By Shamindra Ferdinando

Dissident SLPP MP Prof. G. L. Peiris recently questioned President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s declaration that Sri Lanka was the only country in Asia where democracy is completely safeguarded, thereby Opposition rights guaranteed.

Nothing could be further from the truth, the former External Affairs Minister told a gathering at the launch of ‘Ira Kaluwara’ by another rebel SLPP lawmaker Wasantha Yapa Bandara in Kandy over the weekend.

Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa, SLPP MP Dilan Perera and SJB MP Kavinda Jayawardena were among the invitees.

Having indefinitely put off Local Government polls that were to be held in late March last year, regardless of the intervention made by the Supreme Court, President Wickremesinghe was making a deliberate attempt to deceive the people, the former Law Professor at the Colombo University charged.

Prof. Peiris was commenting on President Wickremesinghe’s address at the opening session of the inaugural National Student Parliament at the Presidential Secretariat.

Prof. Peiris pointed out that President Wickremesinghe, in his capacity as the Finance Minister, went to the extent of directing Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana to submit an affidavit to the Supreme Court underscoring the extreme difficulty the country was facing in allocating money for the Local Government polls due to the continuing economic crisis. “Under the UNP leader’s watch we are now the only country in Asia to have put off elections,” the National List MP said.

In addition, the UNP leader also obtained the consent of the cabinet to bar government officials from releasing funds required to conduct elections (Local Government or any other) without specific written approval from the Finance Minister, Prof. Peiris reminded the gathering.

Having dealt a massive blow to democracy, the UNP leader was exploring ways and means of legitimizing his wholly undemocratic and dictatorial actions with the SLPP that couldn’t depend on mandates received at the 2019 and 2020 presidential and parliamentary polls, respectively, Prof. Peiris said.

Appreciating the services rendered to the genuine Opposition and the people by MP Wasantha Yapa Bandara, first-time entrant to parliamentary politics, Prof. Peiris said that contrary to President Wickremesinghe’s big boasts, the country was in severe economic difficulties. The actual situation is very much contrary to President Wickremesinghe’s claims, Prof. Peiris said, raising objections to what he called authoritarian measures to suppress Opposition.

Prof. Peiris said that UNP leader Wickremesinghe given an opportunity to run the country against the backdrop of his failure to win at least one seat at the last parliamentary polls conducted in August 2020 underscored the crisis the country was experiencing. The UNP could secure only one National List slot out of 29 and was in a desperate situation when an unprecedented crisis gave him an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, Prof. Peiris went on to say.

The former minister also found fault with President Wickremesinghe and the President’s Media Division (PMD) for repeated assurances given on the forthcoming presidential election. Such assurances caused concerns among the Opposition and people as there was absolutely no need for them to say so, Prof. Peiris said, reiterating that the responsibility for conducting presidential polls rested with the Election Commission.

Referring to a recently released World Bank report, Prof. Peiris said that though the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government sought to paint a rosy picture, the lending body revealed Sri Lanka’s real status regarding poverty, unemployment and malnutrition among children.

The former Minister said that the issue at hand is the government’s insensitivity to the developing economic and social crises. Prof. Peiris said that discontinuation of electricity to over 900,000 consumers last year and the unprecedented deterioration of public sector health services against the backdrop of health minister Keheliya Rambukwella remanded on corruption charges pertaining to procurement of counterfeit lifesaving drugs required by cancer patients and others.