{"id":68596,"date":"2017-08-06T15:48:15","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T21:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=68596"},"modified":"2017-08-06T08:21:18","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T15:21:18","slug":"onella-karunanayake-has-a-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/08\/06\/onella-karunanayake-has-a-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Onella Karunanayake has a point"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
Onella WIranthi Karunanayake has asked a valid question:\u00a0Why only my father\u2019s name comes up all the time in such a huge government?\u201d<\/a><\/div>\n
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The \u2018father\u2019 is of course Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of External Affairs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Karunanayake\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>name has \u2018come up,\u2019 to use Onella\u2019s words because of his close friendship with Arjun Aloysius, the man at the centre of the Central Bank Bond Issue fiasco.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Karunanayake is a target because a) he was at the time the Minister of Finance, b) Aloysius\u2019 father-in-law, Arjun Mahendran, was the Governor of the Central Bank, and c) this \u2018friendship\u2019 has found expression in Aloysius pocketing out millions so the minister could enjoy residency in a luxury apartment.<\/span><\/div>\n
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In the note that Onella has posted on Facebook, she proposes (as her father has) that there is a well-orchestrated effort using \u2018well paid character assassins\u2019 targeting Karunanayake. The media and the public, she claims, are playing judge, jury and executioner.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>She is wondering and she encourages everyone to wonder why only her father is coming under attack.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>This \u2018focus on Ravi K\u2019 if you will makes her wonder (and she wants us to wonder too) if Ravi K has been handpicked as the \u2018Fall Guy\u2019 (again and again).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Yeah, why single out Ravi! \u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n
It is, as she has pointed out, a \u2018huge government\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Right now, the focus is on her father, she is correct.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Coverage of any issue is fair game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Coverage of an issue where billions may have been made courtesy the time-tested mechanism of who\u2019s-who is fair game.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Onella may have a point when one considers the fact that even Lake House is covering the case (that\u2019s Daily News and not all Lake House publications, by the way).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Bigger issues have gone under the radar of the state media, but that\u2019s \u2018accepted practice\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Indeed, her father initially remarked that the entire process indicated that things had changed in the country.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Questionable operations of dozens of ministers and officials have in the past been ignored by Lake House editors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Indeed, some issues have been virtual touch-me-nots to all media in years gone by (and we are not singling out the Rajapaksa era here).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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But why only Ravi K, she asks, and that\u2019s a valid question. Perhaps Daily News has suddenly acquired some freedom; if so, it should be celebrated and not pooh-poohed on account of that newspaper not taking all errant politicians to the cleaners.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>In a country where even private media institutions think twice before attacking the government, a state-owned media outfit doing \u2018the unthinkable\u2019 has to be applauded.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>We can only hope that this move would put all politicians on their toes and also embolden all state media institutions to act in the public interest.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Onella, then, might appear to have a legitimate grouse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>On the other hand, if one were to check out the political discussions on social media, it\u2019s not just about her father.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It is about the entirety of the \u2018huge government\u2019 she talks of.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s about Ranil Wickremesinghe and Maithripala Sirisena and their crimes of commission and omission.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s about the previous regime and Aloysius\u2019 operations before Maithripala Sirisena came to power (i.e. before his father-in-law was made Governor of the Central Bank).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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More importantly, what Onella seems to have missed here is that no one is incriminating Ravi Karunanayake as much as Ravi Karunanayake himself.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It is her father who moved into a plush apartment claiming all arrangements were made by his wife and children and that he had no idea who paid whom and how much was paid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Pandula Nayana Bandara, a prolific and witty commentator on Facebook put it this way:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u0d85\u0db4\u0dd2 \u0dbb\u0dd4 50 \u0da9\u0dda\u0da7 \u0d9a\u0dcf\u0da9\u0dca \u0d91\u0d9a\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dad\u0dca\u0dad\u0dad\u0dca, “\u0d9a\u0dcf\u0d9c\u0dd9\u0d82\u0daf \u0db8\u0dda\u0d9a \u0d9c\u0dad\u0dca\u0dad\u0dd9??…. \u0d9a\u0ddc\u0dc4\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca\u0daf \u0d8b\u0db9\u0da7 \u0dc3\u0dbd\u0dca\u0dbd\u0dd2…..” \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dbd \u0d9a\u0dd9\u0dbd\u0dc0\u0dbb\u0d9a\u0dca \u0db1\u0dd0\u0dad\u0dd2 \u0db4\u0dca\u0dbb\u0dc1\u0dca\u0db1 \u0dc0\u0dd0\u0dbd\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d85\u0dc4\u0db1 \u0d85\u0db4\u0dca\u0db4\u0da0\u0dca\u0da0\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0dcf \u0d85\u0dad\u0dbb\u0dda \u0dbb\u0dc0\u0dd3 \u0d9a\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0db1\u0dcf\u0db1\u0dcf\u0dba\u0d9a \u0d9a\u0dd2\u0dba\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1\u0dd9 \u0daf\u0dd9\u0dba\u0dd2\u0dba\u0dd9\u0d9a\u0dca…”\u0da9\u0dd0\u0da9\u0dd3… \u0d85\u0db4\u0dd2 apartment \u0d91\u0d9a\u0d9a\u0dca \u0d9c\u0dad\u0dca\u0dad.. \u0db4\u0daf\u0dd2\u0d82\u0da0\u0dd2\u0dba\u0da7 \u0dba\u0db8\u0dd4\u0daf….”<\/span><\/div>\n
“\u0d91\u0dbd \u0d91\u0dbd….”<\/span><\/div>\n
…….<\/span><\/div>\n
\u0d85\u0db4\u0dd9 \u0d85\u0db4\u0dca\u0db4\u0ddc\u0da0\u0dca\u0da0\u0dd2\u0dbd\u0da7 \u0dbb\u0dd2\u0daf\u0dd9\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1 \u0dc3\u0dd9\u0dba\u0dcf\u0dbb\u0dca \u0d9a\u0dbb\u0db1\u0dca\u0db1…<\/span><\/div>\n
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The story is one of interest-conflict.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Ravi Karunanayake, through his response to this story (in his denials, claims of ignorance and feigning of memory-loss) has succeeded in generating a dozen other stories. If anyone is singling out Ravi Karunanayake for attack it is himself, ironically.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Editors, moreover, cannot be blamed for chasing this story. Indeed, they can only be found fault with if they missed it or pussy-footed around it or distorted it altogether, as some Lake House publications have, unfortunately.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Onella may have heard of the term \u2018self-incrimination\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Well, that\u2019s her father, as things stand now. He has joined the media and the public in playing judge-jury-and-executioner, she would have to conclude if she applied the suggestion of \u2018open your eyes\u2019 to herself.<\/span><\/div>\n
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All of the above notwithstanding, she may be correct about the fall-guy claim.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Arjuna Mahendran was appointed by Ranil Wickremesinghe and was the Prime Minister\u2019s friend even during his earlier stint as Premier (2001-2004) when Mahendran was Chairman, BOI.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Both the President and the Prime Minister colluded in dissolving Parliament in mid 2015 just before the then COPE released its report on the Central Bank Bond Issues raising suspicious that the move was to save Mahendran\u2019s behind.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>The evidence that\u2019s come out since clearly implicates several ministers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>It is hard to think that Ranil Wickremesinghe was not in the know.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>If that were the case he is clearly an incompetent leader.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
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Maybe all this will come out by and by and indeed one should hope, as Onella has hoped, that the whole story will come out and all those implicated will be named and shamed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>On this, I am in absolute agreement with Onella.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>She has a point here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY MALINDA SENEVIRATNE Onella WIranthi Karunanayake has asked a valid question:\u00a0Why only my father\u2019s name comes up all the time in such a huge government?\u201d The \u2018father\u2019 is of course Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of External Affairs.\u00a0\u00a0Karunanayake\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0name has \u2018come up,\u2019 to use Onella\u2019s words because of his close friendship with Arjun Aloysius, the man at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malinda-seneviratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}