31 December 2019 08:32 pm
The Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) said today the government was facing a difficult situation because of the previous government’s decision to award a residence to TNA Leader R. Sampanthan in Colombo 7 as a special privilege.
PHU Leader, MP Udaya Gammanpila said the government would receive a negative feedback especially from the international community were it to request that Mr. Sampanthan vacates the residence.
“This will be another ‘Swiss-embassy-staffer’ incident. If the government rescinds previous government's decision and asks Mr. Sampanthan to quit, the government will be blamed for harassing the minority community. And his age it does not help either. Mr. Sampanthan is 86 years old. It will be inhumane to ‘drag’ him out. The government has already been labelled as anti-minority and therefore, it will not be easy to ask him to move out,” Mr. Gammanpila told a news conference.
However, he said the government hoped that Mr. Sampanthan would on his own decide to forgo the residence given to him as a special privilege without misusing public funds.
Mr. Gammanpila said if the residence was given to Mr. Sampanthan as a move towards achieving reconciliation, leaders of other communities too may ask for similar privileges.
“The leaders of the Muslim community can also ask for similar privileges and at this rate, the leader of the Veddha community should also be given a house,” he said. (Lahiru Pothmulla)