Wijayadasa stays mum whilst Sagala tries the cap for size
President charges two UNP ministers of scuttling corruption crackdown
When President Sirisena looked the UNP in the eye and point blank stated that there were two UNP Ministers in his cabinet who had endeavored to scuttle his promise to the nation to bring the mega corrupt in the Rajapaksa regime to justice, no one around that high table would have been left bewildered as to exactly whom he was referring. Especially when he mentioned that had he been given the Attorney General’s Department and the Financial Crime Investigative Department, the Rajapaksas’ would have been history within three months.
In his cabinet blast last week he said that he was extremely uneasy about alleged backroom dealings between two members of the UNP-led government and key figures of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s administration and that he was aware of those who have cut deals to either delay or scuttle some of the ongoing investigations.
The Minister of Justice Wijayadasa Rajapakshe under whose purview the Attorney General’s Department falls, opted to stay mum, in the self same manner he had remained lips zipped when he had defended the roles of all those involved in the Avant Guarde affair including its Chairman Nissanka Senadhipathi both in Parliament and elsewhere and had even taken the credit for preventing the arrest of Gotabaya Rajapaksa during the ongoing Avant Guarde investigations, with- mechanism for it."
Whilst he made these statement perhaps the people were wondering as to whom the Police chief was speaking on his cell phone in public unaware that the television cameras were still rolling and that the microphones were still on, and reassuring the mystery caller at the other end of the line that a certain Matara Nilame would not be arrested without informing ‘sir’ beforehand?
Both the FCID and AG’s Department are the main arms of Sirisena’s promised corruption crackdown. In them reside the arbitrary powers to act or delay. And both these two agencies lie in the hands of the UNP. The FCID can be influenced to drag its feet in its investigations and the AG’s Department can be persuaded perhaps to twiddle their thumbs and find perfect legal excuses to delay filing indictments simply on the basis ‘not enough evidence that will stand up in court’ which none can question.
Can you blame the president if he appears paranoid?