LankaWeb

Thousands attend maiden political rally of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna

January 6th, 2018

By Sanchith Karunaratna Courtesy Adaderana

The first political rally of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) headed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was held earlier today (6), near the Kadawatha bus station. Thousands of supporters from the region attended the event marking the first of a series of rallies that will be held leading up to the Local Government election.

The theme for the rally was ‘let’s rebuild the nation once again’. Several members of the Joint Opposition and SLPP members were in attendance at the event.

Speaking at the event, former Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Nimal Lanza stated that he has no regrets in leaving his ministerial portfolio and that he feels confident in his choice to join the SLPP. He further stated that a host of government members will join the SLPP in the next few weeks and that the SLPP will form a new government in two years time.

He however stated that there are certain politicos that are afraid to cross over in fear of losing their political and administrative posts.

Meanwhile MP Keheliya Rambukwella stated that the political saviour of the masses has been stripped down from his high horse to the state of a criminal through the outcome of the Bond scandal.

Also speaking at the event MP Bandula Gunawardene stated that all the UNP members of government should issue a public apology and resign from their posts in the government as the Finance Minister appointed by their government was involved in a large scale fraud.

Leader of the JO in Parliament Dinesh Gunawardene stated that the very same people that accused several opposition members of being corrupt are caught in the midst of the largest fiscal fraud in the history of Sri Lanka.

MP Udaya Gammanpila compared the current government to the folk tale of ‘Ali Baba and the 40 thieves’. The current regime is now the baby elephant and his 40 thieves. We make a vow to the people that we will not stop our struggle until all the corrupt members of government are sacked and put in jail” he said.

MP Wimal Weerawansa stated that the government secured a fluke victory in 2015 by banding together groups of political parties. Now that all the coalition members have fallen out the people will cast their votes for the only clear choice, the SLPP” he said. He further stated that the country would be rid of its debt burden if not for the actions of those involved in the Bond scam.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was received by the gathering with much appraisal. Speaking to the people Mahinda Rajapaksa reminded the people that the Local Government will be akin to a referendum as it will be an expression of public opinion.

He further went on to state that the current government has failed at every point displaying a very fickle foundation. The government has no stability, there’s a cold war going on between the President and Prime Minister. A government cannot function as a divided front” he said in his closing remarks.

PM should take responsibility of Bond scam – Ven.Sumangala Thero

January 6th, 2018

By Sanchith Karunaratna Courtesy Adaderana

Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Front (ACF) Ven.Ulapane Sumangala Thero stated that the Prime Minister should accept responsibility of the Central Bank Bond scam without palming off his guilt to other individuals.

Speaking to the media at a press conference today (6), Ven. Sumangala thero stated the Premier should take responsibility for the Bond scandal without deflecting the blame to Arjun Aloysius and Arjuna Mahendran.

He further stated that the judiciary should take steps to immediately take legal action against all parties involved in the large scale fraud.

Bond fiasco: SLPP saved by decision to contest separately

January 6th, 2018

by C.A.Chandraprema Courtesy The Island

The ‘special statement’ on the bond commission report made last Wednesday by President Maithripala Sirisena was, all things considered, the only statement that could have been made in the circumstances. To have expected anything else was unrealistic. The yahapalana project is something that goes beyond the President, the SLFP which he controls, and the UNP which is in an uneasy alliance with him. This is a project with many stakeholders both local and foreign and it is not easy for any one partner in the yahapalana coalition to make arbitrary decisions even if his personal political future depends on it. The rhetoric of SLFP Ministers during the hearings of the bond commission and while its final report was pending was such that the expectation created in the country was that the President will go all out against the UNP once the report is out. SLFP ministers probably salivated at the prospect of being able to do the UNP in and win a larger slice of the yahapalana vote.

However, all that fell by the wayside with the President’s tepid statement on the bond commission report. For months members of the JO, SLFP and JVP had been vying with one another to portray all those even remotely involved in the bond matter as rogues and the bond issues themselves as the biggest frauds ever perpetrated in this country or even the South Asia, Asia and even the whole world. SLFP State Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene went on record saying that the loss from the bond scam was over one trillion rupees. When he was questioned about this figure he told reporters, “Trust me, I was in the banking sector once, the loss is over one trillion rupees.” One of the most outspoken SLFP figures in this regard was Minister Susil Premajayantha who explained all the cloak and dagger stuff that went into the bond transactions in dramatic detail in parliament.

After months of such posturing, the President’s special statement on the final report of the bond commission was a damp squib to say the least. One thing that this showed was that there is an obvious mismatch between what the President is prepared to do to improve the SLFP’s prospects and what the SLFP ministers and MPs in the government thinks should be done to improve the prospects of the party. This mismatch largely stems from the fact that the SLFP President was voted in by a largely UNP voter base while all his followers in the SLFP government group were elected on the SLFP vote – a vote base that was opposed to everything that the yahapalana government stood for. So the SLFP ministers always sought to pander to their base by attacking the UNP at every opportunity they got. The President too allowed this to happen probably because he was trying to build a party base apart from the UNP.

But now, all that has come a cropper with the President’s statement which had the effect of sweeping the bond commission under the carpet. All that has happened is that the President has sent the bond commission report to the Attorney General for further action. The Prime Minister pointed out in a subsequent statement that he too had sent parliamentarian Sunil Handunneththi’s COPE committee report on the bond commission to the AG back in 2016. What the people actually expected were things like dramatic arrests and highly publicized prosecutions with those involved in the bond scam being brought to court in handcuffs. What people saw over the past three years is members of the opposition being arrested and carted off to jail on the flimsiest grounds. Former Minister Basil Rajapaksa was arrested and kept in remand for months under the wrong law for the wrong reason and the magistrate’s court was kept open till midnight especially to remand him. This mind you was for authorizing the payment of Rs. 2,500 to each Divineguma family without even the suggestion that he had pocketed any money himself. In contrast to that, the bond scam had according to Minister Lakshaman Yapa Abeywardene cost the country over a trillion rupees all of which has gone straight into the pockets of the scammers.

One law for the JO, another for the UNP

The difference in treatment meted out to the bond scammers and the members of the previous government could not be starker. In fact the allegations against members of the previous government were just allegations whereas the bond commission carried out a thorough investigation with clear evidence of wrongdoing emerging. The SLFP was the first to call for a parliamentary debate on the bond report obviously to try and salvage what is left of their self-respect. The UNP us going to be torn to shreds at this parliamentary debate by the Joint Opposition, the SLFP and the JVP. But the SLFP will also get mauled on the process for failing to take action against the bond scammers the way they have against members of the JO even over petty allegations like the possession of more than one passport. In these circumstances, the Podujana Peramuna should thank its lucky stars that the negotiations for the Joint Opposition and the SLFP to field a joint list at the forthcoming local government elections fell through.

Had that move succeeded and the Joint Opposition was in a partnership with the SLFP, the JO too would have ended up with egg on their faces following the President’s anticlimactic statement on the bond scam. The Podujana Peramuna would not be able to go before the people and claim that they were against the UNP being let off so lightly when they were in an alliance with the SLFP. The situation that has arisen after President Sirisena’s special statement once again highlights why the government should be the government and the opposition should be the opposition and the twain should never meet – not in an electoral alliance anyway. What this shows is that the SLFP finally has no control over the decisions made by its leader. The SLFP campaign is in tatters. Any hope they had of being able to masquerade as a part of the opposition while being a partner in the government ended last Wednesday. To make things worse, members of the SLFP were forced to defend the UNP Prime Minister at the SLFP press conferences that followed the President’s statement saying that the Commission has not found fault with the Prime Minister.

Now the JO and the JVP are accusing the government of sacrificing a few people like Ravi Karunanayake in order to shield the main suspects. Perhaps the Commission may not have found fault with the PM, but it was not only the PM who was questioned by the Commission. There were dozens of other officials up and down the line and for months, sensational revelations were being made about the manner in which the Employee’s Provident Find had been milked and corrupt officials paid kickbacks. Many laymen who are not familiar with the tortuous process of the law would think that if Basil Rajapaksa could be arrested on what appeared to be trumped up charges, the issuance of the bond commission report world result in the arrest of at least some of those officials who were revealed to have given and received bribes in relation to the sale of these bonds. The obvious reason why no such arrests have been made is due to the fear of what those officials may reveal if they feel that they are being sacrificed to save someone else’s skin.

The appointment of this bond commission was a mistake from the beginning. This was a case of one segment of the government appointing a commission to look into the doings of another segment of the same government – indeed the senior partner in the government. In hindsight, this was bound to fail from the start. It was no less a personality than the Ven. Bellanwila Wimalarathana Thera who stated cynically that appointing a commission is a way of shoving an inconvenient matter under the carpet. The Ven. monk made that prescient comment at a time when the proceedings of the commission were making headlines virtually on a daily basis and hopes had been raised that some result may actually come of it. This writer too had been warning from time to time that Arjuna Mahendran was a UNP insider who was privy to all the secret deals that were hatched with regard to the yahapalana conspiracy and that it was probably at his house in Singapore that members of the Rajapaksa government had finalized their deals to join the other side and therefore, sacrificing him to save the government will not be feasible. Finally, that is where things seem to have ended up.

On Friday, a magistrate issued an open warrant for the arrest of Jaliya Wickremasuriya the former Sri Lankan Ambassador to the USA. No allegation against Wickremasuriya can compare with the sensational revelations that came to light during the hearings of the bond commission. The question on most people’s minds is, if action has been initiated into some obscure matter that Jaliya Wickremasuriya is said to be responsible for, then how come no action has been taken with regard to some of the matters that came to light during the bond commission hearings which can be immediately acted upon without waiting for the commission to conclude its sittings? Last Friday’s editorial in The Island observed as follows:

“We waited, with bated breath, for a pulse-pounding, earth-shattering revelation on Wednesday. But, President Maithripala Sirisena only read out a statement, selectively disclosing some of the recommendations made by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which probed the Treasury bond scams. However, he, credit where credit is due, has at least done that much unlike his immediate predecessor, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who swallowed presidential probe committee reports whole and flashed grins like a Cheshire cat….A sine qua non of ensuring the success of the forensic audit, recommended by the PCoI, is to prevent the desperate racketeers from covering their tracks and trying to derail investigations. Let President Sirisena be urged to take over the CBSL immediately. A few moons ago, we reported that CBSL Deputy Governor P. Samarasiri, bracketed with Mahendran in the PCoI report, had removed a whole slew of files from the bank and security officers had been ordered not to stop him. The President must act fast if he is genuinely desirous of making the bond racketeers and their confederates in the CBSL pay for the biggest ever financial crime in the country. It is the moment of truth for the President, who wears his commitment to good governance on his sleeve. Now that he has talked the talk so eloquently, he has to walk the walk.”

Dispute over the actual loss caused by bond scam

The dissection of the contents of the bond commission report as revealed by the President in his special statement has commenced already. What is being challenged in the first instance is the bond commission’s calculation of the loss to the country as a result of the bond scam which the commission says was in the range of Rs. 11 billion. On Friday, the former SEC Chairman Nalaka Godahewa was furiously contesting the commission’s calculations stating that this is no ordinary scam (horakama) but one that has affected the whole country and added to the cost of living of every citizen. He asserted that Rs. 11 billion is just the profit made by Perpetual Treasuries in one year through the bond scam and that there are other factors to be taken into account such as the increase in the interest rates by about three percentage points. The loss to the government resulting from the interest rate increase alone is in the range of Rs. 126 billion. Further, he pointed out that as a result of the flight of foreign money from the bond market following this scam and other reasons, the value of the rupee depreciated by about 16% which resulted in the increase of the government foreign debt by about Rs 512 billion. As a result of the increase in the interest rates, the debt of companies and individuals had increased by about Rs. 280 billion. Thus the actual direct and indirect loss to the government and the people of Sri Lanka from the bond scam is over one trillion rupees.

Godahewa accused the government of trying to cover up the bond scam and he drew the attention of the public to the manner in which the President dissolved parliament when D.E.W.Gunasekera was about to present the first COPE Committee report on the bond scam to the last Parliament and the manner in which the Auditor General had been summoned by the Prime Minister to be told that the AG was calculating the loss from the bond scam in the wrong manner. He also reminded the public of the manner in which the UNP tried to move court to prevent the release of the first COPE committee report and the manner in which UNP State Minister Sujeewa Senasinghe wrote a book stating that no fraud had taken place at the bond auctions, and the manner in which a group of parliamentarians added footnotes to the second COPE report to make the same assertion. The present writer interviewed Arjuna Mahendran just before he completed his term in office as CB Governor in June 2016 and one of the questions that I specifically asked him related to the question of interest rates. What follows are some excerpts from that interview.

In Arjuna Mahendran’s own words…

The Island: Aren’t all these problems due to the fact that you started going in for bond auctions instead of direct placements as was the earlier practice?

Arjuna Mahendran: In the modern economy the government can’t manipulate market prices. One of the issues that I took up after I became Governor was that the determination of interest rates had not been left to market forces. It was being done administratively by the people in the Central bank. The rate of interest should be determined at an auction. That is the way it is done everywhere in the world. The members of the previous regime say that the interest rates under that previous system were lower than at the auctions. But that is beside the point. My critics are accusing me of arbitrarily raising interest rates whereas the whole purpose of having auctions is to determine at what price the market will provide those funds to the government. The government had to borrow vast amounts of money to pay the salary increases that were announced, both by Mahinda Rajapaksa and subsequently by President Maithripala Sirisena’s government. In the past they were using the EPF, the Insurance Corporation and the state banks to fund the government’s borrowing and artificially set interest rates at whatever level they wanted to. The problem with that system is that firstly, the EPF contributors were being short-changed. They can get a much better rate of interest for their investments if there is an auction. Secondly, the banks who should be lending this money to private borrowers were instead lending that money to the government.

Q. You have told COPE that you introduced auctions to attract more money to the government and that you wanted to avoid going for a Sovereign bond issue and to generate more money locally so as to reduce our dependence on foreign borrowing. But when the interest rate goes up that creates a whole raft of problems. It increases the government’s debt burden and dampens private borrowing leading to a slowing of the economy.

A. Private borrowing has not gone down so far. At the moment private borrowing is growing at 25%. Increases in interest rates have done nothing to reduce private borrowing. On the contrary we are worried that private borrowing is too high and that is why we are tightening up.

Q. What about the fact that the rising interest rate increases the debt burden on the government?

A. The point is that if the government is to pay higher salaries it has to get the money from somewhere. I increased the size of the auctions. Earlier auctions were for one billion and amounts like that. I made it 10 billion and we immediately got the money. There is enough money in Sri Lanka. All I did was to get it from the public, instead of robbing the EPF, the state banks and the Insurance Corporation.

Q. You have referred to an ‘explosion’ in government spending which made it necessary to attract more money into the system. You have, in particular, mentioned the mini-budget in January last year at the COPE inquiry.

A. President Mahinda Rajapaksa also announced an increase in public sector wages in the 2015 budget.

Q. But not to the same magnitude.

A. You can argue the point. But, since the announcement of the presidential election in 2014, there was a ramping up of government spending and there was a cut in the price of petroleum products. The previous CB Governor had left a 500 million USD bond to be repaid in February 2015. We didn’t have enough money to pay that and I had to reach out to the Reserve Bank of India and borrow some money. We were in a parlous situation where the bills were accumulating. The immediate reason why we went for that big auction at the end of February 2015 is that the RDA had informed the cabinet sub-committee that they needed Rs. 75 billion. That is why I went to the Public Debt department on the day of the auction and asked how much we could raise because the government needed more money. They said there was 10 billion available even though we had advertised only for Rs. one billion. So I said take the whole 10 billion. The interest rate we advertised was 12.5%. We didn’t pay anything more than we had advertised.

Q. Why was a direct placement system not feasible among institutions that need such long term investments?

A. Because we don’t want to deprive the private pension funds of access to these bonds. The EPF has to compete with private pension funds and other fund managers in the market for this money.

Q. Couldn’t these bonds have been placed with the private pension funds as well the same way they were placed with the EPF and ETF?

A. Then there is no point in having a market. We can’t go back to a Soviet Union style planned economy. Even the interest rate has to be market determined. Otherwise, we will have a shortage of money in the country.

Q. There is also this issue of institutions like the EPF, ETF, the Insurance Corporation and the government banks having to buy these bonds on the secondary market from private primary dealers. There is the allegation that the interest rates on long term bonds are being pumped and dumped on these institutional investors.

A. Any allegation of pumping and dumping has to be proved. There is no evidence of collusion in the market. As I said the bidding system is purely electronic. There is no way people can collude and fix this. There are about 15 primary dealers who are bidding every day including the EPF. The EPF has to see to it that they get what is required. If they can’t do that then they have to go to the secondary market and buy these bonds. No other country allows institutions like the EPF to bid in the primary market. Normally, primary auctions are only open to primary dealers. But, as an exception we have allowed the EPF to be there. The EPF gets money on a daily basis from their contributors. If they keep this money in a fixed deposit they will get only 6% whereas if they buy a bond in the secondary market they will get around 8, 9 or 10%. They buy bonds in the secondary market because they can’t wait for the next auction which may be two weeks away.

All or nothing,Mr. President

January 6th, 2018

Editorial Courtesy The Island

January 6, 2018, 7:06 pm
In the view of many, President Maithripala Sirisena has made a bad decision releasing a part version of the much awaited Central Bank Bond Commission report. Being a politician who has not been slow in taking the credit for appointing the commission in the first instance, it would have been best if he released the entire report instead of making selected excerpts public. Alternatively he should not have released the report at all. He could well have said that the report was being studied, that it has been referred to the Attorney General for further action (as he has already done) and a lot besides. There are plenty of precedents of his predecessors choosing to ‘swallow’ commission reports. The people are all too familiar with Commissions of Inquiry, Presidential and otherwise, being appointed with great fanfare, with investigations painstakingly conducted and voluminous evidence recorded, but the final reports never being published. The result is that the people whose taxes paid the cost of such inquiries continue to remain in the dark about their results. What follows is that those found culpable remain unpunished and un-shamed by their reprobate conduct.

We run a story on the various versions of the president’s statement on the report on our front page today. As reported there, there have been second (and even third) thoughts on what parts would be made public and what will be held back. The first English translation of the president’s Sinhala statement had been close enough to the original. But a later version had taken the sting out removing references to the prime minister and former finance minister Ravi Karunanayake. Thereafter Karunanayake’s name was restored but Wickremesinghe’s removed. In the public mind former Governor Arjuna Mahendran is damned and the prime minister stands culpable at least of bad judgment in making the appointment in the first place. Even after questions have been raised, Wickremesinghe wanted Mahendran reappointed but the president resisted. It was the great good fortune of this country that the incumbent governor, Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, who never sought the appointment, was available and was persuaded to accept it. There is confidence all round that he will not countenance hanky panky under his watch. It is the tragedy of this country that there are too few people of high caliber available for appointment to important positions. The result is that mediocrities and sometimes outright crooks have attained high office.

Getting rid of Mahendran and appointing a capable successor is to the good. But what of the bad that has happened? There are conflicting figures of the losses suffered by the Central Bank and the Employees Provident Fund it supervises. But they are huge by any standard. Perpetual who has made mega bucks are already in court about the suspension of their dealer licence have had the prohibition further extended for six months from Jan. 5. We do not know if Mahendran, a Singapore citizen who signed our currency notes, is here or has returned to his country of domicile. Whether he will come back if required is an open question. As it is there is the case of a man called Jaliya Wickremasuriya, a close kinsman of the former president, who served for too many years as Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Washington. His name transpired over a deal involving a considerable sum of government funds during his tenure and it was reported that some money that had gone into the wrong pocket had been returned. Yet there was an effort to make him our high commissioner in Canada! He was arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division, remanded and bailed. Then he got permission to go abroad for medical treatment but has not turned up in court despite being away for two months. Now an open warrant has been issued for his arrest. Hopefully this would open eyes about the need to keep other suspects corralled within our shores.

A lot of sleaze, including famously then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake’s penthouse apartment for which a huge rent had been paid by Perpetual, emerged during the commission proceedings. The snippets from the report that the president has chosen to reveal indicates that Karunanayake has been determined to have given false evidence before the commission and it has been recommended that he be prosecuted under the bribery law. Even though he was forced to resign, the former minister who was quoted last week in a newspaper saying that he was at a loss to understand why the commission wishes him treated as a “suspect,” was not distanced from the prime minister. Let us not forget that Karunanayake’s dethroning was in stages – first he was removed from the finance ministry and made foreign minister. Then he was forced out of the cabinet. This is a clear pointer to his muscle power at least with the premier. He was assigned various functions and had an office at ‘Temple Trees.’ He was very visible when nominations were received especially for the Colombo Municipal Council which the UNP expects to win. Given what has transpired since, will the prime minister try to distance the man who was named “assistant” leader of the UNP from the campaign? Clearly Karunanayake who has been party organizer for various parts of Colombo and has built useful political networks will be a campaign asset. But will Bond Commission negatives lead to his sidelining? We will have to wait and see.

The president does not appear to want to break with Wickremesinghe and the UNP but he also seems to be looking for advantages he can gain from the Bond Report in the forthcoming election where his SLFP, Rajapaksa’s JO and the UNP are the three main contenders. The February local elections are not the big bang; they lead up to first the provincial council, then presidential and parliamentary elections. But the results of Feb. 10 will certainly indicate how the papadam will crumble in the short term.

Cabraal points finger at President and PM

January 6th, 2018

Courtesy The Island

January 6, 2018, 7:46 pm

Former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal yesterday said that Treasury Bond issues from 2008 to 20014 have “already been closely examined by the Auditor General (AG) in response to a request made Aug. 19, 2016, by then Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake under section 43(2) of the Monetary Law Act.”

He was responding to President Maithripala Sirisena’s statement last week that the Bond Commission had recommended that the Central Bank “should first conduct a forensic audit with regard to the alleged fraud and corrupt practices from 2008 and based on such findings legal steps should be taken.” Cabraal said that the AG’s report dated Jan. 16, 2017, based on such examination has been submitted to the finance minister and is also available on the website of the AG.

“If therefore, President Sirisena wishes to ascertain for himself as to whether there has been ‘fraud and corrupt practices from 2008’ and whether ‘such practices had caused losses to government because of similar incidents as revealed in the Commission Report’ he has only to refer to the Auditor General’s Special Examination Report,” Cabraal said.

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He said that he had diligently followed the Bond Commission proceedings but had not seen any media reports reporting any specific evidence placed before the commission indicating impropriety in the issue of bonds during the period 2008-2014.

“However, there is of course the instance where Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe made a much-publicized but unsubstantiated allegation in Parliament on Mar. 17, 2015, wherein he (in my view, deliberately and mischievously) referred to the time-tested and highly effective ‘auction cum direct placement’ method of issuing Treasury Bills and Bonds as a corrupt and unregulated ‘private placement’ system, while alleging that massive frauds took place during that time as a result of such corrupt practice,” Cabraal said.

He further said that it has now been revealed that “this time-tested method of issuing/selling Treasury Bills and Bonds was inexplicably, arbitrarily and suddenly changed into an ‘auction only’ system, on the instructions of PM Wickremesinghe by Governor Mahendran, thereby making one of the most costly and damaging political interferences in the history of our nation.

“That change also enabled the biggest scam in the history of our nation to be carried out, while also creating a steep spike in the interest rates paid by the government for all Treasury Bills and Bonds by over an incredible 2%, enhancing interest rates across the entire economy, and causing a series of setbacks and losses throughout our economy.”

Cabraal concluded by making a references to Australian press reports that the well known Snowy Mountains Engineering Company’s overseas staff had won an AUD 2.3 million dollar aid-funded sewerage project in Sri Lanka in 2011, by bribing a named senior minister of the Sri Lanka cabinet and his advisor with a political “donation.”

“Considering the deep commitment displayed by President Sirisena toward good governance, I am confident that he would initiate a serious and independent investigation so as to ascertain whether there is any truth in the allegation reported in the Sydney Morning Herald. I am equally optimistic that the present UNP-SLFP ‘Yahapalanaya’ joint government would pursue such a course of action with great enthusiasm, since that would be totally consistent with their unwavering values of good governance”, Cabraal said.

President’s office has second thoughts on bond statement

January 6th, 2018

President Maithripala Sirisena’s office has put out several versions of his bond commission statement in an apparent attempt to soften the blow to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his party.

The first English translation of the President’s Sinhala statement was reasonably close to the original, but a subsequent version — Bond Report V3 final.docx — took the sting out.

It removed all references to Wickremesinghe and the then finance minister Ravi Karunanayake.

The President’s website carried the first translation and later swapped it with the new version which was once again amended bringing back references to Ravi Karunanayake but without including Wickremesinghe’s name.

Faulting the Prime Minister for not taking action against the then Central Bank governor Arjuna Mahendran and also blindly believing in him was removed from the final version published on the president’s official website.

The deleted para read: “The Commission is of the opinion that the Prime Minister made his statement in Parliament regarding the appointment of Mr Mahendran believing in the facts presented by Mr. Mahendran and Mr.Samarasiri, especially the promises made by Mr Mahendran. The Report also says that the Prime Minister should not have done that.”

Another crucial paragraph that was initially deleted and later restored was: “The Commission report refers to the allegation against former Finance Minister Mr Ravi Karunanayake regarding the payment of rent for the penthouse apartment belongs (sic) to the Aloysius Family and their Walter and Rowe (sic) Company and stated that Mr Karunanayake was responsible for that and recommended that the government should take necessary action against Mr. Ravi Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption and further legal action under the penal codes for giving false evidence at the Commission.”

Earlier, the President had told senior United National Party (UNP) stalwarts in private that the bond commission report did not make any adverse recommendations against any party seniors.

However, the President sought to include his nemesis Mahinda Rajapaksa too in the bond saga by saying that the Commission had noted that there was malpractice from 2008 and the EPF lost most of its money during the Rajapaksa-era.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has since the President’s statement met with Central Bank of Sri Lanka authorities and asked them to expeditiously arrange a forensic audit of bond transactions with the help of independent international investigators.

Local Elections and Bond Effects: How wounded is the PM? How wound up is the President? What of Basil’s SLPP?

January 6th, 2018

Rajan Philips Courtesy The Island

January 6, 2018, 7:07 pm
The pundits have already declared the February 10 local government elections as a national referendum on the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government. The President’s statement on the findings of the Bond Commission report now provides a specific context or framework for that referendum. The implications of that framework will be endlessly parsed and presaged by pundits. But what effect will the President’s revelations from the Commission report have on the voting public? That is the question that will keep political junkies curious for the next four weeks. A no less curious question is how the report and its handling by the President will change the internal dynamic within political parties/alliances, and between them – especially within the government and between the Siamese twins that the SLFP has become. The ‘internal dynamic’ may or may not be significant enough to influence the local vote, but the results of the local vote will have quite an impact on the post-election relationships within and outside the government. Even the continuation of the Sirisena-Wickremasinghe government might come into question.

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The uniquely depressing aspect of the whole political business of today is that it is not at all about anything seriously political. There are no serious political issues, ideas or programs driving this so called national referendum over national politics. There is nothing in it that is comparable to the great political controversies of the past. The country and its politics may have taken, and they sure did take, the wrong turn at critical moments, but political leaders in the past were serious about the positions they took. And however politically mistaken past leaders may have been in their positions, there was nothing in it for them personally or for their families as it is so crassly now. There is nothing seriously political that differentiates one party or alliance from another. It is a sad commentary on contemporary politics to see seasoned commentators, yours truly not excluded, formulating current electoral politics in terms of old political questions. What we are really doing is trying to re-live the serious politics of the past in the crass and charlatan politics of the present.

Political Superstructure

It is futile to look for underlying social and political forces to make sense of the ongoing political parody. The political superstructure has got a surreal life of its own. The electoral base can only play with the candidate cards that are dealt before it by political party leaders and their servile party bureaucrats. We have seen how inconsequential the nominally historic victory of January 2015 and its sequel in August 2015 have so far proved themselves to be. So it is fair to ask the question as to what worthy consequence can we expect from the February elections to local bodies – the lowest rung in the political ladder. Nonetheless and at long last there will be local elections at considerable expense and effort, election campaigns with no less expense or effort, and there will be results. There are a host of questions to excite the politically excitable. Who will win the largest number of local bodies, and who is going to end up third? What will be the national vote breakdown between parties and alliances? Who will win control of the prize municipality of Colombo and other major urban centres – Galle and Kandy? How will the elections play out outside the seven provinces – in the North and East?

In the aftermath of the bond report, there will be equally exciting questions about the campaign tactics of the President and the SLFP, the rearguard defences of the PM and the UNP, and the palpably wrong-footed and unexciting campaign start of Basil Rajapaksa’s SLPP. The larger speculative question is about the effect the report will have on the shifting voting trends from 2006 through 2011 to 2015. More importantly, what impact will the bond revelations have on voter enthusiasm and voter turnout? The most responsible national concern ought to be about the gross neglect of local issues and local priorities in local government elections. None of the political parties or alliances, perhaps with the partial exception of the JVP, is taking any interest in local issues. All of them are officially considering the local election to be a national referendum to flex their muscle and throw mud at one another.

This will not be first time that local elections are going to be a parody of national politics. The rot started in 1988 when the system of local government based on municipalities, urban and town councils and village councils was replaced by a plethora of Pradeshiya Sabhas, and the election of ‘ward members’ gave way to voting for a list of party candidates. Local government was uploaded and centralized, and local democracy was usurped by party bureaucracy. The February 10 elections are going to be on a system of mixed representation – 60% comprising first-past-the-post ward members, and 40% according to proportion of votes in each local body. And 25% of the elected officials are guaranteed to be women. Will their presence in the campaign and in elected councils make a difference? Or, are they to be mere appendages to male-dominated party establishments?

Any prospect for fundamental changes will not depend on who wins a majority of the local bodies – but how the campaign and the results will change the internal structure and dynamic of the UNP, the SLFP(s) and their alliances. To be brutally frank, can any one of the main parties be of any promise to the country so long as their current leaders remain in leadership positions? Do these parties have the rebellious resources to push out the old and bring in the new? Do the old fogey leaders have the wisdom to prepare for orderly succession and avoid disorderly exits? It is too much to expect the local elections and the bond report to trigger any or all of these changes. But they could at least show us which way the country and its politics are heading.

Voting trends and prospects

In the last two local elections in 2006 and 2011, the UNP was simply decimated. The Rajapaksa juggernaut did to the UNP what the UNP juggernaut under JRJ and Premadasa had been doing to the SLFP in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. In 2006 and 2011, the SLFP virtually swept the board in the seven provinces and made gains in the Eastern Province through its minority proxy parties. The only oasis of respite for the UNP was the Colombo municipality, where the Rajapaksas came up short despite fielding star mayoral candidates: Vasudeva Nanayakkara from the Left in 2006, and Milinda Moragoda from the Right in 2011. The situation is reversed now, with the UNP as the leading government party and aiming to do well in the local elections overall, while also eying to keep its big trophy in Colombo and parading Rosy Senanayake as its star candidate for Mayor.

It is reasonable to expect the UNP to do better in 2018 than its performances in 2006 and 2011. It cannot do worse even if the bond scam is the only election question. But how much better can the UNP do? Ordinarily, UNP strategists would have taken much comfort from the vote shifts between 2011 and 2015. But they would be stupid to take anything for granted in light of the Bond Report and the stink it has created. This is what anyone could glean from the vote shifts between 2011 and 2015.

In the 2011 local elections, the UNP alliance hit its absolute nadir in national vote, polling only 2.7 million (32%) against the SLFP/UPFA’s 4.8 million (56%). All the others combined for a total of one million votes. The total valid votes were 8.5 million representing 65% voter turnout. The UNP won majority in only nine local bodies as opposed to SLFP/UPFA’s massive 270. Even the TNA fared much better than the UNP with 32 local bodies for a vote tally of 255,000.

Fast forward to 2015 January presidential election and the parliamentary election in August: In the presidential election, Mahinda Rajapaksa polled 5.8 million votes against Maithripala Sirisena’s 6.2 million votes, and the total valid votes were 12.1 million. In the August parliamentary election the SLFP/UPFA vote (including both Rajapaksa and Sirisena factions) dropped to 4.7 million, a million lower than in January, and 100,000 lower than the local elections in 2011. The vote for the UNP alliance shot up to 5.1 million in contrast to its 2011 nadir of 2.7 million. The total valid votes in August were 11.2 million (about a million less than in January), and the non-major parties totalled 1.3 million with the TNA and the JVP each polling over a half a million votes. The voter turnout in August 2015 was 77%, 12% higher than in the 2011 local elections.

Now there has been much commentary that the UNP alliance’s 5.1 million votes in August 2015 should not be taken as votes in the bank for the UNP in the upcoming local elections. The breakdown of votes between different parties presents a more optimistic picture at least for the UNP about its support base. The 6.2 million votes polled by Maithripala Sirisena as the common opposition candidate drew from multiple parties but the vast majority of the votes came from the UNP. In the August election almost all the other common opposition parties contested separately amassing a grand total of 1.3 million votes. There were not significant vote gathering parties in the UNP alliance in August 2015 to make a claim to a significant portion of the alliance’s 5.1 million votes. The only unknown, to my mind, is the number traditional SLFP votes that may have gone to the UNP alliance. Admittedly, there were a handful of SLFPers who were contesting as UNP alliance candidates but the vast majority of the SLFP votes would have stayed with the SLFP/UPFA alliance.

My point in all this is that ordinarily, the vote shifts between 2011 and 2015 would have placed the UNP in a pretty comfortable position for the upcoming local elections. The split of the SLFP base between Sirisena (SLFP/UPFA) and Rajapaksa (SLPP/JO) would have been an additional fillip to UNP fortunes. The partial (60%) re-introduction of the first-past-the-post system would also have been of advantage to the UNP. While the UNP could not have repeated the SLFP/UPFA sweeps of the local bodies in 2006 and 2011, the UNP could certainly have done much better than it did either in 2006 or 2011. Of the three main contestants, the UNP could have won control of most of the local bodies.

However, in the aftermath of the Bond report and revelations, the UNP cannot take anything for granted and nothing is certain for anybody. The UNP’s predicaments do not necessarily give much advantage to the SLFP/UPFA or the SLPP/JO. The latter two have their own problems. Overall the elections in the seven provinces are a three-horse race, but none of the three horses are fit and ready for the race. In the North, the TNA will have to deal alone with its provincial detractors, while in the East the TNA is likely to have electoral arrangements with Muslim parties to keep its detractors at bay. The bond issue is unlikely to be echoed in the two provinces, but the TNA will be forced to show what benefits it has obtained for the war-affected areas and victims. Equally, it will be asked to outline its plans for the future in light of the goings-on in Colombo.

Bond Effects

There is no question the Bond Report is hurtful to the UNP. The effects will be two fold – among the party organizers and in the party’s support base. It was already known that there were rumblings among UNPers that the first bond scandal cost the party its parliamentary majority in the August 2015 election. How much more rumblings there will be if the UNP fails to win control of a majority of the local bodies on February 10? It is unlikely that UNP voters will vote with their feet by going over to Maithripala Sirisena or Mahinda Rajapaksa, but if they are disgusted enough by the bond scandal they may end up not turning out to vote at all. Voter apathy was certainly the main factor in the low vote tally of 2.7 million in the 2011 local government election. Along with apathy, there could be real anger this time over the bond scandal.

But there is also the difference that the UNP is now a governing party unlike in 2006 or 2011 when it was hopelessly out of contention for power. It would be instructive to see if the UNP leadership would try to counter the fallout from the bond scandal by displaying its governmental power to its supporters. That could backfire the way it did when Mahinda Rajapaksa brazenly tried to run for a third term in office. The UNP version of the Rajapaksa brazenness would be to allow Ravi Karunanayake play a leading role in the local election campaign regardless of the Bond Commission’s damning findings against him. Obviously, the Prime Minister has not shown he has the gumption to fire the former minister from the party hierarchy. The question is if the PM will at least show moral sensibility and ask Ravi Karunanayake to stay out of the election campaign. There have been reports that several UNPers have started asking to cut loose Karunanayake from the campaign team. Will their prayers be answered? How will Rosy Senanayake rate her chances in the Colombo mayoral contest with Ravi Karunanayake as her campaign chaperon?

As I indicated in the title of this article, how wounded is Prime Minister Wickremasinghe by the bond scandal? There is no question that the political responsibility for the whole sordid mess is his and his alone. He may get away with the local government election, but he is far too much damaged to be a future presidential candidate. He may not be the most appropriate person to lead the party even in the next parliamentary election. In British parliamentary politics, political parties devour their leaders even when they are Prime Ministers. There is a long list of consecutive Tory Prime Ministers from Churchill to Thatcher brought down by their own parties. That is not the tradition in Sri Lanka. Nor is there a tradition of voluntary retirement from party leadership. Wouldn’t it be apt and decent for our party leaders to start such a tradition and work out their own orderly succession?

For all its predicaments, the UNP can still count on the difficulties of its adversaries. President Sirisena has deservedly carved out a yahapalanaya niche for himself by launching the Bond Commission and reaping its findings. But his efforts are not obviously helping him to consolidate the SLFP. Nor are they sufficient to make an impact on the local elections. He must be relentless in seeing through the full implementation of the recommendations of the Commission including the indictments. He should equally initiate and persist with other probes into misdoings both before and after 2015. But he runs the risk in overplaying the bond scam and the Commission’s findings for electoral purposes. Beyond a certain point, his use of the Bond Report is not going to help the SLFP garner more votes or win more local bodies. But the risk in overplaying it is in alienating the Prime Minister and breaking up the partnership between the two.

The difficulties facing the Rajapaksa camp are not surprising. Like Prime Minister Wickremesinghe pretending that it is all business as usual for his side of the government regardless of the bond scandal, the Rajapaksas have been pretending to themselves that they can just slide back into power regardless of their own scandals simply by holding rallies and fielding candidates. The unpopularity of the government would be enough to storm them back to power – that has been the premise. The new party (SLPP) that Basil Rajapksa and GL Peiris (what a pair!) launched has hardly taken a flying start to this campaign. It has run into all kinds of organizational difficulties and internal acrimonies. Those who were gung ho about a JO victory have gone quiet. They are even quieter about the fact that Gotabaya Rajapaksa, their prize fighter for the next presidential election, has taken leave of absence from Sri Lankan politics and is now resting in the US until the local elections are over. Apparently, he was not happy with the way his brother Basil handled and botched the unity talks between the two SLFPs.

No one should be surprised if the voters return a ‘hung verdict’ – no one emerging as a clear winner and each party claiming selective victory. A hung verdict will be most pleasing to President Sirisena, that is to say he can save face if he is in a pack of three with close tallies rather than ending up a distant third behind the other two contenders. The reality is that after the election and for the next two years, just as it is now, President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe cannot be without one another. One cannot get rid of the other, and the two need each other to remain officially relevant. They are also the only two people with an agenda for government that most Sri Lankans can relate to and hold them accountable far. The bond scam has scuppered the agenda and whatever prospect there was for good governance. Regardless of the outcome of the February 10 elections, the President and the Prime Minister will have two years left to see if they can salvage something before their day of reckoning finally arrives.

පර්පචුවල් ලාභයත් බැඳුම්කර අලාභයත් අතර මිලියන 6,755ක පරතරයක්

January 6th, 2018

අනුරාධා හේරත් උපුටාගැණීම මව්බිම

පර්පචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගමේ ලාභයත් ජනාධිපති බැඳුම්කර කොමිෂන් වාර්තාව හෙළිදරව් කළ අලාභයත් අතර රුපියල් මිලියන 6,755ක පරතරයක් පවතින බව දූෂණ විරෝධී හඬ අනාවරණය කරයි.

එම සංවිධානයේ කැඳවුම්කරු ජවිපෙ පාර්ලිමේන්තු හිටපු මන්ත්‍රි වසන්ත සමරසිංහ ‘ඉරිදා මව්බිම’ට පැවැසුවේ පර්පචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගමේ ගිණුම් වාර්තාවල සඳහන් පරිදි එහි මාස 30ක ලාභය රුපියල් මිලියන 18, 255ක් වන අතර බැඳුම්කර කොමිසම් වාර්තාවෙන් රජයට වූ පාඩුව ලෙස ඉදිරිපත් කළේ රුපියල් මිලියන 11,500ක් බවය.
එකී වාර්තා අනුව රුපියල් මිලියන 6755ක පරතරයක් පවතින බව පැවැසූ සමරසිංහ මහතා ප්‍රශ්න කළේ ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකු නිලධාරීන් බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමට නිවැරැදි තොරතුරු ලබාදුන්නේ නම් මෙවැනි ගැටලුවක් පැනනඟින්නේ කෙසේද යන්නයි.

ඒ අනුව 2015.04.01 සිට 2016.03.31 දක්වා රුපියල් මිලියන 5124ක්ද, 2016.04.01 සිට 2016.09.30 දක්වා රුපියල් මිලියන 6815ක්ද, 2016.09.30 – 2017.03.31 දක්වා රුපියල් මිලියන 6000ක් සහ 2017.04.01 සිට 2017.09.30 දක්වා රුපියල් මිලියන 316ක් (මෙය පොලී ආදායම පමණි) ආකාරයට රුපියල් මිලියන 18,255ක් පර්පචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගම ලාභ උපයා ඇති බව ඒ මහතා පෙන්වා දෙයි.

බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේ නිලධාරීන් දීර්ඝ කාලයක් තිස්සේ ඉතා වෙහෙසක් දරා මෙසේ තොරතුරු හෙළිකිරීම පිළිබඳ තම සංවිධානය ස්තූතිවන්ත වන බව එහු පැවැසීය.

අපේ අගමැති සහ සිංහල සිනමාවේ සමිමානිය නිළි ආයිරංගනි සේරසිංහ දකුණු අප්‍රිකානු ගෝත්‍රික නැටුමක

January 6th, 2018

https://www.facebook.com/leshan.wida/videos/10210356301119728/

Treasury Bonds scam Act to recover losses soon – Dayasiri President to brief Cabinet

January 6th, 2018

Courtesy Ceylon Today

A Bill, which will enable the State to recover a sum of Rs 8.5 billion, that was allegedly robbed by those involved in the Central Bank Treasury Bonds scam, will be presented to the House when Parliament convenes for the first time in 2018, Co-Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera said yesterday.

He added that he Bill will enable the State to seize the assets, including immovable property, of the culprits to the value of the losses they caused.

He said that even the report compiled by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which probed the Central Bank Bonds scam, had recommended such action and the President would be briefing the Cabinet on the issue at the next meeting.

The Commission Report says the Prime Minister should not have appointed Arjuna Mahendran as the Governor of the Central Bank.

January 5th, 2018

Dr. Sudath Gunasekara 3.1.2017

Now that the CB scam commission at last is out and having listened to the Special statement of the President to the nation over the TV, I opine to make few pertinent observations that would be interesting for the general public.

I quote from the Report below what it said on Prime Minster

The Commission is of the opinion that the Prime Minister made his statement in Parliament regarding the appointment of Mr Mahendran believing in the facts presented by Mr. Mahendran and Mr.Samarasiri, especially the promises made by Mr Mahendran. The Report also says that the Prime Minister should not have done that”.

The Commission stated that moreover these facts were before the COPE committee and the Prime Minister had not stated that because of that he had not taken the proper action against Mr. Mahendern”.

This I think is a clear indictment on the action of the Prime Minister which indirectly suggests that the PM is also at fault while it also has said that AM’s appointment by Ranil was properly done.

What the Commission failed to mention in their observations are listed below

Arjun Mahendran was appointed against the wishes of the President on the insistence of Ranil

He was a Citizen of Singapore and not a citizen of this country

The question of legality of currency notes signed by foreigner and question of the legal hold the Government of Sri Lanka has on such Governor

When Arjuna’s actions were questioned in Parliaments Prime Minster defended him

Prime Minister also got the Central Bank under him where as it was all the time under the Ministry of Finance from the inception. And why did he do that.

Why didn’t the President object that

The close and dubious relationship between Arjun M and Ranil at Royal and college mates and chums (which undoubtedly this relationship must have influenced in his decision to get him appointed as Governpr).

That they have had a preplanned plan hatched in Singapore before the Presidential elections in Jan 2015 to bringing Arjun M as Governor CB and take the CB under the PM

The fact that when the Bond question was brought to light Ranil also tried to appoint his own Commission to inquire in to those allegations but fortunately it was flopped as the President took timely action to appoint the Presidential Commission

In this backdrop

It is very clear that Ranil has faulted not only in Ajuns M’s appointment but also erred by not taking timely action against him when his conduct as the Governor was questioned. Was it not his responsibility both as the Minister in charge the CB and as Prime Minister and also as the man who got him appointed as Governor in spite of strong objection by the President to take prompt action against Arjun M. The fact that he has not taken action as suggested by the COPE in time and he had safeguarded Arjun Mahendrans interests more than the interests of the nation or the public clearly that he had a personal stake in this whole issue.

Looking at the whole process in my opinion there had been a long time fraudulent and criminal conspiracy against the nation and the CB by a gang of top politicians, hatched even before the 2015 Jan elections to work out the modus operandi of this appalling, shameless and mega robbery. If not why did they import Mahendran as Governor when there were enough competent men at home, why did the PM suddenly decided to bring the CB under his purview where as it had been under the Finance Ministry ever before. Aren’t all these moot issues

Therefore I think Ranil should take the whole responsibility for this criminal mega robbery of not only the nation’s Central Bank but also for the losses caused to all other state financial institutions like the EPF, Mahapola, NDB and SLIC – that was over Rs 8.5 billion and the total of LKR 11,145 million lost for the country within five months, as the report has found.

The country would like to know why the Commission as well as the President has not taken these issues in to consideration in fixing responsibility.

As such I would pause the question ‘Was it a fact finding Commission or a facts evading Commission’ to suit a designed plan of the Yahapalanaya Government?

Under these circumstances in my opinion the accused persons should be listed as follows in order of weight and the gravity of the crime committed

1 Prime minister Rnil Wickramasinha

2 Finance Minister Rvi Karaunaratna

3 CB Governor Arjun Mahendran

4 Arjun Aloysius

5 All others who have either complied or conspired with it, including politicians and others, and all officials who have neglected and failed in their responsibilities and duties

If the President fails to do that it will be only another classical Kekille Rajjuruwange Nadu tiinduwak given by him for political expedience.

Even if he does this he want be able to absolve himself completely as he has not said NO to Mahendran’s appointment which implies his implicit approval of decision taken by the PM.

Meanwhile one would wonder as to why the Gpvernment drag in the pre- 2015 period at this moment if not for the intention of distracting public attention on the main issue, when such reference is outside the TOR of the Commission unless the President has some other dubious plans up his sleeves.

Now that Arjuna Mahendran is reported to have gone back to Singapore, one wonders whether it is the end of legal action against him. Suppose Singapore takes up the position that Sri Lanka cannot take legal action against one of its citizens as he does not has a dual citizenship either. I have no doubt the so-called International Community will also stand by such decision. Then surely that will be the end of the game as far as AM is concerned. I only hope Arjun Aloysius is still I Sri Lanka.

Why did the President not stop Arjuna’s appointment to begin with? Why did he allow the PM to make a written submission without asking him to testify in person before the commission thereby and put him above the law? These are some pertinent questions left unanswered for many moons to come.

Is the Emperor himself also naked? That would be a very pertinent question people might ponder.

Meanwhile the whole country would also like to know now as to what has happened to Mr Clean as he was once called.

Under this scenario the country expects him to honourably submit his resignation immediately not only as the Prime Minister but also from the Leadership of the UNP as the country needs to have these two Parties until a better solution is found for this country in place of this corrupt political Party system introduced by the British to ruin this country, whether we like it or not until such time these two major parties have to go on, for UNP needs to find an honourable leader of the caliber of DS to restore the lost prestige of UNP before it falls in to the dustbin of history under Ranil’s miserable leadership. In case he does not, the president should ask him to resign failing which the President will have to sack him and appoint a new interim Cabinet with a new Prime Minister, if he puts the country and the public interest before personal interests as he use to declare and pontificates all the time. He will also have to closely watch whether the AG will do the job properly as people have a reasonable suspicion on him after his pathetic performance when he led Ranil’s evidence at the Commission.

The whole country is eagerly watching and waiting to see as to what the NATO President Sirisena will do within the next few days to come. His entire political future will depend on how he acts on this issue rather than chasing after Rajapaksas for personal reasons. The whole country knows it was the UNP block vote that made him the President. But trying to save Ranil at this juncture will end up in political disaster for him. Now that, having appointed him unconstitutionally and illegally on Jan 2015 and tolerated him as PM for three years is more than enough gratitude for agreeing for your candidacy as the Common Candidate, not because he loved you but simply because he had no confidence in himself.

All culprits involved in this national crime should be immediately arrested and action taken against them to give them the maximum punishment ending up in confiscation of all their assets both here and abroad and removing their civil rights for life if public hanging is not possible. Then it will remain a classic example of Yahapalanaya in this country for ever.

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Yahapalana tied up like animals in Jappanaka Sutta

January 5th, 2018

K. B. H. Colombo-06 Courtesy The Island

January 5, 2018, 9:59 pm
The Jappanaka Sutta could be a lesson to the voter for the forthcoming Local Government Elections. Does “Yahapalana Regime” qualify to the teachings of the Buddha in the Jappananaka Sutta, which is based on six animals, the crocodile living in water, snake living in an ant hill, a bird flying in the sky, a fox living in a cemetery, a monkey living on trees and a dog living in a village are tied together by a rope. Descriptive analysis is made as to the consequences of such a tie up and is vividly described in the Sutta.

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The pattern of behavior of six are different, they are not similar to each other’s. The Buddha gives an example. Those six are tied up separately from six pieces of rope. The remaining ends are tied up together. Now all the six animals are tied together are attempting to go to their usual areas of habitat. Then the crocodile pulls to water, the snake pulls to creep into the anthill, the bird tries to fly in the sky, the monkey tries to climb trees, the fox tries to run to the cemetery, the dog pulls go to the village. All six are pulling in six different directions.

The Jappanaka Sutta was preached to explain “Sati’ when one gets engaged in meditation. One can compare this situation in the context what is happening in good governance under the “Yahapalana” regime today. This unholy alliance of political parties, evolved due to fortuitous circumstances, has put the voter in a quandary. Many voters have expressed they shall not exercise their votes as there are no suitable candidates to cast their votes for. So the opportunity has been created for large scale impersonations for which the elections commissioner remains helpless.

The Yahaplana regime is loosely bonded together, due to greed for power and, unprecedented perks bestowed on Parliamentarians by the yahapalana regime during the three years of their good governance, and hatred prevailing within the established parties towards party leadership where the party discipline had been shattered due to greed for power.

Unfortunately, what has happened, is that the poor voter is suffering while the politicians who get elected accumulate wealth, enjoy power at the expense of the average voter.

So the voter should be sensitive enough to cast their votes so that a scenario of the Presidential election or the subsequent general election shall not get repeated in the future, for the de-establishment of the country, in the guise of good governance.

K. B. H. Colombo-06

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ජනාධිපති විසින් මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කිරීම – Violation of Election Laws by HE the President

January 5th, 2018

කුසල් පෙරේරා ස්වාධීන මාධ්‍යවේදී By Kusal Perera

Please see below the English Translation

2018 ජනවාරි 04 වන දින

සභාපති,

ශී‍්‍ර් ලංකා මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාව

මැතිවරණ මහ ලේකම් කාර්යාලය

සරණ මාවත

රාජගිරිය.

සභාපතිතුමනි,

ජනාධිපති විසින් මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කිරීම

උක්ත කාරණාවට අදාල වූ පළාත් පාලන මැකිවරණය වෙනුවෙන් එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානයේ මැතිවරණ ප‍්‍රකාශනය ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය යොදා ගනිමින් එළි දැක්වීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් මම මෙවැනිම ලිඛිත පැමිණිල්ලක් මීට හරියටම සතියකට පෙර 2017 දෙසැම්බර 28 වන දින ඔබ වෙත යොමු කළෙමි. එමගින් මම,

1. ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය මැතිවරණ කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් යොදා ගැනීම

2. බණ්ඩාරනායක අනුස්මරණ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත‍්‍රණ ශාලා ගාස්තුව සහ එම උත්සවය වෙනුවෙන් සිදු කළ වියදම් පිළිබඳව පරීක්ෂණයක් පැවැත්වීම

3. ජාතික රූපවාහිනිය එම මැතිවරණ ප‍්‍රචාරක කාර්ය සඳහා යොදා ගැනීම

යන කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් මැතිවරණ කොමිසම වහා පියවර ගත යුතු යැයිද ඒ පියවර ප‍්‍රසිද්ධ කළ යුතුයැයිද ඉල්ලා සිටියෙමි.

එහෙත් ජනාධිපති විසින් මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කළේ යැයි මා කළ පැමිණිල්ල සම්බන්ධයෙන් නිහඩ වන්නා වූ ඔබ, මැතිවරණ කටයුතු සඳහා රාජ්‍ය දේපළ හා සම්පත් භාවිතය නීති විරෝධි යැයි හා එවැනි කාර්යන් සඳහා රජයේ නිලධාරීන් වගකිව යුතු බව නැවත නැවතත් මාධ්‍යයට ප‍්‍රකාශ කිරීමත් පැමිණිලි සඳහා විද්යුත් තැපැල් ගිණුම් දිස්ති‍්‍රක්ක අනුව ප‍්‍රකාශයට පත් කිරීමත් විහිළුවක් යැයි මම කියමි.

මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය පිළිබඳව කෙරෙන පැමිණිලි සම්බන්ධයෙන් පියවර ගැනීමේදී කල් මැරීමෙන්, එවැනි උල්ලංඝණ කිරීම් සඳහා ඔබ තව දුරටත් ඉඩ තබන්නේය. ඔබ ඇතුළු මැතිවරණ කොමිසම ජනතා බදු මුදලින් නඩත්තු කෙරෙන්නේ ඒ සඳහා නොවේ. එපමණක්ම නොවේ. ජනාධිපතිට එරෙහි එම පැමිණිල්ල සම්බන්ධ කිසිදු පියවරක් නොගැනීමෙන් ඔබ මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ ස්වාධීනත්වය හා වගකීම දේශපාලන වශයෙන් පාවා දෙන්නේ යැයිද මම චෝදනා කරමි.

මෙම චෝදනාවෙන් මැතිවරණ කොමිසම නිදොස් කරගැනීමට ඔබට තවමත් කාලය ඇත. එබැවින් ඒ වෙනුවෙන් මවිසින් 2017 දෙසැම්බර 28 වන දින ජනාධිපති විසින් මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කළ බවට යොමු කළ පැමිණිල්ලට අදාලව වහා පියවර ගන්නා මෙන් නැවත මෙයින් ඉල්ලමි.

ස්තුතියි.

මෙයට විශ්වාසි,

කුසල් පෙරේරා

ස්වාධීන මාධ්‍යවේදී

පිටපත් – සියලූ මාධ්‍ය වෙත

විද්යුත් තැපෑල මගිනි

2017 දෙසැම්බර 28 වන දින

සභාපති

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මැතිවරණ කොමිෂන් සභාව

මැතිවරණ මහලේකම් කාර්යාලය,

සරණ මාවත,

රාජගිරිය.

සභාපතිතුමනි,

ජනාධිපති විසින් මැතිවරණ නීති උල්ලංඝණය කිරීම

මේ සමග යොමු කෙරෙන ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාල ලිපි ශීර්ෂය සහිත ලිපියෙන් ඉතා නිරවුල්ව හෙළි කෙරෙන අයුරු, ශ්‍රී.ල.නි.පයේ සභාපති ධූරය වෙනුවෙන් ඉටු කළ යුතු මැතිවරණ කටයුතු සඳහා ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන විසින් ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය යොදා ගන්නේය.

එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය මෙවර පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයේ තරග වදින දේශපාලන පක්ෂයක් වන අතර එහි ප්‍රතිපත්ති ප්‍රකාශය එළිදැක්වීම මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක කටයුත්තකි. ඒ වෙනුවෙන් බණ්ඩාරනායක අනුස්මරණ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාවේ අද දින (දෙසැම්බර 28 වන දින) උදය වරුවේ පැවති මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක උත්සවය සඳහා ජනාධිපති සම්බන්ධීකරණ ලේකම් සනත් වීරසූරියගේ අත්සනින් ආරාධනා ලිපි ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලයේ ලිපි ශීර්ෂ සහිතව නිකුත් කර ඇත. මෙය සිය මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාරය වෙනුවෙන් ජනාධිපති රාජ්‍ය ආයතනයක් යොදා ගැනීමකි.

ඒ සමග මතුවන අනෙක් බරපතල කාරණාව වනුයේ මෙම උත්සවය වෙනුවෙන් මුදල් ප්‍රතිපාදනය කොතැනින් සිදුවූයේද යන්නය. එවගේම අද උදය වරුවේ මෙම උත්සවය සජීවීව ජාතික රූපවාහිනිය මගින් විකාශනය කෙරුණු බවද දැන ගන්නට ඇත.

එබැවින්,

1. ජනාධිපති ලේකම් කාර්යාලය මැතිවරණ ව්‍යාපාර කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් යොදා ගැනීම

2. බණ්ඩාරනායක අනුස්මරණ ජාත්‍යන්තර සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලා ගාස්තුව සහ එම උත්සවය වෙනුවෙන් සිදු කළ අනෙක් වියදම් පිළිබඳව වහා පරීක්ෂණයක් පැවැත්වීම

3. ජාතික රූපවාහිනිය එම මැතිවරණ ප්‍රචාරක කාර්ය සඳහා යොදා ගැනීම

යන කාරණා සම්බන්ධයෙන් මැතිවරණ කොමිසම වහා පියවර ගත යුතු වන්නේය.

එකී පියවර පිළිබඳව නොපමාව ප්‍රසිද්ධ ප්‍රකාශයක් කරන මෙන්ද මෙයින් ඉල්ලමි.

ස්තුතියි.

මෙයට විශ්වාසි,

කුසල් පෙරේරා

ස්වාධීන මාධ්‍යවේදී

පිටපත්

1. මැතිවරණ කොමිසමෙහි සියලු සාමාජිකයින් වෙත

2. සියලු මාධ්‍ය වෙත

ජනාධිපති කොමිසම කියූ බැදුම්කරේ අලාභය ළුණු බිකක්.. ඇත්ත පාඩුව අන්තිම සතේට මෙන්න..

January 5th, 2018

චාමින්ද කරුණාරත්න

මහබංකු බැන්දුම්කර ගනුදෙනුව පිලිබඳ ජනාධිපති කොමිසම් වාර්ථාව පිලිබඳ ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් දෙසැම්බර් 3 දා කල විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශය තුලින් හොරකමක් සිදුවූ බව රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික මට්ටමෙන් පලමුවරට පිලිගනු ලැබුවද සමස්ථයක් වශයෙන් එම ප්‍රකාශය ජනතාවගේ බලාපොරොත්තු ඉටු කිරීමට අසමත් වූ බව ආචාර්ය නාලක ගොඩහේවා පවසයි.

මේ වාර්ථාව ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමට වසර 2 1/2 ට පෙර සිටම එම කරුණු තමා ඇතුලු විවිධ විද්වතුන් විසින් සමාජයට පෙන්වාදී ඇති නිසා එහි අලුත් සොයාගැනීමක් නැති බවද ඔහු පැවසීය.

” මේ ගනුදෙනුව ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ ලොකුම මුදල් වංචාව. ලංකාවේ ආර්ථිකයට විශාල බලපෑමක් කල ,සෑම පුරවැසියෙකුගේම ජීවන බර ඉහල යාමට බලපෑ හොරකමක්. . මෙහි පාඩුව විශේෂ ප්‍රකාෂයේ කියවුන රුපියල් මිලියන 11,145 නොවෙයි. ඒ පර්පෙචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගම ලැබූ ලාබය පමනයි. නමුත් රටට වූ පාඩුව ඊට වඩා ඉතා විශාලයි.

උදාහරණය්ක් වසයෙන් මේ හොරකම සිදූ නිසා රටේ පොලී අනුපාතය 3% කින් පමන ඉහල යාම නිසා එවකට තිබූ දේශීය රාජ්‍ය ණය රුපියල් බිලියන 126 කින් පමන ඉහල ගියා.

කොළඹ නුවර අධිවේගී මාර්ගය හදන්න පුලුවන් ඒ මුදලින්. මේ දූෂණය හරහා විදෙශ ආයෝජකයින්ගේ විශ්වාසය බිඳවැටී ඔවුන් විශාල වශයෙන් මුදල රටින් ඉවත්කරගත්තා. ඒ ඇතුලු තවත් හේතු නිසා රුපියලේ අගය 16% කින් පමන බාල්දු වීම නිසා අප විසින් ගෙවිය යුතු විදේශ ණය වල දේශීය අගය රුපියල් බිලියන 512 කින් පමන ඉහල ගියා. හම්බන්තොට වරාය වගේ 3 ක් හදන්න තිබුනා ඒ මුදලින්.

මේ හොරකම සිදුවන වෙලාවේ රටේ ආර්ථිකයේ පුද්ගලික හා ව්‍යාපාර ණය තිබුන රුපියල් බිලියන 7200 ක් පමන. පොලිය ඉහල යාම නිසා මෙසේ ණය ඇරන් තිබුන පුද්ගලයන්ට හා ව්‍යාපාරයන්ට වූ පාඩුව රුපියල් බිලියන 280 ක් පමන වෙනවා. සමස්ථයක් වශයෙන් ගත්තහම රුපියල් කෝටි ලක්ෂයක පමන පාඩුවක් ඍජු හා වක්‍ර මාර්ගවලින් රටට වුනා. කවුද මේ පාඩුවට වග කියන්නේ ?

මෙයට වගකියන්න ඕනෑ හොරකම කල අය පමනක් නොවේයි. හොරු රැක්ක අයත් වග කියන්න ඕනෑ. අපට මතකයි එදා මේ හොරු රකින්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශ කරපු අය. අපිට මතකයි කමිටු දාල බැදුමකර වංචාවක් සිදුවුනේ නැහැ කියපු අය, අපිට මතකයි මේ ගැන කතා කරන එක වලක්වන්න උසාවි ගිහින් වාරණ නියෝග ඉල්ලපු අය,

අපිට මතකයි ඩිව් ගුනසේකර කෝප් කමිටු වාර්ථාව සබාගත කරන්න කලින් හොරු බේරන්න පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරවපු අය. අපිට මතකයි බැඳුමකර සිද්ධිය ගැන විගනාධිපතුමාගේ වාර්ථා වැරදියි කියල එතුමට තර්ජනය කරපු අය. අපිට මතකයි මහබැංකුම් බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනුවේ කිසිම හොරකමක් සිදුවුනේ නැහැ කියල පොත් ලියපු අය.

අපිට මතකයි අවසාන කෝප් වාර්ථවත් බාල්දු කරන්න ෆුට් නෝට් දාපු අය. මේ ඔක්කොම ඉන්නෙ වත්මන් ආන්ඩුවේ. ඒ නිසා රටට වූ මේ පාඩුවට වත්මන් ආන්ඩුව වග කියන්න ඕනෑ.

මේ ආන්ඩුව් බලයට අවෙ යහපාලනය ගෙනෙන්නයි. හොරු අල්ලන්න කියා බලයට ආ ආන්ඩුවට යහපාලනය කියන වචනය ගැනවත් යම් කිසි ගෞරවයක් තියෙනවනම් ආන්ඩුව දැන් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්න ඕනෑ.

අපි හිතුව ජනාධිපති තුමාගේ විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයේ මේවා ගැන සඳහන් වෙයි කියල. නමුත් එවැන්නක් සිද්ද උනේ නැහැ. ”

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ආණ්ඩු මට්ටුව

January 5th, 2018

උපුටාගැණීම මව්බිම

‘කවදාවත් ආණ්ඩුවක් ආව ගමන් තියෙන පුංචි ඡන්ද ආණ්ඩුව පැරැදිලා නෑ.’
ඡන්දය ගැන ආණ්ඩුව කියන්නේ එහෙමය.
‘ඕවා දුකට කියන කවි සීපද’

විපක්ෂය කියන්නේ එහෙමය.
‘ඒ කියන්නේ ආණ්ඩුව පරදියිද?’
‘ඒක එහෙම කියනවට වඩා අපි කල්පනා කරලා බලමුද දිනන්න බැරි ඇයි කියලා’
ඉලක්කම් සෙල්ලම එක්ක බැලුවම ආණ්ඩුව පරදින එක ගැන කතා කරන්නට දෙයක් නැත. 2015 මහ මැතිවරණයේ ප්‍රතිඵලය අනුව එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂය ගත්තේ ඡන්ද 5,098,927ක්ය. එහි ප්‍රතිශතය 45.66% විය. එක්සත් ජනතා නිදහස් සන්ධානය ඡන්ද 4,732,669ක් ගත් තර ප්‍රතිශතය 42.38%ක් විය. එදා ආණ්ඩුව ඡන්දෙට ගියේ සියලු වාසි ළඟ තියාගෙනය. ඒ ආණ්ඩුවේ මධුසමය තරම් සුන්දර කාලයක් විය. හැබැයි එහෙම වෙලත් 71න් පස්සේ 113ක් දිනා ගන්නට බැරි වෙච්ච ආණ්ඩුවක් බිහිවිය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ ‘ඊනියා’ සහයෝගය නොවන්නට එජාපයට වෙන්නේ ‘ආණ්ඩුව හදන්න’ වෙනත් පක්ෂවලින් ‘ගලවන්නටය.’

අද පුරසාරම් ‍ෙදාඩවන එජාපය මොන වහසිබස් දෙඩුුවද ලබාගත්තේ ආසන 93ක්ය. ඒ කියන්නේ ජනාධිපතිව දිනවන්න මිනිස්සු එළියට ආවට යූ.ඇන්.පි.ය දිනවන්න මිනිස්සු එළියට බැස්සේ නැත.

උණුසුම් පිට එජාපය ගත්තේ ආසන 93ක් නම් දැන් වෙන දේ ගැන කතා කරන්නට දෙයක් නැත.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය දෙවිදියකට මැතිවරණයට ඇවිල්ලාය. සමහර තැන්වලට අත ලකුණෙන්ය. සමහර තැන්වලට බුලත් කොළෙන්ය. එදා මෛත්‍රි ආණ්ඩුව හදන්නේ එජාප ඡන්දවල ශක්තියෙන්ය. ශ්‍රී ලංකා කාරයෝ එදා මෛත්‍රිට ඡන්දය දුන්නේ නැත. ඔහුට එජාප ඡන්දවලට අමතරව ලැබුණේ ටී.එන්.ඒ. ඡන්ද, ජවිපෙ, හෙළ උරුම, මුස්ලිම් කොංග්‍රසය වගේ පක්ෂවල ඡන්දය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෝ ඡන්ද දුන්නේ මහින්දටය. මෛත්‍රිට දුන්නා නම් වැඩිම වුණොත් ඡන්ද 50,000ක් වැටෙන්නට ඇත. මෛත්‍රිව දින වූ එජාපය දැන් ඉල්ලන්නේ වෙනමය. ජවිපෙ ඉල්ලන්නේත් වෙනමය. ටී.එන්.ඒ. ඉල්ලන්නේත් වෙනමය. එහෙම බැලුවම හුදකලා වී සිටින්නේ ශ්‍රී ලනිපය. ‘ගමයි රටයි’ දෙකම නිදහසට කීවට ඡන්දදායකයෝ නැතිව ඒක කරන්නේ කොහොමද කියලා කියන්න දන්නේ නැත. එහෙම බැලුවම මේ ඡන්දෙන් පස්සේ ශ්‍රී ලනිපය තුන්වැනි බලවේගය වෙලා ජවිපෙ එක්ක කරට කර තරගයක් දෙනු ඇත.

‘පිස්සුද, ශ්‍රී ලංකා එක තුන?’
කෙනෙක් එහෙම අහන්නට බැරි නැත. හැබැයි එහෙම වුණොත් පුදුම වෙන්නත් හේතුවක් නැත.
ශ්‍රී ලංකාකාරයෝ මේ වෙලාවේ ඉන්නේ මහින්ද එක්කය. ඒකේ සඟවන්න දෙයක් නැත.
‘ඒ කියන්නේ පොහොට්ටුව දෙකද?’
‘නෑ. පොහොට්ටුව දිනනවා’
‘දිනන්නේ කොහොමද?’
ඒකට දෙන්න ඕන උත්තරෙන් භාගයක් මුලින් කියා තිබෙනවාය.
මෛත්‍රියි, එජාපයයි දැන් යන්නේ වෙනමය. ආණ්ඩුව හොඳ නම් එකට ආණ්ඩු කරන පක්ෂ දෙක වෙනම ඉල්ලන්න ඕන නැත. වෙනම ඉල්ලන්නේ ‘යාදෙක නොරත රත’ නිසාය. පත්වෙනකොට තිබ්බ තරමේ ප්‍රසාදයක් මේ ආණ්ඩුවට දැනුත් තියෙනවා කියලා කවුරුහරි හිතනවා නම් ඒක උමතු රෝගයක ලක්ෂණයක්ය. මිනිස්සු ඉන්නේ ආණ්ඩුව තිත්ත වෙලාය. ඇමැති දුමින්ද පොළොන්නරුවේදී ඡන්දය ගැන කතා කරද්දී මිනිස්සු බනින්නේ තිත්තෙන්ය.
‘අපිට ඡන්ද එපා. පොහොර ටික දෙන්න’

මිනිස්සු ප්‍රසිද්ධියේම කීහ. ආණ්ඩුව එනකොටම කළේ මහ බැංකුව කොල්ල කන එකය. රටේ බලයට පැමිණි ජාතික පක්ෂ මහ බැංකුවෙන් හොරා කෑවා මෙන්ම ගමේ බලය ලබාගෙන සමුපකාර බැංකුවෙනුත් හොරා කනු ඇතැයි අනුරලා කියන්නේය. ‘හොරකම් නතර කරන්න ආපු ආණ්ඩු ජනතාවට මෙතරම් වංචා කරනවද? බැඳුම්කර වංචා මඟින් වසරක ලාභය රුපියල් කෝටි 530. රුපියල් 1,000 නෝට්ටුවලින් ගෙන එකතු කළහොත් ගඩොල් පෝරණු දෙකක් තරමට විශාලයි. කෝටි 530යි කියන එක සරලයි. නමුත් බලන්න මම ඔයාලට කියන්නම් මේ වංචාව තේරෙන විදියට.

ලක්ෂයකට 1,000 කොළ 100යි. කෝටියකට 1,000 කොළ 10,000යි. සාමාන්‍යයෙන් 1,000ක කොළ 500ක් බන්ඩල් ගැහුවොත් ගඩොල් කැටයක ප්‍රමාණයක් එතකොට 1,000 කොළ 500 බන්ඩල් 20ක් වෙනවා. කෝටියකට එතකොට එතැන පෙනුම ගඩොල් කැට 20ක විතර පෙනුම. එතකොට රුපියල් කෝටි 530ක් කියන්නෙ ගඩොල් කැට 10,600ක්. ඒ කියන්නෙ ගඩොල් පෝරණු දෙකක් 1,000 කොළ. පේනවද රටට කරල තියෙන විනාශය. අර්ජුනගේ ලාභය ගඩොල් පෝරණු දෙකක් වගේ. ඒක රටටම කරපු මහ විනාශයක්.’

කොල්ලයේ තරම අනුර දිසානායක කියා දුන්නේ එහෙමය. එහෙම බැලුවම මෛත්‍රි ඉන්නේ මෙතෙක් ලොකුම හොරකම වෙච්ච ආණ්ඩුවේය. ආණ්ඩුවට මේ මහා වංචාවෙන් සුදනෝ වෙන්න බැරිය. අවුරුදු 6කට ආව ආණ්ඩුවේ ඇමැතිවරු දෙන්නෙක් ඉල්ලා අස්වෙන්නේ වංචා චෝදනා හින්දාය.
දැන් ආණ්ඩුවේම කචල්ය. එකෙනෙකා මරගන්නා තරම්ය. කැබිනට් එක ගිනිගත්ත ගමන්ය. ආණ්ඩුවේ පසු පෙළ මෛත්‍රිට ගහනකොට ආණ්ඩුවේම ශ්‍රී ලංකා පිල රනිල්ටයි එජාපයටයි ගහන්නේය.

‘එදා මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂට වැඩ කරපු එවුන් අද අපට ඇවිල්ලා කියනවා අපි කොහොමද මේ ආණ්ඩුව කරගෙන යන්න ඕන කියලා.
ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය මුලින් මුලින් මේ තරගයෙ හතරවැනියට විතර වැටිල හිටියේ. දැන් පොඩ්ඩ පොඩ්ඩ ඔළුව උස්සනව පොහොට්ටුව වැටිල ගිය නිසා. දැන් අපිට එහෙං මෙහෙං කෙළින්න හදනවා.

“දැන් අපිට බොරුවට මහ බැංකු කතා එකා දෙකා කිය කිය එනවා. කියපල්ලකො බලන්න තොපිලගේ ඒවත් ඔක්කොම අපි කියන්න. ඔය පරණ හොරු ටික ඔක්කොම මෙතැනට ආවෙ ඇමැතිකම් ගත්තෙ උන්ගෙ හොරකම් වහගන්න’ එහෙමම කියන්නේ හරීන්ය. ‘මේ ආණ්ඩුවේ ඉන්නේ කලකිරීමෙන්.’ එහෙම කියන්නේ සුජීවය. ඇල්වතුර ටිකටත් පොලු තියපු මිනිසුන්ට දැන් ඇමැතිකම් දෙනවා. ගුරුවරියො දණගස්වපු අයට සංවිධායකකම් දෙනවා. රණවිරුවන්ගේ අරමුදල් කොල්ලකාපු අය අද යූ.ඇන්.පි.යට කුණු දාන්න හදනවා. අපි පක්ෂයක් විදියට කවදාවත් දූෂිතයන්ට තනතුරු දීලා නෑ. ඒත් ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂයේ දූෂිතයෝ අපට චෝදනා කරනවා. මේ අය කතා කරන්නෙ කටින්ද වෙන මොකකින් හරිද කියලා හිතාගන්න අමාරුයි යැයි එජාප පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රි තුෂාර ඉඳුනිල්ය.
‘හොරු ඉන්නේ එජාපයේ’ එහෙම කියන්නේ දයාසිරිය.
බැඳුම්කර වාර්තාව ගැන මෛත්‍රිගේ ප්‍රකාශයෙන් යූ.එන්.පී. අන්දුන්කුන්දුන්ය. කාඩ්බෝඩ් වීරයෝ වෙන්න ගිය ‘රවි’ලා කුජීතය. තවදුරටත් දේශපාලන ගැන රවිලා හිතනවා නම් ඒ ලැජ්ජාව නැතිකම නිසා මිසක් ඉන් මෙහාට දේශපාලනය ගැන හිතන එක පුදුමය. මේක කල් ඇතිවම මහින්දලා දැන සිටියේය.

‘ආණ්ඩුවෙන් එළියට එන්න, අපි එකතුවෙමු’
මහින්දලා දිගින් දිගටම කීවේය. හැබැයි ජනපදනමක් නැති, අවස්ථාවාදීන් ඊට එරෙහි විය. තනතුරු ලෝබකමෙන් වරදාන අත් හරින්න අකැමැති වූ තණ්හාවෙන් පිරිච්ච පිරිස ඒ අවස්ථාව අත් හැරියේය. දැන් ආණ්ඩුව සූදානම් වන්නේ ඒකාන්ත පරාජයටය. මේ මොහොතේ වැඩි වාසිය පොහොට්ටුවටය.
කොහොම බැලුවත් දැන් තියෙන්නේ සිවුකොන් සටනක්ය. හැබැයි ප්‍රායෝගිකව තිබෙන්නේ පිල් දෙකක සටනක්ය. ඒ පොදුජන පෙරමුණ සහ එජාපය අතර සටනක්ය. අවසන් විග්‍රහය වන්නේ ශුද්ධ ඡන්ද ප්‍රතිශතයක් හිමි පොදුජන පෙරමුණ වාසිය අත්කර ගැනීමය.

‘ඒ කියන්නේ බලය තියෙන ආණ්ඩුව පුංචි ඡන්දය පරදිනවා?’
ඒක දැන ගන්න තව ටිකක් ඉවසන්න ඕනය.

Predictable Crises All Round Either way, the results would leave very little possibility for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government to continue, except as a coalition of two very shameless opportunist camps

January 5th, 2018

By Kusal Perera Courtesy The Daily Mirror

The popular question that is making the rounds is Who would come on top, at this election?”
They mean Which party?” Will MR and his SLPP (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) outnumber Sirisena’s SLFP and the UPFA? What most, want to know in advance is the outcome of the elections.
The winner for sure will not be decided by the voter.

If the party that takes control of the most number of LG bodies is counted as the winner” that will be decided within hours and days by elected men and women, who would ‘leapfrog’ to create majorities in LG bodies.

This election would leave many frustrated and disgusted voters away from polling booths.
Bloated and ballooned aspirations that accompanied the January 2015 euphoria shrank and were deflated even before the 100-Day Programme was over.

Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was dethroned” seven months before, bounced back strong, leading the SLFP/UPFA campaign.

He campaigned for the SLFP/UPFA with the horrible disadvantage of having a President (Also the President of the SLFP) who threw every spanner, every hammer against his campaign that yet gave the SLFP/UPFA the 95 seats in the present Parliament.

It was also evident in Wickremesinghe and his UNP with many allies calling themselves the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) failing to win the minimum 113 seats required for majority rule.

The President, who promised to be the servant of the people, who promised to be non-partisan and would leave after the first term, would do away with the Executive Presidency, is nowhere to be found in political terms

In terms of voting, with 77.6 percent polled, Rajapaksa gained 42.4 percent while Wickremesinghe led UNFGG polled 45.6 percent.

Two years and five months later, the situation is worse.

So is the UNFGG leader Wickremesinghe who promised clean” and transparent governance, promised to roll back all Chinese projects the Rajapaksas began and promised ‘fast track investigations’ on corruption against all in the previous regime including Rajapaksa.
As the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has failed with his Government in resurrecting an ailing economy, he keeps blaming the Rajapaksas for.

Yet, his Government has taken over all Chinese projects that during 2015 Presidential Election campaign were condemned as unsolicited, worthless projects.

His UNFGG Government is seen and talked of as corrupt as the Rajapaksa regime or even more. It is publicly labelled as wholly inefficient too.

The synergy of all those negatives in society will not see 77 percent going to polls t February 10 LG Elections have never generated enough enthusiasm to bring large numbers to vote.

At the last LG elections with a post-war exuberant Rajapaksa Presidency in 2011, the total polled was only 65.5 percent. This time, it would be an unexplainable miracle, if more than 60 percent decides to vote.

There is also the possibility of counting a higher percentage of rejected votes” than usual. The biggest disadvantage of a large percentage drop in voting would be for the UNP and the ITAK.
Burdened with a terribly discredited government accused of mega corruptions, Wickramasinghe led campaign will not be able to maintain the 45 percent they previously got out of the total polled. Within the UNP there is also the cold and dejected feeling of running elections with Wickramasinghe at the head. All of it would leave the UNP vote this February around 35 percent of the total polled.
So would it be for the Sampanthan – Sumanthiran led TNA. The TNA started off with fractures. Suresh Premachandran EPRLF, the well-spread organisation from among former armed groups, has allied with Ananda Sangaree’s TULF.

At the local level, this new combination could be the recipient of frustrated and dissenting Northern votes.

Meanwhile, the ITAK leadership has over the past two years lost credibility by playing truant with this Yahapalanaya” Government.

Unable to politically read this government as another Colombo based Sinhala Government, their blind faith in the UNP leadership has left them as betrayers of the war-affected Tamil people.
The TNA (In fact it is ITAK) leadership failed in securing release of youth detained without charges, failed to stand along with agitating women, who demand answers from the Government on disappeared relatives, failed in securing private land occupied by the security forces and they refrain from speaking about continued militarization of Northern and Eastern socio-economic life.
Nor will the promised political solution through a new Constitution that Sampanthan said would be complete before end December 2016 ever see the light of day even after December 2018.
Not even after the TNA leadership dropped the Federal solution promised in their 2015 Parliamentary election manifesto.

The TNA will therefore not be able to poll the percentages they had in North and East at the 2015 Parliamentary elections. At that election when Sampanthan wanted the hand of the TNA strengthened to make him a stronger bargaining power for Tamil people, the TNA polled 69.1 percent in Jaffna, 54.6 percent in the Vanni, and a total of 30.9 percent in the East with Batticaloa gaining 53.3 percent of the total polled in the district.

The EPDP and TULF campaigns would also add to the already heavy baggage of the TNA, especially in Jaffna and Vanni. Northern Province Chief Minister Wigneswaran playing it safe and his absence would not be for the advantage of the TNA either.
Bottom line is, the ITAK leadership will be clearly told by the Tamil people, they are not worthy of the war-affected Tamil people’s vote and what they poll is due to the absence of a viable alternate Tamil leadership.

In the Southern Sinhala districts, with a large percentage of Christian-Catholic vote traditionally going the UNP way despite its efforts to win more of the Sinhala Buddhist votes, the battle between President Sirisena’s SLFP/UPFA campaign and that of Rajapaksa with his SLPP is for the bulk of the Sinhala Buddhist vote.
Sirisena leading the SLFP/UPFA campaign cannot reach the UNP vote bloc. Even those local UNP leaders, who are disappointed with their own party leadership, will not choose Sirisena as an option.
President Sirisena, therefore, has nowhere else to go for votes but to the 4.7 million that Rajapaksa brought together for the SLFP/UPFA at the 2015 August election.
That is a totally anti-UNP vote.

President Sirisena’s leadership cannot address that voting bloc unless he stands as a strong anti-UNP leader. This is not possible with Rajapaksa and the SLPP targeting him as part of the UNP Government and him chairing Cabinet meetings during the next four weeks, taking decisions along with PM Wickremesinghe.

For that reason, he is charting an anti-corruption, puritanical path.
He perhaps believes that would make him attractive to the anti-UNP rural voter. Reading out a carefully written statement on the Bond Scam Report, President Sirisena on Wednesday made all attempts to sound his anti-corruption drive is non-partisan while promising all recommendations would be implemented and monitored.

He concluded by saying not only the Bond Scam Report but also the PRECIFAC Reports so far handed over to him would go through their due processes of litigation.

He also promised they would not be politically interfered with. Interestingly, while he refrained from naming persons, he nevertheless said PM Wickremesinghe’s responsibility for former Central Bank’s former Governor Arjuna Mahendran’s appointment and conduct had been established.
He also said former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake could be held responsible for interference and could be further investigated on the Penthouse renting issue an indicted.

He thus laid the Bond Scam squarely on the UNP leadership though without much hype.
All that indicates, his own SLFP Ministers and campaigners would now go on an open anti-UNP campaign.

They may even name others, who are held responsible by the Commission for manipulations and cover-ups.

Political campaigns don’t end up one way. The SLPP campaign to retain their anti-Government SLFP vote bloc will not allow President Sirisena to go without responsibility in all corruptions alleged under this Yahapalanaya Government.

President Sirisena himself has been accused of a big deal” over the purchase of a Russian Naval vessel and a much heavier spectrum deal that is said to be over Rs.03 billion given without any tender procedure by the TRC that comes under President Sirisena.

For both deals it is said two top men, the Navy Commander Admiral Travis Sinniah and ICTA CEO/MD Muhunthan Canagey were moved out most unceremoniously by President Sirisena.
It is any one’s guess, the UNP campaign would also have its share of name calling on corruption. The LG elections this time may be one that would expose many corrupt personalities.

In February when the LG election concludes, the future of the Yahapalanaya Government would also be decided by it.

If Rajapaksa with the SLPP retained the larger share of the 4.7 million anti-UNP vote, it would mean the SLFP has politically morphed into Rajapaksa’s SLPP. President Sirisena will then be left with a serious crisis in his own camp. Most would want Rajapaksa back again with the SLFP to face their own elections in mid-2020.

Either way, the results would leave very little possibility for the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government to continue, except as a coalition of two very shameless opportunist camps.

As for the people both in the North and the South, the LG Elections would serve no purpose.
It would leave them with political instability amidst economic chaos and many episodes of political backstabbing at the high level.

A fast-moving year of predictable crises all around.

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Unity Government Impaled By Bond Commission But Sri Lanka’s track record on Commissions of Inquiry has been disappointing and dismal

January 5th, 2018

By M.S.M.Ayub Courtesy The Daily Mirror

Hard on the heels of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) headed by President Maithripala Sirisena and the United National Party (UNP) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on the so-called National Government having lapsed on December 31, the President on Wednesday made public the findings of the report of the Presidential Commission on Central Bank bond scam, to the utter disappointment of the UNP.

The personal interest taken by the President to make the findings of the report public would surelyhave hurt the leaders of the UNP and worsened the already strained relationship of the two partners of governance, as the report incriminates directly and indirectly some of the leaders of the UNP for one of the biggest frauds in the Sri Lankan history.

Worse, the report is being released during the height of the campaign of an election at which parties led by the President and Prime Minister are contesting. Also the Sri Lankan voter has a slavish mindset, which is always prepared to justify any crime committed by the leaders of his/her party

It is not clear as to what the direct impact of the findings of the report on the general voter, given the intricacy of bond transactions in general and the findings of the report in particular to the voter.
Also the Sri Lankan voter has a slavish mindset, which is always prepared to justify any crime committed by the leaders of his/her party.

Yet, the report can have some bearing on the educated people who voted for the UNP at the last Parliamentary elections.

However, it is too early to conclude that all wrongdoers including former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius and former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, as named by the report, would be punished or the more than Rs. 11 billion allegedly plundered through the controversial bond transaction, would be recovered by the Central Bank, given the Sri Lankan history against corruption.

The report is being released during the height of the campaign of an election at which parties led by the President and Prime Minister are contesting

It is noteworthy to remind that there had been criticisms even on some of the proceedings of this Commission as well.

Basically, Sri Lanka’s track record on Commissions of Inquiry has been disappointing and dismal.
Many past Commissions, as with the case of the Bond Commission, had made startling revelations during their proceedings, but ended up in flops.

Of around fifteen various Commissions that had been appointed by various governments since early 1960s, no justice has been meted out to anybody who had been suffered due to the incidents that had prompted the appointment of those commissions.

Nor was the legal system of the country benefitted by the findings of those Commissions.
The Commissions on the death of former Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, 1977 ethnic violence (The Sansoni Commission), killing of 67 civilians in Kokkattichcholai, in the Eastern Province in 1991, Batalanda Torture Chambers during JVP’s second insurrection in 1988/89, Killing of inmates of Bindunuwewa Rehabilitation Centre in 2000, ethnic violence in 1981, several Commissions on disappearances of people during armed conflicts and the commission on the failure of the Cease Fire Agreement of 2002 (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission – LLRC) were the major Commissions appointed during the past 50 years in the country.

The reports of all these Commissions were swept under the carpet by all Governments.
The Commissions on disappearance of people during armed conflicts were the worst in respect of the findings and follow up remedial actions.

There had been nine commissions inquired into the disappearances of people during the armed conflicts in the south as well as the north since 1991.

President R. Premadasa during whose tenure it was said that around 60,000 persons disappeared in the south, appointed three Commissions followed by another one by his successor President D.B. Wijetunga.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga appointed four Commissions on the same matter and her successor Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed one, the recent Paranagama Commission.
But, none of these nine Commissions could help trace a single man or woman said to have disappeared.

However, the reports of two Commissions have been different from the others. The report of the LLRC appointed by President Rajapaksa was internationally accepted, though with reservations and four resolutions were adopted at the UNHRC in four consecutive years, based on it, pressing Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of that report. However, the Government is still dragging its feet.
And now the Central Bank Bond Commission has issued a serious report with unprecedented recommendations to take legal action even against the bigwigs of the ruling party, the UNP.
However, there is still a long way to go through a complex legal process and promulgation of new laws, as the President vowed to do, before the culprits are punished and lost moneys are recovered by the Central Bank.

The UNP cannot give vent to their anger or disappointment in public over the release of the report or making public of some of the findings of it by the President, in the light of its claim that it has created a new culture with Ravi Karunanayake’s resignation from his ministerial post, soon after his relationship with Arjun Aloysius was exposed at the Commission and with the appearing of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before the Commission.

It also cannot absolve itself from the allegation that it attempted to cover up the fraud from the very inception of the controversy.

However, both the President and the Prime Minister are in a tight corner over the matter, as being at each other’s throats would jeopardize the very survival of the government.

The President can play politics with issues but only to an extent that would not endanger the cohabitation of the two parties.
Thus, he seems to have attempted to pacify the UNP and justify his appointment of the bond commission by declaring that he would appoint a commission on the activities of the National carrier SriLankan Airlines and the Mihin Air, the outcome of which would be detrimental to the leaders of the former regime, especially the Rajapaksas.

On the other hand, despite the rhetoric by some ministers, the UNP too cannot take any drastic action against the President or his SLFP, since it has only 106 seats in the Parliament – seven seats shorter than what it requires to form a Government of its own. In case of a fall out between the two parties in the government, the UNP would have to win over or buy over President’s men or men from former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s camp to secure the Parliamentary majority. One cannot rule out such a possibility.

In the light of the current criticisms leveled against the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) by the Tamil nationalistic and extremist forces as well as a section of the Tamil diaspora for supporting the Government, it is unlikely that the Tamil coalition would come forward to fill the void and help the UNP to form a Government.

The maximum extent it can go to is to support a minority UNP Government from outside. But then it would give ammunition to the racist elements and the Joint Opposition to carry out harmful propaganda against the UNP during the future elections- Provincial councils, Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

Therefore, if the UNP did not resort to horse-trading with the President’s or former President’s men, the only option left with the Prime Minister, as well as the President, is to put up with the situation, until the next major national election is held, though it would be a bitter experience.

Bond scam loss could be up to Rs 500-1,000 billion: Cabraal

January 5th, 2018

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy Adaderana

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Ajith Nivard Cabraal, says that he believes the losses caused by the bond scam is a lot more than what has been stated in the commission report.

I see it as a loss of somewhere between Rs 500 billion and Rs 1,000 billion.”

He also said that he is glad that the report of the Presidential Commission on the bond scam has recommended an investigation into the issuance of bonds during the period from 2008 to 2014.

I’m glad that was said. Because such an investigation has already being carried out by the country’s Auditor General as per the request of Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and the relevant report has been uploaded in his website. It is still there in that website to this day,” he told Ada Derana.

However, if the report states that an inquiry should be carried out on the bonds issued during that time period despite the fact that it has already been done, then we should be glad about that, Cabraal said.

Bond scams: UNP leadership must take blame – DEW

January 5th, 2018

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

General Secretary of the Communist Party D. E. W. Gunasekera yesterday said that the top UNP leadership couldn’t absolve itself of the responsibility for the bond scams.

Gunasekera said so addressing the media at the Communist Party headquarters in Borella.

The former minister said he had earlier addressed the media as the Chairman of the 13-member COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) that proved the first bond scam in 2015 February.

They perpetrated the first treasury bond scam on Feb 27, 2015, on the 50th day of 100-day yahapalana government, Gunasekera said.

Gunasekera paid a glowing tribute to those members of both the print and electronic media who had relentlessly followed the treasury bond scam. “Let me explain the phenomenal growth of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd (PTL) since its establishment in 2013 during the previous administration. Having launched operations with Rs. 300 mn as capital, how could PTL manage to obtain Rs. 11 bn in profits within five months?”

Gunasekera said that PTL had received Central Bank recognition as the 16th primary dealer authorised to operate in the lucrative treasury bond market.

The PTL group wielded political influence at the highest level, Gunasekera said, alleging that a spate of attempts had been made to sabotage the inquiry until the very end.

Gunasekera pointed out that PTL had earned profits at the expense of the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF), National Savings Bank, Mahapola Scholarship Fund and Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (SLIC). The PTL had, with political backing, borrowed from the state and then the same funds were given back at a higher interest, Gunasekera said. He said it was absurd for the government to borrow funds through a third party from state institutions.

The Communist Party Leader said there had never been a bigger scam than the treasury bond racket and the alleged complicity of the UNP leadership therein had come to light within weeks of the first scam.

Gunasekera faulted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for appointing a three-member committee comprising UNP lawyers to inquire into the issue.

Alleging that the lawyers lacked knowledge or expertise to handle such an investigation, Gunasekera.

“PM Wickremesinghe should take the responsibility for that attempt to misdirect the inquiry,” Gunasekera alleged.

As an influential section of Parliament had refused to accept the UNP report, the then Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa had intervened to set up a 13-member COPE team to speedily inquire into the alleged fraud. Gunasekera said that the parliament had been dissolved to prevent the presentation of his report with UNP MP Sujeewa Senasinghe moving District court of Colombo to restrain Gunasekera from releasing it ahead of parliamentary polls in 2015 August.

A smiling Gunasekera said that the case was pending and would come up next month.

Asked by The Island whether the second bond scam in March 2016 could have been prevented if not for the dissolution of parliament, Gunasekera said that question should be posed to President Sirisena as the latter had done so.

Gunasekera acknowledged that the political situation at that time, too, should be taken into consideration when the dissolution of parliament was examined.

The events leading to the treasury bond scam including the appointment of UNP leader Wickremesinghe as the Prime Minister while Mahinda Rajapaksa still had a two thirds majority in Parliament were mind-boggling, Gunasekera said

The group loyal to Rajapaksa had failed to come to terms with what had taken place even three years after the war winning President’s defeat, said Gunasekera, adding that he had strongly advised President Rajapaksa not to call early polls and when he was ignored a public warning was given through the media. Only The Island had reported his warning in early Oct. 2014 to President Rajapaksa, Gunasekera told the media.

Appreciating the presidential commission members, SC judges, K. T. Chitrasiri, Prasanna Jayawardena, and former deputy Auditor General Velupillai as well as incumbent Auditor General Gamini Wijesinghe, top AG Department officials, including Senior Additional Solicitor General Dappula de Livera and Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda as well as the Deputy Auditor General Chula Wickremaratne, who assisted the first COPE commission, Gunasekera praised the then head of the public debt department Deepa Seneviratne for serving the interests of the nation.

Gunasekera said the bond scams wouldn’t have come to light without the expert opinion given by former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Dr. W. A. Wijewardena.

He ended the media briefing with dire warning that the country would never get an opportunity to clean up the society if President Sirisena failed to go all out to achieve that goal.

Emphasizing that if the President had appointed a commission with judicial powers, those responsible could have been promptly dealt with, Gunasekera said that still the President’s action was laudable against the backdrop of his political alliance with the UNP.

Gunasekera compared President Sirisena’s actions with that of SWRD Bandaranaike in 1959 against three corrupt members of his cabinet.

JO to move no-confidence motion against PM

January 5th, 2018

by Anura Balasuriya Courtesy The Island

National Freedom Front leader MP Wimal Weerawansa yesterday said that the Joint Opposition (JO) would move a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over the treasury bond scams.

Addressing the media at a press conference held at the NM Perera Centre in Borella, MP Weerawansa said the JO leaders would meet on Sunday to decide on the content of the no-confidence motion to be moved against the Prime Minister.

Weerawansa said the treasury bond scam was the biggest ever fraud in the country’s history and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was on the top of the list of persons responsible for it. The PM could not absolve himself from the crime by trying to find a scapegoat in former Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, Weerawansa said.

The NFF leader said the Prime Minister and other ministers responsible for the bond scam had no moral right to hold their portfolios further and they should resign forthwith If they did not resign then President Maithripala Sirisena had to remove them, the NFF leader said.

Who guards the guards?

January 5th, 2018

Editorial Courtesy The Island

January 5, 2018, 9:55 pm
The biggest threat to the nation’s coffers comes not from outsiders as such but from the rogues among its custodians. Troubled by a spate of bank heists, a desperate police once sought to slap a ban on full-face helmets, which are usually worn by robbers to hide their identities. But, those who robbed the Central Bank not just once but twice, so to speak, wore no helmets and carried no guns, at all. Arrayed in designer suits with official IDs dangling from expensive lanyards, they were the very custodians of the bank. Gamekeepers turned poachers, one may say. Centuries ago, Juvenal, the Roman poet, posed a very pertinent question which Sri Lankans are asking themselves today: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who guards the guards?)

The presidential commission of inquiry report on the Central Bank bond scams is now with President Maithripala Sirisena, who has selectively disclosed some of its recommendations. The full text of the document has not yet been made public and it is doubtful whether it will ever see the light of day, but what is already known thereof is sufficient to conclude that the scams have actually happened. Some of the culprits have also been identified and action against them recommended. However, it looks as if the process of initiating legal action would take a month of Sundays. For, the wheels of justice always turn at a politically determined speed in this country.

How would the yahapalana government have acted if a presidential commission had recommended legal action in respect of corrupt deals involving its political enemies? It would have had all of them arrested forthwith with the highly politicised special police units working overtime to cause the suspects to be held on remand indefinitely. But, the bond racketeers with yahapalana connections are still at large! The government leaders keep haranguing us on their commitment to good governance and the rule of law!

The grandees of the previous dispensation were thrown out of power over allegations which had not been proved. That doesn’t mean they were not corrupt and what they stood accused of were baseless. Corruption was so rampant under their rule that people readily bought into claims the then Opposition made in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election. The public expected those allegations to be probed and legal action taken against the corrupt swiftly after the change of government. They wanted the stolen public wealth recovered as a national priority. Instead, the potentates of the incumbent administration have been busy lining their pockets without going the whole hog to substantiate the allegations they themselves made against their enemies let alone seize the stolen wealth. Having been in political wilderness for years, they are apparently making up for lost time.

President Sirisena tells us that he has a sword, which will spare none, in his efforts to rid the country of corruption. (We hope the blade in his hand doesn’t belong to Justitia.) But, as regards corruption within the ranks of the yahapalana administration, he apparently uses the sheath instead of the sword when he takes on the bad eggs within the government ranks.

A fish is said to rot from the head down. Irrefutable evidence has emerged that the bond racketeers had the blessings of the highest echelons of government. The rest of the yahapalana fish is no better than its rotten head if one is to go by the damning allegations against other government worthies. But, no action is taken against anyone associated with the powers that be. Under the previous government a minister got away with a cheque fraud thanks to the Attorney General’s Department, which yielded to political pressure. The 2015 regime change has not made any difference. A minister involved in a vehicle racket, a criminal offence, has been let off the hook!

Will anyone with a modicum of intelligence expect the highly-connected bond racketeers who are likely to rat on their political bosses, in case of being considered expendable and treated as such, to be brought to justice?

Can, when, and will the law strike on Bond Scams?

January 5th, 2018

By Lucien Rajakarunanayake Courtesy The Island

January 5, 2018, 12:00 pm

Are we to be left at the mercy of the Attorney-General’s Department, and for how long more?

This is the latest puzzle on the Bond Scam probe.

President Sirisena has made his statement that the AG has been asked to act on the recommendations of the Presidential Commission.

We also have it from the Prime Minister that he referred the COPE Report on the Bond Scams to the AG for necessary legal action, and that was many months ago.

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There is also the CID file on a Bond Scam referred to the AG’s Department in June 2015 for necessary action.

So the Attorney-General is the Man of the Moment, for the people who want action on the Treasury Bond frauds.

Have these delays by the A-G’s Department anything to do with it being under the Ministry of Justice – that comes under the UNP – which is the continuing and current rival of the SLFP in the slippery path of Good Governance or Yahapalanaya?

We know very well that the Law is a slow mover, and the Court System is not there to speed up the process. But, for how long can the law be delayed on an issue that is so much in the public eye, is very much part of the political campaigns of today, involves the loss of billions of public funds, and the very structure and functioning of the Central Bank?

We have also read that the Law is an Ass, as told by Dickens, and just now it has many more asinine situations than when it was written.

Will our law be able to bring Arjuna Mahendran to book, for all the millions that his manipulations helped the county lose and largely go to that company of perpetual fraud, known as Perpetual Treasuries, run by his son-in-law Arjun Aloysius?

How fast will the AG act to bring these perpetual crooks to book, or will it be a situation of constant or perpetual delays that can only please the crooked and not the people?

Is it possible that we will be seeing more situations of conflicts of interest, which apparently was the biggest burden the Prime Minister had in dealings with his much-trusted friend Arjuna Mahendran?

How long will it take for our law to act on the Commission’s recommendations on Ravi Karunanayake (RK), former Finance Minister, who remains in the front ranks of the UNP? Interestingly, the uniquely forgetful RK has said he is at a loss to understand how he turned up as a suspect in the Central Bank situ, when the Central and other State banks did not come under him?

This is possibly another case of his perpetual and penthouse amnesia. But, will the law look at it as memory loss, or ask whether he is saying that any charges should come against his party leader, the Prime Minister, under whom the Central Bank and State banks are placed? The path of politics can certainly give many interesting twists to the interpretation of the law.

How fast will the Central Bank carry out its own forensic probe into Treasury bond dealings from 2008 to 2015, as the Commission has recommended? Will it be done fast because Mahinda Rajapaksa is in favour of it, or will it be slow because of the concerns of the SLFP ‘creepers’ who are now in Yahapalanaya?

With Law and Justice being so close, in politics and governance, how long will it take for the Legal Draftsman to produce the new Bills required to be passed by parliament to take speedy action on the Treasury Bond Scams, and to recover the losses incurred by the EPF and other important public funds?

It is best not to forget that the crooked people in parliament who do not declare their assets are fined only one or two thousand rupees when their income and benefits are soaring high, compared to when that law was passed.

Also, are we not aware that the National Audit Bill has still not come to Parliament for approval … possibly because the Law does not believe in good and speedy audits of public funds?

President Sirisena has scored a big hit by making his statement on the Bond Scam Commission Report, and his statement that everything has been sent to the AG and Bribery Commission for action. The Prime Minister is also making his own case for referring the earlier COPE Report to the AG.

The AG is certainly in a very big spin for speedy implementation. But what is the reality? Should we recall how so many Commission and Committee Reports of importance have gone into hiding and are buried amidst the files in the AG’s Department?

What the public need now is the AG to show how fast the law can function in the public interest when we all know it moves very slow in the interests of power politics. The President and Prime Minister too should know that getting the law to act with speed on the Treasury Bond Scams is the path to the public confidence of any sort, at best before the coming local government polls.

The proof of such speedy action will also be the substance for continued unity between the UNP and SLFP, in the months ahead, if both parties seek such unity.

Ravi would be in jail now if Bond Commission had judicial powers – DEW

January 5th, 2018

By Yusuf Ariff Courtesy adaderana

General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Communist Party D.E.W. Gunasekara says that the appointing of a Commission of Inquiry by the President to probe the bond scam has proven to be a correct decision although some had condemned it back then.

In that way we have to be grateful to the President for appointing the commission,” he said.

He stated that the judge panel toiled for 10 months continuously and not only did they hear the case they also investigated, but they did not have judicial powers.

We asked for a commission which had judicial powers. The commission should have powers to met out punishment. Like the Thalgodapitiya Commission. But the President appointed a different commission,” he told reporters in Colombo.

If this commission had been given true judicial power under the Constitution, then today Ravi Karunanayake and the others would already be sentenced to jail.”

However, he said that they are satisfied that such a commission was appointed in the country for the first time in 59 years, the last time being in 1959. On that side it is important.”

Since the late S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike took a decision to appoint a commission and sack three ministers from his Cabinet, the party and politics, no other head of state or leader of government had taken such a decision until now,” the former minister said.

Suspension of business of PTL extended by 6 months – CBSL

January 5th, 2018

By Manushi Silva Courtesy adaderana

The Monetary Board of the Central Bank has decided to extend the suspension of Perpetual Treasuries Limited (PTL) to function as a Primary Dealer for further six months with effect from today (January 05).

The Central Bank said the suspension was extended to continue its own investigations into the dealer.

Perpetual Treasuries is connected to Arjun Aloysius, son-in-law of ex-Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran.

The decision has been made acting in terms of the Regulations made under the Registered Stock and Securities Ordinance and the Local Treasury Bills Ordinance.

The final report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) which investigated the Bond Issuance of the Central Bank was handed over to the President on 30th December.

The President appointed the Commission of Inquiry on 27th January to investigate, inquire into and report on the Issuance of Treasury Bonds during the period 1st February 2015 to 31st March, 2016.

අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට නඩු පවරන්න බැහැ – ජී.එල්.පීරිස්

January 5th, 2018

උපුටාගැණීම ලංකාදීප

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මහ බැංකුවේ හිටපු අධිපති අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතාට විරුද්ධව නඩු පැවරිය නොහැකි බව ව්‍යවස්ථා කටයුතු සහ අධිකරණ හිටපු අමාත්‍යවරයෙකු වන ජී.එල් පීරිස් මහතා කියයි.ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොදුජන පොරමුණෙ සභාපතිවරයෙකු වන ජී.එල් පීරිස් මහතා මේ බව කියා සිටියේ පුංචිබොරැල්ල වජිරාශ්‍රමයේදී පැවති මාධ්‍ය හමුවකට සහභාගී වෙමිනි.

බැඳුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් මේ ඉදිරිපත් කළ තක්සේරුව අපි පිළිගන්නේ නැහැ. මේක ලෝක විහිළුවක්. මේ අලාභය කිසිසේත්ම අයකර ගැනීමට හැකියාවක් නැහැ. මේ මුදල් මේ වනවිටත් අපේ රටේ නැහැ. ඒවා තියෙන්නේ සිංගප්පූරුවේ බැංකුවලයි. පවතින නීති හෝ අලුත් නීති යටතේවත් ඒ මුදල් නැවත ලබාගන්න බැහැ. අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන්ට විරුද්ධව නඩු පවරන්න බැහැ. ඒ බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා මෙන්ම අගමැතිවරයාත් දන්නවා. අවම වශයෙන් පර්පචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස් සමාගමේ බලපත්‍රය තාවකාලිකව හෝ අත්හිටුවන ලෙසට අපි ඉල්ලීමක් කළේ ඒ නිසයි. නමුත් එවැනි පියවරක් ගත්තේ නැහැ. අශ්වයාට ගාලෙන් පනින්න අවස්ථාව සලසා දුන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයාමයි. ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මේ කතා අසමින් අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් හා අර්ජුන් ඇලෝසියස් සිනාසෙනවා ඇති. අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් මේ රටේ පුද්ගලයෙක් නොවන නිසා ඔහුට විරුද්ධව නඩු පැවරීමේ හැකියාවක් නැහැ. ඔහු දැනටමත් ලංකාවේ නැහැ. ඔහු පිටුවහල් කරන ලෙසට සිංගප්පූරුවෙන් ඉල්ලීමක් කළ යුතුයි. ඒක සංකීර්ණ ක්‍රියාවලියක්. අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් මේ රටට එවන්න ඔවුන් බැඳිල නැහැ. ඒ නිසා තමන් කියන කතාවල කිසිම හරයක් නැති බව ජනාධිපතිවරයා හොඳාකාරවම දන්නවා.

ජනාධිපතිවරයා පෙරේදා දිනයේදී කළ කතාව ඇසූ පුද්ගලයන්ට අඬන්නද, සිනාසෙන්නද කියලා සිතාගන්න බැහැ. බැඳුම්කර වංචාව එක්සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂයේ ක්‍රියාවක් බව කියමින් සුදනා වීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට හැකියාවක් නැහැ. මහබැංකු අධිපති ධුරයට අර්ජුන් මහේන්ද්‍රන් පත් කළේ ජනාධිපතිවරයායි. ඒ නිසා සියල්ලටම ජනාධිපතිවරයා වගකිව යුතුයි. ඇමැතිවරුන් නිර්දේශ කළ පමණින්ම ඒ පත්කිරීම් සිදු කිරීමට තරම් විධායක ජනාධිපතිවරයා රබර් මුද්‍රාවක් නොවිය යුතුයි. එවැනි පත්කිරීම්වලදී ජනාධිපතිවරයා ස්වාධීන මනසකින් ක්‍රියා කළ යුතුයි.

පළමු බැඳුම්කර සිදුවුණේ 2015 පෙබරවාරි මාසයේදී. දෙවැනි බැඳුම්කර වංචාව සිදුවුණේ 2016 වසරේ මාර්තු මාසයේදීයි. මේ වංචාවන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් හිටපු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ඩිව් ගුණසේකර මැතිතුමා විසින් අපක්‍ෂපාතී පරීක්‍ෂණයක් පැවැත්වුවා. එදා ජනාධිපතිවරයා හා අගමැතිවරයා අතර තිබූ සම්බන්ධය අද පවතින සම්බන්ධයට වඩා හාත්පසින්ම වෙනස් සම්බන්ධයක්. ඒ නිසා වාර්තාව නිකුත් කරන්න පැය 24ක් තිබියදී ජනාධිපතිවරයා විසින් පාර්ලිමේන්තුව විසුරුවා හැරියා. ජනාධිපතිවරයා එදා එවැනි පියවරක් නොගත්තානම් අද මෙවැනි තත්ත්වයක් ඇති වෙන්නේ නැහැ.

එමෙන්ම 2008 සිට 2014 වසර දක්වා කාලය තුළදී සිදුවූ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනු පිළිබඳව හොයාබලන බවත් ජනාධිපතිවරයා කිව්වා. ඒ කතාව කොමිෂන් වාර්තාවේ සඳහන් වෙන්නේ නැහැ. ඒ කතාව කිව්වේ අගමැතිවරයායි. ඒ යුගයේදී සිදුවූ දේවල් සම්බන්ධයෙන් සොයන්න මේ කොමිසමට කිසිම බලයක් නැහැ. 2008 සිට 2014 වසර දක්වා කාලය තුළදී සිදුවූ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනු සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනය කිරීම සඳහා කිසිම ප්‍රමාදයකින් තොරව කොමිසමක් පත්කරන්න. ජනාධිපතිවරයාගේ මේ කතා දෙක කලවම් කරලා ජනතාව මුළාකිරීම සඳහා ජනාධිපතිවරයා උත්සාහ ගන්නවා. ජනාධිපතිවරයා තමන්ගේ කඩුව පාවිච්චි කරන ආකාරය සම්බන්ධව මුළු රටම බලාගෙන ඉන්නවා. පසුගිය වසර දෙකහමාර තුළදීම ජනාධිපතිවරයා කළේ කතා කිරීම පමණයි. ඒ නිසා මේ සිදුවීමේදී ජනාධිපතිවරයා ගනු ලබන පියවර දෙස මුළු රටම බලාගෙන ඉන්නවා. රජයේ පාරිශූද්ධ බව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලොවට පෙන්නුම් කළ හැකි අවස්ථාව මෙයයි. හැමදාම ජනතාව රවට්ටන්න නොහැකි යැයිද කීය.

බැඳුම්කර වංචාවේ ප්‍රධාන වගකිවයුත්තා රනිල්; ජනපති එජාපය ආරක්‍ෂා කිරීමේ පිළිවෙතක – ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග

January 5th, 2018

අරුණ බෝගහවත්ත උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් ජනාධිපති විමර්ශන කොමිසම මගින් ලබාදුන් වාර්තාවට අනුව එහි ප්‍රධාන වගකිවයුත්තා අගමැති රනිල් වික්‍රමසිංහ මහතා බවත් ඔහුට දඬුවම් නොදී වෙනත් පුද්ගලයන්ට වරද පැටවීමෙන් පෙනීයන්නේ ජනාධිපතිවරයා තවදුරටත් එක්‌සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය ආරක්‍ෂා කිරීමේ වැඩපිළිවෙළක නිරත වී සිටින බවක්‌ යෑයි ඒකාබද්ධ විපක්‍ෂයේ කැඳවුම්කරු පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී ප්‍රසන්න රණතුංග මහතා “දිවයින”ට පැවසීය.

එක්‌සත් ජාතික පක්‍ෂය ආරක්‍ෂා කිරීමට ජනාධිපතිවරයාට කිසිම වුවමනාවක්‌ නොමැති බවට පැවැසුවත් බැඳුම්කර වංචාව සම්බන්ධයෙන් පෙරේදා (3 දා) කළ විශේෂ ප්‍රකාශයෙන් එය ව්‍යංගයක්‌ බව පෙනීයන්නේ යෑයිද මන්ත්‍රීවරයා සඳහන් කළේය.

මේ මගින් පෙනීයන්නේ රටේ ජනතාව තවදුරටත් මුළාවේ දැමීමක්‌ බවත් ඉදිරි මැතිවරණයේදී එය වටහාගෙන ජනතාව සිය ඡන්දය පාවිච්චි කළ යුතු බවත් රණතුංග මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් කියා සිටියේය.

මගේ කාලයේ බැඳුම්කර ගනුදෙනු සෙව්වාට කමක්‌ නෑ – හිටපු ජනපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ

January 5th, 2018

නෝමන් පලිහවඩන උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

තම පාලන සමයේ මහ බැංකුවේ සිදුවූ බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසි සම්බන්ධව සොයා බැලුවාට කිසිම වරදක්‌ නැතැයි හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා “දිවයින” ට ඊයේ (4 දා) පැවසීය.

2008 වසරේ සිට 2015 දක්‌වා තම පාලන සමයේ බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසි පිළිබඳව සොයා බැලීමට පියවර ගැනීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමාගේ කිසිදු අකැමැත්තක්‌ නැතැයි පැවසූ හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා එදා සිදු කළ එම ගනුදෙනු පිළිබඳව තමාට දැඩි විශ්වාසයක්‌ තිබෙන බවත්, එම ගනුදෙනු ගැන සොයා බලනවාට තමාද දැඩි කැමැත්තක්‌ දක්‌වන බවත් සඳහන් කළේය.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මෙම බැඳුම්කර වංචාව නිසා රටට ආයෝජකයන් පැමිණීමේ ගැටලුවක්‌ මතුවිය හැකි බවද හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා වැඩිදුරටත් සඳහන් කළේය.

බැඳුම්කර වංචාවේ මුදල් අයකර ගත හැකිද? – රට යන අත

January 5th, 2018

ජනිත සෙනෙවිරත්න උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

හිටපු මහ බැංකු අධිපති අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහතා අසම්මත හා සාවද්‍ය අන්දමින් බැඳුම්කර වෙන්දේසියට මැදිහත්වී, අභ්‍යන්තර තොරතුරු පිටතට දීමෙන් පර්පෙචුවල් ට්‍රෙෂරීස්‌ සමාගම මාස පහක කාලයක්‌ තුළදී මිලියන 11,145 ක ලාභයක්‌ ලබා ඇති බව බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේ වාර්තාව ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්කරමින් ජාතිය අමතමින් ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රීපාල සිරිසේන මහතා පැවසීය.

මහා බැංකු බැඳුම්කර වංචාව මුලසිටම මනා ලෙස සැලසුම් කළ බවක්‌ පෙනෙන්නට තිබේ. අර්ජුන මහේන්ද්‍රන් මහා බැංකු අධිපති තනතුරට පත් කරනවාට ජනාධිපතිවරයා මුල සිටම විරුද්ධ විය. මේ සඳහා සුදුසු වෙනත් කිසිවකු නැත්දැයි ජනාධිපතිවරයා එදා එම පත් කිරීම සිදුකළ මොහොතේ විමසා තිබේ. එදා එම පත් කිරීමට රාජිත සේනාරත්න, විඡේදාස රාජපක්‌ෂ, චම්පික රණවක යන මහත්වරුද විරුද්ධ වෙද්දී එම පත් කිරීම සිදු විය. කෙසේවෙතත් අවසානයේ මුළු රටටම අද ඊට වන්දි ගෙවන්නට සිදුව තිබේ. මෙහිදී අදාළ තත්ත්වය ඇතිකළ පිරිස, පාර්ලිමේන්තුව නොමග යෑවූ පිරිස මෙන්ම කෝප් කමිටු තොරතුරු පිටට ලබාදුන් හා වංචාවට සම්බන්ධ පිරිස්‌ සමඟ ගනුදෙනු කළ කෝප් කමිටු සාමාජිකයන් ගැන ද පියවර ගත යුතුව තිබේ. මේ අතර බරපතළ වංචා, දූෂණ, රාජ්‍ය සම්පත්, වරප්‍රසාද, බලය සහ අධිකාරිය අනිසි ලෙස භාවිතා කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් විමර්ශනය කිරීම සඳහා වූ ජනාධිපති පරීක්‌ෂණ කොමිසමේ අවසන් වාර්තාව පසුගියදා ජනාධිපති කාර්යාලයේ දී ජනාධිපති මෛත්‍රිපාල සිරිසේන මහතා වෙත භාර දෙන ලදී.

පිටු 1135 කින් සමන්විත මෙම වාර්තාව කොමිසමේ සභාපති පී. පද්මන් සූරසේන මහතා විසින් ජනාධිපතිවරයා වෙත භාර දෙනු ලැබූ අතර කොමිසමේ ලේකම් එච්.ඩබ්. ගුණදාස මහතා සහ සෙසු සාමාජිකයන් වන විකුම් කළුආරච්චි, ආර්. රණසිංහ, ගිහාන් කුලතුංග සහ පී.ඒ. ප්‍රේමතිලක යන මහත්වරු ද ඒ අවස්‌ථාවට එක්‌ව සිටියහ.

මේ අතර මහ බැංකු බැඳුම්කර වංචාව පිළිබඳ සෙවීමේ ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ වාර්තාවෙහි සහ බරපතළ වංචා දූෂණ රාජ්‍ය සම්පත් අනිසි ලෙස භාවිත කිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පත්කරන ලද ජනාධිපති කොමිසමේ වාර්තාවෙහි ඇතුළත් කරුණු පිළිබඳ පාර්ලිමේන්තු විවාදයක්‌ පවත්වන ලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස්‌ පක්‌ෂය ඉල්ලීමක්‌ කර ඇත.

එක්‌සත් ජනතා නිදහස්‌ සන්ධානයේ මහ ලේකම්, ඇමැති මහින්ද අමරවීර මහතා පවසන්නේ පාර්ලිමේන්තුව වෙනම කැඳවා හෝ මෙම විවාදය පවත්වන ලෙසය.

පාර්ලිමේන්තුව තුළ විවාද කිරීමේදී අවශ්‍ය ඕනෑම දෙයක්‌ හෙළිදරව් කළ හැකි නිසා මෙම විවාදය අතිශය තීරණාත්මක වනු ඇත.

මේ අතර බැඳුම්කර කොමිසමේ වාර්තාව දැන් ඉදිරි කටයුතු සඳහා ලැබී තිබෙන්නේ නීතිපතිවරයා අතටය. මේ නිසා ඔහුට පැවරී තිබෙන වගකීම සුළුපටු නැත. ඔහු ගන්නා ක්‍රියාමාර්ග දෙස රටම බලා සිටින අතර එම වගකීමෙන් ජනාධිපතිවරයාට හෝ රජයටද මිදිය නොහැක.

එසේම බැඳුම්කර වංචාවට අදාල මුදල් යළි අයකර ගන්නට දැනට නීතිමය ක්‍රමවේදයක්‌ නොමැත. එම නිසා එම මුදල අයකර ගන්නට නව නීති ඇති කළ යුතුය. අධිකරණ ක්‍රියාවලියකදී පවතින නීති රාමුව තුළ කවරක්‌ සිදුවේද යන්න රටම බල සිටී.

මේ අතර පසුගිය දෙසැම්බර් 9 වැනිදා පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ සම්මත කර ගත් පළාත්පාලන මැතිවරණ සංශෝධනවලදී බහු මන්ත්‍රී කොට්‌ඨාසවලට මන්ත්‍රීවරුන් පත්කර ගැනීමේ ක්‍රමවේදය නිසා ඉදිරියේදී අහිතකර ප්‍රතිඵල ඇතිවීමේ අවදානමක්‌ ඇතිවී තිබේ.

බහු මන්ත්‍රී කොට්‌ඨාස ඇති කිරීමේ ලොව පිළිගත් ක්‍රමය වන්නේ ආසන තුනක්‌ ඇති බහු මැතිවරණ කොට්‌ඨාසයක්‌ සඳහා වන මැතිවරණයකදී වැඩිපුර ඡන්ද ලබාගත් පක්‌ෂයේ අපේක්‌ෂකයා පළමු මන්ත්‍රීවරයා ලෙස ද දෙවැනියට වැඩිපුර ඡන්ද ලබාගත් පක්‌ෂයේ අපේක්‌ෂකයා දෙවැනි මන්ත්‍රීවරයා ලෙසද තෙවැනියට ඡන්ද ලබාගත් පක්‌ක්‌ෂයේ අපේක්‌ෂකයා තෙවැනි මන්ත්‍රීවරයා ලෙස ද පත්වීමය. මෙවර සංශෝධනයේදී පාර්ලිමේන්තුවේ මුලින් තිබූ පනත් කෙටුම්පතේ මේ ක්‍රමය පැවතිය ද අවසානයේ සම්මත කරගෙන ඇත්තේ අදාළ ඡන්ද කොට්‌ඨාසය ජයග්‍රහණය කරන පක්‌ෂයට මන්ත්‍රී ධුර තුනම හිමි වන ලෙසට ගෙන ආ යෝජනාවකි. මෙවර කොළඹ මහා නගර සභාවේ ආසන දෙකක්‌ හෝ තුනක්‌ සහිත බහු ආසන 19 කි. එම නිසා මෙය බරපතළ තත්ත්වයකි. එපමණක්‌ නොව දෙමළ හා මුස්‌ලිම් පක්‌ෂ වෙනම තරග කරන තත්ත්වයක්‌ තුළ බහු ආසනයක්‌ මන්ත්‍රීවරු සියලු දෙනා එක ජනවර්ගයක්‌ නියෝජනය කිරීමේ අවධානමක්‌ද මතුවී තිබේ.

මෙය හදිසියේ සම්මත කරගත් නිසා එය කැබිනට්‌ මණ්‌ඩලයට අනුමැතිය සඳහා ඉදිරිපත්වී නැති බවටද දැනගන්නට තිබේ.

එසේම අදාළ පනතට විරුද්ධව රටේ පුරවැසියන්ට ශේෂ්ඨාධිකරණයට යැමට තිබූ අවස්‌ථාවද නොමැතිව පනත සම්මත කරගෙන තිබේ. නව පළාත්පාලන පනත අනුව පවත්වන පළාත් පාලන මැතිවරණයෙන් පසු ප්‍රශ්න රාශියක්‌ අලුතෙන් මතුවනු ඇතැයි නීති අංශ දැනටමත් මත පල කර තිබේ.

කාන්තා නියෝජනය සියයට විසිපහ වීම නිසා පරාජිත කාන්තාවන්ද මන්ත්‍රීවරියන් ලෙස පත්වීමේ අවස්‌ථා, ලැයිස්‌තුවලින් පත් කිරීමේදී ගැටලු ඇතිවීම් ඒ අතර ප්‍රධාන වනු ඇත. එසේම සභික සංඛ්‍යාව දෙගුණවීම නිසා නව ශාලා පහසුකම්, වැටුප් හා දීමනා විශාල ලෙස ඉහළ යැම ආදී බොහෝ කරුණුවලට විසඳුම් සොයන්නටආණ්‌ඩුවට සිදුවනු ඇත. මේ වියදම් සඳහා වරිපනම් ආදායම ප්‍රමාණවත් නොවේ නම් ඒවාද වැඩි කරන්නට සිදුවනු ඇත. අවසාන වශයෙන් මේ සියලු බර යළිත් වතාවක්‌ ජනතාවටම දරන්නට සිදුවනු ඇත.

හම්බන්තොට වරායේ ඉහළින්ම චීන ජාතික ධජය එසවීම මේ වන විට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ අද වන විට උණුසුම් මාතෘකාවක්‌ බවට පත්ව තිබේ. එහි චීන ධජය එසවීමේ අරුත එම වරාය චීනයට පවරා දීමක්‌ දැයි සැක ඇතිවන බව පිවිතුරු හෙළ උරුමය නායක, පාර්ලිමේන්තු මන්ත්‍රී උදය ගම්මන්පිල මහතා පසුගියදා ප්‍රකාශ කළේය.

ජාතික ධජයක්‌ එසවීම යම් භූමියක්‌ අයත්වන්නේ කුමන රටකට ද යන්න සඳහන් කරන කාරණයක්‌ බව කී මන්ත්‍රීවරයා එහි ක්‍රියාත්මක වන නීතිය අදාළවන රට කුමක්‌ ද යන්න ගැටලුවක්‌ බවත් මාගම්පුර වරායේ චීන ධජය එසවීමෙන් පෙන්වන්නේ එහි චීන නීතිය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන බව යයි පැවසීය.

අධිවේගී මාර්ගවල ගමන් ගන්නා ජනතාව මේ දින වල දැඩි අපහසුවට පත්ව සිටිති. ඒ අධිවේගී මාර්ගවල දෙපස තණකොළ කැප ඒවා කපන යන්ත්‍ර මගින් කපන විට ඒවට හසුවන ගල් කැට අධික වේගයෙන් ගමන් කරන වාහන වල වැදීම නිසාය. මේ නිසා දිනපතා වාහනවලට අනතුරු සිදුවේ. මේ නිසා වාහන වල වීදුරුවලට විශාල හානි සිදුව තිබේ. මෙහිදී අධිවේගී මාර්ග බලධාරීන් පවසන්නේ ඒ සඳහා රක්‌ෂණ වන්දි ලබා ගන්නා ලෙසය. අධිවේගී මාර්ගවල අනතුරක්‌ සිදුවූ විට අදාළ අලාභය ගෙවන තුරු වාහනය නිදහස්‌ නොකරන බලධාරීන් ඔවුන්ගේ වරදින් අනතුරු සිදුවූ විට මෙලෙස පැවසීම කනගාටුදායකය. අනෙක්‌ අතට මෙවැනි අනතුරු වළක්‌වා ගැනීම සඳහා නිසි ක්‍රමවේද අනුගමනය නොකිරීමද වරදකි. එසේම යම් වාහනයක්‌ ගල් වැදී අනතුරකට පත්වූ විට අධිවේගී මාර්ගයක තවත් වාහන රැසක්‌ අනතුරට පත්වීමේ ඉඩක්‌ තිබේ. යම් හෙයකින් මේ නිසා ජීවිත හානියක්‌ සිදුවුවහොත් එය යළි ලබා ගත නොහැක. එම නිසා මේ සම්බන්ධව බලධාරීන් දැඩි අවධානය යොමු කළ යුතුය.

රටේ වැටුප් සකස්‌ කිරීම් නිසා ක්‍රමවේදයක්‌ නොමැතිවීම නිසා බොහෝ ක්‌ෂේත්‍ර වල ගැටලු ඇතිවී තිබේ. රට පුරා වැඩ වර්ජන හා විරෝධතාවලට හේතුවද එයයි. පසුගියදා විනිශ්චයකාරවරුන්ගේ හා ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්‌ථා සේවක වැටුප් වැඩි කිරීමට ගෙන ආ යෝජනාවලට ඇමැති මණ්‌ඩලය තුළින්ම විරෝධය එල්ලවී තිබේ.

ඛනිජ තෙල් සංස්‌ථාවේ සේවක වැටුප් විශාල ප්‍රමාණයකින් වැඩිකිරීම මගින්, අනෙකුත් රජයේ ආයතනවලද ගැටලු මතුවිය හැකි බව ඇමැතිවරුන් පෙන්වා දී තිබේ.