Friday, 23 May 2014 01:08
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Opposition Leader hits back at President’s remarks about his MIT stint
Snubs Medamulana as a good place to learn about “corruption, terror and oppression”
Says discussed Lanka, human rights, executive presidency and challenges of terrorism in Boston
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday hit back at President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s remarks about his one-month fellowship at a top university in Boston, saying corruption, terror and oppression were the only political lessons to be learned in the President’s hometown of Medamulana.“Since I didn’t need lessons in how to be that type of politician, I had no reason to go to Medamulana,” Wickremesinghe told a party meeting at Sirikotha yesterday. Addressing the launch of Central Bank’s 2013 Annual Report in April, President Rajapaksa poked fun at Wickremesinghe’s MIT stint, saying the Opposition politician only needed to come to Medamulana to learn how to topple governments.Wickremesinghe said he had spent his work-study tour in discussions about Sri Lanka and the South Asian region, facing the challenge of terrorism and how the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms can make a state fall apart. Wickremesinghe said that going forward Sri Lanka needed to abolish the presidency and the preferential voting system and reinstate the 17th Amendment.“I discussed at length how to build a governance structure after the abolishment of the executive presidency,” he said.
