SLFP CONDEMNS PRIME MINISTER’S ACTION OF SENDING OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVES TO A SEPARATIST RALLY THAT HOISTED TIGER FLAG
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
July 05.04.55 AM:The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main Opposition party of Sri Lanka issued a statement condemning the “unpatriotic” act of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe for sending two official representatives to a separatist rally that hoisted a separatist flag and publicly ridiculed the national army.
The SLFP was referring to the “Pongu Thamil” rally recently held in Jaffna to which Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe sent Senior Assistant Secretary of media relations of his office, Saman Athawudahetti and S. Pathmanadan also of the same office to officially represent him .Athawudahetti later said the Pongu Thamil rally expressed brotherly love to the Sri Lanka Army while spectators reported a mock up Sri Lanka Army camp was exhibited at the rally and the participants of the rally were asked to attack and break apart the mock up camp.
The main theme of the rally was to force the Sri Lanka Army to leave Jaffna.
The SLFP statement said it was unfortunate that the Prime Minister of the country sent his representatives , June 27, at a separatist rally of the terrorist group, the LTTE, that spread racial hatred among their supporters.
The statement said that the main aim of the Pongu Thamil rally in Jaffna was to arouse the masses in the area against the Sri Lanka Army. “ We question the Prime Minister under what kind of a political morality his official representatives were eagerly watching the mock attack on a the Sri Lanka Army camp at the rally.
The statement said the Prime Minister by sending his official representatives to this racist and separatist revelry had Okayed the LTTE demand to form a separate state.
Adding insult to injury, the statement said, the Prime Minister’s Senior Assistant Secretary for Media issued a statement in a childish attempt to justify the act of treason
He would have at least accepted the wrong act and asked for pardon from the country. But he took the most ridiculous act to show that it was the correct thing to do. That was an insult to all the freedom-loving citizens of Sri Lanka. The statement said, anyway the act of kneeling down before the separatist terrorists by the Ranil Wickremesinghe government was not a surprise when considering other similar demeaning acts in the past.
The statement said by sending official representatives to a separatist rally that had hoisted a separatist flag as a national flag the Ranil Wickremesinghe government had accepted that a separatist state was in operation in Sri Lanka and had pushed for the recognition of it abroad.
