‘If Mr. Siriwardena does not release money for the election, he should be taken to court. It is contempt of court for not acting in accordance with the court’s decision. There are several people who went to jail in the recent past. S.B. went, and Ranjan went. Remember the third is Siriwardena…’
04.03.2023
This is what the current President, Anura Kumara, said: that Secretary to the Ministry of Finance Mahinda Siriwardena should go to jail for not releasing money for the LG-election scheduled to be held in 2023. Anura Kumara did not just say that.
The current Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath filed a plaint in the Supreme Court on March 21, 2023, requesting immediate legal action against Siriwardane’s decision for not implementing the court’s order and releasing money for the LG election.
Many who voted for Anura thought that Siriwardena, who had avoided paying for the election, would be removed from the finance ministry by Anura and imprisoned for violating a court order.
But Anura did not remove him. When he retired to assume work abroad, a ceremony was held for him, and he was presented with an honorary award for his service to rebuilding the economy.
‘Does that mean that Mahinda Siriwardena was right not releasing money for the election then..?’
It is not known exactly what? But Anura and the JVP government have acquitted Mahinda Siriwardena, released him, and even presented him with an honorary award for placing people, political parties, civil organizations, and religious leaders who fought back then to get the money needed for the LG election clueless.
Ranil used two women to prevent the election from being held. One of them was Prince Sarojini Manmadaraja Charles, or P. Charles. She was a member of the Election Commission. Ranil showed the Northern Province Governorship as bait and used her against the Election Commission Chairman Punchihewa who was working to hold the local government elections.
He planted a news story that she was against holding the local government elections and pressured her to resign from the Election Commission. She resigned. After that, Ranil appointed her as the Northern Governor. This is how Ranil paid tribute to her for her work in preventing the election.
The second woman Ranil used to prevent the election was Gangani Kalpana Liyanage. She was the government printer heading the State Printing Corporation. She became the printer during the Good Governance government when Ranil was the prime minister. She was appointed to the post by the then Minister of Public Administration, Vajira Abeywardena.
When she was appointed as the printer, the local media highlighted that she was the first woman to be appointed as the government printer. It was claimed that a woman’s appointment to the top position in the 214-year history of the Printing Department was a revolution. One media outlet mentioned that she was a courageous woman who broke the shackles of a male-dominated state and rose to the throne.
Finally, she was the one who sabotaged the printing work by sending huge sums of bills to print ballot papers for the 2023 local government elections and sabotaged the election. That courageous daughter, that iron woman who broke the male empire, was finally used to sabotage the election and protect a president who was elected against the will of the people.
To protect a president who was afraid of elections.
Mrs. P. Charles too is like that. She is the first female Director General of Customs in Sri Lanka’s history. She was appointed as the first female Director General of Customs. Her journey from the post of Additional District Secretary of Vavuniya was the subject of heroic stories in the media at that time.
She too resigned from the post of Director General of Customs in 2019 after succumbing to the government’s pressure for resisting the release of 143 containers from Customs. At that time, the opposition made her a hero. Later, they went on strike at Customs and pressured her to be reappointed. The government was forced to reappoint her. This was the heroine that Ranil used in the Election Commission to sabotage the 2023 by-election. She eventually worked for Ranil’s agenda to take over the governorship of the North.
At that time, the JVP went around the country against this Mrs. Charles and Gangani Liyanage, saying that they were a disgrace to the entire female community.
The JVP, which had come to the forefront by saying that we women should unite and put women first, appointed a woman as the Commissioner of the Colombo Municipal Council. That was Sagarika Jayasundara. The JVP also presented a woman as the candidate for the mayor of Colombo. She was Balthasar.
Recently, an election was held for the post of Mayor of the Colombo Municipal Council. 60 members elected to the Colombo Municipal Council had made a written request to go to an open election to elect the mayor. Similar requests had been accepted by the commissioners of other local government institutions elsewhere. But the Colombo Commissioner did not agree with the letter and ordered a secret ballot, thus throwing the democracy of the Colombo Municipal Council, which has been in place since the time of ‘Sudda,’ to the dogs.
‘Why was the JVP afraid of an open election…?’
The Frontline Party says that the JVP was afraid of an open election to prevent the names of thieves and drug dealers in the independent groups that support the JVP from getting exposed. The Frontline Party also says that it is afraid of the names of parties like the UNP and Sarva Jana Balaya that supported the JVP from getting highlighted.
‘According to what I heard, many people from that corrupt and wasteful political culture that you defeated in 2024 are coming forward as independent groups. They are trying to put new labels on old faces. If they haven’t learned their lesson yet, they will have to be taught a lesson in this election…’
– Harini Amarasuriya
Then, with the support of representatives of the independent groups that Harini mentioned, the Commissioner went to a secret ballot to form the Colombo Municipal Council and make Balthazar the Mayor.
‘Just as a snake climbs into a log fighting to escape heavy rain, the SJB, UNP, Pohottuwa, Thondaman, Pillayan, Rishad climb into a log….’
These are the words spoken by the JVP when the opposition came together to establish power in local government institutions where it does not have a majority. Now the JVP has climbed onto a log with SJB, UNP, Pohottuwa, Dilith’s party, Pillayan, Thondaman, and Rishad to establish local government institutions.
Thondaman’s party was given the post of chairman of a local government institution, embarrassing Ambika, who was called the iron lady of the plantations. The reason is that she came to finish off the Thondamans.
‘We women in one fold’
This is the slogan that the JVP women gathered and claimed. Ranil used two women to sabotage the local government elections. The JVP used women to sabotage the appointment of chairpersons of local government institutions.
