Dayasiri J must come clean on million bond scam ' santhosam'
Former Sports Minister of this Government, Kurunegala District MP Dayasiri Jayasekera stands indicted in the public dock this Sunday morn after the Police filed a B report in a magisterial court on Thursday claiming that he had received a cheque for one million rupees from Walt and Row Associates, a subsidiary company of Perpetual Treasuries owned by the man at the epicentre of the 5 billion buck bond scam Arjuna Aloysius.
According to a statement given by a police officer to the CID, who was attached to Mr. Dayasiri Jayasekara’s security in 2015, it was revealed that, on June 13, 2015 Mr. Jayasekera had asked him, Amila Kumara Herath, to encash a cheque bearing number 566635 which had been issued by Walt & Row Associates. The current account number was 0073900773.
To Dayasiri’s credit he did not deny the allegation but only endangered his credibility when he took the stance of professing ignorance as to the source of the cheque. Even as Ravi Karunanayake denied all knowledge that he was occupying a penthouse suite at Crescat Towers whilst he was the Finance Minister, courtesy of the hospitality extended to him and his family by the new philanthropist in town Mr. Bond, Arjun Bond.
His statement on Friday in Parliament the day after the scandal broke on Thursday was thus:
“There was a cash cheque given during the 2015 election campaign. I was not an MP then. I got many contributions from businessmen during the election campaign and I didn’t know who they all are. If I had known it was from Perpetual Treasuries owned by Aloysius, I would have not taken it.”
The first question that must be asked and answered is whether or no Dayasiri Jayasekera failed to realise that any cheque leaf in any cheque book issued by any bank, has the name of the issuer imprinted on it? Was it mere carelessness on his part not to have noticed who had made a donation to him of a million bucks out of love and that made him make a police constable in his official public paid bodyguard unit to rush to the bank and encash and hand over the dough?
Secondly, it’s true that he was the Chief Minister of the Wayamba Province when the bond scam came to light in February 2015; and when he received his one million bonanza on July 13th 2015, on the day he handed over his nomination papers to contest the August general election. But pause for a second. As the then people’s representative of the Wayamba Province, is he implying that he was totally unaware of Walt and Row Associates, of Perpetual Treasuries, of Arjun Aloysius now in remand, of Arjuna Mahendran now a fugitive? Or did he fail to exercise caution and cast it to the winds in his need to make ends meet, no matter the name of the Greek who sent him a million buck gift?
But with President Sirisena dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh general elections on June 27th 2015, isn’t it also true that Dayasiri had well made known in advance his intention to contest the August hustings and thrown down the glove as a SLFP candidate from Kurunegala even as the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa had announced the same personal intention to make his comeback not from his Hambantota hometown but from the lofty heights of Kurunegala’s elephant rock?
Sorry, Mr. Dayasiri. His puerile excuse that he was only the chief Minister of the Wayamba Province and not a member of Parliament when he accepted the cheque for one million will sadly not suffice. Wasn’t he as the chief minister no less of the entire province the people’s reprehensive, the same representative the people of the Kurunegala District sent to Parliament in August 2015? What’s the difference in accepting a cheque from bond scam Aloysius as chief minister of the North Western Province or as a member of parliament from Kurunegala?
Furthermore Dayasiri’s puerile excuse that he did not know from where the cheque for a million bucks came from, will, also, sadly not do to convince the people, for isn’t there much to be desired as far as credibility goes in the statement he made in Parliament this Friday?
For it's not worthy, in fact it is totally unbecoming of a people’s representative, be he a provincial councilor or a parliament member, to publicly state that he did not bother to find the identity -- although it was clearly printed on the cheque leaf -- of this million manna from some perpetual heaven that suddenly floated and fell onto one’s lap? And rushed to send a cop to cash it, as the B report filed by the police on Thursday claimed.
He owes a more credible explanation to the Lanka people for his conduct especially since his subsequent relationship with Aloysius which he did not divulge was revealed in the newspapers.
The SUNDAY PUNCH of Novermber 19th 2017 commented thus:
On Friday the 17th of November last year, JO MP Udaya Gammanpila urged the Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekera -- who pole vaulted from the UNP to the Mahinda’s SLFP when Rajapaksa was in power seemed invincible and did a reverse somersault to Maithri’s SLFP when Sirisena won -- to clear his name by seeking Speaker Karu Jayasuriya intervention to initiate a probe. Gammanpila’s assertion was that in accordance with the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Act No 2 of 1953, the Supreme Court could be moved against Perpetual Treasuries owner Arjun Aloysius or anyone else accused of exerting pressure on a parliamentary committee and if found guilty, he or she could face a jail term up to two years.
Minister Jayasekera's immediate reported response was to say: “Ask my COPE colleagues whether I have said a word in support of Treasury bond racketeers." Alas, the public have no direct access to his COPE colleagues and inquire from them what the minister said or did not say to them. What a pity, Minister Jayasekera had to wait for so long till the storm blew in his face to reveal his one to one, face to face, behind closed door meeting with primary bond dealer Aloysius at a time when the 5 billion buck bond dealer was the subject of a COPE inquiry of which committee Minister Jayasekera was a member. How more persuading would have been his belated explanation had he taken the public to his confidence and revealed to the nation then, Aloysius’s alleged solicitation of backroom favours from a Government Minister?
Though he made and received 18 calls to and from Aloysius, and only one incoming and one outgoing during the period he served as a member of COPE, he had gone the extra mile to grant Aloysius a private audience with him behind closed doors at his ministerial office. And he had not considered it vital to inform his fellow COPE committee members of the meeting that the man, who was the subject matter of the COPE probe, had solicited his help.
He admitted that there was a “major issue” in the fact that members of the COPE Committee had conversations with Arjun Aloysius. He said, “Yes of course there is a major issue.” But said he found no need to tell anyone that, apart from voice calls on the telephone, he had actually met the man in flesh and blood in the privacy of his ministerial office. Whether it was a one to one meeting or one surrounded by public officials he did not say.
His explanation was: ““Yes I met him once and we spoke on the phone twice. But I don’t think it was needed to declare to anyone that I met him.”
No doubt about it, that in this backdrop, the former SLFP member, the former UNP member, the former Mahinda Rajapaksa supporter, the former Wayamba chief Minister, the former Maithripala supporter after Mahinda fell from grace, the former Sports Minister, and now in no man’s land waiting for the Rajapaksa summons to pole vault to the Rajapaksa camp, Dayasiri Jayasekera certainly owes an explanation to the people who elected him to various offices in good faith.
No man is guilty unless proved otherwise beyond reasonable doubt. But that maxim does not exclude the right of any man to venture forth and declare beyond reasonable doubt his total innocence of the allegations made against him,
And rather than leave damning allegations contained in the police B report filed in a magistrate court this Thursday, which Dayasiri has already admitted its essential truths, the Veritas of its contents that yes, he did receive a cheque for one million bucks and sent a cop to cash it for him but he did not know from whom it came though the issuer’s name is printed on the leaf, the only saving grace left for him is extend to the public a more convincing credible explanation than he did this Friday to Parliament.
Dayasiri must now come clean. If only to prove that Lankan politicians of all colours do not come so ridiculously cheap.
PS: One final question: And this time it’s for you, the reader, to answer: If you suddenly get a cheque for a million bucks from Veley Sudha to be used for any purpose you wish, will you bank it? Encash it through another? Serve on a quasi judicial bench probing Veley Sudha? And keep it secret for three years before the cops come knocking at your door?
Though he made and received 18 calls to and from Aloysius, and only one incoming and one outgoing during the period he served as a member of COPE, he had gone the extra mile to grant Aloysius a private audience with him behind closed doors at his ministerial office.