No one needs to be afraid of the success scored by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in the Northern Province as it will not pave the way for separatism, Democratic Party (DP) Leader Sarath Fonseka said today.
The former Army Commander told journalists there was no room anymore for separatism in the country. He said the separatism bogey was unnecessarily fed into the minds of the people by the southern political parties which have embraced communalism for their survival.
“An opportunity has been created for all ethnic groups and political parties to work together and therefore people need not entertain any baseless fears,” Mr. Fonseka said.
He said the Democratic Party suffered a setback when UPFA’s chief ministerial candidate Dayasiri Jayaskera crossed over from the UNP.
Mr. Fonseka said more than 20,000 UNP members who were planning to join the DP also crossed over to the government with Mr. Jayasekera.
“These people have crossed over hoping they can get something done if they joined the government with Mr. Jayasekera,” he said and added that Mr. Jayaskera had met him months before his crossover and told of his plans to leave the UNP.
“Mr. Jayasekera is a popular politician but I don’t approve of his decision to switch sides,” he said while stressing that one should not betray those who supported him and join another party,” Mr. Fonseka said.
Responding to a question whether there is any truth in the notion that the Democratic Party (DP) succeeded at this provincial council election because of the UNP’s weakness, Mr. Fonseka said the reality was that his success was the result of the weaknesses in both the UNP and the ruling UPFA.
“Those who voted for my party were the ones who were frustrated with both main parties,” he said.
Referring to his party’s future plans, he said his aim was to turn the DP into the main political party in the country.
“Converting DP into being the main political party is a time consuming one but it will grow steadily just like a small plant that becomes a huge tree,” he said.
(Yohan Perera and Sanath Desmond)
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