Can Harsha be able to cope with finance committee?
How many more quarters government will provide to Gota?
Will Pohottuwa go with UNP for the election?
The meeting of the members of the ruling party was held last Monday under the chairmanship of the President at the Presidential Secretariat. Due to a meeting with the President that is to be held after some time, it was seen that a group of ministers from Pohottuwe were present than usual. Accordingly, after talking about the work of the parliamentary week, the meeting of the members’ group first became heated when the members started accusing the officials of the Ministry of Education. However, it has become an open secret among the Ministers that there has been some disagreement between the Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha and the Ministry Secretary for some time.
The officials of the Ministry of Education do not care about the people of the government. They do not do anything we say. Even child’s school admission or teachers transfer they don’t do what we say. But the opposition MPs go and talk to them and admit children to school and transfer teachers. They do nothing and ignore us. While the ministers continued to accuse, the President and Mr. Susil Premajayantha saw listening to them silently. But both got involved in the issue when a serious accusation levelled by another MP.
Two goats as a bribe
what I say is a true story, I sent someone to attend a child’s matter, the official has requested two goats as a bribe to attend to his work..’ when the MP stated this President could not stop his laugh, but Minister Susil involved immediately and said immediate inquiry would be held on this matter.
The minister asked the MP who made the complaint, “If such an incident occurred, it is a serious breach, can you bring the people’s concern for an inquiry?” The MP said yes, and Susil agreed to hold an investigation through a ministry official.
The gathering got heated as MPs levelled criticism against the Minister Keheliya Rabukwella on the exorbitant high prices on medicine. In the process kurunegala district MP Sumith Udukubura informed the minister about malfunctioning of the CT scan machine in the kurunegala hospital.
‘Minister the CT scan machine in Kurunagala hospital is not in functioning condition for the past three months. Due to this fact people of our villages face severe hard ship was MP sumitha’s accusation.
Diana was blamed
Following that, it was discovered that President found fault with state minister Diana Gamage for the issue she raised. Diana Gamage stated that she had negotiated with some Taiwanese investors who would bring investment to the country, but that the authorities were delaying the issuance of visas to them.
When she said this, the President responded, ‘no, there is some issue there, let us not devote much attention to that’. President appeared to ignore this matter, but when Diana attempted to speak about it, President appeared to be offended.
‘ now I told you there is an issue on that . China does not like it much when Taiwanese investors come here, because China and Taiwan involved in a tussle these days besides China has not recognised Taiwan as an country yet. You try to stir an international issue by bringing Taiwan investors here? President retorted and this made Diana silent.
However towards the end of the discussion President has briefed the participants how the Samagi Janabalawegaya should be attacked in the parliament.
Tips to attack SJB in the parliament
. ‘at the onset of this economic debacle Sajith and the opposition said to go to the IMF and resolve the issue. Now we have done that and reap successful results. Despite this SJB in the parliament debate abstained from voting. During the parliament session you all refer to this and attack the opposition was president request from Pohottuwa members.
Harsha get the chair!
The issue of the parliamentary finance committee Chair, which had been dragging on for months, was resolved on Wednesday when the President bestowed the Chairmanship on Harsha de Silva. Despite this, the ‘inside Politics’ column has previously exposed the issue that has arisen on this Chairman ship.
We revealed how the government refused to give it to Harsha and bestow it on Mayantha, and many incidents that unfolded behind the scene we exposed at length in our column.
At the last instant just before the President was to leave to Japan he summoned Kabir Hashim and Harsha de Silva and said this position would be given to Harsha de Silva. We reported despite this assurance from the president Prime minister and Chief whip of the government Prasanna Ranatunga sabotage this.
This action raised suspicion in the opposition ranks about the sincerely of president. A fortnight ago we reported in the ‘inside politics’ column in this manner.
‘In the past, a serious problem for the Samagi Jana Balawega was that Dr. Harsha de Silva did not have the position of Chairman of the Finance Committee. Although SJB brought this to the attention of the government on many occasions, the government tried to avoid the issue by telling different stories. Although Mr. Harsha de Silva also discussed this matter with the President on several occasions, it was not possible to reach a final decision. The leader of the opposition and the opposition had strongly pointed out that the government is running the country by violating the rules in an undemocratic manner and departing from the principles of good governance. As the embassies were also informed about this, it was seen that this was a serious problem for the government.
A meeting before Ranil left
Due to the fact that the President’s visit to Japan was in the meantime, there was a need for the President to resolve this issue temporarily before leaving for Japan. Accordingly, the President played a little political game before leaving for Japan. Accordingly, the President informed Kabir Hashim and Harsha de Silva to meet him to discuss this matter. With this notification, Kabir immediately met Sajith and took steps to inquire that such a request had been received and what should be done about it. Sajith said that if the issue of the Chairmanship of the Finance Committee can be resolved through this meeting, then it is not a problem.
Dinesh – Prasanna change
According to the notice, when Kabir and Harsha went to meet the President, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and the chief organizer of the ruling party Mr. Prasanna Ranatunga were also present. In the discussion that started accordingly, the President discussed this problem and informed the government to solve the problem in the selection committee. Through that, the President had arranged to give a green light to Harsha’s appointment.
Accordingly, Kabir and Harsha immediately informed Sajith that they were able to solve the problem. Accordingly, Kabirut Harshat attended the selection committee meeting with the aim of resolving the issue which had been dragging on for many months. But Kabir and Harsha faced an unexpected problem. That is because Prasannath and Dineshut objected to Harsha’s nomination saying that despite the agreement reached during the discussion with the President, the President is an individual from another party and the government is run by the pothead.
He is from another party
When the opposition leader questioned Prasanna in parliament, he stated once more that the president belongs to another party and that the government is led by Pohottuwa. Prasanna used this tactic to bring Harsha and Kabir to their knees in Parliament. As a result, what actually happened there was that Kabir and Harsha were sent ‘pillar to post’ because the President had the opportunity to demonstrate that he was implementing good governance policies during his visit to Japan? As a result, the President announced to the world that he had agreed to give Harsha the chairmanship of the finance committee, but the Pohottu government refused.
SJB members angered
In this regard, there was a lot of discussion within the SJB MP group last week. After this incident took place last Thursday, many members of SJB met in the opposition lobby and took steps to protest against this incident.
Ranil’s rope!
‘This is nonsense. This time too Ranil gave a good rope to Kabir and Harsha. In the end, party was disgraced. There are so many problems in the country. We also hug a position in the Finance Committee and shout in Parliament every day. The people of the country have no food. The people of the country have no election. Whole country is stuck because of IMF and its conditions. If there is a problem in the finance committee, we will solve it in another way. We should write to the International Parliament and the Parliamentary Committee of the Commonwealth and resolve those issues. Otherwise, these MPs who said that talking about this in Parliament has no use for us, and the people of the country have no use, are now ready to launch a massive fight against this in the upcoming MP group meeting.’
The turnaround
However by last week it was noticed nothing could prevent opposition member Harsha getting this position. The opposition believe this is because of the severe charges levied against the government on their failure on ‘good governance’ ‘corruption’ ‘elimination of wastage’.
The reason for this was the discussions held between the representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the American Treasury officials who came to the island last week and the representatives of the opposition. Earlier, in these discussions, the opposition representatives including Sajith requested to help the country, but in these discussions, the opposition side presented a request that went a little beyond that. That is because the opposition representatives including Sajith have strongly emphasized that the government is currently breaking the rules of good governance and moving on an anti-democratic path and to intervene to prevent it.
Powerful opposition delegation
Previously, only SJB representatives participated with Sajith in such meetings, but this time, Sajith had invited the heads of other parties representing the opposition for the discussions .The opposition, members such as Professor G.L. Peiris and Dr. Nalaka Godaheva were included the team.
There, these officials were inform about how the government has postponed the local government election without a date, how the chairmanship of the parliamentary finance committee was not given to the opposition, and how the government members were appointed to the acting chairmanship of finance committee in order to pass bills that are harmful to the country, and about fraud, corruption and irregularities in the government.
Accordingly, the opposition is of the opinion that these issues may have been primarily discussed during the discussions between these officials and the President. However, the end result of this was that the President suddenly decided that Harsha should be given the position of Chairman of the Finance Committee.
Sudden Decision by President
However, we also received information about the discussion held on Tuesday in this regard. Accordingly, at that very moment, we took steps to report this news as extraordinary news on our website, which is mawbima news. lk. There we said that the President has decided to give the position of Chairman of the Finance Committee to Harsha de Silva, and that he has planned to come to the Parliament on Wednesday and convene a special discussion of the Finance Committee and announce the related decision.
Accordingly, a message received by all the 18 ministers representing the Parliament’s Finance Committee on Tuesday said that the President had called a special Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, and that they must attend it. A few moments later, Mrs. Kushani Rohanadhira, Secretary General of the Parliament, officially informed the representatives of the Finance Committee about this message.
A historical occasion
Accordingly, this meeting started on Wednesday morning in the parliamentary committee hall number one with the chairmanship of the president. At the same time, it became not just a meeting but a historic meeting because it became the first time in history that a President came to the Parliament and chaired the Finance Committee.
Ranil started the meeting and informed that the Chairman of the Finance Committee is scheduled to be appointed today and that the name of Mr. Harsha de Silva from the opposition will be proposed for that purpose. The President also mentioned that the work of the Finance Committee should be done in unison with everyone.
Madura Withana cautions Harsha
MP from Madura Withana spoke after that. Madhura said that after assuming the post, Harsha should not work on a single opinion but work collectively, and should not act as the finance committee chairman by posting tweets. Madhura also said that he should not work with the business community for their agendas.
Harsha Explains
After that, Harsha spoke. Harsha, who thanked everyone for re-appointing him to this position, also explained to everyone about the value of the Parliament’s Finance Committee.
However, some of the most interesting events took place after the Finance Committee meeting was over. The first of these was when ministers from Pohottuwa such as Johnston, Madhura and Shehan Semasinghe surrounded Harsha and congratulated him by telling various stories like a ‘joke’. Harsha has a smile on his face now. Harsha didn’t have any on his face lately…’ said Johnny, Semasinghe said with a smile, Harsha said, ‘Is this crazy… I don’t have such things…’. The President, who was watching all this with a smile, finally said, ‘If Harsha wants to continue working on this, he will have to cooperate with these people…’.
Harsha summons the first meeting
Accordingly, Harsha took steps to convene the Parliament’s Finance Committee the very next day, at the Parliament’s Committee Hall No.1. The most special event to be seen here was that in the middle of the meeting, Mr. Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the opposition, entered the room where the finance committee meeting was held. Accordingly, some thought that the opposition leader had come to this meeting just like the President had come to the first Finance Committee meeting. Realizing this, Sajith immediately went to Harsha and congratulated him, smiling for everyone to hear, ‘No, don’t be afraid. I did not come to sit in this meeting. I have come to wish the chairman Harsha…’ and proceeded to leave the committee hall.
Heated debates in the parliament
It seems that the discussions in the Parliament these days have taken on a very interesting and passionate nature because the MPs of both the government and the opposition are always actively engaged in debates. The other day, such a fierce conflict arose between the TNA Member of Parliament Mr. Rasamanikkam and the Foreign Minister Mr. Ali Sabri, based on a matter of quarters.
There, Rasamanikkam alleged that the official residence of the Foreign Minister has been given to former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Rasamanikkam had revealed that the house on Bauddaloka Mawatha that had been given to him earlier was too noisy due to its location on the side of the highway, and for that reason, Gota had been given this super official residence of the Foreign Minister at Stanmore Crescent. Ali Sabri replied the next day and said that he has no authority to provide quarters to Gota.
Gota’s quarters
We have taken measures to report this in ‘ inside politics ‘ column on many occasions about this issue of Gota’s quarters. There we said that the government had provided Gota, who returned to Sri Lanka, with a spacious official residence at Bauddaloka Mawata, and that Gota had requested the government to provide him with another official residence due to the noise due to vehicles movement in the road. Accordingly, the government had arranged to give Gota the official residence on Bullers Road, where former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa lived until the official residence on Wijerama Mawatha was repaired. However, later the government took steps to give the official residence of the foreign minister to Gota. Accordingly, not only Rasamanikkam but also the media had reported that it had been given to Gota by last week.
Quarters to Nimal Lansa ?
But now the problem is not that but to whom has been given the official residence where Gota has lived so far. A rumour circulating around in the political field these days says that the house in question has been given to MP Nimal Lansa, who is now a close friend of the President. The news is that the keys have been handed over to Lansa and then Lanza has given the keys to Minister Prasanna Ranatunga. During the past period, Lansa carried out political work in an official room in the Presidential Secretariat. It is also said that these days Lansa is ready to strengthen the hands of the President by creating a separate political front together with a group of MPs from Pohottuwa. Accordingly, there is a strong doubt among many people whether this official residence was given to Lansa in order to succeed in this political operation.
Elections!
When the opposition demanded the local government elections in the past, the ploy that the president and the government put forward to scare the opposition was the presidential election. The government thought that as soon as the presidential election was announced, the opposition led by SJB would get scared and call off the vote-seeking operation. But what happened there was different from what the government thought.
Along with this proposal of the government, Sajith said that if the government wants to hold a presidential election, the opposition is ready for it, and the party is ready to give the two-thirds majority to the government to bring about the necessary constitutional amendment. The government shut up with this answer from the opposition and did not speak a word about the presidential election after that.
Government’s Fear of Elections
The government is afraid of holding elections in this way, not because of anything else, but because they know that if an election is held according to the current situation, the government will get a very negative result. This was also seen coming out of the mouth of former minister Mr. Rohitha Abeygunawardena who spoke in Parliament last week.
There, Rohitha said that Sajith and the opposition carried out a big campaign not to hold the elections during the last Corona period because they knew that the opposition would be at a disadvantage if the elections were held at that time. Rohitha also said that the opposition is now asking for the vote due to the favourable situation being created in the country. Accordingly, it was confirmed through Rohitha’s speech that the government is clearly aware that an advantageous situation has been created for the opposition within the country.
Pohottuwa for elections
However, when the government was talking about an emergency presidential election, there were discussions among the Rajapaksas in Pohottuwa. It has been discussed between the Rajapaksas that if a presidential election is held at this time, it will be disadvantageous for Pohottuwa, and if any other election is held, some favourable situation can be created for Pohottuwa. Rumor has it that the party should be prepared in case of an emergency general election.
In this discussion, a group including Namal has pointed out that if it continues in this way, the accusation of not holding the elections cannot be avoided. Namal and the group were of the opinion that Pohottuwa and the Rajapaksas were not afraid of elections in the country since the past. It is believed by many that this is the reason why Rohitha said in his recent speech in Parliament that they cannot go further without holding a vote.
Pohottuwa Presidential candidate
In addition to this, it is reported that in some discussions held at Mahinda’s and Basil’s house regarding the presidential election, opinions have been expressed in an unofficial manner regarding the party’s presidential candidate. Some groups in Pohottuwa have already declared that President Ranil Wickremesinghe should be the candidate for Pohottuwa, but in the discussion held at Mahinda’s house, it was read that if Ranil is presented, a disadvantageous situation will arise for Pohottuwa. They are of the opinion that the voter base in Pohottu is built on the Rajapaksas, and if someone who does not have that identity is made the candidate, they will not be able to win Pohottu votes. But it was seen that no final decision has been made among the Rajapaksas in this regard.
However, a fact that we had previously revealed through this column was that Basil went to meet the President on April 22nd, where Basil agreed to nominate the President as the candidate for Pohottuwa. But since the President has not yet made an official request about it, all this is still at the level of informal discussions.
113 Majority at risk?
However, after the vote to remove Janaka Ratnayake, the Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of the Parliament, the heads of the government have also raised serious doubts about the majority of 113. A calculation made by the President has confirmed that at any moment Pohottu will lose this 113 majority. According to the information we have received, Pohottuwa is to lose the majority of 113 to the government at some critical time. However, it should be mentioned here that the government has definitely decided to hold the local government election or the provincial council election within the next period.
Relationship with Japan
Japan and Sri Lanka have an ancient political, economic and social relationship. Since the administration of President Jayawardena, Japan has given a lot of help to Sri Lanka without expecting anything in return. In this way, the relationship between the two countries started to diminish when former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power and cancelled the monorail light rail project signed with Japan without any accountability.
Even though this action of Gota’s government did not show it, Japan was at estrangement with Sri Lanka. It doubled with the allegation that the then former Minister of Aviation Mr. Nimal Siripala de Silva had demanded a bribe from the Japanese Thaise company which was involved in the Katunayake Airport expansion project. In this regard, the Japanese ambassador to Sri Lanka had made an official complaint to Gota at that time. Accordingly, Gota started an investigation to look into the matter and temporarily removed Nimal Siripala from that position.
Nervy relationship with Japan!
However, with the resignation of Gota, the topic of Japan was once again brought to the fore by the government saying that within 48 hours of Ranil coming to power, 4 billion dollars will be received from Japan. It was also seen that Ranil’s side repeatedly said that the mono rail project can be restarted. Because of this, many people thought that the goodwill between Sri Lanka and Japan, which had been estranged after Ranil’s appointment as the president, would grow again. But what happened there was an event that touched the hearts of Japan again. That is, the President appoints another investigation committee and acquits Nimal Siripala of that charge and once again gives him the post of Aviation Minister. On the other hand, Sri Lanka did not receive 4 billion dollars from Japan.
It was against this background that the President planned to visit Japan. This was not a trip made according to an invitation received by the Japanese government, but a trip made to participate in the Nikkei Conference held in Japan. The current leaders as well as the former leaders of Japan participated in it, so the President was able to hold discussions with them during the meeting. However, the government had started a big campaign to show that the president was well received in Japan.
Debt restructuring first before japan aid !
However, there is only one thing that should be taken from the Japan trip above all of these. It is about whether Japan offers to help Sri Lanka. During the discussions held here, Japan had informed Sri Lanka that the government of Sri Lanka should finish the debt restructuring before talking about investments. After that, Japan has informed that other matters can be discussed.
Mono railway still a ‘no ‘!
After that, the biggest news was that the Cabinet passed a resolution to restart the Mono Rail project, which was widely publicized by the Sri Lankan media. Because of this, everyone thought that Japan had agreed to restart the monorail project. But within 24 hours of publishing this news, the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka had taken steps to issue an announcement. There they had reiterated that Japan will not start any development work in Sri Lanka until the debt restructuring work is completed.
America or China?
In the meantime, a statement made by the president at the Nikkei conference has also managed to create a serious upheaval in South Asian politics. Here, the President said that if he were to choose a country between America and China, he would choose Asia. The President also highly praised China’s economic policy. Accordingly, the President had said that Sri Lanka is ready to work together with China in the future.
India worried!
However, the information we have says that India has been seriously disturbed by this statement of the President. Because India is the strongest country in the South Asian region. Among these South Asian countries, there is a separate organization called SAARC. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi acts as its strongman. It is reported that the president’s attempt to join China despite the existence of the SAARC organization has caused concern in India.
Also, there was a serious competition between India and China to become the strongest in the Asian region from the past. Although China was in the lead in the past, now India has overtaken China and gained the ability to come forward in the Asian region. It can be seen that not only America, Japan but also the whole of Europe is behind India.
Accordingly, although India has not officially responded to this statement of the President, due to some news appearing in the Indian media, it has been clearly seen that India is somewhat disappointed in this regard. Accordingly, it can be seen that this statement of the President has become a very sensitive topic in South Asian politics.
Chinese vist
Also, the president has received an invitation to visit China next October. It is also reported that the President has accepted the invitation according to the information that has been received. But the problem is that the President has not been able to visit India yet. Usually, the first thing a new president of Sri Lanka does after taking office is to visit his neighbour India. Accordingly, Gota too first went to India immediately after becoming President. But the fact that India has not yet given dates for an official visit to the President has become a serious problem.
Many people are of the opinion that India is not yet ready to give official recognition to the President through that. It is under such a background that the President has planned to visit China before going to India. Also, it has been confirmed to ‘inside politics’ that after the visit to China, the President will participate in the United Nations General Assembly meeting in America next September.