President Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the Leader of the National People’s Power (NPP), Anura Kumara Dissanayake should apologise to the people of the North for the threatening
statement he had made during his recent visit to the North. He was addressing the Puluwan Sri Lanka victory rally held in Jaffna yesterday (September 7).
The President said that Anura Dissanayake had gone to Jaffna and said that if the people of the North do not share the opinion of the South at the upcoming Presidential Election, the people of the South will think that they are against the change, and that this was a threat to Jaffna and the North. He said that Anura Dissanayake should also apologise to the South for threatening the North by using the name of the Sinhalese people and said that he strongly condemns Anura Dissanayake’s statement.
President Wickremesinghe said that Anura Dissanayake will not win this Presidential Election and after apologising to the people of the North and the South for the threats, he asked him to sit in the Opposition.
“We have come here to present our plan and ask for your valuable vote. Anura Dissanayake also asked for your vote. What did he say when he came here?
Anura Dissanayake had said, “Imagine what kind of mindset the people of the South will have if you all oppose it while the people are lining up for a change in the South. He asked if you would like Jaffna to be called as those who opposed that change.”
“I assure you again that we will win the upcoming Presidential Election. But you should become stakeholders in the victory. Don’t be against it,” Anura Dissanayake told the people of the North.
“This means that Anura Dissanayake is threatening the people. He said that he will take care if they don’t vote for him. I condemn that threat,” the President said.
The President said, “We came here for the 2010 Presidential Election. We asked the people here to vote for Sarath Fonseka. The people here voted for him. People from the South voted for Mahinda Rajapaksa and he won the election. But did they assault the people here? Nothing happened. Finally, Douglas Devananda also became a Minister.”
“What happened in 2015? We all said to vote for Maithripala Sirisena. The people of the South voted for Mahinda Rajapaksa. We won that time but nothing happened. Then what happened in 2019? The people of Jaffna voted for Sajith Premadasa. The Sinhalese people voted for Gotabaya Rajapaksa and he won the election, but Gotabaya did not come here with the Army. We have always accepted that result.”
In that situation, how can Anura Dissanayake threaten people?
“Anura Dissanayake is trying to scare you. They are trying to scare people in the North as well as in the South. That is the “style” of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). At that time, people were scared by giving a chit. They are trying to go back to that era.”
“I ask my friend Anura Dissanayake to immediately apologise to the people of the North and the people of Jaffna. I am also asking him to apologise to the Sinhalese people for using their name to scare the people of the North. Anura can’t win. I ask him to apologise and then go and sit in the Opposition. Thus, he will not be able to come to Jaffna again. Don’t threaten people like this. We will not be afraid this time. Threats are not allowed.”
“There is no point in talking about Sajith Premadasa. If Sajith had done his job as the Leader of the Opposition, Anura would not have come forward. Do not waste your vote by voting for them. What we should do is to develop this country and move forward,” the President added.
(sundayobserver.lk)
