Leader of the Liberal Party, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha yesterday told Parliament that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa should have listened to calls from various parties not to go for hasty elections and make use of the remaining years of latter’s tenure to bring about reforms promised in the manifesto on which the UPFA had won the previous election.

Making use of time allocated for party leaders to welcome the new government, Prof Wijesinha, who is the new Minister of Higher Education said: “The Liberal Party told the President in writing in October that he should not have a hasty election but instead work on the reforms promised in the manifesto on which the UPFA had won the election. We told him we could not support him in an election without reforms. I know that the left parties had also advised him not to have a hasty election, and I am sorry that they, whose integrity I used to admire, did not stand by their beliefs the way a few of us did.

“I have been told I was courageous, but since as the former President said, I was someone without a political future, as a member of the Liberal Party, I had perhaps nothing to lose. The real heroes of today are the new President, the other members of the SLFP and in particular the Vasantha Senanayake who spoke out so early, and the leader of the UPFA and the few minority members who left the government in that tumultuous week after the Election was called. In wishing the government well, in hoping for opposition cooperation now for reform, I salute them for courage which I hope will not be necessary again in our political system after we get rid of the excessive authority of the Executive Presidency.

“Though the Liberal Party is a small one, we can take credit for having first identified the problems of this Constitution and this Electoral system which our government is pledged to change. Though I know the parties of the left objected to the 1978 constitution, they did so, on the basis of a return to the Westminster model. This was foolish because they had been victims of excessive power in the hands of a Prime Minister under the Westminster system, during the previous few years.

“With regard to electoral reforms, we were the first to suggest change and to advocate a mixed system. We were then accused of trying to introduce foreign customs. However, soon enough all parties agreed on the need for the German system, though twice there were efforts to distort this. I remember discussing this in the nineties with the then Minister of Constitutional Affairs in this Parliament, and him admitting there were slight changes, changes that in fact distorted the principles of the German system. Late in 2002 I urged Karu Jayasuriya to act quickly, but he delayed, and the government was dismissed. I am glad therefore that the Hon Prime Minister made clear our commitment to have swift reforms in this regard.

“In celebrating the need for reform, the Liberal Party can be proud that alone in the government it formally advocated reforms for the last two years. I should mention here though the debt owed also to Vasantha Senanayake, who along with me drafted a formal letter to the former President at the beginning of last year about the need for Reform. Had the former President listened to him and accepted, even with amendments, the constitutional change he tabled, perhaps things might have been different. But, instead of taking advice from moderates in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, which I hope will return to its traditional moderation under its new leader, he was led astray by extremists and those who thought the state was theirs to plunder.”

Courtesy:The Island