Lankas Guy Fawkes drops parliamentary

bombshell: Question is, is it high treason?

Sunday, October 29, 2017

With the former President Rajapaksa on stage, Wimal spells out why the House
must be air-bombed out of existence if new constitution is passed
Wimal Weerawansa stands today condemned by every syllable he uttered when,
in the presence of the former President Rajapaksa no less on stage and brother
Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the audience with a whole host of Buddhist monks in
attendance, he devilishly declared that Parliament must be bombed from above
and swiped out of existence if it dared to pass a new constitution as proposed by
the present government.

WIMAL WEERAWANSA BLOWS HIS TOP: Says Parliament must be bombed to

kingdom come if it votes against his preferred wishes
A parliament that lacked 76 members to veto a new constitution was not worth
maintaining and should be finished off without much ado with an air strike, was
his message to the nation. The verbal attack came after he presented his literary
work titled Yadamin Bendi Akshara or Words Bound by Chains to his mentor
and master and chief guest former president Mahinda Rajapaksa last Sunday at a
gala book launch ceremony held at the Sambuddha Jayanthi Mandiraya at
Havelock Road.
It was a hashed up collection of essays about his imprisonment and political
victimisation supposedly writ during his brief lease at Welikada jail early this
year before his hunger strike turned him patient and a pathetic sight at the
Welikada Prison Hospital, no mean feat when you consider he had only two
months to turn out his Magnus Opus compounded with a crying daughter and a
wailing wife who missed his presence at their newly built millions worth mansion
at Hokandara.

But little would he have realised that his public address to his applauding
audience thereafter may well chain him further to the iron bars of Welikada due
to the choice of words he thought fit to employ in oratorical flight to express his
utmost contempt to Lankas Temple of Democracy, wherein lie enshrined the
sovereign rights of the Lankan people; and deliver an ultimatum to its 225
members Lankas most exclusive privileged club of which he, too, happens to
be a member that it should be bombed from above if seventy six of its
members dare to raise their hands and say aye to the new constitution the
government proposed to present for its approval.
At first hearing it may appear to be the idle rant of a mad hatter, prone to stoop
to catch public attention and keep him in the public ear and eye. But it appears to
be more serious than it first suggests. It may even be held to tantamount to a full
frontal attack on the political state of Lanka.

But first lets read what the man said ranting and raving last Sunday He said:
When a dangerous constitution is being presented to Parliament, if there are no
76 members who refuse to raise their hands and say no to it, deny it the two third
majority to ratify it, if there are no 76 members present thereat, whats use is
there of a parliament. And borrowing a famous Sinhala idiom what is the sword
for if not for war, he went on to state Is Parliament there to chop jakfruit? If the
constitutional bill is approved in the House then, on the following day, a bomb
must be dropped on parliament from above and destroy it once and for all?

Pause for breath; and let what he said sink in. We

do not have in our midst the Oracle of Delphi to read a mans mind nor the
advantage Roman Emperors had to call upon the services of the Vestal Virgins to
discern the purpose and intent of mens speech but have to make do with and
depend, instead, on the import of their message, and take it at its face value to
decipher its meaning. And Wimal Weerawansas speech last Sunday at the
Rajapaksa patronised Buddhist institute where he advocated violence against
Parliament, was crystal clear that it did not need a Vestal Virgin to make it any
plainer.
Treason is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as the crime of betraying ones
country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or
government or the action of betraying someone or something. In English law it
deals with the politics of betrayal. It was codified in the Treason Act 1351 during
the reign of King Edward the III and encompasses the situation where a man doth
compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of
their eldest son and heir or even if you kill the kings chancellor, your crime is
punishable by death.

This 666-year-old law is still in force in England; and, if anyone outside the
perimeters of Soap Box Corner in Londons Hyde Park where anything goes,
were to advocate the murder of the Queen or the bombing of Britains Parliament
of Westminster, he or she will not be spared the Treason Acts sharp lash. The
crime of treason is no longer specified and defined as such in the Sri Lankan Penal
Code. But, even though the terminology is no longer used, the crime of treason is
reflected in Section 119 of the Penal Code which reads:

119. Whoever, with the intention of inducing or compelling the President, or a

Member of Parliament, to exercise or refrain from exercising in any manner any
of the lawful powers of such President, or Member of Parliament, assaults or
wrongfully restrains, or attempts wrongfully to restrain, or overawes, by means of
criminal force or the show of criminal force, or attempts so to overawe such
President, or Member of Parliament, shall be punished with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be
liable to fine.

And reflected again in Section 120 which states:

120. Whoever by words, either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs, or by

visible representations, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite feelings of
disaffection to the State, or excites or attempts to excite hatred to or contempt of
the administration of justice, or excites or attempts to excite the People of Sri
Lanka to procure, otherwise than by lawful means, the alteration of any matter by
law established, or attempts to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the
People of Sri Lanka, or to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between
different classes of such People, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a
term which may extend to two years.
These two sections will serve to make anyone calling for the President to be
assassinated or Parliament to be bombed, an act against the State: in laymans
parlance, an act of high treason.

If one were to declare in public that the Executive President, directly elected by
the people, should be killed if he or she does or does not act according to ones
own wishes, is such a statement not an assault on the state? A direct hit on the
peoples sovereignty? By the same token, if anyone were to publicly declare that
Parliament, also directly elected by the people, must be bombed out of existence
and finished off for good if its members vote for or vote against ones own
predilections, would it not be an assault on the State? In lay lingo, an act of high
treason? One need not do it personally; merely declaring it is enough to make him
or her agent provocateur.
Furthermore is it not a betrayal of trust the people have reposed in a member of
Parliament to call for the destruction of Parliament whose members have been
elected by the people to represent their sovereign rights in that august shrine?
And thus prevent them from carrying out their lawful duties by issuing threats
that if 76 of them raise their hands to vote for a bill presented for their
consideration, the whole House should be bombed and finished off?

It is not the first time in history the disgruntled, the frustrated, the rabid, the very
scum of society had thought of blowing up Parliament to kingdom come if it did
not do what they wanted Parliament to do or did what they didnt want it to do;
and it certainly will not be the last.
On November 5, 1605, a British ex-mercenary Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up
the House of Lords in Parliament but was discovered before he could execute his
evil deed and the Gunpowder Plot was thus revealed.

Three hundred and twenty eight years later, on February 27, 1933, the German
Parliament the Reichstag was set ablaze. Adolf Hitler who had just been named
head of a government that was legally formed after the democratic elections of
the previous November, used the opportunity to change the system and grab
absolute power. Though no evidence exists to conclusively prove whether it was a
lone anarchist who was captured, made a scapegoat and conveniently executed
by the Nazis or the Nazis themselves who set fire to the building, Hitlers benefit
from its ashen debris has put his name on the top of the usual suspects list.
Especially when he gloated: There will be no mercy now, Anyone standing in
our way will be cut down.

The next day, at Hitlers advice and urging, the German President Hindenburg
issued a decree for the protection of the people and the state. It deprived all
German citizens of basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly and
made them subject to preventative detention by the police. It was a classic
example of how acts of terror whether they are real, false, or even accidental can
result in giving aspiring tyrants the hell sent excuse they need to arrogate to
themselves supreme power, in the name that such powers are necessary to
protect the safety of its citizens.

Wimal Weerawansa has moved not only in JVP political circles but also in personal
family circles where bombing parliament to achieve political ends was not an
alien, unthinkable notion. Thirty years ago, on August 18, 1987, Wimals brother
in law wifes Sashis brother Ajith Kumara, a minor parliamentary employee,
walked into the committee room in parliament where a meeting attended by
President J. R. Jayewardene, Prime Minister Premadasa and senior ministers and
MPs was in progress.
He hurled two grenades which bounced off the table and rolled close to the table
where National Security Advisor Lalith Athulathmudalie and Matara District
Minister Keerthi Abeywickrama were seated. The grenades exploded in front of
them. Mr. Abeywickrama was killed whilst Mr. Athulathmudalie suffered serious
injuries, notably to his spleen. The president and prime minister escaped unhurt.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, in the halcyon days of the corrupt Rajapaksa
regime, bombing Parliament would have been the last thing on Wimals fertile
mind. Then Parliament had given him everything he had ever wanted and much
much more that he, in his push cycle days, would ever have dreamt of receiving
from it as a member and the rabble rousing darling of the Rajapaksa fraternity.

But alas today, bereft of his political godfathers grace and favour due to his own
decimation in the public eye, Parliament no longer is what it used to be: the
cornucopia of his hopes, which gave its best when it smiled most on his rising
fortunes. Today, most probably, he sees it as representing the rubble of his own
present lot.
In the wake of the uproar that followed his dastardly call to bomb parliament
Wimal Weerawansa had the audacity to say, in a voice cut to TV media, that it
was a ruse sort of a theatrical flourish to gain the attention of the public and
that the Speaker had taken the bait and fallen into his trap and got his pants in a
twist in the process. But it did not serve to quell the storm. As the gravity of what
he had said sunk in, so did many come forward to protest against this blatant
attack on Lankas most secular sovereign shrine.

Perhaps the fall from grace has begun to tell and fast receding hope of ever
regaining Raja[aksas paradise lost has begun to take its toll. It cannot be easy to
be Wimal Weerawansa and expect a night of restful sleep and wake up with a
clear comforting conscience in the morn.
This year alone had seen the tumbrels of justice ominously drawing near and
nearer to his opulent Hokandara mansion door. For the man who, in July 2010
staged a fast unto death campaign opposite the UN office in Colombo 7, against
the decision of the UN to appoint an Advisory Committee to look into Sri Lanka
and was miraculously resurrected as a martyr two days after the farcical fast
started, when he gratefully sipped the powdered milk of human kindness
Mahinda Rajapaksa poured down his parched throat, it must be a terrible time. If
2010 was the beginning of his ascent to the zenith, the year 2015 began his
descent to the nadir, where he must now reap the whirlwind, for having sown
reckless the wind.

On January 10 this year Weerawansa was remanded on the charge of misusing 37

state vehicles and defrauding the state of Rs. 91.8 million during his tenure as
Minister of Housing and Construction. Police investigations revealed that
Weerawansa had provided the said vehicles to his sister, brother-in-law, and
active supporters of the National Freedom Front and staff members who did not
have access to state vehicles. After staging a hunger strike which he instantly gave
up after Rajapaksa visited him and a few Buddhist monks urged him not to give up
the Holy Ghost so soon, he was set free on bail on April 7th, just in time to
celebrate the New Year with milk rice at his palatial home where a young boy had
been found dead in mysterious circumstances in an upstairs room in the wee
hours of the morning a few months before.

Furthermore he faces charges of financial irregularities. One is how he found the

money to build his mansion. Another is the allegation made by Ocean View
Development Company Private Limited, claiming that a financial irregularity had
occurred via the company, during the tenure of Wimal Weerawansa when he
served as the Minister of Housing; and he stands accused of giving homes at the
luxury housing schemes in Mattegoda and Kahatuduwa to those closely related to
him?
And to compound his problems, it must give the man nightmares when he reflects
on the two cases filed by the FCID against his wife Shashi, for fraudulently
obtaining two passports including a diplomatic passport by submitting forged
documents to the Department of Immigration and Emigration.
No rest for the wicked, is there?

With all the crosses he has to bear, perhaps, Weerawansa flipped under strain
when he called for Parliament to be bombed. But, though the public may well, in
one of its pious, sentimental and melancholic moods, spurred by Buddhist
compassion and urged by Christian charity, to extend to this Rasputin of Lankas
politics, an ounce of mercy, a pound of sympathy along with their ton of outrage
over his incorrigibility, the Speaker of Lankas Parliament can afford no such
luxuries and indulge anymore Wimals outlandish behaviour and grant him grace
when he threatens to bomb Parliament if its members do not do as he thinks fit
or as his Masters Voice commands.

To the Speakers credit, he did not take the threat lightly but viewed it gravely as
he must when the House he presides over is threatened with destruction -- blown
to smithereens no less, if its members do not do what Wimal wants them to do.

In a statement issued this week on Tuesday, the Speaker the Hon. Karu Jayasuriya
announced that an inquiry would be initiated against MP Wimal Weerawansa for
stating that a bomb should be sent to the Parliament. MP Weerawansas
statement has threatened the democracy and the safety of peoples
representatives, the Speaker said in his statement. He said the incident had
drawn the attention of both the governing and the opposition parties and
promised that measures would be taken against the errant MP.

In England when Guy Fawkes was convicted of attempting to blow up Parliament,

the Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that the condemned Fawkes
would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. He
was to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both".
His genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and his bowels and
hearts removed. He would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of his
body displayed so that he might become "prey for the fowls of the air". It would
be done to set an example, to act as a deterrent, to any Guy Fawkes wannabe in
the future.
Perhaps, if the report of the Speakers inquiry should come to a finding holding
Weerawansa guilty, the punishment meted out should serve as a warning to all
presumptuous parliamentary bombers in the future. And brand them not only as
"prey for the fowls of the air" but as foul candidates ineligible to seek the public
mandate for parliamentary membership.

New yardstick to gauge MPs corruptibility factor

KIRIELLA: The new litmus test for corruption

A new yardstick was introduced last week by the Minister of Highways Laksman
Kiriella to measure a politicians corruptibility factor. Apparently, it all depends
how much money a politician has in his reserve bank. And, according to this
theory, the more one has, the less likely he is to be corrupt and susceptible to
temptation.
By the use of this yardstick, Kirielle is beyond corruption, as he said so himself. By
his own estimates, he told Parliament last Wednesday, he has over Rs 400 million
in his bank account which puts him in the ivy league of incorruptibility.
In reply to a query raised by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who alleged
that mega frauds had taken place in the construction of the Central Expressway,
Minister Kiriella proudly said: We do not need others money. We have been
rich since the days of ancient kings. My wifes grandfather had over 30,000 acres
of land in Balangoda. My grandparents, too, had properties equal to that. We
both worked in courts and usually paid Rs 2.5 million a year as taxes on our
income. I have Rs. 400 million in my account. We do not need to steal from
others.
By his own measure, he is above board. But the yardstick was not his alone to
use.
This Monday, Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage told a group of fresh
water prawn farmers in Chilaw that he too was clean and had no reason to rob
the public. And, pray, why? Because, as he said, former president Mahinda
Rajapaksa invited me to join hands with him or to give up politics and join his
business but I refused.
I had no intention to rob money belonging to the country, or the public by
joining hands with the Rajapaksa regime. Therefore I choose a different path, he
said.
Slowly but surely, this new yardstick, which depends on what the politicians
already possess will come in handy to a great many and will soon be the rage of
town to those who wish to demonstrate their incorruptibility by reference to
what they already possess. And shout aloud the new slogan in town:Hey, I am
filthy rich, and that proves I am scrupulously not corrupt.
Except for one thing. As the Buddhas philosophy holds life feasts on life and
death on death and greed has no end and remains insatiable. Which is why it is
held that the richest man is the one who is content. But good to know that we
have amongst us two ministers whose riches have made them transcend thanha.
Perhaps it will not be far off when many more MPs rush to declare their assets
and use the Kiriella yardstick to measure and to prove their moral rectitude.
Wimals NFF party restates: Parliament must be bombed
WIJENAIKE: Wimals party national organizer condemns Wimals bomb threat
and is sacked
In the storm that broke following Wimals outburst of bombing Parliament if it
did not abide by his wishes, one man from his own party, its national organiser
no less, was brave enough to stand up to his leaders rant and declare that the
statement made by his leader Wimal, did not reflect the opinion of the party, the
party had not taken nor authorised Wimals statement and that it was Wimals
alone. And that he had checked with the partys General Secretary who had
confirmed it.
National Organizer of the National Freedom Front (NFF), Piyasiri Wijenaike on
Tuesday, denounced the comments made by his own Party leader Wimal
Weerawansa MP that a bomb attack should be launched on Parliament. And on
Thursday moves were afoot to strip him of his post. It is not the concern of the
general public how Wimal runs with an iron fist his one man show within his own
party of handfuls. But what must shock is that he has shown no repentance to
atone for his sin in his threat to bomb parliament out of existence.
One of Wimals catchers, a NFF MP Jayantha Samaraweera addressed a news
conference on Friday and faithfully barked his master Wimals decree that
Parliament must be bombed if it passes the proposed Constitution Bill. He said:
If the parliament approves this Constitution with a two-third majority, then the
parliament should be bombed: it should be struck by lightning without rain and
should be flattened. There is no need of a parliament, a cabinet or MPs. It must
bombed. It must be turned into a museum. That is the stance of our party.
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should take careful note over this growing trend that
threatens the very existence of Parliament itself. Nay, he should use the
Parliamentary Mace and all the powers at his command to crush in the bud the
ultimate contempt that can be made to Parliament: For MPs to will Parliaments
own destruction by bombing it out of extinction. And also bring it to the notice
of the people: That those who have lived by violence will fall by violence and that
Parliament is not the place for such vermin to find their burrow.
Posted by Thavam