JVP Leader punches plenty of holes in govt.

By Saman Indrajith

If a government that has the support of the people is established it will be possible to unite the people of the country and overcome the current crisis, Jathika Jana Balawegaya (JJB) MP Anura Kumara Dissanayake says.

“People will give such a government a year or two to resolve the issues that plague the people. The Constitution says that the sovereignty and the security of the people must be established by a president that is elected by the people. The President is not elected by the people,” Dissanayake told Parliament yesterday.

“President Ranil Wickremesinghe does not have a mandate from the people. The SLPP MPs were elected to Parliament by slandering Ranil Wickremesinghe and his government.

“Remember the SLPP slogans? It flogged issues such as the Treasury bond scams, the Easter Sunday attacks and the sale of Hambantota Port. How can you establish a government led by Wickremesinghe with MPs that were elected after campaigning against him?” he said.

The JJB leader added that the contents of the 2022 interim budget were also against the promises made by the SLPP to the people.

“The IMF delegation itself suggests that people might resist some recommendations and the government should able to mitigate it. So, we need a mandate from the people. Those who contributed to the demise of a country can’t rebuild it,” he said.

Dissanayake said that SLPP MPs had cheered when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa reduced the VAT to 8 percent. Now, they are cheering when the VAT is increased to 15 percent, he said.

“They cheered when the retirement age was extended to 65 and they are now ecstatic when it had again been reduced to 60. When the Rajapaksas said they were planning renationalization, the SLPP MPs cheered. Now they are the biggest supporters of privatisation. The same people who insisted that more people have to be recruited to the state sector a year ago are now adamant that most government servants have to go home. What kind of people are you? You have neither vision nor principles. How can you get the country out of trouble,” he said.

The JJB leader said that in 2021, the Opposition MPs and a number of experts had warned that Sri Lanka was heading for a crisis. However, the SLPP MPs insisted that Basil Rajapaksa was an economic wizard, he said.

“Basil’s budget lasted 10 months. These people backed that silly document. These are the people who will take us out of this mess? There has to be a general election.”