Weli Raju – a story emerging of a prodigal son with a shameless background

I know it is not cool to speak ill of the dead, but the horror stories now emerging of this man’s background makes one shudder, that we are still a nation that tolerates such criminal behavior without any question.

The police just do not pursue any lead, when the man implicated was the brother of a senior minister then, (as in Maithripala Sirisena) now President.

The story is now emerging that this man was caught in bed with the wife of his long time friend, and though he had been plied with the normal modus operandi of getting his victims husbands legless drunk, there was still life left in him to discover deed, reach for the axe and deliver the deadly blow. Let us see what kind of trial, and what kind of deal comes out of this!

There must be so many women in Polonnaruwa who are relieved that this man is gone, just as there would be their husbands too, as he was in the habit of purloining their wives when he got them drunk, and once they came to he had disappeared having done the dirty. In Sinhala he was known a “Ganu Perethaya” which meant he wanted and got any women he wanted, by force or by threat or both, and in the true form of a thug who people feared, no one would dare challenge his demands.

It is time the Police force re look at the way they treat some people better than others and reclaim the moral high ground if we are to return from the law of the jungle to the law of the land! There are many others in Sri Lanka with similar backgrounds who are protected by the Police, due to who they are. In this new Regime, all such shady characters MUST be brought to book so that the people of the Country have faith in the enforcement of the law.

The number of rapes attributed to this man will never get reported, and let us at least learn from this and make sure other criminals are brought to book, and actually get prosecuted for their crimes. This Govt. came with a mandate of enough is enough, and those involved in crimes MUST face justice, no matter what the crimes are.

Now for the funeral. I will get sick to the stomach if I see a trail of Ministers and worthies going to the funeral of a destructive criminal in all senses of the word, just out of respect for the President. I hope the President DOES NOT make a spectacle of this funeral and do the needful in a small family way asking for a private funeral, and save the embarrassment of people having to compromise their morals, to attend.

To me there is nothing wrong for a President to have a prodigal brother, but if he is able to acknowledge this and go forward that would be in the interest of Sri Lanka, while leaving him with a less tainted background.

It is now to the media, to judge how they report this story. It is important that the story be told truthfully obtaining eyewitness accounts of his character, and not blame the President but show the people that this man was allowed to thrive and behave like this thanks to the Rajapakse Administration which wanted to use it as a lever against the other brother Maithripala Sirisena, lest he got too cocky with the demands etc. So he is a creation of the Rajapakses as much!!                   

What is all this fuss over “Weli Raju”?

A low life underworld figure, well known in running a longstanding extortion racket is hacked by another and it becomes news, WHY? Simply because the man happens to be the President’s brother, Priyantha Sirisena.

Whatever the merits of Maithripala Sirisena as President of Sri Lanka. He comes from a family of questionable crooks, who have ruined, more like completely destroyed Polonnaruwa District. That is a fact that no one other than the ignorant would dispute.

However in the scheme of things and on reflection the MR regime which was even more destructive, and under whom these lowlife thugs operated with impunity, had to be gotten rid of first, and if we have to tolerate Maithripala Sirisena in so doing for the Country’s good, then so be it.

As for Weli Raju he was in the business of taking Rs5,000 into his sarong pouch for every Sand load that was loaded by a dozer into the Tipper trucks. When there were 400 trucks taking illegally mined sand to Colombo, the daily takings of Rs2M yes two million is not something to be sniffed at.

To Maithripala Sirisena’s credit, the sand mining has been temporarily stopped due to the aggravated erosion and environmental degradation, which in the MR regime of 10 years has been worse than the British Rule of 150 years. Let no one doubt it if they are MR sycophants still around trying to protect the worst traitor Sri Lanka has seen in all its history.

Anyway, as I see it Raju got his just desserts as he was always playing with fire, and was a very unseemly character. I was with another Polonnaruwa businessman, when this incident was reported and saw the chopper taking off from the Hingurakgoda AF base to take him to treatment in Colombo. This man also has had a sand mining license for a load or two as part of his business, but due to the protection racket run by Weli Raju (Sand King) he was unable to get his just requirements without payment of this amount at the Sand Gate! (as in Farm Gate) at Manampitya.

Such is his fame, that there will be no tears shed. IT IS THE DUTY OF THE Sri Lanka media to expose the truth as relates to Weli Raju, but in the same breath mention that it was the MR regime that built this man into a millionaire crook, and MS regime that clipped his wings, after the Sand Mining Ban.

We must inform the General Public that under the MR regime, when there was NO MEDIA FREEDOM, the reporters were prevented from reporting the truth especially the environmental destruction of the MR regime, as they felt development was far more important than environment, and as Commissions and  Kickbacks were part of Development that the latter was far superior to satisfy the greed of the Rajapakse and other families close to them.

It is Sri Lanka that we need to save from these low life  thugs like the Rajapakses, and Sirisenas and until the people of Sri Lanka can understand that it is not foreigners who are most harmful to Sri Lanka, but their own people, we will not be able to preserve SL to our future kids!!!     

Field Marshall – a little “Kitche” not “Class”

There is no one on earth who believes that the recent award to SF was anything but a request by him. I don’t think passed even the most ardent supporter of the General to give him this title.

This is in essence where the problem is! To all who know it is no different to Idi Amin dada who amassed and gave himself all sorts of titles and medals. So those who give it to themselves which is the case here, despite the proclamation today that the President will bestow this on him on Sunday the 22^nd March 2015, purposely given on a Sunday, where its validity can be questioned with a wry smile, which is why Maithripala Sirisena a more modest person chose that day instead of Monday the 23^rd !!!!

All true Field Marshals are bestowed the Titles by a grateful nation, where it is earned for their services to their country. In the case of Sri Lanka, it is here not bestowed! Worse still the various requests made for security and other benefits are those that after a President of the Country, no other person not even a PM is given.

When Ranil Wickremasinghe leaves office he will not have any security, and obviously SF feels he is of more importance now than anyone and this will be for life too remember. Further as a US Green Card Holder he has to report the imputed values to the US tax authorities every year, something I doubt he does anyway.

So all in all it is for the reader to judge for him or herself  the ethics of this position, but for a Country which continues to put up with non-sense from self-appointed Grandes  who do not have the pulse of the people or their interests at heart, it is shameful that we allow people to play with our psyche, fool a lot of people about the real value of them.

A game played the world over by people in authority, be it Popes, Princes, or Kings, Prime Minsters, Minister or MPs and all sorts of highly regarded people who take advantage of their station in life to make the most of the hour is common.

It is for the likes of us to value people for what they have really done, and for that answer we need good analytical writers to inform us about people and their characters. There have been far more Mahatma Gandhis in this world than we have heard of but that is because they never came to the fore or were recognized by those who wrote about the people in their age or people they have chosen to write about.

This is merely a wake-up call to intelligent people, don’t be fooled by what you read or see. Make up your minds by self-study. In this age of the internet you have NO excuse as all the good and bad is on line so you can make up your mind weighing the pros and cons.

You judge for yourself and justify to yourself that he is worthy of such a title and who it should be who should bestow it. Should it have been him to ask, for or for a grateful nation to bestow?

Are we so weak as to NOT question such behavior or are we so ignorant that we don’t care? Sri Lankans make your opinions heard. You threw out a Rajapakse take charge of your life!   

Israel – arrogance of a people – no more proof needed

This Sense of entitlement for the existence of the state of Israel which 100 years ago merely consisted of a few hundred Jews who came more as return to mythical roots, has been the cause of much of international tension far outweighing the number of the people that remind us as being the State of Israel, which but for its existence would have I am sure, have NOT lead to this ISIS or of a fundamentalist Iranian revolution or for that matter even a Wahabi sect in Saudi Arabia and even intolerance of all religions and frictions within Islam as we now see it.

I reiterate that I am sure of it, and we the whole world continue to pay the price of a few Zionists a minority even in the Jewish faith, who continue to hold out!

Yes Bibi Netanyahu won, by effectively saying what his Zionists want to hear, NO PALESTINIAN STATE EVER! It is simply that promise that made the difference.

It is very hard to make any Israeli see sense, as it is a sea of depravity surrounding them in the Arab world which due to its wealth and greed and mistaken sense of religion, is destroying itself more than it destroys the West. It is this simple fact that they use to justify their existence.

There is NO Arab unity so the Palestinians really get no grace from any of their neighbors who also treat them like lepers. They are the most civilized and intelligent people in the Arab world, and are ironically treated worse than the Jews were in Nazi Germany. It is this simple Israely dichotomy that they themselves fail to realize.

Israelis may say that there are many Arabs in Israel and who are citizens and also in the parliament and that they have more rights in Israel than other citizens in any other Arab Country. That should NOT be a reason to treat them like that and Not give them their rightful state.

We know one day the force of good will conquer over evil and both the ISIS and the ZIONISTS are forces of Evil along with many other Crazy fundamentalists who have no life but the cause they follow. In time the state of Israel will disappear and NOT sit in side by side of Palestine.

It is as day follows night, and it is this worry that the Zionists wish to delay for as long as practically possible. After all people cannot predict what happens after we leave this earth, and Zionists and ISIS believe they will last forever, and let them do so, as we are not to try and change their belief system, but attempt to make people see the light of our existence on this earth.

Who are we here for? What are we supposed to do? How should we act? Should we fear anyone? If we are right, how do we know we are just, when others also who we believe are unjust believe they are just? The answers to all these come automatically to the person who holds no grudges, has nothing to hide, and is willing to take leave of this earth tomorrow!!!   

Avante Garde Investigation WILL NOT find anything wrong! Why?

The Avante Garde Chairman Retd. Major Nissanka Senadhipathi (NS) is a very clever operator. His modus operandi then and now is there is a price for everything and therefore once it is paid, any barrier to his doing his business can be lifted.

Let us NOT forget that being the exclusive license holder, or the only body permitted by the SL Government to carry out this business of permitting the storage of arms in our waters for the use of international security operations of ships, this immediately gave him the edge as there are NO competitors, (not even the Sri Lanka Navy – which carried on this operation before, but due to International Law ceased to do handing the job on a platter to Avant Garde) and so super profits can be made.

These super profits, amounting to over Rs3B per annum, enable the company to buy off anyone or anybody that it finds is a threat to doing business.

Therefore the current investigations WILL NOT FIND ANY FAULT BECAUSE

1                   The investigators are incompetent, and do not have the professional knowledge necessary to find that which is NOT in the books. (When a logistics fee from the British security company is charged, and it is payable to an offshore account, it does not appear in the records of Avante Garde, as it is charged by another company with an address in an offshore haven, to whom the remittance is made. It is therefore legitimate, tax free, does not get reported as a money laundering transaction, and appears NOT to flout any current international law. Therefore bribes can be paid freely from this account to anyone anywhere, especially to another overseas account of a friend or relative of the Sri Lankan, and so the local body appears clean. That is why Ghotabaya Rajapakse insists he is clean, as no one can find the muck that he is wallowing in! 

2                   The investigators are only thinking of how they are going to spend the Rs100M bribe they will receive once they give a clean report.

3                   As it is well known that NS pays for everything favorable about his company or him, one wonders if the Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakse has also been so compromised, and let us hope not, but his utterances on behalf of NS show otherwise.

4                   The SL govt. does not have intelligent people, who understand this business, so they can ask the right questions and get the right answers, as the business of AG is subcontracted work of UK security companies based off shore, manned by ex SAS and other services officers, who themselves to avoid taxes run their companies outside of the UK. They get their business from frightening the Shipping lines of the threat of piracy and so affectively taking extortion money from them to protect them from pirates in the Horn of Africa (no piracy for 2 years on the Horn of Africa) Therefore this whole business is below the radar. NO US company can get involved because the US has STRICT rules about giving and receiving bribes, that carry heavy penalties and incarceration.

I can go on giving more reasons but I trust the reader understands the point I am trying to make. The only compromise is to do a deal, which gives immunity if all recipients of largesse from NS are named and shamed with amounts given. 

What right does a rogue have to talk about vengeance?

The most laughable comments come these days from an ex-president commenting about vengeance!

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=121174  

The most vengeful traitor of this decade has NO right to question the actions currently taking place, which to the people seem painfully slow, but to him seems out of spite!!! In fact people in the press are questioning if there is a deal between the Prime Minister and the Ex Prez where his family is being protected from prosecution, even if it is clearly warranted for crimes against the state, namely treachery, for which the punishment is death.   

It is time intelligent people realize that we have no more time for FOOLS TO FOOL WANNABE FOOLS!  This ex-president currently is free to say anything he wants, which is then reported on all media. That is, even if it is wrong, he has a right to say what he wants.

Contrast that with what would have been the case had he remained as President, and won the last Presidential Election. Maithripala Sirisena and his family would be incarcerated with no rights to a trial! Every one of any substance who backed MS would possibly share the same fate. Just imagine the state of the state today. NO freedoms whatsoever.

How anyone in their right minds can think vengeance is taking place, when OH so painfully slow investigations are taking place, even before known criminals are brought to book, IS CERTAINLY NOT VENGEANCE.

Once that is cleared, the people listening to these speeches making insinuations as to how the previous regime could be more just, should be simply scornful, using this same instance to point out the reality of what is implied.

I am frankly aghast that using their numbers that 5.8M voted for MR is any indication of his popularity or worth, when the findings coming out each day, reveal the utter despotic plunder of state resources under his watch, which no one appears to defend, but still support his cause. It is with utter contempt that his followers who are in the intelligentsia, are able to defend such a person, for any other reason than their own political survival, being associated with all that is wrong in society.

People like Weerawansa with no conscience but mere survival are excusable, as their level of conduct in their lives has shown nothing but lies and fabrication for existence. For those intelligent people such as Gammanpila to take a similar take is inexcusable, as it merely reduces a man of intelligence to a man of pure opportunism, with conduct of a gutter snipe.

Yes this Government has made some bad decisions, and freedom of the press permits the media a free reign in pointing this out. The fact that there is NO inference that the law is being compromised, and it is merely taking its course, sans White Vans is enough evidence of justice and fair play to all, and like in all Countries, those with more financial resources at their disposal are able to gain a few more favors, as their legal teams have more clout than of those without such ill gotten gains!  Just think about it, what will you want if you were in the soup?         

Avant Garde – what an anachronism? For who’s benefit?

The latest news that Avant Garde has begun to remove the weapons from the mother ship Mahanuwera is a clear attempt at further disrupting the Government’s attempts at investigating the activities, and using the unfavorable climate operating as an excuse. They are attempting to divest the Rakna Lanka operations from Avant Garde, so they can operate independently of the Government owned institution, further complicating the manner in which this operation is investigated. Whilst Mahanuwera was so old and breaking up, transferring to Mahaweli a sister ship also owned by the Shipping Corporation is also possibly part of the deliberately confusing action.  

The Company claims to offer a service to the Security Companies the world over in managing the Pirate Surveillance operation, and has made out to their clients that the Govt. owned operation of Rakna Lanka are a barrier in the efficient operation of the business, and are so attempting to use this as an excuse to pull the wool over the eyes of the sleeping security forces, to manage this flotilla of arms without ANY controls, that had previously been in place!  

There is NO point of the GOSL intervening once the horse has bolted from the stables, and Mahanuwera is left bereft of arms!!! It gets much worse.

Why is the GOSL so ignorant of the capacity of these operators to fool them and completely befuddle them with all sorts of threats and innuendo, as they do not understand the business. least of all the investigators appointed to check this out.

It is NO secret that a deal was to be done to sell arms, boats or whatever to the Govt. of Nigeria, and the intermediary was the Avant Garde chief Senadipathi. With the previous Navy Chief they had previously gone to Nigeria to establish the links and agree on the broad terms, so that a huge amount could be siphoned off as commissions that would not be seen the light of day on the Island of Sri Lanka and instead go straight to some offshore account, with SL Navy being given a pittance for the hardware!

For the GOSL to even grant them permission to leave for Nigeria boggles the mind, considering the deal they are about to do!!!

There is NO question the investigators are unable to put their fingers on the problem, and so are sending out statements that everything is above board when it hardly is. The clever ways in which the funds have been hidden in testament to the ability of the leaders of this venture to control the people, with huge bribes even after the new Govt. took over and continue as if nothing has happened. The bribes are too great and too tempting to ensure there are NO hiccups. So much of the favorable news emanating is as a result of massive bribes to them.

Sena is very confident they will not be stopped. He is bribing the people to make the statements we now see in the press. People hired by him are making statements that are anti govt. and people and SLwill lose billions in foreign income. The cunning fox he is, is paying for the news to discredit the GOSL, that if he loses his licenses the Country will lose big time, and it is all the Govt. fault for persecuting him. This is the modus operandi to be let out scot free!

The political maneuverings of the minor parties.

All parties other than the two main parties, and the TNA whose complete presence is in just a tiny area and even smaller nos, have a problem with whatever electoral permutation is adopted. Sarath Fonseka’s Party is as it sounds, just of him, as NO other person who even the dog knows will contest from there, making that any other even out of place in Parliament. Ditto with the JHU that looks to dismembered itself, and the other bad eggs of the UPFA coalition just has beens in the new political order. The JVP is still the same small team of commonsense do gooders, with NO idea of what it takes to really run a government, where people’s expectations need to be fulfilled.

To cut a long story short, only if the individuals come from the two main parties will there be any life left in them, and that includes, the incorrigible, shameless Rauf Hakeem, who will come from any symbol, as long as he is guaranteed a place in Parliament!

Little wonder that there is a mad rush of the present 225 in Parliament wishing to obtain the ticket from either the UNP or the SLFP. What are the guesses? I guess about 145 from the OLD parliament will seek reelection in the new from either of the two aforementioned parties, as from any other is almost just a day dream. I hope there are no crooks in that list, and both have the sense to discard nominations from them. The public will then decide how many, and here about 105 from the old parliament will be re-elected to these parties, whilst the TNA will have their share NOT counted in my analysis.

If the elections are held under the present system, I understand that Keheliya and Earl amongst another host of near do wells are seeking nomination, in the UNP by jumping from the UPFA. This is an insult to the dedicated UNPer, who yet again sees these self same rogues seeking forgiveness, making them sick to their stomachs.

Let us hope the voters will vote in people who they really trust to work for them, and not for one self as is normal. I trust that the UNP will get some form of compensation for taking them in. I think a financial charge to the party coffers would be in order, like Rs100M each. A fraction of the damage they have caused to the UNP by their previous actions.

The actions of MS, MR and CBK will no doubt affect the fortunes of the SLFP, and chaotic start to Govt. and their perception with the traditional UNP voter will affect the fortunes of the UNP. Of course it is debatable if we are able to match the massive 82% nationwide turnout of the Presidential which resulted in a clear mandate no matter what spin MR wishes to put on it. The lower turnout will ADVERSLY affect the UNP voter in comparison, and therefore it important that the UNP leadership are in tune with the public pulse. They MUST do everything possible to reverse the perception, created by lack of grassroots organization, lack of central leadership in directing grassroots organization, (the media talk of starting on April 1^st is just a red herring!) and clear Media campaign to get the message to the public on the matters of concern to the voter, that the UNP is working on every aspect though a little delayed in for example bringing the crooks to book etc. The price reductions have now lost the political gain, and it is shifted to the unclear method of how Samurdhi is better, Govt salaries are higher, Pensions are bigger, and Mahapola is livable, and most of all the private sector labor force who have expectations far out of line with the ability of employers to practically fulfill.   

The MORONS don’t listen!

I made it abundantly clear in my blog post that bringing Arjuna Mahendran into the CB will be a big mistake, and I noted the reasons. It should at least have been done after the elections, by which time the Central Bank could be cleared up of the bad eggs by a stand in ex Central Banker, who could have weeded out the chaff.

http://www.pattapalboru.blogspot.com/2015/01/its-same-shit-all-over-again-arjuna.html

Mahendran knowing NO better has actually promoted some of these people who really should be fired from the Central Bank, as their hands are as dirty as they go, for backing Cabraal and his merry gerrymandering of the statistics to distort reality.

That is the price RW is paying for not following my advice, after all he reads my blog doesn’t he? Anyway I am surprised that some stern action has not been forthcoming, before the shit hit the fan on Mahendran’s son in law and his dealing with the bonds on the change of policy to a higher interest rate scenario from a lower one, where other primary dealers have lost their shirts, whilst Perpetual is laughing all the way to the Bank.   

No matter what spin is put on it, and I am even able to accept that Mahendran was blissfully unaware of his son in law’s activity, it is common practice for a connected party such as his son in law to desist from the auction and take no part in the BOND AUCTION.

You live and learn, and fortunately the average JOE does not understand the nuances of this business, but in one deal this guy is likely to have netted a clear profit in excess of Rs250M.

Governing is not easy at the best of times, Governance is even more difficult, as one has not just to show complete independence, but be seen to be free from any conflict of interest.

The advice that RW has been given by his coterie hangers on has clearly failed this time, and in such event, I am sure no one shares blame for this action. I hope however that it is a lesson for the future, where the Govt. stops this rot, and takes on a new veneer before it is too late, to build the confidence of the public that it can do the job entrusted to them.

It is time to appoint an independent committee just to look into the conflict of interest in any of the prime appointments including the Bank Chairman. This will take the weight of the PMs shoulders, and ensure the public know that the Govt. is serious about good governance.

I am willing to give this Govt. another chance, as they have accepted the reigns of state without time to plan ahead, and find suitable people, which was added to by the 100 day complication, that necessitated a different approach. If they do not learn then it is their wake we go to!

As alluded to above, I believe that there is only one option. That is to use the services of a reputable Ad agency to give the message to the grassroots, public, not just the UNP that the promises made are enacted, albeit slowly due to legal reasons, and the Govt. is on top of their work, and have prioritized the 100 day plan ahead of giving employment to their supporters, and handling long lasting grievances of theirs. It is this kind of PR that helped MR in the early stages, but they have to be fulfilled at some stage to prevent it from being merely another unfulfilled promise.