Secretary General of the Liberal Party, Kamal Nissanka issuing a press release states that party has not signed a Memorandum of Understating (MOU) with United Peoples Freedom Alliance.(UPFA)). He further states that though the party supported the common candidate at the last presidential election, with resurgence of forces representing former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to enter into politics through UPFA , party was divided in its opinion and was in a dilemma as to choose what sort of a political line to be followed. Party notes that one of national committee members in the absence of a MOU has attempted and succeeded to place his name in the national list of UPFA. In the absence of a duly signed MOU inclusion of Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha’s name in UPFA national list has created number of debating issues within the Liberal Party.
Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary General of the Liberal Party says; “Further, Dr. Wijesinha’s shifting of allegiances from various political alliances within a very short period, first to Maithri – Ranil combination, and then to criticize Ranil and the attempt to show as a Maithri supporter and then indirectly to praise Mahinda Rajapaksa and then directly align with the Rajapaksa camp caused much tension in the Liberal Party.
“In recent times, Dr. Wijesinha initiated a massive campaign against Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe in social media, namely Facebook against the wishes of the Liberal Party. However the Liberal Party is well aware that Wickremesinghe maintained great tolerance and showing his maturity had not replied to any comments in the Facebook. Through the criticism against Wickremesinghe he was able to reach more closely to Rajapaksa camp in the UPFA. Dr. Wijesinha voted for the 18th Amendment in 2010 against the majority view of the Liberal Party and proved himself non valuable to the Liberal Party. However with great pressure from the party he abstained from voting in support of the impeachment against the Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.”
Nissanka further states “that though Dr. Wijesinha was the leader of the Liberal Party for 2014, the party has not duly elected a leader and a national organizer for year 2015 and therefore he remained a national committee member in 2015 at the time of inclusion his name in the UPFA national list. Liberal Party may elect a leader and national organizer in due cause.
“Now in the absence of a MOU between two secretaries of LP and UPFA, Dr. Rajiva Wijesinha’s status in the Liberal Party is at issue. Liberal Party has fielded candidates in four districts (Colombo, Kurunegala, Galle and Matara) as it was unable to form an alliance and a MOU with another political force. As Dr. Wijesinha is now hardworking and campaigning for the victory of Mahinda Rajapaksa forces and at the same time, the Liberal Party is trying to campaign for its own candidates, a conflict of interests has been arisen and majority of the party believes that he has ceased to be a member of the Liberal Party by operation of law. So the party officials will not officially communicate with Dr. Wijesinha until he publicly resign from UPFA national list.”
Ajith / July 23, 2015
It is shame on Dr. Rajiva to behave like a third grade opportunistic. He is a disgrace for educated civilised society. He is nothing different from Power greedy Mahinda. What do you expect from an educated person? You should be honest in your words & behaviour? Yesterday you told us Gotapaya is a criminal. Today you are telling Gotapaya is god. You are now worse than Gotapaya. This is the reason you are not prepared to face the people directly? Why you didn’t contest an election. You are begging now Mahinda & Gota to become a Minister? Shame on you!
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Seelawathi / July 23, 2015
Rajiva W should leave from lanken poltics and give his service to lanken universities. He is good at teaching and delivering speeches but not at all appropriate to LANKEN active potics. It is more or less like a square peg in a round hole. In general, it is believed, profs or higher academics are not successful in active poltics, even if a very few politicians achieve almost everything. Latter is an examplefrom Germany s Dr. Angela Merkel. Being in her 3 rd term, she earns higher respect among almost everyone in and out of the country to this date. She had been a privte dozent in Physics and a senior natural scientist before being moved to the politics. Former Bundercanceller Dr. Kohl had disvovered Angela Merkel 30 years ago.
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Rarityminds / July 23, 2015
Every time I look at Prof. Wijesinge, I have the question – why not he care of his nosal hair before going to point at others. This I thought need to add to this forum, since the man shold learn to see him in mirror before attacking or getting hesteric to anything quickly. Alone his behavour at the begining of the current regime, though he had good chances to render a better service, his ego did not allow to so – and quickly resigned from the post as a cat would become so nervous being unable to adapt to the place. Nothing like loyality is taught to him has led him to decline.
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Snowden Edward Asange / July 23, 2015
He is Irrelevant… an opportunist to the core… Ranil said it best when he asked Wijesinha to go read a book……He challenged Kabir Hsshim while being in the “Yahapalanaya” camp and lost… since then he’s been holding grudges against Kabir and Ranil…
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Burt / July 23, 2015
You should be joking. This frog is not going to do that, only way this guy will be out of govt when leading parties realize he is an “has been” and ignore him like what has happened to his good friend DJ.
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gramberg / July 23, 2015
I say Bert, he certainly looks like one!!!
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Renuka De Mel / July 23, 2015
This Man (Rajiva) is a real joker.
Soon after he got the partial education ministry in the yahapaalana government few months for, he was showing as to re-write the higher education act sitting on his table.
When the academics of entire Sri lankan universities lack a vision and proper gap assessment in terms of higher education needs, policy and practice this man was pretending as if reform is higher education system is similar to changing the tire of the vehicle or making an instant noodles.
Unfortunately we citizens ashamed of our politicians as we as academics.
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gigurawa / July 25, 2015
So who is your principled honest clean politician? Must be Ranil, whois the most corrupt politician ,who asnnhilated the democracy in the most democratic party in Sri Lanka, who is involved in the biggest bank robbery anywhere in the world, who had the parliament dissolved on the day the parliament was to report on this and who now rules the UNP las his fiefdom.
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Rohan / July 23, 2015
This man knows no shame. With his artificially accented English he would sell BULL. And, sorry, Professor, you are showing the wrong finger to the voters. The next finger is what you think the voters deserve.
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Justice & Fairplay / July 23, 2015
Best of all was his memorable performance in HARDTALK whilst carrying a barrow-load of files and papers into the discussion and making a complete shambles of his performance. He got bowled leg, middle and off stump – all together.
Fittingly, it appeared he was being interviewed in some garage or something where he and his crap accent should have been consigned to. These are the kinds of intellectual freaks Mahinda Raja had around him.
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BBS Rep / July 23, 2015
This disgraceful man Rajiwa Wijesinghe should be removed from the Liberal Party if the Liberal Party is to have any credibility. This man is a petulent little prick who goes from one bosom to the other crying for indulgence. I must say he was useful for the Criminal Rajapaksa regime at one time. So perhaps he is trying to curry favour with them again.
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Jango / July 23, 2015
How can a ‘Liberal’ possibly be a supporter of Rajapakse and defend his policies the way Rajiva has done through the years? The fact is he is a genuine hypocrite (as his actions demonstrate very clearly) and the Liberal Party has been blind, deaf and dumb to his antics all this time.
Looks like this ‘Liberal Party’ is a total waste of time. What exactly have they done all these years except foist this caricature of a Liberal on the electorate?
Re-vamp the party. First move would be to kick out the hypocritical Wijesinghe.
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saternina / July 23, 2015
Prof is acting very strange. Now no one seems to take his articles seriously. Most issues could have been addressed while he was close to the leadership. If it did not he should move on gracefully and resign. Why hang on. Just be a professional..this is what happens when leaders choose the wrong pros to fill in the slots. Now he comes out as Chandrika and her brother was at each other. All this type of behavior endorsement that this individual is running solely on his own and like many power hungry
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Matilda Ellepola / July 23, 2015
cat out of the bag now.. this shameless man is a disgrace for his father who was a much descent man.
Will be go away from the almost free Parliamentar canteen? I guess no way.. this man cannot get even 100 votes in any of the electorate.
Goto MaRa again, as RW know who you are and what a disastor.
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Prof P T Jayawickramarajah / July 23, 2015
Well said Renuka
jayawick
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Lanka Watch / July 23, 2015
By accepting a position in UPFA national list, this educated professor,
who should be preaching against corruption,nepotism and political thuggery, accepts the theory of rule by force & intimidation. Imagine such an educated person throwing away the chance given to him to serve in a govt. that is for good governance but crossed over. Any other educated man would have grabbed the chance and served the people with pride.
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Gramberg / July 23, 2015
Educated?? You must be joking, Lanka Watch !!!!
This is the idiot who once said there was no one as good as himself in the English language within the parliament!!
I think he deserves a one way ticket to Angoda, on a 134 bus. “Petulant”, is a polite term to describe this crackpot. He should be sent to a Montessori school with a drink bottle around his neck, and allowed to suck his thumb.
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Rosy-loyalist / July 26, 2015
Politics aside, he actually is the parliamentarian with the best knowledge in English. It is sad that he self-obsessedly self-claims it and that his egoistically hypocritical actions do not reflect his extensive knowledge in literature and humanities.
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Tamil from the north / July 23, 2015
this [Edited out]
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Park / July 23, 2015
“Pinata Seat” Rajiva has no voter base. He thinks, just because he can speak good English he is a superior politician. If you ask any Liberal Party Member in Sri Lanka, they all hate him. He is like a MONKEY,that too without evan a tail, jumping from one branch to another. As long as anyone can promise him a Ministerial Position he will jump on to that side. Has he forgotten what he said during the last Presidential election, all his advices to President Rajapakse were rejected by Rajapakse and that he was treated worst than a door mat. Now just see which side of the fence he is in? Do we need “Pinata Seat Politicians” like Rajiva, G.L. Pirisi Kuttama, “Puss Pundit” Dayan Jayatileke and former Chief Justice “Depita Katu” Sarath Silva? Lets clean the deck, kick all these guys out of politics for good.
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thumpane gamaya / July 23, 2015
Rajiva proved himself that he lacks leadership qualities when he took over Higher Education.His lack of HRM and poor judgements resulted in creating unnecessary problems with university lecturers. Instead of addressing the serious grievances faced by University academics and students this chap started wasting his time to protect corrupt Hirubure family.Probably under the advice of MARA?
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Nari-bana / July 23, 2015
Rajiva Wijesinha is just another political opportunist with a doctorate. Is it from the same university that awarded Mervin Silva a doctorate?
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kosala / July 23, 2015
An intellectual once said if Rajiva Wijesinha was born in the UK, he would have become of the Prime Minister of UK; I fully agree
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Gramberg / July 23, 2015
The intellectual you refer to, must have been D.J. Dayan,that other psudo intellect,and no other. Birds of a feather.
Or, it could he be an intellectual of the caliber of Dr. as Mervyn Silva who said it. Quite possible I think!!.
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Jabberwocky / July 24, 2015
Hahahaha…. What a joke, and I thought Kosala was being sarcastic!
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Perera / July 23, 2015
Rajiva with late dr chanaka amarathunga founded the liberal party. how can these new comers demand that he should leave the party? rajiva is the liberal party. he is part of the furniture. he and the liberal party cannot be separated
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xlntgson / July 23, 2015
Liberal party is a blind imperialist party. They represent a few and if there is a split within one may hail the queen another hier to the throne. The storm in the tea cup may be a tsunami for those long to go to the West on free visas. If he contested independently he would not have lost the symbol the book. Intellectual bankruptcy. Now lost glamour rather they may contest in googly, ball!
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Wera / July 23, 2015
There are two intellectuals that are shameless sycophants to the Rajapakshes. This is one of them. Crossed over then tried to shield Rajapakshe stooges within the higher education department. When these tactics failed used the incident to score maximum mileage for his lord and master by writing ad infinitum on how wrong the sacking of the Hirimuregama’s were and finally quit. Then went on to write op ed pieces citing this incident to condemn RW. He just like the other intellectual have axes to grind against the UNP and RW in particular of that there is no mistaking. So things have come to a boil where his own party cannot stand his rubbish arguments anymore. Serve him right. There are many more like this as they fall one by one all we can say is GROBR.
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dcn / July 23, 2015
Do not understand how he belongs a Liberal Party. He jumps from tree to tree like coconut pluckers and talks a lot specially in the MTV/Sirasa TV channels which nobody cares to listen. What a shame a learnered professor behaves in this manner when he should have been spending his time to uplift the youth good education.
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Knickerblockerglory. / July 23, 2015
DCN, I make a small correction – this man is not a learned professor;he is just someone who crammed his way to it and probably got it because his university was keen to see the last of his face.
Learned people do not behave in the manner he does. Some months ago, he was acting like a small child. Rightly he received the right reply from Wickremasinghe the PM, who gave him a dose of stoic silence. Classic rebuff. He just ignored this man; the louder the yell, the greater the ignoring!!!!
Full agreement with your comment on the TV channels mentioned. Discerning people don’t watch those channels mentioned. Sickening the way they pat themselves on the back!. They spent months on end rubbishing Ranil Wickremasinghe in its newscasts almost on a daily basis. That was not NEWS, that was political propaganda.
It is not how many, but WHO watches them that matters!!.
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Ebola da Silava / July 23, 2015
Educated man- men my foot.The last parliament had many so called “educated people”- with paper based qualifications. G>L>Peiris was the worst.A back boneless eel who was willing to be commanded by a unqualified ex wharf clerk.Then there was J.R.P.Suriyapperuma who used to shout hoarse during talk shows what contribution did he make through his parliamentary career? There was S.B.Dissnanayke with his crude sayings, there was Bandula Gunawardena who messed up the education scene.There was Prof Vitana- a good “yes” man,Dr. Omalpe Sobitha who voted for most of the retrogessive legislation,-
Our parliament is replete with such characters.
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Aia / July 23, 2015
This prof as with the other Prof GLP is a all-weather politician, he can be a minister in any government, so versatile. UNP, SLFP, or mixture of these two, JVP… you name it. For his credit, some how got the PhD, then Dayan has also one. Some times I was wondering whether the speech they make, was making any sense even for themselves. Not sure if they shine in the academic field but comes to politic, it is a waste of time and space. But then looking at the SL parliament, it became a place of refuge for academics that were discarded by universities. A gain to Universities; a loss to the SL parliament.
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Sena / July 23, 2015
The performance of all so-called intellectuals in Parliament,particularly the Professors,has been thoroughly disappointing,to say the least.The Professors would have been of some use at the Universities.
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Raj / July 23, 2015
I first came across Rajeiva Wijesingha when he appeared on Channel 4 TV News hosted by a celebrated journalist, John Snow. Apparently he was sent by the then SL Govt as damage limitation exercise when the opportunity was given to air the SL side of the story alleging to war crimes. Despite the opinion of a majority of Sinahalese that Chanel 4 is biased & pro LTTE, Channel 4 News remains true to high journalistic standards & have been responsible for several unreported revelations which many prefer to be swept under the carpet, & that includes scandals in the British Govt. As a balanced report, Channel 4 had invited the SL High Commission to comment on the allegation but the High Commission failed to respond. Subsequently, the following day if I remember correctly, a high ranking official from the High Commission read out a statement. He looked very uneasy in front of the camera & mumbled the statement which did not do any good to restore the credibility of SL. Watching him, I was very disappointed at the state of the High Commission was in if that was the best they could come up with. So I was delighted when a week or so later, Rajiva W came forward to be briefly interviewed by John Snow during the evening news but though he spoke eloquently in English, which appealed to most Sri Lankans who watched the broadcast, I found him most disappointing, as well. His tough talk did not address the issue. In my opinion, he made matters worse & I felt like, literally, kicking his ass. Maybe the time has come for the Liberal Party to do what I felt like doing all those years ago. Members who don’t pay allegiance if in conflict with the accepted policies have to resign or be kicked out.
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Mrs De Mel / July 24, 2015
Professor Wijesinghe had a very bad year so far, let’s give the fella a break so that at least he can have a peaceful sleep. His beloved father died, had to do two cross overs, now his secretary Nissanka is giving him hell.
A thoroughly unassuming man with an exceptionally scholory turn of mind, Professor Wijesinghe is someone who MUST be in a future government and a cabinet.
I simply do not know anyone else who is more qualified than him to promote Reconciliation. To my knowledge he is the most passionate advocate of the full implementation of the LLRC and the adoption of a National Reconciliation Policy.
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Bede Silva / July 26, 2015
People like Rajiva and Dayan J should be kept out of Lankan politics. Some media use them as pawns to sling mud at some political leaders.When he was appointed as a minister he completely forgot the common agenda and was trying to cover up his friends you all know. It is our own media that prop up worthless characters like this and trying to boost their sagging images. Just leave them alone so that they will vanish into the political dustbin
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CountryFirst / July 27, 2015
Many of the barbs directed at Prof. Wijesinha in this Comments thread are vicious and thoroughly unwarranted. He is well informed and articulate, and is one of the younger members who deserves to be supported and encouraged instead of being derided and criticized in this way.
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Spring Koha / July 28, 2015
I had no problem with RajivaW until several instances in 2009 when I found that, as government spokesman, he cruelly twisted the truth rather than do the honourable thing. That really is what RajivaW is about. He is about self-preservation and self-promotion. He wants to be a politician but has no hope of garnering the votes; so he depends on hanging on the coat-tail of some benevolent leader in order to get in through the back door. Education alone is not enough; someone should tell him that without sincerity, all his learning is worthless.
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