Much is being made of the Ravi Karunanayake imbroglio, with the Joint Opposition virtually on cloud nine, having seized upon a juicy morsel for its delectation while attempting to throw dust in the eyes of the general public as to the shenanigans of the Rajapaksas, their associates and members of the former regime. Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne hit the nail on the head when he said that the Ravi Karunanayake issue pales into insignificance compared to the king sized robberies of the members of the Joint Opposition. Dr. Senaratne said leaders of the JO are king sized robbers who were now pointing their fingers at Minister Ravi Karunanayake, speaking at a function at the Mannar Silawathura district hospital, on Monday. The minister said there are many charges against the leaders of the Joint Opposition, mega corruption, malpractices and murder, among them. The people should know the amounts stashed away in Dubai banks, belonging to leaders of the JO, he stated.
Member after member of the JO are today taking turns to appear on a pro-Rajapaksa TV channel to crucify Ravi Karunanayake against whom a no-confidence motion too has been presented to the Speaker. There is however one underlying thread that runs through these ravings and rantings of the so called monumental corruption under the Yahapalanaya government - a clear attempt to deflect from the gigantic acts of corruption that was carried out with impunity under Rajapaksa. It is also telling, that those who are making the loudest of noises are the very ones who are soiled and tainted with corruption, as the cases pending against them demonstrate. Taking hilarity to new heights, they are also calling for the resignation of Karunanayake.
It is not clear if Ravi. K. will step down or await the findings of the Commission before he takes such a decision. It is reported that even some government members have urged the minister to resign. But by no stretch of the imagination can members of the JO make such a demand. Having enriched themselves with impunity under Rajapaksa they have no moral right to ask the minister to resign. No minister in the Rajapaksa regime ever resigned. On the contrary those accused of corruption were protected while rapists and murderers had their cases withdrawn. One minister even had the privilege of having his wife, who was on death row as an accused in the murder of his mistress, released on a presidential pardon.
In any event, resignations in the political arena of this country is a very rare phenomenon. We are bereft of politicians of the calibre of Dudley Senanayake or Gamini Jayasuriya. Present day Lankan politicians only resign themselves to their fate, come the hustings.
Meanwhile, Minster Mahinda Amaraweera said the Special Presidential Commission has sent a clear message to aspiring politicians that they run the risk of being exposed for corruption. He also pointed out that no such mechanism was set up by the previous government to rope in the corrupt. Henceforth, he said, corrupt politicians would not be spared. For the first time, the President has taken steps seek out the corrupt within the government.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe too has reiterated that the corrupt would be hounded. “The UNP would never protect fraudsters or let them remain in the party,” he told party grassroots members in Hatton. He said today even ministers are being investigated.
Be that as it may, never in recent memory has the guns been trained on a government minister, even from within the government, as has become the fate of the beleaguered Karunanayake. Speculation, though, is rife that his resignation is imminent. If so, this will be the first time since the resignation of Gamini Jayasiriya (in opposition to the Indo-Lanka Accord) that a government minister will be stepping down, on his own, albeit under a cloud. Of course there was the instance when ministers G.L. Peiris, S.B. Dissanayake and Mahinda Wijesekera, among others, threw away their portfolios and crossed the floor to signal the premature end to the Chandrika government. But this was under entirely different circumstances.
MR’s take on divine wrath
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says divine retribution was visiting those who maligned the Rajapaksa family, in an obvious reference to the Special Presidential Commission proceedings in connection with Ravi Karunanayake. MR was quoted in a daily English publication as saying “when we were insulted we never appealed to the gods. Now those who insulted us have earned the wrath of the gods. It is divine retribution”.
One would have thought that the coconut dashing spree engaged in by members of the Joint Opposition in the early days of the Yahapalanaya government was to invoke the wrath of the gods on the government, for, there obviously could not have even any other logical reason. In any event, the Commission appointed by the government is to expose wrong doings of members of the regine themselves which, one would have thought, would have pleased the gods rather than invoke their collective wrath.
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