Aragalaya far from dead, warns SF

By Saman Indrajith

SJB Gampaha District MP Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka told Parliament on Friday that the Aragalaya campaign was very much alive and asked his fellow MPs to beware of another wave of popular uprising.

Participating in the debate on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s recent policy statement in the House, Field Marshal Fonseka said that some boasted that they had put an end to Aragalaya. “They are mistaken. The Aragalaya is not over. It is taking heavy blows of suppression. It will survive this suppression. The youth will regroup and come back to end this rotten system. As always, my blessings are with them. People have no other way but to extend support to the youth, revolting for the system change. I call on the President to stop this suppression, covering behind the Emergency Regulations,” the Field Marshal said.

MP Fonseka said that President Wickremesinghe’s policy statement contained nothing new but the very same projects that the latter had been speaking of for decades. “Yet, this time around he did not promise to turn Trincomalee into a Singapore. Last time, he tried to do that under the Yahapalana government and even paid Rs 250 million to a team to design that project. But nothing happened. This time he did not speak of the project to build an underground road system, to end traffic in Kandy. A fee of Rs 300 million was paid to design that project. Corruption and frauds continue even under this government. Recently a shipload of gas was imported, paying 34 dollars extra per a tonne of gas. It incurred a loss of Rs 1,360 million.  When the Yahapalana government came to power, SriLankan Airlines was showing an annual loss of Rs. 65 billion, but the incumbent President, then as Prime Minister, appointed one of his friends as Chairman and increased the salary, for the post, from five million to 10 million rupees a month. I pray that this time he would govern the country without that mindset to misappropriate the public funds.