Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Tuesday, 20 November 2018 01:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
State Finance Minister Eran Wickramaratne yesterday assured that they were dedicated to building a law-abiding society and protecting the democracy of the country with their lives.
Pointing out that Mahinda Rajapaksa and his supporters were trying to stay in power by force even after being defeated through two rightfully-passed no confidence motions, he claimed that Rajapaksa camp was now trying to show control that is not within them through ferocity within the Parliament, which was displayed on both 14 and 16 November.
«It has been confirmed that Mahinda Rajapaksa and his purported Cabinet no longer have confidence within the House. Unable to accept the defeat, they are still misbehaving in a wild and boisterous manner, destroying public property and harming the Parliament staff and Police. These are not matters which can be taken casually. No one should try to justify their rowdy behaviour just because it happened inside the Parliament or because they are MPs,” he told journalists at Temple Trees yesterday.
He asserted that the MPs who assaulted the Parliament Police officers on 16 November should be arrested with immediate effect.
“These people are now trying to do something via the Executive that was not possible to achieve through the Judiciary or the Legislature — that›s how bankrupt they are. The Parliament is not a place where you flaunt your physical strength, but a supreme institution where people show their capabilities through knowledge and progressive debate that leads to taking decisions that are of concern to the country›s progress,» Wickramaratne pointed out.
He also said that majority of the MPs were less educated and that was a major reason for their unruly behaviour, while urging the general public to be smarter in their selection of public representatives.
“They cannot be called representatives of the public or MPs; they are just a bunch of thugs in the Parliament,” he added.
Acknowledging that the public servants were facing a challenging situation under the purported Government, Wickramaratne said as public representatives they were dedicated to protecting democracy, law and order with their lives.
He called on the public servants to not adhere to any illegal orders, while assuring that they would bring these offenders to book even after years for their unlawful instructions.
