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Thursday, 19 December 2013 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Former Sri Lanka Freedom Party strongman and UNP lawmaker Mangala Samaraweera yesterday rushed to the rescue of his former colleague Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne, who is beleaguered by a major heroin scandal.
Identifying the Premier as an honest man, Samaraweera alleged that he was the victim of a major witch-hunt against senior SLFP members in the Rajapaksa administration.
“A serious witch-hunt has been started on the SLFP seniors in this Government. Some joined the party when there was no hope for a SLFP Government. They fought to establish a Government. I have a right to speak well of D.M. Jayaratne. He is attacked on the instructions from the top for taking up a demurrage waiver. It was a habit to issue letters seeking a demurrage waiver. But such demurrage waivers were not allowed unless the subject Minister placed a signature. Just because a letter was issued by the PM, it is not a secret that there are members in this House who are living on drug dealing. Nobody talks about them,” said MP Samaraweera.
Talking about the public money being misappropriated, MP Samaraweera said that a few super Ministries of this Government appropriate over 47% of the Budget and the remainder receive step-motherly treatment.
“The Ministries we will be discussing today will not have even the investment made per one km of the Katunayake Highway. The Ministry of Sugar Industries receives Rs. 191 million for the entire year. This is something similar to 6% of what was spent on the highway or equal to 10% of the commission taken from each kilometre. The corruption and the waste of this Government prevent the Ministries from receiving the required money. The Ministry of Plantation receives Rs. 4 billion, but what can you do with it?”
“Mr. Speaker opening the Defence Ministry vote last week, I said that for many of us have seen through the duplicitous nature of this regime and understood its ‘running with the hares and hunting with the hounds’ policy. It did not come as a great surprise to learn that the family members of the regime have been making large contributions to the ruling Conservative Party in the UK since 2011 despite the pre-Christmas pantomime,” Samaraweera accused.
He said it was the only thing to call the show put on by Prime Minister Cameron and President Rajapaksa on behalf of their respective constituencies during the CHOGM summit one month ago.
“In fact I tabled a letter written to Prime Minister Cameron by British MP Tom Blenkinsop as you may remember last week expressing concerns of the prominent donor to the Conservative Party who has links to the Rajapaksa regime through a nephew of the President and requesting Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary, to look into the matter urgently. However, since then I have more details on how the Rajapaksa regime is resorting to duplicity and devious methods to win over the Members of Parliament and other influential people,” he charged.
Samaraweera said monies allocated to ministries were being used to win influence among members, especially in the British House of Commons.
“The Rajapaksa regime in the absence of friends in the international community has resorted to buying friends to sing their praise in their respective countries. In fact a Sunday newspaper revealed a payment of GBP 3,412 made to a British Member of Parliament to attend the Commonwealth business forum,” he charged.
Samaraweera added that a democratic member of Parliament in the British House of Commons had declared that he has been paid GBP 3,412 to attend the CHOGM business forum held in Colombo.
“Ian Paisley Jr., who has visited Sri Lanka on previous visits also paid for by the Government, has been paid GBP 2,212 for the flight to Colombo and a further GBP 600 for accommodation, along with all other expenses paid. The purpose of this visit has been declared as being to speak at the CHOGM Business Forum. As far as I know, he did not speak at the forum although he made this confirmation to the British Parliament. So obviously the Conservative Party has become worried about this dubious fascination, which compelled the Chief Whip of the ruling party in the British Parliament to stop five of the MPs coming to Sri Lanka,” the UNP MP said.
He said they were previous recipients of all expenses paid trips to Sri Lanka.
