By

Dharisha Bastians

A meeting between President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe took place at 5.30 PM on Thursday. Daily FT learns that the meeting between the President and Prime Minister had been amicable, despite the prevailing tension. The two leaders had resolved to iron out their issues, aides said, speaking confidentially. The President’s speech on Wednesday had taken the Premier by surprise, highly placed sources said. Wickremesinghe held talks with senior officials and a party MP ahead of his meeting with the President on Thursday to discuss the major tension points within the ruling coalition that may have led to Sirisena’s outburst.

Adding a strange twist to the prevailing political drama, actor politician and Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake reportedly played mediator during the crisis, to convince both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe that the alliance had to be safeguarded at all costs. Ramanayake, often known as ‘One Shot’ after a character in his films, briefed the Prime Minister for one hour about the corruption allegations against members of the ruling coalition.

Ramanayake emphasised that the presence of former Central Bank Governor on prime ministerial delegations was hugely problematic and said the lack of action against certain powerful businessmen allegedly involved in corruption during the tenure of the Rajapaksa Government was eroding the Yahapalanaya administration’s credibility. All these things could be irking the President, Ramanayake explained.

Highly placed sources told Daily FT that Ramanayake who is also a confidant of President Sirisena, had communicated to Wickremesinghe that the source of President Sirisena’s anger was recent actions by the Bribery Commission against SLFP Ministers A. H. M. Fowzie and Priyankara Jayaratne on relatively minor allegations, which he viewed as a witch-hunt against members of his own party, while corruption probes against certain members of the former regime faced continuous delays.

The President was also incensed by the continued disruptions to investigations into the alleged Treasury Bond scandal during the tenure of former Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran, the sources said. President Sirisena had also assured confidants on Thursday that he had no intention of allying with the members of the Rajapaksa regime to scuttle Wickremesinghe’s UNF led administration.

Both main parties in the ruling alliance – the UNP and the SLFP – called off media briefings scheduled for Thursday, to avoid facing the press. As the fallout from President Sirisena’s speech continued, the SLFP also cancelled a press briefing scheduled yesterday.

Courtesy:Daily FT