President Sirisena’s hard-hitting speech at Ven. Sobitha Thera’s commemoration

By Janitha Devapriya

All newspapers carried the President’s speech made on 30th May at the Foundation Institute in their front pages while the electronic media covered excerpts in their news bulletins. He contradicted the front-page story of a popular English Daily on how Malaysia’s newly-elected PM Mahathir Mohammed handled corruption within five days of coming to power whereas in Sri Lanka a question mark hangs even after three years. I am sure the Editor will respond to that. What I wish to comment on is the other startling issues he raised in his speech. 

He is reported to have said that “some people say if anyone contested the Presidential Election as the common candidate they could have won. If so they could have done so. I was used as the common candidate as I was a clean politician and came forward as a lion despite life threats.” 

No one will point a finger at him about his past conduct but he was identified as the common candidate because he was acceptable to many political and civil society leaders including the Maha Sangha. Yes, he may wish to portray himself as a lion but regrettably some of the lions were apparently asleep when former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, referred to by none other than Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the best commander in the world, was unceremoniously hauled up before a hastily arranged court martial on frivolous charges and imprisoned and when the country’s 43rd Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was impeached by a Kangaroo Court-like Parliamentary Committee which found her guilty and the motion was carried with 155 then-government MPs voting for it and 49 against it. One wonders how many lions were among the 155. The lions in slumber apparently did not notice the Rathupaswela, Chilaw and Katunayake incidents where a few young people lost their lives after defence forces shot them and not to forget journalists Lasantha Wickrematunga who was murdered in broad daylight and Pradeep Eknaligoda who disappeared without a trace. Some of the other corrupt activities of the previous regime were tacitly approved by then Government party MPs.

100-day program

He went on to say: “After I was sworn in as the President on 9 January, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as the Prime Minister. However, the UNP had only 47 seats in Parliament then. How can a Government be formed with only 47 seats? ... These people came up with a 100-day program, which didn’t include a dissolving of Government. If that program was not in place, the main task available was to dissolve Parliament. The 100-day program was one of the silliest things ever undertaken by this Government.” 

It is surprising to hear him say this because the election manifesto of Maithripala Sirisena issued on 19 December 2014 on page 9 under item 8 said: “Along with the political leaders and people who are with me, I will implement the program of stabilising the country in two stages. The first stage is the 100-day program to solve urgent issues. For that purpose, a National Unity Government will be established for a 100-day interim period. This program will be implemented through a national government comprising the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, United National Party, Jathika Hela Urumaya and people’s representatives of all other political parties that are represented in Parliament who are willing to join the program. The Leader of the Opposition Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe will be appointed as the Prime Minister of this National Government .”

UNP backing

Ironically, this manifesto was issued under Maithripala Sirisena’s signature. It does well to remember that the President was elected with the total backing of the United National Party though they had only 47 seats in Parliament and the Common Candidate Sirisena mustered 6.3 million votes, the majority of which were from UNPers along with the ethnic minorities in the north, east and other parts of the country. All SLFP Members of Parliament worked against Sirisena and wholeheartedly supported Mahinda Rajapaksa, with some of them talking disparagingly about the common candidate. These were the MPs who were in Parliament when the UNP wanted to form a National Unity Government.

His comment, ‘Who provided helicopters to former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to go to Tangalle unharmed after the presidential election results were announced? Was it me? No! It was so and so’, this  may be a mild shot at the PM. However, it should be remembered that the coterie of Mahinda Rajapaksa like G.L. Peiris, Mohan Peiris and his close crony MPs wanted him to be entrenched at Temple Trees and not give up power. It was a wise thing then to get him as far away as possible from Colombo as otherwise President-elect Maithripala Sirisena, who was yet to take oath and assume duties, would never have been able to even get to Colombo on 9 January 2015. So let us not forget the past so soon.