Reflections –  A “3 Dimensional” View of RW

Needless to say, we are going through a very volatile situation in our beloved motherland. There is much uncertainty in the future of the country. Amidst the recent political pandemonium some breathed a sigh of relief with the appointment of Ranil Wickremasighe (RW)  as Prime Minister and the government machinery started to chug along coughing, groaning and moaning.

Having, resumed office as Prime Minister, Ranil got down to work, quickly, appointing a panel of advisors (Sagala Ratnayake, Akila Viraj Kariyawasam et al), addressing the nation, meeting heads of foreign missions etc.. Since assuming duties last Thursday, (12^th May), he has made public statements on two occasions, which is the other extreme of what we had been used to in GR administration.

In some quarters there is a belief that, in these circumstances that he is the best man for the job. There are the others who are very thankful to the man for accepting the job in this difficult situation.

I thought it would beneficial to reflect on RW’s track record to date as a politician.

RW’s misdemeanor’s 1^st came to light from his association with an Underworld Kingpin during the regime of JRJ. In fact, it can be argued that JRJ made an Underworld kingpin of Gonawala Sunil.  I am reproducing below a part of an article that appeared in the Ceylon Today Newspaper of 28^th November 2017, written by late, Rajva Wijesinha.

“…………………But Henry (here Rajiva is referring Henry Gunasekera, brother DEW Gunasekera) too was sincere and, unlike Esmond, was not willing to go along with the shenanigans of his party when it changed course. He told me, way back in 1980, that there were only two honest Ministers in the UNP. Rather naively I thought he was referring to my two relations in Cabinet, Ranjith Atapattu and Ranil Wickremesinghe. But his response was no: though Ranjith was one of them, the other being Gamini Jayasuriya, he said Ranil, though financially above board, was not honest in that he used thugs.

How true this was became clear as evidence emerged of his connections with individuals such as Gonawala Sunil

and Kalu Lucky, who led demonstrations against Supreme Court judges who had found against the government in a fundamental rights case – which I recalled when Ranil’s cohorts decided to demonstrate against the bond commission.

But for a long time I thought Ranil was honest. And even when during his last tenure as Prime Minister it became clear that he had promoted crooks who owed allegiance to him alone, while not giving Gamini Athukorala and Sajith Premadasa and Karu Jayasuriya responsibilities commensurate with their abilities, I still did not think, though sad he was turning a blind eye to it, that he was actively involved in corruption.

But now of course it is clear how deeply enmeshed he is in the plundering that took place, and his pathetic responses to the questions put to him at the Commission make clear how utterly dishonest he is. Whilst making wild allegations against Mahendran’s predecessor, which he fails completely to substantiate (completely dodging the question as to the sources of information he relied on when making his vicious attack on Cabraal on March 17^th 2015, as a red herring in response to criticism of what Mahendran had clearly done wrong less than a month earlier), he keeps reiterating that he believed his chosen instruments acted in good faith.

That this is nonsense, unless he is a complete fool, is apparent from the fact that  he continued to defend Mahendran to the hilt, after the first bond scam, and then after the second. And when it became clear the President would not tolerate this, he wanted, while claiming ‘the previous incumbent lacked comparable qualifications and experience’, to appoint a totally unqualified individual, namely his favourite (but his only honest, I still hope) poodle, Charitha Ratwatte.

But in addition to being corrupt himself, he is following in Jayewardene’s footsteps in that he is encouraging others to be corrupt too. The manner in which Sujeewa Senasinghe, who initially seemed as horrified as I was about the initial bond scam, has now gone to seed is very sad – though I will need to explore that and the corrupting of others in greater detail later.”

The above piece provides an insight into one “Dimension” of RW mainly as a swindler, the below piece from the Wikipedia, sheds light on a 2^nd “Dimension” of RW as a Liquidator.

“Batalanda detention centre was an alleged detention centre used to torture and exterminate members of the then militant marxist rebel organization Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna(JVP) during JVP uprising of 1988–1989 who launched a second armed revolt against an elected government then led by President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Unlike the previous open uprising the JVP relied on assassinations of important religious and political figures, subversion and terror attacks. The government replied brutally showing no mercy and the government has been accused of using detention camps in several places including Batalanda to quell the JVP uprising. These were said to be run by anti-subversive units of the police who were tasked with destroying rebels ^{[1][2][3][4][5]} It is believed that nearly 5,000-10,000 members of JVP activists were brutally tortured and killed in this camp.^[6] Ranil Wickremesinghe is accused of being the political authority of the alleged detention center. Batalanda commission was appointed by the government of Chandrika Kumaratunga to look into the violations of human rights and crimes committed at Batalanda torture and detention center. In its report the commission recommended the government to take legal action against then opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and to strip him of his civic rights, which would have made him ineligible to run for elections. However no legal action was taken against him by any government to date and several who were arrested for their involvement in alleged killings have been revealed to be from organizations such as the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party which was created by Kumaratunge and her husband who himself was assassinated.

The 3^rd “Dimension” of RW over laid with a picture of RW as a traitor to the nation. RW is reported have a signed the Norwegian Brokered Peace agreement with LTTE without the consent of the president at the time Chandrika Kumaratunga (CBK). I don’t need to elaborate the what the peace accord did to the war effort and our armed forces.

Then came the signing of the notorious Co-Sponsorship of the UN Human Rights War Crimes Resolution by Mangala Samaraweera, RW’s foreign Minister, during Yapalanaya regime.Not to mention, hunting down of War Heroes as War Criminals, Putting Buddhist monks behind bars, the MCC, ACSA agreement, setting up of courts to hunt down political opponent and the list goes on.

RW claims that he is expecting friendly countries to come to our rescue. Looking back, we can be fairly certain that no country will come to our rescue without their pound of flesh. These so called friendly countries now have right man to deliver the chunk they want. Sadly, living in a divided Sri Lanka is increasingly becoming a reality now.