My decision to resign came after careful thought - Reginald Cooray

by Ariyaratne Ganegoda and Wyman Hettiarachchi

Western Province Chief Minister Reginald Cooray who tendered his resignation from the post addressing the Western Provincial Council meeting yesterday (20) said that his resignation is not a mere withdrawal through cowardice incapable of taking up defeat, but a far sighted decision taken after much careful thought.

He said that when compared with the challenges he confronted during the insurrection periods of 1971 and 1988 the present crisis is a simple outcome engineered by a handful of political theoreticians who did not appreciate his views, but his image built up in the minds of a vast majority will remain untarnished.

Opening the proceedings at the Western Provincial Council Auditorium at Battaramulla yesterday, Jagath Angage, announced that Western Province Governor Alavi Mowlana has intimated to the House of the acceptance of the resignation tendered by Chief Minister Reginald Cooray.

JVP Provincial Council Group Leader Waruna Deepthi Rajapakse, at the outset announced that his party members will hereafter sit with the opposition and with permission of the Chairman occupied a seat in the first row of the opposition members amidst applause.

Continuing his address Reginald Cooray said that as a man who trod a path of death warrants and corpses to attain this position he will not retreat as a coward but answer any allegations levelled against him under the impeachment proposals to exonerate himself from all false charges. "Somawansa Amarasinghe and myself are the only survivors out of the old JVP pioneers.

We know in and out about the JVP's ups and downs. That knowledge may be an obstacle to the men of today. I ask them whether it is meanness to protect the Freedom Alliance, he questioned.