Confusion in Parliament and within UNP over No Confidence Motion:

Notorious Track Record of Rajapakse Regime In Governance

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe will under his own name submit a motion of no confidence against the government on December 8th citing primarily the controversial hedging deal.

The government has run into a storm of controversy over the hedging deal which will cost the state over US $ 400 million in losses.

The deal had led to infighting in the government with some ministers blaming Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Minister A.H.M. Fowzie and former Chairman, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Asantha de Mel while Minister Fowzie told parliament last week that the entire hedging deal was the brainchild of Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal and cabinet approval was later obtaine d for the same.

Meanwhile, the UNP submitted a separate motion to parliament bearing the signatures of Chief Opposition Whip, Joseph Michael Perera and Parliamentarians Ravi Karunanayake and Dayasiri Jayasekera seeking two full days parliamentary debate on a host of items ranging from corruption to abductions.

The motion was originally a no confidence motion but at the last moment, Chief Whip Joseph Michael Perera had on his own initiative deleted the no confidence aspect of the motion and called for a debate.

The original motion approved by the UNP leader said in the concluding paragraph that, "This House resolves that this House has no confidence in the ability of this government to continue in office any longer."

The motion submitted to the Secretary General of Parliament on December 5th reads as follows:

We, the undersigned Members of Parliament do hereby give notice of the following motion to be placed on the Order Paper of Parliament and for necessary action thereafter.

Whereas the Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse through the implementation of the dubious Mahinda Chinthana has brought the country into a state of misery and to the brink of disaster and

Whereas the government through the corrupt "MIG aircraft" deal caused our defence establishment to purchase outdated aircraft jeopardising the air force and its personnel and

Whereas the government through the wasteful and irresponsible Mihin Lanka Project has committed a colossal sum of rupees, Rs. 6,000 million to resurrect the insolvent Mihin Lanka airline which has already squandered Rs. 3,250 million of public funds in all totalling to Rs.9, 250 million and

Whereas the government through the highly suspicious 'Hedging' deal entered into by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation with foreign commercial banks and our own Peoples' Bank, without the supervision of the Auditor General to purchase the fuel requirements of this country when the oil prices in the world market rose to 147 dollars a barrel in September 2008 which dramatically slumped to 47 dollars a barrel in December 2008 thereby depriving the public of enjoying the benefit of the declining oil prices in the oil market as the Sri Lanka Petroleum Corporation had committed itself and this country to a massive foreign debt of Rs. 2.5 billion to the banks and

Whereas if not for the timely intervention of the Supreme Court, the government in order to recoup the losses running into billions of rupees incurred in the 'Hedging' deal and would have imposed a further burden on the already suffering masses and

Whereas the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry are implicated in this "Hedging' transaction and

Whereas this government in furtherance of maintaining its precarious balance of power in parliament has dubiously, willfully and surreptitiously changed the peoples' mandate by purchasing corrupt Members of Parliament and

Whereas the government in order to maintain its political balance has created a jumbo cabinet of 110 ministers hereby making the people to bear the burden of maintaining these ministers by expending billions of rupees to sustain its flagging artificial majority in parliament and

Whereas all the monies which is being robbed from the people and squandered on wasteful exercises could be better used to alleviate the sufferings of the masses and

Whereas the government through intimidation, harassment, terror, abduction and the white van scourge has muzzled the media and unleashed a spate of violence and

Whereas the government through its notorious record of human rights violations has brought this country into disrepute in the eyes of the international community thereby pushing the European Commission to consider blacklisting the country resulting in the danger of losing the GSP + facility afforded to the garment industry of this country causing an imminent threat to nearly 250,000 persons employed in this sector, and

Whereas over the last three years the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse, has inflicted nothing but misery and agony on the people ad installed a culture of bribery, corruption, waste and nepotism and

Whereas the government has callously and surreptitiously increased the President's allocation to as much as Rs. 6,800 million for the year 2009 whilst denying the people their welfare benefits such as 'Samurdhi,' health, education and transport, and failed to give the promised salary increase to the public sector, the estate sector and the private sector and

Whereas the government has failed to provide any relief to the victims of the tsunami who are still living in refugee camps and

Whereas the government has failed to provide any relief for the thousands and thousands of internally displaced persons distributed in several refugee camps and

Whereas despite the fact that the government is fully aware that the opposition is fully supportive of the government in its war effort, it goes on to rely on the war to camouflage its misdemeanors and mismanagement and continues to foster ethic hatred and violence through the state controlled media.

We hereby request that the opposition be given two full days at the earliest opportunity to debate the matter set out above.

Posted by transCurrents on December 6, 2008 09:26 PM | P