Prime Minister needs to regain his lost credibility before the election

Friday, 1 May 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The recently-deceased leader Lee Kwan Yew

said: “I do not care how the Western World judges me, I am worried about how the people I govern judge me.” Ranil Wickremesinghe needs to take a cue from this. I watched in dismay the hammering he got recently in Parliament. An Opposition MP observed that he is not fit to be the Prime Minister. How tragic can this be? He is the most able leader Sri Lanka has. It is not right to ridicule the man in this way. The Prime Minister has made some silly mistakes in the last 100 days. Let me outline some of them. The controversial way he handled the Bond fraud. Everyone knows the Committee was biased. The Governor would help the Prime Minister by fading away for the good for the Government to pave the way to appoint a professional central banker to that position. He can never function properly again as the Governor. This has damaged the image of the Prime Minister. Appointment of his Cabinet. For example, the apparent conflict the Finance Minister has with the exchange control. Why was he appointed? The poor handling of the Financial Crimes Unit. It is alleged by the opposition that the Prime Minister’s officials are using this to hunt down Opposition MPs. The running of the Government. Centralising the administration and taking power away from ministers in Cabinet. Including sections in the 19th Amendment without the consent of the party leaders, thus losing the trust of the Opposition. Unnecessarily making statements against individuals; he needs to maintain his status. The country needs the Prime Minister, however he needs to help himself. Priyantha Colombo