by Saman Indrajith

Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (Retd) Sarath Weerasekera’s recent statements promoting mono-ethnic supremacy have exacerbated communal divisions in the country, says the JVP.

Former JVP MP and Politburo Member Bimal Ratnayake said that people have a constitutional right to speak their minds and support the brand of politics they favour.

“It is not a right they have been given by the president or the government. That right has been upheld by many Supreme Court decisions. But the Public Security Minister is speaking as if it has been given by to the people by the government,” he said.

“It is a right that they too enjoyed while they were in the opposition. He and other ministers describe teacher unionists as Taliban. The Public Security Minister defends any wrong doing of the police.

“Those who engaged in recent protests against selling a terminal of the port and those by petroleum workers were protests to save national assets. But the Public Security Minister is setting the police against them.

“They make speeches setting up people against the unionists. His recent statements speak of a mono-ethnic supremacy which is dangerous to communal harmony.

“The government is in need of another Prabhakaran or Zahran to play the communal card again and create another disaster. Their plan is to cover their failures using such a disaster as a means of diverting public attention from the burning issues of the day.

“We tell those in government and the Minster of Public Security that playing a Cyril Matthew role would not yield anything positive for the country,” Ratnayake said during a press conference held at the party headquarters on Thursday.

He said that the police were being used as a means of coercion against those who do not toe the government line. “CID teams have been sent to the homes of our party members. A group of Frontline Socialist Party leaders are held in detention for more than 60 days. Some of them contracted COVID-19 behind bars.

“It is said that they are held under the laws of public property. Then what action has the government taken against Nirupama Rajapaksa who failed to declare her assets recently published in the Pandora Papers while she was a sitting MP?,” Ratnayake queried.

MP Dr Harini Amarasuriya said that the government was using the police force in a manner that people are deprived of their civil liberties on a daily basis.

“The Public Security Minister calls the teacher unionists terrorists. As we know that police are allowed to shoot below the knee in some instances to bring a volatile situation under control. But the Public Security Minister says that policemen could shoot at the heads of people and he would stand by such policemen. This is an outrageous situation,” she said.

National People’s Power Operational Committee Member Aruna Shantha Nonis also addressed the press.