The reason for Talatha’s behaviour could be the top ten charges against her. The Rajapaksa family played the game of killing Sajith by joining Ranil.
by Upul Joseph Fernando
Mr. Wickramasinghe, answer the accusations against you. Sixty thousand deaths, deaths in Bataland, children buried at Suriyakande in Embilipitiya, death of Gamini Athukorala, death of Gamini Dissanayake, death of Lalith Athulathmudali. Ranil Wickramasinghe cannot be freed from those charges…’ ~ Pavithra Devi Vanniarachchi
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| Throwback to the late Gamini Athukorala and Ranil Wickremesinghe at an agricultural event, reflecting their roles as Ministers under President Premadasa. [File Photo] |
Pavithra, not just accusing Ranil of being suspicious of Gamini Athukorala’s death. Gamini’s sister Talatha Athukorala said that she was suspicious about the death of Gamini Athukorala 17 years ago and requested the then President Mahinda to appoint a presidential commission to investigate the death.
‘When I requested, they said that they would give a presidential commission on the death of Gamini Athukorala. Please do as told…’ [ Thalatha Athukorala/ 18.11.2007/ In Parliament]
Then the minister of Mahinda’s government at that time, Jagath Pushpakumara, said that Gamini died under a UNP government and that Talatha’s request would be brought to the attention of President Mahinda Rajapaksa immediately.
Talatha made this allegation at a time when the party rebelled against Ranil’s leadership along with the Johnston. Gamini Athukorala died under Ranil’s government. It was a natural death. Talatha knows that better than anyone else. Knowingly showing the death as a murder, Thalata wanted Mahinda to set up a presidential commission and slander Ranil.
In the 2001 general election, the UNP deputy leader, Gamini Athukoralaya, was the one who toiled to form a government. After the defeat in the 2000 general elections, together with the deputy leader of the party, Karu Jayasuriya, he revolted to remove Ranil from the leadership, at a time when the U.N.P. was defeated in the 1999 and 2000 general elections.
When Ranil went on a trip to Norway despite the fall of the party, Gamini, Karu and Rajitha joined forces and rebelled against Ranil. Ranil got scared and started negotiations with SB, GL, and Mahinda Wijesekera who was ready to leave Chandrika’s government to topple Chandrika’s government under the influence of Gamini Athukorala. Gamini pushed Ranil to overthrow the government in 2001. This is why Gamini’s campaign theme in the 2001 general election was ‘Our Elephant King’. At this time, Gamini’s sister Talatha was not in national or local politics.
She did door-to-door work in Gamini’s election campaign. Gamini did not show at least one poster of his campaign to Thalatha for approval. She did the work of serving tea for Gamini’s supporters. After winning the general election in 2001, Gamini did not get the ministerial position he expected. Ranil also cut the MPs who rebelled against Ranil and were with him. Gamini was shocked. Gamini later died of a heart attack. After Gamini’s death, Ranil wanted to bring Gamini’s son into politics. But Talatha requested Ranil to give her the seat vacated by Gamini. At Talatha’s request, Ranil gave her the seat.
Talatha was elected to Parliament in the 2004 general election. But she was not on good terms with Ranil. In 2007, she rebelled against Ranil along with the then UNP MP Johnston. The Johnstons and SBs left the UNP because of her rebellion. After the 2010 general election defeat, she again rebelled against Ranil, passing Sajith and Karu Jayasuriya. After the failure of that rebellion, she got into good books with Ranil through Mangala. Because of this, Ranil gave her a ministerial position in the government formed by Maithri in 2015. That is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
December 07, 2016, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Shehan Semasinghe, and Tharaka Balasuriya Maithri-Ranil went to the Bribery Commission against 10 ministers who were the top ten thieves of the government. Talatha was one of the top ten ministers. The following is a part of the press conference held by Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Tharaka Balasuriya, and Shehan Semasinghe at the Bribery Commission against the corruption of Talatha’s ministry.
On August 21, 2015, the Chairman of the Foreign Employment Bureau sent a letter to all agencies asking each worker to contribute $100 for insurance. For this one particular insurance company was used. Supreme Court ruled this cannot be assigned to one insurance company. Ignoring that decision, the minister assigned this insurance to this Gulf Insurance Company without following any tender procedure. The minister has received around 1,500 million as commission from this corrupt transaction…’ [Niroshan Premaratne/ 07.12.2016/ Hiru TV Service]
After this top ten accusation, Ranil removed her from the Ministry of Foreign Employment in 2018 and was given the Ministry of Justice. Enraged by this, Talatha joins forces with Maithri and revolts against Ranil. In 2019 Sajith became the candidate as a result of this rebellion. After the defeat of the 2019 presidential election, she started a rebellion in the party saying that Ranil should leave the leadership and Sajith should lead the party. She is the one who bothered Sajith the most to leave the party and start a new party when Ranil is in a tight spot that he will not leave the party leadership. The reason for that is the hatred of Ranil and the fear that she will be unable to go to parliament in the general election. As a result, Samagi Jana Balavegaya was born. Ratnapura district’s result of the 2020 general election is shown below.
1. Hesha Withanage 60,428
2. Varuna Liyanage 47,494
3. Talatha Athukorala 45,105
Talatha was very scared by this result. The reason is that she came in third place and few young people were ahead of her. Knowing that she cannot become an MP in the next election, she starts following Ranil to get a National List MP position from Ranil saying that Ranil-Sajith should join forces. She bothered Sajith the most that he should leave the UNP and form a new party, but Sajith did not stop her when she bothered to join Ranil again. From then on, she formed an enmity with Sajith and started attacking Sajith while praising Ranil and paralyzing the party activities in Ratnapura.
The reason for Talatha’s behaviour could be the top ten charges against her. The Rajapaksa family played the game of killing Sajith by joining Ranil. It could be she approached Ranil to fulfil the wishes of the Rajapaksa family, fearing that the Rajapase family would seek the top ten and out of fear got closer to Ranil if he became president and would go behind the top ten.
Today she is with Aluthgama who accused her of top 10 corrupt ministers—Minister of State for Finance Shehan Ranil who accused her of top ten corruption. Tharaka, Ranil’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs blamed her for the top ten.
Gamini Athukorala is a great character. A character who has never been accused of corruption. A character who spent his money on politics. There is no doubt that the hatred of Talatha, who sold his name and entered politics, echoes in Ratnapura like the lamentation of the elephant king.
Source: Mawurata News
Upul Joseph Fernando is a senior journalist and political analyst based in Colombo. He is a contributing editor of Mawrata News, a Sinhala-language daily online newspaper
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