28 December 2021 12:00 am Views - 1331
The President at a meeting with Newspaper Editors at the President’s House yesterday made the comment when questioned about the diversity of opinion within the government with regard to several crucial issues.
The President said that if the Ministers were against it they should have resigned and then gone to courts. He said doing otherwise is a violation of collective responsibility and teamwork. The President said there was a previous judgment given by Justice Mark Fernando on this matter when the late Minister Lalith Athulathmudali had resorted to similar action at that time.
With regard to criticism against President’s Secretary P.B. Jayasundara coming from within the Government ranks, President Rajapaksa said it was also wrong. He said that when Ministers and others in the government air such views the general public too starts to believe that all the problems are due to one person when it was not the case. The President said he had raised this matter in Cabinet as well. He said some maybe doing it to cover up their own weaknesses by just ‘playing to the gallery.’
The President while reiterating his commitment to agriculture based on organic farming said that he did not receive much support from the agriculture ministry to implement the green agriculture programme launched by the government. He said that the necessary support for the programme did not come from the agriculture ministry. The President said that he spoke of moving to green agriculture soon after he came to office and since it was not heading in that direction he took a decision to stop importing chemical fertiliser.
The President said that although some farmers are protesting, it was after he came to power that paddy farmers got a good price for their produce with the introduction of Rs. 50 fixed price by the government. The President said that it was he who gave fertiliser free in the first year and ensured that the farmers benefited. However he said there were problems as well, such as the recent issue with regard to the organic fertiliser shipment from China. He said that the Letter of Credit (LC) for the shipment should not have been opened before it was properly tested here. Also he said once an LC is opened you have to honour it or else it would create problems internationally.
The President gave an overview of the situation in the country during the last two years and said that the current economic problems and the foreign currency crisis were due to the Covid 19 pandemic plaguing the whole world. He said that when he took over, the foreign reserves stood at USD 7 billion and things were moving without a crisis as there were foreign currency earnings through the tourism industry, remittances and export earnings. President Rajapaksa said that the global Covid 19 pandemic began a month after he assumed duties and thereafter earning from the tourism industry completely collapsed and foreign remittances also reduced while export earnings also went down. However he said that export earnings have now picked up and is doing well and the government hopes that the tourism industry will also pick up slowly.
He said the economic woes and foreign exchange crisis were due to issues beyond his and the governments’ control as they were caused due to the problems arising from the Covid 19 pandemic.
The President also said that whatever problems they faced, the Covid 19 situation could be controlled to a large extent due to the successful vaccination drive. He said that it has been successful and the necessary credit is not given where it’s due.