Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna MP Namal Rajapaksa told Parliament on Wednesday that the government will not be able to engage in politics by suppressing its opponents, the Daily Mirror reported.
“If the government thinks it can engage in politics successfully by suppressing opponents, then it is mistaken.”
He added that the government was “covering up real issues in the country by suppressing opponents.”
The day he said it
The remarks were made on a day when the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption arrested three figures associated with the former government.
Rajapaksa’s mother, former First Lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa, was arrested at the family’s Kirulapone residence at about 9.56 a.m. over Rs. 10 million obtained from the National Savings Bank for a CT scanner that investigators say was never supplied. CIABOC later arrested Pradeep Kariyawasam, the bank’s former chairman, in the same investigation, and former minister Rohitha Bogollagama in a matter neither newsroom has identified.
Rajapaksa himself is in remand custody until 16 October in the Rs. 70 million Krrish bribery case, in which the Colombo Chief Magistrate will rule on bail the same day. He has previously been brought to the chamber from prison to attend sittings, an arrangement made at the Speaker’s request through the Commissioner General of Prisons.
The charge is not a new one from his party. On 1 October, SLPP head of operations Johnston Fernando alleged that officials were fabricating evidence against government opponents and that remanding critics had become policy, while stressing his confidence in the courts.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror’s filing is brief. It does not say which debate Rajapaksa was speaking in, whether he was produced from remand custody for the sitting, or whether he referred to Wednesday’s arrests — he names no case and no individual in the quoted remarks. No government response is carried, and no other verified newsroom had reported the statement at the time of writing.
Source: Daily Mirror.
