Sri Lankan President should appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as PM to save country - Gotabhaya

Coolombopage.com

April 21, 2015



Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena should quickly call for parliamentary elections and appoint former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister to save the country, former Defense Secretary and Rajapaksa's brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has said.
 
In an exclusive interview to the Express News Service on Tuesday, the former Defense Secretary has said that the President and his brother should join hands to give the country a "functioning government" and put the country back on its feet.

"Maithripala Sirisena has been elected President for six years. Therefore, he will have to continue. But he can quickly call for parliamentary elections and appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. Together, they should put the country back on its feet by providing a functioning government with people committed to achieving goals," Gotabhaya told Express.

He said the people of Sri Lanka wants Mahinda Rajapaksa back and now the support for him has grown beyond the 5.8 million votes he got in the January Presidential election.

Gotabhaya claimed that the people are clueless as to who is in charge of their country.

"On the one hand there is Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who is running the government. But on the other hand, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Champika Ranawaka and Rajitha Senaratne also claim to be in-charge. However, what is clear to the people is that there is no functioning government."

He told Express that all economic development projects initiated by the Rajapaksa government have been brought to a standstill.

"In the construction sector alone, over 100,000 workers have been rendered jobless by the stoppage of projects," he claimed.

He said that no civil servant wants to take decisions because officials are being hauled up before investigative agencies for alleged "procedural lapses".

Gotabhaya warned that the entire economy will collapse if this situation is allowed to continue and it "will be very difficult to put it back on its feet again."

The stalling of Chinese projects and the TATA housing project has adversely affected international investor sentiment about Sri Lanka, he said.

"The TATAs had already paid the money and cleared the land to build 650 flats for low income families. Now, I hear, they have gone back."

The former Secretary for Defense and Urban Development, who has been asked to appear before the Bribery Commission tomorrow has dismissed the charges against him as being baseless.

"I have been accused of procedural lapses. Have I robbed money? In fact, I have earned money, including foreign exchange, for the government through my projects," he asserted.

On the alleged illegal activities of the "floating armory" set up by a company wholly owned by the Ministry of Defense, Gotabhaya said that it was engaged in anti-piracy work in the Somalian waters as per a UN request.

Gotabhaya claimed that it was an international obligation Sri Lanka had to fulfill and the company was earning foreign exchange for the country.

The former Defense Secretary said that he had not only won the war against the Tamil Tigers but had given a new face to Colombo, both not done by previous regimes.

"The present government is going after me for delivering results. Sarath Fonseka claimed in India that he won the war. But I say, he was in the army for 30 years, but had failed to win the war. It was only when we (the Rajapaksa brothers) took over, that the war was finished, and that too, in three years flat. Chandrika Kumaratunga claims that she had won 75 percent of the war, but it was during her Presidency that there were major reverses," Gotabhaya told Express.