President Ranil Wickremesinghe has requested for the Opposition’s support towards rebuilding Sri Lanka from its ongoing crisis, despite their conflicting political views. 

“Leave your personal political aspirations aside. Think of empowering the country before gaining power for yourself. You can follow your own agenda on other political matters. However, it is imperative that you act out of the box politically with regard to building the economy of the country. Help me in the process of strengthening the economy”, the Head of State said while addressing the Parliament this morning (22 March). 

Thus, he reaffirmed that he seeks the ‘valuable support’ of the Opposition for the implementation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, despite the accusations levelled against him by the Opposing parties in previous instances. 

Below is the relevant excerpt of the full speech made in Parliament by the President; 

“When I became the Prime Minister I wasted no time in requesting the support of the Opposition towards the effort of rebuilding the economy of the country. However I did not receive that support. 

Subsequently, at the occasion of opening of Parliament as the President I once again requested their support but it was to no avail. During the Budget debate too I requested the same of the Opposition, but they did not come forward. Yet again, at the occasion of the opening of this Parliament Session too I sought their support. But that request too frittered away. 

They refused to extend their support citing various reasons. They said that my appointment was unconstitutional. They opined that Prime Ministers cannot be appointed from the National List. They even went to the extent of saying that my ambition was not to salvage the country from the economic crisis but to save the Rajapakses. They said that it was not Sri Lanka that I was trying to take across the obstacle course, but Namal Rajapaksa. 

However, now the international community has endorsed that I strove to reconstruct the Sri Lankan economy. It has now been proved beyond doubt that accusations of the Opposition are baseless. 

I do not intend to respond to those unfounded accusations. My task is not to criticize the past. My task is to build the future of the country. 

I am committed to building the nation by formulating laws to ensure that past errors would not recur”