Voice of dissent falls silent

I was deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of my friend and dear colleague, Sripathi Sooriyaratchchi. That he, together with his three bodyguards, lost their lives in an accident at Galewala en route to Colombo yesterday is all the more painful.

By a strange co-incidence Mr Sooriyaratchchi's sad demise came exactly to the day when he and I were sacked from the Government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Then the SLFP (Mahajana wing) was launched a few months after we were sacked from the Government promising to form a strong political alliance, where we pledged that we would not stop our journey even if bullets were aimed at silencing us.

‘Sri’ as I fondly called him was a true friend and a faithful colleague. I had expected him to turn up at my residence yesterday for a meeting of our party's University Students' Federation. In fact, when I met him on Thursday night, he told me he would be attending the event. I had looked forward to it. Instead what arrived was the sad news that he had died.

On Thursday night we had met together with Leader of the Opposition (and UNP) Ranil Wickremesinghe. It was to discuss comprehensive proposals for the National Congress. The exercise was to be termed the National Consultation on Policy, which we were to launch immediately.

The first step was to have meetings at provincial level where party members and well-wishers were to discuss four general topics - the Executive Presidency. Settlement of the Ethnic issue including political proposals, Elimination of waste, corruption and malpractice and Outlines for good governance. When I inquired of Sri's absence, I learnt from Tiran Alles that he had gone to take part in a meeting in Anuradhapura. After hearing the dreadful news, I rushed immediately to Anuradhapura to be of help in every way possible.

Sri and I have been dear friends and colleagues. It is after our expulsion from the Rajapaksa Government that I have seen in action what I had always believed of him. In adversity he was resolute and stood by his convictions. Harassment, intimidation and other under-hand coercive methods could not break his resolve or compromise the principles he stood for. It is public knowledge that Sri was the object of a vicious witch hunt. It was pointedly directed at breaking his will and to silence him.

He withstood all those pressures and was unwavering in his commitment to expose corruption and wrong doing. This earned him the wrath of small minds which made many attempts to implicate him on trumped up charges. If Sri lived, he would have proved those small minds, but big conspirators, wrong. Sri never feared to stand for what he believed was right. I had always respected him for this intrinsic quality.I have lost a dear friend and colleague. The nation has lost a champion who stood strenuously against corruption and wrong doing.

(Mangala Samaraweera, MP broke away from the ruling SLFP together with the late Mr. Sooriyaratchchi last year and joined the Opposition)