Midweek Review

CP Chief calls for re-alignment of political forces to thwart Ranil

Published

3 years ago

2023/07/5

DEW Gunasekara at the Communist Party office last week (pic by Shamindra Ferdinando)

CP Chairman DEW G says lawmakers here should be aware of what is going on in the world. The Parliament cannot turn a blind eye to global developments, the former MP said, pointing out that the ongoing Ukrainian crisis underscored the need for greater understanding of international affairs as the rapid developments taking place with the US hegemony under threat. The crisis reflects the global power struggle.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Veteran politician Don Edwin Weerasinghe Gunasekara or DEW G, 88, wants left-wing political parties, including his Communist Party (CP), to join forces with centrist political elements to meet the growing future right wing challenge posed by ‘Pohottuwa,’ backed incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The former CP General Secretary warned those opposed to the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa juggernaut to reach consensus on a tangible political strategy soon or be prepared to face the consequences.

As things stand, Gunasekara declared that UNP leader Wickremesinghe would be the SLPP’s candidate at the next presidential election, therefore urged, what he called, the genuine Opposition to take a stand.

The CP is represented in Parliament by just one MP Weerasinghe Weerasumana from Matara. The first time entrant to Parliament contested the last general election on the Sri Lanka Podujana Peremauna (SLPP) ticket.

Having parted company with the SLPP, or the Pohottuwa party, the CP is now a constituent of the Uththara Lanka Sabhagaya (ULS).

DEW G acknowledged that left-wing parties, including the CP, couldn’t anticipate any future political alliance with the Rajapaksas’ led party, especially with Basil, an arch right winger, like Ranil, playing such a pivotal role in the family and the party they lead. “Therefore, a realignment of political forces, opposed to the incumbent administration, is a must”, he said.

Gunasekara didn’t mince his words when he admitted that left parties lacked the wherewithal to take on the government, though the ground situation has changed quite drastically, owing to unprecedented public protests, engineered or not by the West, as in the case of the Maidan rebellion in Ukraine in 2014, forced Gotabaya Rajapaksa elected, with 6.9 mn votes, to flee.

A smiling Gunasekara asserted that the emerging world environment could be quite advantageous to Sri Lanka with the US and its fiat currency dollar likely to lose world dominant position, if proper repositioning of political parties and groups takes place here to ensure a Left and Centre combination surging ahead with the best global economic environment after 1945, Gunasekara assured.

In an interview with the writer at the CP’s recently refurbished office at No 91, Dr. N.M. Perera Mawatha, Colombo 08, last week, DEW G discussed a range of issues, both domestic and international, with the focus on the deteriorating economic-political and social crisis against the growing uncertainty caused by restructuring of domestic debt.

Unless left parties reached a consensus with those in the centre, the latter would move to the right to the advantage of Ranil Wickremesinghe, Gunasekera said. “At least 90 percent of the country’s capitalist class is with Wickremesinghe and unless something goes awry, the UNP leader is certain to be SLPP’s nominee with or without machinations by the West.”

The Island

sought the much respected politician’s views on current issues against the backdrop of the CP preparing to celebrate its 80th anniversary this week.

At the onset of the interview, one-time Rehabilitation and Prisons Reforms Minister, an Octogenarian himself, emphasized that what the country experienced was an unprecedented critical situation. “We are at a crossroads. We experienced crises in 1952 and in the ’70s, primarily due to external factors. However, though there were certainly foreign influences and interventions, we created the current catastrophe,” the former lawmaker said.

Gunasekara identified what he called an explosive combination of factors that plunged the country into its worst ever post-independence crisis, namely dearth of foreign exchange even to buy basics, like fuel, drastic drop in government revenue, coupled with a crippling debt due to borrowings at high interest from international bond markets, especially by the previous Yahapalana regime.

Referring to the times of JRJ’s Finance Minister Ronnie de Mel (1977-1988) who presided over Sri Lanka embracing a free market economy in the late ’70s, and his successor M.H.M. Naina Marikkar (1988-1989) at the height of the JVP-led second insurrection (1987-1990), the CP veteran pointed out that the erosion of government revenue began after 1978.

A calamity of unimaginable proportions

Pointing out that in 1978 the government revenue had been 24 percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) a gradual decrease began during JRJ’s reign and by the time Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his capacity as the President, brought in his brother Basil Rajapaksa as the Minister of Finance, in July 2021, the state revenue had dropped to a poor six percent of the GDP. That the Rajapaksa family compelled Gotabaya Rajapaksa to accommodate BR in the Cabinet, even at the expense of the coalition, is a matter that should be addressed separately, the outspoken politician said. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa paid a very heavy price for exploiting the 20th Amendment to the Constitution to appease the family to bring in Basil Rajapaksa, he added.

The drastic drop of the state revenue to just six percent of the GDP meant that the government didn’t have sufficient funding in Rupees, especially due to a drastic cut in vital taxes, no sooner Gotabaya assumed office. “I have never heard of a disruption of an economy in a particular country for want of whatever local currency, though foreign exchange crisis is certainly not a new occurrence. We ran into trouble at a time when the then government was on a money printing spree.”

Gunasekara attributed the developing crisis to neoliberalist policies adopted in the wake of JRJ’s victory at the 1977 general election. “The change of tax policy in line with neoliberalist strategy brought about the crisis. The gradual change in direct and indirect taxes was nothing but a disaster. At the time of the late Premier Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the direct and indirect tax ratio was 70 to 30 percent. JR reduced direct taxes to 55 percent, Ranasinghe Premadasa to 45 percent, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to 35 percent, Mahinda Rajapaksa to 28 percent (during his first tenure as the President), then to 24 percent and subsequently to 18 percent and Basil Rajapaksa brought it down to 14 percent.”

The increasing loss of income, due to a sharp drop in direct taxes, was compensated by corresponding increase in indirect taxes, the former Minister said, added that finally the irect and indirect tax ratio stood at 10 and 90 percent, respectively. Instead of taxing the affluent, those struggling to make ends meet were further burdened, Gunasekara said, alleging that tax evasion at the moment was at its zenith. “There is no point in denying successive governments facilitated the tax fraud. The fraudulent process over the years became part of the system in place,” the ex-MP said.

Asked whether Parliament, as the supreme institution responsible for public finance, should be held responsible for the current predicament, a smiling Gunasekara said that was the position constitutionally.

“However, the actual situation is different or in other words Parliament is irrelevant. The Finance Minister takes decisions on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers which exercises executive powers in Parliament. Whoever at the helm, exercises political authority thereby implements a strategy that may not be in the best interests of the country though appropriate as a political tool. That is the reality.”

Neoliberalism, or market-oriented reform policies, such as doing away with price controls, freeing of capital markets, and reckless lowering of trade barriers, as well as privatization, brought us to this pathetic situation, the former CP leader said.

Regardless of the recent crash, the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government seemed to be hell-bent on following the same wretched policies. “If not, President Wickremesinghe and his acolytes wouldn’t have considered USD 2.9 bn IMF loan facility as the panacea for our economic ills. In a way we are now in an irreversible situation,” Gunasekara said.

The one-time Chairman of the parliamentary watchdog COPE sarcastically declared without hesitation that he was too optimistic of the much-touted economic recovery plan, based on the much debated agreement with the IMF.

“Don’t forget we sought IMF intervention on 16 occasions previously. And the worst IMF intervention is now underway”, the still crisp thinking octogenarian said.

Parliament has deteriorated to such an extent that it no longer commanded the respect of the public. That, too, contributed to the overall decline, Gunasekara said, explaining how the Ranil-Maithree-led Yahapalana government borrowed heavily from international money markets during the 2015-2019 period, though they have conveniently forgotten their own role in the economic ruin. In foreign money markets, minimum interest was six percent and out of the USD 15 bn taken at such high interest rates as much as USD 12.5 bn was obtained by the Yahapalana rule within a short period of time, Gunasekara pointed out.

Perhaps if Mahinda Rajapaksa won the 2015 presidential election, he, as the Finance Minister, too, would have sought more loans from international money markets, Gunasekara said, asserting that the then Secretary to the Treasury Dr. P.B. Jayasundera may have pushed for early presidential elections as he was aware of the impending financial crisis. “But I tried unsuccessfully to convince President Rajapaksa not to face the electorate as he couldn’t have won under any circumstances,” Gunasekara said.

Bid to save Gotabaya

The former Minister recalled how representatives of political parties met at the residence of lawmaker Tiran Alles in the wake of the violent Mirihana protest, in March 2022, to discuss ways and means of saving Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s mandate. According to him, there had been a general agreement of an interim national government for at least a period of one year until some sort of stability could be restored. Among those who had been present were Dullas Alahapperuma and Maithripala Sirisena and other rebel SLPP MPs, Gunasekara said, adding that consensus couldn’t be reached as the President was not free to act as he desired.

“The President somewhat struggled to address never ending concerns of the Rajapaksa family,” the ex-CP boss said, expressing disbelief that the premiership was first offered to Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka and then SJB leader Sajith Premadasa before beleaguered UNP leader accepted the proposal in the second week of May 2022.

Gunasekara acknowledged the writer’s suggestion perhaps the UNP leader was the best choice, politically, at the time though he personally didn’t agree at all with the destructive market-oriented reform policies agenda pursued by the incumbent President to please the IMF.

In the run-up to the July 2022 calamity, Gunasekara had advised and warned Gotabaya Rajapaksa of the impending economic crisis but was ignored. “Obviously Dr. PBJ and Basil Rajapaksa were at the helm of economic matters. They shaped the damaging policy,” Gunasekara said, recalling him warning Gotabaya Rajapaksa regarding the impending economic crisis at the first public meeting held in Matara following the handing over of nominations for the 2019 presidential election. “The CP organized the Matara meeting where over 5,000 attended. Mahinda Rajapaksa and Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena were among those present. I handed over a printed booklet that dealt with the impending crisis and measures to be taken to Gotabaya. Obviously, he didn’t bother with it.”

Responding to another query, the one-time Prison Reforms Minister said that Gotabaya Rajapaksa was overwhelmed by the Rajapaksa family. “That is the ugly truth. The family didn’t allow the President to proceed on his own path,” Gunasekara said, explaining how the ill-advised Cabinet decision to abolish a range of taxes at the first Cabinet meeting chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, enactment of the 20th Amendment to pave the way for Basil Rajapaksa’s re-entry into Parliament, chemical fertiliser ban and cancellation of the Japanese-funded Light Rail Project, without consulting the donor, caused immense damage.

The former Minister said that the unveiling of a comprehensive and far reaching alternative economic development programme that dealt with repositioning of Sri Lanka’s foreign trade and economic relations by the CP coincided with their 80th anniversary. Gunasekara emphasized the responsibility on the part of the decision-makers to focus on human resources development, especially against the backdrop of the brain drain and the general perception that there was absolutely no hope of an economic recovery.

Gunasekara said that the vast majority of those who now represented the Parliament, as well as the executive, refused to accept the heavy impact the restructuring of domestic debt was having on the public. Whatever the economic recovery plans under discussion or at the onset of implementation, we lacked the wherewithal and political consensus, Gunasekera said, adding that the issues at hand should be addressed accordingly.

Gunasekara also discussed the continuing failure of Parliament to respond to the growing threats, with quite formidable external interventions taking place right under the noses of the political leadership. References were made to USAID and UNDP interventions at the highest level.

Need for urgent reforms

Gunasekera urged political parties to give sufficient time for new entrants. The ex-lawmaker said that sufficient time should be allocated for new MPs to address Parliament on important issues. How could they deal with a particular issue within three minutes, Gunasekara asked, acknowledging that he wouldn’t have achieved current status if he was denied adequate time.

Gunasekera recalled how he entered Parliament in 1986 in the wake of the death of Sarath Muttetuwegama, 51, lawyer, killed in a car crash at Ratnapura. At the time of his death, Muttetuwegama, married to Manouri, daughter of Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, represented the Kalawana electorate.

Gunasekera said that the decision-making Central Committee of the CP nominated him to fill the vacancy created by Muttetuwegama’s untimely death. There had been provision for a political party to nominate a person to Parliament, within a month, following the creation of a vacancy, and Dew Gunasekera was the CP’s choice though not unanimous. One member of the decision-making body had voted to appoint Manouri Muttetuwegama. In case, a particular political party failed to reach a consensus within a stipulated period of time, the then Election Commission would have called a by-election.

Touching the table, at where he sat, Gunasekara said on the day he took oaths as an MP, the then CP Chairman Pieter Keuneman advised him how to conduct himself in Parliament right here. “We were in this room. I was told to address Parliament while looking at the direction of the Speaker to prevent being disturbed and distracted by opposing MPs. Keuneman stressed the need to be fully prepared to address Parliament. I was also told the importance of having the address in point form and being logical. Perhaps the most important advice was to keep in mind that as an MP he should address the electorate not members of Parliament.”

Towards the end of the interview Gunasekera said that he was not sure whether Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted to contest the 2019 presidential election or the family fielded him due to Mahinda Rajapaksa being disqualified by the 19th Amendment barring a third term. Gotabaya was not like other Rajapaksas and his wife a humble and gracious lady who never stepped on the toes of anyone. They were never extravagant and basically lived a simple life but Gotabaya Rajapaksa never realized the pitfalls in the political party system here.

Referring to the Matara meeting, immediately after presidential nominations where he advised SLPP candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa, ex-MP Gunasekera said that the President’s response to concerns raised by the CP at a meeting he chaired on 20 December, 2020, deeply disappointed him.

The meeting had been called to discuss the government response to the Covid-19 threat. “On behalf of the CP, our General Secretary Dr. G. Weerasinghe urged President Rajapaksa not to force Muslims to cremate Covid-19 victims as the decision was not backed by scientific reasons nor by the World Health Organization. The President and others present there were warned of dire consequences of such a drastic decision. But Dr. Weerasinghe’s plea was ignored.”

Gunasekera said that he took advantage of the opportunity to warn the President of the impending economic crisis again. The ex-MP recalled him telling the President that unless he addressed the issue at hand none of those 6.9 mn voted for him would remain when the troubles erupted. “The President didn’t say anything but smiled nicely.”

Gunasekera criticized the Mahanayake Theras’ response to the developing crisis. Underscoring the responsibility on their part to rein in politicians, Gunasekera said that the emergence of the likes of ‘Pastor’ Jerome Fernando and Natasha Edirisuriya should be examined against the backdrop of the pathetic conduct of politicians and most religious leaders.

Commenting on the Aragalaya and related developments, Gunasekera confirmed that the US Ambassador Julie Chung advised Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to succeed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

He said that National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa’s recent declaration to that effect was based on what he told the MP.

Wickremesinghe’s emergence as the President, an Office he couldn’t have won at an election, highlighted the ruination of the political party system and the dearth of leaders. The UNP, being restricted to just one National List seat, and the SLFP down to one elected MP (other 13 elected on the Pohottuwa ticket) highlighted the collapse of the political party system, as hitherto known, and further deterioration of the situation.

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Midweek Review

Squeaky clean image of JVP in tatters

Published

6 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

6 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