By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former SLPP National List MP and leader of Yuthukama civil society group Gevindu Cumaratunga yesterday (11) said that the public should oppose former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya’s call for the implementation of the Yahapalana government’s Orumithanadu federal proposals.

Cumaratunga said that he was quite surprised and disappointed by the former Speaker’s move made in his current capacity as Chairman of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ).

The ex-parliamentarian pointed out that a National People’s Power (NPP) government wouldn’t have been a reality without the US-sponsored so-called Aragalaya and the new US administration of President Donald Trump had bared the machinations of the USAID to advance their despicable political agenda.

Karu Jayasuriya should have called for a thorough investigation into external interventions, Cumaratunga said. “Instead, the former Speaker wants the NPP government to advance the Yahapalana project that had been roundly rejected by the vast majority of people,” the civil society activist said.

Cumaratunga challenged NMSJ chief’s declaration that the Yahapalana proposals, prepared by Attorney-at-Law Lal Wijenayaka, had the backing of many parties in Parliament. The former Speaker should realize that treacherous constitutional proposals had been rejected by the people,not once but twice at the 2019 November presidential election and 2020 August parliamentary polls when the UNP was reduced to just one MP.

Referring to continuing controversy over the USAID’s sinister interventions in various parts of the world, including Asia, ex-lawmaker Cumaratunga said that actually Jayasuriya owed an explanation as to his role in finalizing an agreement with the US agency in Nov. 2016. Over the years, USAID increased its role in Parliament to such an extent it arranged foreign visits for MPs and workshops in Parliament.

Cumaratunga said that as a new MP he attended a workshop in Parliament, sponsored by the USAID, and raised a privilege issue on Aug. 30, 2020, over the US agency’s conduct. Although the then Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena assured that undue interventions wouldn’t be allowed, the whole world now knew the level of US interventions through USAID and other means, the former MP said.

There should be no holds barred investigation into US funding, the former MP said demanding that Jayasuriya’s role couldn’t be ignored.

According to him, the continuing controversy over US intervention in India underscored the gravity of the situation. The level of interventions there, as discussed in Lok Sabha, should help us to understand our vulnerability, he said, pointing out that those who ridiculed and accused them of propagating scare stories were silent today.