Thursday, March 31, 2016

Will Gotabaya come to parliament through a national seat?

Mar 30, 2016
Political reports substantiate senior members of the SLFP has proposed president to offer a national list post for the former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The senior SFLP members believes that this would be the best solution to foil the campaign taken by Mahinda Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa to divide the Sri Lanka Freedom party. Therefore in order to present a parliament MP post a new MP elected to the parliament is planning to step down.

The senior SLFP’s believe that the president would also comply with this request. They point out although president Maithripala Sirisena showed his willingness to nominate Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the general election but due to the objection of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was not given an opportunity. It is learnt that Prime Minister Ranil Wicramasinghe has no objection for taking Gotabaya in to the government. Meantime during the last phase of the Rajapaksa era, Gotabaya Rajapaksa has personally intervened and provided security to Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wicramasinghe. Due to this it appears they all have a special friendship.

However sources close to Gotabaya Rajapaksa substantiate that he is not reluctant to get a parliament MP post. He believes he can defeat all powers against him by entering the parliament as a representative for the former president and answer too allegations leveled by the field Marshall Sarath Fonseka who is hiding behind parliamentary privileges and castigating Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka leveled many allegations against the Rajapaksa’s recently.

Meanwhile during a discussion held at Mahinda Amaraweera’s house, John Senevirathna and Dilan Perera has given their opinion about taking Gotabaya Rajapaksa in to the government.

They emphasize when a position is given to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the current baseless allegations charged towards the government would be inhibited. They said there is a high welcome to Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the middle class society.

However the opinion of the intelligence unit formed for the immigration of Gotabaya Rajapaksa to the politics, say that Gotabaya Rajapaksa should still remain quiet for some time. They has substantiated that Gotabaya Rajapaksa should not participate any of the rallies organized by Mahinda Rajapaksa or the joint opposition. Therefore he refrained participating for any of the joint opposition gatherings recently. When we inquired about this he said “I am not in to any of this”. Meantime he said he would never join to any of the May Day rally or any other rallies organized by the joint opposition.

The desire of the racist members of the joint opposition is to appoint Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the leader of their group. Mahinda Rajapaksa has become against for this and told that all affairs should be implemented with the knowledge of Basil Rajapaksa. The joint opposition substantiate that Mahinda Rajapaksa have a strong desire to bring Namal Rajapaksa forward. The intention to create a division in the SLFP is also to exert pressure to Maithripala Sirisena and obtain a top position to Namal in the SLFP. News substantiates a special group has spoken with the Maithri party about this. In addition to a top post in the SLFP, Mahinda Rajapaksa has urged Maithri to give the deputy foreign minister post to Namal Rajapaksa. Apart this, dissolving the Financial Crime Investigating Unit (FCID) and to stop all the current investigations conducted against his family members. During last few weeks there were discussions between Namal Rajapaksa and this special agents and Namal Rajapaksa has been given a responsibility to manage Mahinda Rajapaksa. The attacks Mahinda Rajapaksa unleash against the president has hindered this discussions.

Subash Jayawardana

Source : Sathhanda

Translated by Azgar