAMA. OBAMA IS THE ONE WHO DRAFTED THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOTIONS AGAINST RAJAPAKSE.
I ONLY HOPE THAT WHEN (NOT IF) ELAM COMES BACK IT IS FOUGHT ON INDIAN SOIL AGAINST INDIA’S BEST INTEREST.
January 19th, 2015 at 4:43 pm
On the CONTRARY, your LOYALTY is not to Sri Lanka, but to Tamil EELAM!
You DEMONSTRATED THAT CLEARLY by DOING YOUR BEST to UNDERMINE and DESTROY the UPFA GOSL that was the only REAL DEFENCE Sri Lanka had against its Separatist and Foreign Enemies.
Now that PROTECTIVE SHIELD is GONE, and I TREMBLE for Sri Lanka’s SAFETY and SURVIVAL as ONE Nation in the next DECADE!
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaaa …. What HAVE YOU DONE to your Motherland! You have DESTROYED the GAINS of the WAR OF LIBERATION from Terror and THROWN Sri Lanka’s CROWN into the GUTTER!
January 19th, 2015 at 4:44 pm
Lorenzo,
On the CONTRARY, your LOYALTY is not to Sri Lanka, but to Tamil EELAM!
You DEMONSTRATED THAT CLEARLY by DOING YOUR BEST to UNDERMINE and DESTROY the UPFA GOSL that was the only REAL DEFENCE Sri Lanka had against its Separatist and Foreign Enemies.
Now that PROTECTIVE SHIELD is GONE, and I TREMBLE for Sri Lanka’s SAFETY and SURVIVAL as ONE Nation in the next DECADE!
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaaa …. What HAVE YOU DONE to your Motherland! You have DESTROYED the GAINS of the WAR OF LIBERATION from Terror and THROWN Sri Lanka’s CROWN into the GUTTER!
January 19th, 2015 at 5:12 pm
Ananda-USA,
Not to worry we (My3) have a plan. No harm telling it because the UriNePee cannot do anything!
1. My3 is the SLFP leader (not CBK) DETERMINED to see SLFP wins the next FEW elections by book or by brooke. I did NOT say hook or by crook. You wait and see!
2. Near the election, My3 is going to APPEAL to the people to give him CLEAN MPs to make his promises come true.
3. My3 is going to tell the people it was this Useless, Notorious, Punk (UNP) MPs that DISRUPTED his GREAT PLANS. So BUST them and vote for the SLFP.
4. My3 is going to HAND PICK SLFP candidates for the election. NO UNCLEAN politician will be given nominations. ONLY clean and good people will be selected. Women will make up at least 40%. Corruption charges will br brought against ALL TOP UNP and UPFA leaders who try to DISRUPT SLFP plans.
5. SLFP under MY3 is going to win the next election with 150 seats. You will see MPs who are NOT in politics. GREAT people.
6. GOOD GOVERNACE starts then! Yahabalanaya starts then!
So just hang in there. We have a plan. We will backstab ANYONE to do justice to SL. UNP is just a TOILET PAPER, TNA just a condom, SLMC is just a disposable undie.
When a climb follows a dip, if you are on a BIKE, you DON’T put brakes going downhill. You go FAST as you can. Then only you get the MOMENTUM to climb the hill.
Plans? Conspiracies? Backstabbings? Plots? Ploys? And a whole lot more. Given away at discounted prices. 100 day money back guarantee.
“On the CONTRARY, your LOYALTY is not to Sri Lanka, but to Tamil EELAM!”
OMG! A very serious allegation.
BTW Ananda-USA do you know ANYONE who has taken the OATH of USA? Useful if you can write down here what exactly are the words of that oath?
January 19th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
Lorenzo if MY3 can do what you have mentioned there in your writing then I will sincerely support him but my hero will be Mahinda for ever whether he is a crook or otherwise
We all need good Governance and good educated young guns who can take us forward by doing hard work not just empty words.
When we won the war I thought it will be like in Japan after second world war. Thirty years of war took us back for generations. Our infrastructure was destroyed. Livelihood of the people was destroyed. the whole country was in tears with no ending of the cruel war. Blood was spilled all over. Sirens could be heard day and night. Thanks God it was all over in 2009 and until now we haven’t heard any bomb blast anywhere in our Motherland. Thousands of Sri Lankan citizens sacrificed their lives in that war started by LTTE terrorists who were trained and Financed by our arch enemy India. I say arch enemy because they took us back for thirty years and they helped terrorists to kill our citizens.
When JR,Chandrika,Ranil couldnt stop the bloodshed who took the challenge other than Mahinda? Why those three couldn’t stop the war because they were under the influence of the western God Fathers, America and England specially. They were well looked after by them because they wanted to break Sri Lanka in to two for their own benefit. When they couldn’t they took revenge from the man who liberated us. It’s a fact. I hope MY3 will not bow down to these white dogs and allow our country to be a playground for them.
January 20th, 2015 at 11:47 am
Let us see how Maithripala Sirisena protects our war heroes from Western and Tamil Diaspora witch-hunts and what he will TRADE in EXCHANGE! Nothing short of Sri Lanka’s Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity I FEAR!
This will MAKE OR BREAK the new Government!
Aiyoooo Sirisenaaaa …. What have you done to our Motherland??
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Helping Sri Lanka’s New Democracy
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Jan 20 (NYT) Sri Lanka’s voters shocked themselves and the world this month by tossing out their president, who crushed the Tamil insurgency in 2009 and then led the country, along with his brother as defense secretary, to the brink of authoritarianism.
The new president has promised to restore freedom of the press, independence of judges, and the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.
Democracy advocates, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say this is the country’s most important chance to open a new chapter in more than a decade.
But the country must make sure that members of the ousted regime do not return to power and that the new government can secure its authority. The United States – and only the United States – can do something to help make that happen.
The former president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, aren’t politically dead yet. Critical parliamentary elections are scheduled for April. The new president, Maithripala Sirisena, rode to electoral victory on the back of a diverse group of parties. He must now consolidate his power so that democratic reform can go ahead.
What can the United States do to help? Mr. Kerry said the United States would take up longstanding human rights concerns with the new government. The State Department has spearheaded the creation of a United Nations investigation into war crimes committed under the Rajapaksa regime during the country’s civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2009.
But that inquiry offers both too much and too little at this point. Too much, because pushing for full, sweeping accountability in this fragile moment of transition could destabilize the new government and jeopardize the warming of relations between the United States and Sri Lanka. Too little, because the United Nations investigation doesn’t have any teeth -the panel leading it doesn’t have the powers of a criminal tribunal, and cannot even impose a financial penalty.
Here is where Washington can play a constructive role.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the former defense secretary, oversaw the Sri Lankan armed forces’ worst atrocities during the final stages of the civil war and, as it happens, he is a naturalized American citizen. (Indeed, he used to live in Los Angeles, where he worked as a computer systems operator at Loyola Law School.)
As a citizen, Mr. Rajapaksa can be held liable under the War Crimes Act of 1996, which puts war crimes anywhere in the world under the jurisdiction of United States courts if the perpetrator, or the victim, is a United States citizen. Put another way, the United States has a perfect justification to go after Mr. Rajapaksa individually.
Independent observers have long viewed Gotabaya Rajapaksa as an obstacle, perhaps even more than his brother, to a smooth political transition in Sri Lanka. There is little indication that he will respect the new government, which has opened an investigation to look into widely reported allegations that he and his brother attempted to engineer a military coup to overturn the election results.
It is in the new government’s interest to move decisively to protect its democratic victory by eliminating the threat of Mr. Rajapaksa’s return to power. That is a distinct possibility if his brother, Mahinda, succeeds in a bid to maintain control over the powerful opposition party.
That’s why marginalizing Mr. Rajapaksa now is important. The new president, Mr. Sirisena, has signaled that he is open to domestic criminal prosecutions to ward off foreign war crimes trials. And the president’s spokesman has indicated that the government may be willing to prosecute specific war crimes, such as the so-called White Flag incident, in which surrendering Tamil leaders with white flags were allegedly executed by soldiers on the final day of the civil war. That’s a highly significant statement because, as many Sri Lankans know, and as the State Department reported to Congress, the army chief at the time said that Mr. Rajapaksa gave the order �they must all be killed,� and later added that he would be willing to testify in a war crimes trial.
But proceeding against Mr. Rajapaksa will be politically challenging for the new Sri Lankan government to do on its own. The United States could help by signaling its own interest in opening a criminal case against Mr. Rajapaksa in the event that Sri Lanka doesn’t. That would give the new government both an opportunity and a justification to clean its house. Because of Mr. Rajapaksa’s citizenship, the United States would also be less vulnerable to accusations that it was meddling in the affairs of another nation.
The Obama administration might even say, in a very public way, that it will decide whether to proceed with its own criminal inquiry after giving Sri Lanka’s new establishment an opportunity to move first. Such signals from the United States could help politically marginalize the Rajapaksas at a critical point in the life of the country. They would also bolster President Sirisena’s efforts to have the country repudiate the past and recognize that its best future lies with his administration. The United States should do its part to bring accountability to Sri Lanka and assist its transition to democracy.
January 20th, 2015 at 1:16 pm
Ranjith,
But those who REALLY won the war are NOT with MR anymore!
MR was FORCED to go to war by JHU.
January 21st, 2015 at 9:27 am
NOW those faithless Sinhala Buddhists who VOTED against MR can CRY A RIVER OF TEARS as their Motherland is SLICED & DICED into ETHNO-RELIGIOUS BANTUSTANS!
Aiyooooo Sirisenaaaaa …… What have you DONE to our Motherland!
…………………
Will implement 13th Amendment within a unitary state: Ranil
ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Jan 21 (Hindu) The Sri Lankan government will implement the 13th Amendment to its Constitution within a unitary state, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has said.
Implementation of the 13th Amendment — born out of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 — has remained a long-pending demand of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the main party representing the island’s Northern Tamils. The Amendment envisages substantive devolution of political powers to the provinces.
In his first parliamentary address after assuming charge as Prime Minister — following the Sri Lanka’s January 8 presidential elections — Mr. Wickramasinghe said: “We will implement the 13th Amendment within a unitary state.”
Given that the TNA backed President Sirisena in the elections, the Northern Tamils — who voted against President Rajapaksa in large numbers — would expect the new government to be sensitive to their demands.
Civilian Governor
In a gesture that sections perceive as President Maithripala Sirisena’s willingness to engage with the Tamils’ demands, he recently replaced the former Northern Province Governor, a military man, with a seasoned diplomat.
It is also learnt that orders have been passed to transfer the Chief Secretary of the Province who was on a collision course with Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran.
Mr. Wickramasinghe also outlined the newly-formed government’s plan for the first 100 days. The government would set up independent commissions to run the police, the public service, the judiciary and the elections department, he said.
The new government had presented its 100-day plan ahead of the elections promising a host of measures, including the abolition of executive presidency, which former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s critics saw as being a huge impediment to democracy during his two terms. Mr. Wickramasinghe, appointed Prime Minister by President Sirisena, said the new government would also pass a Right to Information Act.
Rajapaksa’s home raided
Meanwhile Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday asked the new government to stop “revenge”, a day after police raided his country-side home in the southern district of Hambantota.
“Our family has been in politics since 1931. But never our homes came to be searched. I ask them to stop this political revenge,” local media quoted Mr. Rajapaksa as saying. The police were reportedly looking for a Lamborghini sports car and launched a raid following a court warrant, but the search drew a blank.
January 21st, 2015 at 9:33 am
ONE MORE “Yahapalanaya” ALLEGATION proved FALSE!
Aiyooooo Sirisenaaaa …. What are you DOING to our Motherland?
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Police withdraw accusations against floating armoury
By Harischandra Gunaratna
Island.lk
January 21, 2015
The floating armoury MV Mahanuwara detained on Sunday at the Galle Harbour was performing a bonafide operation with Ministry of Defence clearance, but they were trying to ascertain whether all the arms and ammunition found in the vessel were legal and if it contained arms exceeding the amount mentioned in the permit issued to the private company handling the operation, Police Spokesman Ajith Rohana said on Monday.
At a hurriedly summoned press conference, SSP Ajith Rohana said that there were 3,154 automatic and semi-automatic weapons and 747,000 rounds of ammunition on the floating armoury according to the permit issued by the MoD.
“This operation had been going for some time handled by the navy and since September 18, 2012 the job had been handed over to a private company with MoD approval, but yet the security for the operation is provided by the Navy,” he said.
Responding to a query raised by The Island as to how the Galle Habour police was not aware of the operation if it was legal, the senior police officer said with the change of government there had been a communication breakdown between those concerned.
Asked whether a former Navy Commander had a hand in the private shipping company which handled the operation, the police spokesman said he had not received any news to that effect.