28 March, 2024

Blog

President Rajapaksa: Man With Credibility Completely Lost

By Nagananda Kodituwakku

Nagananda Kodituwakku

Nagananda Kodituwakku

Once a man has lost his credibility, in law, no weight whatsoever would be placed on any utterances made by him.

In his 2005 Election Manifesto Rajapaksa, when campaigning for the Presidency for the first time, with full support of the JVP, promised to the people to abolish the Executive Presidency (page 97 – 2005 manifesto). Now the very person promises to do the same, within one year in the event of his re-election to Office for the third time (page 17 – 2015 manifesto).

Will any prudent person take any notice of this promise?

Then again in the 2010 manifesto, when contesting for the second term, Rajapaksa promised to take ‘whatever measures’ needed to eliminate frauds, corruption and malpractices. But what he did in practice was completely the opposite.

For instance he made the Auditor General redundant and irrelevant. For the last few years the Auditor General has not been able to audit public offices and publish its annual report, as no one seems to be taking him seriously. This disrespect to the office of the Auditor General has opened floodgates for mass scale corrupt practices running into billions of rupees.

And after having inflicted such a damage now, in his 2015 manifesto Rajapaksa pledges to the people to strengthen the office of the Auditor General with sweeping powers ‘empowering it to conduct independent investigations’ (page 19 – 2015 manifesto). Surely, this is nothing more than an insult to the intelligence of the people who has been taken for a ride through out.

Case of Blatant Abuse of public funds with scant respect to the Rule of Law

In the recent past, the Customs investigations have revealed the abuse of tax-free car permits by LOLC and LB finance to embezzle ten of billions of public funds. These permits have been issued with a condition that vehicles imported under such permits shall not be disposed of any manner for a period of 3 years.

MR71612aWhist the Customs inquiry into this major fraud was being conducted, a special Treasury directive was sent to the Director General of Customs nullifying the entire fraud investigation. The directive said that the stipulated condition imposed by the said permits have been ‘removed with retrospective effect, compelling the Customs investigators to abandon the inquiry altogether.

The abuse of office was not to end there. The officer who headed the investigation was ordered not to initiate any fresh investigations into such abuses or seize any vehicles sold unlawfully abusing the permit scheme.

The officer had no other alternative but was forced to make the following minute on the Treasury Directive and close the case.

“… Please note the contents of this letter and the effect it would have on our cases. DGC asked me to release the files already taken over…”

This very same issue some time later was referred to the Corruption Commission urging them to inquire into it as it was offence under section 70 of Bribery and Corruption Act (use of public office of those permit holders for private gain). But the conduct of the commission has only suggested that it is also in the firm grip of President Rajapaksa, as it did not even bothered to reply to the written complaint made against this mass scale abuse of public funds.

This is a classic example that demonstrates absolute lawlessness and chaotic situation in the govt business under Rajapaksa regime that simply condones any form of frauds. This simply endorses the view that ‘what President Rajapaksa does is completely the opposite of what he pledges to the people. But in his manifesto placed before the people in 2010 he promised to take ‘whatever measures’ to eliminate frauds, corruption and malpractices.

And now he pleads people to have confidence and faith in him and for all what he has done. And surely people will show their gratitude squarely at this Presidential election for bequeathing them with a failed state with no machinery to check wrongdoings in unimaginable scale.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Latest comments

  • 4
    2

    Nagananda Kodituwakku –

    RE: President Rajapaksa: Man With Credibility Completely Lost

    The difference is that People did not know him before.

    Now, People know him. The lies, more lies, etc.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vchlNLghD70

  • 10
    2

    .
    This is what I like about MaRa, he is very consistent in lying. He lied to everyone……. Not just to Sinhalese and Tamils, But to all Indian leaders, Norweiigian leaders, British, Americans,….. so on.

    :-)

    • 1
      2

      aratai

      “Norwegian leaders, British, Americans,….. so on.’

      and the Norwegians and American funded BBS…a well known “Secret”

      Who Sponsored BBS? Norway and USA… You say at 14 Minutes..video below . a well known “secret” admitted by BBS..

      Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha talks about his decision to join with Maithripala Sirisena, his views about teh Sri Lankan foreign policy and his knowledge about the …

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kW4n4RlBcw

  • 8
    0

    We should not forget the hundreds of stooges and sycophants of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who churned out blatantly false propaganda on his behalf. History will never forget them, and the internet has huge archives.

    Shown below is a slick young woman with a Tamil name, who was one such person. She had studied for 12 years at an expensive international school in Colombo, and then obtained from Staffordshire University (UK), an LLB (Hons) – Bachelor of Law degree. Thus, she nor her handlers in Mahinda’s regime nor her associates, can claim that she did not have much of an idea of what she had been trained to parrot out, in this short video interview.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Short video – only 3:43 minutes

    Sharanya Sekaram is Research Analyst at Ministry of External Affairs of Sri Lanka and is affiliated with the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKIIRSS).

    Sharanya Sekaram: Live Skype Interview with Sky News 15.11.2013

    Published on Nov 18, 2013
    Live interview via Skype with Sky News London’s Lorna Dunkley during the CHOGM 2013 Summit held in Colombo Sri Lanka.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  • 6
    0

    He cut his neck being unable to use his vision.

    He is the most embarraced man to have led the country sofar. Just check it out who are with him in his pictures taken these days ? Not many senior SLFP men or anyone has faith in him anymore. Just small guys like highly corrupted – Johnsten, Rohitha and few other beetle eaters cough for him. Pathetic. but this is appalling really

  • 2
    0

    Please let us know why you put in that petition at this last stage.Cheap Justice is going to look at it on the 3rd.Can you tell us if he upholds your petition why he cant cancel or post pone the elections?

  • 0
    0

    Nagi,
    Everything you have said about the man is true. I myself know why you had to leave the country years ago. Politics in SL got dirtier by the day and there has never been a period like the past 5 years since independence. Hope things will get better for the poor, helpless majority Sri Lankans after the 8th. My advice to you is, do not enter the arena but stay where you are and do what you are good at.

  • 4
    0

    Rajashitpaksa never had any credibility to begin with. He was and is the ultimate crook in the history of Sri Lanka.

  • 4
    0

    once it became apparent MR & GR behind the BBS and riots against muslims MR showed what shameful, bad leader is he.

    He doesn’t deserve to be leader anymore.
    Karma will punish him for all his sins.

  • 3
    0

    Nagananda K,

    Your article will make sense to people with a sense of right from wrong. But ours is a country of profound modayas. Sadly the sense you make will be lost on our citizens.

  • 4
    0

    You have to be utterly dumb to believe in anything the despot says. The Mara thinks the citizens are all fools like his family and cronies. The world is waiting to see this despot out of business and investigated and punished. What cheap and stupid actions and statements the despot in desperation is carrying out- carrying children at political rallies, having a third rate Indian Bollywood actor appear at his meetings, repeating the same worn out cliches that people have heard each time before an election- promises on eliminating corruption, ha ha, all his relatives appointed to important money making positions are all qualified, ha ha, offering 12% interest to senior citizens(the banks will go broke), using state resources for his election campaign( thievery and rougish behaviour), initiating thuggery and intimidation with his buffoons(close friends ) making political speeches full of deceit, misrepresentation, outright lies, distortion of the truth, omission of facts and concealment of the truth, elimination of the executive presidency( three times stated in 2005, 2010 and 2014, ha ha,) international conspiracies and patriotism, (the last refuge of dictators), the emergence of terrorism now( another canard to drive fear into the people) – the people are not stupid, stupid!! Just you wait and see what happens to you and your family!!! Passports, visas and air tickets are a priority!!!!

  • 1
    0

    Mr Shankar

    What is filed before Court is a Writ Application against the Election Commissioner’s decision to accept President’s Rajapakse’s nomination. If you read the Petition (published in Colombo Telegraph) you will understand why his candidacy is challenged and reason for his disqualification to stand for a third term.

    This application is now fixed for support in the COURT OF APPEAL on 02nd Jan 2015. And in the event this writ application is allowed by the Court, the UPFA will have no option but to face the election without a candidate representing the UPFA. It is their duty to filed a candidate who is qualified to contest the election. On the other hand if this application is disallowed with no notice to the Election Commissioner, the election would be held on 08th Jan 2014 as planned.

    However, in the event Court issue notice on the Election Petitioner with the interim relief sought for (suspension of the election until the matter is heard and decided by the Court) the election would be naturally postposed by a Court Order.

  • 0
    0

    Mr.Nagananda

    “However, in the event Court issue notice on the Election Petitioner with the interim relief sought for (suspension of the election until the matter is heard and decided by the Court) the election would be naturally postposed by a Court Order.”

    So haven’t you thrown MR a lifeline?What is the advantage for maithri if the election is postponed?MR was caught with his pants down when maithri crossed after even eating hoppers with him the previous day.Now because of your petition he has time to put on his pants again.You have given him 2 options haven’t you?One is to go ahead with the election if his internal polling shows that he will manage to scrape through,but the second option is to get the Cheap Justice to postpone the elections if the internal polling is adverse to his chances.

    There was a newspaper article that the first poll he did just after the nominations had it 59:41 to maithri and MR sacked the chap who gave him the report.Now he must have reduced the gap quite a lot and if given more time he may overtake.

Leave A Comment

Comments should not exceed 200 words. Embedding external links and writing in capital letters are discouraged. Commenting is automatically disabled after 5 days and approval may take up to 24 hours. Please read our Comments Policy for further details. Your email address will not be published.