-By Wimal Dheerasekera
(Lanka-e-News - 10.Aug.2017, 6.45PM) Following the appointment of Maithripala Sirisena as the president of the country , a special presidential commission was appointed to investigate the massive frauds and corruption that raged during the nefarious decade of Rajapakses, and that Commission received 400 complaints. Investigations into 19 complaints have been completed ,and out of those , reports on five investigations have been forwarded to president, and 14 more are to be handed over.
The following five reports have been handed over :
1.The siphoning off of Rs. 11.2 million allocated for Negombo zone development towards presidential elections by former fisheries minister Sarath Gunaratne without spending a single cent towards development.
2.Fraud relating the Mahiyangana 100 shopping complex
3.Fraud at Independent television network.
4.Fraud at Coconut Research Institute ,Lunuvila
5.Rakna Lanka and Avant Garde Co. scam.
Armed with the report of the presidential commission that investigated the corruption of Sarath Gunaratne (first report herein) , the Colombo chief magistrate Lal Ranasinghe was met to file action when Ranasinghe revealed some salient points….
Criminal cases cannot be filed based on reports of every Institution . Based on the Criminal procedure code , following an investigation by the CID , the charges against each accused shall be separately submitted to court , the chief magistrate highlighted. Accordingly , the group then visited the CID.
Doesn’t what Ranasinghe revealed mean the SPC is a damp squib and its report just a piece of note paper? because the CID has to once again investigate the corruption against Sarath Gunaratne. Doesn’t that also mean all the public funds and the time spent on the presidential commission and its investigation constitute a colossal wastage ? If the investigation was carried out by the CID straight away , surely all that money and time dissipated could have been saved , wasn’t it ?
When we made our own inquiries into this , we were informed only the police can file criminal cases in SL, and that right belongs only to Bribery and Corruption Commission and not to any other Commissions: The Bribery and corruption Commission investigations are conducted by the police officers attached to it.
The best illustration is the Presidential Commission which only inquires and does not investigate . To file a criminal case , an investigation is imperative, and it is only the police which has the ability and methodology for that, specially the CID. This means the presidential commission sans teeth , and with only a tongue is utter nonsense.
Though the people are unaware of this truth the president and the buffoons who established the Commission cannot say they are unaware of that. Despite this being the stark truth , the president yet established another Commission – the Treasury Bond commission. This commission was constituted of two judges and an Audit officer.
Unbelievably , the president appointed this commission , even after the COPE committee comprising of many more members have given their comprehensive report following their extensive investigations into the controversial issue of treasury bonds.
The speaker forwarded the report requesting advice from the Attorney General (AG) - a step never taken in relation to the COPE report. The AG echoed sentiments similar to what were expressed by aforementioned chief magistrate Gunaratne in this connection. That is , the COPE report pertaining to treasury bonds shall be entrusted to the CID and following their investigation a criminal case can be filed.
Prior to that , the AG advised that a complaint shall be made to the CID in connection with it . Accordingly the new Central Bank governor lodged a complaint with the CID , and the COPE report was handed over to the CID.
Maithripala Sirisena the president appointed another Commission sans teeth to probe into the alleged bond scam while being aware of this glaringly factual situation and even when legal measures have been initiated.
It is obvious the report of this presidential commission is also one day going to suffer the fate of the afore-stated report of Sarath Gunaratne .
Why is the president indulging in such tomfoolery wasting precious time and funds ? The answer is , it is certainly because of politics ? What is his politics ? That is the politics revealed by him earlier , to establish an SLFP government of its own. But the tragic side to his comic effort is , instead of cleansing the SLFP which is full of stench and squalor , and purging it of the crooks and the corrupt who are in plenty in the party , is foolishly seeking to portray before the masses that the UNP is a more stinking party of crooks and corrupt , assuming that is a much easier route to travel along. He is herefore using the presidential Treasury Bond commission to achieve that goal .
The Commission probing into the alleged bond scam should have first and foremost probed whether there was a loss to the government based on this alleged treasury bond scam , because the bonds were sold and bought by State Institutions. This is because profits earned by Aloysius the registered intermediary have been recorded without suppression in the annual accounts reports.
Were there vested interests when the profit was being channeled to a single individual ? Was this a criminal offence? And these must be proved in accordance with the criminal laws. The Auditor General in his testimony directly and clearly stated there is no methodology in Sri Lanka to detect whether there is a loss to the government when issuing treasury bonds. He explained that at length. Therefore if there is no methodology to ascertain there had been a loss, then how can the loss be decided ? In the circumstances what the Commission ought to do first is probe how such a thing can be avoided in the future , and establish modes and methods to detect whether there is a loss to the government when bonds are issued . Instead of that the Commission is now blindly searching for a black cat in a dark room. In other words serving the political agenda mentioned earlier of the president.
President’s agenda was to publicize that the UNP is more corrupt and stinking than the SLFP and to finally make Ranil Wickremesinghe the victim , but before that owing to a woman from somewhere coming on the scene in the treasury bond scam ,it became possible for the president to make Ravi Karunanayake a scapegoat despite the fact the Central bank which was central to this issue was not under Ravi’s purview.
No matter what efforts are being made to blow this out of proportion , the only charges leveled against Ravi is his living in the rented house of Aloysius. The cash involvement is Rs. 10 million . If Ravi really wanted to defraud , he could have collected that amount without anybody’s notice and lived in another house. Instead he has allowed the Commission’s scientific experts and the president to earn plus points on this . Hence his motive is untainted.
The most curious part of this melodrama is , even before Aloysius has been found guilty in the alleged bond scam , Ravi has been maligned unmercifully and condemned to the gallows. Somebody must clarify whether there exists a law that states , just because a politician was allowed to stay in the house of a businessman ipso facto makes him/her a criminal. Simply because evidence was given before the Commission , the media of Mahinda and Maithri have concluded Ravi has committed an offence.
It is well for Maithripala Sirisena and the pro good governance masses recall an incident: During the first week after Maithripala became the common presidential candidate following his resignation from the SLFP ,and when he was in a jubilant mood ,he lamented while being in the opposition that even the leaflets had not been sent to his electorate .
Truly, during that first week the common candidate did not have money to spend for the presidential campaign . It was Ravi Karunanayake the businessman who brought in about Rs. 500 million for the presidential campaign when it was teetering and tottering without funds. It was part of this money that were spent for the publicity platforms which the leaders of the civil organizations mounted and campaigned.
Maithripala who did not inquire then whose money Ravi released , is today probing into the payment of rents for Ravi’s house after appointing a commission ; and based on that is making requests to Ravi to resign while using media channels close to the president to sling mud at Ravi. None can blame the pro good governance masses if they describe this attitude as lowly callous behavior and ungrateful conduct of Maithripala. Shouldn’t he think back and ask himself , where his crooks and hypocritical cronies were at that time (nowhere around) who are now rallying around him saying they would raise both hands to chase out Ravi ?
In the circumstances it is being questioned whether president Maithripala Sirisena is truly honest , anti corrupt and against crimes?
If he is truly so, would he have related the deplorable ‘cyanide story’ and created the climate to resign for the Director General of the Bribery Commission at that time when culprit Gotabaya owing to her was hauled up before courts for the first time ? Could he have spoken in favor of the criminal members of the forces who abducted Prageeth Ekneliyagoda in remand custody , and reinstated them in military service illegally? Would he have used his stooges to file action against Lanka e news instead of investigating the arson committed on the office of LeN? Would he have sent a letter of demand claiming Rs. 500 million from Prof. Sarath Wijesuriya of the movement for just society ? Would he have suppressed the corruption charges against a most corrupt crook Dilan Perera , and appointed him as the party’s official spokesman in order to sling mud at the UNP and even its leader around the clock? Would he have made the NGO fraudster his co ordinating secretary who tried to shoot himself like an underworld criminal on the main road demanding that the UNP leader shall be chased out? Would he have given a post to Maithri Gunaratne who hurled stones at Sri kotha , and continued appointing him when he is changing posts ? Would he have appointed a notorious Blue brigand crook as a foreign envoy ?
Would he include the name of Chokka malli an SLFP er in his elections nomination list a few months after becoming president while forgetting the incident in which Chokka malli killed a UNPer by shooting when the latter was organizing a rally at Ratnapura during the run up to the presidential elections to make Sirisena the president ?
The list being too long it cannot be noted herein.
In conclusion let me state ……
We are certainly not against Ravi being punished if he is found guilty under the laws , but we are certainly against his being ‘crucified’ and maligned unjustifiably by vacuous villainous media even before the case is heard. The mud that is slung by the ungrateful muddy hands of the president against Ravi today even before Aloysius is proved a culprit , is sure going to sling mud at Ranil tomorrow.
If Ravi resigns today , the next manipulation will be to create circumstances for Ranil to resign. Thereafter under an SLFP P.M. another government may be formed.That will necessarily mean , instead of the constitution which aims at abolition of the executive presidency , a constitution will be formulated to retain the executive presidency.
Ungrateful Maithripala ‘s dream for a long time is that . This is confirmed by the words that drop off the unbridled tongue of S.B. It is due to this reason , the proposals of the SLFP to be made to the constitution formulation committee are being delayed .Currently the only hindrance is that.
If Maithripala the SLFP stalwart who on 2015-01-08 turned arch enemy of the Rajapakses can give nominations to the same Rajapakses in Maithripala’s list in July 2015, it is not a matter for surprise if such a Maithripala takes ungrateful unscrupulous measures to create a new force calling it a third force saying it is against corruption only to prevent the SLFP breaking into two , or if he again joins with the Rajapakses whom he earlier viciously and venomously described and castigated as rogues , rascals and traitors.
Hence, the pro good governance will be well advised to think carefully and watch cautiously the direction in which the rogue is running shouting ’rogue , rogue’ . Rajapakses are seeking to sign a no confidence motion not for nothing when Maithri ‘s blowing the whistle .
In logic man is considered as a talking animal. A political leader who loses his sense of discrimination ( one who loses his capacity to identify a true friend from a foe) ; and his sense of shame and gratitude is much worse than an animal by birth.
Translated by Jeff.
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by (2017-08-10 13:31:09)
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1 discussion on this news
Yes, He is honest crook, working only for his position and his party only as he mentioned before. Our myopic masses who are also senile will not realize till all the damage is done. Its time the UNP leadership take stock where it is headed under the MS presidency as soon as possible. None of the promises have been fulfilled till now.
-- by Ronnie Fernando on 2017-08-10
