Opposition busy engaged in fear mongering : Johnston

By Yohan Perera   

Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando who accused  the opposition of being engaged in fear mongering urged the people not to be misled by them.

“Succumbing to fear would not yield anything positive” the minister said.   

Speaking to the media following an inspection visit to check the progress of the ’10,000 beds in 10 days’ project at Kurunegala, the minister said the government has decided to move forward in all its programmes as scheduled without allowing the pandemic to scuttle them. “We do not retreat or surrender in the face of this virus threat. We have faced bigger challenges in the past and are ready to face them in the future. While the opposition was calling for the closure of parliament, we decided against it. Next Tuesday parliament will meet to discuss and debate health regulations enabling further imports of medicines. We cannot and would not hide in fear of this pandemic. The opposition leader and his men are creating  fear psychosis to paralyze this country,” the Minister said.  
He said the pandemic prevails in all the other countries in the world. The opposition wants to shut the country down and make it worse. We must keep in mind that nowhere in the world has a pandemic been overcome by hiding but by facing the challenge we can do it. The opposition leader and his men seem to think that they could create public displeasure of the government by paralyzing this system. That is why they keep on calling for a lock down. They do not want Parliament to meet on Tuesday to discuss health regulations. We decided at the party leaders’ meeting to meet on Tuesday to discuss medicine imports and tyre exports, and to take up the debate on The Port City Commission Bill on Wednesday and Thursday.