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Ranil will be remembered as best President Sri Lanka never had - Mangala

Former Foreign Minister and former Minister of Finance Mangala Samaraweera made a surprise decision not to contest the Parliamentary election.Various claims were made over his surprise move, including claims of a rift between him and Sajith Premadasa, who he had supported at the Presidential election. In an interview with Daily Mirror, Samaraweera explains the reason for his move, his future plans and more.

Q: One of the most unexpected and headline-making stories that came out ahead of the Parliamentary Elections was your decision not to contest at the election. Why did you take such a big step at such a crucial moment?

This is something I have been thinking of ever since the presidential election was over. In fact, 31 years ago in 1989 when I first entered Parliament, I actually decided to come into politics because of the dreadful human rights situation at the time, especially in the deep south where I come from. And when I was invited by Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike to become the organiser of the SLFP for Matara, I finally decided to take up the offer because I felt – I suppose when we’re young we all think we could change the world – that I could make a difference. And that’s why having entered Parliament in the general election of 1989, I along with Mahinda Rajapakse, started the Mothers’ Front movement at my own house in Walpola, Matara and we were both co-convenors of the movement.

Later Richard De Zoysa’s mother Dr. Manorani Saravanamuttu became the Chief Patron and that is how I started my political journey, for what I believed in, especially human rights, freedom of expression, freedom of media and of course, most of all democracy. But sadly I felt after 30 odd years – in fact I celebrated my 30th year in politics last year in 2019 – I felt that we as a country have not really moved forward because the same issues that we were fighting for 30 years ago are still relevant today. We are still talking about preserving human rights, we are still talking about preserving democracy, and in fact I feel that democracy is more at stake than ever before, we are still talking of the freedom of expression, freedom of the media, etc. and I also felt rather restricted. After all these years, I felt the country hasn’t moved forward and I haven’t really moved forward, either, in many ways.

Q: But do you think you did enough while you were in office to actually make change?

Well, we did try to make certain changes, but certainly not enough. You see, the tragedy of Sri Lanka is, I sincerely believe, from the time we achieved independence, when Sri Lanka was actually perhaps one of the most democratic and developed countries in South Asia. I know that there was an editorial in the London Times, I was told, on the 4th of February, 1948, on the day of independence saying that Ceylon, which is going to be independent from Britain from that day, predicted a bright future for Sri Lanka, saying it was going to be the Switzerland of the East. And even if you read Lee Kuan Yew’s memoirs, he writes how Sri Lanka was considered the model commonwealth country at the time.

At the time of independence, we had some of the best, the two best universities in Asia were here, we had a highly respected, highly regarded bureaucracy, we had police who are as good as any police force in the world. Sri Lanka was really in the vanguard of nations in South Asia at the time, but today we along with the rest of them also must take part of the blame. Sri Lanka, the bright young kid in the class who was expected to do so well has basically trailed behind so much that now we are right at the back of the class in this part of the world.

So as a result I have been personally thinking a lot, where did we go wrong. Of course it’s far too complex to say it in a few words, but I feel even though all our leaders who ruled our country from 1948 – from D. S. Senanayake to Gotabaya Rajapakse – they have all come to sit on that chair as the head of government and head of state, certainly with good intentions. I certainly don’t believe that any of our leaders came there with the sole intention of killing people, abducting people, stealing from the treasury or stealing from the country, or lying to the people. They all come with good intentions. But unfortunately, I feel that some of those who stay on the chair, the crown I feel was a little too heavy for them, like the recent experience we had, and some actually go berserk with the power and then they start imagining themselves as kings and they want to start sort of a monarchy in the country and even the very good leaders I felt never had the courage of their convictions to do what was right in the face of all the regressive forces, which always basically have tried to stop.

I mean, the best example was when S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who I feel was a man of impeccable integrity, but he has lot to answer for, because I feel the 1956 Revolution is what unleashed all these retrogressive forces, the genie so to speak out of the bottle, and so many years later, we still haven’t been able to put that genie back in the bottle – the genie which brings extremism and regression, which has been our normal way of life.

In 1957 had he signed the Chelvanayakam document, you know, history would have been different. He lost his nerve when a small group of Buddhist priests started to do a satyagraha in front of his house at Rosmead Place, he basically went out, tore the document in order to please them, but at the same time he realised what he was doing, because he is supposed to have said to the priests, even though I’m doing this because of your insistence, the country will feel the repercussions of my deed maybe in 30 to 40 years’ time.

And just as he said, this ugly face of separation raised its head by the 70’s, by the 80’s. But we have to remember at the beginning, the Tamils of this country never asked for a separate state, it was only to do with the language, but we were unable to accommodate them even on that very simple request, quietly generation to generation they were pushed towards extremism.

Finally, one of the most brutal terrorist organisations in the world was born on our soil. And we all have to be responsible for it. And what is worse is we have not learnt the lessons from those past experiences. In fact, Mahinda Rajapakse with all his flaws, I feel again had the best chance in 2009 once terrorism was defeated, when the LTTE was finally defeated, instead of going on an orgy of triumphalism trying to enact scenes from the Mahavansa, he actually could have used that moment to unite the country. If he used that moment to make a new Sri Lankan identity just after the war, he would have been remembered as the greatest of all leaders. But unfortunately he too fell into the trap of wanting to be a new Dutugemunu and he started this new journey towards majoritarianism which Gotabaya Rajapaksa has now taken a step further.

Q: Do you think that the opinions you had expressed, prior to the presidential election when Sajith Premadasa was also going to contest, were not taken well and that probably cost Sajith Premadasa the election as well?

No, I don’t think that is the reason which cost him the election because the election itself was chaotic and unorganised. I have done many elections before. I have never seen such a chaotic, unorganised election of that nature ever before and these views were not expressed by me just before that election. In fact these are the views I have been expressing ever since I came into politics. It’s nothing against Buddhism, but in this age of patriotism, I consider myself a true patriot; not these ones who use patriotism as a sort of a badge on their sleeve to hide all their other sins.

Felt finally that I need to be more flexible because as you rightly say there were especially in the UNP and the SJB also, many people who felt rather uncomfortable with my views, and I thought to myself even I’m more uncomfortable with their views, so this might be the moment where I should leave parliamentary politics and be with like-minded people and fight for the values I believe in. I can be doing much better even outside, and in the last months or so when I have been liberated from the need to do parliamentary politics I think I’ve started a more interesting journey than before.

Q: Some are saying that you are probably looking at a role, beyond Sri Lanka, maybe at the UN?

I have been invited to do some lectures at Harvard by a very good friend of mine in America and all that. But no. My life is in Sri Lanka. I love Sri Lanka. In fact, as a student I stayed for 10 years in the UK. I could have easily got Permanent Residency there, but even at that age, I wanted to go back to Sri Lanka and I don’t regret that decision, especially now at 64, I certainly am not going anywhere. I will stick it out and I think Sri Lanka needs the values I believe in more than ever before.

Q: With the current Parliament, do you think there is someone out there who can actually bring the sort of change that you are expecting?

The only person who can perhaps even understand or even have a certain conception of the values that I’m talking about is Ranil Wickremesinghe. I have a great deal of respect for him. But on the other hand he is not a populist politician, unfortunately for the country. In fact, I always believe that Ranil Wickremesinghe – I hope I’m wrong, there’s still time – will always be remembered as the best president Sri Lanka never had. But beyond that I feel we don’t have to have people in Parliament as long as there are people within this country, especially the youth. I think it’s finally their country, and they are the ones who have to live here for the next 50 or 60 years, all the mistakes that we do today, they are the ones who will live through it and I’m beginning to feel there is the new ‘X’ generations, the ‘Y’ generations, the ‘Z’ generations, all these new terms there are, they’re becoming far more enlightened and far more forward than we are.

Q: You’re talking about Ranil Wickremesinghe, but you supported Sajith Premadasa.

Sajith was actually an extremely good minister. In fact as Finance Minister he was one of the few ministers to whom I allocated certain funds without any fear because I knew the money would be put to good use efficiently. There is a lot of waste in some of the other ministries. He was an excellent minister and of course he was also the popular face of the party and that was one of the reasons I really fought for his candidacy at the presidential election, because I really wanted to defeat or at least stop the recurring of the Rajapaksa regime at any cost.

Q: Isn’t that the biggest issue where people are going for populists as opposed to capable leaders?

Exactly. I suppose it’s not only a problem with this country, but populism is becoming the bane of many a democracy. Right at this moment, look at what’s happening in the United States, look at what's happening in Romania, to what’s happening in Brazil. You know all these populist leaders are being swept into power without thinking of the consequences that will follow. But in Sri Lanka perhaps providence is doing that within seven months. All those people who voted for the change are beginning to realise what a dreadful mistake they had made. And I believe after the elections, after the 5th of August, the true nature of this government, people will be able to see. And that is when I think a very strong movement to protect our democracy from militarisation and also a new dangerous trend is also taking place where you have the executive basically completely ignoring the legislature that is the Parliament.

Q: You have worked with the likes of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Maithripala Sirisena and so on. Do you have any regrets looking back at your time in office, about more you could have done with these leaders or maybe they just didn’t give you the space to do that?

Of course I must say that during Chandrika Kumaratunga’s administration I was given the most space and it was during that period I did the most amount of work for the country, starting from the privatisation of telecom to starting the Colombo redevelopment plan and all that. The opportunity came during that time. But ever since I regret not being able to do more with some of the other leaders, because as I say, their agenda was hi-jacked by extremists in some of the other places along the way.

Q: Another area you openly spoke on was LGBT rights. This is a sensitive issue and often took a backseat. Do you think Sri Lanka will ever recognise LGBT rights?

We have to. In fact, I feel I haven’t spoken enough about LGBT rights. Perhaps from the sort of background that most of us come from Colombo, LGBT issues were never an issue. It was basically accepted by your families, your friends, by your teachers, etc.

Q: That was included in the national action plan, wasn’t it?

It was, in fact that was included in the national action plan, because we are still, as far as LGBT rights, especially gay rights are concerned, governed by one of the most archaic laws. It is from the time of Queen Victoria. Then of course, Queen Victoria’s own country has moved forward away from it and today we are still protecting Queen Victoria’s law saying it is part of the Sinhala Buddhist culture, which is an absolute joke. I mean, two consenting adults having the right to love each other is their private business and nothing to do with the state or the government.

Q: Talk us through Sri Lanka’s foreign policy. When you were foreign minister, you took an independent stand. Now we see a bit of confrontation taking place with the US and India. Is Sri Lanka’s foreign policy on the right track?

It is disastrous. Sri Lanka is again rapidly hurling towards confrontation and international isolation. In fact over the years especially in 2015, Sri Lanka opened itself up to the world and we established excellent relations with all the different power blocks. I mean we had excellent relations with the United States; the secretary of state John Kerry - the first visit by such a high officer in 44 years – was here. Samantha Power, the US ambassador to UN was here several times. And in fact even President Obama who used to call us the good news country at that time, because in a world full of conflict Sri Lanka was the country he was getting good news about all the reform and all the changes and in its democratisation, and in his last trip to Asia in 2016 to Vietnam, he finally agreed to come to Colombo, the first ever state visit it would have been by the US president, in May of that year. But the day he could actually allocate was the very day we were celebrating Vesak here. President Sirisena was quite excited and said no no no, bring him, we can go and see the pandals together, but the American President had more things in mind, like a joint address to Parliament, so finally that was taken off his itinerary. So likewise, with the whole world, we were welcome by President Putin in Moscow, by China, we had a very close relationship with the EU.

Q: But some say you distanced yourself with China.

Not at all. We didn’t want to only deal with China. We wanted a balanced foreign policy, where we would open ourselves to the whole world.

Q: Wasn’t there too much interference from the US?

Why should the US?

Q: Because they were at the Human Rights Council?

The Human Rights Council is another story. I don’t know if you have time enough to talk about it, but what people don’t know is that President Rajapaksa himself committed Sri Lanka to an international investigation when Ban Ki-Moon arrived here two days after the war ended. There was a joint agreement and subsequently in Geneva, the Sri Lankan government agreed to do certain reconciliation to deal with the issues. But as always they were mere lies to get over the problem for the moment. And finally Geneva, it had nothing to do with the US alone; the European Union and the whole of the UNHRC decided and initiated an international investigation against Sri Lanka without Sri Lanka’s participation and that report was to have been tabled in Geneva in March of 2015. In fact had that report been tabled, that final report, it’s a damning report, in fact most probably after that report had been tabled there would have been further economic sanctions on Sri Lanka, definitely there would have been travel bans on President Rajapaksa and other members of his family and other key members of the administration but luckily for Mahinda and others and luckily for Sri Lanka, the government changed on the 8th of January. In fact, as foreign minister after visiting India, the next visit I did was I immediately went to Geneva, and Zeid was the chief there, and we had a long discussion with him. We insisted that this international investigation that was being done without Sri Lanka’s participation be taken off the book and we said now there is a new government, we can actually guarantee the independence of the judiciary now, so please we will do an investigation to any of the allegations of war crimes and others within Sri Lanka by ourselves. That was a huge victory and not only did we persuade the UNHRC, we persuaded the United States of America, we persuaded the United Kingdom, we persuaded countries like Germany to co-sponsor that resolution, which brought the investigation back into Sri Lankan hands.

(The Daily Mirror)

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451 complaints on election law violations: CaFFE

Sri Lanka election monitor Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said that 475 complaints have been reported to them as of yesterday (21).

They said that 451 out of 475 complaints are with regard to violations of election laws. The other 24 complaints were reported pertaining to property damage, assault and intimidation.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the CaFFE Ahmed Manas Makin urged private sector employees to lodge complaints with the election monitor if they have any problems in obtaining leave from private institutions to cast their votes.

He noted that many private companies are violating the voting rights of their employees in every election by not granting leave and it is a serious situation. He also said that CaFFE has stepped in to resolve such complaints in consultation with the heads of the relevant companies.

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"Skin colour isn’t the only basis of discrimination": Sangakkara

After a dreadful murder of George Floyd by police officers in the USA, the debate around the lives of black people, questions over systemic exploitation and discrimination based on race in nearly every sphere of lives has intensified across the world.

Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara has raised pertinent points on the prevalence of societal malaise like racism and talked about the importance of bridging the gap in the education system.

“Once you understand what real history is, I think you will find lots of attitude changes,” Sangakkara said in a chat with Cricbuzz.

“We are all taught to love our country. But sometimes we follow that blindly and that stops us from appreciating other cultures, other countries, other people, other races, other religions.”

“So educate yourself, open your mind, but more importantly open your eyes, because without that change won’t happen and change isn’t going to be overnight.”

However, besides skin colour, a person can also face discrimination based on her caste, nationality, religion and gender. Former Sri Lanka understands these facets very well and talked about the importance of teaching history in the purest form, without any adulteration, to children.

“Skin colour isn’t the only basis of discrimination. There are various ways of racism and discrimination. Some historically and some in a certain context, skin colour isn’t the only basis for discrimination.”

“If you take Black Lives Matter if you take racism and discrimination in the world, I think one of the most important things is to teach our children history as it should be, and not the sanitised version of it, so you only see the positives,” Sangakkara added.

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STF had provided security to rogue PNB officers

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris informed the court yesterday that officers of the Special Task Force (STF) of Sri Lanka Police had assisted the drug trafficking operations by providing armed protection to rogue police officers of the Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB).

13 officers attached to the Police Narcotic Bureau, arrested on the charge of trafficking drugs, were further remanded until the 04th of August by Colombo Chief Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne on Tuesday (21).

The suspects were not produced in court when the matter was called up.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris informed the court that a group of officers attached to the PNB, including the 14 suspects, had worked with international drug traffickers and smuggled a large volume of heroin by boat from international waters to Sri Lanka.

He said the operation was taking place since 2017 and the suspects had generated an income of over Rs. 102 Million since then.

The Deputy Solicitor General went on to note, while engaged in drug trafficking, the suspects had staged drug raids where the drugs distributed by them were seized as part of their theatrics.

Further, he said evidence revealed a large portion of the 279 kilograms of heroin seized by the Sri Lanka Navy in deep seas, while arresting several Iranian, were sold back to the drug traffickers.

He added the suspects had also paid off millions to their sleuths and boat owners & crew, who assisted in bringing heroin from international waters to Sri Lankan shores.

Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris pointed out the Acting Inspector General of Police and other senior ranked police officers should also be held accountable for the lack of supervision on the suspects.

It was also revealed in court, the suspects had made pilgrimages to Kataragama and uploaded pictures of their visits to social media before conducting raids.

DSG Peiris went on to note, in this backdrop Sri Lanka Police was very much concerned of protecting the identities of PNB officers involved in raids, as they denied entry to journalists who were invited by the Attorney General to attend a briefing organized by the AGs Department for the Police Narcotic Bureau.

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Basil slams Oshadi: A 'donkey' in the nominations board approved your nomination

Founder of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and national organiser, Basil Rajapaksa slammed the SLPP nomination board for awarding nominations to certain individuals, who he deemed as unfit to run to contest.

Addressing a campaign meeting, Rajapaksa said that a female candidate sent him a video clip recently where she said the SLPP had awarded nominations to horses and donkeys and that she had requested for his feedback.

"I responded saying, though there are no mules and horses among candidates, there was definitely a mule in the nomination board and that is why you were given a nomination," said Basil Rajapaksa.

On the 09th of July, Oshadhi Hewamadduma contesting from the SLPP said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa will endure the fate of the former government if intelligent individuals are not elected to parliament.

She further said the SLPP awarded nominations for mules and horses adding the people must only vote for the horses and not the mules.

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Jobs for unemployed graduates after elections: President

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said unemployed graduates will be granted job appointments soon after the 2020 general election concludes next month.

The President made this observation in response to questions posed to him by a graduate in Ratnapura on Sunday (19). The President had met with the public at Embilipitiya and had noted that graduates are the cream of any nation that forms the most important part of any sector.

“But there is no use if graduates fail to work towards developing the country’s economy,” the President has said.

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No broken promises; Estate workers will get Rs.1000 daily wage under a UNP Govt: Ravi

Former Finance Minister and the Deputy Leader of the United National Party (UNP) Ravi Karaunanayake assured that under a UNP government, they would ensure that the Rs. 1000 daily wage for estate workers will be implemented.

Addressing a propaganda campaign to promote the UNP candidates in Hatton on Wednesday (22), he said that the UNP is a party that only promises what can be delivered and does not promise the unrealistic and impossible.

“Those leaders who are promising to grant every family Rs. 20,000 had brought 4,500 persons from Hambantota to Colombo promising them employment and paid them salaries without giving them permanent jobs.Today all of them have no jobs and no income and they are at home. The UNP is a party which strives to unite everyone and there is no other party in Sri Lanka which possesses these qualities. Many of the parties are based on ethnicity and religious lines. Under the UNP regime we had established a strong economy which was beneficial to the people, but over the past eight months the economy has collapsed,” Karunanayake added.

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Foreign Secretary sends a confidential letter on MCC to the Prime Minister!

The Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ravinatha Aryasinha has written a confidential letter to Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa urging him to resolve issues pertaining to the MCC Compact agreement in a manner that will not offend the United States. He has also requested the Premier not to publish the annexures of the report by the Gunaruwan Committee that was appointed to review the MCC agreement.

The pro-government 'Lanka Lead News' reported that the Foreign Secretary had not obtained prior approval from the Minister of Foreign Relations before sending the letter to the Prime Minister.

The President appointed an Expert’s Committee to review the proposed MCC Compact and called for the Cabinet of Ministers to provide documented feedback on the Committee's report. It was reported that some ministers had requested more time to submit their views during the past few days.

However, it was also reported that most Ministers had handed over the responsibility of submitting the documented feedback to their respective Secretaries of the Ministries instead.

According to internal sources in the Ministry of Foreign Relations, a group of Secretaries to certain Ministries had decided to make the relevant recommendations collectively and had sought the advice of the Foreign Secretary.

Cabinet spokesperson Minister Bandula Gunawardena at a recent press briefing reiterated that international agreements cannot be simply overturned.

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Youth have seen how parliamentarians behave: Ranil Wickremesinghe

Historically, youth in Sri Lanka were actively involved in politics with many political movements coming into being due to the youth engagement, however in the recent past, youth engagement in politics has dwindled. According to the 2014 National Human Development Report (NDHR), 71.5% of the youth exercise their right to vote, but less than 10% of the youth expressed the desire to engage politically through direct activism.

Commenting on this, United National Party (UNP) Leader and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that this was due to the unruly behaviour of politicians and the lack of transparency in political affairs conducted by the politicians.

“By televising our parliamentary proceedings many youth have seen how parliamentarians behave and this has caused them to disengage themselves from politics. As politicians, we have to accept this,” Wickremesinghe said adding that a moral code of conduct has to be brought in and laws have to be tightened to ensure transparency and moral behaviour of politicians.

These comments were expressed at the launch of ‘Parapura’ which took place on July 11. ‘Parapura’ is a platform for youth to get involved in national politics where youth will be able to pitch in their ideas and suggestions to political leaders.

“It is imperative for youth to participate in politics and collectively work to rebuild the country. The youth should engage in a non-confrontational political strategy where all work in harmony under one Sri Lankan identity, to achieve one broad ambition,” stated Wickremesinghe adding that the current political system in the country has become confrontational, personal and publicity- oriented which has made people sick of politics, hampered the freedom of expression and hasn’t provided a proper space for discussion on issues such as environmental issues, animal rights, gender equality and LGBTQI rights.

He also stated that there is an air of uncertainty due to the current economic climate of the country. “Despite our political differences, we all need to collectively compile short term and long-term plans to revive the economy and have a basic framework. Without a basic framework, we won’t be able to alleviate this situation,” he said.

He opined that a good training scheme has to be in place to train the youth. “More youth are needed in the IT and logistics sector and youth should also be trained in modern agricultural methods which will help the economy of the country and minimise youth unemployment,” he remarked.

Sathira Sarachchandra, former Director of the National Youth Services Council, shared that the youth population wishes to be free, independent, have access to education, higher education and job opportunities, live in peace and to be able to carry out a content family life. “The youth does wish to provide leadership and support governmental endeavours that contribute to this. The reason we launched Parapura is so that the youth will be able to voice out their opinions and contribute to the decision-making process of the country,” said Sarachchandra.

The official website of Parapura- www.parapura.org was also launched at the ceremony by Wickremesinghe.

(The Daily Mirror)

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Unemployment rate increases to 5.7%

The unemployment rate in the country has increased to 5.7% in the first quarter of 2020, data from the Department of Statistics show.

The number of unemployed persons is estimated as 483,172 during the first quarter of 2020.

Meanwhile, the overall unemployment rates stood at 9.6% and 3.7% for females and males respectively.

Youth unemployment rate (age 15 – 24 years) corresponding to the first quarter 2020 was recorded at 26.8% which was the highest reported unemployment rate among all age groups.

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Public Health Inspectors say they will work on election day

The Public Health Inspectors (PHIs), who are currently engaged in trade union action, would not refrain from assisting with election duty on election day.

Director General of the Elections Secretariat, Saman Sri Rathnayake has said the PHI unions had assured they would not obstruct the election process.

“They will help us in their duties on election day. They indicated this during our discussions,” he has told The Morning.

He has noted that he didn’t believe that the PHIs would go ahead with the strike.

“During our discussions, it appeared that they wouldn’t conduct the strike. Regardless, their issue has nothing to do with the election or the Election Commission, so I don’t think it will be an issue,” Rathnayake has said.

In the event the strike does happen, the EC would address the issue at that time.

“There’s no point jumping the gun now before the strike has even happened. We will think of it if and when it happens,” he has added.

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Bathiudeen and Karunanayake harassed; Election Commision member raises concern!

A member of the National Elections Commission has raised concerns over the conduct of the Sri Lanka Police with respect to certain investigations being carried out suddenly when an election has already been declared and is just around the corner.

Prof. Ratnajeevan Hoole in an open letter says that 'dangerous signs' are evident which shows that the integrity and the independence of the Police could have been compromised.

"We have the police to uphold law and order, and to support democratic institutions. Unfortunately, there are dangerous signs that they, the police, are a tool in the hands of the government in power. It is as sad an indictment as it is ominous to our democracy," Hoole said.

He also pointed out that there is ample evidence that criminal activity by those aligned with the government in power have no investigations going on against them. He said that with the change of government, there is sudden interest in such long forgotten cases.

"We bystanders are never sure if the police cleared the suspects after investigation and the new government suddenly finds evidence as a vendetta, or there was really a crime and the police suppressed investigations and after the change of government a proper investigation is being launched. Such a state of affairs is bad for democracy and an indictment on the police as a political tool," he warned.

Hoole further said that long standing cases are now being dropped during elections. For example, a witness in a case concerning Tiran Alles dropped out citing the inability to give evidence using photocopies without explaining why it took so long to say that. Another example is the naming as a prime suspect of a JMO who died recently and closing the matter when there are others who did the actual killing of Wasim Thajudeen.

He also said that when investigations are commenced during elections, they are legitimately suspicious of the reasons and have asked for a postponement of the investigations until polling is over.

"Recognizing the meddlesomeness of these investigations in the electoral processes, the Commission has consistently asked for investigations to be postponed until any ongoing elections are concluded. It can be argued that the people have a right to know before electing their representatives. However, when it is a case that has been dormant for months and even years and is revived during elections, the reasons for that are obviously political and an intervention is urgent," Hoole noted.

Thus it was when Mr. Sriranga of the famous Minnal program was suddenly arrested over a fatal accident years earlier, the Commission asked the police to postpone investigations until the investigations seemingly timed for the local government elections were over. The police thankfully respected that. Similarly, the election authority intervened when Namal Rajapakse and Sarana Gunawardena had long dormant cases revived during elections. We asked for a postponement of the investigations and that was respected.

Are Bathiudeen and Karunanayake political targets?

"Today, we have an investigation into whether Rishad Bathiudeen is connected to the sad events of 21 April 2019. After 15 months, why is this investigation being started as the polls are just 2 weeks away? After waiting 15 months why can the police not wait a mere two weeks more for the polls to be over?" Hoole inquired.

He said that the Elections Commission wrote a strong, unanimously agreed letter to the IGP and asked for the postponement of investigation until after the elections. The CID nonetheless kept asking Bathiudeen to report at their headquarters.

Ravi Karunanayake also received summons reviving the investigations into some alleged corruption on his part.

"As a pattern of heavy-handed police interference seemed to be emerging, at the party leaders meeting on 17 July the Commission raised the matter with the party leaders assembled. Several top ranking politicians were present, including Mr. Basil Rajapaksa. They unanimously agreed that the commission’s position was right. Immediately thereafter, we wrote again to the police. Today, Sunday, I heard from Bathiuddin that he is due at a rally in Ampara tonight and the CID wants him to report tomorrow morning in Colombo. Have we lost our democracy and our right to free and fair elections?" he added.