Mr. Ranjith Maddumabandara, General Secretary of the SJB, stated that Parliament has never been convened on a Sunday in his 35-year political career. Sri Lanka Latest News
He said this during a press conference.
The government has not discussed any conditions for domestic debt restructuring. We recall that Mr. Shehan Semasinghe, Minister of State, and Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank, have repeatedly stated that the local debt will not be restructured. They have said on several occasions that the domestic depositors’ provident fund will be a problem for local banks, but the government is now preparing to pass it quickly.
Neither the opposition nor the people have been informed about this. They are trying to pass this by closing the banking system and closing the stock market for 5 days. When was the parliament has met on Saturday and Sunday? I have been in the parliament for 35 years. In the history, no matter what special bill that was presented, the parliament did not meet on Sunday even during the murderous terrorism of the Janata Vimukthi peramuna.
The Committee on Parliamentary Affairs is being convened. Last week it was decided to convene the Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Tuesday morning, but the government and the speaker have postponed the meeting of the cabinet until Friday. They are not talking about this on Wednesday. There is serious doubt about this. This is deception of the people and deceiving the Parliament by telling something and doing something else.
We are being asked whether we are against this. Yes, Mr. Shehan Semasinghe too stated that he is against it. The Governor of the Central Bank expressed his opposition. An opposition thought about the financiers of the country and expressed opposition. How can we approve without knowing what is inside? Mr. Shehan Semasinghe is a politician and the governor of the central bank knows that the financial system of this country is and is a problem for the depositors and the provident fund. We think that is what he was talking about. We ask why the government is working in such a hurry because there is something sinister.
Now they say that the interest rate will decrease by doing this, we do not know that it has not decreased yet. We had no objection to Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe’s going to the International Monetary Fund. Many bankrupt countries went to IMF and reached for agreement to resolve problems through negotiation. But in Sri Lanka today, the Minister of Finance does not know, nor does the Governor of the Bank know what is going to be done, today the people of the country are puzzled and they queation us what is happening in the financial system of the country .
This Cannot be allowed to work in this manner . Why can’t a government educate the people about this? It needs to work with transparency. It needs to educate the people. Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe has no problem, he is not a leader elected by the people. After this, other laws came, the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Media Broadcasting Authority Act, all of which brought about dictatorial control.
As opposition, we were of the opinion of the government that the democracy of the country should be protected, including the rights of the people, but when the government changes their stance , we cannot change . The government does not have a firm policy. As the opposition, we are still of the same opinion. That’s what they are working on today. Last week, in the debate regarding Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe’s statement in the Parliament, they talked like ignorant fools who stole and made wrong decisions.
The former members of the cabinet who voted for them are now talking like newly born ones who have doubts that the domestic debt will not be restructured. If the debt is restructured, they say that it is not a problem to the banking system, will not be a problem to the depositors, but we have a doubt that what you said at first has been changed, and as an opposition, we are taking our stand.
Through Panic they will shut down the country and under police guard they would carry out this. Parliament has never been opened on a Sunday in the history. There have been two wars in this country, even when there was a terrorism carried out by JVP in the south; the Parliament was not opened on Sunday. That means there is a problem in this regard.
