President demands PSC halted at Friday night surprise Cabinet meet

By Gagani Weerakoon -JUN 09 2019

Ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s short visit to Sri Lanka, President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday (7) evening called an urgent special Cabinet meeting, leaving every sensible citizen with bated breath as it was too soon to forget President Sirisena chose Fridays to give political surprises  ever since the constitutional impasse on 26 October 2018.

President Sirisena’s call for a special Cabinet meeting came at a time when a group of his party members started lobbying for him to become the SLFP Presidential Candidate despite him allegedly pledging support to a UNP-led candidate.

The anxiety levels shot-up as the timing of the special Cabinet meeting also fell a few hours after IGP Pujith Jayasundara who is on compulsory leave and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando indirectly pointing fingers at the President  for being not so level headed when it comes to bureaucrats.

President Sirisena at the hurriedly summoned special Cabinet meeting Friday night warned the Government to immediately stop the proceedings of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Easter Sunday attack.

President Sirisena has also threatened not to hold Cabinet meetings in the event Government is determined to continue the PSC proceedings.
He has threatened to do so following a heated argument with a few ministers at the Cabinet meeting.

“You have appointed the Malalgoda Committee to probe this. It was also promised to submit the report in two weeks. Forget about making it public, the report has not even being presented in Parliament,” one of the ministers had pointed out.

The President had said that the report will come to Parliament at the right time.

“Those reports will be presented in Parliament in due course. There are five cases filed in the Supreme Court in connection with the Easter Sunday bomb attacks out of which I have also been connected.
 If this is the way you are going to act by opening PSC proceedings to media and divulging sensitive security information to the public, I will not hold the Cabinet meeting hereafter.
I will also not attend any of the Government functions or programmes. You act on your own accord and I shall not support the Government,” the President has reprimanded.

He has also said that it is absolutely unacceptable for the intelligence officers to be summoned before the PSC and that he would not let information pertaining to national security be compromised through the media.

He had also taken Speaker Karu Jayasuriya to task for not presenting a memorandum he sent in which the President had shared the sentiments expressed by the Attorney General.
He pointed out that the Attorney General has informed him about the implications that could have on the pending cases due to information revealed in the PSC, thus requesting necessary action.

“I sent it to the Speaker but it is disappointing that he chose not to present it in Parliament,” he added.

He also said that he can even give the information he has to all the MPs even if all 225 of them came to him seeking that information.

He also said that he could not understand as to why the Government ministers do not understand the gravity of the information being revealed in this manner and what threat such poses to the national security.

 IGP Jayasundara, appearing before the PSC on Thursday admitted that he received phone calls from both, State Intelligence Service (SIS) Director Nilantha Jayawardena and former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, who said "tomorrow will be dangerous, something can happen.”

Called and informed

Jayasundara said, “I received those phone calls between 6:30 – 7:00 p.m. on the day before Easter Sunday. But they did not tell me anything other than that. Fernando called and informed that Jayawardena had given him the information to that effect.
However, I was not given any instructions as to what the Police should do in that scenario. But, I informed Senior Deputy Inspectors General (SDIG) who were in charge of the Provinces, about it.
 The problem I have about this is why the highest authorities on national security did not give me any order or instructions to act in that situation.
There are statutory limitations as to what to do and how far Police could act without having orders from the top in such sensitive situations.”
The PSC member Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka seconded Jayasundara’s point at this juncture.

Fonseka: “The DIGs cannot handle that kind of situation alone. The decisions and orders should come from the Defence Minister.”

Jayasundara: “In the morning of 21 April, I was reading situation development reports received from Police stations. Between 6:45 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. Nilantha Jayawardena again called me and said, “Something could happen today.”

PSC Member M. A. Sumanthiran: “Did you ask him whom he had informed about that, other than you?”

Jayasundara: “No. That was not the practice. According to the practice the National Intelligence Chief, Sisira Mendis, must have been definitely made aware of it.
The SIS does not need to tell me about the entire situation and I have to believe and accept what the SIS tells me. That was the relationship between us and the SIS.”

Jayasundara also said that in March 2018, the SIS ordered the Terrorism Investigation Division’s (TID) probe into Zahran and his group be halted.

Giving testimony after Jayasundara, former Defence Ministry Secretary Hemasiri Fernando said that on 21 April, around 7:30 to 8:00 a.m. the SIS Director called him and asked what the main Methodist churches in Colombo are.

“When I asked him why, he told me that he received information a short while ago that there might be a terror attack on Methodist churches, not on Catholic churches as he was informed earlier.
Within 15 minutes I found out the names of churches and let him know. After another 15 minutes I got to know that a blast had happened in a hotel.”

Fernando said that he did not inform the President about the intelligence reports he received from the SIS Director Jayawardena, not even the information he got on the Easter Sunday terror attack.

“I tried to do that twice on intelligence reports (not related to the terror attack) but the President told me that he was already informed about it by Jayawardena. After that I never informed to him about the SIS intelligence reports.
Once I asked Jayawardena about this and he told me that he had been directly informing the President about intelligence reports for four years. He also said that he sent those reports to the IGP through Sisira Mendis.
 That was why I did not inform the President about the information on the terror attack. I thought the SIS had already briefed him about it.”

“The NSC did not discuss about the NTJ according to my memory. But they always talked about Makandure Madush and some other stuff.”

Fernando also said that sometimes he had to wait for weeks to get an appointment from the President to have one to one discussions.

“I was helpless. One day I had to wait for more than three hours to get his signature on a document. I could not even meet the President once in every two weeks.”

When asked why, by the PSC members, Fernando replied, "He had no time”.

“I saw that the President has told the Media that he asked both me and the IGP to resign.
 But he did not ask me to resign. That was a big lie. Jayasundara one day phoned me around 9 p.m. and said the President asked him to resign. He told me the President told him, “I cannot take responsibility for that.
I was not even in the country.” Jayasundara had asked what he should do. I told him that I was not in a position to give him advice in that connection. But I sought a one-to-one meeting with the President on the next day.
During that meeting I asked the President why he wanted Jayasundara to resign. He told me the same thing he had told Jayasundara.
I felt that it was the right time for me to resign because the President asked an official who was under my authority to resign over the terror attacks. I told him about it and he was very pleased about me resigning. He never asked me to resign. It was my decision.”

Meanwhile, President’s Counsel Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe in letter addressed to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya citing the limitations on revealing matters on national security  says as per the provisions of the Official Secrets Act No. 32 of 1955 releasing secret information or documents to another party is a punishable offence.

A person with no legal right to obtain such information, possessing the information is a punishable act. He further stated that any individual shall be liable to 14 years of imprisonment, for a term not exceeding two years and shall also be liable to a fine not exceeding twenty thousand rupees.
The letter sent to the Speaker has warned about the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee which reveals such information.
In the letter, PC Rajapakshe also pointed out that the exposure of intelligence puts the citizens and the country at risk.

The Indian factor

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka today (9), at the invitation of the President of Sri Lanka.
This will be part of the first overseas trip of Prime Minister Modi after his re-election. He will carry the message of solidarity and hope from people of India to the people of Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of 21 April attacks.

Taranjit Singh Sandhu, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka inaugurated the 21st Diploma Course in Diplomacy and World Affairs at the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute (BIDTI) in Colombo on Friday spoke about India’s foreign policy with special emphasis on national security, and also touched upon various aspects of India-Sri Lanka relations.

Terrorism and radicalism pose a collective threat to humanity. The recent attacks in Sri Lanka, is not just against Sri Lanka. Terrorism anywhere in the world attacks the conscience of the whole humanity; it attacks the human spirit that we are one.
The divisive Jihadi ideology needs to be isolated and eliminated, as it is a threat to regional security and global peace. PM Modi has offered all possible assistance in this regard, should Sri Lanka require, the High Commissioner said.

Extended neighbourhood

He also said,  “The first day of PM Modi in office after the swearing in ceremony was dedicated to meeting the leaders from the neighbourhood and extended neighbourhood, including from Sri Lanka. It is a reflection of the importance that India attaches to the special relations with its neighbours.

“India has always been a First Responder to Sri Lanka’s needs and priorities. Whether it be the flood or the drought, India has been the first to respond with men and material.
India has also completed several people-oriented development projects all across the island, as pure gifts from people of India.

“India-Sri Lanka relations have seen landmark changes in the last five years. PM Modi became the first Prime Minister of India to visit Sri Lanka after a gap of 28 years, with his historic visit to the island in March 2015.
He visited Sri Lanka again in May 2017 as Chief Guest at the International Vesak Day celebrations.
The decisive mandate for PM Modi in the recent elections in India is a reflection of support for continuation of the Government’s policies. The continuation and further strengthening of these policies is also in Sri Lanka’s interest.

“The core aim of India’s foreign policy is to ensure safety and security of its 1.3 billion people and meet their genuine developmental aspirations. While pursuing India’s objectives, India is not governed by self-interest alone.
India has always believed in sharing its developmental successes. Growing together has been the basic tenet of India’s foreign policy. As Prime Minister Modi has said, India seeks a future for the Indian Ocean that lives up to the name of SAGAR- Security and Growth for All in the Region.

“Individual countries cannot remain peaceful, secure and prosperous, if the region and world at large were to be in turmoil. It is a highly interconnected world today. We cannot banish other’s misery as his or her own problem; it is as much as ours as his or hers. It is in our individual and collective interest to maintain world peace and collective stability.”

PM Modi’s visit also happens few days after Sri Lanka signed a joint agreement with India and Japan to develop the East Container Terminal (EST) of the Colombo Port.

Meanwhile, JVP’s Bimal Rathnayake said in Parliament that it was unacceptable that the Government was signing secret Agreements with foreign nations where national assets were at stake.

“When you are in power, some countries and some powerful companies might force you to come to certain agreements with them.
 That is the nature of today’s politics. But you do not need to kneel before them and do whatever they want you to do. You have duties and obligations to the people of this country.
How can you sign agreements with foreign countries in secret? What right do you have to do something like that? That is why we came up with this suggestion. Before signing sensitive agreements with foreign countries, you should present them to Parliament and get the approval of a two-thirds majority.

 By doing so, you can tell foreign countries that you cannot enter into agreements with them because Parliament rejected the agreements. You may not have a backbone to reject foreign offers directly. That is fine. But in this manner you can get away from their pressure.”