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| Saturday, 24 April 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| Anti Corruption Bill will be the first presented in Parliament by Nadira Gunatilleke The first Bill to be presented in Parliament by the UPFA will be the Anti Corruption Bill. It will be based on four main concepts namely accountability, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness. A group of lawyers are drafting the Bill, said SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena. "At the moment there is a lot of bribery and corruption in the country and some politicians are also involved," he told a press briefing at the Government Information Department yesterday. "When we were going to Parliament on the first day to elect the Speaker we had only 106 votes, but we got 109 votes when we returned after the first day. "We have the people's mandate to carry on our work. "We received 750,000 more votes than the UNP. We won 108 electorates out of 160. This is a two third majority according to the previous electoral system. Therefore, we will continue to serve the people according to our election manifesto," the Minister said. He said the UNP had lit crackers all over the country and also put up a poster after W. J. M. Lokubandara was appointed as the Speaker. "But the people of this country rejected the UNP and elected the UNFA. The people's mandate is with the UPFA," Sirisena said. The Minister said the UPFA reduced the price of fertiliser by Rs. 200, and was hoping to reduce the price further in the next few weeks. "We will issue a gazette notification shortly calling for applications from graduates to provide employment for them. We will increase salaries. We will build highways and special attention will be focused to upgrade health, education and social welfare," Sirisena said. "We have been accused of hiding two JHU monks, but we have nothing to do with it. The two monks had the opportunity to seek legal advise but they did not do it. The JHU monks got together with Prabhakaran's LTTE and voted against the people's mandate with the intention of taking revenge and hatred," he said. "We will work for the benefit of the people of this country with the people's mandate. We will defeat the factions trying to divide the country," he added. Wimal Weerawansa MP, said the JHU has no control over its MPs and are trying to blame others for their own problems. "There is no point, pointing fingers at others for their own problems. We do not have any connection with the abduction of the two monks of the JHU. Why did not the Dayaka Sabhas and relatives of the two monks make any complaints regarding this matter? Even when the JHU monks were attacked in Bandaragama, they put the blame on us. I too appeal them not to lie to the public in the future," he said. Weerawansa said even though the UPFA got 750,000 extra votes, it was reflected in the Parliament accurately. The JHU tried to lie to the people by abstaining from voting to elect the Speaker and letting the UNP candidate win, but their attempt failed when both candidates got similar number of votes. Then they decided to show their nudeness and openly supported the UNP and TNA which testified opposite Prabhakaran to support the UNP candidate, he said From the beginning, the JHU had an understanding about the two monks who voted against the JHU will. At the beginning, the JHU tried to guard their political chastity and go shopping for (to support) the UNP but at the end, they did it openly presenting a mathematic jargon and cheating the people saying that they tallied the number of votes, Weerawansa said. "In 2001, the PA used Ajith Kumara, one of JVP members, against us but we decided to support the PA with the intention of rescuing the country. We did not act to achieve personal goals. But the JHU voted for the UNP going against the majority of the Buddhists who are with the UPFA," he added. "It was the UNP which implemented missionary conspiracies. After promising to support the UPFA to carry out work, the JHU is today acting to destabilize the country and pull the country towards a bottomless pit. It is not a problem for the UPFA to get 113 seats in Parliament. The people's mandate cannot be turned back by a head counting game in Parliament. The people who voted for the JHU should act swiftly against sinful forces voted against Sinhala Buddhists." Answering a question by a journalist, he said they will come to an agreement on the Ministries after a discussion on Sunday evening with the SLFP. Minister Susil Premajayanth said the UNP's main intention is to interrupt the operation of the UPFA Government. "In the beginning, we promised to the public that the Parliament will act as a Constitutional Council, abolish Executive Presidency and change the existing Constitution. Electing a UNP speaker is the first aim of UNP's plan." he said. The people's mandate is not accurately demonstrated in Parliament. The TNA which received 6.8 per cent votes, received 22 seats while the JHU which received 6.6 per cent votes received nine seats. This shows the illusion in Parliament. The public saw how some corrupt UNP Ministers had secret discussions with the JHU in Parliament after the first vote, Premajayanth said. "We will go forward with the people's mandate and serve the people. We showed the people the strength of the UPFA MP group. We will accomplish the people's hopes," he said. Responding to a question by a journalist, Minister Premajayanth said the President usually holds talks with Ambassadors regularly and held talks with the Norwegian Ambassador routinely. Meanwhile, JVP Propaganda Secretary Wimal Weerawansa in a media release yesterday explained the circumstances under which the UNP nominee W.J.M. Lokubandara won the election for the post of the Speaker. He urged the people to cooperate with the United People's Freedom Alliance Government to forge ahead with its historical Rata Perata programme by defeating the sinful forces. It pointed out that in spite of the nearly 50 per cent people's mandate the Freedom Alliance won at the General Election, it received only 105 seats in Parliament bringing its total to 106 with the addition of one seat won by the EPDP. The release states: "This mandate virtually entitled the Freedom Alliance to run a nominee for the post of the Speaker. With a background of 117 votes that were non Freedom Alliance, at the first round election, the Freedom Alliance received 108 votes as against the 108 votes comprising the votes of the UNP, TNA, Muslim Congress, and the CWC for the UNP nominee. On the final round of the election, the Freedom Alliance votes rose to 109 while the UNF votes rose to 110 with the blessings of the Eelamist MPs, Muslim Congress, CWC and the two Jathika Hela Urumaya MPs who abstained from voting on the first round. Thus, the stance of the Jathika Hela Urumaya, a party pledged to uphold the Sinhala Buddhist Heritage in order to establish a Dharma Rajya, became openly evident." |
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