Gold sale: UNP canard

Lakshmi DE SILVA

The UNP would face its worst political defeat on October 10 like facing a tsunami and the Government would march forward with more strength to implement its development policies for another 10 years though the UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and other forces try to foist many untruthful stories like Chetiya Pacha (King Chethiya's fibs), Mahaweli Development Minister SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena said at the weekly UPFA press conference.

The UNP has already accepted its defeat at the coming Southern Provincial Council election but their effort is directed at maintaining a percentage of votes not less than the percentage polled at their defeat at the Uva Provincial Council election, the Minister said.

The SLFP in the past had experienced splits but even when SLFP had three factions in the late 1970s it did not become so weak like the UNP today. The UNP has eroded and would face its worst debacle, he noted.

The UNP Leader was going round the country with the latest canard that the Government was trying to sell the gold reserves. As everyone knows people sell their gold only when they face a crisis. But the Central Bank Governor assured we had Rs four billion worth gold reserves as well as Rs. four billion worth of foreign currency reserves. Therefore, there was no necessity to sell gold reserves. But during the last UNF regime of Ranil Wickremesinghe in 2002/2003 there was less than Rs. two billion worth foreign currency reserves at the Central Bank, the Minister said.

However, the UNP Leader should take a lesson from the Myanmar Opposition Leader Aung Sang Suki who told the western Governments not to impose sanctions against her country when she was imprisoned by the Yangon Government. She said: "Do not make my fellow countrymen pay for the faults of the government," Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.