‘Gota Can Roll It And Shove It’ – JVP Leader Lambastes Political Victimization PCoI Report

Anura Kumara Dissanayake

FEBRUARY 4, 2021

President Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa was the target of a blistering tongue-lashing by JVP Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake this week about the executive’s flagrantly despotic plans to unseat critics from Parliament and strip them of their civic rights through what he called a ‘Kangaroo Court’.

President Rajapaksa’s tainted Commission to investigate claims of political victimization was really an attempt to give immunity to the perpetrators of true acts of political vengeance, Dissanayake told supporters at a meeting at the National Library auditorium on Tuesday (2). The seminar was titled “Kakkille Komisama”.

“Who killed Lasantha Wickrematunge? That was not political revenge, that was politically motivated murder. Did we attack Poddala Jayantha and Keith Noyahr until their limbs were broken and disappear Prageeth Ekneligoda? Those aren’t acts of political revenge. Those were politically motivated deadly assaults. Sarath Fonseka was dragged to the Navy HQ and imprisoned for a year. Who did that? Did we do that? Wasn’t that an act of political revenge?” said Dissanayake in a highly charged speech.

The JVP Leader said the Presidential Commission on Political Victimization had been set up specifically to hide the perpetrators behind these heinous crimes. “You are the one who should be the true target of this commission,” Dissanayake said directly addressing the President.

He scoffed at recommendations by the Presidential Commission that he and other MPs should be stripped of their civic rights and expelled from Parliament.

“Do you think that we are so worried about losing our civic rights? That might be relevant to other politicians. Never to us. Our political movement continued even when our party was banned in this country. People could not even whisper the name of our party without being arrested, abducted or assassinated. So what is the big deal about civic rights? So we lose them for 7 years, so what?” Dissanayake said.

“Aney Mr Gotabaya, take that piece of paper, roll it and shove it…hmm” Dissanayake exclaimed to wide applause.

Dissanayake said he and his colleagues were not willing to subject themselves to an Illegal, arbitrary and insane punishment. The President was mistaken if he believed that by taking their civic rights, they could stop the NPP and its allies, he said.

“We are going to take this battle to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. We are ready to defeat your illegal manouvers. We are ready to defeat your arbitrary rule. We are ready to defeat your insanity. Try and lay a hand on us,” Dissanayake warned. 

The National People’s Power movement led by the JVP will hold a series of meetings and rallies under Covid-19 guidelines to create public awareness about President Nandasena’s exercise in insanity with his presidential commissions set up to crackdown against his political opponents Colombo Telegraph learns. (By Chinthika De Silva) 

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