COPE and COPA: Religious leaders, wake up

The whole country knows that the Rajapaksas, Ranil Wickremesinghe, other corrupt politicians, and the Speaker, have engineered the exclusion of Prof. Charitha Herath and Prof. Tissa Vitharana from COPE and COPA. The two of them got under the skins of the SLPP leaders by carrying out their duties, and functions, conscientiously and taking on the corrupt who had caused huge losses to the state coffers. The biggest contributors to Tax Revenue had avoided the payment of huge amounts of Tax money.  Prof. T. Vitharana started taking steps to make sure that sharks were not able to escape the Tax net and officials were not able to take bribes. The politicians, who have stolen big money, in many ways, and the officials who have blocked the collection of huge amounts of Tax money, found an escape route by getting rid of Prof. C. Herath and Prof. T. Vitharana.

The Mahanayakes, the Cardinal and other Religious Leaders should write to the President, and the Speaker, and try to compel them to install Prof. C. Herath and Prof. T. Vitharana as heads of the COPE and the COPA, respectively. May they not mince their words. The President and the Speaker deserve a dressing-down.  It is not too late to intervene.  If they succeed, millions of Sri Lankans will be forever grateful to them. If they do not try, people will continue to say,  ” Shame on you Religious Leaders, you have not done your duty to aid Prof. Herath and Prof. Vitharana  in their efforts to end corruption.

It is surprising that our religious leaders have ignored one important aim of the Aragalaya, viz. to end corruption at the highest levels and the need to punish the culprits. They should have cried ‘ foul ‘ when the Profs were ousted from the COPE and the COPA.

We hope that they will wake up and act now.  How will the IMF react to this horrible decision by the President and the Speaker?

Congratulations to Ven. Omalpe Sobitha Thera for stating that Ranil Wickremasinghe has not learnt anything from the past and advised him to punish the thieves and to bring the country’s national wealth back from the people who stole it.

Anton Peiris