Former foreign minister Prof. G.L. Peiris says Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is prepared to do anything to protect his “very close friend” Arjuna Mahendran, Sri Lanka’s central bank Governor. 

There is nothing he will not do to protect him and we have to think as to what is the secret behind this, he told reporters in Colombo today (21).

He claimed that there is a proposal now to appoint an Acting Governor for the Central Bank pending the ongoing investigations regarding Mahendran and that safeguarding his friend is the only need in the Prime Minister’s mind.

The former Minster stated that the PM will resort to whatever trick possible in order to keep that persons in that position by misleading the masses. 

“Is there no suitable individual in the country apart from this person?”

University professors, talented officials who have spent their entire life in the Central Bank, people who have vast experience in this field, people with specialist knowledge; none of them are suitable for the government and according to them the only person in the country for this job is Arjuna Mahendran, he said.

Prof. Peiris said that the main problem is that this is a “clique of friends” and protecting the friend has become more important than anything else. “Not the economy of the country, not the increasing burden on the people,” he said, adding that the problem is about priorities.