• Says he has committed an unpardonable offence as a minister
• Should be removed from his state ministerial responsibilities and from Parliament

By Sandun A. Jayasekera  

Former Prison Reforms Minister and the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, DEW Gunasekara yesterday urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to sack State Minister Lohan Ratwatte from his remaining portfolio of Gem and Jewellery Related Industries as he has committed an offence that has triggered global ramifications against Sri Lanka.   

Mr. Gunasekara was adamant, saying that Ratwatte must be dealt with severely to safeguard the image of Sri Lanka, the government and the SLPP locally and internationally as he has committed an unpardonable offence as a minister and people’s representative.  

He must not let to tender resignations from his portfolios. He must be sacked by the President from his all positions in the government. He must also be fired from the SLPP, effectively removing him from Parliament because he is supposed to be the guardian of prisoners constitutionally. Besides, his thuggery unleashed at Anuradhapura and Welikada Prisons has given a timely weapon to the Tamil Diaspora who has a vigorous anti Sri Lanka campaign against Sri Lanka in the EU and at the ongoing UNHRC sessions in Geneva right now. I feel sorry for Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris. This ugly incident has made his task of putting Sri Lanka’s side of the story before the UNHRC more difficult. He has a bigger fight at hand to prove that the Sri Lanka government does not discriminate or ill-treat Tamils at large and Tamil prison inmates in particular,” Mr. Gunasekara stressed.  Mr. Gunasekara told Daily Mirror that he was confident that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had the backbone to remove Ratwatte from his state ministerial responsibilities and from Parliament.  

Citing an incident that took place in the chambers of the House in 2014 while he was serving as the Chairman of the ‘Committee to Recommend Measures for the Maintenance of Property, Discipline and Security of Parliament’, Mr. Gunasekara said he prohibited an MP from Gampaha District from attending to Parliamentary sessions for two weeks. The errant MP threw a plastic water bottle at another Parliamentarian over the head of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was also in the House incidentally at that moment. Water spilled into President Rajapaksa’s seat when he threw the bottle.  

”I held an inquiry and recommended to Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara to suspend the MP for two weeks from Parliament, which he did,” Mr. Gunasekara said.