President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the government were planning to impose the most draconian Emergency regulations in the post-independence history and they would further diminish the country’s chances of receiving assistance from the international community, Education Secretary of the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP) Pubudu Jagoda, said yesterday.Jagoda said the Emergency passed in Parliament would have serious consequences for the public and would fuel anger and dissatisfaction among the people.

“When Ranil Wickremesinghe came into power, his associates said that he could bring in billions of dollars to the country through his contacts. However, Wickremesinghe has not been able to secure any loan since May. However, it seems that he is doing his best to antagonise the international community by running his mouth,” Jagoda said.

Emergency will further undermine Sri Lanka’s credibility and the only thing left before Wickremesinghe and Co. was to sell national assets and privatise state-owned enterprises to foreign companies with dubious track records.

“This is the only option he has. No one is going to help a man like Wickremesinghe. It is obvious that he is incapable of ensuring political stability. Countries like the EU, China or Japan will not help a state mired in political instability. So, Ranil will start selling national assets and when unions rise against them, he will try to use these Emergency laws to crush the unions. It is unlikely that the unions will take such a move lying down and there will be more chaos,” Jagoda said.

The FSP Education Secretary said the new Emergency laws were more far more draconian than those imposed during the 71, and 88-89 insurgencies and the war with the LTTE. Jagoda said that the laws were mainly aimed at suppressing trade unions

“When Ranil became the Prime Minister, the first thing he said was that SriLankan Airlines should be privatised. He tried to do that between 2015 and 2019 and found there were no buyers among recognised international companies. Has he now found another company with a dubious reputation to sell the airline? More recently, the government has amended the electricity Act. This was done to let Adani come and take over the renewable sector of the country. People will not tolerate these moves,” he said.

Jagoda said that Wickremesinghe lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the people and the guarded responses from the international community showed that his claims of having access to international networks were also false.

“Ranil is not a legitimate President. The Parliament does not reflect the will of the people. We call upon the government to hold an election,” he said.