The interview of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe conducted with Al Jazeera recently did not serve any purpose and he is perplexed by the decision to accept the interview, National Democratic Front (NDF) MP Ravi Karunanayake told the Sunday Observer. “I don’t understand why the former President agreed to the interview,” he said. Karunanayake said he feels that the interview was “unwarranted.”
“Wickremesinghe achieved nothing from the interview, and it seemed the interview was conducted like a public whipping. There was no reason to do that interview, but it was Wickremesinghe’s choice,” he said.
He said that two senior United National Party (UNP) members may have been behind the decision Wickremesinghe took, adding that the two men have been using the former President for their own gain. Karunanayake said the two UNP politicians have also undermined efforts to create a common Opposition front. They are also undermining efforts by Navin Dissanayake, Ruwan Wijewardene, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Harin Fernando, and Manusha Nanayakkara to strengthen the party. “These two individuals have consistently undermined these efforts. During Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Presidency, one of them controlled the Presidential Secretariat, and the other, who entered Parliament as a nominee, dominated parliamentary activities. These two individuals have significantly damaged the party’s prospects by demotivating committed members and prioritising personal interests,” he said,
The interview Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan conducted with Wickremesinghe was aired recently where the former President was grilled on the ’83 race riots, his involvement in the Batalanda torture camps, his defence of the Rajapaksa family, the 2019 Easter Sunday attack and the violation of the Constitution during his tenure between 2022 and 2024. The controversy created by the interview led the Government to table the report by the Commission appointed to investigate the alleged torture camp in Batalanda.
