How President Wickremesinghe can save ailing economy

The Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government between 2010 and 2015 captured the LTTE’s Finance Manager called KP in a far eastern country, and brought here for prosecution. Nothing has been heard about him since. Everybody lost interest, perhaps due to the euphoria over the defeat of the LTTE.

It was supposed that KP would be prosecuted. Some believed that a deal had been struck between him and the Rajapaksa government, where he obtained his release in exchange for the LTTE gold. Today’s President Ranil W. need not trouble himself with forming a “Sarva paakshipa” Cabinet by cobbling together a mongrel government, or bargaining with the IMF or the World Bank, which may impose many unbearable conditions. All he needs to do is to induce the Rajapaksa brothers and their cronies to disgorge the looted dollars and credit the Central Bank.

The JVP had said it has a list of assets owned by the R brothers. Fraudulent transactions have taken place, according to media reports. One is the fraud committed by the former ambassador to the USA. Another is the bribe accepted by the wife of a former senior officer of the SriLankan Airlines.

LEO FERNANDO Talahena