10 January 2022 09:39 am Views - 105
By Yohan Perera
Creating a bogeyman out of every issue is the favourite pastime of some members of the opposition, Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando said.
Addressing a ceremony held at Mawathagama to declare open the Visal Water Supply scheme last week, the Minister said that the Sajith Premadasa gang and the Anura Dissanayake clique in the opposition created many bogeymen during the past two years.
“The Premadasa-Dissanayake combine first created a bogeyman out of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They estimated that at least 200,000 Lankans would die of the virus. They created fear that people would die on the streets, die without oxygen, die without enough beds in hospitals. When we started vaccination against the virus, they tried to prevent people taking the jab saying that those who get the injections would die in two years. They spoke of various sorts of side and after-effects of vaccines. They accused us of converting the country into a test lab for vaccines and asked people to boycott them. In the meantime, the so-called leaders in the opposition got the vaccine one by one. Despite allegations, we continued to work. Today this country is at the forefront of the list of nations which excelled in vaccinations,” the Minister said. “Most recently, they predicted the total collapse of the economic system of this country.
They even set Jan 15 as the day when the country’s economy will break down. They have expressed the fears of famine. Nothing of that sort will happen. Shortages are felt by people not only in our country but also in the whole world. These developments are temporary. We have taken measures to alleviate them and problems are being solved gradually. Soon the Premadasa-Dissanayake combine will have to find another bogeyman to create fear among people. We continue to develop this country in the face of any difficulty so that we will deliver the promises we made to people. For example, we started this large-scale rural water supply project in 2014.