Eran Wickramaratne, a parliamentarian from Samagi Jana Balawegaya, recently expressed concern about justice participating in parliamentary debate. He emphasised the importance of justice in this country if we are to attract international investment.
He stressed that the ‘Present economic crisis we have a debt crisis we are not getting debt ultimately doesn’t matter about the IMF we need the IMF we need to come to an agreement with the IMF, ultimately we need to have investment coming in’.
Further in his address he pointed out that ‘There is a factor which isn’t very publicly recognized the factor on investment that needs to be recognized is known as country risk, it is not about the law, not just about the regulation, it’s about having the confidence in the country. It is about the law is being actually working, executed and that investors really got confidence’.
His highlight on country risk centered on political climate of the county .He noted ‘Country risk is about the political stability, rule of law and stable financial environment. Now big conversation going on among the businessmen, business community in the chambers is the death of Dinesh Shafter. Businessmen won’t come and publicly talk about it. They are not politicians. But if you create uncertainty among them, some of them have actually told me having worked with them for 25 years who is actually safe in this country. Therefore we need to really look at this’.
Expressing his concern on the businessman Dinesh Shafter murder he said it should be resolved fast without leaving room for ambiguity. He said that ‘The JMO gives a report the first report says it looks like he had been strangled, the same JMO gives a report later saying that No it may be that he had committed suicide this is absolutely ridiculous’.
‘This murder inquiry must be conducted in a fair way. He said and continue by stating ‘ If we don’t get this right I can tell you it doesn’t matter what rules we bring Sri Lankan businessmen talk to international investors. Investors from abroad don’t come by talking to politicians like us. They talk to their counterparts in here and businessmen in this country. Therefore they need to have confidence to tell those people to come and put your dollars here’.
Now I know we have to really take the ..of this fact….
(Interruption from a MP says we must respect the legal process)
Mr wickramaratna replied
‘But I want to tell the honorable member that justice must prevail in this country, don’t try to tell me about justice, justice must prevail in this country. We are losing our young people of this country because the rule of law is not working in this country’.