Responding to the allegations made by the Chief Opposition Whip John Amaratunga, who proposed a debate in the parliament to address the current state of lawlessness and the lack of peace in the country, the Premier rejected Amaratunga's charge that the law and order of the country was at a low point.
The PM pointed out that only a minority of about 0.225 percent violates the law in the country and opposition's claim cannot be accepted just because of a one incident in an area.
While acknowledging that certain incidents occur in a country that faced a long war, Jayaratne said the people of this country now live without fear and suspicion after three decades.
During the debate, the Prime Minister pointed out that it was due to the disunity and the failure in the opposition to nominate a member for a decade under the provisions of the 17th Amendment, the government was able to bring the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
There was no agreement in the opposition to appoint a member required for implementing the 17th Amendment, the PM noted.
Jayaratne informed the House that the President has already launched a streamline programme to eradicate the menace of lawlessness.
Speaking at the debate, the opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe said if the police acted properly, certain unfortunate incidents could have been averted.
When the police do not act properly the people lose their trust in the police and finally the pressure is on the parliament to resolve issues, Wickremasinghe pointed out.
He noted that media organizations that came out against such situations in the past are observing silence today.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the freedom of media has been consolidated in the country and they have the right to express their opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment