JVP refuses to support ‘National Council’, questions its bona fide

By Saman Indrajith

JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake yesterday told Parliament his party would not support the government’s National Council project which, he said, would not help the problems people were facing.

Participating in the debate on the formation of the national council, Dissanayake said: “This is only a façade. It is another attempt to dupe people and the rest of the world. We have no intention of joining this project.”

“The idea was to appoint the council to oversee the handling of financial responsibility of Parliament. This is a government that does not even appoint Opposition MPs has the heads of the COPE and the COPA.

“The council was proposed as a solution to the prevailing problems which are mainly two fold, economic and political. It won’t help solve problems. There are two main issues pertaining to the economic crisis. First, it is the prevailing political culture tainted by corruption, no respect for the rule of law, and politicians enjoying perks and benefits and placing themselves above the law. This culture resulted in the economic crisis. The new mechanism should be able to change this culture. But it neither can do so, nor does it want to as it is evident in the manner of appointing ministers and continuing with fraud charges in recent gas and fuel purchasing. The second issue is that the economic crisis needs to be addressed by a short term plan first. Now the government is said to have reached an agreement with the IMF. None in this House knows the content of this agreement. Who would join this council when the government keeps Parliament in the dark on such issues,” Dissanayake queried.