By
S.Thavarajah
(Text of a press release issued by Northern Provincial Council Leader of Opposition S. Thavarajah on Feb 15 2015)
S. Thavarajah, Leader of Opposition,
Northern Provincial Council
Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran has told the President Maithiripala Sirisena that the resolution “Sri Lanka’s Genocide Against Tamils” passed by the Northern Provincial Council on the 10th of this month was not aimed at President Sirisena or his Government but was targeting previous administrations, particularly the Rajapaksa regime.
When he was called for a meeting by the President two days after passing the resolution on the 12th of February, 2015 in order to get clarification on the resolution, he had held the hands of the President and assured him that the resolution was not against the President and the present Government, according to media reports.
During the course of his speech, before presenting the resolution in the council, he read out a statement vehemently attacking the Government and the Prime Minister, in a harsh oratorically worded Tamil language.
He accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe that he had indicated his unwillingness to reduce the army or to remove the camps in the North, when he met him after the elections.
He condemned the Prime Minister as holding onto obsolete political tactics.
He has also stated that the views expressed by his nephew when he visited the army camp in the North recently has caused the resolution being placed hurriedly.
It is another act of play by the TNA. They show one face to the Jaffna audience and Tamil media and another face in Colombo.The somersault by the Chief Minister, contradicting his own statement in the council, is a disgrace and shame.
This has been the political tactics of TNA throughout. They arouse the feeling of the Tamils through their emotional appeals in order to get their votes and behave differently in Colombo for their personal gains.
Chief Minister CV Wigneswaran presenting the Resolution
The following excerpts from his speech stand testimony to his somersault.
“I view the assurance given by Hon. Ruwan Wijeyawardena recently when he met the army in Jaffna that the army camps would not be removed as being the expression of view of his uncle through nephew. Not only that, when I met his uncle Hon. Ranil Wickramasinghe after the elections this is what he told me ‘We are going to assure Mahanayake Theros that we would not be removing any army camps in the North”. After telling me this, he, who never smiles like his uncle J.R. Jayawardena, smiled a bit. What I understood from that was ‘I am going to keep cool the minds of the Mahanayake Theros, in order to win the forthcoming General Elections’ “.
“When Hon. Ruwan Wijeyawardena expressed the same view before the army recently I got alarmed. We requested to release at least 5,000 acres of land out of the 6,500 acres occupied the Army. But the statement made by Hon. Ruwan Wijeyawardena makes us to belief that the army is not having adequate land space for their accommodation and that there is no attempt to remove even a single army personal who had been enjoying posy live-style in the 6,500 acres of land.”
“The new Government’s message to the Sinhala people was that they were not going to reduce the army and not going to remove their camps.”
“I wish to ask the Prime Minister, who is acclaimed as democrat, as to why he is submerged in an obsolete (Patham Pasali) old political tactics. Because of this reasons only I am bringing this motion hurriedly in spite of myself suffering as a result of unfit physical condition.”
S. Thavarajah
Leader of Opposition,
Northern Provincial Council