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SJB flays Prez for proroguing during worst-ever crisis

Published

5 years ago

2021/12/16

By Saman Indrajith

The President should not have prorogued Parliament and left the country, which is faced with the biggest ever economic crisis since independence, the main opposition SJB says.

Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s Office, in Colombo, yesterday, Chief Opposition Whip and Kandy District SJB MP Lakshman Kiriella said the President had been given powers by the Constitution to prorogue Parliament, but he should not have done so when the country was confronted with a crisis of this enormity.

“Given the severity of the crisis, the number of days of Parliament meeting should have been increased so that the MPs could discuss means and ways out of resolving this crisis. Parliament prorogation comes to us from the British Westminster tradition. During the period between 1940 and 1945 while World War II was prevailing, the British parliament was bombed 40 times by the Germans. Yet the British did not close their parliament. On some occasions during that period the British parliament met in a church nearby, because they needed to meet so often to discuss solutions for the crisis.

“When Parliament is prorogued, all committees stand dissolved except for three. Important committees including the COPE and COPA are dissolved. When the House meets again, we have to reappoint them anew and the government could delay that process too. This government has delayed for two years appointing a Sectoral Oversight committee introduced by the 19th Amendment. Whenever the matter is raised at the party leaders’ meeting, the Speaker does not respond.

“The COPA and COPE had been functioning well, exposing massive waste and corruption. For example, when the recent sugar scam had been exposed, the COPA asked for a report on the matter from the Treasury which duly submitted it to the committee so that everybody could learn that the loss of the scam was Rs 150,000 million. The committee chairman asked for a forensic audit report on the matter but even after months that report was not submitted. Now that investigation process would have to be started all over again.

“There is another issue of bringing a fertiliser ship from China. There is neither fertilizer nor money at the end of that deal. There is no committee to discuss this issue. The matter could be raised in the House but the government could evade it without giving a proper response. During the budget debate we raised many questions but none of them was answered by the government properly.

“There are reports that the government has commenced talks with New Delhi to obtain a loan of USD 1.4 billion to buy food, medicine and fuel. In return the government is going to give remaining oil tanks and some islands in the northern sea to India.

“Because of the prorogation around 1,500 motions and questions included in the Order Book would be dumped.

“The country is in a crisis. There is no collective responsibility in the Cabinet itself. We see ministers making their own statements and some have even opposed the government’s deals with foreign companies. Some Ministers even have issued affidavits against them. How a government could move forward in this manner?

“This government has no vision. For example, they created the fertilizer issue by expediting organic fertilizer use in the country which was promised in their manifesto to be done in 10 years. Later they attributed the failure to Covid-19. But everybody knows that the Covid-19 is not the cause of shortage of food, medicine, rising of the prices of essential goods, gas leak explosions etc.

“There is no price control. The rice prices are decided by the miller mafia. The government’s control of prices is the best indicator to show that it has lost control of the country.

“We think that the government should go for an election so that it could test the public opinion. Every democratic country holds an election every two years. We urge the government to hold the local government or provincial election soon.

“The media too should be blamed for the present crisis. It was the media that projected Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a super hero during the election campaign. For example, there was a press conference after Gotabaya Rajapaksa was named the SLPP Presidential candidate. He could not even answer some questions including those about the economy. He dodged and referred them to Mahinda Rajapaksa. The media should have highlighted that. They did not do so. If that happened in a presidential campaign in another country that candidate would have been forced to resign by people. How could one who cannot answer a question on the economy can run a country? What happened here is that the candidate got the chance to answer the question from someone else. That is similar to a contestant of the Sirasa Lakshapathi getting a lifeline. Now everybody sees the results and the media who covered that up too should be responsible for the present predicament the county is faced with,” Kiriella said.

Puttalam District SJB MP Hector Appuhamy also addressed the press.

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Lanka enters new phase of prosecutions as hurdles clear

Published

2 hours ago

2026/10/4

Thilina Walpola

MONETABRIEF –The prosecution of high-profile individuals from the former Rajapaksa administrations is set to escalate this month with the clearing of legal hurdles and administrative bottlenecks, according to officials involved in the process.

Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s attempt to secure an order preventing his arrest in connection with the Easter Sunday massacre was turned down by the Court of Appeal on Thursday.

An overseas travel ban has been in operation against Rajapaksa since June, but the Criminal Investigations Department made no move to question him. He instead filed a writ application seeking an order preventing his possible arrest.

President of the Court of Appeal Rohantha Abeysuriya noted that the court would not interfere with the investigative process. Any attempt by the court would amount to an obstruction of the investigation.

In an unrelated case, the same court rejected an application by opposition legislator Dilith Jayaweera seeking the quashing of a contempt charge filed against him by the Fort magistrate. The charges against Jayaweera and a few other opposition politicians are expected to be taken up in the coming week.

Jayaweera and other opposition politicians — Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila, Sugeeshwara Bandara, and Asanka Navaratne

— were hauled up over their remarks relating to the arrest of Suresh Sallay, the former head of the State Intelligence Service.

SLPP academic Mahinda Pathirana is also charged over his public comments about Sallay’s arrest in February under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, legislator Namal Rajapaksa, is already in remand custody following his arrest in connection with three cases of bribery and money laundering relating to the 2013 Airbus deal and the Krrish property development in Colombo.

Although Namal has been granted bail in the Airbus money laundering charge, he is in custody until October 13 over the bribery charge relating to the same Airbus transaction. His arrest is under a provision of the Anti-Corruption Act that does not allow a magistrate to grant bail unless under exceptional circumstances.

Meanwhile, his mother Shiranthi Rajapaksa, who had been asked to report to the Financial Crimes Investigations Division on September 24, was a no-show and was yet to return from Singapore.

She had travelled overseas on September 16, and a family spokesman said she was handed the FCID summons at the departure lounge of Bandaranaike International Airport just before she boarded a flight to Singapore.

At the time, the family spokesman said she was due to return in three days.

“We will see greater momentum in the legacy cases in the coming weeks,” an official involved in the prosecutions said.

“We have cleared the legal hurdles to press ahead with more arrests,” he said.

“We are working on a few administrative issues which will be resolved very soon.”

The controversial prosecution of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe is dragging on without him being formally indicted since his arrest in August last year. The Fort magistrate has listed the case again for November 11, when the Attorney-General is expected to report on his decision regarding action against Wickremesinghe.

News

Police warn: Court evaders face property seizure

Published

2 hours ago

2026/10/4

Thilina Walpola

Police have reminded the public that courts have the power to take legal action against individuals who evade arrest or remain in hiding after warrants have been issued against them.

Police said that under Section 60 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Act No. 15 of 1979, a court could issue a written proclamation requiring a person evading arrest under a warrant to appear at a specified place and time.

The proclamation must allow the person at least 30 days to appear before court, Police said.

If the person fails to appear even after the proclamation has been issued, the court may take further action under Section 61 of the Act.

This includes issuing an order for the attachment of the movable or immovable property belonging to the person concerned.Police issued the reminder highlighting the legal measures available against persons who deliberately evade arrest and remain in hiding after warrants have been issued.

News

Nearly 20 Iranian tankers stranded off Lanka amid US sanctions

Published

2 hours ago

2026/10/4

Thilina Walpola

Around 20 Iranian oil tankers are reportedly stranded about 15 nautical miles off Sri Lanka’s southwestern coast, with several vessels facing shortages of food, fuel and fresh water amid tightening US sanctions and maritime restrictions, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the report published on Thursday (1), US officials have in recent weeks urged Sri Lanka to prevent local vessels from supplying essential provisions to the tankers and their crews.

The report, citing Sri Lankan Government documents and companies involved in supplying the vessels, said the US had raised concerns over assistance being provided to the sanctioned tankers.

The situation follows the United States’ decision to reimpose a maritime blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in July, which has reportedly left dozens of Iranian and Iran-linked tankers involved in transporting sanctioned oil to China stranded near Asian countries, including Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Most of the vessels are reportedly empty tankers that had previously transported Iranian crude to Asia, often through ship-to-ship transfers, before preparing to return to Iran for additional cargo.

The WSJ reported that the US Embassy had warned Sri Lanka in August that it was monitoring 19 Iranian tankers off the country’s western coast and had raised the possibility of secondary sanctions against companies providing services to sanctioned vessels.

Sri Lankan authorities have maintained that the vessels are located outside the country’s 12-nautical-mile territorial waters and that the Government is not providing them with logistical assistance.

Meanwhile, shipping companies told the WSJ that obtaining approval to supply essential items, including food, drinking water and fuel, as well as repair services, to the Iranian vessels had become increasingly difficult.

Separately, Reuters reported in late August that 27 sanctioned Iran-linked tankers were waiting off Sri Lanka without cargo.

The Trump administration has also imposed additional sanctions on Iran and warned countries and companies trading with Tehran of potential consequences, as Washington seeks to pressure Iran to make concessions amid the ongoing conflict.

Similar concentrations of Iranian-linked tankers have been reported off Malaysia, where waters have historically been used for ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian crude destined mainly for China.