15 December, 2024

Blog

Sirsena Caving In?

By N. Logathayalan

President Maithripala Sirisena has shown that he is really indistinguishable from his pre-2015 gang of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s. The latter only needed to have waited till 2020 to gain power through elections. But the judicial nooses were tightening round their necks at Courts. Rajapaksa’s family and friends were in real danger of going to prison – and pretty soon too. So they threw caution to the winds and jumped the gun dissolving Parliament unconstitutionally.

They tried to buy government MPs. It did not work. Sirisena claimed in a major speech that MPs were on auction. It turns out that the only cross-overs at that point were to his side, making it quite plain that his side was doing the bribing. One clown has been crossing back and forth and has made a joke of the Tamil community.

The literally crooked gang did not have the required numbers in Parliament. They tried their hooliganism in Parliament but failed to avoid a no-confidence vote. Now they are boycotting Parliament to make excuses as to why they cannot demonstrate the numbers they claim in Parliament.

Worse is to come. Important cases are being heard in the Supreme Court.

The cases are hopeless for Sirsena. His argument for the legality of his dissolving Parliament is essentially this: that Artcle 33 (2)(c) of the Constitution gives him the power to dismiss parliament anytime: “In addition to the powers, duties and functions expressly conferred or imposed on, or assigned to the President by the Constitution or other written law, the President shall have the power to summon, prorogue and dissolve Parliament.”

In contrast, Article 70 says that Parliament can be dissolved only 4 years and six months after its first meeting, or on a motion supported by 2/3 of all members. Neither of these two conditions has been fulfilled.

The President’s case is essentially that Section 33(2)(c) may be read in isolation, and he can ignore section 70. However, there is enough case law that says that different sections must be interpreted in manner that the whole is harmonious. Yet in his gazette proclamation dissolving parliament, Sirisena draws from Section 70(1), the only place in the constitution that speaks of dissolution of parliament by proclamation and which he claims to ignore.   Section 70, he says, does not apply in interpreting Section 33. Moreover in that special gazette proclaiming the dissolution of parliament (No. 2094/45 of 27 Oct.) he invokes the powers conferred on him by article 70(5) – reminding one of wanting to have the cake and eat it at the same time. Moreover, that article confers no power on anyone and only speaks of the dates he has to set for elections. He has proclaimed claiming powers not conferred on him by the article he has cited. It shows the quality of legal advisers Sirisena has.

The President’s interpretation in reading Section 33(2)(c) – that is, that he can dissolve parliament any time – means that he can call for elections, and when he does not like the result call for elections again and so on till he gets the results he wants. What s worse is that by his interpretation he can never be impeached – for when Parliament dares to impeach a terrible president like himself, all that the President has to do is dissolve Parliament. That absurdity renders Sirisena’s interpretation totally crazy – what in logic is called reductio ad absurdum, reducing a thesis to the absurd conclusions it leads to, thereby disproving the thesis.

All these arguments will be heard 4, 5 and 6 of December with the inexorable verdict expected on the 7th. I do not need to expand on the many more reasons why the Supreme Court will find the dissolution of Parliament unlawful.

The point I make is that Sirisena must be quite aware by now of what is coming. Rajapaksa has indicated his own foreboding in saying that in Sirisena’s place he would not have dissolved Parliament. Indeed Colombo Telegraph has him saying in 2015 that there will be no elections for another 4.5 years. In the short time since 26 October, Rajapaksa has been making the most of it before the blow falls on his Prime Ministership – appointing his crooked friends to let them make more money, letting his son use state property as he wants, giving helicopter rides to the tune of some 800 million rupees, getting persistent detectives out of the way of investigations that reveal how foul and murderous his regime was, and so on. Everything is coming a cropper for him and Sirisena.

The last argument the gang could resort to was that, as they claimed, they had 103 seats against the UNP’s 102 which gives them a better case for heading the government. The UNP therefore wanted the ITAK vote which seemed to come in the vote of no-confidence against Mahinda Rajapaksa and in passing the vote on the 29thto curb the Prime Minister’ budget. But that was not enough. The UNP needs consistent votes in its support not just for bills here and there on an ad hoc basis. The ITAK votes must always be with the UNP to overturn the Sirisena-Rajapaksa gang.

The present (or recent if you prefer) Ranil Wickremesinghe cabinet of 30, according to a former Mayor of Colombo has 10 gays, and that Mayor is able to count them off one by one, name by name. However distasteful it may be to many, gays tend to be minority friendly because of the shared suffering. In contrast Sirisena has taunted the gays in his cabinet as butterflies (using the example of the Monarch Butterfly which tends to same-sex mating) in giving reasons for the dissolution. At the same time he defends as national heroes those soldiers guilty of war crimes whom he says he will never allow to be prosecuted – those soldiers who murdered Tamil girls on the Mullaitivu beaches and gratuitously played with their corpses for sexual pleasure, engaging in necrophilia. Gays at least have some form of mutual consent while the poor Tamil girls of Mullaitivu had their corpses violated without their consent. This is the status of minorities under Rajapaksa who was at the top of the chain of command during the murders and rapes of 2009 and his terrorism of Muslims, and under Sirisena who now protects murderers of Tamils and elevates necrophilliacs as national heroes, while taunting homosexuals. The Sinhalese tend to be in denial, calling these photos doctored. However, how our soldiers behaved in Haiti as UN Peace-Keepers raping children shows the true quality of our national heroes.

This is why Tamils, except for a very few, resist more strongly, indeed are terrified of the Rajapaksa-Sirisena combine triumphing over Ranil Wickremesinghe. The ITAK could therefore simply sit back and let the country drift into anarchy with neither side commanding a majority in Parliament. But the Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine, in the reckoning of many, is far worse for Tamils than Ranil Wickremesinghe for the reasons stated. Indeed, Ranil Wickremesinghe attempting to take Ravi Karunanayake back into the cabinet and his own lack of explanation for the bond-scam make many Tamils wary of him too.  Those sympathetic to the LTTE hold Ranil responsible for engineering Karuna Amman’s defection which really was the beginning of the end of the LTTE.

In the North-East, the general feeling is that Mahinda Rajapaksa is terrible for Tamils, and Ranil is better but not necessarily much better – after all he has delivered little in his three years as PM and is on record saying he will not have the international judges that he committed to in Geneva as a cosponsor. ITAK MP E. Saravanapavan has been forced to go on record in Jaffna that the ITAK will never support Ranil. Supporting Ranil therefore will lead to an electoral setback for ITAK; and C.V. Wigneswaran (whose standing among Tamils at the moment is poor because of his untrustworthiness and for his speeches tending to war mongering), will be the beneficiary. Having lost Sambanthan’s trust, he also must be disappointed by how things have turned after praising Rajapksa recently,  presumably wanting to ride on Rajapaksa’s coat-tails by placing himself under the command of his sambanthi(in-law) Vasudeva.

The Sirisena-Rajapaksa gang wants a dignified way out of the cesspit it dug for itself as everything seems to go awry. It was signaled on the 29thin Parliament when Wijedasa Rajapakse made a plea for peace. The Speaker, Karu Jayasuriya, the gentleman that he is, agreed to speak to the President and already has. The ITAK too wants to support the UNP which is more likely to settle Tamil grievances but cannot face the electorate if they side with Ranil openly. So in their letter to Sirisena of the 29th they have adopted a formula of not openly supporting Ranil but keeping the door open to that eventuality:

“We the Members of Parliament of the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, will support the restoration of a Government headed by the U.N.F as it existed prior to 26th October [and] the Appointment of a nominee of the U.N.F who in the opinion of Your Excellency is able to command the confidence of Parliament as Prime Minister.”

It is reported that Ranil Wickremesinghe has assured Sampanthan in writing that a new constitution would be presented before Independence Day in 2019. Those who want nothing short of Eelam see this agreement as a threat to their project. Attempting to disrupt all prospects for peace, three policemen at a checkpoint at Vavunaitheevu in the Batticalao District were shot at in the early hours of the 30th. Two have succumbed to their injuries.

The stage is set for Sirisena to cancel his gazettes and avoid a devastatingly humiliating judgment from the Supreme Court. What is uncertain is whether the UNP will abandon Ranil or be firmly loyal to him. On that rests the outcome of any talks. If there is a settlement and the gazette is annulled, there will be nothing for the Supreme Court to rule as illegal. Unfortunately that outcome while saving face for the Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine, will leave the door open for another mad and immoral president to try the same disgraceful bag of tricks again.

Latest comments

  • 33
    2

    “… will leave the door open for another mad and immoral president to try the same disgraceful bag of tricks again.”
    That is why even if the gazette notifications are annulled, Sira should be impeached in order to offset the damaging precedent he has created.

    • 13
      3

      Make Sirisena, the Traitor, Quisling eat crow.It should taste good compared to MARa’s shit.

  • 22
    3

    An usually reliable source, from Batti told me that there is a story doing the rounds that KARUNA is responsible for the murders in the wee hours of the morning today @ the vavunativu checkpoint.
    If this story is correct Motive would be obvious!

  • 17
    3

    ‘Gedera yana gaman’ or is it ‘yana ena gaman’ Sarath en Silver might be the cheap advisor to Silly Sena, telling him how to take control and set the country and its Constitution in flames, with little regard to consequences and repercussions to its people. What for the telling, I know the low putha.

  • 6
    24

    Typical Tiger terrorist rubbish. They brought the yahapalana corrupt regime to power through this kind of rubbish and now they are coming out of the woodwork again.
    =
    Suck my big toe Thalaivar.

    • 4
      12

      Dutch Land Thief

      They don’t know what a War looks like. They think at war we play marbles. I have told these fellas many a times what a battlefront looks like but they refuse to believe me.

      • 13
        3

        Retarded:
        Back to prove what a monumental fabricator and idiot you are? What happened? Your millionaire patrons refuse to pay your caddying fees in Canada? Ask them whether they are prepared to contribute to a geography lesson for a jackass who obviously cannot prove the legitimacy of his parentage.
        Strongly urge you to return to your batman duties that you were so good at when serving the Major General.

        • 3
          3

          Why you talk so much about caddying is obviously because you, being a cad, have a fetish for the menial job!
          =
          You cad who got the punishment of taking over the ‘vela gediya’ permanently for jumping the fence at Kurunegala, must know that the major general never had any respect for parangis.
          =
          Keep the land ready for Ranmenika’s side of the family for the rape by the port vagabond Benjamin.

      • 9
        3

        Rtd. Lt. R.S. Perera

        Pls don’t insult Emil VP. I don’t know him personally but I have heard of him and am pleased with what I hear. The Burghers were a small but peaceful, friendly and talented community that enriched the Lankan family in many ways. Some of our finest teachers, lawyers, judges, doctors, artistes, world class athletes and sportspersons came this community. The process of history during colonial times brought them some benefits over the locals. They did not engineer them. This country lost their services when nearly 50,000 of these fine folks left due to the communal politics of the post-1956 period. Many to Australia. I believe Emil went to Canada but the lure of Mother Lanka brought him back. Thank God for that.

        This ex-journo (?) makes valuable comments and critique even in these pages to our benefit. I am told he and his family have suffered much by the State Land (appropriation) policies like many Sinhalese, Tamils and others.

        R. Varathan

      • 2
        0

        ado Retarded bugger many times you have told us about rape, vaseline hiding under the bed stories. What war did you fight bugger? While the valiant soldiers like Gen. Kobekaduwe were fighting a war, you were too damn busy greasing your 2 inch stick. So enlighten me you little piece of sh&t what war you fought?

    • 0
      0

      Dutch Thief,

      Why don’t you ask your mother to suck? Bloody SOB. You must be getting sadistic pleasure seeing those young girls dead bodies. and you hail the Forces as War Heroes and not War Criminals which is more apt?

  • 5
    17

    Colombo Telegraph, is that the best journalism you are capable of, publishing an uncorroborated gruesome picture with an unproven and ridiculous claim? Who raped, mutilated and killed Vidya? Are you going to publish pictures of that with the names of the inhuman men who did it? Do you want some other news site who is willing to stoop so low to publish those picture because Vidya’s murder happened under Yahapals watch? CT you could be better than this.

    • 5
      2

      wannihami

      Below you will see some cases which you completely missed in your one sided racists mind:

      Lankan soldier handed death sentence for murder of Tamil civilians
      Qadijah Irshad
      Filed on June 28, 2015
      Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, a Sinhalese soldier, was given capital punishment by a two-judge High Court in Colombo for murdering eight civilians by slitting their throats during the height of the country’s civil war.
      .khaleejtimes.com

      COLOMBO, SRI LANKA: A Sri Lankan court today sentenced four government soldiers to 25 years in prison each for the gang rape of a 27-year-old Tamil mother of two in the island’s former war zone in 2010.
      Agence France-Presse | Updated: October 07, 2015
      http://www.ndtv.com

      Krishanthi Coomaraswami murder
      Supreme Court affirms conviction, death sentence

      by Chitra Weerarathne
      The Supreme Court yesterday affirmed the conviction of rape and murder, and the sentence of death imposed on five Army officers, who had raped, and killed 17 year old Krishanthi Coomaraswami, and also killed her mother, brother and a neighbour, on or about September 7, 1996, at Chemmani check point in the North, of Sri Lanka.
      island.lk/2004/02/04/news05.html

      Sex abuse by Sri Lankan peacekeepers in Haiti reveals cracks in UN system
      May 26 2017 9:51 AM
      When a Haitian teenager alleged that she had been raped and sodomised by a Sri Lankan peacekeeper, the government in Colombo dispatched a high-ranking general suspected of war crimes to lead the investigation.
      independent.ie/world-news/sex-abuse

      I think you should take a break from your indulgence reliving in Vidya’s world, come back and live in the real world. Those gruesome photos were taken by soldiers whose mates raped the women.

      Blame the rapists, who could be your father, son, brother, brother in law, grandfather, son in law, nephew, grand son, uncle, ….

  • 5
    14

    Mr Logaladlayan,

    For god’s sake, don’t start a war that you can’t fight. And don’t underestimate your enemy and then come home crying when you get a bloody nose.

    The picture you have put up, although despicable to say the least, I must tell you that it shows you the true reality of WAR. If you cannot understand that, then you are very immature. At least, if you are posting such pictures, find something with a good looking Tamil girl.

    Tamils are like the school yard bullies. First they put this arrogant high horse up-yours attitude. Then they bad mouth the majority of students about their eating habits etc. Finally, they start these cowardly attacks hiding behind bushes and running after striking.

    After years of doing the above and not understanding the word STOP, they finally get a bloody good whacking. At that point, they go home crying.

    • 10
      2

      Rtd. Lt. Perera

      I vehemently object to your bad-mouthing the Tamil community. Have you forgotten Aiyo Sirisena told the country only recently the Army Commander, the President, PM and other leaders in the country ran away during the 2009 period fearing a possible attack on Colombo by Tamil rebels. This admission by the President is totally at variance with your poor and prejudicial remarks about Tamils.

      BTW, you could not have done much for the Sinhala army during the years you were benefitting from the State largesse. Because in your own words in these pages you were busy applying Vaseline to the rear of those poor, innocent Tamils coming your way to satisfy your sick lust. You would have been an ideal candidate of the SLA to Haiti where our fellows showed their colours.

      Have you ever heard of the term An Officer and Gentleman. You will never fit in to that description, pal. In your own bloody interest, watch your language, punk when you refer to the valiant Tamil race.

      Vanangamudi

    • 6
      2

      Sinahlese are cry babies, when tamils die its WAR, when Sinahelse are shot in temple or monks killed you people cry “terrorism”.Remember you cry babies set the flame in 83. War is not a license to do anything and everything as YOU wish. if you decide to act on impulse and decide to turn a maniac please remove these fancy titles like “Lt.Colonel, Brigadier, General”, those titles are reserved for army men with discipline.

  • 6
    2

    Please N Logathayalan, please mask the face of the victims. It will cause further distress to the kith, kin and friends of the victims.
    The photographs were taken by the soldiers as mementos.
    .
    Strangely the lawmakers behind the fracas in the Parliament, took photographs to catch the eyes of MR.
    We have not changed much. Have we?

    • 3
      15

      I agree. Please put a Gunny bag on their faces. Not even my Dog wants to see this.

      I wonder how this forum allowed this in the first place.

      • 6
        2

        The faces show that real people were killed and raped. You seem to want to depersonalize the murder-necrophilia so that it does not seem so inhuman.

        We should all be thankful to Lt. Reginald Perera who despite his heartless communalism admits that these heinous crimes against humanity took place.

      • 2
        0

        There unfortunately seems to be no other way in which we Sinhalese can be made to face up to the unnecessary horrors of a war that may have been necessary.
        .
        Well Shamal Perera, you surprise me. I thought that you’d have wanted to further defile those bodies.

    • 2
      6

      I strongly believe, the Tigers would have committed these crimes and taken photos to distribute them and pin the blame on the soldiers, for these dastardly deeds, Tigers are notorios for. No sane person, whether Tigers or Soldiers would take these pictures to keep as mementos. This is what the Tiger terrorists and their propaganda agents always did to deceive the naive foreigners.Shame on you Tigers and the media giving a platform for their false propoganda.

  • 2
    7

    Tamils and their necrophilia …..
    Tamils and their imaginary grievances…..
    Tamils and their imaginary rapes ……
     
    Really! These women were exploited by Tamil fanatics and used as terrorists and suicide bombers when were alive now they are exploited even after their death by Tamil fanatics in their hate campaign against the innocent Sinhalese people. Everything Tamil is about violence.
     
    All these stories, killings, anti-Sinhalese propaganda etc etc is for the nonexistent imaginary Tamil homeland in the Sinhalese island.
    What needs to investigated are the horrendous Tamil hate crimes against the innocent Sinhalese people and get international help to relocate the Tamils back to their homeland Tamilnadu. Tamils simply cannot live here in peace with the Sinhalese because they are so obsessed with violence and are sick with ethnic jealousy and hatred towards the Sinhalese.

    • 4
      0

      Punchi Point
      Punchi Willi
      Punchi Brain

      “Really! These women were exploited by Tamil fanatics and used as terrorists and suicide bombers”

      Have you ever seen anyone who is dead being a suicide bomber?

      “What needs to investigated are the horrendous Tamil hate crimes against the innocent Sinhalese people and get international help to relocate the Tamils back to their homeland Tamilnadu.”

      Alright let’s do exactly that.
      However what do you think we should do with those descendants whose ancestors came to this island on Kallathonies and converted to Sinhala/Buddhism through Christianity, for example, you, somass, …………………… Wimal Sangili Karuppan windbag Weerawansa, all those mahanayakas, ………….. Dayan the public racist,…

      By the way we regret we are unable to help you with your natural endowment.

  • 6
    2

    Retarded

    “I wonder how this forum allowed this in the first place.”

    If this forum could tolerate you, there is nothing that forum couldn’t tolerate.

    “Please put a Gunny bag on their faces. Not even my Dog wants to see this.”

    What exactly did you mean Pererass?

  • 11
    2

    This Rtd.Lt.Reginald Shamal Perera sees to be another “Whore Hero”!

  • 3
    1

    Moderator,

    I have decided not to comment anymore for the following reasons.

    You are allowing people to express their views in Articles ( some are biased some are factually incorrect) but denying the readers to challenge them. Laksris Ariticle contained a lot of errors. For example he wrote that here in the UK there are no Mid term elections to gauge peoples feelings. It is not correct as we have Local Council Elections but you edited it out.
    Unless you are prepared to provide a proper FORUM I wont be wasting my time. It is turnining to be the same as the Sri Lnkan Paeliament.. Mahinthas Parliament where you can only hear Wimal the Weerawansa.

  • 1
    1

    For Plato re his comment above
    A few minutes ago (it is 1.30 pm now in Jaffna) a reporter informed me that a former LTTE man married and settled in Kilinochchi confessed to the killing and surrendered to the Police there in Kilinochchi.

    • 0
      1

      Oh, this refers to the Vavunativu checkpoint murders, does it?

  • 3
    0

    Plato was Right
    Further to my last comment, the suspect in the Vavunaitivu killing of two policemen has surrendered to the police in Kilinochchi. He is also accused of stealing the guns of the policemen.

    Named Rasanayagam Sarvananthan the suspect is from Batticaloa. He is 47 years old. He married in Vattakachchi. The Police seemed to have identified him and had gone to his home in the Kilinochchi area yesterday. He surrendered subsequently.

    He has engaged in the vegetable trade around his new home using a cantor-type vehicle. His wife is also a former LTTE cadre. He has been produced before a magistrate.

    Sarvananthan was once known as a high level Karuna Amman loyalist and served under him in Batticaloa. That much is confirmed.

  • 0
    3

    Do what Americans did in Vietnam; take the LTTErs for Helicopter rides and ooops drop them in the Indian ocean about 5 kilometers out.

    • 1
      1

      Hilton,

      Been there done that.

      We hand them over to the SLAF and tell the SLAF brothers “Min Meduhurata Genyinanna” (translation: Take them to the aquarium).

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