Opposition parties boycott Parliament in protest
COLOMBO – Leaders of the main opposition Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and the National People’s Power (NPP), Sajith Premadasa and Anura Kumara Dissanayake, announced their parties’ decision to boycott Parliament this week, before proceeding to walk out of the chamber on Tuesday (21).
The government has turned Parliament into a talk shop and time spent in Parliament is a waste of time and offers no solution to the people suffering outside, Premadasa told Parliament, notifying, “We will boycott this Parliament.”
Leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led NPP, Anura Kumara Dissanyaake, echoing Premadasa’s statement said no useful solutions have come out of Parliament so far.
Sri Lanka is going through its worst economic crisis in its post-Independence history, with long queues for essentials seen around the country.
Dissanayake said the government must present to Parliament a short term plan or a roadmap with proposals for a way out of the crisis.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are in two camps and conflict is brewing between them, Dissanayake charged, noting, “There is no point debating here if no roadmap or plan is presented to parliament.”
Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) general secretary Dayasiri Jayasekara also demanded a plan on solutions to Sri Lanka’s lengthening fuel queues.
Government MP Nimal Lanza, accusing the opposition parties including the NPP of being uninterested in forming an all-party government when overtures were first made, said, “Don’t speak empty words and mislead the people. If you have a plan, we will raise both hands and extend our support.”
National Freedom Front (NFF) leader Wimal Weerawansa claimed that it was some SLFP MPs and MPs from Lanza’s group who had secretly proposed to President Rajapaksa to appoint Wickremesinghe as prime minister.
Refuting the claim, Lanza said there needs to be a government and they were not going to attack a new government just for the sake of it. However, Weerawansa said a prime minister needs to have a plan, but it doesn’t look like the prime minister or the government has an answer to the crisis.
“It was implied that Wickremesinghe would be able to pull billions of dollars out of his pocket soon after his appointment, given his supposed international connections. That hasn’t happened,” Weerawansa noted.
-economynext.com/ENCL