Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe refuted the allegations raised by Tamil National Alliance (MP) Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, claiming that he supports the Rajapaksas.
Addressing the Parliament today, MP Wickremesinghe said that he has never supported the Rajapaksa, and to date remains against them.
He further said that MP Rasamanickam had supported the Rajapaksas in 2013 and had also obtained the post of organizer from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).
The MP made the statement after MP Rasamanickamhad accused the former Prime Minister of having approached several people in the opposition to convince them to vote for MP Ranjith Siyambalapitiya during the vote to elect a new Deputy Speaker.
The former PM stated that that he has never had a deal with the Rajapaksas, and reminded the public that the Rajapaksas had a deal with the LTTE to defeat him at the 2005 Presidential election.
He said he supported Ranjith Siyambalapitiya’s decision to resign from the Deputy Speaker’s post after leaving the Government and instead seek the confidence of the House to retake the post from the Opposition. He said it would set a good precedence.
MP Wickremesinghe said he told Siyambalipitya that he would support him if he was contesting for the post of Deputy Speaker from the Opposition benches but not from the Government benches. He said once he had given his word he saw no reason to change it.
On Wednesday evening, Wickremesinghe said he was informed by the media that the Government would not be putting forth a candidate as they were not keen to test their majority in Parliament against Siyambalapitiya.
The next day when he spoke to SLFP MP Nirmal Siripala he confirmed this same story. Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that if Siyambalapitiya was being proposed by the Independent group he would support him.
Wickremesinghe was subsequently informed that there was a problem with the TNA and their support for Siyambalapitiya. He spoke to the TNA and asked whether the two groups could come together. The TNA refused saying if the SJB did not field a candidate they would do so themselves.
He then suggested that since the Government was not nominating a candidate the two opposition groups can go for a vote but afterwards they must work together again.
He said he discussed this matter with TNA MPs Sumanthiran, Rasamanickam and Adaikalanathan while MPs Mano Ganesan, Anura Dissanayake and Sritharan were in the vicinity. He said the focus of the discussion was how could they resolve this matter.
He went on to explain that when Ranjith Madduma Bandara gave him the No Confidence Motion against the Government he said he would support it. When the No Confidence Motion against the President was provided by Sumanthiran he was the first to extend support to it.
The former Prime Minister said that Rasamanickam has made a false statement against him and that the result was people were now preparing to surround his house based on this false accusation.
Ranil Wickremesinghe said he has no problem if people want to demonstrate against him, but he said it is wrong to use Parliament speeches to threaten people.
He went to state that following yesterday’s performance in Parliament the whole country has turned against the Parliamentarians. They accused the MPs of wasting an entire day fighting over personal agendas. He said the House has lost sight of the problems faced by the people of the country. The people don’t have fuel or money, and that by June we don’t know what will happen in the country.
Ranil Wickremesinghe accused the Parliament of failing in their duties to the public, that they have been unable to come up with a solution for the crisis. He said the House has only spoken and attacked each other.
He questioned whether the Parliament can say that they are with the people or that they have the confidence of the public. He said that the only concern of the House should be to solve the crisis in the country
The former Prime Minister urged that the House take some steps to reassure the public they are working for them, otherwise the Parliament would be surrounded by the public.
He said that they must make a decision before today’s proceeding begins, on what the Parliament plans to do pertaining to the crisis, otherwise they should all go home. (NewsWire)