ECONOMYNEXT — Sri Lanka presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake will dissolve parliament immediately upon his election and temporarily send all “crooks” home until the public makes it permanent at a general election in one and a half months, the leftist leader said.
“Hand the country over to the National People’s Power (NPP) on September 21. We’ll start to change things one by one,” Dissanayake said speaking at an election rally in Thambuththegama on Monday September 09.
“Results will come on the 22nd. We won’t waste an hour. We will swear in instantly and immediately dissolve parliament.
“We won’t allow these thieves, criminals and frauds to spend another day in parliament,” he said.
Power will then transfer to voters, the NPP leader said.
“I will send them home temporarily. At the general election, you vote for permanently sending them home. We’ll give you a head start,” he said.
Dissanayake said the next parliament won’t have “frauds and corrupt people” and will instead be filled with honest, disciplined and “real” people with subject expertise.
“We’re certain that more than 150 of the current MPs will go home,” he added.
Dissanayake then went onto list out what voters can expect from an NPP government. He said rather than consolidate power the way successive governments have done, the NPP will begin to “let go”.
“The first cabinet decision will be to cancel MPs’ pensions.
“MPs get vehicle permits which are sold for 20, 30 million rupees. Remember, they don’t buy a vehicle with that permit. They take a vehicle from the government for their use and sell the permit. The NPP government will stop issuing permits to MPs, which is a bribe,” he said.
The NPP government’s cabinet will be selected scientifically and comprise no more than 25 ministers, according to Dissanayake.
“Today they create multiple ministries. Remember that agriculture, land, irrigation and animal husbandry is one ministry. Don’t you want such a government?
“There is no such thing as state ministers. You know people like Semasinghe? There is no such thing. That will all be stopped.”
The NPP will not provide housing to ministers, said Dissanayake.
“There will be no motorcades of seven, eight vehicles to travel behind ministers. Maximum one or two. Isn’t that good? Let’s begin.
“We’re not coming to grab it all. We’re coming to let go. For this country, public officials must let go a lot of things,” he said.
Pensions of former presidents will also be cancelled, said Dissanayake, in addition the MPs’.
“The government will take back houses given to former presidents. Mahinda Rajapaksa has three grown sons. They’ll take care of him. Why stay in the government house?
“This poor country cannot bear the cost of maintaining these MPs and ministers. But they care nothing about this,” he said.
The leftist leader also criticised President Ranil Wickremesinghe for having an ambulance as part of his motorcade, which is standard protocol for presidents.
“When Wickremesinghe is on the road there’s an ambulance behind him. There are no ambulances for hospitals. The same is true for Mahinda Rajapaksa and Dinesh Gunawardena. There’s an ambulance parked outside their house at night when they sleep. All of these ambulances will be distributed to hospitals that need them,” he said. (Colombo/Sep10/2024)