There is no issue if President Mahinda Rajapaksa remains Executive President in this country if he is bold enough to reduce the number of cabinet Ministers to 13 and stop all forms of corruption and crime in the Country, the United National Party (UNP) led Eksath Jathika Bikkhu Sangamaya said.

Chief Secretary of the Eksath Jathika Bikkhu Sangamaya Venarable Thinyawala Palitha Thera told a news conference that the President should reduce his cabinet to 13. He said there won’t be an issue if President Rajapaksa remains in office as long as he lives if he manages to stop the wastage of funds by reducing the cabinet to 13.

The Venarable Thera questioned as to why President Rajapaksa could not take this bold step the way he did other things such as killing the LTTE Leader Prabahakaran, sending former Army Commander Sarath Foneska to prison and removing former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office. “The President who was bold enough to do all that should be equally bold to reduce the cabinet to 13 members,” the Thera said, reminding that the first cabinet of Sri Lanka was limited to thirteen members. (YP)