Bond Com made me Mr. Clean
Ravi K’s amazing claim: Thanks to the President, it set me free from the bondage of perceived guilt
Every man is entitled to be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty. But in the case of the ex Foreign Minister and former Finance Minster Ravi Karunayake such is his understandable impatience to prove his innocence that he has put forward his defense even before the prosecution has presented theirs, nay, even before any inquiry has begun as to whether he had any possible involvement in the bond scam affair.
And whilst abiding by the Decalogue’s Fourth Commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" as declared in his own Catholic faith, and rather than commit blasphemy by swearing his innocence upon his Almighty God and the Holy Bible, he instead chose to delve into Buddhist scriptures; and unwantedly dragged the name of the Buddha to be used as an impenetrable shield to ward off the slings and arrows of corruption hurled at him.
In a statement issued on Wednesday to the media, after prevented by the Speaker to deliver it in Parliament on the ground that ‘it was not a privilege issue’, former minister Karunanayake even went to the extent of drawing parallels between the Buddha’s religious life and his own political life and stated how the Buddha, too, had faced false accusations in his lifetime similar to the ones he faced today. And to demonstrate that important people of the Karunanayake calibre face this kind of hazards in their daily lives, he proceeded to relate to this nation of Buddhists, the story of Chinchimanawikawa and the bundle of wood without giving a fig leaf as to Buddhists feelings to find the Buddha’s sacred name being exploited in so squalid a fashion to justify some tawdry incident in a politician’s pedestrian life.
Like a monk delivering a sermon to the Buddhist laity, Ravi K preached to the nation the story of the Buddha, Chinchimanawikawa and the bundle of wood. He said, “This is what happened to the Lord Buddha as well. A woman of ill repute called Chinchimanawikawa was sent with a bundle of wood tied to her belly under her clothes to the Lord Buddha. But, however God Sakra caused the bundle to fall thus proving the Buddha’s innocence.”
But was this reference to the Buddha being once accused by a woman of fathering her child till the Gods exposed her deceit and exonerated him of the charge really necessary to demonstrate Ravi K’s own innocence and lift him out of the gutter he now finds himself in? Is ‘an ordinary mortal man’ as Ravi Karunayake humbly described himself to be, entitled to temporarily desert his ‘one God and no other God’ church of his born faith and sworn belief and seek refuge in a single episode in the Buddha’s 45 year missionary life, purely in order to whitewash his tainted image and claim innocence of any wrong doing in a sleazy bond scam? Wouldn’t Buddhist sensitivities be hurt when he, ordinary mortal man he is, deemed it fit to put himself on par with the Master to fortify his claim to innocence in the face of the Bond Commission’s recommendations and say the Enlightened One endured the same fate as he does now? Or would the Buddhists have smiled in tolerance when reminded of an old Christian saying, “The devil can quote Scripture for his purpose”. And add, as an afterthought, ‘even though borrowed from an alien script of a religion alien to his own."
One can understand his keenness, as displayed since of late and especially this month, to be seen as a close associate of the Prime Minister: his eagerness to be as close to the PM as possible at every public function and be photographed next to the Premier, as happened at the January 2nd New Year Temple Trees function, to be photographed next to him again at a kovil with his hands clasped in deep and solemn prayer on Thai Pongal Day before the image of a Hindu God.
These are but the natural tendencies of ‘ordinary mortal men’ who would give their right arm to be seen hob knobbing with the powers that be, even as Lankan Presidents wait in queue to be photographed with the American President and the First Lady at UN functions in New York and have it published in the local newspapers in the belief that it adds to their shine, though the public don’t give a tosh to it.
Or even understand his dire need to take comfort in his recent constant use of the royal ‘We’ on any matter referring to the bond scam to show he is not alone in the dock but shares its narrow space with the Prime Minister and the UNP as a whole, holding it as his slogan the musketeers’ motto ‘one for all, all for one’. That can be excused as the attempt of a man who wishes to show the world he is not alone but still walks the walk in exalted company through the echelon corridors of power and still retains the confidence of the Prime Minister; and has not been sent to Coventry, to exile, but is still firmly ensconced in UNP’s Sirikotha fortress with him as guardian deity at the ramparts to defend it first from enemy attacks.
He even thanked the President for appointing the Bond Commission to probe the entire bond scandal. In his statement he said, “I would like to end this statement by thanking His Excellency the President who appointed the Presidential Commission to look in to the bond issue after the forming of the good governance government and through its final report for absolving and releasing the UNP, the Prime Minister and especially myself from all allega- tions leveled against us”.
In the case of the Prime Minister, it is certainly true that the Bond Commission had exonerated him and had only given him a rap on the knuckles for believing the word of the then Central Bank Governor Mahendran. But in the case of Ravi K has the Bond Commission’s report closed the book on him? Or have the Commissioners asked the Bribery Commission and the Attorney General to open a file for him?
According to Ravi Karunanayake, apparently not. According to him the Bond Commission has given him the all clear. And thanks to President Sirisena’s decision to appoint the Bond Commission, its subsequent findings have finally released him from the chains he had been bound with to the bond scam for a long time. And that it has set him free from the bondage of perceived guilt. Thanks to the Commission’s report, he is now Mr. Clean. Cut loose and scot free of all the calumnies hurled against him.
Of course, in all fairness to him and in all justice, it must be stated clearly that the Bond Commission held that Ravi Karunanayake had not had a direct hand in the 11 billion bucks bond scam.
As the Commission in its report states, “We have earlier, concluded that, in view of the undesirably high Yield Rates which then prevailed, it was reasonable and justifiable for Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, MP, the then Minister of Finance, to wish to bring these Yield Rates down at these Treasury Bond Auctions. We have also taken the view that, since successive Governments have been known to use the state-owned People’s Bank, National Savings Bank and Bank of Ceylon to implement some policy measures and it is not per se irregular for a Government to do so, we cannot find fault with Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, MP, the then Minister of Finance for convening these meetings and giving the aforesaid instructions to the three State Banks.”
And as Mr. Karunanayake says in his statement:
“My learned lawyers have informed me of the following conclusions they have arrived at after going through the commission report.
1. The commission has confirmed that I have no connection to Perpetual Treasuries or another party receiving a profit from the purchase and sale of treasury bonds.
2. The commission does not report of evidence regarding any wrongdoing and/or illegal on my part with regard to the sale of bonds by the Central Bank and/or the purchase of these bonds by a primary dealer.”
But is Ravi K still out of the woods, as he likes to believe he is and wishes everyone to share that same belief ? Has he forgotten a small but vital matter which emerged during the Bond Commission’s proceedings whilst he was giving evidence before it that firmly nailed him to the cross of doubt and led to his resignation? That he, whilst being the Finance Minister, had been enjoying the hospitality of the man at the centre of the bond scam Arjun Aloysius to the tune of Rs. 1.4 million a month. For eight months. Totting up a lease bill of Rs. 11,600,000. And that he knew nothing?
And that he and his family took residence at the Monarch Residencies next to the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo 3, and occupied the 4000 square feet luxurious penthouse suite thereat without any lease agreement between him or anyone of his family with the owner of the premises Anika Wijesuriya, the witness who made the claim under oath before the presidential tribunal? And, as he told the Bond Commission, he knew nothing of that too? That he didn’t know who was paying the monthly rent bill of nearly a million and half bucks to keep him coddled in cotton wool in the crib of comfort in the celestial climes of a Crescat condominium?
And that, that one stark glitch moved the Bond Commission to recommend to the president that the Bribery Commission should consider whether appropriate action should be taken against Ravi Karunanayake under the Bribery Act.
But according to Mr. Karunayake that’s not what the Bond Commission said. To him there appears to be a difference between what the President announced in his statement on the Bond report and what the Bond report actually said. In all, fairness let’s give the man a hearing.
In his statement issued on Wednesday in his defense, Ravi Karunanayake says: “Based on this report summary on January 3, 2018 the President made a special statement through media outlets. My statement today is mainly focused and based on this statement made by him:
“The President’s Statement says the following: "The report mentions the responsibility of Former Minister Ravi Karunanayake regarding the rent payments for a penthouse apartment by the Walt and Row Company owned and controlled by the Aloysius family. The report states that a legal case should be filed against him under the Bribery Act as well as under the Penal Code for giving false statements to the Commission." This says a case should be filed against me.”
“However, in the report thereafter handed over to us only says that relevant authorities should look into if there is any wrongdoing and if such wrongdoing is discovered then appropriate action should be taken in this regard. This is indeed a bizarre situation. It is as if during a game of cricket the batsman lets a wide delivery be, only to be declared as dismissed by the Umpire. “
So much for his own interpretation of his own conduct viewed through his own tinted eyes. Now let the third umpire, you, the public watch the replay and decide whether the batsman had nicked the ball or not? Whether the dismissal was fair or not?
This is what the Bond Commission, which is purely a fact finding body of inquiry whose mandate restricts it to only make recommendations without powers to indict and prosecute, has to say in its final report:
“As stated earlier in Chapter 24, we recommend that the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption should consider whether Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, MP. while he was Minister of Finance, derived a substantial benefit from the Lease Payments made by Walt and Row Associates (Pvt) Ltd [which is an Associate Company of Perpetual Treasuries Ltd and which is owned and controlled by the same persons who own and control Perpetual Treasuries Ltd for the lease of apartment occupied by Hon Ravi Karunanayake.MP and his family and if so determine whether appropriate action should be taken against Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, MP. under the Bribery Act; 25). As stated earlier in Chapter 24, we also recommend that, the Attorney General and other appropriate authorities consider whether some of the evidence given by Hon. Ravi Karunanayake, MP before us is shown to have been incorrect and, if that is the case. whether Mr. Karunanayake should be prosecuted under Section 179 and/or Section 188 of the Penal Code or other relevant provision of the Law, read with Section 9 of the Commissions of Inquiry Act No. 17 of 1948.”
And this is what President Sirisena, before he released the Bond Report to the public, revealed selected excerpts of the report to the nation in a sneak peek on January 4rd Wednesday.
He said: “The Commission report refers to the allegation against former Finance Minister Mr. Ravi Karunanayake regarding the payment of rent for the penthouse apartment made by Aloysius Family and their Walt and Rowe Company and stated that Mr. Karunanayake was responsible for that and recommended that the government should take necessary action against Mr. Ravi Karunanayake under the section of bribery and corruption and further legal action under the penal codes for giving false evidence at the Commission.”
Any big, dramatic, earth moving change in the president’s text? Any twist given to the Bond Commission’s findings? Was the president at variance with the Commissioner’s recommendations when he revealed this choice excerpt? Or was the import of the president’s text more or less the same as the Bond Commission had recommended? That there was a prima facie case for Ravi K to answer; and that both the Bribery Commission and the Attorney General should be directed by the President to determine appropriate action? In other words, was the president’s text a fair rendering of the Bond Commission’s recommendations?
Perhaps Ravi K jumped the gun in thanking the president prematurely for appointing the Bond Commission which he claimed has exonerated him from all blame in the bond scam affair and completely cleared his name and made him Mr. Clean of Lankan politics. But before he can usurp that title which rightfully belongs to his leader the Hon. Prime Minister whom the Bond Commission did indeed exonerate, Ravi Karunayake will indeed have to face many more tribunals, make many more testimonies and make some further explanations without lapsing into fits of amnesia before the courts and the people can award him the accolade with which he now seeks to crown himself by being his own judge on his presumed innocence.
This is what happened to the Lord Buddha as well. A woman of ill repute called Chinchimanawikawa was sent with a bundle of wood tied to her belly under her clothes to the Lord Buddha. But, however God Sakra caused the bundle to fall thus proving the Buddha’s innocence.”