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Video: Remove Wijeyadasa from portfolio: SF

13 Nov 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka today urged the President and the Prime Minister to remove Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe from his portfolio on the grounds that he was a disgrace to the principles of good governance.

He said the minister was covering up those involved in fraud and corruption contradicting the government’s pledges to take action against such offenders.

“Minister Rajapakshe is a disgrace to the government that was set up to bring about good governance. The President and the Prime Minister should make sure that he is removed from his portfolio before the victory gained on January 8 is ruined and justice ensured,” the Field Marshal said.

He said the minister was white-washing the Rajapaksas so that he could change sides in the future because he would not be able to win an election with UNP votes again.

The Field Marshal responding to the minister who coined the term ‘Wel Vidane’ in Sinhala for the rank of Field Marshal said it was not an insult to him but to the President who decorated him with that title.

Rejecting an allegation made by the minister that the Field Marshal collected a sum of Rs.2,000 million for the presidential election at which he contested, he said he received only Rs.250 million for the election and spent it for his election campaign.

Field Marshal said it was not the minister who helped him to enter politics as claimed by him but by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Anura Kumara Dissanayake and some others.

“I saw the minister only after handing over my nominations. The minster says he gave me a dozens of national costumes. He came after me with a bag of national costumes but I did not take it and asked my security guard to take it feeling pity on him. But they were not of good quality or made to meassure,” he said.

Field Marshal Fonseka said if the minister had not taken money he earned as a politician, he should reveal how he earned money to construct huge buildings and live like a millionaire and added that he could not earn such a huge amount of money by working as a lawyer.

He said Rakna Lanka Chairman phoned him three days after the presidential election and offered to bear all cost of the Democratic Party for the general election but that he asked him to contribute it to construct an office for the party saying that he would not condone corruption.

“If he offered to help a minor party like us, we could imagine how he might have offered to help other parties,’ the Field Marshal said.

He said 2,000 out of the 4,000 employees of the Rakna Lanka were army deserters who left the army illegally and were employed at low salaries with the protection of the then defense secretary.

The Field Marshal said investigations into the Avant Garde should continue despite its operations being taken over by the Si Lanka Navy. (Ajith Siriwardana)

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