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‘Aragalaya’ activists to meet Opposition party leaders today

12 Jul 2022

BY Dinitha Rathnayake  “GotaGoGama” activists are scheduled to meet political party leaders today (12) with the discussions expected to mainly focus on the formation of an interim Government.   According to sources who spoke to The Morning, the activists will however not meet leaders of the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP). Meanwhile, an action plan articulating the purpose to be achieved by the historic people’s uprising launched on the demand that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his Government resign with immediate effect has been put forward by the said activists. This was drafted in July 2022, and released to the public from the Galle Face Green protest site, for the purpose of bringing relief and peace of mind to all people of Sri Lanka. The demands include: Rajapaksa resigning from the post of the Executive President with immediate effect; Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Government, and the Rajapaksa regime resigning with immediate effect including all Cabinet, Deputy and State Ministers, Secretaries, Directors, and Consultants to Ministries, Chairpersons of State institutions and Corporations, and Ambassadors; the establishment of an interim Government that subscribes to the economic, social, and political aims and aspirations of the peoples’ struggle; the establishment of a peoples’ council that has legal standing, through which representatives of the “aragalaya” (struggle) will be able to effectively engage and mediate with the interim Government; formulating an urgent, short-term course of action to provide relief to the people oppressed by the current economic crisis; a programme for the provision and distribution of essentials such as food, fuel, gas, and the provision of facilities such as education, health, public transport and energy; the cancellation of microfinance and farmers’ debts; the cancellation of leasing and small enterprise debts or framing a methodology for long-term repayment; releasing all protestors who are currently under arrest, including all political prisoners; ensure a process of justice for those who are victims of political intimidation and revenge; a programme to provide justice to all families of victims of extrajudicial killings and disappearances; an investigation based on an audit to recover all monies and assets stolen by the political regime and to deal with all those guilty according to the law; addressing wealth acquired deviously by politicians, tax evasions of corporates that make enormous profits, and unethical profits earned by individuals and companies that received political patronage; a complete revision of the current system of taxation and revising the tax policy In order to minimise the percentage of indirect taxation and to increase the percentage of direct taxation so that large corporates and businesses will be charged higher taxes under a serialised tax system; the reduction of the Executive powers of the President until a new Constitution that affirms the power of the people and their sovereignty is in place through a referendum, having a just law for all, strengthening democratic institutions, and the further democratisation of the existing Constitution.  


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