Gammanpila drops his dung in the nation’s pot of milk
While the entire country, including senior members of the joint opposition, have welcomed the appointment of Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy as the new Governor of the Central Bank, one lone figure, namely, Udaya Gammanpila, has crawled out from his remand prison to come out to the open and drop his excreta on the nation’s pot of milk.
After being sprung from a remand cell where he had been kept incarcerated on a charge of “using a forged power-of-attorney to sell shares held by Digital Nominees (Pty) Ltd and thereby causing a misappropriation of Rs. 110 million”, Udaya Gammanpila was released back into society on bail last Thursday.
Like those insects that perish in light denied, he immediately sought the limelight of television cameras to recharge his egoist cells and denounce the appointment of Dr. Coomaraswamy. At the media event held this Tuesday, he charged: “Coomaraswamy was involved in an insider trading case. Founder of the Galleon Group, an Americanbased investment fund management firm Raj Rajaratnam was jailed for 11-years in that case. In 2009, when the incident took place, our newly appointed Central Bank Governor was an adviser to what he had to say. “I set a framework when I was in London to provide him with macroeconomic research. He knew my background and he wanted me to help. This happened for about 10 to 11 months and then he was charged. So it took about a year after that for me to legally wind up the operations,” he said. “My job was to provide him with research reports, I provided him with professional services.”
Perhaps Gammanpila does not understand the independent nature of professionals. That professionals are independent entities who are merely paid for their professional services and are not tainted by the company their professional life demands they keep, even as lawyers representing swindlers cannot be branded as despicable rogues.
To their credit, Dinesh Gunawardena, Bandula Gunawardena and other seniors of the joint opposition have hailed President Sirisena’s choice of Dr. Coomaraswamy as the new Governor. The sooner Udaya Gammanpila, this wagging tail of JO and acolyte of opportunity, crawls back into the hole from whence he emerged, the better it will be for the rest of decent society.