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| Saturday, 29 May 2004 |
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| UNP should never try to cover up its weaknesses - SB Dissanayake Nuwara Eliya District MP and UNP National Organising Secretary S. B. Dissanayake said the UNP should never try to cover up its own weaknesses and blame India for its defeat at the recently concluded general elections. Instead it should rectify its weaknesses and emerge as a much stronger party to take charge of the country in the near future and develop it with the support and the blessings of India. Dissanayake said this at a meeting of the Hewaheta UNP Bala Mandalaya held in Hewaheta recently. Dissanayake said he could adduce two main reasons for the UNPs recent electoral defeat. They were the premature dissolution of Parliament and pruning the term of office of a government elected for a period of six years to two by the President after deceiving Parliament and the whole world with promises to the country and the neglect of the country's urgent problems by the UNP which postponed solutions to them by two years. Due to these two reasons nearly 350,000 poor masses who had always supported the UNP in the past refrained from exercising their votes at the recent general election and nearly 250,000 Buddhists who had supported the party before cast their votes in favour of the JHU this time. These two factors caused the UNP defeat at the General Elections. Quoting from an old Chinese proverb Dissanayake said 'in times of victory many rush in to take credit but in defeat nobody wants to take the blame. "It is in-proper to blame one another for our party's defeat. The party as a whole has to take the blame for its electoral defeat." He said "Certain newspapers and some of our own members are making an attempt to show that our defeat was due to India. Some sections say the Indian High Commissioner was responsible for our defeat while other's say 'RAW' the Indian secret service organisation was responsible. But I firmly believe that all these views are sheer madness. It is not good for our party and the country to blame India for our defeat. The Indian government and the Indian High Commissioner has the highest regard for our leader specially for his honesty and future plans for the economic development of our country. "It is also a well-known fact that India gave all the possible support to us and they plan to help us in the future. We can never forget all the support India gave us to help in our endeavours. There is a lot to learn from India. India is very much advanced in Agriculture Livestock, administration and many more fields. We should be able to study and try to follow their advancement technically and scientifically. India is very much advanced therefore we should be able to learn from India to chart our own future." Dissanayake said mismanagement by the Chandrika Kumaratunga Government would plunge the economy and the peace process to further crisis in the near future. The SLFP-JVP tie up is getting strained and liable to break up very soon. "In this context we should revive and strengthen our party and be ready to take over the reins of power any moment. Our future government should depend on India more and more for aid and its blessings." |
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