Why did the prof’ scratch his nose at COPE’s Cricket Board inquest? SUNDAY PUNCH 2
COPE chairman Professor Ranjith Bandara’s strange nose twitch or itch at the inquiry into the Cricket Board has led to the suspension of further sittings by the Speaker after an outcry by opposition MPs who alleged that the chairman’s subtle action with his forefinger was hand signals directed to the Cricket Board members not to answer certain questions.
SJB leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament on Wednesday that, ‘the COPE chairman, using hand signals, advised SLC members not to answer questions raised by MPs at Tuesday's meeting. This is clearly visible in the videos.’ He alleged, Prof Bandara acted as if he had been bought over by the SLC’.
He charged: ‘The COPE Chairman uses his position to manipulate the testimonies by the witnesses at the COPE meetings. He has violated the privileges of not only MPs Hesha Withanage and S.M. Marikkar but also all members of this House. This matter needed to be investigated.’
SJB MP Hesha Vithanage said, ‘COPE has summoned SLC on November 24, 27 and 28. We request that Prof. Bandara is removed temporarily and an acting
Chairman be appointed’. MP S.M. Marikar said he and some other members of COPE do not want to participate in any probes on SLC with Professor Bandara in the chair while MP Chaminda Wijesiri accused Professor Bandara of violating the privileges of COPE members and demanded the chairman be dealt with under Section 18 of the Privileges Act.
Even government MP Premanath Dolawatte wanted the COPE Chairman removed. He said: ‘the government will not object if the Opposition MPs move a motion to remove the incumbent COPE Chairman. I, too, saw the video and it is clear that the concerns raised by the Opposition MPs are genuine.’
The matter was further compounded by the presence of a mystery figure in the COPE proceedings, who was later identified as the COPE Chairman’s son.
What was he doing there? Was he on vacation from the US where he was studying and volunteered to contribute his time and expertise for a few days and assist his papa in the crucial engagement for which neither the
Government nor any other body expended a single rupee on his behalf either for his involvement in these engagements or at any other time, as Foreign Minister Sabry had explained the similar presence of his son in the official delegation at the United Nations in September? No, the explanation was more pedestrian. Bandara said his son was there as his media officer.
When the opposition MPs complained, Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena agreed with them it was wrong and gave his assurance that the matter would be probed. He said, ‘It is wrong if the COPE Chairman's son Kanishka Bandara participated in the committee meeting on Tuesday. It has been informed that he has come in the capacity of Professor Bandara's media officer. A probe will be conducted into the matter anyway.’
A document that surfaced in social media also put the COPE chairman in a spot. It claimed he had been a consultant for the Cricket Board’s Kandy
Cricket Campus project in 2018. It claimed Professor Bandara had sat for meetings with SLC CEO Ashley de Silva, Professor Asoka Tillakawardane who has been the project manager, Sunil Ariyaratne, Janaka Kuruppu coordinator to Project Manager.
Professor Bandara told the Daily Mirror that he did get involved in the project back in 2018 but kept away from the project once he became an MP. He said: ‘I developed the concept of Kandy Cricket Campus but I did not accept any payment for it. I worked on a voluntary basis.’ Sajith Premadasa further charged that it has also been found that the Colombo Business School, headed by Professor Bandara, has reached a business deal with the Cricket Board.
Far too many allegations have been cast on his conduct that Bandara’s position as COPE’s Chairman seems no longer tenable and he should go. On Friday the Speaker suspended further COPE sittings stating, ‘until issues pertaining to its chairman are resolved.’
Perhaps all the hullabaloo that has effectively stalled the Parliamentary inquiry to a halt, suits the Cricket Board’s agenda just fine.