Media Minister on Ranil's statement:

Ancient republics not for present day

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had made a very serious statement at the 63rd UNP convention in Kandy with far reaching meaning.Yet evidently he had made it without understanding the depth of methods of governments that existed during the time of The Buddha.

Wickremesinghe had also said only the UNP could form such a government, Media and Investment Promotion Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said at the weekly Cabinet press briefing held at the Parliamentary complex yesterday.

The forms of government that existed in the 6th Century could not be recreated today and even the founder leader of the UNP D.S. Senanayake would not have considered such a form of government. Wickremesinghe had wanted to form a confederate state with the LTTE leader Prabhakaran at one time and now he is talking about forming an ancient republic fashioned after the states that existed during the time of the Buddha, the Minister said.

Answering a question about the freedom of the media he said the Government had no intention to curb the freedom of speech and writing and did not want to limit the freedom by using laws arbitrarily but our policy is to protect democracy and respect the freedom of the media.

We have defeated terrorism and are now engaged in rapid development work - building roads and bridges, providing other infrastructure and in some districts development of roads have opened the path for economic activity as transport time and costs have been reduced and productivity enhanced, he noted.