President should appoint Mahinda as PM to save country says Gotabhaya

Wednesday, 22 April 2015 01:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

President Maithripala Sirisena should quickly call for parliamentary elections and appoint former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister to save the country, former Defence Secretary and Rajapaksa’s brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said. In an exclusive interview given to the Express News Service on Tuesday, the former Defence Secretary has said that the President and his brother should join hands to give the country a “functioning Government” and put the country back on its feet. “Maithripala Sirisena has been elected President for six years. Therefore, he will have to continue. But he can quickly call for parliamentary elections and appoint Mahinda Rajapaksa as Prime Minister. Together, they should put the country back on its feet by providing a functioning Government with people committed to achieving goals,” Gotabhaya told Express. He said the people of Sri Lanka want Mahinda Rajapaksa back and now the support for him has grown beyond the 5.8 million votes he got in the January Presidential election. Gotabaya claimed that the people were clueless as to who was in charge of their country. “On the one hand there is Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who is running the Government. But on the other hand, Chandrika Kumaratunga, Champika Ranawaka and Rajitha Senaratne also claim to be in-charge. However, what is clear to the people is that there is no functioning Government.” On the alleged illegal activities of the ‘floating armoury’ set up by a company wholly-owned by the Ministry of Defence, Gotabaya said that it was engaged in anti-piracy work in the Somalian waters as per a UN request. Gotabaya claimed that it was an international obligation Sri Lanka had to fulfill and the company was earning foreign exchange for the country. The former Defence Secretary said that he had not only won the war against the Tamil Tigers but had given a new face to Colombo, both of which were not done by previous regimes. “The present Government is going after me for delivering results. Sarath Fonseka claimed in India that he won the war. But I say, he was in the army for 30 years, but had failed to win the war. It was only when we (the Rajapaksa brothers) took over that the war was finished and that too in three years flat. Chandrika Kumaratunga claims that she had won 75% of the war but it was during her Presidency that there were major reverses,” Gotabhaya told Express.

Gota claims economic collapse by halting development projects

Former Defence and Urban Development Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has warned of the dangers of halting development projects including the loss of employment to thousands and has justified Tata’s housing project in Sri Lanka.

He told India’s Express News that all economic development projects initiated by the Rajapaksa Government had been brought to a standstill. “In the construction sector alone, over 100,000 workers have been rendered jobless by the stoppage of projects,” he claimed. He said that no civil servant wanted to take decisions because officials were being hauled up before investigative agencies for alleged “procedural lapses.” Gotabaya warned that the entire economy would collapse if this situation was allowed to continue and it “will be very difficult to put it back on its feet again.” The stalled Chinese projects and TATA housing project have adversely affected international investor sentiment about Sri Lanka, he said. “The TATAs had already paid the money and cleared the land to build 650 flats for low income families. Now, I hear, they have gone back.” The former Secretary for Defence and Urban Development, who has been asked to appear before the Bribery Commission tomorrow, has dismissed the charges against him as baseless. “I have been accused of procedural lapses. Have I robbed money? In fact, I have earned money, including foreign exchange, for the Government through my projects,” he asserted.