A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, August 8, 2017
An Appeal To The President
Mr President,
The media frenzy, following the testimony by
Minister for Foreign Affairs and National Lotteries on Wednesday, 02
August before the Commission of Inquiry appointed by you and his claims
‘I did not know’ and ‘I cannot remember’ to the origins of his over a
million rupees a month abode for half a year, has been unprecedent.
6.2 million voters took your word and elected you to the highest office in the land on January 09, 2015. The bond scam took place within six weeks of your election to office on a Good Governance platform.
Both
electronic and print media besides social media and gossip columns are
agog with news reports and comments related to the minister’s testimony.
The rumor mills are working overtime. The current guessing game in some
sections of the media and political circles of minister concerned being
requested by you to resign and his denials is unbecoming.
Despite
the difficulty in accepting statement made by the Minister for Foreign
Affairs and National Lotteries of not having known the origins of the
luxury apartment obtained by his wife and daughter, he, currently must
be given the benefit of doubt and considered innocent till proven
guilty.
However,
his ministerial functions related to foreign affairs necessitates him
to meet world leaders, representatives from multi-lateral organizations
and a host of opinion makers in the international community. The United
Nations General Assembly is due to begin in September and he would
either represent this nation or at least be a member of the delegation.
To carry out such duties on behalf of the nation while being under a
corruption cloud amounts to shaming the nation. Besides, it is
unethical.
In developed countries, similar situations would result in ministers tendering their resignation post-haste. Maintaining current status quo is not a viable option.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s newly appointed Defense Minister Sylvie Goulard had
to resign from government after a magistrate launched a preliminary
investigation into allegations of her party misusing European parliament
funds. Similarly, President Macron’s Justice Minister, Francois Bayrou,
tasked with promoting a law to clean up politics, a key election pledge
by Macron, resigned following allegations of misuse of European
Parliament funds by his party. It may be noted, both resignations took
place prior to commencement of investigations.
Your
indecision to remove former Governor of Central Bank till such time his
contract expired earned you no plaudits. Let there be no repetition.
You
will recollect, you travelled to London in May 2016 at state expense to
participate at the Anti-corruption summit in London, hosted by former
British Prime Minister David Cameron. During your address, you stated;
“The people reacted strongly against corruption by changing the corrupt
administration by the power of the ballot, by changing the government in
January 2015 at the Presidential election and again at the
parliamentary election in August 2015. The people acting democratically
got rid of the corrupt leaders and their supporters”. Let not nature
repeat itself in 2020
Your
Prime Minister and your good-self erred when you appointed the minister
concerned as Finance Minister in January 2015 while he was under
investigation for money laundering. He could have been appointed after
he was exonerated of charges.
This
is an appeal to avoid making a similar mistake. For the sake of what is
left of the good name of this country, your government and your name,
the minister concerned should be requested to step down till the
Commission of Inquiry has completed its deliberations and arrived at its
conclusions. He could always be reappointed, if and when his name has
been cleared.
I
quote once again from your speech at the Anti-corruption summit in
London; “The current national unity government, consisting of the two
major political parties in the parliament, one under my leadership and
the other led by Prime Minister Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe, we were
elected to office on the policy platform of good governance, democracy,
and rule of law. Therefore, we consider it our prime duty to root out
corruption from the country.”
Deeds Mr President and not words are the need of the hour.