SPECIAL REPORT : Part 348
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gestures during a recent meeting at Rawanakanda, a village at Imbulpe, Balangoda. Senior Advisor to President Lalith Weeratunga looks on (Pic by Jeevan Chandimal/PMD)
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Last Monday’s briefing at the Presidential Secretariat (old parliament) on the status of the war-winning armed forces revealed the pathetic state of affairs during the yahapalana administration. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa chaired the Defence Ministry review which lasted several hours. After Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. Kamal Gunaratne addressed the gathering, respective service chiefs explained the crisis experienced by the armed forces during the 2015 to 2019 period.
Navy Chief VA Nishantha Ulugetenne and Airforce Chief AVM Sudarshana Pathirana explained how they were deprived of the required support to maintain available assets. There hadn’t been a similar meeting since the change of government in Nov 2019. The then government allowed the armed forces to deteriorate. The rapid deterioration had been all part of the yahapalana strategy meant to undermine the armed forces. Downsizing the Army had been one crucial aspect and certainly not the only issue at that time.
The evaluation revealed that since Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s departure from the Defence Ministry in January 2015 the new government held up even the basic projects. Having won the January 8, 2015 presidential election, Sirisena named one-time environment and renewable energy Secretary B.M.U.D. Basnayake as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence (11.01.2015 – 08.09.2015). Subsequently, Karunasena Hettiarachchi (09.09.2015 – 05.07.2015), Kapila Waidyaratne (06.07.2017 – 30.10.2018), Hemasiri Fernando (30.10.2018 – 25.04.2019) and Gen. Shantha Kottegoda (24.04.2019 – 19-11.2019) received appointment as the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, amidst the massive turmoil caused by the Easter carnage.
If not for the Easter carnage, President Sirisena, now an SLPP lawmaker (Polonnaruwa district) wouldn’t have named a retired military officer as Secretary Defence. The yahapalana administration appointed a retired DIG as the Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) – a special post created by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in late 2006, on the advice of the then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to oversee all intelligence services, including the SIS (State Intelligence Service).
The Rajapaksas created the post of CNI, by way of a cabinet paper, especially for Maj. Gen. Kapila Hendavitharana, in the wake of his retirement. Hendavitharana, who had been deeply involved in clandestine operations against terrorists, knew what was going on in the war zone, elimination of high profile LTTE targets, or overall attempts to intercept LTTE arms shipments on the high seas et al. Even after the successful conclusion of the war, in May 2009, the CNI continued to play a significant role in the previous Rajapaksa government’s security strategy.
The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe duo weakened the security setup. Those who held high positions felt no great desire for sustaining higher level of security. One-time Defence Secretary, Austin Fernando, told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) probing the Easter Sunday carnage that security of a country did not depend on its Defence Secretary. There were various structures and it was a matter of collective action, Fernando, served as the Defence Secretary when Ranil Wickremesinghe managed a highly flawed ceasefire agreement arranged by the Norwegians said.
Fernando further said: “It is not mandatory for the Defence Secretary to have an intimate knowledge of the role played by the Ministry. If that is the case, a fisherman should be the Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries, and the Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture should be a farmer.”
The yahapalana leadership crippled the armed forces. The Geneva betrayal in early Oct 2015 stunned the victorious armed forces with some senior officers denied the opportunity to visit some countries. Denial of visas was part of international measures taken against Sri Lanka. That particular line of action culminated with the US imposing a travel ban in Feb 2020 on Army Chief Lt. Gen. Shavendra Silva.
Sri Lanka faces a daunting task in managing human rights issue in the New Year. With Geneva sessions scheduled for Feb-March next year, the government will have to work hard on a strategy to meet the threat. Successive governments obviously neglected Geneva for different reasons.
If yahapalanaya continued the national security would have suffered irreparable damage. The results would have been catastrophic and everlasting. In spite of severe economic difficulties caused by the rampaging corona pandemic, the government will have to sustain the armed forces in readiness to face any eventuality. The end of the war over a decade ago shouldn’t be a reason to weaken the armed forces or allow their capabilities to deteriorate.
A dubious ‘paniya’ to contain rampaging corona that made politicos laughing stocks
The government’s primary concern should be tackling coronavirus, now threatening to overwhelm the national economy. Failure to bring the epidemic under control early this year can be quite disastrous as the economy is already in dire straits. Cabinet Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and State Minister Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle spearheaded government efforts to contain the epidemic whereas a easily gullible section of the government promoted an ayurveda ‘paniya’ or syrup, allegedly prepared by using some secret ingredients, in addition to nutmeg and bees honey, thereby prompting foolish Sri Lankans in their thousands to beat a path to its producer’s abode in search of the much touted miracle concoction, causing chaos in the area.
The government went to the extent of allowing the Kapurala-turned Ayurveda practitioner Dhammika Bandara to hand over bottles of ‘paniya’ to several lawmakers, including the Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in Parliament. Recent scenes at Hettimulla in Kegalle where people gathered outside the kapurala’s abode to collect a bottle of the ‘paniya’ being touted by him as a cure for the deadly coronavirus were hilarious, if not for the grand irony of desperate people seeking a miracle.
Wanniarachchi was among those politicians who merrily consumed spoonfuls of the dubious syrup. Many eyebrows were raised several weeks ago when she, accompanied by two ministers, Prasanna Ranatunga and Udaya Gammanpila, threw pots of water into the Kalu Ganga as an occult cure. Dhammika Bandara wasn’t the only Ayurveda practitioner to exploit gullible public.
With the total number of corona positive cases fast approaching 38,000 and deaths nearly 180, the government will have to ensure propaganda or foolish efforts didn’t further deteriorate the situation. To Dr. Fernandopulle’s credit, she never hesitated to plainly explain the risks involved in such dubious projects.
Hijaz, Mahara riots; corona cremations
The government can expect stepped up international pressure, egged on by interested parties over its decision to cremate bodies of all corona victims. Already the UN intervened in a purely internal matter of Sri Lanka several weeks ago with its Resident Representative Hanaa Singer in a much publicised act drawing the attention of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa of the need to allow the Muslims to bury their dead. We wonder whether any UN official will dare try such a stunt with a country like India for example. With Muslim parliamentarians except Mohammed Muzammil of the National Freedom Front (NFF) taking a common stand on the issue at hand, the international community with its primary agenda to humiliate this country is likely to intensify pressure on Sri Lanka.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague recently ruled in a 180 page tome that British troops committed war crimes in Iraq. It determined that Iraqi detainees in the custody of British were tortured, killed and even raped by UK troops. But the icing on the cake is that ICC will not prosecute any of the culprits! So while the self-appointed international community and the entrenched UN establishment are ever ready to whip a country like Sri Lanka on even mere trumped up charges, they allow countries like the US, the UK, Australia or even their new darling India to break through that law net they have woven for their own advantage
The SJB and National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) led by former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya want Muslims allowed burying their victims of coronavirus.
The government can also expect some sections of the international community to take up the continuing detention of Attorney-at-Law Hijaz Hizbullah over his alleged involvement in the Easter Sunday attacks as well as the recent Mahara Prison riots that claimed the lives of 11 remand prisoners and caused injuries to over 100 others. Contrary to Prisons Minister Lohan Ratwatte’s claim, the post mortems revealed some indeed died as a result of gunshot injuries.
Sri Lanka Core Group raised Hizbullah’s detention last September. The issue is expected to be raised at the forthcoming Geneva sessions in Feb-March 2021 unless the government granted him bail before the Geneva session.
The controversy was caused several weeks ago when Riyaj Bathiudeen, brother of All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) leader Rishad Bathiudeen, arrested along with Hizbullah also in connection with the same case received bail under controversial circumstances. Media furore led to the Attorney General Dappula de Livera, PC, calling for internal investigation into the conduct of the CID officers, including DIG, CID and Director, CID as regards the release of Riyaj before the high profile vote on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.
Unlike any previous AG, De Livera received unprecedented media coverage due to his style of doing things. Having captured media attention during the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (P CoI) that dealt with Treasury bond scams perpetrated in 2015 and 2016, De Livera succeeded AG Jayantha Jayasuriya about a week after the 2019 Easter attacks. Jayasuriya served as the AG from Feb 10, 2016 to April 29, 2019.
Now the AG’s Department is under the scrutiny of P CoI probing the Easter attacks with President’s Counsel de Livera’s stand on two law officers accused of negligence in respect of TID (Terrorist Investigation Department) probe on Zahran Hashim questioned by Shavendra Silva, PC, on behalf of Deputy Solicitor General Azard Navavi. The question is whether Zahran’s murderous project could have been thwarted if the AG’s Department acted swiftly on the TID file received in early June 2017. Instead, the department sat on it until the Zahran-led National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) carried out the suicide bombing campaign. AG’s Coordinating Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne, who had been in the media limelight, has been hauled up before the P CoI over the matter with questions being raised as regards the AG’s opinion on police investigations. There had never been a case like this that really dealt with the AG’s department.
An extraordinary tiff
The political leadership should keep an eye on the situation involving the AG’s Department and the Police. In fact, newly appointed Public Security Minister retired Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera should be deeply concerned about the recent developments, particularly the AG’s high profile accusations in respect of IGP C.D. Wickremeratne’s culpability in respect of the Mahara Prison riots.
The relations between the AG’s Department and the police turned for the worse after the former intervened in an inquiry following accusations over the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) dealing in heroin. Retired Maj. Gen. Jagath Alwis, who, in his capacity as the Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) participated in a meeting chaired by De Livera, also attended by the then Acting IGP Wickremeratne at the AG’s office, where instructions were issued to expedite the investigations. Alwis recently received appointment as Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security.
The AG accused the IGP of turning a blind eye to specific instructions he issued in April 2020 to address congestion in prisons. The accusation was made in the presence of Justice Minister Sabry and CJ Jayasuriya at the recent event at Hulftsdorp. However, this accusation should be examined against the backdrop of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa having squarely faulted the Government Analyst, the Attorney General and the Police for congestion in prisons and therefore the Mahara riots.
The government’s efforts to improve law and order primarily depend on the AG and the police working together, closely. The recent meetings between Public Security Minister Weerasekera and Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith followed by the Minister and AG De Livera as regards the status of Easter Sunday investigation highlighted the absurdity of the situation. The AG’s Department and the police responsible for the successful conclusion of the Easter Sunday probe are under scrutiny for their own lapses. The issue at hand is whether Easter Sunday carnage could have been averted if the AG’s Department acted on Zahran’s file received in June 2017. And also even if the AG blundered, whether the NTJ plan could have been thwarted if Chief of State Intelligence Service Senior DIG Nilantha Jayawardena took meaningful measures after having received specific intelligence on April 4, 2019 regarding the impending NTJ attack.
Absence of political stability and unbridled corruption
The continuing absence of political stability is certainly a matter for serious concern. In spite of the passage of the 20th Amendment that was touted as the panacea for instability blamed on the 19th enacted in 2015, the situation is dicey. The ruling coalition effected some changes to the original 20th Amendment following protests by some members though the government retained provision to enable dual citizens to enter parliament. Now a fresh controversy has erupted in the wake of obvious disagreement among government partners, both in and outside parliament over the push for Provincial Council polls ahead of agreed formulation of a new Constitution.
A section of the government and those in the Pohottuwa Camp believe the PC polls should be conducted even under the old system without further delay whereas others want polls on hold until a new Constitution is in place. A nine-member expert committee headed by Romesh de Silva, PC tasked with formulating a new draft Constitution before Sinhala and Tamil New Year is worried about the government going ahead with PC polls. The committee is of the view early PC polls can be detrimental to its efforts. The government will have to decide soon on this matter without allowing further controversy.
Growing economic challenge and Parliament’s continuing failure
Press statements issued by the Communication Department of Parliament pertaining to COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) and COPA (Committee on Public Enterprises) during Nov-Dec 2020 budget debate revealed the sheer negligence on the part of the House to ensure financial transparency and stability. COPE and COPA inquiries revealed how cash strapped successive governments allowed unbridled waste, corruption and irregularities. Parliament, as an institution, should least now review its primary responsibilities pertaining to public finance and introduction of new laws. The failure on its part to act on forensic reports on Treasury bond scams and also to conduct much delayed debate on the P CoI report on the same received in January 2018.
With the economy in dire straits, Parliament now in the hands of the SLPP should accept responsibility for restoring financial integrity in the public sector as well as public-private ventures. It should be of pivotal importance against the backdrop of growing international pressure on the country and the country experiencing a sharp drop in revenue by way of garment exports, tourism and foreign remittance.
