SLFP proposals basis for dialogue - SLMP

COLOMBO: The SLFP proposals tabled by Party General Secretary Minister Maithripala Sirisena at its recent May Day Rally can form the basis for a new dialogue leading to a final political solution to the ethnic problem based on power devolution, the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) in a statement yesterday said.

The SLMP had stood for a solution based on devolution of power from the very inception since there was no other alternative for ending war and bringing peace to the country, the statement added.

The SLMP statement signed by its General Secretary and Former Parliamentarian Dr. Ranjith Navaratne said the party felt it was the bounden duty of all political parties, voluntary organisations and the public to adopt a new democratic system of government suited to the country which would not permit division paying special attention to the country’s geographical location, history and endemic cultural and social factors and implement.

The disaster caused to the country by war need no special explanation. No one can assess the value of lives lost and property damaged by war in financial terms.

In this situation it was the duty of all political parties to eschew petty differences and unite to discuss the SLFP proposals in detail and transform them into a national set of proposals by incorporating their ideas and views as well to foster peace.

Mere rejection of these proposals on the basis of the hackneyed slogan that devolution would lead to division without putting forward alternative proposals would only spell disaster to the country and its people, the SLMP statement said.