A ruling party lawmaker has complained to the Sri Lanka Parliament that the defence secretary and the army chief threatened him within the parliament premises, following his proposal to cutdown the defence expenditure by reducing the unnecessary expenses of top brass.
“On 05.10.2023, in the meeting of sectoral oversight committee on national security, the Secretary of defence and the commander of the army gave a threatening response to a statement made by me in the Parliament regarding the use of vehicles by senior officers of the Army. Inside the committee. Inside the parliament. They behave like this; will hit you if you want… I asked whether by hand or leg. He said he could do it either way. Inside the Parliament. Is this a behaviour of an animal?, a rascal?, or a secretary?”
MP Chandima Weerakkody, a former deputy speaker, told the house on 6 October that he has suggested that it is time to reduce the defence expenses by slashing unnecessary expenses of high ranking officials instead of reducing the number of members of the armed forces to 100,000.
The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP alleged that the chairman of the National Security Oversight Committee did not give him the opportunity to express his views at that time and the defence secretary and the army commander continued with the threatening behavior.
Rear Admiral (Retired) MP Sarath Weerasekera is the Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security.
(Retired) General GDH Kamal Gunaratne is the secretary of the ministry of defence and the current Army Commander is Lt. Gen. Vikum Liyanage.
MPs Chamal Rajapaksa, Johnston Fernando, Rauf Hakeem AAL, Channa Jayasumana, Charles Nirmalanathan, Sampath Athukorala, U. K. Sumit Udukumbura, Major Pradeep Undugoda, Sudarshana Denipitiya and Nimal Piyathissa also represent the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security.
The threats aimed at him within the parliament premises is a breach of privilege, said MP Weerakkody who is also an attorney at law.
“Bring this to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee as soon as possible. This is an offense that can be punished by the Supreme Court according to the law of our country. Parliament should take responsibility for our security. But it should be made clear that we might get killed, but those henchmen cannot stop us from speaking for the people.
MP Weerakkody further alleged that the defence secretary “is not a government official; this person came to that position because he is a henchman of a politician”.
Kamal Gunaratne was appointed as defence secretary by ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. While in the military both served in the Gajaba rejiment.
Chandima Weerakkody was elected to parliament from the party led by the Rajapaksas.