{"id":38252,"date":"2015-02-07T19:46:06","date_gmt":"2015-02-08T00:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38252"},"modified":"2015-02-07T19:50:25","modified_gmt":"2015-02-08T00:50:25","slug":"bar-association-president-upul-jayasuriya-appointed-as-board-of-investment-chairman-is-a-mockery-of-yahapalanaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=38252","title":{"rendered":"Bar association President Upul Jayasuriya Appointed as Board of Investment Chairman is a Mockery of “Yahapalanaya”."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

C.A.Chandraprema <\/strong><\/p>\n

Each passing week sees a mockery made of the term yahapalanaya. The most surprising episode we have seen yet after the ouster of the Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, is the acceptance of the Chairmanship of the Board of Investment by Upul Jayasuriya the President of the Bar Association. Under Upul Jayasuriya the Bar Association was more politicized than ever before. His predecessor was Wijedasa Rajapakshe – himself a UNP politician. But even he did not politicize the Bar Association presidency to the extent that Jayasuriya did.<\/p>\n

There was really no difference between the Bar Assocaition and an opposition political party over the past couple of years. Upul Jayasuriya played a leading role in the evicting of Mohan Peiris from the Supreme Court. Many people including the present writer was amazed to see the president of the Bar Association announcing to the public over TV that the appointment of Mohan Peris was void and that former CJ Shirani Bandaranayake would be reinstated.<\/p>\n

If it was the presidential secretariat that had issued the letter declaring Mohan Peiris\u2019 appointment to be null and void, then it should have been at least the Secretary to the President or the presidential spokesman who should have made that known to the public. But here was the president of the Bar Association announcing matters of state to the public! Just days after what was described even by the pro-yahapalana Colombo Telegraph as a \u2018judicial coup\u2019 Upul Jayasuriya was made Chairman of the BOI.<\/p>\n

How can a top professional chairing the body that represents his profession descend to such levels as to accept a position that was obviously given to him as a token of appreciation for support and services provided to the new powers that be?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We grant that the position of the head of the Bar Association is not a sacrosanct position like that of the chief justice. The Bar Association just represents the private bar. The question however is whether the president of a body representing a key profession should be a political individual who has no qualms about accepting office under people he helped bring into power using the office of BASL president. What will that do to the image of the BASL? Even former chief justice Sarath N.Silva has spoken disapprovingly of the involvement of the BASL in the ouster of chief justice Mohan Peiris and said that the BASL should not be involved in such sensitive issues. Perhaps the BASL should not allow politically involved lawyers to contest for the top positions in that organization in the future. The biggest joke was the Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma commending the government on the appointment of the new chief justice without any mention of how the previous one was removed. That must be a variation of the Latimer House principles that we have somehow missed!<\/p>\n

Kangaroofication of institutions<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a development no less scandalous than that of the Bar Association president accepting a political appointment, last week the director-general of the Bribery Commission Ganesh Dharmawardhana was transferred and replaced with another official whom the new government obviously feels will fast track complaints of bribery and corruption made against members of the fallen Rajapaksa regime. This transfer came in the context of raucous cries from the JHU and the JVP that the top officials of the Bribery Commission should be removed and replaced with new officials who will fast track investigations into the complaints against certain individuals they themselves made to the bribery commission! To cap it all, even while the director general of the bribery Commission was being transferred and replaced with another official, the JHU held another demonstration outside the Bribery Commission demanding the resignation of the chairman of the Bribery Commission so as to expedite the investigations into the complaints they made.<\/p>\n

In other words, the JHU wants the Bribery Commission turned into a kangaroo court. The Daily Mirror captured the mood of the moment with a cartoon depicting a picture of the blindfolded maiden of justice with the pair of scales and sword being covered with a picture of the hooded grim reaper wielding a scythe. That indeed seems to be the direction in which we are heading. In what increasingly looks like a primeval feeding frenzy, the yahapalana types appear to be turning against one another in a little concealed power struggle. Last week, JVP trade unionists of the Ceylon Electricity Board went to the Bribery Commission against power and energy minister Champika Ranawaka alleging that he was not taking steps to reverse a salary increase given to the CEB engineers. The JVP depicts the salary increase as a misuse of the money of the four million electricity consumers and want it reversed with no consideration given to the question as to how the new minister was going to shelve a salary increase that has been negotiated with the Engineers Union.<\/p>\n

So what we have here is the JHU and the JVP literally devouring each other\u2019s rear ends in a game of one upmanship. Even as the JHU was holding a demonstration in front of the Bribery Commission demanding the resignation of its Chairman so as to expedite investigations into complaints, the JVP was presenting a complaint against Champika Ranawaka for trying to \u2018bribe\u2019 the CEB engineers with salary increases! Both the JVP and JHU have anti corruption movements. The JHU outfit is called the Dooshana Virodhi Peramuna and the JVP outfit is known as the Dooshana Virodhi Handa. Both these small political parties obviously see a political advantage to themselves in muddying the water as much as possible with allegations of corruption against individuals they think will pose a threat to them. Both the JVP and the JHU are targeting the Rajapaksas because they feel that if a new political formation led by the Rajapaksas comes in as a third force to compete with the UNP and the SLFP, that will be the end of the road for outfits like the JVP and JHU. They have valid reasons to fear this third force. It is now barely a month since the yahapalana government came into power and already, a group led by Dinesh Gunawardene, Wimal Weerawansa, Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Udaya Gammampila are planning to hold a public rally in Nugegoda on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

Likewise the JVP feels that in the unlikely but still probable event that the JHU contests separately at the next parliamentary elections, they would take some votes that would otherwise have come to the JVP. Some of the allegations both the JVP and the JHU have been making against targeted individuals are just fabrications. The intention obviously, is not to present a genuine case but to have a media show of handing over complaints to the Bribery Commission as that gives them an opportunity to make the allegations public. To give just one example, the JVP posted a story on their website saying that the former Central Bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal had bought a house in Nawala for no less than Rs. 500 million.<\/p>\n

Rs. 500 million amounts to something like 3.8 million US Dollars. If somebody bought a house in Nawala for that kind of money, it should have at least three acres of land with swimming pools, saunas and the works and at least three pet elephants to go with it. Upon making inquiries, this writer was informed by Cabraal that he had indeed bought the house next to his own in Nawala for Rs. 30 million last year \u2013 a property on 15 perches of land with an abandoned house. He also said that he had got the property officially valued to pay the stamp duty. Now 30 million that is a far cry from the Rs. 500 million mentioned by the JVP. Cabraal has also provided us with photos of his alleged Rs. 500 million property. These are politically motivated complaints designed to gain public attention and to vilify the target without having to prove anything. <\/p>\n

In December 2001, the charge against the then prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was that he did nothing to consolidate himself politically by providing jobs for the youth who rallied around the UNP in unprecedented numbers at that election. In 2001 by the time the election came around even minor candidates on the UNP list had entourages of several dozens of youths. Back then it was not so much the cost of living as employment that was the main issue. But after winning power in a hard fought election, RW stopped all recruitment to the government. Even existing vacancies remained unfilled. Resentment built up against the government day by day and after just 30 months in office it was defeated at the 2004 parliamentary election. It took nearly one and a half decades for the UNP to recover even partially. Arguably, they have still not recovered to the December 2001 level.<\/p>\n

Today the UNP is the largest component in a wide ranging coalition that brought Maithripala Sirisena into power. The acid test will be if they can win at a general election the same number of seats that they won at the December 2001 parliamentary election. In the opinion of this writer, it seems doubtful whether the UNP will manage to win that many seats at the parliamentary election that is due in a few months time. Be that as it may, what is commendable this time around in the UNP\u2019s approach is that they have adopted a much more people friendly approach to economics than they ever did before under Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s leadership. This time one might even say that they have moved to the opposite extreme and gone totally overboard in adopting populist measures. If the UNP is trying to win an absolute majority in parliament with such measures, no one will blame them for that because political stability is also a factor vital to the economic wellbeing of the country.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:Sunday Island<\/em><\/p>\n

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By C.A.Chandraprema Each passing week sees a mockery made of the term yahapalanaya. The most surprising episode we have seen yet after the ouster of the Chief Justice Mohan Peiris, is the acceptance of the Chairmanship of the Board of Investment by Upul Jayasuriya the President of the Bar Association. Under Upul Jayasuriya the Bar …<\/p>\n

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