Rajapaksa promises new constitution within 6 months
Posted on July 28th, 2015
Courtesy Adaderana
Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today reiterated that that the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has not divided into two factions. Only one faction exists and that is the anti-UNP faction, he said.
The UPFA is not a cauldron of porridge” like the UNP, he said, delivering a speech at the launch of the UPFA election manifesto at Henry Pedris Ground in Colombo. The UPFA election manifesto is titled A Guarantee for the Future.”
Rajapaksa claimed that the incumbent government is unable to pay the wages of public sector employees in the coming month, due the large number of state employees.
I believe that the country has been turned back more than 25 years,” he said.
The former President stated that if that was not the case and the people did not feel that way, he would not have to make a political comeback.
He stated that they will remain patient when required, but they are also prepared to do battle and go to war for the country when it is required.
He said that the United National Party’s policy regarding education and the youth is clearly evident through the Minister of Education appointed by them. Rajapaksa, who is contesting the parliamentary polls from Kurunegala District, stated that his party would sacrifice lives to protect the free education.
Every youth above the age of 18 will be provided Rs 50,000 for education and the Mahapola scholarship will be increased to Rs 6,000 per student, he pledged.
The former President stated that computer literacy in the country was increased from 3% to 45-50% during his reign. But that computer knowledge was used on us on January 08 through Facebook,” he added.
Rajapaksa claimed that false propaganda was quickly spread through social media in the run up to the Presidential Election, which he lost to Maithripala Sirisena, but said they believe there is no issue with that.
We intend to provide Broadband facilities to every home and introduce an opportunity for the young generation to enter the online market, he assured.
He stated that the UPFA, if elected as the government, would introduce a new constitution within 6 months and that they will also introduce new election systems.
July 28th, 2015 at 9:23 am
These are great benefits! And this video presentation is very good. It looks like they’ve got some brains after January 8th election.
July 28th, 2015 at 10:23 am
Sri Lanka opposition says no autonomy for Tamils World News Tue, 28 Jul 2015 AFP
Tue, Jul 28, 2015, 07:33 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
July 28 (AFP) Colombo- Sri Lanka’s main opposition party Tuesday scrapped a longstanding promise to give greater autonomy to minority Tamils, as it tries to win over hardline sections of the Sinhalese majority before a general election.
In its manifesto launched in Colombo, former strongman Mahinda Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) said it would refuse to grant more powers to a local council in the Tamils’ northern heartland if it won the August 17 election.
Before he was toppled in presidential polls in January, Rajapakse had promised to build on a law passed in 1987 giving some autonomy to ethnic Tamils.
The law was brokered by neighbouring India to try to end a decades-long conflict between Sri Lanka’s military and Tamil rebels fighting for a separate homeland.
Rajapakse, an ethnic Sinhalese, remains popular among big sections of the island’s largest community for overseeing the defeat of the rebels in 2009.
Rajapakse said he was contesting a seat in the upcoming parliamentary poll to ensure Tamil-dominated areas did not slip back into conflict.
“Criminal activity has increased in the north… it is becoming a dangerous situation. If things were all right, there would be no need for me to come back and contest elections,” he said at the launch.
The manifesto did not say why the party was withdrawing the autonomy promise, but political observers said it was aimed at winning over hardline Sinhalese who oppose power-sharing with Tamils.
Rajapakse’s defeat in January was blamed on allegations of corruption and nepotism during his decade-long rule, as well as a failure to achieve post-war reconciliation.
President Maithripala Sirisena, who defeated his one-time mentor, has pledged to bring about reconciliation with Tamils.
The UPFA manifesto also pledged to double the minimum wage and give tax-free cars to wide sections of society and extend generous subsidies to farmers.
July 28th, 2015 at 11:03 am
The Tamil Nadu based New Indian Express (NIE) may dismiss our fears of the Tiger Nominated Party’s platform as a “MERE SPIN” on advocacy of separatism … BUT WE KNOW BETTER!
Years of Anti-National UNDERMINING of our Motherland by the TNA in collusion with SEPARATISTS, the Tamil Diaspora, COMMUNAL Tamil Nadu Politicians attempting to EXPAND DRAVIDA NADU, and NeoColonialist Foreign Powers Iintent on recreating Sri Lanka in THEIR IMAGE, LEAVE US IN NO DOUBT that this iss the THICK END of the WEDGE to achieve their Mono-Ethnic Apartheid SEPARATIST Bantustan of EELAM in Sri Lanka!
NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER!
……………………
Rajapaksa-led UPFA Sees Eelam Spin in TNA Manifesto
July 28 (NIE) COLOMBO- The manifesto of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for the August 17 Sri Lankan parliamentary elections has become a major issue among the Sinhalese majority in the island nation.
The TNA’s demand for “self-determination within a united but federal Sri Lanka” is being interpreted as a stepping stone to an independent Tamil Eelam. The TNA wants the 13th Amendment of the Lankan constitution to be scrapped and replaced by an amendment ensuring a federal structure with greater devolution of power to the provinces
Parties aligned with the United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA) led by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa are not only voicing fears of Tamil separatism but asking the Sinhalese parties friendly to the TNA, to explain their stand on the manifesto.
UPFA candidate Tissa Attanayake dubbed the TNA manifesto as a “national security threat.” The UPFA is trying to taint the United National Party (UNP)-led United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) as an “anti-national” combine which should be shown the door. The UPFA hopes that the TNA manifesto will enable it to strengthen its hold on the Sinhalese-Buddhist community, which had supported it strongly in the January 8 Presidential elections.
The high voltage UPFA campaign forced Prime Minister and UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, to declare that his party is for “devolution of power to the provinces within a unitary constitution and not a federal constitution.”
Another controversial aspect of the TNA’s manifesto is its demand for the re-unification of the Tamil-speaking Northern and Eastern Provinces to form a single North-Eastern Province as per the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987. The Muslim parties are dismayed by this because the Muslims will become an insignificant minority in a unified North-Eastern province. The Muslims are in substantial numbers in the Eastern Province. So far, two of the three Chief Ministers of the East have been Muslims.
If the UNFGG does not clarify its stand on the merger issue, a section of the Muslims in the East could vote for the UPFA which had detached the North and East by securing a Supreme Court order in 2006.
TNA’s spokesman, Suresh Premachandran said that the party’s manifesto did not say anything that it had not said in its earlier manifestos.
July 28th, 2015 at 10:22 pm
I hope Honorable former President is organized. On the contrary, I tried call his office at 1.00 am SET USA on this number given on his web site http://www.mahindarajapaksa.lk The number is : 011-94-47-2240344 It rang but no one answered the phone. My question is there saboteurs in his office?