23 December 2016 02:56 am
Minister Perera told the media at the weekly news briefing of the SLFP at the party office yesterday that a lot of water had passed under the bridge since the formation of the UNP - SLFP led unity government since the August 2015 general election with plenty of consensus, disagreements, debates, brickbats and acrimony.
He added that however the SLFP members within the government had been able to record a number of victories and direct the unity government on the right path.
“The term of office of the unity government is scheduled to expire in September 2017 after the completion of two years according to the agreement between the UNP and the SLFP signed in September 2015 after the August general election. But there is an unwritten agreement between the General Secretaries of both parties, Ministers Kabir Hashim and Duminda Dissanayaka to run for the entire term of five years. That is why we expect to review the performance of the unity government since its formation and take a decision on the fate of the unity government in next September,” Minister Perera stressed.
He pointed out that the protests raised by the SLFP group in the government with the assistance of the media had done a lot of good for the unity government, the country and people and continue to do so as long as the SLFP remains in the unity government.
“First and foremost, we were able to prevent the extension of the term of office of controversial governor of the Central Bank, Arjuna Mahendran who was allegedly involved in the bond scam in February 2015. Secondly, the SLFP in the government is also responsible for the series of reforms introduced to the Budget 2016 including the increase of VAT revenue threshold of small scale traders to Rs. 100,000 from proposed Rs. 33,000. Thirdly, the SLFP will never agree to create a super minister despite the UNP attempts through the proposed Development (Special Provisions) Bill,” Minister Perera added.
“Members of the joint opposition ask us whether we remain in the government with clothes on. I like to tell them that we prevented the unity government from going disarray and taking anti-people steps whether in nude or with clothes on. We are proud as SLFPers for such people friendly measure taken by the unity government on our intervention,” he said.
Minister Perera said the policy of the SLFP in the government had been well vindicated to the fact that the UNP asked them to leave the government while the JO accused them saying that they licked the bones thrown at them by the UNP and added if the SLFP was not a part of the government, all those anti people measures would have been implemented by the UNP.
The UNP members of the government tell the SLFP members and to me in particular leave the government to go ahead with them and bring back Mahendran, create the post of super minister and increase indirect tax and VAT, he said. .
He said it was at the SLFP news briefing, he first disclosed the secret deal between certain members of the UNP and Basil Rajapaksa aimed at destroying the SLFP led by President Maithripala Sirisena which had been proved beyond any doubt and expressed his gratitude to the media for making the conspiracy a big issue in the political circles, among the public and the media.
The deal between the UNP and Basil was very clear as the government let Basil to leave the country for three months but Tissa Attanayaka, the former General Secretary of the UNP was not given that benefit. (Sandun A Jayasekera)
Video by Janaka