Former ruling party, myself, accountable for economic collapse: Prof. Jayasumana

Parliamentarian Professor Channa Jayasumana said that all the members of the former ruling party, including the former President, and himself were responsible for the collapse of the country's economy, and no one could escape from the collective responsibility.

He said this while answering a question raised by the media regarding a statement made by Transport, Highways, and Mass Media Minister Dr Bandula Gunawardana.

"The utterances of Minister Bandula Gunawardana are now acceptable because we also want to know who gave former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa instructions on certain issues," Jayasumana said. 

“It is better to reveal the truth as to who gave bad advice to the former President. Revealing those details would be helpful to the country in identifying the persons responsible for the issues," he said.

“We gave our ideas to the former President before the elections, and he considered them in a free manner and said those ideas would be implemented. But after he became President, he did not listen to our ideas.

I think that was the main reason for his failure. As we saw, several members of his family and several close associates have given him advice.

“We opposed the decision taken by the former President to stop importing fertilizer. I explained to him the risks we would face if we stopped fertilizer importation and mentioned that we should stop importing fertilizer gradually within 10 years. 

“That is the main reason that makes him unpopular," he said. “We still don't know who came up with those ideas. "That failure continues, and we all have become victims of it," Professor Jayasumana said.

“Therefore, everyone in the government that came under President Gotabaya should be responsible,” he said. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama and Indika Sri Aravinda)