Mawbima News

Couple of are surprised by accounts of corruption on Sri Lanka’s mega-projects such as highways, ports and airports. These were extensively rumoured at the time and hardly come as a surprise. But even as President Maithripala Sirisena struggles to implement the Senaka Bibile drug policy reforms in an attempt to reduce healthcare charges, emerging revelations from the Health Ministry cast shadows more than the transparency of a multi-billion rupee cancer remedy project inherited from the former government.

Anatomy of a Scam

The project appears to have had its origins in a proposal drafted by Drs Mahendra Perera (Board Chairman for Oncology) and Jayantha Balawardane (Senior Consultant Oncologist at the National Cancer Insitute, Maharagama), which was then submitted to the Sri Lanka College of Oncologists. Sensibly, the proposal known as for a transition from the outdated Cobalt-60 radiotherapy machines to much more modern day linear accelerators. It was adopted at the College’s annual general meeting and submitted to the Ministry of Health, now dubbed “Provision of High High quality Radiotherapy for Cancer Individuals in Sri Lanka with Higher Power Radiation”.

The Treasury then went on to make a provision of Rs 900 million for the project in 2014, Rs 2,750 million in 2015, Rs two,640 million in 2016 and a additional Rs 800 million for 2017. The total commit on the project? A hefty Rs 7,090 million. To place it in perspective, the worth of this single project (Rs 7 billion) is equivalent to the annual equipment spending budget for all 550 hospitals beneath the Ministry of Wellness for two years.

According to the Monetary Regulations, the process for making any procurement for the government is a public get in touch with for tenders, sometimes preceded by a prequalification procedure. In the present case, however, there was no prequalification approach. Neither was there a contact for tenders. Instead, a decision was created arbitrarily to make this enormous obtain from the UK branch of a Swedish business called Elekta. The local distributor for Elekta is Siyol International (Private) Limited, situated on the second floor of Bible Residence in Colombo 3. Incredibly, the decision to make this purchase from Elekta—in strict secrecy and flagrantly violating tender procedure— was regardless of the reality that there are at least four reputed international producers of healthcare linear accelerators. Elekta, even so, basically named its price and the Health Ministry paid up. According to market insiders, the costs being paid by the Ministry exceed industry rates by more than 50%, a rorting of the public purse and raising queries as to who the beneficiaries of this largesse are.

The UAE Deal

Elekta had been unheard of until the government of the United Arab Emirates was approached for the gift of two multimillion dollar brachytherapy units, for the Maharagama cancer institute and Teaching Hospital Kandy. Once again no tenders have been called. Instead, the gear was bought through Siyol with no transparency or competitive bidding. So cynical has the scheme grow to be that Siyol proudly lists “Coordinating with the UAE Embassy for the donation of 02 Nos Brachytherapy units” in its Corporate Social Responsibility report, as if this had been an act of charity. But the query remains: Who suggested Elekta and its agent Siyol without having any transparent procedure?

For the linear accelerator deal, nonetheless, Elekta and Siyol brought in a third organization, Philips Electronics (Israel) Restricted. Elekta had acquired the Radiotherapy Division of Philips Health-related Systems and now had an added front beneath which to do enterprise. Hans Barella, former President and CEO of Philips Healthcare Systems now sits on Elekta’s board. What is a lot more, functioning out of Israel indicates not becoming topic to the tedious anticorruption regulations of the European Union, or the draconian Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of the United States. The deal had by now reached astronomical proportions, with plans to supply 13 a lot more linear accelerators, together with a host of ancillary equipment. These contain eight Massive Bore Philips CT simulators at a value of US$ 15 million (Rs 2000 million) and nine IBT Bebig brachytherapy units for US$ 6 million (Rs 810 million). For its portion, Elekta (UK) would supply 13 a lot more linear accelerators at a mind-boggling Rs 3200 million. In all, the consortium would walk off with much more than Rs 7000 million in public funds. Amazingly for so huge a project, Philips (Israel) refused to give a detailed breakdown of fees even when requested to do so by the Well being Ministry (Image 1).

A Significantly-travelled Engineer

The technical specialist to sign off on the project was S.A.J. Karunatilaka, an engineer attached to the Wellness Ministry’s Division of Biomedical Engineering Solutions primarily based on de Saram Road, Colombo ten. Details now in the hands of Colombo Telegraph (see image two) show that this individual had been caught red-handed, creating as numerous as 15 secret, unauthorised overseas trips over the past many years. Whilst the sources of funding for these trips are as but unknown, the matter of locating out who paid for them is child’s play given that a schedule of the relevant flights has been obtained from the Division of Immigration and Emigration (see Image three). But, the Ministry of Well being has failed to interdict this officer, report him to the Bribery Commission or even investigate a lot of other multimillion rupee deals with which he was linked.

Documents the Colombo Telegraph has seen show that these deals consist of not only procurements for the Ministry of Wellness, but also for the Ministry of Larger Education, the Sri Lanka Army and Sri Lanka Navy. These projects incorporate “Supply of Healthcare Equipment to the Health-related Faculties of Rajarata and Eastern Universities and the Faculty of Allied Well being Sciences of the University of Peradeniya” for the Ministry of Larger Education for Rs 750 million”, “Purchase of Single-Place Floor Mounted C-arm System” for the Sri Lanka Army for Rs 86.eight million, and a “Digital Radiography System” for the Sri Lanka Navy for Rs 65.9 million. Sources in the Army and Navy state that these deals are being separately investigated by them for improper procurement procedure.

All this begs the query, why was an officer found guilty of undertaking 15 foreign trips with no official approval, and blatantly utilizing undeclared sources of earnings, permitted to sit on such essential technical procurement committees? Why did the Secretary of the Ministry of Overall health not inform the Secretary of the Ministry of Larger Education and the commanders of the Army and Navy that S.A.J. Karunatilaka had been found guilty of critical misconduct in a formal ministerial inquiry? Was it so that these bargains could proceed with no further scrutiny?

The question also remains as to who it was that decided to subvert the government’s procurement process and award this enormous contract to a single supplier with no calling for tenders. Such a decision can have only come from extremely high indeed. Asked for a comment by Colombo Telegraph Dr Jayantha Balawardane denied ever asking that this procurement be produced from Elekta with out calling for open tenders. “We only requested high energy linear accelerators with associated equipments”, he said. “We have not requested or specified any certain brands at any stage in our proposal.” Asked why no tenders had been known as for this multibillion-rupee procurement, which clearly violated the government&#8217s tender process, Dr Balawardane stated “I am not involved in [this] process”, placing the ball squarely in the Ministry’s court.

Yahapalanaya on Trial

The query now ahead of Rajitha Senaratne, who presides over the ministry that President Maithripala Sirisena himself in a speech at Maharagama last week described as “the most corrupt ministry” in the country, is what action to take? Should this multibillion rupee scam be swept beneath the carpet (with the implication that the new administration as well, is complicit in it), or should a public inquiry take spot to find out why no tenders were called and on what basis the astronomical prices quoted by Elekta and Philips (Israel) were accepted as being reasonable. This, after all, is precisely the type of wasteful and extravagant excess the Widespread Candidate bemoaned publicly and swore to investigate and eradicate. That stated, will the government reside up to its guarantee?

© Colombo Telegraph- oooTiHa

The witness protection bill has been passed unanimously in the parliament today. The considerably delayed bill was approved by the Cabinet final July. It was first tabled before the parliament in 2008 but was deferred.

The bill was drafted by the Justice Ministry, and thereafter referred to the cabinet sub-committee on legislation for its recommendations prior to becoming presented to the parliament.

The contact for an Act for Protection of Witnesses has been created for the past handful of years, especially for the duration of the post-conflict period as it would create support conduct fair trials by way of striking a balance in the criminal justice method of Sri Lanka between the rights of the accused, the rights and entitlements of victims of crime and the entitlements of witnesses.

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By Ranil Senanayake –

Open Letter to the Government of Sri Lanka.

By means of :

Prime Minister Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe

Minister Hon. Rajitha Senaratne

Minister Hon Lakshman Kiriella

Dear Sirs,

On the Port City Assessment

I am writing this open letter to you all as I have doubts that you may obtain it through the layers of bureaucracy and entrenched interests that assistance the proposed ‘Port City’ project. A recent news report quotes a senior government spokesman stating that a “comprehensive review would look into every single aspect of the project, including its environmental influence.” Naturally a ‘comprehensive review’ will take a handful of weeks at least for a project this size and any selection taken in a couple of days would mean that no ‘comprehensive review’ has been undertaken and we are as soon as once again lulled into a state of false complacency whilst our nations future is dismantled.

It will be salutatory to have the names of the scientists who are on the ‘comprehensive review’ committee, as there is severe doubt of good quality of function by the ‘scientists’ who performed the initial EIA, which we the public have no access to as but. We trust that you will not continue the underhand, opaque transaction procedures of the last government and be tarred with the same brush, we trust that you will you give us the Government that you promised us, open and transparent. I as the only qualified Systems Ecologist in this nation, offer you my services to this nation and to you GRATIS in the defense of this nation, if you are to set up an independent Sri Lankan committee to investigate the EIA that allowed the “Port City’ to proceed.

As we, the public have not has access to ‘Environmental Influence Assessment (EIA) that has been done in regard to this project there are some serious issues that I would request you to take into account. These considerations are basic, they effect this nation far into the future and if not addressed could produce irreparable adverse consequences for the public of this nation. Could I list a couple of to illustrate the magnitude of the problem?

• Air Good quality. The pollution from the new city will be swept into Colombo city by the prevailing sea breeze. Will there be controls of the air quality in the new city, so that the residents of Colombo will not have to endure improved rates of emphysema, lung cancer and connected illnesses? How will be the requirements for air good quality from the new city be set and monitored?
• Water Quality. The new city will require huge quantities of fresh water for its use. Exactly where will this water come from? There is not enough surface water in the Kelani basin to supply such a quantity. Will the citizens of this nation have to compete with the new city for its fresh water ?
• Where will the energy to operate the new city come from? At the moment we are advertising harmful coal fired energy plants that have been demonstrated to bring ill overall health to our citizens, destroy our agriculture, poison our fishery and ruin our heritage. Will this new power requirements be met with more such disastrous power generation being foisted on our nation?
• Garbage and pollution. Who will deal with the garbage and toxic effluents that will be generated by the new city? Will Sri Lanka be utilised as the dumping ground for the new city? What waste therapies plans are in spot, recognized by the current EIA?
• Destruction of the land environment. The massive amount of rocks that will be used in filling up the sea has to come from our land. What will be the effects of this blasting and quarrying? We have already witnessed the earth slips and erosion at Koslanda and elsewhere by means of bad land use practices.

There are numerous other considerations including offshore sand transport, marine biodiversity and climate adjust impacts that must appear in a reasonable EIA. Therefore it is clear that any ‘comprehensive review’ will have to address these problems. To do much less will be to cheat the public. Hence we the public, await an open discussion.

Please do appear about to see the other equivalent difficulties designed without having consultation with the public, the Chinese Trans Canal project in Nicaragua is a case at point. Already a massive segment of the population are dissatisfied with the secrecy and political instability looms. Such secretive contracts, will often breed national discontentment.

Wishing your new government effectively in its endeavor to defend this nation and to bring us prosperity and nicely being.

Sincerely,

Ranil Senanayake

By Dayan Jayatilleka –

“…we’re going to speak these days about President Sirisena’s thoughts about how to move Sri Lanka away from 30 years of war with the Tamils…”– Secretary of State John Kerry, Feb 12, 2015

Offered that India is Sri Lanka’s only neighbor and that it is a large country and an Asian power, it is correct that Sri Lanka regards the management of its relations with India as the top priority. Consequently, it is suitable that the President Sirisena, preceded by the new Government’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera must make New Delhi their 1st location. President Sirisena is fairly appropriate to comply with this up with a visit to China in March.

However, the new Foreign Minister visited Washington DC, and certainly London, ahead of he visited Beijing. This is most unfortunate, given that Sri Lanka’s principal identity need to be as an Asian nation and that China is maybe the most essential Asian power and certainly a single of the two top Asian powers, with the other getting India. Given the multifaceted strategic partnership, assistance and solidarity that China has always and unhesitatingly extended Sri Lanka for decades, it would have been each sagacious and ethically appropriate for Foreign Minister Samaraweera to check out Beijing soon after his go to to our neighbor New Delhi and prior to his visit to any other capital, and most undoubtedly ahead of he visited Washington DC. His failure to do so and his check out to the UK and USA prior to China is a clear indication of the external relations doctrine of the new Cabinet.

I emphasize the term ‘the new Cabinet’, since I think that notwithstanding his occasional pronouncements during the elections, President Sirisena is naturally inclined to be a friend of China and to balance amongst India and China, rather than tilt to India, the USA or any emergent Indo-US axis. Nonetheless, the new Cabinet is emerging as an autonomous energy center, since President Sirisena has chosen not to exercising his Constitutional appropriate to chair Cabinet meetings, and it is the Prime Minister who does so.

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s welcoming remarks on the occasion of his meeting with Sri Lanka’s new Foreign Minister revealed two standard truths. Firstly, that even at its most friendly, the US has a slightly prejudiced, if not warped perception of Sri Lanka. Secondly that Foreign Minister Samaraweera is no Lakshman Kadirgamar, the man he succeeded throughout his first stint in the post beneath President Rajapaksa.

Speaking in Washington DC on February 12, 2015, Mr. Kerry concluded his remarks of welcome with the line “…we’re going to speak right now about President Sirisena’s thoughts about how to move Sri Lanka away from 30 years of war with the Tamils to a country that is inclusive and prosperous and peaceful.”

Earlier in his remarks, Secretary Kerry talked of the January 8th election as a “vote to move Sri Lanka in a new direction, to open up greater accountability…and placing with each other a government that will speak for and to the people…”

Mr. Kerry is a very intelligent man, and in any case the LTTE or Tamil Tigers are sufficiently nicely identified, for him to have been aware that Sri Lanka did not wage or experience “30 years of war with the Tamils” but with a separatist terrorist army or militia. So, either the US views the LTTE as getting representative of the Tamils or it thinks that Sri Lanka waged a war for 30 years against the Tamil community. Whichever it was, it is damaging, distorted, insulting and dangerous.

One can think about that had he faced a comparable welcome, Foreign Minister Kadirgamar would have, in his own remarks, gently but clearly set the record straight, rectifying the egregious error. He would undoubtedly not have let his nation and its contemporary history be misrepresented he would certainly not have taken it lying down.

For his portion, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera not only failed to diplomatically correct the utterly false perception of and unfair reference to our nation and implicitly its armed forces, he failed to mention the 30 years of war at all!

Secretary Kerry’s referred to the election as a vote to move Sri Lanka in a new path “opening up higher accountability”. This demonstrates that the hypocritical invocation of accountability hasn’t stopped and that it remains on the front burner of the US agenda on Sri Lanka. There is consequently a gap in between US expectations of Sri Lanka under the new administration, and the national, state and safety interests of Sri Lanka, not to mention the views of the majority of Sri Lankan folks.

Of course Secretary Kerry’ remarks were ironic in the intense since the individual who “moved Sri Lanka from 30 years of war”, was not President Sirisena but his predecessor President Rajapaksa, and that was 5 years ago. It is nice of Mr. Kerry to hope that President Sirisena would move us to a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka, but we’ve been peaceful and prosperous for five years, on President Rajapaksa’s watch.

Following her check out to Sri Lanka, Asst. Secretary of State Nisha Biswal and much more importantly, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice referred to assisting in Sri Lanka’s transition. At a single level, the US view rests upon an interesting inaccuracy since Sri Lanka is not genuinely in the kind of transition that the other countries named in their officials’ statements are or have been. Sri Lanka is not in transition from a military or any other type of dictatorship or autocracy. It was always a multiparty democracy in which competitive elections have been held. This time the Opposition won and there was a smooth transfer of power following a peaceful election. So Sri Lanka is not a transitional state or society. Nonetheless, the use of the term ‘transitional’ by the US official reflects the view that Sri Lanka is in some sort of a transition. This can only be a transition from one kind of external relations paradigm which was realistically oriented towards Eurasia, primarily but not only Russia and China, to a competing paradigm which incorporates Sri Lanka into the Western orbit, especially the US pivot to Asia and most concretely, the Indo-US condominium in the Indian ocean region.

The US usage of the term ‘transition’ with respect to Sri Lanka might have an internal dimension also, in that the new Government might restructure the state, transitioning it from a robust centripetal unitary state structure with a strong center and an executive presidency, to 1 which is essentially a parliamentary and quasi-federal program, much less able to resist centrifugal ethnic pulls from Tamil separatism and the neighboring South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and withstand external stress. Sri Lanka seems to be in transition to a State form and model that is significantly less able to safeguard national sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity. The US may possibly be pleased to assist in transition to such a looser, weaker State.

The new Cabinet is overwhelmingly a United National Celebration cabinet. The UNP under the leadership of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is officially a member of the International Democratic Union (IDU) which is a collection of rightwing parties headed by the US Republicans and the UK Conservatives. As such the UNP government is far more probably to be oriented towards a prospective US-India axis. The Foreign Minister appears to represent the view of the UNP dominated government, rather than of President Sirisena who is the new leader of the centrist-nationalist Sri Lanka Freedom Celebration (SLFP).

While it will be in Sri Lanka’s national interest that the Sri Lanka Freedom Celebration (SLFP) wins the upcoming parliamentary election and re-balances the country’s political equation, it is unlikely at the moment. This is simply because there is ideological and political confusion in the ranks of the SLFP. Correct now, the UNP has been offered the advantage by President Sirisena due to the fact he has appointed the UNP leader as Prime Minister and a predominantly UNP Cabinet, in spite of the truth that the UNP has not won an election nor has the assistance of a majority in parliament. It is ironic due to the fact President Sirisena is the new leader of the SLFP. But he has conferred an unfair advantage on the rival UNP by empowering it. He and former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga have further confused the SLFP by collaborating with the UNP and attacking ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa who won the majority of the Sinhala majority at the current elections, though he lost in the island as a entire. Mr. Rajapaksa won 58% of the 75% of the population who take place to be Sinhalese. The SLFP wants Mr. Rajapaksa’s recognition to win the upcoming election but the new SLFP leader appears determined to attack him politically. In this deliberate confusion, it is likely that the UNP will win. The only factor that could adjust that scenario is if ex-President Rajapaksa tends to make a political comeback at the parliamentary election by means of the SLFP or an successful new nationalist formation. If the SLFP wins, specially with a Rajapaksa element, then the foreign policy of the SLFP will be closer to that of the Rajapaksa years, though there would be greater balance in between China, India and the USA, and particularly amongst China and India. Nonetheless, if the UNP wins, foreign policy will continue its present shift sharply towards the US, the West and a Washington-Delhi axis.

India can play a very constructive part in the financial, political and diplomatic arenas. Just lately the elected semi-autonomous Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority location passed a Resolution with the outrageous and aggressive allegation that successive Sri Lankan Governments because Independence in 1948, committed “genocide” against the Tamil neighborhood. India can help Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation approach by assisting oppose trends towards political and ethnic radicalization and polarization. It can do so by creating it very clear to Sri Lanka’s and South India’s Tamil politicians that Delhi strongly opposes such a Resolution and will not countenance such anti-Sri Lankan and potentially separatist postures on the part of the Tamil politicians. India can also assure Sri Lanka of assistance for the island’s sovereignty in any work to counter moves by the UN Higher Commissioner for Human Rights to move forward with an inquiry into Sri Lanka’s successful war against separatist terrorism in 2009.

Problems of a tactical nature between India and Sri Lanka, such as the problems of illegal fishing and Tamil refugees, can be dealt with jointly. What may prove a lot more problematic are two strategic concerns, namely India’s concerns about Sri Lanka-China equation and Sri Lanka’s political handling of its Tamil Query.

By Sudat Pasqual –

Cricket News

International Cricket Council Chief Executive Dave Richardson has vehemently denied that he was referring to the administration of Sri Lanka Cricket when he mentioned that illegal actions was the most pressing concern that had to be addressed by the ICC. &#8220I recognize that thinking about the continuous outrageous conduct of the individuals heading SLC , it is natural to conclude that whenever we at the ICC refers to illegal actions, we are referring to the hierarchy Sri Lanka Cricket. Nevertheless, on this occasion I was merely creating a point about the significance of eliminating illegal BOWLING actions from the game. Illegal actions of SLC will be discussed at length at the next common meeting&#8221, Richardson concluded.

More Cricket

In a gorgeous development , the International Cricket Council has agreed to permit India to bring their personal drop in pitches for all their matches. ICC mentioned that India was effectively inside their rights to demand that they get to defend their title on wickets similar to the ones in the subcontinent. Indian bowlers have struggled on Australian and New Zealand pitches and if we don&#8217t permit them to bring their own pitches India probably won&#8217t make to the 2nd round the statement further explained. That would not be great for the game or the players in India. This makes it a win-win circumstance for India the statement concluded.

Sri Lanka Cricket News

The executive committee of Sri Lanka Cricket responded to Minister&#8217s contact for gentlemanly behavior from SLC administrators in the following manner

&#8221 Since forcefully imposed on our membership by the very first siblings of Sri Lanka, this Executive Committee has diligently followed long established practices of Intransigence at each opportunity. We are and will usually remain committed to bringing the greatest quantity of disrepute in the shortest amount of time tothis cash cow of a game. We have never seeked low-cost publicity by acting in a transparent or accountable manner. We are proud to say that not one particular amongst us is a gentleman. The final of these had been kicked out along with Arjuna Ranatunga. We declare to the globe that this committee will continue its path of destruction of all that&#8217s excellent and decent, such as people such as Kumar Sangakkara. The minister could force us to the fountain of decency and good governance, but he will NOT make us change our uncouth approaches. Thank you.&#8221

MP Watson Hadunhetti has declared that the Secretary of Sri Lanka Cricket Board has agreed to deposit $ 1 billion due in back taxes to Finance Minister&#8217s designated account at the Union Bank. After the transaction is confirmed the funds will be shared with the Minister of Sports and SLC Secretary&#8217s position will be merged with the workplace of the CEO. All’s nicely that ends properly

News of Mrs.Weerawansa

The ethically challenged and factually confused Mrs.Wimal Weerawansa was panic stricken and inconsolable when told that her passport was impounded. Mrs.Weerawansa was heard lamenting, &#8220I am practically out of edible underwear. Now Wimal will start going to these horrible massage parlors once more! I can&#8217t compete with these sophisticated bimbos. Oh my god!&#8221

Weerawansa vows to restrict food intake

Calling the therapy of Mohan Pieris as unjust, the designated imbecile of that Rajapaksa cabinet Wimal Weerawansa vowed to limit his caloric intake to 1,500 per meal till Pieris is created chief of anything. He said it was the very same amount consumed by him throughout the protest against the UN. This type of mean and tasteless behavior was expected of us, but I anticipated a lot more from our Tamils and the Muslim brethren.

By Emil van der Poorten –

Like all those in search of to comment on what is emerging out of the cesspool that passed for governance until this nation rid itself of the Rajapaksas, I have identified myself possessing to indulge in superlatives of the wrong sort, the mildest of which are most likely “ludicrous” or “bizarre.”

The recent, poorly written write-up/media release from Namal Rajapaksa, certainly not a G. L. Peiris production judging by its grammar and syntax, has our erstwhile (I hope) Crown Prince first directing his white charger towards these pointing to the positively outlandish conduct of members of his loved ones other than himself and the man he anticipated to/was expected to succeed, H.M. Mahinda Rajapaksa. He proclaims from the rooftops that it is fair game to be essential of the erstwhile Monarch of Sri Lanka and his Heir Apparent but that it is not cricket to criticize the rest of his family.

Provided the documented conduct of different members of the Rajapaksa family, both extended and quick, I count on that comment is hardly required in that regard.

Nonetheless, what I would like to take up nowadays is the matter of the conduct of the Rajapaksa Triumvirate on the rugby field and all that flowed from that conduct. The explanation for this is the conduct of however yet another opportunist crosser-more than who portrays himself as a defender of all that is noble in the field of services rugby.

I will come to Mr. Navin Dissanayake, Minister of some sort, in due course, but I make no apology for what might look like a lengthy lead-in to that narrative.

Let me say at the outset that there are eye-witnesses, video, and other documentary proof to help every word of what follows.

Namal Rajapaksa has proclaimed that his participation and that of his siblings in competitive rugby was driven purely and simply by adore of the game and an overweening compulsion to promote it in Sri Lanka. I uncover that especially interesting in the context of what I was witness to as a member of the Kandy Sports Club (KSC) on several occasions when its team met the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) in club competitors.

On each and every occasion that the SLN played the KSC at Nittawela what ought to have been post-game celebrations ended up as monumental brawls. On one particular occasion, I was witness to the reality that males in uniforms of some description, described as “Namal Rajapaksa’s individual security,” led by the Personal Trainer to the Rajapaksa siblings, clambered up to the second level of the major stand, assaulting people willy-nilly with plastic chairs and, as they broke, with pieces thereof, simply because, allegedly, a little plastic water bottle had been thrown at Namal when he was getting into the visitors’ dressing area at the end of the game (that the SLN had lost). Picture, if you will, the unerring marksmanship of whoever threw the missile into players, officials etc. all bunched with each other on their way into the visitors’ dressing area and locating the target, the Crown Prince! Of course the Presidential entourage which incorporated Anarkali Akarsha, the star of film and other enterprises, her mother, H.M Mahinda Rajapaksa and his Consort and a handful of political hangers-on had left the VIP row of seats to go into the post-match reception as guests of the KSC’s President and its major Patron by the time this happened. The attack by the goons went on appropriate about the wives of the President of the KSC and a single of the Vice-Presidents who were waiting to leave the “VIP row” in the stadium as soon as the human targeted traffic bottleneck cleared. I have been offered video that a lot more than adequately documents what was taking place. This does not include footage of the chief cheer-leader of the KSC who typically dances and waves a KSC flag the colours of which are painted on his face. The purpose for his absence from the video was that he was becoming hidden beneath a chair on which the wife of 1 of the VP’s of the KSC was sitting, cowering in worry of his life!

When the melee was over, 3 or 4 dozen KSC fans were hospitalized and a couple of Kandy fans were charged with becoming intoxicated! That was the sort of rugby culture that the Rajapaksa siblings were active participants in. And as they used to say in an old, old radio serial, “now for the rest of the story:”

As may well be anticipated, there was a excellent deal of anger in Kandy at what had transpired and several spectators contacted the hierarchy of the KSC with a view to possessing “something done” about all of this.

The upshot of that agitation was that a meeting was convened of those who’d expressed dissatisfaction with the status quo and wanted anything carried out to, at least, prevent a recurrence of this sort of totally unacceptable behavior by visiting goons brought in by the SLN to their rugby matches. I ought to add here that, on at least one occasion, the SLN paid the KSC directly for 5000 tickets for their personnel to attend matches at Nittawela. Element of our national “Defence Spending budget?”

I was invited to participate in the recording of written statements and I was aware of at least a single person who risked his really employment to supply a signed statement describing what had transpired.

The results of this inquiry was presented to the subsequent General Committee Meeting of the KSC and it was unanimously decided by that august assembly that a formal complaint must be produced to the International Rugby Board about the state of affairs prevailing in Sri Lankan rugby and requesting their intervention. I was delegated to prepare the letter of formal complaint, which I did.

Sri Lanka being Sri Lanka, I picked up the reality that the formal complaint to the IRB was being shelved and was, therefore, going nowhere.

When I raised the issue at the next Common Committee Meeting I was informed, not to put a fine point on the matter, that the KSC’s “movers and shakers” had got what is colloquially recognized as a case of “cold feet” and had decided to shelve the complete business. The purpose I was provided was that going direct to the IRB was “not the right procedure.” On that day, I ended up as a minority of one particular in my belief that, if it was not the “right channel,” the IRB would inform us so and, almost certainly, indicate what was the “right channel.” The fact that I was in a minority of one on that occasion is a badge of courage that I will carry proudly for the rest of my days!

This choice by the poo-bahs at the KSC must also be viewed in the context of it being one of the latter straws in a sequence of events that was preceded by an Air Force player discharging an assault weapon in the course of a game, on the field of play. The President of the Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) at the time was Roshan Goonetilleke, then the lately-retired Air Force chief and Chief of Defence Employees and it was 1 of the more-poorly-kept secrets that he had had his term as President of the SLRFU extended on orders “from above.”

(As a side-bar, I wonder what happened to the inquiry into Mr. Goonetilleke’s vacation residence in a portion of the Knuckles range that is designated as an International Heritage internet site?)

A couple of items happened subsequent to this. Or must I say one of them, at least, didn’t come about subsequent to this?

The letter of complaint to the SLRFU about the firing of the weapon, backed up by the existence of video footage, was not so much as acknowledged and I think that there was some sort of sneering, insulting comment about the complaint in the media by a man carrying the name of Baptist, who held office below Roshan Goonetilleke in the SLRFU. Not only was there video footage, I know that the empty shell casing from the assault weapon was picked up off the ground and handed to the police who did not so a lot as conduct anything resembling an inquiry into the matter. Remember the old, “My enemy’s enemy is my pal?” The KSC was the No. 1 enemy of the SLN and any of its enemies was deserving of any and all help! Obviously!

The final game of that certain season was the championship match played on the grounds of the Royal College Sports Complex. I have a distinct recollection of the events that transpired there and I will make no apology for describing them in some detail.

Contrary to the expectations of even the KSC supporters, their club dominated the SLN in the initial half of the game during which the (Sri Lankan) Presidential entourage was ensconced with the afore-mentioned President of the SLRFU which was the hosting authority. The President of the club competing against the SLN for the championship (the KSC) was not allocated a seat in this august assembly and when invited, actually, up, declined to accept the afterthought. This was an fascinating “protocol error,” offered the reality that the person responsible for it was an erstwhile Forces chief and a clue for the “oversight” may well have been that he was openly cheering on the SLN team!

Anyway, at half-time, the President (of Sri Lanka) left his seat (without having any fanfare) and I didn’t notice him returning till the second half was nicely on its way. What was beyond my knowledge in numerous years of playing and watching rugby was what followed: both teams returned to the field for the second half and then, for better than five minutes, had to await the arrival of the referee who appeared to have been “unavoidably delayed.”

When play ultimately resumed the complexion of the game changed entirely with penalty right after penalty being awarded against the KSC with the SLN narrowing the very first half gap. Then, as the game was drawing to a close, the SLN was close to the KSC purpose line. Video shows the referee about to award the ball to the KSC in a scrum or award a penalty to that group when the touch judge intervenes and speaks to the referee who then awards a penalty to the Navy, resulting in a Navy attempt.

What is relevant to this action on the component of the referee is the reality that there is video displaying a player who was on the bench at the time and was not supposed to leave that bench according to the guidelines of rugby, speaking to the touch judge near the KSC objective line, numerous yards away from mentioned bench. That worthy then speaks to the referee who tends to make the contact referred to earlier. Stick to my drift?

Do I have to name the player in question?

Regardless of all of this, the story had a happy ending since the referee appeared to be arithmetically-challenged due to which the KSC won the championship game by one particular point!

Of course, this wasn’t the finish of that specific saga simply because the KSC dressing room was invaded by “security” who proceeded to beat up some of the Kandy players and jostled (to put it mildly) Kandy supporters, a lot of of my vintage and female into the bargain, who had gone down to congratulate the victorious group. When I remonstrated with the Navy official with whom I had shared the pre-game comments for the Television broadcast, that senior navy officer intervened by acquiring Namal Rajapaksa to contact off the thugs that had invaded the KSC dressing area. The SLN officer concerned told us that the miscreants have been not “navy personnel.”

The most current icing on this specific cake is Navin Dissanayake galloping off in defence of the Rajapaksa siblings who have apparently been “dis-invited” from participating in Army and SLN rugby. How gallant of but one more parachutist of convenience! I’d really like to know where his sense of sportsmanship resided when those whose wellbeing he is so concerned with now had been visiting actually unprecedented mayhem on players unfortunate adequate to provide opposition to teams on which they condescended to play? Perhaps, he’d like to inform us what he thinks of the manner in which most likely Sri Lanka’s finest rugby player of recent times, Fazil Marija, sustained the injuries he did in a game against the Navy, resulting in his becoming carried off the field?

I know it utilised to be identified as the “Uncle-Nephew-Party” at one particular time but provided the fathers- and sons-in-law operation it has now grow to be, it may well be needed to discover a new nickname for the UNP!

In the meantime, maybe Navin Dissanayake can locate anything a small more productive to do than run around playing Sir Galahad to the Bobbsey Triplets of Sri Lankan rugby. Ah, but then, he have to be a genuine acquisition for the existing government thinking about he spent so a lot a lot more (personally beneficial) time with the Mahinda Rajapaksa crew than did his turncoat father-in-law. They have one particular point in widespread though – they came back singly, even though Karu Jayasuriya took eighteen or nineteen with him on his initial journey.

Is this government ever going to discover that you do not deal with huge corruption and violence by enlisting these whose main intent seems to be to acquire “insurance” with the really perpetrators of the unbelievable “governance” that the people of this country had to endure? These men and women had it good then, have it good now and seem to be guaranteeing that, in the occasion of a return to that dark age, they will nevertheless have it excellent.