brand logo

SJB and NPP to boycott Parliament this week

22 Jun 2022

  • Slam Parliament for not finding solutions to crisis
  • Urge Govt to come up with solutions within the week
By Buwanajee Coralage Announcing that they would be boycotting Parliament for the rest of the week, Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa and Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayaka said that Parliament has been unable to provide solutions to the current problems faced by the people. At the Parliament session held yesterday (21), both party leaders, along with the members of their parties, declared their decision to boycott Parliamentary sessions for the rest of the week until the Government provides them with a clear rescue plan to emerge from the current crisis, pointing out the futility of the Parliamentary sessions, claiming are unable to provide solutions to the peoples’ pressing concerns. Premadasa said that despite being voted to rule with a two-thirds majority, the current Government has been unable to provide solutions to the growing concerns of the people, ranging from the people not having basic consumer goods and facing lengthy petrol queues to hospitals running out of medicines, which has also caused the cessation of life-saving surgeries. “The vistas of prosperity and splendour of the SLPP Government has now turned into vistas of failure and frustration, and the crisis today can be purely attributed as the short-sighted, egocentric, self-interested tyrannical rule of the President in the past two-and-a-half years” said Premadasa. He further claimed that the Government has continued to embezzle huge sums of money, some in dollars, for their personal gain, and that his party, the SJB, will represent the voice of the people to highlight the plight of the general public within Parliament.  Saying that the party was within a Parliament that has no room to provide solutions for the problems of the people, Premadasa said the SJB has taken a decision not to join “this conning, swindling and deceiving Government” and that the party will thus boycott the Parliamentary sessions this week.  “We will stand on the road with the general public as we always have, and will continue to do so in the future as well,” remarked Premadasa. Meanwhile, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka highlighted the implications of the collapse of several industrial sectors in the country and added how the numerous protests orchestrated by the people directed at the President can be justified on the basis of the President neglecting his fundamental responsibility to sustain the livelihoods of the citizens of Sri Lanka. “In a similar manner as the 52-day fraud (a reference to the 52-day Constitutional coup in 2018), the President and the Prime Minister conspired using the Constitutional powers of the Executive Presidency to make Ranil Wickramasinghe the Prime Minister, which can be considered an act of undermining the power of democracy and the people’s vote by appointing a Premier who has lost favour with the general public,” declared Dissanayaka. Thus, the Opposition said that it would boycott Parliamentary sessions starting yesterday (21), while providing the Government with this time frame to orchestrate a far-sighted clear plan for future proceedings to emerge from the current crisis.


More News..