Chief Whip asks Opposition to learn from other countries and cooperate with govt. in Easter Sunday probe

Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando yesterday said that the Opposition Leader and his group in the SJB should learn from the examples of their counterparts in other democracies and support the investigations into the Easter Sunday carnage instead of acting like a headless chicken.

Addressing the media after attending a meeting to review the measures in place against Covid-19 in the Kurunegala District at Wilgoda SLPP office, the Minister said that Opposition parties in other countries had placed the national interests above their petty party agendas and politics.

“This could be seen in all other democracies. But take a look at our Opposition; it only looks for opportunities to raise wild allegations as regards the ongoing investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks. They are now protesting against the arrest of Rishad Bathiudeen.”

Fernando asked people to recall how the same political leaders had scoffed at the military operations during the time of the war, thinking that the LTTE was invincible. It is the very same people now demanding the release of Bathiudeen. The Opposition Leader and his men should be ashamed of their behaviour. The Easter Sunday carnage happened due to their blunders, and now they are trying to derail the ongoing investigations. Recently, religious and civil organisations got exposed for trying to drag Catholic people into their protests. Don’t they have an iota of concern for the national security of this country?”

He had called on numerous occasions, both in and outside Parliament, on the Opposition to support the government at least in the Easter Sunday carnage investigations, Minister Fernando said. “We extended our hand in good faith, but there seems to be no way we can knock some sense into the Opposition.

“We have let the law take its own course. There could be more arrests. That is up to the law enforcing agencies and investigators to decide whom to be arrested. Those guilty and responsible for the heinous crime will have to be punished. The government does not operate on the laws of Ranjan Ramanayake or Sajith Premadasa. Investigations were never this fast. What happened to the commission reports on the killings of Lalith Athulathmudali and Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa?” the Minister queried.

Fernando said that the yahapalana government had sacrificed the lives of people to maintain their electoral base. “It seems that our Opposition leader is ready to sacrifice even the lives of all the people in this country to get at the power to rule it.”