Impact of Arjuna Mahendran’s actions

Monday, 15 June 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

I feel that the comments of Bert Gunawardanana (Daily FT Letters to the Editor on 12 June 2015) on the Central Bank’s Governor should not go unresponded to, in view of some of the inaccuracies in his letter concerning the Governor and the other matters he mentions.

First, one may wonder how he came to the conclusion that the main reason for the dip in popularity of the present Government is Arjuna Mahendran. Was it based on any poll result, public opinion survey or just repeating what the vituperative propaganda carried on by the defeated clan says ?

The claim that 50% of the content of the no confidence motion against the Prime Minister is on Arjuna Mahendran is also not correct as there were eight points on which the motion was based on and only one was on CBSL Governor. The Opposition is trying its best to humiliate the President and the Government at every turn through various frivolous charges but the Governor’s actions are only one among them.

For the sake of equitable inference, one must look at the committee report on the bond issue on which this controversy arose in the first place. According to the findings of the committee, Mahendran’s conduct was not questionable and the decision-making was by the Central Bank’s Tender Committee handling public debt instruments.

The Supreme Court ruled that there was no basis for the eminent persons who filed a fundamental rights application on the controversial bond issue to claim that their rights were in any way infringed.

The only other matter which concerns the public is the ethical issue of his son-in-law’s involvement in the primary Dealer Company which was involved in the transaction.

However, according to reports, the real primary dealer who bid for this particular bond was a state bank possibly on behalf of the concerned company but as far as the Central Bank was concerned, they dealt with a state bank.

Moreover, Mahendran states that his son-in-law resigned from the company as he was about to be appointed Governor to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

As far as I recall, there was no CEO by the name of Durairatnam at Bank of Ceylon if his reference BOC is to the Bank of Ceylon.

In conclusion, not only Mahendran but many thought that the ostensibly powerful Rajapaksa regime could never be changed but the silently-suffering voter did it!

T. Mallawatantri