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• FIRST TIME IN SRI LANKAN HISTORY, A FORMER PRESIDENT HAS BEEN ARRESTED

Earlier on Friday morning, Ranil Wickremesinghe had arrived at the office of the FCID to give a statement regarding his visit to London to attend a ceremony at the Wolverhampton University where his wife, Sri Lanka’s First Lady, Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe, who had already travelled to England at her private expense, would be conferred an honorary professorship.

The Lanka President, who had paid a state visit to Cuba and thereafter had attended a UN summit meeting in New York, where he had addressed the General Assembly, had, whilst en route to Colombo, disembarked for a brief two-day stopover in London to attend his wife’s convocation ceremony in Wolverhampton. What’s more, he had been officially invited to grace the conferring ceremony.

The letter, signed by the Vice Chancellor of the University, John Rattery, and sent through the Sri Lankan High Commissioner’s office in London, officially invites the Sri Lankan President and First Lady, Maithree Wickremesinghe, to the event.

It says, ‘On behalf of the University of Wolverhampton’s Chancellor, the Rt. Hon. Lord Swraj Paul of Marylebone PC, the Board of Governors and the Academic Board, I am delighted to invite you to join the University for a special graduation lunch on Friday, 22nd of September 2023 at our Wolverhampton Campus.’

‘The luncheon is part of the celebrations of Prof. Wickremesinghe’s Honourary Professorship, and will take place in the build-up to the graduation ceremony itself. The graduation ceremony will commence at 14.30 at Wolverhampton, and we would be delighted if you are able to join us for the graduation luncheon, commencing at 12.00 pm.’

RANIL WICKREMESINGHE: Arrested by the FCID, remanded by the court and martyred in the eyes of his UNP supporters

Apart from Ranil’s contention that there cannot be any distinction between a public or private act a Head of State does, but all acts done while he is President must be treated as official, can anyone find fault with President Ranil Wickremesinghe for treating his stopover in London with an entourage of ten, and his visit to Wolverhampton University at the official invite made by its Vice Chancellor on behalf of the Chancellor and Board of Governors to salute a fellow Lankan, namely Professor Maitree Wickremesinghe, for her achievement in being conferred an Honorary Professorship, as an official act of the President of Lanka?

If the Sri Lankan President, returning from a state visit abroad, visits Kelaniya Campus, en route to Colombo, to see its Arts faculty stage the classic Sinhala play ‘Maname’ for which he had been officially invited by its Vice Chancellor, should it be considered an official visit or private visit for which he must privately pay, not only for himself but for his retinue of bodyguards and presidential aides?

Some evidently held he must. And on Friday, after giving a 4 hour long statement to the FCID, the former President of Sri Lanka was arrested around 3.30 in the afternoon. He was taken to the Fort Magistrate’s Court, spared of the manacles, around 5pm. Arriving at the court’s premises in Fort, where a large crowd had already gathered, he wore a brave face and said, ‘Be calm. I will handle it.’

Inside the tightly packed courtroom, there was a sudden scare. Amidst the gathering darkness, the lights went out. A possible assassination attempt on his life may have caused the former president’s palpitating heart to race even faster, even to flip a beat or two. As tension grew to audible levels, a great sigh of relief was visibly heard when CEB engineers arrived and soon restored power to the courthouse.

But was there darkness to light for former President Ranil Wickremesinghe? Certainly not. Like what happened at court, his lights had gone out, and his legal prospects looked bleak.

The charges read out were serious. The prosecution held: The internal audit of the Presidential Secretariat has revealed that the funds for the private visit of the former president to the U.K. were covered with Rs. 13,370,350.82 from the Secretariat and Rs. 3,274,301.39 from the allocations to the Sri Lanka Police and Sri Lanka Navy, making it a total of Rs. 16,644,652.21, hence leading to a misappropriation of public funds.

The CID informed the court that as public funds amounting to more than Rs. 16.6 million had been misused during Mr. Wickremesinghe’s private visit to the UK, he has committed offences under Sections 386 and 388 of the Penal Code and Section 5(1) of the Public Property Act.

Lawyers for both sides argued late into the night. The former President, being a lawyer himself, and his defending legal team would have known they were fighting a losing battle, for statute had tied the magistrate’s hands. The charge levelled against the former president—causing a financial loss to the state—was an unbailable offence. Only a plea for bail succeeding in a higher court could untie the magistrate’s hands.

The law took its majestic course, and when counsel on either side were finally exhausted of any more points to raise, the order was issued to remand the former President Ranil Wickremesinghe until August 26.

As Ranil Wickremesinghe was led to the Black Maria that awaited to take him to Welikada Prison, a throng of supporters surrounded him. The symbolic black bus that had taken countless suspects but never a former president—one who had been six times prime minister of this country—swiftly sped to its destination with its remand captive lodged inside.

After he had arrived, he was given a medical checkup. Due to his elevated sugar and pressure levels, he was admitted to the prison hospital. He was probably given a sedative to help him sleep for the night.

But did sleep come to Ranil Wickremesinghe –

the man who singlehandedly raised the nation from the gutters of bankruptcy where it lay till he picked it up and transformed it;

the man who, with his economic magic wand, made the long queues disappear overnight;

the man who, with his mystical mantra, ‘economy, economy, economy,’ gave life and breath to the economy and made it breathe again, made it live again, made it alive and kicking again;

the man who raised the dollar reserves in the Treasury coffers from a low of 50 million dollars upon taking presidential office in July 2022 to a high of 6 billion dollars upon leaving it in September 2025 was not worth 16 million rupees, or 53,000 dollars, as a special gratuity present from a grateful nation for wreaking an economic miracle that revived Lanka back to active life, but worth only a bed in a steamy prison hospital ward, with the uninviting prospect of a long solitary stay in a security-protected state institution at government expense.

Will sleep that lies in every common bed, come to Ranil’s tonight to soothe him to a blissful sleep? Not on your life.

Day the JVP lost its innocence   For years the JVP’s untested claim before the elections that every member of the party was, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion came unstuck last Sunday when the Sunday Times revealed that it learnt the Bribery Commission was planning to shine the accusing torch of suspicion on Minister of Energy Kumara Jayakody’s hands. This is not to impute even a trace of guilt on the Energy Minister, for he, like every other citizen of this country, has the legal right to the presumption of innocence, a basic right often denied to government ministers and MPs by the JVP whilst in the opposition. In a country ruled more by allegations than by the rule of law, the mud remained unwashable when hurled from a fertile, imaginative mind, and when repeated enough, it gained credence as indisputable fact. It not only stuck to the individual but collectively stuck to the party as well. ENERGY MINISTER JAYAKODY: Under a cloud of suspicion At the recent Pradeshiya Sabha elections, the JVP warned voters that should they cast their votes and make the opposition win, no money will be given by the Central Government to any opposition-controlled councils since, unlike the incorruptible JVP members on whom not even a shadow of doubt had fallen and who were, like Caesar’s wife, above suspicion, the opposition were all rogues. Throughout the JVP’s campaign trail, it was said on every political stage that it was not the intention of the Government to disburse taxpayers’ money to feed the gluttonous appetite for corruption of those calling the shots in opposition-controlled councils. Public money would only be safe if left in the trusted hands of JVP members. According to the Sunday Times report, ‘the Bribery Commission has decided to file action against Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody following corruption complaints over misappropriation of funds while serving at the Fertiliser Corporation in 2015.’ Now an official investigation has been launched by the Bribery Commission into the 8 million rupee allegation against Minister Kumara Jayakody. Whether the investigation findings will hit a lodi halfway or go the whole hog to court and whether, in that event, he will be found guilty or innocent, only time will tell. Of course, the JVP can point to this groundbreaking instance and, stripping Jayakody of his ministerial post and party membership, throw him to the wolves to fend for himself as evidence it keeps no truck with those who have let a shadow of guilt fall. Cabinet spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa, at this week’s briefing on Tuesday, was referred to the newspaper report and asked about the fate that awaited the minister. Minister Nalinda’s reply: ‘Even though this allegation concerns his earlier public service, our position is to give the CIABOC full space to act without interference. That is what shows transparency. If the CIABOC takes further action, the minister will then have the chance to prove his innocence.’ Whereas in the not too far off past, a single allegation of fraud made against a rival politician was enough to launch a thousand JVP ships of guilt, Minister Kumara Jayakody would be given the benefit of the doubt and would be allowed to remain at his post until or unless he is proven guilty in court. Furthermore, the Cabinet Spokesman said, ‘This is not something that arose after Kumara Jayakody became a minister of this government. The allegations are connected to his service between 2005 and 2015, when he worked at a state institution.’ What amount would Mahinda Rajapaksa and his whole family clan not bring from their Ugandan hoard of 18 billion dollars to gain admission as members of the Holy Church of JVP Saints and be redeemed of their alleged sins of corruption done between 2005 and 2015? Whether the Bribery Commission proceeds with their investigations or not, whether it files action against Jayakody in court or not, whether he is found innocent or not, the squeaky-clean iconic JVP image has been shattered beyond repair. And not all its supporters and not all its social media can put ‘above suspicion’ Dumpty together again.