Sajith says country can solve its problems without foreign advice

by Dasun Edirisinghe-May 1, 2014

The 21st death commemoration of late President Ranasinghe Premadasa was held yesterday at the feet of his statue at Hulftsdorp. Son of the late leader and Hambantota district UNP Parliamentarian Sajith Premadasa and his wife Jalani paying floral tribute to the Premadasa statue in Colombo. Former President’s widow Hema and daughter Dulanjali also participated in the ceremony. President Premadasa was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber. Pic by Jude Denzil Pathiraja
Former deputy leader of the UNP and its Hambantota District MP Sajith Premadasa said yesterday that Sri Lanka did not require foreign advice to its solve problems, though the country had been facing many serious issues since the end of the conflict.

He was addressing the 21st death commemoration of late President Ranasinghe Premadasa, who was assassinated by the LTTE in 1993. The ceremony was held opposite the Premadasa statue in Halftdorp in Colombo 12 and Colombo Mayor A. J. M. Muzammil garlanded the Premadasa statue. No one from the UNP Leadership Council attended the ceremony as they were in Ampara attending the party’s main May Day event there.

Premadasa said that late President Premadasa had neither succumbed to international pressure nor given in to those who promoted international presence to solve internal problems.

"The late President did not try to get political mileage by promoting our issues in the international arena nor did he enter into any agreements with foreign countries," he said.

Former Minister Imtiyaz Bakeer Marker, UNP MPs Gamini Jayawickrema Perera, Talata Athukorala, Buddhika Pathirana, Sujeewa Senasinghe and Colombo Mayor A. J. M. Muzammil also addressed the gathering.