(February 12, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) UNP M.P. Ravi Karunanayake speaking to the media at the UNP media unit today (12Feb), urged the voters to prove the power of the ballot by somehow exercising their franchise at the upcoming Central and North Western province . They must become more and more determined to do this to beat the burgeoning violence and intimidation stoked by the Govt. to preclude the voters from voting.
A Govt. which has done good to the people will always want the people to vote for it to win. But, this is a Govt. which has resorted to the worst treacheries, falsehoods and hypocrisies against the country and the people, hence , it is fully aware it cannot win in a fair and free election. Every hour of the day the Govt., its Ministers and candidates are violating election laws : using State vehicles, property and even employees including Teachers, principals and school children who are forced to join the Govt. campaign under threats , he lamented.
From Jan. 2008 the Govt. is holding fragmented elections ahead of the election dates spending colossal sums of people’s money. But to pay the genuine demands for salary hikes of workers , relief packages and Samurdhi benefits of the people , the Govt. has no money. Even after the world oil price has drastically come down , the Govt. is stubbornly refusing to pass the benefit to the people , but owing to its illegal oil hedging soodhuwa it stands bound to pay many billions of rupees to the Bank which has gone seeking redress to the Int. arbitration Tribunal. With whose money is the Govt. playing ducks and
drakes ? he asked.
When the UNP exposed the Govt. corruption and misdeeds , the Govt. resorted o intimidation and violence to stifle opposition and the media. Now, its own Ministers are exposing each other : Arjuna Ranatunge accuses Minister Lokuge of entering into shady deals running into billions while the latter counter accuses Arjuna . Being Ministers of the same Cabinet and of the same ilk , all that can be said is that the pot is calling the kettle black.
On the Prima contract too the Govt. accused the UNP and himself , but now this very Govt. is made to pay Rs. 3850 million by an Int. Tribunal to Prima for its blunders ,he observed.
The people were made to starve and suffer acutely with high multiple taxation at every turn, high cost of living and economic burdens blaming the war . Now that the war is over as the Govt. claims , it is duty bound to give relief to the people , not just hold elections to divert their attention from the burning issues, he asserted.
-Sri Lanka Guardian
Home Unlabelled Do not give into oppression – Ravi
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I do not understand how Ravi could talk like that. The oppression and suppression of freedoms during JRJ times are well documented. Even Ranil Wickramasinghe’s Batalanda chambers are horror stories of our times.
The infamous one sided CFA Ranil signed with Prbhakaran is another incident when UNP be thwarted the democratic process and did things to hurt Sri Lankans. The agreement was never discussed in the Parliament and a ratification votes was not called for. When you go through the document now we wonder what kind of a leader Ranil and the UNP have been.
Karu Jayasuriya spoke about gentlemanly manners but he was cited by the COPE report on the millions he has acquired during the UNP regime. To overcome the difficulties he switches sides, and with a bigger ambition more than his tummy to take the leadership of UNP, he crosses over once again. What kind of leadership qualities these people exhibit.
Man gala Samaraweera who spated on the UNP and instrumental in knotting the fingers of SLFP and JVP now crying foul of the present government with the money he gets from LTTE. With the things he did within SLFP, Mr Rajapaksa is too tolerant to keep him in his cabinet that long.
All this is a circus. At least this guy Rajapaksa seemingly doing what he is supposed to do as the head of state. We have to get rid of the terrorists to bring normalcy to its people. If we do not do that, all of us will get wiped out of the map of Sri Lanka, whether you are a Sinhalese or a Tamil.
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