The President is presiding over skulduggery

By Rajasingham Jayadevan

(June 12, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Intoxicated with unquestionable authority, the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapakse is presiding over the country with unfair and dishonest practices engineered to trick the people and the international community.

The post-outright military victory against the LTTE has not seen any major political move towards reconciliation and initiation of peace in the country. Instead, the government is engaged in a distasteful wangling to thwart dealing with pressing matters objectively and following acceptable processes.

The cross sections of the political divides in Sri Lanka are facing the wrath of the government’s heavy handed behaviour. Anyone in the opposite camp is a target. The President is using the rabid anti-Tamil extremists in the government to progressively strengthen a Gestapo type secret service governance to manage the affairs of Sri Lanka and any opposition is confronted with brutal force. Pirabakran’s control freak policy has filtered into the government mechanisms and the President does not feel ashamed to use such methods.

Whilst the main United National Party (UNP) is facing the wrath of the government forces by not permitting them to perform their role as opposition party in a democracy and other smaller parties too are succumbing to the brunt of the government dictates.

Whilst the international officials are taken to the conflict zone on conducted tours, the UNP and the other opposition parties are still waiting for clearance.

It was reported today (11/6/2009) that ‘the government had warned the dissident SLFP MP Mangala Samaraweera, MP, that his involvement in several high profile transactions during his tenure as a minister in the CBK administration would be probed by the CID.’

An outspoken opposition critic of the government is targeted in a systematic way when there are high profile questionable characters in the government enjoying the unhindered blessings of the President to engage in nefarious anti-social activities. The notorious of the most is the government Minister Dr Mervyn Silva. Despite scandal after scandals have been reported in the restricted media in Sri Lanka, he is being patronised by the President to extend his distasteful activities.

The successful military operations against the Tamil Tigers have lost the cool of the government post its victory. This is where skulduggery is felt heavily. Having appointed the controversial, disgruntled and questionable Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan (nom de guerre: Colonel Karuna Amman) as one of the deputy head of the President’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), a systematic and secret campaign is undertaken to blackmail the Tamil parties in the country.

The Tamil parties loyal to the President are not spared. They have been subject to heavy arm-twisting to give up their political parties and join the SLFP. According to very authentic information filtering from Colombo, Tamil parties supporting the government (TULF, TMVP, EPDP, PLOTE, TELO) are being asked to give up their parties and join the SLFP.

Karuna Amman is said to be in the forefront to blackmail some of these parties to follow his dictates or face the consequence of the government machinery. He even had said that if they do not join the President’s party ministerial positions will be allocated to the senior LTTE members who have surrendered recently. According to sources these LTTE men have agreed to join the SLFP.

The pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) members too have been put under harrowing intimidation to join the SLFP. According to information three TNA members have given signals to join the government ranks even possibly joining the SLFP. One TNA source said TNA parliamentarian Kishore had come under heavy pressure and he had been offered bounties to join the SLFP. It is expected that these three TNA parliamentarians will join the government with much media razzmatazz.

Whilst the government is heavily involved in the skulduggery against the opposition parties, the neat suited Ministers and ministerial secretaries are portraying a different image of Sri Lanka to the international community. These foreign office men are not privy to some of the serious issues manifested by the extreme politicians and the military intelligence front in the government. The typical example is the saga of deporting senior Canadian parliamentarian Bob Rae. Whilst the Foreign Office sectioned his visit, it did not have the backing of the military intelligence. As a result Bob Rae was booted out from the country.

The neat suited men of the Sri Lanka Foreign Office are on the round the clock trips to the western world to win the hearts and minds of the concerned governments to change the international opinion about Sri Lanka. But unfortunately, the toxic and the rabid mindsets within the government are having their way and heading for a disastrous and self wrecking path of total destruction of good governance in Sri Lanka.

The All Party Representative Committee (APRC) headed by Dr Tissa Vitharana too is being dictated by the military intelligence agenda. Its well known snail space approach is facing another decaying process. It was reported in the Sri Lanka media that ‘the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC), convened to work out a political solution to the ethnic conflict is in the process of drafting the ‘final document’ of its deliberations, section-by-section, having reached ‘consensus on all political issues’ but a specific date cannot be pinpointed as to when the final document could be brought out, APRC chairman and Minister of Science and Technology Prof. Tissa Vitharana told yesterday.’ Until the President’s agenda of solidifying his control over the opposition succeeds, the APRC will linger on in its path of its eventual natural death.

-Sri Lanka Guardian