‘You blindly borrowed to fight a war’ – M A Sumanthiran demands Sri Lankan president resigns

Speaking in parliament, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP, M.A. Sumanthiran slammed the Sri Lankan government’s failure to establish a functioning cabinet following a wave of resignations, including by the newly appointed finance minister who resigned within 24 hours.

 

07 April 2022

“You have decided to go to the IMF but who is to go?” asked Sumanthiran.

He stressed that the appointment of the finance minister is vital in dealing with Sri Lanka’s food and medicine shortages.

“No minister, no secretary, no money […] You have brought this country to bankruptcy” he declared.

Read more here: Newly appointed Finance Minister resigns within 24 hours

Explaining the causes of Sri Lanka’s economic woes he notes, “You blindly borrowed to fight a war. Why did you fight a war? Because you did not keep your promises”.

“If the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact had been implemented, if the Dudley- Chelvanayakam pact had been implemented, Tamil youth could not have taken up arms”.

“You did not keep your promises and that’s why you had to fight a war. That’s why you had to borrow so much and now the time of repayment has come”.

Sumanthiran further added that the final trigger for the economic calamity was the 2019 tax cuts which saw the country’s tax revenue plummet 25% with 33% of the population pulled out of the tax net.

“Your keenness to win the election by giving freebies and sweeteners to the people caused it” he told parliament.

“Now people have woken up that’s why they’re saying ‘Go Gota Go Home’” he added.

His statement follows his calls on Thursday (5th) for a vote on the public emergency declared on the weekend of 2/3 April.

 “The Government may be running scared to take a vote in parliament, but they cannot escape from the constitutional duty of having the emergency proclamation placed in parliament and a vote taken on it,” he stated.