COPE comes under fire again

President, Dilan in a war of words

By Dharisha Bastians
Justice Minister Dilan Perera stormed out of a government parliamentary group meeting held at Temple Trees on Monday, after a serious exchange of words with UNP dissident ministers and the President himself, over the controversial COPE report that has highlighted irregularities in several high profile government deals.

The Bottom Line learns that Perera, a member of the committee rose to the defence of COPE Chairman Wijedasa Rajapakse, who was at the receiving end of a brutal verbal attack by Construction and Engineering Services Minister Rajitha Senaratne.

Senaratne alleged that the COPE had exceeded its mandate and that Rajapakse was aiming to support the opposition and bring the government into disrepute with the findings of the report. Mano Wijeratne, another UNP dissident, also charged that the COPE report was aimed at discrediting the UNP reformists since the report highlighted several high ranking dissidents as being signatories to several ‘bad’ deals.

However, Perera told the parliamentary group that the COPE had done stellar work and it would not behove the government to rise up against the committee since the general public were impressed by the COPE’s work. A heated exchange followed between Senaratne and Perera, but the Justice Minister was then shot down by President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself, who charged that Senaratne was correct and that the COPE was out of line. When Perera retorted, the President reportedly told him that he could either fall in line or leave, at which the Justice Minister stormed out of the meeting, The Bottom Line learns.

Perera had walked out snubbing even the dinner hosted by the President.
Speaking to The Bottom Line, Minister Perera refused to comment on the proceedings of the parliamentary group meeting, saying that “what happens at the group meeting, stays at the group meeting.”

However, Perera said that he had never been afraid to stand by his convictions whether at Parliament, group meetings or Cabinet. “COPE has done some very good work and I am of the opinion that the report is near perfect. I stand by everything stated in the COPE report,” Perera added.