 "Gotabaya Rajapaksa")
Former Sri Lankan President and chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party Maithripala Sirisena on Sunday said that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe have no moral right to remain in power and warned that "a very dangerous situation" will arise if they don't quit immediately.
Sirisena, who was in power from 2015 to 2019, in a statement made 10-point proposals to address the political crisis in the country as the anti-government protesters in Sri Lanka on Sunday continued to occupy the residences of President Rajapaksa and Prime Wickremesinghe, a day after they stormed into the premises protesting over the nation's severe economic crisis.
It is clear that a very dangerous situation is likely to arise in the country if they continue to act without understanding the opposition coming from the people, the 70-year-old former President was quoted as saying by the News First portal.
In his proposals to all "responsible parties", Sirisena said that the Parliament's Speaker should be appointed Acting President until a President is appointed.
He underlined that in order to install the proposed all-party interim government, a National Executive Council or Leadership Council should be established consisting of the leaders of all the political parties represented in the Parliament.
The President and Prime Minister should be appointed with the agreement of the National Executive Council or Leadership Council and civil activists, academics and professionals, he said.
He suggested that a crisis management Cabinet should be appointed with a limited number of scopes to achieve essential and targeted objectives to bring the country back to its pre-crisis status.
A national advisory council composed of academics, professionals, civil activists and opinion leaders should be established under the respective ministries in the crisis management cabinet, he said.
To manage the crisis, the former President said that an integrated management programme aimed at economy, food security, essential services, social welfare and social security programme and socio-political reform/decentralisation approaches should be implemented as soon as possible.
He also said that the 19th Constitutional Amendment should be re-enacted with the necessary optimal amendment without delay.
As soon as the country is restored to its pre-crisis status, a parliamentary election should be held and the people should be given the democratic right to appoint a new government, he said.
In order to build the Sri Lankan nation, and to build the legal and constitutional base necessary to make Sri Lanka a developed country, to implement socio-political reforms, and to make the necessary structural transformations, Sirisena said the drafting of a new constitution should be the leading task of the new government.
Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena had asked President Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to resign immediately to make way for an all-party government after the country witnessed its biggest protest yet amid an unprecedented economic crisis.
The Speaker would become the acting President in the absence of both the President and the Prime Minister. Later, an election among MPs must happen to elect a new President. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has also offered to resign.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe remains in position despite calls to quit. In a statement Saturday night, Wickremesinghe, who has expressed his willingness to resign, said this country is gripped with fuel and food shortages. There will be an important visit scheduled by the World Food Programme next week while crucial talks have to be continued with the IMF. So if the current government is to quit it must be replaced by the next ."
Sri Lanka, a country of 22 million people, is under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil, the worst in seven decades, crippled by an acute shortage of foreign exchange that has left it struggling to pay for essential imports of fuel, and other essentials.
The country, with an acute foreign currency crisis that resulted in foreign debt default, had announced in April that it is suspending nearly USD 7 billion foreign debt repayment due for this year out of about USD 25 billion due through 2026.
Sri Lanka's total foreign debt stands at USD 51 billion.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
