Statement by State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal

Since of late, there has been a massive mud-slinging effort against me and my family carried out in an organised manner by a group of persons. At present, that group is claiming that my son Chatura Cabraal is employed by the company

which is carrying out the construction work of the Colombo Port City, thereby insinuating that I have supported the new Colombo Port City Commission Law, due to that “connection”.

Chatura (35) is qualified engineer who has graduated from a US university in 2010, and has been employed by this company since 2016. He secured this employment on his own merit, without any political or personal influence, and that is obvious by the fact that in 2016, we were in the Opposition. Similar to the current allegation, even previously, utterly false and vituperative allegations had been levelled against my children, claiming they had scolded officials at the airport, misbehaved on expressways, involved in fights, etc, but it has been proved beyond doubt that all those claims were blatantly false. Therefore, it is

clear that such fake news had been a part of a greater plan to discredit me and my family, as well as distract and discourage me in carrying out my duties.

There is no doubt that Sri Lanka’s politics has degenerated in recent times, and personal attacks against a person’s family members is common place and fair game for certain persons. Nevertheless, any right-thinking person will agree that a parent’s subsequent position as a minister should not be a disqualification for a grown-up son or daughter to continue in employment which he/she has secured before his/her parent assumed office as a minister.

Finally, I wish to state that those who indulge in such falsehoods only display their pathetic political bankruptcy, and therefore I can only feel sorry for them.