UNP Parliamentarian Ranjan Ramanayake who is currently in remand custody due to his leaked controversial audio clips, arrived in Parliament on Tuesday in a prison bus and aired his views during the debate on the provisions of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act.
The actor-turned politician in his address to Parliament apologised to all those who had got into trouble due to the leak of recordings of his telephone conversations and claimed he had recorded his telephone calls as part of his crusade against corruption. However, the Government lawmakers who flatly rejected Ramanayake’s claims described it as a deliberate attempt to intimidate judges, conspire to send some of the then Joint Opposition MPs to prison and expose sensitive information pertaining to Police investigations. UPFA Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila who participated in the debate on the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance, said although MP Ramanayake in his speech made on January 21 told the House that he recorded his telephone conversations to ‘catch thieves’, his leaked audio clips tell a different story.
It clearly indicates that he is a liar. Gammanpila said when listening to the leaked conversations, it is not evident that Ramanayake had tried to ‘catch thieves’. He said Ramanayake should be given the Beast Actor Award for his speech on January 21 which comprised a series of diabolical lies.
Meanwhile, responding to MP Ramanayake’s speech, State Minister Nimal Lanza told the House that it so happened that a woman who came in search of a state sector job was asked to come to Ramanayake’s place probably to gratify his personal desires. He questioned MP Ramanayake whether he is denying that he said so during his conversation with Piyumi Hansamali. State Minister Lanza said that certain journalists had to leave their jobs, some families are broken, while some women were forced to commit suicide due to these leaked audio clips.
He noted that MP Ramanayake is now facing the consequences of recording these telephone conversations in an uncivilized and undisciplined manner without the consent of the respective parties.
MP Ramanayake in his lengthy speech apologised to all those who had got into trouble due to the leak of recordings of his telephone conversations. He said he didn’t make these revelations intentionally, and that was done by a channel connected with drug dealings. He said he also had a telephone conversation with Arjun Aloysious who was involved in the Central Bank Bond scam and also a conversation where he offered him money. Ramanayake said, “There is no issue in even murdering me.
I have these conversations stored in hard disks in foreign countries as well. So I tell President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint a Commission, and I will produce all relevant files. However, I don’t have any voice recordings of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.”
Ramanayake said he was tabling recordings of his entire telephone conversations in Parliament as those who are connected to the Government were releasing recordings selectively to gain political mileage. However, Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri announced that MP Ranjan Ramanayake had not tabled in Parliament any recordings of his telephone conversations. The Deputy Speaker said that the media reports that MP Ramanayake had tabled some of his telephone conversations and video recordings in Parliament were incorrect.
UNP Parliamentarian Dr.Harsha de Silva on Wednesday said that Ramanayake had handed over 15,000 phone recordings to Parliament and the media had reported it. However, MP Harsha de Silva told Parliament on Thursday when Ramanayake was on his way to the Hansard Department to hand over the CD’s he had received legal advice that there was no need to hand over the CDs. MP de Silva said when he inquired from Ramanayake, he said that the CDs are not in working order. Then Deputy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara urged the Chair to notify the Speaker to expunge Ramanayake’s statement from the Hanzard in the event that the CDs are not working and there is also no evidence to support his statement.
State Minister Sriyani Wijewickrama told Parliament that her fellow MP Hirunika Premachandra should have minded her words before she used them. State Minister Wijewickrama said as a female MP, she feels sorry for MP Hirunika Premachandra.
She said when we face such situations, we as women have to act prudently. Otherwise, the reputation of all female MPs will be tarnished. She said there is a scandal with regard to the leaked audio tapes. The first wrong impression was committed by taping telephone conversations. People talk freely with friends, but we never utter vulgar words. The second wrong thing was politicians’ meddling with the judiciary which is an offence.
The people have lost their faith in the judiciary now and these audio tapes have paved the way for it. However, UNP Parliamentarian Hirunika Premachandra told Parliament that some of the recordings of telephone conversations between her and MP Ranjan Ramanayake had been tampered with. She said that there was a sinister campaign to tarnish her image and added that she has filed cases against four television channels for defamation.
Both the Government and the Opposition lawmakers on Tuesday obtained the Forensic Audit Report on the Treasury Bond issuances of the Central Bank during the period from 2002 to February 28, 2015.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya ordered the forensic audit report to be tabled in Parliament, taking into consideration a request made at the Party Leader’s meeting held on January 13 and requests made by others in and outside Parliament.
The Forensic Audit Report was recommended by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that investigated the alleged Treasury Bond Scam on February 27, 2015, at the conclusion of its report. Meanwhile, State Minister Kanchana Wijesekara assured that the Government is not attempting to stop the Forensic Audit Report from being publicized.
He said, “We neither blocked it, nor did we remove parts of the report.”
Speaker Jayasuriya justifying his decision to release the forensic audit report on the Treasury Bond Scam told Parliament that it would not have any impact on ongoing legal proceedings.
He said so after approving the tabling of the forensic audit report on the controversial bond scam, enabling all lawmakers to have access to it. Meanwhile, the UPFA, UNP and JVP Parliamentarians requested a two-day debate on this matter.
The Speaker announced that a parliamentary debate will be held on the controversial Central Bank Treasury Bond Scam forensic report after a decision at the Party Leaders’ meeting. JVP Leader MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake also demanded the Chair to hold a two-day debate on the forensic audit report. Dissanayake said the people need to know what the former governments have done.
Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the Government too would like to debate the issue. Minister Amaraweera called it a historic fraud. He said that it was pointless just to debate the matter but all culprits involved in the bond scam should be brought to book. UNP MP Ajith P. Perera said this matter is being heard before a Special High Court.
Hence if the report is debated in the House, it would be supportive to the inquiries. State Minister Nimal Lanza said that it was so important to debate this matter in Parliament and all the people should know about the ‘Foot Note’ group as well.
Leader of the House, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said that the Government needed to debate this matter as all the culprits are in the Opposition by now. He added that they committed this fraud while in power.