Parliament Government

President Ranil Wickremesinghe proposing, recently, that the whole Parliament must comprise the Government is most appropriate, prudent and timely, in the present context. The formation of a Parliament Government when the country is treading on a grueling path to economic recovery, after having been once declared bankrupt, is the need of the hour.

The President said that there is economic stability in the country and it is no longer bankrupt consequent upon the materializing of the IMF credit facility. A Parliament Government is one better than a National Government because it can make use of the expertise and experience of a varied team of veterans spread across all political parties.

Sir John Kotelawala said a mouthful when he said that a family’s wealth will last for only three generations, the prodigal sons of the third generation wantonly wasting and recklessly destroying all of it. President Ranil Wickremesinghe can be compared, mutatis mutandis, to as one playing the role of the fourth generation son dutifully earning wealth afresh. He is performing the task admirably well.

It is significant that Dr. Harsha de Silva and Dr. Harini Amarasuriya who are from opposite sides of the political spectrum acknowledge that there is economic stability resulting from the receipt of the IMF loan. It is indicative of their suitability to hold portfolios in a Parliament Government. The former added that it is only politics that prevents others from accepting the fact and it should not take time till 2048 for the country to develop.

What the President had meant by setting 2048 as the benchmark is the need for the implementation of a long term plan. He has improved the ground situation to an extent which no other person currently in politics could have achieved. The Opposition Leader saying he can put things right in three months is sheer bunkum and poppycock.

Patali Champika Ranawaka whose pet project as a minister in the last Government the Light Rail Transit (LRT) has been got back by the President and Ranawaka can hope to be the minister in charge of the project in a Parliament Government.

Members of the Parliament Government with proven ability and honesty can be appointed Cabinet and other ministers giving the riff-raff a wide berth.

Dr. Chandra Fernando said in 1990 or thereabouts that the Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (DJV) did not kill a single good man. He said that only undesirable types such as rapists and cattle lifters in the villages were their target. He was a very good family physician of sterling qualities, who would never have been telling a lie. Then who killed Harsha Abeywardena, Lionel Jayatilake who proposed in Parliament that President J.R. Jayewardene should stay on for a third term and Meryl Kariyawasam who seconded the proposal?

Dr. Chandra Fernando had also been called around that time, synchronous with some LTTE leaders being invited for talks with five-star hotel comforts, and was asked to tell Rohana Wijeweera that whatever he wants would be given to which he had replied that nothing need be given and they know how to get it.

The LTTE’s targets being only members of the Sinhala Army in active service, military administrators and traitors to their cause belonging to their own community such as A. Amirthalingam, Neelan Thiruchelvam, Lakshman Kadirgamar. Then who killed Lalith Athulathmudali and Vijaya Kumaratunga?

An underworld character was nurtured giving him earth sod contracts. A lot of money was wasted on projects like Gam Udawa: some houses, with cashew wood doors and door frames that rot in no time and floors of those houses being cemented not laying engineer’s bricks, being built.

Quite in contrast the Mahapola Scholarship Scheme begun by Lalith Athulathmudali as the Trade Minister has benefited an enormous number of university and other higher education institute students in need of help and before long all the students would be covered, as it was revealed at his recent commemoration ceremony. President Ranil Wickremesinghe was the UNP’s political equal of Lalith Athulathmudali the former being in charge of Gampaha District and the latter of Colombo District, in the 1980s.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted a peaceful settlement with the LTTE by entering into a Ceasefire Agreement arranged by Norway. The LTTE took into the jungle dozens of unsuspecting businessmen from the South, going to the North for purchasing paddy etc. and shot them at point blank range also relieving them of their money even while the ceasefire was on, and returned to hostilities reneging on the Ceasefire Agreement.

Tamil National Alliance’s M. A. Sumanthiran, while criticizing the Anti-Terrorism Bill, recently, was taking pride in saying that not a single terrorist was caught under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (1979)!