SJB says Ranil cannot achieve his goals as he is surrounded by SLPP fraudsters

By Saman Indrajith

The SJB says that President Ranil Wickremesinghe will not be able to achieve the goals envisioned in the economic plan of his interim budget proposals.

Participating in the debate on interim-budget proposals, SJB Kurunegala District MP Nalin Bandara Jayamaha on Wednesday told Parliament that President Wickremesinghe would never be able to achieve any success in implementing the “grand-economic recovery plan envisioned by the proposals. “We have nothing against this plan or the proposals. They are the very same policies of our party. But it is not possible to achieve these goals because the President does not have a good team with him. His team comprises those who are bent on sabotaging his plan. We have been trying to implement these proposals since 1994. Then we tried again in 2000 and 2015 but could not achieve them because they were hindered by those who are now in the government. It is with the same saboteurs the President is going to put this plan into practice. That would not achieve any success because the SLPP lot now around the President possess a frog-in-the-well mind-set. Those who had some intelligence to understand are now in the opposition. We saw 13 SLPP members with Prof. G.L. Peiris leaving the government to join the opposition the other day. Those remaining there are not known for work but for frauds.

“The other reason for these proposals not achieving success is the massive frauds continuing unabated. We recently came to know that the former President’s son Chi-chi has a hotel in Sinharaja forest. It was also revealed that a carpeted road to that hotel via the jungle had been put up at a cost of Rs 810 million. It is the very same team of fraudsters who are going to implement these proposals. They are still engaged in siphoning off public money,” the MP said.

Bandara said that people had been demanding for months that the assets stolen from them must be recovered. “There is no such plan in these proposals. Therefore, these proposals would not be welcomed by them,” he said.

There are exporters who want to help boost the economic revival process, but they are not given assistance by the government, the MP said. “It is the exporters who bring in dollars which is our primary need at this time. Yet the government has not made a plan to provide diesel to them. How could you boost an economy without providing fuel to exporters?” Bandara queried.