WHILE ANOTHER BATCH OF UNP PARLIAMENTARIANS ARE DISCUSSING TO JOIN THE GOVERNMENT TISSA ATTANAYAKA SAYS THERE IS A GREAT CRISIS IN THE GOVERNMENT LEADING TO A COLLAPSE

By Walter Jayawardhana

Partly infuriated by the exit of 18 parliamentarians from his party and partly elated by the fact that the entry of the those parliamentarians in to the government has caused the events of things that led to the sacking of three Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) ministers the General Secretary of the United National Party (UNP) Tissa Attanayaka said the government has been hoisted by its own petard.
He said today the government has been injured by its own trick intended for the UNP and predicted that the crisis started by the sacking of the ministers would spread and finally lead to the collapse of this government.

He said the image of the Bandaranaike name and hard work of Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi certainly helped Mahinda Rajapaksa to win the Presidential election with a razor thin margin and accused the President of betraying them for the sake of getting some UNPers in to the government.

He said the government rebels are not restricted to only three and according to his information there are some more people to rise against the President in the government and the rebellion would spread. He said the President sacked the three from their ministerial positions just to stop the spread of the rebellion.

Condemned as the protégé of the party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe by the UNP reformists who have joined the government and who have not joined the government but still remain in the party like S. B. Dissanayaka ,Tissa Attanayaka also praised some of his bitter political enemies of yesterday , namely Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and said if not for the JVP President would never have won the last election.

He said the President is trying to work beyond the mandate he received to implement a personal political agenda. He said the President by taking the UNP rebels has reneged the MOU signed between the two parties. Tissa Attanayaka was being interviewed by the Sinhala service of the BBC, the Sandeshaya.

Meanwhile the General Secretary of the SLFP, Maithripala Sirisena in a statement to the Independent Television Network said though the UNP leaders tore the MOU because the government gave portfolios to some UNP members of parliament he never tore the MOU signed with the LTTE when the LTTE reneged the agreement more than 6000 times.

In another statement issued to the same TV network Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said the decision to accept the UNP reformists have been approved by the party central committee, government parliamentary group and the cabinet and it was no personal decision of the President.
In a letter addressed to Tissa Attanayaka, the Minister for Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Navin Dissanayake said the UNP today is run by political novices although the leader of the party is Ranil Wickremesinghe. He said "today it has become under the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe, a party without hope, belief or any progress of action to bring the party to power.

"Although, Wickremesinghe is the leader, the party is controlled and manipulated by political novices such as Malik Samarawickrema and Lasantha Wickrematunga. Until this situation is changed the United National Party will not have any future with the present group of individuals who are shamelessly hanging on high position in the party".

Sources close to the Presidential Secretariat said another batch of UNP Members of Parliament would join the government and they have already started negotiations with the President.