Who is planning to use ‘Emil’ in North once again Rajapakse’s or Ranil?
Cabinet reshuffle starts cracks in the Government?
Will Fonseka mend the differences with SJB?
Where would Indian Worry take SL?
Emil Kantan released
Last week, the government made an unexpected announcement that two former LTTE members who were on the terrorist blacklist had been removed from it. The Ministry of Defence is said to have removed the two members from the terror list. Emil Kanthan and Murugesu Jesudasan were the two. In Sri Lanka, Emil Kanthan is the most well-known character. Emil Kanthan was said to have acted as an intermediary in a money transaction allegedly made by Rajapaksa with the LTTE to prevent votes from being cast in the North during the 2005 presidential election.
After 2005, information about Emil Kanthan was reported in the southern media, but it was in 2005 that Emil Kanthan first started relations with southern politicians with the establishment of the UNP government. It was Emil Kanthan who acted as the mediator between the LTTE and the government during the peace talks that started at that time. Therefore, Emil Kanthan was a frequent visitor to the ‘temple trees ‘during the 2001-2003 peace talks. At that time, Emil Kanthan was staying at the Jaik Hilton Hotel in Colombo. However, after the election strike in 2005, with the victory of Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa, Emil Kantanda left the country and started living in Dubai. Accordingly, it is noteworthy that Emil Kanthan is a person who knows Ranil Wickramasinghe as well as Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Why was he released?
However, the abrupt removal of Emil Kanthan’s name from the terrorist list has become a subject of widespread discourse within the political sphere. In this regard, a recent investigation conducted by ‘Inside Politics’ has revealed that Emil Kanthan’s name has been expunged from the list of designated terrorists, granting him the liberty to assume a pivotal role in a political initiative poised for the forthcoming year, which marks an election year.
Even whilst his name was ensconced on the terrorism roster, Emil Kanthan orchestrated the relocation of individuals from the North and East to Dubai and convened numerous meetings. Presently, a confluence of crises has arisen between political factions in the North and East regions, precipitated by the defection of several parties from their primary political consortium, the Tamil National Alliance. Many conjecture that, moving forward Emil Kanthan will endeavour to reconcile and coalesce these disparate political entities and statesmen into cohesive alliance.
Douglas’ revelation
Political strongmen of government in the north Douglas Devananda and Emil Kanthan had a long-standing hatred since long. LTTE during their existence attempted many times on Dougla’s life but he escaped all those attempts on his life. Douglas was fatally attacked when Emil Kanthan was detained in Kalutara prisons. Douglas saved his life there too, but Emil Kanthan was accused of this attack. However, during a press conference held by Douglas last week, the case of Emile Kantan also came to the fore. When journalists asked Douglas about his political enemy, Douglas related a wonderful story.
‘bygones are of no use at present, Emil was in touch with me recently he told me that he is not responsible for the Kalutara attack…’ Having said this Douglas also announced a controversial fact that Emil Kanthan is already has arrived in Sri Lanka. He also said ‘We learnt in the recent past he had arrived in Vavunian and have had few rounds of talks..’
If Douglas is correct Emil Kanthan arrived in Sri Lanka whilst his name was on the terrorist blacklist. It needs to be investigated how such a person entered from security screening from Katunayaka.
Rajapaksas unite
Currently, former President Mahinda Rajapakse is not engaged in public life and confined himself strictly to religious matters and only very few close friends were seen visiting his Wijerama house. Last week Rajapakses were seen gathered together in a religious function which was held to evoke blessings to their late sister. The ‘Pinkama’ saw all Rajapakse’s coming together after a long layoff.
Due to some family disagreement after Gotabaya Rajapakse’s presidency, the family members were not seen in an event together during the whole of last year. To unite the brothers a Rajapakse Sister domicile overseas arrived in Sri Lanka and attempted twice to bring together the brothers to unite. Both these failed as in the first occasion Mahinda did not participate in the organised dinner and left for his house in Tangalla.
When Mahinda came to Colombo again, that sister prepared another dinner, and Mahinda had arranged to attend. But the sad thing was that Gotabaya did not participate that day. Accordingly, both those attempts to reunite the Rajapaksa family failed.
But at last week’s memorial service for the sister of the Rajapaksa family, Gota, Chamal, Basil, Mahinda and all the members of the Rajapaksa family were seen together. That was a long time ago.
The visitor to Wijerama
A few weeks ago, Mahinda, who was resting a bit at Wijerama house, met another special guest. It is none other than Indian Foreign Minister Dr. S. Jayashankar. who participated in the meeting of the foreign ministers of the South Asian countries in Sri Lanka or the ‘Iora’ conference, held a few days ago, first met and discussed with the President and then met Mahinda. He came to Mahinda’s house in Wijerama.
In general, Mahinda’s Wijerama residence is known to be full of Chinese representatives rather than Indian representatives. Many people are of the opinion that the face of the Chinese ambassador was often seen there in the past. But this time, during his visit to Sri Lanka, the Indian Foreign Minister met the President and came directly to meet Mahinda at his residence. It was seen that the Indian Foreign Minister who had arrived spent a lot of time with Mahinda in a very friendly manner. The two exchanged views on the political situation in the country as well as the regional political situation. This occasion was so important that Jayashankar left Mahinda’s house after having dinner and it was close to midnight.
Meeting SJB and Fonseka
Last week, we made a special disclosure in the ‘Inside Politics’ column and revealed that the conflict that has arisen between Samagi Jana Balawega and its chairman, Mr. Sarath Fonseka, and that a group of senior members of the party are ready to meet with Mr Fonseka to resolve it. Accordingly, steps were taken to hold a special meeting between a group of SJB seniors and Fonseka at the Parliament complex last week. Party General Secretary Ranjith Maddumabandara, Imtiaz Bakir Markar, Laxman Kiriella, Tissa Attanayake and Gayantha Karunathilake were also present.
When party seniors discussed the situation with Fonseka, he said that he had problems with some of the party’s affairs.
“I am against the fact that Sajith did not accept the Prime Ministership while sitting in Gota’s presidency. We had to assume the prime ministership. Saji was also willing to do so. But it was stopped by Harsha, Eran and Kabir who were in charge of the party’s economy. On the other hand, it is wrong that we even presented Dallas in the battle to elect the president from the parliament. Fonseka said that Sajith should have asked to lose. He pointed out to the crowd that political activities should be more organized to reflect the winning mentality.
There, SJB seniors told Fonseka that all these matters should be discussed within the party.
Talk it inside
You are the president of this party. Therefore, you can discuss these issues within the party. You are in the management committee of the party. He is in the executive committee. There are parliamentary group meetings. The party seniors said, ‘You should come to them and discuss these issues…’ and suggested to organize a special meeting between Fonseka and Sajith to end the issues regarding Fonseka. Fonseka also agreed to that.
In addition, the SJB Management Committee which met last week made a special decision regarding three MPs who have left the party and are working together with the government. These three MPs are A.H.M. Fawzi, Vadivel Suresh and Arvind Kumar. It was decided to conduct a disciplinary inquiry against Fawzi and cancel the party membership of Vadivel Suresh and Arvind Kumar.
Meanwhile, last week, a meeting was held between front-line political leaders representing Mr Champika Ranawaka’s party and SJB seniors. It is decided that after a long discussion held here, both parties have agreed to hold a special meeting between Mr. Champika Ranawaka and the SJB leadership.
Diana’s conflict
In the midst of all this, the main event that heated up the SJB party last week was the conflict between the two SJB MPs, Rohana Bandara and Sujith Sanjay Perera, with Diana who came to parliament from the SJB party and joined the government and became a minister. After the related videos circulated on social media, Diana first went to the Welikada Police to file a complaint against Rohana Bandara and Sujith Sanjay. Rohana and Sujith had also filed a complaint against Diana in the Mirihana police. To investigate the incident, the Speaker appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Speaker Mr. Ajith Rajapaksa and Ramesh Pathirana, Gayantha Karunathilake, Imtiaz Bakir Makar the other members.
The committee met for the first time last week to investigate Diana’s case. There, in addition to the related video circulating on social media, they also showed the official CCTV obtained by the Parliament. The scenes were also scrutinized. Since the video clip did not contain sound, the group took steps to investigate the conversation in the video footage of Rohana Bandara circulating on social media.
A letter from the police
After that, Deputy Speaker Ajith Rajapakse proceeded to present a letter that had been received by the Speaker to the Committee. The letter was sent by a Deputy Inspector General of Police. The letter said that since Welikada and Mirihana police have received complaints regarding this conflict, the police are also ready to conduct an investigation in this regard, and whether the speaker is in agreement with that. Two opinions were expressed among the committee members, and one opinion said that since this was an incident that happened in the parliament, such an investigation should not be allowed, and if allowed, the police would have to be allowed to investigate everything that happens inside the parliament. But the other opinion said that since the country is waiting for this incident, a police investigation should also be approved.
Also, the group also looked into whether a police investigation like this had happened before based on an incident that happened inside the parliament. There, they came to know that only when the Parliament was bombed, the police had been called into the Parliament to investigate. As two opinions were presented in this way, the group finally decided to allow it to be decided according to the discretion of the speaker.
Two women
However, in the end, the group worked to make several other important decisions based on Diana’s case. The first of which was the decision to call the eyewitnesses of the incident in addition to recording statements from Diana, Rohana and Sujith involved in the incident. Accordingly, it was decided to summon State Minister Piyal Nishantha, Parliament officials and police officers, who were nearby at the time of the incident, before the committee. Also, since there was no female representation in the committee, the group decided to include Sudarshani Fernandopulle and Thalatha Athukorala. In addition to this, the group also agreed to finish the investigation as soon as possible and hand over the report to the speaker as this incident affects everyone else in the parliament.
A ‘bomb’ goes off
It is said that the President has planned to conduct an emergency cabinet reshuffle immediately after his visit to China, and there is a possibility that the subjects of six ministers will be transferred, and the President has decided not to give ministerial posts to anyone from outside, except the sitting ministers. Reported while the President was in China. This is what we said in the news published on October 20.
After the President comes to Sri Lanka, 6 ministers will be out
The 6 newcomers are from the sitting members of the cabinet
It is reported that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has planned to make an emergency cabinet reshuffle after returning to the island after his visit to China.
Accordingly, it has been learned that the President has planned to remove 6 ministers who are causing controversy these days. But it is said that the President has also decided not to give new posts to anyone who is outside while filling those ministerial positions.
Accordingly, it has been learned that the President will arrange to distribute these ministerial positions among several ministerial positions.’
We said it exactly
Confirming the news we published in this way, the President, who came to Sri Lanka at the weekend after his visit to China, took steps to reshuffle the cabinet on Monday. The most special event witnessed there was the President’s decision to hand over the post of Minister of Health to Mr. Ramesh Pathirana. Apart from this, the President also empowered Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera and Mr. Ranjith Siambalapitiya, who are the Ministers representing the SLFP, by giving them more ministerial posts in addition to their existing ministerial posts.
However, despite the fact that Pohottu Secretary General Mr Sagara Kariyawasam had given a letter to the President asking for Ministerial positions to be given to Pohottuwa and included the names of many MPs, the President did not take any of that into account and distributed it with a big spoon to the Ministers of the SLFP. It came out in public at the press conference of Mr Sagara Kariyawasam held on the same day, where Sagara Kariyawasam said that it is regrettable that the president is acting in this way. Sagara said that the president was appointed by Pohottuwa and the government is Pohottuwa and that under such a background the President could have exchanged views with Pohottuwa and expressed his concern over the President’s actions.
The pot heats up
Namal Rajapaksa, the crown prince of the Rajapaksa family, attacked the government cabinet reshuffle after Sagara. Namal taught a lesson to the President on how to work in a coalition government and said that it is not acceptable to act like this, and it is not acceptable for the bad work of the government to go to the bud while the good work goes to another party.
He should understand that, as a mature politician, when doing alliance politics, deal with that alliance in harmony and discussion. It is unacceptable for the government to go to the bad Podujana Peramuna and another good party. Namal said that the country became unstable as a result of both leaders going in two directions during the good governance government. Namal said that he believes that it is appropriate for the president to discuss with the alliance leaders when making future decisions and engaging in coalition politics, adding that the recent cabinet reshuffle is only a transfer of ministries and cannot be considered a cabinet reshuffle.
The president has the right to make a cabinet amendment. However, the government also has a duty to inform and discuss with their fellow alliance parties.’
Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa further stated that they hope to make a decision as a party based on the budget presented by the President.
Reply from pohottuwa
However, the cabinet amendment made by the president not only turned into a conflict between the president and Pohottuwa, but Pohottuwa became a conflict between Pohottuwa and Pohottuwa when ministers friendly with the president took steps to respond to Sagara and Namal. The state ministers Arundika Fernando and Dilum Amunugama were the first to deal with it. Although Sagara and Namal gave comments rejecting the statements they had made to the media, the most serious attack on Sagara and Namal came from none other than Nimal Lanza, who was once a strongman of Pohottuwa but also a protector of the Rajapaksa family. Lanza is currently known to be working very closely with the President and is known to be a strong attacker of the Rajapaksas as well as the strongmen of Pohottuwa. Accordingly, Lanza said that Sagara’s brain is not good and Namal barks like a dog.
Heavy attacks from Lanza
The change of the position of the Minister of Health took place only after a discussion between the President and the party leaders of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna. The main accusation of the General Secretary of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna is not that the Ministry of Health has changed. The main allegation is that the Sri Lanka Freedom Party has more responsibility in the ministries. By adding the Ministry of Plantation to the Ministry of Agriculture, those ministries can work very closely. The decision taken by the President is a very correct decision.
Taking over the institutions to be privatized in the future to the Ministry of Finance is also an appropriate decision. If Mr Sagara Kariyawasam claims that the amendment of ministerial positions or the amendment of subjects has been done incorrectly, then he will not understand that. It is the right decision to add the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Plantation and to add certain subjects to be privatized to the Ministry of Finance.
If Sagara Kariyawasam and others have power, they can show it. They can make a hard decision without talking here and there can go to the opposition and sit. If Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe does not work with them Mr. Sagara Kariyawasam can meet the President and tell the President instead of giving press briefings.
Mr. Sagara Kariyawasam is challenged to come out of the government and do that work if possible. If the president is not good, if he cannot work with the president, if the president doesn’t do what he says, he can make a decision he likes. He can make his decisions without commenting in the media.
How many ministerial posts were given to Mr Namal Rajapaksa during Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency? Many posts of state ministers were given to him with many subject areas. At that time, did he not understand that the country’s problems would not be solved even if he changed the positions of the ministers? He has understood it now. Those position changes and cabinet amendments have been changed four times during the time of President Gotabhaya. In the last cabinet reshuffle, a large number of cabinet ministers and senior ministers were thrown out. Neither Namal Rajapakse nor Sagara Kariyawasam spoke that day. They should have told President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was wrong. They were like kittens then.
Therefore, I have to say to Mr. Namal Rajapaksa and Mr. Sagara Kariyawasam, if possible, to come to a debate with me without telling lies or forgetting the past. Talk about those who changed ministers in the past, changed the subject, how they took more power, and those who kept their mouths shut.
People have come to queues because the country is not doing it right. There were people without electricity. There were no gas queues or medicines. So people came out and overthrew such a government and there was an opportunity for Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe to become the Prime Minister. Namal Rajapaksa did not do it willingly. The bud is not something done by will. It is something that happened due to the poor government not doing it right.
We also represented that government. The politics we built for 30 years was destroyed because the government did not do it right. They were the leaders of that day. They are cabinet ministers. If we had given relief to the people then, our government would not have driven away the people by protesting on the highway by the thousands. Mr. Namal Rapaksha has forgotten that today. In this economy, there is no way to give concessions as Namal Rajapakse says. The International Monetary Fund has come and helped us and they have given us the freedom. If the government goes this way, if the economic program is carried forward, the country’s economy can be recovered.
Give relief to people who don’t like it. We all like it. But the government in which Mr Namal Rajapaksa was a cabinet minister bankrupted the country, so relief cannot be given. Mr. Namal Rajapaksa does not understand that. The country has been completely economically bankrupted and people’s lives have been destroyed and today they are talking like a child who was born only yesterday.
He can decide and do what he likes. The budget is coming soon. If possible, vote against the budget and walk out. You can go to face the next parliamentary elections. People will answer that day. I have to say to Mr. Namal Rapaksha and Mr. Sagara Kariyawasam that if they are against the upcoming budget they should oppose it defeat the government and go for a parliamentary election. We are all ready for it. People show the result to them.
These people are not going to defeat the budget of the Parliament. They are afraid to go to the general election after defeating the budget. Accept my challenge if you can. If the President does not do what he says, these people can go out without saying these things in front of the media. Gotabhaya Rajapakse made four cabinet amendments. None of them screamed at that time.
If the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna has the power in the government, they can topple this government. When they go to the polls, they will see the reality on the ground…’ said Lanza .
Sanath replies Lanza
However, with this serious attack by Lanza, Pohottu was not idle. Accordingly, Pohottuwa decided to respond to Lanza on the same day, and for that, in a television political program aired on Thursday night was chosen. On that day, Sanath Nishantha, who is a minister of state in the government, had participated in it. On that day, Sanath Nishantha made a strong attack on Lanza and said that Lanza had extensive knowledge about drugs and ganja and that Lanza was one of the reasons why Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa was defeated in 2015.
Now Lanza has invited Namal to come to a debate. If there was a debate between the two, Lanza would definitely win. Because Lanza has a thorough knowledge of drugs, marijuana, and heroin. Namal has no knowledge about those subjects. Another reason is that Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa lost the presidential election in 2015. Because at that time there was information that there were drugs in Lanza’s house and STF raided Lanza’s house, there was a big allegation that the former president went to Lanza’s house and saved him.
What will the budget be?
Accordingly, the president’s cabinet reshuffle has turned into a big fire where accusations are levied against each other in the bud. It is not yet possible to say where the flames of the fire will end, as it is not yet seen how the flames have been extinguished.
We are saying this because the government is ready to present the 2024 budget to the parliament in two weeks. As previously pointed out on several occasions in this column Pohottuwa has already reached some decisions regarding the government’s budget. Our mention is that the members of Pohottuwa have decided to defeat the budget heads of several government ministers who do not care about the members of Pohottuwa. According to that, most people believe that the end of the change of ministers and the conflict between the government and Pohotuwa has more chance of going beyond the budget.
Lanza’s office closed
On the other hand, we are ready to reveal another special fact about Lanza this time through the ‘inside politics’ column. We have mentioned that Nimal Lanza is taking the responsibility of creating a broader alliance for the future politics of the President on many occasions along this belt. We discovered that Lanza also arranged to open a new political party office at Rajagiriya Lake Drive for that purpose.
There, we mentioned how Lanza acted to get Anura Priyadarshana Yapa as the leader of the new alliance, and how a special discussion was called at Anura Yapa’s house in Kurunegala to discuss it. But we also pointed out that the discussion failed because only Nimal Lansat and Nalin Fernando participated in that discussion.
Accordingly, this time we reveal the latest fate of Lanza’s new alliance. Last week, Lanza took measures to close the building taken by Lanza at Lake Drive in Rajagiriya for the political activities of the new alliance, due to the fact that the number of ministers and party members coming to it is less than the number of fingers of the hand. According to that, Lanza’s new political alliance was seen as dead.
An announcement from Sajith
Apart from this, not only Pohottua but also the opposition leader Mr. Sajith Premadasa issued a special announcement last week regarding the cabinet reshuffle. While attacking the government, Sajith said that the government is making a strange change of mind and is working to create not a smart country but a jilted country. Below is the announcement issued by Sajith.
Performed another drama
The government led by the president is playing another tune.
The government led by the President has performed the latest act of ridiculous power politics. It was a strange exchange of brains in the cabinet.
Accordingly, the opposition and the people of the country together have handed over the environment to the health minister who has been said to be a continuous failure. In fact, this is creating not a smart country, but a jilted country.
We question whether this is the form of the smart country that the president is trying to create.
The funny example given by the president who said that change starts with himself is wonderful. As the Minister of Health Keheliya Rambukwella’s performance was unsuccessful, we brought a vote of no confidence together to him and to the government, he was protected by the Government. Even though the country’s health sector is collapsing, the health minister who said that he had faith in him and protected him has been removed by the president today and stripped of the trust of 113 people.
The President, who is trying to show that he is very interested in the environment by talking about concepts like green economy and green development, has opened up the possibility of the deterioration of the health sector to the environment by appointing Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who destroyed the health sector, as the Minister of Environment. Reaffirming again and again that it is not for the welfare of the environment but only for establishing his own power.
The people of the country no longer approve of these pranks and political gambling by illegally increasing electricity bills, destroying essential services including the health sector, and taking shameless measures to protect their power.
We urge the government to stop the undemocratic program that continues to put pressure on the people, take short-sighted arbitrary decisions and shrink the election map as a dictatorial government and hold an election immediately.’
The ship arrived
The Chinese ship Xi Yang 6 had requested permission to come to Sri Lanka about three months ago. When the situation was reported, India had expressed its opposition to it, but some government agencies had given permission for the Chinese ship to come to Sri Lanka. Although the President had given permission to this ship to come to Sri Lanka while the President was participating in his visit to China, the government requested China to postpone the voyage of this ship until next November.
Mr. Ali Sabri, the foreign minister, also mentioned it officially in the media and said that he requested China to postpone the ship’s journey until November. But revealing the purpose behind it to the country through the ‘state secret’ belt, we said that the sea is going to be rough due to the activation of the monsoon weather conditions in November, and the government has made that request because it will be difficult for a ship to enter Sri Lanka. It is not that China was not aware of this ulterior motive of the government.
What we said happened
However, before the President went to China, we made a special disclosure through this column and said that during this visit to China, the President or the government would not receive the kind of big financial help from China. As we revealed, the government did not say that such financial assistance was received during the China visit.
Moreover, JNP leader Mr Wimal Weerawansa, who attended the ‘One Belt, One Road’ conference attended by the President, came to Sri Lanka at the invitation of China and told the media in Katunayake that the President did not receive very good responses from China. Also, Wimal said that although even the Ethiopian president had been given a speech at the Chinese conference, the president of our country had not been given a speech. Moreover, Vimal said that in this conference, China considered only the countries that stand together with China, not between two walls.
India is worried
However, despite the government’s request to postpone the arrival of the Chinese ship until November, as previously decided, China entered the Colombo port on Tuesday. Then the government said that the ship was allowed to anchor at Colombo port for three days only to meet the necessary facilities. But earlier, the relevant agencies had given approval to the Chinese ship to officially stay in Sri Lanka for 25 days. Accordingly, after these three days, there is a serious problem as to whether the Chinese ship will leave the port of Colombo and divert it to Hambantota, or whether it will be diverted to another port in Sri Lanka.
With the arrival of the Chinese ship in Sri Lanka, India is now paying close attention to the ship in question. It has been seen that not only India but also the American and Japanese authorities have paid close attention to this ship. As soon as the ship enters Sri Lanka, there is also news that India has left special messages for both countries. Apart from that, from the news coming from India, we have come to know that India is very disappointed with the violation of Sri Lanka’s assurance that it would not take any action affecting India’s security during the President’s last visit to India. It has been learned from the news that India is adamant that the president broke his promise to India within a few weeks. Accordingly, it will be possible to see what India’s response will be like in the future.
No money for the project
Meanwhile, the officials who participated in the visit to China with the President did not go to China empty-handed, but with a special project plan in hand. That project is a project related to Ging Ganga. Accordingly, the officials had taken steps to get this project approved by the cabinet urgently. It was none other than a well-known businessman who built highways in this country together with China during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s regime.
The concerned businessman had worked together with a powerful businessman related to the government to prepare this Ginganga project. They did not prepare that plan after going to, but after meeting and discussing with the strongmen of the Chinese Embassy in this country. But the most special event to be seen here was China’s refusal to provide financial support to the project in question. Accordingly, the Sri Lankan team that went to the Ginganga project hoping for a huge financial investment from China had to return to Sri Lanka empty-handed.