• says party has capacity to resolve issues

The General Secretary of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) MP Ranjith Maddumabandara yesterday (9) said that there are no serious internal problems within their party as some of its members had claimed last week.

Commenting on a statement made by MP Rajitha Senaratne that the leaders of SJB should take steps to address the internal problems within the SJB during a press conference held recently, Maddumabandara told The Daily Morning that there were issues within the main opposition party that they couldn’t address.

“There are problems in every party. We also have similar problems. We had so many internal problems even when we were in the United National Party (UNP).This is common to any organisation. Especially when there is a party, there are a lot of different people. Then there are different opinions. In such cases, problems can arise. But the SJB has the capacity to resolve these issues and move forward. These are not issues that will break the party,” he said.

However, he also opined that senior MPs like Rajitha Senaratne should behave more responsibly when dealing with such issues in the public domain.

“Rajitha Senaratne is an experienced political leader. He is a senior member of our party. So we believe that he should be more responsible when commenting on the party as it directly affects the party,” he said.

When asked if the party will indicate any disciplinary action against the comments made by Senarathne, he said that the party has not yet taken a decision to take disciplinary action against the MP and that a decision will be reached in the future after discussing it within the party.

Recently Dr. Senaratne had said that he had no intention of joining the Government, but that he however hopes to take a decision soon according to his political conscience if the SJB leaders do not take steps to address internal issues within the party.

There were rumours that Dr. Senaratne would support the Government of President Ranil Wickremasinghe. Previously, several MPs who were elected to Parliament representing the SJB, joined the current Government and assumed Ministerial positions. Among them are SJB National List MP Diana Gamage, who supported the Government since the time of former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and later crossed over and became the State Minister of Tourism, and MPs Manusha Nanayakkara and Harin Fernando, who assumed the portfolios of Labour and Foreign Employment Minister, and Tourism and Lands Minister, respectively, after Wickremesinghe’s appointment as the Prime Minister under Rajapaksa’s presidency.