Opposition candidate hankering after power

Though the JVP-UNP combine was talking about freedom and democracy Opposition candidate Fonseka is hankering after power as he had already said he does not want to be a ceremonial President like William Gopallawa, SLFP General Secretary and Agriculture and Mahaweli Development Minister Maithripala Sirisena said.

“He works with a military mind and his first poster was in yellow letters on a black background. Though he said he was not representing a political party he was seen wearing a green elephant symbol on his shirt at the Wattala UNP convention,” the Minister said at a UPFA press conference yesterday.

“He also attended a meeting at UNP headquarters organized by the UNP trade union JSS where he had said he would give Rs. 10,000 wage hike. Any person with a basic knowledge of economics will know that it will cost about Rs 120 billion to give that increase.

“We also would be happy to give a wage hike of even Rs 20,000. But we know it could not be done as the country’s income was insufficient to do so. This shows that Sarath Fonseka does not understand even the basics, he said.

He said in the election agenda there were presidential, parliamentary, provincial council and local government elections.

And all these have been held on time. The Presidential poll of January 26 is also a clear sign of a vibrant democracy giving the people the opportunity to elect a president.

Though LTTE was defeated and Prabhakaran was killed some shadows of the terrorists were still lurking behind the scene and there still existed the greatest threat to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s life. LTTE supporters in Germany had lit crackers when they heard the news about Fonseka joining the pro-LTTE group to contest the Presidency he noted.

Speaking further Minister Sirisena said though Fonseka promised media freedom and democracy the Rupavahini and Independent Television Networks crews that went to cover the first UNP convention he attended were physically assaulted.

It clearly shows that the UNP was up to its former tricks and neither the UNP nor Sarath Fonseka would give media freedom. Unlike that in the recent SLFP convention held at Khettarama Stadium the media was given full freedom and facilities to cover it without any restrictions.

When one compared the two camps in the presidential election campaign it was easy to see that the SLFP and the UPFA were by far the only group that would safeguard democracy and freedom of the media. (LdeS)