Monday 10th February, 2025

There seems to be no end in sight to the JVP-led NPP government’s diversionary tactics. Having revealed the values of the official residences occupied by some former Presidents and their imputed rents, the government has now made an issue of the amounts of state funds paid to 43 SLPP politicians as compensation for their properties burnt down by mobs on 09 May 2022 and afterwards.

Media Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa has pointed out, in Parliament, that the amounts paid to the SLPP politicians as compensation are far above what the victims of natural disasters receive. Government politicians have been flogging this issue very hard in a bid to cover up their failure to address numerous problems.

The SLPP has said the damage to its MPs’ properties, attacked by rioters, was estimated by the Valuation Department, which, the government says, also assessed the values of the state-owned houses occupied by former Presidents. The NPP insists that the SLPP administration abused its power to have the values of those properties inflated. One can use that claim to cast suspicion on the credibility of the valuation of the former President’s official residences!

The NPP’s argument that one of the conditions on which the SLPP MPs elected Ranil Wickremesinghe in Parliament was that they be compensated for their properties destroyed by rioters sounds tenable. Those beleaguered MPs also wanted Wickremesinghe to ensure their safety.

When news emerged of a government plan to pay compensation for the aforesaid properties, we argued editorially that first of all it had to be ascertained how funds had been raised for the acquisition of those assets. Most Sri Lankan politicians invest black money in real estate, as is public knowledge. The NPP had three MPs in the last Parliament—Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Harini Amarasuriya and Vijitha Herath—and why didn’t they protest when the SLPP government paid compensation for the destruction of its MPs’ houses? They cannot claim that they were unaware of the payment of compensation at that time, for they even named the countries where the leaders of the past governments had allegedly stashed away stolen funds, which the NPP promised to bring back, didn’t they?

True, it was the SLPP that triggered a tsunami of retaliatory violence on 09 May 2022 by carrying out an unprovoked attack on a group of peaceful protesters on the Galle Face Green. However, that fact cannot be cited in extenuation of the subsequent wave of disproportionate counter violence, which claimed the lives of SLPP MP Amarakeerthi Athukorala and his personal security officer besides leaving a vast trail of destruction.

The NPP government must ensure that all those who assaulted the Galle Face protesters are brought to justice. An investigation must be conducted into the issues the NPP government has raised about the payment of compensation in question and legal action must be instituted if there has been any wrongdoing. Similarly, the need for a thorough investigation into the incidents of retaliatory violence on 09 May 2022 and the subsequent abortive mob attack on Parliament cannot be overstated.

The perpetrators of the attacks on the SLPP MPs’ houses, operated openly, and there have been complaints their victims made to the police, and therefore it will not be difficult to identify the culprits and prosecute them. The SLPP has alleged that some JVP/NPP activists were involved in those violent incidents. The government has denied the allegation vehemently. There is no reason why it should hesitate to order a high-level probe if it has nothing to hide.

The NPP should bear in mind that the possibility of a situation similar to what we witnessed in May 2022 occurring again cannot be ruled out. Gotabaya Rajapaksa secured the executive presidency outright and SLPP had a two-thirds power in Parliament, but less than three years after the 2019 regime change, the SLPP leaders had to head for the hills. That can happen to anyone.