By Rathindra Kuruwita

It would have been better for the country if former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa was allowed to leave Sri Lanka when he attempted to do so in early July, National Freedom Front (NFF) leader, Wimal Weerawansa said.

“Basil tried to go, but officers at the airport didn’t let him go because passengers opposed it. Three officers at the counters left their duties because a passenger took their photos and threatened them. This was a time when the protests were at their zenith. Because of that Basil didn’t go. It would have been better if he had gone,” he said.

Weerawansa said that a person doesn’t need to be in Sri Lanka to investigate whether he had engaged in corruption and that there are UN mechanisms that can be used to punish such individuals and reclaim their assets.

“So there was no reason to keep him. If he had been allowed to go, he wouldn’t still be playing such a big role here,” he said.

The NFF leader said that successive Sri Lankan governments, after 1977, are responsible for the current economic crisis.

“We created this economic mess, and we haven’t really seen the worst of this crisis. Before 1977, Sri Lanka had a positive balance of payment, for the most part. Now it’s the other way around. Especially in the 60s and the 70s, Sri Lanka was trying to manufacture things. A lot of credit must go to then Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike. I am not saying that things were great, but we were making progress. But this was cut short in 1977. JR Jayawardene opened up Sri Lanka before our industries could mature. Now we are enjoying the ‘benefits’ of the system that JR created,” Weerawansa said.

The NFF leader said that the crisis was exacerbated by the actions of the Rajapaksa family, in the last few years, especially Gotabaya and Basil Rajapaksa.

“The main reason was Basil, but Gota also played a big role in creating this mess. Gota stuck to his family and let them run the show. This is not what the people wanted,” he said.

Weerawansa added that Gotabaya also had no political experience and they had asked him to discuss with trusted Ministers, and expert advisors, before taking serious decisions.

“Because he had no political experience, he needed to talk to people who know how things operated. But he didn’t do that. There was no discussion or consensus building. I don’t think Gotabaya even consulted the other Rajapaksas before deciding on banning agro-chemicals overnight. Therefore, a lot of necessary decisions were not made and a number of errors were made. Things were going down really fast and we tried to warn him, we tried to fix things from within. When we failed, we told the people where the country was heading and Gotabaya responded by firing us,” he said.

The NFF leader said the during party leaders’ meetings, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa would act like a slave owner and treated party leaders like his personal property.

“He used to talk to respected politicians like they were peasants and he was the landlord. He thought their good nature was a sign of weakness. Because of this arrogance, Gotabaya now languishes in a hotel in Thailand and he can’t even come out,” he said.