President Ranil Wickremesinghe was in the Mannar district last weekend. The President met the Bishop of Mannar Lionel Emmanuel Fernando and received his blessings and then attended the presentation of ‘Urumaya’ land deeds. It was significant that MP Rishad Bathiudeen was also present.
During lunch, the two of them were seen chatting for a long time. At the ‘Urumaya’ land deed presentation ceremony, MP Rishad commended the President’s program. Although Monday was a holiday, President Wickremesinghe went to Embilipitiya to present land deeds to farmers in the Mahaweli Walawa region as part of the ‘Urumaya’ program.
“You give land deeds, ‘Aswesuma’ and scholarships. Are you the only President who has given this much benefit to the people in two years?” The people asked the President.
The President went to Parliament on Tuesday morning to make a special statement. It was to point out that the Supreme Court’s decision had hindered the protection of women’s social rights. President Wickremesinghe gave a long explanation about this by raising a point of order.
Meanwhile, the President answered the question about the house rent tax by saying that it will not affect 90 percent of the people who have rented houses in the country. He said that it affects the top 10 percent of capitalists.
President Wickremesinghe finished his speech and went to the Opposition Lobby. By then, a number of Opposition MPs was sitting and exchanging pleasantries. As soon as they saw the President who came there by chance, they rose and provided a seat for the President. “What are the people talking about?” The President sat looking at the crowd. “It’s a good thing, you reduced my term of office to five years…” When former President Maithripala Sirisena said that, everyone looked at one another in surprise.
“If my tenure was not reduced to five years, I would have been stuck with the Covid-19 problem. On the other hand, I had to face the economic crisis that came with Covid-19 pandemic,” former President Maithripala said. “Does this mean that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to face an issue that had to be faced by you?” asked an Opposition MP there, making everyone laugh.
Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa left the place looking at the group. Prof. Ashu Marasinghe said, “There your leader is going.”
When MP Harshana Rajakaruna was also passing by, the President said there was news that you had a problem with a woman at the SJB office, Kotte. “No, no, it was not in Kotte, it happened in office number 30. Not a big deal.” By saying that, Harshana slipped away while some MPs tried to stop him.
“MPs have many problems”
“Government officials have been given vehicle permits but not MPs. As MPs, we have many problems.” Several Opposition members began to complain to the President.
President Wickremesinghe said, “Please make this request through the Opposition Leader. Then I can give a solution to this matter by talking to the ruling party.” While he was speaking, Opposition Leader Premadasa again passed by. “Ah, there comes the Opposition Leader. Now tell him.” When President Wickremesinghe repeated this, Opposition Leader Premadasa said, “I have not heard anything” and left.
“Even in a court case, silence means accepting. The silence of the Opposition Leader showed that he also likes the request of the MPs.” When the former President Maithripala Sirisena said this, everyone laughed.
The President left after attending the Government parliamentary group meeting and the Cabinet meeting. After the statement made by the President about the activities of the Judiciary, many MPs began talking about the problem between the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
Even though the Executive is accountable to the Legislature through the Cabinet, the Members of Parliament started expressing opinions about the Judiciary taking power over the Legislature.
Taking forward the President’s request to appoint a Select Committee to look into and take action against the Judiciary of taking over the MP’s rights by force, several MPs also started asking the Speaker for a Select Committee.
UNP appoints Zonal organisers
From Parliament, President Wickremesinghe went directly to the UNP party headquarters, ‘Sirikotha’ to take part in the second phase of awarding appointment letters to the party’s zonal organisers.
That morning, the UNP General Secretary Range Bandara had organised a lecture for UNP activists about the work that the Government led by the President had done for so long and after finishing it, they came to ‘Sirikotha’ to join the ceremony held under the patronage of the President.
President Wickremesinghe had instructed to limit the number of speeches, so only three short speeches were made. After General Secretary Range Bandara, Chairman Wajira Abeywardena and Deputy Leader Akila Viraj Kariyawasam spoke, President Wickremesinghe addressed the ceremony.
The President also made an extension of his parliamentary speech and ended the speech in a few minutes and invited General Secretary Range Bandara to present the appointment letters.
After the presentation of appointment letters, the weekly meeting of the party Management Committee was held under the patronage of the President.
The President advised General Secretary Range Bandara about party organisation activities and the removal of non-working personnel. Following which, the party’s election campaign was also discussed. President Wickremesinghe, who assigned responsibilities to Lasantha Gunawardena, Shamal Senarath and Ronald Perera, had also presented an idea to the Management Committee about the meetings to be held in the coming days.
The President went to the BMICH on Wednesday morning to open the Industrial Exhibition. After the Industrial Expo Exhibition, the President came back to Parliament where many Ministers spoke to the President about the problems of court proceedings.
In the evening, the President went to Temple Trees to present scholarships offered by the President’s Fund. The President received high recognition from the children. The teachers there also spoke appreciating the President’s scholarship program.
The next day, the President went to the Presidential Secretariat because several meetings to be in the Ministry of Finance had been moved to the Presidential Secretariat.
Before that, the President also met several Ministers there.
“The power of Parliament cannot be allowed to be taken by the courts. Minister Susil Premajayantha’s story about the court stopping the appointment of teachers in the education sector is very sensitive,” Minister Manusha Nanayakkara said sadly.
“After the President spoke to confirm the rights of the MPs, everyone started talking about it. Parliamentary power cannot be taken by another party,” said MP Wajira Abeywardena joining the conversation.
“A Select Committee should be appointed to resolve this issue,” Premanath C. Dolawatta said.
There was talk about the rejection of the appointment of the Attorney General and when the MPs said that there was a legal problem in the position taken by the three civil society members of the Constitutional Council, the President nodded his head and said nothing.
“Even though the Constitutional Council rejected the name you sent, according to the law, you have the power to send the same name to the Constitutional Council again,” a law officer said.
“Will you send the same name again?” When Prof. Ashu Marasinghe asked, the President beamed a smile and it was clear to everyone what he was going to do.
“A Buddhist group is now upset with the Gender Equality Bill. The Buddhist Congress had also held a news conference. But they forgot that a person from Born Again is also behind this. Are these Buddhist groups now working as they want?” MP Dolawatta dropped another bombshell.
President meets Dr. Jaishankar
Dr. S. Jaishankar, who was appointed the External Affairs Minister after the BJP led main alliance came to power, arrived in Colombo on Thursday, his first foreign visit after his appointment.
Taking the message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was elected for the third time, the Indian External Affairs Minister met the President and his group and there was a separate discussion between the President and the External Affairs Minister. After lunch, bilateral talks were held.
President Wickremesinghe after worshiping at the Thanthirimale Rajamaha Vihara in the evening on Poson Poya day left for Batticaloa and Ampara to present ‘Urumaya’ land deeds.
Scathing attack
SJB Chairman Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, in a speech delivered in Parliament on Thursday, June 20, launched a scathing attack on SJB Leader and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.
Knowing that Sarath Fonseka was preparing for a speech that day, Chief Opposition Whip MP Lakshman Kiriella refused to give him time because he knew that Fonseka in his speech would vehemently criticise his leader. However, Fonseka somehow got time for his speech and started attacking Sajith Premadasa.
Fonseka expressed his views on a problem arising from the allocation of time for addressing Parliament by allocating the time from the ruling party. He made strong accusations against Sajith Premadasa and accused Chief Opposition Whip Lakshman Kiriella, without mentioning his name. He said that the people should understand that a son of a former President should not be appointed as the Leader of the country just because his father was the President.
Fonseka said that the country can never be rescued from this crisis situation by appointing a politician like him to the leadership of the country. Field Marshal Fonseka said that he does not distribute money to schools and hospitals by taking money from casino owners and smugglers and said that he did not steal money from the Central Expressway.
He said that today the parts of the Central Expressway are getting loose and falling on the ground. However, MPs Lakshman Kiriella and Mujibur Rahuman responded to those statements from the SJB side. They said the party is being accused in this manner because Fonseka did not get the Presidential candidature.
Seminar in Biyagama
Last week, a seminar on ‘Women’s voices of the Pohottuwa’ was held at a Biyagama hotel. The event was organised by former Chairman of Biyagama Pradeshiya Sabha, Ananda Ganepola.
District Leader, Minister Prasanna Ranatunga was also invited for this event. Minister Ranatunga received a phone call while preparing to participate in the seminar. “Prasanna brother, I am Namal. You must come to the Biyagama event. I am also coming,” MP Namal Rajapaksa also invited Minister Ranatunga.
“I will come anyway to work in the district. Ananda also called me. But brother, I can’t stay too long. I have other work,” Minister Ranatunga said.
But Namal asked Minister Ranatunga to stay at the venue until he arrived.
Minister Ranatunga made his speech before Namal Rajapaksa.
Ranatunga said, “Now many people think that I and MP Namal Rajapaksa are not on good terms. There is no such thing. MP Namal has a good vision. He is definitely a suitable person to lead the country but this is not the time. I said it those days then and I say it even today.” Namal laughed listening to Minister Ranatunga’s speech.
“MP Namal, this is a time when we have fallen on our knees and are now trying very hard to get up. Therefore, experiments cannot be done at this time. We have to play the game with this President to win the cup. If you give power to Anura or Sajith, it will be like swallowing durians without removing the seeds. Therefore, at this point, let’s win the game together,” Minister Prasanna said amidst the applause of MP Namal.
“Brother Prasanna loves our father very much. Every Sinhala New Year, brother Prasanna comes first to see our father. He is the person who was next to us in difficult times. Brother Prasanna advises me as an adult. Some people may see it as wrong. There was never any anger between us,” MP Namal said emotionally.
A tea party was arranged at the end of the seminar. The participants of the seminar also posed for selfies with Minister Prasanna and MP Namal.
“Only Gampaha doesn’t have any clashes,” Namal said while having a cup of tea.
“That’s right… our Minister is not running the race alone. He is running the race by pulling us as well,” a former Provincial Council Member said.
“Aragalaya activists also set the house of the Minister on fire. But he is not sad about that, but about us,” said another person.
Then Minister Prasanna and MP Namal went to a separate place and engaged in a conversation and no one from outside participated. The discussion was held for almost half an hour.
The annual inter-house sports event of Mahinda Rajapaksa College, Matara was held on Thursday. A special feature of it was the presence of two former Education Ministers as guests.
They were Transport, Highways and Mass Media Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena and Opposition Parliamentarian Dullas Alahapperuma. Minister Gunawardena was the chief guest at the event. A special feature of it was that after MP Dullas Alahapperuma left the SLPP Government and crossed over to the Opposition, he did not participate in any event attended by a Minister of the ruling party.
Minister Gunawardena made a speech there but Dullas did not speak. In the meantime, Minister Gunawardena opened the bus stand in front of Mahinda Rajapaksa College constructed at a cost of Rs. 2.5 million.
New alliance
The political activities of the new alliance are going on at a fast pace these days. Many Government and Opposition party members who were in the Parliament lobby last week inquired from Operational Leader of the new alliance, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and its founder Nimal Lanza about the future program of the new alliance.
“Your work is going great. There is a lot of curiosity among the people too,” said a SJB strongman to Anura Yapa and Lanza.
“After we had the meeting, a person attempting to become a Presidential candidate also came and gave a big talk to the schoolchildren. There is no point in giving talks to schoolchildren, the people need a policy,” Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said joining the conversation.
“You broke the power that one family had in Hambantota for so long at the Ambalantota meeting. We also came a little scared that the crowd would disappear. Actually, when I saw the people who came after I arrived, I thought that the program of the new alliance was successful,” MP Musharaff said. Several members of the TNA also said that the program of the new alliance was working well.
