Daily News Editorial

Chamal’s mea culpa

20 December 2016

Former Speaker Chamal Rajapaksa made a sort of mea culpa on behalf of his brother Mahinda to the public the other day. Speaking at a meeting in Hambantota, the Rajapaksa home turf, Chamal, the more temperate of the Rajapaksa siblings in politics said his Presidential brother courted his own downfall by not taking action against those in his inner circle, whose doings turned the public against the government and particularly the President.

There was enough and more, not only attributable to MR’s inner circle, but also the lesser mortals in the former President’s good books, that would have caused the ex Speaker to raise more than a casual eyebrow.

Surely, as a former police officer, Chamal would not have condoned certain actions of his younger sibling that went against the grain of the law. He certainly would have baulked at the move by his brother to order the Attorney General to let cases against certain UNP politicians, one of whom charged for rape, withdrawn, in order to win over their support. By the same token the former Speaker would certainly have not condoned his brother’s decision to order the outstanding loans of the self same UNP politicians written off or rescheduled, for the same purpose. He certainly would not have gone along with his brother’s indulgence of his progeny to the extent that one of them gave direct orders to the Heads of State Banks to grant loans to his friends outside the laid down procedure, nor the free run he had with regard to the National Carrier, being the sole authority on recruitment.

The policeman in Chamal Rajapaksa would have rebelled, within, against the inaction by his Presidential brother to allow the kind of unlawful acts committed by maverick politician Mervyn Silva to go unpunished. There were many of the latter’s deeds that would have evoked the wrath of the law abiding citizens of the country, such as the storming of the state owned Rupavahini Corporation, accompanied by goons, to manhandle the programmes’ manager for failing to air a speech of his (Mervyn’s) that personally vilified a prominent Opposition politician. (Not stopping at that Mervyn also got his goons to razor slash certain SLRC employees while they were travelling in buses, as revenge for meting out the treatment he was subjected to at the hands of the employees). Chamal would also have been a mere bystander when the self same Mervyn Silva got a Samurdhi official tied to a tree and made the latter to confess that the deed was carried out on his own volition.

Mervyn, as Chamal was well aware then, was a protected species, owing his rise in politics, and also station in life, to the Rajapaksas. But the biggest blot on Chamal’s conscience, as a former police officer, no doubt would have been his brother’s unforgivable act of granting a pardon to the female spouse of a minister, who was on death row, for the murder of the mistress of her husband. It was ironic indeed that this minister was the first among the Blues to dump Rajapaksa and pledge his loyalties to the Yahapalanaya camp, with the former President’s defeat on January 8.

Chamal’s reasons for coming out with his mea culpa no doubt would have also been prompted by the long line of members of the inner circle of Mahinda Rajapaksa who are today being paraded, almost on a daily basis, before the numerous anti graft commissions. It is gratifying, nevertheless, to note that it took a Rajapaksa, no less, to put his finger at one of the chief spots where the former President erred and erred fatally.

GR follows MR

It was former President Mahinda Rajapaksa who began it all in Malaysia. Addressing a group of Sri Lankans there, at an event that resembled a public rally, Rajapaksa went onto bad mouth the Yahapalanaya government. On that occasion this column raised the question if the Sri Lanka government would permit Sonia Gandhi to come to Sri Lanka erect a stage in the Capital and lambaste Narendra Modi. We also questioned why the Sri Lankan authorities had permitted such a breach of protocol to be allowed by a friendly government.

Now we have former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa addressing so called Rajapaksa supporters in Japan, and true to form, taking to task the Sri Lankan government for a multitude of ills to beset the country. What is the status of Gotabhaya to make such remarks against the legally elected government of this country. True, we have had Opposition Leaders of the Maldives coming to Sri Lanka to hold press conferences against their governments. But what we have here is election style rallies in friendly countries of Sri Lanka. And to add insult to injury there was also a famous Buddhist monk based in Japan, well known for receiving the patronage of governments of all hues, doing the honours by hoisting the National Flag at the event in Japan. What action will the authorities take in putting a halt to these stunts that harm the government’s image abroad?