Nil Balakaya & president’s son avoid casino act!

 Saturday, 26 April 2014

At the vote on the draft bill, named the strategic development project for the construction of three casino hotels, MP Namal Rajapaksa and member MPs of his Nil Balakaya has refrained from voting and avoided parliament.

Since there would be two votes taken with regard to this act, the chief government whip had ordered that all ruling MPs should be present there in the House and that they should vote in support. However, this action by MPs of Nil Balakaya had created a serious disturbance, both within and outside parliament.

MP Namal Rajapaksa and his cronies Sajin Vaas Gunawardena, Manusha Nanayakkara, Uditha Lokubandara, Lohan Ratwatte, Roshan Ranasinghe, Kanaka Herath, V.K. Indika, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana, Chamika Buddhadasa, Neranjan Wickremasinghe, Eric Prasanna Weerawardena, Shehan Semasinghe, Tharanath Basnayake, Wasantha Senanayake, Vidura Wickramanayake were all absent at the vote on April 24.

A senior minister of the government said to us that the president had told his son, MP Namal, to refrain from voting as he has been much shaken by the public statement by Malwatte Maha Nayake Thera regarding a toppling of the government and the pressure exerted by Mahanayake Theras and other religious leaders in the past few days.

After watching the statement by the Malwatte Mahanayake Thera through the internet, the president has shouted out in a rage, “I had offered X class Benz cars to these impostor monks. Sent them on free foreign trips. Gave money at every request. They are doing this to me after I did all these,” according to our Temple Trees sources.

In this scenario, the president had acted to wash his hands off the strategic development project.

When the act was first presented to parliament, as the finance minister, the president had got together with the investment promotion minister, but this time around, the full responsibility was shouldered by investment promotion minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena.

Commenting on this, the senior minister of the government told us that the president is acting with the sole objective of making MP Namal Rajapaksa the president. Every time controversial decisions are taken, president Mahinda Rajapaksa distances his son from all of them. The best recent example is that the president had advised his son to refrain from voting at the vote on the impeachment against 43rd chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake.