President and defense secretary appoint corrupt officers who deserve to be chased out from the forces to high rungs !

(Lanka-e-News- 13.Feb.2016, 11.45PM) Karunasena Hettiarachi an ignoramus on security affairs despite being the  defense sectreary along with president Maithripala have appointed three most incompetent corrupt individuals yesterday and a few days ago to high ranks of the Air Force and the army.

They are Air Vice Marshal Ranil Gurusinghe as the chief of staff of the Air force, Major General Milinda Peiris and Major General Sumedha Perera as the chief of staff and deputy chief of staff of the  army respectively. These are individuals who don’t deserve even a place in the forces that respect discipline ,and should be kicked out from the forces ,owing to their past misconduct and weaknesses  let alone their unsuitability based on competence. 

Major General Milinda Peiris

Milinda Peiris who was appointed as the chief of staff yesterday evening is a disgraceful  villainous officer who openly breached  army discipline by openly participating  in the last presidential election campaign of ex president Mahinda Rajapakse while summoning the soldiers and delivering political lectures to them .Under the army Act , he is liable to punishment for the wrongdoings committed by him with full knowledge.Moreover he was the one who heard the case in Gotabaya’s mean one sided  military court against General Fonseka , dragging the General  into it after latter’s retirement. Milinda became most notorious for giving an unfair  verdict prejudicial  against Fonseka. 

It is significant to note that the present commander in chief of the forces abrogated  the punishment meted out to Fonseka , because the verdict against Fonseka delivered by  the military court was erroneous , and not for any other reason. The irony of it is ,  the individual who heard the case in the military court , and whose decision was considered as wrong and tantamount to  a Kekille court judgment , is being appointed now as the second in command of the army by the same commander in chief of the forces who earlier  decided that the military court gave a wrong verdict. This  move only means that the army is being further degraded , and  the army discipline is being wantonly demolished instead of being developed. 

Major General Sumedha Perera 

Lanka e news has made a number of exposures regarding this individual who acquired a notoriety simply because of  the egregious wrongs committed by him. The main wrongdoing of his among the many is : When he was a major he transferred a land in Obeysekera belonging to Obeysekera walauwa to himself by writing a forged deed. As a punishment for this criminal fraud , he was dismissed from the army. 

However after Gotabaya Rajapakse became defense secretary , since  Sumedha Perera was his bootlicking lackey while he was in the Gajaba regiment , and because he was a pro Rajapakse lickspittle and crony ,Sumedha was recalled to the army , granted double and treble promotions to make him a major general .

Let us make it abundantly clear  that Sumedha was punished for his monumental deed fraud not by a Kekille military court that delivered wrong verdict against Fonseka , rather by a recognized civil court of the country based on valid and genuine legal grounds. Therefore a president who is elected by the people for good governance ought to do if he is to fulfil their aspirations truly is : take steps to  restore justice   where injustice was done by dismissing  Sumedha Perera from the post he was illegally appointed to by  Gotabaya , and chase him out of the army- the treatment he deserves best . Instead, by propelling Sumedha to the post of deputy chief of staff , never can an army that respects discipline be re-built. 

Air Vice Marshal Ranil Gurusinghe 

Krisanthus Ranil Gurusinghe who was appointed as the chief of staff of the Air Force a few days ago is a worse scoundrel than the two officers aforementioned. He was found guilty of flying a helicopter while being in a drunken state , killing two individuals and then destroying the helicopter on 27 th May 1985 . He faced a sentence following punishment meted out to him. 

The punishment meted out to him was : 20 years in jail, no promotions, and life time ban on flying helicopters. Though he amended his 20 years jail sentence on an appeal , the life time ban on his helicopter fllying still stands.  Through bootlicking and doing sordid biddings of the Rajapakses , he managed to withdraw the prohibition on  his promotions , to get himself promoted.

The most bizarre drama is , the good governance government appointing  an individual who is officially forbidden to fly helicopters during his whole life to the post  of second in command of the Air Force . Besides ,in seniority too he is very much below , and most corrupt.  Though Ranil Gurusinghe is fully answerable ,nobody knows what happened to the sum of   Rs. 18 million collected by giving  helicopters on hire for  the Indian oil drilling operations . If he is to be exposed fully , a separate article has to be written. He is not only  absolutely unsuitable for the new post , but is one against whom an immediate inquiry shall be instituted to chase him out of the Air Force.Hence , by making this appointment the Air Force is not going to be elevated in its stature . The president himself would have understood what amount of damage resulted by making Gagan Bulathsingala another corrupt incompetent officer as the Air Force commander when the latter’s  daughter shamelessly pounced on foreign singer Enrique and kissed in public insulting the whole Sinhala race, and sparking   a huge scandal  . By now if he is a sane and sensible  president he should have think  , how can Gagan who cannot bring up properly or  control his own daughter at home , build the image of the Air force? Though Gagan took his daughter to the president to beg  and plead for pardon , and the president gave the pardon , surely the president cannot give pardon to Gagan for the monumental frauds and corruption committed by him while being in the Air Force  – he  can only be punished by the president .

There are plenty of  senior officers in the forces who are maintaining a clean slate who can be offered these positions . There is no  mandatory requirement to appoint these   corrupt and incompetent  individuals. It is hence a curse on the country that the president as defense minister  , and his classmate Karunasena Hettiarachi who is his defense secretary haven’t the suitability or the ability   to choose the right candidates for the high rung posts in the Forces. Every appointment of this duo is a square peg in a round hole.

These are  corrupt officers during their whole lifetime did their best to keep the worst corrupt brutal Rajapakse regime in power.  Therefore president Maithripala must think a little deeper and understand , by appointing these corrupt and inefficient Rajapakse stooges and scoundrels to the high rungs of the Forces , the good governance government which is in its infancy cannot be safeguarded .

In the event of the government meeting with disaster  most unlikely though , it would not be possible to search and find even a part  of the president’s  remains .At least he  must have an understanding pertaining to  protecting his  own life let alone the country. 

Late J.R Jayawardena did not seek to secure the post of defense ministry of which he had no knowledge . He entrusted that to Lalith Athulathmudali who was qualified abroad even when his son Ravi Jayawardena was highly qualified abroad as a specialist  in  defense affairs.Late president R. Premadasa too did not seek to be the defense minister as he had no knowledge in that sphere , and entrusted that ministry to Ranjan Wijeratne. Even Chandrika held only the deputy defense ministry post while handing over the defense minstry to Colonel Anuraddha Ratwatte , and did not interfere in that sphere .

Then why Maithripala ?

The country is indeed  lucky that there is no war after Maithripala became  president .

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by     (2016-02-14 00:05:43)