Ranwala Brings Disrepute to the Government
Father’s Letter Moves Sajith to Tears
Ranil Fires on All Cylinders to Discredit Sajith
Ravi Stands Firm in Opposing Ranil
Sajith Proves His Honesty by Displaying Copies of Passes
ETCA Resurfaces in Public Debate
Nalinda Leads Government’s Criticism of Sajith’s Qualifications
Advocate and Doctor Titles Drawn into Debate
Shame on Compass govt.
The drama which unfolded with Asoka Ranwala’s doctorate, a dilemma which carved a deep scar on the face of the dignity of the NPP government ended with Ranwala’s resignation from the position of the speaker and Dr Jagath Wickramatatne getting elected as the speaker.
This places Asoka Ranwala in the records as the speaker who held the position for the shortest period in the history of the parliament. However, by last week, the government was under severe pressure due to the authenticity of Ashoka’s doctorate. Especially since the questioning was initially directed at the very people who supported the government, the most serious situation arose within the government circles. Accordingly, the leaders of the ‘compass’ government, who first informed Ashoka to resign from his position, then planned to question the educational qualifications of the Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa as well as other opposition MPs holding certain positions to divert the embarrassment from the government.
In a special note published by the ‘inside politics’ column last week, we expose this. Our column noted that at the SJB MP group meeting, there was a discussion that a no-confidence motion should be brought against the Speaker and that the SJB MPs informed the Opposition Leader that it had become a trap for certain groups that had attacked the Opposition Leader on educational qualifications back then. The column also reported how Sajith was calm and collected and indicated the MPs to allow the attackers to prove their point.
Sajith gets ready
As the SJB preparations were underway on the no-confidence motion against Asoka Ranwala a special statement from Asoka Ranwala issued on Friday informed that he is resigning as the speaker of the parliament. It was a victory for the SJB in a way. Sajith had planned to meet the attack from the government MPs on the no-confidence motion debate of Asoka Ranwala about his education qualifications.
However, since the no-confidence motion had to be dropped with Ashoka’s resignation, many people called Sajith and said that this was the best opportunity to present Sajith’s educational qualifications to answer the government’s mudslinging. Especially since the 2019 presidential election, some have been dragging Sajith’s educational qualifications, saying that Sajith failed the Ordinary Level. They said that Sajith does not have an Advanced Level. They said that he does not have a degree. Recently, a certain famous professor even showed the country a fake certificate claiming that Sajith had nine W’s in the Ordinary Level.
Sajith had initially planned to present his educational qualifications to Parliament in the new parliamentary session of the New Year, as the Parliament will reconvene in January after the two-day session of the 17th-18th. Sajith took steps to go to his home for the past few days and collect all the necessary certificates for that purpose. While Sajith was going through the files kept safe at home, he could see how the certificates he had obtained even at preschool were safe.
Premadasa’s letter
While going through his educational certificate files one by one, Sajith suddenly felt a sense of shock. It was when he came across several handwritten letters among his certificates. Those letters were written by none other than Sajith’s father, former President Ranasinghe Premadasa. As he went through those letters, Sajith could see that all the letters that his father had sent him while he was studying in England in 1981 and the letters that he had written to his father in return were all safely there.
Accordingly, Sajith picked up a certain long letter and read it in one breath. In it, Premadasa had addressed Sajith as ‘son’. From the beginning, while reading the letter, Sajith was seen to be very emotional on several occasions. At the beginning of the letter, Premadasa had mentioned that he was writing the letter from ‘Sucharitha’.
In the letter, which was written to advise Sajith to study well, Premadasa had mentioned that he was very happy as a father about Sajith’s achievements and that in addition to studying; he should also do well in other extracurricular activities, especially in the sports field. Premadasa had mentioned in the letter when he came for vacation before he get back he had organized a visit to Yala sanctuary with his mother and sister. In addition, Premadasa had mentioned in the letter that he had already arranged with a music teacher to teach music when he came on vacation.
Sajith get emotional
In addition, Premadasa had also mentioned the misspellings in a letter sent by Sajith. Premadasa had mentioned that the word ‘swimming’ in the letter sent by Sajith in English was misspelt, and the word ‘holiday’ in the letter written in Sinhala was misspelt. Premadasa, who had advised him to learn to write and read fluently in English as well as his mother tongue, Sinhala, had mentioned in it how he was saddened by Sajith’s being in a distant country and that he had sent him abroad to provide him with a good education.
While reading his father’s letter in one breath, Sajith’s eyes began to fill with tears. Since Sajith’s wife Jalani was also there at that time, she was also very surprised and disturbed when she saw this change in Sajith. Accordingly, Jalani immediately took steps to calm Sajith down, put aside all the letters and focused his attention on the task of searching for Sajith’s educational certificates.
Ranil gets back to work
However, Ranil Wickremesinghe was active behind the scenes trying to hide behind the dirty waters using Ranwala’s incident. Ranil had been all out to destroy Sajith ever since, whenever he got any opportunity; he would attack Sajith with it. Accordingly, when the issue of educational qualifications arose, Ranil did was to talk to his loyal MPs within the SJB, Kabir Hashim and Kavinda Jayawardena, and informed them to submit a proposal to Parliament from the SJB fraction to appoint a select committee to examine the educational qualifications of the MPs. Although Ranil made it appear as a proposal to bring the government into difficulty, his ulterior motive was to bring Sajith before the select committee and smear him and tarnish Sajith. But neither Kabir nor Kavinda came forward to take Ranil’s proposal forward.
Expert in action
Failure of this attempt he had approached his ‘expert’ in SJB. Since we do not have much on this matter we would not comment any further on this at the moment in this column. However, it is noted the expert is waiting eagerly to see Sajith’s fall. Inside Politics column learns that Ranil has mention this person by name in few occasions claiming that he too in agreement with this proposal of select committee. Neverthiless this expert of Ranil had stated that he cannot present this proposal but he would if such a proposal is presented.
Failing the two attempts finally Ranil baited Ravi Karunaratne for this task. Ravi is considered a person who has personal grudges against Sajith. Ranil still believes that Ravi still holds political resentments against Sajith. Ranil’s messenger who brought the message to Ravi from Ranil’s flower road office conveyed that that he should submit a proposal to form a selection committee to investigate the educational qualifications of the MPs from the cylinder and take action to take credit for it. The person who brought the message also informed Ravi that if such a proposal was submitted, there would be several MPs who would support it from the SJB.
Ravi’s reply
Ravi was clever enough to gage Ranil’s Sinister plans. He realises Ranil plans to ditch him further down with Sajith and create more conflicts between them. Ravi promptly conveyed to Ranil’s messenger that he is no longer ready to fulfil such dirty contracts.
‘I will no longer accept to do any of your dirty contracts. I am very tired of doing that. Therefore, you go and tell me that I will carry out the work on the cylinder. Also, do not send me such dirty contracts in the future…’ Ravi had informed the person who brought the message.
Ranil, was very angry not being able to find anyone to damage Sajith inside Parliament, took steps to play the next game with the intention of finishing Sajith off somehow. Accordingly, Ranil made a complaint to the Election Commission through his close confidant, Ashu Marasinghe. Accordingly, Ashu Marasinghe went to the Election Commission under the Right to Information Act and submitted a proposal to reveal the educational qualifications of all 225 MPs.
Nalinda’s Challenge
Sajith knew all these sinister plans were initiated with Ranil’s backing. It was clear to Sajith that Ranil’s effort was behind all this.
Accordingly, Sajith decided to present his educational qualifications to Parliament without delay instead of presenting his qualifications to Parliament in January. Sajith went to Parliament last Tuesday with all the certificates from pre-school to doctorate. Most significantly there was the emergence of a major political debate in Parliament between the ruling party and the opposition based on Ranwala’s doctorate.
Speaking on the debate Nalinda Jayatissa, said that there is a serious problem in society regarding Sajith’s educational qualifications and that some people are saying that Sajith does not even have an O-level certificate, and therefore Sajith should also present his educational qualifications to Parliament. Nalinda did this as a kind of challenge to Sajith.
Sajith was also in his seat when Nalinda made this challenge. Accordingly, Sajith, who immediately stood up, surprising everyone, said that for a long time some people have been questioning his educational qualifications and that he had not taken it into account much until now, but since the government is now also challenging him in this regard, he will present all his educational qualifications to Parliament the very next day. Not only Nalinda, but also some in the SJB members were very surprised by this statement of Sajith as even they were not properly informed about Sajith’s educational qualifications. But since Sajith had already prepared all the necessary certificates, there was no trace of fear on Sajith’s face.
Hint from Anura
Accordingly, Sajith arrived in Parliament on Wednesday with a large file in his hand. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake returned to Sri Lanka on Tuesday night after completing his visit to India, and the President also arrived in Parliament on Wednesday morning with the hope of making a special statement. In his statement, the President aimed to present the government’s new program to the country, such as reducing income tax, allowing the import of vehicles, and eliminating several types of taxes, thereby gaining a large political following.
In the meantime, Sajith met the Speaker and the Secretary General of Parliament and requested that he be given time to make a special statement. Time was allocated Sajith to present his speech after the President made the special statement.
Sajith got the opportunity to comment first on the President’s speech as the proceedings of the House commenced. Accordingly, Sajith, who began his speech with a light smile, took steps to present all the certificates from his preschool certificate to his degree certificate in England to Parliament one by one, answering the allegations levelled against him. Continuing this speech Sajith mentioned the certificate obtained from the Open University, the President, who was in the front seat, showed Sajith Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya.
Understanding the President’s gesture correctly, Sajith revealed another special secret that no one had known until then to the House. That is, when he was studying for his Masters degree at the Open University, the Prime Minister was a lecturer at that time, and that he had attended several of her lectures. Since this was a secret that no one knew, the SJB MPs behind Sajith also applauded and said, ‘We didn’t even know that.’ Then Sajith also laughed and said that they were ‘state secrets’.
Everyone silent
However, when Sajith presented his educational certificates, it was seen that neither Nalinda Jayatissa, who challenged Sajith, nor MPs of the Malaima listened to it attentively without any interruption. Also, before ending his speech, Sajith made another wonderful statement. He showed his birth certificate to the House and said that if anyone had any doubts, they could investigate it. To this, all the SJB MPs laughed and applauded.
However, in politics at that time, slander and character assassination were not new to Premadasa. As everyone knows, Sajith and Sajith’s father, Ranasinghe Premadasa, were also subjected to similar slander and defamation in politics. Some people said that Premadasa was an ignorant fool. Some said he was the boy who sold lavariya. Some said he was the boy who lived in a shed in Sucharitha. Some said Premadasa went to night classes. Later, when Premadasa wrote lyrics, some also criticized him and said that they were not Premadasa’s but Arisen Ahubudu’s lyrics.
Since there was no social media at that time, only two or three alternative newspapers carried this slander among the people. Today, as then, the ‘Walav’ class was behind the attack on Premadasa. Only one person remains today representing that Walav class, that is Ranil Wickremesinghe. Therefore, just as Premadasa was criticized then, today Sajith is also being attacked by that Walav class. But the sad thing is that, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, such attacks are being targeted at Sajith by a government of petty people and a government with a president who came from a humble background.
The mudslinging continues
However, even after Sajith submitted his educational qualifications, the government’s attacks on Sajith did not seem to have ended. On Wednesday evening, Leader of the House Bimal Ratnayake informed Parliament that although Sajith had stated that he would table his educational certificates, Sajith had not done so until Wednesday afternoon. Also, Nalinda Jayatissa, who attended the cabinet press conference on Thursday, said that Sajith had not yet submitted his educational certificates to Parliament.
However, there was a special reason for that. That was several instructions that Sajith had received from various parties. Many people had informed Sajith that if he tabled his educational certificates in Parliament in any way, anyone could distort those educational certificates and launch a smear campaign targeting Sajith. Accordingly, Sajith personally went to the Hansard office of Parliament on Thursday and submitted all his educational certificates to the Hansard office. Sajith also took steps to confirm in writing that he had received them. With this, the smear campaign carried out by the government, which said that Sajith had not submitted his educational certificates, also came to an end.
The Advocate Issue
Last week, with the Malima government facing a serious crisis over Ranwala’s doctorate, the government took steps to target not only Sajith but also several other MPs in the SJB. Accordingly, a strong attack was launched by the government MPs on Ajith P. Perera and Chamindrani Kiriella, alleging that they used the Advocate title, and Doctor Title by Kavinda Jayawardena. In addition, a massive attack was also launched by the government on Namal the manner he sat for the law exam.
Kavinda was not in the House when Nalinda launched this attack. However, Kavinda, who immediately came to the House after learning about the incident, stated that he had passed the relevant exam in India and that he had not declared that he had studied for a medical degree in Sri Lanka anywhere. Kavinda also presented the relevant identity cards to the House.
Ajith P. Perera was not in the House when the attack was made by compass. Accordingly, Ajith replied the next day. When Ajith was arguing with the Minister of Justice Harshana Nanayakkara, who was even showing the articles in the law book and claiming that there was no problem in using the title of Advocate, he got into an argument with him. At that time, Ajith said that Harshana Nanayakkara had also used the title of Advocate on his Facebook page at one time.
Kavinda, Ajith, and Chamindrani Kirialla were not in the House when this attack on the government was carried out. Immediately after learning about the incident, Chamindrani published all her degree certificates on her Facebook page and stated that she had passed the barrister’s degree in London and that a barrister is an advocate. She also pointed out that she had practiced law in London and that she could still do that even today, and therefore she had no problem using the title of Advocate.
Sajith-Anura meeting
However, despite the Malima government launching a serious attack targeting Sajith and questioning his educational qualifications, a meeting that no one knew about took place between the President and the Opposition Leader Sajith on Wednesday. But it was not a private meeting. Sajith, along with the Chief Organizer of the Opposition, Gayantha and several other MPs, went to meet the President to discuss with the President the decision taken by the government to reduce the number of parliamentary committees.
The aim was also to discuss increasing the membership of the opposition in the committees and giving the chairmanship positions to the opposition. Accordingly, the discussion with the President was very cordial, and it was also seen that the President responded positively to many of Sajith’s proposals. The President had informed the group including Sajith that certain proposals could be discussed with the heads of the government and answers could be given.
Anura in India
There is currently some discussion in the society regarding President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s first foreign visit to India. This is because certain parties in the opposition are already questioning the visit. In particular, after some time, former MPs such as Udaya Gammanpila and Wimal Weerawansa expressed their views on Anura’s trip to India and said that Anura had agreed to several projects that were detrimental to the country, including the ETCA agreement, during this visit. But that is not the reality.
The problem in this regard arose based on the comments made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech. During Modi’s speech, some information was revealed regarding the ETCA agreement, oil transportation between the two countries through pipelines, electricity supply from India, etc. However, these are still at the negotiation stage and no final agreements have been reached.
ETCA surface in social media
But some people in this country, taking advantage of Modi’s speech, had launched a social media campaign claiming that the government was ready to sign the ETCA agreement while Anura was in India. In addition, videos containing statements made by JVP leaders including Anura against the ETCA agreement in the past began circulating on social media. However, the information we have indicates that no final agreement was reached on any other issue during this visit, except for handing over the construction of the Sampur Solar Power Plant to India.
However, at the beginning of the visit to India, the President received a very high welcome from Modi. After a salute, a tri-service salute including a cavalry contingent, Modi led the President away with an arm around his shoulder. This indicated that there was a strong relationship between Modi and the President. However, the government had some doubts as to whether China, India’s arch-enemy, would be worried about this high-profile response from India. This is because the President is planning to visit China next January after he visited India, and Sri Lanka is expected to receive a large number of beneficial investments and projects from China. Accordingly, there were two special events last week on the government side centred on China.
China Pacified
One of these was when Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe, who attended a function held at the Chinese Embassy, made a statement that the President was preparing to visit China after he visited India. The second incident was when the government responded in Parliament to the statements made by the opposition regarding the agreements it had signed with India.
This was initiated by Lakmali Hemachandra, a lawyer from Malima. During her speech that day, MP Najith Indika, who is the head of the Presidential Media Division, was sitting next to her. At that time, Najith was seen giving Lakmali some letters and instructing her to mention them in her speech. Accordingly, Lakmali said that nothing that the opposition was saying had happened in India. Accordingly, many people suspected that the government had made this statement in Parliament to pacify China.
Ranil is back
Meanwhile, former President Ranil also issued a special statement regarding the ETCA agreement. It was clear Ranil made a statement about an ETCA agreement that he did not sign for anything else but to incite the country against the government. Also, President Ranil went to India for a private visit before the president made his visit to show the country that he had received an invitation from India before the President. However, it was later reported that Ranil had not received any support for that visit from the Indian government or the Indian High Commission.
Accordingly, Ranil is now preparing to leave for India again after the President’s return to Sri Lanka. Ranil is doing this to show the country that the Indian government invited him before and after the President’s visit to India, Or to show that ‘Ranil is the fighter’. But this time too, Ranil’s visit to India has not received any support from the Indian government. Ranil is going to India this time to attend a lecture at the memorial service of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian prime minister’s teacher.
Nandalal’s speech
When the ETCA agreement was once again a topic of discussion in society, the Governor of the Central Bank, Dr Nandalal Weerasinghe, had taken steps last week to call newspaper editors to the Central Bank premises for a discussion for the first time. During this discussion, which was held in a very cordial manner, one of the editors also questioned the Governor of the Central Bank about this ETCA conversation that had arisen. Responding to this, the Governor of the Central Bank first said that this issue did not concern him. The Governor of the Central Bank also said that the decision regarding the ETCA agreement was something that should be taken by the government and the Ministry of Industry. However, the Governor of the Central Bank also expressed his personal opinion regarding ETCA to the editors.
ETCA is beneficial
‘In my opinion, this trade agreement is a very good thing. Today, India is the country with the fastest-growing economy in the world. Countries like ours that are close to India should join a country with such a market. If that doesn’t happen, it will be a big loss. My opinion is that this trade agreement should be signed. If there are any issues in the draft, they should be discussed and amended before entering into those agreements, because all countries in the world are looking to agree with a big market like India.
I do not accept that Sri Lanka will become a colony of India just because we have concluded that trade agreement….’ When the Central Bank Governor fearlessly expressed his views on the ETCA agreement, one thing that raised doubts among many was whether Anura’s Malima government had decided to sign the ETCA agreement despite the JVP leaders taking to the streets and shouting against it.
A lot of chaos
Last week, we reported on how Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya was an hour late for the donation of school uniforms provided by China through this column. We also pointed out that the Chinese ambassador had arrived at the ceremony, left and returned. In addition, we reported that the Chinese embassy had made great efforts to bring the president or the prime minister to the ceremony.
In addition, last weekend, English newspapers took steps to report on two similar problems that had arisen with the leaders of the Malima government. One of them was that Minister Sunil Handunnetti did not attend a ceremony held at a Colombo hotel to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with Iraq. As the Sunday Times had reported, Handunnetti had been in charge of attending such ceremonies this month. But Handunnetti did not attend the ceremony, but no one else was present to represent the government. Many people had described it as a major diplomatic blunder on the part of the government. However, the opposition leader Sajith Premadasa was seen attending the ceremony.
Lapsses from Ministers
The second incident was reported by the ‘Morning’ newspaper. There, they said that a serious problem had arisen last week over a fertilizer ship donated by the Russian government. Although Russia initially thought that the President would attend the ceremony to hand over the fertilizer ship, later Minister Lalkantha attended it on behalf of the government. The newspaper had reported that Russia was angry because of this and that there was great hesitation about whether the Russian ambassador would attend the ceremony.
However, the most serious problem was that the Ministry of Health had reported that the fertilizer ship in question had been received under the World Food Program. It was reported that Russia had taken steps to officially protest the incident. Although an apology was made, the newspaper also reported that the Russian ambassador who attended the event expressed concern about the incident.
win for the SJB
In Sri Lanka, it is generally customary for the party that wins the presidential election to also secure victories in subsequent elections. This tradition was upheld once again when the Compass party achieved an overwhelming two-thirds majority in the general election following their presidential win—an outcome even the government had not anticipated.
However, a surprising turn occurred during the Cooperative election held last week in Moratuwa. While the Compass party dominated in all other cooperative divisions, they were unexpectedly defeated by the SJB in the Moratuwa Cooperative Division, with a close margin of 51 to 49. This unexpected result led many to highlight the significance of the SJB’s political victory, achieved despite the Compass party’s earlier landslide success.
