Former Minister Sripathy Sooriyarachchi attends the sittings of the Parliament from prison. He is on remand over an allegation of the abuse of government vehicles. We don’t intend to go into that issue, since the matter is before a court of law. It is sub-judice to make any remarks over that matter.

But, the allegation of the abuse government vehicles by politicians has triggered off an interesting controversy. Gothapaya Rajapakse, President’s brother and Defence Secretary, states that 1/10 of the government vehicles are missing.

Meanwhile Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Leader of the Opposition, has stated that every Parliamentarian faces a threat of arrests. When the Opposition raised the issue on the Floor of the House that the privileges of the Parliament are violated, he stated that it is not only Sripathy Sooriyarachchi but other Parliamentarian too are in possession of government vehicles.

Today, it is not only the Parliamentarians, who are in possession of several government vehicles but also government servants use many government vehicles. It has been reported that certain ministers are in possession of 20-40 government vehicles.

According to the Leader of the Opposition, it appears that all Parliamentarians whether they be government MP’s or opposition MP’s are being alleged of the abuse of government vehicles. There are reports that all the government resources are being abused.

What is interesting is that the police have initiated action against Sooriyarachchi allegedly for the abuse of government vehicles only after he started challenging the government and after he made several allegations against those who are in power.

We don’t for a moment justify the conduct of Sooriyaracchhi but we are of the view that this is an attempt to silence dissent.

An English translation of the Editorial in Thinakkural, a Tamil daily, based in Colombo

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