Why Yoshitha ? Why not Ravi Karunanayake, Arjun Mahendran and Ranil Wickramasinghe?

Law does not differentiate a Prime Minister or a common man. If any one commits a verbal or physical act which is against the law then he could be arrested  and brought, before the law. In law there should be sufficient legally acceptable evidence a  probable cause for reasonable suspicion to arrest a person  and brought him  before a judge. It is the judge who decide  on the existence of a probable cause for arrest.

Otherwise any person could be accused on very flimsy evidence and brought before a court of law causing detriment to his character and abuse of law to satisfy personal grievances against a person.  This is exactly what has happened in the case of Yoshitha Rajapakse. 

In Sri Lanka today under the guise of good governance there is an absence of law.  The Government manipulates the law to punish those they fear would  turn against their political mismanagement. The Government which  is Ranil Wickramasinghe and Maithripla Sirisena gets rid of Attorney Generals or require  judges to retire not because they are inefficient but because they cannot be made to do what  Ranil and Sirisena want them to do.   There is a Committee under 19A for appointment of Judges but the Commistttee has to agree on the President’s choice. There ends the independence of  Constitutional Committees.

 Since the coming into power of Sirisena –Ranil duo nothing happens according to accepted norms of law and order.  Persons continue to be arrested by the sinister FCID of the Prime Minister,  and arrests are made without giving reasonable cause or  reasonable suspicions.

The graves are dug and bodies exhumed, without evidence of  reasonable suspicions.  Swimming pools which have been covered are uncovered to look for hidden treasures.  The grounds are dug up to search gold supposed to have been stolen by the former President Mahinda Rajapakse.   There is a deputy Minister whose duty,  it appears is to accuse the persons of previous government for hidden money in banks, shares in hotels, or  constructing Buddhist  meditation centres.

Is it not time that Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe stop this paranoia and begin  to do some work for the country and ameliorate the condition of living of the people ? 

It does not help the country, people, or the government to make, catching thieves , bribe-takers, and arresting money launders, their whole occupation.  Enough is enough , it is time to get down to do some work and seriously think  of taking  action  to help the country and the people instead of selling the Sovereignty of Sri Lanka to the West, building bridges between south India and north of Sri Lanka, signing agreements  with India that are detrimental to  Sri Lanka and its people.

Yahapalanaya should take serious steps to separate the legislative, executive and the Judiciary.  As it is the Judiciary has become a Yahapalanaya family affair.  The Judges are frightened to antagonize the Ranil -Sirisena duo and make judgements to satisfy them. The Police takes orders from the Prime Minister and a Committee set up by him.

We see this Judicial fear in the Ravi Karuynanayake’s money laundering case involving 390 million rupees received from Raja Rajaratnam the American Tamil Millionaire who financed the Tamil terrorists.   The case was settled unders suspicious circumstances in a very short time  by the High Court Judge Iranganee Perera  who acquitted Ravi Karunanayake.  Strangely,  the Judge Iranganie Perera retired immediately after the case.  She was later appointed as the High Court Commissioner.  Ravi Karunanayake was acquitted on technical grounds. The court hearing of the  case left  much to be desired.

In the case of Yoshitha Rajapakse there is no evidence as to money laundering as in the case of Ravi Karunanayake. Yoshitha had proposed the setting up of a TV station reserved for sports.  Some persons and agencies had contributed by providing loans for its setting up. The agreements for the loans taken  had been  refused  to be  accepted by the FCID, which considers the loans as “black money.”  

In the case of Ravi Karunanayake there was certitude that the money in question had come from Raja Rajaratnam. But  the case took a different turn since the government had changed and Ravi Karunanayake  was appointed the Minister of Finance.

Incidentally, talking about  money laundering, the Government has not divulged to the public  the Belgian  who parked one billion dollars,  and another who parked a similar amount in the Sri Lanka Central Banka . In the absence of information, it is normal that one have doubts.

One also begins to questions why Sri Lanka Yahapalanaya leaders  have suddenly taken  a great interest in Singapore. 

They go to hospitals in Singapore, even Ranil Wickramasinghe visits Singapore unofficially quite  often . Yahapalanaya is even getting down specialists from Singapore to re-organise the  Sri Lanka Foreign Service. The Governor of the Sri Lanka Central Bank is a citizen of Singapore. Has  this great interest in Singapore on the part of the Yahapalanaya Government has anything  to do  with the billions of rupees involved in the Sri Lanka Central Bank Bond scam ? 

There is no information as to what happened to the two  billion rupees involved in the Sri Lanka Bond Scam.  The whole Bond Scam issue has been conveniently covered up.  The COPE report was never allowed to see the light of day.  Will the new COPE President Handunetti of JVP take it up ?

 2. 3 million dollars said to have been received by the CSN from a questionable foreign source  and the failure to give details of how Rs.234 million was obtained  were the reasons  on which Yoshitha Rajapakse has been arrested and refused bail . These amounts  are just peanuts compared to the money involved in the Central Bank Bond Scam.  Yet Ranil Wickramasinghe’s FCID  has not bothered to look for these bond scam rogues who are free  while Yoshitha Rajapakse has been arrested and  refused bail.

Is their law and order under Yahapalanaya Government which controls every thing ?  Accusations on which persons are arrested by the FCID are questionable, and no body in Sri Lanka is safe-today, as blame and guilt could easily be fabricated by the FCID established by the establishment to arrest any one it wants.

The  thieves and bribe takers , and money launders in Sri Lanka, according to the Yahapalanaya government of Maithripala and Ranil,  are those who are in some way  connected to  the former President Mahinda Rajapakse. 

In a recent Rupawahini TV Debate “Kauda Atta Kiyanne”, Attorney Mr. Thishara Dissanayake said, quoting a news paper that at a special committee meeting where the action against those arrested by FCID is discussed,  Minister Rajita Seanaratna had told the IGP who was present that even though there are accusations against the members of the  family of the former President Mahinda Rajapakse , no body has still been arrested, and he had  pointed his finger at the IGP and told him that he should get the FCID to arrest Yoshita Rajapakse.  If that is how Yoshitha Rajapakse came to be arrested then this government has become a police state- a dictatorship of Yahapalanaya .   The TV debate was on whether the CSN  where Yoshitha Rajapakse was the Organiser, was set up for the purpose of money laundering and not because of the necessity for a TV  Station exclusively for Sport.

Yoshitha Rajapakse had been arrested for political purposes and to get credit to the Yahapalanaya Government’s principle activity of  accusation and arrestation of persons of the family of the former President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Yahapalanaya is an extreme rightist political party of Ranil Wickramasinghe a member of the Mount Pelerin Society.  He is very keen in abolishing the Executive Presidency,  as then he as the Prime Minsiter will have power  making the  President a political decoration. In fact Maithripala Sirisena has little power as it is the UNP led by Rani Wickramasinghe which takes political decisions.

Recently Ranil Wickramasinghe’s Foreign Minister  in a question and answer session after he made a speech to the US Institute of Peace in Washington DC on 25 February, 2016, phoo-poohed the  President Maithripala Sirisena’s statement that he would not allow foreign judges in a court established in Sri Lanka  to  try the war heroes,  as a personal opinion of the President.

“…..Samaraweera responding to a question from the audience said that Sri Lanka is still open for international actors including judges, forensic experts and other relevant professionals, as he thinks it is only fair that the victims of the war would want some form of guarantee.

He also said that the government is looking into all options and come up with a Special Court that is not only credible but also acceptable to all victims of the war, within the next five to six months.

However, when the person who posed a question raised the point that President Sirisena has clearly ruled out foreign involvement Samaraweera responded:

"What the President has expressed is his own opinion, and in Sri Lanka there are various thoughts on how this matter should be handled. Frankly, we too admit the need of international participation in the process, and even some nationalist parties in Parliament agree. There is general agreement across the board that a Special Court will have to be set up in Sri Lanka if the process is to have any credibility, as the Judiciary has lost its credibility over the past 10 years due to the politicization of the judicial process by the previous government.”

( https://www.ceylontoday.lk/142-119521-news-detail-president-outraged-at-mangala.html)

This is the Yahapalanaya that exists in Sri Lanka under Ranil Wickramasinghe. The President Maithripala Sirisena  is only a decoration, without a voice in Sri Lanka’s Foreign Policy which has been  exclusively taken over by Ranil Wickramasinghe and his Foreign Minster Mangala Samaraweera.

This is the Yahapalanaya Government that says it got rid of the white van culture. Yahapalanaya has instead set up the FCID creating a Culture of fear of arrest by FCID where  any one may be  arrested at any time without reasonable cause merely for political reasons.