By Shamindra Ferdinando

Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) lawmaker Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called for an end to the practice of spending taxpayers’ money to maintain former Presidents and their spouses.

Bankrupt Sri Lanka couldn’t afford to look after political families, MP Dissanayake told a gathering in Colombo on Sunday. Referring to the former first lady Hema Premadasa receiving full state patronage since the assassination of her husband Ranasinghe Premadasa on May Day 1993, the JVP leader asked why successive governments had paid for maintaining what he called the former first lady’s luxury style.

MP Dissanayake said that if the JJB formed a government, such waste would be stopped forthwith.

The JVPer questioned the funds allocated for former Presidents Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, Mahinda Rajapaksa, Maithripala Sirisena, and Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a time a vast majority of people were struggling to make ends meet.

Alleging that the government was working overtime to indefinitely put off the Local Government polls, scheduled for March 09, MP Dissanayake said that the growing indications that the JJB would make significant gains at the forthcoming poll jolted the government, and the Opposition, as well. MP Dissanayake alleged that in addition to the SJB and the Opposition Leader’s group, the Maithripala Sirisena-Dayasiri Jayasekera camp were thoroughly disturbed by the public response, received by the JJB.

Colombo District lawmaker Dissanayake said that the so called VIPs and VIP groups hadn’t experienced such a threatening situation before. The JVP leader asked the gathering whether they could think of one justifiable reason for the bankrupt government to allocate funds for ex-Presidents and ex-Presidents now serving as members of Parliament. Dissanayake said that the allocation of over Rs 10 mn each for ex-presidents couldn’t be accepted, under any circumstances.

MP Dissanayake also questioned the significant allocations made for two of President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s closest associates and presidential advisors, Sagala Ratnayake and Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.

In spite of both of them being rejected by the people at the last general election, held in August 2020, they received special treatment, MP Dissanayake said, claiming that Ratnayake, one-time Law and Order Minister, received a Rs 150,000 as monthly salary, Rs 81,400 fuel allowance, Rs 50,000 transport allowance and Rs 7,500 telephone allowance. Akila Viraj Kariyawasam received Rs 100,000 monthly salary, Rs 66,825 fuel allowance and an expensive SUV.

MP Dissanayake said that those in the government, and the Opposition, threatened by the rapidly changing political environment, ganged up against the JJB for obvious reasons.

The JVP leader said that they had been greatly strengthened by the sizable number of ex-military personnel, including senior officers, throwing their weight behind the growing political movement. Referring to former Eastern Commander, Maj. Gen. K.P. Anura Jayasekera, declaring his support for the JJB, MP Dissanayake said that though the military generally was opposed to left political parties, there was a significant and unexpected shift in response to the post-Gotabaya developments.

In the wake of Maj. Gen. Jayasekera’s declaration of support to the JJB, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka has alleged that the extremist group, led by Zahran Hashim, stepped up activity during Jayasekera’s tenure as the Easter Commander. Lawmaker Dissanayake dismissed what he called the Field Marshal’s childish attempt to tarnish the former Eastern Commander’s name. Jayasekera received appointment as the Eastern Commander, in Nov. 2018.

How could the public have faith in a system where a person who killed a political opponent, during an election campaign, and was found guilty by courts, received appointment as State Minister, MP Dissanayake asked. The JVPer said that those who exercised political power realized that their days were numbered.

Referring to the Colombo High Court ruling, given in June 2022, pertaining to Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, who is also the Chief Government Whip, MP Dissanayake said that Ranatunga was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment, suspended for five years, after he was found guilty of one of the charges in a case filed for threatening a businessman.

The Colombo High Court also imposed a fine of Rs. 25 Million on the Minister and ordered him to pay Rs. 1 million as compensation. The Minister has appealed against the HC ruling but how could we ignore the original ruling, the JVPer asked.

The JVPer recalled how the Rajapaksas suppressed investigation into the alleged fake currency printing case, involving Dulanjali Premadasa and former first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa’s Siriliya case.