The recent furore over the sale of duty free vehicles by the JHU is fodder for my latest article. There are several versions to this. The Ven. Rathana thero asserts that the vehicles were sold to strengthen the coffers of the JHU. Also of the JHU, the Ven. Medananda Thero then asserted that the vehicles were not in fact sold. However, former Assistant IGP Kotakadeniya, a lay member of the JHU, in an interview with Ravaya on 22nd July 2007, openly admitted that the vehicles were sold. In yet another twist, the Spokesperson of the JHU in Lankadeepa the next day refuted Kotakadeniya claims that the vehicles had been sold. However, he also admitted that the duty free vvehicles were no longer in the possession of the JHU MP’s.

So what the reprehensible JHU has to answer is this - who has these vehicles and what became of them? No one seems to know, or is willing to admit the truth. And however they try to wiggle their way out of this, the predicament of the JHU is another indication of the significant erosion of our mechanisms of governance and party politics.

There is another damning and incredible twist to this story. As I note:

“හිටපු පොලිසිපතිවරයකු වන කොටකදෙනිය මහතා රාවයට දුන් සම්මුඛ සාකච්ජාව කියවීමට අවස්ථාවක් ඔබට නොලැබුනේ නම් දැන්වත් එය පෙරළා බලන්න. ශ්‍රි ලංකාවේ නීතියේ පාලනය බල්ලාට ගොස් ඇති සැටි ඉන් පෙනේ. ඔහු ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ ම කියන්නේ මෙම වාහන විකුණු බව තමන් අධිකරණය හමූයේ නොකියන බව යි! අනෙත් අතට හෙළ උරුම හාමුදරුවරු වාහන ජාවාරම ගැන කියන්නේ අතේ පැලවෙන බොරු ය. හෙළ උරුම ජනාධිපති අපේක්ෂකයා විමට සිටි හිටපු නියෝජ්‍ය පොලිස්පති නොකියා කියන්නේ තමන් නීතිය නොසළකන බව කියයි.”

Kotakadeniya’s open admission that he will refuse to tell a court of law that the vehicles were sold is a sombre reflection of the abject condition of the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka. Kotakedeniya, a one time Presidential candidate of the JHU and former Deputy Inspector General of Police, essentially says that he does not care tuppence for the law!

My article goes on to explore the rampant corruption in politics today and asks, comparing the size of various Cabinets around the world, why we have 108 Cabinet ministers in Sri Lanka? Tracing the history of corruption with particular reference to the import of duty free vehicles beginning from the time of J.R. Jayawardhene, I end by blaming the system more than the JHU. Both are despicable, corrupt and only serve those in power.

“අප හෙළ උරුමයට පමණක් දොස් කීමෙන් පළක් නැත්තේ ඒ නිසා ය. වරද ඇත්තේ ක්‍රමයේ නිසාය. හෙළ උරුමය ද දැන් එම දූෂනයේ ම ගිලී ඇත. අන් සියළු දේශපාලන පක්ෂ ද අඩු වැඩියෙන් මෙම වරාදාන දූෂන දේශපාලන සංස්කෘතියේ කොටස්කැරවන් ය.’ කණගාටුවට කරුණ වන්නේ ඉන් ගොඩ ඒමට දැරෙන කිසිදු පරිශ්‍රමයක් පේන මායිමක නැතිකම ය.

As citizens, our tragic fate in Sri Lanka is to endure more farce from our representatives in Government. Read my article in full here.

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