News
CP General Secretary says govt. did not heed their advice
By Rathindra Kuruwita
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka (CPSL) Dr. G. Weerasinghe said yesterday that the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration continued with the free market economy, which exacerbated the issues faced by the country and ultimately led to the present widespread anti-government protests.
Speaking on the mass protests that led to the resignation of the entire Cabinet of Ministers, Dr. Weerasinghe said that the CPSL warned the government that its economic policies were adversely affecting the people of the country and the economy in general.
“We started liberalising the economy a few decades ago. We allowed relatively free imports and exports because we thought we would be an export oriented economy. However, now we import a lot more than we export and the trade balance is widening. This has been happening for many years, I would say the last 25 to 30 years. We cushioned this gap with money from tourism, expat remittance and loans. With the pandemic, we lost tourism, expat remittance and now we can’t get easy loans,” he said.
The foreign reserve crisis had caused a shortage of essential goods and extended to power cuts, he added.
Eleven constituents of the government, including the CPSL, earlier this year had asked the President to appoint an interim government with the participation of all political parties represented in Parliament, Dr. Weerasinghe said.
“However, nothing was done until this week and it seems that the protesters are not ready to accept this. They want the President to go home,” he said.
Dr. Weerasinghe said that when the protestors chant ‘Gota Go Home’ they are criticizing the entire executive presidential system and the entire electoral process.
“First thing is to do the minimum that can be done and end the process. Then whoever takes over must work with all political parties to create a consensus on saving Sri Lanka from a serious economic, social, and political crisis,” he said.
Approval has been granted at the Cabinet meeting held on 22.07.2024 to publish the draft bill of State Assets Management Act in the government gazette notification and thereby present it to the Parliament for its concurrence.
However, the draft bill couldn’t be passed in Parliament as a result of the Parliament being dissolved in the month of October 2024.
Thereafter, the draft bill was subject to further inspection by a
committee appointed which comprised of officials and authorities on the subject.
The said Committee has recognized the amendments to be made and a fundamental draft has been prepared including the proposed amendments.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution furnished by the President in his capacity as the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to suspend further activities regarding the draft bill of State Assets Management Act published in the extraordinary gazette of 02.08.2024, and to direct the Legal Draftsman to prepare a draft bill based on the fundamental draft prepared by the subject specialists’ committee.
Considering the compliance of the Cooperative Societies’ operations with the concurrent socio – economic circumstances as well as the changes in the common law, the requirement of amending the Cooperative Employees Commission Act No. 12 of 1972 has been recognized.
A fundamental draft including proposed amendments based on the experience gained by that Commission as well as the opinions and proposals of Cooperative societies, their director board members, cooperative employees and other interested parties has been prepared.
Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers granted approval to the resolution furnished by the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative development to provide instructions to the Legal draftsman to prepare a draft bill to amend the Cooperative Employees Commission Act No. 12 0f 1972, based on the said fundamental draft.
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