Governor of the Eastern Province, Austin Fernando on Wednesday rejected allegations leveled against him by the Eastern Province Chief Minister, Nazeer Ahamed who claimed that Fernando was undermining his authority.
Governor of the Eastern Province, Austin Fernando
“I have not done any such thing. I can’t imagine why he said that, as far as I am concerned we work together without issues, even though there maybe differences of opinion,” Fernando told the Colombo Telegraph.
His comments came after Ahamed accused Fernando of undermining his authority and also interfering with his duties. Ahmed also tried to defend his outburst at the Naval Officer, who was the compere at a school function at the Sampur Maha Vidyalaya last week, where he admonished the officer telling him to ‘get out, you idiot,’ by blaming the Governor for not knowing protocol and for not informing the compere that Ahamed was the Chief Minister.
“My job is not to introduce the Chief Minister to the compere,” Fernando said.
The Governor added that if the Chief Minister had a problem with him, then he should have taken up the matter with President Maithripala Sirisena, or made a complaint to the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, Rauff Hakeem.
“But, that clearly was not the time and place to take it up. It was a school function and he should not have acted like that. If he had a problem with me, he could have made a complaint to President Maithripala Sirisena,” Fernando said.
According to Ahamed, he was not officially acknowledged by the compere, and when he had tried to get on stage after being invited by the governor, the compere had stopped him, and hence he had lost his temper. “The governor should have told the organizers I was the Chief Minister. It’s his fault,” he reportedly said.
The Governor went on to add that as in any provincial council, there can be differences of opinion between a Governor and the Chief Minister. “Even in our case if there was something I did not support, I would tell him so, and that is normal. But, you can’t go around acting like that,” Fernando added.
Meanwhile, Navy Commander Ravindra Wijegunaratne has requested Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi to take action against Ahamed for insulting the naval officer. Hettiarachchi had also met Sirisena to given him a detailed report about the incident, just before Sirisena’s departure to Japan for the G7 summit. ( By Munza Mushtaq © Colombo Telegraph)
Gamage punyasena / May 26, 2016
If this incident happened during the previous MR period the chief minister would have been arrested and flogged like pandi
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Samuel Jayaweera / May 27, 2016
no better said, he would have been whitevanned and torutred.. even gone missing the way Thadjueen the young sporter faced it…. that is the difference. Today the space is given to discuss on these issues. There we should be thankful to the current regime. Basta
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Piranha / May 26, 2016
Can anyone tell me what the hell the navy man doing as a compete at a civilian school function? Rajapaksa introduced this kind of military involvement into all civilian affairs and it continues under the yahapalanaya government also.
The navy man had no clue who the CM was and he would have avoided being humiliated by staying out of civilian affairs. Now the mega racist and pseudopatriot Rajapakse thief is trying to stir trouble.
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Hunu Patiya / May 27, 2016
“Navy man” ? Yeah right !!
Navy Man, Army Man and Air man were brought to civilian lives by Tiger man like you!! Not us you idiot !!
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jansee / May 27, 2016
Is this CM really educated or one spurned out from the madrasahs? The Governor was trying to calm him down but the CM is acting like an idiot. That is what power can do when it gets into the head. Worse, scolding the navy officer is uncalled for. What a joker.
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f=ma / May 27, 2016
people make mistakes, if not they are not human. I was referring to the officer who put his life on the line to save assholes like the so called chief minister. Way to show Sri Lankan hospitality to the American Ambassador.
I guess he just wanted publicity because 99.9% of the SL population don’t even know who the hell he is.
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renu / May 27, 2016
Mr. Austin Fernando is a highly respected Civil Servant of the past. I think he is a Gentleman to the finger tips. Unlike the no pedigree CM. People can judge people by their actions . Entire Sri-Lanka watched the incident. So the CM should publicly apologize to everyone including the US Ambassador
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Asoka / May 29, 2016
Austin Fernando, highly respected Civil Servant? Puppet is better than him. He laughing like a monkey also. Remove this man from Governor’s job
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JohnDoe / May 29, 2016
If it was MR regime… this wouldn’t have appeared on the news or social media.. the media personal would have been whitevanned :D
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Asoka / May 29, 2016
What is the use of Governor? Austin Fernando should removed from the Governor post. Puppet is better. What type of education this governor had? Kick him out not suitable for governor post
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