16 August 2022 12:00 am Views - 104
By Sandun A Jayasekera
Not only the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) but all other political parties in the opposition were not in a position to support or join an all-party interim government until President Ranil Wickremesinghe comes up with his political road map and the specific time frame of the stop-gap multi-party government and next general election, the SJB said yesterday.
General Secretary of the SJB and former Minister Ranjith Maddumabandara told Daily Mirror that President Wickremesinghe has failed to reveal his political agenda, the term of office of the proposed interim government and the general election to be held after the expiry of the stop gap administration during his talks with political parties despite repeated requests.
“It is imperative for him to be honest and transparent when he deals with the opposition. He has kept an indecent silence when raised the issue of the time frame of the interim government and about the next parliamentary polls. If he tries to play the act of ‘Master Dodger’ or the ‘Artful Dodger’ on these vital issues, he is highly mistaken,” he emphasized.
Mr. Maddumabandara said President Wickremesinghe has no right whatsoever to give an undertaking to the SLPP that he would not dissolve Parliament until the expiry of the present Parliament as 22 million Sri Lankans, the Mahanayakas of the four nikayas, His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, the public and corporate sector employees, estate sector employees and the aragalists demand in one voice an election sooner than later to seek a fresh mandate to rule the country.
Sri Lanka won’t be able to pay back its debts as long as she activates a debt restructuring programme. The donor countries and global financial agencies have emphasized that they are not ready to offer any financial assistance to Sri Lanka until Sri Lanka’s debts are restructured and the country returned to normalcy. Unfortunately, the Wickremesinghe regime has miserably failed to show even a hint that the government was capable of restoring the law and order, protecting human rights and strengthening democracy in the country and win the trust of the global financial agencies and donors to obtain a substantial financial assistance to bail out Sri Lanka from the current economic, political and social distress. The Wickremesinghe regime is caught between the devil and deep blue sea in this precarious scenario as the situation has further aggravated under them, Mr. Maddumabandara noted.
The danger of the failure to be honest and lack of bona-fide intensions in this affair is that aragalists and trade unions representing the entire workforce of the country are likely to launch an indefinite trade union action more virulent and strong until the government collapses and a reign of terror will take the centre stage more damaging and brutal than the island wide mayhem that took place on May 9th,” Mr. Maddumabandara lamented.