A presidential witness?
When the pair met last week, Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake who is facing contempt of court charges in the Supreme Court, told President Maithripala Sirisena that he may be compelled to name him as a witness in his high profile case.
“Why is that?” asked the President. Ramanayake responded that in 2015, President Sirisena had gone public with a conversation with ousted Chief Justice Mohan Peiris. Peiris, the President said, had promised to return any judgment against the Government in return for being allowed to continue as head of the judiciary after the fall of the Rajapaksa regime in 2015. “Well that is all true,” said President Sirisena, chuckling.
The President then warned Ramanayake not to take the court case lightly since it was a serious matter. “I am not going to withdraw my statement.
I have no family to worry about. If necessary I am ready to face prison,” the actor-politician retorted. “There is no point talking about this to a mad fellow like you,” the President replied, walking away.
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Mahinda and the unions
The string of strikes in the past fortnight, the chaos it generated, the unfettered bamboozle by MR toadies, all indicate that Mahinda Rajapaksa is firmly on the comeback trail.
The Railway strike, the teachers strike and the blatantly brutal power play by healer patriot ‘Padeniya’ is clear evidence of MR’s readiness to violate every principle of political decency to regain power.
It has now come to light that the Railway union boss is not only a stool pigeon of former Minister Basil Rajapaksa, but also reportedly kinsman of Kumar Welgama the former Minister of Transport. The latter does not deny the relationship outright, instead saying “everyone in Mathugama is related.” Meanwhile, the former President reportedly met with trade union leaders at the Abhayaramaya temple in Narahenpita, to discuss an impending Government ‘crackdown’ against trade unions. More strikes could come about in our future.
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Poor Udith!
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Media Secretary Udith Lokubandara was ridiculed publicly by his boss in front of several TV crews last Friday. Soon after his three hour interrogation by the CID, Rajapaksa walked regally through the crowd of supporters who had been brought to the Wijerama Residence to protest the injustice done to a former head of state. For some reason, Lokubandara, the son of former Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara had earned the former President’s ire.
“Moo maha moda yakek ne!” the former President said gesturing towards his Media Secretary who looked shocked by the outburst. “Me anna arehata wela innawa” Rajapaksa added, pushing Lokubandara back into the crowd. Soon afterwards the former President told media personnel ‘now go and put this on television if you can.’
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GR 2020 full steam ahead?
Even though the prospect of a Gota candidacy in 2020 has not found favour with the former president brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former Defence Secretary appears to be frantically preparing for wresting the nomination. Streams of people meet Gotabaya Rajapaksa on a daily basis, while teams are beginning to canvass in the villagers. Many of those in the grassroots game for Gotabaya Rajapaksa are former military men. Observers quipped that at this rate, with the Rajapaksa camp struggling to narrow down a candidate ahead of next year’s election, the former Defence Secretary could emerge as the only option by 2019, effectively pulling a ‘Mahinda on Chandrika’ circa 2005.
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Return of the monitoring MP curse
After all the controversy that surrounded ‘monitoring MPs’ during President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidential tenure, it defies reason that the Government elected in 2015 promising good governance and reduced expenditure on Government would go down the same road. The term ‘monitoring MP’ itself has a chequered history in Sri Lanka after previous title holders were convicted murderers, Duminda Silva and former Presidential man for all seasons, Sajin Vaas Gunewardane. They ‘monitored’ the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, respectively.
Gunewardane was de facto minister at the then MEA effectively calling all the shots and Silva ran around town with commando units and a mini police station as escort, not to mention his band of undesirables that formed his unofficial security contingent, led by notorious underworld drug-lord, Dematagoda Chaminda. Vaas Gunewardane has been indicted on corruption charges in the Colombo High Court, while Silva is serving a death sentence (pending appeal) at Welikada over the murder of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three others in 2011.
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Eunuch or Impotent?
What is the correct English term for the Sinhala word ‘Napunsakaya’? The English version of the Court of Appeal Judgement on Galaboda Aththey Gnanasarathero has translated ‘Napunsaka Rajya Niladhariya’ as an ‘Impotent State Officer.’ Now, this is a point that the Learned Counsel for the Appellant can take up. Eunuch is the more accurate translation of the Sinhala word ‘Napunsakaya.
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‘Chichi’ proposes on Kilimanjaro
Rohitha Rajapaksa, aerospace engineer and the youngest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa proposed to his long-time girlfriend Tatyana Lee on top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Rohitha, fondly known as ‘Chichi’ tagged his brother and Hambantota District MP Namal Rajapaksa along for the climb. When the MP posted pictures of the proposal on the mountain, he attracted some criticism for traversing mountains while missing nearly all parliamentary sessions in the past three months.
First weddings, then interrogations
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had important things on the agenda last Friday, when the CID was scheduled to question him at his Wijerama Road residence about the night senior Journalist Keith Noyahr was abducted. He was scheduled to sign as witness at two weddings that day – the first couple came to his home, the other involved a quick trip to the Kingsbury Hotel in Fort. It was only subsequent to these two events that Rajapaksa submitted himself to questioning by five CID officials including Senior DIG CID, Ravi Seneviratne and Director CID SSP Shani Abeysekera.