SPECIAL REPORT : Part 346
By Shamindra Ferdinando
A smiling Public Security Minister, Sarath Weerasekera, MP, (Colombo District), last Thursday (Dec 3), said he was happy to have his school cadet platoon Sergeant Sarath Fonseka, in Parliament as an ordinary MP. The Former Navy Chief of Staff said so in response to Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) lawmaker Fonseka’s reference to Weerasekera being a Corporal in the Ananda College cadet platoon, at the time he served as the Sergeant.
Recently, Viyathmaga member Weerasekera received appointment as the Public Security Minister (formerly Law and Order Minister). Following the parliamentary election in August, Weerasekera received appointment as the State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government. Many an eyebrow was raised when one of the strongest critics of the Provincial Council system was named the Minister in charge. Weerasekera gave up the Provincial Council and Local Government Ministry to accept the far more influential Public Security portfolio.
War-winning Army Chief Field Marshal Fonseka and Rear Admiral Weerasekera also exchanged words over the latter’s son, ASP Sachitra Weerasekera, in uniform, saluting the father and then embracing him.
The exchange between Fonseka and Weerasekera highlighted continuing tensions among some sections of the retired top brass, divided on political lines. Both entered Parliament at the 2010 April parliamentary election, the first since the successful conclusion of the war against the LTTE.
Lawmaker Fonseka reiterated accusations directed at Minister Weerasekera in parliament on Monday (7) in the latter’s absence. Weerasekera told the writer that there was absolutely no basis for Fonseka’s assertions and the claim that he received the post of DG, Civil Defence Force with the then Army Commander’s intervention.
Fonseka contested under the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) symbol, having lost badly to Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the 2010 January presidential election, whereas Weerasekera entered Parliament from the Digamadulla district. At the time, the UNP-led political alliance consisting of the TNA, the JVP and the SLMC fielded Fonseka as the common candidate although the Sinha Regiment veteran hadn’t even been registered as a voter anywhere in Sri Lanka at the time.
Along with Fonseka, the JVP-led DNA won seven seats, including two National List slots at the 2010 general election. The DNA group comprised Fonseka (now with Sajith Premadasa’s SJB), Arjuna Ranatunga (still in beleaguered UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe’s camp), Tiran Alles (National List member of the SLPP) and four JVPers. (Today the JVP group consists of three lawmakers – a 50 per cent drop from the previous 2015-2019 Parliament).
Political maneuvering deprived Fonseka of his seat in early Oct 2010. Jayantha Ketagoda, who replaced Fonseka in Parliament, finally ended up in the SLPP National List last August. Politics here is certainly a game of opportunity lacking in any principles.
At the August 2015 general election, Fonseka contested on the Democratic Party ticket. Fonseka led the party, while Ketagoda functioned as his deputy. The DP failed to secure a single seat. In the following year, thanks to UNP leader Wickremesinghe, Fonseka was accommodated on the UNP National List, in the wake of M.K.D.S. Gunawardena’s sudden death.
Before discussing the circumstances leading to the creation of the Public Security Ministry, and elevation of Weerasekera to cabinet rank, it would be pertinent to mention how the naval veteran created history by being the only lawmaker to vote against the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, enacted by yahapalana strategists in early 2015. Weerasekera, in spite of being repeatedly urged to vote for the much-touted piece of legislation, voted against it, whereas almost the entire UPFA grouping, including the Joint Opposition, backed the 19th Amendment.
Weerasekera received public admiration for always taking a tough stand against terrorism, regardless of consequences. Weerasekera risked his naval career during President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga’s tenure. Weerasekera earned the wrath of the government for resisting LTTE strategies. The then Maj. Gen. Fonseka, too, strongly opposed the LTTE strategy, though the government relentlessly pushed the military to give in. The nation should be eternally grateful to Fonseka for his unwavering stance, in his capacity as Security Forces Commander, Jaffna, to dismantle High Security Zones, in the peninsula. The TNA hated Fonseka so much so that the grouping demanded Fonseka’s removal from the vital Jaffna command, during the 2002-2003 period. Ironically, the TNA and Fonseka, in his capacity as the UNP- backed presidential candidate, reached a marriage of convenience just to oust Rajapaksas in 2010. Again proving that politics is nothing but a game for opportunists in this country, whatever the long term consequences could be.
The unholy alliance that failed to win the 2010 presidential election, succeeded five years later when Maithripala Sirisena defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa, who sought a third presidential term at the expense of political stability. The same alliance, sans the JVP, failed at the 2019 presidential election, to pave the way for wholly new political groups, the SLPP and the SJB to emerge as the main parties. The UNP and the SLFP are irrelevant in today’s context.
Having each served the armed forces, for well over three decades, Fonseka and Weerasekera, now represent the main Opposition (SJB with 54 seats) and the government (145 seats), respectively.
Weerasekera faces a daunting task
There is no point in denying politicization of the police. Successive governments brazenly exploited and abused police, while in return some in the police made hay by often milking the underworld and also getting promotions and perks. The previous yahapalana administration ruined the law enforcement apparatus to such an extent that the police, in spite of having specific foreign intelligence, as regards impending National Thowheed Jamaat (NTJ) strike, allowed the operation to go ahead. At that time of Sri Lanka’s worst security failure, a retired DIG functioned as the Chief of National Intelligence (CNI), a post previously held by veteran intelligence leaders like, then Maj. Gen. Kapila Hendawitharana, one-time head of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).
Weerasekera will have to grapple with an extremely dicey situation with two key units – the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Police Narcotic Bureau (PNB) under investigation over serious offenses. In both cases, police headquarters had no option but to hastily remove the DIGs, as well as Directors in charge of the CID and the PNB, pending investigations. Police headquarters is yet to reveal its findings. The PNB is under investigation for dealing in heroin, whereas the CID is under fire for releasing Riyaj Bathiudeen, SJB lawmaker Rishad Bathiudeen’s brother under mysterious circumstances after having been taken into custody under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
Previous CID head Shani Abeysekera is now in remand for framing a DIG. He has many other cases in the pipeline against him like fixing cases involving other victims, some of which are on tape him discussing them with actor turned politician Ranjan Ramanayake.
In both the PNB and Riyaj cases, no less a person than intrepid Attorney General Dappula de Livera, PC intervened. The AG demanded special investigation into the CID’s handling of Riyaj Bathiudeen’s case. The President’s Counsel certainly didn’t mince his words when he questioned the deliberate failure on the part of the police to conduct the inquiry and the deliberate denial of the required expertise to bring it to a successful conclusion.
The AG rapped the police in two other cases, namely the Negombo Prison officer’s misconduct and the inordinate delay in the Brandix investigation. In the wake of the Negombo Prison officer’s case, involving the disgraced superintendent of prison Anuruddha Sampayo, the AG called a media briefing, the first time by any AG in over 100 years to take a public stand. On behalf of the AG, Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris went to the extent of suggesting the deployment of the military to execute arrest warrants if the police found the task too difficult. In the high profile Brandix case, the AG directed an investigation into what his Coordinating Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne called negligence on the part of Brandix, and government officials, in the deadly coronavirus second eruption.
Restoring confidence in law enforcement will certainly be a tough task for the new Minister. The public expected the new administration to take remedial measures. However, the damaging of a section of King Bhuvanekabahu II’s royal pavilion, while demolishing an appendage constructed in more recent times in Kurunegala, in July, on the orders of Kurunegala Mayor Thushara Sanjeewa, bulldozing of a section of the Anavilundawa Ramsar wetland, for shrimp farming, by former Arachchikattuwa Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Jagath Samantha, brother of State Minister Sanath Nishantha, in September, caused quite a shock.
In the wake of the recent acquittal of former Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, and the then Director General of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Anusha Palpita by the Court of Appeal, in the high profile sil redi case, the focus is now on the police and the Office of the AG. Perhaps there should be a judicial review of the whole process, as successive governments and Oppositions, and vice versa, repeatedly accuse each other of politicizing the judiciary and the police. The nine-member Committee, headed by Romesh de Silva, PC, tasked with formulating a new Constitution, should explore ways and means of having an independent review mechanism.
The Public Security Ministry will have to be mindful of the overall developments, including political environment. Many an eyebrow was raised when Sivenesathurai Chandrakanthan aka Pilleyan, formerly a member of the LTTE fighting cadre, now a lawmaker, who had been arrested in Oct 2015 over his alleged involvement in the assassination of TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham, in Batticaloa, 10 years before was granted bail after being in remand for about five years over a confession that is not admissible in a court. Chandrakanthan backed the SLPP presidential candidate, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, at the 2019 presidential election. Chandrakanthan also voted for the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. If those who had ordered Chandrakanthan arrested for political reasons, they owed an explanation.
The yahapalana Prime Minister appointed one-time Attorney General Tilak Marapana, PC, as the Law and Order Minister, in Sept 2015. Marapana was accommodated on the UNP National List. The CID arrested Chandrakanthan during Marapana’s short stint as the Law and Order Minister. Marapana resigned in the second week of Nov 2015 over the Avant Garde controversy as he did not see eye to eye with the yahapalana government on that issue like then Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse. His resignation paved the way for another Wickremesinghe favourite, Sagala Ratnayake, to assume the Law and Order portfolio. Ratnayake resigned close on the heels of the debilitating setback suffered by the UNP at the Feb 2018 Local Government polls.
Western backed civil society wanted Fonseka
A section of the UNP, as well as the powerful civil society grouping, faulted the Law and Order and Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC for the defeat. They alleged the UNP-led government experienced such a devastating defeat due to their failure to bring high profile cases against the Rajapaksa administration to a successful conclusion. Those who largely found fault with Sagala Ratnayake and Wijeyadasa Rajapakse demanded the appointment of Sarath Fonseka as the Law and Order Minister. President Sirisena, at the UNP’s behest, in mid-August 2017, replaced Wijeyadasa Rajapakse with Thalatha Atukorale. However, President Sirisena flatly refused to accommodate Fonseka as Law and Order Minister. The President’s stand was anyone but Fonseka, who had been harsh on the SLFP leader on many occasions.
The civil society, too, pushed President Sirisena hard to accommodate Fonseka. In the wake of the humiliating defeat suffered by the party, civil society leaders felt the yahapalana arrangement could collapse unless they made a special effort.
Close on the heels of the Feb 10, 2018 defeat, civil society representatives sought assurance from both President Sirisena and Premier Wickremesinghe that they wouldn’t quit the yahapalana alliance over debilitating polls setback. In a bid to pressure the SLFP and UNP leaders, co-conveners of Purawesi Balaya, Gamini Viyangoda, K.W. Janaranjana and Saman Ratnapriya briefed the media as regards their efforts at a hastily arranged media conference at the Centre for Society and Religion (CSR), Maradana on Feb 13, 2018. They acknowledged the possibility of an unceremonious end to the yahapalana arrangement, unless the simmering dispute between the two leaders could be settled. The delegation that made representations to the President and the Premier on Feb 12, 2010, consisted of Ven. Dambara Amila, ‘Annidda’ editor K.W. Janaranjana, Gamini Viyangoda and Saman Ratnapriya. Purawesi Balaya attributed the polls defeat primarily to the yahapalana leaders’ failure to introduce a new Constitution and their failure to punish those responsible for killings and corruption. The writer covered the Purawesi Balaya briefing (Last ditch attempt to prevent collapse of govt – The Island, Feb 14, 2020).
Purawesi Balaya
called a second media briefing on the same matter, on Feb 15, 2020, at the same venue, to demand an immediate solution to the failure on the government’s part to investigate killings and corruption. Amila thera demanded the immediate appointment of Fonseka as the Law and Order Minister. Flanked by Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) Dr. Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, Nimalka Fernando, Chameera Perera and Saman Ratnapriya, the yahapalana proponent urged the government to allow the police, under Fonseka, to operate outside what he called democratic norms. Ven. Amila demanded that the police operate beyond normal laws of the land. The openly hardcore right wing monk emphasized that the FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation Division), the CID and other law enforcement arms be placed under Fonseka and the military put on alert. Purawesi Balaya wanted Fonseka given six months to execute the operation. Reiterating their role in Sirisena winning the presidency, the grouping insisted that the yahapalana leaders couldn’t, under any circumstances, abandon the agreed agenda (Prez, PM urged to appoint SF Law & Order Minister – The Island, February 16, 2020).
Rear Admiral Weerasekera wouldn’t have envisaged him receiving the Public Security portfolio as he threw his weight behind the high profile Viyathmaga campaign meant to promote wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the SLPP candidate. It would be pertinent to mention that at the time the Viyathmaga campaign got underway, the breakaway UPFA faction hadn’t registered a political outfit of its own.
Sand mining Mafia challenges police
Restoring public confidence in the police would be a herculean task. The police would have to seriously think beyond neutralizing the underworld. Bringing the underworld to its knees is certainly a necessity that needs urgent action. The powerful sand mining Mafia recently killed a 32-year-old policeman, attached to the Bingiriya police station. Although the police quickly arrested the 27-year-old driver of the tipper truck, that ran over the policeman, who signaled him to stop, police headquarters should ensure a proper investigation. Police spokesman Attorney-At-Law DIG Ajith Rohana is on record as having said that the police were deployed to thwart illegal mining at Deduru Oya, on a specific Supreme Court directive. Minister Weerasekera should, without further delay, examine the deteriorating ground situation. High profile case involving former Director of CID SSP Shani Abeysekera, now in remand, custody, fugitive Inspector Nishantha Silva, securing political asylum, in Switzerland, and the arrest of an officer over accusations that he helped the wife of Easter Sunday bomber Hasthun, underscored the need for special attention.
Minister Johnston Fernando, last Saturday (Dec 5) questioned the UNP/SJB, in Parliament over the late Makandure Madush fleeing the country, several years ago. Fernando, onetime UNP heavyweight, who switched his allegiance at the onset of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s first presidential term, alleged a former UNP minister brought the notorious underworld leader on the Southern highway to the Bandaranaike International Airport. Fernando should have named the former minister.
EPDP leader Douglas Devananda recently made a shocking claim in Parliament. One-time militant Devananda, who himself received weapons training, in India, alleged, in Parliament, that a lawmaker, from the Jaffna peninsula, currently serving Parliament, was involved in the abduction and killing of SSP Charles Wijewardena, in Jaffna, during the Ceasefire Agreement. The mainstream media, as well as the social media, conveniently refrained from providing sufficient coverage to the incident. A couple of weeks later, Devananda received appointment as the Prime Minister’s representative in the five-member Parliamentary Council, the successor to the former so called independent Constitutional Council, which in practice proved to be far from independent of the previous government. Minister Devananda’s statement hadn’t received the attention it deserved.
Wijewardena was kidnapped and killed in Jaffna, while he was travelling to Inuvil to investigate a shooting incident on August 4, 2005. The killing took place at Mallakam. Parliament also accommodated LTTE’s Eastern Commander, Karuna Amman, under whose command terrorists butchered over 400 unarmed surrendered policemen at the onset of the Eelam War II, in June 1990. Karuna served two terms as a lawmaker during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s tenure as the President. Karuna’s one-time junior associate LTTE cadre Pilleyan is now a Member of Parliament, whereas Karuna bid to enter Parliament, from Digamadulla, at the last general election, failed.
The JVP responsible for hundreds of deaths, if not thousands, too, is represented in Parliament – since 1994. The TNA that recognized the LTTE, in late 2001, as the sole representatives of the Tamil people, and then served them until the very end, is also represented in Parliament. The TNA includes three former terrorist groups, the TELO, PLOTE and EPRLF.
Sri Lanka’s politics is certainly an ‘explosive mix.’ Having failed to secure the presidency, Field Marshal Fonseka serves as a lawmaker. The war-winning Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the seventh executive President. Retired Rear Admiral Weerasekera is the Public Security Minister, whereas the LTTE and other Tamil groups, as well as the JVP, responsible for two bloody insurrections, are part of the system.
How Sajith Premadasa promoted Fonseka as his future Defence Minister, during the failed 2019 presidential campaign, and lawmaker and retired Supreme Court Justice C.W. Wigneswaran, exploiting the LTTE cause, as well as Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam’s fiery speeches in Parliament, are grim reminders the country is yet to achieve stability ten years after the war. Public Security Minister Weerasekera’s recent warning in Parliament that Tamil political parties promoted terrorism underscores the need to address security issue, regardless of political consequences.
