{"id":47990,"date":"2015-09-18T21:13:06","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T03:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=47990"},"modified":"2015-09-18T13:45:01","modified_gmt":"2015-09-18T20:45:01","slug":"give-us-clarity-mr-prime-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/09\/18\/give-us-clarity-mr-prime-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Give us clarity Mr Prime Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

By The Nation<\/a> <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

I<\/span>n a meeting with media heads and editors Friday afternoon at the President\u2019s House, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted to know where the media stood with respect to certain issues, in particular CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement).<\/p>\n

Showing much irritation, Wickremesinghe blasted the media in general for making an issue out of nothing and indicated that he was embarrassed by the brouhaha regarding CEPA before and during his visit to India.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was my first visit after becoming the Prime Minister and had nothing to do with any agreement,\u2019 he said He reiterated the sentiments of President Sirisena who said that there was no discussion regarding CEPA and that no steps whatsoever have been taken in this regard.<\/p>\n

Both the President and the Prime Minister also spoke at length about the controversial UN Report on the last stages of Sri Lanka\u2019s war against terrorism.\u00a0 The President labored to say \u2018it could have been worse\u2019, i.e. had he not been elected President on January 8, 2015.\u00a0 With regard to the confusion over whether or not Sri Lanka will go along with the recommendations included in the report, especially with respect to the mechanism to investigate allegations of rights violations, the Prime Minister said that no decision has been taken. He said that all reports including the Udalagama and Paranagama reports and recommendations therein will be considered along with the UN Report.<\/p>\n

A third issue discussed was whether or not the moratorium on capital punishment will be lifted.\u00a0 Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera has stated that the moratorium will be extended with a view to abolition.\u00a0 The President however said that a final decision either way will be taken by Parliament.\u00a0 Looks like there\u2019s confusion.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not only about the death penalty. There is no clarity on anything from the side of the Government.\u00a0 Not a single official or minister overseeing the broad subject of bilateral economic partnerships is ready to make any statement on the issue.\u00a0 No one knows if there\u2019s a \u2018concept paper\u2019 or a \u2018draft\u2019 or a point by point agenda for discussion regarding economic relations between Sri Lanka and India.\u00a0 All that\u2019s known is the acronym CEPA.
\nIt\u2019s the same with regard to the UN Report.\u00a0 While the President congratulates himself for \u2018arranging\u2019 a less-damning document, Samaraweera says \u2018the report is balanced and fair\u2019.\u00a0 Obviously neither seem to have read or understood the contents.\u00a0 It is largely an \u2018update\u2019 of that other problematic document, the Darusman Report.\u00a0 There\u2019s obvious tokenism about the LTTE\u2019s \u2018share of blame\u2019.\u00a0 There\u2019s absolute disregard for context.\u00a0 It is clearly guided more by hearsay than anything else and worse, a trial is envisaged where claim is treated as fact.\u00a0 Finally, despite Wickremesinghe chiding the media for giving play to the term \u2018hybird mechanism\u2019 (of investigation), what is recommended is that Sri Lanka concede sovereignty in multiple ways.<\/p>\n

His assurances to the contrary, citing for example the Paranagama Commission Report, are certainly welcome, but they have to be taken along with Samarasinghe\u2019s hurrahs, Sirisena\u2019s consolations and calling for blood by the likes of Rajitha Senaratne and Chandrika Kumaratunga, the latter ironically in charge of \u2018reconciliation\u2019!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no clarity on anything Mr Wickremesinghe.\u00a0 Your Government does not know where it stands and therefore it seems rather ridiculous to ask where the media stands on anything.\u00a0 The media has to report and comment.\u00a0 Fairly. With balance.\u00a0 That\u2019s a given.\u00a0 Right now, the only thing about which all sections of the Government are in agreement is the vilification of the previous regime and in particular Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing legal in that kind of solidarity of course, but this Government was not elected to do just that.\u00a0 It took Wickremesinghe and Sirisena weeks to appoint a cabinet.\u00a0 It\u2019s been more than a month since the Government was elected and we are yet to know which institution comes under which ministry.\u00a0 The ministers themselves don\u2019t know what the demarcations are with regard to their respective subjects.\u00a0 Little wonder they talk out of turn or worse act as though they\u2019ve lost their tongues.\u00a0 The same goes for officials.
\nThe Government has to get its act together.\u00a0 There has to be clarity.\u00a0 That\u2019s the Government\u2019s job, Mr Wickremesinghe.\u00a0 We can help, certainly, and we do when we point out the contradictions.\u00a0 Don\u2019t vilify us just because your team doesn\u2019t know where it stands.\u00a0 That\u2019s puerile, really.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By The Nation In a meeting with media heads and editors Friday afternoon at the President\u2019s House, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wanted to know where the media stood with respect to certain issues, in particular CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement). Showing much irritation, Wickremesinghe blasted the media in general for making an issue out of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}