More than 200 Sinhala sons of this country were brought to Jayaratne Funeral Directors. - Mangala Sanaraweera

Mahinda has increased his salary by 400% charges Mangala


Former Foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera has charged that President Mahinda Rajapakse had increased his salary by 400% within four days of being elected President.

Mr. Samaraweera said, "Upon being elected President on November 19th, 2005 Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, on November 23rd, had got his salary increased four-fold, a proportion unseen from the time of President J.R. Jayawardene. This is mentioned on page 1,210 of the Hanzard."

Mr. Samaraweera was speaking at a media briefing titled "Three years for Chinthana: Country is lost" in Colombo today (Nov. 20th).
He further said "As President -- J.R. Jayewardene, Ranasinghe Premadasa, D.B. Wijetunga and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga -- all received Rs. 25,000 as their salary."

As President Mahinda Rajapaksa celebrated his third year in office, 79 of his closest relatives hold top government positions, including as ministry secretaries, parliamentarians, presidential advisors, diplomats and chairmen of corporations, said leader of SLFP Mahajana Wing, Mangala Samaraweera.

Commenting on the capture of Pooneryn, Mr. Samaraweera said, "The government has been saying in the past couple of days that our security forces have captured Pooneryn area. On most occasions, it was painted as an achievement of the President himself. We must pay out tribute to the heroic soldiers who fought and laid down their lives to recapture Pooneryn area."

"But, 15 years ago, we similarly celebrated the taking of Pooneryn. This is mentioned in Dinamina. It is an irony of fate that it was captured on 15th November 1993 when D.B. Wijetunga was president, with Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime minister."

"That day too, we captured Pooneryn at the cost of a large number of lives in the security forces. Today as well, we have gained it by sacrificing members of the security forces of yet another generation. We may feel happy that Pooneryn has been captured from time to time, but we still cannot provide a solution to the national conflict."

"This is an endless war. Newspapers do not publish these things. You will not be allowed to publish these either. I know that by last Tuesday, 235 injured soldiers were brought to Colombo National Hospital. It was reported that 85 were brought to Kalubowila, 90 to Jayawardenepura and more than 300 to Military Hospital. Also, the bodies of more than 200 brave sons of this country were brought to Jayaratne Funeral Directors. This government is preparing to sacrifice any number of lives to hide all these and cover up its inabilities."

The SLFP (M) leader also commented on the state of the economy.

"The IMF and the World Bank held a joint meeting in Washington on October 10th to discuss the collapse of the global economy. At that meeting, they released a report on 160 countries. Of those 160 countries, Sri Lanka is among the 28 weakest of economies. The other countries include Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tajikistan, Madagascar, Rwanda, Malawi and Haiti. Three years of Mahinda Chinthana, and our country has fallen to the level of these countries. I am not saying this. It is the World Bank report that says so."

"We have not yet felt the effect of the global economic collapse. At present, we are feeling the economic crisis brought about by the waste, corruption and fraud of the Rajapaksas. It is only when we prepare to celebrate New Year in April that we will feel the burden of the world economic crisis. The Central Bank governor recently admitted that foreign reserves had declined by 30 per cent within three months. We will have to take money in suitcases to buy goods for Sinhala New Year. By that time, the value of the Rupee will be depreciated that much.

Posted by transCurrents on November 20, 2008 10:09 PM | Perm