Cabinet heats up over CJ rulings
Thursday, 18 December 2008 13:45
The President and several ministers, at a meeting of the cabinet last night (Dec. 17th), had strongly criticised the ruling by the chief justice at the Supreme Court for bringing down the price of petrol to Rs. 100 per litre.
The President has reportedly told his ministers that they should even be prepared to go to prison for violating the SC order, the implementation of which, he said, would give a bad precedence.
"A conspiracy has begun with foreign assistance to overthrow the government. The conspirators want to deny the government its income and to stop the war."
"I lost two of my best officers due to SC rulings. P.B. Jayasundara and Asantha de Mel, both are at home now. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. I want a united decision of the cabinet. Or else, I will stop the war tomorrow," he has said at the beginning of the meeting.
President Rajapaksa has said that he would in the future expose to the public the behind-the-scene conspirators responsible for this anti-government plot.
Voicing strong support to the President, senior minister Maithripala Sirisena has said the judiciary should not be allowed to dictate terms to the government.
Apart from executive presidency, parliament is the country's most supreme institution, he has noted, adding that conspirators, both local and foreign, were attempting to destroy the image of the country's leader.
His colleague Nimal Siripala de Silva has spoken about how the CJ could be removed from his position.
Minister Rajitha Senaratne has told the cabinet that his attempts to petition for the removal of the topmost official of the judiciary during the UNP regime were sabotaged by Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Rohitha Bogollagama has advised his colleagues to act and decide intelligently and to negotiate solutions to problems without letting the country to go to anarchy, warning that, or else the impact at international level would be very bad.
Agreeing with him, Minister John Seneviratne has said that there should be no conflict with the judiciary unnecessarily, although there may be political conspirators and those who oppose the war.
Also speaking here, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has said a public opinion was building up that the present regime was corrupt and that the SC rulings only go to establish that claim.
He has called for the rebuilding of the image of the government after appointing the independent bribery and corruption as per 17th amendment to the constitution.
Taking offense with the remark, President has retorted that he was well aware of who the corrupt were, and that the biggest of them all were in the ministry of Dinesh Gunawardena, appointed by the minister himself.
He has also said that after the war ended, he would decide about them, adding that he has already made up him mind about the actions to be taken against the CJ's decisions.
Minister A.H.M. Fowzie tried to appease his leader and expressing sentiments similar to those by Messrs. Bogollagama and Seneviratne, has noted a majority of the people, irrespective of party differences, had welcomed the SC rulings recently.
The government may gain many battlefront victories, but still the people will be with the judiciary when they are given rulings in their favour, said Mr. Fowzie.
Completely rejecting the claim that the SC was more popular than the government, President Rajapaksa has asked the minister as to whether he had conducted a referendum for the opinion of the public.
However, Minister Fowzie continued, "If the SC says fuel price should be reduced by Rs. 22, we can reduce it by Rs. 25. By doing that, we will lose nothing. The SC has ruled for a reduction in the tax, not the price. Therefore, we can enforce the SC ruling and increase the prices later."
"Then, there will be no conflict or anarchy of the country. Otherwise, there will be long queues for fuel by tomorrow.
There will be demonstrations across the country. People will set fire to filling stations," he has said.
Intervening, Minister Senaratne has called for strong measures under emergency laws if such protests took place.
If the opposition takes the people to the streets, the government should do likewise, he said.
As ministers disagreed on the SC ruling of the petrol price reduction, the President has deferred to take a decision until after obtaining a written statement of the court decision, and the cabinet will meet again today to discuss the matter further.
He has also tasked Minister Dallas Alahapperuma to launch an extensive campaign to raise public awareness to counter SC rulings unfavourable to the government
Sourse - Lankadissent.com -
Thursday, 18 December 2008 13:45
The President and several ministers, at a meeting of the cabinet last night (Dec. 17th), had strongly criticised the ruling by the chief justice at the Supreme Court for bringing down the price of petrol to Rs. 100 per litre.
The President has reportedly told his ministers that they should even be prepared to go to prison for violating the SC order, the implementation of which, he said, would give a bad precedence.
"A conspiracy has begun with foreign assistance to overthrow the government. The conspirators want to deny the government its income and to stop the war."
"I lost two of my best officers due to SC rulings. P.B. Jayasundara and Asantha de Mel, both are at home now. This situation cannot be allowed to continue. I want a united decision of the cabinet. Or else, I will stop the war tomorrow," he has said at the beginning of the meeting.
President Rajapaksa has said that he would in the future expose to the public the behind-the-scene conspirators responsible for this anti-government plot.
Voicing strong support to the President, senior minister Maithripala Sirisena has said the judiciary should not be allowed to dictate terms to the government.
Apart from executive presidency, parliament is the country's most supreme institution, he has noted, adding that conspirators, both local and foreign, were attempting to destroy the image of the country's leader.
His colleague Nimal Siripala de Silva has spoken about how the CJ could be removed from his position.
Minister Rajitha Senaratne has told the cabinet that his attempts to petition for the removal of the topmost official of the judiciary during the UNP regime were sabotaged by Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Rohitha Bogollagama has advised his colleagues to act and decide intelligently and to negotiate solutions to problems without letting the country to go to anarchy, warning that, or else the impact at international level would be very bad.
Agreeing with him, Minister John Seneviratne has said that there should be no conflict with the judiciary unnecessarily, although there may be political conspirators and those who oppose the war.
Also speaking here, Minister Dinesh Gunawardena has said a public opinion was building up that the present regime was corrupt and that the SC rulings only go to establish that claim.
He has called for the rebuilding of the image of the government after appointing the independent bribery and corruption as per 17th amendment to the constitution.
Taking offense with the remark, President has retorted that he was well aware of who the corrupt were, and that the biggest of them all were in the ministry of Dinesh Gunawardena, appointed by the minister himself.
He has also said that after the war ended, he would decide about them, adding that he has already made up him mind about the actions to be taken against the CJ's decisions.
Minister A.H.M. Fowzie tried to appease his leader and expressing sentiments similar to those by Messrs. Bogollagama and Seneviratne, has noted a majority of the people, irrespective of party differences, had welcomed the SC rulings recently.
The government may gain many battlefront victories, but still the people will be with the judiciary when they are given rulings in their favour, said Mr. Fowzie.
Completely rejecting the claim that the SC was more popular than the government, President Rajapaksa has asked the minister as to whether he had conducted a referendum for the opinion of the public.
However, Minister Fowzie continued, "If the SC says fuel price should be reduced by Rs. 22, we can reduce it by Rs. 25. By doing that, we will lose nothing. The SC has ruled for a reduction in the tax, not the price. Therefore, we can enforce the SC ruling and increase the prices later."
"Then, there will be no conflict or anarchy of the country. Otherwise, there will be long queues for fuel by tomorrow.
There will be demonstrations across the country. People will set fire to filling stations," he has said.
Intervening, Minister Senaratne has called for strong measures under emergency laws if such protests took place.
If the opposition takes the people to the streets, the government should do likewise, he said.
As ministers disagreed on the SC ruling of the petrol price reduction, the President has deferred to take a decision until after obtaining a written statement of the court decision, and the cabinet will meet again today to discuss the matter further.
He has also tasked Minister Dallas Alahapperuma to launch an extensive campaign to raise public awareness to counter SC rulings unfavourable to the government
Sourse - Lankadissent.com -
