MR dares SLFP Central Committee Sack me if you can

BY RAVI LADDUWAHETTY-2017-12-31

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an exclusive interview with Ceylon Today last afternoon, dared the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) Central Committee to terminate his membership from the Party in which he has been a member for the last 50 years since 1968 and a Member of Parliament for the Beliatta electorate since 1970.

He said: "It was I who salvaged this country from the most brutal terrorists the world has seen. It was I who rebuilt this country and also the SLFP in the post-war history as the President of the country and now it is very easy for the Party that I resurrected to sack me."

He added: "How many times have they threatened to sack me. We will see what will happen if they do that." The former President also said that the SLFP Central Committee and the Party hierarchy should sack the current President Maithripala Sirisena from the Party leadership for getting a segment of the Party to join the UNP Government in return for Cabinet portfolios.

He added that there should be an independent inquiry as to how and why the SLFP Members who even lost the 2015 Parliamentary Polls were brought into the National List and made Cabinet Ministers, which was against all the norms and ethics of the SLFP.

He said that the Party should be taking all that into consideration before taking any disciplinary action against him, he said.

He was reacting to comments made by the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) General Secretary and Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera to this newspaper that the SLFP Central Committee will take stringent disciplinary action against any Party member who acts in contravention of the Party interests and promotes another Party.

The UPFA General Secretary was reacting to a report in Ceylon Today that the former President was to lead the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna at the Local Government Polls campaign

Amaraweera also said the SLFP will be watching the activities of the SLPP members who are in the SLFP and would be submitting a report to the Central Committee with the recommendations to even terminate membership.

"We have not taken a final decision on the former President, but the entire principle that he and other members are engaged in was ethically and morally wrong, he said. Amaraweera dared Rajapaksa to leave the SLFP and do all what he wanted, adding that it was extremely unethical and immoral for Rajapaksa to remain in the SLFP and criticize it.

Rajapaksa and the others in the joint Opposition (JO) are well aware that the SLPP would be an abysmal failure and that it would be a matter of time before it collapses and that is why they are all opting to return to the SLFP," he claimed.