Office of Leader of Opposition clarifies

‘Sajith was advised not to take Premiership as dollar crisis is so acute’

In response to our front page story headlined ‘Sajith was advised not to take Premiership as dollar crisis is so acute ’in yesterday’s edition, the Office of the Opposition Leader says it categorically rejects this characterization.

Issuing a statement, the Office said the main challenge for Sri Lanka is the acute shortage of foreign currency.

“The Leader of the Opposition is well aware of this and has stated this position many times over the past two years. Nonetheless, we would like to engage the specific allegation that the severity of the crisis was the driver of the decision to reject the post of Prime Minister.the country’s economic strife is a result of a ‘governance deficit’. Our bilateral partners and multilateral agencies, including the IMF, have noticed the deterioration in Sri Lanka’s system of ‘checks and balances’. the international community are under no illusions as to the causation of this deterioration of Governance:

The concentration of power in the hands of a single family that has a long track record of egregious corruption The International Community and the IMF will be unwilling to support Sri Lanka in the context of this alarming lack of governance.the appointment of Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe as

Prime Minister as well as his newly assembled cabinet under the same President does not, in any shape or form, address this governance deficit. The Leader of the SJB, in consultation with the party’s working committee, took the decision to request some very basic conditions, including a ‘road map’ and timeline for the resignation of the President. In the absence of even a simple pledge from the

President regarding his resignation and with the SLPP working majority intact, we do not see a discernible difference between the previous administration and that which was recently appointed.to the contrary, Ranil Wickremesinghe accepted the Premiership with zero conditions, has inserted his own loyalists on to various committees and has begun political maneuvers to consolidate his own position. Notice that the new Prime Minister’s recent four-point ‘solution’ to address the crisis is basically a continuation of the policies of the previous administration, the very policies that led to the present crisis. The PM has suggested that his administration increase the Government’s borrowing limit by 25%,“print” more money, ask friendly countries for assistance and pass a new welfare budget. this set of outdated policy proposals will not ensure Sri Lanka’s economic survival and will only prolong the suffering of the country. The people need economic solutions to the crisis, this can only be achieved by an administration that is depoliticized and represents the immediate demands of the people. Any administration that genuinely seeks to remedy the situation must be extricated from the grasp of the President and the SLPP. The current government under Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe is merely a ‘buffer’ or ‘shield’ to protect the Rajapaksa establishment and provide them with an acceptable ‘exit strategy’. The Article has also characterized the Opposition Leader as a “man of words”; perhaps what the article should have stated was that Mr. Premadasa is a “Man of His Word”.