In the event that the republic’s citizenry find the news boring and the Bondgate matter the principal suspect, we must aver that we do know (unlike Ravi K who does not know) that it is none other than the Prime Minister who is to blame for the boring and stale state of affairs.
The only reason why the media, led by News1st,has continued the relentless coverage of the Bondgate story is because there has been a stubborn, steadfast and robust refusal on the part of the Minister in charge of the Central Bank (Ranil Wickremesinghe) to adequately address the Bondgate matter. The Prime Minister for his own reasons has chosen to ignore what almost everyone else can see but he acts as though he has the sight of a crack marksman. Except he is fooling no one but himself when he goes forth and spews out in defence of his long-time friend, a man who the PM holds in high regard for his abilities in the financial sector, the now all island known Arjuna Mahendran.
The PM makes for a compelling witness who ought to be cross examined not let to walk away after providing ‘clarifications’. The facts are several and the PM has been found out to be a serial bodyguard for Percy Mahendran’s son, Arjuna.
For instance the matter was so crucial that President Sirisena announced whilst travelling abroad that he would appoint a committee to look into the matter. Such was the level of public angst at the sheer intensity and the absolute audacity of the perpetrators of this ghastly crime.
The PM pipped the Presidents’ orders at the time (March 2015) and announced his own three member committee. That was the beginning of what we could now point towards the Ranil involvement – even by his inaction – in the Bondgate matter.
In that fateful speech in parliament the Prime Minister literally hung himself. Firstly he said that there was corruption in the previous administration when it came to the issuance of bonds. Unlike good journalists, he disclosed his sources for that bit of information – he said, “that is what the primary dealers are saying’. Although the PM was speaking with parliamentary privilege, he failed to mention who those primary dealers were laying claim to such vexatious charges. Yet the same Prime Minister in the same speech, failed to display any decorum (which he had when not disclosing the names of the primary dealers) and disclosed the names of a few businessmen and berated their involvement – to this day he has been unable to prove a shred of evidence against the people he has named and in effect initially embarrassed. Now several of those businessmen must be laughing their hind legs off – as the PM has to date been unable to take any action and in fact has even befriended some. It must be a possibility that these hitherto ‘bad eggs’ must now be friends of the party and whatever that entails.
The fact that the PM then went on to confirm that “I instructed the Governor to change the method of issuing bonds”. What did the PM expect his governor pal to do? Follow the rules and go before the Monetary Board for approval or act arbitrarily and get on with following his instructions?
The Prime Minister also said – rather intriguingly – that he had appointed a committee (the 3 man one we presume) on the 27th of February – whilst in fact the bond was issued on that date. Was the PM aware of some fraud or departure from process on the very day the bind was issued? We would love to hear his explanation.
The Prime Minister as the man in charge of the Central Bank must do the only honourable and sacrosanct thing now: he must bow his head, apologise to the people and his supporters, and resign his position. Thereafter it is best that he not even sit as a backbencher but leave the country and go spend some time in Brighton or Brussels where his other friend Nirj Deva will most certainly show him off amongst the conservatives of Europe and make RW rather coz if not welcoming.
The Prime Minister’s plans are working. He has engineered the breakup of the SLFP and is in effect protecting certain favoured people. It is clear that whenever it is elections are being called, there will be a paradigm shift. The President will have all his work cut out for him. It is up to President Sirisena to save this country and its people from the peculiar brand of democracy practised by Wickremesinghe & Co and pursue the unity of his own party, give up his utterly pointless persecution of the Rajapaksas and instead go for prosecution equitably.
But before all this can happen Ranil Wickremesinghe needs to attend the Bondgate saga – like he did Batalanda’s Commission previously – and face the music of which he was the composer.
