Sri Lankan lawmaker quits and called Parliament a bluff
A Sri Lankan lawmaker who resigned saying he can no longer take up public curses and insults directed against the government and Opposition has disclosed that Parliament is a big bluff that has usurped on the rights and privileges of the people and has no moral right to continue.
Chaminda Wijesiri, an Opposition MP representing the largest Samagi Janabala Vegeya (SJV) said the time was right for the people to bring down a corruption-sustaining anti-democratic government through an election which he declared was the only way to calm public anger against all 225 lawmakers in Parliament.
“Parliament has lost its credibility and it no longer represents the voice of the people”, Wijesiri who hails from the agricultural Bandulla district told a packed media conference hours after submitting his letter of resignation to the Speaker of Parliament.
“We are being cursed by the people for failing them and imposing hardships of them. I took to politics with my father’s advice to serve the people in Badulla and the country at large and my three school going children are also been cursed for something that I am not responsible for and I thought the best thing for me and my family is to quit.
“A few MPs like us who are honest feel ashamed to stick around”, Wijesiri said.
He becomes the first MP to resign amid the chaos, a breakdown in law and order, soaring food prices and corruption on an unprecedented scale with no one in authority taking responsibility.
“I am not responsible for the state of affairs in the country but the degrading remarks and comments made by the people against us have to be taken into account and things put on the right track.
“The people are looking forward to a new era through a new election and that has to be taken into account. The people can no longer tolerate the presence of politicians who bankrupted the country. I was one person who raised the people’s voice in Parliament and it is the people who should have a say and change the set up in the country. What is happening in Parliament is all a bluff. I have worked according to my conscience and never played any double games,” said Wijesiri.
When asked whether his political career was over with his resignation from Parliament, Wijesiri said he will continue to back the SJV leader and Opposition heavyweight Sajith Premadasa who he described as a politician who has taken the people’s problems very seriously.
“I am still a member of the SJV and I will continue in politics provided the right climate is created for the welfare of the people. I will support my leader Sajith Premadasa in his effort for a clean administration in the country.
“Premadasa has already made it clear that the era where politicians keep changing sides and colours and have become Ministers for life enjoying all the privileges while the people are in the dumps will no longer have a place in the country”, said Wijesiri.
