Former Parliament Speaker Anura Bandaranaike, the younger brother of Sri Lanka's former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, died of heart attack on Sunday, officials said.
Extracted from,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/16/content_7801483.htm
As widely expected in political circles, Anura Bandaranaike, MP, over the weekend reached an understanding with President Mahinda Rajapaksa to re-join the Cabinet, which he once dubbed as a ‘Carnival of Clowns’.
President Rajapaksa amidst tight security visited Visumpaya, where Bandaranaike had, since his latest crossover (from the ruling coalition to the Opposition), just before the December 14 final vote on the Budget, stayed despite a vacation order. The government slashed his security contingent from 72 to two, withdrew his kitchen staff provided by the Ceylon Hotels Corporation and his vehicles immediately after he joined the Opposition.
Altogether, he had over 100 workers provided by the government, sources said. Had Bandaranaike rejected the President’s overtures, he would have been removed from Visumpaya shortly, sources said.
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Former Sri Lankan cabinet minister Anura Bandaranaike, who had crossed over to the opposition Dec 14, has complained that the scaling down of his security since his defection is making him easy prey for the Tamil Tiger rebels' assassination squad. The media reported Monday that Bandaranaike had written a strong letter to the Sri Lankan police chief saying that the withdrawal of security had exposed him to "Prabhakaran's assassins".
Bandaranaike, who has been having a running battle with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, quit the treasury benches just ahead of a critical vote on the annual budget Dec 14, when the government's fate was hanging by a thin thread.
Eventually, the government won with a 47-vote majority. And the police promptly scaled down his elaborate security, though Bandaranaike was no ordinary politician.
He is the younger brother of former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, a former speaker of parliament, and a former foreign minister, who had campaigned against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) abroad.
The LTTE led by Velupillai Prabhakaran had tried to assassinate president Kumaratunga in 1999. Hence Bandaranaike's fear that he might be exposed to "Prabhakaran's assassins".
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Mr. Anura Bandaranaike has begun moving his goods out of Visumpaya to his house at Rosemead Place built some years and is currently living at his ancestral home in Horagolla.
Both Anura and his sister, Chandrika, built their own houses on the original Rosmead Place compound.
`Tintagel', the Colombo residence of the Bandaranaikes, belonging to the three Bandaranaike children, is now a boutique hotel which was opened earlier this month.
Bandsaranaike left for Horagolla after his crossover to the opposition ahead of the Dec. 14 budget vote. He is expected to continue living there until the transfer of his goods is completed.
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The budget vote which generated much tension finally turned out to be an anti-climax with the Government securing a comfortable majority of 47.
The voting commenced today around 5.00p.m by name for and against the budget. There were 114 votes for the Budget and 67 against it. The JVP abstained from voting.
The UNP (Democratic Group), Jathika Hela Urumaya, Upcountry People's Front, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the Ceylon Workers' Congress voted for the budget while the UNP (Ranil Group), Tamil National Alliance and the Western Province People's Front voted against it.
Earlier in the day, veteran politician Anura Bandaranaike crossed over to the opposition benches.
Subsequent to the vote, Minister D.M. Jayaratne said that the Government will defeat terrorism and develop the country:
"Today we have emerged victorious on the 2008 budget and we will not hesitate to defeat terrorism and to carry forward our development programme," Mr.Jayarathne told www.news.lk.
Although SLMC’s Rauff Hakeem stirred up controversy with his crossover on Wednesday, with the UNP claiming that others in the Government will break ranks at today's vote, the Government mustered a comfortable 114 votes, sufficient to secure a majority even if the JVP had voted against the budget.
Wijedasa Rajapaksa, who crossed over to the opposition but abstained from voting at the second reading, opted to do the same today as well.
Wimal Weerawansa, Propaganda Secretary of the JVP, addressing parliament said that his party was not ready to be anyone's catspaw and makes decisions in the best interest of the country and the people.
Meanwhile Chief Government Whip, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle told www.news.lk that it was the LTTE and no one else that was behind moves to defeat the budget. "It was obviously an attempt to reverse the victories achieved by the security forces in the Eastern Province,
Extracted from,
http://news.lk/index.php?option=com
The Sri Lankan Minister for National Heritage, Anura Bandaranaike, has lambasted the government and the Buddhists in the island for their silence on the developments in Myanmar, where a military government is ruthlessly crushing a pro-democracy movement spearheaded by Buddhist monks and the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi.
"What do our self-appointed custodians of Buddhism in parliament have to say? Not a word about the attacks on fellow Buddhist priests in Yangon, who took to the streets in utter desperation. Silence is the finest form cowardice. The silence of our Buddhists is deafening, especially the self-appointed custodians of the Dhamma and of course our Foreign Ministry," Bandaranaike said in a statement in Colombo on Friday.
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