Pramitha chides SJB over Diana’s National List appointment, declares support for finance bills

State Defence Minister Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon has told Parliament that the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has conveniently forgot that ousted State Minister Diana Gamage was one of its National List MPs.Referring to various statements made by SJB MPs both in and outside parliament, the Matale District lawmaker said that they were talking as if she had been appointed to parliament by the SLPP.

Of the 29 National List slots, the SLPP secured 17 and the SJB seven. The remaining five NL seats were shared one each by five political parties, including the JVP (Dr. Harini Amarasuriya) and UNP (Ranil Wickremesinghe/Vajira Abeywardena)

State Defence Minister Tennakoon tabled a letter dated Aug 12, 2020 sent to the then Chairman of the Election Commission Mahinda Deshapriya signed by SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara, MP. According to that letter, the following had been named as SJB NL members: Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Tissa Attanayake, Imthiaz Bakeer Markar, Eran Wickremaratne, Harin Fernando, Mayantha Dissanayake and Diana Gamage.

Tennakoon said Gamage would have been still in parliament if not for the dispute she had with the SJB. Acknowledging that Diana Gamage served as a State Minister, he emphasised that she worked with the government as an appointed member of the SJB.

MP Tennakoon said that Diana Gamage’s status couldn’t be changed even though the SJB’s narrative tried to erase their involvement. The State Minister commented on the ousted MP during the debate on the Economic Transformation Bill and the Public Financial Management Bill presented to parliament on Wednesday.

Declaring his support for the controversial finance bills, MP Tennakoon urged the Opposition not to mix politics, economics, history and the current developments while underscoring the responsibility on the part of all to recognize what he called a new economic formula.

Declaring that China never mixed politics with economy, the State Minister said that Vietnam pursued capitalist economic policies in a communist environment.

Alleging that various interested parties always played politics with the national economy MP Tennakoon explained how national carrier Sri Lanka had become an unbearable burden on the country. The State Minister pointed out how over a period of time Sri Lankan profitably run by Emirates was allowed to deteriorate to such an extent successive governments today struggled to cope up with its predicament.

MP Tennakoon said that the country had been politically bankrupt a long time before the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government declared financial bankruptcy in March or April 2022.

MP Tennakoon said that whoever was in power the people never allowed politicians and other known figures to work. Those who rendered yeoman service to the country had been humiliated and in some instances forced to leave the country.

Tennakoon said that the son of the person who led the protest campaign against the Kandalama hotel three decades ago now worked for that world class hotel. Various interested parties propagated scare stories. People actually believed that the construction of that hotel would destroy that area, particularly the Kandalama wewa. Today, they had been proved wrong, the MP said. (SF)