Saturday Jan 18, 2025
Saturday Jan 18, 2025
Saturday, 18 January 2025 01:09 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
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| SJB MP Harshana Rajakaruna shows a video on his mobile phone featuring President Anura Kumara Dissanayake at the media briefing yesterday |
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Harshana Rajakaruna yesterday while commending President Anura Kumara Dissanayake for seeking assistance from foreign countries to develop Sri Lanka urged him to revisit his own statements which highly criticised China for making the country a Chinese colony by putting it in a debt trap.
“As a political party in the Opposition SJB, we are happy about his new stance and we are supporting the Government,” Rajakaruna told the media.
“We have doubts whether President Dissanayake has listened to his statements made about China when he was in the Opposition prior to his visit to China. We think that he might have discussed the Chinese funded projects, for which he vehemently opposed when he was in the Opposition, during his discussions with Chinese officials,” he stressed.
Rajakaruna recalled how President Dissanayake criticised China’s projects in Sri Lanka both in Parliament and outside and how he, after becoming President, was praising them during his visit to China.
“There is a mental illness called amnesia, where you lose your memory. We suspect President Dissanayake is suffering from amnesia as he has completely forgotten his critical statements against China,” he claimed.
Rajakaruna, throwing some questions to President Dissanayake, asked whether he had discussed Sri Lanka becoming a Chinese colony, as he claimed when he was in the Opposition, who were the politicians that China bought for money and how did China buy them.
“If President Dissanayake discussed these during his visit to China, the Government can easily name and shame those politicians and bring those politicians to the book. When he was in the Opposition he was highly vocal about Sri Lanka getting into a Chinese debt trap. We would like to know whether President Dissanayake has discussed with Chinese leaders on getting the country out of their debt trap,” he questioned.
Rajakaruna also accused the National People’s Power (NPP) led by President Dissanayake of coming into power by strongly criticising China for lending support and Chinese funded development projects, and using slogans saying China was buying Sri Lankan politicians for money and putting the country into a Chinese debt trap.
He further said that the Government was trying to get the credit again for bringing in Sinopec investment to the country but it was initiated and discussed during former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure.
He said that SJB was happy as the NPP was following the non-aligned stance, which was strongly believed by the SJB with regard to the country’s foreign policy that was given special emphasis on maintaining bilateral relations with China and India.
