Wednesday, 13 November 2013 00:53
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Party says expenditure too much on summit; Rajapaksa Govt. not living up to C’wealth values but Opposition Leader will attend Summit on Friday
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo this Friday,
the United National Party announced yesterday.
The announcement followed a lengthy explanation of why the summit should not be held in Sri Lanka and how the ruling regime was eroding the organisation’s values.
Issuing a statement, UNP General Secretary Tissa Attanayake said Sri Lanka had received an invitation to host CHOGM in 1983, but the offer had been turned down by President J.R. Jayewardene who had deemed the exercise too costly a burden for the state to bear.
“While the government is hosting a summit on behalf of an organisation that extols the values of democracy, human rights and good governance, there has been no transparency regarding the expenditure incurred by the state for this purpose,” Attanayake said.
He added that rather than use the opportunity to restore eroded democratic values and live up to the values of the Commonwealth, the Sri Lankan Government has turned CHOGM 2013 into an extravaganza to showcase the Rajapaksa regime.
The statement goes on to say that the only valid reason to hold CHOGM in Sri Lanka is that the government would now have an obligation to uphold the values of the Commonwealth Charter.
The UNP added that it was also surprised by the Commonwealth Secretariat’s ostrich-like attitude towards some of the fundamental issues raised in Commonwealth observations regarding Sri Lanka.
“On contemplation of all these facts, the Leader of the Opposition and National Leader of the UNP Ranil Wickremesinghe has decided to attend the opening of CHOGM in Colombo on 15 November 2013,” Attanayake said. (DB)
