President Ranil Wickramasinghe got restless following the court order on LG elections. Podujana Pereamuna MPs wrote to the speaker, requesting that the judges who rendered the verdict be brought to a parliamentary privilege committee. The opposition, the bar association, and international law associations all slammed the move. The move to bring the judges before the privilege committee, however, never materialised.
Subsequently the annual law conference of the Sri Lanka Bar Association was held, in which Ranil’s pro-lawyers wanted Ranil to participate as the chief guest, but the majority opposed it. Later, lawyer Faizer Mustafa, who was Ranil’s concurrent adviser, organized a lawyers’ conference in Nuwara Eliya through the Bar Association he had formed.
Judges were also invited to it. The opposition said that inviting the judges to a conference attended by the President is putting the judges in a difficult situation. Also, Ranil’s speech at the conference which stressed that the people do not want the local government election was also heavily criticized by the opposition. Ranil was seen happily mingling with the judges at the conference held in Nuwara Eliya.
Ranil’s law conference was a controversial event in the legal world. Subsequently to this, Ranil recently took the foreign ambassadors in Sri Lanka on a tour of the Ella. Most of the foreign ambassadors of Sri Lanka joined the tour that took them by rail. Strict security was applied to the train they were travelling to and to the respective stations. The ambassadors met Ranil at Ella, and they highly praised the visit.
However it was the court that ordered to hold local government elections. It is no secret that the American ambassadors, Julie Chung, as well as other western ambassadors, are pressuring Ranil to hold local government elections. Already it is well known that allegations against Ranils government have been levelled for the unconstitutional postponement of local government elections, the arrest of social media activists, and the arrest of ‘aragalaya’ activists. Also, there is strong criticism against Ranil’s government for suppressing the protests. It is not known whether the visit of foreign ambassadors to Ella was a decision to prevent them from expressing their countries’ views on these allegations, during the visit to Ella, Ranil had a friendly conversation with these foreign ambassadors and cordial chats.
Ella, Nuwara Eliya is a good location for relaxation. In the 1960s, the then Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike negotiated an alliance with her political opponents, the Lanka Samasamaja Party, in Nuwara Eliya. Lanka Samasamaja Party leader N.M. Perera and Prime Minister Mrs. Bandaranaike’s son Anura also played cricket in Nuwara Eliya. It is not known what the ambassadors said to Ranil at Ella. But it will be seen in the future whether Ranil’s strategy in Nuwara Eliya will work to cool down ambassador on anti-democratic issues of Sri Lanka.
