Midweek Review

Supreme Court stands tall

Published

2 years ago

2024/08/28

The Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government ignored concerns raised by both local and international organizations. The Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), the Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association (CMJA) and the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) declared their concerns over the government’s refusal to comply with the SC court order to release the funds allocated by Parliament for local elections. They also raised the subsequent referral by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena of the three Supreme Court Judges responsible for the decision to the Parliamentary Committee on Ethics and Privileges. But, the arrogant political apparatus turned a blind eye to such concerns.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

None of the Supreme Court justices namely Preethi Padman Surasena, Janak de Silva, and Priyantha Jayawardena, PC, who had heard the petitions against the postponement of the Local Government polls, early last year, represented a five-judge bench that delivered the final order last week. Jayawardena retired in the last week of February this year.

The SC held that President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Finance Minister, violated fundamental rights of the people, guaranteed in terms of Article 12(1) and 14(1)(a) of the Constitution. The SC also found fault with the Attorney General and the Election Commission.

Had the government adhered to the March 3, 2023, directive that funds necessary for the conducting of the LG polls be allocated without delay, it could have averted the stunning blow just weeks away from the first post-Aragalaya national election.

The SC bench that gave the unprecedented order, in respect of political party leader and executive president, comprised Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, Justices Vijith Malalgoda, PC, Murdu Fernando, PC, Gamini Amarasekara, and Yasantha Kodagoda, PC. Let me mention the full list of Supreme Court justices, CJ Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, Murdu Fernando, PC, Preethi Padman Surasena, S. Thurairaja, PC, E.A. G.R. Amarasekara, Yasantha Kodagoda, PC, A.H.M.D. Nawaz, Kumudini Wickremasinghe, A.L. Shiran Gooneratne, Janak de Silva, Achala Wengappuli, Mahinda Samayawardhena, Arjuna Obeyesekere and K. Priyantha Fernando.

Altogether four parties, the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB), Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) moved the SC against the refusal on the part of the Wickremesinghe-led government to hold scheduled polls. The PAFFREL spearheaded civil society efforts to pressure the government.

With the Ninth Presidential Election just four weeks away, the SC order couldn’t have been delivered at a far worse time for the incumbent President accused of circumventing apex court interim orders in respect of petitions filed against IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon and private consortium IVS-GBS and VFS Global dealing with visa issuance.

The SC’s response to threatening moves made by a section of the parliament at the behest of President Wickremesinghe with regard to the interim order given by justices Preethi Padman Surasena, Janak de Silva, and Priyantha Jayawardena has proved the failure of the disgraceful political project.

Obviously, government strategists failed to comprehend how their game plan could end. No one in Wickremesinghe’s camp would have envisaged the devastating outcome of the LG polls petitions, especially after being blinded by mistakenly thinking that the presidential powers they thought they had could help them to bulldoze their way through anything. RW may have also been emboldened by the kid glove treatment he got at the Bond Presidential Commission probe earlier.

It would be pertinent to mention that the major beneficiaries of the SC order are SJB candidate Sajith Premadasa and JJB candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake as the Sept. 21 presidential contest is widely believed to be among them and the incumbent President.

The devastating SC order severely embarrassed the Wickremesinghe camp, particularly the rebel SLPP parliamentary group that blindly pledged support to the UNP leader, possibly fearing another foreign-backed sinister Aragalaya worse than what they experienced in 2022, or to save their political life. Examples are aplenty if we look around at what happened to our neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh. They can’t repeat their success that easily in Myanmar as China is keeping a close watch. How would Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, PC, who also holds the Justice portfolio, responds to the developing situation?

Govt. issues warnings

Close on the heels of the interim SC order on March 3, 2023, Attorney-at-Law Premanath C. Dolawatta, who had identified himself as family lawyer of the Rajapaksas, strongly criticized the apex court with regard to the directive issued to the Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana and then Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, PC.

Acting at the behest of President Wickremesinghe and the SLPP parliamentary group, first time entrant to Parliament Dolawatta, in spite of being a lawyer, alleged on March 07 that the SC order violated powers and privileges of Parliament. The SLPP National List MP argued that the SC interim order interfered with Article 43 (1) read with Article 148 of the Constitution thereby seeking to undermine parliamentary control over public finance. Without hesitation, the politician targeted one of the three justices. Declaring that the interim order violated the principle of natural justice, MP Dolawatta alleged: “One of the learned Judges who issued the interim order is related to a petitioner in a similar case being heard before the other bench of the Supreme Court. The learned Judge has not disclosed the relationship, nor has he recused himself from the case.”

MP Dolawatta couldn’t have been unaware of the outcome of the petitions filed against the postponement of the LG polls. But, the MP had no option but to condemn the Supreme Court, regardless of the consequences. That decision, obviously being taken at the highest level, at the end not only caused embarrassment to the President but the entire Parliament as well.

Three days after lawmaker Dolawatta’s controversial declaration, State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe stepped up attacks on the SC. Lawmaker Semasinghe asked Parliament to disregard the SC’s interim order until the Ethics and Privileges Committee dealt with the issue. The SLPPer demanded that a letter sent by the Elections Commission to the Finance Ministry consequent to the SC directive, too, be referred to the Ethics and Privileges Committee.

The Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government worked overtime to sabotage the LG polls. PAFFREL questioned the combined efforts made by President Wickremesinghe and Premier Dinesh Gunawardena to influence the then Election Commission. The government involved the then AG Rajaratnam in its efforts and the whole political project later exploded in the wake of President’s failed bid to grant a six-month extension to the official.

In spite of declaring its intention to summon Preethi Padman Surasena, Janak De Silva, and Priyantha Jayawardena, PC, the government lacked the political will to go the whole hog. The Opposition lambasted the government over the contentious move.

The government acted in a way that it felt could put off LG polls without suffering major political damage but the final SC verdict seemed to have dealt a devastating blow to Wickremesinghe.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena owed the public an explanation as he accepted MP Dolawatta’s assertion that parliamentary powers and privileges had been violated and the matter be referred to the Ethics and Privileges Committee.

Towards the end of 2022, the Opposition raised the possibility of the government exploiting a private members’ motion, submitted by MP Dolawatta, to enhance youth representation in governance. One-time External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris who fired the first salvo against the attempt to put off the LG polls further, alleged that the motion could be utilized to delay the polls indefinitely. The one-time top law academic recalled how the Yahapalana government postponed the Provincial Council elections indefinitely.

The rebel SLPP Chairman pointed out that the government had chosen MP Dolawatta’s motion, handed over to President Wickremesinghe on Oct 31, 2022, though SJB’s Imthiaz Bakeer Markar submitted a private member’s motion on the same lines much earlier. However, that strategy, too, never materialized. TheWickremesinghe-Rajapaksa combinnation simply forgot the LG polls while the UNP leader undertook a high profile project to make the Presidential Election, too, disappear.

President’s questionable strategy

Having quit the ruling SLPP parliamentary group, ahead of the parliamentary vote on a new President to complete Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s five-year term, Prof. Peiris fiercely attacked efforts to undermine the electoral process. The former Vice Chancellor of the Colombo University questioned the President’s attack on the electoral system at an event organized by the BASL in the second week of June 2023.

He chose to challenge Wickremesinghe on the postponement of the LG polls at the BASL’s National Law Conference held at the Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya, for questioning the very basis of our electoral system. Before the Judges of the SC, as well as the Court of Appeal hearing petitions filed against the indefinite postponement of LG polls, President Wickremesinghe declared that the people had no faith in elections.

Prof. Peiris emphasized that there had never been a previous instance of a President declaring elections weren’t important as the vast majority of the population, including the youth, had lost faith in elections and the political party system.

In the following month, businessman C.D. Lenawa sought to derail the Presidential Election by preventing the calling of the poll until the SC delivered its interpretation on the date of the presidential poll. A five-member SC bench consisting of Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Vijith Malalgoda, Murdu Fernando, Preethi Padman Surasena and S. Thurairaja dismissed the petition. The petitioner was fined Rs 100,000.

The JJB, IUSF on behalf of the Jana Aragala Sandhanaya, NFF and SJB filed petitions against Lenawa’s move that was dismissed in July.

Amidst accusations that the government was behind Lenawa’s move, the President’s Media Division (PMD) denied President Wickremesinghe’s association with the person concerned. The court proceedings on July 08, 2024 exposed Lenawa’s intention and he was asked to pay as cost Rs 100,000 by the SC.

Regardless of Lenawa’s fate, another person, Attorney-at-Law Aruna Laksiri, moved the SC claiming that the 19th Amendment to the Constitution hadn’t been enacted properly, he called for the SC’s intervention to conduct a referendum before the presidential poll. The SC dismissed that petition, too. The SC ordered the petitioner to pay a court fee of Rs. 500,000.

That ruling was made by a bench comprising Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya, Justices Arjuna Obeysekera, and Priyantha Fernando affirming the formal adoption of the 19th Constitutional Amendment without the need for a referendum, in line with prior rulings from 2015.

In his petition, Laksiri claimed that the 19th Amendment amended Article 70 of the Constitution, which deprives the President of the power to dissolve an elected Parliament after one year. The lawyer contended that the amendment has not been approved by a referendum, despite a Supreme Court ruling indicating it should be.

During the proceedings, the Attorney General emphasized before the Supreme Court that the Presidential term is constitutionally defined as five years.

Having scuttled the LG polls, President Wickremesinghe, in late February 2023, explained the circumstances he decided not to conduct thebLG polls. Participating in a debate on the Essential Public Services Act, President Wickremesinghe underscored his strategy that his priority was building the economy and not politics. Obviously that was nothing but a signal for the country and the justices hearing relevant cases. By then, the President’s actions and that of his government had effectively prevented the holding of the LG polls as stipulated on March 09, 2023. The PMD aptly headlined Wickremesinghe’s February 23rd statement: “The President tells parliament his priority is building the economy and not politics.”

President Wickremesinghe defended Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana and others under him whom he didn’t identify over the denial of funds required for the conducting of LG polls. This was in the wake of the Election Commission declaring before the SC that the election couldn’t be held as a result of the Finance Secretary taking up a position that the required funds weren’t available.

The President contradicted the Election Commission. Having done so, the UNP leader acknowledged that he personally briefed the members of the Election Commission on December 14, 2022, regarding the unsuitability of holding the LG polls due to the volatile economic situation in the country. Wickremesinghe wanted the polls delayed till the total number of LG members was reduced to 5,000. The country must be reminded that the number of LG members sharply increased during the period Wickremesinghe served as the Prime Minister of the Yahapalana administration.

Making reference to the transitional provisions of the 21st Amendment (In Part 3 under the Interim Provisions) to the Constitution, President Wickremesinghe categorized the Election Commission as a temporary Commission accountable to the Parliament. He found fault with the Election Commission for failing to discuss the issues at hand with the House before making representations to the SC.

President Wickremesinghe is on record as having claimed that he along with Premier Gunawardena and AG Rajaratnam met members of the Election Commission on January 05, 2024, against the backdrop of what he called division among the members regarding the holding of the LG polls on December 23, 2023. According to the President, the Election Commission should have consulted a lawyer, representing the interests of either SJB or the JVP. Instead, the Election Commission sought the advice of Saliya Peiris, PC, whom members of the Election Commission described as one who engaged in politics.

President Wickremesinghe questioned the authority of the Election Commission to go ahead with the scheduled elections while alleging that the Election Commission didn’t properly take a decision to conduct the election on March 09 regardless of rumours. President Wickremesinghe found fault with the then EC Chairman and Attorney-at-Law Nimal Punchihewa and member M.M. Mohamed.

The PMD quoted President Wickremesinghe as having told Parliament on February 23, 2024: “We don’t need to postpone the election, but we don’t have money for it. If we need, we can discuss and come to a decision, but for the moment, we don’t have money. On the other hand, there is no election at hand as well. So, what have we got to do? The Commission is answerable to the Parliament. The Parliament has asked to appoint a select committee on this matter. So, I request to appoint it, record all and take the report to the Supreme Court. According to section 4 of the Constitution, the financial power is vested in the Parliament. After the 1688 Revolution, according to the Magna Carta Agreement, all monetary powers are vested in Parliament. Therefore, give that report to the Supreme Court through a select committee.”

The recent ruling by a five-judge bench meant that the SC obviously thought otherwise. Let me mention the Counsel who appeared for the petitioners in the historic case: Upul Jayasuriya, PC. with Nisala Fernando instructed by Sampath Wijewardane for the SJB, Viran Corea with Luwie Ganeshathasan and Khyati Wickramanayaka instructed by Sinnadurai Sunderalingam & Balendra for CPA, Nigel Hatch, PC. with Shantha Jayawardena, Ms. Wihangi Tissera, Ms. Azra Basheer, Hirannaya Damunupola, Ms. Niroshika Wegiriya, Sunil Watagala and Ms Illangage for the JJB and Asthika Devendra with Pulasthi Hewamanne, Kaneel Maddumage, Vimukthi Karunarathne and Ms. Abheetha Dinethri instructed by Manjula Balasuriya for the PAFFREL.

The SC was moved in terms of Article 17 read with Article 126 of the Constitution. Argued for 15 days, the decision was announced on August 22, 2024.

Some crucial SC rulings

In the run-up to the unprecedented SC ruling on August 22, 2024, the apex court emphasized in no uncertain terms that politicians, regardless of their status, couldn’t expect favoured treatment under any circumstances.

* Following a landmark SC decision, former President Maithripala Sirisena in March 2022 vacated his official residence at Mahagama Sekara Mawatha (formerly known as Paget Road), Colombo. Sirisena had no option but to leave after the SC quashed a Cabinet decision taken in October 2019 to grant the residence to him after his retirement. The residence in question was the former President’s official residence during his tenure as the Head of State. The Supreme Court held that the Cabinet decision while he was at its helm is arbitrary, unreasonable, ultra vires, illegal, a breach of the provisions of the President’s Entitlements Act, amounts to a violation of the Rule of Law and the Fundamental Rights guaranteed to the petitioners and the citizens of Sri Lanka.

* In January, 2023 SC ordered ex- President Sirisena to pay a sum of Rs.100 million as damages to the victims of Easter Sunday attacks. Sirisena completed the payment two weeks ago on a staggered basis. The consequences were devastating as underscored by the former SLFP leader’s failure to reach a consensus with any candidate contesting the Presidential Election.

* Sirisena suffered yet another setback when the SC invalidated his decision to grant a presidential pardon to a convict who murdered a Swedish teenager Yvonne Jonsson 19 years ago. Sirisena granted Jude Jayamaha a presidential pardon just a few weeks before the 2019 Presidential Election. Jayamaha was convicted in 2012 for killing Yvonne Jonsson in what was known as the ‘Royal Park’ murder case. Jayamaha was sentenced to death. the SC fined Sirisena Rs 3 mn.

* The other judgment was delivered in November 2023 with respect to petitions filed against the economic crisis that led to the declaration of bankruptcy status in April 2022.

The SC held that former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, former Prime Minister Mahinda, were among several government officials whose conduct contributed to the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

* Two other SC decisions that sent clear message were the ruling on IGP and the on-line visa issuance facility.

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Midweek Review

Squeaky clean image of JVP in tatters

Published

5 days ago

2026/04/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

During the recent debate on the No-Confidence Motion (NCM) against Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody, Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) Batticaloa District lawmaker, Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam, warned that the next NCM would be moved against Fisheries Minister Ramalingham Chandrasekaran. Rasamanickam accused the National List member of corruption, a charge vehemently denied by the NPPer. The NPP/JVP needs to initiate an internal inquiry before corruption allegations overwhelm the party that received the full advantage of Aragalaya to transform the outfit from just a three-member parliamentary group, in 2024, to a staggering 159, a year later. The UNP and SLFP led alliances were dealt harshly by the electorates for want of action to curb corruption. Today, the UNP and SLFP are not represented in Parliament, while the SLPP, that secured 145 seats at the 2020 general election, was reduced to just three with its parliamentary group leader Namal Rajapaksa entering Parliament through the National List. Rajapaksa junior obviously feared to face the Hambantota electorate at the last general election. That is the undeniable truth.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

The ongoing controversy over Agriculture, Lands, Irrigation and Livestock Minister K.D. Lal Kantha’s three-storeyed luxury house has intensified pressure on the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) government struggling to cope-up with the devastating coal scam, blamed on Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody forcing him to resign.

Jayakody, one of those who financed the NPP/JVP campaign in the run-up to the 2024 national polls ,resigned on 17 April, along with Prof. Udayanga Hemapala, Secretary to the Energy Ministry. Their resignations happened eight months after the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), a breakaway faction of the JVP, revealed the alleged coal scam. The Lal Kantha affair received significant public attention though the primary issue at hand is the massive coal scam that ripped through the government.

Jayakody will continue as a National List member of the ruling party. The NPP/JVP won an unprecedented 159 seats, including 18 National List slots at the November 2024 parliamentary elections.

The Opposition dismissed government claims that the resignations were meant to facilitate the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into the procurement of coal, since the commissioning of the country’s only coal-fired power plant during the onset of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term. In the wake of the much delayed resignations, NPP/JVP heavyweight Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, addressing the media at the Information Department, pathetically vouched for Jayakody’s integrity.

Let us discuss the accusations directed at Lal Kantha who had served the SLFP-led Cabinet for a short period, years ago, in terms of an agreement between the SLFP and the JVP. Lal Kantha had never been accused of corruption and was, in fact, one of those lawmakers who raised the issue both in and outside Parliament. Political parties may have forgotten that the UNP got rid of Lacille de Silva, Director General of Administration, Parliament, during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s premiership, in the 2001-2003 period, alleging he passed on information to Lal Kantha to attack the government.

The NPP Executive Committee member, as well as JVP politburo and Central Committee heavyweight, has publicly defended his right to own a luxury house amidst a section of the social media pushing for police investigation into the lawmaker’s wealth.

Unlike the owner/owners of the mysterious Malwana mansion, built on a 16-acre land overlooking the Kelani river, Lal Kantha didn’t try to disclaim the house ownership at Jusse Road, Welivita, in the Kaduwela area. The Malwana house was built towards the end of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term as the President. The hullabaloo over the ownership of the Malwana mansion, and construction costs, dominated the 2015 presidential election campaign. On the basis of the Malwana mansion, the UNP and the JVP built a strong case against the Rajapaksas, accusing the family of corruption.

It would be of pivotal importance that the JVP backed Maithripala Sirisena’s 2015 presidential polls candidature. The campaign was built on an anti-corruption platform that earned the appreciation of the public who disregarded the unprecedented development work successfully carried out by the Rajapaksas, while also fighting a war to defeat the most ruthless terrorist organisation that was out to break up the country.

During a US-India backed violent protest campaign, in March-July 2022, an organised gang set the stately Malwana mansion ablaze. The general consensus was that the Malwana mansion belonged to Basil Rajapakasa, though he vehemently denied having anything to do with it.

Yahapalana Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, is on record as having declared that the Malwana mansion would be renovated and used to accommodate a state institution. Lal Kantha’s newly acquired wealth has to be examined and discussed, taking into consideration his long standing claim that as a fulltime member of the JVP he entirely depended on his wife’s monthly salary and help provided by friends and associates. If that was the case, Lal Kantha couldn’t have ended up among the richest group of politicians, within less than two years after the last presidential election, held in September 2024.

Lal Kantha couldn’t have been unaware of the possibility of the Opposition, particularly the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), attacking him and the NPP/JVP over his Kaduwela house. Responding to critics, the Anuradhapura District lawmaker has claimed, on YouTube, that he sold a property he owned in Anuradhapura and used that money to acquire the Jusse Road land.

The outspoken Minister is also on record as having said that the existence of his new house, to which he moved in late 2024, was disclosed by him. However, incisive Youtuber Dharma Sri Kariyawasam has claimed that he made the revelation on 01 October, 2025, while another You-Tuber, Abeetha Edirisinghe, rammed up pressure on the NPP by lodging a complaint with the police, via the special number 1818. Edirisinghe’s SL Leaders YouTube posted a video of him lodging the complaint.

What made the complaint really interesting was Edirisinghe’s declaration based on ‘Dark Room’ YouTube allegations that wealthy businessman Nissanka Senadhipathi, who had been one of the closest associates of the Rajapaksas, provided the wherewithal required to acquire land, build and then furnish the Jusse Road mansion. Defending his position, Lal Kantha claimed that he acquired a piano for his daughter, about 15 years ago, while declaring he enjoyed the capacity to raise large sums of funds if necessary. A smiling Lal Kantha explained how he could effortlessly collect Rs 500,000 each from 100 associates/friends. Programmes posted by Dharma Sri Kariyawasam and Abeetha Edirisinghe are must-watch for those genuinely interested in knowing the explosive story, from different angles.

Close on the heels of debates on Lal Kantha’s mansion, the media reported the Minister’s last available asset declaration, sent to the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC), dealt with over Rs 80 mn worth of property, vehicles and gold, etc. The JVP heavyweight’s annual income has stunned even the staunchest supporters of the ruling party. Lal Kantha, through his lawyer, demanded Rs 10 bn in damages from ‘Hiru’ for wrongly estimating his properties, etc., at Rs 460 mn.

Both Dharma Sri Kariyawasam and Abeetha Edirisinghe propagated that police wanted the public to complain to special the number 1818, created to accept such complaints in case they felt suspicious about newly acquired property, regardless of who owned them.

Unexpected disclosure of Lal Kantha’s unprecedented wealth obviously stunned the public who genuinely believed in the unshakable NPP/JVP stand on corruption. Lal Kantha, who had joined the JVP in 1982, before becoming a full time member, in 1987, had no qualms in defending his new lifestyle, having repeatedly and bitterly complained about the difficulties experienced by him and his family.

In his defence, Lal Kantha emphasised that he hadn’t been accused of robbing the taxpayer or public sector corruption. However, the NPP/JVP all-out attack on all previous governments, over waste, corruption, irregularities and mismanagement, and branding all their MPs corrupt, cannot adopt such a stance. The Kaduwela mansion has sent shockwaves through the electorate. Dharma Sri Kariyawasam, in his response to Lal Kantha, repeatedly stressed that his wealth was being questioned by those who exercised their franchise in support of the NPP/JVP at the national elections and Local Government polls, in 2025.

Growing public resentment over what various interested parties, including the NPP/JVP called ill-gotten wealth of members and henchmen of previous governments fuelled Aragalaya (31 March-14 July 2022). Those who set houses and other property, belonging to various then government politicians and their associates ablaze, operated on the presumption that they were beneficiaries of ill-gotten wealth. The NPP/JVP powered the campaign, alongside the breakaway JVP faction, styled as Peratugami Pakshaya (Frontline Socialist Party) as well as the UNP.

Ranwala and others

Against the backdrop of Auditor General Samudrika Jayarathne’s devastating report on coal procurement for the 2025/2026 period and Lal Kantha’s declaration that he owned a three-storeyed house, the resignation of Asoka Ranwala, as the Speaker of Parliament, over his failure to prove his declared academic qualifications seemed uncalled for. Jayarathne signed that report on behalf of the National Audit Office (NAO).

The Gampaha District MP resigned on 13 December, 2024, just 22 days after being appointed the Speaker. The main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) relentlessly attacked Ranwala over his fabricated or unverified educational qualifications, specifically a Ph.D. from a Japanese university and a degree from the University of Moratuwa.

The NPP/JVP tried to defend Ranwala but quickly succumbed to SJB pressure. We never managed to establish whether Ranwala resigned on his own accord or the NPP/JVP asked him to resign to save the party. Similarly, the resignations of Energy Minister Jayakody and Prof. Hemapala, who cut a sorry figure before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) recently, must have been demanded by the ruling party. Had the NPP bosses acted prudently, much earlier, after he was indicted before the Colombo High Court on a previous corruption case, they could have easily asked Jayakody to resign his ministerial portfolio before the Parliament debated the no-confidence motion against him.

Another case that really embarrassed the ruling party was accusations directed at Dr. Jagath Wickremeratne, who succeeded Ranwala as House Speaker. The Polonnaruwa District MP was the next to face fire, following a dispute with the Deputy Secretary General of Parliament Chaminda Kularatne who is also the Chief of Staff of the House. Kularatne hit back hard after Parliament sacked him over alleged irregularities. In a petition, dated 2 February, 2026, sent to CIABOC, Kularatne disclosed the circumstances the Speaker reacted angrily after he brought to the NPPer’s notice illegal actions and corruption, as well as his (Kularatne) recommendation in his capacity as the Right to Information (RTI) officer, to release certain information sought by civil society activists. Kularatne further claimed that the situation deteriorated further over an incident that happened on 18 June, 2025, or a date closer to that date, in the room where Speaker Wickremeratne had his lunch. Kularatne refrained from revealing the incident.

There hadn’t been a previous instance of a senior parliamentary official moving the CIABOC against the Speaker. The allegations directed at the Speaker, in respect of abuse of vehicles, taking two fuel allowances, misuse of equipment belonging to the Media Unit of Parliament, inadequate payment for lunch obtained for Chameera Gallage, Speaker’s private secretary, who had lunch with him, illegal payments made to retired Ministry Additional Secretary S.K. Liyanage, who was appointed to inquire into Kularatne’s conduct, suppression of release of information in terms of RTI, and uncalled for interventions in administration.

Kularatne’s complaint to the CIABOC failed to result in an expeditious inquiry, though a complaint lodged against a sacked parliamentary official appeared to have received much more attention. The NPP has responded cautiously to Kularatne vs Wickremeratne battle as pressure mounted on the ruling party over the coal scam that threatened to cause further increase in already unbearable electricity tariffs. The Auditor General’s report, in no uncertain terms, has implicated the Energy Ministry and Lanka Coal Company in the sordid operation that resulted in low-grade coal ending up at the Lakvijaya coal-fired power plant that earlier met about 30 to 40% percent of the country’s power requirements at essentially low cost, barring hydroelectricity.

The report declared that the term tender for the supply of coal was awarded to Trident Champhar, an Indian company that hadn’t been registered at the time it bid for Sri Lanka’s largest tender and procedures in respect of loading and unloading the cargo. To make matters worse, Minister Jayakody, who had been implicated in the coal scam, was recently indicted on corruption charges in the High Court of Colombo. There hadn’t been a previous instance of a sitting member of the Cabinet being indicted for corruption. Therefore, the NPP government cannot be happy over its steamroller majority in Parliament having defeated the no-confidence motion moved against Jayakody who remained confident in the parliamentary group’s support at the behest of the top party leadership.

The NPP/JVP finds itself in an extremely embarrassing and pitiful situation over the coal scam. The damning report issued by the Auditor General pertaining to the coal scam has to be examined taking into consideration the failure on the part of the government and the Constitutional Council to reach a consensus on filling the vacant Auditor General’s post in 2025. The post of Auditor General remained vacant from early April 2025 to early February 2026.

Role of NAO

The NAO functions as an independent body answerable to Parliament. The recent NAO report that dealt with coal procurement exposed the utterly corrupt system in place, regardless of assurances given by the government. The report proved that irregularities can be perpetrated and corrupt practices continued, regardless of assurances given by the current dispensation.

Over the past several years, tangible measures were taken to strengthen the NAO. Parliament certified the National Audit (Amendment) Act, No. 19 of 2025 on 22 September, 2025. That act introduced reforms meant to enhance public sector accountability, enforce audit findings, and streamline the surcharge process. The no nonsense report proved that in spite of interference and undue influence exerted on the NAO, those responsible did their job without fear or favour.

SJB lawmaker Mujibur Rahman, during the debate on the no-confidence motion against Minister Jayakody, alleged in Parliament that COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) Chairman Dr. Nishantha Samaraweera directly intervened when the NAO was in the process of finalising the report. The former UNPer called for an investigation to establish whether the Galle District NPP MP visited the NAO on several days to meet those handling the investigation.

We are not aware whether the COPE Chief, who called for the NAO to inquire into allegations in respect of coal procurement, visited the NAO.

However, the NAO report on the coal scam, now available online for all to study, underscores the pivotal importance of the anti-corruption fight.

In September 2025, the SJB asked the CIABOC to probe how some NPP/JVP Ministers amassed so much property. The SJB raised the issue with the focus on Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe (like Lal Kantha, he, too, represents the Anuradhapura District) amassed Rs 275 mn. The SJB’s complaint to CIABOC sought investigations on Ministers Sunil Handunetti, Bimal Rathnayake, Dr. Nalinda Jayathissa and Kumara Jayakody, and Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala.

Lal Kantha, who has now acknowledged having as much as Rs 80 mn worth property, was not among the lawmakers targeted by the SJB. Having falsely propagated an anti-corruption campaign to deceive the public, the NPP/JVP stand literally exposed before the public. The coal scam and Lal Kantha fiasco have caused irreparable damage to such an extent, their anti-corruption campaigns may not carry any weight with the public at future elections.

Midweek Review

Some languages confine you; some languages free you

Published

5 days ago

2026/04/22

Sahan Weerasooriya

‘… where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; ….

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward….into ever-widening thought and action…’

With wide apologies, I am going to put snatches of that poem into more dreary uses, though not quite desert sand.

What are those narrow domestic walls which break up the world into fragments? Languages.

Amiya reads the Gitanjali but does not read the Tirukkural. Hong Li reads Kong Fut Ze’s Analects but not Plato’s Republic. Paul reads Miton’s Paradise Lost but not Njal Saga. Sarath Kumara reads Wickremasinghe’s satva santatitya but not Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Ngidi does not read Thomas Picketty’s Capital in the 20th Century or Anthony Atkinson’s Inequality at all. Hirono uses Large Language Models to do homework but Rasolomanana has not seen a computer. And so on and so forth. The world is broken into fragments by languages, but not by languages alone. The daughter of a rich black man living in Howard County in Maryland goes to Stanford but a brown dweller in Dharavi cannot enter Jawaharlal Nehru University. The lesson is that it is not only languages or orthodoxies that break up the world into ‘fragments’ but also many other barriers, about one of which Tagore sang.

Language is a marvellous ‘invention’ of nature well cultivated by humans. No other species has the faculty to use language to know. Ludwig Wittgenstein expressed it epigrammatically, ‘whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’ It is language that carries forth knowledge. It is not only language that carries forth knowledge: mathematics, in its own right, is a powerful carrier of knowledge. One can write something simple like if x-y=0, then x=y, as well as whole pages of complex and complicated arguments using mathematical notations. Mathematics may and often does write nature and about nature; it also writes about things that exist only in the mind. That is not different from languages: heaven and Vishnu exist in some minds but not in others or elsewhere. Galileo Galilei learnt ‘Nature is an open book but it is written in mathematics’. Much of nature is a closed book to those to whom mathematics is alien territory. But today, I am interested in how some languages ‘break the world into fragments by domestic walls’, while a few others fly about regardless. When a team from India played cricket with a team from Pakistan a few weeks back, the commentary was broadcast in India in 14 languages and in Nigeria national news is read in several languages. That same game of cricket also was broadcast to the rest of the world in one language: English.

When and how do some languages come to ‘lead the mind forward into ever widening thought and action’? The transformation occurs when users of one language become conquerors and rulers of peoples using other languages and when the users of a language become generators of new knowledge which are eagerly sought after by users of other languages. Greek, Latin and Arabic contributed mightily to the vocabulary of modern Western European languages. When new ideas in law, government, philosophy, medicine and science had to be expressed, they went to Greek, Latin or Arabic. Consequently, you will bump into Greek terms the moment you begin thinking about those disciplines. The serious study of Greek was introduced to England by Erasmus (of Rotterdam) about 1500 AC. The use of Latin began with the Roman Empire but took on new functions when Latin became the vehicle carrying Christianity east and north (of Europe) and elsewhere later. Until about the 18th century AC Latin was the language of learning in most of Europe. At its inception, Manchester Grammar School was a Latin school and the Boston Latin School which started in 1635 still thrives in that name. The two medieval universities in England were mostly seminaries teaching in Latin well into the 19th century. A wide swathe of languages is written with the Latin alphabet: European languages from the Black Sea to the Atlantic and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, America from Canada to Chile, sub-Saharan Africa including Togo, and Indonesian, Malaysian and several others. The exodus of Jewish, Arabic and other scholars, after the fall of Constantinople (1453) to the Ottomans, brought Greek and Arabic to Western Europe including England. From about the 14 to the 18th century, European indigenous vernaculars grew to be carriers of new knowledge, especially in sciences. Luther’s reformation and the development of German had much in common. Gutenberg’s new printing press (1450 AC) helped the growth of European vernaculars and the spread of reformed Christianity.

Four western European languages stood out as both conquerors and carriers of new knowledge: Portuguese, Spanish, French and English. Arabic performed the same function from about 800 AC to the 13 AC when that language carried a new religion and new knowledge in mathematics, astronomy and medicine. Arabic replaced the indigenous languages in the entire Maghreb. The language of governance and learning from Mexico south to Chile is Spanish with Brazil using Portuguese and are collectively called Latin America, because Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian are Romance or Latin Languages. French is the language of governance and learning in several parts of West Africa. English was a phenomenon in itself. It destroyed the use of hundreds of languages in North America. It conquered almost half the world and English is the language of governance and higher education in a good part of the land it once ruled. As a language carrying new knowledge, English excels all others. As the collapse of four European empires, including the Ottoman, went on from about 1915 to about 1960, English, which produced new knowledge faster than any other, began to break ‘domestic walls’, the world over. China, which had little love for the English-speaking world, had millions of its citizens schooled in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia during the last 30 years and continues to do so, to date. In contrast, during that time how many rushed to Niger to learn Fulfulde or to Lanka to study Sinhala? The prominence of English was promoted by two other processes: one was translation into English of major works in other languages and the other the growth of a class of indigenous writers and readers in the conqueror’s language. One reads Oblomov, Gilgamesh and, indeed, Gitanjali translated into English. India now probably has more readers in English than any other single country. Persons in Western African countries have crafted in French and English, masterpieces in fiction, poetry and drama. Modern European languages have been both conquerors’ languages and carriers of new knowledge.

Several people recently have written in The Island and in Lankadeepa about the importance of using the ‘mother tongue’. They have stressed the importance of the ‘mother tongue’ in creative writing. As with observations regarding empirical phenomena, it is necessary to test those generalisations against reality. Samskrt is a language not entirely unfamiliar to many in this land. Samskrt was nobody’s mother tongue. (After all, it is deva bhaashitam.) There is not a shred of evidence that Kalidasa’s mother talked to him in Samskrt. But Kalidasa wrote rtusmahara and shakuntalam.. The vedas and upanishads were first spoken and later written in samskrt. Pali is nobody’s mother tongue but Theravada writings are almost entirely in that language. Isaac Newton wrote Principia Mathematica in Latin; we have no evidence that baby Isaac babbled in Latin. Paul Dirac wrote about particle physics in mathematics rather than in his father’s beloved French. Leopold Senghor’s mother tongue was not French nor Chinua Achebe’s English. More casually, check your own libraries. I had a collection of about 2,300 books until last year. There weren’t even 200 written in Sinhala and that 200 included editions of works from the 13th century. Check how many books written in Sinhala and English you bought in the last two years. There were far too many writers and scientists who brought forth highly acclaimed work in languages other than their mother tongue, contradicting the argument that the mother tongue was essential or even desirable for original work, in science or in literature.

Most languages ‘break the world into narrow fragments’. A few coagulate them into large masses: 900 million people speak Mandarin and 325 million, Bengali. A half dozen bind themselves together speaking a conqueror’s language. Four languages stand out as having ‘led the ‘mind forward into ever-widening thought and action’: Greek, Latin, Arabic and English. English, so far, is unrivalled.

by Usvatte-aratchi