CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

OPPOSITION LEADER THREATENS TO CANCEL THE BUSINESS LICENSE OF HSBC BANK IN SRI LANKA

By Walter Jayawardhana

Provoked by non response of the Hongkong and Shanhai Banking Corporation not to offer loans to the current government the United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said not only they would not pay back the loans of the government they would also cancel the bank’s license to operate in Sri lanka when a UNP government comes to power.

“We will let them go back to Hongkong or Shanghai to do their banking business and cancel their operating license in Sri Lanka,”said Wickremesinghe addressing the 61st Anniversary sessions of his party held at the party headquarters, Siri Kotha in Sri Jayawardhanapura ,Kotte.

The UNP leader has been provoked by the non-response of the bank to his politicized letters sent to the bank and demonstrations his party held in front of the bank demanding not to give loans to the Sri Lanka government.

The government minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena , who is a dissident member of his party said Wickremesinghe’s protests were only similar to the protests and demonstrations held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Tigers (LTTE) held so far in front of the World bank and the International Monetary Fund requesting them not to give loans to Sri Lanka. The LTTE is a separatist group who are waging a two-decades long insurgency in Sri Lanka.

In the history of Sri Lanka, as an independent nation this is the first time a leader of opposition has threatened a foreign bank that their license would be cancelled for giving loans to the government.
According to Wickremesinghe the reason for them to cancel the license of the HSBC to do business is that they gave a loan “unlawfully” to the government for developmental work.

But Wickremesinghe did not explain how a loan could become a unlawful.The Chief Government whip and Minister Jeyraj Fernandopulle said no bank has responded to Wickremesinghe’s threats since his threats did not have any valid reason. He said there is no threat whatsoever to the banks since Wickremesinghe has failed in elections 14 times consequently and he would repeat the failures in the future and he would never come to power.

Fernandopulle said during the last few months the biggest crisis in his party happened when 17 party members with the deputy leader of the party joined the government putting an end to all hopes of his to capture power.Wickramesinghe also said the truth cannot be told to the people since there is a terrible control of the media by the government

He said while this control is going on some editors are licking the boots of the government, indicating there is a significant amount of editors back the government. When he first announced his frustrations with those editors at a poltical rally at Anuradhapura he said the editors of Lankadeepa, Lakbima and Divaina, three Sinhalese newspapers, being good Buddhists say early in the morning Mahinda Saranam Gatchami, Gotabhaya Saranam Gatchami and Basil Saranam Gatchami, replacing the names of the President and his two brothers for Buddha Dharma and Sangha in the recitation of a Pali stanza. Ridiculing Buddhist stanzas for political purposes was not to the liking of some Buddhist priests. The Asgiriya Maha Nayaka said the UNP would never come back to power for ridiculing the religion.

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