President, Ministers lash out at Pada Yatra dubbed ‘political gimmick by bunch of crooks’

The protest march masterminded by Mahinda Rajapaksa in 1992 positioned him as a national level figure among the SLFP ranks. Rajapaksa’s pada yatra, which went from Colombo to Kataragama, marked the beginning of the ascension of his political career and the initiative culminated with the downfall of the UNP government in 1994.

At the time Rajapaksa launched his first pada yatra, he was a relatively ‘untested’ character in national politics. He appeared as a true defender of human rights and projected himself as a crusader against the crackdown launched by the then government on the country’s youth in the light of the second JVP insurrection.

With his affiliation with the ‘Maw Peramuna’ (Mothers’ Front), an organization representing mothers of the disappeared youth, many assumed Rajapaksa was a firm and unwavering supporter of democracy, human rights and accountability.

In fact, a key slogan of his Pada Yatra was to probe into the disappearances of tens of thousands of youth and the “torture camps” run by the government’s law enforcement authorities.

Twenty four years down the line, Rajapaksa launched his second Pada Yatra as a retired Executive President who held the office for nearly 10 years. Rajapaksa’s administration was often dubbed as one that brutally suppressed democracy, human rights and freedom of expression.

Lasantha Wickrematunga being taken to hospital after the attack.

On the other hand, multiple corruption allegations have been levelled against the former President, his family and close supporters. He has made history as the first Executive President to lose a Presidential election. Seven months after losing the Presidential election, the Rajapaksa group also lost a Parliamentary election under the former President’s leadership.

After the end of the last Parliamentary election, the group supporting the former President became Internally Displaced Persons in the SLFP camp. The party entered into a coalition agreement with the UNP for a period of two years and the group supporting the former President was left out of the party’s affairs.

On the other hand, the same group had to deal with a surfeit of issues on the anti-corruption front with law enforcement bodies making progress in several high-profile cases. Against this backdrop, they formed a group called the ‘Joint Opposition’ claiming they will transform it into a new political party, under the leadership of the former President, before the next Local Government election.

It was in this context that the leaders of the UPFA rebel group gathered in Kandy last week to launch the ‘janasatana’ pada yatra movement. Although the protest march was not endorsed by the SLFP, a group of party MPs attended the march claiming they did not fear disciplinary action.

Apart from Mahinda Rajapaksa himself, among the other SLFP MPs who attended the Pada Yatra were Kumara Welgama, Dullas Alahapperuma, Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Johnston Fernando, Mahindananada Aluthgamagage, Rohitha Abeygunawardena, Rajith Soysa, Namal Rajapaksa and Dilum Amunugama. Their initial plan was to start the protest march from the Sri Dalada Maligawa (The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) located in the heart of the Kandy.

An ambulance was attacked on the first day of the Pada Yatra.

Before the commencement of the Pada Yatra, however, the Kandy Police sought a court order to prevent the Joint Opposition group from starting the march from Kandy. The main reason behind the Police Department’s intervention was the inconvenience it would cause to the public on a working day.

Considering the request, the Kandy Chief Magistrate issued a restraining order preventing the leaders of the Joint Opposition from commencing the march from Kandy city. As a result, they had to start the march from Galaha junction, in Peradeniya.

In an interesting turn of events, the Kandy Chief Magistrate also ordered the UNP not to conduct its recruitment drive during the morning hours and to commence it after 2.00 p.m. on Thursday. The UNP, quite obviously, decided to launch the membership drive in the Kandy city as a propaganda tactic against the Joint Opposition’s protest march.

Meanwhile, the Mawanella Magistrate in a court order, instructed the protestors to use alternative routes during the protest, bypassing the town of Mawanella – a highly populated area. The order was issued after the Mawanella OIC went to court seeking a restraining order to suspend the Pada Yatra. The court order was handed over to MP Mahindananada Aluthgamage, one of the key organisers of the march.

Meanwhile, a few Magistrates turned down requests made by the Police to issue restraining orders to prevent the protest march.

The Kegalle Police sought a restraining order against the UPFA rebels from entering the Kegalle town on grounds that the walk would create severe traffic congestion among other issues.

The Kegalle Magistrate, however, refused to issue the restraining order, while informing the Police that the protest march should only be allowed on one lane of the road, and in the event there was any clash, the police had the authority to immediately halt the march.

Similar orders were issued by Gampaha and Mahara Magistrates who received requests from respective police stations to issue restraining orders against the march.

“This alone shows the level of democracy prevailing in the country. Under the previous government, not only a Magistrate, but the Supreme Court too could not issue orders against the government. Today, the magistrates have been given a free hand to exercise their will,” Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said on Friday, commenting on the matter, while addressing a public gathering.

The most interesting remark about restraining orders came from the former President himself. He said, under his government, the Police did not take restraining orders against protesters blocking the streets. He said it clearly showed the stifling of freedom and democracy under the Yahapalanaya government.

“What the former President said was absolutely true,” a UNP Parliamentarian quipped, commenting on the former President’s remarks.

“Under the former President’s rule, restraining orders were not necessary to crack down on protesters. What happened in Rathupaswala, Katunayake and Chilaw speaks volumes of the democracy that prevailed under the Rajapaksas,” he said.

At a ceremony at the auditorium of Mawanella Provincial Council on Friday to distribute computers to fifty Pirivenas and churches in the Kegalle District, President Maithripala Sirisena launched a scathing attack on the Pada Yatra protesters.

“Though some people greedy for power walk through roads aimlessly, the government is committed to build the country by working with consciousness and discipline,” the President said.

“Today, the country is suffering from a debt burden of Rs. 9,000 billion. The new Government has to face the challenge of an unbearable burden of debts created by the former Government,” he said.

“After being in the office of Presidency once, I don’t want to take marathon walks seeking power again and I will execute my duties properly during the tenure of my office,” he said. The President’s remark was a clear indication that the pada yatra initiative had widened the gap between the two groups within the SLFP.

Ambulance

On the first day, however, the Joint Opposition group ran into a trouble with its supporters attacking an ambulance during the protest march.

Video footage of the incident, which later went viral on social media platforms, showed a group of angry protesters hitting the sides of the ambulance, while Police tried to mediate.

The stalwarts of the UPFA rebel group attempted to justify the attack saying the ambulance was ‘planted’ by the government. The crux of their argument was that the ambulance was “empty” and therefore it should not have disturbed the protest march.

However, UNP General Secretary Minister Kabir Hashim had a different view on the matter. He said the incident showed the UPFA rebel group’s lack of concern for the rights of others. “They ran the country in the same way. It is the same when they’re in the opposition. This is the uncivilized and crude political culture espoused by the Rajapaksas over the past 10 years,” Hashim said, on Friday, speaking at an event in his own electorate.

Commenting on rumours that the UNP was planning to sabotage the opposition protest march in Kegalle, Hashim said his party never had such plans.

Meanwhile, Law and Order Minister Sagala Ratnayaka, launching a scathing attack on the initiative, dubbed the Joint Opposition protest as a ‘political gimmick’ by a bunch of crooks.

“The planned march from Kandy to Colombo will do nothing to break the historic partnership between the United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena respectively.

If at all it is an effort to destroy the marriage that took place on January 8, 2015 between the people of this country and the idea of democracy,” the Minister said, in a statement he released on Thursday evening.

As the Law and Order Minister, he assured that the government did not want to resort to any undemocratic act to suppress the Joint Opposition’s protest.

“As far as we are concerned this is nothing more than a political gimmick organized by a bunch of crooks. Their followers will realize soon enough that it is not about the nation or the people but an act of desperation on the part of a few individuals who are being prosecuted for multiple infringements of the law including financial crimes and murder.

However, in line with the promises we have made to the people of this country, we will continue to uphold the principles of democracy; in this case the right to protest. In fact the Government will do its best to provide the maximum security possible to those who take part in this protest, meaningless though it is and misled though the protesters are.

Unlike during the previous regime, there won’t be hooligans and thugs disrupting this march. There won’t be baton-charging and there won’t be water-cannons. There won’t be tear gas.

Having said that, we would like to remind the organizers of this protest that a healthy democracy also includes the rule of law. No protest, however justifiable, warrants the breaking of the law.

Just as much as we are mandated to uphold the principles of democracy, so too are we obliged to ensure that the Rule of Law is not compromised,” Ratnayaka said.

Lasantha’s murder

The Criminal Investigations Department’s investigation into Lasantha Wickramatunga’s murder took a new turn this week with Wickrematunga’s driver identifying the Army officer arrested in connection with the killing.

It is interesting to examine as to how Wickrematunga’s driver came into the picture all of a sudden. It was common knowledge that Wickrematunga drove his own vehicle on the fateful day he was killed by four armed men.

However, Wicrematunga’s driver, a man by the name of Dias, ran into fresh trouble soon after the journalist’s death. As many people did, Dias too pointed his finger at a top official in the country’s defence establishment over Wickrematunga’s death.

The Colombo Telegraph website last week explained in detail as to how Wickrematunga’s driver was kidnapped soon after the senior journalist’s killing.

“On the day of Lasantha’s assassination, Dias had washed the car and forgotten to take his cell phone which he had kept on the bonnet near the cavity by the wiper blades. After Lasantha left the house in the car he called him about the phone. Dias had a motor bike and collected the phone.

On his return near the turn off to Lasantha’s house he had stopped at the boutique to buy cigarettes. The boutique keeper told him that there was a guy in black with his helmet off, who had followed Lasantha.

Dias had tried to call Lasantha but his line was constantly engaged,” the website, quoting a source close to Wickrematunga, said.

“Dias used to consume alcohol every evening. He used to visit various places and blurt out stuff such as, it was Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was behind Lasantha’s assassination. This reached Army intelligence, which was told about Dias’s utterance, and they kidnapped him. No one knew about the kidnapping as after the driver was released he went underground through fear.”

“The police did not even bother to look out for Dias during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time. However, after the Government changed, and the CID took over the investigation, Dias was traced and questioned.

He spilled the beans and said he can identify the person who hammered him. He was blindfolded and abducted but saw the person at the place where he was kept and assaulted.

He told the CID that the person looked just like his uncle and then they did the sketch and followed up. That was how Udalagama was traced and later identified by Dias.

The boutique keeper gave the description of the guy in black and that is the second drawing,” the report said.

Wickrematunga’s driver identifying Udalagama can be considered a major breakthrough in the investigation into Wickrematunga’s killing. The CID has also questioned two former IGPs, namely Jayantha Wickremaratne and Mahinda Balasuriya in connection with the incident

It is also suspected that the same group who killed the former Sunday Leader Editor is responsible for the attack on senior journalist Upali Tennakoon, former Editor-in-Chief of the Rivira newspaper.

Tennakoon and his wife were attacked and wounded by four men on motorcycles as they drove to work on the morning of January 23, 2009. Interestingly, the attack came two weeks after the former Sunday Leader Editor’s killing.

Tennakoon, who spoke to the media after the incident, said the objective of the attackers was to kill him. The journalist was saved by his wife who covered her husband’s body, preventing the attackers from stabbing him.

The manner in which they carried out the attack, however, was similar to the attack on Wickrematunga, in many ways.

After the incident, however, Tennakoon had to flee the country as the then government failed to ensure his security.

In the light of the recent developments, many political analysts opine that the investigation into Wickrematunga’s murder is finally moving in the right direction, over seven years after the incident.