Tragic tug-o-war between the President and PM to get a Governor appointed

By Insider

The relentless effort by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who is often referred to as Mr. Clean by the middle class to retain his friend Mahendran and then when he found there was opposition to appoint Mahendran, to appoint his Royal College buddy Charitha Ratwatte who has already got himself into a controversy by appointing his brother to SriLankan Airlines as CEO does not augur well for the relationship with the President and for his standing in the country. 

It finally required the intervention of the former President to bring about an amicable settlement to this sorry saga. The outcome of all this will be seen in the next few months leading up to the time when the MOU between the two parties is signed up. 

The reappointment of Mahendran as Governor was the only option the Prime Minister had until the time the President based on the advice of his senior staff decided to appoint Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe as the Governor. The President on 29 June tweeted that he would be appointing a new Governor in a matter of hours. So when he went to Central Bank it was to speak to the staff and handover the letter of appointment to Dr. Weerasinghe. Instead, hell broke loose.

For the once happy trio, it is no longer business as usual

The Governor who rushed down with betel leaves to great the President was snubbed. Mahendran quickly got to the Prime Minister and alerted him. The Prime Minister then rushed to the Central Bank to save the day for Mahendran. He told the President that it was the tradition for the Minister to be present. The President was in no mood to listen his Prime Minister and he left. So that is why the much-anticipated announcement never happened.

The next morning the President consulted his inner team that had helped him to win the 8 January election. They suggested Dinesh Weerakkody who had been a former chairman of a bank and closely involved in forming the 8 January Government to be a good compromise. Someone contacted Dinesh Weerakkody and inquired. He was reluctant and had said he was overlooked by the Prime Minister before after having risked his future and was not interested, but if there was an internal crisis, he would certainly take on the role to save the day. 

Meanwhile the President was informed that the Prime Minister had suggested three names like in the case of appointing the IGP. The names were purported to be Dinesh Weerakkody, Saman Kelegama and Indrajit Coomaraswamy. Someone had referred to Indrajit as Dr. Kumarasiri. The President after consulting his close ministerial associates had decided on Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe or Dinesh Weerakkody as a compromise. But when the letter arrived at the Secretariat it had only one name, Charitha Ratwatte, who had come out of retirement in 2015 on 8 January to help the Government. 

The letter upset the President because of its tone. The President later met the Prime Minister at Temple Trees and insisted that Charitha Ratwatte was appointed as the Governor, that he could not work with anyone else. The President had stood his ground and said he could not appoint Ratwatte, that he could not get the support of the SLFP. The Prime Minister had thereafter left the Secretariat. 

A controversial press release was issued thereafter saying that the two leaders would make the appointment after the arrival of the Finance Minister. When the President checked from the Government Media, they had denied they had issued it. The Prime Minister also knew nothing of the press release. Later it was discovered that the release had come from the Prime Minister’s office. 

On Friday evening the President according to internal sources had requested former President Kumaratunga to intervene. The Prime Minister had met the former President in the night at her Independence Avenue residence and discussed a compromise. However the following morning when the President met the Prime Minister, again he had again insisted on Charitha Ratwatte. 

The President who was tired with the Prime Minister’s insistence on Ratwatte had asked his advisors to prepare a list of names for the Prime Minister and him to decide. Reliable sources say the names were Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Dinesh Weerakkody, Nihal Fonseka, Dr. Saman Kelegama, Dr. Lalith Samarakoon and Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy. 

The Prime Minister accompanied by Malik Samarawickrama had arrived at the Secretariat. The Prime Minister had rejected all the names, according to sources. The President had insisted that the matter should be closed with one of the five names. Malik Samarawickrama had then suggested his schoolmate’s name Indrajit, with which the Prime Minister was not happy. 

Samarawickrama had told the President that he was a Consultant in his Ministry. The President then had insisted that since he was already working for the Government, they should appoint him and asked Samarawickrama to ask him to see him in an hour. The President knew nothing of him. He did not know that Dr. Coomaraswamy was a former Galleon Fund Advisor and had been an Advisor in the previous administration and was seen often at the CB and Temple Trees. His credentials got him through the first round because of Samarawickrama being present at the discussion. 

Given the public pressure for good governance, it is up to Dr. Coomaraswamy to come clean with his previous connections with Rajaratnam who was jailed for money laundering and insider trading and then focus on building the economy and bringing credibility back to the Central Bank. He will have a tough challenge ahead given that he has no godfather like Mahendran to give cover for his past and the Central Bank seniors were expecting a Governor from within and not outside.